You know it's a good night when your wife wakes up and says, "I want Hooters for lunch"...

Family

And a good Sunday morning to you from across the globe after a MASSIVE NIGHT OUT in the Mother Country. Talk about a WHIRLWIND! There's so much to pack into this blog that I don't know where to start...so I'll just kick it off with another Boomerang brekkie.

Team Taylor actually rolled up to Boomerang "early" (meaning noon) this time, and it was much quieter. The heat yesterday (haven't been out today, but it looks scalding...) was something between oppressive and Spanish Inquisition Torture Chamber, and we were sweating bullets by the time we got back to the casa. I then spent 2 hours doing the unthinkable - IRONING ALL OF MY CLOTHES. Big Cat - you would have been SO proud - I even managed to get the wrinkles out of some of them! As for others, let's just say that the Singapore washer/dryer/Hadron collider is wreaking HAVOC on my clothes, and shirts are getting tighter (I'm not fat I'm just big boned!) as well as more wrinkled the more I wash them. But as I fear this is trending into "pineapple blog" territory, I'll move on.

I finished just in time for the arrival of Jason and Rebecca, at which point we downed a glass of water, changed clothes, and rolled over to one of the "to do's" on our Singapore list - The Asian Civilizations Museum. Jenny and I'd been wanting to check this place out for awhile, and since they also had an exhibit of the Terracotta warriors on display, this felt like the perfect time.

We rocked up about 4:30, at which point we were treated to the MOST EXCELLENT news that the museum (including the Terracotta soldiers) was FREE this weekend due to the National Day celebrations (who just saved $13 a person? THIS GUY...). And since there is no museum better than a free one, we stepped inside with our expectations high.

The museum was quite good - small and compact to be sure, but it did a nice job of explaining the history of various SE Asia countries. The line for the Terracotta warriors was over an hour, and so I'd pretty much given up seeing them when Jenny rounds a corner and says, "So I just went to the bathroom, noticed the exit was unguarded, and rocked right in there." Granted, Jenny is smokin' hot and wearing a revealing skirt and I'm a dude who's hair looks like Napoleon Dynamite at the moment, so I probably should have realized she would have an easier go of it. All the same, I tried the same approach, at which point some 6th degree blackbelt stopped me and directed me to the line.

In a stroke of luck, however the line suddenly evaporated, and 5 minutes later I was in the exhibition hall for the soldiers. I'd wanted to see these DESPERATELY in London, but unfortunately they'd arrived just after I left. It's funny - first the Lion King and now this - my remaining London "to-do's" are all magically appearing in Singapore to get crossed off - DIGGIN' IT! I will say that, given the small size of the exhibition hall, I was a wee bit disappointed with the exhibit. It was SO COOL to see them, but they only had a grand total of 9 dudes and 1 horse on display, which is a bit anti-climactic when we later learned that the Berlin exhibit had TWO HUNDRED SOLDIERS ALL IN POSITION. But hey, all the same - I saw them and it was free, so how can I complain?

After that we wanted past Parliament to Raffles, where we had a vew drinks at the Long Bar. They were running a special on pitchers of beer, but the catch was that you had to order "2 slings" to get the discount. Knowing that Rebecca and Sven would be joining us, we ordered the pitcher. However, when we got the text that said, "Sven still needs to do his hair and iron his shirt - meet you at the restaurant", both the Bull and Striker jumped on the grenade and went with "Winter Slings," which were actually quite tasty.

It was then across the street to dinner, which was inside the Fairmont Hotel at an Italian place called "Prego." Sven works at the Swisshotel, which is attached to the Fairmont, and he'd made a reservation for us. We rock up to this place, he gives them the name on the reservation, and we notice that, unlike other reservation names in yellow, his is in red. 10 seconds later, we are being treated like KINGS.

Seriously - the manager comes out to shake all of our hands, the Maitre'd (Terrier - I don't know how the hell you spell it - why do you even NEED the apostrophes anyway?) served us personally for most of the night, AND we were treated to plenty of special treats along the way. This place was seriously EPIC, as we had some AMAZING cheese and prosciutto, some great bruschetta (you select your toppings) with mind blowing tapenade, as well as some REALLY good pasta (I avoided the squid ink this time and went with the Saffron Fusilli). We spent about 2.5 hours in this place, and I felt like a Mafia Don in Sicily just being attended to hand and foot - SOOOOOO GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUD (peppy cheekies).

After that it was over to Club Street (thanks to us "leveraging" Rebecca's broken foot as an excuse to circumvent the taxi queue), where we hit the bittersweet part of the evening - LILY'S LEAVING DRINKS! That's right, sports fans, after travels together in Bali, the Philippines, and most recently KK, Sister Lily is moving back home to London, where she's opening her own restaurant. And whilst we're SUPER excited for her, watching our second friend leave in 3 days just was NOT ideal. We didn't dwell on the bad bits, however, as still had an evening of immortality in front of us!

We rocked the bar Yin Yang (rooftop) until about 2 AM (and even managed to get a proper "Sam's Angels" shot), and the Bull was ready to pack it in. However, between Lily's desire to keep the party going and the UNSTOPPABLE juggernaut of influence coming from Sven, the B & S soon found ourselves dropped off a Clarke Quay, where we rolled into the Highlander! We hadn't been here since Paula's last visit, and I am happy to report that the antlers are still in the chandeliers, the servers are still in kilts, and the music is still excellent. And so the party continued until FOUR IN THE MORNING, at which point the music stopped and Sammy had to pack it in. But let's be REAL clear - JUST SAMMY PACKED IT IN.

That's right - the Striker stayed on until 6 AM, hitting this BIZARRE bar called Hollywood Grand in Clarke Quay. The stories I heard this morning were pretty funny, and they mostly involved trannies, leis, bad Asian music, and a tower of beer. Good times...

We woke up at 10 to tell Jason and Rebecca goodbye, at which point Jenny looked at me and said, "I want HOOTERS for lunch." I mean, who am I to argue, right? I'm just a husband tryin' to look after his girl! :-)

Jason and Rebecca - we had SUCH A BLAST with you guys - talk about an EPIC adventure! Safe travels - enjoy that 14 hour flight! Sorry, couldn't resist...

Okay, that's all the news that's fit to print. Chat tomorrow!

Love,

Sam and Jenny