Back to Work

After returning from the honeymoon, I started back to work on Monday.  My new role is an Artwork Planner on AmbiPur (similar to Febreze).  My commute takes about 1/2 hour by bus and train which isn't too bad.  If we had a car it would only take about 10 minutes to drive.  My office is located in a large tower with a mall at the base so there are a ton of food options.  Everyone I work with is really nice.  They've made sure I've had someone to go out to lunch with every day.  People here speak "Singlish" which is English with a bunch of other words added in so when people are chatting I will suddenly have no idea what they are taking about.  Meetings have been fine so far because people just speak English - it's more just for casual conversation that I get lost sometimes.  On Thursday there was a fire drill so I had to walk down 21 flights of stairs - thank goodness I wasn't wearing heels!

My dad made sure to get a picture of me in front of the office when we were meeting Jess a few weeks before I started - I felt like a kid getting their picture taken on the first day of school : )

Mom and Dad Visit/Wedding/Honeymoon

The past few weeks have been quite busy so this post will be a bit long.  My parents came in about 3 weeks ago which was awesome.  It was so great to see them.  When they arrived I could see them waiting for their baggage through the glass and I just wanted to run through and hug them!  We spent the first few days sight seeing but the heat here wore them out so we didn't stay out too long.  We went to the Chinese and Japanese Gardens and took the cable car to Sentosa which is an island here with all the amusement parks and big resorts.  I also took them to the hawker centers for local food.  My dad liked it because it was cheap but I don't think my mom liked it too much.

Our friend Jess had a work trip so we also got to spend the weekend with her sightseeing. We went to Orchard Road, Chinatown, Maxwell Food Centre, Marina Bay Sands, Gardens by the Bay, Merlion Park and the Botanic Gardens.  While in Chinatown, we went to a fish spa where the fish nibble at the dead skin on your feet!

 

 Jimmy was on a work trip when my parents arrived.  He got back the following week so we went and had chilli crab for dinner when he arrived.  It was a little spicy for my mom but I think my dad really liked it.

Jimmy's sister Tiffany also arrived later that night.  It was great for both of us to have family here.  Our family members had never met before so it was nice to have some of them finally meet!  On Friday we had our legal ceremony at the Registry of Marriage which lasted about 10 minutes.  When the ceremony was over they opened some glass doors to the back where we could take pictures with the flower arch in case you were wondering where the prom set up came from in the below pictures : )

 

 

When we were done at the Registry of Marriage, we had drinks at Ku De Ta at the top of Marina Bay Sands.  Marina Bay Sands is the large hotel/casino/mall that has 3 large towers with a large "ship" on top.  After drinks we went to Sky on 57 for dinner which is also at the top of Marina Bay Sands.  The infinity pool is in the middle of the top floor and only hotel guests have access to that area so we had to go all the way down to the first floor to go up a different tower elevator to get to the restaurant.

 On Saturday night we left for our honeymoon to the Maldives which was about a 4 hour flight.  My parents stayed at our place to watch Candy and Ozzy.  On Sunday it rained all day....on Monday it was still raining.  Our beach ceremony was scheduled for Monday so when we saw the wedding coordinator at breakfast she said we should postpone until Tuesday to make sure the weather cleared up.  By Monday afternoon the weather was beautiful so it would have been fine but the weather was good the rest of the week so having it on Tuesday worked out well.  On Tuesday afternoon, we were greeted at our door by guys holding umbrellas and a guy playing a drum.  They walked us from our room to the beach in front of the main pool where the ceremony was set up.  People at the pool were taking pictures since we were the only wedding that week.  The ceremony lasted about 10 minutes.  The ceremony in the Maldives wasn't legal which was why we had to have the legal ceremony in Singapore before leaving.  After the vows, exchanging rings, signing certificate and kissing the bride, we had a glass of champagne and cut our cake.  There were other guests taking pictures under the wedding arches while we were still cutting our cake which I thought was really weird but oh well - it was a beautiful set up!  The Maldives is made up of over 1000 islands but only a few hundred are inhabited.  Each resort there is basically on its own island so we didn't have anywhere to go but our resort.  The water and beach there were beautiful.  I don't think any of our pictures captured how beautiful it really was.  Our room was a bungalow over the water.  When we walked out our back door we had our own deck with private pool.  We also had stairs that led down to the ocean where we could snorkel which was awesome.  Below are some pictures - we took hundreds but thought I'd narrow it down a bit : )

Once we got back from the honeymoon, we still had a few days to hang out with my mom and dad.  We went to a brewery that ended up being my dad's favorite place - he just kept raving about it.  I think he liked that the beer tower was only $32.  They left on Wednesday morning which was sad - it was really great having them here but we should be coming in for a home visit in February so it's less than 3 months until we get to see them again!