gnatweds

Yawwwn. It's 2.30 am and my body clock is all weird.

It served me well on Saturday night when me and my friend, Arti, hit St James Power Station which is the hottest club in Singapore right now, and as its name suggests, is a converted colonial-era building which also used to be a power station.

We were up till 5 and then only got back at 6-some in the am thanks to the pouring rain and the paucity of taxis.

On friday night, I met a few of my colleagues at Oosh. This spanking new eatery and drinking spot in Dempsey road, and oh boy, is it pretty. It is huge at 11,000 sq ft but both St James and Oosh are pricey! Esp in comparision to prices in say, Mickey's Bar in Rochester. Admittedly, the ambience is erhm not quite the same, but 14 SGD (USD 9) for a bottle of Hoegaarden is rather ouch, doncha think?

During the day, I have been trying to seek out accomodations for me and the spouse - who seems to be determined to eat all the fast food he can find in Rochester. Hummm. But apparently, he has also done his first load of laundry! *clap clap*

It's not quite all fun and games here - lots of bills, errands and processes to do. Including renewing my passport and IC (blagh)... oh well.
That said, it's great to see the pals from home again, esp, driving my own car while doing all these errands. Heh, I still keep reach for the gear hand-lever a la Squeaky when my gear shift is now on the left hand side. And its nice when your car actually has a zippy pick up. But parking lots here are small.

Of course, the questions everyone puts to me are: are you happy to be back/Did you like Rochester/Why did you leave Gene?

So I'll answer them here and now in hopes that maybe I won't have to repeat myself like a broken record (not that I won't if I am asked, but ... :) )
Yep, am happy. There's lovely food, my friends, family all here for me. I know where to go and what to do; and yes, it really feels nice to be back.
But I do leave Rochester with a tinge of regret - I made great friends there, it is a pretty scenic country and there are lovely places to go to if you drive out, and its consumerism heaven. The Walmarts and Hy-Vees are amazing for the sheer variety and freshness of produce. And what you can't get locally, you can always buy online. And shipping is free. Wooo. And you can buy songs off iTunes. Rochester could do with more eateries and more places to go to just hang out a la Oosh, and oh yes, more malls and people, but in all, it was an interesting experience.
I left because I need to find us a place for us to live in and I wanted to start work again. It's amazing how much your own ego and self-confidence is tied to achieving something - and in my case, I guess I have no other benchmark than my career. I mean keeping house and going to the gym and cooking everyday was fine and good, but it kinda takes a toll on you psychologically and emotionally. And of course, the dwindling finances were not doing my mental health any good :)


Conclusion: I feel like I am being an awful wife leaving G to fend for himself, but I can tell that my sanity is returning.
Now, I just have to find myself an affordable health club and I think things will be good.

Alright, have blogged enough tonight.

Cheers,
N

JUST had tah mee pok - hiam jiou juay juay.

Twas oily as anything and there was ... pork lard in it too.

Whoohooo.

It is a very visceral feeling of home right now. There is nothing like food to a Singaporean to remind us of what we missed being away.

N

G - if you're reading this. Sorry darling, just had to blog about it. Erhm... Ribs and fried chicken ain't so bad, really! Kisses. Heh.

Hi folks.
Am back in Singapore. And my gawd, the humidity. euughghh. it's playing havoc with my hair which wants to curl up and die but my skin feels much better!

It was a tearful goodbye to Gene (well, for me anyway) at Minneapolis, and though the flight was good (great seat in B class) it was still hard to sleep without the requisite chemical helpers. The wine I consumed (copious amounts of Champagne and Bordeaux) helped a little, but managed about 5 to 6 hours sleep in the total 30-some hours travelling.

Its 3 am in the morning here (4 pm Rochester) and yes, my sleep cycle is screwed.

Today, went to this spanking new mall - Viviocity for lunch with Judith, and then I crashed for a while only to wake up to a gorgeous Buah Keluak dinner. Then at midnight, I get a call from my
pals at SPH and off I went for a pint!

Watta difference about 18,000 miles make!

Am happy but sad at the same time because I miss Gene - who incidently had KFC, then Hunan Wok Express for dinner in the two days I have been away.... hummm. Wish he had Rochy all tied up and done with so we'd be together again.

Rochesterites - I do miss you guys - Carrie, you be strong. Lynette - babe, miss our lunches already (!) Mei & Horng, thank you guys sossosoos much- TK, ET, George etc etc... guys, you are in my prayers and thoughts. TK and Kristin, will see you soon!

In the meantime, just a note to say that am back safe and gee, its been a good 20 hours so far.

Kisses
N

PS: You know its tropical when there are frogs croaking and cicadas going nuts outside your window.

PPS: My parents' stupid cat hisses at me now

Okay, first up, many apologies for the long silence on the blog - am sure it's annoying to check this page and there are still no updates.

To make up for it, this will be a looooong and extremely mundane post full of uber bimbotic declarations.

Alright: first lemme come up with a list of excuses why I haven't been blogging: With my departure date just days away... *wooohooo* I have been up to my ears in stuff.

It's amazing what you realise you want/have to do when you have little time left.

