Normalcy

The kids have slept 12 hours for the past three nights (though Tom and I are still struggling with jet lag). Tempers are beginning to settle. Routines are being established: up at 7, Life is starting to be a bit more normal - well, sort of. 

I'm not sure what normal is here, but I know it's not the run, run, run that we've been doing. I decided if I'm trying to decide if we can live here, I need to have a few more normal days. Plus, the kids just need a rest. Hell, so do I!

So today we got up and instead of rushing off to some tourist spot, we leisurely poked around the flat. The kids played with toys. I checked emails and wrote a bit. At 10:45, we headed out to run errands. 

I love running errands in foreign countries. To me, nothing makes you feel more away from home than the grocery store. I love walking down the aisles looking at all the stuff you can't get at home - only here's the catch: most everything I see, I CAN get at home! 

Sure, there are things that I've never seen before. I adore that stuff. I was thinking today that maybe I'd buy one new food every time I go to the store. Not only are there new-to-me Asian foods, but foods from Europe and the Middle East that I can't find at home. The only thing I can't find so far that I really wanted to buy? Hot dogs that look normal. The couple I have found are filled with nitrates and MSG so that's not an option.

Some things are far more expensive - like cheese. Remember, Singapore is an island so EVERYTHING must be brought from abroad. If you're curious about prices, here's a site to check out prices:  http://www.qbfood.com.sg/path/index.php.

The one thing you won't see here is chewing gum. Nope. It's against the law. There's a $500 fine if you're caught with it!That's because they want to keep Singapore the cleanest city on Earth.

The pharmacy is equally interesting. Two tidbits: Advil, Tylenol and the like are only available with a prescription. I read that before we left so I brought my own. The other really odd thing to me is that while we have all these lotions to give us a glow or tan, here they have "whitening" lotions! People always want what they don't have! 

I think this disdain for tans is why so many Asians walk around in long sleeves - even in this heat! Cheryl told me she is afraid of the sun! 

For dinner, we've asked that we have some kind of Asian food every night. Tonight, Cheryl made us a Thai curry. Yum! And she taught me how to use a rice cooker. It's not very hard, but I've never used one so.. now I have!

You know, I may not quite know how to handle the whole "help" thing, but I do love the fact that she cooks every night!

A Little Experimenting

Damn it. When I woke up this morning it looked like rain again. It's hard to really tell what the weather will be because when I look it up on weather.com it's always the same: 88 with scattered thunderstorms and 75% humidity - give or take a few degrees.

My friend Laura is from Mississippi and says, 'The higher the hair, the closer to God." Well honey, it looks like I'm in hell 'cuz my hair is anything but high. I keep trying though Lord only knows why. I'm sure Cheryl snickers at my morning curlers. Heck, Tom still snickers at my morning curlers. 

It's hot here. I mean, really hot. In truth, it's not as hot as I expected. Then again, I hear we're having a cold snap. Ha! Even so, I can't believe what it feels like when I open the door to go outside - no matter the time of day.  If you've ever walked into a sauna, you'll have an idea. There's often a breeze and that helps, but most of the time, it's just damn hot. I'm from West Texas. I can do hot. I just can't handle the humidity.

Of course, New York is having heat wave number four this summer. Who knew we'd be "escaping the heat" in Singapore?!

Anyway, it looked like rain this morning so I decided that I needed to find an indoor activity. The Science Centre of Singapore seemed like a good idea.

Little did I know it was so far away! It was like going to Queens or Brooklyn from the Upper East Side of Manhattan: no simple task. Luckily, the subways here are fabulous.

That's no exaggeration. This is the absolute cleanest subway system I've ever seen. I'm sure the fines help keep it that way: $1000 if you smoke on the train. $500 if you eat or drink. 

There are also lots of elevators in the subways, known here as lifts. Making a trip with the kids on the subway is pretty pleasant. All except the part when Hudson tossed his sunglasses outside the closing subways doors. That one is such a rascal!

The Science Centre is in an area known as Jurong East. Cheryl tells me it's a more industrial area and it definitely had a different feel than the high living of Orchard. Even so, it was cleaner than other comparable areas in New York.

It's a pretty cool place, this science center. It's a bit like The Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. The kids were really too young to get all the science behind things. They only knew that things were cool and made them laugh. Even so, I think experiences like these help kids learn. I think maybe Cheryl had the best time of all. She's never been to anything like that before in her life. Remember, her house in the Philippines doesn't even have electricity!

The kids' favorite party HANDS down was the splash garden attached to the centre. There are LOTS of splash gardens here because it's so hot, but this one had some science associated with everything such as vortex machines into which kids could throw balls. Balls? Water? Hudson was in heaven! 

