It is has been a long time since I have posted anything, so I have a lot of catching up to do!
In early December, I made a very short trip back to Florida for Jen and Tripp's wedding. It was a nice break to spend some time with my family and Ryan who came down for the weekend. It was also great getting to see Andrea and Michelle who were in the wedding and Ashley who made the trip too. Here are some pictures and a video and Jen and Tripp's first dance.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Subaru Impreza Challenge 2007
Starting at 7am this past Saturday, 388 people each placed a hand on either a Subaru Impreza 1.5R (MIRT Edition) worth $68,000 or a Subaru Impreza 1.5R worth $58,000 (Singapore dollars.)
40 people per car, split up by boys and girls. Who ever from the guys and girls lasts the longest with their hand on the car....wins the car!
Every 6 hours, they get a 5 minute break to go to the bathroom. When I stopped by, it had been 54 hours and there were 11 guys left and 28 girls still in the race.
Last year, the winner stood for almost 75 hours straight. (This is the 6th annual contest!)
I read that most of the contestants dropped out Sunday night during a THREE hour downpour!
The Ladies:
40 people per car, split up by boys and girls. Who ever from the guys and girls lasts the longest with their hand on the car....wins the car!
Every 6 hours, they get a 5 minute break to go to the bathroom. When I stopped by, it had been 54 hours and there were 11 guys left and 28 girls still in the race.
Last year, the winner stood for almost 75 hours straight. (This is the 6th annual contest!)
I read that most of the contestants dropped out Sunday night during a THREE hour downpour!
The Ladies:
The Gentlemen:
The timer as I walked by it this evening at 7:20pm. They had been at it for 54 hours already when I came to take a look!
The start of a 5 minute break for 2 of the groups. Apparently it was in the Terms and Conditions that participants can only use this time to use the toilet...no peeing in their pants allowed during non-break times.
*Update!* For the first time, a woman has won the contest. Sandra Yeow won the Subaru Challenge with a new record time of 77 hours and 15 minutes. Kevin Lee won on the guys side with a time of 76 hours.
Officially a Singapore FOODIE!
I think I am officially converted to Singapore's 2 national past times...
1. Shopping - Which I think I have had down since day 3 of my stay....and now
2. EATING!
When I first got here, I swore that I wouldn't be able to handle eating only rice and noodles for each meal. Now with a more open mind...AND the help of my new guide, Makansutra, I've made peace with rice and noodles!
My new goal with my time left in Singapore is to try AS MANY categories of food listed in this book (and trust me, there are A LOT! More than I think I could try in a lifetime in Singapore actually) Oh, and part B of my goal is to try and not end up 20 lbs heavier either ;)
Where else to start than with one of Singapore's, if not it's most famous dish: Chicken Rice
This was the line to order. Hard to see, but most other stalls had no one waiting!
Before...
After...
I have to say...currently, it tops my Top 10 Singapore Food List! Yes, it was THAT yummy :-P
1. Shopping - Which I think I have had down since day 3 of my stay....and now
2. EATING!
When I first got here, I swore that I wouldn't be able to handle eating only rice and noodles for each meal. Now with a more open mind...AND the help of my new guide, Makansutra, I've made peace with rice and noodles!
My new goal with my time left in Singapore is to try AS MANY categories of food listed in this book (and trust me, there are A LOT! More than I think I could try in a lifetime in Singapore actually) Oh, and part B of my goal is to try and not end up 20 lbs heavier either ;)
Where else to start than with one of Singapore's, if not it's most famous dish: Chicken Rice
This was the line to order. Hard to see, but most other stalls had no one waiting!
Before...
After...
Next up: Fried Sweet Potato Dumplings!!!
I was pretty skeptical about this one before I tried it, but I figured for 40 (Singapore) cents for a plain one...it was worth the try. There were plenty of flavors: plain or with fillings of Red bean, Black bean, Peanuts, or Pandan Coconut. I got one of the plain sweet potato ones (only 1 so I would keep to part b of my goal...to not gain 20 lbs!)I have to say...currently, it tops my Top 10 Singapore Food List! Yes, it was THAT yummy :-P
So much more food...but I'm very much looking forward to it! :)
Little India
The other night, I went to dinner in Little India and strolled around the streets afterwards to catch the sights. Deepavali, the Festival of Lights, is this coming Thursday so the streets of Little India are all lit up in celebration. (I will be going back tomorrow night to meet up with a friend for dinner, so I'll get better pictures to post then!!!)
"Deepavali, the most important date of the Hindu calendar, occurs on one day during October, and in the ethnic quarter of Little India, the festivities last practically for the whole month of October.
