1st New Years in Singapore

As the sun went down over the last day of 2011 in Singapore, I became slightly poetic. I've lately been thinking a lot about what we had been through the last 12 months. I never could have guessed when I was welcoming 2011 on our balcony in Tokyo last New Years Eve with my family, that we’d end up here. At that point, I seriously only thought of the opening scene in the (then) latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie if someone said ‘Singapore’. I didn't even know if it was country or a city, who ruled or what Singaporeans looked like.

The last sunset of 2011, 1 degree from the equator in our new home Singapore

Everything sort of took a spin when my husband was asked to relocate to that far away port during the following spring. And then the 9.2 Tohoku earthquake hit Japan on Friday the 11th of March just before 15.00. We left for Singapore when the power plant in Fukushima started exploding, roughly 4 days later, for a ‘vacation’. I wrote a text about it for a non-profit magazine not too long ago and also had to explain the whole situation for a dear friend just recently. I have not understood until now how much those last few months in Tokyo has really affected me and I will not forget it for as long as I live. Then we went back to Japan, said goodbye to our dear friends and the city itself, sold as much as possible, donated all of worth to the earthquake victims and tried helping out with what we could to relieve them. We then left the most magical place I have been to to date.

Coming to Singapore was like being able to breathe again and up until now I haven’t really had the proper time to think about our stay in Japan, since it’s been quite a turbulent six months. We also had to explain to many of you in Sweden why we didn’t go back to Gothenburg, but looking at our decision in retrospect, I really think we did the right thing. It was however quite scary, not knowing if we’d feel at home in Singapore, how we would be able to tackle the heat (because God Almighty, it’s seriously warm here) or if we’d find a good place to live.

I also had to adjust to being a house wife, which is the weirdest challenge than I’ve ever had. You have all the freedom in the world, but that still comes with responsibility for how you treat it. I think every person needs to be needed in one way or another or your time become quite meaningless. Not going to work every day means that you need to create your own activities with people who need you and not only rely on your significant other. I put into creating a home and a social network and today I can see I made good ground work.

All of this sort of vanished in the complete shock waves of the massacre in Norway. Since we were so far away from Sweden, it happening in Norway was almost like it had unravelled in our own country. It was terribly hard to grasp, once locating everyone we know who were in Norway at the time, making sure they were OK. At the same time I had to start sending out applications, since we were expecting quite a few visits from Sweden the coming few months. It was really quite hard to focus at that point.

Then we guided family and friends trough the Singapore we'd gotten to know, which is really inspiring for yourself actually. You have to think about how you'd like to present your every day and your new country, but also make it a pleasant and relaxed environment for your visitors. And you really get a run through what you like and don't, which is quite interesting. The heat was another factor which was slightly interesting for all visitors, since averaging 35 degrees C and a humidity of 95% DP is almost like the outer room of a Swedish sauna..

I'll always be very grateful for this time, since I’ve had the chance to think about what I really want to do, and I know this sort of 'free' time will not present itself very often. However, now I’m very thankful and ready to move on ;)
Welcome 2012!

 

We strolled around in our hood all day on the 31st, went for SPA, headed to the movies to see one of our latest exports to Hollywood (Noomi Rapace) and picked up ingredients for a proper bouillabaisse. Well, OK, as Gordon would probably put it: ‘It’s not a f***ing bouillabaisse if it hasn’t f***ing been cooked days in advance, you f***ing f*** face’. However, and slightly on that note, we never cease to be amazed of the outstanding brand names you stumble across when you least expect it (‘phiten’ sort of means ‘the dick’ in Swedish)


Our tree looked marvelous in the evening dusk and I’m so happy for it!
 

 

Then we went home and started off with oysters and an ice cold cava on our terrace, soon watching the fireworks over the marina
 

Mmmmm… They are from New Zeeland, very fresh and huge
 

Who can go wrong with sea bass, shark, green mussles, saffron and pearl tomatoes amongst others.. (maybe I should just call it a fish soup, so I don’t endanger myself of being in the trigger scope of the $%&*@#^ brilliant Englishman’s wrath)
 

And it became awesome..
 

 

..accompanied by some garlic bread (tthat you can make in a frying pan if there's no oven btw) and really dry white wine
 

For dessert we had just sweet honey pineapple as it is and it was great; we were asleep by 01.30. Glorious!

My New Year resolutions included more travelling in the region for better education on our new Pacific area and more exercise. I have by now booked one weekend trip to KL and one get away to Koh Samui; we're also hoping for a live-aboard diving trip during the spring off the coast of Malaysia. In addition, I've again started the training strategy I swore by in Tokyo and the only one I know actually works: early evenings, early mornings, half a cup of coffee, varying exercise 40 mins, sturdy breakfast + lunch, afternoon fruit and proper sallad dinner at least six days a week. The first goal is to keep it up throughout January so am off to Little India tomorrow for good legumes and vegetables. Happy New Years everyone!