Last Minute trip to Bintan, Indonesia

This past weekend, I decided Jon needed to unwind from the stresses of work, unplug himself from his emails, and just take a much-deserved break. So I booked a last minute ferry ride and hotel room in Bintan, Indonesia. It's less than an hour's ride away! On Saturday morning, I did a quick clean-up, threw a bunch of crap in our bag, and we were off!

When we got on the boat, I knew we were in trouble right away. You see, I have this problem with motion sickness. There exist no pictures of this boat ride because if I moved my head, I would have tossed all the cookies I've ever eaten. And Eli was fussy too, so it really wasn't worth pulling out the camera.

In any case, we got there in one piece with all of our cookies intact! We hopped the shuttle bus to the hotel, and were welcomed thusly:

They did a little dance with bowls. There were drummers too.

View from the Lobby

Our room- that's Eli hanging out on the little daybed by the window.

 It was already kind of late when we arrived and there was an opening for a massage right then, so I took it. I can't tell you how awesome it was because massage equals sleeping time in mommytalk. I felt really good after, so that was a good sign. Then we went to have some dinner at the hotel restaurant, went back to the room, turned on the Olympics, and passed out.

 When we woke up the next morning, we put on a swim diaper and sunscreen, and took Eli to the beach!

Sorry for the pic quality- it was humid and the lens fogged up.

 He didn't like it. It was cold and he didn't appreciate the waves too much. So we went to the pool instead!!

I'm not sure if I like this, mom.

I was joshing you. This is Awesome!

AND HE LOVED IT. He took to the water like a duck! We stuck him in that thing, and he just splashed and kicked, happy as could be!

Mommy's in charge in the deep water, daddy isn't a very good swimmer.

Daddy wanted a taste of what Eli was having.

He wasn't as alone as he looks. I was literally just outside of the frame.

 After a quick milk break, we got back in the pool without the floatie. We got a baby Michael Phelps here, apparently. He was kicking and kicking like Ryan Lochte was on his heels and he was going for the gold!

He gets a gold medal in being super precious.

 Then we got out of the pool, took a bath, and CRASHED OUT.

We didn't want to leave, but begrudgingly got back on the boat. This happy face quickly melted down into tears, and mommy's sense of equilibrium disappeared just as fast. Those waves are killer.

I got off that boat as quickly as I could. This photo sums up how we felt at the end of that whirlwind adventure EXACTLY.

We had a great time. Over too fast, but a much needed change of pace. Jon says neither of us is allowed on a boat ever again.

Cheers to America!
-Jon and Nikki (and Eli)

Yeah it's been a while, so what?

Alright fine, it's been like a year. What can I say? I was dealing with craving American things in Not America. Then I moved back to the US for 5 months, had a baby, and subsequently returned to the SG. We've been back for about 2 months. We'll be here for one more year, and that's all I've agreed to, and I'm not staying here a day longer, so help me god. I digress.

Anyway. So being here with a preciously chubby 4-month old makes this time soo much different. We choose places to go based on stroller accessibility. I go to malls based on the cleanliness and availability of baby rooms. I've become an expert at traveling in taxis and not owning a carseat (don't judge me). I rock at baby holding in one hand and chop sticking with the other (not really, that's a work in progress).

In awesome news, my son is 4 months old, about 20 lbs, wearing 9 month clothes, and refuses to eat anything that isn't attached to my chest. He sleeps on our bed and wears cloth diapers (I'm not a hippie, just cheap). He loves to smile and laugh, and his favorite things include Skype, blankies, and Blue's Clues.

I hereby promise to update more regularly and make my posts as entertaining as possible.



- Cheers to America! Jon & Nikki

Location:Kitchener Link,,Singapore

Koh Samui- long post for a tiny island

(This post was actually written in mid-August. Finally editing and posting it now. All current edits will be in parentheses.)

We had a pretty uneventful July (uneventful except for all the doctor visits and sleeping since I'm growing a sea monkey). We moved into our new apartment at the beginning of the month. Since then, I spent about a week unpacking, and the rest of the time figuring out my surroundings and buying things that we need, like a toaster and a TV. Jon wants an xbox too, but I'm not too sure about how I feel about giving up my weeknights to zombie killing again (I subsequently lost. Zombies have infested my television).