The biggest thing was of course, the shipping, of the boxes-ful of stuff that we (okay okay, mostly I) managed to accumulate. Eg winter coats, snowboard pants, towels, bed linen - don't laugh, bedding here is ridiculously better and cheaper here, like 350 to 400 threadcount sheets for between 20 to 50 bucks. Like... whaa?
Then, there were the snowboards, and the snowboarding boots, and the winter boots... AND my 15 pairs of shoes (don't mock my weakness lah), and many many many clothes.

Found a shipper and so far its been not bad - althhoooouuughh had several apoplectic moments with the documentation, esp when Eugene decide that it would be a good idea to get wakeboards here too at the very last minute, despite me suggesting that weeks before), and I had a couple more of those moments of sheer white fury when the shippers made me wait hours and hours and hours for the pick up. Then, a couple more when I found what the Singapore port charges, then what it would take for them to deliver to my doorstep. SIGH.

So the days were filled up with documentation, packing (oh gawwwwd, packing... grimace! Packing eight boxes, sounds easy? NOT; when everything is ultra bulky and there were last minute things to add...arrgghhh - mentally scarred) So, that is excuse number 1.

Excuse no 2: Am getting fat so was hitting the gym like every day. So... hehe, yah, anyway, can that be excuse number 2 for not blogging, pretty please?

Then, there's the awesome amount of shopping that I have done over the last four weeks - most notably at Coach because my aunts wanted bags. I spent so much that I got a hand-written thank you card from the salespeople at the shop. Yes, that much.

Plus, of course, I had to get my final visit to the outlet shops in... which meant spending yet more money on Polo Ralph Lauren, Kenneth Cole etc etc and I found Endless.com - which is a brilliant shoe shopping site. Check out this brand "naughty monkey" which I have completely fallen in love with.

And yes, I did stop over at Mall of America for Coach, H&M, Sephora, Nordstrom's, Aldos, Charlotte Russe etc etc etc

Not to mention the fact that I have been stocking up on books from Amazon etc etc

In other words, my bank account is suffering badly and my bags are packed to groaning-type full. I still say that shopping here is cheaper and better quality than back in Sg, but of course, I say that also because Minnesota does not have a sales tax on apparel. So what you see on the price tag is what you pay. Which, I realise, does make a big difference.

I have also gotten my hair cut here - realise that it's still cheaper than back in Sg - and I have finally found a decent hairstylist here in Rochester. Would you believe that I have refused to step into a salon here at all before last month? Stems from the first week, when we walked past this supposedly top salon here and smelt burning hair, then I went there for a wax and it was baaad.
(I arrive Thursday morning in Sg, and Fri Morning, I have an appointment at Strip. Desperate huh? Monday, I go to my facial appointment. Again, haven't done that in about 10 months or so. Too much information? Thought so!)

The water here is unfortunately a bit hard (minerally) so, I have had a problem with breakouts the whooole damned year. Hopefully, it will get better when I go home.

And of course, we had to stay over in the cities once before I left - found this great place called The Grand Hotel and it was really nice. It was just a bit sad because the city and streets were deserted and all the shops were shut because it was Easter Sunday.
But taking advantge of the quiet, we wandered around St Paul a bit and found (yes, true to form) a nice bar to chill out at. Trust Gnat to revert to barfly mode at a drop of a hat.

Of course, had to visit the very picturesque Lanesboro one last time, (we actually went for an hour long walk! along the Root River Trail) and of course, there were the last peeks into Walmart and Target to make sure that I wasn't missing anything in the suburban America shopping experience.

And of course, this is in no way minor, but thought I'd leave it further down to spare all our car nut friends reading this a little bit of pain. Gene sold the Porsche on Monday. Yup, the red baby is gone.

The good news is that although he was a bit sad at first, he was eventually more relieved than anything else after he saw the bill for repairs the car would have needed. Seriously, it's like pouring water into a leaky bucket. It still runs good but gosh, master cylinder something or other leak, plus this and that... gak.
The other good bit is that it is going to a man who really wanted that model of Porsche and knows his stuff - so the baby is in good hands, and I think he will restore it to greater glories - so the Porsche is in good hands. Some consolation at least.

The bad bit is that Gene is bitten bad by the sportscar bug. Now, he REALLY wants either the Lotus Elise or another Porsche - probably the Boxster. But economics seem to favour the Elise at the moment... road tax will not be as bad... it's a 1.8 L vs the 3 something L, plus servicing at Porsche is like pulling out an eyetooth each time...
What do you think dear readers? Do leave us a comment and tell us what Gene should get when we get home!

PS: He misses buying watches too.

PPS It DID snow. In april. NBCB. After a spell of 20 plus degrees, it dropped down to -3 deg C and SNOWED. What can you say, except, boy is weather variable here or WHAT.

Oh, my article about learning to golf appeared in the health supplement of The Straits Times - and good grief - no less than eight people wrote to ask how they could get lessons from the chap who gave me lessons. Like... didn't the picture where I was in full winter gear hint that, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't in Singapore? Well, can't blame 'em I suppose... so I had to very nicely write to each one to say sorry ah, neither me nor Mr Pohler are actually in Singapore... but I think one of them got a bit annoyed. AWwwwwwwww. heh.

Of course, the last two weekends have been a litany of meet ups and goodbyes to everyone. It's been good, weird, but good.

Ah well.

Till Singapore.

Nat

(PS: Eugene is quite serious about trawling the aisles of the grocery mart here for all the instant food known to man)

Sigh.

Revolutionary piece of technology from Google!
Guaranteed free Broadband.

Sniggers.