Debbie's coming to play!

Although it was only really a couple of weeks ago that Debbie announced that she needed sun, and lots of it, leading to flights being booked and a week and half of my diary being run through with a big black line to all other plans other than Debbie-Plans, but it feels like an age since I’ve been waiting for her arrival. Thankfully the day is finally here!

            I have just one more day in the office to get through, then I will be running away bang on 5:30 this evening to make my way to the airport to meet her from her plane. There will follow a weekend of excess, a week of working / playing as much as possible, a weekend away in Bali and then two more days of fun before she has to leave me again the following Tuesday.

            When I came over to Singapore on holiday Nick rolled out a plan affectionately referred to by our friends over here as the “Shock and Awe Week”. Nick had briefed all his buddies that there was a one week window in which he was going to try and persuade me to pack up my life and relocate to Singapore…I only found this out after the decision had been made and I had moved over, but I think that it might be time to pull out the big guns for “Shock and Awe Part 2”.

            It’s not that I think Debbie needs to live here, but as she has a very negative opinion of Singapore, based on her experiences of the city while her parents lived here, I think it’s only fair that I encourage Singapore to do it’s best to make it up to her. It’s going to be a cracking few weeks!

Eat, Sleep, Rest, Repeat

Last summer, when the girls dragged me out to Ibiza for what turned out to be a really rather amazing weekend of non-stop partying (despite the fact I was massively dreading it), there was a song kicking around that set the tone for our brief trip. “Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat” became the mantra that we lived our sunshine drenched lives to for four brief but brilliant days.

            I think it’s fair to say that currently, following 5 months of eating anything and everything that people have put in front of me (including organ soup) and a trip home that was full to the brim with excess I’ve had to adopt a slightly different approach to life this week. “Eat Veggies, Sleep Early, Do Pre-Work Exercise, Work Until Brain is Frazzled, Sleep, Repeat” doesn’t have quite the same edge to it, but it’s been an entirely necessary approach to my life, and one that I really need to keep up for quite a bit longer.

            There’s going to be a brief hiccup to my plans while Debbie is out here for almost two weeks (starting this Friday evening) but I feel a lot better for having made a start on the good behaviour. Plus, now that I've made a start, I am sure that it's going to be a lot easier to stick to. Now I just need to book my tennis lessons and find somewhere to do open water swimming (away from the tankers and ships that line the coast of Singapore) and I will be on a roll!

It's a tough slog

I had to have a string of four long, intensive and rather important meetings this Wednesday. I didn’t really want to play, but when my fifth and final meeting of the day asked for recommendations on where we should meet for a causal intro to his boss and to grab a quick coffee I knew exactly where we needed to be.

            Done by the water with one hell of a view, this was a great way to end a pretty hard-core day. Pretty Singapore.

Nick's got a new toy...

When it comes to technical advertising jargon and code, I’m your girl. When it comes to spending lots of money on cables and gadgets to play with, I am NOT your girl. You want Nick for that game. 

            As such, when Nick announced the he thought it was time we traded in our trusty, landlord owned TV for a projector system that he had found and that would make his life complete forever more, my main comment was that he would have to teach me how to get CSI Las Vegas reruns to work on it for when he was either out of the flat or fast asleep (our standard approach to Saturday mornings sees me wake up and do work / clean in the other room with CSI on the TV).

I have been informed that as a girl I was probably supposed to put up some sort of a fight about the cost of the projector and the pointlessness of the toy, but Nick wanted it and I get to play with it too, so I am definitely not complaining.

            Whilst I was perfectly happy with our previous, slightly crappy TV, I have to admit that the projector really is pretty cool. Nick will probably have the most fun gaming on it (there are special 3D effects that are apparently going to be life changing), but even for TV and films, it’s pretty impressive. I've now started to think about the possibilities, and this could be the ultimate dinner party aid. Either playing themed movies / images against the wall while we're eating, or if we can get Wimbledon streaming and playing, evening sessions with tennis played against the huge white walls down near our pool could make for a pretty special way to pass an evening. The world is now our projector-flavoured oyster, and it's so simple to use that CSI viewing is also not an issue. Score!

Sticking to the rules

When I moved to Singapore I informed Nick that if I was unable to visit my parents once a month as I did when living in London, then we would have to go away at least once a month to somewhere shiny and exciting to make up for it.

            I have to admit that when I said it was very much joking. However, judging by the plans that we already have in place for the next few months, I think he might have taken me at my word, and there is no way that I am going to try and set him straight!

            When Debbie is in town during June we will be going to explode Bali, then in July we will visit the boys again over in Thailand. For Nick’s 30^th birthday we will be back over in Bali and in December we are booked to go to the Gillies before going home for Christmas too. That leaves September, October and November to fill with adventures, although it seems like October is already pencilled in as Hong Kong month, pending confirmation. I had better go and do a bit of internet based research into where else is good to visit at the end of the year I guess!

A game of two halves

This weekend has been a complete mishmash of activity and enthusiasm for life, combined with some complete inactivity. In general, there have been some clear morning highs and afternoon / evening lows throughout. 

            Saturday was jam-packed! I woke up early and went straight to Tekka market to gather as many veggies as I could physically carry back with me.  We then had a first birthday to attend fairly far north, so we grabbed a present and coffee on our way, cabbed over for an hour or two of baby cooing, discussing other peoples babies, eating weird finger food and baby cooing a bit more. Then as soon as there were enough people for us to be able to leave without emptying the house we ran out, grabbed another cab and went straight to a birthday BBQ, armed with drinks and sausages and ready for a long afternoon.

            At around 7pm the full group started to get ready to head over to Beerfest (an Oktoberfest style celebration down by the river), but Nick and I skulked away to hide from the masses. The rest of our day was spent on the sofa, watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice and drinking tea. Not exactly ending the day on a high.

            Sunday was more of the same. I was up early to write thank you cards, clean the flat, run through all the holiday laundry, get the kitchen and bathroom ready for when Debbie comes to stay this weekend, and generally getting things done. Following a very quick shopping trip and a lunch of noodles and broth at the local shops, we were back in the flat and I was back in my jammies.

            There followed an afternoon of cooking and prepping, but it was far from as enthusiastic as my morning had been. Sometimes a completely mixed bag is the only way a weekend can be!