Dinner party madness

Having tested the water of hosting guests at our flat (Nick’s friend Hans had a shocking day at work, and so came over to drink wine and eat nibbles on the balcony), this weekend we decided that we were probably just about ready to open up the invite to some friends for dinner.

            With our Tekka Market treats all ready to go, Liv, Flash, Duncan and Kate made their way over at around half seven on Saturday evening for our best attempts at entertainment in our cute little flat. This was the first time that we had tried out our weird electric oven (the flat came with a two ring hob but no oven, so we have a microwave sized portable oven nestled on our washing machine in the utility room), so the chances were high that we were going to make a mess of it. In preparation for this, we had a frozen pizza in the oven, and a shed load of alcohol at the ready.

            Gin and tonics were consumed along with nibbles and bread, then vast amounts of white wine was served up with fresh market fish and roasted veggies, before we moved onto the slutty brownies (layers of cookie dough, Oreos and brownie, all baked in one big stack) and an entire cheese course.  

            There had been mention of heading out afterwards either to one of the usual bars on Club Street, but in the end we had such a lovely time, and there was so much drink still to be drunk, we just stayed at the flat and mooched around on the balcony.

            As a first try, I have to say that I think we did pretty darn well! I wonder what we’ll pick up at the market for our next attempt.

Saturday morning routine

This is the first Saturday I’ve spent in Singapore without anything specific planned in. The only other weekend that we’ve had in town was when I first arrived and I needed to learn where the hell I was and how the world works here.  This weekend was much more relaxed!

            Having woken up fairly early we kick-started the day with a trip to Tekka Market. This is a wet market in Little India, and is something that I was slightly dreading. As much as I love shopping at food markets, and enjoy seeing all the fish, meat and veggies piled up, I have heard mixed reviews about how accessible Tekka really is, and how manic it can be, so I was concerned that the token white people might have a bit if a hard time bagging the bargains that locals are offered. How wrong I was!

            We spent around an hour working our way through a fairly extensive shopping list, and by the time that we finished the full tour we probably spent around £30 in total, and had purchased enough food to feed 6 hungry people dinner, and still have a good stash of leftovers. This market is full to the rafters with stalls – it’s like a much less glamorous, much more cramped version of Borough Market, but with less food to eat then and there, and a lot more fresh produce for you to take home and scrub – well!

            Considering the small stalls that each of the holders had, we were expecting a fair amount of repletion about what was on offer, but I was very impressed – for incredibly reasonable prices (much better than you would find in the super markets out here, and much fresher) you could get everything from fresh potatoes and carrots, to fennel bulbs, soft shell crab and even an entire fish, gutted, filleted and de-skinned by a man with a meat clever and nothing much else. I will most definitely be going back!

            Once we had lugged all our goodies home and had a very necessary shower (the market is good fun, but also very stinky!) and a swim in the pool while we waited for some laundry to dry in the shared machines on the same level as the pool, we then went out for breakfast at a local café that we had wondered past earlier in the week, and marked out as one to try.

            It’s called Cups and Canvas, and it’s full of fun artwork, amazing looking carrot cake, perfectly brewed coffee, and very tasty eggs benedict. If I was looking for a near perfect Saturday morning routine, I think I may have found it!

Who says romance is dead?

Valentines Day has never really been my thing. Admittedly, that’s because I have had to spent the majority the ones to-date alone and without anything much to celebrate, but still, it’s never going to be a special occasion to my mind, which is why I think that we spent Valentines Day in the perfect possible way.

            Having woken up to a card signed off “Regards, Nick Brown” and a selection of joke presents wrapped up in some truly sickening paper, I thought that the tone was set pretty perfectly for the day. Nick received my gift of Lego and lime squeezers with just the right amount of enthusiasm, and I thought that the worst of it was over.

Unfortunately, Nick actually took things one step too far, and followed this up with a proper Valentines Day card and a present from the pearl island shop that we had visited the week before. While we were in the store I fell in love with a grey pearl ring, which I told him he was absolutely not allowed to buy for me. Clearly he paid no attention to me, and the beautiful item is now coming everywhere with me – I love it! As usual, his gift made my offering of toys and gadgets seem ridiculously small, but unfortunately I can’t really help that!

Presents done, we went about our days just as we always do. Then at the end of the working day, as the girls in the office were layering up on make-up and discussing their romantic dinner plans, I grabbed up my bags and headed for the MTR to go and meet Nick. In true romantic style, we had planned our evening to Valentines perfection.

We swung by a shop so that Nick could pick up a lamp he had on order, we then grabbed a kebab from the street vendor outside the shopping mall, washed it down with a beer, and picked up Baskin’ Robbins ice-cream to take home and eat on the sofa while I set up my new mobile phone and did some internet banking.  The world has never known such romance!

It's official!

It took them just three days to get sorted, but this morning I went back to the Employment Pass office to collect my signed and approved Employment Pass. This means that I have two full years in Singapore before I have to consider getting a replacement pass, and it finally means that I can get my phone and bank account sorted out. It’s going to be a very busy Friday of life admin and not much else! The final pieces of relocating are finally falling into place!

Back to reality

I’ve spent the past few weeks in a sort of responsibility-free bubble – having finished up at work on the 17^th of January, there has been a week back at home getting ready to move, a week in Singapore just getting settled and sorted, and a week in Thailand basking in sunshine and eating way more food than can really be appropriate. It’s been great fun, but it’s definitely not the sort of life that I would want to live full time. Now it’s time to go back to work and get back into the ‘real-life’ routine, and I can’t wait!

            I met my new work friends for a quick lunch during the first week I was in Singapore, so at least I knew where I was going and who I would be working with, which took the sting out of the first day fears.

            Having to pop out and get my employment pass sorted first thing on Monday meant that I was in the office and ready to work just in time for lunch – which was handy as there seemed to have been a weekly lunch rotation arranged to let me get to know the area and try out some local delicacies.

            Over the past few days, I have tried out Dry Mee Sau (a soupy, noodle, fish ball, mince pork creation that cost me about a pound and had to be ordered with the help of my Chinese speaking colleague), a number of Japanese rice selections and bowls of soup with fish balls floating in them and even a bowl of soup with a chicken foot looming at the bottom. I have to be honest, I cheated and left the foot for the waiting staff to deal with, but I’ve done pretty well with all the other specialties, and it’s been great fun working through a list of the office favourites!

            Other than busy lunch hours, there have also been 8am meetings and introductions with the US, a couple of client intros, drinks at the local Google HQ  where I met with a number of other industry people, and we even had our first guest over to the flat for wine and nibbles. All in all, it’s been a pretty productive week!