Wedding adventures

I have always loved a good wedding, there’s something so enjoyable about pretty dresses, huge amounts of flowers, free flow champagne and a drunken dinner and dance with friends, which is why I was incredibly excited to receive a very different sort of wedding invite this week.

            Apparently in China there are many layers of wedding that you have to work through – a legal wedding, which takes place about a year before the formal wedding, which is where all the fun stuff happens. The latter portion of events includes a tea ceremony and a lunch, with around 200-400 people in attendance, three dress changes and an awful lot of entertaining – I’m sure it’s not at all stressful to arrange!

            Although I have been working in my office for less than a week, today I was incredibly flattered to receive an invitation to be one of the 250 strong crowd who will be celebrating the wedding of one of my colleagues in a couple of weeks time.  She’s currently having a mini-meltdown about the whole thing, but I’m sure it’s going to be great fun! She’s actually five months pregnant, which has added a layer of confusion regarding food choices and dress selections, but it doesn’t seem to be frowned upon too much, so I am looking forward to seeing what accommodations have been made for the progressively growing baby bump!

            Unfortunately it’s taking place on the weekend when Nick is away with some work friends, so I am going to have to brave the event alone / with the support of the other three people in our office, which could be great fun, and could be incredibly awkward. Still, I get to see how a Chinese wedding works, and I get to see what they serve up at the lunch banquet. I’m slightly worried that there will be lots of dyed eggs and chicken feet, but hey, you have to try these things at least once in your life, right?

            Now, the only thing left to work out is what to wear? The only thing I know for sure is that I will most definitely not be wearing heels…I’m going to be a giant as it is!

A week of recovery

View from our holiday dinner

I thought that moving country would be a lot more stressful than it was, and I am sure it would have been if I made the change without any help or support. Luckily for me, I’ve got Nick, who has already done all the hard work (sorting the flat, working out where everything is and how it works, and he even supplied me with a temporary local pay as you go phone to get me through the first few days – what a good boy!).

            When the plan to move over to Singapore was first made, it felt highly likely that by the time I had moved and settled a bit, I would be in need of a holiday – so thanks to a little bit of luck and a bit of planning, I had just one week in Singapore before the Brown family took their annual winter holiday out to The Village, Coconut Island in Thailand, which we duly gatecrashed.  

            With a beautiful beachfront villa, complete with it’s own swimming pool, easy access to the beach activities, and a very short walk to the amazing island eateries, it was the perfect spot to unwind for a week and get used to living in Asia.

            We started our trip two days early, heading straight to Phuket town from the airport to meet up with a couple of friends who live in the town and who were to be our hosts for the weekend. There was a bar crawl planned straight from the airport, then a full day dedicated to a BBQ at their house (which has doors in the kitchen that opens out straight into a lap pool (pure luxury!) and then a day at the beach. It was a drunken few days, but it was great to see a bit more of Phuket, and to try out a couple of the local bars and pubs.

Thailand - they do good beaches! 

A BBQ isn't a BBQ until there's a dangerous drinking game being lined up

Having spent a very necessary day recovering at the beach, we then headed over to the villa to get everything sorted ahead of the rest of the family’s arrival.

            Once we had all gathered, the week was then spent in a most amazing blur of pure relaxation. Days were filled with sleeping, sunbathing, reading and eating (an awful lot of eating!). 

Our favourite table for breakfast 

Happiness is a rubber ring and a private pool! 

Kat Brown is in there - somewhere! 

Taking the 'biggest splash' competition fairly seriously 

Waters edge collection

The Brown Family! 

Snorkelling in fabulous clear blue water

A girl can never have too many fresh coconuts

Week one – done and dusted

Having completed the first week of life in Singapore, it feels like I’ve done loads (learnt as much as I could about the town, visited some of the standard tourist haunts, and found my new local coffee shops) and hardly anything at the same time. Trying to find my feet and work out where everything is and how everything works is a fairly stressful thing, but then when I look back over the week I actually have very little show for it. I suppose the easiest way to summarise it is in picture form (that way you are spared from updates like - I learnt where the supermarket was, and that you can buy Waitrose Essential items in there - yay!), so here you go:

I spent a day investigating the amazing world that is Chinatown - better still, it was the day before their big weekend of New Year celebrations kicked off, so there were some fabulous "Year of the Horse" decorations to enjoy, and a really festive atmosphere too!

The hug horse lantern that will mark the opening of the New Year parade

Some tasteful home decorations that Nick told me I was absolutely not allowed to buy

Flying horses!

Later that same day I also went on a bit of a tour of the city - I wanted to work out where my house was compared to Chinatown, work, the river and some of the main entertainment areas. It turns out that everything is pretty much a 40 minute walk away, if not less.  If it wasn't so darn hot here it would be the perfect sized town to never have to get public transport! 

