Reflection

It's funny how it's not the New Year which causes reflection in my head, but it's birthday's. It might be because my birthday is so close to New Year.

Hi, yes, another long absence and I don't even bother being polite. Forget the niceties, lets just get right into the nuts and bolts of it.

I have a friend who is having major health issues at the moment and I have to admit it has rocked me to the core. Someone I have known for about 35 years, who is not part of the family. She is a vibrant woman who has done loads of travel and very rarely stops. One of those people who swims at lunch, walks in the jungle after work, then heads home to make pesto and hummus. Basically makes the rest of us 'normal' folk feel like sloths. So when she suddenly can't walk more than 300 meters, can't drive herself around and can't make pesto, it's a shock to say the least. Luckily she is mentally resilient.

Why am I telling you this?

Because it has made me think. Yep, I can do that at times.

It has made me think about that one step forward, five back thing that happens. And now I shall share my pearls of wisdom with you about why I think we get impatient like that. I am an expert you know.

I have decided that that is what happens when one is impatient with a situation. I think that if you can take that situation as it is and are doing what you can within your powers, then you feel that you are slowly forging forward. If you are impatient with where you are at then any roadblock or set back seems huge and makes it feel like you are losing ground and doing a fantastic backwards slide.

This is how I have felt during alot of what has gone on over the past few years. I have been so desperate to get out of whatever mindframe/situation that we have been in that I have felt very much like a 'victim' by which I mean out of control of what is happening and not being able to make any head way.

At other times I have embraced where I was at and accepted things for what they are and then it doesn't seem so bad. I think everything is a process, and if you try to circumvent it, that's when the backwards stuff comes in. Easy to say in hindsight.

"love is in the air, love is in the air." Radio distracted me for a minute.

It's birthday time here I have been down this past week or so. Not majorly, just feeling like I am a slave to the boys, which I know isn't true. But I haven't set myself up with things for me. I think that is part of feeling guilt and of not having control of the situation, therefor feeling like I don't deserve anything for me. Especially as it would mean asking more of hubby, not that he would object and doesn't but that's not a solution. I want some independence back.

So, time for a job. Something nice and flexible from home. Something that enables me to gain control, make decisions and feel that I am gainfully contributing, even if it is only to my own well being. Hmm, just reread that sentence and wonder if I am very selfish or feel like a lot of mothers, who are at a cross roads and starting to rediscover the joys of life outside of motherhood.

Wow, where did all that come from? I think I should be on Oprah with my retrospective clarity.

I think it is certainly time for me to go and get on with the day. Afterall that's what I have been saying.

Carpe diem.

Life gets busy and time for blogging disappears

Hello,

I know, I know, my blog has fallen by the wayside, but I have just been sooooo busy (lying by the pool) and just haven't had a chance.

Actually we have been a bit busy. For the last month we have had hubby's mum (Nana) here, which has been both good and exhausting. Always tiring showing someone around, but at the same time rather envigorating. It is also nice to explore and share this wonderful city with someone who hasn't been here for about 36 years. It's changed quite a bit. To be honest I think that the modernity of the city was rather lost on Nana. But we found it impressive all over again and realised hosw much we enjoy it here.

Why is it that people forget to bring good walking shoes when they travel? The best way to see Singapore is by foot, but we couldn't do much walking and true exploring until a new pair of decent walking shoes were purchased. So in the final week of Nana's stay we had to cramm quite a bit in.

There was the complusary visits to Chinatown, where much shopping was done and of course dinner at Maxwell food court, which has to be a highlight for us. Hubby and I are suckers for a good nosh up at the local food courts. Nana enjoyed it, I think.............

We also did the walk around Clarke Quay down to Marina Bay Sands, which is where the big new casino is. This place is really mad. I have to say. The architecture is just spacey, and there is something new being created all the time. It really is a bit more like urban art than boring old buildings.

Marina Bay Sands - Casino, hotel and exclusive shopping centre

The Durian.

