Kites

Seems like I'm still stuck in catch-up mode.  This post is ancient history, but I thought it was still worthy of a post.  A few weekends ago,  we went out to Marina Bay to check out the Kite Festival.  It was pretty neat to catch all these kites flying against the Marina Bay backdrop.

Of course I took a picture of the kites and the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel

View of the Central Business District (CBD) with lots of people flying kites.  

There were so many people here, it was a wonder that the kites didn't just get all tangled together.  I did catch a few sorry looking kites abandoned in trees or on top of lamp posts.  

Street performers - I'm amazed at how these people were able to keep on all this makeup and paint in 90 degree weather...

A guy with the floating ball illusion

One of the more note-worthy kites - the Giant Sotong.  (sotong = squid)  Only in Singapore would someone make a kite in the shape of a giant squid...

My personal favorite - the pizza man kite.  The kite was a long chain of pizzas!

Pizza kite in the air

After all that fun watching the kites, we checked out the new Marina Bay Link Mall underground and had dinner at a little Spanish deli called Alli Oli.  

A happy husband waiting for his food.

Serrano Ham sammy - yum!

After our bellies were full, we called it quits and jumped on a bus home.  Another fun weekend adventure!

Back to the Sewing Room

After all, this blog is titled "jslik designs".....

Now that all the visitors have gone, I'm back to my normal schedule and have been able to spend some time sewing.  Been itching to show off this quilt I made for the newest addition to my best friend's family.

K is for "Kingston"!

   

Birthday Week(and a half)

This year, I turned 29 on the 29th...only happens once in your lifetime!  Andy and I were born only 11 days apart so every year we turn our birthdays into a week-long celebration.  We pool together our birthday money and treat ourselves to some good eats.  A very special birthday treat that I received was a visit from my mother-in-law.  It was her very first visit to Asia - she braved the long flight to Singapore by herself and made it in one piece...despite a few glitches on the way.

To kick birthday week, Andy treated us to hi-tea at The Regent Hotel (obviously Andy was at work and did not care to join us in eating dainty little sandwiches and scones).  The spread was amazing and the scones were awesome.  Usually I don't like scones because they tend to by dry like biscuits, but these were moist and warm.  Delicious!

This year, I decided I wanted a cake for my birthday.  In Asia, there's a bakery on just about every corner, so Andy and my mother-in-law picked up a beautiful mango mousse cake for my birthday.

Some of you may think getting a cake is no big deal, but seriously, I think the last time I had a birthday cake was about 10 years ago...

For dinner, we went out to Marina Bay and my mother-in-law treated us to dinner at Osteria Mozza, one of Mario Batali's restaurants.  I was lazy and didn't bring my camera so there won't be any pics of the awesome food we had.

Now, fast forward 11 days to Andy's birthday.  I made my first Singapore groupon purchase and got a great deal for dinner at Anar, a Middle Eastern restaurant on Sentosa Island.  So, I decided to take Andy there for his birthday dinner.  We walked around the island a little before dinner:

     

Universal Studios Sentosa and the scene outside Candylicious candy store

The restaurant itself was beautiful.  There was a beautiful chandelier in the center of the restaurant.

This time, I actually got pictures of the food since I brought my camera.  Yay!  

Appetizer: Hummus with minced beef and Falafel

Entree: Couscous Royale - Braised lamb shank, chicken sausage, roasted veggies and couscous

Dessert: Baklava - Not quite the baklava I was expecting

All in all, it was a great birthday week (and a half)!  We had visitors, great meals out, and had lots of fun. Gotta make the most of this year because next year is going to be the - dun, dun, dun..... - big 3-0!

Another Visitor

On the tail of my sister's visit came a visit from my mother-in-law.  I sure am getting spoiled with all these visitors from home! It's been almost a year since we moved out here, meaning it's been about a year since I saw my family....that is a long time for me.  And, since we don't have plans to visit the states till March of 2012, it's so nice to get some family time in before then.  I miss my family and I miss America!  I think I will lie down and hug the ground when I get back to the states.

So, being my mother-in-law's first trip to Asia, her flight was not without a few glitches.  She got a little side-tracked during her transit in Hong Kong, but luckily made it onto her flight with seconds to spare.  

