HUH?!?!

So, I woke up yesterday to a message in my inbox saying I had won a blog award.  Huh?  What!?  Me?  Are you sure you have the right person?  I haven't regularly posted in a long time. Sporadic, yes, regular, nope.  I have a few Singapore buddies that post all the time, and have spectacular blogs about the ins and outs of life as an expat, and living in southeast Asia (Hi Leone!!)  My posts of late have been heavy on fascinating content regarding Frank having hiccups (it was hilarious...he came 2 ft off the ground with each hic...uh, anyhooo....) and light on actual info or stories about life in Singapore.  Maybe it's that I've been here 2 years (double huh??), and the wide eyed wonder of it is gone.  Maybe seeing men in skirts, putting a dollar into my shopping basket, eating foods spicy enough to blow my face off, drinking tea and coffee from a plastic bag with a straw, and seeing toucans is just my normal life now.  It's still super cool...there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not jolted from my every day reverie and notice the differences. I still love living here, and despite being so darn far way from family and friends, and not being there when they need me, I am not ready to go back.  My life here is pretty sweet.  I work when I want, get to travel, have a pool outside my door, get to spend these early days of marriage taking on the world with Lar, just us.  Oh, and cheap massage.  Definite perk.  I've been pretty open about it occasionally sucking.  It's pretty much the being so far away that is hard.  My best friend has gone through a very difficult year, and being away from her was hard on both of us. Not being home for the holidays, yep, it sucks.  Going through personal struggles without my peeps around me, yep, sucks. Something that is occasionally brought up with my expat friends is that, in fact, it is a lot harder than we bargained for, living here. This is something that is usually discussed in a sheepish, I can't believe I am saying this manner.  Because we know how it looks on the outside, to our families and friends far away...we live in the tropics, most of us don't work, have full time help, and get to travel.  And Cheap massage.  We are aware that we shouldn't whine and complain.  We don't want to sound like privileged douche bags.  So we do it quietly, amongst ourselves, and every once in a while, we let our families and friends know that there is nothing else in the world we would rather do, no place in the whole world we would rather be, but to be sprawled out with them on their couches.

But the good still outweighs the suck.  You can quote me on that incredibly eloquent nugget.

So...if you'd like to read a really good, informative blog about life in Sing, I highly recommend you go here.  I'll keep posting about Frank playing with his wind-up mouse, and Lar eating his body weight in pickles, and the occasional cultural high point, as I come across them.  In the meantime, I've very honored to receive the award....I'd like to thank my husband (almost pulled a Hilary Swank...whoops) My parents, the little people, Kate Gosselin's stupid hair cut and the guy that made my coffee this morning.....You like me, you really like me!! 

Ahem...ok, sorry...moving on before Kanye interrupts me.....

In other news, the F-1 night race came to Singapore again this past weekend. Lar and I got tickets from friends (thanks guys!!), and Larry went on Sunday night.  I chose to not be amongst the gazillions of people, deafening  noise and sweatiness.  We took advantage of all the hub-bub and went to one of the concerts the race was sponsoring on Friday night.  We saw Simple Minds (still sounds fab....and a little botox goes a long way) ZZTopp (sounded good, just a little rickety...it's hard playing sober after all these years...BAHAHAHA....I crack myself up...) and No Doubt (great performers...Gwen Stefani is gorgeous, and she just kicks a lot of ass). After toughing it out in the first few rows of pushing, shoving, no deodorant wearing teenagers, we moved up to a quite area where we found a picnic table and sucked down water like camels preparing for a trek in the sahara.  We had a great night, but sorta felt our age....oh well....I can still rock out when I need too.  And it was pretty funny to watch Larry point at his Texas hat and wave, every time he thought the ZZtopp boys were looking our way.  Sigh.

It is a big time of year in Sing....Hungry Ghost month, Hari Raya, Mid-Autumn fest, and my favorite, Deepavali.  We are going to a lantern fest party this weekend in our neighborhood, and I'm sure I'll be hanging out in Little India, trying to talk myself out of buying a sari at the Deepavali bazaar.  We have a guest coming in a few weeks, so guest room prep is well under way.  Larry and I are seeing Depak Chopra this weekend.  He's coming through Singapore, and we're having him over for dinner.  Ok, not really.  But we are seeing him give a lecture, and I'm pretty excited.  I heart him.

