Are we still on?

Hello again to my fives of readers!

October kind of got away from me, huh? It was kind of a big month. I would say probably the biggest this year. And this year hasn't been shabby so far neither. Here's what happened:

Tioman

A while back i heard my friends Odd (who's quite normal), SK and Claire were going to Pulau Tioman, which is one of Malaysia's many idyllic islands near Singapore and I recklessly said "Hey! I'll join you! I'll just meet you at the ferry. No worries!"

So I spent end of September trying to get bus tickets to Mersing for a Tioman trip during Hari Raya!

Ha!ha!ha! That is not me laughing–that is the sound of ticket sellers at KL's famously crap Pudu station on hearing my request. My choices: get there at 4am then wait til 8am for the 1st ferry, OR go to Kuantan and double my trip time then get there at 5am. OR, the scintillating-Take the train to then get a bus to Mersing at 5am. OR,.. well you get the picture.

In the end, the travel gods smiled down on me and confirmed a ticket on the Berjaya Air waitlist. Here marks the end of my relationship with the Malaysian public transport system. Good luck and good riddance!

The replica plane that they sent to fill in for a real plane

An exciting wait in the under-renovation Subang airport, and I was on my way in a tiny plane with a lot of Germans. Is it the same group of Germans following me aorund? Every time I go islanding (real word, I swear)! I thought summer was over for Europeans? I don't get it.

Anyway I flew Berjaya Air and stayed at.. Berjaya Resort and ate Berjaya food and rode the Berjaya bus...it was one of those really authentic experiences. I looked at the Berjaya view (see above) for 3 days, so I can't say I have any complaints!

KL Swing

Next up is where things begin to go off the rails... in a totally good way. In late September, I met this girl Ling who had created a KL Swing Facebook group and I offered to help.

We are both Malaysian-ish and had both been in town for about 6months, separately bitching that there was no Swing dancing. In between then and early October, we held a free taster class in Tiara's Aroma Beauty Salon in Bangsar (good floors, crap sound system, cheap) and then she promptly accepted a job in Singapore!

Note the awesome black light deco

That meant I was on my lonesome for the Oct 9 workshop we had organised with Sinclair, my teacher from Singapore. I like to think I am realistic. I probably err on the side of glass woefully half empty. Just to be, you know, safe. So I fully expected to find myself alone, in a Punjabi bar called Topaz (good floors, crap lights, cheap :D) but to my great surprise and delight, most everyone who replied on facebook, and then some, showed up.

They very obligingly learned the 8-count in mood lighting–I had asked the manager to help me turn off 1) the disco ball 2) the strobe lights. I tried for 3) non-smoking, but he wasn't having a bar of it.

Having noted I could safely get enough people for the class, I began the search for a proper studio. Weekday nights are dance studios' bread and butter, so it took alot of calling around before I found 2 separate ones for Sinclair's next visit, which was last Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday went great, once it got started! Monsoon rains, immigration queues and mega traffic meant Sinclair's trip from the airport was much longer and arduous-er than expected. Started half an hour late, but we got there in the end!

More pix here at FB

Singapore

In between workshops, I popped down to Singapore for some work. Some very exciting days spent in a darkened room! My first coffee table book shoot. I really really wanna share, but that'll have to wait.

I also got to hang with my girls J & P who very bravely took me to Bellini Grande for "A new realm in live entertainment"–according to the poster. It was another realm all right! It boasts about a bajillion musicians and an all-hot cast of singers and dancers. It's meant to be in the vague vacinity of Swing Jazz, but it's more closely related to a cheesy day-time Vegas variety show than a Big Band. It's all showbiz T & A with a Kermit puppet, a faux-Southern singer and an Elvis impersonator to boot. My face really hurt when I left from all the laughing-I recommend everyone do it once! Is cheesier than the whole of Wisconsin.

Oh yeah, somewhere in there I turned 29 :) So far, it's not too bad. Not too bad at all.

Where Our Treasures Lie

"It is as if we have been forced to go on a long journey in search of what we've no interest in. The road back will be painful. We won't feel like we fit in and our friends need time to return home as well. But that time will happen. And we will come to see where our treasures lie"

The Witch of Portobello, PAULO COELHO

When I left Perth for Singapore 7 years ago, I packed my 2 suitcases and a sense of self-satisfaction that I was going toward exciting things. Perth is many things, but ever-evolving and fast-paced it is not.

