AN UPDATE:

Life has been a wonderful sort of hectic in the last several months- Pris and I have celebrated Halloween, Christmas, New Year's, CNY, Valentine's Day and more. We've both added another year to our tickers and had some great experiences, including an unforgettable trip to Cambodia. I would love to share all of this with you, but we've recently received some life changing news (in a good way!) that is both the cause of the delay these last several months and the likely cause of a permanent end to our updating.

Before we do put a formal close to the posting I will share this news with all our readers, but in the meantime I hope you'll all hang on with me and wait for confirmation!

Thank you so much for reading about our experiences through the short lifetime of this blog. No matter if this blog is put to an end or not, we will always be happy to chat with any of our readers, and our posts will stay up even if we will not be adding to them.

Donating Blood in Singapore

First, a quick warning. This post is about BLOOD. It also has a picture of blood in a bag. If this grosses you out, please don't put yourself through it and scroll past this post!

(they even have a mascot!)

Back when I lived in Ohio, I made it a point to donate blood as often as I felt up to. I'm blood type O+, which always seemed in critical stock in my area, and since I fit the criteria in the States it seemed a necessary evil, even though I'm actually terrified of needles. And blood. Even making this post is kind of making me queasy, but it's for a good cause! Seriously though, I'm a huge baby and cry nearly every time I go- my parents can tell horror stories about me running through doctor's offices to escape the poor nurses tasked with updating my vaccines. Fortunately, I haven't yet run from anyone at blood drives, so I consider that progress.

At any rate, since I moved to Singapore about a year and a half ago I haven't attempted to donate blood, but after seeing a site detailing the current low stocks of type O blood, thought it was about time I gathered my courage again and went for it. It looks like at the moment the stocks have been raised out of the red and into the yellow, which I'm going to attribute to my own fearless bravery stop laughing now. 

(see, be nice. jerks.)

You would think that donating blood anywhere in the world would be relatively the same, but as there are a surprising amount of different criteria and things to keep in mind, I thought making a blog post and hopefully rallying a few more people to go to their nearest blood drive might be worth it. So first, a few of the facts to keep in mind:

• You have to weigh at least 45kg to donate, which is about 100lbs. If you weigh between 45 and 50kg you'll donate a smaller amount, but as the minimum weight for donation in the US is 110lbs, it's quite a big difference. 
• For most blood drives, you don't need to register. I walked in at the Pasir Ris East CC blood drive and it was so empty I was literally through in under an hour, and if I wasn't such a baby could have been through in about 30 minutes. 
• You can find a listing of upcoming blood drives here or head to one of the few blood banks in the country (Bloodbank@HSA or Bloodbank@Woodlands) any time.

Aside from the few differences in criteria, even the process was a bit different. Like in the States, first you have to read information about donating blood and pages that talk about who can't.

However, they also shorten the process by having you answer that long list of repetitive questions about your health and history yourself through checkboxes, rather than having a nurse ask you or take time answering on a computer. Locals will need to bring along their IC for identification, and although it tells foreigners to bring their passports, my EP was all I needed to get through.

(by this point the terror was just starting to build, you can't read more than a hint of horror in my eyes)

The procedure after that is all normal. You talk to a nurse who checks out your info and makes sure you have no questions, go through the dreaded iron test (actually not bad, I had a great nurse and it didn't even sting a bit) and take a seat on the long chairs to await the donation. 

Since it was seriously dead, they were pretty much waiting on me to get there and sit. Luckily it was all the same after that too, my extreme twitching and attempts to keep myself from crying even got the same response here as back in Ohio! That's when it gets different. Usually at this point in Ohio they'd stick me with a needle and I'd spend the next 5-10 minutes trying in vain to ignore the weird feeling and slight discomfort and do my best to not pass out after glancing at the slowly filling bag to my side. But Singapore is a haven for people like me, and instead they actually give you a local pain killer injection first. That may not seem like a big deal, but when you're as terrified of needles as I am, not having to feel the needle in your arm during the process is pretty much the best thing that could possibly happen.

(look, they even gave me a sticker since it was my first time in Singapore!)

 I'd been really hitting the water a few days before donating, and I guess it thinned my blood a bit because my bag was almost full after about 2-3 minutes and I had to lie down to not pass out.

 

(serious, this was just barely more than a minute since starting)

But in the end I did make it through my first blood donation in Singapore and came out alive. I'll probably take a while to get my courage up again, but since it's a minimum 12 weeks between donations here, rather than the 56 days in the States, I've got a while.

