Corporate*partay!!

We attended our first corporate party on Friday 1/23!! It was a Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration and it was a blast! The entertainment was pretty darn funny, I participated in my first "Lo*Hei" and of course there was karaokee.  We stayed pretty late and in fact, we were the last ones to leave. It certainly helped that there was alot of free flowing booze all night long.  By the end of the night I loved Singapore and everyone in it - lol!

We've attended two Lo*Hei's the second being this past Monday. A large group of 20+ from work got together for a nice lunch on a golf course near work. We had a lovely breeze and a beautiful view. Lo*Hei, pronounced "lo hey" is a focal point of Chinese New Year celebrations in Singap*re and Mal*aysia. It is a salad made of julienned vegetables, a few sauces, sesame seeds and strips of raw fish among other items.  The salad itself is called Yu*sheng (I found this out while trying to find a link to attach to this post). Everyone gathers around and use their chopsticks to toss the salad up in the air as high as they can for good luck while yelling out wishes for the new year. It is customary that the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes. So you can imagine what an interesting and humorous scene this can be for us. Sean and I enjoyed participating in this tradition. Here are a few photos from my phone camera.

Sky Tour

One of my coworkers planned and arranged a little outing for us. My department which currently consists of 10 people, decided to go on a sky tour during our lunch break. It was a great way for us to see the progress of our construction site. I'm thrilled to be able to share these pics with you. We live on a beautiful island and every day for work we get shuttled into yet another beautiful island.  Our commute consists of a short walking distance to the MRT (train station), 4 train stops, drop Kylie off and right outside her school we catch the resort shuttle bus to work.  It just couldn't be more convenient than that. My first day riding to work almost 3 wks ago and even now occasionally, I get goose bumps from the amazing sights on my way to work. 

Isn't this picture just breathtaking?!?!

Pic below - Top right is a port. On the left is a huge mall and next to it is Kylie's school. This is the bridge we cross daily. Bottom is one of the hotels in progress.

We watch huge cruise line ships arrive and depart regurlarly. We're getting cruise fever...

Singapore's icon - Merlion

Welcome to *IKEA*

Welcome to our *IKEA* showroom. We've become quite efficient in our space planning. Most of our furniture serves multiple purposes. I'm actually getting used to living in half the space than we are used to. There is less to clean - yeah! We've gotten pretty creative with the space planning so the space does not feel cramped. It is still a work in progress but most of you have expressed interest in seeing our new home...so without further adeu...

We are walking distance from *IKEA* I thought big deal...and then I became a fan...

Our livingroom.

The chaise on the sofa is storage space. This couch is also a sofa bed. Talk about multi-purpose!!

Kylie's room is still a work in progress. The bed frame is actually one huge storage area. The bookcase is a bit lonely for now.

This multi-purpose room is Kylie's playroom as well as a guest room and Sean's closet is in here as he was generous enough to let me have my very own in the master bedroom.

More pics to come!

Simple pleasures

Today we enjoyed a day of leisure. We actually had a lovely long scenic walk and we let Kylie pass out at 3pm. She slept until a little after 5pm which usually means trouble getting her down for the night. But today was special. No worries, just relax and enjoy the simple pleasures including a sugary donut sweet after 9pm. We are not losing it here in S'Pore, we are just enjoying the simple pleasures of tropical evening breezes and enjoying conversations with friends by the pool. Of course, Kylie was wired which was fine as she was having a blast. She finally slowed down around 11pm and she and I came back upstairs to call it a night. Her happiness brought me back to the good old days when happiness for my sister and I meant a glass of chocolate milk and whatever host*ess treat we had in the pantry right before bed. Now as an adult that simple pleasure meant an *appletini* or Malibu* & pineapple topped with an adoring husband and perfect daughter to complete the perfect Saturday.

CNY Preparations

The whole island is buzzing with Chinese*New*Year preparations. We've been venturing out on the weekends exploring new places. We have not taken any touristy tours yet but we are not ruling them out either. It is so easy to get around town via public transportation. Even Kylie learned the names of each train stop to and from school before I did. Speaking of school, Kylie loves it and she is learning quite a bit. We sat down for dinner Friday night at a new Thai restaurant (new to me) and Kylie showed me that she could write the letter Q, V, X and attempted a few others that were not as apparent to me. But imagine how impressed and proud I was to see that she has learned this in just one week into her new school? 

