Kitsch, samurai voices and long-johns

So now when we have most of the sensible stuff for our house, it was time for all the non-sensible-things-which-has-no-absolute-function-but-need-to-be-in-the-home-or-at-least-the-wife-will-feel-like-it’s-not-a-proper-household. So I went to Arab street, China Town, Haji Lane and Little India hunting for sofa pillows, candle holders, sarongs, towels, paintings, place mats.. It was like having a huge trip at ‘Indiska’ in Sweden, filled of ‘pling-plong’ devices, tassels and glitter!

Perfume and dressing bottles in an Egyptian glass store; the girl presenting them to me proudly pointed out which ones she had made. 

Water carafes made of glazed wood; they have really colorful wood art in general here, alongside the traditional non-colored typical ‘Indonesian-looking’ woodwork.

 

Entrance to China Town’s Sago Street; never go here in the afternoon, or you’ll melt away. If you do, make sure you down at least a few fresh fruit juices, preferably from the salsa dancing juice guy next to the German sausage man.. Yepp, only in Singaporean China Town I imagine. 

Green place mats and ‘gold’ candle holders; they came with completely horrible chop sticks, that I’ve hidden in a drawer far, far away.  

Seriously kitschy Asian paintings, but I really like them; oh, God, I’m turning into one of those Asian-nerds (we were making brutal fun out of the ‘Japan-nerds’ in Tokyo, who were so clearly westerners, [often blonde men with pony-tails for some reason], trying to hand over business cards with exaggerated bows or sounding like a character from an old samurai movie when they spoke Japanese, and really laughed our a**es off).

All in all, our home still misses a lot, but just being here for barely a month, I think we’ve done a good job so far. I just realized today when making mashed potatoes that stuff like a potato peeler had not snuck in the IKEA bag. Nor do we have bedside tables or a full length mirror, but that’s just extra things. I’m fully content not waking up because of earthquakes, being able to eat whatever I want and not having to drink bottled water. And to never ever have to wear long-johns again!

First real weekend in Singapore

Since we no longer were considered ‘Aliens’ and hence don’t need Alien registration cards, we only had to wait one week for our NIC cards. They work as the official identity cards and with it it’s possible to get an electricity/gas/H2O account, internet and TV license. This was a huge relief! We were also fortunate enough to spot an add in the newspaper about a huge electrical appliances sale. We therefore ended up with Jonas’ wet dream TV:

Samsung, 46’’, LED TV, Series C5 5000, BN69-04694E-00 and so on..

Last weekend started with a proper bang; I was at the pool in the morning after a swim, just reading and planning what to do next, when the skies went from blue to almost black in a few minutes. It was still sunny, so I didn’t notice much first, but then the sun disappeared and it was as if someone in the clouds decided to turn on a shower. It was raining so heavy I could only see a few meters in from of me. Then it was a bang, which was probably in the same category as when I accidently blew up parts of the lab during my 2^nd year as an undergrad, followed by a flash that lit up the entire sky. Everything got completely soaked before I got out of the rain, but luckily my pone has only gone slightly bonkers after wards and I didn’t get electrocuted.

Start of a Singaporean tropical thunderstorm 

Since in IKEA Singapore, they don’t necessarily sell full sets of furniture together if they come in different boxes. Therefore, we had been able to get the dining room table top, but not actual legs and frame with the big furniture batch. In addition, the frame was not to be restocked until the 16^th, so we had to have our first real dinner on the outdoor table. However, it was a great dinner and we were both very happy that it really started feeling like our own home. 

