Monday 31 October 2016

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.

 

 



Saturday 29 October 2016

Social Barbecue and All people in the West are essentially the same

We just got home from a barbecue, but let me start from the beginning.

At first I was not sure I wanted to go. I felt very unsocial. This changed after two glasses of wine and a caffeine tablett. Please do not judge here because we slept poorly. Ymir has begun to wake us up early in the morning by attacking the blinds. He does not listen to no,stop that. He does not go away when we gently throw him off the bed and when we close the door behind him he starts to meow and it goes on for hours.

Around four I decided I wanted to go. I felt better, a bit tipsy, and I have not been social in over a week. So I straighten my hair and John and I colour-coordinated our outfits. We packed my new bag with two Marabou chocolate cakes and a bag of Ahlgrens cars. I also put down ice-cold water because I did not want to rely on drinking alcohol the whole evening when I had already started.

We took the MRT one station, because we were kind of late and did not want to waste any time walking. Crossed the street and entered Cold Storage. There we bought two packages of six hot dogs and three packages of four hot dog breads. We also bought some cheap and unknown brand of beer which were cold. This was mainly the reason for John to go here.

We travelled half an hour to the end of the blue line and used Maps to find our way. The apartments lay on top of a very small and sort of pathetic mall, Junction 10, which I suggested we passed through. Mainly because of the ac. However, in the invitation mail it did not say which lobby or which floor to go to, so we asked some staff about this. I think they were very confused to be asked where do we go to see our friends? Not quoted. Before they got a chance to answer though a man with a child approached John and asked John? It was very strange, but apparently everyone knows John from his annoying emails and the small picture next to it. This man showed us where to go.

We waited outside the locked door until the host answered his phone and came to let us in. He was very sweet and friendly and I instantly liked him. We introduced ourselves to a bunch of people, meeting Swedes which felt weird since our secret language was no longer secret. They were all very friendly too though. Food was on the table and our sausages were already on the grill. I had some watermelon while I waited and a beer after that. I tried to talk to people but anytime I stood by John they talked about work... which I of course could not discuss. I did find two people, a couple, who were really nice and interesting. They liked board games and we like board games so match made over wood (as in board games).

The condominium was really nice. The pool was large and had loungers in the water. We also got invited to visit the apartment and it was really big and so nice. They had four cats which was really cosy. I would like to live there, only problem I see is that it is far away from John's work so I would not go in to have lunch with him very often and also the view was of high rise buildings. I like our view at d'Leedon very much and it was a huge part of why we picked this apartment. Even though the quality of the place is not top notch.

We left around half past nine. I was starting to feel unsocial again. We left the candy behind but retrieved the sausages and bread. Said goodbye to people and looked for the host. He was upstairs to put the kids to bed but as we were moving towards the door we saw him coming down. Could not leave without saying goodbye to him so we met him halfway, hugged and talked while we walked. Then we left.

After switching trains at Botanic Garden a man knocked on John's shoulder. Are you American? he asked. John answered we were Swedes and the man said Oh, if you were American I had good news. John being curious, since this clearly was a click-bait situation, asked what the news was and the man exclaimed Trump is winning!

We then spent a few minutes listening to this man talk about how everything in the west is falling apart. He thought that Swedes and Americans were essentially the same. He said that ISIS should be tortured and not be given American breakfast. Everything was Christianity's fault. People were too nice and loving. John and I had to keep it together to not laugh out loud. We did not need to participate in this monolog. It was quite interesting and we felt uplifted once we left him the next station. Immediately we let the people in the chat know about this and also called John's parents.

Sharing these small experiences with people you like can really change your mood. It was so nice talking to his parents even if it only were for a couple of minutes.



Friday 28 October 2016

Seven Dead Days

There is a week every month where I die and then resurrect. This week has been that. All I have wanted to do is hide and not talk to anyone. John has been very understanding, as always, and it makes it so much easier. We had plans to meet friends on Wednesday and Thursday, but I did not want to go on either occasion and John had a headache one evening and came straight home. It was a low week for both of us.

This week has been really unhealthy for me. Mostly I have been sitting by the computer, but not only for wasting time I have worked as well. Every time I get up I get cramps and I end up sitting down anyway. The book is going well, I am at the end and nearing the finale! It is very scary to realise this. Other than that I try to lay on the balcony and read a book. When I did this yesterday I started to freeze. It was twenty eight degrees and a small breeze made me shiver. When I am sweating indoors I am blasting the AC really cold, but short after I freeze and turn it off. Sometimes it is off for hours and yet I am freezing in shirt and trousers. I hate being temperature-confused.