Temple visits

River residents

The national mascot - the Merlion

Then there was the morning I walked the 15k route around five parks along the eastern edge of the island. I was promised naughty (terrifying) wild monkeys in the parks, who sadly failed to make an appearance, but at least there was a pretty spectacular route to make up for it:

Canopy walks through four parks, connected by bridges

The Henderson Waves - one impressive bridge!

There wasn't only nature and cultural areas to keep me entertained! I tried out the pool at the flat - it was chilly, but one floor down, open air and perfect for laps:

 

Our pool

I had some fabulous solo lunches out on our cute little balcony in the glorious sunshine (I like to think of it as part of my acclimatising routine):

Best seat in the house 


On the days when the rest of the world weren't at work, there were dinner parties, lunch gatherings and even a cheeky little champagne brunch at a fabulous tapas place:

Tapas and bubbles - a real Sunday treat

I was brave and (with a little encouragement) tried many of the local specialty dishes, including chicken and rice - it's a lot of food, and it costs less than two pounds for the lot - bargain!

For less than a couple of pounds, your money goes a long way on the hawker stalls! 

I realise that this blog entry is a bit of a cheat, but from now on I promise I will be much better at actually updating you on what I've been doing...well, once I'm back from a week of holiday in Thailand I will. The next entry on here is likely to be in a similar grouped format. Hopefully with even more amazing photos though!

I've arrived!

After arriving at Heathrow a good healthy four hours or so before my flight was due to take off (Team Porter does love to be on time / slightly early you know – I blame dad!), I managed to waste a good few hours working through a couple of essential airport routines – I did a magazine run at WHSmiths, I topped up on emergency plane snacks and ear-popping sweets, I had a huge and entirely unnecessary dinner at Giraffe and then I had a calming gin at the airport bar.

            By this point I had just about managed to persuade myself that there’s no need to cry when your family drops you at the airport, and that when it doubt, gin really does help. Every single time! Finally it was time to fly!

            For some unknown reason my plane was fairly empty, so not only did I get to enjoy the pure comfort of a BA Economy Plus seat (so worth the extra pennies!) I also got the pleasure of an empty seat next to me, which means extra legroom and no fights for the armrest. All in all, it was a pretty good flight – you just have to ignore the fact that it lasted for a tedious 13 hours.

            Rushing through all the gory details – I’ve arrived. The flight was empty, the arrivals hall was totally manageable, Nick was waiting and ready to pick me up as soon as I came through the gates, and I am now sitting in ‘our’ flat, drinking gin on the balcony and about to have a shower ready to start my live in the hot humidity of Singapore. I can’t wait – for the shower that is. The fresh start is exciting too, but at the moment I just want to wash the horrible airplane filth off!

It's go time!

Bags are packed, my room is set straight and my Kindle is charged – it’s go time! I will be leaving for the airport in the next few hours, and I will be touching down in Singapore in less than 24 hours from now.

            Blog updates will (hopefully) be coming thick and fast as the adventures begin, but for now there will be radio silence while I leave one world and get myself set up in another. Wish me luck!

One week to go!

It’s my last day at work in London today, which means that it is also the last day I will have easy access to a printer, scanner and fax machine (as if that really makes much of a difference), so it’s incredibly handy and insanely convenient that my work pass application was approved today!

            This means that I can arrive in Singapore and get my visa sorted out immediately, my boxes can be shipped asap (so that I don’t have to force one of the girls to sort them out for me once I’ve already gone) and my new job is now 100% official, as it was always entirely dependent on me being able to secure this pass – they sponsor it for me, but that doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed.
             All the tricky planning and prepartion is done and dusted, now all I have to do is actually face the tears and the fears and make the move…one week today and I will be landing in Singapore, the land of sun, humidity, rooftop bars and constant heat. I’m writing this with a grey sky dawning, soaking wet, freezing cold feet and a lot of London smog outside the window, I think I am going to be ok!

Two weeks to go and progress is being made!

It’s been a long time coming, but my flight to Singapore is now just two weeks away, and I’ve finally made it through each and every round of interview (after five months of background work), and have received a written offer letter! Thank goodness for that!

            This means that, all going well, and assuming that the Singaporean government agrees to sign off my work pass, I will be moving over with a work permit sorted, a job ready to join and a planned training session over in San Fran too (this is the company with London and US offices which is going to be incredibly handy for visiting the family).

            It’s tough to think that in a couple of weeks I will have left my current job and will no longer be responsible for everything I’ve been working so hard to build for the past few years, but hey, I get to start again at the beginning, and whilst that might be slightly stressful, I really hope it will be worth it!

            Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope that the work pass gets approved fairly quickly – I need it sorted to be able to ship my boxes too, so hopefully it will be done and dusted before I move out of the London house!