Here's a little interesting side story. I walked into the bathroom, saw the urinal and thought, "Oh geez, I'm in the men's room," and turned around and walked right out. Uh no - I was in the right bathroom after all! There was a little urinal and sink for boys going to the bathroom with their mommies! The seats also had built-in child potty seats. Incredible! I've heard so much about all the bad, weird bathrooms in Asia. I'm sure that'll be the case in China, but here in Singapore, it's not true. I forgot to mention, but the bathroom at the zoo had a WATERFALL!

The first pix are of the subway!

Adult Time!

There are a LOT of ex-pats here from all over the world... I mean a lot. I thought I'd walk down the street and feel very much in the minority, but in truth, there are a lot of westerners here. The really cool thing is that everybody who has moved here from somewhere else gets what it's like to be the new kid in town. Plus, everybody seems to know somebody who knows somebody who lives in Singapore. It was the same when I first moved to New York, but I was generally the one people would call when they got to town. I met a lot of my dear friends by meeting new people in town for a drink. Here, Tom and I have reached out to a few people and had our first double blind date so to speak.

Mitch is an old Army buddy of Tom's co-worker and is here as a project manager with Exxon. He invited us to meet him and his wife Heather for dinner. They live on the other end of Orchard so we took a cab, my first in town.

Cabs here are very cheap compared to New York. Also, traffic is much more managable mostly because nobody can afford to have a car here. Rumor has it that renting a car is something like $1500 a month! Word has it that buying a Honda Civic will run you $250,000! That's because they don't cars here so the taxes are incredibly high. The result is that thay have an amazing mass transit system, very little congestion and less pollution compared to other big cities. Cabs are one of the only things cheaper here than New York. Heck, Tom got a slice of pizza that cost him $8.50! A slice! Eating slices was a way to save money when I started out in New York.  My guess is there are cheaper slices in town, but we have to be careful not to assume that we're not getting a cheap meal when we grab a slice. 

Anyway, we met them in front of the St. Regis and walked to a steak house called Black Angus. Truth is, I'd prefer to have gone to a great Asian restaurant since all the places we've tried so far are holes in the wall (each one has been fabulous!), but it was kind of fun to try a steak in Asia. My meal wasn't a Texas steak by any means, but it was pretty darn good. 

It was great talking to some folks who have been here for a while. They have a two-year-old son named Mason and she has three older kids from a first marriage. We really enjoyed chatting with them and just being out and about - away from the kids at night! Heather is a scream and I feel really luck to have met her. She has already invited me out for a ladies night on Thursday and we're going to a playgroup on Wednesday. 

The best part is that we have a built-in babysitter in Cheryl. We gave her most of Saturday and Sunday off so she was happy to put the kids to bed for us. And it's not like we have to get home so she can get home at a decent hour. She sleeps in our apartment!

So after dinner, we strolled home admiring all the designer stores that were open late. Tom being Tom, we stopped in every shoe store along the way looking for a pair of flip-flops for him. With a size 13, he's got giant feet (not like I can throw stones in that department) so it's very hard to find shoes for him which will be a huge hardship for him if we move here permanently. Tom is a shoe addict and Hudson is just like his daddy! FINALLY, we found a pair to fit.

Orangutan Heaven

Uh did that really just happen? Did BOTH of our kids just sleep TWELVE hours!? Yes! Yes! Yes!

So we're off to see the number one attraction in Singapore something that is supposed to be the best in the world. When somebody tells me that something like that - or even if they just claim it's better than New York - I find myself thinking, "Oh yea... well, prove it!"

That was my attitude as we sat on the bus headed to the Singapore Zoo. The zoo sits on the northern end of the island and it was kind of fun to see the outer parts of the city. 

The trip took about 40 minutes and guess what? The zoo here really is something to behold. 

The zoo is lush with all sorts of tropical plants and monkeys are literally sitting in trees as you walk in the door. The zoo specializes in primates and there are dozens and dozens of monkeys here. You feel like you can reach out and touch them - and worry a little that they can reach out and touch you, too! 

Orangutans are the flagship animal here and there are 24 of them. I literally wanted to call my friend Linda Jacobs in Florida and giggle with her in delight. My favorite all-time assignment at CBS was a piece about Linda raising orangutan twins in her home. We've kept in touch over the years and I've gone back to see Pumpkin and Peanut three times since.

Here, there is a huge platform for the orangutans to climb and then there are two free-ranging areas. I still haven't quite figured out how this works. It SEEMS like the orangutans are allowed to just climb around - outside of any kind of fence. We saw one being fed directly over our heads. It was incredibly cool, but I was also a bit leary.

The other animals are also incredibly close up. I think that's because the enclosures are really small. So for us humans, it's a great way to see all the cool creatures because they're right there. I mean - RIGHT THERE! Giraffes, zebras, cheetahs - everybody is just a few feet away. I'm not so sure that's great for the animals though they all seemed pretty content.

