Finally

I had nearly given up.

As I moved to Singapore I got entitled to a company phone. I could choose between a Blackberry and an iPhone. Obviously I wanted an iPhone.
It finally arrived today!
Almost 3 months after I asked for it.
Why is that?
The initial request was for an iPhone 4S. However by the time the request got processed in the systems, it was about the same time they release the iPhone 5. For about a month, there was debate whether I would get a 4S or a 5. Back then I was fine with getting a 4S if it meant faster. But no. While they were asking it turned out they didn't have 4S left in stock, only 4. I was not willing to settle on a phone two generations old not willing to give up iPhone for a readily available Blackberry.
So I waited.
I sent a lot of email.
Mid October I was told it would take 3-4 weeks because there are no iPhone 5 in Singapore at all.
A couple of weeks ago I saw on the websites of the different providers in Singapore that they had iPhone 5 in stock.
A few more emails later asking why I could get one in stores but a corporate client has to wait, and finally today I got the message: "your iPhone is here".
Unbelievable. I had given hope that I would get my phone before we got back to Belgium. That was close because we are flying back in one week time.
Now I have to go and set it up, transfer all my Apps and more importantly make sure it stays out of range of a certain someone who's jealous.

Little visitor

He's back.
A few weeks ago I found a gecko in front the door. Gently Wolfram took him out. Unlike bugs, I like geckos, especially because they eat bugs. So no killing of geckos.
Tonight as I was putting a box back in the storage, something moved in the shadow. The gecko was back.
Well him or one of his little friends. We couldn't catch him so he's probably enjoying the perfumed night next to the detergents.

I can't help thinking that Mokka and Muffin would have loved playing with him. Even if I know it might have been dangerous for our little visitor.

I miss my cats...

Bananas

I bought them green. The greenest I could find in the shop.
Once back home I put them in the fruit bowl.
5 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) hours later they were yellow.
And from the experience of past week, in two days they will be brown.
That's a pace that I am not used to. Basically anything that's left outside will ripe in no time.

No I understand why people in the office have a second fridge.

BBQ with our neighbours/colleagues

As we moved in our condo we discovered that we were not the only one from our company. There are five other colleagues with their family living in Tresalveo. There might be more in the future as I know that LongLong a colleague of mine is also considering this condo. Soon there will be no point going to the office, we can just take the function room and work from there.
The Japanese crowd was organizing a BBQ and Kimiko was nice enough to extend the invitation to us. A bit after 5pm we showed up with sausages and beer, in the true spirit of a German BBQ... so I've been told.
Each of us brought some elements for the BBQ but the majority came from BBQ Wholesale. Quid? It's an online service that provides everything you need for a BBQ: not only the food, but also the char coal, the paper plates and cups, the cooling box and ice to keep the drinks cold. You order online and everything you need for a BBQ is delivered to your doorstep. Isn't that great? that's for sure an address I will keep in mine for future BBQ.
While the men were working on the fire, the women were setting up the table... so stereotypical if you ask me.
We were a bit anxious about joining a Japanese BBQ mostly because everybody would be Japanese and we don't speak Japanese. It turned out that people made an effort to include us in the conversation at least 80% of the time which is really nice. It's also interesting to chat with people who like us have been living or traveling around the world. It's so funny how they are fascinating by Europe in a similar way we are fascinating about Asia. What is normal for us, is exotic for them and the other way around.
Because we were the two Europeans, we got to try everything they brought that was Japanese:
- Onigiri: these are rice balls or triangles filled with fish or vegetable. Quite good actually although very filling. It made me smile because that's the food I remember seeing kids eating in manga cartoons. Apparently it's typical for picnic, BBQ or any occasion when someone has to eat on the go
- Sauces: lots' of them. There was two for the beef, one for the noodles. All very good. No idea what was inside but I tried to remember what the bottle looks like in case I want to buys some in the future.
- Liquor: someone brought Japanese liquor which "like whiskey" can be drunk on the rock or diluted. If you asked me it tasted vaguely like vodka but not strong enough. Probably because it was only 27% alcohol.

While we were eating we talked a lot about moving to Singapore. Some of the concerns and experiences we had are the same for them. Japan is clearly different in terms of way of living vs. the rest of Asia and for Japanese, moving to Singapore is as crazy as it is for us to move from Europe. Something to do with moving from a developed country to a developing one, even if Singapore is probably the most developed of the developing.

Net, it was a good night with good food (too much food actually) and really nice people.

