Perth, Western Australia

Last week Jamie had to go to Perth for work and I was able to join him for a long weekend. It was a good chance to get away and see somewhere different.

I arrived late Wednesday night and explored the city center (or downtown area) while Jamie was at work Thursday and Friday. The actual city of Perth is quite small and since we were staying on the main street I was able to walk to almost anything. The weather was perfect, and the food was great! The only problem I encountered was that everything closes at 5pm during the week. Restaurants are open, but shopping centers, cafes, even most grocery stores are closed! They stay open a little later on Fridays (till 8 it seems) and most places don't open until after 1pm on Sundays. It's a little different, but the area more than makes up for it with all it's beauty!

Since we were only there for a few days we wanted to make this a relaxing vacation. We didn't do the whole "tourist thing" and take all the bus tours, but we were able to cross a few sites off the list. We got to visit two of the beaches, Kings Park, and the Swan Bell Tower. Not to mention the few places I was able to see walking around the city.

The whole area is absolutely gorgeous and I must confess that by Friday afternoon a big part of me was hoping that the reason they wanted Jamie to fly over there was to tell him we would be moving to Perth soon. Unfortunately, that was not the case and I sadly returned to Singapore Sunday night. I didn't want to leave, but I guess the saying is true that "All good things must come to an end". Here are a few of the photos I took in Perth. You can see from these why I loved it!

Swan Bell Tower, View of city from the harbor


Cottesloe Beach


View of city from Kings Park, Bridge in Kings Park




City Beach (the beaches in Perth all have this grassy area that people lay out on in addition to the actual beach area. This worked out great for us, since Sunday was so windy that it was like being in a sand storm. We ended up laying out here and it was great!)


Things here in Singapore are good and we've got a busy few months ahead of us. Not to mention that Jamie has got a lot going on at work and as of last week I have a new job. At the moment I am in limbo, waiting on all of my work permits and such to get approved. I also have to re-apply for my nursing license, since I did not stay at the hospital for 6 months. Things should be faster this time, but you never know. As it stands now, I've got the next few weeks to hang out and enjoy the city!

My new job will be at an expat clinic. It is a general practice clinic with a few specialists, including a Pediatrician who will be arriving in a few months. I will learn all aspects of the clinic, but my main focus will be on the well baby clinic. As of now they have one already established, but it's not as big as it could be and the nurse who started it has left Singapore. My primary job will be to get it up and running turning it into a full time clinic as well as organizing classes and seminars from time to time. I think it will be lots of fun and a little more challenging than my job at the hospital was. I'm excited to get back to enjoying being a nurse and I am hoping that everything works out this time!

Other than that, it's life as usual in the McMillan household. We miss everyone like crazy, and our home trip in August could not come soon enough!

Big Rob is Back!!

Those of you who worked with me the night that when Rob and Big had their final episode know how devastated I was. The first few times I flipped past this show I wasn't impressed. Then one day I was watching TV while Jamie was working out. There was nothing else on so I decided to actually watch an episode. It was the one where Rob decided he wanted to be an "one hit wonder" and went to Big Black for some help to accomplish this. During this show I was laughing so hard that Jamie could hear me all the way upstairs! He came down to watch it with me, and we became instant fans! After getting caught up, we watched every show from that point on. Jamie would even call me at the hospital if I was working to tell me how good an episode was and that I must watch it as soon as I get home. I am now going to share that video with all of you.



As of two weeks ago, Rob is back on MTV. He has a new show called Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory and it's on Sunday nights at 8pm. While it's not the same without Big Black around, it's still a great show! We can hardly wait for Mondays (that's when we have to watch it since it's like 10am Monday morning when it comes on in the states) to come around to watch the new episodes!

Valentines Weekend

For those of you who know Jamie, I probably don't have to tell you how much he dislikes Valentines Day. Every year I go out of my way to try and make it special, but I have not been successful in changing his opinion. To be fair to him, he usually does get me a card or flowers, but never goes "all out". He feels that he should not have to show me he loves me and buy gifts "just because someone else calls it a holiday". He would rather do those things (the flowers, candy etc..) on a day of his choice to surprise me. I understand his thinking, but that does not change the fact that to me it's still a day to celebrate LOVE and do the little things that make it special.


Being in Singapore this year made it a little bit harder to do. I was unable to find the "Valentines Day" candy in the nice red and pink wrappers that I usually get. Pair that with the fact that I would rather buy most things back home because it's just cheaper and that gives you a pretty bad selection of gifts. Not to mention, that I still have not found a decent bakery so that meant a cake was out as well. After seeing a "Do it yourself" cake shop, I decided to try and make my very own cookie cake. I found a heart shaped pan and some icing tips and decided this would be my project. I stayed up till 2am Saturday morning making it after he went to bed. It was pretty easy to make, and for my first time I was pretty happy with it!

When I woke up the next morning there was a card for me, along with a chocolate chip cookie cut into a small heart beside the one I gave him. It was a nice gesture and I was happy that he had even remembered to get me a card.

After lunch we headed out to the Singapore Zoo. Jamie and I both have been to several zoo's around the US, but found this one to be very unique. It is similar to the night safari in the fact that for most of the exhibits there are no fences or cages. They have taken on what they call an "open concept" and because of this you are able to get pretty close to the animals. Not to mention all the free range monkey's they have running around. At one time we were walking down a trail and there were monkey's climbing in the trees above us! It really is a nice zoo and worth a visit no matter how many you've been to in the past.

A mom and her baby!


This little guy was the one climbing over us!


On the other side of the bushes there is a small barrier to keep the animals in, that's it!