Useful Links- 

Everything you need to know about donating blood in Singapore- youtube video

HSA requirements and information

Donorweb blood donation pledge form

Good luck with your donations and feel free to share any experiences giving blood in Singapore or around the world!

Kite Festival 2011

I'm not much for kites and neither is Michi, but man does this site make for some pretty awesome photos!

Alright, I'll admit the only reason I considered re-attending the Kite Festival this year was because I'd missed out on obtaining the goodie bags the year before.

FREEBIES!!!

And a redemption stamp to ward off the greedy folk. I'm not kidding when I say I've seen people walk away with ten bags hanging off each arm.

Presented by Act 3 International, the NTUC Income Kite Festival Singapore 2011 was held at The Promontory at Marina Bay on 3rd and 4th September. Having been here the previous year I can safely say that the event was pretty much exactly the same this year as it was the year before, although not any less spectacular. Buskers were just one such attraction of the event:

The kites were, of course, the main attraction of the entire festival, and we were lucky to witness NTUC's own orange kite take to the skies. It was humongous!

It needed two people to hold it up!

Lifting off...

And up into the sky!

The tail was seriously long

...REALLY long

Flying a kite wasn't as easy as it looked... either that or I just really suck at flying them. Each goodie bag had a little orange NTUC kite, and getting that little 4" by 3" into the air was harder than I'd thought.

My best achievement: 6 feet off the pavement for 3 seconds

What I should have done instead

We didn't participate too much in this event (hence the complete lack of actual blog material in this post), but it was definitely worth the trip out to enjoy the beautiful breeze and to admire the picturesque scenery. If you're an avid kite flyer or enthusiast or just someone looking for a good place to get good photos, mark this event down in your calendar when it comes around next year.

A Farewell to the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station

Along with a huge crowd of others clamoring to get a few last shots before the Railway sent out its last train on July 1st, Pris and I headed down last weekend, but were so busy through the week we're only now getting a chance to post our own pics (actually, we've been running from site to site all over Singapore so we've got lots to blog about in the near future). It was a lot busier than we expected, but considering it was the last weekend the trains would be running it was also pretty expected. The station itself will remain open two weeks after the 1st according to a press report, so anyone who'd still like shots of the tracks should be prepared to get their shots in soon before the doors are closed for good.

The Tajong Pagar Railway has been one of two checkpoints islandwide leading from Singapore into Malaysia directly. Now that this station is closed the only option left is the Woodlands Train Checkpoint, though the routes and times there aren't anywhere near as extensive as that just shut down.

The outside of the building is worth the trip alone, just based on the fact that you don't see old architecture like that in modern Singapore often. There are four statues posed on the building with the letters F M S R overhead, for Federated Malay States Railways and an impressive entrance, though if you go now you can expect to have lots of heads blocking any decent pictures.

I guess it's a little late to be talking about the services that used to be provided since it's not like anyone can make use of them by now, and especially since we can't say much about it since we never did make any trips on the rail anyway, so instead I'll just post the time-table for anyone interested:

 

In any case, we did manage to brave the crowds and head down by the tracks for a few quick shots of what will soon be closed to the public. There were no trains coming or going while we were there, but the tracks themselves were nice to look at, and knowing we were going to be some of the last few able to head in was exciting.

Alright, truth be told, it's pretty difficult to sound as excited as I'd like about this visit, not because it wasn't nice to look at or boring, but just because there's not much to say about railroad tracks in general, especially those that we can't recommend for a visit since they aren't running and will soon be closed even for a visit.

I'll just leave it to say if you have time in the next week make it a priority to stop down and take a last look at a national monument (since this year, actually) which has been running since 1932 and which holds fond memories for countless people.

(what's happening, i haven't had anything snarky to say this whole post!)

Pink Dot 2011 Coverage

(i'm sure this is unnecessary by now, but... click here to go to the official site!)

Even though it's pretty late over here, Pris and I were so excited after our day at Pink Dot 2011 we had to make the post the same night. (We've already covered the basics of what Pink Dot is all about in our pre-post here, so check that post for a bit of background first if you don't already know!) We had a bit of early preparation to pump ourselves up with a trip to the neoprint machines in Bugis for a Pink Dot photoshoot and afterward headed straight to Hong Lim Park, despite the fact that nothing began at all until 4:30 and we were two and a half hours early.

