Welcome to our deluxe apartment in the sky..... well maybe not deluxe, but at 35 stories up its certainly been a change from our ground floor duplex in St. Paul. We like to say we have a sea view, but our friends remind us that it is really a "port view." With the dozens of container ships, we can't really argue that logic, but hey, its water, its salty, so 6 of one half a dozen of the other. Nice open kitchen, living room and dining room. Our couch that is going to star in its own post shortly and finally, finally, all the fun paintings and posters that we had purchased as mementos from our journeys, but were too lazy to hang up have now seen the light of day. Thank goodness for 3M command hooks on these concrete walls, can you imagine me having to use a heavy duty drill? Everything is starting to feel like home in our 3 bedroom (OK, really more like 2 1/2 beds, but at least a futon is in one room) sky pad. We're close to the top right corner of the building for point of reference.
We had the benefit of hindsight in moving into the Rochester Condo. It had been tops on our list on our first tango in Singapore, but the rental market at the time was just too overpriced. Fast forward 4 years and multiple new buildings being opened and now it was right in the sweet spot of our budget. It sits across the street from an MRT interchange so we have the green line and the circle line minutes out our doorstep. We can be downtown in 15 minutes or back to Holland Village and restaurants and bars or the Botanic Gardens even faster than that - super convenient. Even work is only a 15 minute drive for me in the morning. Evenings, well that is a bit of a roll of the dice.
There is a huge mall across the street with quite a few restaurants as well as a grocery store in the basement if we ever forget to pick up something at our local wet market. I just got back from my $10 haircut at the Korean Barber Shop over there - missed that. Who doesn't like having their head vacuumed after a quick trim? We even have some nicer restaurants in Rochester Park across the street. There are black and white colonial houses that were formerly for the British military - now they are anything from a Starbucks to an Italian restaurant.
This being our second go round you would think we would have all the local tips down pat, but some areas continue to flummox us. During our initial two weeks living here we felt like we were in a taxi all the time, bank accounts, IKEA runs, furniture stores, food stock up, you name it. So an added bonus to having a major MRT stop, mall and restaurants just a hop skip and a jump away was we finally thought we would be living in a place in Singapore where the taxi drivers knew where to go. Silly us - we received countless blank stares and multiple directions via Google Maps on our phones being given from the back seat. How in the world did no one know where the Rochester condo was?
One night, halfway through complaining about this dilemma for the umpteenth time, our neighbor across the hall started smirking with an understanding look. "You're saying it wrong, you can't say RoD Chester (like New York or Minnesota) with a hard R and throwing a D in there, you need to say Row chester with a soft r." This seemed ridiculous, but we were willing to try anything at this point. The following week I was in the taxi line at the airport thinking that this is never going to work and then feeling even more embarrassed as I heard 'Row chester' coming out of my mouth, but sure enough I received a head nod from the driver and away we went. Who knew? Was a great reminder that even after living here before we still have plenty to learn and even getting a taxi to the right place can be its own adventure.
We had the benefit of hindsight in moving into the Rochester Condo. It had been tops on our list on our first tango in Singapore, but the rental market at the time was just too overpriced. Fast forward 4 years and multiple new buildings being opened and now it was right in the sweet spot of our budget. It sits across the street from an MRT interchange so we have the green line and the circle line minutes out our doorstep. We can be downtown in 15 minutes or back to Holland Village and restaurants and bars or the Botanic Gardens even faster than that - super convenient. Even work is only a 15 minute drive for me in the morning. Evenings, well that is a bit of a roll of the dice.
There is a huge mall across the street with quite a few restaurants as well as a grocery store in the basement if we ever forget to pick up something at our local wet market. I just got back from my $10 haircut at the Korean Barber Shop over there - missed that. Who doesn't like having their head vacuumed after a quick trim? We even have some nicer restaurants in Rochester Park across the street. There are black and white colonial houses that were formerly for the British military - now they are anything from a Starbucks to an Italian restaurant. 
This being our second go round you would think we would have all the local tips down pat, but some areas continue to flummox us. During our initial two weeks living here we felt like we were in a taxi all the time, bank accounts, IKEA runs, furniture stores, food stock up, you name it. So an added bonus to having a major MRT stop, mall and restaurants just a hop skip and a jump away was we finally thought we would be living in a place in Singapore where the taxi drivers knew where to go. Silly us - we received countless blank stares and multiple directions via Google Maps on our phones being given from the back seat. How in the world did no one know where the Rochester condo was? 
One night, halfway through complaining about this dilemma for the umpteenth time, our neighbor across the hall started smirking with an understanding look. "You're saying it wrong, you can't say RoD Chester (like New York or Minnesota) with a hard R and throwing a D in there, you need to say Row chester with a soft r." This seemed ridiculous, but we were willing to try anything at this point. The following week I was in the taxi line at the airport thinking that this is never going to work and then feeling even more embarrassed as I heard 'Row chester' coming out of my mouth, but sure enough I received a head nod from the driver and away we went. Who knew? Was a great reminder that even after living here before we still have plenty to learn and even getting a taxi to the right place can be its own adventure.
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