During the month we have now spent in our new apartment and roughly the month and a half in Singapore, we have really been so blessed meeting a lot of fun, interesting and giving people. We have been to several dinner parties, where a fab evening at ‘casa de Wanland’ with unforgettable discussions, plenty of laughter and an amazing lemon/meringue pie was followed by an evening at Springbloom with very interesting cooking (maybe I should start making new recipes once before shoving them down friends’ throats..), a lot of music and fantastic people. Thank you David, Claudia, Anna and Micke!
Jonas cutting the hands down most fluffy dessert I’ve ever tasted!
We also had a really mind blowing evening, starting out at the 62nd floor at the sky bar Altitude (http://www.theskybars.com/1-altitude-sky-bar-in-singapore/) with colleagues from Tokyo and new friends. We were lucky to get a ‘window’ table to both J’s and my sort of scared-of-heights-issues (there’s no roof and only ca 1.2 m glass walls..). It felt truly spectacular to sit and look down on Marina Bay Sands hotel and have a view over the Singapore Flyer along with the Art and Science museum and the mighty casino in front of it all. We then ended up in an almost ‘Creole’-styled restaurant in a very cozy little neighborhood and had homemade hamburgers and a cheese platter I could probably sell a kidney for. The wine was also truly stunning and there was no end to jokes about life and careers, good music and sharing food around the table. Then we went off to a smaller club on one of the lower roof tops and it was like being transferred to a nice Thailand joint. Thank you Tobias and Reinout!
A pretty crappy pic of the view at Altitude from my iPhone, but go to the link above to see some really cool shots
We were also invited to friends of our friends for a crayfish party. For Swedish people it’s very important that we eat these animals in the end of the summer, even though I know some Asian groups think that this is the same as eating rats. I’m fully aware that these red, spider-like things do live in the sewers here sometimes, but in Sweden they are typically found in rivers, lakes and the sea. It’s a delicacy and considering all the non-typical-Scandinavian stuff I’ve been having the past 2 years (raw chicken ovaries with the unhatched egg in it, fish eyes in a soup or pizza with spaghetti on it), I will listen to no complains about our crayfish parties. Besides, you get a lot of snaps, cheese, hard bread, caviar, herrings and salads with it, so if the crayfish itself are hard to get over, you’ll at least not leave a Swedish crayfish party hungry. This was for instance not the case the first time I was having toriniku in Japan (marinated, fried/grilled chicken), and was served ALL the pieces of the bird; I had green beans and beer. Anyways, with a Swedish/Singaporean host couple, lovely new friends, Swedish snaps songs, national anthems from at least four countries and the traditional seriously ridiculous hats, it was a blast; thank you Pontus and Carmen!
Well, you get the picture, no pun intended ;)
I have really tried to take some time and think about what I want to do next, so that I’ll not just rush into something because I think I have to. For once, I have this great opportunity to take it easy and really evaluate what would make me happy and I will make the most of it. Further, considering I have a lot of small personal projects which I’ve never really had time to do before, I find this time really rewarding. Some of it is of course work related issues like organizing profiles online, writing CVs and sorting out new email addresses (and linking them to both my phone and computer, when the interface sometimes flips over to Japanese.. hallelujah..). Things like this really takes some time, especially if you are not 100% sure what you want to do. I have also had meetings with people at National University of Singapore (NUS), The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) within Biopolis and have raised the questions of finding a good recruitment company here. I’m further off for an interview next week and have so far been offered two positions, but I need some more time to think about it. Thank you Yin Thai, Tim, Ian and Anette!
From one of the meetings at NUS; I think some palm trees would do wonders for Kemigarden at Chalmers (where it’s currently as fun as being poked in the eye with a sharp stick)
The professional life has of course been ongoing for Jonas and he’s now been at the new office for a bit over a month. He’s working hard, but making good progress, so I’m very confident this was the right move for both of us. In addition, being able to come home at a reasonable hour, have a swim and then home cooked dinner together almost every day, really makes a difference compared to Tokyo. I’m very glad that we have been able to takes this time and spend it together, even though it sounds as if we’re a couple of 80 year-olds. After all the craziness in Tokyo, it’s just nice with some very normal routines.
I have also just been able to sit and read what I want, because I have the time to do so and not feel the pressure of having to catch up on the latest articles being published within my field or study for a test or an exam. That hasn’t really been the case since I was a teenager. And to cook what I want, when I want and especially eat huge heaps of salad and fruit and not worry about contamination. And buy a pineapple for almost no money! And swim, which has really become such a nice and relaxing part of the day. I truly love our pools!
A nice salad for dinner in the end of the day is priceless when it’s so hot
So to finish off this week’s report: even though we’re in a country where there are lizards inside the houses, no one knows what a coffee filter is and it actually seems to be quite popular with uni-brows, we’ll be fine.
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