cravings.....

Today, I am craving "NOT YO MAMA's BANANA PUDDIN!" I first tried this deeeee-lish dessert from my old boss, Paul, he loved to bake and bring in samples of his yummy desserts. It is SO GOOD! If only we had a mixer and pepperidge farm chessmen cookies in Singapore!

Here is the recipe should you want to make it as well! FYI: it's best if you use homemade whipping cream rather than the store bought......any little bit of "healthier" counts!

• 2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies
• 6 to 8 bananas, sliced
• 2 cups milk
• 1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream OR FRESH homemade whipping cream, simple, just whip heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and a dabble of vanilla, mix mix mix!
  

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Out and about....

Some photo's of us out and about in Singapore. Enjoy!

Kat, Gino, Surain, Nick, Jamie, Jon and myself out in Clark Quay (pronounced "key")
Jamie, Jon and Gino all wen to high school together, Gino and his GF Kat and friend Nick were in Singapore looking at Universities for their Masters program, they live in Manila.

Kat, Anya and myself

At Sentosa Islands "Shack bar" lounging with Jon and Anya

Last weekend we had a BBQ at our new place. We figured that since there are only 4 units moved in out of 68 we could be as loud and rowdy as we wanted without getting any noise complaints. We attempted to make Grant's "famous" BBQ chicken. Jon and Jamie were nice enough to say that I was close to making it right.....but really I don't think I was. I think perhaps Grant left out an ingredient?? HMMMMM!!!!

Jon and Jamie at the grill, although I think they had more fun playing with the charcoal than actually grilling!
Jamie tried to explain that I placed the chicken on the grill too soon and that it was too hot hence why they were burnt a bit BUT I think that the boys were so busy playing with charcoal that they burnt the bird!

tweedle dum and tweedle dum dum

Roisin, Anya and I soaking up the sun.

da Booths WORKING!!!

Well, after moving across the world (and me moving without ever visiting Singapore) we have finally both secured jobs and the new adventure can really begin! Talk about a stressful and exciting last few months!

Jamie has begun work with the company InXpress. InXpress is a global reseller of shipping services, partnered with DHL and other freight carriers. He is the first employee for the InXpress Asia Division and is set to implement and operate the InXpress business model in every Asia Pac country over the next 3-5 years. Essentially, InXpress signs an agreement with a shipping company, such as DHL, to receive a substantial discount and to sell their services. InXpress in turn, sells the shipping service of DHL etc. to small and medium sized businesses that would not normally receive a discount from the carrier. The carriers (DHL etc) do not target the SME market as there are too many small business with not enough shipping revenue to make it "worth their time," thus InXpress coming in to handle all of the accounts. Jamie is still working on the InXpress Asia website; however here is the US site to take a gander at: INXPRESS USA

As of Monday, August 3rd I will no longer be "a stay at home mom to be" but I too get to continue on with my career. I will be working for the St. Regis Hotel in Catering Sales, similar role and responsibilities as I had in Seattle. It will be a new adventure to learn more about the "corporate hotel world" and I am excited to sink my energy into a JOB! I've tried several times this week to wake up at 7am, no luck! I sure hope that I wake up on time on Monday!

Jamie is off to Bangkok for work Sunday, meeting with the DHL country manager for Thailand and the new InXpress partner for the Thailand business, he also has plans to meet up with Grant and I will be so jealous if they eat the garlic fried chicken!

da Booth's move in!

We have moved into our OWN place today!

3 Meyer Place, Meyer Residences #16-02
Singapore, Singapore 437991

After much search in Singapore we are finally settling in. Not much for furniture, we've purchased our guest bed which is being delivered today, have borrowed a TV and DVD player from Jon and Anya and have borrowed some kitchen basics from a family friend to get us through the next 6 weeks until our things arrive from Seattle! Our new home will have a guest room all ready for YOUR arrival!