Nana was also required to join us on a trip to Phuket for a week. It were bliss. We rented a villa and it felt like we were in the country. The occasional sewerage waft was testament to that. They had these wonderful upright bikes with baskets on the front which we used to go to the beach, which was about 15 mins ride away. Max fitted in the basket just right. Responsible parenting at it's best.
We were near Layan beach which for the most part ws totally deserted. Perfect. It had a little wave which was just enough to make swimming fun. It reminded me how much I love the sea. We really did'nt spend enough time on the beach. Next time I am not leaving it. The lure of shopping got the better of us.

Layan Beach

Coconut Beach

So, a car was hired and off to explore the more populated areas. Kamala beach and Patong beach are lovely, but over crowded. Not necessarily with people, but with sun loungers and umbrellas. Boats and other watersports cluttered up the ocean, and if this is your perfect holiday then, you would be in heaven.

Patong the shopping was fun. The first day was the best. We felt like we had landed in shopping paradise. Wandering the markets and bartering is exhilerating, helped along with a beer or two at lunch. We ventured back twice more, but it wasn't the same. It felt a bit forced by that point. 



We were there in the evening and did take a walk down the notorious sex district. It was a buzz. Not good, not bad just thrumming. We got caught in a torrential downpour and had to find a bar to wait out the rain. Pina colada's were required and my son was fawned over by the "ladies".

Our son did get to feed and pat an elephant which were huge highlights for him. He is even talking about wanting to be an Elephant when he grows up. We is only 2!

Ok, I have spent much longer then I anticipated writing this, actually I was trying to insert some photo's but it doesn't seem to want to play, so I'll attach them instead.

Sorry for the abrupt end to this, but there are things I need to be doing.

Hope everyone is well and in a festive mood?

The real holiday

So, the All Blacks won. Congratulations! Should be good for the NZ psychie and NZ'ers everywhere. But that is all the comment I can make as I didn't watch the game. I had a much more adventurous weekend.

Saturday was 'D' day for my root canal, and I had to go to a whole 'nother country to get it done. Well I didn't have to but chose to. I had spoken to two girlfriends about it here and they were most distressed that I was going over to Malaysia by myself to have this done. I put on a brave face and said that I was just going to catch a taxi over and then back again, easy! What I was astonished by, was the fact that neither of them knew that there was a taxi service which did this. And that it was only $10 SGD per person in a shared taxi or $40 SGD for the whole cab, one way of course.

And it was that easy.

I went to Queen Street, near Bugis, which is where all the local buses and Taxi's leave from for Malaysia. 10 mins wait and off I go. It took an hour from getting in the taxi to the taxi depot in Jahor Bahru (JB). Easy as. The best bit for me was not having to get out of the Taxi and go through customs, then get back in the Taxi drive across the causeway, get out and go through Malaysian customs and then get back in the taxi and head into town. Which is how it goes if you do the trip in the bus. Yes, it is cheaper, around $3.00 one way, but it adds about 40 mins to the trip, if not more depending on the time of day.

Upon arriving in JB, I was promptly ripped off. No international travel is complete without being conned. I hadn't been to JB for about 10 years and while trying to get my bearings a taxi tout got me. 10 MYR (Malaysian Ringgit) to a shopping mall. Well, hell why not, I had no idea where I was. Turns out the mall was around the corner. If he had been on the meter it would have cost about 3 MYR, and yes they do use their meter. Oh, he just got me at a weak moment.

Shop I did. Well I wandered around the mall and tried on many clothes and shoes. But no go. But McDonalds was good for lunch.

I then ventured out just in time for a tropical downpour. Actually it was good timing, not that I knew this. I needed to be at the dentist in 30mins and thought I may as well find a taxi since there was no point in walking. Turns out that the dentist is in JB, but greater JB. About a 30min ride from central where I was.

Yay, made it.

Other than the tradition of taking my shoes off at the door, the clinic was fine. Clean, modern and everything I needed or I should say the dentist needed.

