Family arrives…

Wednesday was a beautiful day. It was sunny and besides work the day was promising. I spent some fun hours with Jase and then made my way to the airport around midnight. There I waited another hour and then they finally came – Sylli and my mum. It had been months since I have seen the two and it was so good to see them. After we packed their belongings in my car, we were off “home” and made an attempt to sleep in one king size bed. Knowing my sister that wasn’t going to be easy and after a while I most certainly found myself without a blanket and without any means of recouping a piece of it since the blanket hugger had done her best to roll herself up in it.

Slightly frozen I awoke the next morning and made sure I was at work on time just to take off again after my client meeting and have breakfast with mum and Sylke. The weather was shite and so I decided to drop them off at Hillary’s harbour so they could visit the aquarium and go shopping. It was pouring rain all day and at around 4pm they had had enough and texted the taxi service for pickup. So I took off and brought them home, frozen solid but safe. After a quick warm up we were off to Coco’s restaurant on the Esplanade. The restaurant had some great reviews and the views of downtown Perth were spectacular. Food was excellent too although the place was heaving with people and the cocktails were terrible (they had no alcohol as far as I could tell and the Red Corvette was more like a strawberry sorbet) My sister and I had fish while my mum had a really nice soft steak. After so much food we were too tired to do anything else and went home (with me taking off to sleep in a different arrangement to forego the blanket stealing)

The next day was nicer so, I gave them my guidebook and instructions for a city walk. That kept them occupied most of the day and around 5:30 we met back up at home. In view of mum’s bday we went opal shopping and found her some nice black opal necklace. She was rather timid in saying what she wanted but stood in front of the necklace for such a long time that it was obvious she liked it. (price didnt matter at that stage) After all that we felt like spending even more. Funny enough, there was a to us rather well known restaurant in Perth just on Hay Street. The chain of restaurants closed all its Texas locations, for whatever reason, but they are the best ribs in the world. Yes, I am talking Tony Roma’s. It didn’t take long for us to decide. Of course, we ordered an onion loaf as starters though the bbq mayo was so minging that we had to get some original bbq sauce instead. The ribs were just as good as in Dallas. Baby backs and St Louis style did us rather well. It was also a good basis to meet for a few drinks later, so we went to the Vic in Subi and met up with Rutchi, Jenna and a couple of guys. My guy was there too which made me very happy. He was rather jolly too and had brought his friends Eileen and Alex who are awesome. As it got later and later more and more people went home, so did mum and sis. I stuck around and in the end it was just Eileen, Alex, Jase and me left and besides trying to not get kicked out of the Vic for apparent misbehaviour we had an absolute blast.

The next day, Sylke and mum took off to Ayers Rock. Before that though, we had brekkie in Freo, drove up the coast along the beaches and then I dropped them off the airport before going to the cricket club for the AFL final.

The last weekend…

Time flies to fast, I have always known it and my time here in Perth just proved it once again. It was my last weekend and what better way to spend it than with friends. The weekend started off with Director’s drinks in Subi. As there were quite a few people in the office the turnout was actually really good and the beer diminished at a rather fast pace. Result was that once only Cascade (don’t try) was left in the fridge two or three handfull of us moved on to the Vic down the road from the office in Subi and after we had exhausted our welcome there, we went to the Bar at the Subiaco Hotel. Of course, that also shut at some point and our search for more drinks resulted in … nothing, though we did have a good kebab. Deja vu!

As noone wanted to serve us, we ended up at Rutchi’s new place in Subiaco. She is sharing with two housies who are awesome and the house is also quite cute – except the, I believe it is a, goldfish in a rather murky tank. It is alive though, I saw it move. Around 3am I was done and all I wanted was my bed, so Jenna and I took a cab home.

