Flight 8501

It's been a horrific year for air travel in SE Asia. Each of these accidents has moved me deeply. I find it particularly chilling looking at the flight path for flight 8501 and thinking about how many times I was in a small plane flying over that very patch of water. It could have been me --my family--scattered like leaves in the water.

Our friends here in the US see the CNN images and regard it as just one of the many tragic events of the week. But not for our family. We're sifting through the articles and discussing the details as if part of us is still back in Singapore. We do this every time something happens in a place where we've lived. Our circle of caring is wider, our potential to be devastated is greater. I never thought of it this way before but it's true.

Expats collect experiences and friendships and lay down tiny roots that we never fully pull away when we leave again. I don't think I'll ever stop leaping to my feet when I see "Singapore" run across the screen on the evening news. Our thoughts are very much with the grieving families of the people lost on flight 8501.

Our move from Singapore to LA

I know you’re curious. How did three adults, a cat and an eight week old baby do on this 24 hour odyssey? Overall I’m going to say, it went well. Here’s the story as I remember it in my jetlagged state.

Three packers from Altair Global came on May 6^th and spent 7 hours in our place meticulously making custom boxes to fit all the furniture and bubble wrapping delicate things. The din of all that packing tape was deafening and to add to that our neighbours were jackhammering at the same time. Austen loved it. Our helper arrived in the afternoon to clean and by dinner time all the big stuff was done. To celebrate we headed down to My Thai in Holland Village to spend one last night in our hood.

The next day the 20’ container arrived to take our boxes away. The landlord and agent came by to take the keys and officially transfer the remaining year and a half of our lease to our friend, Stefan. We were extremely lucky to have a really nice landlord and a good friend who was willing to move at just the right time to help up out.

Our final night was spent staying with friends and having a BBQ in the humidity we’d soon find hard to be able to comprehend. 

The travel day began at 1:45am. We left for the airport at 2:15 and were at the check-in desk at 3am. Here we are with three baggage carts, the baby in the stroller and Kopi-o in a carrier at my feet.

Even after checking our bags we still had four pieces of carry-on luggage, the stroller and the cat carrier. Walking through the airports was a gongshow. Kopi-o and Austen were quiet and well behaved except for one time that Austen decided in the middle of the Narita airport that he needed to eat RIGHT NOW and made a wail that pretty much confirmed to passersby that we were actually torturing him. 

Kopi-o at my feet

Austen in his carseat on the plane

Between feeding and changing Austen we also had to try to get Kopi-o to eat and use the litter. We did this by taking him in his carrier into various bathrooms and producing a small tray of his litter and a little travel bowl of food. The whole way there he refused to pee and only ate one bite of his food. It was very frustrating but I can’t say we didn’t try. I think he fared ok though. He never panicked and was very happy when a hand came into his carrier to cuddle up to.

One really funny difference I noted passing from Asia into America is that in Asia people think pets are icky and are all goo-goo eyed over the baby. In the US people think babies are icky and are goo-goo eyed over the cat. Kopi-o is now the number one most celebrated member of our travel party.

So we finally landed in LA and cleared customs. Our first stop was for coffee and then burritos before checking into our serviced apartment. Everyone crashed for five hours while Kopi-o conducted a thorough parameter sweep. After a late dinner out we are now stretched out on the bed playing white noise because it’s too quiet to sleep. We’re also freezing! I somehow never got a chance to finish pulling my winter clothes out to pack so all I have are a few silk sundresses and one thin sweater and it’s 16 degrees at night! Good thing we’ve got plenty of duvets to huddle under tonight. 

That's all for now. We're going to attempt to sleep again and will update the blog as we settle in this new home.

Night Safari

One of our favourite attractions in Singapore is the Night Safari. We took my parents and brother here just a few days before Austen was born. Joel went back yesterday with his co-workers as a team building activity and took our camera to capture some of the wildlife.

A neighbourhood walk

We sometimes forget we live next to this bustling HDB area with all kinds of hidden local culture. This past week we've been wandering down there for meals. There are some excellent cafes and food stalls we never knew were there. It's also one of the oldest HDBs and the vintage bits and pieces are fun to see. Joel loves the old arcade games and derelict kids rides. There are more from our day of wandering on flickr here.

Lion Dance

Lion Dance a video by coach_stacey on Flickr.

This is just a small door-to-door Lion dance that briefly interrupted our lunch this afternoon at The Prata cafe.