The rings

Earlier this week Wolfram received a call. It was the jewelry shop. Our wedding rings had arrived!
Tonight we went to pick them up.
As it is the custom in jewelry shops in Singapore, which by now we know by heart, we were asked to sit down and were offered a cup of tea while they were bringing the rings.
Finally they were there. We quickly put them on and...
... mine was perfect.
... Wolfram's was too big :( really too big.
I guess some of the 5kg he lost since in Singapore were located in the fingers. It could also be the effect of temperature making fingers larger or slimmer. Anyhow his ring was too big.
We spent another half hour drinking more tea and trying out different sizes to find the right one. They will order a smaller one and we hope it can be there before we leave for Belgium. If not, we will do the ceremony with that ring and get the final one when back in Singapore in January.
Keep your fingers crossed that it will arrive on time.

And because we spent a lot of money on them we received gifts with the rings:
- a ring pillow, which we don't need because my aunt is taking care of it
- a guestbook, which we didn't have yet so it's one thing less to buy before the wedding
- a bottle a champagne from I don't know where which in principle is a very nice gift in Singapore given the price of alcohol.
All of this got us to wonder by how much we overpaid our rings. Anyway it felt like Christmas in advance.
As for the engraving, we can have up to 22 characters, space included. Any suggestion?

J-30

30 days to go before the wedding.
30 days only to complete the preparation and the last minute details.

Luckily I am surrounded by people willing to help. I am very fortunate to have such family and friends...and yes also my future husband :)

Getting ready to work from home

One of our benefits is an allowance to help us set up an office at home. We each receive some money to equip our home office with things like a desk, a chair, a printer, a phone, etc.
We have the desk, my grand-mother's table and the printer recently bought. But we were still missing a few critical elements like the chair.
As part of our relocation we were entitle to half a day of orientation in our area with the objective to help us find what we need. We had shared a full list of items covering a wide range: French and German bakeries, shoe repair, domestic help, sofa, DYI shop, etc.
As we wanted to have Lena who was so helpful during our Look See trip, it took a while before we could do our orientation. She is very popular therefore very busy.
Today she picked us up around 2:30pm and took us to several furniture shops in Singapore that are "warehouse". What this means is that those shops are not in shopping area but in a warehouse, which means their rent is lower, and therefore their prices as well. Smart, isn't it? We saw very nice "warehouses" with very nice furniture. Not sure any would have a sofa that suits us but for sure should we need shelves, table or any Asian style furniture we know where to go now.
In one of them we found office chairs and took the opportunity to try them all. We did find one that worked for both of us which is not easy given 1) we are taller than the average Singaporean and 2) Wolfram is taller than me so usually what works for me doesn't work for him and the other way around. This time we found and at a reasonable price. Wolfram tried hard to negotiate but the shop assistant was not willing to go down more than 10S$. Still an office chair for 420S$ (270EUR) is pretty ok.
After that Lena took us to another shopping center where we can buy discounted electronics. We bought two fans for only 55S$ each: one for the office, one for the living room. Both working with a remote which is cool. Once we have a sofa we will be able to switch the fan on/off without getting up. We also bought an extra phone.
Why one more phone? because we have three phone lines:
- our private one
- Lamia's work
- Wolfram's work
Thus we need three phones and we only had two. We bought one extra Siemens, same collection as the one we have now. In theory we could connect them all and create a massive phone network at home.

By 6pm we were back home with most of what we need to work from home (chair will be delivered on Tuesday), plenty of addresses for furniture shops, contacts for domestic help agencies and the address of "the" French bakery of Singapore.
Quite efficient afternoon I have to say.

Now let's get the internet to work properly.
After my call on Thursday night, and Wolfram's on Friday, they will send a "senior" technician tomorrow. Let's see if he is any better than the one from last week.

First victims

Last Friday I got caught in the rain on my way to meet Alice. I got wet and so did my shoes.
This morning I grabbed them to put them on when I realized there was something on the sole.
Mold!!!!
Plenty of it. Different colors even!!!!!

I had been warned that leather gets moldy in Singapore. I would have never believed that in can happen in a few days only.
I tried to clean it but it's deeply inside so sadly I had to throw them away.

As of now I'm walking to and from the office in flip flops. I don't want to waste a pair of shoes each time it rains.

