A Normal Day Birthday

I turned twenty three yesterday. It was a good birthday, felt like any other day but better. Which is just what I was looking for! John usually takes me to places on the actual day, but this year we are going to Japan in September, and so that is my birthday-present (as well as his). Instead of something grand, we met up in Holland Village and ate at a restaurant we both love.

Two Days Left

It is nearing that time of the year again - a birthday. More specifically... mine! I am not a big fan of birthdays. There are plenty of reasons why, but I do not want to make this depressing. Let me just say that receiving gifts and having people walk around me trying to make my day makes me uncomfortable. I do not like being in the spotlight unless I choose to be in it. Yet ever since I met John he has managed to make my birthdays into days I truly enjoy.

Act Well and Keep It Secret

It was our friend Steve's birthday on Friday. Ash and Steve came over to hang out and celebrate after everything was done that day. It was just the four of us on Friday and they both stayed the night, so we had Saturday too! Though in the evening we had a little surprise for Steve...

Bryan's Birthday

We were at a birthday party last night. Our friend Bryan turned twenty nine and he invited a bunch of people from the chat to his place. We met Ash and Steve at the Serangoon MRT station and bought soda and chips. A taxi took us to Bryan's home. It was a four story building and the stairs were scary slippery. I asked why they had no elevator. I could have used it, but no accident happened so it was all good.

We gathered on the roof. It was already dark and a full moon was slowly creeping up behind some trees. It was beautiful! A grill was burning, cooking food for anyone to eat. There was chicken, beef, salmon, varieties of vegetables and fruit, garlic bread and other things I probably missed. It was a casual party. The girls gathered up in a group and sat by themselves out of the way from the food supply. I was part of that group (since I am a girl) and for the first time since moving to Singapore I felt like I belonged. I have not had a group of girlfriends in four years. It felt familiar, like we all spoke a secret language and we all understood each other without having to fake who we truly are. Maybe it was just me, maybe I just felt this way because of my history, but if that is the case then I am grateful for these warm and kind women. We are all very different but I feel like I can be myself around them.

At one point during the evening one friend came up with a burning birthday cake. We all burst out singing happy birthday and the candles were blown out. Cake was served to everyone who wanted some. It was really good. Chocolate cake with cherry inside. Ash wrote happy birthday and all our names on a card in the last minute and handed it over. I think it was appreciated. He laughed about it being written while he cut up the cake.

Around eleven the birthday-boy and some others headed down to his room. Upstairs it started to rain. I was starting to feel tired and asked if it was time to leave. We thought we would share a cab with Ash and Steve back to the station, but after half an hour of consideration they wanted to stay longer than John and I. So the two of us thanked for the invite and said good bye to everyone. We called an UberPool and had company from a deadly quiet girl in the car. The driver sighed and honked the horn at so many cars. It took a surprising twenty or so minutes to get home and yet it felt like we were at the far of end of Singapore. No matter how far away we travel from our home it almost always takes around twenty to thirty minutes to get back. Singapore is not a big country. It feels smaller than it looks on Maps. I am surprised, but I like it here.

Food-day

Yesterday we found a new hawker centre nearby. A couple of acquaintances had asked us why we had not been there before and seemed honestly surprised when they learned that we had not. The only reason was that we did not know about it. It was very close to the street where we walk a lot, between the Botanic Garden station and FairPrice. It was as simple as crossing a street and there it was, behind some bushes lay a very Malaysian hawker centre. It was crowded even though it was three in the afternoon. Half of the stalls were closed and the ones that were open had little food left. I found two stalls that sold satay but both were out. John wanted ayam penyet, but they were out of that too. Instead we ordered nasi lemak - fried chicken with rice, a fried tofu and a small bowl of onion soup. Apart from the soup everything was cold and tasted like it had been cooked hours before. Even though the food was very disappointing the centre felt good. All of us wanted to return another day at a better time.

