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Thanksgiving. A time to spend with friends and family. A time to reflect back on the last year of our lives and to show our appreciation and gratitude for all of the blessings we occasionally take for granted. This year, especially, we have so much to be thankful for, and one imparticular, is to be able to spend Thanksgiving in Singapore with some of our best friends, that have truly become our family in the last 3.5 years abroad.
We flew into Singapore from Bangkok on Tiger Airlines, our old foe from Australia. This airline has jacked us over on so many occasions, that everytime we fly with them, we swear it is the last. But yet, here we are once again standing in line at the Tiger check-in desk. In our many horrible encounters with Tiger we have learned a few things, the first of which, is to be early, I mean very early, so they don't inexplicably give up your seat. So we checked in approximately 2.5 hours early for the short flight to Singers. Amazingly, there was no line, no wait, pleasant service, and boom we were through security in a flash. Well done! After a bit of lunch and our obligatory stop off in duty-free to pick up a couple of bottles of spirits for our Thanksgiving festivities, we were abroad the almost completely empty plane to Singapore. Because there were so few people taking this flight, the plane actually left 15 minutes early as everyone, all 18 of us, were present and accounted for. Awesome. Love Tiger!
We landed 2.5 hours later, zipped through immigration and jumped in a cab on our way to the Newton Gems, home to our dear friends Becky Reining and Kelly Herlmier. We arrived and were promptly greeted by one Becky Reining. It's been at least 2-3 weeks since I've seen this girl, far too long! We were settling in, waiting for the cast of characters to arrive from Aus when in walked the lovely Emily McInerny! "What, I thought you were flying in with the rest of the gang!?" but oh no, she had been in Singapore for several days... What a wonderful surprise!?
So we sat around chatting and eventually in walks Kelly!! It had been ages since seeing this girl! How much fun was this weekend going to be!? We poured a few cocktails and waited for the rest of the crew to show up. They had mistakenly flown Jetstar instead of Tiger, and were of course delayed an hour or so. But eventually they did make it, and in walks Lizzy, Rachel, and Liam. Let me tell you the reception that occurred the moment these three walked in the door was quite a sight, in fact I believe it was caught on video so you may see sooner or later, but wow... There was a lot of screaming, jumping, smiling, laughing, and even some tears. Like I said quite a sight.
That evening, after catching up over several drinks we headed out to grab some food. We hit up some local food where the guys tried some mutton, followed by a hookah bar, and back to crib for the night.
In the morning we were at long last graced with the presence of our final crew member, Deke-ster!!
We had big plans to go hiking and bike riding, but decided we were just as happy spending our Thanksgiving day hanging out together next to the pool all day.
That night we all went out for a very non-traditional, but very delicious Thanksgiving dinner of Singapore Mud Crab. I was beside myself with happiness, having all these wonderful people together eating such a good meal, definitely a Thanksgiving to remember! After we were all properly stuffed we retired back to Becky/Kelly's apartment which had transformed into a youth hostel dorm over the last few days, I'm talking 8 people in a two bedroom apartment!
The next morning we awoke to one of our favorite days, No No, not Black Friday- PBE Day, Play it By Ear Day. We started the day out the way any great day would International Flip Cup Tournament via Skype - U.S vs. Singapore. I forget who won exactly but it was definitely a very close game - only that it wasn't, we were whooped. Hats off to Kyle, Justin, Jay, Drew, Leslie and anyone I may've missed on team U.S - glad you haven't lost your touch! The rest of the day proved most excellent, I will skip the details here, but safe to say we took Singapore by storm and owned the city that day, even managed to get a photo and mention on the Singapore Orchard Street Facebook Page. What a fun day indeed. We finished it off with an overdue stop at the legendary Singapore hawker stalls before heading back to the Gems for a late swm and sleep.
The next day we awoke to the Big Day! 6 am wake up for Kelly abd Kefri to get the Turkey in the oven. We finished up our shopping, cooked all our dishes and sat down for an amazing Thanksgiving dinner by 4pm. 30 guests- friends old and new sat down in Singapore, Singapore for a beautiful Thanksgiving feed. For some, it was their first Thanksgiving, but everyone loved it and all felt blessed to be together. The day carried on long into the night, until we eventually packed it in, cleaned it up and called it a night.
Sunday, was most definitely, our much needed day of rest. We all hung out, sleeping, swimming, chatting, and relaxing. Ah, so nice!
Monday, it was up early for our flight back to Thailand, but what an incredible trip. Big, Big Thank You to Becky and Kelly for hosting us and the dinner. I know that was a lot to ask and you ladies pulled it off perfectly!!
Thanksgiving 2011 Singapore, Singapore - one we'll never forget!
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