Down Under Adventures!

We are back from Australia- and had an AWESOME time! 6 days, almost 1000 kilometers, lots of fun. And of course, LOTS and LOTS of pictures!

It may take me a few days to get some blog posts put together, so here is a preview of the best of the best....

Crocodile Hunter Zoo!

Kangaroo feeding. 

Surfer's Paradise beach

7 Mile Beach in Booti Booti National Park

Opera House!

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Ferry!

It was an amazing trip, and as potentially our last big trip before we head home, very special. We loved the road trip, and really loved Sydney- so stay tuned for stories from the trip! 

More from the X-Men

After what seemed like a ridiculously long hiatus from baseball, the boys were back in action this weekend at what they promised would be the most important game ever. Why? Because if they won, they would be in first place in the league. <> Thats right folks, first place in the Singapore National Baseball league... =) 

Here are some pictures from the big game....

Of course the X-Men pulled out a stunning victory over their opponents. Actually, it was more of a good old fashioned butt kicking. I think they ended up winning 16 to 1... but despite the overwhelming win, there was some good baseball to be enjoyed. David made a particularly nice catch at first base. Way to go X-Men, way to go. 

Also, check out how cute this candy is! It says (in tiny tiny letters) Ganbare Nippon, which means roughly, Go Japan. My friend N. (from Osaka) brought them for the girls, which was super nice of her. Not only were they cute, but they were delicious too. (Arigato N.!)

Race Report- 2XU 12K Run

It has been a while since my running buddy K. and I laced up our trainers and hauled ourselves out of bed at an ungodly early hour to go run with a few thousand of our best friends so we were really looking forward to  this 12K. We even trained for it. OK, not really, we ran 5K once together. In the middle of the mid-day sun, and I nearly died. But I considering we had never previously done a training run together, it was a huge step forward. 

After a fun day of pool partying at the Icon the day before, we were not convinced this was going to be the best race we have ever run together. But, we were wrong. This was the BEST race to date. It was cloudy and cool out, there were plenty of people, the course was interesting, the medals were cool. And even though we didn't break any records, and missed our target time by 5 minutes, we had a really good time running. 

Who loves getting up at 6am to run? 

(The photographer by the way, gives 6am races a big thumbs down- but I really appreciate having such a great cheer leader and event photographer, best husband ever) 

Can you find me? 

The race started and ended in the F1 Pits, which was pretty cool. But to make it cooler, out of nowhere they materialized a Ferrari and a Lamborghini to take off from the starting line in front of us. I knew this would make Dave slightly happier to be awake at 7am on a Sunday. 

As we ran past the cars at the end of the pit, I gave the yellow lambo a little rub for good luck. I may never get to drive one, but now I have at least fondled one. 

And we're off....

An hour and thirty six minutes later, here we are getting ready to cross the finish line. 

1) My shoes are sooo cool. 2) These two sets of feet are awesome for carrying us happily over 12K. 

All tired out after the run. Happy to be walking. 

The champions. 

It was a really fun race from start to finish. Even though it got crowded in some spots, it seemed like there was generally less bottle necking and pushing-shoving action than a typical race in Singapore. The water stops were not terribly well organized or staffed, but that is just to be expected here, and we managed to get water every time we wanted some, so no complaints there either. The clouds provided an unusually nice cool day for running and the little sprinkle of rain was actually pretty refreshing. While I normally don't love courses that have a lot of up-and-back covering the same territory multiple times (booorinnnngg), but this time I found it to be pretty inspiring to see all the super fast racers finishing the whole 12K in 40 minutes as we ran past the finish line around 6 or 7K in. They were realllly moving! I cannot even imagine what it must feel like to run that fast. 

My only real complaint is that the route had 2 sets of stairs. 2! Seriously! The first set was pretty small and not too bad but the second set came at 9K in, and nearly killed my spirit. I watched K. sprint merrily up them like it was no big deal, but I took the weak way out and walked. Stairs do not belong in a road race people! Besides the stairs, and our battles at the water stations, we just kept running and running. And we both felt pretty great at the end. A much better performance than the 1/2 Marathon for sure. 

