More BBQ and Happy Chinese New Year!

First of all, I'm actually not sure if it's Happy Chinese New Year or Happy Lunar New Year, but I'll just use both. I know this is right though, so Gong Xi Fa Chai (direct translation is apparently: Congratulations and Make a Fortune) from Singapore!

The weekend however started off by a short walk down memory lane for me, since I would start working the following week. I took a long hard look at my previous house-wife premises and I will actually miss all of them when I start working. However, I'll just use them during the weekends instead ;)

 The outstanding outdoor club area, which has served as an extra living room when the renovating dudes/the piano teacher downstairs, have been driving me insane. It has both wifi and sockets, as well as vending machines, an indoor gym, a small convenience store and full bathroom facilities (sauna, showers and changing room).

Part of the outdoor gym where I've finished every power walk or jogging round with stretching and some sit-ups. The table is the "Smells-Like-Bad-Feet-Table" = this is where our neighbors had Durian fruit on the National Day. It smelled old feet on a 100 meters distance.

 

 The really cool, red stemmed lip stick palms we have in our gardens; this in front of one of the neighbors' ground floor patio. I"m so getting a few for our terrace!

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 These pink and dark purple palm trees remind me of dinasours. I have no idea why. There are quite a few lizards in them though, but I haven't made it my business to see if they also house snakes. Completely unnecessary info for someone who don't particularly even like geckos.

 I have really used this pool a lot living here; being able to take a dip and a few lapses after a jog is really great. Even better is if you then go up for your coffee and get the daily FREE newspaper and have a lie down in the sun for an hour or so. Things can be worse.

 I still haven't tried the kids' pool area with its water slides; since streaking is strictly forbidden in Singapore (and comes with serious fines and possible caning) it really takes all the fun out of fountains in general. I don't even dare to fill it with washing-up liquid or caramel dye, since they have CCTV everywhere. A shame.

During the Saturday, we had 35 guests arriving for Chinese New Year BBQ. No biggie. Well, it would have been no biggie, if the weather would have stayed the way it had been the last few days. The people were arriving at 17.00 and at 16.35, the sky just opened and the rain storm with of course additional thunder and lightening that followed was the most powerful we've seen in Singapore. Everyone were of course mildly chocked, but as we got something to drink and started snacking on the cold dishes, it became quite cozy in the end. It became slightly crowded in our apartment though (with amongst others 7 children in the ages 11 months - 7 years old), but alright. There was however a rather quick re-arrangement of furniture and flower pots etc from the lower tables, as well as one parent or so preventing chocolate milk being sprayed all over the beige sofa. Also, the odd save of a child or two occurred, aiming head first towards the sharp edges of the white furniture, but all in all no one needed the ER.    

After an hour, some of the guests who weren't really in to Puss in Boots, decided to see if it was possible to carry out a long jump across and preferably over the chaise lounge of the sofa. It was, with the side effect of the candle holders at the coffee table capsizing towards the marble floor, however rescued by a trained eye and hand of their mother. 

 

The rain was finally coming to an end, so that the whole group could..

..join the hosts down by the BBQs..

.. and oh boy did we grill!

Then the smaller participants got the coolest treat ever: fairy sparklers!

Some of the bigger guests were also intrigued ;)

All of a sudden the entire garden was lit up by happy children and adults running around with 'magic lights'.

We were lucky some were keeping track of the grill!

The next day we went for an innocent jog and ended up in a quite remarkable constellation. We ran almost straight into a group of Dragon Dancers and oh lord did they make a lot of noise. Not only did they bang their drums (while drinking beer btw; quite an art), they also shouted commands to each other and sort of chanted/sang, but rather random and not necessarily at the same time. Or the same tune. They seemed to have a lot of fun though; maybe something to take up next year. Or not ;)  

Here, they'd stopped in the middle of a street, so both by passers and traffic actually came to a halt. 

I thought it was great fun!

The dragon itself in the back of the lorry..

..holding all the very happy young men, who didn't mind being at the center of attention. Jonas (top right) was however slightly puzzled.

When we finally got back, we heard a mild knock on the door. It was our senior Chinese neighbor gentleman who was very happy. He excitedly said 'Hello-lo, come, come, lunar lunch, my place, yes, yes, you and wife, yes, yes, my place, now! Come, come!'. Of course we had to go and it was really great. Besides, he probably did the good deed of the year by inviting the poor and lonely foreigners ;) 

Our neighbor in purple and parts of his family; there were around 40 people in his living room and everyone were eating, chatting and exchanging gifts.

 

The women hold red envelopes, which contain money, and we think you mostly give it to the children. 