Before we left Annika bought an avocado/banana smoothie (Avocanana) to me and a carrot/orange/apple juice for herself. Mine was okay, not amazing but still very good. Another time I will try something else. Annika's was fresh and thin, easy to drink and tasteful. We headed towards FairPrice to do a bit of grocery shopping. We ended up with more than I had expected. Annika found a fresh fish, sea bass, which she thought we could eat for dinner. We bought it and a smaller one for less than a dollar that would be Ymir's dinner. Annika was kind enough to pay for everything which we were very grateful for! It was a lot to carry but eventually we made it back home.

When it was time to start making dinner Annika and I gathered in the kitchen together. We looked up a recipe online on how to cook the fish but ended up going against the instructions anyway. I filled the fish with onions and lemons after Annika's suggestions and folded the whole thing inside aluminium. I put it in the oven to start cooking while Annika cleaned potatoes that would go around. I chopped some red onions and spread both potatoes and onions around the package in the oven.

Then I fried the smaller fish for Ymir. When it was done Annika showed me how to separate the fishmeat from the skeleton, but still I had to fiddle out many bones afterwards. John joined me to sing for the cat and present the new fish for the little guy. He turned one year old on the twenty ninth of January. Happy birthday, Ymir! After tasting some small pieces of the fish he abandoned the thoughtful gift from his humans.

The human's dinner was a simple meal that filled our bellies. The white fish had some taste but needed to be enhanced with salt and lemon. The potatoes was my kind of softness; not too mushy but not so chewy either. They had a nice balance of pepper and salt on them so no need to exaggerate the taste. To this we had a way too simple salad containing tomato, cucumber and baby spinach. I would have liked something more to complete it, like corn and cheese.

We finished the day in the sofa watching a movie. It was called Captain Fantastic and was really good. The theme was unusual; about a family of six children living out in the forest, the mom is not present in person but her spirit was the essence of the movie. I really recommend seeing it. It was two hours long but managed to feel much longer. The ending had a small plot hole, but could be overlooked if you are not too picky. As for me it was something unresolved and I could not understand how the movie, having been so clear and precise throughout the two hours, could leave it at that when it was only a few minutes left. It is like they ran out of minutes and could not squeeze in an explanation.

Halloween Horror Nights

What a fun experience! Last night was one of the best I have had in Singapore. We were at the Universal Studios Halloween Horror Night 6!

The day was slow and calming, just what I needed. I tend to get nervous and stressed out by things outside the apartment. John was kind and made brunch - chicken pasta with garlic. It was good but that kind of food always look bleak. There is no way to put colour into it.

I had already picked out an outfit but after trying it on I decided it was not right. I did not want to have short-shorts because I knew we were going on rides and sweaty thighs against plastic is never comfortably to peal oneself off from. I had planned on taking tights and a dress but I felt that was not the right style for an amusement park. John wore orange shorts and a purple shirts which looked nice and also felt like Halloween. In the end I decided to wear yellow chinos and a crop top with comic book print.

We left around five thirty knowing the event would open at seven thirty. Travelled by MRT to HarbourFront and stood by the directory looking for a good restaurant to eat. All the names were meaningless and all the photos looked boring. We ate at the food court behind us. A small but almost healthy meal that would keep our tummies satisfied throughout the night.

We started walking slowly across the bridge towards Sentosa Island. It was an hour or so before the event started. I had already said I did not want to stand in queue just to be one of the first inside. We stood in a long line, pretty organised which is always surprising for an European I think. (Asian are really good at queuing and not skipping in line.) They started letting people in at seven and during that last half hour there was a small concert in the crowded entrance. A skeleton DJ, lots of blinking horns on peoples heads, nobody was dancing apart from me and John, a few screamed but only when the DJ asked for it. It was fun but strange, the ones around us gave us space to dance. I thought it was fun!