As I lay back in the chair, with the drill whining in my ear, I realised that I felt like I was on holiday. I had had a whole day without my son. This is the first time in over 2 years. It was liberating.

Since when did going to the dentist become relaxing and not nearly as fearsome as I remembered it to be. Lucky, I get to go back another 2 times.

The return trip was equally easy. I did have to get the receptionist at the dental clinic to tell the taxi where I was headed. It is hard to talk when half your face is numb. I was home about 8pm.

All in all it wasn't nearly as traumatic as I expected.

Long over due

Hello,


I did the most awesome exercise class on Tuesday and still can't walk properly. I just thought you'd find that amusing. 


There is this bunch of women who meet on a Tuesday morning at the botanical gardens here and do a class. It's about 6 women and an instructor, almost like a PT session but heaps cheaper. 


The instructor made me (us) run (I don't run), push up's moving from side to side, lunges. Frog jumps, what the hell? They suck and I am sure that's why I'm still sore, it is Thursday as I write this. Rowing with bands and all sorts of other unbearable torture. 


The bit that a lot have people would have disliked, is the fact that it is at 9am in the morning and the temp is already 30 with 80-90% humidity. 


It was a total shock to my system. I haven't done anything proper (well ever) but in terms of exercise, since before I had my son, so about 3 years ago.


I LOVED IT and will be going again and every time I hurt afterwards I will think of my personal trainer back in NZ. What a legacy she left me with. 


Otherwise it's all ok here. Hubby's work is trying to kill him and it maybe working. He has had a very full on week with 3 late nights and now he can't get out of bed cos of the flu. He has to get out of bed cos he has to have a dr's cert to have a sick day.


He sagely informed me that it was the 'Man flu' as he sat in the middle of the lounge while I was attempting to mop the floor around him.


My son is a delight today, but I won't go on as I may jinx things.


Off to Malaysia on Sat to get my tooth fixed. Seriously infected root canal a couple of weeks ago, which caused my face to swell. 


It's a 3rd of the price to have it done in Malaysia compared to here. I just hope that doesn't mean they only do a third of the work. 


The monsoon season seems to have arrived early. We are having daily thunderstorms (which I love). I am not so keen on the rain, but umbrella's do work here. That's a novelty. I will know that I have assimilated, when I start using an umbrella as a sun shade. No, not a parasol. 


Other ground breaking news is that the Nana, Hubby's Mum, is coming to visit. Should be interesting. More on that as it unfolds. Ok, time to go and do stuff. 

Picture of Mum with her suppurating abscess. Drawn by hubby with embellishments by son.

Holiday, what holiday?

Yay, we went on holiday. It's taken a few days recovery. Travelling with a 2 year old is intense. He has needed recovery too. The journey up was rather uneventful. We went to Tioman island which is an island 54 kms off the West coast of Malaysia. We caught the bus up to Tanjung Gemok, about 4 hours bus ride from Singapore. The travel agents will quote you 3 hours, but remember that there is 2 lots of customs and inevitably there will be a late comer which we all have to sit and wait for. Yep. Not the best when you have a toddler who you know is on a time limit. From Tanjung Gemok to Tioman it's about a 2 hour ferry ride. Again, you will be told that it is an hour and a half, but take that with a grain of salt.

We stayed at the Berjaya Resort. It was easy. The food was reasonable and they had everything you could possibly want. You didn't have to leave the resort, which is good as Tioman is not a huge, happening metropolis. It is a tropical paradise, perfect for beaching, snorkeling, diving and other water sports. On that note, I was very impressed that they banned jet ski's and other fast motor boat sports, all in the name of conservation and preservation.

Here is a dump of the photo's that we took.

This was the 2nd pool. It has a shallow paddling pool for little ones. The other pool had two water slides and a pool bar, but my son liked this one.

Ahhhh.

Caters to families.

The room was basic, but had air conditioning, fan and a TV.

This is what we looked out on from our room.