Another important thing is to give away two of everything and if you get it right you will not wear black and bring at least two oranges. We sort of missed that, but they didn't seem to mind; also, as the smallest guest pointed out (in Chinese to us), her great grandfather already had very many oranges.

This was part of the menu: a delicious noodle dish with chicken and vegetables..

..as well as absolutely gorgeous fried tiger prawns (the best ones I've ever tasted)..

..along with Century Eggs (they're OK, but I don't think we'll have them at home)..

..and our host's specialty which was chicken curry. Completely outstanding and again the best chicken curry I've ever had.

We were so happy to be invited into a Chinese home for the Lunar New Year and we are now planning to possibly have a small Swedish Easter Lunch for our neighbors. I bet this fine man can appreciate a good snaps or two ;)

I hope to be able to continue with at least one blog text every other week in the future and then get back to normal once I've settled in at work; more about that in the coming update!

Chinatown madness, 20e dag Knut and Marine Parade

Last week I was picking up tickets for our Kuala Lumpur trip in Chinatown, which was highly interesting. Since I can imagine there being a lot of people more or less everywhere preparing for Chinese New Year, I thought I'd go on a week day just after lunch to avoid any rush. This was good, since it was still highly crowded whenI got there and becoming almost impossible getting around when I left. Compared to Tokyo it's not that it's crowded here (roughly 6 million people compared to Japan's 130), but in Japan the movement pattern is on average very organized. Everything seem to be quite logically placed and you basically just follow the stream. It might sound ridiculous, but if people don't stand to the left and walk to the right in the escalators, or complete stop once they get off, or try to get on the MRT/bus while people are getting off, it becomes difficult. Also, in Japan you would never push people. You can in Sweden, but you might get your ass kicked. In Chinatown in Singapore, a lot of the older people push, or even hit younger citizens. This is quite unfair, since you can't exactly start screaming at an old woman with a cane. 

Enter the Dragon at People's Park in Chinatown.

An OK amount of people at the moment, but it kept filling up. The man in white has never seen a Caucasian before.

A Chinese viking, holding a bowling price, while demanding a new set of records and DJ table, so he can continue scratching.

Started climbing my way up towards the travel agency via the endless escalators; it doesn't really feel fantastic if you have a slight fear of heights, considering the sides of the escalators here reach a tall woman in heels somewhere above the knee. Feng Shui of the day: don't be taller than necessary.

 

 I finally reach floor 4 and then the stair climbing to just below the roof begins..

..through and obscure door..

..leading out to the roof top parking garage where it's literarily hotter than hell..

..around the corner, towards the direction of the traffic..

..into an ice cold, huge hallway which was almost customer empty and completely quiet. At least I got our tickets so Malaysia here we come!

When I finally reached solid ground again, I ended up in a market place in between the buildings where the Chinese New Year madness was just kicking in. The Irish rugby player to the left told me in confidence that he 'knows he's put his muscles somewhere around here, but just cannot find them'.

The woman in the picture promised to stop smoking as her New Year resolution, but ran out of Nicotinell gums at 03.00 am. She was very lucky to have both banana leaves and string in the house; God knows what would've happened otherwise.

I was contemplating Chicken Rice for lunch, but they only has Road Kill Duck.

Getting back to our condo, I was really proud to see that all the necessary small oranges were planted in huge pots all over.

Also the garlands of fire-crackers were placed at a safe-working-environment-distance from the guards at the main gate.

My husband became slightly confused when I asked him to take the call, since a phone was ringing.  We were very glad though that the considerate staff had put up golden Swedish 'can-phones', so that we wouldn't feel completely out of place.

I did however object slightly to the harem lamps..

..all over the place; we have people coming over on Saturday and I don't want them to get the wrong impression.

In the evening, we decided to go very Swedish and clear all the Christmas decorations according to the tradition surrounding Tjugonde Dag Knut (20th Day Knut). It's basically 20 days after Christmas Eve, on St Knut's Day (in Sweden each day of the year has a name associated with it). Further, 'Knut' is pronounced in one go as it sounds; it is not a Swedish or Norwegian rapper called 'K-Nut', just to be perfectly clear.

This is a FAN and a CHRISTMAS TREE. I just wanted to write it in the same sentence.

The last Christmas porridge.

Putting away our beautiful Christmas star.

Sideshow Bob swung by and showed off his new, blond hairdo.

Parts of the tree.

On the Saturday we had dinner at Jumbo Seafood in Marine Parade and the food was really amazing. The surroundings are also so much better than the ones by Clarke Quay and it's really nice to see the ocean for a change.

Jumbo Seafood in the sunset.

 

We also found this East Coast Lagoon Food Village which was more or less like Chomp Chomp but by the water front. Will definitely go back here shortly!

In addition, this will be my last weekly blog as a house wife, since I'm starting work on Wednesday!