B & B's Singapore Sling: September 2009

Hey hey hey its moon cake season. What is a moon cake some of you may be asking? Well its a pastry filled with a variety of stuff, for example some have chocolate and some have bean paste. Now you may be asking what is bean paste, and my answer is I don't know. Doesn't sound too appealing to me so I opted for the lotus seed. And once again you ask what's that? Well it kinda reminded me of a big fig newton. It was pretty good.

The history of the moon cake stems back a long time, I don't know a 1000 years or something. Apparently they used to smuggle notes in the cakes to the leader of some dynasty from the front lines of some war. That's about all I know other than they taste pretty darn good.

It's every where, Same same but different. I love that saying. It applies to everything in this part of the world.

It seems that wherever we live Hastings isn't far away. This is about 3 blocks from our place. The Banana Leaf Apollo is down this road. That's where we had the infamous Fish Head Curry. A must try for all those visiting.

Ok so I'm wandering around aimlessly, which I do often, and I came across this market of dried goods. It's amazing what they dry and I guess rehydrate and cook with around here. They had huge baskets full of these squid. Really how much of this stuff is used. A lot I guess.

Dried mussels. Again I don't know. I have to find a way to use them in something. Probably unbeknownst to my honey.

I'm not really sure what these little fellas are. Minnows or something.

This on the other hand is a Red Ruby dessert. The red bits are water cress in gelatin, for texture, everything is about texture here. Under that is shaved ice with a coconut sauce over top. It's really good. Desserts are very different here, no cakes or pies or creme brule, its shaved ice and different wacky fruits. There is one that I haven't had the gall to try yet but it has corn and red beans and fruit and I don't know what on it. When I summon up the courage there will definitely be a pic and review on the flavor combinations. Its gonna be weird.

Speaking of weird welcome to Ikea. When we moved into our place we of course had to make a trip to Ikea for home supplies, plates, glass ware, cutlery etc.. Barbara thought that since we finally got a place we might celebrate with a nice meal and a bottle of Veuve or something...Wrong, we went to IKEA and had a wonderful meal of Chicken wings and Swedish meatballs. So I've never eaten at Ikea before and I thought these little trolleys were wild. Do they have them everywhere or is this an Asian thing???

Oh yeah we had beer instead of Veuve as well. Breaking the bank for my lady..

Now this guy was Huge. Barbara fell in love with this guy as soon as she saw it, NOT. For some reason Barbara doesn't really like moths

Especially ones that are the size of bats

So this is one of the HDB's in the area. I really like this one because it reminds me of Sesame Street with the colors and everything. I guess it helps the tenants remember where they live. Some things are just a little strange around here, and it's not just me.

Bye for now

Hello all. This installment is dedicated to our housing hunt in Singapore. There were definitely some ups and downs but we finally stumbled upon the perfect place, so until we reach nirvana we will take you through some of the not so nirvana abodes. We came really close on a few of them but of course the negative outweighed the positive. There are so many pictures and places that we looked at that I will just focus on the highlights, kinda like Sports Centre.

To start with I really thought we hit a home run, more sports analogy, sorry ladies but Barbara is not here to stop me. I was given specific instructions that we were looking for a shop house, which is kinda like a loft style apt but older, with balcony, at least two bedrooms and preferably on the top floor. Boom I nailed it. These are the pics. Remember to have the vision.

Large bedroom, upon second viewing we learned that the window coverings weren't really covering windows, so it's a bedroom with no windows, hmmm. Remember keep the vision

Another large bedroom, still no windows

A very odd bathroom. Anyone losing the vision yet. Oh yeah the bathroom is off the kitchen

Yeah the vision is gone. But hey the elevator opened right into the suite and it was on the top floor, aka penthouse

and a huge balcony. Home run right. Well more like a foul ball. We didn't take it.

Now we get into the multitude of places that failed the test for whatever reason.

This one failed Barbara's fridge test

This one failed the height test, and we are only on the 9th floor

Umm, the bathroom fixtures are pink

I'm sure we can all figure this one out

Yeah nice deck, on the fourth floor, not to high, all good except for the A/C units on our deck

This place was nice. Nice furniture, TV,

Oh what's this. A new construction site not supposed to be done until 2012. Don't think so

Ahh the deck of Barbara's dreams. Cold tub included, yeah cold tub because why would you want a hot tub when its 32 and humid EVERY DAY. The only problem is it would cost a small fortune to furnish and its in the suburbs, by Barbara's definition

Umm, yeah I'm outside on the common walkway and that is the only bathroom that you are looking at. Not so comfortable with the public viewing of the ol crapper, I don't know about anyone else

Now this place was dialed. We loved it. The couch set up is a little weird but we could live with it

The glass enclosed bedroom was a cool design feature.

It even had a indoor garden with a water feature. OK so what was the problem with it? No outdoor space and it was friggin tiny. Really well thought out though.

So we were in the market for a furnished apt and that took on a very loose definition here in Singapore. Some places had a TV and a crappy couch, maybe a bed or a dining room table. This lady took it to another level. She was moving to London and was leaving everything right down to the nick knacks, books, silverware and art on the walls

I told here we would consider taking it but the bar had to come fully stocked. She didn't seem to find the humor in that.

Didn't matter anyway. The place was on the 23rd floor. Definitely failed the height test.

So as our search went on we realized that we would probably end up buying some furniture and possibly a bed. Of course I was sent out to find a few things we might need. I found this cool lamp and Chinese screen. Doesn't everyone need a saxophone player lamp

And a dancer to accompany it. How cool would that be on either side of the couch

Or bed. Huh. Pretty swank if I do say so myself.

Barbara didn't see it my way.

So back to the search. When we walked up to this place we had high hopes, ground floor, deck, 2 bedrooms. Well we had a bit of trouble seeing the deck through all the stuff. Kinda forest through the trees situation

They had a lot of furniture in a small space

I thought it was a two bedroom. They had built an additional bedroom in the dining room.

This is what they had in there. Unbelievable

How many kids do they have? More bunk beds

And I love the butterflies

Well we found a place and I'll let you guess which one it was out of all those viewed. Its moving day. Yea

Bye Tree Tops It was fun while it lasted

Hello Parc Emily

Our new pool. Its a bit of a monster. I tried to swim a few laps and it almost killed me

Remember all that stuff in the living room

Our new kitchen

Our new bed, yes we bought another new bed, in our new bedroom that open up onto the patio

Remember that tiny bedroom, this is how it looks with the bedroom removed. Obviously a bar belongs there. I'm not really sure why they left the turtle but we'll take it.

Our dining room. Looks a lot better without all the clothes and kids toys out here

They left all these plants as well which I love. They add a lot of privacy as well

Our view leaves a little to be desired but WHATEVER. We have a huge deck and a out door dining room. Oh yeah it also passes the height test.

Barbara's favorite room. Its a shoe closet outside the front door for our everyday shoes. Barbara is still getting used to the taking off your shoes custom here. She doesn't care for it. I told her to take it up with the government.