Hi, this is my dog. Please be my friend.

Monday this week started off with what has become pretty routine - grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, walks for Colt, etc.  Although I did make a new discovery at the store this week but it is not something I think we'll be trying in the near future, it was...chicken feet. Umm, no thank you! I don't mean to knock it before I've tried it but I just don't foresee us eating something that still has the nails/claws attached.

Chicken feet at market, EWWW!

The majority of Tuesday was spent on the hunt for a birthday gift for Mark and running some errands.  The hunt led me to a couple of malls/store centers where I still didn't find anything (didn't help that I had absolutely no idea what I was looking for) and to Mustafa, which I call the Asian Walmart.  It's located in Little India and offers everything from watches and electronics to groceries and clothes, all of which are at a very affordable price. No luck with the birthday gift that day but I did run into a great sale on laundry detergent at Mustafa (YAY for a sale on anything, import prices are incredibly high)!  All-in-all, I will probably be making a once a month run to Mustafa to check out sale items but will likely not be doing our day-to-day shopping there. Although it has a vast selection of items, it's EXTREMELY crowded and, to be honest, a little overwhelming. The errands made me realize that since moving to Singapore, it has been fairly easy to get comfortable here which can sometimes make you forget that your in a new place where most everything is done differently.  For example: the errands consisted of having several items to mail, both locally and internationally, and I had the hardest time just finding the post office! They call it the Singapore Post here which contributed to some of the confusion.  Mostly, occurrences like this just make me extremely thankful for the internet!  I've relied on it so heavily since the move that it's hard to imagine a time when people made major moves and didn't have the internet to find things!

View of Little India streets on my way to Mustafa

Another thing, aside from the internet, that I've started to rely on is Colt.  We touched on last blog how Colt is a chick magnet and I finally realized that I had not been using Colt to his fullest potential!  Wednesday night, Colt really turned on the cute factor which lead to me meeting another woman from the U.S. in Singapore and being invited to breakfast the following  morning - Colt got invited too!  So, on Thursday, Colt and I went to Kith cafe and met 3 women and their dogs.  Colt behaved really well and I think he really liked the interaction with the other dogs, he especially liked the girl dog named Meg (what a ladies man)!  I also had a great time meeting new contacts in Singapore.  Two of the women also blog about there time in Singapore so it's really neat reading about what people who have been here longer have been up to.  Although, I'm going to have to up my game next week because both of their blogs were excellent.  After breakfast, I made a solo trip to Hot Dog, our Singapore Pet store, where I got Colt a bone for his efforts in helping me meet people.  Yes, I know it's sad but I have resorted to using my dog to make friends. : )

Colt with his reward

When Friday rolled around, Mark surprisingly got off at around 7:30pm so we decided to go out for dinner and drinks and headed to Malted Milk.  We like it because it's right across the street from us.  After a drink at Malted Milk, we headed to a restaurant called Stacked for some Asian dumplings and shared crab & pesto dim sum and Asian fluffy buns stuffed with Chili crab.  We headed home after dinner for an early night because we had a pretty busy Saturday ahead of us!

Much needed fan from Stacked (can't seem get this pick to rotate)

Niki enjoying Asian fluffy buns

Mark's Tiger beer, the local beer of Singapore

We got our morning started on Saturday then Mark and I took the MRT to the Tampines stop. From there we taxied to Ikea.  I had done the whole Ikea experience before in Houston but this was a first time (possibly last time) experience for Mark.  Let's just say that if, like Mark, you're someone who hates to shop a Saturday at the Singapore Ikea is probably not for you.  We did however get everything that we needed and were in and out in about...2 hours!  In Ikea's defense, it wasn't just the crowds that made the shopping trip last what seemed like an eternity,  we did stop and have lunch in the Ikea cafeteria.  At this point came one of my favorite quotes of the day when Mark said, "This food is really nothing special."  I had to remind him that we were eating...in a cafeteria...at Ikea...

Mark's "happy face" as we left Ikea

Following the Ikea trip, we went Back near the Tampines MRT to a place called Millennium Court, an open air skate sports rink where there was an inline roller hockey tournament going on and where Mark intends on playing on Wednesday nights.  In fact, he has already ordered his inline skates!  We only stayed for a little over one game because we had to get back to Colt and because it was very hot.  We (especially Mark) are hoping that the evening games will be cooler, that's for sure!

View 1 of hockey tournament at Millennium Court 

View 2 of hockey tournament at Millennium Court

Saturday night we enjoyed meeting new people at a BBQ, we were invited by the woman Mark and I had dinner with a few weeks back, that I had met while still living in Houston.  The night was filled with great food, hot tubs/cold tubs, and lots of good conversation, we got a lot of useful information on Singapore and each left with a few new Singapore contacts.  We also received an invitation to a 4th of July party which we are really excited about!  The BBQ also marked the first time Mark and I tried durian, a fruit, which Wikipedia describes as, "widely known and revered in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk...The edible flesh emits a distinctive odor, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive."  Saturday was the first time I had heard anything about durian (although until then I didn't realize it but I had smelled it several times) but Mark knew all about it because he had been asked several times at work if he tried durian and if he liked it.  I guess durian is a pretty big deal to people who originate in Asia but most foreigners don't tend to appreciate it.  Well, Mark and I both tried it and it is very unique - it has a distinct custard like texture and tasted to me something like garlic and roasted peanut pudding.  Needless to say, we didn't really like it.  We were glad we tried it but probably won't be picking it up at the store.

Local durian, you eat the yellow part

We woke up excited for Sunday as we had already bought our tickets to see the Hangover II earlier in the week.  In Singapore, you typically buy your tickets as much in advance as possible because you actually pick your seat at the time of purchase so the earlier you buy the better.  Mark and I got lucky and reserved seats near the back in the very middle.  But, our luck must have ran out by time the movie actually started because the cab driver took us to the wrong theater which made us miss our 2:20pm showing.  Trying to make the best of it we decided to just get tickets to the theater we were now at and see the 3:45pm showing (Mark joked that it would literally the Hangover II for us since we'll have paid for it twice). And when we were 3 couples away from the counter it SOLD OUT.  So we decided to go to the even later showing, we were determined to see this movie at this point!  Tickets in hand and with time to kill we went to an American restaurant named Billy Bombers where the food was okay but the sweet teas were awesome and so big that it made us think we were still in Texas.  And even though it was a later showing than we wanted, we did finally get to see our movie which was the best $55 movie we've ever seen...The only one we've ever seen but the point is that it was good!  Since the night was much later than expected we came home, had dinner, and hit the sack.  I was a really fun but tiring weekend in Singapore!

Texas sized tea from Billy Bombers