New beginnings

My adventures in the Arabian peninsula are now just a dream. To me, the 2.5 years of "borrowed time" turned out to be a myriad of (mostly) positive experiences, realizations and transformations. I miss so much things about Dubai, mostly family and then the friendships of the remarkable people I considered close. I am not the biggest fan of children for obvious reasons, but I do miss my piglet and I'll miss watching him grow and change. I'll miss his mother very much too. She's always been there for me and watched over me since the beginning of my time. I feel deeply indebted for all that so a tiny part of me does not feel too good about leaving her behind.

But then, my time there was up. I have moved closer to the equator, to a tropical rain forest climate - that is Singapore. The natural environment here is incredible. Compared to a desert environment with sandstorms, extreme temperatures ranging from 10 to 50 degrees Celsius and little biodiversity, this place, with no varying seasons, uniform temperatures, ample rainfall and lots of greeeeen trees, is heaven!

Katy Kat, her other half and their little furry son, Hans have welcomed me to their home and given me a very comfortable space to stay. I'm immensely grateful for their hospitality.

My flight was pleasant although it had no entertainment whatsoever. A lot of intermittent sleep. Good food. No irritating neighbors. The only thing I found mildly amusing was a guy in front of me asking for biscuits and Chinese food, which were not in the menu and unopened canned drinks (probably to take home). I have heard so many horrific accounts from cabin crew on the different types of queer personalities they meet onboard. I sympathize people in this job especially when having to deal with demanding passengers. I try not to ask them anything so that it's one less passenger for them to worry about. Also, I find that as I get older, I meet lesser and lesser irritating people on flights. Guess I look more intimidating now. GRRRRRR.

I knew that Singapore was spotlessly clean. But when I walked into a toilet at the airport, my mind wasn't prepared  for THAT much of cleanliness. And I had the SAME emotions run through me as I had back in 2004 when I came here the first time; despair at not having the luxury of bidet showers anymore and being spooked with the auto flush feature when I bent to pick a call from my mother. On a positive note, the exit had a touch-screen device to rate the services of the cleaner in charge of the toilet and I gave her an "Excellent" remark because she did a wonderful job of impressing visitors with Singapore's cleanliness standards.

I have also done a little bit of exploring around the local community in the past two days. It feels very liberating to walk around in shorts and not feel like I'm committing an offence, because this culture is less conservative when it comes to dress sense. Incidentally, I walk more now than I used to and I realize that Singapore is quite HOT and humid! Up until a few weeks ago, the most walking I did was from my home to the parking lot and from the parking lot to my office and vice versa (and the occasional mall). My old gal, Chariotte was given to away to a lovely Omani family. A bit too late into my stay in the Middle East for this realization I suppose, but that Arab family changed so much of the close-minded and negative stereotype of Arabs that I held previously. Funny, that.

So yeah, back to what I was rattling on about. I came mentally prepared for BAD vegetarian food, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found a nice Chinese vegetarian food stall with a good variety of colourful vegetables with flavour. I have also been binging on peach green tea, with and without pearls. Shopping for toiletries was rather disappointing. They only have GIANT-sized bottles, as if they strategically corner consumers to go for bulk savings. Where's the variety and choice to change one's toiletries and try out new types often?? I really wanted a Dettol Cool shower foam, but I had to compromise and go for a different brand with an average-sized bottle because the only Dettol shower foam that came in a decent size was one for men, and thinking a little ahead, I decided against buying it. [After note: Ryuu made an interesting comment to this saying that men's shower gels did not contain any testosterone in them.]

There isn't much cultural diversity here. The people here, well, aren't too friendly outright. They like to mind their own business, which I respect and find admirable, actually. My people back home are way too interested in others and it can get very unpleasant. Thing is, I've found a lot of the people here are nice, but you would only know this if you made conversation with them, which is not often. This is a very-South Asian trait. So walking among them, one feels invisible. And while I am at it, I can't help but feel a little negative (as a foreigner) about Singlish. I understand it's something that's evolved over the years and fused itself into the culture and that it is an accepted way for locals to understand each other. But, where the English is grammatically wrong, my insides roll with horror. I do sincerely hope that, at least, the grammatically wrong parts of S(E)inglish won't brush on my usage of English while I'm here.

When my friends saw me off at the airport, one of them jokingly asked "Why, doesn't Singapore have good hairdressers?". I thought it was a good idea to get a haircut before I went there. Should have thought harder, Shu, you idiot! The woman who chopped off my hair mercilessly was having a bad day at work and she took it out on my head. Oh well. Hair always grows back.

One of the highlights of my day was going for a swim. I must be half-fish.

Looking forward to meeting several old friends in the days to come. I have not seen them in AGES!

It feels good to be unemployed for awhile. So much less stress.