Year of the snake

New Years Pineapple Tarts (much like the ones we've been eating)
-photo from Hungrygowhere

Our meringue snake from Da Paolo eaten on NYE

We're on day three on the Lunar New Years festivities celebrating the year of the snake. We've honestly kept pretty close to home the past few days because during New Years everyone in Singapore likes to go out visiting AND the taxi drivers take holidays. On top of those two factors, there have been torrential monsoon rains through every afternoon. A deadly combination.

We have celebrated in our own way. We're had friends visit for meals and have been out for some nice walks and today we finally ventured into the Orchard Rd for some last minute baby things and found that it wasn't that busy down there (I mean yes, it was shoulder to shoulder but one could still draw breath). We also managed to somehow get a table at Din Tai Fung for lunch.

Decor inside Paragon

Video of Thaipusam procession

Video of procession a video by coach_stacey on Flickr.

Thaipusam in Singapore

"Thaipusam is a highly symbolic Hindu festival celebrated by Singapore’s Tamil community. It is an annual procession by Hindu devotees seeking blessings, fulfilling vows and offering thanks. Celebrated in honour of Lord Subrahmanya (also known as Lord Murugan), who represents virtue, youth and power to Hindus and is the destroyer of evil, it is held during the full moon in the 10th Tamil month, called Thai, which falls in mid-January each year."
Source: http://www.yoursingapore.com/content/traveller/en/browse/whats-on/festivals-and-events/thaipusam.html

Sounds pretty tame doesn't it? Well it's a little more than just a procession. Devotees to the faith walk to the temple with elaborate and symbolic things attached to their bodies with temporary piercing. It's a walk of pain and totally fascinating to see. This year Joel went down to little India to photograph the colourful procession.

Warning: The photos do show a lot of skin piercing  If you are faint of heart this might be a good time to go look at something else.

See all our photos here

Jurong Refinery at Sunset

A time-lapse photography project by Joel

Christmas in Singapore

He may be the only kitten who does not climb xmas trees 

Joel carried this noble pine home on his back from Far East Flora!

xmas morning by the "hearth"

Two years in Singapore

Friday the 15th of October 2010, I wrote a blog post about our arrival in Singapore and posted a hazy picture from our window of the city. Today I'm looking back at the two years and reflecting on all the highlights and themes.

 

The First Year

2010 to 2011 was quite an adventure. While we'd left behind a marvelous life back in California we were not homesick at all and really didn't look back. This first year was all about discovery and adventure. We traveled, Joel especially traveled for his work (in fact was nearly not a resident due to the number of days he'd been away). Highlights were exploring the city, making new friends and taking side trips to Malaysia and Indonesia and hosting my family here in the Summer. At the end of that year we were into our second Monsoon and pretty settled in.

The Second Year

We have a mixed bag of feelings about our second year, 2011-2012. I think a lot of the things we compromised in our lives to be here started to wear thin. We were more annoyed with cultural idiosyncrasies as our adventure had morphed into having to just get on with life. We both started to feel restless with the constant noise of the city and we really yearned for clean air. Taking side trips became of paramount importance. The highlights from this year were our trip to Paris and London for Christmas, Bali again in January, my graduation and our trip to California, our trip to Thailand. For non-travel highlights, in March 2012 we adopted Kopi-o and then in June we found out we were expecting our first baby (due Feb 2013).

The Third Year

What's in store? Well we have more travel of course — at least until they start to kick me off planes. And then travel with our little family of three once he/she is equipped with a passport. There are so many places we still have not crossed off our bucket list. Will it be our final year in South East Asia? I'm not telling! You'll just have to stick around and see. 

Tang's Wonderful World of Mooncakes

Last year we visited Vivo City mall and did this Moon Cake tasting and market and bought our first Singapore Moon Cakes. Here's that post to compare last year's loot.

This year quite by accident again we were back there for the tail end of the Mid Autumn Festival and decided to go around it again and try something else. I'm always a sucker for just looking at the outrageously expensive packaging on these things. The photos are a little rough, I was shooting from the hip with my iPhone so as not to draw too much attention.

Flower ID

This pungent flower appeared on my walk today. It smells heavenly and looks like it's a parasitic plant feeding off a tree. Anyone have a clue what it is? --UPDATE--Scroll down to see the answer!

We have two winners! Our friends Jennifer and Flora have both identified this as a Cannonball Tree or Couroupita guianensis. It's not a parasite but a tree that carries its fruit close to the trunk. The big round ripe fruit fall and can do some damage hence the connonball reference. 

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couroupita_guianensis

For Good Luck

Joel helping burn "money" with an enthusiastic Auntie.

