gnatweds

Ohhhhh... it sent me into wild frenetic activity, you could hear my squeals of pleasure from 100 ft away, and I kept going "Gene! Gene!"

What am I talking about? Our new discovery: a vietnamese grocer in the neighbourhood called Saigon that stocks *joy!!!!* everything asian - curry leaves, hae bee, pork floss, dumplings, toufu, mee, bee hoon... you get the idea.

Yes, squeals of pleasure several aisles down. Me yelling for Gene to check out stuff in the fridge "DID YOU SEE THAT??? Giong Chong!" (spring onion) There are also (frozen) durians and 10001 sauces and mixes.

There's also a decent Pho (Vietnamese Beef Noodles)restaurant just across the intersection, and we just had dinner there. Two thumbs up so far.

(yes, I know, I know, it's pretty darned tragic that a grocer sends me into these heart-palpitating moments) arrrggghhhh... turning into a housewife. A real one this time. Now wondering if I buy that hae bee, what can I cook.... *squeak, what's happening to meeeeee*

On another note: We both passed our driving theory tests. Gene scored the higher percentage. He got one question wrong, I finished faster but got four (!) wrong out of the 86 questions wrong. Bludy heck... anyway, I have to wait a pretty long time before the actual road test - 21st July.

Met a few Singaporeans over the weekend for Sunday dinner. One couple has been here for 11 years and have... wait for this... FIVE kiddies.
BUT I must say, the kiddies were excellently behaved, and I actually wasn't running kicking and screaming. The youngest was 7 months, the oldest was 9, I think. Very sweet, the oldest can carry her sibs and cut up dessert all by herself. The kiddies told me funny anecdote about how when their Sg'rean cousins came to Rochester to visit, they didn't even know how to put on their own socks. Their maid had done it all the time for them back in Sg you see.

Essentially, they were told, you don't put them on yourselves, you don't go out!
Which is brilliant! *laughs*

We may start checking out the nightlife later this week. Apparently there are a number of hot bars here (will check it out and verify this for you readers - sorry, journalistic training, hard to be un-cynical abt everything).

Oh, according to the housing managers, by mid next month, our gym at the apartment complex should be ready! Can't wait to lift those weights again.

Fruits and produce here - amazing. For someone who doesn't actually like fruit (me) am sure buying a lot (peaches and nectarines). They look pretty lah, and I am a sucker for pretty faces.

Oh, and we watched Nacho Libre today. Go only if you like Jack Black. Otherwise, please don't bother, the few measly laughs isn't worth the ticket price. This, by the way, is the first show we've watched together in the last 12 to 15 months. At least. Heh, watta a way to break the drought.

Okay, will post more soon. Stay good.

Wha, cold mans. Its a rainy rainy day here in Rochester; yesterday, we got caught in a heck of a squall, and today it simply has not stopped raining.

So we are staying home. Quite a change from the usual shop-till-we-drop days. Shopping is great here because of the sheer variety of goods on offer, but today, we're taking it slow.

Have upgraded my Flickr Account so now, you can see an extra set in the right column of this blog. These are just some of my fav photos from our 10 years or whatever it is together (I lose count) and some are really blast-from-past type. Heh, cute pix of gene i promise. And if I look fatter now, just don't tell me.

Gene just heated up a corndog and its goooood. Bye!

This is extremely funny. Erh. Not for kids.

Okay, its pretty tough to explain what it looks like - writing skills aside - in 5,000 words or less. So here's a vid. It's broken up into two because the camera takes 30 sec vids only. (am sure I can fig out how to extend it if i fiddle around with the device, but that doesn't sound like too much fun at the moment...)

Cont'd

This is what our place looks like on the outside. We're on the top right corner. That door on the right is ours and it goes directly upstairs. Yes, its an attached garage too.

This place is so new that the other blocks are still being built and we hear a construction team from 8 am in the morning.

In a few days' time, there should be landscaping and a lawn up front. 

