Singapore People

Saturday night, 13 December, Deb and I were invited to dinner with some of the people she works with.

We went to Lyn & Alex Sim's home before dinner. It was so nice to see how a Singapore couple live. They have a lovely home on the 15th floor of a building. In the U.S. we would call this a loft as there are businesses beneath the condos.

I have yet to see any carpeting in Singapore. Everywhere seems to have either hardwood floors or marble, both of which are stunning. Lyn has marble floors which were beautiful and very cool on the feet which is so nice in this climate. (Everyone removes their shoes when entering a home here.)

Lyn & Alex have a beautiful home with floor to ceiling windows in the living room which overlooks the skyline. The high rise they live in is situated such that when you step out of their front door you are in an open air porch (on the 15th floor!). Once down on the ground floor you have before you a mass of choices for food and shopping. Everything is so close and even though it is in the middle of a sprawling city with traffic everywhere and people going to and fro you really feel that this is a neighborhood.

We walked (everyone walks everywhere here) to a foreign food restaurant. No one had told Deb what we would be eating and I guess they gave her quite a bit of flack about trying new things. Well, the restaurant was Italian so all was well.

We had a lovely time eating and talking. We had a table outside under the trees and the full moon. The tables were covered in a red checked table cloth and the chairs were bistro type. Our long table was situated near the street with a full view of all going on in the area. Everyone was so nice and Corrine, Kaizhi and Lyn even made me a list of foods which I simply must have before my trip is complete. They also listed specific places to enjoy them.

This is the list: Laksa in Katong, Durian in Geylang, Roti Prata opposite Sultan Mosque (however we had some last night and I loved it!) and Curry Puff at Old Chang Kee.

Thank you ladies for your kind help with this, I will be blogging about the Durian in detail should Deb forget to update you! For all of you in the states, Durian is a hard shell fruit here in Singapore which is something you either love or hate, no in between. I guess it stinks to high heaven and has some interesting effects on breath and sweat as well. I can not wait to have some and experience this fruit which is forbidden on the subway and other public transport.

After dinner we removed ourselves and walked to an Indian restaurant for a nibble. I got to have Roti Prata which is similar to a very thin flaky pie crust stuffed with various things. I had chocolate and Sandy shared her Strawberry and Alex shared his curry spice one with all. It was delish!

We had such a nice time and I must say Deb is very lucky to have such great people to spend her work days with. Thank you all for a great time it will be remembered as a highlight of my trip!

Lynn and Alex walked Deb and I to our bus stop and bid us goodnight and off we went home via a double decker bus. This was around 11pm and believe it or not this city is just getting wound up for the night so the crowds were large everywhere along the way home and on the walk from the bus stop to the apartment.