We caught two shows. The first was a sea lion show which was quite average, but the second was an elephant show and wow - that was great! They had five elephants demonstrating how they can easily move trees, balance on beams, use their trunks including putting the trainer's hat back on his head. I loved it! That and the orangutans were my favorite. Tom liked how close all the animals were. Maisie liked the pony ride (no shock there) and Hudson got a kick out of feeding the bunnies.

The kids were especially delighted because they had hot dogs, chicken nuggets and french fries. Me and Tom? We got Asian food which is what we eat all the time here. I think it's very cool that we easily get dishes that I used to take a subway train a half hour to find in New York. The kids are learning to love some new stuff, too. Yea! We have yet to have a bad meal. More on food here in another blog.

While the day was really wonderful, five minutes of it were the worst of my life: Hudson got lost. Just as the sea lion show ended, I was a few feet away looking at a sign and Tom was standing with the stroller, reading a map. Hudson hopped out of the stroller and took off. He was probably only gone a minute before we noticed, but that was enough. He had totally disappeared. A mass of humanity leaving the show was walking towards me as I pushed through them. The one thing I had going for me is that Hudson is a blond child amongst a sea of Asians. I was screaming - half in tears - "Please help me! My son! My son Hudson is gone! He's blond! Hudson! Hudson!" 

I ran back to Tom. He hadn't found him either. We were both running everywhere searching frantically. Hudson is that kid who would climb into the lion cage and not think a thing about it. All sorts of visions of horror danced in my head. I headed back towards Tom one more time and finally heard somebody say, "Is this Hudson?" 

I scooped him up and started to cry. Hudson? He was laughing, never for a second worried that he couldn't find us. Maisie was maybe the most upset of all. "I was so worried about you! Don't ever, ever do that again! I love you, Hudson. I'd be sad if I didn't have a brother." That made me cry all the harder.

Hudson is now strapped in each and every time we go some place. Period.

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere!

Oh no... is that... is that...RAIN!? Dear God - NO!!!!!! 

I can't bear the thought of being inside with two toddlers. We don't have a car and - like any city - taxis here are impossible to get in the rain. So when I saw rain this morning, I almost started to cry.

We had this big day planned, all of it outside. Cheryl suggested we go to the Singapore Garden Festival at a place called Suntec which is Singapore's big convention center. She knows I like to walk and said we could do it pretty easily from here. Tom looked at a map and said it'd take 30 minutes.

We put on our raincoats and headed out into the rain. I've always liked walking in the rain, but pushing a stroller through the rain isn't as pleasant. Even in their raincoats, the kids' legs were getting wet. Plus, it's so bloody humid here that the raincoats were a bit like glue stuck to our skin.

We powered through and an hour later - not a half hour - an hour later we arrived.

The Garden Festival is a bit like The Philadelphia Flower Show though not as big I think. One floor here was devoted to nothing but orchids. It was truly amazing! There was every kind of orchid imaginable: big, little, red, yellow, purple, white - I mean this place had it all. 

Maisie and Tom did a batik painting while I chased after Hudson who was thrilled to get the chance to run. That little fella is fast - the fastest kid I've ever seen, in fact. He crawled like no other baby on the planet and now he runs faster than most adults. I'm not exaggerating. People always comment on how fast my boy is. He's so athletic in general. I am truly looking forward to retiring and living off his big income as a professional athlete!

One side story: the two of us took swimming in Briarcliff Manor at a rather large gym. After his lesson, I was putting on lotion, both of us butt naked when Hudson took off out the front door of the swim locker room. I ran to get a towel - a tiny, tiny gym towel that covers very little. By the time I caught up with him, he was in elliptical area, cutting madly this way and that way between the machines. I was running, bent over, arm extended with my bare bottom hanging out trying to catch my little man who was laughing hysterially, screaming, "Penis! Penis!" I finally grabbed him and hurried back to the locker room, mortified. That was bad enough, but the next day at Starbucks, I heard somebody telling her friend the story. Eegads.

Anyway - back to the flowers. One exhibit on this floor was a Smurf Village with a bubble machine pumping out dozens of floating wonders. Hudson was in heaven!

The next floor was my favorite featuring various landscapes each with a distinctly Asian feel. One of the winners here also often wins The Philadelpha Flower Show. Why did that surprise me? Anyway, there were various scenarios, some for balconies (which are a way of life here), some for tables, some for walls etc.

It was a good way to spend a rainy day and it gave me an idea of what it'd be like to live here versus be a tourist here. Simply, when I first moved to New York, I did all the tourist things: Statue of Liberty, Empire State, Times Square and, of course, the World Trade Centers (how I still miss them!). Eventually, I started doing other weekend things like the Macy's Flower Show. This Garden Show wasn't on my top list of tourist things to do here, but it was a great way to spend a rainy day with cranky, over-tired, hyped-up kids.

So now the truth: it was nice, but the Philadelphia Flower Show beats it hands down. I covered it several times for CBS and it is far more special. If you haven't been, go!