Ok, four days down and we are
1) in an apartment
2) We've got all the necessities of living - linen, cutlery, crockery etc etc
3) It comes equipped with all the pluses of living in America - dishwasher, oven, microwave, washing machine, dryer (much better than waiting four days for your laundry to dry), vac cleaner, iron... and the most important bit: a food disposal unit that grinds up food and organic stuff so your trash should not smell too bad. This is important. The waste disposal chaps come only once a week on wednesdays!
4) a car! We bought a 2nd hand 2001 Ford Explorer for about 7 G +++ USD.

Pix of car coming your way soon.

Settling in has been hectic. Plus, for some reason, am still fighting the damned jet lag. Been sleeping at 10 pm. But we've been actively cooking - unfortunately, think we underestimated the power of asian cooking/overestimated the kitchen and home fan vents. I am a bit disturbed by the smell of shallots lingering in the apartment - its got plush carpeting which is sucking up the smells. Gene says it smells perfectly fine. Think you have to trust a woman with these things. So now, have the windows open. Some traffic noise coming in from the main drag (aka road) outside but its worth it if this smell ever goes away. Shallots are nice while cooking but they get a bit tiresome if you smell them the day after. Any suggestions anyone?

What have we been cooking you ask? Day one was shrimp and snow peas, soy sauce pork. Day 2 bolognaise, day 3 was curry (! yes, can find coconut milk in cans here) and Ikea meatballs and chao fan for breakfast in the middle.

Ikea meatballs? Yep bought a bunch after we visited the place to get G a new study table and to clear the mess off the floor. His books and electronica were everywhere! It's located next to the famed Mall of America in Minneapolis - and yes, that's where we went after Ikea to check it out.
But Wiki says that it's not the largest mall in US or the world - despite its reputation. Nontheless, it is quite jaw dropping to see the number of amusement rides, and well, if you get an annual visitorship that is roughly eight times the population of the STATE of Minnesota, maybe its worth looking at.



That's a pix from the phone camera - yup those are the rides inside the mall itself.

Am worried we're going to get FAT. The portions here are huge. In fact, everything here is huge. People, portions, pontiacs (ok ok, was trying to find the third "P" for the alliterative effect). But cars can be really large in these parts. The Ford Explorer is considered only mid-size and yesterday we saw a Hummer on the highway!

Already am bitching about the size because on Tuesday we're going to try to get the local driving licence in a bid to try to reduce the insurance we have to pay on the car. Insurance is super expensive. About three times what I pay for my Pug 307 back home.

Obviously, am still maladjusted. Its 6 am and I have been awake for about two hours now. But its ok; it just means two hours of msn-ing, skype-ing and yahoo-ing everyone back home.

Woke up to the symphonies of Gene's snoring and could not get to sleep - there was also this rain shower in the early hours, before I gave up the unequal fight to get to sleep and crawled out of bed.

The rain stopped as abruptly as it started and it was a complete dead silence after it halted. Tells you there's nothing around at 4 am in the morning.

We've moved into the new home. It's going for an obscene price a month but it comes with everything thrown in, utilities etc etc so, okay lah, considering we have a/c on 24/7 and its constantly at about 20 something deg C... think it will save us money in the long run. It's also brand new and comes furnished with the regulars - beds, couches and all. It's just obscene when u think about parting with that kind of cash a month... it just means we are really frugal about the other things in life. We actually have two bedrooms, but got pillows and linen for only one room, cos, aiyo, no point lah... unless we get visitors. Anyone coming? *hint hint*

That said; it really is a nice place. We have an attached garage, and we walk up stairs which open up to our living room. Its hard to explain what it looks like so will take vids soon and upload it into the computer and you'll see it for yourself on the blog.

Rochester is a fairly small town. The centre of town has a couple of old historical buildings but much else is quite Americana - squat and pretty little homes with driveways. Small windows are the norm here though so you don't lose so much heat in the winter - which apparently can be brutal here.

It became bright while I was typing - the light now is like 10 am back home type light.

