Pulau Ubin

We took George to Pulau Ubin yesterday. It's a small island off the mainland and is very retro. We hired mountain bikes
and went over to Chek Jawa where we did the boardwalks to see the wildlife. It was really cool! We cycled past the quarries and back to have fresh crab and prawns - mmm!

Carlos' Birthday

Iain and I went to Carlos' 2nd birthday and yes Carlos is the dog! I can't believe we have been to a dog's birthday party! Sarah and Bob invited everyone up for taco's and corona to celebrate his birthday. Of course Sarah had him dressed in his Mexican outfit!

Tyler's 1st month party

Our friend's Steve and Cheryl had a baby boy named Tyler in January. In chinese tradition you celebrate the baby's first month with a party so he can be introduced to everyone. Isn't he cute?

Golf Weekend at Palm Resort

Check out my golf coach! Iain and I went up to Malaysia to Palm resort with Dougie, Maz, Nick and Lisa for a golfing weekend. My third game I approached the 12th hole which was a par 3 and 123 yards. I hit my 7 wood off the tee and landed 5 feet from the pin. I almost hit it right in the hole! Then two putts and I got my first par! Very happy! The pink golf clubs are fabulous! Needless to say Iain played very well!

Coastes

This is one of our favourite bars or places in Sentosa. A great place to chill out and enjoy the sunshine. It's the only place in Singapore to sell Magners but I prefer the cocktails! You can swim in the sea, relax on the beach and soak up the rays! Do you like our little bit of Scotland with the kilt towels?

Chinatown Yuan Xiao Jie

This is us with Mark, Imy and Sarah out on the last night of Chinese New Year otherwise known as Yuan Xiao Jie. It is also Chinese Valentines day! We went out to see the celebrations and fireworks. On our way to dinner we met one of Chinese Dragon's dance troup so I got to try the costume on! Do you think I make a good dragon? We then went for another Yu Sheng salad followed by dim sum before more drinks in Club street!

Burns Day

We still managed to celebrate Burns day with Haggis, neeps and tatties in Singapore. Thanks to Mum who brought the haggis we managed to have asian turnip and tatties. Jacq who is from the Phillipines had never tried haggis and now she thinks it is fabulous! Iain and Bob toasted the haggis and we all had a dram and Irn Bru. Can you believe they sell Irn Bru in Singapore? In true Scottish style we all watched Braveheart!

Yu Sheng Salad

This is Yu Sheng salad. It is a truly unique Singapore dish and is only available at Chinese New Year. It is delicious. You get the basic dish then add more ingredients with a saying. All of the sayings are based on prosperity and good luck. After everything is added everyone tosses the salad as high as they can and shout out their wishes. The higher you toss the more luck you have!

New Years Day

This is us on New Years Day with Mum and Dad. Iain and I took them up to Henderson Waves which is the name of the bridge. We think it's pretty cool! On the bridge you can see out to the city and the coast. We walked along to Mount Faber where we caught the cable car over to Sentosa. Iain's favourite place in Singapore is Sentosa and his mission in life is to be mayor of Sentosa! He calls it the land of peace, dreams and happiness! Anyway on Sentosa we went lugeing; visited Images of Singapore; went up the Merlion; ate on the beach and them enjoyed a pint in Brotzeit. What a day!

Christmas and New Year

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and Santa was good to you. We had a great time. We went out on Christmas eve and seen the carol singers at Raffles. Christmas day we went swimming which was odd for Christmas. We then made a huge Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. It was great fun! Santa brought me lovely new pink golf clubs which had their first outing on Boxing day and played well! Iain has a new pet Jonny - a great white shark and new golf shoes. We both did very well. We're off out on Hogmanay with friends and my Mum and Dad arrive tomorrow so they're here too. We're going to Howl at the Moon for a party and looking forward to it. We hope you have a great New Year and all the best for 2009.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Gong Xi Fa Cai - means happy new year in Chinese. It's chinese new year here but it goes on for 15 days so everywhere is red and gold. Iain and I got even two mandarins which represents good luck and prosperity so hopefully that's a good start to the year. This year is year of the Ox so all the babies born are the Year of the Rat - just in case you wanted to know! We went to the parade on Friday night which was excellent. The floats were very different to the Edinburgh Cavalcade! It went on for a couple of hours so we had a couple of bottles of wine which made it even more enjoyable!

Linsey has taken golf back up so we were out on Saturday morning. This time I only managed to lose one ball in the water which was a lot better than my previous round! I certainly need lots more practice but I'm enjoying it. You get a golf buggy and a caddy each time so it's very different to golf in Scotland. My pink clubs are doing well!

We were at friends last weekend for a new year bbq. We had Yu Sheng salad which is salad with salmon, crackers, sesame seeds, olive oil and lime dressing and basically you are meant to toss the salad with your chopsticks and make a wish. The higher you toss the salad the better. It also is meant to represent good luck and prosperity. It was good fun but what a mess it made!

Week 3 and 4!