Deepavali is the Festival of Lights, and marks the defeat of the evil King Narakasura by the Lord Krishna. All round the world, Hindus celebrate this day as the triumph of light over darkness, and of good over evil. It marks the new beginning for Hindu devotees, and is a great time of rejoicing and renewal. During this time, Little India throbs with evening roadside stalls, booming music and strings of colourful lights."
All the streets in Little India have these banners of light strung across them.
Mustafa Center is a shopping center in Little India that is open 24 hours a day. I walked around a bit and saw lots and lots of gold shops, along with other jewelry/watches all on the bottom floor. The second level was a Walmart of sorts (clothing, shoes, luggage, cosmetics, etc... all in an organized cluttered mess) I didnt make it up any more floors and there wasn't really anything that I needed.
Walking around, I came across a new friend. I'll have to find out the correct name for this Indian dish. It's a naan-like bread that is topped with a filling and then rolled up like a taquito to be eatten.
For dinner, I went to this Indian restaraunt that had a special...$10 for Fish Head Curry! (Normally $17) I couldn't pass up a bargain so I ordered it. Pretty, huh? :) The cheeks are the best part...I passed on the eyeball though.
*Update: At another dinner a different night, I picked up where I left off on the fish head eating experience and tried the eyeball. I didn't know this, but you don't actually eat the whole thing. You just sorta suck up the gooey-ness that is in between the socket and the pupil (or whatever the white part is) and leave the rest. It actually wasn't bad...very gelatinous.
"Deepavali, the most important date of the Hindu calendar, occurs on one day during October, and in the ethnic quarter of Little India, the festivities last practically for the whole month of October.
Deepavali is the Festival of Lights, and marks the defeat of the evil King Narakasura by the Lord Krishna. All round the world, Hindus celebrate this day as the triumph of light over darkness, and of good over evil. It marks the new beginning for Hindu devotees, and is a great time of rejoicing and renewal. During this time, Little India throbs with evening roadside stalls, booming music and strings of colourful lights."
All the streets in Little India have these banners of light strung across them.
Mustafa Center is a shopping center in Little India that is open 24 hours a day. I walked around a bit and saw lots and lots of gold shops, along with other jewelry/watches all on the bottom floor. The second level was a Walmart of sorts (clothing, shoes, luggage, cosmetics, etc... all in an organized cluttered mess) I didnt make it up any more floors and there wasn't really anything that I needed.
Walking around, I came across a new friend. I'll have to find out the correct name for this Indian dish. It's a naan-like bread that is topped with a filling and then rolled up like a taquito to be eatten.
For dinner, I went to this Indian restaraunt that had a special...$10 for Fish Head Curry! (Normally $17) I couldn't pass up a bargain so I ordered it. Pretty, huh? :) The cheeks are the best part...I passed on the eyeball though.
*Update: At another dinner a different night, I picked up where I left off on the fish head eating experience and tried the eyeball. I didn't know this, but you don't actually eat the whole thing. You just sorta suck up the gooey-ness that is in between the socket and the pupil (or whatever the white part is) and leave the rest. It actually wasn't bad...very gelatinous.
Chinatown!
I went for a guided tour of Chinatown on Friday night. Here are some pictures from the tour as well as from the next day when I went back when it wasn't dark.
Picture of a street in Chinatown's Night Market.
A Chinese temple
I thought the tiles on the side of this Chinese temple were so pretty. (Also, the building is right across the street from an established red-light district in Chinatown.)
Dried seahorses for sale at one of the Chinese Medicine Shops in Chinatown. Dried jellyfish was in the box right next to this one.
Racks of Chinese Beef Jerkey at a specialty shop. Very tasty!!!
Picture of a street in Chinatown's Night Market.
A Chinese temple
I thought the tiles on the side of this Chinese temple were so pretty. (Also, the building is right across the street from an established red-light district in Chinatown.)
Dried seahorses for sale at one of the Chinese Medicine Shops in Chinatown. Dried jellyfish was in the box right next to this one.
Racks of Chinese Beef Jerkey at a specialty shop. Very tasty!!!
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Lelaine and Chris' Wedding Weekend
This past weekend, Lelaine got married and I was the maid of honor in the wedding!