We celebrated our second anniversary of our courthouse wedding on August 5, and enjoyed an AWESOME steak dinner at Morton's of Chicago... of Singapore. I knew we weren't in Texas anymore when I couldn't finish my 8 oz filet. (I couldn't finish my 8 oz filet bc I got carsick on the taxi ride over and I didn't want to vomit steak.) But I DID have a great lunch the next day. :)



Our REAL Anniversary celebration started a week later though, when we hopped a plane to the lovely island of Koh Samui, Thailand! We read about this island when we arrived in Singapore, and heard nothing but great things. We decided that going there for our anniversary would be a great way to celebrate and do some sightseeing while we're here in Asia. I knew we had chosen an awesome place when the plane landed and we realized that the entire airport was open-air! Seriously! No walls, just roofs! Even the customs area and baggage claim! PRETTY COOL. but i couldn't take pictures of it because we were in the customs line and i didn't want to make security mad, since they already yelled at the guy in front of us for being on the phone.

We stayed at the Kirikayan Luxury Pool Villas near Maenam Beach. Rooms there are VERY inexpensive compared to American hotels, but a million times bigger. I forgot to take a picture of our bedroom, but this is what the second bedroom looked like:

And the bathroom:

AWESOME.

The pool area was beautiful, and overlooked the central part of the island, which is mountainous jungle. I couldn't get over how green and fresh and beautiful the area was.


The first day, we hopped on the hotel shuttle and went to the sister hotel, which is on the more popular beach, Chaweng. We spent a few hours in the sun, got in the gorgeously clear and warm water and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.


After a while, we got hungry and walked down the street for some lunch, but I forgot to take pictures of that. Jon bought himself a hat and new sunglasses:


We wanted to really enjoy our anniversary, so we decided to get massages on the beach! They had these little open gazebos with mattresses, and the masseuses would just do their thing right there next to the water! We were able to do a couples massage there, and it was an amazing experience, totally relaxing.


The next day, Jon and I decided to rent a moped and drive around the island. Renting a moped in Thailand for 24 hours only costs about 10 American Dollars, and they don't even ask for a license. And in our case, they also don't ask if you've ever ridden one before. Since I don't know how to ride a bike, much less a bike with a motor, Jon would be in charge of the driving. He had to practice for a while, and watching him practice, I have to say I was pretty nervous to get on behind him. I think that the valet guys had just about as much fun laughing at him as I did. After about a half hour, I did hop on and then he had to practice again. (At this point, I was seriously questioning my sanity and maternal instincts, getting on the back of a moped with someone who had only been practicing for 30 minutes.) We finally got the hang of it (I held on for dear life) and got to driving! The island is BEAUTIFUL. I was afraid to let go to take pictures while he was driving, but it was amazing. We drove through the town area where we went to the beach the day before, then we drove through Fisherman's Village, which was a pretty cool area with restaurants and bars:

We then drove UP the mountain all the way to one of the lookout points that I can't remember the name of now. It doesn't matter though, just look:


We climbed down and really just enjoyed the wonders of the universe:


And then we started getting hungry, so we started looking around for food. and we drove. and we drove. And then we drove some more. And i got cranky (baby gets hungry and my hiney was REAL sore from the potential death machine). And then we kept driving. And then we finally threw tantrums because I'd pointed out about a hundred restaurants and Jon was mad because he was afraid to make right turns. We finally were able to get to an area without traffic so that Jon could turn the bike around and drive back to a restaurant on the water. I finally got off the stupid machine and I tasted the greatest (noncaffeinated- got off the juice at the very beginning) beverage known to man. Sweet ambrosia of the gods, Manna from heaven:

Yes, Thai Sprite. It's probably made with Cane Sugar or something, but IT IS WONDERFUL. We ate some other good stuff too:

Oh and I can't forget to post a picture of me pretending to drive the moped:


The next day it rained and rained, so we stayed in the hotel and just enjoyed ourselves until it was time to go. I'll miss you Thailand. It was WONDERFUL.

The reason I've been neglecting my blog? PARASITES!

The most adorable 9-month parasite known to man! that's right, BABY.

I didn't want to tell anyone anything until we were kind of in the clear, and I didn't really want to talk about much else.

Yes, it's a bit of a surprise. Yes, we originally wanted to wait til we were headed back to America. We don't make the plans, we just go with them.

Now that we're cool, I can tell everyone that I'm not gonna tell you much! I don't want to spread the baby's business around until it's out. That includes sonograms, gratuitous bump pictures, or it's name (which we haven't actually picked out yet). We do already know the gender, but I'm also not going to tell that until later. If you desperately want to know something, send me an email. I'll tell you. just not publicly.

