Wrapping
Things Up in
Singapore...
Things Up in
Singapore...
February 1, 2008
And now we are back in Singapore for good. Well, at least until it’s time for both of us to fly out.
I can’t believe the end of our trip is already here. Part of it seems so completely surreal at this point. We can’t believe it was only just over a week
ago when everything went down. Especially when looking at Michelle and how normal she looks, it feels like a distant memory. This is all a good
thing. But I know it kind of affects her that when she talks to Clarke, he doesn’t seem to grasp how horrible the whole experience actually was.
Hopefully when she is home and explains it might sink in a bit more. And at least she knows that she can always talk to me about it if she needs to
and that I will get it.
Anyway, our first thing we needed to do was to go to a wonderful boutique called Daum Gallery we found just before leaving. We saw some things we
didn’t want to leave Singapore without so we went and got them. The two guys who own the store are simply wonderful and we only wished that we
had more space to buy more things from them.
Next stop: The Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel so that Michelle could have a Singapore Sling at the place where it was invented. They were beyond
excellent (as they should be for the $25 Singapore dollars that they charge for them!). When the waitress came by to ask if we wanted another, of
course we did…but we couldn’t since the budget wouldn’t allow. Oh well. Maybe we can find a recipe when we get home that can do it justice.
After that, we decided to bail on the idea of spending about $40 on one black-pepper crab. Yes, it’s the local specialty. But I have a small issue with
trying to negotiate this price only to still be given quite a high price. And one crab wouldn’t do the trick with filling both of us up – dinner at a place
with no atmosphere would end up costing us $75-$100. Um, no thank you. Hawker food it would be. And it just so happened that I remembered a
sparkling clean place from the last time I was here. So we went and Michelle wasn’t only impressed by the food that we had (chicken rice and scallops
in rice flour noodles) but also by the fact that I could find it (surprising to me, too).
We ended the night watching the rain while eating dessert. When it eased up, we headed back to Chinatown to get in the last of the Chinese New
Year celebrations that we would encounter. I just had one teeny errand I had to do while here – the other day I saw that a woman was threading on
the street. I needed to go there and have her tend to my brows. I asked Michelle if she would be down for giving it a try. And sure enough, she was!
So street-side threading it was.
February 2, 2008
As luck would have it on my last morning in Singapore, my computer battery totally died. I knew it was acting fishy yesterday but today it officially
threw in the towel. The beautiful part of this was the timing. We are in Singapore – a place that is known to sell electronics at a good price. So we
sought out one of the electronics malls and after the first few tries, I was beginning to think this was a hopeless cause. Some people said my computer
was an ‘old’ model (as it is now 2-3 years old) and they didn’t carry it. But then Michelle found my hero down the way who had one for my computer
model. Hallelujah! This probably would have meant the death of my computer journaling if he didn’t have this. And to think this really only took us
about 15 minutes to look for from start to finish – wow, things are easy in Singapore.
We used our last day here to wander the streets and check out/sample some of the Chinese New Year treats and go to jewelry and crafts fair held in
a beautiful colonial building. We got our last hawker food meal before it was time to head to the airport. It worked out that her flight left two hours
before mine so we had time to hang out before it was time for me to go check-in.
Her flight is now probably gone. I’m in a different terminal so I don’t really know. But I will see her in May when she comes out to San Francisco.
Weird to think that I have to wait that long. I already miss her.
And now we are back in Singapore for good. Well, at least until it’s time for both of us to fly out.
I can’t believe the end of our trip is already here. Part of it seems so completely surreal at this point. We can’t believe it was only just over a week
ago when everything went down. Especially when looking at Michelle and how normal she looks, it feels like a distant memory. This is all a good
thing. But I know it kind of affects her that when she talks to Clarke, he doesn’t seem to grasp how horrible the whole experience actually was.
Hopefully when she is home and explains it might sink in a bit more. And at least she knows that she can always talk to me about it if she needs to
and that I will get it.
Anyway, our first thing we needed to do was to go to a wonderful boutique called Daum Gallery we found just before leaving. We saw some things we
didn’t want to leave Singapore without so we went and got them. The two guys who own the store are simply wonderful and we only wished that we
had more space to buy more things from them.
Next stop: The Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel so that Michelle could have a Singapore Sling at the place where it was invented. They were beyond
excellent (as they should be for the $25 Singapore dollars that they charge for them!). When the waitress came by to ask if we wanted another, of
course we did…but we couldn’t since the budget wouldn’t allow. Oh well. Maybe we can find a recipe when we get home that can do it justice.
After that, we decided to bail on the idea of spending about $40 on one black-pepper crab. Yes, it’s the local specialty. But I have a small issue with
trying to negotiate this price only to still be given quite a high price. And one crab wouldn’t do the trick with filling both of us up – dinner at a place
with no atmosphere would end up costing us $75-$100. Um, no thank you. Hawker food it would be. And it just so happened that I remembered a
sparkling clean place from the last time I was here. So we went and Michelle wasn’t only impressed by the food that we had (chicken rice and scallops
in rice flour noodles) but also by the fact that I could find it (surprising to me, too).
We ended the night watching the rain while eating dessert. When it eased up, we headed back to Chinatown to get in the last of the Chinese New
Year celebrations that we would encounter. I just had one teeny errand I had to do while here – the other day I saw that a woman was threading on
the street. I needed to go there and have her tend to my brows. I asked Michelle if she would be down for giving it a try. And sure enough, she was!
So street-side threading it was.
February 2, 2008
As luck would have it on my last morning in Singapore, my computer battery totally died. I knew it was acting fishy yesterday but today it officially
threw in the towel. The beautiful part of this was the timing. We are in Singapore – a place that is known to sell electronics at a good price. So we
sought out one of the electronics malls and after the first few tries, I was beginning to think this was a hopeless cause. Some people said my computer
was an ‘old’ model (as it is now 2-3 years old) and they didn’t carry it. But then Michelle found my hero down the way who had one for my computer
model. Hallelujah! This probably would have meant the death of my computer journaling if he didn’t have this. And to think this really only took us
about 15 minutes to look for from start to finish – wow, things are easy in Singapore.
We used our last day here to wander the streets and check out/sample some of the Chinese New Year treats and go to jewelry and crafts fair held in
a beautiful colonial building. We got our last hawker food meal before it was time to head to the airport. It worked out that her flight left two hours
before mine so we had time to hang out before it was time for me to go check-in.
Her flight is now probably gone. I’m in a different terminal so I don’t really know. But I will see her in May when she comes out to San Francisco.
Weird to think that I have to wait that long. I already miss her.
Putting back some Singapore Slings.
| Pretty Chinese lanterns. |
Rubbing Buddha's belly in Chinatown.
