night safari, must go

After bargain-hunting through Funan, Sim Lim and Suntec, Kev finally bought his laptop from Funan today. Awesome students deal for an HP tablet, and he can claim back the GST on his way outta here as well. I think the final cost was about half of what he could have bought it for back in Oz. Buying electronics here is highly recommended.

So we head over to United Square for lunch because we needed to take some measurements in the new apartment, which is just round the corner from there. After finishing up, I take Kev to Chinatown because I wanted to take him on msB’s walking tour of Chinatown. Kev was getting a blister on his foot (stupid Haivanas) and even after buying three different band-aids from two different pharmacies, none of them would stay on. So we regretfully adjourn back home to change shoes. Regretfully for me because I was looking forward to checking out some sites, but probably very relieving for Kev.

We get home and Kev dives straight into the laptop. I have a nap. The next thing I know, Kev is waking me up because it’s time to go to the zoo! The night safari, you gotta do it. Don’t care what others say, I loved it. Just lost myself in the dark world of smelly animals. Favourites were the leopard, pacing around in front of me while my nose was pressed up against the glass; the other leopard was sprawled out sleeping just 10 inches away on the other side - it didn’t look real, the fur was beautiful, so shiny. My other favourite was the slow loris - climbs around, upside-down, right-side up, like an unco little bear/sloth.

The other thing I noticed was that everyone at the zoo is in a good mood, and smiley. Like, how I feel when I’m drinking one of these:

And there were the biggest arowanas I have ever seen in my life! Anyone who has seen them, you know what I’m talking about. Had a vid, but it didn’t do them any justice.

Back home, and Kev is his computer again. I am helping mrQ review documents. I’m buggered. I want to sleep.

Tomorrow - lunch with Cathy, martinis at morton’s, maybe a nap sometime, somewhen (as the Germans would say). 

the tissue paper thing

Especially in Singapore food courts or hawker centres, I notice that patrons would place tissue packets on tables in order to reserve them while they and purchase food. This practice is known as ‘chopeing’ - in fact, you can even find tissue packets with the word CHOPE printed on them. See here and here for some examples.

Anyway, I’m not sure that I’m entirely comfortable with this practice. But you know what they say - when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So tonight, I made my first foray into the chopeing world. Kev and I ate in a local hawker centre, and while he was getting his food, I saw the duck rice line getting longer and longer. I put my tissue packet on the table, joined the line at the stall, and waited. AMAZING - it was like an invisible electric fence had been erected around the table and no-one even went within a metre of it. You could see folks looking over, seeing the tissue and then start scoping out some other tables.

So while it was totally normally for other people, I was secretly giggling inside *giggle*. 

what are the chances?

Max (my cuz) flew in with Kev on Sunday morning, and while Kev is staying with us, Max was staying with Eric during his time here. Kev and I (K&I) met Max at Paragon on Monday arvo for a late lunch and arvo tea. Max leaves to get a cab, and K&I stay on to do some baby clothes shopping for baby Riley. Half an hour later, Max calls and tells us that he’s coming back up because he couldn’t get a cab. We wait and wait for him, and he finally meets us and then runs off to the dunny. Waiting again.

Then Cheech and Karina walk into view.  I blinked a few times. Cheech and Karina are now based in London after moving there from Oz a year ago. What are the chances? Max not getting a cab, running to the dunny, etc..

Another one: A couple of weeks ago, mrQ and I go to Novena to check out an apartment and decide to take a walk in the neighbourhood and see what’s around. We walk out of some shopping centre and illegally parked in some lane is Jit (based in Shanghai). Jit used to work with mrQ when they were both together in KL. He was in Singapore for a half week and had stopped the car so some folks could pick up some coffees. What are the chances?

Is Singapore really that small?

Cheech and Karina are leaving tonight so K&I decided we would follow them around for the day and let them do their thing. Cheech suggests Little India, so we eagerly agree thinking that they would take us to somewhere mad to eat. After cross-crossing through streets and chatting away, I come to the realisation that Cheech and Karina don’t even like Indian food. They just wanted to go there to have a look-see. CUT UP!

Anyway, Fair Price has 6-packs of tiger on special at the moment - $13 dollars something, so we picked up a couple of those. I had my first litter-experience here, and littering in Singapore is a big no-no. I was walking around with my sugar can drink and stopped to bag some capsicums. Meanwhile, I have put my sugar cane down in amongst the broccoli and forgot to pick it back up again. It just kinda blended in with all the green broccolis. No messing about with the name of this chain, they really give you a fair price. It gave me a fair price on my beers and I gave it…umm..half a sugar cane drink! Feel bad, even though I didn’t mean it. K&I have sore legs, and Kev is walking like an old man. Tomorrow might be good for a sleep-in, and 5 more sleeps until he goes home.

