You can sail the seven seas!

Village People - In The Navy - The best video clips are here

Well, guess who was in town this weekend... the Navy! Haven't seen so many Americans since I left Seatac. Roving groups of buzz cut & tattooed young guys terrorizing Singapore... Well maybe not terrorizing, but certainly somewhat obnoxious and definitely out on the piss. I kept thinking, wow, my Dad was one of these guys like 35 years ago, probably drinking in the same places as well. Too bad they don't have the snake show anymore- hopefully my Dad can respond with what exactly the snake show was? Also made me think 'jeezus, I'm getting old' as none of these guys looked like they we're old enough to drink.

Monkey Troop!

Malaysia! So the best thing about our Malaysian getaway was the wildlife, specifically the awesome Monkey Troop and the super cool 3 foot long monitor lizard that I didn't get a picture of. Once I saw the Monkeys (these guys are sitting on our porch eating bags of goodies from one of our neighbors) I couldn't help but sing Homer's Spider Pig song with Monkey Troop in place of Spider Pig - I must be going insane because I'm singing it right now (and laughing hysterically).

Seriously though Desaru, Malaysia was cool, super nice beach, literally miles of open sandy beautiful beach surrounded by Casuarina pine trees, and some other unknown foliage, and few palm trees, warm, clean-ish shallow water and blue skies. Really can't figure out why it hasn't been super hyped and made into an international destination - maybe it's the Muslim bent towards no alcohol - it was difficult to get a beer and a glass of (sugary) wine. Maybe it's the lack of international investment as the place was run down (think 70's grandeur) and generally full of locals and the odd European family. Maybe it's just that they don't want the rest of us there!

One sad thing - or not depending on your perspective (if you're Dick Cheney), was once you left the beach it seems the whole of southern Malaysia has had its lush rain forest stripped bare and replaced with Palm Oil plantations, which are being planted as fast as possible to supply the worlds need for biofuels. Seems like a shortsighted mistake to raid our food supply for the needs of industry and moving our butts around- and remove untold square kilometers of virgin rainforest in the process. A bit hypocritical to say anything as America certainly got where we are by using our (and others') resources to the fullest extent -but hard to see lessons learned elsewhere not make their way to places like this. -Dave

Migraine!

Today I got to experience my very first migraine - what a strange sensation. Started out my day same as normal, roll out of bed, brush teeth, make coffee, turn on the computer, yadda yadda. So I'm sitting here reading the latest drama on the pathetic Sonics when I realize that everything I focus on kinda disappears, or blends into the background- I'm thinking this is weird, maybe I have some sleep in my eyes or something - go wash my face - come back and it's still happening. Not quite at freakout mode yet, but am thinking WTF? So I move away from the computer and go to the window to try something else, and while I'm trying to focus on roof across the street I fail to focus on any specific details for any length of time and I'm also visualizing these weird zig-zag stair step artifacts in my peripheral vision... very eerie, and very disconcerting (especially as no drugs are involved -this is Singapore!). At this point I start checking my motor skills and speech and whatnot thinking this can't be good - head back to the computer and start typing in symptoms into Google, reading what I can, and about this point in time I start feeling a headache come on from the back of my head, and I'm really weirded out, start thinking to myself "what is the emergency # in Singapore anyway?" (999 by the way) -when I happen upon the Mayo clinics site and it turns out I'm having a Classic Migraine with Auras - and a really typical one at that. So as I discover this the headache spreads from the back through to the front of my head then settles over my right hemisphere - where it stays for the next 4 hours, and my vision promptly returns to normal.

The headache was not excruciatingly painful, more annoying and a bit much to work - definitely once the mild nausea set in I was stuck on the couch for the duration. Once it was over it everything was good again- very weird, I feel for everyone who has to deal with those on a regular basis... A happy Wednesday to you all, -Dave

Laid Back

Had ourselves a nice laid back weekend enjoying our chair/chaise lounges (mentioned in the previous post) and it was really lovely sitting next to the pool enjoying the sun until the sewer cleaners came by and let us know that sewer isn't full of distilled water...

Enjoyed a nice walk around Fort Canning park, which is a sort of Greenlake-esque park which would be great to exercise around if it weren't 30 C and 80% humidity....

Added a few pictures to the flickr thing, hopefully there'll be more when we get out of dodge and into Malaysia next weekend.

Cheers!

What do you do in Singapore?

I know everyone's been dying to know, what the eff do you DO in Singapore when it's a random Saturday and you're not vacationing off this little island and you've seen the sights.... Well, I'm sure you'll be shocked, but you join the Singaporean herd and SHOP! But you don't just go the mall, wander around for an hour or two; no, no, no- you go down to the MRT station pack yourself (and your stuff) into a shiny metal tube filled with hundreds of your best friends and zip off to the gloriously sterile, air-conditioned, horrendously packed MALL. There's many to choose from and if you're lucky you'll even be able to walk between them without the need to actually go outside and experience 'fresh air'. You'll also get the wonderful experience of negotiating throngs of slow walking people with apparently no sense of each other or where they are going; perfect Brownian motion on a macro scale.

