1st Formula 1/visit from Sweden/black chicken/Indian lunch/10-year anniversary

I’ve never been to a high profile car race in my entire life; I’m from a small town in Sweden called Ulricehamn and the most extravagance in motor way have been racing on the ice of the lake Asunden. I however never dared to go driving on the actual lake. Hence the closest thing to an adventurous car episode in my life, was when I was allowed to drive my best friend’s car on a football field and spin using the handbrake. Before I had a license. I thought it was really outrageous and still do. Therefore you can imagine my expectations of the Formula 1 2011 International Midnight Race in Singapore. And it was awesome. In addition we met several new friends during that night; thank you all for making it a night (and early day..) to remember!

 

Little did we know when we first got down to the race that we’d be sitting on one of the balconies on the 30th something floor of this skyscraper at 06.00 AM on an after party.

 

This was very cool ;)

 

I am very proud of our ticket badges.

 

Survival kit = earplugs and rain cape.

 

The cars are fast; I tried to upload a short clip on them as well, but there was a 'conflict with the raw data'; I quote Homer Simpson: 'boooooring'.

 

My husband was very happy standing on the sidelines at Esplanade Drive Bridge by the Marina; the race is set through the city center of Singapore, so the scenary is quite awsome.

 

Part of the vintage car show next to the race. Really sweet rides.. I absolutely fell in love with the red one.

Then we had our first visit from Sweden! We were touristing around and it was really fun to introduce Singapore to others. Here are some of the places we squeezed in during the week, in between frequent visits to the pool and sundeck at our condo, shopping and taking strolls in the city.

 

Nettan and Robin at Raffles’ Long Bar.

 

And of course we needed to have Singapore Slings and throw peanut shells on the floor; my initial thought enetering was 'Has this place been cleaned by Stevie Wonder?'..

 

Me at Raffles’ Long Bar.

 

Raffles’ court yard with their outdoor restaurant and kitchen; very nice.

 

One of the nights was dedicated to the quays; we had chili crab at Jumbo Seafood on the way to Robertson Quay, drinks at Boat Quay and here more drinks, water pipes and dancing on Clarke Quay. 

 

Nettan at the open sky bar One Altitude on the 63rd floor with a 360 view over Singapore and glass walls. It takes almost a minute to take the elevator to the 62nd and compared to Gothenburg's Heaven 23 (which was the tallest building I'd been in before we came to Asia), it's almost three times as far up. The elevator is in addition made out of glass on one side and you really think you are there around floor 20. Then it's only 40 floors left ;)

 

And one evening I decided to try green beer; it was truly disgusting.

We also had to show off the Singaporean Botanical Gardens and the breathtaking orchids. This is so worth a visit and is only S$6; if you haven’t been, go. These pics are only taken with my phone, so I’m really looking forward revisiting with a proper camera. And I really couldn't decide which to take for this text so there's quite a few. But they are so beautiful.

 

 

 

 

Last week I was invited to a very traditional Chinese lunch, since our neighbors had heard I’d never seen, let alone eaten, black chicken before in my life. Therefore, black chicken soup it was. I was actually quite skeptical, since it still baffles me how an animal has white feathers but black skin and meat. I was even more skeptical when I was presented with a dish which looked like a little pot with roots and a whole black chicken leg sticking up out of it. It just looked nasty.

 
Mmmm…

However, I had not been taken to lunch to bail out, since Vikings obviously do not bail, so I dug in. And it was delicious. The texture was quite interesting as well. I was expecting it to be like chicken meat, but it was almost like smoked fish and quite dry, even though it was in a soup.

 
You gotta fight, for the right, to party.

We also had Drunk Chicken (cold boiled chicken breast with ginger paste), a fantastic fresh water fish that I can’t remember the name of (served cold with chili, garlic and leeks), spinach with sesame oil and numerous other little dishes.

 
The fish dish.

This kind of food is called Dim Sum and is a lot like tapas = many small dishes which everyone shares around the table. Thank you Charles and Shiela for taking me to one of the most amazing Chinese lunches ever!


Since we now have tennis rackets both of us, Jonas decided to challenge a colleague.

 
Jonas at the bottom and Jayaraj at the top; pic taken from their balcony.

I came along and we had an absolutely fantastic homemade Indian lunch. We also got our first proper Indian lessons in how to behave at the table. You eat with your right hand and make small balls from the rice and curry, do not under any circumstance lick your fingers since that means you are not full and think that there was not enough food. Also, if your Indian host says it’s spicy, prepare with a lot extra water, youghurt or coconut flakes. Thank you Jayaraj, Malarjayaraj and Jagajeeth for a great day!

 
View from our friends’ apartment overlooking a few of the public outdoor baths in the area.

 

Mother Malarjayaraj and son Jagajeeth; he wasn’t super keen being photographed, but rather wanted to play tennis with the boys. 

On Sunday the 9th of October we had been a couple for a whole decade! Hence the entire day was devoted to hang out and do nice things together: morning tennis, swimming, making a fabulous lunch together and having it on the balcony with chilled rose wine, watching a romantic movie while a tropical thunderstorm made the skies black, having dinner at our local hawker center and finishing off the evening with a spa treatment for two long hours. We are now officially embarking the next decade together ;) 

 

Lunch on the balcony: vegetable tortillas with vinaigrette tomatoes, rose wine and pineapple. 

 

My favorite dish at the local hawker center at Chuan Central: chicken and charcoal grilled pork with rice, soup and oyster sauced bok choy. 

During the week we were invited to a shop-warming-party at More Than Diamonds, run by our friends. It was a so much fun with some familiar, but also so many new faces. It was a really different and cool experience to have a party surrounded by several glass monters of sparkling jewelry. Thank you Sara and Chris for making it a wonderful night!


On the Saturday we were asked over to a super nice BBQ with absolutely fab food from The Butcher and homemade dishes. We also met new friends and had a lot of very tasty wine spiced with very interesting discussions and a lot of laughter. Thank you Anna, Mikael, Conny and Victoria for a truly great evening!