We're booked to Vietnam. For a while today we thought we got on it too late; we went to one travel agent who told us there were basically no flights we could take anywhere within the date range we wanted. Then we tried to book online with Travelocity and Expedia and they both said they couldn't send paper tickets outside the USA. Finally we went by another travel agency that was recommended and they got us everything we wanted at the price we wanted. We leave on the 9th and are getting back on the 30th. We're coming back here, as opposed to going on to Cambodia and Thailand, because it looks like I'm going to have work here come the start of the year. That's great news! I'll be working on some graphical interfaces at the local pay scale (which is apparently lousy) but it's a foot in the door.

After running around taking care of all that mess, we stopped at a quaint local coffee shop (cough cough) and while we sat outside sipping our beverages, a mynah bird hopped up under the table next to us and proceded to serenade us. It's the little things.

Now we have a week to kill in the Singapore area. So many options.

Today, after shaving our tongues, we went with our friend Steve and the woman he's been seeing to check out apartments by where she lives, in Seletar. It's a former British Royal Air Force base, and is unusual for Singapore in that there are actual wide open spaces and surprisingly cheap rents. The down side is that there's no good public transport from there -- you'd pretty much have to have a car, unless you'd rather bike to the front gate, catch a bus to the MRT (subway), and then take that into town. It would probably take well over an hour. Cars here are very expensive to own, insure, maintain, and keep filled with gas.

Afterwards we tooled around and went shopping some more on Orchard Road. I bought an electric razor and Marjorie got a hair dryer. We also bought some groceries and cooked cashew chicken for everyone back at Steve's place. Tomorrow we hit the travel agent and book our trip to Hanoi, and hopefully look at some more apartments and such. I'm really having a heckuva time just putzing around, and all the food we've had so far has been great.

Last night we went to a "Thanksgiving party" hosted by a guy from Knoxville, TN and his wife who is Japanese. The food was great and the people were rather nice. There were a few American guys, a few Aussie guys, a kiwi (new Zealander) guy, and one Singaporean guy. All the women, with the exception of myself were Asian, either Japanese or S'porean. That was a little weird for me, but everyone was extremely pleasant. I'd like to be as open minded as possible at this point.
One potential gaffe of the night: A Brit put me on the spot and asked if I thought America was "the best democracy in the world", to me this is a very loaded question, how do you answer that? I said I believed we have one of the better systems, and that truthfully it is impossible to compare the U.S.A. to say Canada, because the U.S.A. is so powerful. Then I said I thought Americans had a catch-22 in foreign policy where we're damned if we do and damned if we don't for every thing we do. The British guy seemed okay with this answer, but I felt very shrill and strident afterwards having been baited into a political debate straight off the plane.
I fear this post may seem too....I don't know, but too something. We're having a good time, and fortunate to already have made the acquantance of so many people.

We're here! After months of talking about it, then more months planning, we're finally here. I had my doubts at 5:00am Thursday morning when we were told at the United ticket counter that we couldn't enter Singapore without a ticket leaving within 90 days. Our original ticket had us leaving in May, of course we're not planning on staying in S'pore straight through to May, we're planning on going to Vietnam in four days, but we hadn't purchased the ticket as we were told it would be much cheaper here....Anyways, we just changed our return date and the lady at the counter took pity on us and didn't charge us the change fee on that end (changing it back however...) In spite of the counter agents pleasantness, I'm not impressed with United Airways. The plane was older then the plane we flew in on last year on Japan Airlines, and the seats were horribly close together, 18 hours spent with no leg room! Luckily on the flight from Atlanta to San Francisco and the flight from Hong Kong to S'pore we had emergency exit seats with abundant leg room, or it would have been 25 hours with no leg room. Also not a fan of the reservation system for United, i.e. the unexpected change of planes in Hong Kong, of which there was NO MENTION when we booked the flight, and the lack of notification that we would need to have passage beyond S'pore within 90 days before getting to check-in. 30 hours straight traveling is not fun. Last year we spent a night in Tokyo to break up the trip coming and going, I think that is really the smart way to do it.

Leaving the states one of the last images we saw was the beautiful Golden Gate bridge stretched out in the San Francisco bay. Nice image to have as a keeper. Actually from the plane we saw a lot of interesting landscape including some icy mountains in the Aleutian Islands.

Overall, my spirits are definitely better now that the move and the goodbyes are behind us. Now we just need to concentrate on what we have to look forward to. So far, I'm glad to be here.

Hello from 36000 feet. Marjorie and I are somewhere over the Pacific after our stopover in San Francisco. The day had an inauspicious start; while at the Atlanta airport ready to make our departure this morning, we learned that we would not be allowed to fly with our current tickets, which have us returning next May, since the longest you are allowed to stay in Singapore without a visa is ninety days. If we could show tickets onward from Singapore, that would be okay, but we were planning on buying those in Singapore. A wave of panic hit us. But the nice lady at the counter let us change our return date to a time just under ninety days from now.

