Crashing the gate crash

We stopped by Singapore mid-September, enroute back to Sydney from our holiday in Croatia. My brother was getting married! 😀

Unlike us, he opted for a more traditional Singaporean Chinese wedding, complete with gate crashing games. As we were on the groom’s side, we technically weren’t supposed to follow him to pick up his bride, but my aunt and cousin wanted to see the action. So we went incognito. Haha.

My dad loaned us his collection of fans – I don’t even know where or WHY he has them – and we supplemented the disguises with sunglasses and newspapers / magazines with eye hole cutouts.

Haha, somehow I don’t think our disguises helped much, but I think we had the most fun and laughs of the people in the playground that morning. And now my brother’s happily married!

Easter Weekend in Singapore

View of home from my brother’s drone

 

On a whim, we bought tickets back to Singapore over Easter. The plan was to surprise my parents. But surprise! They went traveling in Europe instead. ;/

That said, we had a really short but lovely time in Singapore. Hung out with my brother and his fiancé – and I have to say, I’ve not really spent much time with them before. But we had some good times: late night supper of fishball noodles right after we got off the plane; dinner with them and my grandparents on Saturday; we flew my brother’s new drone on Sunday morning, then met up again in the afternoon to visit the National Art Gallery.

It’s always lovely too to catch up with old friends. Though we no longer have the luxury of endless hours to lounge around and laugh over anything and everything, I’m always grateful for the snatches of time afforded.

Reconnecting

Took a long weekend trip back to Singapore. To be honest, I don’t prioritize going back home often enough. It’s vacation days that I could otherwise be using. And yet, it always feels sweet, but way too rushed whenever we go home.

Grateful for the family time – though this year, we’ve also met up in Hawaii and Sydney.

Grateful for the times spent with friends, all through from primary school, secondary school, junior college, college. Those precious few hours fly by way too quickly, especially when compared to the old school days when we could lounge for days at length chatting about anything and everything. But real life intercedes now. Family, kids, jobs. Thank you for the memories – and here’s to many more years of friendship!

Happy SG50

Last night, we had a bunch of Singaporean friends over for dinner. Made chicken satay and bak chor mee, my cousin brought mini durian ice cream mooncakes, TPR brought ang ku kueh and kueh dadar, and another friend hand carried Old Chang Kee fish balls and curry puffs all the way back from Singapore!

Great evening of much fun and good companionship. I’m really going to miss TPR when she moves.

In my last post, I’d said that I don’t consider Singapore to be home anymore. And I don’t really. It’s hard to, when the city changes faster than I can keep up with every time I go back, and old friends are now living out their own very different lives.

Still, you can take a girl out of Singapore, but you can’t take Singapore out of her. Only with Singaporeans can you develop instant camaraderie over food, and engage in endless debates on the best spots for specific cheap eats – point me to another country where its citizens reminisce over diner-type food – whilst stuffing our faces over a meal. And I do love it when I can break out into random bursts of Singlish, and everyone understands me perfectly!

Happy birthday Singapore!

Of some of my favorite things

Sunday: Made Bar Chor Mee, or literally, vinegary pork noodles. It’s my favorite dish in Singapore, and I managed to make a tasty version of it, if I say so myself. The secret is in the chili and black vinegar. I.e. don’t skimp! In fact, I boasted about it enough to my friends so that now they’re somehow coming over for dinner to celebrate Singapore’s National Day. Hehe.

Monday: Caught La Traviata at the Sydney Opera House. It’s one of my favorite, favorite operas. Glorious music from start to finish. And even Jeff stayed awake the entire evening without me needing to nudge him in the ribs! We both agreed: The set was sumptuous and intricately thought out; Jose Carbo as Giorgio Germont stole the evening. We weren’t that big fans of the other two leads, especially when compared (perhaps unfairly, but let’s just say, she was the most believable singing Violetta at the end heh) to the others we’ve seen in the role. Superb evening though. I came into work today still high from the beautiful pieces and erm, subjected to my coworkers some arias on the office music intercom (but it sounds way better than some of the shit I’ve had to grind my teeth through!).

Proud to be Singaporean

Last Monday morning, I woke up early to try catch the sunrise at Coogee. It wasn’t to be. The clouds were thick and grey, low over the horizon. For the briefest moment, I saw a silver of orange in the far horizon, then it was obscured.

