Freedom, Currys & Gods law...

Hi again,

Well another week has gone, it is amazing how fast the weeks goes. Last week was full of activities as usual. It was really fun to go for coffee morning at Style Nordic, it is a shop that sell furnish, accessories and cloths from Nordic countries. It has some incredible nice things, if you want to shop Scandinavian quality things I recommend Style Nordic. It is a Swedish woman that owns the shop and the SWEA women had a lovely coffee morning there.

The really good news this week (I think) is that I don't need my extra pair of legs anymore, when the specialist told me, I almost jumped up with joy. Luckily I didn't, as he told me I am not allowed to jump or run yet... So now I'm to swim and cycle to train and strengthen my ankle. I'm FREE again! A couple of visits to the physiotherapist will also help off course. Unfortunately riding will have to wait a while as the ankle has to be stronger.

This means that I will start work today Tuesday, YES, I can't wait. I really hope my new clients going to be nice and that they will enjoy me as a riding instructor. I'll let you know next week how my first week at work went.

Friday this week I went to the hairdresser for the first time in Singapore, luckily I had managed to find a Singaporean that lived in Sweden for 10 years and educated herself to a hairdresser in Sweden... It felt a bit safer than to go to someone totaly new and not know if we will understand each other.  What is fantastic here is that you get a head massage also when you cut your hair, I don't complain! I did still play it safe the first time as I only cut my split ends and fringe. And I survived!

I did learn something interesting this week about Singapore law. They have this law that they call Gods Law, and if you feel innocent you can apply to Gods Law when you are defending yourself. What it really means is that if a catastrophe like flooding, earthquakes happens, no one is to blame for it and that it is Gods Law.... Which is fine, but in this case it was a woman that was hit by a falling tree and the court claimed that the owner was responsible for his tree hitting her as it stood on his land and he should make shore the tree is safe for people passing by.  Although, if the tree had stood on public land and fallen on the women it would have been classed as Gods Law... Eeeh, do I have to say anything else...

Saturday evening it was time again for the second BBQ. It was a Pre Grand Prix F1 BBQ, You see the Formula 1 Grand Prix was happening here in Singapore this weekend, we thought we will save that one for next year, it is so much things happening here in Singapore, it is impossible to do it all at once! The BBQ was great, good food, good company, can one ask for more in life? Didn't see any Formula 1 though :-D

My social life have really improved since I got to Singapore it is great and god fun! Sunday the whole family whent to Little India, to have a great curry, and it was super. No plates for the food, it was BANAN LEAFS instead. See the pictures, the boys where amazed! A sunday in Little India is bussling, as sundays, are the big day off, for most people, everybody gathers to meet there (if you are from India). It is coloureful and smells from the food and people, defenetly worth the experince.

The Banan Leaf Apolo in little India!

The boys week have been good! They work hard at school, do homework, swim in the pool, play with friends. And this week they got their new Bicycles, it was great, now they want to cycle everywhere we go.
Theo is relly improving in his English, although he doesn't always realise it himself. You can tell it is making his brain working on overtime. At night when we are going to read he often says, -can we read in Swedish please it is to much English here. Bless him. Tim he works harder than he needs, as always. Have anyone got a recepie on how you explain to a child that he is doing more than well and that he doesn't have to be best at all times. The recepie has to make him understand it too....

A proud bycicle owner..:-)

Why does the spelling check give up on me everytime I'm writing this? When I really need it, it stops doing the check and I can't get it working again. Well I have to apologies for my mistakes....

Some pictures of Theo in a show off mood :-D

Dancing king in swim gear...

New hairdoo...

I also have to show you my autum signs, these shrubs grow at the entrance at our estate and a few days ago they where green and now they are orange red. Yes some autumn coloures and feelings... I almost felt the crispy cold, frosty morning back home when I discovered them this morning.

Well I better be off now as I have to prepare for the kids and Myriam to be on there own this afternoon until Davie gets back from work.

See you all again soon, take care out in the big, big world!

LOL / Marie

Manicure, lobsterparty, Diplomas and Bird Park another exciting week in paradise....

Hi again!
 First off all I would like to say THANKS to everybody that have commented on my blog. It's great to read and it means a lot to me because it shows that you think and care about us and take time to read all the "gobiligoo" that I write. I hope you all feel our love to you all, as we want so much to share our experiences with you all. We wish you where here.....

OK, where do I start this time, well for you who has fb maybe know about the bet I did with my friends and neighbours. I was to show them that I could grow my nails long and paint them red.... And for me to do that, They had to look after plants from me, to nourish and care for meanwhile we are away, and the one that has the best looking plant when we get back has missed (love) us most...  :-)

Well grow them long has been no problem for me, they grow like weeds. But painting them red......Haven't managed that yet. But I went for a manicure and got them done for the lobsterparty that Davie and me where going to. Result.....

They aren't black! It's a dark blue/green base with the white flower. My dress is also blue green thats why the coloure.

I feel very posh, I must say, and the manicure it self was "fab". Next time I will do a pedicure too! At the cost of 150 sek for the whole nail job one can treat oneself to it ever so often...:-). The red will come later, I still have time to do my part of the bet...