To answer the question whether am enjoying the tai tai life, I'd have to say I haven't had a chance to yet! It's been busy! We're driving alluva the place getting bedding, groceries, houseware. Am scaring myself too - am getting excited about getting 400 threadcount sheets for US$25. (sale! quite good ah?) The pillow cases cost as much. That's why only the top pillows have cases, the other supporting ones can remain unshod (!) and uncased!

I brought towels from home (yes, yes, I know, can buy here but these were my Robinson's $50 each type towel - figured that they can do with a bit more use) also because I was anticipating we'd need a bath before actually getting to the shops and I was right. :)
We did not manage to hit the shops until the day after we arrived. We arrived at about 1 something in the pm and most of the afternoon was spent a) doing paperwork for the home b) getting to the bank and starting an a/c and c) finding out where's what and trying to get the GPS to work.

You recall that bloody rice cooker I lugged from home? It's available here. At Walmart. (About 20 mins drive away) Althooough... Gene was not convinced that the rice here would be different but it is: American long grain is NOT Thai Jasmine. I'll tell you that.

First milestone: managed to cook first dinner yesterday. Yay! :) And the leftovers, gene cooked chao fan, which is currently our breakfast.

Okay lah, super long post already. Catch u soon.

We made it, we're in the US. Not our final destination yet though: currently in Minneapolis - will soon embark on our hour/90 min drive to Rochester, MN. Enjoying the transiently free Internet connection in our hotel room about 10 minutes away from the Minn. Airport.

We started our journey early in the am on Monday Singapore time. Woke up at an unearthly time, got to the airport by 7.30 am. Very sweet, couple of friends appeared to say bye bye, and before you knew it, it was time to go. It was just extremely surreal. Maybe it didn't quite hit that we're going to leave for a year... it was pretty much chop chop, lets get going, grab that bag, grab the other bag, wave bye bye... grab the trolley, last wave, board plane.

Dorothy - my travel agent from Fortune Travel (very good, go to her if u need to get things done) - managed to secure us exit aisle seats so it the flight was actually quite pleasant from Sg to Narita. During the layover, Gene gets imspiration to try the dry "kare" or curry at the cafe. It looked terrible on the menu but it tasted very good indeed. Tiny portions though.

Post Narita, we popped stillnox to go to sleep. It gave me hallucinations!!! I *saw* little green men on the airplane window sill. Figures were seaguing in and out of the plane. Totally cuckooo-ey. Stillnox is also very strange - it works for five hours in the fifth hour, we're usually both awake. Why 5 hours? Not 4? Not 6? Dunno man.

The transit in LAX took forever. ALTHOUGH, surprisingly, the customs and immigration process went quite well. Only queued for about like 40 mins, and the immigration officer was really nice (!) and of course, he laughed when I said that I'd be staying home the whole year. "Ohhh boooy, you're going to work hard huh?" he teased Eugene.
Our bags were definitely rifled through by the security folks, luckily we listened to a friend's advice and did not lock the bags. Apparently, they can cut locks, cut bags or worse, reset your bag lock to a new combination *roll eyes*
They were quite curious about the microwave rice cooker - this small specially designed plastic pot - that I brought along.
For the record, I was contemplating shipping it here but Gene looked quite astounded at the prospect of a 10-week-no-rice delay, so it went into the luggage. The plastic clips I put inside the pot were strewn all over the place!

The NW flight from LA to Minn last night (this morning Singapore time) was the WORST leg. First off, it was delayed, which meant that we stayed in LAX for five hours, which is about three hours too much in my view.
(Except, we had a sighting of a rather bemused looking Martin Sheen - or someone who really looked like him - in the terminal)

By this time, we were quite lagged, since we had only five hours of sleep over the 17 hours flight from SG. Plus the luggage lugging and some really waaay-too-salty buffalo wings later (we decided on a small snack - this would turn out to be the only food for the next oh, lemme calculate... 18 hours) meant we were about dead on our feet.
The flight itself was only three hours long but it was easily the worst leg of the trip - kiddies crying AND no inflight entertainment! Whooaa. tough man.
There was this chap on my right with a sean connery-esque beard who used his PDA to play his mp3s and he was playing it at SUCH a volume that I promptly blasted my own iPod Nano. Despite that I could hear his Billy Joel over my arias. Cruds.