Thanks again for the award...It made my day.  Now go read Leone's blog.

xoxoxo

Pam

Random Frank and random Lar eating random soup.

Do You Know the Noodle Man?

                                            

Do you know the noodle man? The one that works on Smith Street, in Chinatown?

I was introduced to his wonderful restaurant by my pal Sarah.  The name is Lan Zhou La Mian, and it's at 19 Smith, about halfway down the street.  It's easy to miss, so look for a little nook of a place, with loads of snapshots on the walls.  The pictures are of the Noodle man, and hundreds and hundreds of patrons that come into his humble little place for some of the most delicious and fresh noodles I've ever had.  Lan Mian translates from Chinese to mean "hand pulled".  He makes dozens and dozens of fresh batches each day, right in front of you.  I ordered the vegetable noodles, and the pan fried dumplings.  They were super yummy...the noodles are tender and light, but still have a "to the tooth" bite to them. I brought Larry back on saturday afternoon for a late lunch, and he enjoyed the minced pork with bean curd sauce, the dish that they are most famous for.  Lar thought he was getting soup noodles, similar to Pho, so when his noddles arrived "dry" he was surprised.  He still liked them, but wants to branch out and try one of their soup noodle dishes next time.  

After almost two years of living here (what?!?!) I think it's pretty cool I can still be delighted to happen upon these little gems.  Or have smart friends in the know!  Even though it's in a pretty touristy part of town, I still get a sense that it is 'real singapore'.  The place is not fancy in the least, but the food is good, cheap and honest.  And the Noodle Man always has a smile for you...can't get better than that.  I think Mr. Noodle just acquired two more regulars.

I dare you to not hum the tune "Oh do you know the Muffin Man" now...go ahead try.

Quick Update

I am back and posting...we'll see for how long, but I will try.  Larry and I went on quick trip back to the US.  We needed to take care of a few things that I will post about in a future post.  We primarily stayed in the Seattle area, hanging with Ryan and the fabulous Annabella, but we did dive bomb my family in Detroit.  We snuck into town (giggling and high five-ing our sneakiness) and surprised Debbie and Louie by showing up in their pool.  Her reaction was great...well worth the little white lies.  Then we surprised my family by driving by them at their usual spot on Woodward Ave. during the woodward dream cruise.  Their reaction was also hilarious....even my mom almost biting the dust by choking when she saw us drive by.  It made for some funny jokes the next day, that's for sure.  My family has a sick sense of humor, so you can imagine.  We had a nice relaxing day with them the next day as well, and enjoyed a perfect Michigan summer dinner.  Michigan corn on the cob, tomatoes, cantalope, and one of my favorite things, HOTDOGS.   What can I say...I'm a cheap date.  The trip to Detroit was too short, but I'm really glad we got the chance to do it.  Seattle was fab too...the weather could not have been more perfect.  We spent an idlyic day at the ocean, full of memories I will treasure forever.  Annabella was a dream...she is such a sweet, funny girl.  She really got into hanging with her Grampy and Grammy.  We stayed at her house, so she was super fun...and Larry loved the red headed wake up call.  We did stay a weekend in a hotel, and Annbella was quite impressed with the fold out couch...I kept telling her "this is very, very fancy" and she agreed...too cute!

We are back and getting into the swing of life again in Sing.  I've been super busy with hair, and Larry is back on the day shift.  He is getting ready to start golf lessons, and seems pretty excited about it.  Frankie is speaking to us again, after getting the furry cold shoulder.  He was well taken care of by Catherine and Sarah, but he still prefers his peoples around him all day.

Today we woke up to some bad news from Detroit.  Debbie and Louie had to put their beloved furbaby, Max to sleep.  They are so very sad.  Anyone who has had to put an animal to sleep knows how incredibly shitty it is.  Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Maxie was a sweet and loving boy...I loved him very much. We were great pals, and  he was the best fur godson I could have asked for. He will be missed by many, many people who loved him so much.

It is also Larry and Gary's birthday today....happy birthday to my very cute hubby and fab bro in law!!  

More tomorrow...hint...it involves noodles.

xoxoxo

Pam