A Day in the Life

I had such high hopes for today. 

For the morning, I was shooting to take the kids to this cool cafe in Istana Park, a park that is very close to us that sits directly across from the Istana. Art Palates Cafe is a spot where people can paint and drink coffee or wine. The place offers classes, but is also a spot for folks who just want to hang and get their Monet on. I read that kids could paint while moms slurp. It sounded like nirvana. Uh well.... I schlepped all the way over in yet another day of simmering heat only to find out that Hudson is about 5 years too young for the program. Rah.

So the day became a day of grocery shopping and playdough - and eventually a very happy afternoon golf lesson. Hudson LOVES golf. He was absolutely thrilled to get the chance to whack the ball over and over.

When it comes to doing errands and playing chauffeur, I really miss just popping in the car, driving to the grocery store, loading up my cart with everything I need for a week and then driving home. Now, I can only load up just so much on the stroller and walk home. The stroller gets heavy and becomes as wide as a bus. It ain't fun.

i've talked about the grocery stores before, but there are a few things I haven't mentioned - like how many noodles there are! Forget Cup-A-Soups. Those are for beginners! There are dozens and dozens of kinds of instant noodles, fresh noodles, dried noodles. The same goes for bags of rice. It's mind-boggling, particularly since much of the writing on them is in some Asian language I can't read. There are also a lot of sushi choices in the grocery store. Yum!

There are also a lot of fruits I don't recognize both at the stores and at the various roadside markets.

In Thailand, we had rambutan, something we first had 11 years ago when Tom bought a bag of them at a floating market. They are WEIRD looking with these long, soft, hair-like things. Inside, there's a white, filmy fruit unlike anything we have in the US. It kind of looks like a peeled, clear, giant grape. It's yummier than you'd imagine.

Here in Singapore, you can buy lots of other weird fruits. Dragonfruit is my favorite - well, to look at anyway. The outside is pink and odd. The inside is white with black polka dots and a little bland. There are so many different kinds of fruits. Some I like, some I hate.

I tried a diet meal today - low calorie Laksa. It was the Asian version of a Weight Watchers meal except that WW meals are pretty tasty. This was hard to choke down. It gave me the willies even. So that settles it: when I get home I have to hit the diet HARD. I have no idea how to lose weight here. Each dish has so many mystery ingredients that I have no idea how to count calories.

Malls are interesting, too. Almost every single mall here has these bargain tables set up smack dab in the middle where you can buy all sorts of little items. I actually bought BPA-free snack boxes for the kids to use at school next week.

The second most-important Chinese holiday is celebrated this week, The Mooncake Festival also known as the Mid-Autumn festival.  It's basically a lunar harvest festival. To celebrate, the Chinese eat mooncakes - or anything else round. Already, little altars are springing up all over town. I'll write more about the festival in the coming days, but it's definitely nice to be in a place where so many holidays are celebrated. As I understand it, all the major religions here get two national holidays. I think Christians get Good Friday and Christmas. I think that's pretty cool. There's no better way to learn tolerance than to live side by side.