Bec's Expat Life

Australian Meat

2012-03-04T00:31:00.000-08:00

Everyone loves a good steak... unless you are a vegetarian of course. Sean and I used to have steak for dinner at least once a week back in Australia and red meat featured in our meals a couple a times a week. When we moved to Singapore we thought our steak dinners would only happen on special occasions and we would be eating a lot more pork and chicken instead because red meat in Singapore is way too expensive. Luckily we discovered QB foods (recommended by friends Laurel and Andrea) and although their meat is not as cheap as what you can get in Woolworths or Coles in Australia, it is the cheapest we have found in Singapore and they have a good selection of meat from Australia. They also have US meat. If you order over $200 they deliver it at no extra charge. However, even though they have some good steak selections, they do not have cheap sausages like we got back in Australia or lamb steaks, which we use for curries.

Luckily Sean travels to Perth often for work and is able to buy some meat there and bring it home. At first I couldn't believe that you were able to bring meat into Singapore especially because Australian customs are so strict, but supposedly it is no problems to bring it back here. So he just bought a load of meat, put it in a freezer bag, put it in the cargo hold (where it is cold) and brought it home for me :) He also brought me home some cheese. He got me 500g of Ricotta for AUD$4.50 (SGD$6) because I can't seem to find any for less than SGD$10 here for only 450g.

This is what he brought home for me :) I cooked up a nice sausage and bacon breakfast, I have certainly missed sausages. What they call sausages here I wouldn't even feed to my dog. I now need to buy a slow cooker so I can make some awesome beef stews and lamb curries.... mmmm I am getting hungry just thinking about it...

11 Questions Tag

2012-03-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

I don't usually do a lot of these blog thingys but this one looked fun and I have been trying to blog more so thought I would give it a go.

One of my good friend's Emma and fellow blogger who has an awesome blog, La vie, style et beaute, tagged me to participate in this 11 Questions Tag. The rules are as follows:

Rules

- You must post these rules.

- Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.

- Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.

- You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post.

- Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her.

- No tag backs.

- No stuff in the tagging section about 'you are tagged if you are reading this'. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

So to begin, here are 11 things you may or may not know about me:

1. When I was 15 (turned 16 there) I went to Germany with 3 other students for a school tour and I used to be able to speak a bit of German, now I have no idea!

2. I really miss my childhood home. It had 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 separate staircases, 2 kitchens, 4 living areas, 2 outdoor entertainment areas and a pool. There was always about 10 kids running through the house because I have 3 brothers and we would always have our friends over.

3. I am a pretty shy person until I get to know people and then you can't shut me up.

4. I am a WORRIER! I worry about a lot of things but Sean is the complete opposite and is very good at calming me down.

5. My favourite country in the world (besides Australia) is Laos (with Vietnam a close second) because the locals are so laid back.

6. I still haven't figured out what I want to do with my life. I used to want to be a Pre-school teacher, then a Vet Nurse, then a Mother and now I want to study Nutrition.

7. I have been to university twice and dropped out twice. SHAME!

8. We used to have two dogs (we still have Shrek who lives with mum and dad). We also used to have a border collie named Jazz who was incredibly hyperactive and loved chasing birds. When we decided to travel around Australia in a van in 2010, we had to give her away to a farm where she could spend her whole day chasing cows! Here is a picture of her:

Can you tell she used to hate this jacket?

9. Every few months I go on health kicks and they usually last about 2-4 weeks. Not because I am overweight (quite the opposite!) but because I am obsessed with Nutrition. I am currently in the everything in moderation phase right about now and it is so much better than being on any crazy health kick!

10. (Stealing one of Emma's things but true about me) I cannot get to sleep without reading a chapter of a novel. Even when I am so drunk I could pass out, I have to read a few lines to get to sleep and I know I will not remember a word I read in the morning!

11. Sean and I love zombies. Sean gave me Zombie Survival guide one Christmas and we even have a Zombie attack plan. You might think I sound crazy but you will be screwed when Zombie's attack! I even had a picture drawn by an artist to make us look like zombies, here it is:

Maybe a bit too obsessed with Zombies...

Ok next, answer questions the tagger set for you, I think this will be the hard part.

1. Who do you admire or look up to?

Seriously this is hard, I don't want to say a famous person because you can only view them from the outside and never know what goes on in their lives and maybe it is not as glamorous as it seems. So I am going to say I look up to and admire my best friend Sash, because she has always known what she wanted to do with her life and has gone ahead and done it and she is one of the smartest, friendliest, caring person I know.

2. What would you do if you won the lottery?

Easy, buy a private plane and travel the world. I suppose I would give a bit to my family haha! Of course I would give some to my family, but honestly I don't think I would tell many people because I would hate for people to become greedy and expect you to pay for everything. So if I start talking about travelling the world in my private jet, you'll know why!

3. Do you have any (secret) talents?

I can touch my nose with my tongue?

4. Does your personality and zodiac sign description match?

I think so. Usually when I read my star sign they are so vague that I can somehow make it relate to my life.

5. Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Most likely still living in Singapore and maybe with a few children, I hope.

6. If you could only shop at one fashion store for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?

Easy! Cotton On. It's my go to clothes shop, because the clothes are cheap and they always fit me and my style.

7. What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you?

It would of been when we were tubing in Laos ( if you don't know what tubing is check out this blog post here) I decided to try one of the swings and I had everyone in the bar watching me and cheering me on and then I faceplanted it straight into the water, barely hung onto the swing for a second. Luckily everyone gets smashed and can't remember a thing when tubing!

8. Do you have any weird dreams?

Not really. I don't dream often and when I do I never remember them.

9. What is your guilty pleasure?

Why is the answer to this always something edible. Nobody ever answers with some guilty sexual pleasure. And neither am I. I am going to say cream, whipped cream on desserts, not in the sexual way!!

10. Do you like your name or would you prefer having a different one?

I like my nick name Bec but it is weird when people call me Rebecca... but I don't hate it.

11. Who is your celebrity crush?

Jude Law, even if he is a cheating scumbag because he cheated on the gorgeous Sienna Miller, he is still hot!

Now I have to tag 11 people/ bloggers:

1. http://talesofabusyhousewife.blogspot.com/

2. http://australianexpatfamily.blogspot.com/

3. http://joelandstacey.blogspot.com/

4. http://livinginballan.blogspot.com/

5. http://www.expatadventuresinsingapore.com/

6. http://pamexpatlife.blogspot.com/

7. http://tanguerainsingapore.blogspot.com/

8. http://amelbournegirlinthetropics.blogspot.com/

9. http://thedotdiaries.wordpress.com/

10. http://ausinuk.blogspot.com/

11. http://thestunzfamily.wordpress.com/

My questions for you.

1. What would you choose as your last meal?

2. Do you have a zombie plan/ end of the world plan? If so, what is it?

3. I have to ask this, what would you do if you won the lottery?

4. Dogs or Cats?

5. Favourite Country (besides your home country)?

6. Facebook or Twitter?

7. Typical question, name 3 items you would want on a deserted island?

8. Is there anything that you would change about yourself?

9. What can you hear right now?

10. What was the last film you saw?

11. If you could have any job, what would you want to be or do?

And that's it. I wonder who made it to the end of this post. I am looking forward to reading some of the answers.

*If you leave a comment on my blog, please click "Subscribe by email" after you make the comment below, so you can read my reply.

Playing with my new camera

2012-02-29T23:45:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my blog post about visiting KL, we bought a new camera. We have been without a camera for a while because I always end up breaking them, whether it is from dropping it on the ground or from putting it in my handbag without putting it back in the case and it getting hammered in there. I thought I wanted to get a DSLR because they seem to be the "in" thing right about now, but then I realised I really am not much of a photographer and don't know much about photography and honestly have little interest to learn. While we were browsing through Singapore airport we saw a camera store and thought well we need a new camera, so we went in just to browse and ended up buying one! We found one that is meant to be indestructible (Olympus Tough), well only if dropped from 1.5 metres, and it is waterproof up to 5 metres, not that I go in the ocean much (terribly afraid of sharks) but I wanted an underwater camera because I have seen some awesome underwater pool shots that looked pretty cool and wanted to give it a go. Anyway, our new camera has some awesome settings on it, from punk'd to sparkle to water colour and the coolest of all- drawing! Here are a few shots I took just playing around.

Punk'd setting- I look like a ZOMBIE!


Drawing setting- sorry it is not very clear because of the white background! I drew a picture of me! This is meant to be a space invader. This was Sean's idea and I said he could only do it if it was done in a clear not so obvious way and not done in colour. See marriage is all about compromise! I plan to start taking more pictures with my new camera, I just got to get in the habit of remembering to take pictures. *If you comment on my blog please click "Subscribe by email" below the comment box after you comment so you can see what I reply

Hair cutting Singapore Style

2012-02-29T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sean gets his hair (what's left of it!) cut more often than me. In Australia it was such a pain trying to find a good barber at a cheap price. Sean hates paying more then AUD$20 for a haircut and he even considers that way too expensive (he is a tight arse). We would drive around for ages looking for a good barber, one without too many lines and somewhere cheap and always by the end of it Sean would complain they cut it too short!
In Singapore getting a hair cut is so much easier and so much cheaper. Dotted around the island in many shopping malls you will find these hairdressers that do 10 minute express cuts for SGD$10 and there usually is hardly any wait. The most popular franchise is a place hailing from Japan called QB House but the other day we went to one called Hair Club.

All you need is a $10 note and you put it into a machine and receive a receipt before your hair cut.


Step 1- Insert $10, get a receipt

Then you get your hair cut and it is all pretty basic until they vacuum your hair at the end!


Sean getting his hair vacuumed

So getting a hair cut in Singapore is much easier and cheaper than Australia and he never seems to complain it is too short anymore. If you want to watch a video of someone getting their hair cut at Hair Club I found this video on You Tube.

*If you comment on my blog, please click "Subscribe by email" at the bottom after you comment so you'll receive my replies.

