“En garde!”

We've been taking fencing classes at Z Fencing for the last four weeks. Our first class was learning basic fencing stances and how to move around without exposing targets on our bodies. The second class was learning beginning attacks. The third class was learning defenses.

And last night's class was fight club.

The weapon for our class is the Épée (which simply means "sword" in French). There are other fencing swords, the foil and the sabre. But with those weapons there are rules about where you can hit your opponent. With the Épée, there are no limitations on hits - any hit anywhere on the body counts, so there's less thinking and more stabbing.

I was expecting a class full of Dungeons & Dragons geeks like me. But to my surprise, the class was mostly women. Who knew that girls like playing with swords too?

I really wanted to fight my wife, but our teacher had girls fight girls and boys fight boys. The only way that we could fight each other was if I defeated all of the other boys and she beat all the other girls.

I won my first match, but lost the second one. Deanna was fierce--you can see it in the way her opponent is retreating in the picture below--but she didn't make it to the final round, either.

We're now at the stage where we have to move past the introductory classes.

I think we're going to continue with lessons.

But continuing means having to buy all of our own equipment. There's quite a bit, of equipment, and it gets a bit pricey when you're buyng it for two people.

But the nifty thing is we'll always have two swords in the house, so we WILL be able to fight each other. And we'll have a nice traditional way to resolve any marital dispute that comes up.

We’re Coming To America

Like the other teaming immigrants, we’re coming tired and poor to America. Next month I've got plans to take your job, move into your neighborhood, and spread crime, pestilence, and general malfeasance throughout the Republic. For two solid weeks. Then, of course, we’re off back to Singapore with backpacks full of chewing gum and California wines.

We’ll be in the Bay Area the first 2 weeks of February. And, unlike our friend Duncan who never lets anyone know he’s in town until the last 1/2 hour before he’s about to leave, we thought we’d tell everyone in advance so you can stock up on food and spirits to entertain us on those days we decide to crash homeless and uninvited on your couch.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Get prepared for us the first two weeks of February. Mark your calendars appropriately, and be ready to send the kids to bed early.

The American Club

We started out our new year by visiting the American Club on Saturday to see what they offer. We were thinking about joining, but there's a pretty stiff membership fee, so we wanted to check it out nice and thoroughly.

The American Club is located in the Orchard Road area of Singapore, which is a an upscale shopping location and a popular area for expats to live. We met with their member-relations person, who gave us a weekend pass to evaluate the club. With pass in hand, we thought about taking the whole rest of the day to enjoy the club, but we already had reservations for a movie, American Gangster (which finally made it to the theaters in Singapore). So we left the club and came back after our movie.

Returning that evening, we got drinks and hung out in the lounge, took dinner at one of the restaurants, and watched some tennis on ESPN in the bar. We definitely had a great time. And we also ran into some other folks from my office who are members. They thought their membership was well worth the value.

One of thing I never expected to miss when we left the US is all those American accents. Sure, most Singaporeans speak English, but there speak it with a Singaporean accent. Its not that Singaporean English is bad English, but to my American ear, the Singapore accent often sounds like lower-classed English. It felt good to give the ears a rest and listen English spoken by Americans--the way its supposed to be spoken.

Maximizing our weekend pass, we went back the next day and ran into--guess what--more Americans! We went to the gym and hung out by the pool, made some new friends, and talked about the elections back home. We definitely liked the club, but I'm not quite ready to extend the hefty initiation fee to join. Maybe when its time to negotiate the next expat package, we'll see if we can get membership at the American Club included. Until then, we'll keep the cards we picked up from the folks we met, and try to convince our new friends invite us as guests under their membership card.

Happy New Year 2008!

We spent New Year’s Eve watching the fireworks over the Singapore harbor from a "Panoramic" room on the 29th floor of the Pan Pacific Hotel. This was the view from our balcony:

Tropical Holidays

Its Christmas eve in Singapore. Its like a warm summer evening. We have a great view of the full moon from poolside at our condo. I wanted to share a photo, but this doesn't compare to the real thing.

I only have one day off for Christmas, and its been a VERY long time since I’ve updated the site, so I’ll very quickly bring you up to spped about what we’ve been traveling over the last few months: we’ve gone back to the USA twice. We also went back for a second trip to Indonesia. We were in Hong Kong the weekend after thanksgiving, where we met our friend Doug. I continued on from Hong Kong to China for business meetings, and then later to Thailand, while Deanna returned to Singapore. I’ve been to Malaysia a bunch of times (but on business). We are back in Singapore right now, in the middle of the holiday season. Happy Holidays from the equator. I’ll update again soon.