Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary! Jim and I escaped to Bintan, Indonesia again for a quick celebratory weekend getaway. We left straight from work and headed to paradise.   Bintan is a quick 50 minute ferry ride away (although thanks to the man getting sick very loudly on the boat – it seemed more like hours).

Thankfully, we arrived with our stomachs intact and quickly grabbed some Bintang beer for the 15 minute car ride to the resort.  We decided to treat ourselves this time – and stayed at a more luxury hotel – the Banyan Tree. 

Gobble! Gobble!

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Turkey Day from Singapore!

I am so happy we went home last week because it makes celebrating our first holiday abroad slightly easier.  While we were still homesick, we did find some pumpkin ale at Level33 (view above) and take-away (called Tapow here) to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Chicago

Jim and I made it home for a quick visit last week to Chicago.   It had been 6 months since we have seen our family and friends, and it was great to spend time with them.

Personally, I enjoyed the cooler weather  - boots, jackets, gloves and hats!  It was great to get all bundled up for a week (but I am extremely happy to be wearing shorts and tshirt right now).

Shake It Off! Shake It Off!

After listening to the Taylor Swift CD on repeat for several months now, the day finally arrived -  The Taylor Swift Concert in Singapore!  This event was pretty much the highlight of my year (with the exception of that wedding).  

In June, I had convinced Jim to get tickets.  The concert sold out in 5 minutes, but we were able to snag two incredibly pricey tickets. The concert turned out to be a good investment.  Taylor was seriously non-stop.  She was constantly moving and shaking- and so was her stage!

Happy Halloween

My favorite thing about Halloween is carving pumpkins!  Unfortunately, pumpkins did not appear to make it on the "import" list, and the ones that did carried a $50 price tag. Therefore, we decided to adapt to our new home and carve watermelons! They were slightly more sticky, and the juice created quite a mess, but it worked surprisingly well! 

Haze, Haze Go Away...

It is hard to believe that fall has ended and winter has begun!  Especially since we do not have “American” seasons in Singapore.  Singapore seasons are – Hot, Very Hot, Hazy and Monsoon.  We have just exited hazy and entered monsoon.

Hazy season was particularly bad this year, as evidenced by the photo below.  Both of our offices actually handed out masks to wear outside because the haze was that bad!  There were days we could barely see the river from our balcony – which is like 30 feet.   You can read all about the haze online, but the short story is that it is caused by forest fires in Indonesia resulting from the burning of the plants that produce palm oil.  During the height of the haze, grocery stores stopped carrying products with palm oil from Indonesia in protest.