Some funny signs from the zoo



On Sunday we met up with our friends Simone and Adrian at east coast park. They have this thing called "Ski 360" that we had heard about and Jamie was up for trying. Basically, it's water skiing or wakeboarding with a cable pulling you around instead of a boat. It looks like loads of fun! I was too chicken to try (as was Simone), so we hung out at the bar watching the 2 of them have at it! You pay in hour increments and up to 8 people are on the waterway at one time. When it's your turn the cable pulls you and off you go. If you fall off you have to swim to the side and get back in line. If you are good (or lucky) enough to not fall off you go around a few times and then get back in line to do it again. They had people of every age group out there doing it, male and female. Adrian has tried it once before but said he didn't have much luck. Jamie has never done any type of water skiing, so we figured it wasn't going to be pretty! It looks so easy when you see these other people out there, but according to the two of them it's not as easy as it looks!!

View of the ski park


Suited up and ready to go!


He's off to a great start!


Can he hold it?


Nooo!


Some may think this is the look of defeat...


But he's at it again!


Different angle...


Same ending!


When it was all said and done we all had a blast! Adrian eventually made it to the first corner, but Jamie never made it past the first ramp. They were exhausted from all the swimming, and I was exhausted from watching them! After seeing all my photos, Jamie thinks he's figured out his problem. I was told that the next time we go out he'll make it around! I'm excited to try it myself, but think I'll go during the week when it's not so busy!

Singapore Flyer

This past Sunday Jamie and I went to the Singapore Flyer with some friends. The Flyer is a Singapore trade mark of which they are extremely proud! It is the biggerst one in the world and reaches 165 meter high (which is about 540 or so feet)! The views of the Singapore skyline are great and on a clear day you can see the islands from Indonesia and Malaysia. The idea was to hit it around sunset, thinking we would get the best of the day and night. But as our luck would have it the skys turned out to be pretty overcast. The views were still really cool, and it was a fun experience. Here is an article that was on MSN before Jamie and I moved here. I emailed it to him and we put it on the list as one of the things to see when we got here.


(Jamie, Adrian, Bo and Simone and myself)



(This is what the little "pods" that we were in looked like. I know some of you are thinking "that's too high up, what if it gets stuck?". Not too worry, there is a ladder that goes all the way around!)



(The skyline at sunset, from 165 meters up, floating soccor field or "football pitch" in downtown)



(Future site of Marina Bay Sands Casino and Resort and Model of final product)



(Photos of the city at night)



(Jamie likes to call these "Photos from a McMillan family reunion". They were having a Euro Sports Car Club dinner at this hotel and there had to be a hundered, high end sports cars in the hotel parking lot. Most of which were Lamborghinis. If you click on the photo you can see tons more in the background!)

Punkins Update

This week Punkin had her 6 month post-op check up. She was due for another bile acids test, and had to stay at the vet for the afternoon to get it done. I was not happy about leaving her, but evidently not as unhappy as she was!

For a bile acids test they have to take 2 blood samples. The first one is a fasting sample and the second one is taken two hours after eating. I tried to explain to them that I would need a morning appointment because of the eating issue, but in the end the only appointment I could get was for 11:00 in the morning.

For the first test she was so upset about being there that she wouldn't even look at them! She simply turned away from them and put her head under my arm while whining! She did great, but it made me feel even worse that I had to leave her! After that they were suppose to feed her and then redo the test two hours later. I was told she would be ready for pick-up at 2:00. However, I received a phone call at 1:30 stating that they had not been able to get her to eat anything until then so I couldn't pick her up until 4:00! For her not to eat, she must have been really upset!

She was so excited when I picked her up that she barked as loud as she could when they brought her to me. She then continued to bark and whine at me until the taxi arrived! When we got home she attacked Jamie with kisses, but I still got the cold shoulder. She really knows how to hold a grudge! Her results were not as good as last time, but much better than they were before her surgery. Her fasting level was a 5 (suppose to be less than 5) but after eating her level was a little elevated. Her number was 30+ and it should be less than 15. Last time, her fasting level was elevated and her post was low. Either way, it is a drastic improvement! I'll take these numbers any day!

I have included some photos of Punkin taken when we got her home after her surgery as well as some current ones. She has healed up so well, her scar is barely noticeable! Dr. Hottinger did such a wonderful job! We can't thank her enough! I almost can't even stand to look at her surgery photos, because I hate to remember her like that! In the end everything worked out and Punkin is doing great (except when she goes for a check-up)! She is back to her old self, just as hyper and moody as ever!

These were taken her first day home after surgery (Aug 23rd, 2008)

Punkin and Budders first day home from quarantine (Sept 14th, 2008)

Hanging out around the house, doing what she does best!

Punkin today! Her scar looks amazing! You can hardly tell it's even there!

Just had to post another one of Budder, it was just too cute to leave out!!

Other than that not too much going on around here. This year we've got a lot of travelling planned. I've been busy getting things kicked off and ready to go, since our first 2 trips are coming up in the next few months.

In two weeks Jamie is heading over to Perth, Australia for work. I will be meeting him over there and the plan is to spend a long weekend exploring the area. It's one of the places on our list so we figured now is as good a time as any!

In April, Jamie and I will have our 6th wedding anniversary. To celebrate we decided to take a trip to Thailand. We will be going to Krabi and have a reservation at this absolutely gorgeous resort over there (it's the featured resort on the link)! I can't wait!

Besides those 2 trips we have a visit from Jamie's parents in May (we're planning on taking them somewhere as well) and trips back to the US in Aug and Dec. Those are just the planned trips! We've got a busy year ahead, but hopefully it will be full of fun and excitement!