Recently in Singapore Category

Universal Studios Singapore

We went to the zoo this morning to have breakfast with the orang utans and we walked around a few of the other exhibits while we were there (including a stop to feed the giraffes!). Our membership expires in a couple of days and I don't plan to renew since we're not sure if we'll be here past June.



Santa at Tanglin Mall


Henry wanted to look really nice for Santa.


We got to Tanglin a little early so we stopped for gingerbread men & babycinnos (for the kids) & coffee for the grown-ups.


Writing their lists.


"I want a MacBook Air and an actually fancy dress."


"I want a big fat stuffed dog and a bag of Skittles that when you eat 1 it grows back."


"I want a box of 100 chocolates."

Cookies

I do love to bake Christmas cookies but I don't love to bake anything in my hot Singapore kitchen. I'm glad I did these though. I included a few no-bake recipes in my batch just to help keep the kitchen a little cooler (those items are not shown in the photo since they're chocolate and too melty to take out of the fridge).

Sarah's Christmas Performance

Sarah's class (and a couple of other 1st grade classes) put on their Christmas performance today. She did mis-guide me on which end of the stage she'd be on for her class performance though! The songs were really fun & catchy (I have video).

The Nutcracker

The girls & I went to the Nutcracker at the Esplanade today. After the show we met up with Craig & Henry for some fruit fondue and then we were off to take Craig to the airport.

Ice Skating & Christmas Tree

Sarah's Daisy troop met at the ice rink today and Craig took Anna & Henry along for a fun time. I stayed home (I'm only just able to walk almost properly again after that "marathon" so I didn't want to push it!) and I met the tree-delivery guys. Our house instantly smells like Christmas!

Standard Chartered Marathon


In the morning on Orchard Road when there was still hope for my race.

So, I had been experiencing some IT-band issues the past couple of weeks. This was not unlike what I felt before I got diagnosed with a stress fracture while training for The Woodlands Marathon in 2012. Anyway, my plan was to run and if things got bad, I'd drop out since at this point I'd rather save my leg to start training for the half-ironman I signed up for in May next year (I'm telling you that Newton Challenge 20-mile race was awesome! So awesome it made me think that signing up for a half ironman sound like a good idea!).

My first sign that things would go wrong was when I got up this morning and my Garmin was totally dead (after spending the last couple of days on the charger). Luckily I noticed this before breakfast and with time to charge it before the taxi came. It was not, however, done charging by the time the taxi arrived. I had the taxi wait ten minutes and then we went downtown. As per usual, the Garmin could not find a satellite to save its life and this worried me but it did finally find one. Finally it was time to start so off we went. It was pretty cool to run on Orchard Road (especially since it's all lit up with Christmas lights). I felt good but noticed my watch was not holding the satellite connection and it was indicating only one of three bars for battery-life. I decided that since I knew my start time I'd just turn off the GPS and use the watch so I'd always at least know how much time I'd been out there (I could do the math myself!).

Around 5km my IT-band started to hurt but not too bad. By the time I got to East Coast Park and about half-way, I had to walk (hobble). I decided that I'd walk until I got to a medic and that I'd drop out to avoid further injury. There wasn't any first aid for a long time. When I finally did reach someone it was as if she had been instructed to encourage people to continue and "fight through the pain." I don't think she comprehended the difference between injury-pain and discomfort-pain which I tried to explain to her. The best she could offer me was a ride to the start in 3 hours. I said that that was stupid and decided I could walk the next 13 miles faster than she could/would help me.

Perhaps my annoyance fuelled me but I found a franken-walk that had me passing runners. Then there was a point where everyone around me was walking/hobbling. It was simultaneously sad (all of our dreams were dashed!) and hilarious (we looked like zombies!). Thank goodness it was overcast and relatively cool. I really wanted to run just to get the thing over with but I couldn't physically do it.

Finally I made it to the finish. The one time Craig & the kids were there to cheer me on and it was not a pretty thing to see. I don't really know what the kids thought when they saw me hobbling toward the finish but we were all happy I was done!

I'm taking at least the next 4 weeks off of running. My half-iron training plan doesn't start until January sometime (I'll figure this out while I'm recovering this coming week). 2014 will officially be The Year of Triathlon and, hopefully, an injury-free year because of it.

Thanksgiving Celebration

We had Mr. Hoe cater our Thanksgiving again this year; our kitchen is just not ideal for this situation with no air conditioning and the tiny convection oven. Plus, Mr. Hoe makes some authentic-tasting stuff and this seems quintessentially Singaporean to get the holiday meal catered (although I did pick up this year since it's just at the school!).

Legoland + Follow-Up at the ENT

We spent half of the day at Legoland (I'm glad we bought the season passes!) and then met Minsue at the Paragon for a snack before we went to yet another follow-up for Anna & Henry's surgeries.



Anna & Sarah are in the last car; Henry didn't want to ride the roller coasters today.


The kids love these restroom signs.


A not-great shot of the big tree outside Paragon.

June 2014

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