Starter: celery with Camembert cheese and avocado a la Eurenius (plain salt, pepper and lemon); Main course: pasta with creme fresh, bacon and vegetable sauce (of course with shit loads of chili) and mixed salad with mustard vinaigrette; Dessert: strawberries with cane sugar 

On the Saturday we were invited by friends to go and have ‘the best sea food in Singapore’. And it was truly amazing! We had fresh oysters, grilled lobster salad, trout, black cod and fantastic wine. We were supposed to go for additional dessert, but were so full by then it wasn’t even possible. I was also quite pleased everything on the plates was dead. That would not have been absolutely necessary, had it been Japan. Then we had our neighbors for dinner on the Sunday and they actually became the first dinner guests in our apartment! We have friends coming both this and next weekend, so it was good that everything worked. It was however quite evident that red wine and a white table were not ideal, so this week’s shopping list of mainly green kitsch (pillows for the sofa, candle holders, glass coasters..) was extended with place mats. Green of course; guess my favorite color.

First dinner guests: neighbors and new table

With new technology, there always seems to be extra stuff you need to invest in. I know, since I was once sent to get 32 meters cable for a surround system. Anyways, we needed an HDMI cable, a digital video recorder set-top box and headed for NEX. After cruising between people being positioned all over the six floors and endless escalators (I really miss the Japanese way of standing in strict lines in the escalators btw), we stumbled into a very weird sight. It was a whole country in the middle of the mall, made up of balloons. That’s what I really like here: it’s never entirely what you expect.  

Balloon land

Second week in Springbloom

Our second week we started exploring the area around our condo fully. We started with our garden and then decided to walk to all the different destinations recommended around us. First we headed for Serangoon center, walking along one of this area’s huge canals. I had just read about an expat family who found a 3m boa snake with their neighbor’s cat in its belly still moving, swimming past them in their canal, so I was a bit weary. In addition, Jonas had been running one morning when we just arrived, and stumbled over an almost 1m long leguan looking creature. However and fortunately, no snakes or lizards on this walk.

When we reached Serangoon center we found a smaller hawker center and decided to try one dish from every stall we thought looked good. I went for a big selection of various dumplings, we also had spring rolls and different kinds of noodles. Of course, Jonas found beer!  

Outstanding spring onion dumplings for S$0.7

We continued to Chomp Chomp and took a full look around at all different restaurants and shops. Since it looked so delicious, we decided to go for a second dinner comprised of fish soup, beef noodles, various vegetables and fresh fruit juice. I wanted fried oysters for desert, but could not fit anything more in my belly. 

Next day we just hung around the pool in the shade, reading books, swimming a little and slept. We were then offered two coffee tables for free if we came and got them ourselves, so we jumped into a taxi, picked them up and at 16.30 it was time to leave for Colbar. It was situated in the middle of a rain-forest area and we’d been specifically told to bring cash and mosquito spray. Our friends would bring Yatzy and we tried all kinds of strange beers under open sky.  

Jonas at Colbar

I then spent almost all day Monday and Tuesday writing blog texts and reports, waiting for internet to be installed. In addition, I made a new exciting pasta dish with all kinds of vegetables and of course spiced up with chili! After partially drowning myself and a small child in the vicinity trying to do some butterfly strokes, I ran into the neighbors and was invited out for lunch. We stopped by one of the local food markets and they insisted a look around for fish and spices. It was there I found my favorite crab, which I’ll definitely cook sometime soon (if Jonas is at home, so he can boil them, since they are alive): flower crab. 

Flower crab at our local Serangoon Center

To everyone’s amusement, I of course had to take pictures and was asking about everything I didn’t recognize. I felt like a child at a fun fair, running around pointing and looking very closely, until a huge gecko came walking between a box of mushroom and a pile of tomatoes. I had to really get a grip to not do the whole hysterical a-blonde-tourist-on-a-market-for-the-first-time-in-Asia-getting-freaked-out-by-a-friendly-lizard-since-she-hasn’t-understood-they-are-completely-safe scream, with the additional elope from the premises. I seriously hope I’ll get used to them, but I’m NOT walking alone close to market places or water at night, in case I accidently bump into a ‘Singaporean kangaroo’ (huge reddish rats with fluffy tails). Another thing they have here are seriously enormous grasshoppers with proper hooks on their legs; they don’t really hop and they are fortunately rare, but Jonas almost stepped on one the other day resulting in a quite funny Popeye jump along with a girly squeak. Of course I did the whole ‘Ouuaaahhhhiiii!!!’ and almost ran straight into a palm tree. I’m all for animals in the wild, but I think rats, snakes, any kind of big insects and pigeons should be executed on sight in a city.       