A big thanks to K. for being an excellent running buddy, as usual. And also thanks to Dave for being a wonderful photographer and supporter. 

Stay tuned for K & E's final race together at the JPM Corporate Challenge next week! 

Good times at the Icon Pool

When we first moved to the Icon, we were way impressed with the pool. In fact, the crazy amazing resort pool and the crazy amazing entire floor of hot tubs with an impressive view of the city are probably the real reason we picked this condo. And when we moved in, we were sure we were going to make good use of the lux facilities. Fast forward to over a year later.....and we can truthfully say that we use the hot tubs with decent frequency, but the pool has mainly gone un-used. We occasionally make it down there for some sun-time or a few laps, but we mainly just look at it from 34 stories above. With the clock ticking on our departure from Singapore, we decided it was high time for a pool party. We bought some meat, procured some American charcoal and invited over the whole gang.

And it was FUN! A lot of fun. The food was delish, the company was spectacular, the weather held out for most of the day, we only got yelled at for having beer in the pool once, there was only one minor drinking related injury suffered by our guests (which is amazing considering the 3+ cases of beer that were consumed by aprox. 10 dedicated individuals)... so all-in-all it was a perfect day!

The men tending the fire. 

So much food. And it was all tasty. 

American brats and sausages have never tasted soo good. And Dave did a wonderful job making burgers. I could eat bbq food every day. I am proud to say that my home made salsa and chocolate chip cookies were a big hit. They were an even bigger hit after the first 2 cases of beer were consumed =) 

A rousing game of flip cup being played. Those uninitiated in the art of playing flip cup quickly picked up the basics and an heated competition began. I am pretty sure the other people at the pool were utterly confused by the frequent (and vociferous) eruptions of cheering from the victors. 

J. and N. enjoying the sun. We couldn't have asked for better weather for most of the day. 

The gangs all here. 

<3 our friends. 

A day in the life...

So not much blog worth has been happening around these parts. There has been some work, some running, not enough sleeping... but no occasion for photo taking materialized last week. So yesterday I got the idea to share with you some of my daily life. I figured it would at the minimum be interesting to my Mother (aka: the target audience).

Thursday Morning:

First time at the range in my new golf shoes. Kinda dorky looking, I know.

Wish I could say they made a huge impact in my swing..

I may not be a pro, but at least I look good doing it. 

If I put as much effort in to my golf swing as I do in to my golf outfits, I wouldn't have lost 6 balls on 6 holes today. (Not all in the same hole, thankfully). 

View from out front of my office- I like the Singapore flag and the spaceship casino in the background, Singapore can be accused of a lot of things, but not of being ugly. Also, the fact that the flag is flying is proof that Singapore does occasionally get a breeze. 

Home Sweet Home- my desk. 

Looking pretty clean I might add! 

And yes, that is a permanent impression of my butt in that lovely ergonomic office chair. 

Lunch time- Chicken Tikka Salad, low carb and delicious. 

Some of the most important things in my life. My kindle (yes, I was reading it at work...the book was just soo good I couldn't stop), my color coded calendars (one for work/life and one for exercise, although the exercise one is more aspirational than anything) and my purloined tape despenser (in my defense, it had to be stolen as having tape at your desk is not considered essential to lawyering by my current employer and therefore was not provided by the firm, so I temporarily borrowed it from elsewhere, on a long term basis) 

Today's madness in Raffles Place- people dressed up in funky traditional Asian costumes. Way low on the absurd scale as far as publicity in RP goes. 

Window washing on the 22nd floor. Not a job I envy.

 I would have taken a picture of my friendly pigeons that hangout on my window ledge, but they were cautiously watching the washing from a safe distance. The end result of the washing will be that my bird friends will be very confused about the clean glass, a few birdy concussions will ensue, and pretty soon my feathered neighbors will have soiled the glass sufficiently to end their confusion and act as reminder that they cannot actually come IN to my office. 

Time for a low-carb snack... celery and organic almond & peanut butter, yummo. 

Don't mind the fork, I just couldn't find a knife today..I promise I wasn't eating the peanut butter straight out of the dish with a fork... ok, fine...actually I cannot promise that it didn't happen once or twice =)

7-11 Paddington Bear stamp cards.