Meyer Residences is located in the East Coast, about 10 minuets from the Central Business District. We are in a great area living within a large expat community with shopping and entertainment nearby. It is a brand new building, we are the third family to move in out of 68 total units. We are not shipping much furniture from Seattle (sofa, king mattress and all of our new lovely kitchen items) in hopes to take our time and invest in great Asian (Bali feel) furniture in the near future. Looking forward to having you all visit Casa del-Booth!

Check out our new home for the next 2 years.......

Walking through the main entrance, water!!!!

BBQ Pit

View of the lap pool from the gym

At the end of the lap pool it opens up with waterfalls

The other side, kids pool

Jamie, contemplating "should I go for a swim?"

View from the open area of the pool, back towards the gym

The gym, small, simple but has free weights

To the tennis court

tennis anyone?

shoes off please :)

wet bar, kitchen prep

View from the living/dining room

Living/dining area and small balcony for Jamie's plants

Living/dining area and hallway to the rooms

Master bath with a rain shower!

Master closet for the Mrs.

View from the master bedroom

YOUR bathroom (guest)

more of YOUR bathroom :)

We are so excited to finally start settling down in our new home/life abroad! We hope that you will get an opportunity to visit us in SINGAPORE!!!

All our love,

J&C

Missing home

Missing home. Just recently the girls got together for the monthly DG BOOK CLUB to discuss the book, life and whatever other "hot" topics there are to discuss. In reality, book club is just an excuse to have dinner and drink wine with close girlfriends. I miss it!

July's book club was a special one. Most of the girls have little dogs, so this month, Emi hosted a doggy book club and everyone brought there pets along to run around in her new yard. It's a nice prelem to our future lives, mom's having dinner and wine while the kids are running around playing :)

Miss you girls! Looking forward to seeing everyone at the end of September!

ME on the laptop chatting away on Skype, getting the updates!

Bangkok continued....

After spending a short time in Bangkok, I've absolutely fallen in love with the city. The culture, the people, the food, the shopping and the massages, WOW! I was sad to go, but excited to go back and visit. On Sunday Grant, Jamie and I headed to Chatuchak market, the famous weekend market for anything and everything! It was a HOT day so we did not stay more than two hours but it was awesome and I can't wait to go back and buy house decor!



At the market getting our morning Kho-Pi





On Monday we headed to the famous Jim Thompson house for some site seeing and shopping. Jim Thompson is known to have put the Thai silk industry on the map. He was an American ex-Army vet who found his home in Bangkok. By the time his business became a well known name in Asia he disappeared, to this day nobody knows what had happened to him. Rumor has it that he was a former CIA agent. I bought my first "designer" bag here, a small black and grey clutch, perfect for nights out.


Tuesday, Jamie and I headed to Wat Po which is absolutely stunning. Home to the reclining Buddha, a huge and majestic Buddha measuring 138 feet long and covered completely in gold leaf. Aside from the giant Buddha, the compound is full of religious artifacts and temples, beautiful!
















Wat Po is also one of the best places in Bangkok to get a traditional Thai massage. In fact, the massage school at Wat Po is one of the oldest traditional Thai massage schools and the monks at Wat Po effectively wrote the book on Thai massage. We of course had to test this out, I had managed to get a massage everyday while we were in Bangkok, life sure is tough!


Surprisingly, the Thai massage was relaxing and refreshing, nothing that I expected, I assumed that they would bend and stretch my body into a painful state, I was wrong! After the massages we headed to view the "best" hotel in Bangkok, the Mandarin Oriental. It is a beautiful hotel! And while we also had some celebrating to do (news TBD :) ) We splurged a bit and had a lovely lunch out on the riverfront.



Literally the best Kho-pi


As Dad/Khun Don calls them "red torpedo's" HOT HOT HOT!



Mandarin Gardens


Shuttle ferry





Dinner at Grant and Caroline's, celebration and a toast! Thanks for the hospitality!