Proper curry at the local Indian spice stall; it’s mixed to whatever strength and flavor the customer wants

We also finished washing all new linen, ironing and putting away all the clothes and organized almost everything in the kitchen and bathroom. I think it’s really only after about a month that you know what you need and how practical the initial thoughts actually are; it’s after this you can really get the small things sorted to make you feel at home. I also find it very important to get all papers in order and use household stuff once or twice, to really get into the whole idea that the new place really is your own home. Since we’ve currently changed so many things from our lives in Tokyo and it’s almost unrecognizable compared to life in Gothenburg, it’s very important to have a permanent base with a doable everyday life. Like getting the wireless internet to work always, rather than 60% of the time you want to use it..

Bed room starting to come together

First week in The Springbloom

Besides moving all your stuff in, a huge part of feeling at home is getting all the food and house hold items for your new house in order. We hence steered towards NEX to get all the basic necessities, which took several hours. However, we were really feeling so liberated, since we could now read all the labels AND ask the staff if we needed to know something. Completely different from Japan, where you basically need to prepare with at least some translated words before you go, maybe be able to make yourself understood, they might have what you ask for and then go home with often a complete surprise. In Singapore they even have sections with Swedish food! 

Even though we’ve lived next to the world’s largest fish market Tsukiji in Tokyo, there are still stuff from the sea we’ve never seen, like this Slipper Lobster

The next thing to feel at home, at least if you are Swedish, is to get into the routines as quickly as possible. Morning and evening swimming was therefore set on the schedule and it’s seriously hard! At least to sort out the breathing when crawling; I’ve tried breathing in every 2^nd, 3^rd and now 4^th stroke, but have real troubles finding a rhythm. Will keep practicing though, since it’s very good exercise and power walking/jogging is just out of the question for me in this climate.

The path from The Jade at The Springbloom towards the exercise pool

The routines regarding washing clothes are still to come, but hanging wet clothes on the balcony in this country is just a pure joy; everything dries in less than an hour! I just pray I don’t have to fight of geckos around the washing machine any time soon again.

Pic from the elevators towards our balcony during dusk

It’s of course also important to get to know your new environment and start creating a social network as quick as possible to feel at home. I hence have taken a few days just walking around the city, taking the metro back and forth trying to decrease the extensive shopping list for the home we had acquired. After a lunch date with a new friend, Katarina, in Haji Lane (home of various new designers of clothes, furniture and jewelry), I passed a really strange building. It’s official name is something else, but it’s unofficially called ‘Gotham’ and it really looks like Batman’s home.  

‘Gotham’ or why not ‘Bruce’s crib’?

In addition, since I’m now the ‘Household Manager’ (which was actually filled in at the passport control by my dear man), it’s important to get the food right. Half of the time we really don’t know what we’re ordering and understanding the Singlish waiters’ answers to the questions you are asking at a restaurant is no picnic. Therefore I’ve decided to go strictly with European breakfast in the morning including hot coffee, musli, yoghurt AND bread, while gone completely bonkers with all kinds of news for dinner. So far we’ve not really had any red meat, since the selection from the sea, all fantastic fruit/vegetables and also the poultry is of very good quality and cheap. In addition, most of the beef seem to be slaughtered halal style, which does not agree with neither of us, so we’ve decided to keep away from it as much as possible. To get us a bit more used to the brutally spicy dishes I’ve started putting proper chili into almost everything and it actually works. However, I’m back in the situation where I have no oven, but I hope to sort that out as soon as possible. I want to reclaim my baking Mondays!  

On the menu in one of the local restaurants; for some reason, I don’t think this fish dish would go down very well in Sweden..