TST Chocolates

We celebrated a wonderful Valentine's Day together this year! I made Ben a heart shaped Valentine (like the ones you make in 3rd grade) along with a few little gifts. He made me a box of chocolates with a TST (time saving technique) on them. It was such a sweet surprise! We have been doing TSTs for each other to figure out since day one. It is fun to try to stump the other person! It is kind of our own little secret language :) I am so blessed with such a wonderful husband!


We decided to check out the Henderson Waves Bridge during the day. It is the tallest pedestrian bridge in Singapore, 36 meters above Henderson Road. It was kind of scary walking across it but we got some great photos! We will have to go back at night to see it lit up.


We made dinner together, beef teriyaki stir fry, in our new wok that you can make just about anything in (yes, even a cake)! It was one of the better meals we have had here! It is nice to know that we can cook together and actually make better food than having to go sit at a restaurant and wait 30 minutes for a half decent, very expensive meal! Plus we got to eat on our awesome balcony and watch the sunset together!

Missing Riley

Ben and I miss Riley, our puppy, all the time. We know she is happy living at my moms house while we are here in Singapore. We just wish we could bring her over here but know she would be miserable living in quarantine for 30 days. Our friends here, David and Jacque, decided to bring their dog with them, a miniature Yorkie. They get her back from quarantine in 2 days, and every time we hear about her and how well she is doing in quarantine it makes it harder for us to refrain from wanting to bring Riley over. However, Riley barely made it 4 days in a kennel (puppy resort to be exact) back in Houston while we traveled to Florida! She didn't eat for days and was so depressed and sick when we got her back! I can't imagine what she would be like after 30 days! That's the only thing keeping us from bringing her. My Aunt gave great advice when we were trying to decide before we left if we should bring her or not. "Do what would make Riley happy, not yourself". At my mom's house, Riley has a great big backyard, other animals to keep her company, and all the love in the world from her "Mi Mi". We call my mom's house, "going to 6th street", for Riley because she loves it there and goes crazy! If she were to come here, she wouldn't have a backyard, she would have to stay on a leash (which she HATES) whenever we take her outside, and go through the whole quarantine thing. It just makes sense to leave her at my mom's. Plus it would cost around $3,000 just to bring her here!

It has only been a month and a half since we have seen her and we have 7 more months to go! She is pretty much our daughter and our family feels incomplete without her :( I don't know what we would do without her! At least we get to see her on skype sometimes when we talk t0 my mom.

I don't know how people can hate dogs so much. This country, as well as most Asian countries, view dogs as "dirty" and "nuisances", I guess that is why they make it hard to have them here. Dogs cost around $1,000+ here! My Grandfather used to say, "Dogs are so precious, they are here for such a short period of time and only want to bring us joy". It is so true, they only want to make us happy! This is our desktop picture on our computer. It is torture but it brings a smile to our face whenever we see her!


I watched this video on youtube and I thought this would probably be like when we see Riley again! What a sweet story! I can't wait!

Fine line between Acting and Reality...

My mom told me about the "new" Joaquin Phoenix today...apparently he has decided to quit acting altogether and become a rapper...Some people are questioning if he is faking it or if he is really messed up. Here is the weird interview he did on Letterman the other night if you missed it.



I am kind of torn on what to believe...If he isn't faking, then it just shows how rude Letterman really is. But then again if he isn't faking, he sounds really messed up (which I hope he would be smarter than that to not use drugs since his brother died of an overdose). If he really wants to quit acting and pursue something else why should he be patronized and mocked? Letterman also referred to Farrah Fawcett's interview on his show and how he should "apologize to her" (because Joaquin was so much more messed up than her when she was on the show?)...



If he is acting, I'm not sure where he is going with all of this...

Fall Out Boy Surprise

Ben surprised me with Fall Out Boy tickets for our 1 year and 11 month anniversary!! He is the best husband in the world!! I had no idea and was completely surprised! Luckily it was on the night of our actual anniversary (or "monthiversary")! I have been wanting to see them for a while and was so surprised that they came all the way to Singapore to kick off their Believers Never Die Part Deux tour. We had a blast at the concert! I have been to a lot of concerts and this was definitely one of my favorites! Hey Monday opened for them. They were pretty good but they sounded exactly like Paramore. We had awesome seats, too. We even got to move closer to the front since it wasn't sold out and there were a lot of empty seats. Here are a few photos and videos of the concert! I took more videos than photos because my camera doesn't take very good night/action pictures, so I apologize if they are blurry!

