Awesome Sauce

That's the name of the relay team Joel joined last week in a 516 mile race in Utah from Moab to St George called the Rockwell Relay.

By all accounts they had a great time and came in a very respectable 15th out of the 50 teams who competed. 

Graduation trip part two

I left off at the end of Disneyland. The family, filled with churros, had just left for Canada up the PCH and Joel and I moved into a suite in Santa Monica. Joel started back to work using the LA office nearby and I did what I do when Joel's working in LA: walk up and down the beach, stroll vintage stores, eat amazing food at little cafes and drink really great coffee. People like to hate LA. I get it, the highways inland are hideous, the urban sprawl is epic and there are some major cultural differences between the two sides of California. That said, LA is just a breeding ground of new music, new art new architecture and urban cool in all it's untamed forms. If you situate yourself somewhere like Venice, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach or any of the west side beach oriented areas it's really not a bad place at all. I love living in jeans and flip flops, having salty wind blowing through my hair and knowing that the next whole foods is probably only five minutes away.

Graduation extravaganza trip part one

The one thing (I'm not joking about the singular focus) that got me through the last few months of my degree this spring was the looming date of completion when I'd get to board a plane and head to San Francisco. Somehow the portfolio came together, no one died in the process. I made it to the airport after a few weeks of four hour nights followed by one last all-nighter. I slithered into my seat in the front row of business class and only woke when the concerned flight attendant touched my shoulder and suggested I should have something to eat. I had actually passed out in my seat without even reclining which is arguably why one books one of these upgrades.

Reverse Culture Shock

I’ve never had reverse culture shock before but I think I can say I’ve finally experienced a bit of it on this trip we are on. In my first week I was in a state of cultural relief. I think it was mostly the joy of having all these conversations with people who could understand everything I was saying. Apart from some of our expat friends, most of the conversing I do in Singapore is with people who speak either English as a second language or they are are more used to speaking Singlish. I am constantly substituting words to keep within a common area of vocabulary. It sometimes makes conversations short and often a bit taxing as I search for the right way to communicate an idea. I like the multiculturalism and the fact that everyone around me is from somewhere else but there is a comfort when you get back to a place where you can make a play on words and people actually laugh.

Wordless blog post from the cat

writing a blog post, a photo by coach_stacey on Flickr.

A new rink, a new beginning for skating in Singapore

JCUBE Rink, a set on Flickr.

The new rink opened in Singapore at the end of March. It's Olympic size and the people hired to manage it are former skaters from the UK who have run a rink previously in Dubai. I am so happy about this new change for both the local skating scene and for me too. Finally a rink where figure skaters and hockey players can book ice and start building teams to participate in international events.

The other rink in Singapore is like a lot of the rinks in Asia –– like a carnival ride. You pay a bunch of money, you skate in a circle and you leave. These novelty ice rinks are run by corporations who discourage anyone from doing anything other than the above by imposing rules on what is or isn't allowed on the ice and charging fees of upwards of $2,000 for a two hour ice booking. There's a two hour minimum booking! The local staff aren't allowed to negotiate much and the rules appear to come from people who have never seen skating before. Terrible right? It gets worse...

The expat cat adventures

Dreaming, a photo by coach_stacey on Flickr.

Poor Kopi-o is dreaming away beside my keyboard and little does he know we are planning to take a trip abroad and his little world will be very different for a few weeks. I looked at every possible option for what to do with him while we are away but to be honest none of them really work. Even with someone coming in twice a day to feed him that means he's still got 22 solitary hours a day to miss his family. It's hardly fair. My mother suggested we try to have someone house sit or have him stay with another family while we are gone (and I'm perfectly prepared to pay room and board.) So far no dice so I'm appealing to our expat readers on our blog. Would you like to take care of this little furball for a few weeks? Comment on this post w your email address (don't worry I won't publish comments w email addresses in them) and I'll send along the dates and details to see if it's a good fit.

********* update *********

Success! Kopi-o has a homestay set up with a very keen foster cat mommy.

