Challenge Nation was in Seattle while I was in town, so 3 of my best girlfriends and I decided to take them on! Challenge Nation is a type of scavenger hunt, similar to the Amazing Race. Each team is given clues and you have to finish the race with the best time to win.
Carmen reading us the clues
There were 133 teams competing in the race. We finished 111th...not our best time ever but I think our multiple coffee and snack breaks may have slowed us down just a bit!
Clue: this urban waterfall commemorates the employees of what was once the American Messenger Service at the site of its founding.
Answer: I have no idea what this waterfall is called or how exactly we found it
Clue: These craft perform "Chesley S." like maneuvers everyday with no headlines!
Answer: Kenmore air on lake union
Clue: Why this wall was a top spot for engagement photos, we'll never know.
Answer: Gum wall at Pikes Place Market
Clue: What do you get when you add a dramatic former View personality and a NBA team? Take a photo at the original- making a human pyramid out front including one other Challenge team.
Answer: Starbucks at Pikes Place Market
We worked hard during the race and walked/ran all over Seattle so the next morning it was "pedicure time".
Labels:
Family and Friends,
Seattle,
Travel Adventures
One of my favorite bands is Pink Martini. They are an American band who draw inspiration for their music from all over the world. "Band leader, Thomas Lauderdale describes the band's sound as 'music of the world without being world music. If the United Nations had a house band in 1962 hopefully Pink Martini would be that band. '"
The lead singer China Forbes has such an amazing voice and she can sing convincingly in so many different languages. After a few years of concert dates not lining up, I found out that Pink Martini would be in Seattle the same time as me. Destiny.
My friend Cynthia agreed to come along even though she hardly knew the band, so we planned a picnic at the winery while we watched the show. The very first song the band played was my second favorite song, called Lily. I couldn't help myself and started singing along, I think my enthusiasm was contagious because Cynthia started clapping along as well.
I have to say this was probably the best concert I have ever been to, sorry Michael W Smith...
As the closing song they sang my number one favorite song called Dosvedanya mio bombino which she sings partly in english and partly in Russian (without a hint of an accent). At the end of the night I was so incredibly happy.
Labels:
Family and Friends,
Seattle,
Travel Adventures
I haven't been so good about posting these last few weeks as I've been traveling and staying with friends and family and didn't want to miss a minute of seeing all the people I love, so I decided to save all my thoughts for when I finally arrived back at my "final destination". I was gone for almost a month so I have lots to share.
First stop on my trip was Seattle.
View from Alki beach
Being back in Seattle felt like arriving home after a long trip away. It was so great seeing friends and family again and to reconnect with everyone. Side bonus of being home, I have never eaten so well in my life. My second night back in Seattle the amazing Mama Goetsch made me a top notch Thanksgiving dinner since I wont be there for the holidays this year. Just seeing the photo again makes my mouth water...
I also spent a fair number of evenings enjoying my favorite Mexican food at the Cactus restaurant. Singapore has a lot of great foods but Mexican is not one of them. Thanks Carmen and Sean for eating at the Cactus multiple times in one week just for me!
Although I loved the food, what I loved the most was catching up with all my favorite people.
Lunch with some of my best girlfriends
Dinner with the Woods and Novak(s)
Bonfire with Marc and Lan (we missed you Kingsley)
Labels:
Family and Friends,
Seattle,
Travel Adventures
Thanks to my friend Sharon I finally got my clappers for the Youth Olympics games. I got them just in time for the ping pong (table tennis) finals.
Can you see the pride in my eyes? I love those things!
I even took some time out of playing with my clappers to watch some serious ping pong. The players were amazing and received many enthusiastic claps from me and my clappers!
Labels:
Living in Singapore
Singapore is currently hosting the inaugural Youth Olympics games. Over the next 3 weeks about 5000 athletes between the ages of 14 and 18 are competing in 26 different sporting events.
The two mascots for the Youth Olympics Singapore are:
Lyo- a lion cub with a mane as fiery as his passion for life. His paw is shaped like the island of Singapore. Symbolism: legend tells us that a prince upon visiting a tropical island spotted a beautiful lion and named it 'Singapura' which means 'Lion city'.
