After another 3 leg, 26 hour flight we made it back safe and sound to the tropics. We had exit row seats so we could at least stretch out, but my previous flight back to the US on Sing Air was in a regular seat and actually had more room than a domestic carrier, so not bad. Still no business class though, can't wait for the next time I get to fly in a lazy boy again on Sing Air. Photos will be posted for sure.The taxi rides to and from the airports provided the best juxtapositions of what we were leaving and where we were going - cold, snow, bare trees vs. warm, rain and green trees. The question now was, "How are we going to beat the jet lag that we are about face for the rest of the week and resettle into our Singapore lifestyle." I had a full week of work and Sarah had a full blown class schedule, so this was a more important question than when I flew back to the US and sat around in my pajamas for 4 days. In keeping with my tricks and tips, here is what worked for us this week:
Step 1 - Do Something! We got back to our condo around 1 PM and knew we had to stay upright for at least another 7 hours, preferably 8 or 9. First order of business, air out the condo and unpack. 2 weeks of no one living in there, no open windows and no air con reminded me of setting up a tent that had sat in the basement for the past 6 months. At least it forced us to clean a little and miracle of miracles, the suitcases got unpacked pretty quickly. Also helped that we had some duty free items (remember my previous tips!) that we had to unpack.
Step 2 - Get Outside. Just moving around the house wasn't going to cut it so we headed out to run some errands that we had intentionally put off to force us to stay active. I had to go get my haircut to be able to survive the heat and humidity. I know I have mentioned that taxis and hawker food are cheap in Singapore, but that is about it. Well guess what? You can actually get a cheap haircut as well if you hit up the QB House at one of the malls. Its a Japanese "hair salon" that used to charge $10 to cut your hair and then uses a vacuum cleaner to clean you up at the end, which to me is always entertaining. Surprisingly enough, 99% of their clients are male. The surprise I did get was they had raised their rates to $12 while I was gone. Still pretty cheap, but a 20% increase? What now, is Subway going to have the $6 footlong?Step 3 - Take some melatonin at night. Its supposed to help you reset your sleep cycle naturally. Having 12 hours of daylight and darkness certainly helps too, but like I said, we needed to hit the ground running Monday. We'd heard enough Ambien horror stories that neither of us would touch that with a 10 foot pole, but this seemed to work well. We each had one night during the week where we only slept for a few hours, but overall, have adjusted quite well.
Step 4 - Get back on the food train. We eased into it with some pasta at home at the beginning of the week, followed by some local pizza in the middle of the week. Kept trying to get to our favorite dumpling ramen shop, but couldn't catch them. We did add BBQ pork (char siew to be more accurate) and rice to our must try list of stands we like. Saturday then brought a return to the routine. Coffee from my Penang coffee mug while sitting on the porch with some banana prata and random fruit from the fruit guy. This time it was mangosteen - mangosteen madness anyone? Who would have thought that is what would be inside this bad boy? Kind of like a more tropical tasting peach, but 1/4 the size. 
Our New Year's resolution is to get out and explore the neighborhoods of Singapore a little more. We haven't been to Little India in months and have only skirted Chinatown. Tonight we're off to Arab Street for the first time to try some Egyptian food. Just like all the new people in the gym, we're starting off on the right foot, hopefully we can continue. Have to be able to get up early though - the NFL was nice enough to schedule the Packer game at a conducive time for watching in Singapore.
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