Activities

Hello… I know, I know it has been a LONG time. Glad you are still following me and my adventures.

This entry is about what I was up to during the day before I got a job. It has been nice, because there are a lot of activities for wives (or husbands) when spouses are working or the kiddos are at school.

Before we came to Singapore I really got burnt out on working out for various reasons. Here in Singapore I have no choice but to be mobile, because we made the decision not to get a car when we got here. We walk everywhere, the public transportation system has been fairly convenient and taxis are everywhere. It was an adjustment walking soooo much, but now you don’t really notice how much or how many miles you walk. As mentioned the public transit is convenient and inexpensive, but I will expand that on a different day.

I remember during the summer when I was in the 7^th grade, my sister and I took tennis lessons. It definitely gave us something to do, but honestly I never thought I would play again after that summer. You probably see where I am going with this. They offer tennis classes once a week – Beginner and Advanced.  It was a great time and honestly was one of the avenues to meet people.  There are some very talented people around here when it comes to tennis… I personally have some room to improve, there have been some missed shots/hits. Haha.

Coffee Time happens about once a month and friends/acquaintances I have made, meet up for yogurt, just kidding just making sure your paying attention -  coffee. If you want to go to coffee, heck I am IN… YUM!!! This is nice because even though you may live within a couple of blocks of people… You get to re-connect and catch-up, oh and I can’t forget this is when you typically will meet people. There are Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (nice to get my Foo Foo coffee fill), Hawker Centers (previous entry about what these are) and more. One of the last ones we went to there was about 12 people, SO FUN!!!!

For a while, I was going to the movies on the Tuesdays (discount days) about once a week during the day. I saw The Other Woman, Grace of Monacco, Walk of Shame and more. We would just get a group together and go. I have always liked going to the movie. The movies are different here then they are in the states, but again we can save that for another day.

Book Club, so fun!!! I have never been involved in a book club before and I actually enjoy it, however I need to be better about completing the book. We meet once a month about a book and it RANGES as far as books we read… when we read a book that turns into a motion picture we sometimes have MOVIE NIGHT.

Well, there is a lot more to say, but I need to leave some for a different day. Singapore has been a wonderful experience for me and I look forward to the days to come. The people here are wonderful and I am truly blessed!!! Hope you enjoyed this entry and hopefully I will get better about the time span between them. Take care!

What’s for Dinner?!

To begin, Hawker Centers are AWESOME! It is a food court essentially with a variety of different cuisines. When we first arrived my husband and I at these most days of the week and it was very in expensive. You can get a full plate of food (regular size) for about $ 3.00 to 5.00 Sing which is about $ 2.40 to 4.00 US. Sometimes it is cheaper to eat out (or get it to go) then buying the food and making it yourself. There are some pictures below. Note: these Hawker Centers are everywhere. Oh, they do have a rating system as far as cleanliness; I haven’t seen anything below a ‘B’... I just stick with ‘A’ & ‘B.’

 

plate of food at a Hawker Center

 

 

drink from Hawker Center

avocado, coffee milk - protein drink!?

 

berry shake of some sort

 

take away meal

chicken & rice, green beans

Another meal at a Hawker Center
 

 



 

different view of the same plate of food in the first picture

 

Get this… KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and McDonalds DELIVERS here! I have never been a big fan of McD’s, but that delivery thing I had to try again and again… I found things I like haha. When you get delivery, the people who deliver typically take a motorbike (haven’t seen a car delivery) and they wear insulated backpacks with your food. They have all sorts of compartments in it. Cool Huh. When you come here you may have to consider trying delivery. Haha.

 

picture from the internet of McDonald's delivery bikes

 

another picture from the internet of the delivery backpack they wear

 

There are some fun sit-down restaurants here too, can’t forget them. Ones by the water, some in random places and on the Ferris Wheel (guess that could be considered by the water). Anyways, I am still trying the restaurants here, so I will have another entry at a later date of my favorites. Till my next entry about I don’t know yet… have a blessed day.



