count

My female owner said that her recent holiday to Singapore felt incomplete and truncated. Unlike the previous time when she worked and played at the same time, this time, she chose to spend time with family, friends and turtles. She lost interest in some usual activities such as badminton, aikido and even drinking with buddies (you can take it as she didn’t go drinking at all). She also did not meet up with some people whom she would normally meet up with and gave some parts of Singapore a complete miss. In fact, she also didn’t take us out for walks as often.

Rather than the usual activities, this time, she explored rural parts of Singapore, went to church a few times, probably overdosed on durians and nasi lemak. She even went on a short vacation with her parents. She saw a widening gap between herself and some friends, gaps that formed as a result of physical distance, shift of priorities and inertia. But at the same time, she saw her friendships with some friends become stronger, despite the physical distance her overseas exploits had wedged between them.

Falling sick because of stress was anti-climax for my female owner. Since then, she never really gained back her hearty appetite and scoffed at all things salty, sweet, buttery and carbohydrates. And she never got to eat her chilli crabs.

I suppose every holiday is different and there is no point comparing one to the other. People change, situations alter and priorities shuffle. What’s important is to make every holiday count.

allergic

My female owner remains allergic to Singapore air. Ever since she came back, she had been sneezing. Doesn't matter where or what time. Today must be the worst outburst ever. She sneezed until her throat felt sore, her eyes watered and her nose reddened. She even wondered if she was going to sneeze out blood. These outbursts take a toll on her energy level as her body tries to cope with her multiple incessant sneezes.

In addition, my female owner wonders if she is developing an aversion to some aspects of Singapore. Already, she has issues with the swelling population and crowded public places, even during off-peak hours. She can’t walk two steps before bumping into someone.

If she is going to spend her days sneezing and bumping into strangers, then she would rather forgo any sponsorship and live somewhere where she can breathe easily and have personal space walking on the streets.

west

Recently, Functional Fren brought my female owner on a mini roadtrip to the far far (no kidding) west of Singapore. Functional Fren is one of the few Singaporeans friends she has who get energised by spending time with nature and can sprout plant facts spontaneously.

Within 4 hours, they visited a dragonfruit farm (which harvests other kinds of plants), a hill with a pseudo-lake, home to many turtles (which did not show up for some reasons) and a nature reserve. It was almost like a science excursion for my female owner as she gleaned random plants facts from green fingers Functional Fren. My female owner had heaps of impromptu fun, exploring these otherwise unknown gems of Singapore. She started to embrace the charms of far far west and took delight in knowing that there are still some parts of Singapore untarnished by urbanisation.

At the Dragon Fruit Farm...

My female owner learnt that pineapples are actually a form of cacti. Did you know that?

And there are long beans which are red... That this is not grass, but chives. Peppers are really small.. and something about the process to get white peppers instead of black involves "polishing" them early (something like that).. Besides the fact that dragonfruits don't grow in January, she also found out that they are the fruits of a cactus. and these round balls are not vegetables or some gourd-like edibles but..
... passion fruits in the process of ripening! (also her first time trying real passionfruit!) She also figured that some lady fingers are really too huge to be called as such..
Little Guilin at Bukit Batok

Where they came to look for turtles, but for some strange reasons, they could only spot two. My female owner learnt the this area was previously a granite quarry.

The setting makes it suitable to film period dramas..

Looks like quite a nice place to chill eh... except that it is sooo far from my female owner's house.
Finally, Bukit Batok Nature Reserve

My female owner says that some parts bore resemblance to parks in Brisbane.
My female owner wondered if this is Singapore's version of strangler figs.
The leaves that Functional Fren said are used to wrap bak changs. Hmmm...my female owner apparently gave him a doubtful look

priority

My female owner has been back for about five days. So far, I get no sense that she has been aussified. Her manner of speech is still largely the same. Her lifestyle, still the envy of people around her. Wake up, wonder what to do, find a friend to entertain her, go out, get entertained (and often blessed), come home, MSN, eat, read newspaper, not watch TV, drink coffee, respond to impromptu jios, meet parents for meals… and the cycle repeats itself.

According to the declarations of my female owner, her top priority for this holiday is spending more time with her family (that technically should include us turtles right??). Her conscience was greatly heightened by her Functional Fren, who confronted her on Tuesday about making time to spend time with her family. That was followed by his daily reminders (or checks via MSN – see the power of technology – “today not going out?”). So far so good. Save for Tuesday when she had her major pigout, my female owner has had at least one meal per day with her family. The converse is true for us turtles. Since Monday, she only fed us once! It’s Saturday already! Boo hoo hoo. Was this how she lost weight? By skipping meals?

Day 1

This was how my female owner spent her first day in Singapore.

