Birthday in Sentosa

Happy 12th Birthday Katie and Jen!

We headed to a beach resort located in Singapore to spend a nice night and relax and a really cool pool.

Sentosa is about an hour drive to southern tip of Singapore.  We visited this resort area for the day when we were here for Spring Break.  We wanted this trip to be extra special so we booked at night at the Shangri-La Hotel.  It had a fabulous pool and also access to the beach.  Below is a photo of our room.

Here are the girls on our balcony over looking the pool.  This was a real tropical retreat.

 While at the pool a couple of peacocks and their babies were wandering around.  Haven't seen that before.  I guess they are like the monkeys just looking for a bite to eat.

The next day we went to a touristy area on the resort that had a Hershey's store, below is a cute photo of the girls out front.

Overall the girls said it was a good birthday and they enjoyed the family time at the resort.  

Fuse Blow-up

So Singapore works on a 220 voltage and all our US items work on 110.  Many US items can however handle up to 240 volts so just having an outlet adapter you can plug in your items and they work.  However, I learned the hard way not all items are compatible and I really should read the labels.

I was worried the girls would need something to do inside the home while we waited for all our stuff to arrive, being from a video addicted generation we decided to bring the xbox for some inside activity. I packaged up the xbox and some games into the original box (I am one of the few that keeps original packaging).  The box fit in a hard carryon suitcase, so around a bunch of dirty clothes I lugged the xbox with us through 4 airports.

Upon settling in, I got a spare adapter and plugged the power cord in- WHAM!  Sparks flew and the lights went out.  I blew the fuse and blew out the power supply cord with built in surge protector.  THANK GOODNESS the XBOX was not connected!  But the power supply cord is dead!  So the xbox doesn't work- all that lugging it around for nothing!

The home maintenance people came to reset the fuses and showed me what to look for on labels and how to use these big voltage convertors they provide to us.  See picture below.

Now, onto getting a new power supply cord.  So apparently the xboxs sold in different counties actually have different supply cords, so I'll beordering one from Amazon (who ships free with prime to us) but this will take about 10 days to arrive.  In about 10 days our first shipment should arrive, so basically I could have left the xbox to be shipped instead of bringing it with my carryon and not paid for a new cord.  Hopefully, the girls will find other things to do that will keep them entertained for the next 10 days!

Voltage regulator next to dead power cord :(

LUCKILY- the home we will move into in July comes with US 110 outlets so I won't destroy any other items by mistake.

Pool

We finally made it to the pool.   Our first attempt ended in hearing thunder just as we were getting changed.  Second attempt we got here lathered up in sunscreen the girls hopped in and not 15 minutes later it thundered.  That time was a total bummer because we got through the entire sunscreen ordeal. I know all of you know how annoying that is!!! Today we headed out earlier in the day, and made it.  Below are a couple of photos of the pool club here.

The pool here is has a restaurant with it that serves lots of American food along with some Asian.   It's the closest and easiest place to eat at so we will be here often.

We were provided loaner dishes and pots so last night I made food beyond just heating something in the microwave.  Of course it was something easy -- pasta but the girls were happy they hadn't had spaghetti in a while.

Letting Go

So I've had something on my mind since leaving VA (3 days ago), that I can't seem to let go of.

When we were moving out we decided to pull up the upstairs carpet and hope the wood flooring underneath was good enough.  It wasn't, so at the last minute we got the floors redone  I knew we would possibly depart before seeing the finished product and I was ok with that- or so I thought.

Thursday evening we stopped by to see how things were coming along upstairs.  What I could see of the floors looked good, but when the floors dry will they look the same?  I don't know and sadly I won't see them for myself for two years. I know they will look better than what was there before, but it's been on my mind how they turned out.

My parents will stop by before our tenant moves in and they will check the floors out and give me the report.  I'm sure it will be good.  I guess I am hanging onto this thought as I deal with the reality of not going back into that home for two years.  I'm sure in a few days/weeks I'll totally forget about the floors, but there was no closure for leaving our home and my mind has decided to latch onto that.

Move to Singapore

                                       We are here!  We left Dulles airport at 10AM June 21st.  

This is our departing photo.  This flight was to Chicago then onto Hong Kong and finally Singapore.  The flights went well.  I had originally planned to sit in a row in front of the girls and hopefully they could get a row to themselves.  Unfortunately, the flights sold out so I had to switch with the poor guy stuck in the middle between the girls.  The 3 of us had all our pillow pets and stuff all piled around us.  

Hong Kong was really neat.  Below is a photo.  I couldn't believe all the mountains leading right into the water all around us.  I can't wait to take a trip here and see more that the neat airport.  

Finally we arrived in Singapore.  The airplane food was the worst ever so we stopped at McDonald's (I know totally American) for a bite to eat and an arrival photo.  

I wanted to quickly share these photos on the blog for those of you not on facebook and let you know we are here and safe.  

We will miss all our family and friends!