The only thing that saved my sanity was this solitaire game on the Nano. Its incredibly fiddly but I'm not going to complain too loudly. It was my only source of entertainment man.

By the time we arrived, it was 1045 pm and we hit the hotel room at midnight. We hadn't eaten but by then sleep was a priority. Gave mom a call to wish her happy birthday (it was 11 am Sing time when we called) and then we broke out some duty free Single Malt and called it a night.

Onwards now with a now-working GPS to Rochester in our new rental Hyundai Sonata!

Thanks everyone for useful advice: we called the airline, its a two bag max and 32 kgs each for outward bound SQ flights to USA. The extra weight means I am taking helluva big bag.

But plans for more meet ups have been scuttled over the past two nights. BOTH of us are sick! Sniffles, cough, achoos. He's started with a lower respiratory tract infection, mine's an upper RTI. Sigghs.

A dinner wif the parents have also been cancelled.
Also scuttled are plans to have a last pull with the wakeboarding boat tomorrow morning. Too sick.
Sorry if we nixed out on you at the last minute everyone.
We've been asleep more hours than we've been awake over the last 48 hours.

Going to get yet more shuteye. G'night. *Achooooo!* Sniff. Hope we get better by flight time at 945 am 19th June. Yes yes, I know, its only 8.45 pm on a Sat night, but really lah, cannot make it.

Plans to ship food like Laksa paste, chicken rice base and the coffee machine have been scuppered.

It is helluva expensive to send stuff - even via ship - to USA. Eg. 10 kgs to Australia with Singpost's shipping service (goodness knows why they call it "Speedpost" considering it'll take weeks for the stuff to arrive) is $49.50... 10 kgs to the US? $115.80 And (!) because it goes by ship, it'll take anywhere from six weeks to 12 weeks to arrive. Arghk.

How to ask friends for food parcels like that? Going to die of sambal balachan deprivation.

Gene is extra grumpy that he won't get to bring his Saeco coffee machine: anyone wants to take care of that particular baby for a year?

We're having some trouble with luggage too now. Because we won't ship stuff, we're trying to stuff everything into the luggage... which is going to be problematic with a 20 kg maximum load. Have no idea how to carry the box of heat packs that Dennis bought for us from Japan. Sigh, now repacking everything again, kicking out clothes etc etc.

Why 20 Kg? We're travelling cattle class: moo. Have no money lah and something tells me we're never going to get beyond cattle class.

And of course - have also realised just how poor we are going to be. Changing money at the bank yesterday. Even with the "favourable" exchange rate right now; when you change what seems to be a loooot of Sing $, it comes up relatively puny in USD.

Triple sighs.

On a happier note, managed to meet up with Kallaboo and Mr Cheng - who's been travelling all over the world. Sorry abt the bad image quality, lighting issues + magnum Hoegaarden = bad bad photographer nat.

Karen's doing her vampire impersonation - with french fries. Mr Cheng's expression says everything. Hehe.

Tried to convince the duo to visit Rochester in the depths of Winter.
"We'll have heating! Really!"
"A queen sized bed!"
"You might meet... urh... grizzly bear.''
"We can go skiing/snowboarding!"

Answer: "Erh, yah, we'll think about it" (Nervous laughter follows)

Gene tried to sell the same argument to Ai-Lien the other day.
Her answer? Hysterical laughter.

Hummm.

We've moved out of Coronation Grove yesterday - and it was messy enough that I don't want to do this on a yearly basis. Gene's got a more advanced form of moving allergitis... he's now declared that we're buying a place so we don't have to move again. *Roll eyes*

I still think buying a place is just financially completely imprudent in this day and age.
Buy a place for 600,000? A 30-year-loan will mean that you pay the bank the same amount in interest so total cost of home $1.2 mil.
NOT counting renovation costs and furnishing costs.

Anything happens to you during that 30 years and you're screwed; no more house cos bank repos the mortgage.

