Wednesday 26 February 2014

First Visitors Arriving

Today i have been running around like a woman possessed.  We have our first visitors, my Mum and Grama, coming later this evening.  Mark is currently in kl and i know that i am fussing over every little detail.  The beds are perfectly made, the rooms have flowers in them and not the slightest hint of dust through-out and i have scrubbed every square inch of floor.
The thing i am most worried about is that Mark is coming back with only an hour to spare before their flight lands...this, by the way, is a guess as the flight details and number my Mum gave me are totally false.  i have no idea what information she has copied down, but it sure isn't the flight details....ok, and breathe!
Well, thats my tea break over with, i had better get back to cleaning.  Hopefully more pleasant posts to follow or i may just run away!

Sunday 23 February 2014

Gardens by the Bay by Day

After such a great trip out to Satay by the Bay the other day we wanted to come back and see the gardens in the day light.
I don't think I am ever going to get tired of this view, its amazing.
There was a cool breeze coming from the river so we managed to walk around in relative comfort.
Such a nice relaxing Sunday, Mark has to go away this week and will only just make it back before our first set of first visitors....my Mum and Grama come and visit.  So exciting!

Friday 21 February 2014

Satay by the Bay

Mark and Rob have had a visit all this week from their UK boss who has come over to check out all of the work they've been doing in this new venture.  He took his wife and son with him who have been having a grand time while he's been toiling away in the office (see Mark, I do see that you work super hard, I am listening!)
As well as this they've also had a visit from another UK based colleague and so last night we all decided to go out and get something to eat.  Rob suggested Satay by the Bay which is the hawker at Gardens by the Bay.  You get to it by heading for the furthest away car park at the Gardens or generally walking until you just about reach the Barrage at the sea front.  
It was super busy and we decided to get a platter full of satays to start with.  Seeing as I'm not really a fish or pork fan I chatted away to Oliver who was the son of the visiting boss.  He was so adorable and was happy to tell me all of the fun things he's seen whilst here.  I was actually getting some really good tips on what to do and where to visit when Mark said that everyone was finishing up and heading off in their different directions to pick their main course.  We were sitting quite near an Indian stand so I had no difficulty choosing what I wanted to eat now that I could freely pick.
Mark and I got a sharing platter for just the two of us which had a great selection of tandoori and butter chicken as well as rice and naan breads.  Oh. My. Gosh.  It was so yummy.
When we were all done we headed back to the car park and taxi rank and everyone split up again.  This was my first trip down to Gardens by the Bay and it is so pretty I know I am going to come back again quickly.  It was so inexpensive for being in such a pretty area.  Although you couldn't see the Sands I am planning on taking visitors down here to grab something to eat before either watching the super-tree grove do its show or the laser show from the back of the Sands.  Visitors-you WILL be taken here!


Thursday 20 February 2014

Crane Dance at Sentosa

One day I walked over to Sentosa via The Board Walk (which only costs $1) and saw the weirdest metal looking structure with a seating arrangement facing it.  From the seats I could see that people would look at this and then beyond to Vivo City.  Fast forward to the evening and all becomes apparent. 
Source and Sentosa Information
Thursdays to Mondays (as well as public holidays) from 9 pm the structures rise to become two cranes.  The blue and pink cranes fall in love to light shone into the spraying water with music playing in the background.  They get bigger and bigger (or raise higher and higher), until you see the screens on their chests showing more of the story. 
 When we have visitors I plan on taking them to see this after getting a bite to eat at Vivo City.  I think it would be a nice way to end an evening as it would also be a good way to let food rest as everything here is delicious and it’s very easy to overeat!   

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Start of the Tourist Season

My old boss, Kenny, came to visit in early February which gave me the chance to hone our tour guiding skills.  Kenny was the best boss I’d ever had and I’d been looking forward to giving him a grand tour since before I left the UK.  

Kenny’s friend Ivan had moved to Singapore on a whim only a couple of months before Mark and I found out we’d be moving too.  I remember Kenny speaking about Ivan when Mark had applied for the job here and we weren’t sure how things were going to work out (as well as all of the to-ing and fro-ing that goes along with establishing a new post).  I obviously couldn’t say anything but I listened a little too eagerly when Kenny spoke about what Ivan was up to and what Singapore was like.
source
Kenny and I had been emailing off and on trying to sort out where we would meet up and what sort of thing he’d like to be taken to see.  He had tried to get a sim card to make things easier, but unfortunately he had the same amount of luck with that as I did when we first arrived.  This meant that when he told me to meet him at his condo I accepted the sketchy directions and entrance he suggested meeting at.  When I got there I realised it wasn’t as easy as “the door next to the road where the guard stands.”  Having no experience of condos at all I now know I need people to be super specific!

