MATT'S TOP 10 FROM SINGAPORE
Weeks 29-35: October 2, 2011 – November 19, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! I hope everyone is doing well. Things here in Singapore continue to chug along. It’s been good to see some of you from work as you’ve traveled through Singapore – a special shout out to Paul B and to Jay Krone – and a special thank you to Jay for smuggling gum into the country for me!
Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! I hope everyone is doing well. Things here in Singapore continue to chug along. It’s been good to see some of you from work as you’ve traveled through Singapore – a special shout out to Paul B and to Jay Krone – and a special thank you to Jay for smuggling gum into the country for me!
I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t miss being at home this time of year but I’m really happy Lisa has been able to get home this week (she’s in Boston as I write this). Unfortunately I won’t be able to get back home until after New Years – (quarter end at work seems to get in the way of long flights back home!) – but I’ll be thinking of all of you as I’m sitting at my desk at work on Thanksgiving Day sucking down some Singaporean “delights” that I can hardly pronounce (or digest) as you’re all eating turkey!
Ok – enough of me feeling sorry for myself for not being home…Here’s my latest edition of my Top Ten blog…
1. Don’t forget to take your bag out of the boot…
I was lucky enough to visit Melbourne, Australia about a month ago. What a great city! I loved everything about it. The food, the people, and the weather…no humidity! It’s actually spring time there now – so you can imagine how nice it is with everything in bloom. Melbourne, however, is actually known for its drastic changes in weather. They say that they can have four seasons in one day.
I also found out quickly that I was pronouncing Melbourne incorrectly. When you look at the world Melbourne it looks like it should come out “Mel-born.” However, don’t call it this in Australia! The Australian way to pronounce Melbourne is more like Mel-bun.
On a related topic, I just love the different words that Australia uses for things vs the US. I know they think it’s just as funny how Americans refer to different items, but I can’t help laughing at some of the words/phrases. While in Melbourne here’s some of the phrases I heard:
Australia: “Anybody want Mackers for dinner?”
US Translation: “Anybody want McDonald’s for dinner?”
Australia: “Make sure to pass the bag of lollies around the bus.”
US Translation: “Make sure to pass the bag of candy around the bus.”
Australia: Don’t forget your sunnies.
US Translation: Don’t forget your sunglasses.
Australia: Did someone call a sparky?
US Translation: Did someone call an electrician?
And my favorite…
Australia: “Don’t forget to take your bag out of the boot”
US Translation: “Don’t forget your bag in the trunk of the cab.”
I’m sure there are a million more, but these are just a few I heard in my week there.
2. Speaking of Melbourne…
I did get a day off from work to do some sightseeing stuff. I got to get over to Yarra Valley partake in one of my favorite pastimes - wine tasting. However, the highlight of the trip was going on my first helicopter ride. Now given, it was only a 7 minute tourist ride, but it was pretty amazing. Here’s some pictures over “The 12 Apostles.” The name refers to the limestone rock outcrops on the shoreline– due to erosion, there’s only 8 left, but at one time there were actually 12.
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
3. Who wants to eat some silk worms?
We were back in Beijing this past week for work meetings. From my past blogs, I’m sure everyone by now knows how much I love visiting China J
I’ve seen the below street meats in the past, but never had a camera with me – so this time I wasn’t going to miss snapping a few shots. You wouldn't believe some of the meats they were selling in the open air markets (or maybe you would). You pick your skewer and then they dip it in hot oil for you to quick fry it…
Sounds pretty appetizing, huh? Check out some of the selections of meat that they had:
Anybody want some snake, centipedes, or sheep penis? Just typing this makes me want to throw up.
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
If the last picture wasn't enough for you, here's a closer look at some water beetles, bee cocoons and silk worms...
I talked a big game ahead of time and told the people I was with that I would try to eat a scorpion. What I didn’t know is that the scorpions were still going to be alive before they got deep fried. Check out the picture below. They’re on skewers – but what you can’t see is that they were still moving….their little legs were flopping all over the place! Needless to say, I passed on eating one…
If you enlarge the picture and look at the left, you'll also see they were selling seahorses...
Another interesting food item from China – the weird flavors that they have for Lay’s potato chips. Here’s a few of the flavors they had at the supermarket – Blueberry, Hot and Sour Fish Soup, Italian Red Meat, and French Chicken (whatever that is)….makes your mouth water for some potato chips, huh?
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
4. “You just ran up 73 flights of stairs – what are you stupid?”
This was what the lady at the front desk of our apartment building said to me when I got back from running my first vertical marathon on Sunday. Not sure why I signed up for it besides the fact that my friend and co-worker, Alister, asked me to do it with him. After a couple of months of running the stairs in our apartment, Sunday was the big day to run the 73 stories of the tallest hotel in Singapore – The Swissotel. It’s the seventh stop (out of 8) in the world circuit of vertical marathons. Other stops along the way included the Empire State Building in NYC and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
I was able to get up the 73 stories in a little less than 14 minutes. Not the best time of the pack (seeing the winner of my age group did it in 10 minutes and the overall winner did it in 6 minutes 30 seconds) but not the worst finish either…it was pretty much the middle of the pack. I will say, it was a pretty good feeling reaching the finish line at the helipad on the top of the building. The goal next year is to get Lisa to run it with me J.
Pre-Race...
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Post-Race...
