Yes, we got the official Statutory Declaration under the Oaths & Declaration Act Chapter 211 of Singapore yesterday! Quite an adventure, but we selected a Commissioner of Oath from the Yellow Pages by the name of Andrew Ee. It was actually his assistant who called us back after we called outside of office hours.

Andrew was an absolute join to deal with and an amazing sports fan. With the Olympics coming up, you’ll have a hard time talking about anything else with him. But he followed through and provided us with the Statutory Declaration which we need to apply for a Long Term Social Visit Pass for Olivia. This way, she can stay the whole 12 to 18 months and doesn’t have to leave after her initial 90 days on the tourist visa.

We are extremely happy and kind of married (common-law husband and wife)! So, we celebrated at the local Thai restaurant Sakura around the corner.

Close call, I almost booked us in for the wrong weekend, but I realised today and was able to make some last minute changes to the plans. I am taking Olivia and my mum to Kuala Lumpur this coming Singapore National Day weekend. I had almost booked us in for the week after, but that’s the weekend my mum is flying back home already.

So, we’re taking the first-class bus to Kuala Lumpur on Friday and come back in Monday. A long weekend in KL should be enough to see the sights and investigate what has changed in the years since I left. We’re staying in The Renaissance hotel, just across the street from The Hard Rock Cafe. I guess we’ll also put the following sights on the program: KLCC and Time Square, Chinatown and Imbi Plaza.

We will also be meeting up with Troy & Barbara, our good friends from Melourne who are planning to be in Kuala Lumpur at the same time. Good old day return! I am very much looking forward to it. Now we only have to hope that my work allows me to change my days off as well!

Today we had an afternoon with fellow expats at Brewerkz in the city. A group of people that met through a great Singapore website and forum for expats agreed to meet for a large blind-date today. It turned out to be a great afternoon with a lot of people all going through the same thing but in different stages. All getting used to the Asian culture and climate. It’s nice to meet people from so many different walks of life, countries and backgrounds that all have one thing in common: “Adjusting to Singapore”.

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This is a common picture in HDB housing developments in Singapore. Especially during the weekend. People wash their clothes and because they have nowhere to hang them inside, they hang out their clothes to dry on long flagpoles sticking out their kitchen window.

On a sunny day, this can be a real colorful sight.

Yesterday was in many ways out first night out in Singapore since we arrived. We’ve been away for dinner and drinks in the beginning when we lived in a hotel in the city, I have been away for after work-drinks and we had a BBQ at The Marbella, but this was the first organised evening with friends from Singapore.

We had dinner at Michelangelo’s in Chip Bee Gardens, a quaint little community near Holland Village. The group was basically friends that Olivia met through various channels, brought together and invited their partners along as well. It was a nice mix of different nationalities, people that lived in various parts of the city and that had been here for various durations.

The restaurant was actually very nice. As the name might suggest, a proper Italian restaurant. Chip Bee Gardens is a bit of a posh area just behind Holland Village, with some top-end restaurants and shops. Our favorite butcher is located in the area as well. The easy part is that you only have to cross Holland Road and your in the middle of expat nightlife of Holland Village. As we all live the expat life, that’s exactly what we did and finished the lovely evening with a drink at Tango.