Day 5 & 6

30th April 2008

Mr Liow's colleague took us on a half day tour yesterday in the afternoon.

We went to Grant Stone where they sell oriental groceries and another one at...17th St? Asian groceries. Both are about 45mins drive from our place. That means we still get to have oriental food and sauces here, not as bad as we thought.

Have I mentioned that toilet papers here are REALLY expensive? 6 rolls of toilet papers are on average, USD$12 except for those on promo. The cheapest I saw are $6 for a pack of 4 rolls...so ex!

After driving past where those oriental grocery stores, we went to David Monthan Camp where military personnels get their own grocery stores, clinics, banks etc etc. There are also living quarters and RV stopovers there. It's like a small town by itself with amenities. Cool place. The things in there are also tax free. That's about an hours' drive from our place.

The driving around to DM (including the drive around some parts of Tucson) about 2 hrs or more. After leaving BM, we were taken to the Saguaro Dessert National Park.

The Saguaros (update pictures later) we see in Singapore are mostly by themselves. Those who keep cactus probably keep them alone.

The Saguaros we saw yesterday were all loners BUT they had so many neighbours!! The mountains were filled with individual Saguaros. It's so beautiful! How creative our Lord can be that He planted Cactus on mountains. So many of them!!

All the different types of plants and cactus-es

This is Miss Saguaro

One of the 2 (I think) national parks

The roads were all up and down hill it felt like a rollercoaster ride when we went thru the mountainous area. Can't really see. Will try take a clearer pic if we do go there again. I think we will :)
We came to a higher land where we could look down and we saw 2-3 'mini tornadoes'. Those were formed when hot and cold air come into contact with each other. And those were really tornados! They do not cause much damage although Mr Liow's encik said that if we happen to walk into one, we will feel the sand, drawn into the tornadoes, beating against our skin and it can hurt a fair bit.

That's about all we did yesterday. :)


May Day 2008
Another of Mr Liow's colleague was so sweet as to bring us to David Monthan (DM) camp again today. I had to get more baby food for AN. She's been eating baby food lately. No choice coz I couldn't cook for her.. : ( She's lost much of the bulk she put on at my parents place when she got regular and full portioned meals my mum made for her. Poor baby.

It was a brief drive thru yesterday so we didn't get to walk into the stores.

There are basically 2 stores which we went shopping in today. Those are sectioned as CX (whatever that means). One of the stores sell necessities like clothes and stuff. Guess what? He told me they sell MAC there. YES!!! MAC as in the makeup brand MAC!

We went over to the makeup section but the lady said MAC has shifted but we can find that at Park Mall Dillard's. Will be there to explore when we've settled down. There are brands like Lancome, Clinique etc there tho. Those are tax free coz we have the military passes. hee.

And I see Coach bags being thrown all over the shelves as if those were some cheapo brands. -_____-"

We walked around and I saw GUCCI sunglasses at USD$69. I wondered if they were genuine and the colleague said they are. They can't sell fake stuff in the store. USD$69!! I'll be back to get one for myself. It's a necessity coz it's really bright here. Unlike Singapore where we have trees and high buildings where we can find shade from the sun with, the buildings here are low and there are hardly trees along pavements. The sun really shines directly on us. Sunglasses are necessities here.

Then we went to the Commisiaries (don't think I spelt it correctly. Will correct myself when I find out how to spell it right). That's the grocery section. I bought lots of baby food for AN. We can't afford to go to the supermarts everyday coz we still have to rely on those who sacrifice their family time to bring us out. We feel bad taking away their private time so I had to get as much as I can so that we don't have to trouble the guys.

Next was to used car dealers to check out cars. The guys took some time to do some calculations..

I've learnt from the colleague that:
1. It's ok spend on cars that ran about 1500miles a year. eg. if we're looking at a 2006 car, the mileage shldn't have exceeded 3000miles (give and take a little).

2. Cars can be cheap here but no point buying new cars coz the depreciation at the end of the day is comparable to that of Singapore cars. A coll who left bought a new car at $24K and sold it 2 yrs later at $14K. That's in USD.

3. We drove Wish in Singapore. That's MPV (multi purpose vehicle) right? Here, 7 seaters are called mini vans. hee. I thought Mr Liow's encik was kidding when he suggested we get a van coz we have a baby and 2 dogs. He drives a mini van himself. So we're on a lookout for a mini van now. Mr Liow has shortlisted a couple of his favourites.

4. It'll be cheaper to get from private sellers. Agents charges plus taxes etc will add up to about $2K on top of the prices shown on the cars they sell.