The next morning I was up early to take a walk to work, as my driving skills were rather impaired the night before and I had left the car in Subi.  Couple of hours work and a pizza later, I was back home getting ready to paint the town red yet again. Beforehand though we met up at Rutchi’s for some authentic Indian food. Rutchi is an awesome cook. The food was excellent and the company too. As there were several parties going on, we started our night out at some house party in Subi of some people that had invited everyone that had previously interviewed for a room. Rutchi didn’t take the room and now I know why. When we got there, everyone was sitting in a circle in the backyard and it was a little weird. Very hippie-style. The people were the most colourful mix I had ever seen - all ages and backgrounds. After an hour, we decided to move on. Since Lisa had her moving in party, we went there. There were heaps of people from the office and it was a really good turn out. Jordan’s “home made” mince pies were also great. (really though, he should have hidden the package) From Lisa’s we all went on to Northbridge to go to the Shed. Now the Shed is more like a meat market, pretty similar to the Sherlocks and Carlton’s of this world. After the Shed it was Mustang and then the Library. In Mustang we danced quite a bit, in the Library Jason and I had some very lengthy and interesting conversations about life, traveling and how life is too short to not enjoy it. I got to say, he is really one of the niecest guys I have met. As we were also the last ones left at the end, we waited for a cab in the pouring rain for at least half an hour. I believe when I finally closed my eyes it was already sunlight outside.

Sunday came around and there was one other thing on my list that I had not done so far. It’s a very Aussie thing and really only something you can do here… I had to watch an Aussie footie match. As it was the WAFL final, I had of course already bought tickets and had the whole thing planned out. The girls met at Rutchi’s to finish off any leftovers and then made our way to the Subi Oval, stopping at a local gelateria for some icecream. The match was in full swing as we arrived and the atmosphere was great. I do not get the rules though. There was a lot of pushing and running and kicking involved. Aussie footie is a very fast paced game and the guys that play it are quite fit. In the WAFL final it was Subiaco FC versus the Swan District. Of course we were rooting for Subi and…. of course Subi won with 148 to 91 or something like that. It had gotten quite cold in the meantime and so we stopped off for some coffee on the way back.

Sunday went as quick as it came and I am becoming quite sad to leave this place behind.

Rotto #2 – wet and windy

The next morning after we had woken from a good night sleep, the first decision was of course a good brekkie. The breakfast was great until we found ourselves in one of the scenes of the movie “birds” as sea gulls started attacking our bacon and bread. A couple of attempts were sufficient for us to leave. As the best way to get around the island was by bike, our next stop was the Rotto bike hire. Since Trevlyn wasn’t a bike rider, we rented only three. Believe me, we tried to convince her but apparently our arguments weren’t good enough to make her believe that we could in fact teach her to ride a bike. In hindsight, that may have been a smart decision by her – it could have gone really well or really wrong. After a stop at the local general store to buy some food, tea and chocolate, Jenna, Rutchi and I were off for a ride around the island.

During the bike tour we found some pretty nice beaches and also the Bathurst light house were a lady in pink decided to have her wedding – with her husband of course. It didn’t look like much fun as the wind was blowing and she looked like she broke out of a Disney cartoon. The wind was so hard that it at times made it impossible getting up the Rotto hills on bike. We passed Pinky Beach, Geordy Bay and plenty of other bays. At Rocky Bay we met up with Trevlyn who decided to take a bus around the island, or should I say the bus as I am pretty sure there is only one. As the bus was running only hourly, the beach sounded like a great idea. Yet dark clouds were looming in the background. Said clouds also decided to move in and we got completely soaked. And here I was thinking I would finally get to go snorkeling. I’ll have to wait a little longer for that, did get my feet wet though and I have to say – it was freezing cold. As Trevlyn was getting back on the bus the rest of us did not feel like biking back either, especially as more clouds were appearing at the horizon. Thanks to Trevlyn who had made friends with the bus driver earlier, we were allowed to take our bikes on the bus – something that generally is not allowed. High and dry we enjoyed our ride back to the Settlement.

Back at home and after some hot tea and showers, we started our first (and probably only) Aussie barbie. I am not sure if I am allowed to call it an Aussie barbie considering there were no Aussies around. The food was of course excellent and I showed off my German barbie skills. Before, during and after the bbq we got ready for a night out in the settlement. Beforehand through, we opened a bottle of bubbly as we had something to celebrate.

Since we couldn’t quite finish the bottle so quickly it accompanied us half way to the same bar as last night. An empty bottle, a tree climb and a swing around a street light later we were at said bar ready to party. So were plenty of other people. During the evening at the bar we met way too many guys including some of the Wests Subiaco rugby team. Go Wests! The 21st birthday was also going on. We had heaps of fun with both groups of guys. *here goes as you might have guessed another censored section* It was a rather fun night out and pretty dead we ended back at our place sometime during the early morning hours.