Eventually they let the people in to the rest of the park. People streamed everywhere. John and I had a goal. I had studied a map earlier and knew where to go. People ran past us. We walked fast, European long-legged style. Came up to the entrance to the Cylon roller coaster! We needed to put our belonging inside a locker and so we ran past the Human roller coaster (they are named from Galactica - something I know very little about), put everything inside a small box and ran back laughing insanely. John did, I sounded hyped I think.

The Cylon is by far the best coaster I have ever ridden. It twisted, it looped, it corkscrewed and all these things were a first-timer for me. It was simply amazing. I screamed so much! We sat on the sixth row so we did not see much of what was going to happen until it did. Right afterwards we ran for the Human and sat in the front seats. It was not as exiting, no loops and no corkscrews. It had more than one helix but also a lot of twists and turns. Not as good as Cylon though.


After that I was pretty pleased. We had done two coaster under twenty minutes and retrieved our things for free (after forty five minutes it would cost four dollars). We strolled down the street when we suddenly were asked to move to the side, move to the side, move to the side people! We had no idea what was going on but had conveniently just acquired a map. On the spot where we stood it said March of the Dead. Soon drums were playing and a skull-wagon turned the corner. "Dead people" danced and a coffin was carried by dead monks (I believe they were monks, but John disagrees). It was a short assembly but it was pretty to look at. While this was happening we tried to walk alongside them but the staff kept screaming move to the side people so it kind of ruined the mood.

Next attraction was one of the haunted houses called Old Changi Hospital. We had asked a staff member over at the Human coaster (who had answered honestly when we asked which coaster was the best and he said Cylon, so we trusted his judgement) which house to go to. We stood in an impressively long line and I was so happy that we avoided this by the coasters. Decided this was the only queue we would stand in and so we invested our time. It moved frequently which was surprising, but closer to the entrance it got slower and slower. Eventually we could enter together with a whole group of people. Not as scary as it would have been going just us two. Inside was pretty well decorated though. I was more impressed by the scenery than scared shitless. The girl behind me sounded like she was about to die.

Maybe it was not worth the long wait and the annoying people in the queue, but overall I liked it. Since we did not want to queue any more we visited one of their "scary zones" which was like a haunted house but no queue so people just wandered everywhere. One tunnel was scary when something was pulled underneath my foot and the sound was unpleasant, but the rest... lets just say that a guy with bloodied face and a knife beside it was completely overlooked by me who asked John which was to go in that specific cross-way. I apologised over my shoulder and shamefully walked away.

Opposite the entrance to the park was a huge castle and the sign Far Far Away. Both of us being fans of Shrek had to enter and be amazed. This looked incredible. So detailed. We walked on the street shown in the movie! There were scary rides here as well but more for children obviously. We passed through, strolling back to the entrance. Looking at the map we noticed that a small show was starting after half an hour and so we decided to wait there. It was the end of the March of the Dead. A Mexican presented the show, two "volunteers" joined of stage, Lady of the Dead screamed something about life and death, the "volunteers" got spiked and burned and then it was over. It was surprisingly short.


Before leaving we wanted to see one last thing. Jack's Recurring Nightmare Circus. It was interesting. Two circus acts - first thing that happened was a girl suspended in the air with a secure line holding her hair. I have no idea how they made it look so real but it must have been a helmet of some sort. She spun around with the use of her legs and other acrobatic things. Very impressive. Then it was dancing and miming, not very circus-like according to me. Halfway through a man from America Got Talent (I believe) came on stage with his female partner. They performed throwing knives-act, as in the lady stood against a wooden wall and the man a few meters away, blindfolded and listened to her instructions on where to throw those heavy metal knives. It was very real and very scary, which could very easily be seen on her face. It ended with them chopping his head of with a guillotine and they made it look so real I had a bad feeling in my stomach afterwards. The circus lasted for half an hour and then it was done.

I had gone from tired to energised. Suddenly I danced around, jumped up and down, while John walked with a big smile next to me. We left the park an hour before closing time. Grabbed a cab in the enormous car-park below the island and came home around midnight. I was quick to get into bed, having difficulties keeping my eyes open, while John stayed up an hour or so after kissing my forehead.