John is doing good. He goes to work, he refused to drink the last of my soda last night, he tries to work out as often as he can, and he even declared we should buy more vegetables and eat more salad. I am not one to object - except that one week a month where sugar is what I live on. We will resume this discussion after the weekend.

Lastly, we have two things planned this weekend. Saturday we are attending a barbecue with some of John's co-workers, some of them are Swedes. This will be interesting since I have not spoken to any Swede (except John's parents) since we moved here. It will be fun and strange at the same time I believe! On Sunday we are going to Horror Night at Universal Studios! Finally! I have waited so long for this. These tickets are a gift from a friend so it is really a birthday-present to both of us. Many thanks!

Monday 24 October 2016

Weekend-days Shuffled

What an active but short weekend. Two days felt like an afternoon.

On Saturday we cleaned. Once in a while we do one of those clean-everything-days. We had a brunch consisting of half a big bread for each of us, cut into three smaller sandwiches. John carved out some thin pieces of chicken teriyaki we had left from a previous dinner and some slices from a very good cheese. I chose to have mine cold but he warmed his in the oven. On top of this he put cucumber and served. Delicious!

We then proceeded the lunch-hours sitting by the computers, gaming a little, catching up on news and such things. Eventually we felt the need to start. I walked around the apartment picking up things and putting them down in another place. I cleaned surfaces and removed everything from the floor. John vacuumed and mopped the floors. I did the dishes and so on. We cleaned everything that was dirty.

We were so tired in the evening but tried to stay up late because we knew we would stay up late the following evening as well. Finally I went to bed while John stayed up a few more hours. I was sound asleep when he came in so I have no idea for how long he stayed up.

Next morning, Sunday, we had... oh, no. I have no idea if those deliciously good sandwiches were consumed on Saturday or Sunday. Like I said, this weekend felt shorter than a full day.

On Sunday we did games as well but around three I wanted to get ready. I am an early planner. I should have been a scout - always prepared. So I fixed my hair, I put some makeup on and I baked a cake. I thought that if we are having guests, since this is really rare in our home, I should show my skills in the kitchen! I do not really have any skills in the kitchen other than simple baking, so that is what I did. I baked a sugarcake from a Swedish recipe.



Our guests arrived from seven and later. First came a woman that immediately started making a salad. It was a really good salad! She is a salad-making-master. I did not give her enough credit for it. There is a norm in Singapore that when a lot of people meet at a friends home you bring food for everyone to eat. So another guest brought one hundred chicken wings. Others brought mushrooms, guacamole, chips, alcohol and so on.

We started with casual chatter until John started the laptop, connected it to the TV and started a game called Jackbox Party Pack 2. It is a bundle of smaller games. We played Fibbage where one person chose topic and everyone writes a lie that fits into the presented sentence. Then all lies pop up on the screen and you pick one. The truth is just as silly as all the other answers, so it is tricky to get it right. I was really bad at this game. There were three or four people that always stayed in the top.

We also played Resistance for a few rounds, started with seven players and ended up with ten. It was loud as the game should be played. First round I was resistance but John of course would not believe me. I accused him and he did not deny it which kind of blew his cover, but only for me. That is the hard part of playing these games as a couple because you know the person all to well. Next round I was a spy but never got suspected. We were four spies and I did a smooth play in the end with bringing three spies to the last mission.

First person to leave left around eleven. Later three more people left. It was getting late. We played another game online which I barely grasped but kind of understood. I started to get really tired. Around one in the night people thought about leaving. Smokers went out on the balcony for yet another cigarette. I prepared my evil glare when they would get back inside. I do not mind the people, I like them, but it is the smoking that is killing them and gives me a headache. While they were outside the ones still indoors helped us clean. All the dishes back to the counter, all the food into the fridge and all their things back into bags.

Then we hugged, said good bye, I hugged a girl twice and then we were alone. I was exhausted. It was so much fun! I am an introvert so being this social really tears me down. It was almost two when we finally lay in bed. I think both of us went to sleep quickly.

Ymir was very popular during all of this. A few knew his breed straight away. It was fun to hear them pronounce his Swedish name. It was fun to teach some Swedish words. Especially "sju" which is really difficult.

Thank you everyone for coming!

Thursday 20 October 2016

Waiting Eyesight

Today I waited.

