Total madness as people get ready for Chinese New Year

Imagine the crowd of Christmas, just 10 times more.
It's so crowded and noisy, it makes me want to escape.

90 + 300

Today I spent 90S$ for a session with a physiotherapist. Given she didn't know me, we spent 45 minutes talking about my problem and my history. She effectively dud something for 15 minutes. I'm not sure it will help at all but I will give her another session before deciding. Funny enough the physiotherapist has German parents and grew up in Brussels. It is a small world.
Of course the session had to be paid on the spot. At that rate, I need to figure out quickly how to get reimbursed.

Later I spent, well we spent, 300S$ on the installation of our home theater system. Two men came. One of them spent a couple of hours putting rails on the walls for the cables. It's nicely and professionally done. The cables are barely visible. The other man spent about one hour with Wolfram setting up the system.
I have to say it is a whole new sound experience. The quality is 10x better at least and the experience much more alive.
It will be even better once we have our sofa.

While I question the money I spent on the physiotherapy today, I don't regret a second the home theater and its installation. And part of me is grateful that I live a life where I can afford such luxury.

He's back

Today I'm working from home. At some point during the morning I noticed something.
Our little gecko friend was back. More adventurous if I may say as it reached the TV.
I guess we will have to check inside the bed as of now just to be sure we don't have company.

Do you want to have it removed?

Today I went to the family clinic near the office. My back has been painful lately and I feel it is time to get a physiotherapist back in my life.
Step one was to get to a doctor.
I walked in, gave all my details, got a number and waited until it was my turn. Roughly 20min later I was with a doctor. So far the system was quite smooth and efficient.
I explained my case. I had brought with me all the reports from the doctors back in Belgium as well as the scans to save myself the pain to have to do them all over again. 
The scary part is while the doctor fully understood my issue and what was needed, the moment he heard about my lump, he offered to get it removed.
No way!
He knows me for 5 minutes and he already wants to cut me open!
I kindly explained that my lump and I have been living happily together (or so) for the past four years so before we cut me open, maybe we should check whether it grew. If not, it can just stay there.
Anyhow, I walked out of there with a prescription for an ultrasound and another one for physiotherapy. The latter is funny to read. After explaining what my problem is, it says..."Patient is very keen on physiotherapy. Please assist." That's pretty vague instructions if you ask me.
Tomorrow I have an appointment with a physiotherapist in a center on Orchard which is far from home but the only center where there was still a spot in the coming days. I'm curious to see how it goes and hope it will help.

One big box

As we bought our sofa we were entitled to two gifts:
- a red gift box
- tickets for the lucky draw to win, maybe a car.

Wolfram diligently filled up all the tickets and used all his positive thinking to influence the upcoming lucky draw. Who knows, we might win a car and in Singapore that's an even bigger win than everywhere else.

The red gift box was full of air. It contains a few envelopes to be used during Chinese New Year to give money to relatives or acquaintances or helper. If you ask me, that box is a waste of space and carton but again it's Asia. It's all in the way it looks.

A few more steps of settling in

This weekend is the first weekend since we are back from Europe when we have time and are not jet lagged or tired by a trip in India.
Therefore we've been busy:
- we've decided where to put the frames on the walls and Wolfram put them on.
- I've cleaned up all the windows removing the layer of dust and grease left from the construction. It's been bugging me since we moved in but I always had something more important to do (like preparing the wedding). Now we can see clearly and even have more sunlight.
- we've moved the bookshelves from the office to the guest room and consequently the expedit from the guest room to our room.
- we've ordered a sofa. It will be delivered early March. Once we have it we can consider that we are done moving in.
- I've called a cleaning lady. She will come tomorrow. Let's see how that goes. Hopefully well so we can tick that off the to do list.

And we've survived our first day of rain. It started to rain sometime last night and it never stop until 8pm tonight. It was grey, it was rainy, and strangely it felt like home. I guess that the Brittany girl in me :)

Making an appointment to the doctor

It's January and that's usually the time of the year that I do all the medical controls. This way it's done for the year.
This year, I am in Singapore which means:
- I need to find new doctors
- I need to figure out how to get reimbursed
On the first one, we stopped by at one of the approved clinic near the office to make an appointment. And failed. One has to call. I got out of there with one page full of names and specialties and numbers. Better know what you need.
Later during the day I checked online, found a number and called. That didn't work either.
What worked was to fill in the online tool to request an appointment. 2 hours later I had an SMS with a day and a time.
While I'm quite impressed by the online booking system, I'm still annoyed that I couldn't simply talk to someone.
On the second one, we will see tomorrow once I have my first bill. And yes I managed to get an appointment for the following day, which is also impressive.
Let's hope the doctor is any good.