It was a fantastic night! I will not forget this soon.

 

 

When it looks good - STOP

Today I had a very long list of things to do. While eating breakfast I sat by the computer, doing my morning routine of wasting time on YouTube. Not for long though, around ten I decided to get going.

I started with running around the house picking up things and putting them down. It is amazing how things end up everywhere once you have touched them. Must say that John is better at this than I am and so I find the most unbelievable things in the most unlikely of places. Makes it more fun, so half a thank you for that.

After I wiped off most of the surfaces I vacuumed the floors. I applauded Ymir for being brave; sitting on the toilet staring down at the machine invading his private pooping place. It was then already time for lunch (almost, but I needed time to cook as well). My amazing lunch consisted of yesterdays chicken teriyaki and I cooked noodles. I made it perfect! I am such a great cook. (Thank you John for cooking!). I watched an episode of House and even though I finished eating halfway through I kind of needed that break.

As soon as the episode was done I was up and working again. Scrubbing the floor and doing the dishes. It took longer than expected. There was no rest after that! I went downstairs, brought the mail back up, went down again and walked fifteen minutes to Cold Storage. I tried to be quick but I could not find the breadcrumbs I needed for the cake I had planned to do. I asked for help and the guy led me away from the baking section to the snacks section. There he showed me breadcrumbs - only they were used for shrimps to fritter. I said thanks and as soon as he was out of sight I left. Went to pick out some whipping cream. While I stood there reading a package in Malay and tried to make sense of it he appeared out of nowhere with two choices. These were baking raspings, and even though I thanked him and picked one, I have no idea where he found them. No clue. Next time I will have to ask again.

Back home I saw that it was already five o'clock. John would be home soon and I had this idea of having the cake ready when he got there. So I opened the recipe and started mixing. When the cake was in the oven and would be in there for half an hour I started whipping. I have never done this manually before. It was not as expected. I whipped for so long and nothing happened. The time passed and it was almost time to take out the cake. The cream was still not whipped cream when the cake came out, luckily it needed to cool down before I could put it on anyway.

When the cream looked somewhat of what it should look like (actually, I did not have the strength to stir any longer) I put it in the fridge. This is the time John walks in through the door. I show him my amazing whipping skills and ask for his help to use the very sharp knife to slice the cake in two. I thought about two layers but decided in the end to just go with one. The cake looked a little too brown to be perfect but it was the first time I baked in a convection oven.

He then got "couch arrest" until I was done decorating. I put on the poorly made cream - realising we needed to buy a spatula since a spoon made it so much harder to get it even - and decorated with raspberries and the half-burnt crumbs stuck inside the cake pan. It looked good and I wish now that I had taken a photo. My brain was probably tired because it thought the cake needed more. The last decoration. I had nothing planned. I melted some chocolate. I had no idea how to get the thick chocolate onto the cake and so I used a spoon to drip it. It looked like tiny turds...

John kindly quit his game to sit by the table, listen to me sing for his twenty second birthday (he just turned twenty three but this cake was promised and a bit late) and then laughed as he saw what I had done. I have made quite a few cakes in my life and other things as well, but this was a low-point. What was even worse was that it did not taste very good. I was not upset, it was expected. New country, new ingredients, new oven and not owning the needed utensils.

We scraped of the good stuff - raspberries, cream, mashed bananas (that was the middle layer) and some of the chocolate - put it on the plate and ate it. I had saved some of the raspberries for John to eat alone since they were quite expensive and he really likes raspberries. Although, he did complain that there were no strawberries on it. Hmphf... well, maybe next time then!

Look at that chocolate! Poop or what?

Things done and Things to do

The weekend is over, John is still sick but at work, I am sleepy and life keeps moving.

Trading feet for Gifts

Today I was a soldier! The parents-in-law left the day before yesterday and yesterday I had to recover after two weeks of being social and active. Which left this day to do the last minute shopping I wanted to do before John's birthday.

