Getting Ready for a BBQ

Every summer since I was about 5 years old, my mom has hosted a 4th of July cookout.  And until very recently, her extended family had a family reunion during the first weekend of August.  These events have been the highlights of my mom's summer, especially after my dad passed away.  Starting in May, my mom would start preparing for the cookout.  She would ask me to come and help her in her garden. Later, we would get the patio furniture out, clean it off, and repaint it, if necessary.  She would start making and freezing the burgers, buying the charcoal, and lining up the cooks.  Then she would start making the phone calls to remind people to come and check on what they were bringing.  She would organize things as well as she could, and fret about the weather, and the people who were unable to attend.

This week, I found out that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  It seemed that every outing that I took revolved around getting things for our upcoming BBQ by the pool.  On Tuesday, I was either going to Chinatown, or going to the Japanese grocery store for Miller Lite.  Rich needed more cereal on Tuesday, so I opted for the Japanese grocery store.  I didn't want to go to the store too late in the week, because I had promised Kjersten and Jay that we would have Miller Lite at the BBQ.  Meidi-Ya is the only place where I've seen it, and it seems that they only have 2 cases, and it disappears by the weekend.  I would not break my promise!

When I left for the store, I heard thunder, but the clouds didn't look too dark, so I wasn't worried.  I went to the $2 store, and got a few things for the BBQ, including 8 huge bottles of Dasani Water.  In this heat and humidity, you can't have too much water.  I then went to the grocery store to get the beer, and a few other things.  Between the water and the beer, my cart was absolutely full!  When I left the building, it was raining lightly.  I was under an overhang, but I looked at windshield wipers and people coming from the street.  The rain didn't look too bad.  I opened my umbrella and left the protection of the building.  It seemed as if that was the time the skies just opened up!  I was walking as quickly as possible through the construction zone, trying to get under the bridge to get out of the pelting rain.  My whole back was soaked, and my flip flops were soaked through, making it very difficult to walk.  There was no traction for the shoes or my feet.  I waited under the bridge for about 10 minutes.  The rain abated enough that I could continue my trek home.

Wednesday, I concentrated on cleaning my apartment.  The BBQ was going to be at a covered BBQ pit by the pool, but people might come to our apartment before or after, so it better be clean and welcoming.  As I was taking my recycling down that afternoon, I met a woman in the elevator.  Her name was Emma, and she lived on the floor below me.  She was originally from Canada, but had come to Singapore from London 2 weeks ago.  She was the first person with whom I had a conversation in the elevator in the 8 weeks that I'd been in Singapore!  So, I invited her to the BBQ.  I figured she was new, too, and she would like to meet some new people and learn more about the area.

Thursday, I headed to Chinatown.  I didn't realize how close it was to our apartment.  It starts within a 5-minute walk from home, or less if you catch the lights.  There was a Fair Price supermarket there that was supposed to have the best prices around.  I had also seen a 30-pack of Tiger Beer advertised for $59.80, including a free soccer ball!  That would insure that I had enough beer.  The mall also had a Daiso $2 store.  I stopped in to look for some things.  Kjersten's dog, Buddy, was celebrating his 1st birthday on Saturday.  I picked out a few things for him, as well as some large containers for the cookies that I was making.  Unfortunately, I had my grocery court, and the store just seemed to be getting more and more crowded as I tried to make my way through it with my basket and my cart.  I ended up putting down the basket and walking out.

Fair Price did have good prices on many items.  I bought beer, wine, and buns for the party.  They did not have Johnsonville Brats or yellow mustard, though, so I would have to go back to Cold Storage or Meidi Ya for those things.

That afternoon, as it rained, I tried my hand at making cookies in my microwave.  It's actually a microwave/grill/convection oven, but I really haven't used it in that capacity, yet.  Rich had downloaded instructions of the Australian version of our oven, but it's not exactly the same.  Luckily, it did work like a regular oven, but you couldn't rely on the timer to tell you that the cookies were done.  After preheating, the timer would be set for 14 minutes, but that was too long.  I would usually start watching at around 10 minutes.  I only slightly burned one small batch.  If Erin's nose had been here, even that wouldn't have happened!

Friday was Good Friday, so Rich's office was closed.  So I took him to the Tiong Bahru Fresh Market for the first time.  In addition to the usual vegetables, eggs, fruit, coffee, fish, and meats, we also got some Chinese cookies.  I wasn't sure if Michelle's boys liked American cookies, so I wanted to have all the bases covered!  That afternoon, I continued to bake cookies.  Then I got the last few items from the store.  While Rich worked on taxes, I made a list of the things we would need to bring from our apartment to the BBQ pit.

All week long, I knew I was turning into my mom, as Rich tried to talk to me about things that happened at work, and all I wanted to talk about was our upcoming party!  Oh well, there are worse things that could happen...

My full cart and bags coming from the grocery store in the rain.

You can see how hard it's raining!