Taking this Housewives Thing to a Whole New Level

Recent “Ladies of Leisure” activities include an Oscar party that almost wasn’t – I’ll get to that in a minute – and a terrarium building party!   

Having a deep love for all things movies and looking for any excuse to get dressed up and break out the fancy champagne glasses, I decided to host on Oscar party this year!  The Oscars were showing on a channel here in Singapore so I recorded them on that channel but also on the Slingbox (just to be safe). Well, thankfully I did because I found out at a very inopportune time (during the party) that I don’t get the Singapore channel that they were being show on.  All was well though as they were still recorded on the Slingbox which is attached to Mark’s parents cable box (thanks again Gordon and Gayle!).  Other than the one snafu, the day was a success!  All the girls brought very tasty dishes and I won the ballot competition.  What a great hostess, inviting people over and taking their money.

The ladies with our Oscars spread

Awaiting the Oscars!

And, sadly, this was only part of it!

Next up was the terrarium building party.  It was just what it sounds like – a party where we build terrariums.  For those of you who don’t know (because I didn’t), a terrarium is defined as a transparent globe or similar container in which plants are grown.  We planted succulents so there wouldn’t be much need for water.  But, before we got into being productive and “taking this housewives thing to a whole new level” we lunched on some tasty salad and homemade mac-n-cheese, compliments of Sarah! Then we got started layering rocks, charcoal (to keep out unwanted moisture), and dirt.  Next was the picking of the plants. Sarah and Hayley had supplied us with several options so picking was actually pretty difficult.  Several hours later and after more arranging and rearranging then putting on some final rock touches the terrariums were complete! But, of course, no girly hangout is complete without desert so we were treated to a freshly baked apple crumble! And yes, it was served warm with ice cream :)

The beginnings

Taking the tutorial

Just some of the selection

Colorful cacti

Getting started...

Oh the decisions!

Yay for terrariums!

The finished products (L to R: Ashley's, Grace's, Julie's, Sarah's, Hayley's, Niki's)

Another view

Close-up of my finished product

 

Life's a Beach

This month Colt and I were thrilled to be invited to a doggy beach outing!  We, along with four other girls (from the dog meet-up) and their dogs took 2 vehicles to a part of Sentosa Beach known for hosting dogs.  After arriving we realized that of the five of us I am the worst “dog mom” since I didn’t fully close the vehicle hatch so Colt actually could have spilled out onto the road at any time during the 15 minute drive from our condos to the beach!

Colt on the ride from the condo. He has no idea how close he was to danger!

Luckily, that bullet was dodged and it was all positive from that point forward.  We arrived at the beach to find that the looming rain clouds had kept everyone else away that day so we had the whole thing to ourselves!  All the dogs went off leash without any problems – this was also one of Colt’s very limited off leash activities in Singapore since dog parks aren’t as popular or as  easily accessible as in The States.  That being said, as soon as Colt was unhooked he ran like a wild man, even trampling Calvin the Beagle once in the process. Sorry Calvin!

The pretty Singapore Beach

After he calmed down a bit he had lots of new things to explore, this being his first ever visit to a beach and all.  He had to investigate the sand which, of course, included digging in it and making a mess of himself.  And then he moved onto the water!  (It should be noted that this next part was my favorite moment of the day.)  Colt first approached the shoreline with A LOT of caution, even getting a big scare from a few waves. But, after a while and with my help, he overcame his fear of the waves and took the plunge into the ocean! Running, splashing, and swimming like the beach was his favorite place in the world!

Exploring the sand and playing with his fish

"WAHHH, LET'S BURY THIS FISH!"

My little sandy face :)

Colt wanting to give Hayley a sandy kiss for driving him to the beach!

Getting Colt adjusted to the water

Once he was well acclimated with his surroundings, Colt started to pay more attention to the other dogs; playing chase, wrestling for the floating fish toy (which by-the-way Phoebe the French Bulldog managed to get from Colt most of the time, haha), and more digging and swimming.

When we reached the point when we didn’t know who was more tired the dogs or the owners, we made our sandy way home.  This was for sure one of mine and Colt’s favorite days in Singapore and we can’t wait to take Mark to the beach too!

Colt the Wild Man

Phoebe taking a dip

Calvin and Meg

The battle for the fish!

Bistecca and Black & White

Since the fall of last year when the dog meet-ups became more organized (special thanks to Sarah and Facebook for making that happen), I’ve been blessed with making some really great friends! It’s been nice to have ladies to talk to, do lunches with, and have daytime gatherings with.  And Mark has enjoyed getting to know their husbands through parties and golf! While we have all come to Singapore from all over the world - various parts of The States, Australia, England, and Japan; we all have the shared experience of moving far away from our families to a new, exciting place.  

One of the things that makes Singapore exciting (as you may know from previous blogs) is a wide variety of food! Various cuisines, at various prices – a “foodies” dream!  On this particular Saturday part of our group of friends decided to try Bistecca, a Tuscan Steakhouse.  While Bistecca’s atmosphere is great, the service is equally horrendous. The food was also hit and miss, with sadly, the misses winning out.  Although only a few of us will likely return to Bistecca, it was still nice to get together for dinner out and to try something new.  Following the disappointing (at best) experience at dinner, we decided to lead everyone to Mark and I’s “go-to” hang out Black & White where the service is always great and everybody knows your name…Oh no wait, that last part is Cheers but the service is always great!  We introduced the group to our friend and favorite bartender, Jay, and then sipped on cocktails and played a game of dice for several hours.  All-in-all, the night shaped up really nicely!

Starting a game of dice (L to R: Mark, Brad, Grace, Hayley, Ben, Christian, Sarah)

This picture essentially sums up the night!

Brad, Grace, and Hayley enjoying a drink at Black & White

Sarah, Ben, and I - Group hug!

Girl Talk

On February 22, five of us girlies had a “girls night out” which started at Loof, a rooftop bar across from Raffles Hotel with a great atmosphere.  With a business card you get 50% all food and drinks during happy hour so the prices were good too which a difficult thing to find in Singapore sometimes.  We had dinner and drinks at Loof before leaving for Raffles to see the Girl Talk production at 8pm.  The interactive show centers around 3 women doing their last radio show live on air while also in front of a live audience (us), it features singing, dancing, and, you guessed it, lots of “girl talk”.  Overall, I think we expected a little more from the show.  But the 2^nd half was much better than the first so they finished strong.  While it wasn’t exactly what we expected, we were still happy we went to see it as it was something different for us to do together.  Following the show we decided on a nightcap at the historical Long Bar – I mean, we were right there so we practically had to.  Although none of us indulged in the specialty Singapore Sling, we all enjoyed our drinks and the live music! Great night!

The girls (L to R: Ashley, Hayley, Julie, Niki, Grace) enjoying dinner and drinks at Loof Bar

At the Long Bar