Holland Village, Dempsey, Electronics Mall, and Fort Canning Park

Saturday was a busy day for us. Ted finished his first full week at the new job and we had a bunch of stuff to take care of so of course it rained all day.

First, we got to try out a car called a Honda Stream. We liked it so it's the one we'll be using here. I'm terrified of driving here though. The steering wheel is on the right (wrong) side and they drive on the right (wrong) side. I'm less terrified about an accident (knock on wood) and more afraid of accidentally breaking a law out of nervousness and having to pay a crazy fine. We will only be driving to get groceries and then for our big weekend trips to Malaysia. That's enough though. It's a cool car.

After that, we took the bus into a neighborhood called Holland Village. This is where we think we'll like to live for the next year. It's basically a big square with a ton of shops and restaurants all around. It just feels right. It was raining pretty hard so we didn't take pictures here today, but we will eventually and post them. We walked around in the rain long enough to determine that this is definitely our area. Now we can set up appointments with a realtor to look at apartments. Very exciting. One of Ted's co-workers lives nearby so he invited us over to his apartment for a visit and look around. This was the most beautiful apartment I have ever seen in my life. All the walls were glass doors that slid all the way open allowing a breeze to flow through the house and giving access to expansive balconies. It was a dream house. A bit beyond our budget,  but gorgeous. Ted's coworker's daughter was visiting for her college break. She goes to school in Australia and is studying early childhood education (and social work I think) but she offered to watch the kids while we took a walk around Dempsey. Who cares if it's pouring? We'll take it. We had a lovely lunch at Jones the Grocer and walked around a bit. When we returned, the kids had watched Tangled and had eaten their weights in Reese's and Oreos.

We took the bus back home and relaxed a bit.

It started to clear up so we ordered dinner by the pool and met our friends there. Ted and I even had a beer in between swimming in the lighted-up pool after dark. A lovely night.

But all of this is really nothing compared to Sunday when we went to one of the biggest electronics malls in Singapore. Think, as Ted said, MicroCenter on steroids. I need to get a new phone and this seemed to be the place. Probably not the best idea with three bored kids in tow, but an interesting one anyway. Some construction sights along the way.

And here it is in all its majesty, the Funan Digitalife Mall (http://www.funan.com.sg/malls/website/index.aspx)

Every electronics brand you can imagine. Stores to buy motherboards (whatever that is), stores to buy refurbished products, they even have collectibles on the top two floors: dolls and scifi figuirines and whatnot. A geek's paradise.

We grabbed dinner here. Each meal was S$3-4. BTW, Ella can eat an order of 8 dumplings (fried or steamed) by herself along with the accompanying rice and soup and she will still ask for more. But this, this is our dessert. Ted and Zoe called it "Ice Cream Volcano" but I don't know what it was on the menu. It's not really ice cream, but shaved ice in a rainbow of colors and flavors. On top is a mix of beans, creamed corn, and jelly. What? Yep. S$2.

Our reward to the kids for surviving the mall was a trip to Fort Canning Park, across the street. This is a fire station near the entrance to the park.

This park is on one of the biggest hills I've ever encountered. So many steps. Beautiful steps with beautiful views. Think of climbing up Montmartre to Sacre Couer, that kind of hill.

More steps. And more steps.

The small fountain at the top. Ella found some flowers that had just fallen off some trees.

We spent some time in this swing. We would have taken more pictures but we discovered where all the litter in Singapore is: at the top of Fort Canning Park. It was fun, but people had left picnic remnants around.

Heading down the other side of the hill overlooking Clark Quay

Crossing the street to get to our bus stop, even that is beautiful!

Back to our apartment building where we found these strange flowers on the ground.

And here's what they look like on the tree

After a busy day, it's time for a nightcap!