Visitors

Hello Everyone!

Well, this entry is about the little visitors that ‘bless us with their presence.’

I came from Colorado to Singapore. Colorado has a dry climate and there are ants, spiders and other bugs that I feel I don't see very often… but Singapore I feel takes the cake. Being in Singapore there are a lot of bugs, Yuck! I am almost convinced that if I can keep our house clean then I can keep down the bug population. Or there is another option. In our house we have visitors and I am not talking about the bugs, although they do like the bugs and I am glad they do. We have lizards and I like when they come in our house, because they eat the unwanted bugs. Granted there have been several times I walk into a room, they scurry and I kind of scream. Haha. They just catch me off guard. When I find a new lizard I have this habit of naming them, who knows if I am naming the same one over and over and over… you get the point. I have a couple of pictures of a couple that I have gotten on camera.

This is Scampers (he Scampers off when you see him). He seems to enjoy hanging out in our hallway and in our room, hopefully he found some (if not all) bugs and spiders to eat! This is him scampering in our hallway. He’s about 3 inches in size.

 

Scampers in the hallway cruising along

 

Scampers in the hallway cruising along reaching a dead end

 

 

This little guy is Teensy (for Teensy Tiny Tim). He lives in our doorway and guards us from unwanted visitors (bugs). He is about an inch and a half long, hence the name.

 

 

Teensy chilling while I was cleaning

 

Teensy chilling while I was cleaning

 

Other visitors are not as friendly as the little lizards, we do have large ones that showed up when it was dry - didn’t rain for about 45 days, so they were coming out for water. Yikes… don’t worry we steered clear!

 

LARGE lizard - steer clear

 

 LARGE lizard - steer clear

 

Here are some of the monkeys. Yeah, when I first came here I was excited to live near monkeys… they are not so nice. One of the first days of us living here I took out our garbage to the trash bins outside of our house. I come inside and the next thing I know there is a monkey climbing on top of the trash bin, lifting the lid, opening garbage bags and throwing the unwanted items on the grass and street and then eating the desired items. What started as one monkey eventually turned into about 7. I stayed indoors yet again. Haha. Below are some photos of some silly monkeys. 

 

See example - They LOVE trash!!!!

 

Chillin

 

Hanging out

 

Well, that is enough about some of the visitors that have graced us with their presence. Hoped you enjoyed it and have a blessed day!!!

 

 

Museum Tour Entry 2

Asian Civilizations Museum

Hello! The Asian Civilizations Museum was an activity that I thoroughly enjoyed and would definitely recommend if you were to visit this country. I luckily went on a tour of this museum and had a great guide… hopefully I can remember everything she taught/told me along the way and not get things mixed up. Heads up I went to 3 museums within a week, so I might be on overload haha.

As mentioned I went to the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore. The focus of this museum is on the artifacts and cultures of people originating from Southeast/South/West Asia and China. What I am going to do is start placing my photos with a synopsis of what that photo is… now to proceed.

 

 

This is a statue of Buddha while he is mediating. It is said that while he was meditating he had reached enlightenment, because while he was mediating a terrible storm began and he didn’t even notice. A cobra noticed Buddha in the midst of enlightenment and saw that he was not disturbed or even acknowledging the storm. The cobra lifted him off the ground (see the coils under Buddha) and created a covering over his head, so he would be safe and not disturbed during his mediation.

 

 

This is an imprint of Buddha’s foot.

 

 

This is a picture of a Buddha on the right and what is possibly considered a monk on the left. A lot of people (myself included until this tour) consider the figure on the left to be Buddha…well, to be considered Buddha you have to reach the state of enlightenment which causes the ‘bump’ to form on the head. If you look at the figure to the right you will see the ‘bump’ on his (Buddha’s) head and the first photo above reflects the same thing. Note: some people think that when Buddha returns he will look like the figure/monk on the left… you can see where the happy Buddha figure comes from. Cool Huh?!