Another surprise, of the not so unpleasant variety, is that we learned that our flight from San Fran to Singapore has a stopover (which was not mentioned at all on the web site we booked it from) -- Hong Kong. Neither of us has ever been. And even though we won't have any time to explore, it'll still be cool seeing it from the window.

And in a happy coincidence, I brought along a big fat book to read while we're in the travel-around phase of our journey -- Tai Pan (by James Clavell, author of Shogun), which (at least initially) is about the founding of Hong Kong.

Anyway. I was hoping I could tell you exactly where over the Pacific we are, as I brought along my GPS. But alas, I can't get a signal inside the plane. I suppose that's not surprising, in retrospect.

At any rate, we seemed to have left the US officially now. Can we call ourselves ex-pats if we don't even have a place to live yet?

I have nothing to do, and I'm stuck in a middle seat in coach, so forgive me if I prattle on about nothing. It's a United Airlines flight, so it's all pretty Western, but they did try to serve something remotely Asian for dinner; I had the spicy chicken with rice and vegetables, that came with tiny shrimp with rice noodles and the tiniest little bottle of soy sauce (I joked to Marjorie that it was like being invited to dinner at Barbie's; she said it all looked like it had been made in an Easy-Bake Oven). They just showed M. Night Shyamalan's movie, "Signs", which I saw in the theaters, so I just watched a little without listening. They're promising to show us some movie called "A Gentleman's Game" in a bit; it's about golf and sounds pretty lame.

Now that the movie's over they're showing the plane's position on the TV screens. We seem to be directly south of Anchorage, equidistant from there and Washington state.

Off to play some video games. My old boss lent me a demo copy of "Age of Mythology" which is pretty cool. I usually don't go in for those overlord sort of games

As ready as we'll ever be. What a massive relief, to be done with everything. Sorry about all the whinging. Now that I can catch my breath, I don't even mind that we'll be getting up at 4AM to catch our flight.

It'll be five hours to San Fran and then another twenty-one to Singapore. D'oh! Sounds like a lot, but we've been through it before. Hope to spend a lot of it unconcious.

Au revoir United States! We'll be back before long, I'm sure, if only to visit...

Sorry about the lack of updates... As you can imagine, we've been phenomenally busy. Marjorie hit it on the head -- there's a lot of harsh reality we have to go through before we can experience anything resembling a fantasy experience. It's almost all done, except for about twenty or so things on tomorrow's list. Twenty things is a piece of cake, at the rate we're going. Just let me on that plane already.

This would have been all but impossible without the help of our parents, who have been just fantastic. I remember giving "World's Greatest Mom" and "World's Greatest Dad" cards to my parents in second grade, but that was before I knew any better. Now I know better, and it's still true. And Marjorie's parents have gone well above and beyond the call of duty in so many ways too.

Tonight we needed a bit of escapism, so we went to the movies and saw Jackass. We laughed ourselves silly.

Bye Bye Love, Bye Bye Happiness? I really do think I'm going to cry.
This is so hard.....we seem to be fulfilling a lot of peoples romantic notions of selling your things to see the world, but the reality is very harsh. We haven't sold many of the items we were counting on selling such as Mark's Saab and our washer and dryer. Mark's parents have taken Saab to Florida in the hopes that a convertible will sell better there in the winter. I don't know how we would manage any of this if it wasn't for both sets of parents, they've been so wonderful. My parents are letting us store all our belongings with them, and my father is taking over a bit of the responsibility for our mail and finances. Mark's parents drove up from Florida to help us pack and took the Saab when we had no success selling it here. In spite of all the tremendous help and support, we are still both on the verge of tears at all parts of the day now. I'm optimistic that we will regain our enthusiasm as soon as we are done with the move, or if not then as soon as the goodbyes are over and we are on the plane.

We've both agreed that this is the hardest thing we've ever done. Physically and mentally exhausting. Whatever part of our brains it is that's responsible for decision making has been fried to a crisp from overuse -- do I pack this? Sell it? Bring it? Every object in the house, every number programmed into the phone, every piece of mail that comes, every card in your wallet -- all suggest a different task to do, address to update, friend to contact, payment to arrange, account to cancel. House is a shambles, but it's starting to look like we're actually moving. My parents are in town to help and see us off, which is great. We took them out to our favorite restaurant, Fritti, tonight.

Heard this song while driving around the other day, and it really put a lump in my throat as it relates to some feelings I've been having...

Galbraith Street (by Ron Sexsmith)

I woke up on Galbraith Street
Where the houses stood like twins
Oh and even though the door's been closed
I can find a way to get back in

For in daydreams my mind returns
Like a ghost upon the hill
As I knock upon old doors again
And find my friends all live there still

So many good times to speak of in a life
But none compare to the good times I had there

The world looks so much brighter when you believe in every word
Now I'm holding on to all those years like a tear before it falls unheard

So many goodbyes to speak of in a life
But none compare to the goodbyes I said there

The sun went down on Galbraith Street
I saw it from my childhood bed
As the red and gold brick houses stood
Underneath a crimson sky that bled

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! We are going nuts from the stress. No time for details.

