Thanks so much Jack! You are the first to do it, and that makes me happy. I'll post this challenge out for everyone to email me a picture of themselves drinking a Tim Hortons coffee to remind me of home. I actually have a few cousins that work in Tim Hortons so hopefully we will get lots of pictures right? We shall see. But in the mean time it's kind of a fun little distraction, and with everything going on it's quite needed. I've added a quote from jack's email at the bottom. I hope he doesn't mind.

"I asked Shawna to take a picture of me with a Timmie's coffee for you. This is the picture she took. I look like I'm hung over, or maybe still drunk. Then she insisted I send this picture. So here you go. Me, drinking a Timmie's coffee, for you. You didn't say it had to be a good picture."

SkyCable Dinning

Jen and I enjoyed an evening of "cable car dinning" from Mt Faber ( the highest point in Singapore) to Sentosa (Singapore's resort island). It takes about 24 minutes round trip, so our dinner was three round trips. One course of the meal on each trip. It was a great night out, though very expensive. $168 sing dollars for the dinner (that's about $125 Canadian). Pretty high price for only one glass of wine each. It took a while before it began because we didn't know what time it was supposed to start so we wandered around Singapore for a while and then waited for about an hour at Mt Faber.

The food was great, although very western. After a few exciting hawker stand visits it was a welcome change. :D

The view was amazing but almost impossible to take a picture of. I have about 20 really blurry photos and only one or tow clear ones. It didn't bounce around so much you'd get sick, but it was enough to wreck some of the pics.

Jen had chicken and I had beef. Actually we split both, and then we had a nice chocolate brownie.

mmmmmm.

I have to admit I feel kind of conceited putting up pictures of myself, so I will balance it out with a nice picture of my eight inch friend here. This is easily the biggest spider that I have ever seen, and I hope to never see it again. If I stretch my fingers out as far as they can go it will still not be as big as this spider. It was sitting in a giant 5 foot web beside the restaurant at Mt Faber. I was about 4 meters from it in this picture. There was no way I was getting any closer, and I didn't stick around long enough to zoom in.

Jen and I on the MRT

This one is a quicky. Jen has been with me for a few weeks now, and together we have explored a bit of Singapore. My next post will have our pictures from the cable car of Mount Faber. ooo exciting!

Our Apt and a cool BBQ

Ok. I admit it. These pictures are not new. I got lazy and did not take any pictures of our new apt. BUT I do have these photos from my cell phone that I took to show Jen the place before we got it. We now live in the top two floors of this lovely four floor building.

This is our pool and our view from our living room and bedroom. It is 1.4meters to 2 meters deep. On the weekend there are about 6 regular kids playing in it. Melanie will have lots of fun. The weight room is beside the far end of this pool, and the BBQ pit would be behind the camera and off to the left. We can see the BBQ from our dining room window. Today Jen and I went for a 15 min walk to the East Point Mall. It was a nice close walk to everything we will need.

This is our dinning room area. Alicia and her friend from Amsterdam went with me the first time I looked at the place. I think it was a good idea to bring a "local" with me. If you read this Alicia, thank you. This is pretty much my living room now. The only thing that is really missing from what I have now is the piano. We asked them to leave it but... what can you do. The TV and stereo are still here. The colours are interesting, but believe it or not that kinda work for the space. There are lots of little Chinese knick knacks that add to the experience. It was funny they had a Chinese style horse lamp that the owners sun tried to tell me it was like the terracotta warriors. I don't think they had lamps back 2200 years ago, but I didn't want to ruin his delusions so I nodded politely and oooed and awwwed appropriately.

It is Sunday here today, and a bunch of people from work were having a BBQ in the east coast park. It was beautiful, and a great chance for Jen to meet the people I work with, and there significant others. We had a great time.

The weather was perfect for a beach side BBQ (which was god because it had rained pretty hard earlier in the day).

Now back to Singapore!

When I arrived here, as I mentioned earlier I stayed in a "service apartment" called the Far East service apartments. I've got a few pictures now of the "Far East" and from around Singapore.


The airport was nice (once I got away from the security with the machine guns anyway). Work was great because they had a limp driver waiting at the airport with a sign with my name on it. It was so cool. It was hot out but I didn't seem to notice. The limo driver said it was 32 degrees.


It took about 30 min to get from the airport to the service apt. The drive was really nice. Lots of flowers, and jungle type foliage. It turns out that the apt is right "down town", in the most touristy part of Singapore. The first seven floors are a teeny bopper stylish mall. I was on the 13th floor. I hoped that wasn't an omen. I took comfort in my view. It looks out north east I think. Honestly all of my direction skills have been lost here. Those trees are scattered all around Singapore, and some of them must be 50-60 years old. I think it is really amazing having so much green in what is really a big city. I've heard that it has the largest rain forest inside a city anywhere in the world.

