For those who diligently read our blog, sorry I’m behind again… not much has been going on with me in the last few days.

Thursday I stayed home again because of a poor night’s sleep and coughing some more. Ron went to a conference all day and also a Japanese dinner planned at INSEAD. They didn’t have extra tickets so I missed out on dinner so instead made some pot stickers and baby bok choy for dinner. I didn’t clean the bok choy as well as I thought so I ended up biting into sand 😛 yuck!

Friday there was still no aqua-gym in the morning due to painting so I just went for a short dip in the pool with a few of the other INSEAD partners. Afterwards I headed over to INSEAD to fax over my application to the Singapore Pharmacy Board and to have lunch with Ron. I then had to head to the bank to pay our rent. It’s kind of cool here, you can deposit cash into an ATM for another person’s bank account as long as you have the their account number. It’s pretty convenient here too because many of the banks are very close to each other. We have an account with POSB (same as DBS) and within 5 minutes of the DBS branch, there is an HSBC, Citibank, UOB, OCBC, and Standard Charter banks. Plus there are ATMs everywhere.

I also ended up at a store called “Song & Song”. Seriously everything in the store is either S$3, 5, 7, or 10. It was weird but also made me happy to see things from Old Navy! I bought Ron some nice shirts for only S$5 each (and of course got myself a little something as well… hehe). I headed home for a little bit of rest as there was an Australian BBQ planned for the evening, sponsored by Bain & Company. This week was actually Korea-Japan-Aussie week.

The BBQ was held at the complex up the street from us called Dover Parkview. They had hamburgers (well seasoned), lamb sausages, veggie kabobs, and enormous salads. It’s so nice to eat fresh raw veggies, I really miss my homemade salads that I used to bring for lunch at work. We also got to try some Australian Beer called Little Creatures. Try the Pale Ale or the Bright Ale, they’re really light but have a great flavors, the Pale is buttery and the Bright is a bit fruity. The BBQ ended at 11pm because the apartment security showed up so we called it a night.

Today we stayed in for most the day but I wanted to go check out some fairs going on around town. Ron decided to stay home so I went out by myself. My first stop was the Singapore River Market at the Arts House. I may have mentioned the Arts House in a previous post of the tour I went on around Singapore. It’s located near where Sir Raffles first landed in Singapore. The market is sort of like a fair with local vendors. It wasn’t quite as I expected since there weren’t that many vendors. They had an outdoor and indoor venue so it wasn’t small either. The Art House itself is a very nice building, it reminds me of the South with the large white columns and beautiful staircases inside. There are artifacts inside and a little bit of history about Singapore.

There were only two vendors that caught my eye. One is a reseller for a company based in Thailand called Human Touch. They make unique T-shirts, mugs/glasses, plates, and pillow cases. Their sayings make you think.

The second vendor is called Artiris. If you check out their website, they make clothing, the especially unique piece is the “Vers-tyle” which can be a top or bottom (skirt) depending on how you put it on. At the booth the artist was also hand painting the floral patterns. Looks like you can custom design your outfit as well. They apparently have a brick and mortar store somewhere near Orchard Rd so I’ll have to go check it out sometime.

Here’s some views of the river:

A river boat which you can take

The river is flanked by restaurants and office buildings

Next stop was to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for a Mocha Ice Blend. I never knew it was a California based company until I was looking at their booklet today 😛 I took a break in the coffee shop as I was going to another fair called This & That Bazaar which is held at Clarke Quay, about a 10 minute walk. This fair is an evening fair, running from 6pm-12am on the last Friday and Saturday of each month.

There are underpasses connecting the “Quays” so you never have to cross through traffic. The passes are strictly for pedestrians and the occasional cats, I ran into these kitties on my walk (and no I didn’t pet them because I don’t know where they’ve been but I miss my kitties).

At the bazaar they had a lot of cute things: clothing, jewelry, shoes, bags, Hello Kitty… so yes I purchased my first Hello Kitty thing in Singapore. It’s apparently only available in Japan, part of a collection. It’s known as Lolita/Gothic Kitty:

I thought it was unique so had to buy at least one. The vendor was going to give me a discount if I bought the whole set and I almost went for it BUT, it was missing the “special” collector one. The set is 8 but there is a 9th one that is rare. So I restrained myself (can you imagine how hard it was for me?!?) but I may hear from them later as I gave them my email 😛

I also ended up buying 2 dresses, perfect for the weather here in SG, they’re apparently imports from Japan. They have an online store called Closet Craves. If you look at their dress section, I got the Flora Tube Dress and the Halter Dress. They ended up giving me a discount since I bought 2 dresses. Let me know what you think 😛

After I finished shopping there, I crossed the bridge to the other side as they were also have a Mid Autumn Lantern Festival. They had more cool lanterns all lit up with some live Chinese music at the steps of the mall.

I ended up shopping at the mall there called Central. I visited this store called Girl’s Talk and I walked in there for hair accessories but they are also a retailer of this Japanese company called The Kiss. Apparently if you slide the ring, it reveals a diamond and a message. Neat.

I checked out the rest of the 4 story complex and bought another pair of work shoes from Charles & Keith, only S$19.90. There are a lot of cute clothing stores so I’ll probably be back. They also have a Japanese snack store, yum! After all that walking around, I was glad to get home, had dinner, and watched Shrek 3.

Tomorrow I think will be a more relaxing day as we’re planning on going out for a walk in the park with some friends.