It's October and the in-laws are here

Happy October everyone. Unfortunately, there are no leaves changing color or nice cool nights in which to sleep (except with the air con!), but things are still going well here in Singapore. Richard and Bonnie arrived in the middle of last week. They survived the 17 hour flight from Newark. Lauren has been showing them around Singapore. They will be experts before they return!

Let's see, thus far they have seen the waterfront, central business district including the Merlion, the Fullerton hotel, Clarke Quay and others. They also had a lunch at Flutes of the Fort, a wonderful restaurant at Fort Canning Park. Friday, they went to the Botanical Garden and Tanglin Mall. Richard took a nap later in the day, while Lauren and her Mom got a pedicure at the American Club. Friday night, Richard and I went to the horse racing track for a fundraiser for the American School. It was a great night with dinner and drinks and a terrific room from which to watch the races. I managed to win enough to cover cab fare and a round of drinks.

On Saturday, Jane, Leah, Lauren and her Mom went to Jane's orthodontist appointment and then did some shopping on Orchard Road. Richard, Evan and I went bowling. It took Richard one game to warm up (we both smoked him), but he got his revenge in game 2 by posting the high score of the day (among the three of us). We met for lunch at a hawker center, with Richard joining me for some spicy "Nasi Padang". On Saturday night, we went to the Chinese Garden, this wonderful park in the western part of Singapore. It is the end of the Harvest festival and they had amazing lanterns on display. These lanterns are in all shapes and sizes (flowers, people, buildings, etc.). They are very colorful and some are on land, while some float on the water. We had dinner at the park, sampling some mango salad, satay, and mee goreng.

On Sunday, we relaxed. We spent some time at our pool and then for the evening, we had a fancy dinner at the Equinox. The Equinox is at the top of the Swiss Hotel, which either is or was the tallest hotel in the world. The view is wonderful and the dinner was terrific! Today, Lauren and her parents came down to my work. Lauren had a chiropracter appointment and then I took them to lunch at our local hawker center. There, you can choose from many stalls with most meals costing either SGD 2.50 or 3.00 (about USD 1.75-2.00). Thus in the matter of 12 hours we ate at one of the more expensive restaurants in the city and one of the cheapest. I bet you can guess which one I preferred!

Much more to come this week. We will write more later. In the meantime, one picture is of Lauren and girls with their chinese lanterns they got at the festival. These lanterns are given away and have a lit candle in them. It is pretty amazing to see so many people, including little kids walking around with them. Lauren and the girls were even able to bring lit lanterns onto the city bus. The second picture is all of us at dinner at the Equinox. You can not really see the view, but trust us, it was fabulous.

All the best,

Jed and Lauren