I love my new job. I'm busier than ever and best of all I know what the heck I'm doing. We have alot of fun in the office and everyone has such a great personality. We laugh alot and everyone is working together as a team. From the moment I walked in the office after orientation on my first day, the team had a great laugh at my expense. You see, I had just discovered that Sean and I would be working together side by side and I do mean our desks are next to each other with a short cubicle divider in between. That seemed to break the ice right away and not once did I feel like the newbie or an outsider or a foreigner - well you get the idea. I have to admit it's been great working next to my hubby. He is so helpful and a great resource not to mention he is freakin' smart too. Another perk is that I've had a permanent lunch buddy:-) We will be working together in the same office for a few months. Then we will go to our respective locations. 

More tidbits on my new adventures to come. In the meantime I have tons of pictures to share. I just haven't taken the time to crop them. So I hope you still enjoy the real deal!

Photos

Trying to make up for the lack of photos. Enjoy!

Our new kitchen. 

Furniture arrived

Sights around town

A different view of the "silly" bridge.

Pretty decor at the mall.

Kylie's new favorite place in the pool area at our apt. complex

Our condo

It's beginning to feel like a home. Furniture is in, we have internet and as much as I complain about too much TV, I was going stir crazy without it and we finally have one. 

I feel very fortunate that hubby is making sure that Kylie and I have everything we need. It helps too that he made us a couple of dinners and he is a pretty darn good cook. We've gone grocery shopping several times and the prices on food can be pretty expensive like $8.00 for Kraft's Mac & Cheese, $9.00 for a bag of chips and can you believe $18 for Haagen Dazs Ice Cream?!?! We went to CPK with our friends the H's on Saturday and that was such a treat for me. I played Badminton yesterday for the first time and I had a great time. Kylie is enjoying herself. Except for the occassional 3yr old stubborness, she seems to be enjoying herself and her new school. She is such a trooper!

Tomorrow is my first day at work so this is just a quick post. These are some pics of the apt before. I'll post pics with the furniture later on this week.

Kylie was excited about our pool view. I caught her jumping in mid air.

Click on image to enlarge

Barbara - Bruiser is with a friend Yoly who used to watch him for us when we'd go away on vacation. She has another Min Pin and they have a doggy door with a big back yard. We miss him but it is comforting to know he is quite happy and in a great home where I can get updates on all of his mischief.  Thanks Yoly!

Kerri - We were hoping to see you guys before we left but we were down to the wire. In fact, we were still purging stuff in our hotel room xmas morning at 2am. We are pretty sure we1 made someone's xmas at the hotel with all of the stuff we ended up having to leave behind - lol!

Lynn - Thanks for being all over it! By the way, I didn't mean to leave my phone holder. If someone hasn't claimed it maybe you can send it to me, pretty please?!?!

Happy New Year!!!

From our family to yours, we would like to wish everyone a wonderful new year!! We've already had our celebration as our time zone is 12 hrs ahead from the states. We had a lovely evening with friends.

Today we are excited because our furniture will be arriving - yeah!! It took us several hours but we were able to pick out furniture for the entire apt. We will hopefully have everything we need to stay in our apt by today or tomorrow.

I finally have some pics to show you but Kylie is tugging at my arm because it is time for breakfast.  So I will post more pics later.  Stay safe!

Happy Birthday to my sister Yolanda!! She is a new year's eve baby. I love you Sis!

Kylie calls this the "crazy" or "silly bridge because it is quite colorful. This is walking distance from our hotel.

It actually looks much nicer in the evening with lights

Christmas tree in the main lobby of our new apt building

Signage in MRT (train station) So far we have been breaking a few rules:-)

Our first evening out. In case you ar wondering, I had a nice cobb salad. I am however having a bit of a difficult time finding stuff I like to eat. I'm sticking to pizza and other western style food as quickly as I can find it.

Kylie at the Orlando airport as we were heading out