It doesn't end here, after you've spent a good few hours wandering for something that no one seems to carry (cheap plastic chaise lounges - because that would mean that you would be sitting outside and why in god's name would you want to do that???), you get back on the aforementioned metal tube and zip off to mall #3 or maybe it's #4, and begin the slog through the masses again - and since it's Singapore we've not had to actually leave an air-conditioned space to do this. We finally make it to the Giant Hypermarket - yes, it's beyond Super, it's HYPER! And yes they have something that will sort of work, not a chaise lounge and not a chair, sort of an odd mix between the two - it'll have to work- we're both tired, hungry, annoyed and ready for a nice relaxing trip away from people (I hear a beach calling my name)- thankfully we found a brewery that has a very decent IPA, and by the time I had finished that I was back in my happy place and all was again right with the world. -Dave

Realize it's been a bit since our last post...

... overall the last few weeks have been filled with the normalcies of life: work + food + sleeping + daily tasks. Yes, it's not a 'vacation' simply because you're on the other side of the world :) For most part, it's the same 'ol thing, interspersed with interesting "non-Seattle" moments.

A few of the highlights include:

• A piece of home via a visit from our friends Greg & Rachel. Good sports who dealt with the monsoon-ing, embraced the Mustafa shopping center, and were generally up for anything we/Singapore threw their way. And, they delivered duty-free liquor to our door ;)
• A harbor cruise, on a beautiful sunny day, with only good company (see 'above') and a questionable boat.
  
• Seeing the entire population of Singapore out at 10pm on Sunday night to watch a Liverpool/ManU soccer game. Restaurants & hawker centers on every block, setting up big screens, people crowded around. Expats were in the minority. Would give the George & Dragon a run for it's $$.
  
• A Northwest moment, renting bikes to ride around Pulau Ubin Island a stone's throw away from Singapore. AND getting back to the mainland 3 min. before a 3 hour rain shower like I've never seen.
  
• Hearing of new babies, jobs, adventures, engagements and birthday celebrations from friends & family all over the globe.
  

More soon ...

Monsoon!

Will it ever end???? Feel Bad for our guests, Greg and Rachel who've been troupers and dealt extremely well with the downpours and lack of sun. Luckily for them they are enjoying beautiful weather in Thailand right now....

The only good thing that comes with the monsoon is the spectacular lightning and thunder shows that bring me back to my childhood vacations in AZ, especially the rim country, during the summer desert SW monsoon . Today I got to experience seeing a bolt reflected in the window across the street, while simultaneously hearing an electric sizzle and then a blink of the eye later a clap that made me jump and the windows shake. Absolutely wonderful. We just don't get weather like that in Seattle....

Left the Island...and Made it Back

We finally had our first non-Singapore excursion this past weekend. Boy, was it a breath of fresh air (literally). Via a 1.5 hour ferry ride + 45 min. auto transport, we arrived at Trikora Beach, Palau Bintan, Indonesia. Great "budget" accommodations on rural section of the island. For our private villa bungalow over the water (deck, clean, nicely rustic) - a total of US $25 per night. About 7 bungalows total; a food menu composed of fish or meat prepared in the moment, with fresh ingredients; an endless supply of Bintang Beer (see 'photo of the week'); and only natural beauty as far as the eye could see ... a place that was totally our speed.

Of course it did rain a majority of the weekend. It is the tail end of Monsoon season. But that was a familiar element in itself -- like Orcas Island, only 30 degrees warmer..and tropical!

Singapore is a bizarre microcosm. It's not reflective of the rest of the world. And it's easy to forget that, even after only a month. Getting away was very grounding and more relaxing than I would've guessed. It is necessary to do. We'll definitely be doing it more ... time/job permitting.

P.S. of course, our trip did coincide with the escape (from Singapore) of a high-profile Indonesian terrorist... not to be found yet, possibly hiding out in Indonesia. We like to keep it real.

NO DURIANS! -And look at the fines!

Who described them as tasting like hot garbage? They certainly smell like it.

Geek Out!

She's one hell of a big b*tch. Super cool to see it fly - also nice to see that at least the 'dark period' in my life at very minimum had some tangible results. The most shocking thing is how quiet it was even at a full throttle, high angle departure. I'll have some more photos on flickr soon... Sadly they wouldn't let us on board as it was full of flight test equipment - oh well, I'll just have to buy a ticket to Sydney.

Did get to check out quite a few installations of Korry product on various aircraft and that was cool - and also nice to see that final product does look professional.

Let's see what else - got a sunburn, saw a bunch of really cool technology, almost bought a large model airplane then thought better of it as I have no good way to get that home - oh yeah and I sweated my you-know-whats off standing on a tarmac watching acrobatics and flyovers for two hours - good times

OK, it's Friday evening, time for beer!