The Kitchen Experiment

Last week after a miscommunication on an appointment I decided that I would use my newly found time to test out the mini oven in the mini kitchen. I figured when life gives you lemons (i.e. missing an appt.,) you make lemonade (and by lemonade I mean brownies.)

I'm not sure what was more comical- me trying to cook where the only measuring cup available was the blender (in the metric system with the recipe in imperial -U.S.- units), the mini oven/microwave that is the cousin of the Easy Bake Oven (also in Celsius,) or the new hand mixer that sent brownie batter everywhere making the tiny kitchen look like a monkey ran in and flung poo everywhere.

Luckily I was able to clean it up before housekeeping got there. Despite the guestimation on the ingredients, the brownies were delicious. Did I mention I miss my western kitchen?

Since this blog is intended to be informative, here are the lessons learned....make sure to pack measuring cups, a carpenter is only as good as their tools, a good sense of humor goes a long way and brownies are good no matter what country your kitchen is in.

Happy Trails,

Amy (not so) domestic goddess & Raegen 

Extreme Sailing Series in Singapore

In Singapore there are always interesting things to do and see.  This weekend we happened to be wondering around the Marina Bay area and came across the Extreme Sailing Series.  This competition is basically NASCAR for sailing.  They set up the race course so that you can see almost all of the action without binoculars or a boat and they have bars all over!  Singapore is the first of eight stops.  The other stops include Oman, China, Russia, Wales, Turkey, the Mediterranean, and ending in Sydney. 

The focus on this series is for the spectators so they set it up in such a way that people are engaged and I think that the free flowing booze also helps to keep people around.  The race course is small and short so that the races will not exceed 20 minutes. This allows for at least eight exciting races a day.  It reminds me of going to the horse track, but here it is more socially acceptable to wear boat shoes. Here are some photos from the weekend that the professionals took.  Check out #47 & #48 as that was a great wreck that took two teams out of the competition.

The boats are 40-foot catamarans that are 23 feet wide and made of a carbon fiber with a honeycomb core.  These boats weigh a little over 3,000 pounds which is surprisingly light for their size. The lightweight and technological advancements allow these boats to reach speeds up to 35 miles per hour and can even hit 25 knots in only 15 knots of wind.  The boats are sailed by a five man crew.  I found out that they have a 6^th man ride along; basically you get to sit on the boat during the race and get the full experience…sign me up! Here are the technical specs and more about the boats.

I hope that the extreme sailing teams and sponsors enjoyed their first tour stop in Singapore and I hope that they are back next year.  If luck is on our side, Amy & I hope to be living about a block away from the race course and will for sure be having a nautical themed party next year. 

Until then,

Raegen & Amy 

First Week in Singapore

Nothing like hitting the ground running. A week ago Friday we landed at 3 am local time and after grabbing the breakfast of champions at the airport (McDonald’s!) we checked into the Holiday Inn Orchard City Centre took a two hour nap and began our adventure in our new city. The first week in Singapore has been full of sightseeing, new experiences and both new and familiar faces. With such a busy week there is so much to tell you about but in an effort to not bore you, here are the highlights!

First weekend sightseeing

As you can see we saw a lot during our weekend, moved into our new place and enjoyed a little time poolside to get over jet lag before Raegen’s first day. We also enjoyed some of the vast cuisine Singapore offers including Mexican & Indian food and of course dumplings from the household favorite Din Tai Fung.

House Hunting

We moved into our temporary home at the Shangri-La serviced apartments on Sunday. The apartments are in a great area at the west end of Orchard Road and we have access to the Shangri-La La gym, breakfast and pool. While the 635 sq. ft. apartment is small and not quite our style, it’ll work until we find a home; which we hope happens quickly!

Amy spent two days this week looking at houses. Housing prices are very high here. Three months’ rent is more than Amy made in her first job in a year.

 After looking at 20+ apartments the slate has been narrowed down to three finalists. Here are some photos and details on the three finalists. Raegen hasn't seen any of them but we have an appointment Saturday morning to view the three and make a decision on our home for the next two years. Stay tuned!

The 2014 Singapore Airshow

Nothing like attending your first major airshow as a member of the sales team in a new country but that’s just what Raegen did. He spent Tues-Fri out at Changi Expo. Amy joined him on Thursday. It was an exhausting and long week but such a great experience with companies, planes (the new Airbus A350!) and people from all over the world.

It was also great to have a group from the corporate office in town for the show. The team hosted a wonderful reception at the Fullerton Hotel in two of the suites. (A little trivia for you- the Fullerton Hotel used to be the old post office.) The reception was described by an attendee as “the classiest and the best reception he had been to all week." As you can see the reception venue boasted great views of Marina Bay and the Marina Bay Sands as well as Boat Quay (pronounced key.)

We wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day from Singapore. We’re off to watch the Olympics!

Happy Trails,

Amy & Raegen

Your Life in a Box

We arrived at 3 am local time yesterday with our 7 bags and after the breakfast of champions (McDonald's) and a nap, we started our adventure in our new city.

But there was so much more that happened in order to get to that point. Let's start back a month ago when the packing began. We knew that we were going to ship some of our bigger stuff over via plane/boat and take what we couldn't live without for three months with us on the plane. I began doing research on expat blogs and the Singapore Customs website. 

Over the course of a month I found some great blogs (my favorite one is-click here-) and began my multiple trips to Target, Costco and Macy's to stock up on the necessities and items that would make a foreign country seem a little like home.

Some of the more interesting items that we packed include:

• A BBQ grill (which is apparently a commodity here and worth a lot of $$ in resale...we will see if we actually have a place to use this)
• Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
• Taco Seasoning
• Tool Box
• Our favorite hot sauces....Palo Alto Firefighters & Frank's Red Hot
• 8 of our favorite Meno Clinic protein powder (Thanks Mama S & Dr. Mark)
• 6 underbed storage containers (fingers crossed we have beds and that they fit under them)
• Extra toiletries- my favorite beauty products, our go to toothpastes, soap, lotion, etc. You can find a lot of American brands here, but not all of them.
• Cast iron pan
• Zebra rug
• Costco sized pack of paper towels
• Greeting cards & wrapping paper (pretty pricey here)

What we didn't pack but wanted to:

• Wine (they would quarantined our stuff for a year if they found any alcohol)
• Guns (but there is a shooting club here- www.singaporegunclub.com)
• Our awesome arm chairs (too big for a non-american house)
• Apple TV (but we will buy one here)
• Our bikes (we may regret this one...)
• The camera tripod (luckily there are a multitude of camera shops within a mile of anywhere here.)

Now that we and our bags, $500 in baggage fees later,  made it, let's just hope everything else that's being shipped arrives in three months!

Happy Trails,
Amy & Raegen

Headed to the airport in PHX...Singapore or Bust!