Well I can't believe I have been here a month! Time goes quickly! I've started work so I am now an OT at Excelerate. I have poloshirts to wear and two of them are luminious green and orange :( It's very busy I see about 25 children a day as most of my work is group work. The children come everyday for as long as needed sosome of them have been there for about a year! There parents are all very well off and all of my children have maids to look after themwhich seems weird. They all call me Aunty Linsey as that's a respectful thing in Singapore which I am beginning to get used to. The staffare a mixture of locals and ex-pats and everyone is very nice. They are introducing me to Mandarin and local delicacies. We have had our first visitors - Iain's Mum and Dad! We met them at the airport and have been showing them some of the sights and introducing them to Singapore delights. So far we've been for Fish Head Curry which is really good and surprising the amount of fish to be eaten! We've had satay at Lau Pa Satwhich is a local hawker centre which is held on one of the streets. We had Stingray too - bit different from their usual lemon chicken. We've also been to quite a few of the sights and learning about our district. It was very signifcant during World War 2 and the Japanese invasion. We're putting together our list so we're ready for anymore visitors! It was Iain's birthday on the 9th of September. We partied the Saturday before with a BBQ and most of our friends. Unfortunately everything was going very welluntil we were ready to cook when the rain started and didn't stop! It was just like being in Scotland. So everyone moved inside leaving Iain and Euan to cook. It was a really good night tho! On his birthday we decorated the condo and I even baked him a birthday cake with his Mum! He got lots of lovely presents. We went to dinner thatnight at San Marco at the Fullerton which was amazing. The best bit was after when they took the four of us up on to the roof balcony and Singapore was all around you.It was absolutely stunning! This weekend we have been chilling out by our pool. Last night we went to the Lantern Festival which is part of the Mid Autumn festival which the Chinese celebrate.We were up the top of one of the local hills and lit our lanterns then proceeded to walk to a party in another park - the only thing I can compare it to is the Torchlight procession at New Year. It was really good.

Week 2!

The sunshine is out today!! It rained all weekend we couldn't believe it. Iain's hoping the Scottish weather did not come in my suitcase! Thankfully it dried up on Friday night in time for the fireworks. It was National Day on 9th of August and Singapore was 43 years old. It is a huge celebration and very important to the locals. They have big parades and parties then it finishes with the fireworks. We were trying to decide if it would be as good as the fireworks at the end of the festival and how could they try to top the firewrok waterfall over the side of the castle? We were there with Iain's work so it was nice to meet some of the people he works with. The show started with a Scottish pipe band then the local high school band then the fireworks. They were excellent and fantastic with the skyline in the background. Singapore is a very pretty place at night. Since it was raining we went to the National Museum of Singapore on Saturday. It was really good and we learnt loads. They had living exhibitions about the food,fashion, music and film. Then we journeyed through the ages and the stories of Singapore. We've been to one of the local Hawker centres. It's called Lau Pa Sat and it's a street but at night they shut off both ends with stalls. It's a massive outdoor food court area. Lau Pa Sat is famous for it's satay and it was really good. We then had stingray and fried baby suid which was lovely! It had a brilliant atmosphere andloads of people. Everything has to be washed down with Tiger beer! I popped into my new work yesterday so now I just have to collect my new visa. I start work on Monday so I still have this week off to relax and chill out. I'm getting better with my geography of Singapore and finding my way around. Been on lots of buses to different places. Work said they're looking forward to me starting! Yesterday Team Singapore arrived home from the Olympics. The whole place has been ecstatic! Singapore won a silver medal for the Women's Team Table Tennis and it's the first medal in something like 40 years. Where GB came third, Singapore came 63rd! So yesterday on Orchard Road lots of people were out waving balloons, batonsand flags and whistling. Iain's Mum and Dad arrive on Friday so we have our first guests! Think we're organised. Our condo is finished and it's home now. We're really enjoying it!

Arrival in Singapore!

Hope your all well and having fun! I can't believe it's a week today since I left and what a journey it was! I was supposed to fly from Edinburgh at 6.25pm however once we were boarded they told us there was thunder in London and hence we were delayed for quite some time. I landed in London at 9.15pm and my flight to Singapore left at 10.05pm so after a mad rush through from terminal one to terminal three I made it by the skin of my teeth! No thanks to the BMI staff who all told me I was too late and oh well I might get another flight in the morning - you can imagine my reaction! Singapore airlines was great and plenty of leg room - bonus for me! I would totally recommend them. The airbus was huge and I was near the wing which seemed to never end. I had a sneak through the front but never made it to the suites :( In first class you get a proper double bed! So there I was in economy but there was nobody in the middle seat so all those who wanted to come in my suitcase you could have had the seat next to me!! I arrived in Singapore but my luggage didn't! Still they gave me $120, an overnight bag and delivered it the next day. Not bad! Iain was there to meet me and off we went to our condo. It's fab! I've attached some photos to give you a tour. There's our living area, kitchen, bomb room, bedroom, en-suite, study (but really my dressing room!), spare bedroom, bathroom, balcony, our waterfall, our bbq pit, our swimming pool and our jacquzzi! Iain had ordered and taken delivery of all of our furniture and yes he made a good choice on the sofa! With the money we were given we went shopping on Friday for finishing touches. We just need our pictures hung now and that's our condo complete. We'e really enjoying it and feeling very pleased with our decisions :) We were out on Saturday night at a friend's birthday bbq which was good fun. I made some new friends and swapped numbers. Everyone has been very welcoming and friendly. On Sunday we were supposed to be going to a park when the rain just kept on coming! I came from Scotland and so far I've had 2 and a half days of rain :( Iain's wondering if I'e brought the weather with me! Still in Singapore you know it's going to rain when it starts getting windy as opposed to looking at the cows! We ate in last night and Iain fancied roast chicken so I went to the supermarket and bought what I thought looked like a chicken we get back home. Once in the condo I opened it up to find it's head and legs were still attached!! Screaming I dropped it in the sink! Then thought ok my cousin is a chef I can do this and with an extremely sharp knife and semi-closed eyes I went for it! One full chop and head no more with a quick chuck in the bin and the lid on top so I couldn't see it. Then the same with the legs. Now it looked like chicken back home and it tasted like it too! But what a fright! So I'm sorry if I've offended any vegetarians! It's sunny today so I'm going to go for a swim! But before I go I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for making my last few days in Scotland as memorable and as special as they were. It's great to know I've got such good friends. Thank you also for all the lovely gifts you gave me - all of them made it safely to Singapore. Visitors are very welcome!