Rotto Night #1 – watch out – the old people arrived

After a hard weeks work, Rutchi, Jenna, Trevlyn and I had planned to take off early Friday to catch the last ferry to Rottnest. For that we first had to get to Freo though. As I was sitting waiting in the office waiting lounge for Jenna and Rutchi, my lovely coworkers decided to tell me about Pinky beach – a must see in Freo. Knowing not to believe a word these guys say, I crossed Pinky beach off my list of things to do while in Australia.

Once the two girls came round the corner we were off to Subi station to meet Trevlyn. We just about made our train with a good effort in running stairs with heavy bags without losing anything. On the train we were filled in by the locals on where the ferry terminal was and what a ride we were in for. Thinking that nothing can touch us, we first went to the E Shed Markets to have a bite to eat. E Shed Markets reminded us rather much of Blackpool – cheesy and cheap. There was a guy playing a keyboard and I was beginning to wonder if the musicians actually had to pay to be allowed to play in such classy establishment. Rutchi and I found out about half an hour later that sweet crepes and big waves do not go very well together. It was a heck of a bumpy ride and we made good use of the paper bags that were handed around on board. Trevlyn and Jenna did not feel like joining our pain.

On the other side we left our bags in the hands of the capable baggage handlers and made our way to our little hut, unti 503 of the Bathurst in the Settlement on Rottnest, or Rotto as called by the Aussies. Rotto is just off the coast of Freo and is something like an island getaway from the big island. From what I was told, it’s the party place. Of course, it was somewhere on top of our list of things to do. Our coworkers had told us though that September should be better to go because the weather will have improved. Little did we know that September 08 was actually going to be one of the wettest Septembers in Western Australia.

After our bags finally made it to our unit about an hour later, we went off to find something to eat and drink. During our walk we saw our first quokkas – rat like maruspials – thus Rottnest or Rat’s nest. Trevlyn and I thought they were rather cute while Jenna and Rutchi were over the quokkas after about 5 of them had crossed our way. I was also scouting out trees – Rottnest has some awesome trees to climb in.

The only place that seemed to be open on the island was the Waterside. We ordered our food and finally some beer and decided to sit on the patio. The wind was pounding the patio walls – some plastic sheets. We were people watching and apparently too close because while we were watching one skinny girl trying to attempt to move a heavy wooden bench her guy friend (I wont make assumptions here) decided to tell us “you were young once too”. Angrily we ordered another round to drown our sorrow of old age. Once the kids had moved, we decided to take over their table which was closer to one of the patio heaters. The bouncer – who by the way also did not feel the need to check our ID (that’s what public accounting does to you!)  – did not want to move the heater to our nice round table. So we occupied a longer one with more space. That meant that it was relatively easy for others to join us. One girl – called Caramel or something like that – came over rather quickly and joined us. She must have been 16. She also called over her friend Matt who then called over his friend Beverly and soon we were surrounded by youngsters. *here goes a censored section*

After Matt and Beverly had buggered off, we were joined by some other rather cute guys who were closer to our age (thank god!) They invited us to a 21st birthday party the next night for their brother. *there be another censored section*

After we had had enough for the night as we were rather tired and felt really old, we went back to our little house and made our way to bed.

Sunday Sesh

Sunday we had a bit of Aussie culture. Beforehand though, Trevlyn and I went shopping in Freo in a couple of surf shops. Jenna, Rutchi, a KPMG expat from Houston and another one from the UK with her cousin from Kenia joined us for mussels at Sandrino’s. The chilli mussels were awesome, so were the garlic prawns. All accompanied by a beer and good company made this a perfect lunch.

Afterwards, our next and actually final stop was Little Creatures for Sunday Sesh. It’s a pretty easy concept. Find a bar or in our case, a brewery, pick a sunny spot around 2 or 3pm in the afternoon and stay until you are ready to fall asleep. And that’s exactly what we did. Since Jenna sent out an email the week before to the whole of audit, some decided to show up which was great. So did Rutchi’s roomie Jason. When we got too cold (and it was freezing by the time the sun went down) we moved to the Lounge next door. Around 8pm even the last crusaders (guess who that was) were ready to go and so we walked to the train station just to find out that the trains had been replaced by buses. We waited around in the cold for another 20 minutes and finally caught the bus back home.

Paper daisies, kangaroo paws and Scottish thistles

I am sad to say that I am in fact getting very used to Perth and now that I am settled in, it is almost time to leave again. Of course it helps when you find it easy to settle in and the Perthites have certainly done their part to make this even easier. Today I got up and once again made my way down to Freo to read my book in one of their quirky little cafes. By the time I was done with my book the stores had opened and I finally bought some new boots and a couple of souvenirs which I will be shipping across the big pond pretty soon.

