Sports
Baseball post-season. NFL regular season. F1 end of season. Some cricket here. Some tennis there.
Not that I watch any but I’ll throw them in – college football, NBA pre-season and NHL regular season.
Though this year has been heart-breaking for the Yankees (again!) the next few weeks promise to be exciting and entertaining as they build a new team (hopefully without A-Rod) and set a new direction (no more roller-coaster rides to post-season).

Fall Colors
Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, suburban Philadelphia, NYC, rural Connecticut, Boston and of course Vermont – seen it all and can never get enough. Never thought one could spend some much time looking at a tree. Never thought one could experience so much joy looking at a tree.

Pumpkins
In shapes, sizes and colors beyond my imagination. A feast for the eyes. And in Mom’s pumpkin soup, a feast for the soul.

Apples
Don’t you just love to bite into a crisp Red Delicious? Or sample local varieties at the farmer’s markets. Apples with names like Honeycrisp, Jonagold, and Mutsu! I read somewhere that 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the U.S. I can’t believe that for four whole years all I ate was Fuji!

Pies
And how about those Whole Foods apple pies? Perfect with a scoop of Haagen-Dazs Light Vanilla Bean ice-cream.

Mom and Dad are here.

Yankees are within a game and half of the Red Sox.

The weather is perfect.

They seem to exist only to make and serve bad, unhealthy food! I just had a pretty bad experience at Boston’s famous Quincy Market.
I have heard great things about the food courts in S’pore – general cleanliness, lots of variety, fresh fruits stalls, reasonable prices, etc. I guess they are not going to be very veggie friendly. Oh well! A new journey of discovery awaits. But right now, I want dal bhaat!

HR is going start processing the transfer…
It’s time to buy furniture, make reservations at Daniel, stock up on Crema di Balsamico and plan a farewell party!

Bring out the Kleenex!

I am volunteering for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure this weekend. I’m neither running nor walking the 5K race. When the race starts on Sunday, I’m either going to be asleep or I’ll be enjoying chai and NYT (something I haven’t done for some time now). I’m helping with registration. I register those who haven’t and help get bibs and t-shirts for those who have. I also answer questions as simple as “Is it a rain or shine event?” or as absurd as “Do board members have connections with the Bush administration?”.

Interacting with participants and survivors as well as organizers and other volunteers has been a powerful experience. It’s a great example of individual initiative and of ordinary people uniting for a cause. Most participants and volunteers are middle-aged women from in and around the city. Some are from farther away. I heard at least half a dozens accents today. Some registrants didn’t even know what Komen was or did until they walked up to our table. Everyone had a story. Everyone had an aura that comes from knowing you are doing something good.

What kind of volunteer opportunities are available in S’pore? Are individuals encouraged/allowed to take an initiative and devote themselves to a cause they believe in? Can I organize a bake sale or a bike race? What about a community development project? What do I believe in? What will I fight for? HIV/AIDS (battle of our generation)? Premature babies (celebrate my sisters and my nephew)? Cancer? (in memory of my grandmother?) Or as Meg says – do something positive and don’t get involved in the negativity of the fight against this or that. How about a movement to plant community gardens in urban areas? Or teach kids to cook? Or bankers to breathe? Or bring Vaishali back to NYC. Now that is a cause worth fighting for!

RF is now Mrs. Brackner. My annual performance review results brought some cheer. I met Reshmi after almost two years. Nisu-bisu celebrated another b-day. And Baby O turned one.

Moving to S’pore doesn’t mortify, terrify or horrify anymore. I’m ready.

I said my first goodbyes this week when I had to roll-off my project very very unexpectedly. All this time I’ve been thinking about how difficult this is going to be. This time I felt it. And it hurt!
When you have worked with a group of people for ten straight months it’s not easy to just pack up your electric kettle and leave!

Thankfully the week went by very quickly. I had to transition out of my role, cancel hotel reservations, plan for my next project, make new hotel reservations, work on the transfer to Singapore, etc. etc.

It was a great experience both professionally and personally. I have formed some solid friendships and I take more than project management skills to Singapore. For example, I will always have Mcnally’s Laws.

Law #1 – You can never communicate too much
Law #2 – You can never communicate too much
Law #3 – You can never communicate too much
Law #4 – No surprises
Law #5 – Work-Life Balance is the gift you give yourself
Law #6 – Pay me now, or pay me later
Law #7 – Collect fingerprints
Law #8 – It’s not about control, it’s about influence

The laws were created by my friend and colleague Tom. They are absolutely critical for project management and are pretty applicable in life as well. Here’s to McNally! I will drink a pint of ale for your health and continuing wisdom.