And if nothing happens to you in the 30 years? Good on you, you can look forward to retirement except wait, your CPF is WIPED OUT.
You'll be left with something that has depreciated AND, to add insult to injury, you need to cough up more $ to renovate every now and then.

The only way that a permanent house is going to happen is if we're flush with enough cash to take a really short 10 year loan.That gonna happen? Hahhahahha *hysterical laughter*

Alright alright, enough with the ranting. Right now, back in my room at my parents. I feel like a teenager again. Try not to stay up too late cos it will disturb em; and nothing too loud. Must tell them where I'm headed.

Except, there are really nice bits - laundry, great cooking, cable Tv at no cost.
Yay.

I evidently have been getting enough sleep over the past few days.
For the first time in years, am up early enough to watch the dawn.

The birds are chirping their hearts out in the trees just beyond the balcony - and the light is this hazy hue of grey and blue - that strange in between time when night has not totally left and the morning is *just* beginning.

I haven't voluntarily woken up so early in Singapore for years.
Most of the time, I'm trying to catch that five extra winks - and Gene has to haul himself out of bed far earlier than little ole me. This time, he's still sleeping - wow. That's a big change in status quo. That will however change in about 15 minutes or so.

Actually early mornings are not associated with good things here in Singapore - c'mon, we all had to haul our asses to school by 7.15 am no? And at 6.30 am I'd a) be feverishly trying to get into my uniform with mom and dad yelling at me to hurry up b) be completely and totally tired and unispired to go to school c) going "oh crap, I forgot that piece of homework". Sometimes I'd be so tired that I'd fall asleep on the bed with my uniform on... it was that bad.

It's become much brighter in the minutes since I started typing this entry. Night has withdrawn her mantle, but Mr Sun is having a slight problem today...clouds, lots of them. Looks like another cold/rainy morning although I have hopes that by the pm, there'll be some sun, so we can go swimming... last few chances to afterall!

The last round of packing today - most of the cupboards have been cleared out, I'll just have to mkae sure the nitty gritty and these electronica, including the modem, are packed up safe and sound - last two nights in this apartment.

I will miss it.

From Tintonque's blog: Vid about ahem... folding clothes. VERY useful right now.



So inspired that I actually went to get a t-shirt from gene's room. It takes a couple of replays and several tries but it works quite well.

If the video does not display properly
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This is a funny vid: For those who know Dr Goh and his uncanny allergy to kiddies, it is a hoot.

He tries to say Bye bye without actually looking at them, and tries to wipe the bad vibes off his hand...

Check it out

Apologies for the bad vid quality but it was taken on my mobile phone la

Kallaboo asked for pixes of the apartment - although she's back from travelling all over the Indian and Southeast Asian bits of the continent; suspect the move will happen before we get a chance to meet her.

So Kallaboo, this is for you. (hey, it rhymes!)

To start: what it looks like from the patio...

And a look from the other side

And that's the balcony/patio aka party central aka the-place-with-massive-drinking-mojo

although, most times; it looks more like this:



Eh, don't knock it, its a brilliant thing when your laundry dries in the sun... considering the rainy days we had.

A look from the front side of the apartment:



okie, that's it...

Since I stopped work on Friday, its been a whir of goodbyes: On Friday afternoon, Kok Min (as the locals would say: super lao peng you) took me out for lunch.
I only managed to get one pic on the Sony Ericsson but its a damned good one.

Hahahaha!
But the chap is off to big things; in NY and Dubai - financial adviser to crown princes and all. Anyone watched the movie Syriana? I was telling Kok Min to tell me if its actually like that doing the financial advising to these chaps....

Then in the pm, Neil kindly delivered his curry puffs to the office (for my bye bye treat) and they received rave reviews. Just maybe you'll see a review of those puffs in the Straits Times soon!

Leaving the office for the final time for a year was surreal though. Everyone was really busy, and the admin the leave took forever. BUT it was also strangely melancholic. Just sad la; like I said, it's the only life I've known for a while. And the goodbyes were a bit harder than I thought they would be. Bertha (my boss) gave me a HUGE bouquet of flowers that said: DON'T FORGET TO COME HOME! *heh* I won't. Promise. I'll be around again really really soon.