Our first day, I took her out to Orchard Rd. where we walked past a photo shoot:

What was so funny about this is that the girl had to lunge a step forward while these two guys with big foil-wrapped pieces of cardboard fanned her to make her hair fly backward.  She just kept lunging back and forth while the guys kept fanning and the photographer snapped away.  I guess that's how they get action shots done...If this were me, I'd be a sweaty mess.  Don't be deceived by those people wearing long pants, it was hot and humid out.

Next we stopped for some traditional English hi tea at a fancy hotel on Orchard Rd.  It was really nice and relaxing.

I didn't bring my camera around to most of the sights we visited because of a lazy streak....and the fact that my shoulders/neck have been bugging me lately (signs of getting old).  The camera gets heavy after awhile!

But, I did make Andy lug my camera around the day we took my mom-in-law to visit the Chinese Gardens.  The Chinese Gardens are normally free, but because of the Mid-Autumn Festival, there were special events and decorations so they were charging for entry.

Entry way to the gardens

  

Seven story pagoda and the view up from the inside

View from the top of the pagoda

We cheered on a race....I would say dragon boat, but there weren't any dragons or drums...(sorry I should've cropped out that person's hands but I was too lazy)

Decorations on the lake

A tree topiary...kind of a bizarre animal shape....is it a lamb? or dog? or a cow with duck lips?

Andy and his mom

Andy's mom had a great time here, she made the quickest jet lag recovery I've ever seen!  Thanks to some homeopathic no-jet-lag pills, she was ready to go every morning.  As always the week went by too quickly.  Hopefully she'll be able to make another trip out again!

August in Review

This summer has just whizzed by without a post.  My apologies for slacking on the posting, but I've been trekking around Singapore and Asia with my visitors from the states.  So here's a "quick" run through all the things we did in August.

As you know, my sister was here for 5 weeks visiting.  We had a fabulous time and visited quite a few sites.  Of course one of the places we visited was the Singapore Zoo!

Being my second trip to the zoo, this time we planned the sights so we could catch some of the feeding times. The Singapore Zoo does a really great job of integrating their animal exhibits into the landscaping so that the animals are comfortable and not locked in cages.  The zoo also offers chances for people to get up close with the animals.

First, we walked to the kangaroo compound.  As soon as we walked in, a couple of kangaroos hopped right across our path.  We watched some families feed the kangaroos:

We missed the white rhino feeding time, but still got a good look at them.

We stopped by the orangutan exhibit for their chat session and got to take some pictures up close.  I think the orangutans are fast becoming my favorite animals.  They are so funny and the baby orangutans are just so cute.

Now for my favorite part of the visit - feeding the giant tortoises! You pay SGD$5 per family to go in to feed and pet the tortoises.

Hanging out on the giant tortoise waiting for feeding time to start.

Petting my new friend - who knew that tortoises liked being pet so much?

Andy and Julie and their new friend

Family portrait

Before leaving, we made one more stop at the Fragile Forest exhibit.  It's an enclosure you can enter with birds, lemurs, sloths and other animals roaming freely.  The lemurs were extra active that day and were doing crazy acrobatics jumping from branch to branch, whizzing by our heads.

Moments before taking this pic, the lemur flew by Andy's head onto the branch next to him.

Yikes! Definitely a little too close for comfort...

Then, Julie and I jetted off to Taiwan to visit our family.  I was lazy with picture taking so these were the only pics I took during the trip.

Julie and Grandma

Family Pic: L-R Big Aunt, Grandma, Third Aunt, Julie, Me - can you see the resemblance?

 

Sisters enjoying our awesome and cheap bubble tea

Here's a collage made from pictures taken on Julie's camera during our trip.  She, unlike me, wasn't lazy and carried her camera everywhere.

Captions: Pics 1-3: Din Tai Fung, 4-6: Fun on Orchard Rd., 7-8: Chinatown Silliness, 9-10: Posing with the Merlion, 11: Harry Potter, 12: Drink in a bag, 13-14: Clarke Quay, 15: Crystal Jade Noodles, 16-17: Sushi Express, 18: Science Center, 19: Indian Food @ Banana Leaf, 20: Family photo in Taiwan, 21: Korean food in Taiwan, 22: Angry Birds Cake, 23: Double fisting my bubble tea, 24: Cousins and Xiao Hei, 25: Julie "reading" at the market

So that, in a nutshell, was how I spent the month of August.