Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

On February 3^rd we parted ways with our shipment of items from the United States. (See "Your life in a box.") Three months later on May 12th our shipment arrived in its new home in Singapore. You might ask yourself, why did it take so long since everyone else seemed to receive their items in six weeks? We thought the same thing.

Regardless, we’re happy the container didn’t fall off the ship in the middle of the ocean. According to CNN, on any given day there are 5 to 6 million containers being transported on the open sea. There are varying stats out there but it seems that somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000 containers are lost at sea every year. 

The shipment didn't look like much compared to when it was laid out in our garage three months ago. Although I would liken the excitement to being a kid on Christmas morning.  It was an urban treasure hunt going through the boxes and discovering what was in there; an actual bedspread! Pillows! Wine glasses! A toolbox! Crockpot! Zebra rug!?

There are certainly things we were hoping we packed but we did not. There are also things we packed that we’ll be bringing back home in July. (Multiple pairs of jeans? Those are not something you need large quantities of here.) Now that everything is unpacked, with closet space to spare, it feels just a little more like home.

Happy Trails, 

Amy & Raegen 

Guest Blogger & First Visitor- Mama B

We were excited to have our first visitor in Singapore last week. Mama B came to visit for 9 days (+/- some travel time) from Las Vegas. We put together a draft itinerary so we made sure she was able to see as much as possible of Singapore and enjoy a little relaxation time as well.

Singapore hasn’t had rain for 30 days, which breaks an 100 year record, but luckily for Mama B the rain showed up just for her. (Not to mention the rain got rid of the haze from the fires in Malaysia and Indonesia.) We are sad to see her go home but happy that she made her first trip to Asia to see us! We asked her to be a guest writer and provide us with her traveling tips to Singapore.

Mama B’s 10 tips for traveling to Singapore.

      1. It’s hot and you walk a lot. Pack accordingly including a hat. Bring a sweater for inside as almost everything is air conditioned.

2. Bring lots of money- it’s expensive here. There are lots of money exchanges here, which have better rates than the bank. (Bring Amy with you as she might be able to negotiate the exchange rate for you.)

      3. Pack an umbrella!

      4. Bring your allotted two bottles of wine as wine is very expensive here.

                                        

      5. Do a little research ahead of time so see what there is to do as some tours and  restaurants require advance booking.

6. If you can, land at night so you can get back to the condo, go to bed and attempt to  get on the right time zone.

Home!

      7. Get your mani-pedi before you show up (that goes for you too boys) as they are not cheap here. Although the place of choice here is Jewel Nails, Marina Bay

8. Some bathrooms don’t have toilet but yet a “squatty potty.” You’ve been warned.

9. Practice your chopstick skills.

10. The meat is different here. Beef is very expensive and chicken isn’t the boneless, skinless chicken breast you’re used to. Plan on eating a lot of noodles, rice and seafood. When in doubt let Raegen order for you. 

 Happy Trails,

 Amy & Raegen (& Mama B)

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 

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!