ON MY MARK, UNLEASH HELL

I have indulged in true spiciness my friends, seriously, I saw, I tasted, I experienced hell.

Some backstory first. Here in Singapore, the home of the hottest CHICKEN WINGS are at a little ramshackle hut called the SINGAPORE FLYING CLUB located in the middle of nowhere next to the Military Airport. Legend dictates that they have the hottest hot wings around and people at work are always trying to outdo each other with spicier & spicier Hot Wings... boys will be boys I guess. Anyway, about two months ago, four Brits went to the SFC and got themselves on "the board" (the location for people who have entered the spice zone by eating between level 20-35 Wings) by eating some LEVEL 23 WINGS. The came to work in severe pain but boasting and proud, they were definitely the champs at our office.

Now, me being a spice lover, a proud Canadian and a trashtalker, I was not about to be undone, so I vowed to get a Canadian Team together and beat the Brits by taking on some Level 24 Wings. A Canadian co-worker Kent is also one of the most competitive people around so he was definitely onboard, we vowed to try and beat the Brits. So finally tonight, a group of us went to the SFC to get our "Wing On".

The thing about the SFC, is that before you take on the High Levels, you have to prove your worth by taking on some LEVEL 10 WINGS! "No problem" I thought, Level 10 will be a breeze, I'm a Corsi, a proud Canadian fueled by Italian Blood. Boy was I wrong.

Level 10 was a nightmare. The smell alone got my eyes watering. I took a bite and at first I thought "easy like Sunday morning" then a few seconds later, the burn started, a few seconds after that, my mouth caught fire and I entered Hades. I have never, ever tasted anything spicier in all my years and this was only a bloody level 10 Hot Wing. I started sweating from my cheeks, MY CHEEKS, my eyes were wet, my lips were glowing, I was physically shaking they were so bloody spicy. How Wayne, James, Nigel and Lee managed to eat LEVEL 23 I will never know as Level 10 almost knocked me out.

Kent & I (the Canadian Recon Team) managed to get two LEVEL 10 wings down each which is the required amount to take on a higher spice, but honestly I don't know if I can go higher. We both felt the pain and It's going to take a hell of a lot to get us to the next level.

Kudos to the Brits for tackling Level 23 and living to tell the tale.

Trust me friends, if any of you come out here and want to take the challenge, I will gladly bring you to the Singapore Flying Club and watch you burn to death as I enjoy my Level 3 Hot Wings. See pics from the night of fire HERE!!!

JURONG BIRD PARK

In 1971, at a cost of $3.5M, Singapore opened the JURONG BIRD PARK to the masses! The Jurong Bird Park is now a world-famous bird zoo wherein there are specimens of magnificent bird life from around the world, including a flock of one thousand and one flamingos. It is currently the world's largest bird park in terms of number of birds and second largest in terms of land area after Germany's Vogelpark Walsrode. There are over 8,000 birds of 600 species in the Jurong Bird Park. Of those, 29 are of endangered species. In 2006, the Jurong Bird Park completed its S$10-million makeover. With the upgrading, the park now boasts a new entrance plaza, an African wetlands exhibit, a park-owned and managed Bongo Burgers restaurant, a Ben & Jerry's ice cream parlour, a gift shop and a bird hospital.

This place is amazing, we walked around for hours with cameras at the ready just to soak in all the cool birds that are there. Like the Singapore Zoo, the Bird Park has an open and lush layout, many of the birds are free to fly while others are in large enclosures. It will definitely be on our "one to revisit" list but you can see all our snaps from the day HERE!!!

SAN FRAN + VAN CITY

So for the last 10 days, I've spent a whirlwind of time in both SAN FRANCISCO and VANCOUVER. In San Fran it was all work, visiting the mothership, working on budgets and meeting with tons of people. In Vancouver it was all family, friends and time with my two favorite beasts, LAVERNE & CARMINE! Despite the long travel, the short timeframe and the immense jetlag, the work portion went well and the personal long weekend was great. I wish I could have spent more time with everyone and seen the peeps I didn't have the chance to see but it will have to wait until next time. Pics from the trip can be seen HERE!!!

TOTALLY RANDOM

Here's a Painting of Christopher Walken building Optimus Prime by Brandon Bird... and who says there is nothing good on the Internet!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Well, it was our first HALLOWEEN in Singapore and I gotta say, it was pretty cool. It's amazing how many people actually got into it and dressed up in costume, not only at the staff party but in the city in general. The work party was at a club called Arena and it was pretty fun, virtually everyone was dressed up, there was a costume contest (we got an honorable mention for our team costume of OKTOBERFEST) where the winner was a TAXI TRANSFORMER, second place went to MAD HATTER and third to SCARECROW. All in all, a great time and we took some pics which you can view HERE!

SINGAPORE STORM

Here's a crazy thunder & lightning storm that started around 5:00pm on Halloween night and at time of posting (7:15pm) is still going strong, that "static" sound you hear under all the thunder is the torrential downpour:

RECUPERATION

Well, with the parents gone, we thought life would get back to normal, not so, we got incredibly sick. My dad was extremely sick his last full day here, we thought it was immense food poisoning but no one else in the house was ill even though we all shared dishes at dinner. He got better for his last day in Singapore and we thought the ordeal was in the past. My folks left around 4:00pm and we left the airport to meet our friends AAMIR & DENISE for a bite and beer in Holland Village. A few hours and a few laughs later, we were at home when Michelle started feeling off, soon she was feeling ill and before you know it, she's full blown sick (if you know what I mean). Within moments, I start feeling it too and in under an hour I've taken up permanent residence in one of the bathrooms, Michelle was in the other one. It was the roughest night for either of us in a long time.

Needless to say, I didn't go to work the next day but we were surprised to find that Aamir & Denise were okay... hmm, maybe this wasn't food poisoning, maybe we caught what dad had. We found out later that my stepmom got hit with the sickness as well, while on the flight to Australia. Turns out it was a wicked stomach flu that my dad had somehow caught and passed onto us.

Anyway, we're all good now, back to normal and living da vida loca. It's too bad, the last day of my parents trip had to be a rough one but their overall time here was awesome! I'm glad we're all feeling better now as well!