Halloween is always a big deal in the Bach household. We love dressing up in costumes. We love decorating the house. We love carving jack-o-lanterns. We love the community feeling. And we love candy!
We weren't sure what to do about Halloween in Singapore. I knew that it wasn't really celebrated. There were no activities at school. There was no trick-or-treat planned for our building or neighborhood. No parties at malls or anything. I found some parties and events for teenagers, some for college kids, even some for young professionals. But nothing around for kids.
I had heard that there is one area where Halloween gets the respect it deserves. There is a large population of Americans who live, conveniently enough, by the Singapore American School in Woodlands. Some people call this neighborhood Little America. We decided we would give it a shot.
Before the big day though, we had to find costumes. That was an ordeal. You can't really order them from Amazon. We don't have our dress-up clothes, spare fabric, or my sewing machine so we had to find something already made. There were ads for Toys R Us stores saying they had the largest costume displays, but that was a joke. They had maybe 10 types of costumes--maybe. Most of those weren't the right sizes anyway. I was very excited when I found a DC Comics store here because Zoe wanted to be Batgirl and Ella wanted to be any superhero I could find in pink. They had costumes there, but they were $70! And not even very cute or nice. So no. Eventually we found Supergirl for Zoe--muscles! and Spiderman for Wyatt. Ella ultimately fell in love with this princessy dress and Mardi Gras type mask. But all three of those costumes were bought at different places because the very few stores that had costumes had only a small display.
I'm not complaining really. I explain the difficulty so that if anyone else plans a trip like this, you'll know to plan ahead. We thought to bring our special Christmas ornaments and the fancy anniversary goblets that Ted and I drink from every year, but we didn't think ahead about Halloween.
Don't get me started on the candy. I can't even begin to explain how excited I was when I saw the familiar orange, brown, and yellow of the Reese's packaging! But my heart stopped when I saw the $25 price tag. Couldn't do it. We found some cheaper Nerds and chocolate-and-caramel eyeballs.
Ella is normally in school until 6:45 but trick-or-treat was starting at 6 an hour away. We made the decision to dismiss her early from school. I hope it isn't held against her! Her teacher called me on the phone to discuss why we were pulling her out early, but she seemed okay with it. Anyway, we're only here for this one Halloween and don't want to miss it!
Ted's boss gave us a tip on a good car park close to the trick-or-treat neighborhood. On our way, we passed other kids in costumes and our own kids were cheering in the backseats of the car. I thought they were excited about candy (I'm sure they were) but Ella said, "Hurry up! I want to meet those kids!" Always ready to make friends.
We walked down the three storeys of stairs and through the market on the ground floor. Again, there's where that smell is coming from. Hello, durians.
And there we are, perfect timing! There is a neighborhood full of beautiful attached houses mostly decorated elaborately. The vibe is very festive and the temperature is very hot.
Most of the houses have similar setups, with gates and big driveway area with no cars. Some handed candy out through the gates but most invited kids in and talked with them when not crowded. Some places had donations boxes for people to donate candy for them to hand out. This makes sense because there really must have been a thousand kids in this one neighborhood. It was crazy.
Ted was able to snap some pictures of some costumes but it was really so crowded starting at about 20 past 6 that we weren't able to capture it. We saw some intricate, amazing stuff though. Easily half the population was teen-aged. They had the coolest costumes and were having a riot. I enjoyed seeing kids that age not thinking they were too cool to dress up. Different.
Can you spot the Mona Lisa?
My favorite family costume was the Dumbledore, Mcgonagall, Voldemort-in-snake-form family. As you can probably see, lots of people dressed up, especially adults handing out candy. As I mentioned on Facebook earlier, all the chaperones escorting kids around were carrying these goblets of wine. If only I had known. This neighborhood really did have a great community feel, very similar to Prospect Hill where so many people know each other and stop to chat. I miss that feeling.
One of the houses had a giant bubble machine. The kids were all trying to pop them here in this zebra crossing.
This is the bubble house. This house is the Walnut Street house on Prospect Hill, all decorated and the adults in character. Zoe walked into the courtyard area, an adult yelled "Boo!" and she pivoted and ran back toward us. She said she didn't need candy.
And after an hour and a half, we are all set. Done. Ready for dinner.
We decided to grab a pizza at the market area under our car park. They even had some rides for the kids.
THIS IS A SEPARATE ENTRY REALLY:
A week ago we were invited to Ted's coworker's house. Their family lived in Singapore for years but then moved to Boston to work in the Lexington office. When they lived there, we had them over for dinner and the kids really hit it off. So did the adults. They just moved back here a few weeks ago and invited us to their new apartment for a swim, a cooking lesson, and dinner.
Here we are getting ready to eat an incredible meal. And I helped! Ted's coworker's wife's name is Srimathi and she is a riot as well as an exceptional cook. She taught me how to make dosas and sent us home with some batter. Yummmm! I don't have the spicy powder mix she called gunpowder to dip them in, but I'll get that recipe next. We made a nice curry that was amazing, but the best and most surprising part for me was the vegetables! She put only about a tablespoon of oil in the pan and heated it up. Then she added mustard seeds, then cumin seeds, and covered the pan because they pop. It makes the kitchen smell like popcorn. Then, she added green peppers, red peppers, and yellow peppers, along with some onion. They were on the stove for about 5 minutes and she added some paneer. She kept laughing at me because I kept asking if it really was healthy. She kept saying "It's vegetables and only very little oil!" The taste was so full though, I guess it was the seeds. Somehow they added umami? I don't know, but it was a darn good dish. But she wouldn't be in any pictures!
Okay, time to make dinner now!