Today we decided to be rather lazy and as the day promised to be sunny and warm, Rutchi, Jenna, Trevlyn and I met up in Kings Park for a light picnic around lunchtime. Kings Park is about 1000 acres of bushland, grassy bits, lakes and botanical gardens with some sporadically strewn barbie pits and memorials. All the barbie pits were taken and it appeared all of Perth had gathered in Kings Park. We planted ourselves in front of the war , munched our lunch and lazed around in the sun for about an hour. After that we went for a little walk in the botanical gardens and Trevlyn finally saw her wild flowers. They were very pretty, especially the kangaroo paws and paper daisies. We strolled along taking pictures, making plans and enjoying the awesome weather and views of the city center. On the way we passed one grassy bit where there was a trio playing classical music. Tres Classique! We decided to stick around and listen to excerpts of the Phantom of the Opera, Wizard of Oz and several other musical master pieces. A perfect way to spend an afternoon.

Since we had arranged dinner with Lisa from work around 5:30pm at the best Indian restaurant in Perth, we slowly made our way there – walking. It was quite a walk but totally worth it. The food at 2 Fat Indians was excellent and plentyful even though the service was lacking a little bit. I had a very nice lamb rogan josh with rice and palak paneer. By the time we were done we had gotten so sleepy that we had a coffee next door, then dropped Trevlyn off home since the Indian food didn’t sit too well with her. The rest of us was off to Rosie O’Grady’s shortly after to watch some good old European footie.

Scotland was playing Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier and Jenna, Lisa and Lisa’s boyfriend Jordan were quite keen on going to see their team (Scotland that is) beat the s*** of out the Macedonians. The pub was packed with Scotsmen including some from work who were loudly egging on their team and some very cute guys in skirts … ah, I mean kilts. The Scottish footie chants include quite a bit of swearing, so I got my fix of f bombs and other niceties for the next few weeks. The usage of coarse language increased massively after Macedonia scored – in the 5th minute. After that not much happened, a few fouls but nothing major. The game overall was rather dull but I was amazed at the spirit of the Scottish. I actually wanted them to win. And they did have some good chances but did not know what to do with the ball once they were in front of the Macedonian goal, so unfortunately, they didn’t win and the game ended with the 1:0 for the Macedonians. Shame! Germany on the other hand beat Liechtenstein as expected. Go Joachim Loew, Poldi and crew! 6:0

Living it up in the city

The weekend started off well with Directors’ drinks at Subi to celebrate the deadline weekend. Since I still had a few preparations to make for the weekend and Christel was also coming in from Adelaide that night, I went for one beer – which of course rather quickly turned into two, but I left it at that and went shopping in the city.

Chris’ flight came in at 10pm and we met just at the entrance of the terminal as I was walking up. I was so good to see her again after a few months and she looked hip and flashy as always. On a side note, Perth airport is tiny for a city this size! I think the only other airport I have been to that is smaller than Perth’s is Bentonville, Arkansas, which seemed to have been installed only for the Walton family to grow their Wal-mart business.

After a quick stop at home we were off to Subi to see who was left at the office – and can you believe there were actually people left. They were just about to walk out, so after carefully setting the alarm, we went for some kebabs and for another drink at Llama Bar which was bustling with life. Around 1am we were all ready to head home and prepare for a long day/night because it was Trevlyn’s birthday on Sunday and we were throwing a party at our apartment. Chris and I had some more catching up talk before we fell asleep just to be woken only very few hours later by the construction workers who, even on a Saturday, have to take out the air hammer at 7am. After rolling over a few more times, we were off to Freo for the day. Before that though I removed yet another love note from my car. And here I thought, I am getting a rather good handle on this parking issue.

After a hearty breakfast in Freo, walking around for a few hours in the sunshine, going into all the little boutiques to look at and try on expensive clothes, and a stroll through the market, we were just about to head back to the car, when a girl in one of the stores told us about a cute little cafe. Of course we had to try it out. Moore&Moore at the Moores Building is great and so is their chai latte which we sipped in their courtyard.

