"Q" Up!

My thoughts are meandering - so please bear with me. Steve and I had an easy weekend. I must admit – it was my fault. We had several adventure ideas, but the smoke on the island was too bad for me to take a chance with my asthma. We thought it best not to hike in the smoke, but chose instead to look for a much needed desk for him.

Friday, he asked me to meet him at work and go to The Bark Café at the Changi Prison Museum and Chapel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changi_Prison We both like going there – to The Bark – not the prison museum. I ordered the noodles that he ordered last time, he ordered something different. I had no idea there were this many types of noodles! These are a very tender type of egg noodle (sorry folks – I am not sure what they are called) but they almost melt in your mouth. We both enjoyed the food. The jalapeno’s have soy sauce poured over them – yum! I need to remember that idea.

How many of you remember these?

Man was that a blast from the past! I saw it a few weeks ago in China Town. I have not seen one of these in years :-)


Now to our shopping excursion. Taxi’s are our way of life for us. Is how the New Yorker’s live? Even if I took the MRT, I would have to figure out the bus route to get to it. Reading the route book looks foreign to me – I simply do not understand it. Occasionally, I pull it out and try, then just toss it back into the drawer.

Looking at the busses here – well, let’s just say I am not too sure I want to ride in them anyway. They are generally packed and some are double decker’s that look precariously unsafe. Then we must consider that the taxi’s think it is a game to cut off the busses. To be sure – a taxi will not budge if the bus is coming in – and it at that moment that I look to the other side. I never know who wins, but I feel quite certain that we have come close to losing a time or two.

Remember I said we were looking for a desk? We didn’t find one, but I have wonder how we would get it back if we DID find one. I would love to go to the Salvation Army’s here and find a small side bar, desk and desk chair, and maybe a few things to make the condo a bit more ‘homey’ – but how would I get them back to the condo? Do you realize how difficult it is not to have our normal resources?

This weekend, we picked up one of the desk chair mats to go under my desk to protect our wooden floor. Do you know how big those things are? I didn't until we loaded it in the back seat of the taxi where we were sitting. It would not fit in the trunk of the taxi - they don't roll them here. Steve just shoved it in the back seat of the taxi, we scooted in behind and found out he had nicely made a screen between us and the taxi driver. I finally rolled it over and it was much like a fair ride - you know, with a tiny, narrow safety bar holding us in? Thank God we didn't get into a wreck.

Finally, the ‘Q’. No matter what we do, it entails ‘Que-ing’. ‘Que-ing’ is another way of standing in line. When I first arrived in Singapore, I was told I needed to go to the ‘Q’ which would have been fine if I had known what a ‘Q’ was. Now I know that I need to ‘Q’ in the grocery store, ‘Q’ in the Post, ‘Q’ in line for food, ‘Q’ in the rest room, ‘Q’ to get on the subway, and ‘Q’ in the taxi stand.

We have also learned if the ‘Q’ is long in one place, we can usually walk a block and ‘Q’ in a much shorter line. Malls are never a good place to ‘Q’. If all else fails, we can call a taxi for a small fee and get a taxi number. He will pull up in just a bit with his red light on top stating “On Call”. If our number matches his taxi number – that means he is ‘on call’ for us :-)

Ahh-lahhh… ‘Q’-ing, a way of life in Singapore :-)

Now to figure out how to get that furniture back to the condo...