The Set up is Complete

Today we had a late lunch. Travelled to Bugis and wandered around looking for the perfect place to eat. John had difficulties deciding (it was his choice since it was his pre-birthday weekend) and all my alternatives where completely ignored. Eventually they listened to me and I took the responsibility to find the complicated way to EighteenChefs. It was complicated the first time we tried to find it, but this time I almost found it immediately.

Like the first time we were there with only Annika we ordered Heart Attack, but were afraid this would not satisfy us and so we also ordered their teriyaki chicken with potato apple salad. The Heart Attack was good - nice chicken, tasty rice, some really spicy sausage and then the best meat, some kind of entrecote - but their teriyaki (and my thought: all their other dishes) was a MASSIVE disappointment. Did not taste teriyaki at all, rather thin piece of breast and tasteless even in the sense of chicken. The potato apple salad was equal to this - tasted very little and was not very interesting.

Something else to consider. This place looks innocent enough on the photo but their acoustics are horrible and when crowded it is very loud. On top of this the one in charge thought it was a good idea to play metal music to try and lessen the already deafening noise. It was difficult to hear each other and not in the slightest a friendly environment.

Luckily we left quickly after finishing our meal. Decided to promenade towards Sim Lim Square and so we passed through the market between the Bugis and Rochor. At SLS we tried to find tripods and cables for our Vive-set up. Did not find any tripods high enough for our cause. Thomas bought the cables and a new charger for my phone (Ymir has been chewing on the old one) as a gift. On the Telegram-chat John asked for advise on where to find tripods and they sent us towards Peninsula. It was a twenty-something minutes walk from SLS and we saw a completely new area during this promenade. Walked through the Singapore Management University area where all buildings looked designed and saw the National Museum of Singapore (from the outside, maybe we will go in there some day).

At Peninsula we went into the first camera-selling store, found the desired tripods immediately and for a good price! It was meant to be. After that we wanted to go home with the heavy packages and went towards CityHall MRT station. Heard the superfast cars going by behind a black wall - also known as Formula 1.

Back home we ate a very simple dinner - as in I had greek yoghurt with banana - whilst they listened to me reading chapter eight out loud. It was real fun to read it and they seemed to like it! After that John started putting up the Vive-set up. It looked very professional. He played for a while, looking like the idiot we all look like with that headset on. Then Thomas tried it for a bit and lastly I had a go. I was lost for forty minutes before it was too much and then it was almost midnight. It was time to go to sleep.

Birthday!

Happy birthday! I am now twenty two years old. I got several birthday-wishes and three gifts from John, one for every day of celebration. I wrote about a board game called Quixo in an earlier post and mentioned Love Letter, a card game, in the previous one. Today I got the best of board games, one that I can play alone and up to eight players. It is called Eldritch Horror and it is the players against the game. I have not read the rules yet, but it was a heavy box and there are so many things in there. I can not wait until I know this game by heart!

There was only one plan today - dinner at a fancy restaurant. This is exactly what I wanted. I love John, he knows me so unbelievably well. He asked what I wanted to eat for lunch and I was happy to go downstairs to the food court. There were a lot of people - since it is Sunday and there is a church across the street - so the queues were long. We stood for quite a while before receiving the ordered food, then ate it by the computers while gaming.

Around five I started making myself ready. Since I have had curled hair two days in a row I tried straightening it today. Looked so different, but nice! Short hair suits me, I like it. I put on some modest makeup and tried to find my beloved earrings. They were gone. Suddenly I remembered having left them on the living room table last night. They were not there. I turned my eyes to the cat but he was not willing to tell me where they were. In the middle of getting-ready-for-fancy-dinner-preparations we started looking for them. John found one under the washing machine. The other one is still lost in the apartment. No vacuum cleaning until found!