I'll share SOME stuff though. We're due in March! I have cravings for vegetables and cheese, I hate everything having to do with chicken, I can no longer comfortably paint my toenails, my giant bottle of Tums is always next to my bed, I guzzle water like it's my job, aaaannnndddd I'm running out of clothes. Thankfully I was smart and ordered some stuff and had it shipped to me before I really needed them, but i definitely should have ordered more shirts. FYI, pregnant lady shirts make a huge difference... unless you like letting your bump fall out all over the place.

How's Jon, you ask? fine. He got braces (invisalign, so you can't even tell) and he's in pain at least once every two weeks, and I have to say that I get a small delight out of it. hahaha- I kid, I kid. he's working hard, stays late, and freaks out about tax returns that he can't solve, but that's really no different than America. He's lost a lot of weight too. His pants all fit big. It's probably because we're mostly vegetarians now. Red meat is expensive here, and like I said before- NO CHICKEN. it smells like rotten hiney.

So all of that being said, NOW I can start posting a couple of old posts that I wrote but didn't want to post because there were mentions of baby-related topics, until I stopped writing altogether because all I could really talk about for about 6 weeks was the inside of a toilet bowl, not leaving my apartment, and plain cheese sandwiches. and after I got over that business for good three weeks ago, I started playing on Pinterest, setting up a registry for some stuff we'll need (and that will fit in a carry-on suitcase), and planning on where we're gonna put all of it's stuff, and that takes up my writing time.

In other news: we'll be home for Christmas! We plan on getting there about the middle of December, and hope to see everyone then! We already made a list of the restaurants that we will be visiting (what? baby's hungry). We'll also be going back to Melbourne in November, and I seriously can't wait for that. I need me some delicious food. I'm even planning on being bad and drinking COFFEE while I'm there. (not that that's actually bad. I'm allowed to have 300 mg of caffeine a day, and I have been a SAINT and sticking to ZERO. I DESERVE a coffee... for good behavior.)

Cheers to America!
-Jon and Nikki

"Foot Reflexology" is not the same thing as a "foot massage"

When we lived in the H, we would go get pedicures and stuff from time to time. Jon likes to rub my leg with his nasty foot callus, so he needs it cut off every couple of months. I love a good pedi and foot rub as much as the next guy, and I have a tendency not to notice when all my nail polish has chipped off. It's one of the very few things we do to try to look not so grubby/west side, but we love doing it together, and that's a good thing for a relationship.

So when we came to Singapore the first time, Jon BEGGED to try out Foot Reflexology. "Sure! Of course we can go," says the unsuspecting American tourist to her oh-so-excited husband.

Lucky us! There was a foot reflexology place in our very own hotel! (i'm beginning to realize that the one common thread of every blog I write is that nothing turns out as planned...)

So before Jon's birthday dinner at the very fancy Equinox Restaurant on the 77th floor of the Swissotel Singapore:

The view from the restaurant. Crazy, right?!

We stopped at "My Foot Reflexology" for a 45 minute session.

It was probably about 44 minutes too long.

They started on me first. Mind you, I'm a self-professed WIMP. I am fully aware of my condition. I have no pain threshold whatsoever. The lady takes my feet and a giant glob of lotion, and starts pulling and twisting my unsuspecting toes in her vice-like grip. I'm pretty sure she was preparing my toes for ground beef.

Apparently the theory is that each part of your foot corresponds with another part of your body, as shown here:

Just Google "Foot Reflexology Chart" if you want specifics.

If they're rubbing a certain area and it hurts, apparently that part of your body has some sort of disease or malady and you have to keep coming back until it doesn't hurt anymore. I'm pretty sure in America that's called "fake it til you make it" but I digress.

So my feet are being put through what I suppose it would feel like to go through that thing that squeezes out the water from your chamois at the car wash, when another guy comes and starts rubbing Jon's feet.

Jon, up until this point, was SO EXCITED for his foot rub that when the meat grinder was working on me, I had been grinning and bearing it so as not to ruin his birthday foot massage.

His session begins, and immediately, I can feel him tense up. I saw the pain in his eyes. His knuckles turned white on the arm rest. As the massage goes on and on, Jon keeps twitching, yelping, writing notes to me on the notes section on my phone with too many cuss words to write on a family-friendly blog. Jon kicked him probably about 5 times. I'm pretty sure he was aiming for the face, but I was busy doing my best not to laugh at the poor guy's attempt at kick deflection.