When we eventually met up, after a few tense emails sent with super low battery on my phone, we jumped on the bus into the financial district.  We stopped by Ivan’s office, embarrassed ourselves by staring wide eyed (and mouthed) at the views, then went for a coffee.  We then walked round Marina Bay so I could show him the top of the Sands hotel and had some buttery chicken curry for lunch at the shops.  I made a big fuss of the helix bridge, but he remained unimpressed until he got to the other side of it.  I several pictures of him with the skyline in the background as the only pics he had taken before weren’t really going to be suitable to show family back home.  I think Ivan had only shown Kenny around the bars…so some good wholesome entertainment was called for.  Especially if his Mum expected to see lots of holiday snaps.

We then took the MRT onto Orchard Road (mostly so I could show him another site before quickly moving on to something a bit more interesting) and we got a fresh juice.  It was at this point I saw him massaging his feet, apparently I’m more used to walking around in this heat than him!
source
I had been looking forward to this visit for ages and one of the reasons is that its only a couple of weeks until my Mum and Grama come out and visit.  I remember thinking in late November that as soon as Kenny arrived it would only be weeks between other visitors. 

As happy as I am to get visitors and her news from Aberdeen, I’m also really glad that I love it here as much as I do.  There was a while there that I questioned if we’d done the right thing.  I think that when you chat about your new life with old friends it really puts things into perspective.  The things that the old friends are explaining are so different from all of my experiences now, and although I will obviously love each visit (as well as visitor), I also love that I am showing them around my new home town.

Friday 7 February 2014

First Three Months-Top Three Pictures

Hooray, we've made it.  We've been here three months and I'm not planning on running away.  Some days I feel like we're still on holiday, but mostly this feels like home.  During December I started to make a concious effort to say 'home' for when we were heading back to the house and the UK for Aberdeen and where my family lives.  Now it comes naturally and some days it feels weird to think, "wow, my home is a big city."  Part of this is because I'm such a homebody and although I dreamt of moving away I never ever pictured a move to Asia, but another part of it is because I associated myself as being so Scottish or so British, or even as a country girl from rural Aberdeenshire.
So, in honour of this three month benchmark I am going to pick three top things for blog posts this week.  
This week are my Top Three Pictures:
This picture is from Spuds and Aprons on top of Mount Faber, it was the first day we did anything touristy and was the perfect way to finish off a perfect day.  It was also the weekend before I really felt things change for the better here and although being a History student makes it really difficult for you to pick and choose dates that show change I pick this one.  I began to love Singapore after this weekend and Mark taking me out and showing me lots of things I could love made me feel so at home here.

This picture is from when our good friends Hanna and Ishak came to Singapore and showed us around.  Getting a tour from someone who knew Singers was great and it was the first time we'd visited the Arab Quarter.  That night we also got a tour of Boat Quay and Clark Quay during one of the quietest nights around, I'm not kidding, it was so quiet from all of the party revellers outdoing themselves over Hogmanay, that by the time we got here the next day it was super calm.  This was the best way to see these new areas and it felt like being taken on a private tour.
The last picture is the iconic Marina Bay Sands.  After Sally and Tcina took me down here for the first time I was so in love with it at pedestrian level I took Mark back the very next weekend.  This was what I saw everytime I googled the new city I was going to.  Every time I told someone I was moving away they knew this image and so when we saw it we really felt like we WERE here.  Not just on some little trip, but we had really made it across the oceans to a whole new country.



Thursday 6 February 2014

Prettying the Place

Every month the pest control team come to the house to check the traps on the outside and do some fogging and then to come inside for an inspection.  On one of the visits they said that there was too much overgrowth outside and that we needed to get the bushes and the trees all around the house cut back.  Well, I go out for some shopping and come home to this!
Photo: Lots of garden work!
One lorry has already been filled and they are still chopping back the bushes, at least i'll have a pretty garden for when my Mum and Grama come over!

Monday 3 February 2014

Busying Ourselves

Photo: "I've had a really tough day Dad" love Daisy.x
So I was getting ready for all of our visitors by making up the beds properly and working through the pile of ironing that normally gets done in the spare room.  I turn around for a moment and Daisy has made herself comfortable on one of the beds...  Oh well, I'm hardly going to tell her to get down like a normal dog!