But more about that later. John went to the doctor today. For a few weeks now he has had problems with one eye, seeing something dirty and almost wrinkled (floaters) in his field of view. This morning he had an early appointment and took a cab directly to the hospital, Mount Elizabeth. According to himself it looked like a luxurious hotel. I can only tell you what he told me on the phone after the examination. They sprayed something into his eyes to widen the pupils, doing so making it easier to see the inside of the eye. The photo he sent me was both extremely unsettling but also very interesting. It is fascinating how big a pupil can get! John's almost covered the whole iris. Then they took a bunch of tests, using machines which they charged you for using even if only for thirty seconds. Luckily this went under his insurance.

Unfortunately John has something called lattice degeneration. If you do not know what this is I suggest you Google it. I will try to explain. 'The "things" holding his retina in place are structurally weakened.' That was a direct quote from John himself. The most important thing to say here is that it does not hurt - he is in no pain! Something else important to mention is that it will probably never go away. He will always see those spots and cracks. The condition might get better, but nothing is for certain. If it gets worse he could have a laser operation to fix it. I do not know if this will fix everything, but if it gets worse the operation will perhaps at least put it back in the state that it is right now. Speculations, people! This would all be much easier to write if John actually wrote it. He will not.

After the meeting he went on with his day. I had suggested he would take sunglasses with him, not knowing he would actually need them later. Unknowingly smart, that is me. The pupils were still incredibly huge and so the sunlight was extremely painful. In the office things went better but a headache appeared and he did not have a very pleasant day. Understandably.

Back to me waiting. After I had waited for John to call and knowing he was fine but not fine, I waited for the AC cleaning service. We had an appointed time at eleven sharp and I had been pacing for at least half an hour up until that. Just in case they were early. They were not. Twenty minutes past eleven I asked John to call them. He called me and said they were being held up at the costumer before us and so they would be half an hour/an hour late.

"So, they will be here in fifteen or thirty minutes?" I asked since it was already eleven thirty.

No. It was an hour from the time John called them. He told me not to pace around and do something while waiting. I could not! I sat in the sofa reading but after I finished a chapter I was stressed about sitting there reading when it would eventually knock on the door.

Fifteen minute past twelve they arrived. Apologised for being late. Then more trouble appeared.

We were signing a contract with this company that four times in a year they will come and clean our ACs. This is normal in Singapore. This is not normal in Sweden. Apparently there is a law that AC cleaners must come to your house every third month (we thought it was every sixth month). The first time this happened was in April, I wrote about it in a post. It was a total surprise they would show up since the folder with this information had not yet been delivered to us by d'Leedon management. I let them in and they did their job, but six months later nothing happened. John talked to out agent, since everything between the residents and the owner will go through agents, and he said we needed to book these ourselves. D'Leedon only booked the first four once, but failed to both mention this to us the first time and they failed to inform us to book this ourselves!

The real problem was the contract. There had been a misunderstanding over the phone between John and these two mens's boss. One unit is not one apartment, but one AC. The boss made it seem the other way around. John only asked for one unit to be cleaned. I called John and asked the guy standing next to me to talk to him since I had no idea what had been said. The man next to me told John that he would tell his boss to call him and sort this out.

Meanwhile they started cleaning. Ymir was a very scared kitten, sitting behind the bed where he had been previously sound asleep. Now he dared to barely sneak above the edge and watch these new interesting men. When the special AC-cleaning vacuum-cleaner (I will coin that word, thank you very much) went off he hurried into safety behind the standing mattress used as backrest for John.

John called and it had all been sorted out. I would give them hundred and forty in cash, which is the price for one AC unit to be cleaned, and then I was given the number to the bank to which we would transfer the rest.

After one o'clock they finally left. At this point I would like to point out that I had planned to have lunch with John, meaning I would have left twelve thirty, but was unable to because they were late. Another thing I need to point out, because I hate this part, is that THEY did not call to tell us they were going to be late. John had to call them. *grinding teeth* I had a very good lunch! Rice and big chicken breasts - apparently they can stick together and become one large which I mistook for one so I almost ate both. The half I could not eat because I was full had to go back into the fridge. It was a tasty meal!

That is literally it. After lunch it was closer to three than I knew about at the time. I had to take a nap after I finished eating so when I sat down by the computer to work it was already half past four. I worked for a bit, gamed for a while then suddenly John came home. Lots of hugs have been exchanged tonight. John is even trying to set a record of kissing me on the head. Tomorrow is Friday and I will have my lunch with him!