Milind finally conceded that buying furniture in NYC and shipping it along with all our other stuff was a better idea than trying to buy furniture locally. I didn’t exclaim ‘I told you so!’ at that moment. So here it is – I TOLD YOU SO!

Anyway, I set about looking through my 20,000 Crate and Barrel catalogues and found a bedroom set and a sofa. I then called CB to ask for an international delivery quote. It took them about 48 hours to get back to me with this:

Merchandise: Ellis Queen Bed, Ellis Dresser, 2 Ellis Nightstands and a Rochelle Sofa

To ship the order to Singapore will cost:
$883.21 USD via Freight Forwarder to Port only.
Please add $1,088.00 USD for Import Documentation, Customs Clearance and Door Curbside Delivery.
Please add $365.00 USD for Inside Delivery.
The quote is for shipping only and does not include the cost of the merchandise, nor any tax and duty the order may incur.
Tax and duty fees are the customers’ responsibility, and are to be paid when the order arrives into port.
The transit time is approximately two weeks after leaving Crate&Barrel, baring no hold up in customs.
The order is insured and traceable

That’s a total of $2336.21 not including tax and duties and of course the cost of the furniture! I guess there is going to be a lot more furniture shopping when I move to S’pore!

Can’t help being a foodie even if I’m a vegetarian in carnivore heaven. Here are some of my experiments with S’pore food:

Rojak
Can’t say I loved it though it was an interesting mix of textures – crunchy cucumber, soft pineapple, chewy fried tofu and sprouts.

Laksa
Loved the yellow curry vegetable laksa at Thai Express! Noodles, veggies and tofu in a yummy yellow curry that is neither too spicy nor too sweet. And definitely lighter than the curries in the U.S. This could be good replacement for our Saturday afternoon lunches at Land Thai on Amsterdam Avenue.

Ice cream
Folks here can certainly appreciate good ice cream. In addition to the American staples Ben & Jerry and Haagen Daz, the Danes, Aussies, Kiwis and Japanese have set up gelato/ice cream/frozen yogurt shops. The ice cream was lighter, less sweet and flavors were mostly fruit-based. I sampled black sesame, green tea, green tea and red bean, cherry, pistachio, mango and durian flavors.

Coffee, Coffee O and Coffee C at Ya Kyun Kaya Toast
Coffee – black
Coffee O – with condensed milk
Coffee C – with skim milk

O is the way to go! And it tastes even better with Kaya Toast – two thin slices of well-toasted bread, a generous amount of butter and a thin layer of Kaya (a spread made from coconut, sugar, eggs and flavored with pandan leaf). Strangely enough, the first time I sampled the pandan leaf flavor was in a Thai restaurant in a small suburb of Philadelphia. Yeah, I travel far and wide but I always find Thai food.

Thos SB Raffles Chocolate
Named after the founder of modern Singapore, Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, this beautiful store at the Raffles Hotel is a gourmet’s paradise. They have food and wine from 33 different places across 6 continents! We tried the truffles – Schezuan Pepper (didn’t taste the heat at all), Coconut (nice combo), Kaya (my favorite new flavor) and Raspberry (have had better). Nice store but Leonidas Pralines still rule.

Calamansi Juice (Nimbu Pani S’pore Style)
This is basically a Key Lime juice served with a small piece of jaggery. Very refreshing after a day’s furniture shopping. I think it will make a good mixer. Very refreshing.

Singapore Sling
I actually bought a poster that says “Where else should one partake of a Singapore Sling but at Raffles Hotel?” The cocktail was invented in Raffles’ Long Bar in 1915 and today more than 2000 of them are made daily. They even sell a mix in the gift shop! We sampled our Singapore Slings in the Writer’s Bar which used be a watering hole for Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling.

Conclusions:
S’pore has some excellent dining and it’s getting better everyday. Options range from street-food to upscale fine dining.
There is hope for vegetarians. Though I will turn a blind eye to shrimp paste and fish sauce.
Desserts and Italian food are no problem. Though pizza needs some working.
Ingredients for a variety of cuisines (like taco shells and seasoning, tahini, greek yogurt, etc.) are readily available.

Check out the line outside the LV store at the Takashimaya department store! It seems LV limits the number of people inside the store so that they can provide a consistent and high quality of service. Is this an only-in-Singapore moment? I’ve never seen lines outside the LV store on Fifth Ave! But then again its a massive 3-storey store.