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Contrary to the beliefs of some expats I've spoken to, there is life this far out West - ironically at Jurong East. J Cube mall, situated opposite Jurong East MRT, has become one of our favourite places to go when bored, as there is a ridiculous amount to do.  

It only opened a few months ago and is home to Singapore's first Olympic-sized ice skating rink, as well as a Shaw Theatres cinema with several screens and an IMAX. Although we've not experienced the normal screens, we absolutely loved watching the Dark Knight Rises at the IMAX, mainly raving about how cheap things were in comparison to the UK, unusually for here (a large popcorn and drink was £4, bargain).  

Dotted around the ice rink are various shops, boutiques, Cold Storage and a million restaurants, including Chilis, Nandos, The Old Manhattan Fish Market amongst others. We didn't particularly enjoy the Fish Market and felt really rushed out of there, although Nandos wasn't too bad - good to go to when you fancy something a bit different to rice or anything from the hawkers. 

Word of warning - mainly due to the ice rink, J Cube is a LOT colder than a "normal" mall, so a couple of extra layers might be needed. So there we go, proof that there is actually something to do out in the sticks!

Nade x

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From Chinese Garden to Chinatown! Contrary to popular (James') belief, I've not been spending my days in bed watching back-to-back episodes of Geordie Shore (I might have done it once...), I've been off out exploring new bits of Singapore. 

After the disaster that was the haircut, which I can only describe as a side mullet with random long bits and then the rest short layers, forgive me if I was a little apprehensive about heading to Chinatown - every time I seem to go out these past few days, drama of some sort seems to be happening to me.  As an update to the previous post with the dodgy stamp in the passport, it turns out I've got 90 days on a tourist pass, so my run of bad luck seems to have changed!

I headed over to Chinatown to meet a couple of girls who are living here/in a similar situation to me and we definitely made the most of the free time. The afternoon was pretty much spent drinking massive bottles of Tiger beer, lots of Chinese food & shopping for really cute, cheap summer dresses. I picked up 3 dresses for about £11, total bargain. 

Although James and I have mainly been eating at the local hawkers' markets, we have been branching out now and again to more Western food, with mixed results. Currently sat here with a massive Dominos feast in front of us - not the best Dominos I've had, that would be back at Leeds with my boys & the famous Two for Tuesdays. On Wednesday, we headed to J Cube to The Manhattan Fish Market to satisfy my seafood craving and I was pretty disappointed.

Seafood platter was pretty dodgy and I don't think we realised everything would be deep fried! So that restaurant is off the list! Weekend-wise, I think tomorrow may be a pool day and we have tentative plans to go for brunch on Sunday (brunch is my favourite meal of all-time and a classic Singaporean thing to do). Sunday is also marks Eid-al-fitr or the end of Ramadan, so I'm assuming everywhere will be packed! Next week is looking busy; more drink dates, a trip to the Harry Potter exhibition, Gold Class cinema viewing, a hot date on Friday and a big works party on Saturday - it's shaping up to be a pretty good birthday week!

Nade x

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Note to self: discover the Singaporean hairdressing term for "for the love of God, please NO more layers!" Now, I'm not really fussy when it comes to my hair - I have no loyalty whatsoever and will pretty much go to the place with the best deal. Yet I'm now kind of regretting my blase attitude in Singapore. 

To be honest, this whole afternoon has been verging on disaster. I go to book a squash court for James to play his boss & I'm told that I can't as I'm not a resident. Now bearing in mind, you're not really allowed to be on the premises without being a resident, that seems a little strange to me. The bloke refused to let me prove that I'm a resident - the only way is to apply for a resident card and pay S$10. 

I then decide to give up and get some food. Thought I'd be pretty healthy and order a chicken salad....which turned out to be a plate of spicy fried chicken. And pretty bad fried chicken at that. And then came the hair...

Walking round Jurong Point mall, I come across this pretty decent looking hairdressers and ask for a quote to fix some dodgy sun highlights and a general trim. She took this as "I want my hair cut right now" - probably should have run at this point, but £45 for half head of highlights and a cut sounded pretty good. No problems with the highlights, sliiiiight problem with the cut.  In that she just decided to cut it without asking me how I wanted it. When I told her that I only wanted a small bit off, she told me she could only cut it one way. And then proceeded to blow dry it into some sort of 80s Dynasty hairstyle. 

It's not looking too bad now I've actually washed it myself - slowly coming to the conclusion that I'm not going to end up looking like Kate Middleton's hair twin (speaking of which, her & Will are popping over in September, so exciting!) 

Hair rant over, I've spent most of the past couple of days here, basking in 34 degree heat....

Tan is progressing well - if the job hunt completely fails, at least I'll have a good tan. Tomorrow, I'm off to the immigration people, as the stamp in my passport that should tell me how long I'm allowed to stay in the country for is completely smudged over one vital word - the actual number of days. Never know, I may have to continue this "Singapore" blog back at home...

Nade x