With each successive trip back over the years, I managed to conclude that I made the right choice. That having swapped the quiet life for long hours at work, big projects, big shopping, a cleaning lady, and monthly pedicures...was the right thing thing to do.

Whenever taxi uncles found out where I was from, they always used to explain "Har? What you doing here?" It only took me another 6 years to ask myself the same question!

But of course this time back was different. I've completely switched over to freelance and get by on so much less. My credit card is dusty from under-use and I just cut my own nails like a pleb :p

And whilst I'm a fair way from packing my bags (for Perth anyway), its blue skies and fluffy white clouds, its courteous drivers and verdant wildlife, don't seem like the marks of a suburban backwater anymore, but something of how life should really be.

MDA Senior Management Rap

"Government rap", like "economy cheese" are two words that should never be put together. Watch for the awesome consequences.

Via Mr Brown, L'infantile terrible of Singapore.

Graffiti Book Launch

One of the fake titles I place after my name is 'travel writer' and one of the publications helping to keep the facade in place, is the Graffiti Travel Guide: Singapore. It's a collection of locals writing about places they love in Singapore, set out in an arty kind of way. I wrote a shopping spread for it (but can't show it yet, cos still waiting on the PDF) and they're having the big launch party this Friday in Singapore which I'm very sad to be missing. There's going to be much alcohol and government-approved spray painting; a combination I just don't see often enough.

If you wanna go, email me for the rsvp number, and here's the cute invite:

And here's some of the other inside spreads:

I can't wait to get my copy in the mail!

Lookit! My book cover on Singapore TV!

Just to prove I haven't been faffing around getting attached to the couch.

What a difference a month makes

Bugger me. I've been here for a month already.

I know, I know. What the hell have I been up to that I couldn't be arsed to put up a few pictures and some smart aleck comments about the Americans. What could be easier!

It's been, shall we say, fantastic. Other people, when they leave one country for another, they may just take a direct plane there. Those people have no imagination and probably do sudoku for fun.

Here's how I did it:

First, after finishing work at Chinese New Year, was the farewells. They were fun, bittersweet, but mostly, immensely calorific. Coming on the back of CNY celebrations there was a fair bit of gorging on everything in sight.

Then, there was Sydney, where I got to hang with my fave little guy David and my aunt and uncle. Then I did some bbq-eating with my old roommate and met up a uni friend.

Then, home to Perth and more Aussie goodness–catching up with all my favourite Perthians. Can't get more Aussie than this pic. Also I had an interview at the US Consulate for a visa. I just about gave myself an ulcer over the interview, which, as is my luck, turned out to be nothing at all.

Then, back to Singapore to look one last time at this godforsaken chair that style forgot, and poof! Just like that, a chapter in my life over.

I spent a few days in Tokyo to break up the trip, staying in hip Shinjuku with my ex-colleague and his gf. We went to bars that baffle me still–one involved ping pong balls. My host mum, who recovered from serious illness just one month before, came to town to take me round. She out-walked me at the Imperial gardens (above) which, really, goes to show how useless I've become fitness-wise.

..and I made an entirely useless trip to Odaiba, an island off Tokyo. Useless cos I didn't know in order to get home I had to leave exactly 30 min from getting off. I did get to see Puppy *the World, though, which is a shop where you can rent dogs to walk around the island. I would have gone with Pups for Pounds as a name, but that's just me.

And finally, hoorah, hoorah. Home in SF, where I've taken up my position as house elf for Big Sis. The cherry blossoms were kind enough to come out to welcome me.

We've been on one road trip since I got here. No points for guessing where :p It's not something you really do in Singapore, and I've got quite the appetite for it now.

Other than that, it's been a buffet of day-to-day fun things. I've met all of Big Sis' SF 'family'. They're a great bunch and a big part of feeling settled here. I was Miss Apprehension about the move, but I think it works out for the best. It's perhaps been a tad tooo fun cos the jobsearch only just got started, heh.

The time wasn't mis-spent. Now that I've had some time for things to roll around in my head, something has clicked over and I'm sure what I want/don't want to do. Which, for me, is nothing short of a bloody miracle.

Some housekeeping:
I'm not feeling the design at the moment, but don't want the plain white, so I'm gonna leave it first, k?