Singapore, Day 2

I guess this is technically Day 2, since I arrived last night.

Coming from a sparsely populated region that prides itself on open spaces, beautiful views, and unspoiled landscapes, it is always strange for me to wake up in cities that are shrouded in smog. While I love the bustle of a busy international city, it makes me appreciate why I live where I do.

And on the agenda for today: staring at my laptop screen in my hotel room. Yep, I am serious. I am on a deadline for some work reports that are due by the end of the week, so I'm taking advantage of a down day at the beginning of the trip to get a jump on things so that I can take part in some exploring later on.

I headed down to the hotel's excellent breakfast buffet this morning (included in the room price), and was very pleased find a completely international spread that included everything from Frosted Flakes to French pastry to fish curry. I opted for a comfortable medium, with some delicious fresh fruit, yogurt and cheese. Healthy, no? A good start, I think. No need to kick the old colon into overdrive on the first morning. I'm sure I'll be scouting for bathrooms and searching for native dishes as the days go on.

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The smog is burning off and it's still - wait for it - a very humid 26 degrees. Shocking, I know. This 26-30 degrees EVERY DAY is a foreign concept to me.

Off The Rock!

The price you pay for getting away for an exotic break:

- Wake at 3:15am (Tuesday, August 10).
- Leave home at 4:10am.
- Fly out of closest airport at 6:00am, flight leg #1 of the trip.
- Arrive Toronto 3 hours later and stopver for 2.5 hours.
- Fly out of airport #2 at 10:00am.
- Sit in airplane for 15.5 hours, flying over the Pacific.
- Arrive Hong Kong 1:15pm the next day (where did those 12 hours go??) and stopover for 2.5 more hours.
- Fly out of airport #3 at 3:40pm.

- Arrive Singapore 3.5 hours later and try to figure out what day it is (now Wednesday, August 11).

- Arrange transfer from airport, check into hotel, get YOG accreditation, find food, sleeeeeeep.

The Haagen-Daz served somewhere over Vietnam almost makes the travel worth it.

Well Now I Need a Blow Torch

For dessert, obviously.

ST and I took a little roadtrip over the weekend to visit his mom, and so that I could get my passport renewed. You know, since I've only known about my upcoming Singapore trip for about 8 months and haven't really had time to put the existing document in the mail and get it renewed like a normal, organized person. Instead, I prefer to live on the edge and instead travel across the province so that I can make an in-person appearance at the office and pay double for the Express service. Ahem.

So while away, we took advantage of some shopping, of course. And, of course, I focused mainly on housewares. Are there others out there who have this affliction? I know that I should be taking advantage of the beautiful clothes stores, but instead I buy ramekins. Red ones. That match the rest of my kitchen appliances.

But why ramekins, you might ask? Why, to make creme brulee, since I just bought vanilla beans in bulk at Costco. Silly. You knew that.

I've been talking about making creme brulee for ages, but I have always been intimidated by it, and I didn't own ramekins. But now - no more excuses! So I made it today and - success! It was totally delicious. So delicious that I forgot to take a photo before devouring it. But there's one left, so I'll try to remember to snap a quick pic before I eat that one. Maybe for breakfast.

But now I totally have an excuse to buy the kitchen blowtorch. I've been trying to convince ST for years that I need one, and after scarfing down HIS dessert, I think I may finally have cracked him.

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Update: no spray tan. But I did buy some self-tanning gelee (how this differs from a gel, I'm not sure) and so far, the results are okay. More on that later.