Perfection. The island you can see is called Renggis Island, lots of snorkeling happens there.

What a beach.

Obligatory palm tree.

My son didn't really grasp the idea of the beach holiday, which didn't make it a restful break. But it was a break none the less. Hubby got go snorkeling for 4 hours and that was his holiday. Bless. He swam with sharks and everything. I snuck in a few chapters of my book. It was wonderful to swim in the sea.

Oh, god. There are lots of celebrations going on in Singapore at the moment and there is constant drumming going on outside our windows. Starts at about 3pm and goes until 11pm. Frazzling.

The journey back wasn't nearly as smooth as the one over. The ferry was 2 and a half hours late and no one kept us informed, so we spent the time at the ferry terminal to afraid to go and explore in case we missed the ferry. This then meant that the bus was late and so on and so on.

We learnt a couple of things. 

Number 1.My son gets car sick and chose to show us by throwing up on my husband. We couldn't change either of them until the bus stopped, about an hour after the event. It wasn't pleasant.

It was after 10pm by the time we got home that night, and were shattered. It was a rough day. 

Number 2, take the plane. There is a plane that gets you to the island. It takes about an hour from Singapore to Tioman, which is a good thing with a toddler. Take the plane, take the plane.

Ok, have been distracted by the drums. Am off.

Spectacularly bad day

I wasn't going to write this one, but not much else has happened since, well quite a lot has and I am sure I will get sidetracked and write it all anyway. This could be a mammoth read, time waster.

I love Friday's. It's the day of the week that always makes me feel positive and brings promise. It's the day that I think is good for pancakes for breakfast or bacon and eggs. I am not saying that I make this all that often on a Friday but sometimes I am inspired to do so. It's a good day for a treat. It's the end of the working week.

Last Friday was like all the others. Actually not really, and thank goodness for that.

I take my son to an ANZA playgroup on a Friday morning. They hold it at an indoor gym and it is a great place for the kids to run, climb and be active. It really is a bit hot for that outside here.


Couldn't find any pictures of Go Go Bambini, so I found you a map of it's location.


I enjoyed the playgroup initially and joined ANZA to meet other expats living here in Singapore. I hoped that it might help ease my transition. However I have found it sadly lacking........you know what? That's another blog all on it's own.


Playgroup was rather uneventful this week and I cam home felling rather disheartened. But that's ok as I had plans for the afternoon.


I have booked our first beach holiday since arriving here. Actually I think it may be our first beach holiday in about 3 years, and had to make the payments that afternoon. 


Being still new in Singapore, I still have to plan out my adventures so that I know where I am going and how to get there, especially with my son. If by myself I am much more likely to just rush out and take it as it comes, with the knowledge that if I get lost then I can catch a cab etc. But I have the leeway to muck around a bit. With my son, he has a limited tolernace for the buggy and if I let him walk then I have to leave about 3 hours before I have to be somewhere.


The other issue that we have to sort out is banking. Hubby joined us up with ANZ here as it was easy for us to get an account. What we didn't know is that it is classed as an overseas bank and they don't have NET's cards which work on the local network. NET's cards are like eftpos cards in NZ and Australia. So most things we do we pay for in cash. The other thing about ANZ is that they have a tie in with the other overseas banks but not with the local banks, which means there are limited ATM machines you can use.


Taking all of that into account I headed to Raffles Place, where I know there is an ANZ branch and then a short walk to Robinson Road to pay for the holiday. Mission accomplished.


I alight at Raffles Place and head to the ANZ. First obstacle was that they were under renovations. That's ok though as they have put an ATM machine just across the square. I find this machine. All going well. Only to find that the machine had temporarily run out of $50 notes (they don't have 20's here) and was only issuing $10 notes. How annoying since I want to withdraw $2000.00, but if that's the way it has to be so be it. Other wise I am going to have to get on the MRT and go to another station (where I know there is another machine), get the cash and then come back again and head to Robinson Road. I start with drawing. Only to be told that the maximum limit at this machine is $400 at this time. I KNOW that you can with draw up to $3000.00 per day here. I try to make multiple with drawals, but you know, these machines are hard to trick. Son starts screaming at this point as he wants out to run around and it is nearing 5 pm. I have to make payment by 5.30. 


