Saturday, November 28, 2009

Box of Mangosteen

It is a fairy tale fruit, a bit boring on the outside, though I like the little flower shaped end at the bottom. A squeeze the right place and the treasure is there, white and shiny surrounded by all the red.
Went to the wholesale centre yesterday and could not buy less than a box so have quite a lot of mangosteen on the balcony. Come by and eat as many as you can.

Machine Park

New in town, no maid and no plans to get one, cleaning, never had a clean home in UK (those wall-to-wall carpets in combination with no suction in the vacuum cleaners), ready to try WipesIt or Domestic1. Four weeks later, yet another Monday waiting for the cleaners for hours, I was so done wasting money and time. We are back to swinging the mop ourself, brooming though takes quite a while and have not had success finding a vacuum on craigslist - and why buy an old fashion machine that need a hand? Zojirushi and Kenwood need company so we will soon welcome Roomba to our house.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wiggle

In West Coast Park we have found quite a good spot for our hammock, I bet some of the small branches and leaves can wiggle in another way than on danish trees - more like rocking or tic tac clocking.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Choo choo train

Tried to figure out whether we could surprise friends by splashing their hotel pool in Kuala Lumpur this weekend, train would be the option. Unfortunately they are in KL soo short and not even in the weekend, but for next time we look for train options I will go straight to The Man in Seat Sixty-One...

Tap your feet to the beat

Free outdoor concerts, that is the way to go with kids. We will be there for several of the ones in December. In Botanic Gardens we might build a shark from palm leaves (you should see the thorns of some of them, the could make a shark envy) while we listen, dance and clap. On the Esplanade who knows.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Taiwan

Will Taiwan be our next holiday stop?

Hopenhagen

Since Monday morning we have seen quite some ads for Hopenhagen.
media.asia hopenhagen.org hopenhagenlive.com

Vinegar

I´m addicted... Our local Japanese take away guy introduced me to vinegar drink. Now we have two different in the fridge, one sweetened with honey the other sour.

Singapore Philatelic Museum

There we went yesterday. Sounds cool, eh? Actually a really nice little museum with various rooms. Pressing buttons, opening cupboards, playing post office, sitting on a scooter, talking about countries. We had fun for several hours and met some nice moms and toddlers.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

The American Dream

Every year in November we take a number in the Diversity Visa Lottery. Wonder what we will do if we actually win the prize.

Warm sensations

An old friend just had a newborn boy. I so remember the feeling of truly happiness. For both my boys the memories first popping up is 12-24 hours after birth.

With Ulf I was walking home from his first doctor check. It was dark, rained a bit, I turned down from the main road towards our road and just started crying. This little guy had arrived sound and safe and I felt so lucky having him right there next to my skin.

Tapioca

The local starch. Tried one, should have taken a picture, the tapioca root looked like a rat. Used half of it for a chocolate cake and other half for thickening a chili con carne. Worked fine, actually both really yummy, but not bc of the tapioca, so wont buy one again. Beet root would have done the chocolate cake more spongy and smashed beans is my favorite thickener for chili.

Other new things on the food list this week.
Thai Rose Leaves, Lauge enjoyed them - quite rare he goes for green leaves.
Pandan leaves, is on the ingredient list on several products, now we have them fresh in the cupboard, have to try boil them with our rice, untill then they should help keep the cockroaches away (aargh on Bali we saw this gigantic coackroach, luckily the last night in that cottage, have only seen tiny ones here, but still, just do not like them - geckos though are just nice visitors).
Ulam Rajah (name in Malay: King of the Salad), found the texture too coarse.

Have been trying a bunch of different mangoes and the best one is the honey mango from Thailand.

We bought vegetables till it tipped our stroller on Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre. It is located right at the West Coast Container Terminal. The auction hall for vegetables is full of forklifts emptying containers, busy people and lots and lots of veggies. The smell was impressively intense from herbs and all sorts of onions. We met one of our local take away chefs and saw a lot of people buying for more than a household, so probably chefs.
The fruit options was not as good or might we did not find the right place. But 20% off the price on honey mangos from Thailand compared to the local chinese wet market - and if we keep eating (and drinking) as many as we do right now then it is a really good deal.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Phoon Huat

I love the shops and markets, the smells, the people, the quick talking Chinese. If you need a break you can just go to IKEA or somewhere similar (and air-conditioned) and almost forget that you are not back in Denmark. Today we went to Phoon Huat and it is true what they state on their website, they do have an impressive amount of bakery and confectionery ingredients.

Beep beep beep

My social network at the moment must be singapore.craigslist... Looking for furnitures and other stuff as a newcomer it is a good place to search. We found a friend for our rice cooker, she does not chat as beautiful, she was cheaper (but I should have bargained that price), she makes a good crisp crust. We like the bread Kenwood bakes. And how simply it is, just pour in the ingrediens and tell when you want your bread to be done. It smelled to lovely of fresh baked bread this morning, but could have done without all the beeping.

Rice rice rice

Brown, white, hard, soft, how do you like it, how do you cook it best. We have got a maid and she fits perfectly in the bomber shelter (unlike a lot of maids in Singapore), most of the time though she has been in the living room so far, she plays twinkle twinkle little star when she starts cooking rice. She has porridge ready when we wake up in the morning. Sure we will be very happy with our new Zojirushi Rice Cooker.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Fully booked

And it is not Christmas nor contractors who fill our condo with workers (from now on they are restricted to Mondays, yesterday was a busy day with people in and out of our condo (in the afternoon six men came out of the elevator, bringing along our new huge solid teak dinning table)). Noop, this week it is play dates every day from Tuesday-Friday. Wonder who we will meet.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Kindergarten

Attended open house at little skool house this weekend and met a women that you just want to be your kids teacher, she was so lovely, the way she talked, the way she moved. She is not at the center we signed up for - and no doubt too much commute to her center.
After some disappointing visits in kindergartens, Lauge (and I) got the good feeling, so we are back on the road and now just looking forward to hear when Lauge can start.