4 weeks...

So, the countdown continues and I am somehow at the 4 week mark...yikes!  I'm super excited to be coming home but am also sad about leaving Singapore.  And...in the middle of all of that I have a lot of organizing to do.  Movers to schedule...things to organize for packing...repairman to be scheduled...lots of dinners and drinks with friends...transitioning job responsibilities...canceling of utilities...and on and on...  Please don't get me wrong, am not complaining at all...it is just going to be an interesting...and busy...ride for the next few weeks!

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Temple tree

One of the stops I always take people to in Singapore is the Buddhist temple right in the heart of Chinatown.  I didn't plan to take any pictures since I've been to it a number of times before.  However, there were some great decorations for Lunar New Year.  This one was my favorite...

These were up on the altar in the main hall of the temple.  You'll notice that the tree on the left has $10 notes stuck in with the shiny leaves.  It was a unique and pretty way to display money offerings.

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32/52 - River Hongbao

Week 32 of 52
River Hongbao
Singapore

I have been wandering around showing my mom the city the past few days.  We have spent a good bit of time on the different Lunar New Year festivities and sights.  It is a fun time of year here...LNY is similar in importance to Christmas in the west...there are lots of lights and lanterns and colors and music all around the city.

Something that they do every year in Singapore is the River Hongbao which is a festival/carnival down at Marina Bay.

There are performances and is an entire section on the history of the Lunar New Year festivities in Singapore.  I like it mainly for all of the fun lanterns and bright colors...

 

Since this is the year of the dragon they were everywhere...

They also always have the different animals of the zodiac.  If you remember, I am an ox so found my guy and got a picture with him...

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Bank of Kate

One of the things that I always end up coming home with from a trip is leftover currency from the country I have just visited.  When there is a chance you may head back to the country you tend to keep a small amount of the cash on-hand and then before you know it...you end up like this... 

I dipped into my savings at the Bank of Kate just before I headed to Australia.  I realized that since I am heading back to the US soon I actually don't need to keep it any longer so ended up turning it at the currency exchange place and had a lot more than I realized.

Can you guess all of the currency?  I'll give you a hint and tell you all of the countries represented...
USA
Australia
Thailand
New Zealand
Korea
Japan
China
Taiwan
Malaysia 

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31/52 - Melbourne (in and around)

Week 31 of 52
Mornington Peninsula
near Melbourne, Australia

Two years ago I made a passing comment to my friend Sonya that we should try and go to the Australian Open sometime.  It seems so close (only an 8 hour flight from Singapore) and I hadn't been to Melbourne yet.  Note to self...do not make random comments to Sonya about trips...she is good at making them happen!  We were lucky enough to have the Australian Open fall over the Chinese New Year holiday here in Singapore so we only had to take one day off of work.

We were supposed to arrive Friday morning and see some evening tennis on Friday night...unfortunately, Qantas had other plans for us and we didn't end up arriving until Friday evening.  On Saturday, we spent the afternoon in a part of Melbourne called St. Kilda.  It is right on the water and has great restaurants and some nice shopping.  We enjoyed a delicious breakfast (very hard to find here in Singapore) and a very long walk along the beach.  It was a really grey day so I actually didn't take any pictures...next time.

On Sunday, a group of gals hired a van and driver to take us to the Mornington Peninsula which is known for some great Pinot Noir.  It was a much prettier day to tour some cute little wineries...

We ended up going to about five places along with a local brewery... 

 We also had an amazing lunch at one of the wineries...

On Saturday night, Sonya and I made up for the lack of Friday night tennis by getting center court tickets to see our favorite player, Roger Federer.  He was playing against a young Aussie, Bernard Tomic so it was a packed arena and had a great vibe...

Roger won the match but went on to lose to Rafa Nadal later in the week.  And this was the closest I was able to get to him...

On Monday we were back to Rod Laver arena for an entire day of tennis.  We had amazing seats at one of the service lines and only about 8 rows off the court...

   

We were close enough to hear the players ranting and see everything really well.  The only problem was we were sitting in the direct sun...and the reflection off of the court added about 10 degrees so we were soaked just sitting and watching...I cannot imagine how hot it must have felt to the tennis players.

Tuesday was a pretty quiet day spent just wandering around the city.  We had another delicious breakfast and did a little shopping before I headed off to the airport to come back to Singapore. 

I had previously not been too interested in visiting Melbourne...mainly because of things I had heard from people.  They had always said that Sydney was definitely worth the visit but Melbourne could be skipped.  I'd have to disagree...Sydney is a must see if you are in Australia but Melbourne is a city with an amazing vibe to it.  Great architecture, beautiful views, delicious food, friendly people, and if visiting in January some amazing tennis!

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Today is brought to you by the number 5!

I have been MIA from the blog lately because I just got back from 5 days in Melbourne, Australia.  I'll blog about all the fun we had but as a preview...we saw some great tennis at the Australian Open...had amazing breakfasts...and went wine tasting.

Here's a preview of how amazing our seats were...

That is Serena Williams in case you aren't familiar with the tennis pros.

Today marks 5 weeks until I leave Singapore.  Right now...in 5 weeks time I'll be about 7 hours into my 18 hour return flight to the US.  I cannot believe that three years has flown by so quickly...and I really cannot believe that my last few weeks here are flying by so quickly!

I'll do some blog catch-ups in the coming days...right now I'm off to bed a bit early to try and fend off a nasty cold I caught while I was away.  Have a great Wednesday, January 25th...see, another 5 in there!

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Singapore living

Growing up in Owosso my concept of a home was a typical single-family house with a garage and a yard.  There weren't very many apartment complexes and certainly no high rise buildings.  I'm sure that people who are from more urban areas would have a different frame of reference.

In Singapore, there are not a lot of single-family homes.  Those that do exist are insanely expensive to rent or purchase (think millions of dollars).  Obviously, when you have 5 million plus people living on an island you very quickly run out of room so the easiest thing to do is build up instead of out. 

These are HDB (Housing Development Board) apartment blocks.  They are built by the Singapore government and are lower cost than the privately held apartment buildings.  Typically, locals will live in HDB apartments but there is nothing that prohibits expats from living in them...although I'm pretty sure we couldn't own one. 

The newer buildings where most of the expats live look more modern and tend to be newer...

I actually looked at a place in this complex...

The thing that is a bit different than being in the US is that all of the units are privately owned.  When you you want to rent one you actually have to have a leasing agent that contacts the landlord's leasing agent to schedule viewings and then negotiate the leases.  I am not aware of any typical apartment buildings like we have in the US where they manage all of the units in the building.  It all seems very inefficient by having so many people involved.

I have enjoyed city living and think that I have adapted well to being in an apartment building again.  However, I'm looking forward to being back in a home that I own...with no neighbors above me or just on the other side of the walls...it will be nice to have a yard again...and to be able walk directly from the garage into the house without having to take an elevator...

BTW - if you check out the pictures of the HDB buildings above you'll notice poles with laundry hanging out to dry.  Most of the private buildings don't allow you to do this so is one way to tell (and am generalizing here) if a building is HDB or not.

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