Giant Hypermarket Home Delivery

2012-02-26T23:50:00.001-08:00

The last thing you want to do on a Monday morning is head to the dentist, but that is exactly what I did this morning, but after my dentist appointment I got to go shopping, which is one of my favourite things to do. Although it sounds weird, I really do enjoy grocery shopping. Perhaps its because now that I have a lot more time on my hands, I can spend a few hours in the grocery store slowly making my way from one aisle to the next. When I used to work full time grocery shopping was very much a chore, done quickly on my lunch breaks or grudgingly after I finished a long day of work. Living in a city without a car and only a small scooter to carry home our purchases, I have found I have been going to the grocery store every couple of days to get the bigger items. I decided that now we are more settled in our own place, I can go to the store once a month for all the big items and have it delivered. I could just go onto Fairprice online and not even leave the house to do the grocery shopping but like I said I enjoy actually walking from aisle to aisle. I chose to go to Giant Hypermarket because I knew I would be able to buy everything in one place and also because if you spend over $200 they deliver it for free, it is $15 if you purchase under $200. In comparison Fairprice charges $7 for delivery on orders above $60, so I thought shopping at Giant knowing I was definitely going to spend over $200 was a better option. From Tampines I caught the free shuttle bus that runs every 30 mins connecting you to Giant, IKEA and Courts. These buses also run from Bedok, Pasir Ris and Sengkang (details can be found here).
While I was shopping Sean came on the scooter to meet me, to help and to take me home afterwards. It was good that he came because I ended up needing a second trolley! I loaded up the trolleys with all those mundane household items like toilet paper and cleaners as well as just every day groceries and don't think I'll need to visit the grocery store for a while now except for fresh fruit and vegetables.

My two trolleys (picture with my new camera!!)

I certainly spent over $200, with the total bill coming to $450. It will be interesting to see how long everything last me and if this will be the average cost for my monthly groceries. However I did purchase a $70 shelving unit which obviously won't be a monthly item. This cost did not include meat though, because I purchase my meat from QB foods, which I find a lot cheaper than the supermarket meat. I am yet to place my monthly QB order because my husband is off to Perth on Wednesday and he will be bringing back some fresh meat, including good sausages which are impossible to find here (YAH!)
After we purchased our items we went to the customer service desk to ask about home delivery. On the website it said same day delivery is available for purchases made before 2pm. I made sure we had checked out before 2pm and it was in fact 1:30pm when we made it to the customer service desk, but I was told that the orders had already gone for the day, so I was not very impressed. She told me they wouldn't be able to deliver it until Wednesday but I told her I wanted it delivered tomorrow especially because it said on their website that they would do same day delivery if purchased before 2pm. After a phone call she managed to confirm they could deliver it for us tomorrow, but we took the cold items with us then. It was at this point that Sean realised he didn't bring along my helmet for the bike and I even contemplated scraping the home delivery idea and just getting a taxi, but I am trying to be more stringent with our money these days so I decided we would keep the home delivery and I would make my way back on the free shuttle service bus. I don't see why I even have my own personal scooter chauffeur if he isn't even going to remember my helmet and chauffeur me home!

Happy Anniversary

2012-02-25T20:14:00.000-08:00

When it comes to marriage five years isn't really that long and the time goes so quickly. Yesterday was our fifth year wedding anniversary and although I can't believe we have been married for 5 years already, we have done so much in that time. Since we have married we have moved home and jobs numerous times, travelled around numerous countries, made many new friends and of course the big one, moved to Singapore. Last night to celebrate our anniversary, we didn't really have anything planned as we had just got back from our visit to KL so we decided to head down to one of our local restaurants within walking distance. This was our 2nd time to Lots Gourmet Stop and the food is always amazing each time we have been. I didn't take any photos this time but I plan to go back many times so I will write a separate review post soon. Last night we had an entree of bruschetta, which was so yummy and we each ordered pasta dishes, which were both beautiful and because it was our anniversary and we were still in holiday mode from coming back from our KL trip we treated our selves to Brownie Ala Mode (brownie with ice cream), which was so heavenly, the combination between the warm brownie and cold ice cream was superb. I also tried Italian soda for the first time and they were so good! I tried the peach lychee flavour and also a strawberry one and will definitely be trying the other flavours next time I'm there.

Seeing as I have no photos of our actual anniversary, here are some from our wedding day...

The photographer got this shot of me getting out of the car, very composed

Saying our vowels

Signing my life away :P

Me with my mummy and daddy :)

My favourite- running shot with the wedding party

I think I can put up with him for a few more years!

Kuala Lumpur visit

2012-02-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

The best thing about living in Singapore is being able to just pop over to any other Asian country for a few days. A few months back when my brother told me he would be stopping in Kuala Lumpur on his way back to Australia after a 3 week trip around Asia, we decided we would meet him there for a few days, because it is only 45 minutes away by plane and we managed to score $10 flights with Jetstar. We weren't too keen about heading to KL again because we have been there 3 times already when we travelled around Asia in 2010, but each time we have been there was for 1-2 day stopovers before heading onto another destination, so this was the first time KL was the destination and seeing as we are no longer poor backpackers anymore and we are now poor people with an income, we thought we could be a bit more touristy, stay in a better hotel and do more touristy things we never did on the other trips because we were trying to be frugal. Each time we have been we have stayed in cheap hotels, but this time we decided to stay a mid range hotel, the Swiss Inn, which had a pretty decent sized room, but not the best shower, but it did include buffet breakfast which was average to say the least, however for the price it was worth it.

Before we left we exchanged our Singapore dollars to Malaysian Ringgits at the airport and Sean accidentally worked out the exchange rate wrong, so for the whole trip we thought everything was so cheap and didn't realise until the end that we were actually paying almost double what we thought on most things! Oh well, it was nice to believe everything was ridiculously cheap for a while and it is definitely cheaper than Singapore anyway.

The first night we met up with my brother, Steve and his three mates he was travelling with at the Reggae Bar, which is located in Chinatown just down the road from where we were staying and is a very popular backpacker bar. After a few drinks we decided to head to Times Square mall for some shopping and because it has a theme park inside it. I was pretty excited about the theme park because I am a bit of a child when it comes to those kinds of things and my brother acts like a 2 year old pretty much all the time (he is a handful!). While Steve's friends went shopping, Sean, Steve and I went to the theme park. It was only RM38 (SGD15) and there were some pretty good rides for an indoor theme park including the awesome roller coaster. We spent about an hour and half going on all the rides and the only negative about the park was that they waited 10 minutes between each ride to start it probably because there weren't enough people there to fill up each ride. Here are a few photos, but the quality is not the best being they are from my iphone. We did buy a brand new camera duty free but it needed charging before we could use it.


The awesome roller coaster (it had 2 loops!)

That's my brother 26 going on 2

Guess who's idea this was? haha

Still not got our complete theme park fix, we decided to head to Sunway lagoon located about 20 minutes out of Kuala Lumpur the next day. This theme park has 5 parks in one. Sean and I caught the train directly there from Pasar Seni (Chinatown) to Kelana Jaya and then caught the U623 connecting bus to the Sunway Pyramid. At Sunway pyramid, not only is there the massive theme park, there is also a massive shopping mall and a massive resort. I must say that all the shopping malls we went to in KL were ten times better and bigger than any mall in Singapore and Singapore has some pretty good malls. We met my brother and his friends there and headed into the theme park. Seeing as we worked out the exchange rate wrong we thought it only cost SGD25 to get into all 5 parks but later realised it was actually SGD40 and probably wouldn't have gone if we knew it was this much. Sunway Lagoon was a huge disappointment for us but it may have just been because we coincidentally went on a day that the main attraction, the surf beach, was closed for a function. Saying that, we did find that after paying the entrance fee, we had to pay extra for many things once inside, including lockers, some of the attractions and as we weren't even allowed to bring your own bottle of water in, we were forced to buy it inside. None of the rides were near as good as the indoor theme park at Times Square and half of them were either closed for maintenance or closed for lunch time. This is one thing that annoys me greatly about Asia is how every thing stops for lunch here. Most business will be closed at lunch time here and that can be anytime from 11:30-2pm, so you really have to plan your day around these times. Needless to say, we only stayed at the theme park for about 2 hours before leaving because we were pretty angry most attractions were closed.

We were soon cheered though, because we headed to Bubba Gump's for lunch, which I had never heard of before but Steve had been to it in America and loved it. It is a restaurant based on the movie Forrest Gump and they specialise in shrimp (prawns to us Aussies). They have locations around the world, mainly in America, but some in Asia, including KL, Bali, Hong Kong and Japan. I ordered the Bubba Gump Sampler platter and we stuffed our faces with deep fried shrimp and some other Southern fare and it was all beautiful! I would definitely return for another feed :)

During our lunch a thunder storm was brewing and we ended up catching a taxi back in one of the worst storms I have seen while living in Asia (and there have been some bad ones!) When we got back to Chinatown the rain had cleared and Sean and I did a bit more shopping and this was when we discovered we had the exchange rate all wrong and the cheap bubble burst. That night we decided beers and food on the street were a better idea than the slightly more expensive Reggae Bar and also since we arrived in KL I was yet to have some local food. I mean we can get local food whenever we want in Singapore but I hate going to a different country and only eating western fare. So we sat on some plastic chairs in the middle of Chinatown, people watched and ordered some Spring rolls (the best spring rolls I have ever had have always been in KL), dumplings and a massive portion of pork noodle soup which was amazing and cheap.
We called it an early night and we bid farewell to Steve who was heading back to Aus the next day and we were heading back to Singapore.

It was so great to get out of Singapore for a few days on a little mini break and of course to see my brother. We plan to do a lot more little mini breaks in the next coming months. Unfortunately on this trip I didn't take many pictures because our new camera was charging but I promise to start taking more pictures and post them on here. Here is one last picture, they seem to be giving away free Sean's, lucky I already have one....