Here is someone who you may remember form the dark Elliott days. She is doing well here, and become quite an accomplished dragon boat racer. Do you recognize her? It's Alicia! This was my first day in Singapore. Alicia invited me to watch her dragon boating. They do it almost every Saturday I think. It was really nice out but I was exhausted, and ended up leaving a bit early. She has worked really hard to make me feel welcome. (be nice Jon and Andrew) There are so many opertunities for nice pictures. Once I ... uh... aquire.. a new copy of photoshop, I'll make these really pretty but for now they are straight out of the camera.

This last picture is the view from the MRT (mass rapid transit) Expo station. The building in the glory is the signature building where Lucasfilm Animation Singapore BV works it's magic. So far, four weeks in, it is going well. Tomorrow. I will write a new post and show pictures of Jen and my cable car dinner experience and some photos of my new place. I can't call it home yet, (not with out the girls) but I'm sure it will be. We bought a digital camera for me to use here while they have the other one at ... I was about to say home, but maybe I should just say in whitby instead. That's one of the strange parts of this move.

Big Rock, the Ranch, and the Bay area.

I have finally developed the pictures from San Fran. Well to be honest Jen developed them. She has been here for the last two weeks while we chose an apt/condo to live in. She goes home next week, and then I will start posting more again. Anyway... Here are some pics to show my trip. This was my first morning drive into the new lucasfilm studio, called the Big Rock.

I was very nervous as I've stated earlier, but I don't need to get into that again. You will never guess why they call it the big rock. It has nothing to do Nicolas Cage or Micheal Bay.

Yup there it is. The Big Rock. It was really big, for a rock.

I have lots of pictures of the hills and twisting roads that I had to pass on my way there but if you weren't there they really don't mean much. After all once you've seen one hill they are all pretty much the same.

I didn't take this picture on my first day, I was a bit too excited to have that kind of presence of mind, and it took a few days for me to get it. I later found out I was only supposed to take a picture at the ranch if I was in it. If anyone from lucasfilm reads this I apologize.

Ok I said I wouldn't show nay hills or winding roads but I couldn't resist.
This was my view on my way to the acqua hotel in San Fransisco after my first day. It was breath taking.

Apt hunting.

Because my stay in the glorious far east service apartments is only temporary, I must search for an apt. I'd prefer a house but being an island means space is at a premium, and a condo or apt is the only thing I will be able to afford. In Singapore the housing is split into 4 groups.

The HDB (housing development board) is govt sponsored, and something like 85% of the locals live in an HDB apartment. They are very cheap (even by Canadian standards) but not without draw backs. The feel just like the govt housing in Toronto. I have visited 5 of these so far and am not very impressed. I can't quite put my finger on why... maybe it was the one missing a kitchen, or the one with an air conditioner unit in the living room. I loved the way the agent at one apt told me the view was really good because it was unobstructed. He was correct. It was unobstructed, and had a delight full view of the parking lot, and dumpsters.

The next group are called private apartments. They are owned by an individual or corporation, and rented out for a hefty price to the upper middle class of Singapore. Usually they are newer buildings, with lots of amenities like pools and gyms, and have nice western toilets (unlike the eastern holes in the ground which, interestingly enough, still flush) and bath tubs. This is the group that I will fit into if I can. The rents are about double the HDB, but I think it is worth it. The one I really like is only about 15 min walk from work, which will be great for me, but it does not have much around it so Jen and the girls might get a bit board. I will wait and see what Jen thinks before comiting myself to anything.

Above those are what is known as ex pat condos. They are gorgeous, and have everything you would want in a home. Marble counter tops, nice furniture, lots of nice trim work that is brass or silver. Basically it is where the rich executive business types stay. Kind of like a 5 star hotel only you live there. They're price ranges to about double the private apts. If you do the math to figure out it's 4 times what the locals pay. These buildings will have concierge service and door men, and probably maids too but I'm not so sure on that.

Then the last group is home owners. It's a very small group. Most condos are selling for 1.5million right on up to the extreme. Houses in the 2 million dollar range and up. I won't even consider those. Though Jen says we might be able to one day.

If i get the apt I like I might be able to upload some pictures of it. Jen is arriving today and she will have the digital camera (I hope) so this long winded text blog can get some colour again!!

Star Wars Is cool.

I have the best job ever. I've watched the original star wars movies twice each since getting here. Good job George!

The Roach Encounter...

OMG the roaches here are really really big. I was walking late one night and noticed a brown cell phone sized rock lying in the middle of the sidewalk. I thought, "that's odd", and took a step closer. To my surprise, it moved. It spun around to face me with an evil glint in it's beady eyes. I swore as I realized what it was, and then retreated quickly to a safe distance, thankful to not have been eaten, and hoping that my swearing didn't sound like a little girls cry. The experience left me startled, and unsettled. Can I really live with these beasts? Can my family? Yikes I hope so. Later that night while trying to sleep, I would cringed and jump every time a small breeze would tickle an arm hair. Was it the roach coming back to finish the job? I could imagine it's long antenna poking my arm and getting ready to bite. I ended up leaving a light on to make sure I could see any predators before they got too close.