Car Toys

Well, I haven't posted any new Car Toy photos in a while so here's a couple of new ones. If there are any Singaporean readers out there can you please explain why this is such a big deal here? I think I will try to make this a regular weekly post

And then there was this one below. See all the Hello Kitty stuff....it was a guy's car:

It's been crazy!

Sorry for the lack of posting this month. After going home for daughther no. 1's graduation and coming back nothing has been the same. I am now on a new project in a different shipyard so hubbie and I can't eat lunch together everyday, and what sucks even worse is that there isn't a Subway anywhere near here! The project that we are sharing office space with brings in luch three days a week but it's all local food and not the least bit healthy. Just about all of it is fried. Being at this other yard does have one advantages: the traffic is MUCH lighter both ways.

We started having AC problems before we went home to Texas for a week. So when we got back first thing we called and had the AC service people come out. They said the unit needed to be replaced. The AC here is different then back home. Each room has it's own unit mounted on the wall and the compressor is outside. Some rooms share a compressor. I really don't know the least bit about how an air conditioning system works and the ones here are even more confusing than our central air back home. The owner of our unit wanted to get the guys he uses to come out and look and they told him the same thing. Keep in mind that each time someone comes out we have to be there too and they don't come in the evening after we get off work. So, Saturday the AC guys come out to replace the AC in the dining and living areas. We have to move all the furniture and roll up all the carpets so they are not in the way. Needless to say, here it is Monday and there is work that still needs to be done and it all needs to be completed before Thursday when hubbies youngest sister arrives to visit us for two weeks. I spent all weekend looking for information that the tax preparer needs to do our income tax returns. In doing so I realized that I am not as organized as I thought I was. I went through every file folder looking for tax receipts for our house we sold back in Texas, stock information, travel information so we know when we were out of the US, etc. I found most of it. If it weren't for having to do all that fun tax stuff I would have been blogging and reading all your great posts. I hope I don't become like my mom with this tax crap. I remember year after year she had to put off doing stuff she wanted to do because it seems she was continuously getting stuff together for their taxes.

In our spare time we are also out looking at other condos. Our lease comes up in August and the owners wanted to know by the end of May if we were staying or not. He wants to raise our rent from SGD$5200 to SGD$8200 a month. We think he's crazy. There has been a definite rise in rent around here but most units in our complex are in the $5000's. We really like where we are and would like to stay but if we can find something new, without all these issues, then perhaps we will consider moving. Luckily with all that has been going on he gave us some more time to decide.

Other updates: daughter no. 1 is now in her new apartment in Arkansas thanks to my parents, brother, and her friend that helped her pack and move all her stuff up there. She starts her new job on the 9th. Daughter no. 2 is taking her last finals and her last day of school is on Thursday.

Good Engrish

Hubbie sent me all these sign pictures. Being here we can really relate. Can only imagine what kind of signs people will see when they go to Beijing for the Olympics in August.

We're Baaaack!

Well we just made it back from our quick trip back to Texas for no. 1 daughter's graduation. We got there on a Thursday and left the following Thursday. We were definitely on the BNE as my brother calls it: "The Butt Numb Express". It is such a LONG flight, especially when you fly economy class. But it was all worth it to see our daughter graduate from Texas A&M! Whoop! There were no flight delays or trouble of that nature so you missed seeing me in the news: "Crazy Mother goes postal in airport". The day after her graduatiuon we had a typical Texas Backyard BBQ with all our close friends and family. The weather was great and so was the BBQ. We had it catered by a place in Huntsville called McKinzie's. It was really good so I recommend them if you are in the area. I really wanted to post to my blog while we were gone however we stayed with my in-laws in Midway, TX and they are on a dial-up connection so I didn't mess with it. We were too busy visiting and having a great time anyway. More than anything I wanted to catch up on all the other bl*gs out there I like to read. (see my list to the left)

Here is some Texas humor for you to enjoy:
After having dug to a depth of 10 yards last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back100 years and came to the conclusion, that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than100 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, California scientists dug to a depth of 20 yards, and shortly after, headlines in the LA Times newspaper read: 'California archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers.'
One week later, The El Campo Times, a local newspaper just outside of Houston, Texas, reported the following: After digging as deep as 30 yards in cotton fields near Hillje in Wharton County, Texas, Bubba Johnson, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Texas had already gone wireless.' (Too bad that wasn't in Midway, TX - LOL!)

Leaving Singapore Today

Well, as you can tell by my ticker above there are only a couple days left before daughter no. 1 graduates from Texas A&M. So, tonight we head home. I'm bringing my laptop and hope to catching on my posting and reading of posts while we are home.

I heard these funnies on the radio this morning on the way to work.

Words of Wisdom:
The problem with the gene pool is that there's no lifeguard.
Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.
Why are our successes private and failures public?

Where did they learn to park?

The answer is "they didn't". Hubbie and I frequently go to eat lunch at a Subway in a nearby mall (of course) Jurong Point. There is a parking garage below the mall however you have to allow an extra half hour to just get in and out of the parking garage car park. So, we park in a vacant lot along with a bunch of other cheap people across the street from the mall. It's a lot faster for us to get in and out of. We get there early, usually around 11:30 because if you wait too long then there isn't any place to park. I can't really say that there wouldn't be any parking spots because if you look at the photo below they don't necessarily care if there is a 'spot' or not. It is always so amazing to us when we come out of the mall to see how all these crazy drivers have parked. They apparently don't care that these people trapped in the middle may need to leave and go back to work. I think it's a good thing they don't have Hummers over here because you can imagine what I would do if that was my car trapped in the middle. Yep! I'd plow right over them. Hubbie and I always make sure we park where we have a way out.

Wanna Lick?

Today was a holiday here in Singapore. I'm not sure which one but we took advantage of it none the less. Daughter no. 2 was out of school. Hubbie and I worked in the morning and took off at lunch. We all went down to check out some of the local scenery on Arab Street. On the way over we past by a large crowded plaza area where there were vendors selling ice cream. Here they take a rectangle block of ice cream and slice you off a 1 inch slice and give it to you between a slice of what appears to be green and pink swirled bread. I'm sure it's flavored similar to a pound cake. It appears to have a pound cake like texture. Anyway we were standing over to the side where hubbie could get a shot of the crowd with his new Cannon HD video camera and this little old man came up to him with one of those ice cream sandwiches and offered it to him. Hubbie politely declined. After the little old man walked off daughter no. 2 says, "that man licked the ice cream before he offered it to you." I said, "no way". Sure enough, we watched the little old man walk over to another group of people and offer them the ice cream and after they declined, he took another lick. Then he walked back to daughter no. 2 and I and offered it to us...daughter no. 2 was very quick to say "no thank you".