In front of the Indoor Stadium where they played

Settling In

It is about time for a blog update. Sorry once again for not writing as frequently as promised! So what’s new with us you ask? A lot really! We finally moved into our much awaited condo and are truly loving it! Living on the 30th story has some great benefits! For one, we have an amazing view of the city, considering we are right in the middle of it! We have even taken some really neat pictures from our balcony with our new camera! Here is one taken of the traffic intersection nearby. I used a 3.2 second shutter speed so I could capture the lights of the cars going by….

The second benefit of living up so high is the breeze. It is wonderful when we open up our balcony window wall! I’m sure it will save us money in the air-con bills! (That’s what they call the AC here!)

Another benefit, I find helpful, is the trash chute. I feel bad for the people living on the first floor having to hear the rattle in the chute every time someone throws something down! I mean, our building has 32 stories and 4 units on each story (124 units to hear trash from)! It is fun, though, to listen to the things you put down it and how loud of a crash they make when they hit bottom! Sorry 1st floor residents!! But it is ever so convenient when you don’t want a smelly kitchen or have to take the elevator all the way down to throw out the trash. Brilliant invention!

Chinese New Year has come and gone. This year is the year of the Ox. If you don’t know much about the Chinese Zodiac, check it out here: http://www.chinesezodiac.com/. They celebrate for a total of 15 days, sometimes longer! Chinatown has been crazy with all of their sales. Apparently, it is bad luck if they have any items left over from the previous year when they start the new year, so they try to sell everything as quickly as possible before the new year comes! Most of their items end up “given away” or sold for a dollar. So you can see why 4.5 million people would love to be in Chinatown during this time! We were! It is neat to learn about different cultures and all of their traditions! Since Singapore is almost 75% Chinese, their New Year celebration takes over the whole island! I even got to see a lion dance in the Ngee Ann City mall, which resembles good luck and fortune.

Lion Dance

We also went to the zoo a few weeks back, and it was by far the best zoo we have ever been to! The animals were so active! The animals pens are surrounded by a huge ditch so your view isn’t obstructed by glass or fences which makes it great for taking pictures! The baboons were our favorite exhibit! There were so many of all ages. The babies were the cutest to watch as they messed with the adults and were “monkeying around”! We also saw the lions being fed which was the highlight of our trip! There were three females and one male, and when the zoo keepers were tossing chicken to them, I guess the male was too close to the females because all of the females started attacking the male! They were roaring, clawing, and biting the male! I was kind of afraid for him, I thought they were going to eat him right then and there! But they ended their brawl and chowed down. It was so neat to watch! We also went to the night safari, which was a bus tour through another part of the zoo. You couldn’t see them as well as in the actual zoo because it was so dark. I think the one in Singapore is the first actual night safari ever! We loved the giant red and white flying squirrel cage that you got to walk through as they were gliding across from tree to tree. And we even walked through a bat cage, but I didn’t like it because the bats were flying around almost landing on me! No rabies here, so no worries, it was totally safe! We got some great pictures of all of the animals!

We have been to Wala Wala, a pub in Holland Village, to watch live music the past two Fridays and have really enjoyed it! The bands sing American songs and are actually really good! We look forward to doing this a lot while we are here!

After our long travel getting here, we decided to get sweedish massages the third week we were here to reward ourselves and to try to relax (I know I am very behind on our blog, sorry). They were ok, however, we were sore for a few days after! I think we came out worse actually! I don’t think we will be going back there!

We booked our two year anniversary trip to Bali in early March which we are so excited about! It is a two and a half hour flight from here so it will be an easy trip! We are staying for 5 nights at the Nikko Bali Hotel (www.nikkobali.com) and upgraded to the Honeymoon Package which gives us a candlelight dinner on the beach, breakfast every morning, and a couples Balinese massage! We are going to pretend we are on our honeymoon again! It was a perfect package though since we have done a candlelight dinner on the beach the past two years for our honeymoon and anniversary! We are going to make it a tradition!

Nikko Bali Resort

Last thing to write about I promise, we really enjoy spending time in Clarke Quay. It is this area on a river that runs through Singapore (Clarke Quay) with restaurants, clubs and breweries. It is covered with these massive steel awning things to keep the rain out from the area. They have beautiful fountains in the center, boat tours, colorful lights, and just an overall wonderful atmosphere. Here are a few pictures we have taken:

Clarke Quay

Sorry for my ramblings, I will save more for later. There is just so much to do, see, and talk about here! I can’t believe a month has already gone by so fast! We miss everyone so much and hope you are doing well back home! Please leave us comments, we want to hear from you too! We love you!

God Bless,

The Jackmans