9/8/12 - Market Day

In our never ending search to find a better microbrewery we went to the original in Singapore last night.   The Red Dot brewhouse is in the Dempsey Hill area that actually used to be old British army barracks.  So all the old buildings (mess hall, admin offices, officer houses, etc) have been converted into shops, bars and restaurants.

Its only 1.8 km from our condo, but it was raining so we ventured out on the bus.  Sarah is becoming a bit of an expert at the bus schedule and protocol because she has to take it to get to school.  I'm still more accustomed to planes, trains and automobiles, so this was a new adventure for me.  My first mistake was not running to the bus stop when we could see ours there.  Apparently they will wait if you flag them down.  I just assumed another would be along in 5 minutes like the train.  20 minutes later, after sitting on a clammy aluminum bench, lesson learned.

We hadn't made a reservation which resulted in us sitting at a table outside in the courtyard.  This would have been fine if not for the occasional rain drop sneaking its way through the dense vegetation above us.  Eventually we were moved under an awning and we could eat our burger and satay without fear of a rogue drop hitting your nose.  They also had what can only be described as "cheese filled tator tots" so yes, we will be back.

When we got home I learned firsthand about Sarah's nightly entrance tradition into our condo building.  If you look above the light you can see one of our tiny little lizard "friends."  Apparently there are usually 3 in this area.  So if she can count 3 of them then she knows they haven't snuck into our building and can mentally tell them to stay out of our place.  We only saw 2 last night, but we have a screen over the window now, so we have an extra line of defense.

I know this sounds a bit ridiculous, but I finally got moving fast enough on the weekend to head over to the market.  Yes, the market that is open until noon.  It hasn't been an awake issue, more of a general "there's coffee and a porch to sit on here, its hot outside and I don't feel like walking across the street" issue.  

The good news is I cracked the code of finding fresher, less expensive produce on this island.  Bag of vegetables and a bag of fruit for about $12 total.  I already ate one of these little tiny bananas and the pineapple sitting in the refrigerator isn't going to last much longer.  Plus, I found a starfruit the size of a small nerf football.

The highlight of the morning might have been walking back from the market.  I was listening to the PTI podcast from yesterday (have to keep up on my US sports, especially with football season kicking in) and I almost did a double take when a man walked past me who was a dead ringer for poker player Scotty Nguyen.  I'm sure he isn't in Singapore right now, regardless, the mullet on this guy was world class.  Need to make sure I don't end up at his barber at some point.  2 hours later its still making me smile.

Back to the porch and them some pool time the rest of the day.