Next on the list of things to do was food shopping as we didn’t want our guests tonight to go hungry. First stop was the Boatshed in Cottesloe since I figured that would be my best bet for crab meat. My best bet turned quickly into a $60 per kilo affair and I decided to try my luck in a normal supermarket where you did not expect pearls to be included in the seafood. The Boatshed is a wonderful store otherwise, I do love looking around and wish I could also afford shopping there. We bought some cans of crabmeat at Woolworths together with several other things and off we were home to start preparing. Trevlyn was already getting very excited and after decorating the place and preparing the snacks, we all got ready. 8pm all was set and we waited for our guests to arrive. Being from Germany, I, of course, had the expectation that at least some of the people would actually show around that time. Around 8:30pm the first people started showing and the our Aussie friends arrived bit by bit between 9 and 11pm. The party had a really good turn out I thought and I do hope everyone had as much fun as I did. I will not go into too much detail about the party – what goes on tour stays on tour. I will say that – we had birthday cake, good food (the Maryland crab dip was a fav), drinks in all variations, colours and tastes. We did go out with the whole crew to Tiger Lillz around 11:30ish and apparently some other bar/club which I don’t remember but I was there, before ending up back at our place with the handful of people who were left at the end. We had no complaints from the neighbours, we did inform them about the party ahead of time, and the place is now again spotless. There are evidential photographs which may be used in the future for black mailing purposes and as such they will not be posted on this site nor on my website or anywhere else (I hope). Party was a good laugh and most importantly, Trevlyn enjoyed it and is now a year older and I felt 10 years older the day after.

Needless to say, Sunday was a waste of a day. I finally rolled out of bed at 10am to find the whole apartment spinning a little and our couch occupied and it wasn’t Christel. I dropped the occupant off home after a coffee and had a little nap. Come 1pm we had breakfast at Fast Eddies and then hung around for a few more hours while Trevlyn made eclairs. 5pm I dropped Christel back off at the airport. With eclairs and a movie we ended the weekend.

The tip of the iceberg was though that while we were partying it up, Trevlyn’s car got broken into – in our carpark together with 2 or 3 other cars parked downstairs. This was probably the first time I was happy not to have a parking space in our apartment building. My car was safely parked on the street in front of the building.

Diving Rottnest

As this weekend was one of the few during which I was going to be in Perth with spare time on hand, I decided it was time to jump back into the ocean and try my luck as fish food. Malibu Diving, a local dive store, offered day trips to Rottnest Island just off the coast and the day promised to be sunny, warm and beautiful. Perfect! Saturday morning, 7:00am sharp, I left the apartment trying not to wake anyone and made my way down to Barrack Street per pedes with all my gear. The store was still closed when I arrived around 7:15pm but there was someone else waiting with a massive gear bag. Mark from Virginia, as the rather cute guy turned out to be, was quite happy to see someone else with as much baggage and we kept each other company until a few more people arrived, namely Craig from Manchester, who was doing an open water course, Chrissy from New Zealand who had been living in Perth for 2 years and was quite hilarious and a couple, I believe it was another Mark and not sure what his friend’s name was but she was from Canada, also joined in. After everyone got their gear sorted, packed on the bus and Mark and I had a quick coffee run, the rather shaky van made its way towards Freo. At the jetty we didn’t have to wait long for the boat to arrive and after hawling all the equipment plus some 30 odd tanks of air onto the boat, we were off toward the dive locale. On the way it was decided who was going to buddy up with whom and if everyone went in a group or did their own thing. I was a little apprehensive not having dove without a guide before but after a short discussion, Mark, Chrissy and I decided we were gonna go off on our own.

Crystal Palace was our first dive. The three of us got in the water and started our decent except that only 2 arrived at the bottom. Mark went back up to check where Chrissy was at but when he saw her at the boat, he came back down and off we went. I was the only one with a Compass and tried to make sure we didn’t get lost - quite a task but in the end I apparently placed us back within a “stone throw” of the boat. At least that’s was Mark said after a quick peak above the surface (I think he was just trying not to make me feel bad, I bet we were miles away) During the dive we saw a really nice cavern where a whole bunch of fish were hiding. The visibility was pretty good – not Cozumel good but I was quite happy with the outcome even though the water was pretty chilly. Even took some pictures and the gear was holding up nicely. I didn’t even use as much air as I thought I would and still had about 1200 PSI left after a 47 minute dive at around 18meters. (60 foot)

Back at the boat Chrissy explained that she couldn’t go down and had to get more weights. I feel bad for leaving her on top. Not a good buddy thing to do. I think she was quite disappointed but we tried to make up for it on the next dive. The next dive was at Jackson Rocks. Beforehand we had sandwiches for lunch and as I was putting my gear back on, the boat was moving so much that I had to drop all gear and hang myself overboard to literally feed the fish. I am sure they were quite happy with ham sandwi. Per suggestion of Florian, our dive master, who coincidentally was from Munich, Germany, I quickly put on my gear and went into the water. Immediately felt better and the second dive went without problems. The fish were a little disappointed. We went for about 35 minutes before it got too cold, around 14 meters deep (40 foot) and came back up. Saw more fish, some nice rock formations with a few caverns to swim through. Overall quite a good experience.