And what amazingness do you get when you have a full card? 

A mini-Paddington Bear!!!!!!!

This, by the way, is my 2nd bear. 

And he may or may not be destined for a Paddington appreciating Mommy in Colorado. 

And, in case you were wondering, it takes 10 stamps to get a bear, and you get 1 stamp for every $S5 dollars spent at 7-11. So my 2 bears (and hopefully one more on the way) are a sort of embarassing testament to our patronage of the fine establishment of 7-11. 

Oh yea- and this is my hubby, in the elevator on our way home. He was not a willing participant in my blackberry camera-ing. 

So there you have it, a none-to-thrilling day in the life of EJC. 

And they say size doesn't matter....

Well, in Singapore, it does. Especially if you find yourself being "larger-than-the-average-Asian-sized", also known as being a "normal-sized-American".

On my first travels through Asia after my first year of law school I quickly learned that clothing shopping as a westerner in Tokyo was required thick-skin if you were, well, thick. My friend J. and I went in search of jeans in a department store, only to realize that the biggest size they carried was a 25 and we were directed to shop in the "Big and Foreign" section, where they had a dazzling array of mu-mus, which is apparently the only thing appropriate for us American folks. (We were both by the way quite fit!)  We moved on to more western-friendly stores (thank god for Zara and the Gap) and eventually had some successful shopping adventures in the orient.

I have had my fair share of shopping troubles here in Singapore as well, like how every time I get a running tank for the road races I run- they end up looking like they were meant  for a toddler. But for the most part, there are so many foreigners here (and a fair amount of large sized Asians)- that its not totally impossible to find normal sized clothes if you really need them and are willing to pay exorbitant prices. Generally my style doesn't mesh too well with the Singapore aesthetics, so there hasn't been too much desire to indulge in any fashion oriented shopping sprees.

But this week I needed golf shoes. Yes, I, the budding golf enthusiast have graduated to being able to hit on a real golf course instead of exclusively from the comfort of the driving range bays. Of course this privilege and honor comes along with the burden of no longer being able to wear my normal trainers to golf...my first adventure on the links demands actual golf shoes be donned.

So, not even imagining that buying sized 8.5 golf shoes in Asia might prove to be a herculean task, David and I headed to the mall.

At the first shop I oggled some nice normal looking golf shoes (it was critical to me that my shoes not be "too dorky" because all the cool kids have golf shoes that look like real shoes) only to be told, somewhat snarkily, that the biggest size they carry in the store was a 7! No matter, there were 2 more stores to check out.

Next store- same story. This time though, when asked about size 8.5 shoes, the man seemed almost incredulous that we would assume his fine store would carry such elephant sized shoes for ladies! Would I care to try men's shoes?

With my self esteem badly damaged (I've always thought 8.5 was a perfectly normal size foot!) we headed to the final store, which, being partially a Nike-brand store, I was sure would carry shoes for western sized feet. But surprise- no Nikes for these boats. Seriously- what does a girl have to do to get some freaking shoes in this country!? After a rather infuriating conversation with the man about trying shoes that fit "bigger" for "bigger people"- and me explaining that I didn't need "bigger" size 7 shoes, I needed a size 8, which forhisinformation was a perfectly respectable size of shoe!.... Dave finally convinced the salesman to check in back for any shoes that might fit me. He begrudgingly pulled out a few contenders- none of which were going to win any awards in a golf shoes fashion show... Dave jokingly asked if they might have any size 13 men's shoes and the man just laughed. Needless to say, its a good thing that Dave already has shoes from the USA.

Thankfully I ended up with a fine pair of golf shoes, they even have pink details, but it was a good thing I liked them, since they were the ONLY ones that fit! Dave assures me that all that matters is that they are comfortable. Ugh.

While I was feeling a bit out of sorts about the degradation of my footsize, we had one final reminder from Singapore that this country is not made for us giants....

Caution- anyone over 6ft tall is risking decapitation at the grocery store.



That's all the news on this side of the world.

Love,

Your friendly Giants

Say What?