There are a lot of banks around this area, but unless you know where they are it can be difficult to find them. Especially as I needed a specific type of bank.


Eventually I found a Maybank which I know takes my card. Cool. It is on Robinson Road, even better. To get to it, not so cool. There were roadworks on every corner and I had to use the MRT under pass. Which mean steps with a buggy. 


Off I trot. Get the money and then off to make payment and I still have about 20 mins. All good. Get to the travel agent. They are on the 8th floor and to get to the lift there is a flight of stairs. I mean 20 or so. With a buggy. I had no choice but to leave the buggy outside, unlocked, while we went to make the payment. My son used the climb to exercise his vocal chords. It was a bit like yelling in a public toilet.


Payment made. The lovely travel agent informed me that we could have got the same deal a bit cheaper had I gone to the Golden Mile (which is the place where all the buses sell their tickets from), I actually knew this but just wanted an easy, organised trip this time. Trying to get the confidence up about travelling with a toddler.


Got the tickets and got out. Buggy was still there. Crime rate is low here. I am not saying there isn't any, but on the whole it's a pretty trusting place.


Getting back to the MRT was where it all fell apart for me. I hoped that there was another entrance I could use to get underground and to the MRT because on the way over all the steps had been downwards, which meant going back was all upwards. I go to the entrance I had come out of and there was no way I could cross the roads. There were workers directing people underground and all the crossing where blocked off. Helpfully, there was a sign at the entrance to the MRT letting me know that this was not an entrance for people in a wheel chair of with wheels and that for this service you had to cross the road and use the lifts over there. 


Yep. That did me. I love irony, but not at my expense, well just not all the time at my expense. So, while I was struggling up the stairs, with peak hour workers heading home, I lost my footing and found myself sitting on the ground. My son was fine in the buggy, but I was done. You know, just over it all. I had gone out to do a simple task and it wasn't meant to be.


It's moments like that, that remind you you are still new in a huge city and it really does take a while to figure out how it works and how easy it was in your previous city because you knew it.


Now, I am totally ready for the holiday. 

It's time to travel

One of the bonuses of coming to live in Singapore is the access to south east Asia. We have been here 6 months, geesh time flies, and haven't dared leave the island. Well, hubby has been to Malaysia for bike rides, but that's not fun. Ok, not my type of fun.

When I was 9 years old I visited Singapore and Malaysia with my Mum and some of her friends. One of the places I remember visiting the most was Tioman Island. I think this was partly because I had to keep a daily journal and on Tioman I wrote a story about the Pumpkin eaters. What the? I know.

They were tiny jellyfish that had a dark spot in the middle. A bit like a seed. Yep, I still have no idea why they were called Pumpkin eaters or why this particular story stuck in my mind. But it has and it did.

As an aside, the person who corrected my journal daily (the point of the exercise was to keep my spelling and grammar up as we were travelling for an extensive period of time), was American. This has confused me no end as most of my schooling was conducted in Australia or New Zealand where they follow the Queen's own. I was always getting bad results from spelling tests and it wasn't until I was much older that I realised there was a difference, that it started to make sense for me.

So where was I?

Huh, that's right. It's time to go a hunting. Pumpkin eaters here I come. I have talked hubby and my son, the latter has very little choice, into going up to Tioman for the weekend. Ok, so I don't have anything booked and will be getting onto that after I have finished gossing to you, but I am excited. I love a good weekend away. And to the beach, lovely.

I wonder if the monkey is still there that bit me (true story) about 25 years ago? I'm sure I don't really need to re-visit that adventure.

Now, just to make sure you are feeling me, I have 'borrowed' a couple of photo's off the net. Well, I don't have my own as we haven't been yet!