big bash

february 19th- happy birthday dirk

so those of you that know dirk... know he would hate a birthday party but he got one anyway. our friend misty helped me throw the party at IndoChine restaurant & bar on orchard road. it was a great turn out with lots of good friends, even our friend phil was able to join us from houston (it is very convient that most of dirk's friends work for fmc as well so they can come see us on their business trips) Here are couple pictures from the night. All in all it was a great time, but we still miss our friends back in good ole tejas.

the whole crew( the garrets, the de jongs, the kirkhams, the dunlaps, sarah thia, adie, desmond, phillippe gay, and aaron klien.

houston boys (aaron, dirk, and phil)

yummy birthday cake

dirk on stage with the band

the ladies (farah, christina, and kim)

dirk's boss, matt and his wife laura

happy birthday dirksen, 28 years young

for dirk's birthday, misty and i were able to purchase a number of plants for our balcony.. which dirk had been wanting for a long time now. pictures to come! he also was presented with a rather large hospital bill and a 5 lb fibroid from his wife... more to come on that issue.

fun times with fun people

february 28th-

a friend of ours from houston (as well as one of dirk's coworkers, john pierson) came into town. so we went out to dinner with him and some other coworkers to chijmes (http://www.chijmes.com.sg/). chijmes is an old church converted into shop, restaurants, and bars. the restaurant we ate at was esmirada's (http://www.esmirada.com/).

chijmes

restaurant seating

chijmes once again

before we ate- all tan from our trip to phuket

the clinic- clarke quay (http://www.theclinic.sg/)

really crazy website- be sure to check it out!

some time in january when kim & kaes came back from the states... kim took me out for my birthday. i wanted to try the clinic bar in the clarke quay area... they serve you drinks in syringes and iv bags, you sit in wheelchairs, the tables are strechers, and the lights are surgery lights. it is rather amusing, so amusing that a german tourist came up and asked to take our picture of us sitting in the wheelchairs.

syringe drink

wheelchairs

lights

february 12th- chesnuts presented by music movement (http://www.musicmovement.com.sg/)

our friend sarah, who we met through misty & frankie, got us tickets to this theater production that makes spoofs on singapore. they made fun of local singapore rules, which i have to admit some are pretty funny, like right now there is a fertility promotion. if you havea child now they will give the father 3 months of paternity leave... their birth rates are decreasing therefore this is their way of increasing their population. you would think a country, which is an island, with 4 million people would be satisfied. here is a picture infront of Raffels... the founder of singapore. we were in the boat quay area having drinks after the show at timber.

dirk & i posing for the camera

febraury 14th- happy valentines day

our friends farah and patrick armstrong entertained some of us on valentines day with a wine tasting and dinner. we had a great time with good friends and delicious wine! the boys even joined in on the wine tasting. dirk and i celebrated v-day on our own with dinner and a movie the night before.

wine tasting

cheese

cheers

all the ladies (claudia, laura, tina, kim, and farah)

february 15th- sunset on sentosa

we ended the weekend with a day at the beach with some good friends and otto. frankie, misty, bailey (their daughter), sarah, and some more friends met us at the beach with cold beverages and snacks in hand. it was a great way to end the amazing weekend. otto loved the water and the outing... he is so used to going everywhere with us and we can't bring him to many places around here.

sunset on sentosa

coming soon-

this week another one of dirk's coworkers and our friend, philippe gay, is here for work/vacation. we have a happy hour at bellini grande, dinner at newton hawker, and dirk's b-day party at indochine on orchard planned for entertainment. now hopefully he can get over his 48 hour travel, his flight made an emergency landing in helsinki, finland (i thinnk) after bad weather in moscow, russia turned it around. so 24 hours later he landed in singapore... i am sure he is pooped! only a week and a half till i will be back in the states... oh how i dread the flight!

Thailand continued...

january 23-26th... a couple more pictures

here are the rest of the thailand pictures... be sure to flip through all the underwater pictures, they are all so good! the flight to phuket is only 1.5 hours... if anyone is interested in visiting us!

the beach was beautiful!

fantasea theme park

muay thai boxing had to be an experience in its own. the stadium reminded me of our old show barn from FFA... except there were these red leather couchs for vip seating circled around the ring and of coarse the cheap seats were bleachers. we sat in the cheap seats, with our smuggled in san miguel light beer, next to the guy with eight fingers and eight toes, and a slew of local bookies. the first fight was 10 year old boys, the second was 13 year old girls... finally the third fight, the boys were olders. here is a clip from the fight...

muay thai boxing

fishes

beaked coral butterflyfish

clownfish

dirk & kaes on the boat

black spotted porcupine fish

moorish idol... i think, i have been trying to categorize all these fish we saw, need a good book

jellyfish

ko doc mai... we did our crazy night dive here

the night dive was another story... i was told most night dives are not like the one we experienced. it was very rough, the current was strong, strong enough to get our dive group seperated from the rest (while we had no clue). it also got a little scary when my underwater light went out and then dirk's did as well... nothing like being underwater, in the dark, with no light, and a current that keeps throwing you up against the rocks... all in all, i actually liked it.

colorful coral... the coral was so colorful everywhere we went!

giant emperor angel fish... this fish was huge, it may not look like it in the picture

three spotted dascyllus... domino

stripped damsel fish

red tailed butterflyfish... i think these were my favorite!

camo colored fish... dirk was thrilled!

the dunlaps & the de jongs...

it was so nice to dive with friends- sara laster was there as well but went home after the second day because australia doesn't observe chinese new year... who knew?

cheers!

the last night consisted of sitting on the beach with these big LIGHT beers and watching the sunset... (got to know we are from texas, light beer & sunsets= perfect ending)

oh and then some awesome muay thai boxing...

here are the rest of the pictures from the trip... just click on the picture:

Phuket, Thailand

Muay Thai Boxing

Patong Beach, Fantasea, Karon Beach