Weekend Plans

We'll here we are at the end of the week. Looks like we should be moving our offices to the shipyard in about two weeks. Not much planned to do. I won't have a rental car until next week. Supposed to go eat with my parents and a local business owner that they know Saturday night. Avery is making plans to spend some time with a friend she has made that believe it or not is moving back to Houston. I was kinda hoping to go shop for some plants but I guess I will put that off until I get a rental car. Our furniture that we picked out is supposed to be delivered tomorrow, however I didn't hear from them today.

I guess I'm feeling the effects of a long week (and I'm watching "Lost") soI'm having trouble concentrating. So rather than you having to read my ramblings I'll end now and try to come up with something better later.

My car should look like on of these:

Things We Take For Granted

Enjoyable as it is here, being a new experience and all, there are some conveniences that we (Americans) take for granted:

1. Hot dog and Hamburger buns come pre-sliced. You should have seen us try to pry the two halves apart. They were mutilated before we figured out they weren't sliced.
2. Refrigerated eggs. Since we hear so much about bacteria and salmonella, I am VERY leary about buying eggs in the grocery store that have not been stored in the refrigerated section.
3. 100's of channels and Pay-Per-View. Over here there are about 5 different Discovery Channels and National Geographics Channels. I think "Lost" comes on here on Thursday nights. I've seen it once. I don't think they get "Desperate Housewives" here.
4. That if some idiot on a motorcycle is cutting through traffic right down the center stripe, some Texan in a big pick-up truck will probably somehow ensure that he stops. Here it is a common occurance. There are people on mopeds, scooters and motorcycles zipping through traffic along the center stripe as if it is their own personal lane, made just for them.
5. And we probably take having our own car for granted. Since I have been here I have been using taxi's to get around. It really isn't too bad. When there is traffic I just sit back and relax and the driver has to deal with it. The downside is, just like I found out last night, when it's raining they are scarce! I tried calling one to come pick Avery and I to meet my mom and dad for dinner. Two cab companies I tried calling all I got was a busy signal. The 3rd one I got to ring, but after being on hold forever was told they were too busy and to call back later. So, needless to say we stayed in.

Things You Learn

This is a list of things you learn even if you have only been here a short time:

1. Take an umbrella with you whenever you go outside.
2. You will get charged for everything. We've had to pay for everything from a napkin at lunch, to use certain roads during certain times of the day, to park ANYWHERE, etc.
3. You don't have to tip. I tried to tip a taxi driver and he didn't understand at first. Bills for meals usually include a service charge, so you don't have to leave a tip.
4. People in the elevators don't have a sense of humor.
5. Don't expect people to hold the door open for you and they don't expect you to hold it open for them either.
6. When driving, don't be curteous. They don't understand what you are trying to do and it just confuses them.
7. Most of the people here are really friendly and curteous though when you speak to them in person.
8. We have copperheads and cottonmouths and they have spitting cobras.
9. At Mexican Food restaurants, chips and salsa are not free.
10. The whole chickens sold in the grocery store still have the head on them.

Things That Are Different Here

Here are a few things that are different here:

• Bathrooms don't have any electrical outlets. Of all the apartments we looked at, the one we moved into was the only one with an outlet in the bathroom. Only the Master bath has an outlet that you can plug a hair dryer, etc. into. Strange. Where do Singaporean's dry their hair?
• The kitchen's are not airconditioned. I was told that this is becuase usually the little Phillapino maid is in there cooking and she apparently doesn't need AC. Well, I do so I leave the door open from the kitchen to the rest of the apartment.
• There are gaps under the doors to the outside. No weather stripping. This explains the gecko's that invite themselves in at night. I found one in the coffee pot one morning. Maybe he hadn't had his caffine for the day yet.
• They have strange ice cream flavors here. No Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. Nope, instead they have Sweet Corn Flavored. I wonder what that would taste like with chocolate syrup on top?
• Shopping is the number one past-time. Can't explain it, you have to see it for yourself.
• The public toilets have two options: 1) normal - sit and do your business or 2) squat over a hole in the floor to do your business. I'm sure you have all seen that email that floats around about women having to use the public toilets and having to "hover", so they are about the same either way.

