Last post of 2010 - Chestita Nova Godina!

It's 9:30 pm here and the fireworks are already lighting up the neighborhood, so I'd better finish up posting for this year!

I am hopeful that this will be my last New Year's Eve in this house. It's been a good place to live, but it's not mine and there's no garden to speak of. I've spent the last year looking at properties and I put a down payment on a very nice house with a large garden in a nearby village as my last business of 2010. All the contracts will be completed and signed in early January and I should be able to start renovations no later than February 1, 2011! That also means that this should be my mother's last New Year's Eve in South Carolina, since she will move here when the renovations are finished. That will be great for both of us. 2011 will be a year of many changes, but I anticipate that they will all be good.


And I should finish up my travel postings, too. During the rest of my time in Singapore (in no special order) we

- went to the Night Safari, which was amazing. It's a zoo specifically for nocturnal animals that is open only at night. I have never been so close to wild animals without some kind of visible safety barrier.

- hung out at the pool and had lovely G&Ts

- went to an amazing Korean barbeque (Chang)

- visited with Logan's and Hye-Jung's friends who were really fascinated by Bulgaria

- ate Teppanyaki

- went shopping for jade on 10/10/10, a most auspicious day

- bought bento boxes at Takashimaya (my new favorite store)

- ate chilli crab, chicken rice, and kaya toast (not all at once!)

- went to Chinatown

There was much more than this, including many more sights, restaurants, and shopping, but these were the highlights. I definitely want to go back to Asia and expecially to Singapore, which was so much more amazing than I could have imagined it would be.

Goodbye from East Coast Seafood and Happy New Year to one and all!

A break for some things SCA

I didn't spend all my time this fall in Singapore and I have actually gotten some things on my A&S 50 list done. My recent interest has been in brewing cordials and mead. Currently I have a batch of chestnut honey mead and pear, plum, and sweet cherry cordials underway. The first trials of sour cherry cordial are long gone (half a dozen bottles). We tried it out at Winchester, Raglan Ffaire, and the Yule Ball and it got progrssively better. I can hardly wait for summer and the next crop of vishni. I will be making quite a few bottles! I plan to start a new batch this week with frozen blackberries for the past summer and some new Rakiya (home made) that I just received as a Yule gift.


There are more bottles brewing than this. I just wanted to show a small sample.
















I also learned how to make quince paste with the bumper crop this year. It's really nice on a slice of baguette with a piece of strong cheese!

A little more Singapore

We did all the fun and touristy things too, like riding the Singapore Flyer and going up to the viewing deck of the Marina Bay Sands hotel. The Flyer is the world's tallest ferris wheel and is 165 meters tall. It beats the London Eye by 30 meters!























You can see the theatres known locally as "the Durians" from both the Sands and the Flyer. They're quite different in style from any other theater I've seen.









You can't be a real expat in Singapore without visiting the Raffles Hotel and drinking a Singapore Sling. I'm happy to say that Logan and I did both!

Where has the time gone?! And the year?!

I never finished my Singapore posts, but now that the semester is over, I promise to try to do better!

My trip continued with visits to the National Museum, which was quite large and very empty. It was the two of us and the guards, actually. The tour starts with a film about the founding of Singapore as a nation, then is self-guided (I love places with headsets so you can listen to as much or as little as you want)for the rest of the time. I got some reasonably good pictures of the displays of Singapore history, despite the low level lighting.




















We went up the 37 metre tall Merlion at Sentosa, where you can view the city from the mouth. I'm actually in the mouth in the second photo. I'm much smaller than the tooth!












You also get a good view of an amazing fountain. It's a giant dragon and spouts water at unpredictable intervals from many different places.


















When we didn't walk, we got around town by using public transport. The busses, monorail, and metro were all clean and ran exactly on time. Clean may be an understatement for the metro. It gleamed! Littering, smoking, and durians were forbidden and the Dim Sum Dollies sang to you to let you know the train was coming. Amazing!













Logan and I spent one day in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. We walked to the bus station via an outdoor market, which was delightful. I wanted to try everything and the only disappointment was my inability to bring all the things home to Bulgaria.















At the station we purchased tickets for the short ride to the border. Once you get there, you get off the bus, go through customs, and re-board the bus for the short ride to town. All for a few Singapore dollars. We did a little (very little) sightseeing ,











did some shopping, ate lunch,








and headed back to Singapore via the same route.


On another day we headed out to the botanical garden. I really wanted to see the orchids, which are famous. here's the entry to the gardens.












And here are the flowers!






















Please note that there is a bird perched on the top of flower number four! It just flew right in and posed!

We ended the day with a picnic on the lawn at the bandshell. The Australian Girls' Choir was performing and we got to hear "Waltzing Matilda" and other favorites while we ate sushi (and regular picnic food).