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.

Walk this way

One of the identifying factors of being in Asia for me is the directionless meandering which seems to be done at a snails pace and drives me to distraction. I am sure I have ranted about this previously and probably will again, but bare with me.

I am not sure about people's walking habits and I never really analysed mine until I realised that I would come home from a trip to the shops, cursing and fuming about the way people walk here.

Please, I am not having a go at anyone in particular, except those of you who walk real slow and seem to be drawn to any other moving force on the same footpath as you. And there it is, that's my frustration right there.

I am used to walking with direction and a pointedness. Purpose. I know where I want to go and stride away. I own the footpath. And this works in most western countries where the rule of the foot path is basically the same as the rule of the road. As I don't drive this can be rather confusing sometimes.

When in a new country, I often find myself happily exploring. Wandering in a thoughtless manner as I stare up at the buildings around me or stop in the middle of a crowd, because something bright and shiny caught my eye. Yes, I am a hypocrite. But at least I know it.

For the first few months of being in Singapore I found myself muttering under my breath, "Walk! One foot in front of the other". And things like "pick a lane, any lane." "Can we speed it up just a notch? I am going to lose my balance walking this slowly." I do hope it was under my breath. Hubby says that I can mutter rather loudly at times.

As time has gone on I am beginning to have a vague understanding of why people walk this way. It is HOT. Too hot to be walking at the brusque trot that I was used to in my former homeland. Also everyone here is also looking for shelter. Whether it be from the sun or the rain.

I am happier to walk out in the rain then then sun. At least getting wet cools me for a second before my clothes turn into a sauna. You can almost see the steam rolling off them.

Many of the old shop houses have a '5 foot way', which was introduced in the town plan of 1822. This was designed so that in the front of traditional shop houses there was a footpath which was 5 feet wide and was laid so that the over hang of the building covered the walk way providing shelter from sun or rain. Now days these are often built like covered corridors/walkways. Here is a link for more information if you feel the need to go all historical on us, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_foot_way.

I am beginning to see the sense in walking at a slower pace in the tropics. Less sweating, actually not really, but a lot less frustration at fellow footpath inhabitants. And really what is the rush?!

 A heritage shophouse in Singapore.

Looking front on to the shophouse

 Decorative tiles on shophouse

 Newer 5 foot walk

Another long weekend

We have just had a long weekend and I haven't written a thing. I don't have anything to write.

The weather was grey and overcast, which makes me think it is cold outside but that's an optical illusion. It's still hot out. As I have mentioned before in my blogs, it always rains when hubby wants to go for a ride. This Saturday just gone was no exception. But he did get out over the weekend.

Otherwise we spent the time happily lounging around the house and the pool. A venture out to China town to see the lanterns, which we were too early for. A wander around the mall and an evening of suger highs, was the high point of the weekend.

This is no bad thing. Relaxing and not doing much is a good thing, a very good thing. But I have come to realise that after the last few years I don't know how to do that. It's been flitting from one drama to the next. So now when we get to do nothing we get antsy. There is an impatience, a distrust of sitting still and enjoying the moment.

I say, something to work on.

Now back to scoffing my face on banana cake.

Searching for your new home

This can be a daunting task. It can be frustrating enough in your home country where you have a reasonable grasp on how things work. Doing it in a totally new country, with different rules and regulations can be terrifying. But if you are thinking about coming to live in Singapore or any new country then it is a part of that equation.

The two times....

Tangent. My husband and I first came to live in Singapore about 10 years ago. While we didn't stay long, I think we may have been a bit too young and it didn't live up to expectations, it gave us a taste for the place.

Speaking of expectations, I think a lot of people come here with one set of expectations and find that the reality is rather different. Singapore has EVERYTHING you could want, it's just up to you to decide how you want to live here.

We have thrown ourselves in boots and all. My husband had been here earlier in the hunting for work. I think that makes us a little bit different to many recently arrived expats that I meet. We chose to come here and most others are transferred. I do get some strange looks from people when I say that we made the decision to come here and actively worked to make it happen.

I get sidetracked so easily. While job hunting and being very good at it, my husband got an offer within the first week of his 3 week sojourn. Instead of returning home and being there for his son's first steps, this is a factual even that happened, is all I am saying. He rightfully so, stayed here and found us a place to live. This was a GODSEND, when we arrived. It meant that we got off the plane and walked right into our place. Made it very easy with our son.

The way to find accommodation in Singapore is with an agent. I do know of people that have done it themselves. Generally these people have been living here for quite some time and have sussed some of the nuances of the city by then.

The agents, there will be two involved, 1 for you and 1 for the landlord, are the ones that you give your brief to. They are the ones that listen to your circumstances eg kids, no kids, huge budget or not, and because they know the city, the market and you they can generally find you the best fit.

In our case, my husband had these romantic notions of living in a shop house and being zen. Our real estate agent pointed out that this would be isolating for me and our son, we wouldn't have any facilities, pool, BBQ pits or play grounds and actually they didn't fit in our budget.

The other thing that we really considered was the location. We wanted something close to the MRT (Singapore's version of the tube, except that it is modern and works wonderfully) and preferably on the same line as my husbands work.

As a consequence of this we live very near little India in a Condo that has great facilities and lots of other mothers and children. This part of why we came here. To be immersed, not stuck in an expat bubble. Although that can be done and I have met a lot of people very happy living this way.

We are on the same line as my husbands work and it means that he doesn't have en excuse for missing story time.

To find an agent ask around. Some are great (ours was brilliant and went above and beyond. She met us at the airport the night we arrived and bought us to our new home), and some are not so good. We have a couple of friends at the moment who are looking and their agent is pandering to them which means that they have unrealistic expectations and are finding the whole process rather arduous.

Wow, just read this. It is rather disjointed. But hey, that's life.