Singaporean Style...

Dear friends and family,

As you can see, the frequency of new updates on our weblog is decreasing... No, it's not because we've started to forget all about you, nor because our life is too boring to write about... on the contrary, it's been getting busier and busier and time to write is becoming scarce. But here we are again!

Now what have we been up to during the month of June... Let me start with Timmo. He has been "busy busy important important" (hmmm, somehow that doesn't make as much sense as in Dutch) and gathered some more frequent flyer miles. Mid-june, he went to the office in South Korea, where he had to dig into their financials. That of course, is hardly the interesting part. Much more worth your while, is to read that he actually went to a Karaoke Bar with the local colleagues and Bart, a Dutch colleagues from Singapore - yes, the one who challenged him on the Run-Bike-Run in May. And you may not believe it, but Timmo actually SANG A KARAOKE SONG. I would have given up all my frequent flyer miles to be there, if I had known this was going to happen... unfortunately, no evidence was captured from this extreme rare occasion, so you'll have to take my word for it... Actually, I still have to ask Bart whether Timmo has a career opportunity in music... Anyway, on top of his entertainment skills, Timmo has also had to squeeze the most out of his time management competencies. He keeps getting a never ending stream of workload and his one and only colleague is leaving this month to pursue her career elsewhere (Singaporean Style, you don't mention where you're going to work until the day you leave - especially if it's another company). As expected, Timmo still works from 9 am to 9 pm almost everyday and does little else during the week but working, running and cycling. Luckily, he got to hire an intern, who is now helping him out and he's been granted two extra resources... so he'll be a real manager soon!

In the weekends however, we catch up on all other activities. The past month we've have two couples visiting us; Paul & Pauline, who stayed with us for almost a week, as a relaxing stopover during their 9 (nine/negen/neuf/nueve/jiu!!!!) months holiday. Can you believe it? Yes, we are extremely jealous and are seriously considering doing the very same... Anyway, we really enjoyed their company, they gave us a very original gift: they cooked Paul's special spaghetti for us and we had our first real home-cooked meal at Villa Marina... Fantastic! Even Frank & Hellen, our neighbours loved it! That same weekend we were invited to Hellen's 60th birthday, which was celebrated in Singaporean Style; guests of guests are always welcome and there is lots of food, food, drinks and food. So the time spent with Paul & Pauline was all about filling our tummies, as usual. Last weekend, we had the pleasure of having Felix and Linda over; yet another very food-oriented period! They treated us to a fabulous dinner at Equinox on the 71th floor of a hotel (a must do for people who like top of the bill food combined with a beautiful view over Singapore) and we took them out for the BEST black pepper crab along the coast. Hmm, definitely a mandatory item for all of our next visitors! Anyway, Felix and Linda promised to come again next year in order to explore some more restaurants, so we can't wait! Just to top off our "culinary" exploits, we can also report that we have eaten sharkfin soup for the very first time. Yes yes, we know, unethical, animal unfriendly, horrible documentaries on national geographic, slap on the wrist... but damn tasty! Frank & Hellen took us, it's really great to have "local" friends who show you all the off the beaten track restaurants! They promised to take us to a few other Singaporean Style restaurants too, to try crocodile meat, turtle soup, the best crab soup in town and the best Japanese as well!

So what do I do to burn off all these calories? Well, I've actually become quite a fanatic dragon boat rower! The race season has started and I've been out on the water every weekend. In May we had a couple of racing events and last weekend, the Singapore Dragon Boat Festival took place. 150 teams, in all shapes and varieties (from big fat housewives dressed up in pink bunny suits to extremely well toned and bronzed college boys) participated. I rowed in the inter-corporate women's event and we actually won the bronze medal! And yes, there were more than three boats participating in our category, 12 to be precise, so we were pretty chuffed! I don't think I've ever been in so much physical pain after any event (even the Dam-tot-Damloop was not as strenous, in hindsight) and today my shoulders, arms and all sort of other muscles I didn't know existed are aching more by the minute, but it was fun! Singorean Style, we celebrated our prize by going out for the black pepper crab I mentioned earlier... Aside from rowing, I'm also getting buddy buddy with my yoga teacher, Brenda, and my fellow yoga class participants. I still go once a week and aside from getting the necessary work out, it's really nice to get to know more people outside work (no worries, these are hardly the meditational type of yoga-practicioners, we focus more on the work out part!). Brenda invited the entire class for a BBQ party at her house, and guess what, Singaporean Style, there was a Karaoke set! And no, I did not sing... :-)

Anyway, as you can see, any exercise we undertake is offset by calory intake... We love the Singaporean Style!

Click on this link or copy this url into your webbrowser address bar to view some pictures of little Asian women in action!!!

http://www.kodakgallery.nl/I.jsp?c=emj2ryp.444ivsrh&x=0&y=-xuj9yw

So long,

Timmo & Yaisa