Half past six we ordered a cab. Two minutes it said so we went to the car park. The taxi was not waiting. John called him but the man said he could not find the car park, that he were not let inside and that he did not find us. So we had to walk out of the car park. Now, this may sound like nothing, but the car park is so big that it takes a few minutes to get out. Two floors down and the ramp up were on the other side to where we were. When we finally got out the driver called us and said he had found the pickup point. We told him that he was so late we had walked out and said he should meet us by the gate. Finally inside the car we drove ten minutes to Orchard Road.

The restaurant was called Crystal Jade Golden Palace. It has one Michelin-star and was inside a pretty expensive mall called Paragon. The stores around were Gucci, Prada, Miu Miu and so on. We walked in and was seated at our table. It was not on the lower floor but up on a little private alcove with two tables. One was a two seated table and it was taken, the one we got was four seats. The couple left shortly after we arrived and so we had a very private dinner. I later found out that John had told them that it was my birthday and I suspect this is why we were placed here.

 

They had two menus, one set which is a lot of small dishes and one large with so much to choose between. We asked for recommendations and after some consideration we ordered. From left to right we have a grouper fish with vermicelli (this was my favourite), chicken with cashews and some strange spice that made your tongue go numb, pork and duck with two sauces not shown in picture (Johns favourite) and rice with prawn and vegetables. Everything tasted really nice and we only had water to drink to not spoil the taste.

    

Lastly, because John had mentioned my birthday when he booked the table, they served these three small deserts free of charge. The yellow jelly did not taste anything until you swallowed it, then there was a small umami lemonish taste. The white and pink bubble was called a birthday bun which had lotus-paste inside. The more I ate the more I liked it. Last thing was the best. Sesame seed ball which had (surprisingly) sesame seeds inside it. Looks dark, and it was, but really good.

 

Thank you for a good birthday. They seem to only get better with you, John!

First day of birthday

What a day... my feet hurt, my eyes can barely stay open and I have very little energy to lift my arm. This post is being written very slowly.

On Sunday I turn twenty two but John started celebrating me today already. I woke up by his alarm and after his regular half-hour snooze I asked if he should get up and go to work. He stays quiet and after a heartbeat I say you took the day off, right? Yes, he did, and I should not have been surprised since he did the same thing last year. Even so we were both awake and he got up to give our cat breakfast. I stayed in bed. He starts to sing the Swedish happy birthday song and enters with a silver package. Inside I found a lovely wooden five-in-a-row board game (with interesting rules) called Quixo and I beat him the two games we played that morning. A perfect game for me!

He then tells me that we are going to Universal Studios today. HURRAY! So we cuddle in the sofa watching a Dota-match (the international is ongoing) and I drink a cup of hot chocolate. We then quickly get ready and head towards HarbourFront. Clever as I am I say we should buy our lunch so we will be able to walk with it and so John suggests something from the food court. We eat while walking like time-saving experts. Halfway over to Sentosa we sit down and eat the rest of our meals.

Over at Sentosa we excitedly walk over to the over-pampered Universal entrance. We thought that since it was a Friday and everybody should be at work it should be less people and we could have the park all to ourselves. Unfortunately we asked the lady who sold tickets if there were a lot of people there - yes, yes it was. Always. Every day. Constantly. Sigh. We then go as far as we can without tickets to see just how many there were and how long the shortest queue was. TWO HOURS. Shortest... We were there five hours before they closed.

Bailed. There is much else to do at Sentosa. Small droplets hit our faces. We walked to S.E.A Aquarium - that John explained to me, after I asked why they had dots between the sea word, stood for South East Asia. I just thought it was a clever name for the aquarium - and talked to two of the staff for quite a while. Talked about what to do at Sentosa and if the aquarium was any good. We bought tickets and entered.

First there was a short, or rather large, exhibition about Zheng He and his trading ship. Huge display of perhaps one tenth of the entire ship. We read about interesting history and saw pots, coins and more, all brought back from a sunken 15th century trading ship.

