House-Hunting Trip: Days 0-1

Late night arrival at Changi Airport

It's been around 43 hours since we left our house in Olive Branch, MS on Thursday morning at 4:40 AM.  (We were supposed to get picked up at 4 AM, but the Taxi service apparently thought that when I said we "needed to be at the airport by 4:30 AM", that I actually meant "It's okay if we stroll into the airport at 5:15 AM, just 45 minutes before the first leg of a 30-hour international trip").  But that's distant history now.  We successfully made it to Chicago, then to Hong Kong, then into Singapore late last night.

We were pretty worn out once we arrived at the Marriott, but not exactly ready to go to bed right away, so -- as has become somewhat of a tradition of mine when I travel on business -- we headed down to the "Crossroads Cafe" at the base of the hotel and had a little 1 AM snack/drink.  Then it was time for bed -- 9:30 AM came early, but at least we weren't wide awake at 4 AM and unable to fall asleep, as can often happen the first day or two after traveling 13 time zones away.  Thanks to my recent upgrade to Marriott Gold Elite status, we were able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast in the Executive Lounge on the 27th floor; fresh yogurt, fresh fruit, pink guava juice, eggs, bacon, sausage, pastries, cheeses, cereals, cappuccinos, etc. Yum.  Plus a lovely view of Orchard/Scotts Road.

We then tried Skype-ing with our kids; but for some reason (slow internet connection?), they couldn't hear us or see us -- although we could hear and see them just fine.  It's a bit rough -- Jordan (10) and Jonathan (6) were clearly missing us, and pretty sad that they couldn't see us.  Okay, it was sad for us, as well -- sad that we could tell that they were sad that they couldn't see us.  ;-)  But we know that they'll press on, and they'll survive.  We do miss them, and we recognize that they can't fully grasp that we had to come so we could start putting together the pieces of our new family life here in Singapore.

On the agenda for today?  Nothing, really.  It's been a LONG time since we've had absolutely no meetings, appointments, places to be, things to do, etc.  We plan on spending the day meandering along Orchard Road, possibly heading down to Raffles and/or possibly a River Boat Tour.  Tomorrow will be church (although we're still trying to figure out which one to check out tomorrow), and dinner w/one of Jackie's old acquaintances from her former life here (back in 1997-98).

Monday morning begins our "official" agenda of visiting schools and getting an orientation of the general area, while our "official" house-hunting begins on Tuesday morning.  I'll do my best to keep you posted on our adventures this week.  In the meantime, if you happen to be back "home", please give our kids some extra hugs and kisses if you happen to run into them -- they could certainly use some extra TLC while we're away.