Early observations

Just thought I'd put some first thoughts down about my first two weeks here. The night I arrived we took a cab to the flat where we are staying; it's on the East Coast, in a very nice neighborhood with a lot of local food and shop houses. Stepping out of the cab the first thing I feel is the sweet smells of flowers, it's probably from a Plumeria tree nearby, sooo nice! Since it was Friday, we stayed up a bit, looking at pictures and catching up. Saturday we all went down to the city for some light sightseeing and shopping. I had my first Hawker food (a collection of small food stalls where you can buy almost anything from any country) and I have to say...food will probably be a theme for this blog also in the future, but the focus will be more on delicious stuff rather than strange stuff :)
Sunday we took a bus down to Little India where we walked around and enjoyed the smells and sounds, and eventually also the Singaporean-Indian version of the Red Light District. We were passing an ally where Fredrik said "I get the feeling we should walk down this ally?!" and so we did. In front of doors were groups of men, looking into the houses, and when we passed the doors we realized they were "checking what was up for offer" at the brothels, very strange!
First impression here is that people are sooo nice and that it's not as clean as one might think when reading about the rules in this country, which of course is nice. On several occasions people have asked us if we needed help, interfered to make sure we weren't making a mistake, super super friendly! And the cleanliness...I am glad to find many "dodgy" places around town and the feeling of sitting outside at plastic chairs eating the best seafood ever reminds me Vietnam, and it's a very nice feeling.
So the first week I spent with Fredrik while Maria was working, he is also new to Singapore so we did some sightseeing and serious walking. The walking was hard on Fredrik, but in the end we managed to achieve the three things on his list 1. New visa for Indonesia, 2. Exercise, 3. Fat-camp. The rice diet of Bali had reduced my friend to skin and bone (more than usual) and we kept a strict diet of saturated fats and sugar, I lost count of how many "mocha-choco-whipped cream-extra sugar" drinks he had :)
We scored high on the adult-meter when we spent hours in the botanical garden, and not just in the general garden but we spent 5 S$ on the Orchid Exhibition where we spent time going OOOOHHHHH AHHHHHH at hybrids and mutated specimens. Serious fun and very mature, which ended with Fredrik stating that he now walked longer in the Botanical Gardens than he's done his entire stay on Bali...in other words it was time for a cup of double-choco-coco-cream!
And once Fredrik left it was time for me to start looking for work and I think my daily routines are acceptable :) I get up when Maria goes for work and go for a run, a walk or a swim. I then have breakfast watching Discovery Channel. Once that's done I alternate between emailing, reading Singapore/Design blogs and searching for the right people to contact, all this is done with healthy breaks for coffee or pool splashes. Lunch is usually a fresh fruit juice and something from the local Hawker Center, something Indonesian, Malayan, Singaporean, Chinese, Thai or Indian...it will be a long time before I eat my way through a Hawker Center.
That bring you up to date, I'll post some pictures as soon as I find the time, PROMISE!

Bye for now //O