(camwhoring for a good cause!)

To our surprise, the event preparation was well under way and there were already a few die hard souls gathering and grabbing some choice spots as well as a ton of volunteers hard at work setting things up. We got ourselves a spot too and watched as the first few dozen people or so quickly turned into several hundred, even though it was still well before starting time.

As expected, the Speaker's Corner turned into a sea of pink before we knew it, with great weather and everyone in high spirits making our time even better. We wandered around a while to see everything going on, but this turned out to be unnecessary for two reasons: 1) By the time things really started it was so packed walking was almost impossible, and 2) the volunteers were ridiculously on top of things, with dozens of trays being passed around with free drinks, cupcakes, informational brochures, pins and other fun souvenirs.

(this won the award for sweetest drink. seriously, go here if you can, these people are awesome! www.thegardenslug.com)

(go here too, these mini cupcakes were delicious! @thewokandbarrel)

 All the great free treats were definitely the icing on the cupcake, totally unexpected but wonderfully welcome, but the real stars were the staff who kept everyone laughing and happy, so props to all the Pink Dot 2011 crew, you all definitely brightened our day!

 Several staff were patrolling the area with sticky hearts they were asking people to write messages on. Both Pris and I wrote our messages and got to stick them on the walking message board (see above), but when we saw where they all ended up it was even more fun and touching.

(Pink Dot message board! Instant written pick-me-up)

Soon after that the promised concert got underway, with performances by the Dim Sum Dollies, Voguelicious and Rima S and plenty more. 

(told you they were there. unfortunately, we didn't get to hear the MRT song today)

 (they had some serious dance moves. also, look at those heels!)

The concert was great, but the best part of the event came when all over 10,000 of the participants tried to form a huge human pink dot. Unfortunately only citizens and PRs could form the dot, as per the rules of the Speaker's Corner, but even they alone managed to take up the entire space. I'm going to link here to pictures from all the Pink Dot events just for comparison to how insane this was:

Pink Dot 2009- 2,500 particpants

Pink Dot 2010- 4,000 participants

Pink Dot 2011- over 10,000 participants!

We're not sure if they actually expected this high of a turnout, but if they didn't no one could tell. Despite the huge crowd, there was excess of everything; drinks, snacks, brochures, balloons, pom poms and pretty much anything else you could expect. We got a few of our own pics of the dot forming (well, I did, Pris was already in it. Try and spot her in the photos!), but definitely check out the links, the aerial view is fantastic.

 Once everyone was gathered there was a countdown and all at once hundreds of balloons were released by the crowd. 

I gotta admit, that was a pretty tear jerking moment, with everyone yelling in support and cheering and the general excitement in the air. Not something you'd expect in a country where it is still officially illegal for two men to be together (of course, there are no provisions on women in the law, I suppose the government doesn't think that exists?)

We even got a quick snapshot of ourselves before heading off.

One last note before signing off here: if you haven't already watched the Pink Dot 2011 video, you need to watch it now. I don't think anyone with half a heart could finish through that without shedding a tear or two-

edit 19 June: Pink Dot made the local Yahoo news again! 

Pink Dot 2011 Pre-Post

 Pris and I are big supporters for equality in all aspects of the word, so we've had this coming Saturday blocked out on our calendars since the date for Pink Dot 2011 was announced. We'll be doing follow up coverage on the event after this Saturday, but we thought we'd put out an invitation to anyone in Singapore who may not have heard to come join us for an exciting afternoon!

Pink Dot is an exciting one day activity hosted to show support for the GLBT community in Singapore which is often forgotten and rarely heard. It's a celebration of the ability to overcome obstacles and love without regard to gender and stereotypes and we're incredibly happy to have the opportunity to take part this year!

PINK DOT 2011
WHERE: Hong Lim Park
WHEN: Saturday, June 18, 2011
Time: Activities Begin Promptly at 5pm

More Information: here!

As you may imagine thanks to the name, visitors are encouraged to wear pink. This is a family friendly event so bring along friends, relatives and anyone you know who may be interested in supporting the cause. 

The Dim Sum Dollies (now best known for their hilariously bad MRT jingle we were all forced to listen to a dozen times a day for months) will be the sort of guests of honor present at the event, though there's quite a line up and it looks like the entire evening is going to be a blast.

We'll be arriving early to stake out a spot and enjoy the atmosphere, so feel free to come down and say hello and show your support for an important cause!