Merly- a merlion cub who got her name from 'Mer' meaning sea and 'ly' for liveliness and youth. Symbolism: the merlon is a mythical sea creature that is part lion and part fish, inspired by Singaporean folklore and Singapore's fishing village origins.
We bought tickets for badminton, tennis, gymnastics and ping pong.
Our friends Sharon and Dave (from Seattle) met up with us to watch the Badminton. Kingsley and Dave were pretty excited to watch the game but Sharon and I were more interested in getting our hands on the "clappers" which were these inflatable sticks that you bang together when someone scores a point. They were sold out when we arrived so we spent hours trying to devise a plan to get our hands on our own set, I'm sad to say we were not successful.
These kids had the coveted "clappers", but had no interest in sharing with us.
Tennis was pretty amazing to watch, even though the players are young they are incredibly talented and very competitive. We watched a Finnish guy play a Hungarian, neither were prepared for the humidity and heat of Singapore. They were constantly taking breaks to wipe the sweat off their hands and rackets.
Cool as cucumbers, we are use to the humidity now...for the most part!
Labels:
Living in Singapore
Exactly a week after returning from Bali I started to feel terribly ill. I had a temp of 103-104, headache, cough, body aches, fatigue and pretty much felt awful. After a day and a half of watching my misery Kingsley took me to the ER where they were sure that I had dengue fever but the lab tests for both dengue and malaria came back negative. The doctor sent me home saying it must just be a virus but if I was not better in a few days to return to the ER. Four days of absolute misery later and my fever was the same (104), same headache, body aches and body wracking cough. I was pretty out of it by the time Kingsley brought me back to the hospital again. This time they said "we are very confident this is dengue fever" but again the lab tests came back negative. When I arrived in the ER my temp was 104 which had them very worried (tell me about it, I had been that way for a week!!). Once they decided it certainly wasn't dengue fever the doctor honed in on my cough and said "I've heard that cough before, thats a pneumonia cough". He then listened to my lungs and decided to put me on a course of antibiotics. He explained that they don't usually see fevers so high with pneumonia but everything else made sense. And if the antibiotics didn't help in a few days to return to the hospital and they would have a tropical disease specialist try to figure out what was going on.
When we checked out of the hospital I was pretty sure we would be back in a few days, I just couldn't believe it was pneumonia.
It has been 2 days since I started the antibiotics and I am happy to report I have made a major turn-around. No more fever, headache and body aches are gone. The only thing left is the fatigue and the terrible cough, which is manageable with a little help from my friend codeine. I haven't been that sick in such a long time it really made me take a step back and appreciate my health...and my husband. Thanks for taking such good care of me Kingsley, and for forcing me to go to the hospital even though I kept telling you I was fine! (I wonder where I learned that from? Mom?!!)
Labels:
Living in Singapore
A few days ago Singapore celebrated its 45th year of independence. In the typical Singaporean way, the planning and practice sessions for the big day began a month prior to the big day. There were dress rehearsals and dress rehearsals for the dress rehearsals. By the time the actual day rolled around everyone had already seen the entire show several times. But that didn't stop Kingsley and I from joining the masses on the actual day.
First part of the festivities was a military parade. It was kind of strange watching miles of guns, tanks and other military equipment drive by. This was also the first parade I've been to where the people in the parade don't smile and wave. I even tried waving first, sadly no one waved back but I did manage to get a few half smiles.
Next came the Singaporean "Blue Angels" performance. Kind of ironic that the actual Blue Angels were in Seattle for Seafair the very same weekend.
The National Day celebrations ended with a grand fireworks display. My favorite was one with stars and the crescent shape to represent the Singapore flag, pretty impressive.
Labels:
Living in Singapore
Challenge Nation was in Seattle while I was in town, so 3 of my best girlfriends and I decided to take them on! Challenge Nation is a type of scavenger hunt, similar to the Amazing Race. Each team is given clues and you have to finish the race with the best time to win.
Answer: I have no idea what this waterfall is called or how exactly we found it
Answer: Kenmore air on lake union
Answer: Gum wall at Pikes Place Market
Answer: Starbucks at Pikes Place Market 