SCANDAL I went to Doc Chey's, one of my favorite noodle places, last night with some friends. On the way out we passed a garbage can full of chicken flavored RAMEN NOODLES!! THEY USE RAMEN NOODLES!!!! I'm so disappointed in them.

IMAGINE NO POSSESSIONS I wonder if I can..... I'm trying hard to decide what comes with us, what stays here. It's a really a hard decision. I don't want to bring any extras, but at the same time, there are certain things that can help a hotel room feel a bit more like home that it might be worth bringing....but which things?
Our porch is completely empty now, the American Family Foundation came and took a bunch of our stuff to give to people who need it more than we do. And more and more of our possessions are disappearing into cardboard boxes, they'll be there at least 6 months, maybe longer if we decide we like being nomads.

I was looking at my key ring the other day, when it dawned on me: soon, I will have no keys. I will also have no car, no house, no television, no phone, no internet access (other than rented)... It goes on and on. I understand I'm supposed to feel more "liberated" without these things, but it sure doesn't feel that way yet. Not very Zen of me, I know; maybe some will rub off on me while I'm over there.

I have been trying to gain a better understanding of the religions we'll be encountering while we're over there, through a bit of reading. As far as Buddhism goes, I don't put much stock in karma or reincarnation, but it's interesting nonetheless, and of course I'll be respectful while I'm there.

Today was spent dealing with the cars. We had them detailed, then took them in to Carmax to see how much they'd give us for them. Marjorie got a decent deal, but I didn't. So now I have the headache of selling it myself to deal with. Took out this ad in AutoTrader. Know anyone looking for a nice convertible for the coming winter months?

INDOCHINE Mark and I rented Indochine this evening. It's a really visually beautiful movie, amazing cinematography. Now I'm really excited about going to Vietnam.
On the work front, now that we've stopped worrying about it, it seems as though there may indeed be a (short-term) job for Mark in Singapore at around the New Year. We may cut our wandering short in order to go to S'pore for work. I suspect if the job is just for a few months that will resume our trip afterwards.

Just got back from seeing Glenn Tilbrook with friends Bruce and Cathy (after they treated us to a fabulous meal at Alfredo's)... Glenn is always a treat (except when he shows up late and we get subjected to a talentless opening act pushed up on stage to kill time). Another day, another set list:

Red Dragon Tattoo (Fountains of Wayne cover, a nice surprise)

This Is Where You Ain't

Take Me I'm Yours

Black Coffee In Bed

Goodbye Girl

A Woman's World

By The Light Of The Cash Machine

Some Fantastic Place

Picadilly

Is That Love

Truth Is Not My Middle Name (?)

Electric Trains

Touching You, Touching Me

Up The Junction

Hourglass

Another Nail For My Heart

Pulling Muscles (From The Shell)

Tempted
Plus several I wasn't familiar with or can't remember. What can I say about a man who can sing, write, play, and perform, all at a level I could never hope to achieve? Glenn is a massive talent.

WE'RE GOING TO SEE GLENN TILBROOK TONIGHT which should be alot of fun. I just wish we didn't feel so crapulent due to the excesses of last night. Last night was an unofficial going away party for us, and truthfully, probably the last time we will see many of our friends before our journey. We only have about 10 days to go now, and about every hour of that time is scheduled with moving activities or last get togethers with close friends.

Wow. I just hopped up the street to catch Frank Black at a solo acoustic in-store performance at Criminal Records. He was a lot more affable than I've ever seen him. The set list, near as I can remember:

Manitoba (new)

Monkey Gone To Heaven (Wow! I could swear I read that he said he'd never play this song again)

Whiskey In Your Shoes

Bartholemew

California Bound

Mr. Grieves (!!! another big surprise)

End of Miles

21 Reasons (partial, he forgot the words to the last verse)

Robert Onion

Bullet

To paraphrase Beavis and Butthead, you could see this guy walking down the street and you'd never know that he rocks. I'm kinda bummed; he's playing in town tonight, but somehow I never got word, and now it's sold out...

Surprise, surprise. The yard sale-cum-porch sale actually went surprisingly well; we got rid of a lot of stuff -- including the snowboard, CD rack, two cabinets, a lot of clothes, CDs, albums, books, toys, microphone and mic stand, vacuum cleaner, two guitars, and a chair.

Just now I've been going over Vietnamese restaurant menus I've found on the web in an effort to come up with a cheat sheet for deciphering menus once we get there. Especially, to come up with a list of dishes to avoid. So far, here's what I have on the avoid list:

Item	Translation	Reason to avoid
Cua	Crab	May contain "flukes" which get in your bloodstream. Ick.
Trung	Egg	Found someone's tale online of getting served fetal goose, still haven't gotten over the heebies.
Huyet	Pork blood	I've been phasing most kinds of blood out of my diet.
Long	Intestine	I'll have none of that tripe!
Ech	Frog	Eat Kermit?

Bummer. Yard sale starts in five minutes and it's pouring down rain. Somehow I don't think we're going to get rid of quite as much stuff as we had hoped.