As I walked back to the car, I glanced at my phone and saw an email from my aunt in DC. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore, had passed away at 3:18am Singapore time, about when I was struggling with my camera and the light. The gloomy weather seemed wholly appropriate then.

It’s odd. Along with many other Singaporeans who have taken to online forums, blogs, and social media vocalizing their bereavement this past week, I’ve been surprised at the extent of my sense of loss. I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life now living outside of Singapore, and can’t honestly say that I’ve kept up with politics back home. I took the opportunity though, to re-read his tomes, starting with The Singapore Story. I’ve read it a couple times over the years, but this time I had a much fuller and deeper appreciation of his and his team’s struggle. It took true visionaries to bring Singapore to where it is today, and testament to this fact is the long list of world leaders who have, over the past week, written touching tributes about the full life of Mr. Lee.

Maybe it’s my upbringing in a Chinese school (established by the government in 1956, in the midst of the Chinese Middle School Riots to allow non-communist students to continue their study) that critics’ charges that Mr. Lee and his government was needlessly autocratic never resonated with me. In fact, his government’s policies about the length of young men’s hair or chewing gum paled in comparison to the rules we had to subscribe to in school: girls’ skirts had to be at least an inch below the knee; their bangs had to be an inch above the eyebrows; white canvas school shoes had to be white washed with no stripes; boys had to wear neutral colored underpants. We also had detailed regulations about the type of watches we could wear, down to the specific design and size, as well as bags that we could carry – backpacks, in dark colors and brand patches had to be less than 5% of the surface volume. In any case, my classmates and I survived school, and I can’t say that we were the worse for those rules. If anything, we now chuckle fondly about the times we were punished for the many little infractions we managed to chalk up.

So, last week was a sad week for Singapore and Singaporeans. But, it was also a heart-warming week. In recent years, the online chatter has been that of complaints – about our lack of civil liberties, about the dominant one party, about whatever lah. But last week, the previously silent majority spoke up, and by gosh, the outpouring of acknowledgments and gratitude to his life’s work was phenomenal. Mr. Lee’s life-long dream was to work towards a Singapore where its citizens felt pride as one people, one nation. Last week, we paid tribute to his memory by doing exactly that. I spent many hours poring over the dozens of well written and thoughtful eulogies by world leaders, respected journalists, citizens, and his family.

This week and onwards though, it’s time to put the goodbyes aside. The best way we can honor his memory is to try to live life as he did.

Goodbye Mr Lee

May you rest in peace. You will be missed.

Two weeks in Singapore

We’re nearing the end of our two week vacation in Singapore already. This is the longest time I’ve come back to visit since moving abroad. Previously, it was always a jam-packed few days in and out between stopovers to nearby destinations. But since I’ve started to work remotely, and since we’re in between intercontinental moves, we thought it would be a good break to just slow down a little in Singapore.

Good times. We got to hang out with my parents a lot this trip, as well as really taken advantage of the new house they’ve built.

Enjoying the new pool – glad that my dad finally got convinced to turn the pond into a swimming pool!

The wading pool upstairs

We also got to play tourists in Singapore.

Spent a morning puttering around Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

Went to see Supertree park, where we had dinner at Indochine

Closer to home, we caught the sunrise by the beach

And had fun at the Trick Eye Museum at Resorts World Sentosa

I got to catch up with most of my friends too, at least once. The last time we were back two years ago, many friends were still living at home with their parents. The majority have now bought their own place, and started families already. It’s still a little startling how we’ve changed every time I think about it. Gosh.

And of course, we ate a lot this holiday. Too much. Trying to kickstart the intense workout I need to do once we end this little holiday, by swimming and climbing during the day. It’s not nearly enough though. We’ve enjoyed at least 3 big meals every single day. Usually, we just can’t resist throwing in a plate or two of hawker goodness for tea. We’ve checked off our favorite dishes at least 3 times this trip. 🙂

And now we’re finally ready, I think, for our next adventure!