Then on friday night: we had a poolside session with Karen, Rez, Neil, Alana, Simon, Wendy and Vince. Of course, the new Bahari addition - Cayden - was in tow.

Couple of pixes again:

Cayden and Uncle Neil (of the curry puff fame...) The juxtaposition of the two photos is entirely out of convenience - they are both vertical pixes - but hehe, issit just me or is there a resemblance in the forehead area....
Neil managed to do the classic-let's-swing-beer-that-someone's-been-ashing-into thing.
Karen was happily ashing her ciggie into a tiger beer can, Neil takes a swing, swirls it round, hears the stub in there - and hollers: "THERE IS A CIGGIE IN MY BEER".

Beer: $2.45
Cigarette: $0.50
Karen's expression: Priceless
Neil's expression: Priceless
Everybody laughing their guts out: Priceless

Neil starts insisting that he can taste the burnt ciggie in his beer - which makes you wonder why didn't he stop swigging when he *first* tasted it.

You can REALLY see a colour gradation among the girls hor? Heh. Post Bali tan... super shiok man.

Saturday was packing day - bah. Have boxes all over the place.
Then; in the evening, couple of workmates came over for a modest party. Gene made his now-famous jambalaya and whipped up a mean beef stroganoff, and I helped with a salad hahahhahah. Yes not the cook in the family.
well, it started out modest but turned out preeettty darned boozy.





Then on Sunday night (after a non-starter of a day = both of us slept for the entire afternoon) my philo mates - some of whom can be found on MiriLi - came to say goodbye. They treated us to a superb nosh at Por Kee in Tiong Bahru in anticipation of the US sojourn.
Then it was more drinks at our place (yes, its getting used well in our last days as tenants. We move out on Monday, June 12).
My brain was so dead that I forgot to take photos.
Gah.

In my two days of domesticum so far, been out for lunches, been doing laundry and some packing. The packing is not moving as fast as it should, but ahjhbpart from that...
aiyo...damned tragic, today, I decided to do a bit of housewife-y cooking... (just to immerse myself in the whole domestic felicity thing and also, I owe Ai-Lien some sambal balachan lucheon meat. It sounds terrible, i know, but she's addicted to the stuff. And since am planning to clear out the kitchen on Thurs... means, well, that's it la, no more cooking, thought I'd do a spot of cooking.
UNFORTUNATELY, while holding on to one of the cans, the label slipped off and the tin slipped out of my grasp and completely gashed my hand.
Blood yada yada.
Me yelling: "Errrh, G ... come and look please!".
G rolling his eyes and getting pretty miffed: "STOP COOKING WE'RE GOING OUT TO EAT"

He reckons it will need a couple of stitches, but after bleeding loads, it seems to have closed pretty okay, but will see a doc tomorrow if it starts to gape again.

Arti tells me to fluff up all the time so G will insist on me stopping cooking altogether. Heh.

What can I say? Not meant for domestication laaaaaaaaaah.

At least i can still type, surf the net and play computer games heheheh

The goodbyes have started in earnest.

Yesterday, my smop mates took me out for lunch at Tanglin Shopping Centre where I GORGED on swordfish Sashimi.

In the evening, met up with Greg, the Lims, and Teohs and SB at Friends in Serangoon Gardens for a wine-pairing dinner.
Plenty of photos:



TJ and Eugene listening c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y to wine maker at the dinner. TJ is doing the whole *swirl swirl* thing with his glass.

Priceless expression on TJ's face

This is a Kawaii shot of the Lims and ... is it just me, or does Dr G look like like Lim Swee Say - the Minister - in this particular shot??? (erh, that's not a good thing in my books... although I do know of one friend who adores Mr Lim from afar of course.)




Greg and G: nice couple huh? Hehhehe.
They will miss each other - esp the gossiping abt cars, watches, food.


The Teohs, who were the recipients of one of our paper mache pigs.


Dr Chew SB - great friend, and pretty darned good with his hands too

More later...