The two truths

Our cultural trainer two years ago gave us a talk on "the two truths." It was his way of saying that there are always going to be two answers in Singaporean culture, the absolute truth and the other truth that is protecting someone from losing face. We were aghast, "you mean people will lie to us?" Our trainer smiled and said "well don't call it lying. It's saving face and you'll eventually learn to tell when someone is saving face." He also told us that we needed to learn the ins and outs of indirect communication. What the hell? I couldn't imagine how to use indirect communication in any useful capacity.

What to expect when you're expecting dinner at a restaurant in Singapore

I love watching people the first time they eat out here. The service in European and American style restaurants is anything but what you'd expect. Here are the extremely annoying service issues you'll have to get used to in order to eat out and not go crazy.

1) Hailing. You have to wave at a waiter just like you would in a dive-bar to make your order.

2) Missing drinks. Your drinks might all arrive individually which is awkward but honestly half the time they don't arrive at all and we have to re-order.

3) Lonely Plates. Your food will arrive whenever the cook decides to make it and each dish will come one at a time even if you're paying $150+ per head in a french restaurant and you all ordered mains that are not for sharing. You can try to ask at the beginning for your dishes to come at the same time (snickers) but seriously... good luck with that.

4) Missing waiter. Your server will probably never stop by to do a quality check after your food arrives.

5) Fast Plates. Bussers will take plates away that look nearly finished even if you are still holding your fork and others at the table are still eating.

6) The awkward goodbye. No one will ask you if you would like anything else so you better start hailing again for dessert or the bill

7) The missing billfold. They might take off with your credit card and then leave it by the till for half an hour till someone feels like ringing it in.

Just one of those cardinal sins above would have got me fired on the spot from my restaurant job in Vancouver years ago so it's very hard to not bristle each and every time it happens. Thank goodness the bill comes with a 10% tip included which is the percentage reserved for bad service. They like to set the expectations low. Start with a stiff cocktail and hope it shows up before you get to the lonely plates or the missing waiter stage.

Taking cabs in Singapore is a religious experience

Well it's not exactly divine but it's something the locals revere with a great amount of tradition, rules and respect. If you break the rules it's going to be met with the same level of fury as you'd encounter going into a church in Rome topless.

After two years of taking cabs I've come to also have a great appreciation for the rules but also a lot of sympathy for tourists who arrive and have no idea how the secret system works.

Music in the Botanic Gardens

So for the past two years we've been regulars in the Botanic gardens. We know all the back paths in the dark and the servers at the restaurant know us by first name and we rarely have to actually order our drinks. It's so close to where we live and is one of those places on the island where you can lose the sound of the city completely. We've never been to a concert in the park but tonight was the night to fix that. I was invited out with some friends to see a piano recital organized by the Polish Embassy featuring Krystian Tkaczewski playing Romantic period pieces mostly by Chopin. It was a lovely evening.

Caveman Banking on Banking Island

Singapore is packed with banks from all over the world. Investment banks, regular banks, banks that probably aren't even legal... you name it. This is Banking Island. One would imagine that Banking Island would be the easiest place in the world to get your day to day banking done. Allow me to quote my third financial advisor from HSBC who said apologetically "banking in Singapore is in it's adolescent phase." I wasn't sure what he meant but now I understand he was warning me of the awkward, unpredictable roller-coaster of hoops you jump through to do the most basic things here.

Homesickness or just memory appreciation?

Everyone I talk to about travel has a different take on homesickness and a different experience of it. When I was a kid my family moved 3,000 miles and I was a miserable homesick wreak for a year and took longer than that to really settle in. (Lesson learned: move with a 10 year old at your ow risk). Later on in my teens and 20s I moved around quite often within Canada and didn't really have an issue. The difference I think was moving on my terms and having the ability to own feelings of loneliness or nostalgia and put them somewhere more productive.

When we moved to California in 2007 I thought I'd be homesick because that was a big move. I only remember being homesick a couple of times in the first few weeks. After that I was just too distracted with our new challenges to be looking backwards. There were certainly a lot of hurdles in our first year there and it was also on our first expatriation. The learning curve was sometimes a painful one and I was at times frustrated but I wasn't really homesick.

When we did the move to Singapore we were felt like our time in California was cut short since we'd only had 2.5 years there. Our good-byes were tearful and we miss lots of things from that life. Every so often I get a pang when I see a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge or a familiar bottle of wine shows up at Cold Storage (at 4X the price). I'm convinced it's not really homesickness because it doesn't linger and I don't want to head back. It's just a moment of appreciation for a great adventure we had. So I'm re-branding this particular pang as "Memory Appreciation." The well adjusted sister to homesickness and a much better travel companion.