The wedding was in Pensacola, FL so I flew to Orlando Wednesday night, spent all day Thursday running errands and just enjoying being back in the US. Ryan flew into Orlando that night and then we left early Friday morning on our drive up to the wedding. We stopped in Gainesville to see Catherine (and her soon to be here baby) for a few minutes and picked up Robin (a fellow bridesmaid) On the way home from the wedding, we stopped off in Gainesville again and met up with Katie for some dinner. After some deciding on where to eat (about 30 minutes and 4 U-turns later) we ended up at Latin Cafe...an old favorite from my last year in Gainesville.
I havent saved all my photos yet, but here are a few.
The weather was gorgeous for the wedding activities...it only was horrible when I was driving the 8 hours each way! The wedding was great and no problems at all :-)
AND...I made it through my speech without getting sick from being nervous. I even got compliments on how well I did :)...I was worried!
Me and the bride to be at the rehearsal dinner!
Me and Ryan at the rehearsal dinner
On our way to the church on the wedding day!
Me and Robin before the wedding starts
Lelaine and her mom before the ceremony.
Me, right before I had to give my maid of honor toast
The wedding was in Pensacola, FL so I flew to Orlando Wednesday night, spent all day Thursday running errands and just enjoying being back in the US. Ryan flew into Orlando that night and then we left early Friday morning on our drive up to the wedding. We stopped in Gainesville to see Catherine (and her soon to be here baby) for a few minutes and picked up Robin (a fellow bridesmaid) On the way home from the wedding, we stopped off in Gainesville again and met up with Katie for some dinner. After some deciding on where to eat (about 30 minutes and 4 U-turns later) we ended up at Latin Cafe...an old favorite from my last year in Gainesville.
I havent saved all my photos yet, but here are a few.
The weather was gorgeous for the wedding activities...it only was horrible when I was driving the 8 hours each way! The wedding was great and no problems at all :-)
AND...I made it through my speech without getting sick from being nervous. I even got compliments on how well I did :)...I was worried!
Me and the bride to be at the rehearsal dinner!
Me and Ryan at the rehearsal dinner
On our way to the church on the wedding day!
Me and Robin before the wedding starts
Lelaine and her mom before the ceremony.
Me, right before I had to give my maid of honor toast
Monday, October 15, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Being a Tourist
I decided that I would hate to leave Singapore and not to have seen more than the shopping areas of the country (dont get me wrong though...that is a tough thing to do - there are literally hundreds of shopping malls) I plan to get back to actually taking in as much of Singapore while I can since I won't be here too much longer. I started back up with a trip to the Asian Civilizations Museum.
After the museum, I took a short walk to head over to see some more sights. Right across the river from the museum is the Fullerton Hotel. It is one of the nicest hotels in Singapore. It used to be the post office building. It's also said to be haunted.
This is me and the mini-merlion statue at the park.
This is the full size one that is right behind the "mini" one.
Also from the pier where the merlion is, you can see a giant ferris wheel that is under construction. Its set to open Valentine's Day and I've heard reservations are booked already. It's supposed to be larger than the London Eye.
It was a beautiful day today - no rain! (but extremely hot...as usual) The walk to the museum was nice and I got to see green parks where people were reading, picnicing, and just hanging out. If it wasn't so hot out, I would have taken a nap on the lawn after my museum visit, but instead I chose to find somewhere with air-conditioning!
Here are some pictures from the museum. Flash photography wasn't allowed in any of the exhibits and since they were mostly all dimly lit, I don't have many pictures to show from the museum.
After the museum, I took a short walk to head over to see some more sights. Right across the river from the museum is the Fullerton Hotel. It is one of the nicest hotels in Singapore. It used to be the post office building. It's also said to be haunted.
Passing the Fullerton, I made my way to Merlion Park. The Merlion is a statue with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It's become a trademark of Singapore. There are 5 offical Merlion statues around Singapore...2 of them are located at this park.
This is me and the mini-merlion statue at the park.
This is the full size one that is right behind the "mini" one.
Behind the merlion in the picture, you can see the convention center. Its the 2 dome shaped buildings with spikes. It was built to resemble durians.
Here is the view from the merlion statue. Across the water, there is construction to build a casino and a Universal Studios as well.
Also from the pier where the merlion is, you can see a giant ferris wheel that is under construction. Its set to open Valentine's Day and I've heard reservations are booked already. It's supposed to be larger than the London Eye.
It's probably hard to see, but the tall building in the back middle of this picture is where the Fortis office is located. You can see the Fortis logo on the top left of the building in red letters.
Familiar Face from Houston
This past week, Soo (who I worked with in Houston) made a stop in Singapore and visited the office for two days. It was nice to see a familiar face even if it was just for a short time.
