Singapore - Friends Four

MC and Mark
Along with Kevin, MC was my other partner in crime during my Singapore days.  She loves to eat and was always up for an outing at a new cafe or restaurant.  She is the only one of Jean's girlfriends who can drink.  We downed many bottles of wine together.  She was a frequent rooftop dining guest, always texting me "hey, what you cooking tonight?"  We became neighbors after she bought an apartment in our neighborhood.  Since I left she got herself a good guy - Mark.

Singapore - Friends Three

Kevin and Cavina
Kevin is Jean's former boyfriend and strange as it sounds, we hit it off right away.  This guy kept me from going crazy when I was living here.  We played basketball, drank coffee, went to the movies, ate, hung out, drank beer.  He taught me all the Hokkien curse words I know, though I can never seem to remember which means what so I string them all together in a burst of anger.  He just laughs and laughs.  Matter of fact, he is always laughing.  Love this guy.

Singapore - New Year's Day

Food and Gambling

The next day the extended family showed up at Jean's house to eat, drink and gamble.

Singapore - New Year's Eve

Eating Out

The normal tradition is to go to Jean's Aunt's house but this year was different since Rose was recovering from a mastectomy and had just suffered through a first round of chemo.  She and her husband, Tio Tio, are all smiles here but earlier in the week she spent a handful of unhappy days in the hospital after a bad reaction to the chemo.  We went out to a local "coffee shop" for dinner.

Singapore - Friends Two

Meiwan and Jia Ming
Meiwan is another of Jean's long time friends.  She, like Jean, loves to eat and will drive all over the island to get the best Char Kway Teow or Roti Prata.  She was my squash partner while I lived in Singapore - we played about once a month, sometimes with Gina, sometimes just the two of us.

Singapore - Friends One

Gina and Sze Long
Gina, on the left, has been a friend of Jean's since grammar school.  Theirs was a friendship built on law and order.  Gina, the hall monitor, was constantly doling out demerits to Jean for being late to school and cutting the lunch line queue.  They've been tight ever since, or mostly so.  A few years back Sze Long, on the right, formerly the girlfriend of Jean's sister, changed allegiances, shacking up with Gina.

Tokyo - Narita

Three Hour Layover
We took off Friday morning, looping over Alaska on our way to Tokyo, the sun on our shoulder each of the fourteen hours.  I fought sleep with movie after movie.  Groggy, we stumbled out into bright Saturday afternoon sunshine, just a short walk to a well known sushi restaurant in terminal one.

Costa Rica - Corrida de Toros

The Bullfights

My colleague Alejandro asked if I wanted to see "something different" and of course, I did.  "Ok, let me see if I can get tickets" he said.  He was genuinely excited.  He was back in five minutes to tell me we were on our way to the bullfights.  I've seen them in Madrid and wasn't exactly enthused - it's animal cruelty.  "Don't worry, this is the Costa Rican version, it's not like in Spain", he said, as if he could read my mind.

Costa Rica - Washed Out

Rinse, Spin, Re-Rinse

Just the night before, the setting sun crowned Barva with a glowing pink halo but the darker clouds had already begun to crawl in at the lower elevations.  A day of rain was scheduled but I was holding out hope.  Everyone told me to forget about Barva in the rain.  Even with a 4x4 you wouldn't be able to get close to it.  I tucked into bed and hoped for the best.  At 2am I was a awakened by a load roar, followed by a car alarm which set the neighborhood dogs into a frenzy.  My double cube house stands proudly, with its chin up and was catching the full rage of a tremendous storm.  The wind seemed to be coming from all directions and the windows were streaming with water, like the house was inside a car wash.  The tin roof amplified the rain into a drum roll and it probably continued long after I'd managed to fall back asleep.

Costa Rica - Getsemani

Mountain Hideaway
Getsemani is a small town north of San Jose half way up the southern slope of the Barva volcano.  It's about 2,000 feet higher than the capital, rounding out at around 5,000 feet.  Tomorrow, I'll have 5,000 more feet to go - most of them hopefully by car.   It took me 30 minutes to drive here from work.

Costa Rica - Volcanoes

It's a Volcano Weekend...
Ticos (people from Costa Rica) are non-plussed by the ash - I'm fascinated by it.  You can taste it and feel it on your hands.  It gets on your clothes and your car and as you walk around you leave a trail of footsteps.  The street cleaners are in overdrive but it's useless.  It's a constant.  Turrialba has been spewing non-stop since my last trip and it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon.