11/3/12 - Delivery, Duty Free and American TV

Living in Singapore you really are lucky to have a lot of entertainment options within a short distance of where you live.  I mean, it has to be a short distance, the whole island is only a shade under a standard marathon course across.  We are only a 30 minute MRT ride away from dinner in Little India, shopping in China Town, window shopping on Orchard Road, or bars and restaurants in Clarke Quay, Dempsey Hill, Holland Village, Club Street.... the list goes on.  I mean, the Botanic Gardens are literally just outside our back porch.  Sometimes though, after a day of school work, actual work or just being at home doing household chores, you are feeling lazy.  What does that mean? It means its time for a "Delivery, Duty Free and American TV" evening, not unlike what a lazy weekend back home might be.  In this case its 80 degrees, humid and raining vs. 10 degrees, freezing and snowing.

Step 1.  Find a place that actually will deliver dinner.  This isn't as easy as you might think.  Sure there are the guys from McDonalds who have their scooter delivery, but in my mind that is a better breakfast laziness option.  I'm still shocked this isn't prevalent in the US.  I mean, couldn't McDonalds add 5% in growth just by paying people to deliver breakfast on all the college campuses in the country?  Is this a millionaire dollar business idea that needs to be pitched on a reality TV show?  Anyway, the easiest option, consistent with the US is pizza.  And Robin Scherbatsky would be proud of the best pizza delivery option (cue the "Lets go to the Mall" music) Canadian Pizza.  Its always buy one get one free and they are never going to be able to change that.  Its been immortalized in their delivery number.  Apparently Dominoes gives you a buy one get one free coupon when they are late delivering your pizza (which they always are - standard wait time is 90 minutes) but this allows you to take advantage of the free pizza immediately.  FYI - its not really free, they just jack the price up so you're paying for 2 regular pizzas, but they deliver, its hot when it gets here and it tastes OK, so you can't complain too much.

Step 2 - Duty Free.  You stayed home, so even though you ordered food you're already saving money by not purchasing drinks that have a 400% sin tax surcharge on them.  However, you still want to have a few drinks (it is the weekend after all) so what do you do?  Make sure you hit up the duty free shop on your way back into the country.  Bangkok last weekend was a great trip, and it even gave us a little thank you on the way home.... normal priced alcohol options in the airport!  So tonight we were able to make our new favorite cocktail, the Moscow Mule.  Its one of the original cocktails and shows you what happens when you let 3 guys sit around a bar at 2 PM in the afternoon in Manhattan with nothing better to do (and only 3 ingredients on hand).  They combine vodka, limes and ginger beer together and somehow it works.  Very refreshing and perfect for a hot, tropical day/evening (and you didn't pay $12 for one at the bar).

Step 3 - American TV. You have an iPad?  Check.  What you need next is one of these little miracle workers.  We picked it up in Target before we left the States, but I'm sure they are sold elsewhere.  It lets you plug your iPad into your TV so you can watch your shows on a normal sized screen.  Thanks to some good friends that will remain nameless, but will get big hugs when we come home to visit, we have a mini library of some of our favorite American shows.  Trust me, when Don Draper has a drink on Mad Men, we raise our glasses in cheers to you.  Thanks guys.

So there you have it, the three keys to a nice, lazy, American style weekend in Singapore.  Tomorrow is Mango Madness.  Comparing Australian Mangoes to Thai Mangoes.  Intrigued?  You should be... either way it will be a delicious competition.