Christmas in Singapore

Today was humid, really humid, it was around 30 degrees C.  I'm even sweating indoors now, and outside it feels like I'm in a swimming pool, except I'm swimming in clothes.  Welcome to Christmas in Singapore! The weather has been rainy lately, it didn't rain this morning so that was good.  I had an early start at 7:30am, went to meet a friend and we had some tim sum in the food court at wisma atria.  Only a few stalls were open but no matter food is food and food is good.  After that we bought tickets to Mission Impossible and then had more food at Mos Burger.  I had a teriyaki chicken burger, ebi rice burger, corn soup, garlic and lemon frittered mussels and a green salad with thousand island dressing.

Okay you can't really see the food but I assure you, it's tasty.  After that we went to buy more food to eat while watching the movie (can you sense a theme here?).

Here's a photo of the Ion Orchard building from the Lido building.  The Lido top floor was renovated, many of the old stalls are now gone, there used to be a McDonald's, a Long John's Silver, a stall selling bubble tea, that's all disappeared.  Seems to be a common theme in Singapore nowadays, stalls just come and go.

That Christmas tree reminds me of the one I saw in Riga

After the movie, I was approached by some Americans to take photos of them with some Alvin and the chipmunk statues outside the cinema.  I asked them what they were doing in Singapore but they seemed reluctant to tell me, but they did recognise my "Don't tread on me" shirt and all of them were from different US states, and it was 2 girls and a guy.  I suspect they're from the military.  But who knows?  Anyway that was interesting for a while.

Had more food after that, and then dinner, followed by reading an inspiring story in a bookstore, and a few hours later, I attempted to get home from the Orchard MRT station but that was blocked so I had to walk all the way to the Somerset station in a sea of people.  Not fun.  But I got to take some photos.

People people everywhere!

More food adventures tomorrow.

Merry Christmas from Singapore

Right now I'm in Singapore writing this and it's Christmas day.  I bought a ton of chocolates in the Oslo airport for friends and family, then had some food at the airline lounge and boarded the plane.  The meals were good (lunch according to Oslo time and breakfast according to Bangkok time) and the service was great, I was even addressed by name.  My flight was great and I had fantastic views of the skies flying from Oslo to Bangkok.  The sunset view was amazing from the air, it's too bad I didn't take any pictures.  Arriving in Bangkok I had even more food in the airline lounge before boarding the aircraft to Singapore.  My only gripe is that the plane departed a bit later than what it's supposed to and I arrived about half an hour later.  That and I had to drink all my fizzy apple drink while transiting because no liquids are allowed.  But I arrived in one piece and so did my luggage.  The Bangkok airport is now big, I don't remember it being that big but it took me a while to get from one end to the other end and there's many shops along the way.  I just didn't have the time to look at them.

Here's a photo I took from the air when we were close to arriving into Singapore.

Cloud candy floss

My mum and a close friend, his wife and newborn son were there to welcome me at the airport, so that was nice.  Also it's nice to see the sun at 4pm!  You don't realise how much you miss it until you move up north.  We had lunch at the airport and I had chicken rice. :)

Oh I came home to this... my boxes of clothes and other items that I had ordered!

I'll write about Latvia soon.  But now it's time to sleep!

Riga, Latvia Day 1

I'm right now in Latvia taking some leave before I visit Singapore during Christmas and over New Years'.  I've now been living in Norway for over a year, how time flies.  It's been very interesting and a huge learning experience.

The flight departed late from Oslo, over half an hour, and when we arrived in Riga it was snowing and raining (today's weather was frankly, bloody awful!).  Everyone on the plane was ethnic Norwegian except me.  Norwegians love their holidays.  The plane was full of them!

At the airport I took some money out at the ATM to pay for the bus but then later left my card in the machine. :)  So I had to cancel the card, good thing I always have a backup (redundancy, it's an important issue to consider even in the non IT world) so, minor bump.

I walked around the malls today mainly, Stockmann Department Store where I had lunch (prawn sandwich and a chicken burger from a deli) and the Origo Shopping Mall which is where Central Station is located.  Took a long walk down the Marijas iela as well which is where both malls are located.  I didn't take any day photos due to the weather and well, it's winter now so the sun sets at 3ish.    Walking around Riga really made me feel like a minority, there's pretty much zero Asians here.  And I literally mean zero.  I got so many people staring I was wondering if I had a third eye or a second nose.  But if you're Norwegian there's plenty of Norwegians here doing their shopping, so I guess you won't feel like you're a minority.  I bought bathroom things from the shopping mall, a place called Drogas whose logo looks remarkably similar to the Watsons logo, they even sell similar things.  Bought water from Rimi, which also exists in Norway.  They have Narvesan here too, also in Norway.

Dinner was at a Japanese place called Kabuki and had some tom yum soup, seafood rice noodles and green and strawberry tea.  I was still hungry after that.  I bought a huge apple and a pear for tomorrow morning from some random fruit and vegetable shop along Marijas iela, will probably eat more though.  Took at a walk at the Galerija Centrs Shopping Gallery which is located next to Kabuki after that then it's back to the hotel.

Here's my setup in the hotel

Just outside Origo Shopping Mall

Along Marijas iela, cool snowflake lights!

Berga Bazar

Riga's pretty modern.  I'm rather surprised, to be honest.  Tomorrow will be a more exciting day.  Stay tuned.