On another note: Kim and Sherrie are going to see Dwight Yoakam at Verizon Wireless in Houston. I'm jealous! Y'all have fun and take lots of pictures.

Pictures of Where We Are

Here are some pictures of our apartment and the view from our balcony. I've also included a picture of the swimming pool which I haven't had a chance to try out yet but Avery and Rob did before Rob headed back to Katy. The furniture is temporary. I'll upload new pics when we get the furniture we picked out.

Today Avery is going to go to gymnastics. I'll take a taxi to go pick her up then perhaps we will take the bus back. I'll let you know how that goes!

Back In Singapore

Well, I got back and spent Saturday afternoon shopping at Carrefour. The closest thing to a Super Wal-Mart Singapore has. Starting over from scratch is expensive. I spent a ton of money and feel like I still don't have enough ingredients to cook anything. People say that you can eat cheaper here than you can cook. That may be so but Avery would probably be eating fried rice every meal. Unfortunately her and I don't like the same things or we could share a dish. Most meals are big enough to share. I like spicy and she doesn't and she likes onions and I don't. Rob and I spent a while on the phone figuring out what to ship over and what to store. It seems like every five minutes I think of something else. Hopefully it won't take too long to get everything boxed up and shipped. For now I just have to remind myself that this is only temporary and that soon it will be more like home. Avery and I sure miss Rob and Blair...and all our family and friends back home. Pleased hit the comment link below and leave us message.

It's Sunday night, I imagine Rob will be calling soon. I'm sure he will want to talk to Avery. Avery went to Malaysia with my mom and dad for the weekend. I bet that was a nice change of pace. She bought several DVD's while she was there. Now if we only had a DVD player. Tomorrow Avery should start back at gymnastics. I'm sure it will be tough. She hasn't been to gym in about 3 weeks (not counting the one day she worked out here). I'm sure she will be sore. I hope she likes it and sticks with it. I'll give her something to do when I have to start working more hours. Well, gotta go. I'll try not to bore you with the day to day stuff and concentrate on any unique things that happen. Oh! That reminds me, I've had several people comment thinking I was from Australia, even the cab driver that brought me home Saturday from the airport. There were a lot of Australians on the rig and I couldn't understand half of what they said, I don't see how anyone could think I was Australian. Maybe most Caucasian people they see are from Australia because it's so much closer than the US.

Friday - Heading Back to Land

Friday morning. I can't believe I got up all week without an alarm clock. I'm not talking 9AM, more like 5:30 - 6:00 AM. I wrapped things up Friday morning. I packed up this laptop as soon as I was done checking my email that morning. I was on the first helicopter off the rig that morning. Unfortunately it was Saturday afternoon before I get back to Singapore. I spent Friday night in Perth. It wasa b usy week. I created all the drawings that I needed to and they are in for engineering review. Any last minute changes I can do back in S'pore.

I was really curious about Barrow Island. From Perth, I had to fly to Barrow Island then take a helicopter from there to the rig. At the airport in Perth they check the bottom of your shoes for any dirt you might be bringing in from somewhere else. They even looked at the new flip-flops I bought to wear on the rig. . .they still had the tags on them. There were signs all over the place about what you couldn't bring with you. I was only allowed 10kg (about 22 lbs) of luggage. When you are carrying workboots with you that doesn't leave much else. Anyway, the island was really small, you could see the whole island from the air. The only thing there was pumping stations and huge termite mounds. There were small shrubs too. The water was beautiful. At the small airport there you couldn't leave and walk to the beach or anything, you had to stay right there. Anyway, I was wondering what was so special about this place so today I did some checking on the internet and found a couple of sites that had some information I thought I would share with y'all: Barrow Island Story 1, Barrow Island Story 2 and Barrow Island Story 3 .

Flying back from Barrow Island to Australia I sat next to the window. The ground below was a redish-brown color. The only places where plants were growing was in the valleys. From the air it looked like the valleys were blood vessels and veins. Here is a picture I found online that kinda shows what it looked like:


I would like to go back to Australia, but definately with the rest of the family on vacation. The city of Perth was nice. There were a lot of unique shops and pubs. I wish I would have had a little more time to spend there.