The inside of John's eyes. The right eye is the one with lattice degeneration.

Tuesday 18 October 2016

Why is it worth the pain?

I am in pain!

John says it is a good pain. I say it is too much and I do not deserve it. We went to the gym on Sunday and... gymed. Workouted. Did some exercising! I used the cross-trainer to warm up while John was on the treadmill. I hate that machine - the feeling afterwards makes me carsick. After fifteen minutes I switched to another machine. The names of these things are not important. I know two... I wrote them. Also, I think the names are printed onto the machines... but I only looked at one and never bothered to look at the others. (That is how I learned that it is called a cross-trainer.)

I sat down in the seat of the second machine and lifted with my leg-muscles. Training - almost science. John was still running. I turned around to exercise the muscles on the other side of the legs. John sat down by the machine next to me, lifting weights with his biceps or triceps. Names are not important here!

I could not do anything with those back-muscles. My knees hurt. My legs would not go up. I gave up. I stood staring at John to make him move so I could use the machine. He finished his reps and walked over to the leg machine. I sat down. Did some fine thirty lifts with my chest muscles. Then I tried biceps (or triceps... I lifted upwards). I did ten then rested for a bit. Only I could barely get to ten each time. Around seven or eight I would rise from the chair to lift the thing upwards.

John came over to watch. He laughed and also cheered on me. One more! One more, come on! I tried to force my muscles to lift one more... and another one more. A third time and then I had done ten. Rested ninety seconds then tried ten again. Around seven I started rising from the chair again. The muscles would not move upwards no matter how much my brain and mouth was telling them to.

Then we split. John went to do some situps. I went to the cross-trainer again. I pushed it. Sprinted as much as you can on one of those things. Put the level up higher than I have ever done before. I was so sweaty after fifteen minutes. It felt good! I walked over to John, who was done with training and sat at the bench, and we stretched together. John not knowing how or what to do copied everything I did. We probably looked funny.

And that is the story of why I am in so much pain.

It was kind of empty in the gym around eight on a Sunday.

Monday 17 October 2016

Saturday 15 October 2016

McBooze Addiction

Friday. I needed to feel alive again. Been home for what feels like forever but is actually only a couple of days. I have been having this alien feeling a human being some times get. My reason is that I have made a huge decision in my life. I am DELETING Coca Cola from my body. I made it sound even cooler than it is. I have, or had, an addiction and decided over a week ago to quit. Stop. Finished. FINITO!

A week... Feels like forever. Apparently I am acting strange.

So I took a shower, I curled my hair, I put on some makeup and suddenly I felt alive. Human once more. Confirmed a time with John and headed towards One-North for lunch. When I arrived I walked a short distance in the heat and when John came downstairs my hair looked flat and very few curls could be seen. Damn that humidity. Styled hair just is not working! We had ramen and sushi.

Back home I re-curled my hair, sprayed another layer of hairspray (and later another) and used some dry schampo powder to cover the stiffness. When John left work we met at Buona Vista to travel to Tiong Bahru. In the chat we had decided a meet up for some late night drinks - meaning we would sit at a hole-in-the-wall "papa" shop. John and I were early and asked if anyone was nearby. One answered and we went to meet up with her and another guy from the chat in TB Market across the street. We had the smallest dinner (pork and rice) and then bought some croissants.

Back at the "papa" shop, also named Booze Pharma-C, we took seats outside, bought cider and beer. I have not met most of these people before. More started showing up and eventually we were around ten. It was a lot of fun! I believe I made some friends that night. At one point a heavy downpour started and we cramped up inside on hard wooden benches and plastic IKEA stools. It got loud and wonderfully talkative. conversations were being held all over the room! Eventually the rain stopped and the smokers went outside. Then others followed and the group split in half.

Around eleven John said it was time to leave. Some had already gone. We walked back to the MRT, a short ten minute walk, and bought some snacks from McDonalds. It will never taste as good as it does after some drinks in the middle of the night.



Wednesday 12 October 2016

Tropical Terror

After the release of Overwatch Halloween Terror it hit me...

It is almost Halloween!

I love Halloween, although I am pretty bad at celebrating it. Do not even know if you truly are celebrating. For me Halloween is scary; the dead awakens and the chilly nights are not the wind, it is the ghosts walking by. It is the only time of the year when I almost believe something else happens after you die than just nothing. I can almost feel the thin veil between the living and the dead.

