It's the ciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiircle of liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife....

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the globe after another GREAT DAY in the Lion City. Okay, so first off, ANNOUNCEMENT - there will be NO BLOG until Monday, 25 July. Why, you ask? Because, fresh off a tour of the casinos in one of China's "Special Administrative Regions," Team Taylor is going back to a "contested area" to celebrate their 5 year anniversary in style in....TAIWAN, BABY!!!! Expect to be dazzled...very, VERY dazzled by my language skills. NUN HEY BEE LU!!!! That's "2 beers, please" - at least you can't say I don't know the essentials.

Tonight the Bull and Striker met up with Sister Sarah at the Marina Bay Sands hotel/casino/skating rink/shopping mall/theater district to cross off a Singapore to-do and make good on a promise from London that was loooooooooooooong overdue - watching a performance of "The Lion King."

So here's the deal - during the 6 month "death march" to complete EVERYTHING on our to-do list in the Smoke, this was the ONE SHOW that got left off the list. We'd both seen it, and we knew that we'd see it again at some point. Little did we know when we arrived in Sing Sing, however, it's a PERMANENT show at the Sands (the hotel with the infinity pool on top in the shape of the boat). We had decided then and there that we'd made it happen and cross it off the list, and so when a friend said, "I get a discount!", we said we were in.

That being said, when we said, "we're in!", we assumed that meant "so let us know what times work, what your discount is, and then we'll think about it." So you can imagine our surprise when we got a text after landing back from Bangkok last weekend saying, "Tickets bought! I (the friend) can't go but you're booked. $140 a seat!" Um, WHAT!?!?!?!!? 70 QUID A SEAT? Does it come with a backrub and $500 in freeplay chips in the casino? AND WHAT THE @#$# HAPPENED TO THE DISCOUNT?!?!?!?

I was particularly shocked because I KNEW those were the most expensive seats in the house. Well, come to find out, the discount was only 15%, and since we were all "bankers," she just assumed we'd want "the nice seats." Mom, dad - from this point on, just tell people I'm a farmer. It will make things a lot easier for me. I'm going to start doing the same thing. "Hi, we're Team Taylor. We grow pineapples and cucumbers on the Malaysian border." Sounds plausible...

All that being said, the seats were spectacular, and the show was JUST FANTASTIC. What was NOT fantastic, however, were the 2 children beside us who'd clearly never been whipped in their lives and who were pretty sure the show would only be enhanced if they spoke at random times at 150 decibels. Even LESS fantastic was the dude in front of me who was CHECKING FACEBOOK AND TALKING THE ENTIRE TIME. After 20 minutes in I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back, and I'm pretty sure it was the scariest thing that's ever happened to him. And when "the white devil" told him to tone it down, he actually did get quieter. His lady friend, the new white boned demon, however, gave me a solid "go to hell stare." I gave her the "I will kill you like I killed the shing gow pai pai table in Macau lady - back off" stare, and we were civil after that. But he did fire it back up again, and so we actually moved seats in the second act (7th row center!).

Act 2 was much better, but when we moved I said, "these seats will be better - there's an old guy behind us." But 2 seconds into the act his wife and kids were SCREAMING as the booze coursed into their veins. All I could think of was "Sarah will NEVER trust me again. First the 2 hour walk to a food court in Manila - now this." But they piped down quickly, and Act 2 was GREAT.

In truth, you could hear LOADS of talking all over the theater, and there was tons of clapping and laughing at some really odd moments. That being said, there were some great moments on stage where the actors spoke Chinese, said la, and even made a Merlion reference. All in all, it was a really great show.

We then walked back home, where the Bull had dinner at 11:45 PM and is now about to call it a night. I know this means Macau Part 2 has to wait over a week, but that's just the way it's gonna have to be.

Okay, that's all the news that's fit to print. Chat with you in just over a week!

Love,

Sam and Jenny