Cynthia arrived in Singapore last Friday so its been a fun few days showing her around the city.

Today Cynthia and I went to see the Titanic exhibit at the Arts Museum in Singapore.  Which was pretty fantastic, they even had a real iceberg in the iceberg gallery!  Evidently the night Titanic sank the salt water (at 28 degrees) was colder than the icebergs in it which is why most people died from hypothermia not drowning.


As we walked in the main entrance we were given our boarding passes which had the name and story about one of the passengers on the boat.  At the end of the exhibit was a wall with all the passengers names and whether or not they survived.  I was Mrs. Benjamin Hart (Esther Bloomfield)- age 45 who was traveling to Winnipeg with my husband and 7 year old daughter to profit from the construction boom taking place in that region. We were in the second class compartment of the boat and interestingly throughout the voyage I was troubled by a fear that some kind of catastrophe would hit the ship.  I famously said "to call a ship unsinkable was in my mind flying in the face of God". My daughter and I both survived that fateful night but my husband did not.


Interesting fact: The Titanic could accommodate 750 first class cabin passengers. The cost of a first class ticket in the Titanic to New York was $2,500 (apx $57,200 today).  The two most luxurious suites on B Deck however were a staggering $4,500 (around $103,000 today).   The exhibition had 275 artifacts that have been recovered from the Titanic and are now being carefully preserved.  Jewelry, postcards, chamber pots, perfume samples (from a man who planned to make his fortune selling his new perfumes in the USA - which still carried its scent when it was recovered from the ocean floor in 2004),  plates and dinning utensils (very different between first class and second class) and many many more fascinating items.

Though I think I have a fairly active imagination this left me speechless.

Christmas has pretty much exploded all over Singapore which is fun to see (will post more pics soon) but its still odd to hear - let it snow, let it snow, let it snow - when its 90 degrees outside!

Hot humid weather aside I have been wanting to add a little Christmas cheer to our condo.  We don't have a lot of space and almost all of my Christmas supplies are back in Seattle in storage but I did manage to add a little splash of Christmas to a coffee table in our living room.


I think the holidays are the hardest time for me living in Asia.  This year for Thanksgiving my family went down to Palm Springs to spend the holiday with my brother Mark.  My sister-in-law Shari wrote up an amazing blog post (turkey flies to palm springs) about the event which while reading made me feel as if was almost there with them.  Back in the 80's when my parents lived in Japan and were far away from family over the holidays they had to rely on audio cassette tapes and letters via (snail)mail for news of home.  Now-a-days Kingsley and I can call, Skype, email, Facebook anytime I we are missing family.  Thats a lot to be thankful for!

The white sandy and nearly deserted beaches of Khao Lak stretch on for 20km. Kingsley and I had a chance to explore just a few short sections of the beach and we were so surprised by how few people we encountered along the way.



We saw this elephant walking along the beach with owner offering rides to tourists.  The elephant had a chain around her right foot and the owner used a sharp hook in her ear to control her.  Maybe its too many kitten rescues that have made me soft but seeing that elephant just didn't feel right.

During our stay we had endless amounts of delicious Thai food.  There is nothing like fresh seafood and Thai noodles on the beach in the evening after a day of fun in the sun with your dearest friends.


Carmen is 15 weeks pregnant which is incredibly exciting and lead to lots of late night conversations about the life changing aspects of becoming parents.
Every now and then it hits my that Carmen has been my best friend for 16 years!  That is pretty impressive.  Our friendship has survived - the rocky teenage years, getting our bachelor and masters degrees, 7 years as roommates, 2 trips to Afghanistan and many more adventures.