My favourites from today:

 Oh, and did you ever notice that there is a big mutha-f fan in the middle of bugis markets? Next time you’re there take a look up at the ceiling.

Travels yesterday: Orchard, Bugis, Sim Lim, Lau Pa Sat, Indochine Boat Quay

Travels today: Suntec, City Hall, Orchard, Bugis, Little India, Bedok

Tomorrow?

dramas..

OK, so there were huge dramas starting from when my head hit the pillow on Friday night until yesterday morning. Won’t go into details, but let’s just say that it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster and I don’t care to go on that ride again.

Banks…again. Citibank promises same day account opening, credit card approval and card availability. The account thing works, but the same day card availability thing? Uh-uh! Is there somewhere I can complain about false advertising in Singapore?

Kevin just woke up. Now just need to wait for Max to wake up. What should we do today?

theKids

I’ve never had to buy my own laptop because my work would always provide one. So now that I no longer have a laptop, I’ve been using mrQ’s. His one runs Vista, and there are these cool gadget things that you can set up on your desktop. One of them scrolls through your photos and shows a different one every 15 seconds or so. Just saw one of the kids. Miss them *sigh*

Picnics in the backyard…the kids’ hair had grown out after a haircut. This is what happens when home on a Friday night…sad.

eyeing the eye of the tiger

So mrQ calls me at 1am to tell me that he’s coming home?!?? I was in a fluffy slumber until that point, and in my grogginess, I hang up thinking that it’s my alarm. He gets home, chats away to me until 2am, and then goes to bed. Meanwhile, I’m lying awake and can’t get back to sleep. So that was nice, and annoying at the same time.

He’s out tonight, so I’m kicking back again with some post-dinner brew. It went a little something like this. msB has a quick dinner and pops over to the mom and pop store to pick up those squishy ice cream things and a half-litre of Tiger. Goes to the counter and waits for the total to be rung up on the till. Then…nothing. msB looks up and the girl squeaks..’underage?’. aiyah! So showed my licence, she looks at me suspiciously, sells me some beer, and msB goes home. 

Home is actually a serviced apartment for the next 3 weeks, and this place is sadly lacking in most things that make life convenient. In this particular case, there is no bottle opener. msB had a Mcgyver moment last night and used one of mrQ’s belt buckles and thus was able to dominate the tiger. mrQ wore that belt to work today, and his other ones just aren’t up to the job. So here I am, just facing off with the tiger.

 

Kev arrives on Sunday so it will be like old times, except that he doesn’t need to bring an electric blanket to hang out. Old times…

Tiger has been opened! How so? Macgyver can’t give up all the secrets…

sling schming…

Slingers…what a refreshing change. I’m marking the end of my second week here, and the decision to relocate here has been the right one. The fact that I’m jobless and a dependant of my mrQ has let me soak it all in even more. So far,

• Have found an apartment we want to rent, and much closer to town compared to our current place. Spent 3 days on property viewings and saw this one on the 2nd day. I knew it was perfect when I got there. Here’s to hoping that we close the deal because I’m planning out furniture purchases already. Half day spent at ikea and another half spent poring over the ikea catalogue - I am now the master of the ikea universe, ask me anything!
• Acquainted myself with all the starhub/m1/singtel promotions there are to be had - I’m joining the hub club for sure!
• Caught up with friends, both local and from Oz, and made new ones. Missing my nat who is somewhere in Paris, and the boys back home.
• Miss the kids. This has resulted in me making a beeline for the pet-store every time I sense there is one around. No luck with finding any cute dogs, but we did find a sleeping hamster that twitched himself awake. Or…was that a girl hamster?

• Have not stopped eating. Like…out of of control.
• Walked. Heaps. And found two Muji stores already. Got lost a few times, and then found again. 
• Started talking to myself - spending a good part of your day alone does this to some.
• Lifted my game in the ironing department - Back home, we used to get our cleaner to do our ironing every couple of weeks. Now, with being a tai-tai and no cleaner, someone has to do it.

So I’m loving Singapore and I thought Singapore was loving me back…until yesterday. Try opening a bank account if you don’t have a job and a foreigner!

< msB walks into a DBS branch >

msB: Hi, I would like to open a bank account, and this is the account I want to open

dbs chick: Okay, please show me your passport

< msB hands over the passport with green card >

dbs chick: I’m sorry, but you are only dependant. You cannot open account - must get mrQ to come open with you

< msB thinks to herself…CANNNN!?! >

msB: What! Ok.

< msB walks out of DBS branch, frowning and muttering to herself >

That was the first dose of reality I’ve had in weeks. I’m not used to just being someone’s ‘dependant’ and it just drove home the fact that I won’t be any good as a tai-tai. Not now anyway. It was all the impetus I needed, and I cracked open the cv today. It’s been a month to the day since I was last at work. Somehow it all fits.