 

 

In this picture is one of the first productions of a verse from the Qur’an. This was written on parchment (animal skin) and considered the most expensive material available at that time… fun fact you read it from right to left.

 

This eloquent box on top of a stand is where the Qur’an was held. Theses boxes would be decorated elaborately, considering that the Qur’an is sacred… Note the stand is to lift the box off the floor, so it does not make contact with the ground below it.

 

This is an artist’s artistic way of studying/writing a verse from the Qur’an.

There was a lot more that I saw during this visit and would say that I completely recommend this museum. As mentioned, I do know of a guide who would do a fabulous job guiding you! And I can tell you I did not do the museum justice. Maybe I will have to go again and do another entry down the road…Take care and thank you for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Museum Tour Entry 1

Malay Heritage Center

 

So this was one of my outings in the last two weeks. I had a great time going, however if I were to visit Singapore this is probably not one of the things I visit. Singapore has a lot of museums and sites to see that I would consider before this one... there is a lot to see here.

 

This is the Malay Heritage Center that is a museum (as you probably picked up on that) among other things.  For example some fun activities that the Malay Heritage Centre conducts are movie nights on the open terrace (area in front of the building in the picture above), puts on plays, has Malay game afternoon for the kiddos and more.

 

Now for some pictures from the museum and small captions.

 

 

A Malay Sultans ceremonial belt buckle & seal

(19th century)

 

Medallion

(19th century)

 

Medallion

(19th century)

These hats belong to Javanese merchant who settled in the 19th Century and lived in the Gedung Kuning (The Yellow Mansion - picture further down)

 

 

Jewelry

 

1. top left - Chinese coins (between 17th - 19th centuries) 

2. top right - Dutch East India Company coins (between 1760 - 1820)

3. bottom left - recovered coins with Jawi inscriptions (between 18th - 20th centuries)

4. Earthen "coins" with fine lines (around 14th century)

 

 

 

Gedung Kuning (the Yellow Mansion)

Note: this building serves as a restaurant

 

You may have noticed a lot of the pictures above represent items from the 19th century, Singapore became the Republic of Singapore in 1965, thus being a new country. The 'modern' Singapore was founded around 1819 as a British colony, became apart of Japan from 1942-1945, was apart of Malaysia from 1962-1965, and as mentioned became the Republic of Singapore in 1965. Considering the history and the geographical Singapore is somewhat of a melting pot of many different cultures. It has a make up of the following ethnic cultures (this information is from 2010):

Chinese 74.1%

Malay 13.4%

Indian 9.2%

Others 3.3%

During my time here and as time progresses, I look forward to seeing this country continue to mold itself as the Republic of Singapore.

 

Below are a couple of places that we walked by during the course of this outing.

 

 

beautiful Mosque near Arab Street

 

beautiful Mosque near Arab Street

 

a fun shop along near Arab Street

 

 

pretty glass bead necklaces

 

stone necklaces that are shaped and painted



 

stone necklaces that are shaped and painted again

 

Thank you for reading my blog... Take Care, Dana

 

Some information in this entry was from Wikipedia

 

 



 

 

 

 

Infamous Durian

Hello all,

This is my entry regarding Durian. To many people in southeast Asia it is considered the “King of Fruits,” (Wikipedia). Durian is reflected in the pictures below, but regardless it is a larger greenish/brown spiky fruit, with a whitish substance on the inside. I know that there have been several episodes of Chopped on the Food Network that had given chefs the opportunity to cook with this fruit, and at times I feel bad for the chefs and judges, because this fruit is known for its potent smell (and even taste)! When you begin to view the photos below you will notice my face says it all on how I feel about this fruit. In my opinion, the fruit smells like rotten onions that could be smelt a long ways away. I have tried it in the form of a pancake (the filling inside), shake, a cream puff and in its raw form. If I were to rate the items on least disagreeable to extremely disagreeable it would go as follows:

1. Pancake

2. Shake

3. Raw

4. Cream puff

In this country many people enjoy and love this fruit… things that may taste unpleasant  to me, taste lovely to others. Question are we what we eat? If you ever have a chance to try this fruit, I would love to hear/read your impression of it. 