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
5. Thanks a lot Patriots…
We actually had Monday off here for a public holiday two weeks ago – Hari Raya Haji – any guessers for my US friends on what that holiday is? I had to ask around myself….and no one could give me a straight answer – so I did what anyone reasonable person would do – I ‘googled’ it.
According to the National Library of Singapore’s website (it was the first Google result that came up – I don’t normally spend loads of time on this site J) Hari Raya Haji, or the "pilgrimage festival," marks the end of a Muslim's pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It’s also known as the Festival of Sacrifice and it commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail in an act of obedience to God.
Pretty deep stuff for this blog, huh?
Needless to say I was grateful for the Monday off (and the late start to the Pats game) – because that meant I got to wake up on Monday morning and watch the Pats live on the Slingbox we have at home. It might not sound like that big of a deal to those of you back home, but to see live AMERICAN football again was a lifesaver….however to see that crybaby Eli Manning march the ball down the field and score on us in the last minute was too much to handle – I might now become a cricket fan. At least when I see that on TV I have no idea what’s going on and I don’t have anything to get mad at…
6. What’s daylight savings time?
I won’t mention any names – but thank you to that special person out there who called me at 3AM last week thinking that Singapore was 23 hours ahead of the US. I have no idea where they got the number 23 from. Normally, we’re 12 hours ahead of the US – but unfortunately there’s no daylight savings time here in Singapore. So now we’re 13 hours ahead of the US. That’s just super news when it comes to con calls that I do at night. Instead of 8-9 and 9-10, they’re now 9-10 and 10-11…and the occasional 11-12. Makes me even grumpier when I have to get up in the morning – if that’s even possible.
7. Please hold the capsicums…
Anyone want to guess what a capsicum is? This is what they refer to bell peppers/green peppers as here (maybe red peppers too – not 100% sure). Singapore, Australia, and India all refer to bell peppers this way.
Come to find out capsicum is actually the name for the pepper plant itself – not the actual fruit from the plant (the pepper). I actually also didn’t know that a pepper was a fruit – tomato, yes – but not a pepper. You can probably tell how well I do at Trivia nights and Trivia Pursuit.
The other day I was at Subway for lunch and I asked them to hold the capsicums. As I was walking away I couldn’t believe that this particular phrase came from my mouth – me of all people who is fighting so hard to not become a Singaporean used a word like capsicum. It did make me laugh to myself.
On a side note - I’m not too sure why I decided to share this in this blog – because even as I read what I wrote I’m saying to myself – “Who cares?” See what being so close to the equator is doing to my mind…
On a side note - I’m not too sure why I decided to share this in this blog – because even as I read what I wrote I’m saying to myself – “Who cares?” See what being so close to the equator is doing to my mind…
8. Pumpkin Beer…
I can’t tell you how excited Lisa was to find out that a brewery/restaurant in Singapore was actually brewing and serving pumpkin beer for Halloween – as you could probably guess it’s very difficult to find pumpkin beer in Asia. The restaurant’s promotion was running from Friday, October 28 - Monday, October 31.
We tried to go on Sunday, but unfortunately they were closed. To make sure that we got some pumpkin beer I made a reservation for Monday night (Halloween night) and specifically asked the girl on the phone if they still had pumpkin beer – which of course she answered yes.
Now – I’m sure everyone knows where this is going. We get to the restaurant, and they seat us outdoors at a nice table on the river – really nice setting. The whole restaurant was decorated for Halloween and the waiters were even dressed up in costumes. When we went to order our pints of pumpkin beer, our waitress looked at me and told me they had run out on Saturday.
From the look on Lisa’s face, I thought she was going to cry. Who am I kidding – I thought I was going to cry. After a bunch of begging and convincing to see what they could scrounge up, they were able to get us two small half pints from the bottom of the keg. Granted, the beer was warm and a bit sweet, but it was still pumpkin beer in Singapore!
9. Forget getting a dog when we get back to the US – we’re getting an elephant!
We were lucky enough to take a few days off from work a few weeks ago and we decided to go away to an island off of Thailand known as Phuket. No – it’s not pronounced as it looks. It’s actually pronounced “Poo-ket.” Definitely one of the most beautiful places Lisa and I have ever been…
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Picture Phuket as loosely being like the Caribbean on Asia – beautiful water, warm weather, and white sandy beaches…but they have one thing that the Caribbean does not have – elephants! The resort we stayed at had a elephant named Jumbo that walked around the property with its trainer greeting guests. The best part is that you actually got to swim with him too – I know, it sounds kind of weird, right? Who would ever want to swim with an elephant? Let me be the first to say that this guy would.
Very cool experience watching him dive into the ocean and roll around in the waves like a little dog. Because we probably don’t have enough space in our condo backyard to keep the elephant we’re going to get when we get home, I thought we would keep it at your house Mom and Dad…it should give Molly a good playmate.
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
10. Anybody thirsty?
Yum, yum. Leave it to Japan to market a sports drink with the word “sweat” in it!
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
The drink itself actually doesn’t taste half bad – it almost tastes like the lemonade version of Vitamin Water. Not sure if this stuff is sold in the US or not. I do know it’s sold in Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
Now - Don’t everyone be running to your local grocery stores and buying up the supplies of this stuff. I have SO many followers of this blog that I don’t want to be responsible for causing a worldwide shortage with all 20 of you pulling it off the shelves… J
Until next time...hope everyone is doing well!