Recap of the past two weeks

OK.. The first post here will be to catch everyone up as to what has been happening up to this point.

Sunday, August 6, 2006: We leave Houston for Singapore. Flight was delayed and they had our seats scattered all about the plane. It took the lady at the gate counter about 1-1/2 hours but she got our seats all together. Mental note to self: Asian people are strange none of them wanted to move so we could sit together. We missed our connecting flight from Tokyo to Singapore. We were told in Houston that we would be on the Nippon flight that would arrive in S'pore at 1:20AM (Tuesday - you loose a day traveling to S'pore). So I got this message to my mom and dad who were going to meet us at the airport just to say hi! Anyway, when we got to Tokyo they put us on a JAL flight that arrived in S'pore at 12 midnight. When we got there the driver that was supposed to have our temp. apartment key and Rob's cell phone was nowhere to be found. I couldn't reach my parents so we hung around the airport so we could see them. We got a taxi van to the apartment. There wasn't anyone at the gate to let us in. It's now 2:15AM. Luckily we knew the apartment number of Neil & Zoe (Rob's co-worker and his wife) so we rang them. They let us in the gate. We camped out with them for the evening. It was 4AM before we went to bed.

Tuesday, August 8th, 2006: We get up to take Avery to her new student/parent orientation at her school. That all went well. We were really tired but felt especially bad for Avery because she had to take a placement test for math. She did fine on the test. Afterwards they served lunch in the library and we had the chance to meet some other kids and their parents.

Wednesday, August 9th, 2006: Is National Day (kinda like our Independence Day). It's a holiday in Singapore. The stores are open - they are always open in S'pore. We did some shopping. Our temp. apartment has 3 towels, 2 glasses, no washcloths, no dish towels, no cooking utensils. That evening we went to my parents for a B-B-Q. They invited some of their friends and co-workers of my dads. It was a great evening except Avery got sick and spent the evening upstairs in my parents apartment. Mom fixed brisket, chicken, corn and potato salad. We had beer, wine and margaritas...just like home.

Thursdy, August 10th, 2006: We go apartment hunting. We needed to get all of that taken care of while Rob was still in S'pore. Normally it is a long drawn out process. You have to have an Employment Pass before you can rent an apartment, get utilities, open a bank account, ect. Noble made arrangements for Jurong Shipyard to sponsor us for our apartments so we didn't have to wait on the EP. We looked at several places and decided on a unit at Maplewoods Condos. We got the paperwork started. It was very stressful as Noble did not have the funds in place so we had to turn all the paperwork in first then they released the funds. It took until the first part of the following week to get it all taken care of.

Friday, August 11th, 2006: My first day at work. Didn't do too much as my boxes of office stuff and my PC hadn't been delivered to the office yet. It did arrive after lunch but I didn't have anyway to plug it in. So I mainly visited with my two co-workers, Larry and Chris, the Project Manager and Project Administrator. After work that day Rob and Avery came by and picked me up in a cab and we went and checked out Avery's new gym. For dinner we went to Newton Circus. All hawker stands, and overpriced. The food was good though. I had Chili Crab, Avery had Shrimp Fried Rice and Rob had Broiled Prawns and then he had Grilled Stingray.

Saturday, August 12th, 2006: That morning was New Student Orientation for Avery. She got her schedule and was able to locate all her classes and meet her teachers. Afterwards we took Avery to gym then Rob and I went and looked at furniture to lease. We picked out most of what we wanted and thought we would go to Ikea and look as well. We had dinner that night with Neil and Zoe at Clarke Quay. There is a Mexican food place there called the Blue Iguana or something like that.

Sunday, August 13th, 2006: We got up that morning and went to Ikea with Avery. We picked out a bed for the guest room. Avery decided she wanted her bed from home so we will ship it with the rest of our stuff. That evening we went out to eat for my mom's birthday at a really nice restaurant. It's hidden back in the trees along with several other restaurants. You would never have known they were there. The place we ate at was Mexican food (you'll begin to see a pattern here). There was also a wine & tapas place, an Italian restaurant, and some others. I definately want to go back there.