While she was here, we went out to dinner with some of the Singapore team. Monday night, we went for Singapore's famous black pepper crabs. The crabs are huge and they are certainly peppery. It was yummy, but I think next time I'll have Singapore's just as famous, chili crabs. It is more of a sauce and they give you Man Toh (steamed or fried bread like rolls) to dip too!
The next next, Soo and I went to a late night dinner with Boon and had roti prata and then went back to her hotel to check out the suite she was staying in. She was on the highest floor (I think it was the 6oth floor? The hotel claims to be the tallest in all of South East Asia) She had a great view of the city (unfortunately the pictures came out a bit blurry!) She had some expensive bath products that she wasn't going to use, so she graciously offered them to me. So now I have soap, lotion, even special soap for baths!
While she was here, we went out to dinner with some of the Singapore team. Monday night, we went for Singapore's famous black pepper crabs. The crabs are huge and they are certainly peppery. It was yummy, but I think next time I'll have Singapore's just as famous, chili crabs. It is more of a sauce and they give you Man Toh (steamed or fried bread like rolls) to dip too!
The next next, Soo and I went to a late night dinner with Boon and had roti prata and then went back to her hotel to check out the suite she was staying in. She was on the highest floor (I think it was the 6oth floor? The hotel claims to be the tallest in all of South East Asia) She had a great view of the city (unfortunately the pictures came out a bit blurry!) She had some expensive bath products that she wasn't going to use, so she graciously offered them to me. So now I have soap, lotion, even special soap for baths!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
San Francisco to Seattle...or Bust!
Been a while since I've posted anything so it's time to catch up...
First off, wishing Carrie a Happy Birthday!!!
Now, here are a few pictures, ok maybe more than just a few shots from mine and David's trip from San Francisco to Seattle.
Made it to San Francisco. Checked out some sights: Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Park, Mission Dolores, and Lombard Street, The Painted Ladies, Haight Ashbury pictured here. We even get to have dinner with 2 of our aunts.
We headed out from San Francisco for the short drive up to Sonoma, California. While we were there, we checked out 2 wineries, went on a tram tour of one of them, had a sushi dinner and relaxed at the Sonoma Lodge.
First off, wishing Carrie a Happy Birthday!!!
Now, here are a few pictures, ok maybe more than just a few shots from mine and David's trip from San Francisco to Seattle.
Made it to San Francisco. Checked out some sights: Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Park, Mission Dolores, and Lombard Street, The Painted Ladies, Haight Ashbury pictured here. We even get to have dinner with 2 of our aunts.
We headed out from San Francisco for the short drive up to Sonoma, California. While we were there, we checked out 2 wineries, went on a tram tour of one of them, had a sushi dinner and relaxed at the Sonoma Lodge.
After leaving Sonoma, Dave spots Charlie Brown's big head on the side of the road while we're driving north. We stop to take some pics and realize we're in Santa Rosa, CA home to the Charles Schultz museum. Thanks to Tom Tom, we find out we're only 5 minutes away and decide to make the stop to check out the museum.
Saying "goodbye" to Charlie Brown and friends, we're back on the road. We drive along the 'Avenue of the Giants' that takes us through some redwood forests. We didn't get to see the famous tree that has been carved out so a car can drive through it, but maybe next time!
After stopping to see the redwoods, we're off to drive some more. I take over the driving shift and then in Eureka, Oregon I get a flat tire :( Dave changes the tire and puts on the spare and we're left looking for a replacement. At least there was a Sears 5 minutes down the road that hadn't closed yet for the night. They weren't able to patch it, so we bought a new tire and we were back on our way!!! But not before getting this picture of Dave at Sears waiting for our new tire!
Dave was determined to get to see a sunset on the West Coast. So after getting a new tire, we find a public beach and go take a look. Here we are (I can't remember the exact name of the beach) at the Pacific Ocean to catch the last minutes of the sun setting.
Here's a picture of Dave after we made it back (finally!) to car from the ocean...after he stumbled into some swamp or who knows what...twice! Good thing it was a full moon out and that there were kids out who knew where they were going so we could follow them back to the parking lot!
Dave drives through much of the night and gets us to Eugene, Oregon. Short of our original plan to make it to Portland, but it works. I was too tired to complain. I'm just glad Dave handled the driving (up and down the mountains, twisting and turning). We find a Wendy's and a Best Western and call it a night.
Seattle! We made it to our final destination of the trip and got to spend a few days in Seattle to relax, catch the sights (including the first Starbucks), have some great seafood, and even pick up some fresh wild king salmon to bring back to Florida.
* The fish made it back to Florida and from what I hear looked beautiful and tasted great!
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