Back at the store and after filling out the dive logs, Mark was nice enough to drop me off at my apartment. I probably would have collapsed somewhere on the way with all the wet gear had I walked. As I got back Trevlyn announced that I had 2 hours to get ready and only one hour before Jenna arrived. I was dead tired but jumped into the shower, cleaned the gear, had a quick power nap (15 minutes) and got ready for a night in town. The three of us took a cab to Anja’s place where Rutchi was staying for a few days as well. Anja (colleage) and Rutchi had made some awesome snacks and after filling our tummies and a few drinks (Jenna and I managed to empty a bottle of wine) we went to Northbridge, which was walking distance. A whole bunch of Anja’s friends came too. Ages ranged from 19 to 29 (aka me the latter and oldest!!!) We first had a few drinks at Queens. I got introduced to a new drink called RedSkin lemonade. Tastes like liquid lollipops (that’s suckers for my american friends) I had two of them and a Jaegerbomb which kept me going without falling asleep.

I also figured out why Australian men don’t necessarily talk to women. Aussie girls can be quite rude to them! If they don’t like you they will make fun of you and at the end you may feel rather pathetic for even approaching them. Shame!

After Queens we went to a club, the name I don’t remember. I hadn’t been clubbing in ages and it was fun to wriggle on the overcrowded dance floor for a while. I felt like back at uni in Lancaster where we used to go clubbing all the time (Wednesdays at the Carleton!). Being one of the oldest (yet again) helped. I am pretty sure I pushed up the average age in every place we entered that night.

Our last stop was some very very empty club/bar which we even had to pay cover for and it was pretty bad. We hung out on the couches for a while and 1am decided we had enough. Considering we started at 6pm, i think we did rather well. The way back Trevlyn and I walked, me barefoot because I couldn’t stand the high heels any longer. I fell into bed and into a coma until 10am because I was completely exhausted from the diving and clubbing. Overall, it was a great day and night… Sunday was for relaxing and watching cute surfer dudes at Scarborough beach.

Happy Birthday Singapore!

Happy Birthday (click above fore more pics)

August 9, 2008 was the 43th birthday of Singapore. For that reason everyone hung out their flags, so there were apartment complexes covered in red and white. The streets were also full of hustle and bustle. Joe decided that today was going to be a tour day for Sentosa, an island just off the main city with lots and lots of attractions. Joe picked me up from the hotel with his other sporty car and fresh roti bread for breakfast. At Sentosa we parked the car and started running through the attractions. First we walked the Merlion walk to the Merlion statue. Now a Merlion is a mix between a mermaid and a lion (not sure if I mentioned that before, I might have) It’s pretty much a lion head with a fishtail. The Merlion Walk is a wonderful mosaic river, almost looking like Gaudi himself made it. Instead of the mosaics I was the attraction though, at least for some young Indian guys who must have never met a blonde in their lives before. They wanted their pictures taken with me, which was flattering but at the same time very weird. I noticed that a lot of Indians seemed to be standing rather close to me all day while someone was taking “their” picture. Once at the Merlion we made our way up to the top where there was a lookout and an incredible view over the harbour, downtown and Sentosa.

Next was the 4D Magix, which was the 4D movie “Pirates” which stared Eric Idle (Monty Python) and Leslie Nielsen (The Naked Gun) and had the seats moving as well as several other special effects such as air blowing. It was awesome! Much better than the last “Pirates of the Carribean”.

Images of Singapore, which we visited next, introduced the different cultures in Singapore, from Chinese to Malay, Tamil and Eurasian, plus several different mixtures. It was wonderfully colourful and very informative with lots of special effects again, which Singapore seems to be very good at. After getting my culture fix and some good Chicken Rice at Taste of Singapore, we went and watched the sharks, sea dragons, dungons and other diverse fish species in Underwater World. They had a pretty large underwater tunnel and we had to walk it twice to take everything in. They also had some very strange creatures in the aquarium such as sea angels which reminded me a lot of sea monkeys, some little sea bugs my sister used to breed.