An impromptu jio for lunch by a fren. Wonders of technology. In the absence of a mobile line, the jio was made through MSN. Lunch was, erm, McDonalds! A place where she hardly patronised in Brisbane became her first lunch in Singapore. Lunch was good, as her fren took great pains to update her on the latest happenings and she even discovered more mysteries about him.

Then it was off to City Hall for a pre-arranged meet-up with one of her former gals. Within the space of four hours, they visited three eateries. A Japanese restaurant, a Chinese bakery and Starbucks. Goodness me. She also shopped around for a pre-paid card, finally establishing contact with her social network.

Her gigantic tea left my female owner little stomach space for dinner (and beer) with her Impromptu Frens. Yes, they actually organised (and committed to) a pre-arranged welcome back dinner. My female owner ended up with wings and beer. Just like the good old days. None of them believed that she had quit drinking (“only ghost will believe”), although one of them did harbour hope that she really did.

Took a little while for my female owner to get used to her friends again. You know, like after 10 months of being away, she had become accustomed to a different way of speaking and relating to people. Now, she has to recalibrate to her Singaporean neurons. Some people said she did sound a little aussie (?? Her aussie friends said she had a strong accent). Happily, a few people mentioned (or expressed shock) that she had lost weight (my female owner was gleeful about this coz she didn’t really do much exercise in recent months). My female owner (and I) is sure that she would put on weight after this holiday. Just look at how Day 1 panned out.

unplanned

My female owner is coming back to an unplanned holiday. She had not really made plans about what she wants to achieve/ do/ experience during her 6 weeks in Singapore. As she ages, she notices that her organisational skills is left wanting. She tends to live in bliss, without much planning or structure, thinking that things will work out in the end. Maybe it’s called mellowing. At the same time, she gets distressed over this lack of planning and entertains a high level of anxiety and what-ifs.

She was feeling very bored and restless during church yesterday. It was like a kaleidoscope of emotions for her. Elation at the end of another school year, excitement about going home, ambivalence about how Brisbane would be when she returns, sadness at having to say goodbye to Korean Jogging Kaki for good, sense of “this is the end” for Bris09 etc.

My female owner started entertaining herself. She wrote down a list of friends she wanted to meet over the next 6 weeks. She came up with a list of about 30 people (some were categories though). Having done that, she wrote down the food she wanted to eat. For some reason, she struggled to come up with a long list. Perhaps she had already forgotten those yummy foods that once titillated her taste buds. She moved on to places she wanted to visit before leaving Singapore. Sadly, she only came up with about 10 places. Well… looks like people mean the most to her, followed distantly by food… and well… places. This is consistent to one of her mantras of life: doesn’t matter where to go or what to do, it’s the company that matters.

14 sleeps

14 more sleeps before my female owner returns! We turtles are getting really excited (although Dodo, my smart brother says that technically, it is more than 14 sleeps away, since we turtles sleep about 2-3 times a day - Who cares!).

Everyone is counting down. Her family for sure. Her mother is looking forward to cooking for my female owner as much as she can. A short trip to Cambodia is also in the pipeline.

Her Onli Frens have already volunteered to pick her up from the airport, and spend time with her on her birthday (though the Second one has to skive off work to do that). Not to mention that they have taken leave in December too.

Her Impromptu Frens, who have already planned to have impromptu parties (how can anyone plan to have something impromptu continues to baffle me) and a delayed Christmas party, with a Secret Santa thrown in, on New Year’s Eve?! This group is really interesting!

Her Counselling Fren who never fails to say “tell u more when u come back” on msn. My female owner is getting so miffed at his escapism that she has recorded what he’s supposed to tell her or promised to bring her to (e.g. farms, fishing and off-shore islands). Must be freaking him out, coz he has “commitment issues”.

Potahto.. in her non-commital manner.. "yes, we can hang out together". Reunion of the chopstick sisters..

Her Couple Fren have proposed a steam-boat dinner as a reunion for the party of five who travelled together in Brisbane and offered to celebrate her birthday with her (super vague plans I must say, but she’s sure they would). Male Couple Fren also agreed to take leave to go Pulau Ubin with her.

Her neighbour’s daughter who is also completing her A levels soon. Ah, so fast! Two years flew by them. They can do hang out sessions once again.

Her aikido instructor who is starting his own aikido school and has invited my female owner to continue training with him. My female owner says that knowing him changed her life for the better (sounds so suggestive)… and not many men have that positive effect on her (sounds so wrong now). Her other aikido friends who have asked about her coming back.

Some of her stand-alone friends whom she hardly talks to, but still maintains a strong emotional bond because of their common past experiences. Ah, she better not forget about them!

A number of friends who have strategically started enquiring “when are you coming back?” despite not talking to her for a good part of the year (her supper kaki comes to mind). Better late than never!

(note: her ex-colleagues are probably clueless about her return, a testament to their strained relationships, but who cares!)