Toe ring

A lot of women in India wear a toe ring. It does look nice so I asked one of the women in the team where I can find one. Now that I live in a warm country and my feet are out there most of the time, why not put some jewelry on it.
I was quickly explained that those toe rings are actually wedding toe rings. They are not there for decoration, they are the symbol of being married. The same way in Western world we wear a wedding ring on our hand, they wear in on the foot.
Good that I am married so that was only half a faux pas but it was not my best moment of the day.
I wanted to share this should you go one day to India, you can avoid being embarrassed by asking where to buy a toe ring which should come from your husband.

A few days in India

I've spent a week in India for a research, together with Wolfram as it was on the one project we work together.
This time it was in Bangalore. My overall impression about India remains the same, whether it's in the North, the Center of the South. India is very lively yet chaotic. Driving in India (or actually being driven) is an experience that only Cairo can compete with from what I've seen so far. There are cars, motorcycles and pedestrians everywhere in what appears to be a mess, yet traffic is moving. Slowly because messy but moving. The driver we had was convinced we could learn how to drive in Bangalore in only three days. I have serious doubt about that.

As always all the people I've met were very happy, somehow content with their lives no matter their income. Which always makes me think about my life and whether I really need all the things that I buy to be happy.

See some pictures of the streets where we went. Unfortunately we didn't have the time to see any of the city highlights, assuming there are some :)
Lot's of cows, domestic or free

Lot's of colors yet lots of garbage and dust everywhere

Joy, this one is for you

People dry coconuts on the roofs and later use it to make fire, in a similar way as charcoal.

Sadly we ate a lot of Western food during the week simply because we didn't have time or it was late and we ate at the hotel or it was the only one delivering where we were... many reasons, still no excuse to have eaten at McDonald's and ordered from Domino's Pizza in India. One detail, they do not serve beef as cows are sacred therefore the legendary BigMac is made with chicken and called Chicken Maharaja-Mac (that's not a joke). With a large population being vegetarian, there are many vegetarian options like the McVeggie that do not exist anywhere else or with paneer the Indian cottage cheese.
The few times were we did manage to get to Indian food it was excellent. I have tried new curries and Dosa a sort of big rice pancake that wraps a mix of potatoes and vegetables. At Sahib Sindh Sultan we had dinner in an old train compartment with waiters dressed like in the 19th century when the first Indian train was operated. They looked very colonial to me but the food was great and it was fun to sit there. We ordered randomly a selection of dishes with on top Raita and Naan because we love them. One thing I learned, although I probably knew already, India may have great food when it comes to desserts it's probably better to have a coffee. It's not really in the Indian culture to have dessert and therefore the choice is limited and not really impressing.

The day we went for a vacuum cleaner and came back with a sound system

Today once our chores were done, we jumped into a taxi (that's what you do when you don't have a car) direction Courts Megastore. It's supposed to be Asia's Largest Electrical, IT and Furniture Store and big it was. Three levels of furniture, electronics and home appliances.
I wanted to get a robot vacuum cleaner, like the one I saw at Joy and Yann's place. I had heard of those before but after seeing them in action I was convinced I needed one. Maybe also because in Singapore we don't have cats anymore so such appliance can't hurt them and more seriously because in Singapore there is some fine dust that gets inside and when you walk with wet feet (for example, after swimming) it makes marks.
But first we stopped by at the sound system corner as Wolfram had decided we needed one. We have a new TV, no sofa but we should get a sound system. I guess you know what happened from that point of time. We entered the booth from Denon, which must be the most expensive one or nearly. We sat down in comfortable armchairs and William, the salesman, put Transformers in the Blue Ray player. 30s later it felt like being in the movie theater with Dolby surround. The sound was great that I could feel the vibrations. Amazing. William was no fool, he started with his Rolls Royce. Of course that system was expensive and way more than what had briefly discussed in the taxi. We then experienced a simpler system but that was not the same.
We spent nearly one hour in the booth, got a rebate on the price because William knew "we really wanted it" and the wife (me) was hard to convince. He also told us that he has people who can come to our place and do the installation so my brand new husband doesn't have to go through the hassle of drilling in the walls or the ceiling to put the five loudspeakers. He gave us the cable needed to connect the receiver to the subwoofer. I still cannot believe that in that price range they sell devices without cables. As I told William, when I buy a car it comes with four wheels not three. So he gave us the cable. That man really wanted to sell.
In summary, next week our sound system will be delivered once we are back from India and the following they will install it. But first we need to get clearance from our landlord to drill... these are the rules in Singapore.

