Me and the Merlion!

This photo still makes me laugh. Had to share it.

You may have noticed this is the fourth post I've written today. Sorry about the one month hiatus, but it's been really busy and the blog suffered.

Hope you're all up to date with the big stuff. On the every day stuff:

• Work is still kinda crazy, but I've been doing a better job at coping with it. I am still learning and taking on more responsibility. I am heading to a one-week training course in the US on Friday. Should be a fun break from Singapore!


• Dr Wu came to visit from KL recently. This is a photo of a few fellow Aussies in Singapore.



• I started my training for the Singapore Marathon (well the 10km version) yesterday. I survived about 6 kms of running in Macritchie resevoir park and enjoyed seeing some monkeys and squirrels along the way. Still a bit of work to do before December.


• I am trying to get out of Singapore a bit more, so although the coup may put a hold on the Thailand travelling plans, Lucy and I are going to book a long weekend in Cambodia soon.

B is for Bintan

B came up to visit me last weekend. Because he'd seen most of the sights in Singapore on his last visit I decided we'd head to Bintan, an Indonesian island frequented by Singaporeans for a quick getaway.

After being so disappointed with Penang's beaches earlier in the year, I went to Bintan without huge expectations. I was pleasantly surprised and B and I had a really relaxing and fun weekend.



The lowdown:

• We stayed at Mayang Sari, which I thoroughly recommend. The rooms weren't 5 star luxury, but it is a small place and the staff are great. I am really not a fan of big hotels, but if that's more your thing, Nirwana Gardens also looked great.


• The beach near the resort was clean and really nice to swim in. The pool at Nirwana Gardens is really nice and worth the walk up to road.


• We dined at Kelong seafood restaurant on Saturday night. It was an average Chinese Seafood restaurant, that was a little pushy with trying to get us to order more expensive food than we wanted to. It is a really fun location floating over the water though. Also worth visiting if you go to Kelong is the Calypso bar, playing their cool reggae music and serving carribean inspired cocktails. We still haven't figured out why there is a rasta bar in Bintan...


• On Sunday night we went to Baan Aarya and enjoyed really good thai food in a very romantic environment. We followed that with some luxurious spa time - though B has asked that I don't anyone he had a full body scrub, yoghurt rub, 1 hour massage and flower bath.


• We went for a kayak on Sunday and I really enjoyed being out on the water again. I should start paddling in Singapore sometime soon.

Bintan is only 45 minutes by ferry from Singapore and really worth a visit.

We also had two hours to fill in between arriving back in Singapore and B needing to be at the airport, so we raced down to East Coast Park for chilli crab. Yum!

Chuckies win the Singapore Open!

Well at least that's what we think.

Chuckies are my fantastic Singapore frisbee team. We recently played in the Singapore Ultimate Open, one of the biggest Ultimate Frisbee tournaments in Asia.

We were seeded reasonably low, as on average we're a bit wiser (read older), experienced (read slower) and fun (read less hungry for the win).



We played really well on the weekend and won convincingly against Muddy Grass, another Singapore team who had previously walloped us in a scrimmage. We were also strong contenders for the spirit prize and left the weekend having beaten all contenders in the boat races (beer drinking challenge) and taken the title away from Bangkok.

I thought we also deserved the sexy-uniform prize, with smashing shirts that I helped to design. The inspiration was a t-shirt of the east german pedestrian symbols. The connection between communist Germany and Singapore is up to you to interpret. In the week after the Open we celebrated with a BBQ on the roof of my building.

I discovered Chuckies a couple of months ago, and we've had a great time training for, playing in and celebrating this tournament. The team is made up of Singaporeans, Australians, Americans, French, Brits and one Phillipino. We are now planning our tour to the Manilla Spirits in late November. Anyone in Oz wanting to come up to a fun tournament in The Phillipines?

Luv you chuckies!

Volleyball Champs

A couple of weeks ago I joined some colleagues for a game of intra-company beach volleyball. It was the event that finally got me to visit Sentosa. Sentosa is a small island park just south of the Singapore city where busy singaporeans can play some golf, wine and dine, play in the ocean and of course bash a ball around in the sand. My thoughts on Sentosa soon, but first.. the volleyball!




Now that that's out of the way, my thoughts on Sentosa. To draw a comparisson with Sydney, imagine a larger, greener version of Darling Harbour, where you might be persuaded to swim in the water. For $3, it's worth the day trip.

I still can't get past the lines of container ships in the water, but still went for a swim.

The part that made me laugh the most was the 'Southern Most Point of Continental Asia'. The picture below is Sentosa's justification for their claim. I guess I was still a sucker to bother walking over the bridge.