5. There are used cars, and conditioned used cars for sale. Used cars are as-is. What you see is what you get and come with 3 months warranty. Conditioned used cars are serviced and maintained and come with 3 yrs warranty.

6. If you see and like a car, you pay and drive the car away, irregardless of whether the car is a new or used one. We don't have to wait to collect the car days or weeks later. And new cars are parked under the sun.

Can't remember if I've left anything out but it was an informative afternoon out hunting for a car. hee.

The sun's hot but the wind's rather cooling. Quite a nice weather today. It was warmer yesterday with hot sun and warm wind. Everyday's quite different from each other.

Let's see what tomorrow is like. I think we're checking out of the hotel tomorrow and shifting into Mr Liow's colleague's home. That's colleague's name is Edwin, whom Mr Liow's going to take over here.

Don't know if he still has internet access at his home. He's leaving on 6th May and we'll have to shift again. Will try to keep all of u updated when I can :)

Updated 2344hrs of 1st May 2008
Had bbq at one of Mr Liow's colleague's apartment's poolside. It was a farewell dinner for Edwin, the colleague whom Mr Liow's taking over, and a few other guys who will be leaving in June. It was also a welcome dinner for Mr Liow.

The wives made food so we had local bbq dishes like fried bee hoon, curry chicken and the rest like the usual marinated pork, sausages (I think this is the ang mo sausage. I didn't have the chance to eat that tho), and some others. It was yum yum considering that I've had Jap food and western most of the past few days. I realised I missed fried bee hoon. hehe.

Poh Teck (another Encik)'s wife (I asked for her name twice and still am unable to remember it) made AN porridge twice since we came, and today. The porridge today tasted so good!! Asked her for her recipe and she mentioned she added fresh scallop and dried oyster. That explained the sweetness of the porridge. I'm going to use those for her porridge in future.

Thank God AN has passed her year old birthday. I can feed her most things I eat now, including seafood (or at least seafood stock). I had started to feed her Rice Crispies in fresh milk, bread dipped in fresh milk and other what-nots. Staying in the hotel and having to get out meant I won't have time to make proper breakfast for AN. So I have to relax my limits a little and feed AN 'outside' food. I used to not like to give AN 'outside food' coz it's way less healthier than home cooked. Beggers can't be choosers. hee.

It was a good time of getting to know some of Mr Liow's guys and their wives. And guess what? Mr Liow got thrown into the pool.

The weather was easily 18 deg celcius. It was unexpected coz the past few nights were bearably cooling. Mr Liow wasn't the only guy who got thrown in. The other guys, one after another, gradually ended up in the pool as well. You can imagine how cold they all felt. All took off from the pool and dipped themselves into the hot jaccuzi by the side.

Here are some pictures of the earlier events.

From the pool looking out, I see more mountains.

The wives and kids

Just on a side note, this is how AN's hair now looks like. It's so dry and frizzy *________*" It's like I did back comb on her hair and no matter how I try to comb it down (with water or by pressing it down with my palms), her hair continues to stand. That's it...her hair's a goner..

Baby Sherlyn with Chee Kiong who drove us to DM this afternoon. Sherlyn is 1.5yrs old. She's adorable!! Her parents say she loves to eat and as long as there's food in sight, she's calm. She can finish her meal and drool when her parents eat. Totally cute! I'd rather AN love food but she doesn't. hmm....feeding times are mostly war times. Wonder why...sigh.. I secretly touched her hair. It's so soft and silky. And why's AN's hair damaged??

1st batch of Poolside Boys. By the end of the party, the tub was full.

And then Mr Liow called Camalot K9 Resort just now, and spoke to Jo. She said BM were very well behaved and that they were 100% accurate on papers (oh, surprise surprise! B usually does it half and half. Half of his body on paper n half out, meaning part of his pee will flow out of papers). She said that made cleaning up really easy for them. She said she took samples of B's poop to send for testing tho. She also thinks he's skinny and worries about parasites. She's given them both frontline (all the dogs there gets frontline in fact).

I like the way they do things. It's all additional costs but to me, if all these keeps BM safe, we'll pay. Beats some pet shops back in Singapore who do not care. Boarding means dumping the dog into a cage till the owner comes back to fetch them. That's why BM goes to Mark. Even tho they come back with ticks, at least they get to roam. hee. And Jo cared enough to send his stools for testing. I don't really mind the test. Sets my heart at ease if the results come out negative for parasites too.

We'll be out of the hotel tmr. Mr Liow will be going to work from tmr onwards. I'll be alone at Edwin's home with AN. Guess then I'll have time to make proper food for her. To update again tmr :)