Nowadays it is just parties, drunkards, slutty-dress-up and such. At least, that is what I think. I have not been to a Halloween party in years. We tried to make it scary when I was younger but it never got there. When I was a teenager we would watch movies and take long walks in the middle of the night. That was scarier than before but not where I want it to be.

I want to dress up! Not a slutty witch or a sexy vampire - I want to be scary. I think this is why I watch so many makeup tutorials of Halloween costumes on YouTube. I have written about my morning routine before; now you know what it is that I am watching. Thing is, they are really good. In the right environment some of these costumes would be deadly scary! I would have loved it. Too bad I am both bad at makeup/dress up and also right now I live in a tropical country where it seems impossible for things to be scary.

Instead I wanted to change the blog. Something at least. It has the background of our view and everything looked really warm and tropical. I asked John for help and he kindly did so. We opened Photoshop and started fixing with colours and the cut outs I had chosen. My thoughts had been simple colour correction and cut and paste action, but he spent over half an hour doing this! Enjoy it! It will only last until... I remove it. Which will be when Halloween is over!

I will post the photos so you can enlarge them and see the terrific job he has done!


Monday 10 October 2016

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?

Saturday 8 October 2016

I AM IMM (and giant)

What a long and exhausting day it has been.

I went up around half past nine even though we both had been awake for a while. Ymir is a morning cat. While watching an episode of Great British Castles (yes, that is an interesting show and I like it) I had some breakfast and played passive games. John came up a few minutes after half past nine.

An hour later he went downstairs to be on time for his booked appointment at the hair dresser. There is one newly opened at d'Leedon and we thought we would give it a try. John first, I might go there another day. I had some problems with my lenses but when they were comfortable in my eyes I went to the gym. Have not been there in a couple of... days (weeks) so it felt good to go. Listened to a writers podcast which was both inspiring and interesting. I am getting glimpses of how it is to go from aspiring author to having several books published. Did half an hour on cross-trainer, a few reps on the... leg-muscle-trainer and while I was stretching John walked in, looking very handsome with very short hair.

I showered and dressed, then we took the MRT to Jurong East. Now you might recognise this name from before, since I have been writing about it a few times now, but once I find a new place in Singapore I want to take John there too... and so you have to follow in my posts. If you have not yet understood we headed towards IMM, the outlet mall.

The first thing we needed was food. John had a headache (start eating breakfast, love) and I was hungry for lunch. We had Popeyes, surprisingly good fried chicken, tasty fries and yummy buttermilk biscuits. We talked about what life lessons we would give our kids and who would have certain responsibilities. For example, I would be the one to organise things (bags, clothes, schedules) while John would have full control over what to consume (since my cooking would most likely poison them). When we were full and with John's headache gone we slowly started to walk around.

John was intent on fixing my shoe problem. The big problem being that a year for a pair of shoes in my care will be seriously damaging to the feet inside them. Went through two stores, then got distracted and bought a couple of shirts for John. Then headed upstairs two floors since I thought it would be smarter to start at the top and move downwards.

Third floor was mostly only home-decorating stores but it so happened that Best Denki was there as well. Now that is a store for home-decorating/-filling but whilst only sauntering through it we found ourselves by the fans. We saw one; looked nice, blew nice, good price. We walked out of there carrying it. Did not find any other store on that floor interesting so one floor down we went!

On the second floor we found the Nike-store. Lots of pretty coloured shoes. Asked for help since we were looking for a specific type of shoes and the two helpers came up with two alternatives. I needed shoes with support on the inside on the sole and this is exactly what we found. Unfortunately I walked there without any socks so we had to buy some, but they were gym-socks and made for protection against blisters (perfect for me). John also bought a new gym-shirt; blue and it fits. He looks like he knows what he is actually doing now! I put on my new shoes and suddenly my feet and knees did not hurt so much any more. Some strange magic in these feet-protecting things...

Back downstairs we felt like we had seen everything, noticing some stores we had looked at twice or three times already and understood we had started to go in circles. With a fan, new shoes and a bunch of shirts we walked to the store we came there for in the first place. GIANT. Before we actually entered though we had to go to Guardian and buy something to get a coin needed for a cart. Luckily I needed a new face lotion. THEN we could enter the gigantic food-and-other-things-store.