Erm… will she have time for us turtles then? Or will she repeat her gallivanting ways and neglect us again!

ang pow

Being away from Singapore means that my female owner misses all her friends’ weddings. Actually, at her age, most of her friends are already in the baby-making stage (yeah, she is so far behind... but that's a separate story altogether). So she is missing out on two significant life events of her friends.

Come to think of it, the ones who are getting married are actually her ex-girls! Yeah, the girls she used to nurture when they were fresh out of Sunday School. A couple of them are getting married…. to her peer male friends. Hmmm... must have been interesting for her to see how things had developed over the years.

So, anyway, after being out of touch of the “market rate” for so long, it was handy that one of her friends sent her this.

could be

My female owner got herself into an emo frenzy just now. Well… a frenzy that lasted for a couple of hours. It all started with a comment she made to Onli Fren… that she “could have been in Singapore” now. Onli Fren got puzzled, coz she thought that my female owner was at peace with her decision not to return to Singapore. My female owner responded that it is harder now, coz this is the period where she would have been back in Singapore, if she had bought a ticket home. And everytime she sees a plane in the sky (for some reason, they fly low enough for her to identify the plane as a Qantas carrier), she wishes pensively that she is onboard that plane..

And the two of them got into a “could be” exchange.

“we could be having dinner together now” (Onli Fren had dinner near my female owner’s house just now. Hey! That means that she was near us turtles just now.)

“so near yet so far”

“we could be having high tea together tomorrow, … with Second Onli Fren”

And Onli Fren changed her “TGIF” tagline to “we could have been shopping together on Friday”.

Oh well… that’s how my female owner is. She takes ages to make a decision, accepts it somewhat… but still pokes herself once in a while with "hypotheticals" (as what I-Fren terms her fantasies).

eyes

Through the eyes of an Australian tourist (who made a weekend trip to Singapore):

Price of coffee is so expensive! Shoes are cheap.

Why are whitening products so popular in Singapore? People hand out brochures everywhere.

So amusing, it warrants a photograph: the timed traffic lights which tell you how many seconds you have left to dash across the road.

Paying $29.50 each to go on the Singapore Flyer without batting an eyelid and, buying the photograph they take of you and presented in an ugly corporate-looking folder at an overpriced amount of $18.

The best food in Singapore is the breakfast they serve at the hotel.

Coins in Singapore are so small!

How come they don’t have $20-notes?

Sentosa is exciting. Paying $12 for a china-made ornament there is ok.

seen

I haven’t seen my female owner much around the house since Christmas! She has been RTS (roaming the streets, as pointed out by her father).

Friday, she went to work in the morning. Was about to go home when her Second Onli Fren jioed her out for shopping. Then my female owner met her parents for dinner – Curry Fish Head. And of course, at night, she had games and supper with her Impromptu Frens and reached home about 4am+ on Saturday morning.

What distresses us when she reaches home at such unearthly hours is that she would go into the Balcony to look for us and almost certainly, wake Dodo up from his sleep!

Waking up on Saturday afternoon, her Functional Fren jioed her to go cycling at East Coast that day. And off she went. It turned out to be a fun yet trying day as their lack of planning/ spontaneity led to several inconveniences such as being stuck in traffic, not being able to find parking and even, not being able to find a place to take a shower!

Dinner was another overdose of food centre fare. Joined by another Impromptu Fren, the three of them had a big sinful feast of lala, sting-ray, chicken wings (again), satay, sugar-cane. Then, they jioed her Librarian Fren out for durians at Geylang. Another trying experience for my female owner as she tried not to aggravate Functional Fren who was frustrated at the start-stop traffic. At the same time, she found that she was at the receiving end of the other Impromptu Fren’s annoyance (he had already reached Geylang). She wasn’t impressed. Anyway, durians were good.

So my female owner got home and zonked out immediately.

Sunday came. Overslept. Didn’t make it for church. Dragged her lazy body out to attend a pair of married friends’ house-warming party. Dragged because their house was in an ulu part of Singapore and she had no transport. Thankfully, her Couple Frens were able to give her a lift. House-warming was alright although it felt like Chinese New Year visitation.

Then my female owner came home! Wahaha! In the afternoon. She spent like 2 mins with us. Her father started to scold her for not taking better care of us (ie. not giving us water or food). So he did the right thing and fed us! He did a bit of turtle gazing too. I bet you, we managed to charm him. Ah, then the family left to East Coast (again?!). They had plans to celebrate my female owner’s birthday.

Yawn.. I’m so tired.. update more another day.

Anyway, while talking to her Intuitive Fren today, my female owner realised that she had been eating chicken wings everyday since Christmas. No wonder she is sick of them. Like he said, most of the chickens in Singapore must be without their wings by now.

