Celebrating 3 New Firsts

   1. Successfully Wake Boarded

In the last 3 months I have tried to wake-board 3 times. I don’t mean 3 different attempts behind a boat on one sunny Singaporean Saturday. I mean 3 ENTIRE days focused on getting my ass lifted out of the water. The first 2 times were in Batam, a small Indonesian Island just a short 40 min ferry ride from Singapore at a Cable Ski park. It’s called cable skiing because a motorized cable pulls you all the way around a man made lake shaped like a giant stretched out doughnut. You can keep going round and round and round until your arms fall off. But, you have to get up on the wake-board first. Which I did not. I just face planted off this dock about 137 times. Yes, it hurt. Damn it. But what hurt even more was my pride.

I could knee board with no problem. But so could this monkey. Just added insult to injury.

 

Here is what someone who can wake-board looks like. Show off.

And here’s what someone who can wake-board but can’t ramp looks like.

This is where I refueled between face plants. The liquid courage (aka whiskey & coke) just made me stubborn, not more successful at the dock.

But despite the pain, embarrassment and sore arms for 4 days, it was so fun that when a co-worker asked if I wanted to go again, I said yes. And then I face planted 123 more times and the knee-boarding monkey laughed at me.

But, up top there in bold it says I successfully Wake-Boarded, remember? And I did! Just one week after my last series of face plants I went out on a BOAT right off of the east coast of Singapore and gave it one last shot before giving up my Olympic wake-boarding dreams. AND, I got up on the second try. Take that you stupid f’ing monkey! A lot of it was due to the super nice and extremely patient people who took me out and the fact that I was on a boat, not on a cable ski. But, I’m going to try cable skiing one more try. Because even without liquid courage, I’m still very stubborn.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures of my success. I’m not talented enough to wake-board and take photos at the same time, plus is was raining cats and dogs during our trip. But if you need me to get my witnesses to sign an affidavit, I will.

2. The Longest Flight in the World

It began like any other typical Monday morning. I was dragging in a bit late because the new guy at Swiss Bake had some trouble securing the lid on my fresh cup of flesh scolding coffee. It’s cool. I didn’t cry and after the top layer of my epidermis peeled off my hands looked 5 years younger. Anyway, once I got settled in and aloe’d up, a co-worker came by and said something like “the boss wants to see us in his office now”. Immediately, I got really nervous and assumed it was bad news. I don’t know why. My boss is not a scary guy and I hadn’t done anything wrong. Maybe it’s pessimism or paranoia. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Because it obviously wasn’t bad news. It was really awesome news. Our office in New York needed some fast help on an assignment and I was headed back to The United States of America for 3 days.

The flight left the following morning at noon and about 19 hours later we landed in Newark. I was home. Well, not really. Still pretty far from it. But when I heard the accent of the women making the announcements over the airport’s loud-speakers, it felt like home. As soon as we got to our hotel, we headed out to get a slice of real pizza. It’s not easy to come by here. Here’s a picture of my half-eaten slice. Yes, I take pictures of my food now.

Here’s the view from our hotel. Right in the heart of Times Square. Not too shabby.

The whole trip was for work. So, I don’t have many exciting pictures of NYC to share. But, I did have a couple exciting visitors while I was there. When my awesome sister found out I was going to be in the states, she looked up the flights and saw that they were too expensive. And I told her not to waste the money because I’d only get to see her for a few hours anyway. But, on a desperate whim she contacted a super duper awesome friend who worked for Delta and asked her if she knew of any way of getting a deal on a last minute flight. This super duper awesome woman hooked Karrie up and I will forever be grateful. Here is a picture with me and exciting visitor number 1. My super sexy and incredibly silly sister, Karrie.

It was really nice to see her, and not just because she brought me a hat, scarf and a warm coat 🙂 We had breakfast in the morning before I headed to work and told her I’d probably be pretty late, and I was. We got off around 9 or 10 and she told me to meet her in the restaurant below the hotel. I should’ve known something was fishy, but i think i was too stressed with work and jet-lagged to smell it. I walked into the restaurant and couldn’t find her. Was looking all around and my dad walked up and said “can I help you to your table?”  I could not believe my eyes. I gave him a hug and saw mom around the corner. Then I gave her a hug and started crying in the middle of the restaurant, in front of tables filled with people staring at me. Damn it. My pride was hurt again. But i really didn’t care, my heart was happy. Here’s a picture of me and my surprise visitors #2 & #3, My incredible sweet and thoughtful parents.

This was my parents first trip to NYC, and I’m so glad they did it. Obviously for personal reasons, but also because I’m so proud of them for making the decision to come last minute. Maybe I got my spontaneous adventurous spirit from them, after all 🙂 Here’s some pictures of our Saturday morning together before I headed back to the office.

And here is me catching up with one of my inspiring friends in NYC.

I’m so thankful for the opportunity I was given through work. And for all my spontaneous company who made incredible efforts to see me in such short time. 3 days and another 18+ hour flight and I was back in Singapore. Let the homesickness start all over again.

3. Chinese New Year

In Singapore, and many other countries in Asia, we celebrate Chinese New Year. It’s the most important traditional Chinese holiday. It’s like our Christmas, or Hunukkah. It’s a big deal. A time for celebrations, big traditional feasts and catching up with family. It’s so big that many offices our closed. Which means I got a 4 day weekend! Woo-hoo. So me and a handful of some new friends decided to get out of Singapore and explore Tioman, a Malaysian island just a short drive and ferry ride away.

My devoted followers may remember Tioman as the place I learned to scuba dive. I went over Deepavali, a Hindu festival and another recognized holiday in Singapore. I knew the holiday traffic was going to be cruddy, and we tried to find a cheap flight to any tropical island to lay and drink on, but we really didn’t have much choice since we waited last minute to book something. So, Tioman it was. And since Monsoon season made diving conditions pretty iffy, I was happy to explore above water this time.

A lot of things went wrong on this trip. The traffic was 10x worse than during Deepavali. We missed our first ferry to Tioman. It rained for 2 days straight. The girls were left out of the most epic game of table tennis ever. And the Berjaya Resort was filled with super unfriendly staff, fat tourists in Speedos, overpriced mediocre food, and disappointing amenities. With all that said, I should’ve had a horrible time. BUT I didn’t. I had an incredible time. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard or that much for a very long time. We had stupid amounts of fun doing stupid things to keep ourselves busy at a resort with nothing to offer. I also don’t think I’ve drank that much in a very long time. So my Chinese New Year resolution is to lay off the sauce for 2 weeks. (they don’t really do resolutions for CNY, but what the hell, it can’t hurt). So, tonight I raise my glass of water to the year of the snake and to all the wonderful people who helped me ring it in.

Here are some pics from the trip. When you see them you’re probably going to think Singapore has spoiled me and call me crazy for even complaining about this vacation. And you’d probably be right.