The Singapore Airshow

2012-02-15T03:34:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the airshow and it was AMAZING! It only comes around every two years here in Singapore and it is first opened for 3 trade days and then opened to the public on the weekend. We are so glad we got to go on a trade day, because I can imagine the weekend will be very crowded and it gave us the opportunity to look inside some of the planes that might otherwise been too crowded to look in on the public days. We made it just in time to see the airshow and watch the F-15 and F-16 perform, which were amazing. There was also Mig-29's and C-17's and it was such a great experience seeing them so close and listen to their loud engines. Check out the video.

The sun was out in force though and I soon started wishing I had brought my hat with me and although I put sunscreen on, I seem to have missed my nose and now look like Rudolf the reindeer. Outside there was a lot of planes on display, some of which you could go inside and have a poke around. We waited in the queue so Sean could get a chance to sit in the F-15.

My handsome pilot

We then wandered around in the blistering heat and went inside a few planes to get a better look.


Gulfstream G-150 cockpit

The back of the Hercules

Just on our private Global Express jet heading to Las Vegas

Boeing 787

Hercules

Inside the exhibition hall there were hundreds of displays from planes to weapons to engines and we spent a good time wandering around in the air con looking at them. There was plenty of eating stands but most of the food was expensive and mediocre to say the least. Any one heading to the airshow this weekend make sure to pile on the sunscreen and take it with you for reapplication, take a hat and wear something cool. Water is for sale all over for about $2. You will be sure to have a great time!

A place to call our own

2012-02-11T22:01:00.000-08:00

First of all, sorry it has been a while since I have written a blog post, but I have been a bit busy moving, FINALLY!

We have finally moved into our apartment and it is all ours and we couldn't be happier. It is so great to be able to walk around naked, use the kitchen whenever we want to, watch whatever on TV, it has been such a long time since Sean and I have lived on our own, about two and half years (and we have only been married five!). When we were packing up to move in here we couldn't believe how much we had already accumulated in the last 6 months of living here and silly me completely forgot to take a photo of it all! But we went from arriving with 2 suitcases in August last year to having about 10 boxes, 2 suitcases, 2 couches, a bed and 2 chest of drawers to move into our new apartment, so we hired removalists. Since we have been married we have moved house over 10 times due to Sean's career and never once have we hired removalists, so it was a relief to just sit back and have someone else do the heavy lifting. Also over the years because we have moved countless times we have spent loads of money on cheap furniture and homewares, only to sell them again in a garage sale or take them back to Salvo's, now because we know we will be here for at least 5 years we are finally buying furniture we like (still cheap of course :)). Luckily our place came partly furnished so we didn't have to buy a coffee table, TV cabinet, dining table straight up but we will most likely replace these eventually to match our new furniture. Little by little we plan to buy nice things for our new home and do minor renovations here and there. First on the top of the priority list is blinds for the living areas because in the morning it is unbearable to sit in the lounge because the sun comes right in and heats the place up and blackout curtains for the bedroom because the current curtains are so thin, light seeks it way through and I find it difficult to sleep unless I have something covering my eyes! I haven't taken any photos just yet because I want to wait until it looks more like our home as right now it is still very bare, but I will post them on here when I do.

I smile everyday because I love this place so much, not just the apartment itself but about 100 metres down the road we have a few little restaurants (two of which we have tried and love) and little mini-marts to get any small groceries and we also have a fantastic pool and there is hardly anyone ever using it so it is always so peaceful plus a gym, tennis court, squash court etc. Although we are quite far from the city, there is a shuttle bus that takes us directly from here to the closest MRT station and then its just a train ride away. Everything is starting to feel settled now, I feel like we have been constantly living in limbo waiting to settle down and finally we are and I could get used to this....

Coconut, pool, book- can't complain :)

It only took 6 months...

2012-01-31T05:58:00.000-08:00

It only to took 6 months for us to have our first traffic accident in Singapore, don't worry it wasn't on the scooter (Sean is a very good driver!), but in a taxi (taxi driver's here are mental) and it really wasn't at all bad as you can see from the picture.

Just a tiny scrape

Honestly I hardly noticed, I was looking at my phone and then looked out the window and noticed this car was really close and then I heard a little scraping sound, nothing major. Sean and I had no idea how long they were going to exchanging particulars so we jumped out, tried to pay the guy but he just let us go for free! So we got a free taxi half way to our desitination and conveniently for us he crashed right outside the MRT and we were able to get the train the rest of the way. Hopefully our first and last accident in Singapore.

It only took 6 months to move into our new apartment and finally start settling down. That's right, we move in next Monday to our very own apartment, one month before we were scheduled to move in because our tenants are breaking their lease and moving out and we couldn't be any happier! Finally a place to call our own after 2 and half years living with other people. Once we are all settled in I will post some more photos :)

Who wants to be a TV star?

2012-01-24T03:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of blog posts since the new year. Honestly, I have done nothing interesting. The most interesting thing to happen to me so far this year was that I was contacted by a producer for a television show called House Hunter's International after she stumbled across my blog looking for expats to appear in their show looking for homes. You can check out some past episodes here, here, here, here and here. She wanted to include us in a new episode for Singapore about us finding our home over here. Although I told her that we already purchased our property, she said they sometimes reenact the house hunting process. Unfortunately, Sean's work contract wouldn't really allow him to be on a TV show, so I respectfully declined. However I did tell her I would put the word out to all you Singapore expats or about to be expats who are looking for a home in Singapore whether it be to buy or to rent or even if you are renting or have already bought and you would be interested in being in the show they can reenact the process of you finding your ideal apartment. I know there are some great house hunting stories in Singapore from other expats because the process over here is so different to our home countries.

So who wants to be a TV star?? Send me an email : beclowe87@gmail.com and I will pass on your info to the Producer.

Happy New Year! Do you have any resolutions?

2011-12-30T18:10:00.000-08:00

Well, it's the last day of 2011 and it has certainly been quite a big year for us. It has probably not been our most favourite year. 2010 was definitely one of the best years for us because we travelled for the whole year! But 2011 has been one of uncertainty and trying to get our lives back in order. We spent the first 8 months of the year living with my parents, who I love and am so glad they took us in for that long, but 8 months is a long time to be living with your parents after years of living away. There was also a lot of uncertainty for Sean's future career and that caused us (mainly me, because I'm a 'worrier') a lot of stress. There's also been a lot of waiting, like waiting to move to Singapore and waiting to move into our own place. But then again there have been some great moments in 2011, like the obvious one, we moved to Singapore and have met so many new friends and we bought our own apartment here. Our lives are finally coming together.

So what will 2012 bring for us? Well, we will finally be moving into our own place come March and that will be the biggest thing. It has been about 2 and half years since we have lived on our own. If we haven't been travelling we have been renting a room to save money and now finally we will have our own space again. I seriously cannot express how much I am looking forward to having my own place. I can walk around naked, watch TV whenever I want, do laundry when I need to and have the whole kitchen to myself! It will be amazing and we will finally be able to start settling into our new lives in Singapore.

I have a few personal resolutions for 2012:

1. Spend less time on the computer and inside the house and more time outdoors or more time at the library.
2. Figure out what I want to do in life, whether that involves studying I am not too sure just yet.
3. Continue to eat and live a Paleo lifestyle as much as possible. I should elaborate a bit on this one. I have been eating 'Paleo' for the last two months, which is basically eating meat and vegetables, few fruits, nuts and seeds and avoiding all sugar, grains and processed foods. Or simply eating the way caveman did and the way I believe our bodies were designed to eat. I am kinda obsessed with nutrition and like to eat as healthy as possible so living this way suits me.
4. TRAVEL more, as cheaply as possible of course.

Who knows if I will stick to them, but I haven't made any that are extremely difficult to stick to.

For me New Year's Eve is a little overrated. Every time I plan to do something, it ends up turning out disappointing, so this year we have no plans for tonight. We might just watch a movie and then maybe wander to the East Coast Park and see if we can see any fireworks, but I refuse to go anywhere where we'll be forced to catch a taxi home!

So what are your new years resolutions? Will you do anything different in 2012?

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me!

2011-12-23T18:40:00.000-08:00

It was my birthday yesterday, another year older, but this year was a little different as I celebrated it in Singapore! This isn't my first birthday away from Australia, in fact I have had many birthdays abroad, but it was my first birthday in Singapore and I'm sure there will be many more to come. My birthday is usually forgotten, with it being 2 days before Christmas, most people have Christmas celebrations on their mind and every year of my life I have had to deal with the 'this present is for your birthday and Christmas' grrr. If my birthday was in any other month, I would have a seperate present!!! Anyway this year, I didn't really receive many presents (which doesn't bother me at all!) except a few from my best friend Sash (Thanks Sash) and of course my husband. I spent the whole day with my husband and we went for lunch at a place called Hot Stones in Clarke Quay. I kinda love restaurants where you are served the food raw and then cook it in front of you, like steamboat. At Hot Stones they bring out a really hot stone along with your chosen meat, I chose salmon and Sean chose Sirloin, and then you just place it on the stone and let it cook to your desire. We ordered the lunch specials and our meats came with a serve of wedges and a small side salad and I also ordered an extra order of sauteed vegetables.

Our meats on the hot stones

2 servings of wedges

Side Salad

Sauteed Vegetables

Overall it was a pretty good meal. Such simple food, but I think what makes this restaurant is just the novelty of the hot stone.
That night, Sean told me he had a surprise and that I was to dress up but we weren't going for dinner. So after having some dinner at home, we set off to the Marina Bay Sands (MBS). In the taxi, I was trying to figure out what we could be going to do at MBS. The thought did cross my mind that we might be going to see Wicked, The Musical, which I knew was playing at MBS. And that was exactly what we were doing. What an awesome birthday present! Thank you Sean! Even though musicals aren't really his thing, he sat through the whole thing for my birthday and it really was a fantastic show.

