Some funny tales..

Well, last night I crapped out on Bruce and Charna..I had to skip dinner to sleep. I slept from 6:30 last night until 6AM this morning, and I have a whole new outlook on life. We walked around for about 5 hrs yesterday and then came back and talked for about an hour. After they left my room, it was light out. When they called to see if I was coming, I changed into my PJs and kept on with my sleep. The last month has not been a good sleep month for me, so 12 hrs of sleep was a godsend.

I woke up just in time to see the Ravens/Colts game. It was a stellar offensive performance by both teams. I don't think Baltimore was planning on losing. Matt Poske is a happy man right now. I did not think the Colts defensive was better than the Raven offense, but hey, what do I know. I also thought the Bucks would beat the Gators, but I was wrong about that too.

Yesterday, we did more walking. We went over to Chinatown, which was an interesting place. It is one of those things you have to go see but once you have been to Chinatown in one place, they are all about the same - people everywhere trying to get you to buy junk. After Chinatown, we went over to a Buddhist temple - it was pretty neat. We did not go in and look at the 25 different shrines, rather, we admired from the outside. Not into paying $25SGD to look at 25 shrines. Once we were done with that, we decided to head back over to Clark Quay, which is the same area we ate dinner in on Friday night. Charna commented the place looked different in the daylight - it did. That particular place has a lot of nightlife. We ate tapas for lunch, it was yummy.

We also went on a boat tour yesterday, that was a lot of fun. The picture of the three of us is while we were on the boat tour - the fountain is a landmark of Singapore, according to the boat tour. Apparently, they are also building a casino in Singapore - which I suspect will have a significant impact on the tourism dollars in Singapore. There are a ton of tourists already here for the shopping, but throw in a casino and I bet that will also help with the tourism dollars. The captain of the boat was interesting to say the least - this old guy with no teeth who would come up and tap us if we were looking the wrong way (compared to what the recording was talking about)

The other interesting character - and I mean CHARACTER - that we ran into was our cab driver back to the hotel after our boat ride. He was this HUGE Chinese dude that marveled in telling us about Singapore after we told him we had never been there before. He started telling us why Singapore was such a safe place - you litter, we give you three strokes of the cane, after stroke one, blood and skin fly - and we give you three. You rob someone, we hang you - like Saddam Hussein. You get caught with drugs - we hang you, like Saddam Hussein. You kill someone - we hang you, like Saddam Hussein. After each saying, her craned his neck, like he had been hung. Oddly enough, prostitution is legal in Singapore - apparently, there is some sort of brothel some place with 4 floors of women. All women are examined monthly and can only be there for 2 years. It was an interesting ride to say the least...

I have attached another picture - this was taken at a Hawker Centre. Basically, it is a food court, where all kids of traditional foods can be found. We have not yet eaten at a Hawker Centre, and I may never - this picture brings new meaning to "having your goose cooked". My chopstick techniques are improving - far from perfect, but I can manager. The other picture on there is dried squid from Chinatown. For those of you that know my disdain fro fish..this was awful - I can't even describe the smell. On another culinary note, I have had one soda since I have been here, mostly stuck to water. That is a big accomplishment for me!

Another couple of funny tidbits..first, Kinsel thought I was going to get on this bungee thing down by Clarke Quay. I told him he was nuts. The other funny thing was that I almost electrocuted myself yesterday - plugging in my hairdryer. There is one socket with a converter in it already..so naturally, I thought I could plug my hair dryer right into it. Well, the buzzing and cracking that occur ed as soon as I did gave me a general indication that I could not. I thought I had blown out my hair dryer, but I put yet another converter on top of the converter already there, and it worked. I laugh about it now, but I am lucky - it could have been ugly.

Surprise, surprise - it is raining here again today. Not sure what is on tap, but I am sure we will find something. As the Ravens game was on, I am thinking there might be another game on later..who knows. We are well - and although it is wet, not freezing it nice. ~Nicole