Peacock Problems

There are numerous peacocks that roam the streets on Sentosa, and although I do enjoy them from a far one got a bit too close for comfort this morning. I was on my way to catch the bus into Vivo for some Birkram yoga when I noticed a peacock walking towards me. I kept my distance and headed up the stairs until he decided to fly up onto the railing and sqwack at me. Noticing his fearsome talons I opted not to test out its temperament and ran down the stairs. A few workers stared at me as I continued my run to the other set of stairs and arrived safely at the bus. A few minutes later I look up to see the peacock now standing on the roof of the bus stop building... Creepy!

I caught a pic of him in action

Once I arrived safety at Vivo it was time for yoga and some intense sweating. I have never done Birkram yoga before and after 90 minutes doing yoga in sauna like conditions a shower never felt so fabulous.

Nate is home from Indonesia and we spent the weekend relaxing a bit and trying to tackle the grocery store. Saturday night I had planned to make chicken I had frozen, however I realized it was halai chicken that cannot be refrozen. As a back up plan we put some pasta on and then realized we were out of pasta sauce so tried to get creative and make our own Mac and cheese by throwing in slices of cheese. It tasted disgusting so we thew that out and finally decided to go with tuna sandwiches. So on Sunday we went out to dinner. I ate a huge burger that was amazing :)

Terrible Mac and Cheese

Nate found his new car in the garage at the apartment

Chinese New Year

Happy New Year! To celebrate in the appropriate Chinese manner you must go to the mall and spend as much money as possible to ensure your financial well being for the year to come. It's a crazy holiday that lasts for almost a week ( Saturday - Thursday). Everything except for shopping and food is closed.

Nate and I opted to skip the shopping and headed to Clark Quay for some dinner with the friends we are swapping spots with. We felt courageous and took the MRT (subway) even with the massive crowds.

The Quays ( 3 in total Robert, Boat, and Clarke) are a great place to head out for a bite to eat. They are lined with restaurants all that try to lure you in with promises of free drinks etc. We opted for a place called Charlies. Charlies sounded like a safe spot so I ordered Chicken. Chicken in Singpare is not like chicken in the US. I am not sure exactly what was on my plate but I don't think it was chicken. Needless to say I left the majority of the "chicken" on my plate. Thankfully we had ordered crab cake appetizers which were delicious.

After some food Kate and Adam showed us around the Quays. It is quite an amazing spot and I am sure we will be making quite a few visit to the quays.

View from our dinner table

Walking down Clarke Quay


Kate and I

Before Nate left for Indonesia we decided to take a walk this morning and ended up exploring the South Cove of Sentosa. Sentosa is split up by the resort side and the residential side. The residential side is then broken into the North and South Cove. The North Cove is much more developed then the South Cove although they are in the midst of buidling up the South Cove. I had no clue how big the Sentosa Cove is and I am looking forward to really doing some exploring when my bike arrives.

Posing in front of the very large sailboat

View from the South Cove

View of our apartment complex from the South Cove

A look at Vivo..it's a huge building so this is the best I could get while on the shuttle

Exploring

Our jet lag is still in effect and although we are getting a tad better by waking up at 6 am and not 5 am we opted to try and get our bodies back to norm with a run around Sentosa Cove. The run was unlike any other with the ocean on one side and luxury houses on the other. We did however come to the quick realization that our bodies had not quite acclimated to the temps .

After getting in a little workout we headed out to fill up on groceries and do a little more exploring around Vivo City. We decided to be really adventurous and eat at the Hawker Center. It was quite intimidating but I was able to find something not too grotesque looking. Nate tends to be a lot more adventurous when it comes to eating.

After some food and checking out the gym in Vivo city we jumped back on the shuttle. On the ride back we found out that Jackie Chan lives in a house right near us, which would explain the gatehouse for that house. I always thought that was odd.

Shrimp and Rice Bowl

Crab Stick Rice

Singapore Money!

Rainbow we spotted while waiting
on the bus to arrive

On the Sentosa Residence Bus

Going over the bridge into Vivo- Serious Cargo Ship Area

Satellite Area- Reminds me of Jurassic Park

Pool Time

It's so amazingly gorgeous here I had to post a few of the pics

Our apartment complex from across the harbor

By the pool.. was able to catch some pool

 time before the rain came

The mega sailboat in the marina. It was so ridiculously 

big I couldn't resist taking a pic.

Settling In

Day 3 of life in Singapore and we are beginning to settle in .. I have finally unpacked my suitcases! At first everything seemed overwhelming, but we are starting to get a hang of things. It's amazing the things that are slightly different and yet quite annoying. I have yet to figure out the lighting in our apartment but thankfully figured out which switch controls the heat to the shower. They oddly do not have any outlets in the bathroom and our bed is hard as nails. After a trip to the Vivo City to find a remedy to our slab of concrete bed we were surprised to find out that apparenlty asians prefer the concrete feel. We are heading out today to try and get a mattress pad. Currently our rememdy has been to take all the cushions off the couch and put them on the bed. It works sufficiently, although often times I wake up to find I have fallen in between the crack of the cushions. Other then those minor things the apartment is good and you can't beat the view!

The first visit to the grocery store was a unique and somewhat frightening event. The store was filled with odd sea creatures just hanging out on tables covered in flies. There was a serious lack of any "normal" food and the singaporean tunes were being blast through out the store. If you have never had the delight of experiencing "singapore" tunes consider yourself lucky. Thankfully the other day we stumbled across a smaller much more Westernized food store so shall be stocking up on some food today.

Here are some pics ..enjoy!

Hanging out right outsire our apartment in front of the Marina Our Apartment

Inside the Apartment (Little Family Room)

Couch Cushions making up for Concrete Mattress

The terrible 27 hr flight... at least we had awesome lay down seats!

Long Flight....

We were lucky enough to be on a non-stop flight from LAX to Singapore, but we definitely didn't expect to have to turn back around after almost 4 hours to come back to LAX. Someone on board had a medical emergency and we had to do a 180 and come back.

We ended up spending about 27 straight hours on that plane! It was a rough flight, but we are here and trying to settle in.

It is definitely a very different place and is going to be challenging, but we are taking it one day at a time.

We have been able to find some stores close by so we can get groceries and other things we may need, but getting food that we are more used to is not quite as easy as we would have hoped. There are some familiar things but we were noticing a lot of really weird food!

So far it has been tough, I can't deny that, but luckily we are able to tackle this all together!!!

More to come later!

In Flight

The long journey to Singapore has begun. We are currently in route to LA with a few hours of flight down. A little wifi action has kept the flight more entertaining since us air provides zero entertainment. Sadly we still have over 20 some more hours to go before arriving "home".

Leavin on a jet plane.....

We have spent the whole day packing up the suitcases, getting all the last minute details taken care of, and of course we had to have a Skype call with Kristy's parents so she could see see how Milo was holding up. He looked like he was living it up over there! I mean, he has his own room with a great view of the bay, plenty of trees, and all the birds he can handle! I think he is going to be just fine! We have to say thanks to Kristy's parents for taking on the task!

Well, we have to get up early so the bed is calling. We will update next hopefully from the other side of the globe!

It's Winding Down!

The bags are being packed, the plane tickets are booked, and we are SURE we are forgetting something! It's T-minus 4 days until we leave and the past few days have been the most stressful by far, but we are tackling everything one at a time and checking them off the list.

Bottom line, we are both excited......but also officially exhausted!