Monkey

We had some proper monkeys swinging in the trees at the hotel in Malaysia and then there was the teasing monkeys that spread the garbage all over. The black dusky leaf monkeys were a lot fun watching as they jump around, picked leaves and cuddled the brown baby. The long tailed macaque were noisy and after the monkey in the stroller episode I am not fond of having them to close. The trip has been exciting on animals and not as many creepy crawlies as I had feared.

Nemo

Was just off our beach, so many anemones with clown fish.

Merry Christmas

Snorkel and fins are packed and we are off tomorrow morning, vuuhuuujj I´m looking forward to the time on tropic islands. And to see Lauge´s reaction when a fish pass under his snorkel mask.

Toys

Where to buy toys? Still need to find a place like Into The Wind in Boulder, but two stores we can recommend: The Better Toy Store in Ngee Ann City and for Lego the little shop on third floor in Great World City.

Get off

In the Zoo I enjoy watching the monkeys play. Moving out here I was looking forward to meet monkeys in their natural surroundings. I have not yet, only met monkeys looking for human food, why does some people feed wild animals. It is just the end for that animal and it can get such a nuisance before it reach the end. Last week a monkey jumped in our stroller. GET OFF!

X-mas

December is a really lovely and cozy time of year, but also a time for feeling guilty about not being able to be with all of your parents. I just gotta put it in a box and enjoy the lights in the dark of x-mas.

Family day

So nice again to be invited to get together with Janus´ work colleagues. In Boulder we had a lot of welcome and farewell evenings and I so enjoyed them. In Oxford there was nil. Here it is quite a big group, so no chance to learn all the names, but still really good to meet up. Wednesday we were on Sentosa Island for the yearly x-mas dinner and all four of us had a fab time.

Mosquitoes

Aarst they sometimes freak me out, they are everywhere and you do not see or hear them they just put their marks on your body. Was it one of those black and white striped ones? Was it infected? I´m so happy we are not living in a malarial area.
Dengue Fever is enough to scare me.
In Boulder it was the West Nile Virus that scared me and I still so remember the slogan: One Bite, One Life Changed Forever.

Rambutan

I so like to open these skins that reveals a hidden yummy fruit. This week we got rambutan at the market (and we did not have to buy a whole box, one kilo could do it). Like many of the other local fruits it is both sweet and sour and I like it (but which local in season fruit/berry not to like).
The spikes are soft and the skin way thinner than on mangosteen, but harder to open. On the mangosteen it is just a push with thumb and forefinger, the rambutan need a two hand hard twist.

How to write

Food is so simple to write about (and I´m already at the computer reading about the ingredient or simply trying to figure out its name). Harder to put down that I love the colorfulness of the people around. All the black hair from China, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, ... and the colorfulness is not just about hair ;-) My address book slowly gives an impression of the surroundings and it makes me smile when I see all these names that I have a hard time pronouncing.

Feels weird, but I have talked way more with English moms here than I did in Oxford. Expats talks to expats, here and there and almost everywhere. US is really special in that sense, it was so easy for us to meet local people in Boulder.

Amanita Design

In Oxford we played Samorost 1 and 2 quite a lot. I loved the small stories we made from the scenes and Lauge´s questions and excitement over the game.
Amanita Design has done it again, we have now played Machinarium since our computer arrived, we were so lucky that Amanita Design released right around when we landed, it is perfect with a new game when settling in a new country. We talk about this little guy in Machinarium almost every day and Lauge tells some fantastic stories about the setup, refers to the story and (of course) ask questions about it.

Another game that has been a lot on table lately is memory game, I´m pretty sure that Lauge will soon win a game. Lauge then thinks I will throw the cards like the guy in Machinarium. He might be right if Janus wins, but I guess I will just be very proud when Lauge tips both of us over.