I do not know how many hours we spent in there; perhaps one, perhaps two. The only thing I know is that I steered the broken cart, followed John, waited for John, removed words from a list on my phone and walked. I walked. John walked. The cart filled up and we stood in queue. The man behind us had two things; meat and onions. His decision to get in line behind us is still a mystery. The employee packing our things (in Singapore there is one behind the counter and one packing one or two items into one or two-in-one plastic bags) was impressively fast. We got out, followed signs to the taxi-stand, loaded a taxi, got in, tried to communicate the address with the poorly English-speaking local and headed home. I felt carsick immediately but survived.

We came home half past six. Loaded our fridge and unloaded ourselves. I almost died in the sofa and John was unpleasantly tireless. Good thing was that he had the energy to cook dinner an hour or so later, whilst I was still in the sofa, sinking lower into the cushions for every second. We had potato with garlic/parsley butter and two thin steaks each. It was a good dinner, Ymir held us company by laying on the counter looking at us and the food.

Now this post is approaching the current time. After dinner we gamed, which we are semi-still doing. John left the computer when I started writing this post, now he is playing Destiny on the PlayStation. I will get ready for bed after this and hopefully get a full night of exciting dreams. No plans for tomorrow, might ask if somebody wants to hang out.

Good night!




Thursday 6 October 2016

Sneaking ice cream

Yesterday we met a couple of people from the chat. I was not in the best of moods; my head was pretty loud and a headache was starting just as I was about to leave. Nevertheless I went.

John suggested that I took the MRT to One-North, were I would meet him, and then we would take a twenty minute taxi to Bugis, where we would be meeting the people. So I did, leaving early to get some extra air. Only half regretting it since it was pretty warm outside and I got sweaty by just sitting in the shadow. John left work, met me where I had been for half an hour, and we walked towards a taxi pick-up point. Instead of standing in the queue for a regular one we tried Uber, but the estimated route was not what we had seen on Google Maps and the price was so much higher than the MRT would be.

So we took the MRT. I travelled back the fifteen minutes to our station, but we kept going. Changed at Botanic Gardens and went off at Bugis. There we confirmed in the chat where we would meet and we walked around lost for a while. Eventually we found one guy, later another, then a third and a girl. Finally I met a girl from the group! We ate ramen, I had to eat with a fork since it was too difficult for me with sticks, and had some beers. Talked about everything; accents, Sweden, games, people, etc.

Then we had ice cream. Well... three people had very expensive ice cream and I ate from my new friend. The time neared ten o'clock and I wanted to go home, head still aching and I was tired (had been woken up early by the cat). They were friendly people and I look forward to meeting them again. Next time maybe do something more interactive. Karaoke anybody?

In the long corridor leading to d'Leedon we saw this big creepy thing. John tried to make you see how big it was by comparing it to me, but I do not know if it shows. It had lost a leg so I felt sorry for it. Did not stop me from not standing directly underneath it though.


Monday 3 October 2016

Desert routine

Hello October! First post and it is already the third! Time is acting strange; my head wants it to be cold outside with orange leaves falling to the ground. Instead it was a freezing twenty five degrees today... which is not very freezing at all.

Remember that cold I talked about? The one John had for a few very long days and it totally ruined his birthday weekend? Then I got sick and I felt the same as John? Apparently I did not. I was much more active than he was but I also never got as bad. Yesterday I was feeling better although the sickening feeling in my stomach made me decide not to go to a mall. Today I am as good as new.

We set the alarm half an hour earlier than usual. John has a goal that he one day will go to the gym before taking a shower and then getting to work. A routine we will slowly get used to. I am a morning person, leaving bed before seven is no problem for me. John is a night owl and likes to stay awake way past midnight. Last night he went to bed at my time, around half past eleven. Early, he said. I really want to be supportive of the gym routine project, but getting enough sleep to have that energy is something we need to work on.

So today I started writing on a chapter. I am kind of stuck, in a black space between the twist and the end of the book. Not sure what to write to fill the space in between, because it has to be something there. John suggested another challenge that the main character needs to overcome, apart from the story that is already there, which means I have to come up with even more stuff. Do not know if that will happen, maybe... we will see once this black space is filled up.

Then I got distracted with a song that was stuck on my head. Being me I googled the lyrics, as I normally do when I have a song on my head that I do not know the lyrics to, and then sang it while putting on makeup and fixing a costume that would work. I then had lunch before recording over an hour of a very short part of the song. It took so long because even though I knew I had the shot I had too much fun to stop!

Anyway, here it is. Press the link under the photo!