I had a pretty good birthday in Singapore and now gearing up for our first Christmas in Singapore! I am spending the day baking treats to take with us to our friend, Laurel's house tomorrow who has invited us over to enjoy a combined Australian/American Christmas. Looking forward to it :)

My best friend comes to Singapore

2011-12-22T05:09:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, my best friend Sasha came to visit me in Singapore and became our first official visit since we moved here. Seeing as though we still have not moved into our own apartment, we decided we would stay in a hotel for a week and we would have a bit of a staycation. Before Sash came over I asked her what sort of things she wanted to do and she said anything to do with animals. Sash is a Veterinarian and loves animals, so a visit to the zoo, night safari and bird park were a must. Just so we weren't in the city for the whole week I also decided we would spend a night over on Pulau Ubin, where I knew we would also spot some local wildlife. Fresh off the plane, seeing as she was upgraded to business class, we had some breakfast and then headed for Changi Village Ferry Terminal to catch the bumboat over to Pulau Ubin. You can read all about getting there on my previous post here. We stayed at the only resort the island has, The Celestial Resort. After checking in, we hired some bikes from the hotel for $10 each (they are cheaper from the town centre). Our goal for the day was to find some wild hornbills as I have seen them there before. Sasha LOVES birds and I am petrified of them, but hey it was her holiday. As we tried to navigate the roads and control our bikes we craned our necks searching for the hornbills, but we were having no luck.

We decided to stop for some lunch in the mainstrip at one of the various seafood restaurants. We ordered some squid and some vegetables, both were amazing.

Before we headed back to the hotel, I took Sash to see one of the beautiful quarries and while we were taking some photos two creatures leapt into the water for a swim.

We think they are wild otters, what do you think?

Back at the resort and heading back to the room Sasha was just telling me how disappointed she was we did not see any hornbills, when she stopped mid conversation suddenly and pointed. Low and behold, well up in the trees, were about 20 hornbills, JACKPOT! We snapped photos and watched them play and feed one another and slowly my fear of birds began to slip away.

They don't look so scary when they are feeding each other

We spent a lovely night at the Celestial Resort and waking up to the sounds of birds was wonderful after months of living in an apartment. However, if you decide to stay at this hotel, I strongly recommend NOT eating at the restaurant. We had dinner there which was quite bland and our included breakfast was atrocious consisting of some kind of processed sausage meat thing, processed cheese, cold baked beans, fried eggs and toast. YUCK.

Back on mainland Singapore we checked into our hotel, The Albert Court Village hotel located in the heart of Little India. I then took Sash to my favourite place in Singapore, Mustafas and I believe she was impressed. After that we headed to Bugis Junction for some cheap market shopping.

Sash reckons this was the best curry puff ever!

We decided that night we would venture to the Night Safari to check out all the nocturnal creatures. We arrived just in time for the Creatures of the Night show, which was fantastic to see some of the animals perform up close and personal. Rather than fight the crowds onto the tram, we chose to walk the tracks and take the tram at the end. There are a few different trails and it is laid out well so they all join up. Sasha introduced me to her favourite animal, the binturong, a type of civet, which soon became my favourite too. We also saw otters, loads of mouse deer, hyenas, wolves, raccoons, rhinos and loads more nightly creatures. After abusing our feet, we were exhausted and jumped on the tram at about 11:30pm which basically took us around and showed us everything we had seen on foot but from a different perspective and with commentary. Overall it was a great experience and one I’d happily re-do.

Binturongs

The next day we had a sleep in, after getting home so late from the Night Safari and decided we would tackle the Jurong Bird Park. This I was least looking forward to. See, I have had a massive fear of birds ever since I watched the movie ‘Birds’ when I was about 10 years old, but Sasha loves birds, in fact they are her favorite types of animals, so I decided to put on a brave face and get over it!

Do I look brave?

We had a buffet lunch and watched a parrot show while we were eating. I was actually very surprised at how interesting birds are to watch, especially when they are interacting with one another. The bird park only took us half the day, but we still managed to wear our feet out some more.

That night we chose to go for steamboat for dinner. I was unsure where the best place would be to go so we just decided we would walk along Orchard Rd and see what we could find. We found Coca Restaurant and although it looked a bit fancy we decided to treat ourselves to the all-you-can-eat steamboat and I am glad we did, because it was amazing. In case you don't know what steamboat is, I'll explain. Basically you choose a soup base, spicy or non spicy and then it is placed on a burner in the middle of the table. Then you can choose what you would like beef, chicken, seafood, pork, vegetables, tofu, rice, noodles, fishballs, meatballs etc and it is all delivered to the table raw. Then you just chuck whatever you want into the soup and let it cook, some things don't take long to cook at all and other you might leave in for a bit longer. It is such a simple idea and so tasty and so much fun to cook your own food sitting down!

Love it.

We were stuffed after dinner but walked it all off with some shopping along Orchard Rd.

No rest for the wicked, though, because the next day we took the bull by the horns and continued onto our last animal adventure, the Singapore Zoo. Sasha’s goal was to see a jaguar, the one animal she has never seen in real life and my goal was to check out most of the monkeys. We were lucky enough to catch the jaguar feeding and watched as raw steaks were thrown into their enclosure, most of which ended up in the water and they were only too happy to swim down to retrieve their meal. We also spent a large amount of time watching the baboons acting very human like, but my favourite animal had to be the chimpanzees. They had a little mind challenge activity set up for the chimpanzees where they had to use a stick to poke through holes in a box to get pieces of fruit from one end of the box to the other where they could retrieve it. It was fun to watch them sharpen their sticks or decide they need to find a better one or watch the younger ones steal the fruit from the older one who spent all the time retrieving it. I was fascinated by their human like features and it makes you truly believe in evolution.

Jaguar

Zebras

Tortoise

I was excited to see the zoo seemed to be expanding to include Polar Bears, so I will be sure to revisit when they arrive.

If you are interested in checking out all the animals Singapore has to offer, why not do what we did and get a Park Hopper 3-in-1 Pass. You can check out all the information on the Singapore Zoo website: http://www.zoo.com.sg/.

On Sasha's last day in Singapore we had a leisurely lunch at a restaurant called Astons located at the airport, but they have a few locations in Singapore. They do steak at really reasonable prices and the best thing is they do not charge any service charge or GST, a rarity in Singapore.

It was sad to say goodbye to my bestie, because it was so lovely to have her here, not just to do all the fun things but to talk to her about everything bestfriends talk about.
Meanwhile, if you want to read a condensed version of this post, check it out here on the notatourist site.
Also, it's my birthday tomorrow, yah!! Just had to throw that one out there :)

Our new addition

2011-12-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I left you all hanging there for a few days... questioning is she pregnant? Did she get a pet? Or maybe you just didn't care...

But for those who do, this is our new addition to the family...

Our Scooter!

Maybe not as exciting as a pregnancy or pet, but pretty exciting for us. It is so great to have the freedom of having our own transport. I don't mind catching the MRT's because they are so efficient but both Sean and I have such bad luck with buses we have come to despise them greatly. Every time we go to catch a bus, we ended up just missing it and have to wait the 12-16 minutes for the next one and then when we get on, it stops at every stop and a journey that would take 5-10 minutes on our new scooter ends up taking an hour by bus!

So we are very happy to have purchased a scooter. The COE (Certificate of Entitlement) on a scooter is so much cheaper than that of a car and you can buy secondhand scooters, which I believe you can not do with cars. Even though I cannot not ride it, I am planning to start lessons sometime next year and if I feel comfortable controlling a scooter I will drive it out in the crazy city of Singapore (they're really not good drivers over here, no offence!).

But for now, I am happy enough to be a passenger!

Singapore honesty

2011-12-13T05:21:00.000-08:00

Living in Singapore certainly has it's advantages. Last week, my best friend, Sasha came to stay (I will write a blog post soon about her visit), so we spent the week together at a hotel, while Sean had to stay home and fend for himself! I think I have looked after him too much, because although he was still able to cook his own meals, he still sent me a message when he was out complaining that he needed me with him to provide him with tissues and water. We met up for dinner one night and after a few drinks, we sent him home in a taxi by himself. The next morning I wake up at the hotel to find a message on my phone from him sent from Skype informing me he had left his phone in a taxi. Immediately I thought "Oh great, he can't even get home without me trailing behind him making sure he doesn't forget anything and now we'll have to go buy him a new phone." But low and behold, straight after I thought this, another message comes through on my phone from the taxi driver who found his phone wanting to return it! Talk about honesty, I mean he doesn't exactly have an all to flash phone, but I believe if this happened in Australia or England chances are he wouldn't be getting his phone back. :)

Watch this space for some more blog posts in the next couple of days. A little about my staycation in Singapore and about our pretty new addition to the family ( hehe I'll let you try and figure that one out!) Stay tuned :P

I'm not a Tourist because...

2011-11-29T23:55:00.000-08:00

I'm not a Tourist because I know where to get the greatest bargains at any time of the day.

Are you an expat in Singapore? Why are you not a Tourist? Maybe because when you're speaking you've started to add 'lah' at the end of each sentence. Or instead of saying 'yes', you reply 'can'. Maybe because you know where to find all the best food in Singapore, and it is not in any of the fancy restaurants along Clarke Quay. Or perhaps because when you see a queue you feel the need to join the end because of kiasu (hokkein for 'fear of losing' or 'fear of missing out'). Whatever the reason may be, you are not a tourist in Singapore.

Last night was the official launch for the notatourist.sg site and as a contributor to the site, I was invited along to the launch party which was held at TAB bar on Orchard Rd. When I was walking up to the bar I was surprised to see a screen flashing with images of fellow bloggers and my very own portrait outside the bar.

If you can't tell that's a photo of me on that TV screen located on Orchard Rd!!

My 15 seconds of fame were far from over, when I walked into the bar the canvas print portraits lined the hallway.

That's me standing next to me!

It was all very exciting! We were treated to local foods and drinks while we watched a Panel Discussion hosted by Tara Rushton interviewing local celebrities and expats about what it's like to be notatourist in Singapore. The night was a success and was made even better when we were told we were allowed to take our own portraits home with us.