As for the vacuum cleaner robot, there was only one in the whole store, hidden behind fridges. We couldn't try it because the battery was empty. Once again, in Singapore, people don't invest in home appliances but rather get a maid. As a consequence the offer for home appliances that help making cleaning easier is limited. After all the maid has the whole day to clean or do the dishes... Maybe we should have bough one in Europe.

After Christmas it's time for Chinese New Year

Now that the Western world is done with the Holidays, shops in Singapore are removing the Christmas decoration. But don't worry, they are not going back to their usual self. All the Christmas decorations are now being replaced by Chinese New Year decorations, i.e. everything is turning eve more red than it was during Christmas.
After the Christmas M&M's, now you can buy Chinese New Year M&M's, or Toblerone or Kit Kat. Thanks Marketing for bringing to us those limited editions.

Chinese New Year is on February 10th this year. It's a holiday in Singapore which means we get a long weekend. Obviously we will go somewhere in the region. The only question is where. Let's think whether we want relax and beach or trek and adventure. We have a few weeks ahead of us to think about it.

Ants

This morning as I was cleaning (yep, still no cleaning lady), I spotted a tiny mini creature walking on the floor. It was an ant. A tiny mini extremely small one but nevertheless an ant.
Before we left for Europe Kimiko had mentioned to us that she had ants and was buying a whole bunch of traps and products to get rid of them. She leaves on the third floor.
I guess it took only three weeks for those evil creatures to find the way to the fourth floor.
I know we are now leaving in a tropical country so bugs are to be expected but I still don't like them.
Net, I'm on my way to buy an army of chemicals to get rid of them. Because in a place where Lamia lives, no bug has its place there.

When Yann says it will fit it does

Yann told us that our four suitcases and two backpacks would fit in the Mazda 3, including the four of us as well.
And it did! The car was loaded like never before but it worked.
And I got to spend a bit more time with Joy. Priceless!
Thanks Yann!

Finishing / Starting the year with amazing dinner

For the New Year's Eve, Joy, Yann, Wolfram and I had made a reservation at Le Quinzieme, the restaurant of Cyril Lignac in Paris. He is one of the new generation of French Chefs who are very popular by re-inventing and modernizing the classics of French gastronomy.

The menu was simply excellent, divine, exquisite... I don't know what is the best way to describe what we ate. Wolfram took picture of every course and will show you.
It was beautiful to see. We loved the dishes in which they were served as well. It was simply amazing to taste. The spices and ingredients were combined in a way that each course was a new experience and even better than the previous one. Well with one exception for me: the cheese which I didn't eat but I can tell you it smelled really bad.
I had the best mashed potatoes ever and I suspect the truffles inside probably had something to do with that.
The lobster and its sauce were just unbelievable. All the plates we returned were sparkling clean because we couldn't leave a single drop.
Each course was paired with a glass of wine selected to match perfectly. Nicely complementing the experience.
At midnight the Chef opened a mathusalem of Veuve Clicquot Champagne (that's 6 litters!!!!). We enjoyed two rounds of it while waiting for the rain to stop.

Nice surprise, for the girls, we received a piece of cake to take with us. Four slices of cake just in case we would get hungry during the night. I will save them for the flight later today. We are flying Economy this time so food will be bad and better bring a cake from a one start Michelin restaurant to still travel in style :)

It was expensive to eat in a one start Michelin restaurant but I don't regret a second. I will dream of some of the courses for a while and as we talked... they are worth being what I would ask to eat for my last meal if I ended up on death row - it's a long story why we started that topic :)