9 weeks

What can you accomplish in 9 weeks? How much can you change in 9 weeks? What kind of memories, experiences and impact can you make in 9 weeks?

9 weeks. That’s how long my female owner is going to be in Singapore. 9 weeks is exactly 2 months, 1/6 of a year. 9 weeks is 2/3 of a 13-week academic semester, which is about the time when assignments are due.

What difference can 9 weeks make? Onli Fren’s baby is about 9 weeks old. You can lose about 5kg in 9 weeks. You can finish a short-term course in 9 weeks e.g. beginners’ salsa/ foreign language/ cooking.

What lies ahead for my female owner?
Special days: Her mother’s birthday, Christmas, her 18th birthday, New Year’s day, Chinese New Year.

Resumption of favourite activities: Aikido (top of her list), badminton, exercising (??), suppers, catching up with old friends, hanging out with Singaporean friends whom she made in Brisbane, baking with her Onli Fren and Brisbane-Singaporean friends, drinking (in moderation) with Potahto, playing with us turtles!

Food she must eat: all things Asian - laksa, chicken rice, carrot cake, char kway teow, chicken curry, nasi lemak, chilli crab, durians, Old Chang Kee chicken wings, Shilin mee sua, mother’s cooking of course, roti prata, mutton soup, mee goreng (the real one, not the instant noodle), Ajisen ramen noodle, satay, otar, kopitiam kopi. Desserts – ice kacang, chendol, mango sago, iced longan,

Places to visit: AMK Hub, St James Power Station, Orchard Road and the like, East Coast Beach, Geylang (for the food), Bukit Timah, Pulau Ubin (anybody wanna go with her?!)

Others: Short getaway with her Impromptu friends, hosting Brisbane-made friends

Un-fun stuff: Hopefully secure free-lance work, statistical analysis for RA work, meeting up with her research supervisor (who will be teaching at the local university), tidy up her laptop, read up on her thesis

everyday

My female owner likes this photo very much. It was a random photo taken from one of the bus-stops near her house, as part of her mission to take some everyday angles or objects that most people would not take notice of, before she left for Brisbane. (Speaking of bus-stops, her Potahto and Functional Frens used to get annoyed with her, coz my female owner seemed to have direct buses which would bring her anywhere worth going in Singapore. Unlike their homes, which are much more ulu). Well, she got her retribution. Her current location in Brisbane is near the school and that's about it. Everywhere else is inaccessible...

There are many reasons why she likes this photo. Firstly, for the near symmetry of the blocks of flats and the tree. Secondly, the contrast of the colours of the building and the tree (and man-made vs nature). Thirdly, the shape of the tree. Finally, for the simple fact that it has been her home for more than ten years.

This angle, incidentally, is what I see, whenever my female owner brings me to the vet by bus… I would look back, in the direction of home, wishing and praying that she would turn around and bring me home immediately. It never happens. I always end up at the vet’s. *sulk*

This is the perspective we see, while waiting for the bus to arrive. Far behind is that church that she grew up in.

National Day

It’s Singapore’s birthday today! Happy National Day!

My female owner has never really enjoyed National Day in the past few years. The main reason was that she was always working either on National Day or around National Day, performing work duties which she did not believe in. Last year, she managed to get out of working on National Day and went on a post-break-up trip with Potahto to food paradise Penang.

This year, she spent National Day in Brisbane of course. A last minute jio by her Singaporean postgrad friends saw her going to school in the evening to watch the National Day Parade via live webcam with fellow Singaporeans. The event was organised by the Singapore Student Association.

Note: patriotism has never been in my female owner’s blood. There was a year when she watched a movie during the time when the parade was being telecasted.

She was amazed at how being in a foreign land greatly strengthens one’s national identity and sense of attachment. For example, when the national anthem was being sung at the parade, the lecture-theatre-full of students actually stood up at attention to SING the national anthem. Now, to stand up at attention at will is already amazing. To sing the national anthem, when most students probably stopped singing in Secondary School, was certainly an eye-opening experience for my female owner. As if to prove that the theatre of students were singing with gusto, there was a brief moment when the sound (not visual) stopped transmitting, and you can heard everyone singing “Majulah, Singapura” (ya, coincidentally the sound stopped at those lines). The same act of respect was repeated when the pledge was recited and the national anthem sang (again) towards the end of the celebration.

Watching the national day parade in a theatre full of Singaporeans in a foreign land was really an enriching experience for my female owner. Despite not being physically in Singapore, the crowd cheered, clapped and celebrated as though they were part of the spectators at the stadium.

My female owner certainly felt a sense of patriotism which she never felt before when she was in Singapore. And cheesy as it may sound, she found another reason/ motivator to do well in her programme – to do Singapore proud. Wahaha. She can just see some eyeballs rolling…