If you are an expat in Singapore or just after information about what its like to live here, check out www.notatourist.sg. It contains articles from expats living in Singapore about their first hand experiences.

While I am certainly not a tourist in Singapore, I will be next week. My best friend is coming to stay and as we don't yet have our own apartment, her and I are going to stay in a hotel together and do touristy things. Because sometimes it doesn't hurt to be a tourist in the city you live in!

Bah, I'm a sheep.

2011-11-25T18:53:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right I'm a follower aka sheep or should I say Tweet Tweet, because I finally set up my own Twitter account and followed the crowd.

If you have twitter and would like to follow me, here is the link: http://twitter.com/#!/expatbec

Never judge a dish by it's name

2011-11-24T05:14:00.000-08:00

If you were wandering the streets in Singapore looking for a place to eat and you saw the sign at this restaurant.....

Claypot Live Frog

You probably wouldn't go in, right? Well I know I wouldn't. Perhaps if you are Singaporean you might be in the know and probably head in to enjoy some frog...

Well, last night I was given the opportunity to give this place a try and a few others when I was invited by Singtel and Notatourist.sg to go on the Makansutra Food Tour. Our tour guide was KF Seetoh who is famous for his knowledge of Singaporean foods and appeared on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain.

During our tour we stopped at four different eating establishments, hawker centers and restaurants, to experience some true Singaporean foods.

First stop was to the Katong area to Mr Teh Tarik Eating House where we watched as a dish called Putu Piring was prepared. Putu Piring is made from Tapioca flour and filled with palm sugar, steamed in a little cone shaped container with some pandan leaf to add flavour and then topped with shaved coconut.

Hard at work

My Putu Piring

To be honest, I only took a small bite of this and it wasn't to my liking, so I just demolished the coconut around it instead! Perhaps there is a certain way to eat this little delicacy to enjoy it fully.

On to the 2nd stop was to Geylang, Lorong 27 to precise, where we sampled a range of dishes from mutton curry to a cabbage and tofu curry, all of which were amazing but the most notable and surprisingly my favourite of the whole night was the black pepper squid, which was really really tasty!

The black pepper squid is the two front dishes

At this point I must commend myself on my self control as I managed to only sample each dish and not overindulge as I knew more was to come at the next stop.

Which brings us back to the live frog, our 3rd stop to the Claypot Live frog restaurant. Like I said, if it wasn't for this tour I would not have entered this restaurant but I have to tell you I was pleasantly surprised and would most certainly return, maybe when I have visitors to give them a real taste of Asia! Our first dish here was Frog porridge and the frog itself tasted just like chicken, who knew? I have tried frog legs before when I was in Laos, but they were very salty. However this dish was cooked in a tasty sauce, which made it pretty good as long as you can get over the fact that you are putting frog into your mouth!

Can't even tell it's frog!

Next dish up was Shark head curry and again I was surprised at how tasty this was. The shark itself was quite gelatinous but the curry it was in was devine.

Better me eat him, than he eat me!

Lastly we had crab wrapped in glass noodles. I bypassed the noodles and went straight for the tender crab meat, with some difficulty as you do with crab. KF Seetoh told us that when it comes to crab, there are no table manners and you just need to get your hands dirty. So we did and it was gorgeous, I love crab meat, but hate the effort of eating it!

This photo doesn't do him justice, he was HUGE!

Last but not least, we were back on the bus to Makansutra's own food court, Glutton's Bay at Esplanade for dessert. Here we were served Kaya (jam) toast and Banana fritters. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos and I cannot comment on this dessert as I didn't try it. I don't eat bread and I don't really do deep fried banana, so I left the eating to my companions who all seemed to enjoy it.

Not only did I get to try some new food I would never have dreamt of ordering myself, I had a great night and also met a lot of great people.

Just some of my new friends! Photo by Myra (check out her blog)

Also, please check out www.notatourist.sg, which just launched and even better you can check out my own profile page on Notatourist by clicking here.

We've moved again!

2011-11-14T04:11:00.000-08:00

We have moved AGAIN!! And this is not our final move, oh no, one more to go in March to our own apartment. But for now, we moved in with one of Sean's friends as his place is closer to Sean's work and it is in a Condo, so we are finally living the expat condo life! Still haven't tried the pool or the gym yet, but glad to have them! Sean and I are pro's at moving. We have been together nearly 6 years (married for nearly 5) and within that time we have moved 13 times and during that time spent a lot of money on new furniture, removals, boxes, appliances, kitchen stuff etc. Moving doesn't come cheap, so I am not sure why we do it all the time. The good news is, once we move into our very own apartment in March we'll be there for at least 5 years. And seeing as within 3 months of being in Singapore we have accumulated so many more items, I can't imagine how much stuff we'll have when we move again and I really don't want to think about it! Here's a picture for you of what we had before we left:

2 suitcases, laptop bag and a carry on

Now we have this (sorry not the best photo):

2 suitcases, a box full of kitchen stuff, my grandma trolley, guitar, laundry basket and about 10 shopping bags!

We bought a new bed and a chest of drawers for our new room, so we'll definately have to hire a removalists or a van for the next move!

Desaru, Malaysia

2011-11-07T04:12:00.000-08:00

So, I should have written about this last week, but I think I was suffering from holiday withdrawal or should I say short getaway withdrawal. Last week, my husband was rostered off and we decided to take the opportunity to do our first little getaway trip since we have been in Singapore. There are so many places to choose from that are within a couple of hours from Singapore and perfect for a mini holiday. After doing some research about Batam Island, Bintan Island and Melaka, I remembered a blog post I read before I came over here about a resort in Desaru, Malaysia written by fellow blogger orangefoamfinger. So after doing some more research I found the Lotus Desaru Resort for a good price through agoda.com. We decided to go for 2 nights and it was perfect, minus the rain. Getting there was pretty easy. A ferry used to depart from Changi Ferry Terminal to Desaru and then a further 50 minute land transfer was required, however I found out the day before that the ferries were no longer running. So we did the next best thing and caught a bus and a taxi. We made our way over to Malaysia using Bus 170 all the way to Larkin Terminal in Johor Bahru. From there, there are 3 options. You can either catch bus 227 or bus 41, both local buses, which go to Kota Tinggi and then catch another bus to Bandar Penawar (where the resorts are) or a taxi for about 40 Malaysian Ringgits (SGD$16) or if one is available you can book the Maraliner which runs 4 times a day direct to Bandar Penawar. We ended up getting on Bus 227 which cost 5.50 ringgit each and then from Kota Tinggi we bartered for a taxi direct to the resort. We arrived in the afternoon when the sun was still shining, checked in, went to have some lunch at the restaurant which does buffet or ala carte and then headed to the pool. The resort is on the beach and in the evenings we had drinks at the bar overlooking the water. Buffet Breakfast was included and we overindulged, as you do when faced with a buffet. There were three pools, one of which has a mini water park, but it is more targeted towards children. Here are a few pics from our stay:

Our one bedroom suite- the bedroom is up the stairs

Our bedroom upstairs

One of the pools

The Beach

Our evening entertainment- a squirrel getting a drink from the tap

Beers & cocktails

I would definately go back here, it was so relaxing, but there are so many places around Singapore to choose from so we'll probably end up somewhere different for our next short getaway.

Random Dogs

2011-10-31T05:35:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you'll know I LOVE dogs! We had to leave our own dog, Shrek, back in Australia with my parents and I miss him so much. But to get my dog pats and cuddle fix, I volunteer at the SPCA. Meanwhile, every time we see a stray dog, I'll usually stop what I'm saying to point and say "How cute" and if I have my camera with me, I'll snap a pic. I even make up names for them sometimes. So here is all the pictures of some random dogs I have come along during my travels throughout the years....

NOTE: All these random stray dogs were pictured in Asia, because there are so many stray dogs here.

Bali 2009:


Bali 2009


Bali 2009- this little fella was so scrawny he followed us home at 1am in the morning and we looked everywhere for a shop so we could buy him food, but nothing was open!

Vietnam 2010:

Most dogs in Vietnam are usually named Lucky. I don't like to think why, but I can guess.

Mekong Delta, Vietnam 2010

'Lucky' at a Restaurant greeting customers on the way to the bathroom, Mui Ne, Vietnam 2010

'Lucky' at a bar in Hoi An, Vietnam 2010

Another 'Lucky' with Andy at a hostel in Ninh Binh, Vietnam 2010

Thailand 2010:

This has got to be the best: 2 dogs on one scooter, Chiang Mai, Thailand 2010

Pai, Thailand 2010

Laos 2010:

Vang Vieng, Laos 2010

Don Dhet, Laos 2010

"What are you doing to me?" Don Dhet, Laos 2010

Cambodia 2010:

'Nung' or as we liked to call her 'Old Lady', the hostel dog in Kep, Cambodia 2010

The next few dogs I named myself

'Baby Dingo' on Rabbit Island, Cambodia 2010

Just chillaxing on Rabbit Island, Cambodia 2010

"Thanks Cat", on Rabbit Island, Cambodia 2010

'Big Boy' on Rabbit Island, Cambodia 2010

At the back 'Timmy', named cos she was so timid and at the front is Missy, named cos she was so mischievous, on Rabbit Island, Cambodia 2010

'Dingo' well cos he looks like one, on Rabbit Island, Cambodia 2010

The gang hanging out with Cat on Rabbit Island, Cambodia 2010

Singapore 2011:

Pulau Ubin, Singapore 2011

Our dogs:

Last but not least I thought I should include some pictures of non-random dogs because I didn't want them to feel left out.


Sean's family dog, 'Amber' with my stuffed dog 'Barry' in Barnsley, England 2010

And as it is Halloween after all, dogs in costume:

'Shrek' trying to be well Shrek from the movies in Hervey Bay, Australia 2008

This is our first puppy dog, 'Jazz' dressed up as Jazz Potter in Hervey Bay, Australia 2008 (We miss you Jazzy R.I.P.)

Happy Halloween!!