Those shoes were maybe not my favorite but I liked them. I'm sad we have to part prematurely :(

30K

After our success at the 20K in Brussels, Alice and I decided to take it to the next level. This time in Singapore. This time 30K. Not in one go. Split into two parts: 9K at sunset and 21K at sunrise. The 100 Plus Passion Run.
Last weekend I picked up our bib, chip and goodies. It was a nice surprise to find all the goodies we received: an orange singlet, a pair of socks, a towel, a backpack big enough to carry a laptop and plenty of other things, a notebook with our name on it (yep individualized notebook), and a voucher for massage. No comparison vs. what we received usually in Europe. It felt like Christmas.
At sunset on Saturday, we arrived at the East Coast park to find a sea of people dressed in orange. Apparently we were supposed to wear the orange singlet, which we chose not too because orange is simply not our color. While we were warming up - which if you ask me is not really needed given the temperature, no doubt that my muscles were warm - there was the parent-kid race. That was fun to watch. Some parents were pulling the kids. Some kids were pulling the parents. Some were trying to look alike. But all were having fun and that was really nice to watch.
Eventually it was our turn to hit the ground. We took it slowly as it was very hot and the purpose was to have fun and catch up on everything we haven't talked about since I left Belgium. The temperature and the humidity made the exercise harder. What we thought would be a nice little walk at sunset turned out to be a real work-out.
As the sun went down, I realized the advantage of the flashy orange. Runners wearing flashy orange are more visible a night.
That was part one.
Part two started at 5:15am on Sunday morning. If you have to be starting a race at 7am, you have to have breakfast at 5am or so.
By 6:30am we were back at the park. This time I was alone to walk. I had my very own coach helping gear up and my very own photographer documenting the preparation.
At 7am I left for 21K.
I had music, I had water, I had motivation.
What I didn't have was a cooling system. Despite it was 7am it was already super hot. And by the time the sun was up and facing me I could barely see through the sweat running on my face. Luckily they were giving out water every 2 km, which was more than welcome. Even more luckily at half way point there was Alice with a towel which I happily grabbed.
The second half was even harder as I got tired and even hungry as of km18.
Yet I powered through and finished in I believe 2 hours and 55min. I will know the final timing in a couple of days.
While I'm happy I could do it all by myself, I missed Alice. It's such much more fun to have someone to talk while suffering and asking a  million times "why are we doing this?"

Maybe because it feels good when it's offer :)

Diwali celebration

Coming Tuesday is a national holiday in Singapore. Diwali or Deepavali is the festival of lights celebrated by Hindu. In India this festival is as important as Christmas is to us.
The Indian community in our center took the opportunity of the upcoming Diwali for a little celebration on Friday afternoon.
In the hallway the women had made a traditional flower composition made of small flowers.

As each person entered the pantry we were marked with a Bindi (the traditional red dot applied on the forehead). The group had prepared traditional food and drinks for us to try, which was quite nice. Some more surprising than others but worth the try. Each time I have Indian food I am always amazed by the way they manage to combine spices. They have their secrets which I'd love to know.
For entertainment the program was music and dance.
Music first with a colleague playing the Indian sitar. The instrument is huge and looks very complex to play. But it sounds beautifully.

Then dance with a small choreography prepared in the Bollywood style. That drove the crowd crazy, even more when you see the people you work with dancing.

Fruit paradise

While we were at work today, Alice went to the market nearby and bought fruits.
We came back to find the house full of lychee's, mangoes, jack fruit, lime, pomegranate, and more.
I have to say it is really nice to come home and find fresh fruits.

Consequently Wolfram and I have been contemplating keeping Alice for longer...

Trouble with the oven

Today was the first day I used the oven and I did not get very far.
The oven makes the fuse blow. After careful trial we figured out that the oven works well as long as the temperature is set for 50 C or less. Anything higher and the fuse blows.
It seems our kitchen is equipped with an oven that cannot heat. That's slightly annoying given the primary function of an over is heating.
We have to wait Monday for contacting the management of the condo to have this fixed.

This means no cake this weekend. I'm disappointed as I was looking forward to baking. Let's hope this can be quickly repaired.

A week has gone

A week has gone this we moved in. I worked a lot. We both did. That's pretty much the only thing we did in the past five days which tells me it's not good for our work/life balance.
Last night we did manage to leave early enough to stop by shops to get the missing hose that Wolfram needed for the plumbing of the washing machine and dish washer. We also bought a new DVD player, which does Blue Ray. We considered buying a Blue Ray DVD but gave up when we realized it cost 30-50 S$ (!!!!!!!!!! that's insane if you ask me). I start to think we will order a bunch of those from Amazon in Europe and pick them up in December.

We are less than seven weeks from the wedding and still many things to do. Priority this weekend will have to be on wedding. This also means I get to see my family in friends in only seven weeks :)

And we haven't done a thing to find a cleaning lady which means I'll have to clean the house this weekend :(