As we weren’t done yet with our Sentosa tour, we also toured Fort Siloso, which was one of the less visited attractions. That was rather unfortunate because I thought it was very interesting to learn that Singapore was and is a rather strategic location and had its share of World War I and II. They had a bunch of canons and lots of pictures from the old times.

From the fort we walked back to the bus and jumped onto one taking us to the Dolphin Lagoon. We sat on the beach for a while waiting for the show to start while I became a feature in some more photos that will be distributed in Bangladesh shortly. Then the dolphin show started which featured three Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins which turn pink with age (seriously!) The show was great though a little short but then it started raining anyway. So we went to the beach, got a quick snack (curry puff) and leasurely walked toward Songs of the Sea, the newest attraction in Sentosa. There were people lining up already an hour before the start of the show. I think the last time I lined up that far before the start of something was when my dad and I bought fireworks in East Germany for New Year’s eve in 1989. Anyway, we didn’t line up and jumped the queue to get pretty good seats as people were waiving us ahead to go to a side gate (just our luck) The rain also stopped and the show could begin. It was a beautiful little fairy tale with laser and water show. Brilliant as it was dark. Maybe the Bellagio should rethink its fountains a little bit.

After the show it was time for dinner. We went to a massive food court which featured a “live” band that could sing the Bee Gees and several other bands as if they were real (which makes me think it was play back) While the band was blaring we had char kway teow (very very yummy) and fried sweet potatoes with a sweet potato milkshake. The place was also heaving with people from after the parade. I could have stayed forever just trying out different things but at some point it was just time to go. Joe completely forgot where his car was. Thank god I have a bit of a sense of direction. As Carrie told me the next day, this is not the first time he “lost” his car and usually she is the one with the orientation. Funny!

The long awaited meeting…

Thursday, August 7, 2008, was a very exciting day. So exciting in fact, that it was hard to concentrate on work. What made it even harder was plenty of email and text messages that arrived from a very good friend of mine. A friend so good in fact, that even though we had never met, we had kept in contact for over 10 years. And tomorrow I was going to meet my friend – for the first time. You can imagine how excited we both were.

To meet my friend I had to fly for 5 hours on a plane – to the lion city – Singapora. I was very glad that Trevlyn offered to drop me off at the airport. My flight was at around 9pm with Tiger Airways (I will get to this one in a minute) and I was at the airport at around 6:30pm, plenty of time to look around the shops, buy some last minute items and text some more with Joe. To be able to understand my excitement, here is the background.

It was in 1997, just when the whole internet craze started that Joe and I met in a chat room. Yes, yes, I know what you are thinking and I know what it sounds like but you are wrong. This was the time when people still talked about politics and football (soccer… Joe was an avid Liverpool fan) and it was the time when people were still excited that you could actually talk to someone in Singapore or in the UK, where I was at that time, over the internet. Joe and I kept in touch all those years, we almost lost contact once or twice, but somehow managed to always get a hold of each other again. In those 10+ years a lot of things happened in both our lives. Joe went to the police force for 2 years ( a mandatory thing in Singapore, to be either in the army or the police force as a young guy), he got married and had a baby. I went country hopping in the meantime. We sent postcards, little gifts, lots of emails. My family knew about him, his family knew about me. It was just a good friendship -  we started calling each other brother and sister.

Coming to Australia finally brought us close enough for a visit, so we picked a weekend and I bought a ticket. Since it was somewhat last minute, I picked a “cheap” airline – Tiger Airways.  Tiger Airways flies budget, which means you pay an arm and a leg for anything above a seat. So I did not eat on the plane, nor drink (you even had to pay for water). Instead I slept until we arrived at the budget terminal of Singapore’s Changi airport. Immigration was completely painless and there I was. First time Asia, first time Singapore and first time meeting my brother Jojo – who of course was waiting at the airport at 3am in the morning on August 8, 2008 (08-08-08 which is a very lucky day, that’s why the Chinese decided to have the opening of the Olympics that day) I was so glad to see Joe.

He grabbed my bag and off we went to find his car. He asked me to pick out of the cars parked at the airport. Of course, I thought more practical than anything else and thought with wife and kid and a second kid on the way, he surely would be driving something like a minivan. I was so wrong!!! Joe pointed to the souped-up mazda 3. It was quite sparkely, inside and out and had big decals on the side and back. A very very nice car!