Adventures in Bali and Singapore

Bali

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

Jeff diving the USS Liberty Wreck in Tulamben, Bali

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

Harlequin shrimp devouring a starfish in Tulamben, Bali

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

The main pool in Komeneka at Bisma in Ubud, Bali

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

Monkeys reign in Monkey Forest, Ubud, Bali

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

 

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

All it takes is 5 seconds

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

We bought the painting on the right… apparently, the dog approves. Ubud, Bali

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

Temple outside the Ubud Market, Bali

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

 

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

Sun sets over Komeneka at Bisma

Singapore

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

Back in Singapore, my dad hired an entertainment troupe for our dinner. Here’s a Chinese Face Changer (Bian Lian)

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

There were even TWO belly dancers!

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

After Jeff’s family arrives, we went on a tour around Singapore. I felt like a tourist myself, since many of the sights were new to me as well, including the super trees at Gardens by the Bay. I’m continuously amazed by how much the Singapore landscape changes by everytime I return

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

The Cloud Forest Dome at Gardens by the Bay – so lush and gorgeous

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

It took two tries before we were able to visit the Orchid Gardens within the Botanical Gardens… well at least the weather’s not as oppressively hot during monsoon season

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

Another new addition to the Singapore skyline

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

Love this view of Gardens by the Bay from the observation desk of Marina Bay Sands. I remember how the entire area used to be just a vast empty grassland, perfect for kite flying

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

View of East Coast Park (and even Malaysia, in the far off background)

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

I wonder who rides the flyer anymore, now that there’s a much better view of the Singapore skyline (and the formula 1 racetrack) from MBS

From Adventures in Singapore and Bali 2012

Central Business District and Clark Quay at dusk

A Home Away from Home

Friends
It was so good to be able to catch up with our friends in Singapore again, even if it was for a fleetingly short moment. Jeff even had a bunch of friends fly in from Taiwan and Malaysia.

We hosted a small dinner for 43 friends at one of my favorite restaurants in the city, Asia Grand. The food was good – although I only have a glancing memory of it. Heh. Glad too that afterwards, we had additional short opportunities to further catch up with them!

Those were the days when we had all the time in the world for sleepovers, camps, and travel abroad together. I just hope we manage to continue to stay in touch, regardless the distance.

Family
My parents and aunt were tireless this trip – they’ve had to essentially make airport runs to pick up/drop off the family every day since we flew in last Saturday night: our flight in from Chicago on early Sunday morning, our flight out to Bali Monday morning, my cousin’s flight in from Australia Wednesday evening, our flight from Bali Thursday afternoon, Jeff’s parents’ flight from New York early Saturday morning, his sister’s flight from New York early Sunday morning, my cousin’s flight back to Australia Sunday evening, my aunt’s flight back to DC late Monday evening, and our flight back to Chicago Tuesday morning. Jeff’s parents fly onto Hong Kong Wednesday evening, and then my dad has to make one more run early Thursday morning to pick up some of his employees coming in from China. Whew!

Through all this, my mum has been battling a bad bout of flu picked up from her trip to China two weeks before as well. They’ve managed to get maybe 6 hours of sleep each night and still have had to play your guides to us and Jeff’s family.

And then there was the dinner my dad hosted. I was quite adamant that I didn’t want a traditional wedding dinner with the hundreds of distant relatives and friends and I can only say that y parents were most accommodating. Between them, they could have easily filled up a ballroom with 300 people, but they only arranged for 7 tables of the closest relatives, and managers from my dad’s company. They also organized a surprise entertainment troupe! We had a small Chinese orchestra, a Chinese dancer who performed magic tricks with umbrellas, a Chinese face changer, and even a couple of belly dancers! It was, I have to say, the most cheena but also the most entertaining wedding dinner I had ever been to! We owe them a large debt of gratitude.

Jeff’s family happily made it to Singapore to visit – but it was a most arduous journey, thanks to Sandy. First, they had to evacuate their place in lower Manhattan, and then they rode out the brunt of the hurricane on the phone, making endless telephone calls to airlines to make new travel arrangements since their original flights out on Wednesday was shot to the winds by the flooding of the airports. After much frustration and a pretty penny later, Jeff’s brother and parents managed to snag flights to arrive in time for the dinner my dad hosted. His sister and brother-in-law eventually made it out the following day, but not before another flight cancellation because the pilot had been unable to get to the airport!

This was definitely a short and packed visit back – but I learnt that I have much, much, much to be thankful for, and that I should try to make more frequent visits back.