Well, I will let you go, I hope you’re having a blessed day (or night, wherever you may be).

 

Tree Hanging Durian 

 

 

Picked

 

Cut Open

 

 

Durian stand in China Town Singapore

 

Me tasting the pancake with Durian filling

(proceeding with caution!!) 

 

Trying the cream puff

(you can see why it was number four and my LEAST favorite form!!!)

 

 

Thaipusam Festival 2014 - Date of festival this year January 17, 2014

Hello again!!! This entry has required the most research and has been one of the most interesting things I have seen here. Note: some of the pictures below may make your tummy turn, so proceed with caution.

Thaipusam is a Hindu festival that is mainly celebrated the Tamil people, whose presence is mainly in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and other surrounding areas.

The term Thaipusam is derived from the term Thai and Pusam. Thai is another reference for the months January/February (date of festival above) and the term Pusam is a name of a star. When this festival is celebrated the star is considered to be at its highest point in the sky.

The purpose of this festival is to commemorate when the goddess, Parvati, gave the god, Murugan, a Vel Spear to defeat the evil demon Soorapadman.  

Just a bit of additional information here and forgive me, this is unchartered territory for me so I am barely scratching the surface…

Parvarti is considered to be a benevolent Goddess – the Goddess of Creation and Power and Victory of good over evil. She has a lot of connections with many gods and goddess in the Hindu realm, some I recognize and others I didn’t. Parvarti is the wife of Shiva and some communities say she is the sister of Vishnu. When Parvarti is presented alone she typically has four/eight/ten arms and when she is next to Vishnu she has two.

Murugan (Kartikeya) is the Hindu god of war and victory and the Commander of the Gods. He is the son of Parvarti and lord Shiva.

Soorapadman is a power seeking deity and would torment the good souls of the universe. He is the son of the rishi Kashyapa and asura princess, Maya…not to mention Maya enchanted Kashyapa into marrying her. 

How does one prepare for this festival…

Devotees will start preparing by prayer and fasting for 48 days before the festival in order to cleanse themselves. On the day of the devotees that will shave their heads and take a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion or notably carrying burdens. Such acts may consist of carrying a pot of milk or ‘mortification of the flesh,’ meaning piercing various areas of one’s body (reflected in photos below).

Please note above research is from Wikipedia

Personal Application – this is what I took from it…

This was difficult to see, because these people inflict pain on themselves in order to show devotion to their god or something they believe in. I have to be quite honest, not sure I would be able to do that because I am not one for pain and needles (unless necessary). They are inflicting scares on their bodies, not in one area, basically all over and carrying their own burdens… Wow, what devotion and I commend them for that! When it comes to carrying burdens I would fail at that miserably, I am a fallen human and sinful, carrying my burdens is more responsibility then my flesh and blood could bare. Personally I think about being a Christian and I feel blessed (even lucky) that God called me not to inflict pain on myself and carry my own burdens. All He asked is that I would accept Him as my Savior and have a relationship with Him. Not only would I have a relationship with Him, I can give all my burdens to Him and in return He will give me peace in the midst of a storm. You just can’t beat that, in my opinion. I got the long stick, not the short end. As mentioned this is a personal application, and I understand a lot of people may not share my thoughts/opinions and I am totally ok with that! I enjoy blogging because I can share my experiences and ones that people may never be able to experience themselves. Thank you for reading this and I hope you have a great day.

Note below are some verses if you are so inclined to read them:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 (NIV)
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NIV)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NIV)
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Romans 10:9-10 (NIV)
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT)

 

 

A Hindu Temple

 

Inside the Temple

 

Ceiling of Temple

 

gods & goddesses

 

devotee

 

devotee

 

 

devotee

 

devotee

 

headdress

 

 

devotees

(carrying milk on head with piercings in facial areas)

 

 

devotees

(carrying milk on head with piercings in facial areas)