I Love Visitors

The past three days have been jam packed for the Barlow family. Friday, was especially exciting for me. My best friend from Country Day was in town for his honeymoon. I have been friends with Nick since 6th grade, and he and his wife have been a couple since they were both 14. It was so fun to have them here! We spent the morning doing the tourist thing, and then the two couples went out for dinner that evening. Scott made reservations at an upscale restaurant in downtown Singapore. We decided to take our car (rather than a cab) to pick up Nick and Lisa. About ten minutes into the drive we realized we had made a huge mistake. Every road in all of Singapore was a parking lot. As usual, I was navigating while Scott drove. Forty-five minutes into the drive, we were approaching a very critical moment in arriving at our destination - and my phone rang. Since I am completely incapable of not answering a phone, I impulsively picked up. At that very moment we missed the turn to get to Nick and Lisa's hotel.  We found ourselves on a  bridge with a lovely view of their hotel in our rearview mirror. It took us a solid thirty minutes to get back to where the error occurred. Scott was very happy with me at that point.

We all had a great time at dinner. The restaurant's claim to fame is its "expert tea servers". These men study the art if tea pouring for years. I was expecting some sort of male geisha to appear and demurely pour the hot beverages. Instead, we wound up with some sort of super hero. The guy approaches with his canister of hot water, swiftly swings it around the back of his head, and shoots the water across the table into the tea cups. It reminded me of some kind of Kung Fu master shooting lasers from his magical tea kettle. It took us all so off guard that we could not stop laughing while it was happening. Nick and Lisa tried their tea and said it had a very smoky taste to it. As we were about half way through the meal, a stream of water came carousing across the table into Lisa's cup. The tea master had returned for refills....

On Saturday, we officially closed on our home in California. We realize how lucky we are that we were able to find buyers - but at the same time I am somewhat heart broken. We loved our home so much and had so may happy memories there. I passed by a picture on our fridge of the boys playing in the backyard and almost burst into tears. 

Scott wanted Saturday to be the boys' day.  The morning consisted of the boys building a card board Transformer costume (that is Jacob inside the box and helmet), followed by swimming, and then another trip to the zoo. I was ready for a nap by 5pm. However, we had made plans go out with two othoer couples from church, and had to get ready to go. Dinner that evening was at an Indian restaurant. I have never officially had an Indian meal (unless curry puffs count) and was very excited to have accomplished that feat. The couples we ate with were awesome and we all had a total blast. Well, I had a total blast.....hopefully everyone else did as well.

The rains have continued here in Singapore. I think we are going on two straight weeks. On Thursday, Andrew came home in different clothes from those he had worn to school. I asked what had happened and he told me Kimo (his current best friend) had pushed him in the mud. I very sternly told him that was mean and that he should not play with mean kids. When Scott got home from work, Andrew told him the same story. Andrew got the same reaction from Scott that he received from me. Well, we all went on with our evening and did't think again about Kimo and the mud. I was lying in bed when Andrew walked in with a pained look on his face. I asked what was wrong. Through broken sobs and tears, Andrew says, "I(sob).... want(glup)...... to(sob)....... play(gulp)...... with(sob)...... KI...... MO!" I then notice he has two pieces of paper in his hands. I ask if I can see them. On the paper is a drawing of two boys crying. In the middle they are holding hands. Andrew had taken scissors to the paper and cut right in between the two boys holding hands. Very sad. I had to explain to him that he can still play with Kimo, but not to let him be mean.

Scott left for Thailand (again) about 20 minutes ago. This time I sent him with two skirts to have copied by a Thai tailor. I have left Scott in charge of choosing the fabric. Needless to say, I am interested to see what returns with him on Friday!

The fore-mentioned drawing

(yes, I know it looks like something from 'The Ring")