CANADIAN BEEF & BEER IN SINGAPORE

Woo hoo and it isn't even Christmas!!!

Last night, Michelle and I attended a little gathering called the END OF SUMMER PARTY for the CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF SINGAPORE at the home of the Canadian Consulate. It was pretty cool. While Michelle was searching online she found out about the Association and saw that this meet n' greet party for Canadians was happening and signed us up! She managed to snag the last two tickets and we thought "hey, why not! Let's go meet some other Canadians while we are here in Singapore".

I'm glad we went. First off, the house (located close to Dempsey Hill) is breathtaking, huge and amazing. Second, we walked up and were greeted by two massive BBQ's by the front door (now that's Canadian). We were fashionably late so we arrived as speeches were underway and we were introduced to all the members of the Canadian Association of Singapore and then we were told something absolutely astounding.

For the party, they flew in Alberta Beef, Molson Canadian and Labbats Blue! That's right my friend, we were about to dine on some good old Canadian BBQ'ed steak (which normally is not available in Singapore), mashed potatoes, grilled veggies and Canadian beer! It's good to be Canadian!!!

We met some good folks, ate like Canuck Gods (the beef was so good - they had tenderloin, striploin, ribeye and chuck burgers - all done on the BBQ), had a cold one or two and were home by 9:30pm. It was a fantastic way to be introduced to the Canadian Association of Singapore and damn good to eat some Alberta Beef again! Thanks Canada for that little slice of home here in Singapore!!!

THE STONES!!! THE STONES!!!

Back in February I got hit with another case of KIDNEY STONES. This time it was a 6mm bugger stuck in the ureter (tube between the kidney & the bladder) that came out of the blue to wreak pain-inducing havok on my insides. I met a great Urologist at the Emergency Room who booked me into a rushed NON-INVASIVE SHOCKWAVE LITHOSCOPY procedure the next day, basically, they blasted the stone with ultrasound waves and over the next week, I had to pass the remnants. Still painful but much better than trying to pass a 6mm stone through a 1mm tube.

While prepping for that procedure, I had a number of x-rays taken on my insides and much to everyone's surprise they located another stone, a much larger 9mm stone lodged in my kidney. This sucker was too big to move on it's own, so it would have to be blasted as well but at a later date.

Well that date has come.

Last Friday I was admitted to the hospital for my second SHOCKWAVE procedure. The difference being, this one is a larger stone and it's still up in my kidney rather than being more than halfway down the track in my ureter! Meaning, I am going to have to pass the remnants of this monster stone from beginning to uncomfortable end! The procedure itself it quite simple:

1. Get hooked up to an IV
2. Sit on a giant plastic bottomed table that's wet (it helps with the waves)
3. Find the stone on Ultrasound
4. Get some "happy juice" injected into your IV
5. Lock your body in place so you don't move
6. 60 minutes of tapping against your kidney
7. Voila! Finished & wheeled into recovery

Overall it went well and by the early afternoon I was at home. The weekend was bearable (I compare the discomfort to being hit in the kidneys with a sledgehammer) but much better than the pain of passing a full stone, I can take comfort in that.

I am now of meds to help with discomfort and another one to help minimize the creation of future stones so we will see how that goes but for the moment, I am almost stone free!!!

BALI: TAKE 3

While Michi was visiting us in Singapore, the girls decided to spend five days in a different location and what better way to spend five days than to spend it in BALI. Three nights in Ubud and two in Seminyak was the order of the trip and by all accounts, the girls had a grand time. Michi had only been to Bali once for under 24 hours as part of a flight layover while Michelle has been there twice, it's a great spot worthy of multiple visits and there's always something fun to do in Bali. The weather was decent, the food was fantastic and both girls managed to buy some art to take home (a painting for us and a carving for Michi). All in all, a good week trip. Check out the pictures from Bali HERE!!!

MICHI COMES & GOES

When Michelle returned from Vancouver, she came back with her oldest friend Michelle (called MICHI from this point forward to avoid confusion) who decided to visit with us for two weeks. These gals have been friends forever and they wanted to travel together, so they decided to come back to SE Asia and show Michi a little more of this side of the planet. It was awesome to have another houseguest from Vancouver (hint, hint) and we did our best to show her as much of our adopted home as we could. We did the usual sites: Arab Street, Little India, Raffles, Chijmes, Chinatown, Sentosa, the Casino, plus all the usual food stops but to top it off, the girls spent five awesome days in Bali (see separate post coming soon), they had a blast.

Michi left last night to return home and now for the first time in two months, Michelle and I have some time to ourselves which is even more exciting! That said, it was awesome to have Michi here for just under two weeks, it was a great visit and we hope she had an amazing time!

Some pics from her Singaporean adventure can be found HERE!

MICHELLE IS A PUBLISHED WRITER!

That's right, Michelle is published!!! She wrote an 8-page travel article on our home city of Vancouver for Singapore's ESCAPE MAGAZINE! It's awesome! She took the chance, wrote what she felt strongly about, talked about her favorites in VanCity and they published it! It's an amazing article and she did a fantastic job, I'm so proud of her! Maybe it will lead to more writing gigs (I think she would love to be a travel writer) but at the very least she got a chance to write and it turned out great!

As soon as an online version of the article comes available we will post it but we will also bring some copies of the magazine home at Christmas!!!

Congrats baby, this is fantastic work!

RETURN TO CHINATOWN

It's been almost a year since I've toured around Singapore's CHINATOWN, while Michelle has taken guests there or gone shopping on a few occasions, I really haven't been back to that area much (other than looking at apartments when we were moving). Anyway with Michelle Dall here for a visit, we decided to do a day in Chinatown.

We started with Dim Sum as it had been a while since we've had it and Michelle is a fan so we went to our usual haunt, ASIA GRAND on North Bridge Road, pretty reliable and tasty. After that we hopped the MRT to Chinatown and the stop lets you off right at the market. It's an open air market selling clothes, tourist trinkets, bags, toys, statues, food, you name it, you can find it here. It's pretty busy and congested but if you are patient and willing to work, you can find some good deals.

We then went to a new place for me, THE CHINATOWN HERITAGE MUSEUM, a look back at the rich history of this section of Singapore. Built inside a three story shophouse, this is actually quite a cool museum filled with pictures, videos and actual pieces from back in the day. Seems like Chinatown has had a lot of highs and lows in its time and it's all pictured at this museum. Very interesting stuff and I will definitely go back next time we have a guest in town.

The next stop was THE BUDDHA TOOTH RELIC TEMPLE, a beautiful, modern (opened in 2007) and fully operational Buddha Temple and Museum. Why is it called Buddha Tooth? Cause on the top floor, adorned in a room of 24 carat gold sits an actual buddha's tooth. Pretty amazing, all this gold and in the middle of it, a tiny tooth. The other floors of the museum are filled with relics and art from the history of Buddhism which is quite interesting but on the main floor is the worship chamber filled with chanting monks, buddhists and tons and tons of statues, a very cool space...

After that we had a fantastic coffee and toured the shops on CLUB STREET before calling it a day. I'm glad we decided to go back to CHINATOWN and visit these two museums as I had never been to either of them, they were great and the Michelles enjoyed them as well. Big Trouble in Little China this was not!

MICHELLE IS HOME!

Phew! After five weeks of vacationing in VANCOUVER, Michelle has come back to Singapore and I for one am super glad to have her back! She had an amazing time and ofcourse got to spend an enormous amount of it with the beasts: LAVERNE & CARMINE. Two rehearsal dinners, two weddings, one baptism and numerous family outings were the main events of the trip but that didn't mean we didn't do anything else. Friends, Fireworks, Food and Fun made up the rest of the trip, hikes in the forest, girls night out, and a weekend visit with our Singaporean friends JOHN & LISA who came to Vancouver for their first ever visit, it was awesome! It was a great vacation and we will returns at Christmas for two-weeks together (first time traveling to Vancouver together since we came to Singapore), exciting!!!

Here are the pics from our Summer in VANCOUVER!!!