Joel's [Annual] Post

FYI:

I raced my mountain bike today in Johor Bahru, Malaysia; Something I do frequently with my fellow expat and Singaporean friends.
The race was hosted at the Sales Gallery, a glass box in the middle of a field where happy young first-time property owners will congregate to be wowed into purchasing a condo between a freeway, high powered electrical lines, and a pretty nice looking hill adorned with classic radio towers ( why are there always two? ) poking out of its top.

Deep dark secrets of the frequent flyer

Joel and I have both adopted some systems over the past few years that make flying easier. Here are a few of our coping strategies and helpful things that have benefited us along the way.

Stuff I love about Singapore

WARDROBE SIMPLICITY
What's the weather going to be today? Oh I don't know, 33 degrees with a probable short rain shower in the afternoon, dipping down to a cool 27 overnight. So the outfit goes like this: Sundress, umbrella, flip flops and maybe a scarf for sun and aircon protection.

SOMEONE HAS TO DO THAT FOR YOU
There's a 2% unemployment rate in Singapore. That's astoundingly low. These are hard working resourceful people. So resourceful that they have figured out how to create jobs in areas I'd have never even thought of. Just about every maintenance thing for your home is a service provided by a local who you are expected to employ for this task. At first I found it frustrating that we often couldn't get hardware bits and pieces to do things ourselves... now I have fully realized the glory of not having to wait for Joel to have time to fix things around the house. I just call the handyman (who was assigned to us by our landlord) who goes and buys the parts and gets it done in very short order.

SIDE TRIPS
"Yeah, we're going to fly to Bali for a couple of days" It's typical coffee shop conversation here and it's the way we roll in Singapore. Restless? Buy a cheap flight and leave in the morning. There will be hotels to book on arrival and the rest is just easy. Joel goes to Malaysia on weekends to ride his bike all the time, we've done three side trips to Bali, two to Malaysia (aside from the regular day trips over the border for biking) and a trip to Bintan in the past year. That's six trips that weren't vacation days. We were able to still do a North America trip and Europe trip as our official vacation time.

BEST AIRPORT EVER
You gotta hand it to the Singaporeans. They made the best airport ever. It's clean, organized and better yet, you don't do the security check until you get to your gate so you don't have to arrive very early for an international flight. Joel typically leaves himself an hour. I do two because I'm anal like that but in other countries 3-4 is often barely enough to get through the lineups. You also have to love the easy customs. They glance at your passport, stamp it and you're through. Or if you have an identity card like we do you check yourself in and out of the country through these little card scanner gates.

AIR QUALITY
If you've been anywhere else in Asia you'll know the air here is decent. Singapore has the lowest PSI rating of any other Asian city. 

URBAN /JUNGLE
You can be in a shopping mall and then 5 minutes later in the middle of a rainforest where you expect to see a tiger at any moment. The parks here are lush and amazing and they are all over the place.

BEST MOUNTAIN BIKING
Joel is lukewarm about the road cycling here because he's a hill climber and Singapore is pretty much flat as a pancake. However, cross country mountain biking is the best he's seen in the world. [Joel corrects me that this is not the best in the world but it is awesome] He comes back from every ride with a huge smile on his face because not only was the ride great, he also saw lizards and monkeys and snakes and amazing jungle.

FOOD EXPLOSION
You like ethnic food? Welcome to heaven. The fusion of culture along the "Staits" is a blend of Malay, Indian, Indonesian, Chinese and European food and it has created a culture of food adoration. From street hawkers to fine dining restaurants your meals are going to be spicy and delicious.

NIGHT CULTURE
I'm not talking about night clubs, I'm talking about the miracle of night time shopping, eating and walking around. When the temperature cools down the city comes to life. You want Dim Sum at 1am? No problem.

SAFETY
You will never feel safer than when you're in Singapore. I'm not a huge fan of all the punishments they dole out for menial offenses but I'm also appreciative of the amazingly safe atmosphere of the city. I can go for a walk alone late at night. I've never been harassed by men here and it's a truly remarkable feeling of freedom. I probably came home with a creepy man story a few times a week in Vancouver or San Francisco. Here I rarely even get a look from anyone. I love that.