day 68 – republic of singapore, second day

i know it says second day, but we don’t really get another full day here… sad!  crew must be

on board by noon and guests by 1pm… also, bob has a boat drill at 10:30, so we figured we’d get up and go out for early coffee and a last minute walk around… we stopped at the grocery store for a couple of things, and i love noticing the different stuff… like, they have pringles potato chips, but they have seaweed flavored, or indonesian satay flavored… picked up a couple of fridge magnets with our last change and headed back to the ship. 

i got to hear about all of my guests’ cool adventures, and you get a lot of ideas that way about cool stuff to do when you return!  you could never do everything here even over several weeks… i know i will always look forward to coming back here!

my themed set tonight was “terms of endearment,” (sugar, baby, honey, etc.), and after that we played a pretty good round of the american pie game (stump the pianist by genre challenge).  we go back an hour in time tonight and the next two nights also… i am psyched my friend brianna (from alaska season last year) came on board in singapore!  great to see her, and i can’t wait to catch up!  she is an acupuncturist and has her masters in chinese medicine, and will, in fact, be moving to china this summer...  i hope to see her there in the fall when bob and i come through!

missing you bunches, nino!  i always do, but somedays even extra!  the days in this second half are already going by quickly, so i know it won’t be too long before i see you!  miss you and love you!  take care of gimli (is he being better behaved?) and grandma and grandpa and papa… say hi to everyone and give ‘em big hugs for me and bob!  love you!  xo, mama

port song for singapore

(to the tune of ‘mack the knife’)

we took a nice walk, oo a partly sunny morning

the shops were closed so we went to india town

and comin’ up from the subway platform

the clouds burst open and the rain came pouring down

since we’re from seattle, we don’t use umbrellas

we just got soaked and went to the market there

i stood in front of a big fan blowing

‘til it almost had dried my hair

we bought chicken spices, and tom yum soup mix

and some other spice blend i can’t quite pronounce

we looked for fabric, but couldn’t find much,

so we figured to arab street it was time to bounce

they had pretty fabric, all blends and colors

i settled for two prints that were beautiful don’t y’know

they work real hard though on that upsell,

we had to leave before i spent all our dough

we were kind of hungry, so we went looking for iconic dishes

from the exotic land of singapore

and some cold beer in great big bottles,

when it’s so hot out, who could ask for more

i hear the shark fin soup’s delicious,

so many choices if you stop for a bite

cause there’s a food court round every corner, babe

this city of singapore is out of sight

i heard the fat blue crabs come from the ganges

you know they feed on folks that are dead

i guess i’ll order some chicken rice dear,

so weird stuff won’t go through my head

then we went to the temple of the goddess quan yin

the buddhist goddess of compassion to lay our burdens down

we brought her incense and a lotus flower

and i promised to be nicer to everyone in town

then we petted a buddha on his big round belly

and bought some trinkets at the gift sop just next door

then we took the subway over to chinatown,

because we wanted to see it and maybe eat some more

it was a wonderland with all it’s red lanterns

and the bargains there, they just could not be beat

and tho we’d spent almost all our singapore allowance,

we’d left ourselves enough to go and eat

we had fried noodles and delicious shrimp cakes,

and seafood rice, spicy chicken, and yes, more beer

in the shade we sat there in a slight food coma

and sadly realized evening was drawing near

we still had change left cause stuff’s so cheap here,

so i bought some souvenirs at day’s end

and some more trinkets for my boy, nino,

and the mamas of some of his best friends

then we made it back, babe, no we wouldn’t leave ya! 

without some music for your evening hang

we’ll come again to singapore on the fall grand voyage

and continue our adventures….

farewell, singapore, until we meet again!  (eat again)