Now the swedish lobsterparty was great! Loots of good lobsters and other food, the snaps was cold, the beer and wine kept beeing filled up all night, one can't complaine. We sang swedish snaps songs and danced to ABBA (well I didn't dance, but next year I will!)

Me ready for the party, took the Aircast off for the occasion..

Talking about food, weel whent shooping again, as one does, but it's a totally different experience here than home. A lot of the veggies are hard to know what they are for and how to prepare. And sometimes its not easy to get someone to explain how and what. Even when they explain someetimes you just smile and say, OK, beacuse you don't still know what its all about!

 This is White Radish, a little bigger than our red radish....

What this is I still don't know as it only is writen in Chinees on it. I do think it is a Japanees vegetable. The research is ongoing...

Now, this is not food from the shop, but some peolpe eat it so I thought it would fit in here. Now this snail I saw near our flat. It was 6 cm long and 4 cm high, it is the biggest snail I have seen in the wild, amazing I think...

Talking about food that people eat! Davie came home the other day and told us about one of the students at his work that sat next to him that day eating lunch, and do you know what he eat???? Cooked Tarantula! His mum had cooked it last night for him.....Its a poisnus spider........The world is throwing away mountains of good food every day and someone choose to eat Tarantula! gbnhg!

Well we had a nice experience me and the boys when we yeasterday went to the Jurong Bird Park. It was amazing with all the beautiful birds. I let the pictures speak for them self.

The bridges up in the air amongst the birds...African village with real looking statues..

Feeding the birds was a real highlite, the boys loved it! The Bottle tree was great to see too!

Well we have got a really nice maid living with us, she is soooo well organized! It put my messy mind to shame. The flat is now always tidy, clean and organised. She is funny, kind and good to the boys. She had her Birthday on her first day with us so we had to by her a cake and celebrate it with her. It was a great start to her. Her name is Myriam and she is from the Phillipines. She plays basketball and vollyboll in her spare time.

Well folks I think thats all for this time. We miss you all and we whised you could all be heare with us sharing our experinces. Because they are great.

I almost forgott the most important news this week! Tim came home last friday day after he spent a couple hours at the swedish school which he thought was great, as he got to meet other swedish children. They are 15 in his class... But the next thing he told me got my soft spot proud so the tears came. He had a school assembly in the morning and he got a DIPLOMA for best homework studies, best listner and other things! Can you believe that!!!!

Know Take Care!

Time flies ......

Oh dear, how times flies when live is good! :-) I Think it is two weeks since last time I wrote and it feels like yesterday. So what have we been up to?

Well last week was busy, how it now can be busy when I don't work.... Well honestly I don't know, but I get up and suddenly its time to go to bed, not that I am complaining, I love it.

I went on a Welcome coffee meeting for new Swedish women in Singapore last week. It is SWEA (Swedish Women's Educational Association) who organized the coffee meeting. here comes there own explanation of what SWEA is:

SWEA i ett nötskal, eller vad man svarar på frågan om vad SWEA är:

SWEA är ett GLOBALT NÄTVERK med ungefär 8000 svenska kvinnor i 74 avdelningar och 34 länder. Vi är den största Sverigefrämjande organisationen utanför Sverige och vårt syfte är att sprida svensk kultur och tradition. SWEA ger donationer och stipendier på cirka 2 miljoner kronor per år.

SWEA är en icke vinstdrivande ideell organisation som utgör ett nätverk och skyddsnät för svenska kvinnor utomlands och ett starkt stöd för den svenska industrin ute i världen.

I will not translate that one for you who don't understand Swedish but please go into their homepage if you want to know more, you can get the whole page in English then :-).   www.swea.org/singapore

It was really nice to meet other Swedish women in Singapore, if I understand it right there is about 140 Swedish women registered as members in SWEA. This means that there is even more Swedish people in Singapore, as all aren't members and it is only open to women. I also know there is 140 children registered at the Swedish school in Singapore... Another fact that can be interesting is that 39 women left Singapore and SWEA this summer and 38 new ones arrived!

I also went to Tim & Theos school for a meeting about the UN day, as their school have 53 nationalities and always have a lot of different nationalities at the school the UN day is a important day for the school. They will celebrate it on the 15th of October and I don't know why that day is chosen, because the real UN Day is on the 24th of October... I need to ask next time.

As I discovered we are the only Swedish family at the school....so that means I will be alone (with the kids)representing Sweden that day, if we compare that to the British 250 kids I do really feel Like I'm in minority!
I don't know If I'm a good representative. The kids for starter are to wear National costumes......we don't have that... but it's cool, neither do the English, I was told... So the theme will be BLUE & YELLOW! After that we are supposed to have a room where we show up Swedish culture & food, so here we go, lingonsylt och saft, kanelbullar, köttbullar, knäckebröd och kaviar, mm. The Swedish embassy and church has promised to help me out with some information and maps etc. i will do some posters with the kids over famous Swed's, music etc. So I will try to keep Sweden proud over our work.