Monday, August 14th, 2006: Avery's first day of school. I rode with her to school in a cab. The ride to the office afterwards took forever, the traffic was bad. Work was fine. I had my computer so I was actually able to get some stuff done. Rob rode in a cab and picked Avery up from school. She had a good day at school and made some new friends. After work we went and looked a one of my dad's friends apartment in the same complex as where we were looking. His rent was a lot cheaper so we wanted to make sure we weren't being ripped off. His was slightly smaller. I'm sure if we were able to work our own deal we could have gotten it slightly cheaper but we had to use this guy Noble had contacted to use. I bet someone is getting some $$ for it.

Tuesday, August 15th, 2006: Rob rode with Avery to school and I went straight to the office. At the office I spent some time getting drawings off of the server back in Houston since it was so slow to work on them over the network. Avery rode in the cab home by herself from school. After work we went shopping for items we need for the new apartment. As bad as the temp. apartment was, at least it had sheets, plates, pots, pans, etc. I hated to spend a lot of money on stuff because Rob is going to ship household items over once he gets back.
Wednesday, August 16th, 2006: Avery rode to school by herself in a cab! We are making progress. It's just much safer here than back home. The cab driver told us that kids as young as 7 or 8 ride by themselves. After work, more shopping for the new apartment. We had this stuff set up to be delivered the next day as we got the key today.
Thursday, August 17th, 2006: Avery and I went to school and work. Rob had a busy day ahead. He had to go to the new apartment at 9AM to make arrangements for the temp. furniture to be delivered. He had to go back to the temp. apartment and bring all of our stuff down from the 4th floor by stair (no elevator). Each of our suitcases weighed about 70 lbs., plus all the stuff we had bought already. He called a guy with a van to move it all over to the new apartment. Then the TV was delivered, then that evening the stuff we bought the night before was delivered. First night in the new place! Much nicer than the temp. apartment.

Friday, August 18th, 2006: Avery and I get up extra early. Rob set the alarm clock 1 hour early by mistake. So, she and I walk down to the McDonald's on the corner for breakfast. We each go to school and work. We had deliveries scheduled from Ikea today. For dinner we went out to eat Mexican food with Larry and his family, Chris and his family, Ron Davis and his daughter Hannah, my mom, Neil, Zoe and their kids. The food was good and the margaritas were even better.

Saturday, August 19th, 2006: Avery and I walk down to the shopping center/mall. We get some clothes hangers and lots of other things. Our fingers are about to fall off as we walk back. That's one thing that is different about shopping in S'pore. You can't just pull up in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart, load up your basket, pile it all in your car/truck, drive home, park in your drive way and bring it all in. You learn not to buy more than you can easily carry (I just haven't figured out how much that is yet) because getting it home always involves a taxi and stairs. Anyway we quickly learn we didn't buy enough hangers. I still have one suit case overflowing with clothes that need to be hung up. Later that evening I have to start packing for my trip to our rig the Jack Bates. That night we had dinner with my mom and dad a little hawker stand down the road and they got to see our apartment.

Sunday, August 20th, 2006: 6AM came way too soon. I had to get up and be downstairs at 7AM to catch a taxi for the airport. I had to say bye to Rob as he was leaving Monday to head back to Houston. I gave Avery a kiss and told her bye and headed downstairs. I also think I lost my new sunglasses!!! I caught a plane to Perth where I spent the night. Talked to Rob and Avery that night on the phone. Rob was getting ready to head home.

Monday, August 21st, 2006: 3AM came even earlier than 6AM the day before. I had to check out of the hotel by 4AM to get a cab to the airport to catch a 6:30 flight to Barrow Island where I caught the helicopter to the rig.
Well, the rest of the week this is where I have been. It's now Thursday evening. I get off the rig tomorrow and fly back to Singapore on Saturday. I am anxious to get back. I really hope I find my sunglasses!!! I've figured out how to use the phone on the rig and have been able to talk to Rob and Avery a few times. Well, I think I've got y'all caught up to now. I'll keep this thing updated so check back when you can and let us know what's going on with you. (Danann, this was your idea so you better be readin' :-p )