(see you there!)  

edit 16 June: Pink Dot was posted about on Yahoo Singapore! News article here.

The Japanese are insane (in a good way)

Hello again! (If anyone's still reading this?!) We're really sorry we haven't been updating so much as of May! We just got back from our vacation to Michi's hometown in Ohio and then straight back into work and unpacking and all that lovely stuff, so things have been real hectic. We should get regular again starting this June though!

There's so much to blog about but (1) my laptop broke (it's the one with the photoshop program so... no nice pictures anymore until I get it fixed) (2) we have too many pictures, so I'll make a really short post about... Japanese toilets.

...no, seriously. Japanese toilets.

Japanese airport toilets, in any case. We had to make a transit in Narita/Haneda on our way back to Singapore, and with a twelve hour layover there really wasn't much to do but admire the toile-- I'm kidding. But really, look at that toilet. Porcelain white and clean and smelling like cleaning agent, no spills on the floor, nothing. Perfect toilet. Except... what the heck is that thing sticking out on the side, you say? No way, a remote control? For the toilet?

Now with butt, intimate, and fake actions!

Yep, that's what it is. A remote for the toilet, and pressing a button either plays a flushing noise (for the embarassed ladies who don't want others to hear them do their doo-dah), washes your intimate areas, or jettisons your rear end. And let's not forget the stop button to put an end to any of that. There's even a water pressure selector and a volume control! It even comes with instructions for those of us who unfortunately don't have one of these beauties in our homes:

...needless to say, we tried it out. The verdict? Pretty cool to look at and to hear about, but not really that great of a deal and really unnecessary overall. In fact, the bidet and butt-washing functions felt more like someone was gently peeing upwards onto my nether regions with cool, clean water than doing any actual cleansing. Still cool though in any case, I mean, how many people do you know have sat on one of these?

And that was just one toilet cubicle. This is the handicapped washroom. Isn't it the most awesome handicapped washroom you've ever seen?

Purikura/Neoprints in Singapore

Purikura Machines (short for "Purinto Kurabu", or "Print Club" in Japanese) were all the rage a decade ago in most Asian countries, and still prove to be a popular hit with the female Asian youth of today. The Purikura Machine is pretty much a glamorized version of a standard photo booth - it takes your picture, runs it through several filters that will make any camwhore shed rivers of envy, then lets you prettify it with cutesy graphics and cool Engrish phrases before printing them out into ready-to-stick glossy miniature photos (more commonly referred to as "neoprints") that you can share with friends or paste on letters to pen pals.

Here in Singapore, these neoprint machines are normally found in most popular shopping complexes, usually in buildings which have cinema theaters in them. The one we frequent is in Bugis Junction and the shop is often crowded with schoolgirls and women with their unfortunate boyfriends:

...well, except today. Today wasn't as busy. Which was good for us.

 We're both pretty camera-shy people and kinda self-conscious about how we look, but the fun of taking the pictures and decorating them afterward pretty much outweighs whatever confidence barriers we have. This is how a neoprint machine works:

Click for a larger view and more explanations!

It's pretty simple: You go into the booth, insert your coins (normally 11 - 13 SGD), take 5 - 6 shots of yourself and/or your friends; exit the booth, go into the decorating booth, decorate your images, and then collect your photo from the print out station located at the bottom of the side of the machine. You're given about five seconds to pose for each shot, so get ready!

You can choose to mimic the poses the models adapt on-screen or come up with your own poses beforehand. After you've taken your shots, you're allowed to select which few you would like to send for printing. Once that's confirmed, it's on to the decoration!

You even get to choose how many shots you'd like printed! You can't decide exactly WHICH shot gets printed in what size, unfortunately.

The unfortunate thing about Purikura Machines is that every single one of them is in Japanese. There are no translations, no subtitles, and selecting the types of lighting/decoration you want to use involves a lot of guesswork or familiarity with the machines. Most of the machines run on a time limit too before the shots are sent to print, so try to get all your pictures decorated evenly before focusing on any single one. The decorations vary widely depending on the Purikura Machine used, and some of them offer much wider ranges of backgrounds/borders/accessories than others.

If you don't mind showing your face to the world, there's a little board on the far wall that lets you stick up your neoprints for everyone else to see!

It's really all about luck and experimenting if you want to take the "perfect neoprint". For now I'll just take my pleasure in chronicling how long my hair gets with each successive picture we take.

Michi was quite happy with how this set of photos came out, though~