Don't get me wrong, it was painful. But probably the funniest foot not-massage I have ever had. And I have gone back to do it again (mostly for some covert pictures for this here blog post), but I found a different place that you tell the therapist if you'd like light, medium, or hard pressure- but it still all kind of feels like a self-inflicted hammer to the foot when it comes down to it.

about to have my toe pulled off- maybe it would have hurt less.

at this point, i took a picture to distract myself from the pain.

don't let his elderly appearance fool you. he is proficient in torture techniques.
he probably knows how to kill you with one toe squeeze.

- Cheers to America! Jon & Nikki

Karaoke as defined by the people who came up with it

So last night, jon received a text from his coworker, Claire inviting us to go to "KTV" with her and some friends.

"What is KTV, actually?"

"Karaoke.... National pastime of most Asian countries."

Well. We all know how I feel about letting people know how good I am at singing. HECK YES.


And then she said "Ok, I'll meet y'all at 1030 tomorrow morning."



Wait.... What?

Karaoke in the morning? Without the social lubricant that copious amounts of beer and/or vodka sours provides?

So we met Claire, Christine, Andy, and Amir at Kbox near Esplanade when it opened at 11am today.


In Asia, karaoke doesn't happen In a loud and raucous bar late in the evening, where everyone sounds better as the night wears on. In Asia, karaoke happens in private rooms, where only your friends can hear you. You're served food and beverages, and you can pick as many songs as you'd like, stop singing halfway through, change songs, order more drinks, carry on, cause a general ruckus, etc.













The pitcher is just iced lemon tea. Not beer.

We had so much fun!!!!! I think Jon definitely comes out of his karaoke shell more when he's not in front of general public. We finally got to meet some people, and now (I hope) there can be some new characters (besides stupid sasha) in this here blog.




- Cheers to America! Jon & Nikki

PS-


Yes. She bangs.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE

One of the super awesome wonderful things about being an expat is getting to travel to other places! Jon needed to attend a training for work last week in Melbourne. I wasn't going to tag along, but then I had one of those middle of the night panic attacks about being alone for a week in a place I'm still not fully comfortable in and still don't know anyone, so I bought a ticket and tagged along.

Oh, Singapore Airlines. You spoiled me in business class before, and now I'm stuck in "low class" with the rest of the peasants. Haha, I kid, but SIA still so much more awesome than airlines back home. Seriously though, once you go business class, coach is a hard pill to swallow. Seven hours of sleep-fighting, head-bobbing guy on my left, and old lady I have to climb over to pee on my right, incessantly crying, seat-kicking 5-year-old sitting behind me: heck yes, I took full advantage of the free alcohol. I put on my earphones and enjoyed some delicious red wine and censor-free movies for a while.

Monday night, after we checked in to the lovely Marriott Melbourne (ps- if anyone knows the answer to this, let me know: how come only certain people get complimentary breakfast at Marriott?) we went to a Greek place called Stalactites. Freaking best greek food eveerrrrr. Forgot my camera though. Idk if it's because we've been meatless for too long, but it was so amazing eating something besides chicken, I wanted to hug the chef. We ate there THREE TIMES during our trip. It really was that good.

Jon was in training all day during the week, so on Tuesday I got an early start and headed down to Queen Victoria Market. This was my HEAVEN. It's like farmers market paradise.







After that, I strolled over to something or other garden, then over to the Melbourne Museum. They have a pretty neat exhibit on the human body, weird stuff and all- it was very interesting, but they kind of overdid the photos of naked bodies. I think it took away from the learning. People were taking pictures of the naked people pictures. I got a little creeped out, so I left. There was a very well done exhibit on Aboriginal Art that I liked. I truly had no idea about their persecution in Australian History, and I was very moved about the stories shared.


I also went to the Botanical Gardens during the trip, but it was raining and cold, so I didn't stay as long as I would have liked.



I also took Jon to his first musical! We went to see Rock of Ages - loved it! We probably would have loved it better in America, where the jokes would have been understood by everyone in the audience and not just us, and the actors weren't trying so hard to cover up their funny little Aussie accents and just do the show, but it was still a VERY good time. I'd say Jon's first foray into musicals was a success. I can't say he's ready for Les Mis or even Wicked, but I think he could handle Grease... we'll take it slow.

All in all- Australia was a success. I'm sad I didn't get a chance to go to the zoo and see any kangaroos, but I got some shopping done, I got my burger fix, I drank way too much amazing coffee, I played in the cold weather, and I loved every minute of it. I loved Melbourne, and I definitely won't sit out the next time Jon has to go either.


- Cheers to America! Jon & Nikki


PS- I didn't know where else to share my amazing cheeseburger and the funny thing I saw at the adult beverage store:

Location:Melbourne,Australia