Clarke Quay

So far, life has been good here in Singapore.  I've starting to feel more comfortable here as it's been cooler this week (by cooler I mean in the mid-80s)....

This past weekend, Andy and I did some exploring.  First up was friday night date night...I guess when you have no kids, every night is date night.  But on Friday, we decided to go out and make an evening out of it.  We ventured out to Clarke Quay (pronounced Key) and hit up a ramen place that was recommended by a friend:

Then we went for a walk along the river and main promenade.  It's a touristy area, with interesting bars, restaurants, and shops. It's set right along the Singapore river so it's a pretty sight at night.  

The restaurants and shops are open to the air, but there's a canopy covering the promenade.  Supporting the canopies are these interesting structures that are actually outdoor air conditioners.  Seems kind of wasteful to have these outdoor air conditioners blowing a/c into the 90 degree heat...but it does provide a nice breeze when you walk by one...

One of the more interesting bars on the main walk:

The Clinic bar - it's got a hospital theme.  If you look closely at the picture above, you'll see two IV drip bags - those are actually drinks.  You drink them straight from the bag using the line....they also have shots that come in syringes... As for seating, you can have your choice of a hospital bed or even wheelchairs.

Another happening bar we saw....now there's a spot for high class dining and drinks!

After walking around a little, we stopped for some dessert at the ice cream shop...so many flavors!

Here's the ice cream man sculpting my ice cream - takes skill!  Double cone with green tea and mango ice cream....gotta love these asian flavors!  He might just be my new best friend....

Here I am, happy with my treat!

Definitely a fun evening out full of wonderful eats!  Looking forward to many more good eats (and date nights of course)!

Welcome to Singapore!

It's already almost been a whole week since I left the states.  The flight in was fabulous, I got to eat off real plates, lie down and sleep, and when I woke up, I was half way across the world.

I got in bright and early before the crack of dawn, caught a cab and made my way to the hotel where Andy was waiting with these:

He sure knows how to spoil his wife!  I guess after 3 weeks of separation, he was more than happy to have me back.

So, for the past week I've just been laying low while Andy goes off to work.  I've pretty much conquered my jet lag and am ready to go out to explore.  I've been slow to post mainly since I was too lazy to pick up all my junk and tidy up the apartment into a picture-worthy state.  We're staying in a serviced apartment within a hotel.  Our apartment has a kitchenette, dining room, living room, bathroom, and one bedroom.  The best part is that a maid comes every day to clean, make the bed, and switch out my towels.  The other awesome feature is that we get to take advantage of the hotel restaurant's breakfast buffet every morning.  We'll probably be staying here for another month while we wait for our things to arrive from overseas.  The hotel is in a great location, close to the happening parts of Singapore, so I'm definitely going to take advantage of that and go exploring soon!

Here are a few photos of our temporary living quarters:

The living room:

The dining area and kitchen behind it:

The bedroom with nice views of the river and other apartment complexes:

When I mentioned there was a kitchen in the earlier picture, you may have wondered....what kitchen?  That's exactly what I said when I first walked in and looked around.

To which Andy smiled, walked over to the "wall" and showed me:

Everything is hidden behind doors! Its pretty cool.  I guess when things get messy, you can just close all the doors and your apartment will still look tidy.  Pretty neat.

Well, that's it for now.  Soon I'll be doing more exploring and I'll be sure to bring my camera so that you can see some of the sights of Singapore!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

I'm leaving on a jet plane....don't know when I'll be back again....

Here I am, hanging out in the business class lounge...living it up.  I've never flown business class before, and boy is this a treat! I could get used to this :-) Not sure that my bank account could though. 

I've had a great time resting up with family and recuperating from the move.  I got to make a pit stop at the beginning in Chicago to see some friends and then spent the rest of the time in Jersey.  It was definitely weird buying one way tickets.

Baby Stella was trying to convince her mom to let me stow her in my suitcase

We had to settle for a picture instead

Spent my last full day in the states in NYC - the greatest city ever!  Got to eat tons of good food and walk around Central Park.  Caught up with some old friends as well.....a great way to end my time in the states.

It's funny, growing up outside the city, I had never taken the time to go in and check out many of the NYC sites.  It took me moving out of the country to motivate me to check out Central Park....

The lake:

 Views from Belvedere Castle:

Forget what this area was called, it was right after the main plaza area.

I got to have tea and scones with a friend:

For dinner, a friend and I went to Eataly.  It's an Italian marketplace with many eateries inside.  The casual dining areas are right next to the shelves, so you can eat with one hand and reach over to grab some some boxes of pasta with your other to take home.

And we got some giant cream puffs from Beard Papa....so good! Luckily, they've got these in Singapore :)

Well, it's almost time to board my flight!  I'm ready for my new adventure...so until next time - Hasta la vista!

Weekend Fun

It's been a beautiful couple of days in the neighborhood lately.  I love fall on the east coast...the colors are beautiful, the air is crisp, and the apple cider is awesome.

Spent some quality time with my bro and sis this weekend celebrating my bro's birthday

Hit up our new favorite Japanese restaurant, Toro, in Montclair:

Yummy!  Then we did some "wilderness" exploring....and had an impromptu photo shoot.  We found the perfect log to take some pics....but it was a bit tricky using the self timer since getting on the log required some serious climbing and acrobatic skills....

Try #1 - testing out the shot

Try #2...the out-of-shape-nearing-mid-life sibling tries to climb onto log in 10 seconds....I obviously did not get very far...but hey, at least I made it into the picture.

So, Try #3, my younger, more in shape brother gives it a try, and alllmost gets in perfect picture pose:

So, we kind of gave up and decided to take a few shots in this cool clearing right  behind the log.  Surely those would be easier...

My bro practicing his jump shot

My sister's got some attitude now

 A nice sibling photo

We like to have fun together

A few more portraits...

It's probably going to be the last time in awhile that I get to hang out with my bro and sis.  Sad.  But, at least I've got some great photos to put up on my walls to keep them close at heart.  Happy Birthday Jimmy - hope you have a fabulous year!

P.S.  Only 3 more days till I expatriate myself!! Looking forward to seeing Andy, but dreading saying goodbye to my family :(

So Long, Farewell

I've been on vacation for a full week and a half now so it's high time I got my act together to give an update on how things are going.  For three days, I had packers packing up all my stuff....then on loading day, I had three trucks lined up outside of my house.  One for my sea container, one for storage, and one to transport all the boxes they used and the 8 person packing/loading crew.  Here was the scene outside my door:

In about 4 hours, all my stuff was boxed up and nailed in (I'm hoping that all of my stuff will show up in the appropriate places since as you can recall....none of it actually has my real name on it....):

So, farewell Spring, TX.  The last few days in TX were sad for me as I had to say goodbye to some of my favorite things....

My awesome house (these pics were taken when we first bought our house - can't believe it was 3 years ago!)

Some of my favorite little Texans

Some of my favorite big Texans

Unfortunately, in the craziness of things, I didn't bother to heft my camera around to all the events and therefore did not get as many pics of my favorite people as I would've liked....so my awesome neighbors in Mulberry Park get a very special (pictureless) mention.

Some of my favorite Texan eats (Goode Company of course!)

We spent our last night in Texas partying it up with our neighbors.  One of my sweet neighbors hosted a party for us and we got to say goodbye to everyone one last time.  Unfortunately, I don't actually have any pics of that either.

So, farewell TX, I'm going to miss you!  As a Jersey girl, I'll probably never consider TX it's own country, but I must admit that I've really grown to love TX and will really miss all the wonderful people I've met here.  Perhaps we'll be back after this overseas assignment....who knows?