Bike riding on Pulau Ubin

2011-10-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Pulau Ubin, an island to the North East coast of Singapore but still apart of Singapore. You may have read my blog post here about Kayaking to Pulau Ubin when we first arrived in Singapore and ever since then we wanted to get back over to go bike riding. Getting over there was easy. All you have to do is head to Changi Point Ferry Terminal and like we were get ushered onto a bumboat. They usually wait until they have 12 passengers before heading over. Lucky for us we were the last two they needed and after collecting the fares we were on our way. The boat was $2.50 each and an extra $2 if you are going to bring your own bike over and the best thing is the boat only took 10 minutes to get over there.

As soon as we got over we headed to a restaurant for some food before we hired a bike. Fueled up from our lunch we were ready to get going. There are so many bike hire places to choose from, but most seem to be about the same price. We got our bikes for $5 each, but you can hire better ones for about $8.

We stuck to the Blue trail, but if you are a bit more experienced rider there are Black Diamond trail and Double Black Diamond trails. Here's what we saw along the way.

Drink Stall

Gorgeous puppy dog

Quarry- so wanted to go swimming in it!

We headed to the bike park and Sean attempted the see-saw. This is a video of him finally getting it on his 6th attempt....

Unfortunately our day was cut short by the weather. It started raining so hard we had to stop for a drink la

After realising the rain was not going to stop anytime soon, we decided to head back home on the ferry. Even though our day was cut short, we had so much fun. Pulau Ubin is very far removed from modern Singapore city and reminds me of a lot of the small Asian villages we travelled to last year in Cambodia and Laos. We will definately be heading back soon!

Missing...

2011-10-25T06:15:00.000-07:00

There are very few things I miss so far as Singapore does seem to have everything but I thought I would list the few that I am beginning to miss.

1. Car: I don't particularly miss driving and it is so easy to get around here on the MRT's, but I miss having a car when I go to the supermarket. I always have to watch I don't buy anything big because I don't want want to cart it on the MRT. It would be nice to load up my trolley cart and take it straight to the car. This is the only reason I miss having a car and this will be resolved slightly when we move to our new place, because we can have our groceries delivered. On another note, Sean is planning on buying a motorcycle because they are so much cheaper, however it will take 5 months or more for him to get his motorcycle license!

2. Friends: Well this is a given, of course I miss my friends, but I knew I'd miss them and a few are already lined up to visit in the following months. And I am making wonderful new friends over here all at the same time!

3. Good Sausages and Steak for a reasonable price: this speaks for itself. I certainly took for granted how cheap sausages are in Aus but if you want to buy them here they are double the price, sigh, as is steak, I think it is better/maybe a little cheaper to just go out and have a good steak at Jack's Place Steakhouse.

4. Blonde Toner: I have just started dying my hair back to blonde (I know I can never make up my mind) and I can't seem to find any blonde toner to keep it from turning brassy. If anyone in Singapore knows please inform me and if not Sasha if you are reading this, please bring me some from Australia when you come over in December!!

5. Paper bags: ok where the hell do I find paper bags in Singapore? They are not in the section with the gladwrap and foil. Mind you, I haven't checked Mustafas yet. I bought raw pop corn and I want to make it!!

This is it so far and they are very minor things. I am sure as the years pass there will be a few other things to add to this list, but for now I am pretty content.

Shopping in Johor Bahru

2011-10-13T05:54:00.000-07:00

So, what did you do today? Did anyone go shopping? I bet most of you didn't go to a different country. For the day. To go shopping. Right? Well, guess what? I DID!!

Along with 6 other beautiful ladies, I headed over the border and went shopping for the day in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Thanks to Leone Fabre, who organised the day and showed us all how to get over to Malaysia hassle free. And it really was so easy and quick to get over there. I'm not going to write a full explanation on how to get over to Johor Bahru because Leone has already written a fantastic informative blog post all about it, which you can read for yourself here.

Now, you might be thinking, why did we go all the way to Malaysia just to go shopping when Singapore has so many shopping malls. Well, besides the fact it was a fun day out/adventure with the girls, it is also cheaper over in Malaysia. Not crazy cheap like Thailand or Vietnam but cheaper than Singapore. And well if you know me, you'll know that I am tight/skint/pennypincher, whatever you want to call it, I love a bargain!

So if you live in Singapore and you have a spare day head over to Johor Bahru to do some cheap shopping and invite me because I can't wait to go back!!

After a long day shopping (Thanks Leone for the picture)

Volunteering at the SPCA

2011-10-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

In between doing my housewifely chores (cleaning, cooking and laundry), I've been trying to keep busy with other hobbies and interests. So I recently just started volunteering at the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), because,well I really love dogs and because it makes me feel good helping to make their stay in the animal shelter a comfortable one.There are also cats, rabbits and guinea pigs and you can choose to volunteer in the cat section or the dog section, but really once you are there you can help out in both. And it's not easy work, especially in the mornings. Lucky I don't have a weak stomach because it is dirty work cleaning out the kennels and there are A LOT of kennels. But it is worth it in the end when you just get to hang out with the puppies and dogs. There are always a lot of volunteers there and they recently just posted on their Facebook page, that due to the overwhelming number of volunteer applications, they are not accepting any new volunteers until places are made available. But if you do just want to come and meet some of the dogs or cats without all the dirty work, the shelter is open to the public Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat - 10.00am to 4.00pm and Sun, Public Holidays (PH) - 11.00am to 3.30pm. Here are some of the doggies you may get to meet (sorry there are no pictures of cats)

Athena

Cinnamon & Chiffon

Ida

Gus

They are just way too cute!! If you are interested in adopting check out the adoption gallery here. I'm still trying to convince my husband that when we move into our very own place, we should adopt a dog. I think if I bring him down to the shelter one day, he won't be able to say no :-P

We found a place to live!!

2011-10-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well, if you read my blog, you'll know that we still have not found a place to live yet and are currently renting a room temporarily. Also, if you read it, you'll know we were looking to rent a HDB apartment because we cannot afford to rent a condominium. And well if you don't read my blog, I guess I just told you anyway! However, after doing some research into properties over here and finding out how low the interest rates are, we realised if we bought an apartment/condo our repayments on a mortgage would be far less than paying rent on a small HDB apartment. We also have always hated paying rent, why pay someone elses mortgage off when you can pay off your own? We would have loved to buy a HDB over here because you can purchase some really nicely renovated ones for reasonable prices (and by reasonable, I mean reasonable by Singapore standards), but unfortunately as we are foreigners and not Permanent Residents (PR's) or Singaporeans we are only entitled to buy condominiums. Also as a foreigner banks will only lend 80% of the purchase price, thus you have to come up with the remaining 20% as a deposit. We presume this prevents a lot of foreigners from just coming over here and buying investment properties with the low interest rates and high rents. So, after researching all this and doing the math, we thought if we can get approved for a loan and find a nice condo, all would be well. Of course, there is the fact, we would need a 20% deposit cash to start off with and when looking at property prices in the area we want to live in between $600k-$800k, 20% of that is a hell of a lot of money!
However, we had just sold a property in the UK (where my husband is from) and luckily this just made up enough for a 20% deposit. We were well on our way and after putting in a few loan applications we were pretty certain we would be approved (and we were) and went out looking for the perfect property. Luckily, the area we want to buy in (Changi) is by no means a highly sought after area as it is not close to the city, so for Singapore standards prices are relatively low. We originally started looking at one bedrooms, but quickly decided a two bedroom would be better. Even though it is more expensive, we could rent out an extra room if needed, have the extra room for guests and well don't tell the husband but we may need the extra room for a baby one day. So after looking at countless apartments and even putting an offer on two, and being rejected by both (Owners can be a bit greedy over here), we finally found the perfect place. When we first went to view it, it had only been on the market for 3 days, but we fell in love with it and wanted to put in an offer straight away. Luckily, we have an awesome agent, who advised us to wait it out at least for a week. If we were to put in an offer straight away, the owners most likely would have thought they underpriced it and become greedy. After a long week, where Sean and I thought we should give up on it, because it was too good to be true and at the top of our budget, our agent called and said she put in the offer and it was accepted and all the paperwork was being drawn up to sign. RELIEF!! There was only one thing and that is it is tenanted and the Tenancy Agreement does not expire until March 2012, but we like this place so much it is worth the wait. So we have found a place to live and better yet it will be our own home. We can hammer nails in the walls, paint it a different colour, renovate it and no one can stop us, because it is our place! Here are a few pics... Please ignore all the tenant's stuff, but most of the furniture will be staying, and I will post more pics once we move in in March 2012.

Entry, lounge is immediately to the left and dining room to the right, kitchen is just past dining room on right and bedrooms are if you turn left at the end of the hall!

Lounge (sofas are included!)


Dining room (dining table is staying)

Kitchen

Our ensuite is huge

Master bedroom (you can kinda see the pool from the window)

Our pool

Gym

Tennis courts

The apartment is two bedrooms, two bathrooms, seperate dining and has a little balcony for the washing and is 1012 square feet. The condo complex has a pool, kiddie pool, gym, tennis courts, vending machines, fussball, table tennis, pool table, sauna, squash courts, BBQ area.... and probably more I have not yet discovered! We are so excited and can't wait to move in, too bad we have to wait until March, but it will most certainly be worth the wait and we will appreciate it a lot more. So for everyone back home reading this, after March you have a place to stay in Singapore and for everyone in Singapore, get ready for a massive house warming party!!

Treasure the BREAST things in life!

2011-10-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

So the day finally arrived for the Pink Ribbon Walk to support and raise awareness for the Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF). I organised a group of 31, The Pink Globetrotters, to participate in the walk and what a success! If you want to read about when I first started organising the group you can here.

Some of the group! Photo by Leone Fabre and check out her blog

Along with over 5000 other participant we embarked in a sea of pink to walk 3.8km around Marina Bay. It may not sound like a long walk but it took a long time trailing behind a crowd of other participants! Before the walk began there was a carnival and many stalls were set up selling food, face painting and a stall to get a health check.

There was even Star Wars space troopers!