To catch up on some more sleep we went to his place and I was allowed to sleep in Zacheus’ (his son’s) bed while little Zach slept with mommy and daddy. In the morning I also met Joe’s wife Carrie, who made me great breakfast, and Zacheus, who was a little shy but the cutest little boy. He looked like his mum but had his dad’s dimples. Just adorable! After breakfast and a little photo session we dropped Zacheus off at Joe’s mum’s and Carrie at work. Unfortunately, she couldn’t take the day off and all the walking around would probably have been too much for her since she was 8 months pregnant. I am very happy and grateful thatshe let me have Joe as a tour guide for the next two days. And what a tour guide he was.

First we drove around the city for a little while and went to the Singapore flyer, a big wheel similar to the London Eye just much bigger which gave us a great overview over the city. I also learned that Singaporeans live in three types of houses. The government-subsidised units or HDB housing (HDB = Housing and Development Board) are pretty nice apartment complexes and about 95% of Singaporeans live in these massive high rises. Apart from that there are condominiums which are fancier apartments with pool, gym and similar facilities. Lastly there are single family houses but these are too expensive.

Click the wheel for more pictures

After the flyer we had lunch and Joe showed me some of the culinary delights of his country. They have awesome food! I had prawn mee, which is a dish of egg noodle with prawns in a very fragrant stock served with lime and sambal chilli. For dessert I had ice kachang - a dessert of rather colourful shaved ice. You have to dig through the ice to get to the red beans, corn and some kind of jelly, all in a malty tasting sauce. After so much food and a quick stop at the fountain of wealth which was unfortunately not accessible, Joe thought it would be good to do a duck tour and see Singapore from the water. The duck tour gave me some great photo opportunities of downtown Singapore, the small Merlion – the mascot of Singapore – the Singapore Flyer, Benjamin Sheares Bridge and Lai Chun Yuen Opera House. The latter looked like 2 big durian fruits.

After the duck tour we went to Bugis Street, a huge market, and bought some souvenirs as well as bubble tea. I LOVE BUBBLE TEA. Bubble tea comes in all sorts of flavours and has huge tapioca pearls in it and sometimes jelly. I had passion fruit tea. Very yummy! After the market and a stop at an orchid plantation we went to Joe’s parents’ house. It is unfortunate that I could not bring any orchid seedlings into Australia. My mum would have loved them. Joe’s parents are very very friendly and his mother immediatly started feeding me. They love to eat in Singapore. I also met Joe’s sister Cherry who is my age and also pregnant with her first babt and his little brother Javier, who just started his 2 year service in the air force. He is 18. Zacheus was also around and was playing with Thomas the Train and Nikkie (or Beo… not sure what name) Cherry’s overweighed jack russell terrier. After dinner which consisted of chicken soup, some spicy fish and lots of veggie such as broccoli, peppers, chinese cabbage (bok choy?) and baked beans all with heaps of rice, Javier, Joe and I went off on another adventure. But not before his mother could give me a special gift, a hongbao, a small red envelope containing money. It is supposed to bring luck and drive out evil spirits – so of course I will keep the packet and the money inside. It was a very very generous gift and won’t be spent.

Javier, Joe and me

Our last item on the busy schedule tonight was a night safari. For that we went to the zoo. The night safari was on a train and passed by the animal enclosures which were relatively open. We saw rhinos, buffalo, giraffes, Indian elephants, tapirs, flamingos, wolves and mountains of other animals from all different continents. After the safari there was – of course – food! Joe got us chicken satay and stingray in sambal chili sauce. Both were very good although I have to say the sambal chili stingray was one of the spiciest things I had ever tasted. We all broke out in a sweat, especially Javier. Javier also explained to me about Singlish – very similar to Spanish except that they don’t mix Spanish and English but Singaporean (really Mandarin) and English. Very cheem!!!! (very difficult)

After that we were all dead tired from the walking, the food and the Singapore heat. It was very hot and humid, probably in the high 20s lower 30s and with the humidity it seemed even hotter. It was quite a nice change from the rather cool Perth though. Joe and Javier dropped me off at my hotel in Little India which was buzzing with life. There were people everywhere but I was way too tired to go out into the bustle, so I had a quick shower and dropped dead onto my bed.