We then came to the aquarium. First we walked through a tunnel filled with sharks and smaller fish. The very loud children made us hurry though that one. If you are looking at the map further down you will see the Exit and Entrance. They had apparently switched this so the entrance is now where the exit was. First we saw some pretty amazing moray eels. We crawled into a small space, probably made for children, and sat there watching them eel around in the little tank. Went past some common reef fish and jellyfish. Saw a few seahorses and a slowly circling school of fish.

After that came the big tank. We had been informed earlier that this was once the biggest tank in the world, then the Chinese built an even larger one. Inside were so many varieties of fish. Lots of stingrays, three huge that were so, so beautiful! A pair of large grouper fish that looked alien up close. A school of trevallies were swimming around, looking as ugly as they are. A fair amount of sharks, one with three fins on its tail. Never got a photo of it though, just a blurry mess.

I was amazed. We spent a lot of time here. I loved it. I really do love watching undersea creatures. They look so peaceful. It looks like they are in space, just floating around doing nothing. Well, they are doing something, I just do not know what. I wondered what they thought was on the other side of that glass wall. So many of them came close and seemed to investigate the never disappearing barrier.

When we eventually left there was not much more to surprise me. Or so I thought! After a while we came to a lit up tank, open from above, at which I also realised that it had stopped raining. I peered into it and saw shapes far away. John whispered in my ear: dolphins. Iihh! I have seen dolphins once, when I was six or seven. I do not remember much. There is one blurry photo of me sitting in a dark place and there could be a dolphin a few meters in front of me. One can not be sure. But this! I was so happy! Could not stop smiling! After just a little while they came closer, two pups came to play by the windows. The adults were swimming around upside down and kept to the surface. They were so cute! I wish I could swim with them... maybe one day.

In another tank was a giant octopus! It was the first time I saw one, a large one, up close. It was so huge. It moved around in the tank, from being at the surface looking purple to suddenly dropping down to a corner turning white! Looked so cool! It camouflaged itself and it was felt indescribable seeing it happen. I stood by that window for a very long time. People around me started to get annoyed and pressed past. I did not mind, I was done after a while.

Before leaving the aquarium we sat in another tunnel with sharks and fish, cozing and taking photos. Outside the sun was shining, even though it was supposed to be a cloudy day. We walked up some stairs, following the map towards the beach and sea. Passed an enormous Merlion, it cost twelve Singapore dollars per person to go up to its mouth. We did not. Walked down a decorated walkway with funny mirrors. Found the beach, realised it was really hot and we had no swim clothes so it was mainly torture to watch those in the water. We also went by a waterpark that looked like something we would have enjoyed. Sat down at a bench and called John's parents. Talked with them for twenty minutes. They are so lovely and kind, I really miss them sometimes.

Sidenote: we walked just a small bit of Sentosa but we could constantly hear Singapore's national songs playing on speakers. They make a new one for every year.

We walked all the way back to VivoCity/HarbourFront. The time was around five and since we had had an early lunch we were getting hungry. First looked at some games, found nothing new. Looked at some sunglasses, found some nice but expensive. Ate at Carl's Junior (for the people in Sweden, it is like Singapores MAX) which served a large avocado and bacon burger, ridiculously large sodas and very good fries (we had one with cheese, amazing). After that we barely had the strength to hold hands. We tested two massaging chairs and I had to drag John away from it. Before we left for home John wanted to check on some jewellery to see if he could spot what I liked. He showed me a beautiful bracelet with stars on it. Although it cost a thousand Swedish crowns, I would not dare to wear it.

When we came home a little cat was waiting for us by the door. Hungry and desperate for cuddles. He got all of it.

Small part of a trading ship.

You can see the tunnel in the background.

Sharks cuddling.

The wreck tank. I stand furthest to the right.

Living in a lake. Asias scary version of a northern pike.

  

 

 A self-decorated crab and what we think is a shrimp on a starfish.

 

The second largest tank in the world.

My reaction to it.

One very large ray and two huge groupers.

 

John does not know how to smile when I ask him to.