Life's tough

Okay, that's a lie. I'm currently sitting in the bar at the Changi Sailing Club in Singapore while enjoying the sea view.

Current weather conditions
Temperature: 30°C Dew Point: 25°C
Barometer: 101 kPa Wind: E 5 km/h
Humidity: 74.6 % Visibility: n/a

We've spent the last two nights at the Changi Cottage which is part of the Aloha Resorts. Apparently their former Prime Minister stayed at the cottage some time ago. They've got the newspaper articles on the wall to prove it.

Gene & I headed to the Esplanade (Theatres on the Bay) which is affectionately known as "the Durian" over here. I would have gone with fly eyes first but that just goes to show the culture difference. We had lunch with some family friends at a Japanese restaurant before heading to Toys 'R' Us to buy travel Pictionary to play with the kids. After that we did some shopping - Gene got a pair of prescription sunglasses for SIN$78. We decided to be adventurous and independent and take the shuttle bus back to the resort from the MRT (train) station. After walking around the station for about half an hour trying to find the shuttle departure point we gave up and headed to the taxi rank. While standing at the taxi rank we saw the shuttle pull up next it and thought it was our lucky day. We were sadly mistaken. The shuttle wasn't planning to leave for another 45 minutes and no we couldn't wait on the shuttle. So off we trooped to get a drink and pass the time. This involve getting cold drinks (fresh lime juice) and in my case eating lots of snack foods. Here's a snack food for all the kids playing at home.

Buttered Corn in a Cup
Ingredients
1 can of sweet corn
butter to taste
salt to taste

Take the can of sweet corn and heat up the corn. I like the microwave for a fast snack, but you could probably steam some fresh corn if you got really keen. Don't over cook it though, just enough heat to get the corn nice and warm. Add butter and salt to taste and mix thoroughly.

Serve in a bowl with a spoon. For the traditional Singapore serving style, serve in a polystyrene cup.

It's one of my favourites. As you can see I'm fully aware that I can make this at home, but it's just soooo good to have it here! I also snacked on Mwah Chee (excuse spelling) which is like a sticky rice roll thing dipped in crushed peanuts. It's hard to explain. It's a sweet snack though.

Anyhow, we managed to pass the time but had forgotten to ask the shuttle driver the all important "where is the pick up point" question. Luckily we saw the shuttle parked by the side of the road again so we hiked across the park and up to the bus. The bus driver opened the door and told us we had to hike back to where we came from and he'd be there in 15 minutes. We asked if we could just get on the bus there in 15 minutes and ride with him to the pick up point. No. So back we went in the heat to our previous location.

Now you'd think that this would be the point where I'd write - then we got on the bus and arrived back at the Chalet without a hitch...

We got on the bus and arrived at Aloha Resort Pasar Ris (who'd a thunk it... there were two Aloha resorts and we'd caught the shuttle to the other resort). We weren't too stressed though, because we'd been told that we had to get the shuttle to Pasar Ris first and then it journeyed on to Changi. The only problem was we were on the 18:45 shuttle and the next shuttle to Changi didn't leave until 21:30. We decided to revert to plan B and take a taxi. Sadly due to our rather Australian accents the taxi driver gathered we had no idea where we were and took us on the scenic route before anouncing once we were in Changi (we saw a sign) that he had no idea where the resort was. Thankfully the sign that we'd seen was that of the Sailing Club that is next door to our resort.

It would seem that Gene & I have a bit of work to do before we try the Amazing Race. :)

We passed the evening with Pictionary (competitive pictionary is really weird! It's also strange playing it with people from a different culture because pictures mean different things...

Anyhow, I'd better let Gene jump on the computer and check his email. We've both received the great news that we've got work on the Brisbane Festival (thanks Mel!).

If anyone is interested in pics from the trip thus far, there all at my Zoto site

Next destination:
Narita

Flaming massage

I did have every intention of writing more yesterday, but the wireless internet router got moved and I'm a little useless with setting up things like that. Gene very kindly fixed things up though.

Yesterday we went shopping at Suntec City which is a large shopping centre consisting of four towers - there are about 3 levels of shopping and the higher levels are offices I think. There was plenty to see including some rather interesting tissue box covers... but the first thing that caught our eye when we entered the complex was a woman lying on a massage table who had a flaming towel on her back. I'm fairly sure that back home if your towel was set alight during a massage you'd be a little upset, but she was getting the Holy Fire massage. Looked like it could have been quite a pleasant experience but I think I'm going to stick to my wheatbags.

Have to run to leave for the chalet near Changi Village. More when I find the internet again.

Singapore Days

Greetings from wet, but pleasantly cool now, Singapore!

Just before it started pouring I was about to head out shopping to Suntec City (read crazily large shopping centre far bigger than Chadstone complete with undercity mall leading from the city centre). Now I think I'll post a quick note to say hi to all and give a quick update on our trip so far.

Before I do though, a quick note to you all about our email, we seem to be able to receive email right now, but not send, so if we don't reply immediately we're not ignoring you. Apparently my email hosting people "upgraded" my service but it's not working now. In their defence they did try to call, but it was a terrible phone line and I was in the middle of a shopping centre so it'll have to wait till tomorrow.

Anyhow, we're safe and sound in Singapore and have been since late on Tuesday evening. I managed to get a stomach flu just before departing Melbourne which was great to travel with. Thankfully it manifested only in a high fever (38 degrees celcius was me thinking I'd returned to normality at the doctors'), headache and loss of appetite. This was problematic as there are three things that I live to do in Singapore;
1. Visit family
2. Shop
3. Eat all the local foods I see.

I held out until until Thursday before seeing a local doctor which was a rather different experience. The pharmacy and clinic were combined so that when you exited the doctor's consulting room you went to pay and they handed the medicine straight to you. By medicine I'd also like to add that they had me on panadeine, ventolin, an antacid, antihistamines and a tablet "for stomach cramp". Last time I'd had this viral stomach flu I was on panadeine and a diet of lucozade and marie biscuits. As you can imagine I was starting to get concerned about the bill. It came to... SIN$36. I love their health care system costs.

Happily my appetite is back now and I started to eat again yesterday. Still can't eat too much but at least I can have SOME of the foods :)

Aside from that not much else to report. Gene & I have mainly spent time with his family as it's been a very busy week with the wake and funeral for his Kong Kong (grandpa on his Mum's side). Chinese funerals are very different to the ones we have back in Australia and even though this was my second Chinese funeral, it was still a little confusing.

We're possibly heading off to a chalet near the coast tomorrow night after we pick up Gene's new sunglasses. Hopefully the weather is better by then.

Spent last night swimming in an incredible house with a pool in the front yard and a beautiful fish pond in the back. A real luxury given the small amount of land in the country.

Haven't done much photo taking, thought I might get some done today but the weather's still not clear.

Time to head off to the city! Will post pictures later.