I also went to visit my work last week as I missed the smell of horses so much......it was really nice, but my whole body was screaming get back to work and start riding again.....I am so looking forward to start working again. There was this German man there having lessons with staff and clients, now don't ask me his name or who he was because I don't know, but I liked his way of teaching, so maybe next time.

Well otherwise, I have been out shopping for food in the big Supermarket, this is a challenge that takes time. First of all you don't know where everything is so you keep running forward and back all the time, but that will soon not be the case. Then there is all the "strange" looking food that I have to check out, my husband is going mad at me, as he just want to go in and out as soon as possible.

Is it cheap or is it expensive? That is a hard question, you can probably make it as cheap or as expensive as you like. Another thing is if you want to eat locally grown food you will be on a very poor diet.... Singapore have to more or less import everything, and I mean everything. The Island is far to small to have their own agricultural land for food production, there is some and I will explore that more when I have 2 functional feet.

All meat as far as I know comes from abroad, mainly it is from Australia. Chicken is cheaper than other meat. Sausages are mainly maid from chicken meat, or is at least the cheapest.  But there is a lot of sausages to choose from in different sizes and spices. Rice and noodles are very common one eat that almost to all kinds of food. Potatoes are also common but more for adding to the food than as a main ingredients. Then there is all the different vegetables some looks more tasty than others. There is a vegetable that looks like Swedish "pepparot" that is between 50 cm to 100cm long! Maybe I can find out until next time what it is. I will have to take some pictures of it this week...

Then we have the famous fruit Durian, well it must be the Swedish version of Surströmming! The smell of this fruit make me run as far as Surströmming does. The taste.....well, I can eat it but I can't say I like it, just as it is with Surströmming.

Milk taste quite OK, again the milk is imported as keeping cows is not possible. But it is also more expensive and if you want your children to drink milk at school you have to pay extra, around 25 :- per day (5SGD). To buy 2 l of milk cost about 25-30:- (5-6SGD).

At the end I would say our weekly shopping is cheaper here than at home and we eat more or less the same food as at home during the week. Eating out is mostly cheaper if you go to the local food centres and about the same as home if you go to western type food places and after that you can pay a fortune for a meal if you go to the right places....

As I have not had the capacity to "run" a round to check out everything yet I will report more on the food issue later.

When you go by Taxi, which is cheap they usually ask you which way you want them to take to the place you are going, well I usually tell them I'm new to Singapore so I haven't got a clue...and then I tell them to take the shortest way... which I now understand means go as fast as you can! Every time I made the mistake of saying that the put the foot down. So I only say these days, you choose the best way. They would not dear to cheat you so it is safe to say that. That usually means the way with less traffic....A bit cryptic this Taxi language. Sometimes you have to show the Taxi driver on a map where to go to...especially if he can't read English.

Well last Friday it was a Public Holiday (Röd dag) here in Singapore. The end of Ramadan and Hari Raya was celebrated. So kids and husband was of school and work. We decided to go to West Coast Park this day, the weather was to and from but it was nice to go to the beach and be able to see Indonesia, put our feet in the south west Chinese ocean! Warm and salty it was. We had a nice lunch and a walk, rip sticking and kick scooting up and down the beach walk. Ooh, I forgot hopping on my crutches..
This Hari Raya decoration the boys got when leaving the schools for the holiday weekend, they are typical decorations for this celebration.

The lunch at East Coast ParkEast Coast Park East Coast Park beach before the rain started

Then Saturday it was BBQ time at one of the colleges place, nice to see someones else place, they only have 25 floors in their housing estate, in 4 towers.
The BBQ chefs below

Swimming at the BBQ

And this Saturday we will go on a Swedish "Kräftskiva"! Yes! Yuuumyy! Let you know how that went.....

One thing I have learnt is that my two boys are worth admiring, they are my HERO'S! Tim is amazing, how he is coping with his knew school. He has homework everyday, that takes 1- 1½ hours after school, and he does not give up until he has done it and knows it by heart. He is learning High Frequency Words at the moment, 8-10 new words everyday that he has a test on the next morning, so far he has learnt 90 words in total and only had 1 word spelt wrong. He really enjoys the challenge he is getting at the school. I'm convinced I would not have done that well at the age of 9.
Theo, is going everyday to school still calling it "Dagis", finding it hard and not shore in the morning if he wants to go, but comes home every afternoon telling me a new exiting story with a smile on his face. I think or can't even imaging how it is for them at the school, all the new impressions, new people, new routines, new everything....
Had a strange experience today, Theo comes off the bus with tears in his eyes, I asked him whats wrong? It was a girl on the bus that said she hated my eyes. No says Tim "the guardian" She said she hates blue eyes! I just looked at them and asked them how many times have people here not said the opposite? Many times they answered, I also said that the girl probably is jealous of their eye colour. And that was a new experience for me too.....

Well as usual we have fun at the pool daily and life are getting in to a routine even here, but with a different flavour. Well folks if you have been patient enough to read all this I have to give you praise for doing so. I will try to write more often but shorter in the future :-)

 Until next time, take care don't do anything I wouldn't do :-D