I don't really know there significance to the BCF but I think they were there to fight breast cancer cells!

Just before we began the walk we all participated in the Mass Pink Glove Dance. This dance was created by medical staff in the US to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. Check out the link here and watch the video . Disposable pink gloves were being given out and we all rocked out for 5 minutes before the walk.

Rocking the Pink Gloves

And then we were off, slowly but surely!

It was such a great afternoon, with great people all there supporting a fantastic cause! After the long walk, we walked another 1.5km to have dinner at Riverwalk Tandoor and we most certainly deserved it. We all had the buffet and with a selection of Indian curries along with Indian desserts we left very satisfied.

Riverwalk Tandoor dinner. Photo By Leone

If you can spot me, I was completely unaware this photo was being taken because I was too busy chowing down the food!

Thanks everyone who came and participated in the group! Can't wait for next years and remember to always treasure the Breast things in life!

Pho for One

2011-09-29T04:46:00.000-07:00

In Australia, it is not unusual to cook every meal at home, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is just cheaper to do so. Yesterday marked 8 weeks in Singapore and we are still trying to figure out if eating in the Hawker centre every night is cheaper or cooking at home. Some items in the supermarket are very expensive, for example red meat. Mince is about the same as Australia, but if you want a good piece of steak expect to pay a lot for it. Other western items like taco kits and cream are also very expensive. Another thing to note is when shopping for meat is you must check the packaging to see if it has been thawed and must be consumed within three days. I usually try and buy chicken that is fresh so I can freeze it. Most red meats I have seen can be bought frozen. I am aware that there are cheaper places to purchase your meats rather than the local supermarket, like QB foods and The Chicken Man. A friend and fellow blogger made me aware of this and she also has a great helpful list of all things that are Singapore on her blog, check it out here.

If you choose to eat the cheaper meals at the hawker centre you'll only pay about $2-$4, or about $5-$8 for the more expensive meals.

Most Singaporeans seem to eat out most nights, so I am thinking it must be cheaper, or maybe just laziness?
So I have been contemplating this every night since we have been here and I think I have come to a conclusion. I think it is cheaper to eat/cook meals at home, as long as you are cooking Asian style meals, think stir fries and curries, and not so much Western food, think steak and tacos. So I think we will be eating a lot less red meat and more chicken, pork and fish and of course more stir fries and curries, I mean we are in Asia, right?
So you are probably wondering why my blog post name is Pho for One. Well, last week I went to a Vietnamese cooking class, which was great. When we were travelling last year, we spent 3 and half weeks in Vietnam and that wasn't even long enough. If you have never been to Vietnam, I suggest going, it is an amazing country and so cheap, for example a bowl of Pho (actually pronounced Fa and Vietnam's national dish), is only 25cents on the street! Where else could you get a massive bowl of noodles and beef for 25cents or less? And I better mention, that beer can cost as little as 30cents for a mug size of the local Beer Hoi. Bet you want to jump on a plane and get over there now, right? I know I do.
Anyway, back to the Pho, so last week I learned how to make Pho along with some other Vietnamese dishes (Vietnamese spring rolls and Vietnamese Chicken Salad) and tonight I decided to have Pho for dinner. Of course, here it cost me a lot more to make Pho, than it would have cost in Vietnam, because the beef is so expensive. I also had to plan ahead because the Beef Broth takes a day to make. I did plan to enjoy my bowl of Pho with my husband, but unfortunately he had to go into work. Oh well, more for me... and more for breakfast!


My lonely bowl of Pho, which was oh so good!

Little India

2011-09-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

Singapore is well known for being very multi cultural. You'll find people from all over the world living here. You could say Australia is also multi cultural, but even though there are many different races in Australia, they divide into their little communities and don't really like to mix. Singapore also has little communities of course, but everyone here mixes together with other races, one very well known area is Little India. Dating back to the 1800's this colony, Little India was set up by Indian prisoners after their release and by Indian labourers who were bought over to Singapore from Indian Villages. You can find out more info here. Today I met up with some fellow expats to check out the Tekka Market in Little India.


The Wet Market in the Tekka Centre- bit smelly

This guy was a poser!

Just a few of the beautiful outfits you can buy

Along the road in Little India getting ready for Deepavali

We had a great day, looking at the beautiful Indian sari outfits and then had a lunch at Big bites Vegetarian Indian Restaurant, which was devine! Sorry I didn't take any photos of the food, because when it comes to food I don't usually hesitate to get tucked in :)

After lunch, we made our way to my favourite place in Singapore, Mustafas, which made the day even better!

Let's get LOUD!

2011-09-26T00:34:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be totally honest, race cars aren't really my thing. They're loud and I don't really like noise. I don't really like nightclubs for that reason. I know I sound boring right? But I was pretty excited when I was invited by Singtel to go to the F1. I have never been before and looked forward to experiencing something new.

Sean and I ready to head in

I knew there would be crowds, another thing I don't like but am getting used to in Singapore and I knew there would be noise, but I happily put in my ear plugs and joined the end of the line.


Walking to our seats

The Beer Line

Ear plugs were being sold along with raincoats for $2 at Survival kit tents run by the Red cross. Lucky it didn't rain once the whole weekend!

Again, being honest, I had no idea what was happening on the track, all I knew was that the cars were driving around in circles and occasionally they would pass our seats. They were fun to watch, well glimpse, blink and you missed them. We had two big screens in front of us keeping us informed on who was winning, but again I didn't really understand it! All I know is Sebastian Vettel won the race, beating Jenson Button by 1.7 seconds. For more info check it out here

The best part of the event, well I thought anyway, was the music. On Saturday night Shakira played followed by Shaggy and on Sunday night Linkin Park.

Shakira rocking it! (Image by Andrew JK Tan http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2396996853923.139225.1521056559)

All in all, I had a fantastic weekend and now I'm exhausted, I really am not used to having some a busy social life! Thanks again to Singtel for providing me with an awesome opportunity to experience F1!

My 7 Links

2011-09-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

I was recently nominated my Mr. orangefoamfinger (fellow blogger) to participate in the Seven Links Project. The Seven links Blog Project is a way of uniting bloggers together and to share some forgotten blog posts and then nominate other bloggers to participate. This is kinda hard for me, as I do not have many blog posts, but figured I could scrap together a few to share.

So here goes,

My most beautiful post

This would have to be Things I'll miss # 3 because it's all about Shrek, my beautiful dog I unfortunately had to leave behind in Australia. I still miss him everyday.

My most popular post

Probably because I had just arrived in Singapore, but most likely because I mentioned the forbidden fruit, Durian, I believe First Impressions would have to be my most popular most.

My most controversial post

Well this was hard, I don't really write anything controversial, well not yet anyway! But I chose Uninterrupted Sleep not really because the post was controversial but because this is what caused me to write the post...


Sorry little guy

My most helpful post

I try to write as many blog posts as possible about life here in Singapore, so other new expats can find out about what it is like living here. So my most helpful post would have to be Setting up a bank account in Singapore.

My most surprisingly successful post

This again was hard, so I just went off what/how many others had commented. The post A bit about me was my first post, I think the best bit about it was the comment from Leone, in regards to what to bring to Singapore.

My most underrated post

Well this was easy, of course it would have to be Laundry Singapore Style. I don't think this got the recognition it deserved. I mean I get to hang out washing on bamboo poles and just stick them out the window on the 13th floor, how is that not cool? I still get excited about hanging out the washing!

Post I am most proud of

This would definitely have to be Pink Ribbon Walk post. I managed to organise a group of 34 people to participate in this wonderful event to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. Although the event isn't until October 1st, I am proud that I managed to organise so many people to participate.

So now I must nominate some other bloggers out there to participate in the Seven Links Blog Project.

1. My good friend and fashion & beauty blogger, Emma (La vie, style et beaute)

2. My new friend and fellow expat, Laurel (Tales of a busy housewife)

3. A soon-to-be new friend (I hope, when she comes back from the UK) and fellow expat, Laura (Expat Adventures in Singapore)

The convenience of Singapore

2011-09-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

Ultimately living in a city is always more convenient than living rurally. The access to public transport is greater, shops stay open later and many more things can be delivered. But living in Singapore just seems to have all these things and more compared to Australian cities. KFC and McDonalds deliver here, I mean you can't get that in Brisbane! Whether it's 3 in the morning or 10 at night, you will be able to get food and even do your grocery shopping somewhere in Singapore.

The other day I discovered the convenience of a little machine called a SAM machine (Self-Service Automated Machine) owned by Singapore Post. I needed some stamps to send a letter and couldn't really be bothered going all the way to a Post Office, which is what I would have to do in Australia. So instead I went downstairs to one of these machines and purchased some stamps, brilliant! This morning I had to pay our phone bill and I know it would be easier to do it online but I haven't figured out online transfers just yet, so I just went downstairs and used a SAM machine to pay my bill. You can also pay fines, credit cards and pay your tax. I think you can even purchase some tickets for events on these.

I'm just loving the convenience of city life :)

LRT-ing it!

2011-09-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

While we are currently searching for a permanent place to live (yep, that's right we are still living in 'limbo'), we are staying in a HDB apartment, surrounded by countless other HDB's. The HDB estates are fantastic. In most, you'll find a koptiam (food court) and mini mart. In ours we also have a doctors, pharmacy and dry cleaners and just down the road in another estate is a mall, with an even bigger food court, Fair Price (supermarket, similar to Coles or Woolworths), and numerous other stores. Most HDB estates also contain playgrounds for the children and exercise areas for adults, surrounded by walking paths.


Our HDB estate, overlooking a park

To get to our closest MRT we are three stops away on the LRT (light rail transit). LRT's are connected to MRT stations and travel on a small loop line in some estates. Check out the picture to see our LRT line (the one that is circled in red and with the red arrow, if you couldn't guess)

Our LRT station (if you look squint hard enough you can see Sean!)

Just like the MRT, although A LOT smaller, these trains have no drivers, which is great because you stand up front and pretend your driving.

