Baby, What a Big Surprise

What? You're still here?

No, I don't intend to change the name of this blog to Life in New Jersey and update it forever, but I never intended to abandon it without even a few words of farewell. As our readers know, we have returned to the USA, and ummm, what else... we had a baby. We've been back for six months now and time has simply evaporated. I hope to write just a few more times, for anyone who may still actually read this and maybe for myself. I think they call it closure. I'd like to document our transition back home since it is very much part of the adventure. Also, there are three major trips that I never wrote or posted photos about: Bhutan, New Zealand and South Africa. The details aren't quite fresh, but the photos have been organized and waiting for ages, and they're some of our most scenic trips so they might keep you tuned in for a few more episodes.

Below is the post I started writing the weekend we left Singapore but I never finished it.

... I suppose it's real when you're staying in a hotel and you surrender your key to an apartment that no longer contains your stuff. Here we are at the Swissotel, our last night in Singapore. As expected, it's been a hectic week.The movers came and packed us on Wednesday. True, it's easier when someone else carefully wraps all your glasses and hoists your mattress down the hall, but there's still a lot of organizing ahead of time... hours ahead of time in my case. This was my third time sitting in a corner of a nest being deconstructed, trying to keep myself busy yet out of the path of moving men and their cardboard and bubble wrap. I dread these long days a little because, eventually, there's no place to sit. I moved from a chair to a table to the floor. But it's all done. The apartment was cleaned the next day and we handed back the keys to the landlord's agent yesterday. Luckily Paul works next door and ran back and forth a few times as needed.

Last night we were able to unwind a bit with some friends for a final gathering in our "old" neighborhood. Today was the first day in awhile that there wasn't anything we must do. So we continued our quest to eat the few things that we can eat here that we won't actually get so easily at home, like dim sum. We especially like xiao long bao which are delicate soup filled dumplings. We started our last day in Singapore with a tasty dim sum meal and ended it with chilli crab, one of the few dishes that is actually Singaporean and not borrowed from China or Malaysia.

In the afternoon we walked around Tanjong Pagar, where we lived, and took some final photos. As a bonus, the tropical climate gave us its best effort at humidity just to send us off without any doubt that we won't miss sweating profusely from an easy walk. Later in the taxi on our way to dinner, the person who had been in the car just before us had a durian. The driver said she put it in the boot (trunk) but the smell penetrated the interior of the car regardless. Durian is a large spikey skinned fruit with a smell that I wouldn't even know how to describe. Cabs, trains, hotels often post signs prohibiting durians because the smell is so intense. So, in a way, we had another quintessential Singapore experience of the odorous kind.

... And that's where I left off, at a smelly taxi. I won't continue since so much time has passed but I will try to give a final impression of our time in Singapore in a forthcoming post. This is more daring than it sounds. Did you know that a baby takes up a lot your personal time? I can't even believe I had the time to write this much, but stay tuned for the final chapter.