Japanese-English translation fail.....

(Its a mochi snack..and the warning? No idea)

Celebrating in Style

I never turn down the opportunity for a good night out with friends, and last night was no exception! I have written about Altitude before, and hadn't been in a while, so was excited to head back there to celebrate a friend's birthday and check out the view from the top. Not only did we have nearly perfect weather to give us a stunning view of the city- the bar has also made some very nice improvements (like adding another bar on the top level and more seating)- which made for an excellent night. The drinks are still horrifically over priced, even by Singapore standards, but the company was fantastic. I have been so spoiled with FUN recently! 

Not too much to narrate here. We came, we drank, we danced, we went to Karaoke, and had a pretty wonderful time. And despite the fact that it is 7:00pm the day after and I am still feeling a bit worse for the wear (god, getting old is no fun!) I am so thankful to have such super friends here in the Sing- and appreciative of another night to hang out with them. 

Much love to the Singapore crew- you guys are the best. <3

Ice Cream Cake Madness

I haven't been cooking as much in Singapore as I was in NY. Our kitchen is tiny and the oven seems to have two settings: going to take 5 years to bake cookies- and- burns them in 2 minutes. Add to the fact that I *think* the oven uses the metric system, every day baking can be a real thrill ride. So when I decided to bring a desert to a dinner party last weekend I was certainly taking a risk. And just in case using my oven properly wasn't going to be difficult enough, I had been craving Dairy Queen ice cream cake for a while, and decided that despite the fact I had NEVER made anything involving ice cream before, I was going to give it a shot. I did some quick googling and pieced together a recipe, ran to the store, pulled out my favorite spring form pan and we were in business- the official start to the worlds most disastrous cake! 

It really didn't dawn on me that making and transporting ice cream cake in tropical Singapore might be a bad idea. The instructions said to set out the ice cream for a bit to soften it up so you could get it in to the pan. Easy enough right? Well, not so much when your kitchen averages 120 degrees with the AC on, and I very nearly had ice cream soup in 2 minutes. With some luck I got the first layer of ice cream in and managed to get the oreo cookie crumbles in there as well. One of my favorite parts of DQ ice cream cake is the fudge layer in the middle, but of course there were no jars of chocolate fudge ice to be had, so I decided to wing it and make my own. Turned out great- only problem is that I didn't think about the logistics of pouring boiling hot fudge on top of already melting ice cream- oy. A little quick freezer action worked it out, and the next ice cream layer worked out too. So in to the freezer went a whole spring form cake pan full of ice cream- slightly bigger than I had planned, but oh well. 

Then it was on to the cakes.... and by some touch of luck, they turned out just fine! I did hover directly over the oven for the entire time they were baking, but you gotta-do-what-you-gotta-do. With the cakes baked, it was the moment to put it all together- then back to the freezer. Well, since I went a little overboard with the ice cream layer, and the cakes turned out nice and plump... the cake took on epic proportions. 

Check out the monster cake, pre-icing. 

 While DQ cakes have a whipped cream frosting- I decided that this cake didn't already have enough sugar and goodness in it, so I would improve upon the recipe and ice it with wedding cake style butter cream. OMG it was delicious, soooo decadently yummy. 

Getting ready to ice. 

So it turns out that icing a massive cake, with an ice cream center, is actually really hard work. Like a lot more work than I planned. And I had to do it fast-fast-fast since there was real risk of the cake melting! It wasn't the prettiest cake I've ever made- I am sure the cake boss would disapprove- and I was running late so there wasn't even anytime to pipe a decoration on top! But here is the finished product....

After all that work, I was really nervous about the ride over to the house party! But by some miracle of god, the cake made it intact, the hostess had kindly cleared out room in the freezer for the beast, and all was well. I wish I could say that the cake was a massive hit with my friends, but....it was noted that it was really rich! And it was a bit difficult to cut a melting ice cream cake in any normal, clean way. My deepest apologies to the hostess for making a bit of a mess while trying to serve it! I saved Dave a piece- and he gave it too thumbs up. But even he couldn't eat a whole piece in one setting- thats how you know it was REALLY sweet!