Check out the video, when I did just that :)

It's almost like being on the front of a rollercoaster, but a lot slower!

Beads and beads

2011-09-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've decided I need a hobby. I mean, of course I am kept quite busy, being a lady of leisure/housewife. There's always house work to be done, meeting up with friends for coffee or lunch, going to a yoga class, trawling through shopping malls, but when I manage to find the time I need a hobby. So not only have I decided to learn how to sew (I know shock, horror, I don't know how to sew!!) but on Wednesday when I went down to Arab Street (more on this in another blog post in future) to meet a friend for coffee I stumbled across (ok maybe not stumbled, I knew they were there) a lot of bead shops and thought it would be great to make my own jewellery! So I bought myself millions of beads in assorted colours and yesterday I made my first bracelet!

Of course, being it was my first time beading, I forgot to measure my wrist and made the bracelet way too big! But I was still proud of my first creation and will just have to re-bead it to make it smaller. And luckily I have plenty more beads to work with...

If you want it, they most likely got it!

2011-09-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest things about moving to a new country is finding the best place to buy some items at the best price. Usually in Australia, I would know where to go, Big W or Target, usually had most household items, clothes and books and at reasonable prices. Over here its like endless shopping mall after shopping mall, which is fantastic, if you are like me and love shopping. But sometimes you don't want to trawl through loads of different shops or malls looking for what you need.

Introducing, Mustafas! Check it out here. Not only is this place open 24 hours (you know sometimes at 3am you just get that urge to go shopping, right?) but it also has everything you could possibly want and the prices are cheap. Located in the Little India district the store runs over 7 floors (I think, maybe more) and if you like to browse shelves while shopping you better set aside at least half a day for Mustafas (and a bit of cash!). I love this place so much, that I think I can only allow myself to go there once a month, otherwise I spend way too much money, all on things I 'need' of course :)

Also, if you are just travelling through Singapore and have your departure ticket, you can buy your purchases duty free if you spend over a certain amount.

Now for my best buy from Mustafas...

Yes that's right, a 'grandma' shopping trolley (well at least what Sean likes to call it) and it was only SGD$19.90. These are an essential must have living in Singapore, because without a car and when you need to do your grocery shopping there is nothing worse than lugging ten shopping bags back to your place, so into the trolley they go and you can give your arms a break.

And of course it will come in handy on my next trip to Mustafas!

Borders book sale!

2011-09-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

Unless you have all day and don't mind standing in queues, then by all means head to the Borders book sale. But if you don't, give it a miss. For those that don't know, after closing down their flagship store in Wheelock Place, Borders is hosting a book sale which started today and is running until Tuesday the 6th of September. I love books and a bargain, so I decided to venture down and see what kind of deals could be found. So I headed down early, hoping to get in first and get out first. After fighting through the crowds to get to some of the books, I found a few and decided to find the register. Low and behold, obviously everyone had the same plan as me and I couldn't even see the end of the line, it was that long! Unfortunately for me, I didn't have all day to wait and dumped my books and left. On my way out, past the registers, where they only had about 6 people serving, I could see why there was such a huge queue. To be honest, the discount wasn't really that great, 50% off on expensive books, still doesn't make them any cheaper. I think I'll just stick to the library, at least I don't have to queue and the books are free!

Put it to a vote

2011-08-29T22:40:00.000-07:00

Online Surveys & Market Research

The Pink Ribbon Walk 2011

2011-08-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

Last night, I was looking up fun runs and charity walks in Singapore to get involved in and I stumbled across the Watsons Pink Ribbon Walk 2011, which you can check out here. The event is to support and create awareness for the Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF). As my own mother is a survivor of breast cancer and millions of people are affected by the disease everyday, I thought it would be great to get involved in the 3.8km walk to show my support for the BCF. I posted my thoughts and the idea of getting a group together to participate in the event on Life in Singapore Facebook Page and was overwhelmed by the response of people wanting to get involved. Originally hoping to form the minimum requirement of 15 for a group, overnight I now have a list of 30 people wanting to join the group and not all of them are female :). So, I set up my own Facebook event page for the Pink Ribbon Walk group to keep track of the numbers. We still have to decide on a name for the group and have had a load of suggestions already. On my next post, I will create a voting poll so you can help us decide on the best name!
Here is a picture of the route for the walk

The details are as follows:

Date: 1st of October 2011
Time: 6pm
Venue: Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade, Singapore
Registration fees: $35 for an individual (register by the 9th of September on website) or $31.50 if you would like to take part in our group, but you will have to let me know via the facebook event page and pay registration fee by the 8th of September so I have the correct numbers.Registration fee includes goodie bags.

Don't forget to wear PINK!

Setting up a bank account in Singapore is easy!

2011-08-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

Setting up a bank account in Singapore was surprisingly easy. We traveled over from Australia with a lot of cash, I'm talking cold hard cash. The reason we did this is because our bank in Australia charges ridiculous fees to withdraw overseas (we discovered this when traveling Asia last year). So basically the first thing we wanted to do was set up a bank account over here because I personally don't like walking around with so much cash on me, no matter how safe Singapore is. We thought we might have difficulty setting up an account as we did not have our work passes at the time, but it was fine. We were given from Sean's company our 'Confirmation Slip/Letter for Appointment at M.O.M' and this was enough plus passports to set up an account. Unfortunately though we could only set it up under Sean's name as he will be the work pass holder. As I am on a Dependant Pass I had to wait until I actually had my card to be added on to the account. We also thought we would have to go into the city to the main bank to set up an account, but it was no problem at the local bank. Besides waiting for about half an hour to be served (we were there at lunch time) there really was no issues, other than me having to run up to the money changer to change the Aus Dollar to SG dollar as the bank didn't do exchange. Sean was given a bank card and passbook. Passbook? Very oldschool way of recording your account debits and credits. To update the book they have machines that look just like ATM's where you insert the book and it prints all your account transactions. Check out the pic.

The only other thing we had to do was set up our online banking by using the ATM and after doing this we were given a little digital security key ring, so every time you log into the bank from the internet you press the button on this and it produces a specialized code to access your account (so safe!). Check out the passbook, key ring and card.

Also, every time we use our bank card as a debit credit card, the bank sends us a text telling us the transaction details so if we didn't make the purchase we know it was fraudulent.

Even though we have had our work passes for a week now, we finally got the chance yesterday to go into the bank together to add my name to the joint account, so I could have my own bank card. Again, we waited quite a while for this whole process to take place (I think every thing just gets done slower here or more security checks get done?). We were meant to produce our marriage certificate to prove our relationship and unfortunately I had forgotten to bring it. But, luckily they decided it would be fine to use just my passport and dependent pass (I'm pretty sure we have to be married to get a dependent's pass anyway right?). I then had to fill out a form stating the purpose of me using the bank account, considering I do not get paid a salary. The form was hilarious, I had to state that I would be receiving funds from my husband and exactly how much per month he would be giving me and how often I would be withdrawing per month. So, according to the bank my occupation is housewife and I am paid $2000 a month. Not a bad salary for doing nothing all day :-) So there you go, for those new to Singapore, setting up a bank account is very easy, but remember you must have at least SGD$1000 to start a new account. Anyway, I am off to spend my allowance!

Settling in

2011-08-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

We realised today we have only been in Singapore less than 2 weeks and already it is beginning to feel like home and it feels like we have lived here a lot longer. So I would say we are settling in well. Everything is just so easy. It's been a while since we lived in a city and I've forgotten how easy it is to get around. It's even easier in Singapore than any Australian city. Where we are currently living is at the end of the line on the North East side of the island and it is so easy to get into the city just by jumping on the MRT.

We thought it would be a lot hotter in Singapore, but we are pleasantly surprised. We love this weather. We lived in Townsville, Queensland for a year and half and it was way hotter than it is here (in Summer). Although, that could be because you barely have to go outside here and when you are outside there are undercover walkways everywhere.

Sean has officially started work, but has a lot of training for the first three months and he is going to be very busy. I am finding it a little hard being by myself. Sean and I have spent most of our time together for the past year and half and a lot of that time we were together 24/7 when we were travelling, so being by myself in a foreign country is hard at times. I get a bit lonely, but I just need to get into a routine and start some hobbies. I have already booked a yoga class for tomorrow (my first ever yoga class), on Tuesday I have a lunch date with some other expats and a coffee date for later in the week. Ahh, the life of the unemployed isn't so bad, ey? (or should I say lah?) ;) I have sent in my registration form to SPCA (animal shelter) to become a volunteer as well, so once I start volunteering I probably won't have too much time to feel lonely!

Our agent has been searching for a place for us to live. Most expats in Singapore are given Expat packages from their companies and have all or some of their accommodation paid for and usually live in Condominiums. Condominiums are nice apartments with facilities like pools, gyms, squash courts, playgrounds etc. and usually start at about $3500 a month for rent. Unfortunately Sean's company does not provide any help with accommodation costs so we thought we would rent a HDB (Housing and Development Board) flat. Approximately 80% of Singaporeans live in a HDB because they are a lot cheaper to rent and to buy (but only Singaporean Citizens and Permanent Residents can buy a HDB). HDB flats are just that, flats, but they do not have any of the facilities a Condominium has. But there is usually a public pool and gym just round the corner. Rent for a HDB usually starts from about $2000 a month. So we are figuring out our options and luckily, our lovely landlady has said it will be fine for us to stay here for the next few months, if thats how long it takes to find something.

The last week, I have been wandering around shopping malls, because there are so many shopping malls here, it is just literally mall after mall and I love it! But it is not so much fun, when you don't have much money to spend!

Anyway this is life in Singapore so far and so far it's not too bad.

I have even discovered a new favourite word- Alight

intr.v. a·light·ed or a·lit (-lt), a·light·ing, a·lights

1. To come down and settle, as after flight: a sparrow alighting on a branch.

2. To get down, as from a vehicle; dismount: If you are changing to the circle line, please alight at the next station

3. To come by chance: alight on a happy solution.

Have a great day,

Bec xoxo