Home Sweet Home!

We had a whirlwind trip home last week! We were so busy and it went by so quickly that it seems like a dream.

The weekend started with one of my best friends weddings. Cristina and Mike were married at The Conservatory in St. Charles, MO. It was a gorgeous ceremony and Cristina looked fabulous. The reception was a blast and I wish we could do it all over again. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Brown!

Adam's Mom, Evie, retired after over 30 years of teaching and celebrated with a great party. There was even karaoke.

Congrats Evie! - I know you've made a huge impact on countless student's lives.

We managed to make it to Peoria so Adam could visit some of his family and I could see some of my girls =). We stopped by the Bradley campus and boy are there some changes being made. The new gym is amazing and I wish it would have been there when I was going to school!

I wrapped up the week shopping with the women of my family and buying clothes that actually fit. They have tons of shopping in Singapore but it's hard to find clothes that fit the way I'd like. We then had a relaxing afternoon at Mt. Pleasant Winery in MO on Friday before taking off again on Saturday.

We really like Singapore but miss all of you so much. It was wonderful getting to see all the people we love and we can't wait to see you again soon!

More Pictures

Jeremy Visits Singapore!

Well, we've had our second guest come visit Singpaore. This time, our old friend from back home, Jeremy, came down for a weekend after visiting his family up in China.

We had some great times and it was good to catch up with a friend from Edwardsville. He's just finished his MBA at Notre Dame and is starting work for IBM this fall. Good work dude.

Anyway, as a fellow foodie, Jeremy, Kate and I embarked on some new culinary crusades. New delicies on his trip included

Indian Fish Head Curry

BBQ Sting Ray

Chilli and Pepper Crabs

Bamboo Clams

and the famous stinky tropical fruit: Durian (which Kate so beautifully modeled for us.)

Here's a video of Jeremy chowing down on a Fish Eye Ball (yes.... eye ball) from the Fish Head Curry. He's always been one for the bizarre.

Thanks for visiting bud. Enjoy the rest of your Asian adventures and good luck with the new job!

Who will be the next one of you to visit? :)

Happy Father's Day!

Well we thought we'd start our latest blog with a shout out to our Dad's and Grandpa's and hope you're having a great Father's Day. We're thinking about you. :)

Kate and I are just wrapping up what was a pretty productive weekend. We visitied "Escape amusement park" in Pasir Ris (East part of Singapore) with some expat friends yesterday. It was really fun, but I'd say the park was somewhere above a county fair, but below an actual theme park. (Although we did just learn that Universal Studios Singapore is slated to be finished next year and will be bigger than the one in Hollywood!)

Anyway, we went to a new church today, and it was a really good sermon and a great choir. We'll be going back for sure. Then Kate found some great bargain deals at the MEGA SINGAPORE SALE (it is like a country-wide shopping extravaganza) which is probably meant to bring in tourists during these really hot months. I mean HOT. Finally, we hung up our first real piece of local art. It is a chinese painting of cherry blossoms we found in Chinatown, and we're pretty excited about that.

Overall, it feels like we did a lot. Both of us have busy work weeks leading up to our trip home in July... Can't wait to see you all!

The art... no... The Style of Efficiency!

Post Office Opens Swanky Bar!

I have to blog about this. Our local post office is very close to the famous, the stylish, Orchard Road shopping area of Singapore. The post office had been under renovation for some time and the renovations are complete. What was once a quaint, mostly-empty local post office, is now a small, modern post office with a full-service bar attached!

And this is not just any bar. This is a Chivas Regal scotch bar with valet parking!

No, this is not a beer-induced fantasy, this is SingPost's attempt to make their operations more profitable. So if the government has given you land and building space, you better make the most of it! SingPost actually rents out some of their larger spaces to tenants in an effort to trim operating costs and attract younger customers. I love this Singapore.

You can read about here, but see the pictures for yourself.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_383350.html

More Exploring

We explored some more of Singapore last weekend. We started our Saturday at the Singapore National Museum. They had a special exhibit on Christian Lecroix, a costume designer for stage shows and operas. Lecroix’s elaborate, over-the-top creations were fun to see and they even had an area set up for drawing. Adam and I made our own Lecroix inspired creations. Ok, so the table was meant for kids but we had fun.

Can you guess who did each? I’d like to say mine was the good one, but you can see who got the drawing talent in this relationship.

We had a wonderful dinner at Oso, an Italian restaurant, and then headed to the Singapore Flyer, the world’s largest observation wheel. It was about a 40 minute ride in the air conditioned capsules and it offered great views of the city. You can even see the lights of Indonesia across the water. Pictures

Birthday Weekend

I had an amazing birthday weekend. It kicked off with a lovely party at work and then Adam and I took off for Bintan Lagoon Resort in Indonesia. It was about an hour ferry ride to the popular weekend get away. The trip was quick and we were on the beach in no time. Pictures


We ended up making a new friend while chilling by the pool:

We mostly just relaxed by the pool, but the resort featured an activities area where after 3 rounds of three games I won the championship Foosball game. Finally an activity where I have a chance at beating Adam =). Adam also found another activity he enjoyed:

There are lot of you back home that I wish I could have celebrated my birthday with, but I'm so excited to see everyone in July!!!!

Oh and I can't wait for another upcoming trip. Adam scheduled a trip to AUSTRALIA in July for my birthday present! I am officially the luckiest girl in the world.

Steamboat

Another food addition to our blog. Bet you can't guess one of our passions =) If we keep this up we're going to need to make some exercise blog videos.