We hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! For some reason it wasn’t a big occasion here, although Lawry’s Prime Rib across the street offered a turkey and prime rib dinner for “only” 128 Singapore Dollars or about 103 USD.
But not to worry, instead of that, two of Susan’s coworkers from Australia (Shamus) snd Steve) invited us to join them at the GoKul Indian Vegetarian Restaurant in the Little India section of Singapore. The Indian population makes up about 9 percent of the Singapore total.
I likely reported this to some of you separately but I took the MRT (Metropolitan Rapid Transit) train attached to our building, changed trains at the Dhoby Ghaut station and arrived at 7 PM at the Little India Station which was about three blocks away from our 7:30 reservation.
Even with the sprained ankle I made good time and was the first to arrive since Susan and the other two lawyers were coming from work.
It was very busy but I was able to get a table and Susan, Shamus and Steve arrived at 7:30. I had met Shamus last year in Pittsburgh as he was based in the Hong Kong office of BNY Mellon and was there on assignment as he was this time in Singapore.
They had been to this restaurant several times before and the workers recognized them and gave us a better table and we started looking at the menu (see photos of a couple of pages).
Having been a carnivore most of my life and having only tried Tandoori Chicken and Nan bread before, I was a bit nervous about the menu.
But Steve and Shamus gave us some great ideas and we had a delicious meal.
I had something called Paneer Makhani and Susan had Palak Paneer while her two coworkers had a Dosa which had the huge thing of bread in the pictures while Susan and I had nan bread with butter – very tasty!
We had a lot of laughs and finished with a couple of good desserts and had a nice walk back to the train station through Little India which still had many Deepavali (Indian New Year) signs across the roads. I will definitely keep trying Indian food and with the strong flavors I don’t even think meat is necessary but I’m not quite ready to become a vegan!
After returning back to our apartment and going to bed we got up at 8:15 AM Friday which was 6:15 PM Thanksgiving Day in Chicago and did a FaceTime call to Jennifer who was in Wilmette Illinois with Mark and Meg who had driven to Susan’s sister Betsy’s house for Thanksgiving.
We had a great call going around the table talking with Betsy, her husband Bob Jaeschke and kids Megan with husband Steve Balderson and new baby Libby and Amy with boyfriend Eddy, her brother Kurt who also has a birthday coming up, his wife Anne and daughter Joan in from New Orleans, their friend Lizzy from England and Susan’s soon to be 96 father, Carl. Unfortunately Susan’s Mom had to stay at home as she isn’t getting around well.
It looked like they had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving as well as Kurt’s birthday and exchange “White Elephant” gifts. Susan and I were sorry we couldn’t be there but we will see everyone soon as we will be in Chicago December 29 to January 2 when we return to Singapore.
Later today as explained in my fitness blog some of you get, I started my workout at The Pit, a physical fitness gym across the street. (I know I’ve joined more health clubs I haven’t used than I can count but I wanted to pick another activity besides touring and Rotary Club while I’m here.). Some details of it are next.
I went to see a physical fitness trainer at “The Pit” which is a 5 minute walk across the street from our apartment. It had received great reviews on line but I was concerned it might be a bit intense for me as some of their web photos include martial arts training, heavy duty weight lifting, headstands etc.
But I felt very comfortable talking with the owner Irving and my trainer Harold. They explained they had a wide diversity of clients with different fitness levels, those recovering from injuries etc.
So I signed up for 5 sessions focusing on strength training (which they said if the foundation for other things) flexibility and conditioning. The mini first session included a couple of lightweight barbell exercises and squats after I told him I’d already stated the 28 day squat program I found online. He was very good at having me focus on a proper technique which include feet positioning, pressing off the entire foot rather than the toes and doing them a bit slower so it seemed like he knew what he was doing! Next one is Monday at 2 pm so I will report back.
Now to bed for a 6:30 ride to the airport to report on Saturday and Sunday visit to Kuala Lumpur! Pictures below. Anyone want to try “chin threading” advertised in second photo? Jim Hollingsworth 
Singapore Travel Blog 
I am impressed with your train adventure! We missed you all at Thanksgiving!
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