O oh - too late!
This from this mornings Nine MSN:
(http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=675815)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sex spells trouble, says Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, on Friday said sex spelt fleeting satisfaction and trouble later, while chastity offered a better life and "more freedom".
"Sexual pressure, sexual desire, actually I think is short period satisfaction and often, that leads to more complication," the Dalai Lama told reporters in a Lagos hotel, speaking in English without a translator.
He said conjugal life caused "too much ups and downs".
"Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those couples always full of trouble. And in some cases there is suicide, murder cases," the Dalai Lama said.
He said the "consolation" in celibacy is that although "we miss something, but at the same time, compare whole life, it's better, more independence, more freedom."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And if we all follow his stupid advice then the species will be extinct.
At the best of times I have little time for the exiled leader of the planets most blood-thirsty and oppressive theocratic dictatorship. Where new-born twins were considered evil and immediately sacrificed to Buddha, where people were sacrificed under the cornerstones of Buddhist temples, where new Buddha statues were anointed with human blood, where Buddhist priests took young boys as their sex toys, where the peasants lived under the harsh whips of their monkish overlords. Small surprise that most of the country does not support him and that half of Tibet welcomed the Chinese as liberators.
All very easy for him to pretend to be a paragon of purity now, to pretend that the regime he lead was 'spiritual', to whisper pretty words into the ears of dumb Westerners.
I acknowledge that celibacy can be an important tool in a person's spiritual growth. But it is also an important tool in the emotional manipulation of the ignorant. And I fear that its use is more the latter here.
For example; the stupid and totally red herring statement that "in some cases there is suicide", well dufuss, there is that with celibacy as well.
I have lived in a few monasteries of a couple of different religions, and I am firmly of the belief that the majority of people that seek the 'spiritual' life are emotional retards escaping from the real world. God, the nonsense that I found inside Christian monasteries! And to me Buddhism is another unnatural religion, not too different from Catholicism. We grow from life, the cycle of birth and rebirth is how we evolved; to seek to escape this cycle is to seek an end to growth. Yes, I know that at some point we do evolve beyond the physical, but a 'Nirvana' that is presented as a state of 'nothingness' to me smacks of spiritual suicide, and to encourage fellow humans to stop procreating is to seek species suicide.
So, to me this all sounds like the Dalai Lama again showing the world that he, like the Pope, serves the forces of evil.
Saturday, November 29
Friday, November 28
A Day of Firsts
Well, a couple anyhow.
So this is the first time I am using Firefox in SG to do this. I used it in Oz, but have used IE here up to now. That is a pretty weak first, I know, but it is only there to kind of fill out the list.
I logged on to my Adult Friend Finder account, first time in a while, but that is not the 'first' for this. I had two winks, okay, one was a wink and hug. Both from here in SG, one was from a two-girl profile. I have had a few winks or messages before, but mostly they have been from Nigeria, or women in their 40s from China, or young girls from Thailand or the Philippines with shots of them naked in their profiles (I kind of shy away from women that have exhibited themselves to the whole world). So this was a first, well two firsts. And then I replied; another first. Whilst I was at it I did a search and also looked up some usernames whose profiles I have looked at before (back in Oz) and liked, and messaged a few of them. Another first.
I don't really like being 'winked', I have a gold account and have paid for standard members to be able to mail me, and say so in my profile. So I would rather something more informative than a 'wink', but there you go.
I had a 700ml tub of icecream (chocolate ripple) for lunch. Meaningless as that is, it is still another first. My tum has been rumbling ever since. I would have preferred to have stopped half way or sooner, but the baby freezer compartment in the baby fridge in my baby apartment only keeps cool, not frozen.
I tried to check the status of my PEP application online. According to the website the MOM processes these in two weeks or less. According to the receipt and the website you can check the status of your application online. This is not exactly true; you can check the status online if you already have an SG ID number, which naturally I don't. So I phoned. Finding a number to call on the website took about eight screens as well. But it ends with good news; the application was approved, on the 26th, so two weeks on the dot, but the paper work may take up to a week to get to me. I need that letter before I can take my passport in to get the pass and return visa stamped in it. I guess this is a first; after all it is the first time that I am allowed to work in another country, it is the first step in leaving Australia. All that aside, it was damned good news to hear. Naturally, given my history with the Australian Public Service I was expecting problems, but no, a straight clear approval.
My right testicle is swollen and sore as hell. It being swollen is a first, I am assuming that I squashed it wearing jeans yesterday. I will wait and see how it is tomorrow before getting a medical opinion; if it doesn't go down then it may be something else, but I'm betting not, I can be pretty rough with those parts of my anatomy at times.
I guess with the PEP approved that I will book return flights back to Adelaide for the Xmas & New Year period. I know that I said I wouldn't do that until I had a job, but I was expecting it to cost a lot more, I webbed it the other day and apparently can do for less than a thousand ($700-ish plus taxes = $850-ish), booking from Australia all you can get is about $800 + about $600 in taxes = $1,400 at best, usually closer to $2,000.
It will be interesting to see if that italic works, I entered it fully manually because CTRL + I gives a huge line of span (i.e. open 'span' in pointy brackets then a long line of code saying font in emphasis then close span in pointy brackets). Blogger in Firefox did not use to do that. And so continues my frustration with Blogger.com's handling of emphasis coding. And yes, I know that there is no non-possessive apostrophe in that, but if I didn't put it there then most people would get totally confused, wouldn't they?
Now why did I get a gold account at AFF? Yes? No?
If 'no' then you can skip this bit.
Back in the days when I first started looking online for someone to share my life with. The first thing was a couple of accounts in Oz to find a local girl - only one came of that and she was too much head trouble to take beyond three conversations. AFF is global, though, so this account lasted longer than the others. Yes, it got put on the back burner whilst I moved on to Russian girls. That went nowhere, half of them were straight out to rip money off guys, half of the remainder were not serious, they just wanted to be taken out to fancy restaurants (a meal out costs them weeks pay), the others turned out to provide their own share of cultural issues. All this time the AFF account stayed alive but unused (free!!), then when I started to think about going to Singapore I actually paid for it to be upgraded into something that can message both ways. Runs out in March 2009 and I'll let it die then. I had kind of forgotten it once I actually got here, was hoping that it might be good for a couple of contacts before I arrived, once here I got busy on other things. I am surprised that it seems to have suddenly come to life. We shall see if I will decide to forget about it again, or if it delivers a living breathing woman.
Here's an interesting addendum; in Firefox I get red underline on spelling errors and correction options.
So this is the first time I am using Firefox in SG to do this. I used it in Oz, but have used IE here up to now. That is a pretty weak first, I know, but it is only there to kind of fill out the list.
I logged on to my Adult Friend Finder account, first time in a while, but that is not the 'first' for this. I had two winks, okay, one was a wink and hug. Both from here in SG, one was from a two-girl profile. I have had a few winks or messages before, but mostly they have been from Nigeria, or women in their 40s from China, or young girls from Thailand or the Philippines with shots of them naked in their profiles (I kind of shy away from women that have exhibited themselves to the whole world). So this was a first, well two firsts. And then I replied; another first. Whilst I was at it I did a search and also looked up some usernames whose profiles I have looked at before (back in Oz) and liked, and messaged a few of them. Another first.
I don't really like being 'winked', I have a gold account and have paid for standard members to be able to mail me, and say so in my profile. So I would rather something more informative than a 'wink', but there you go.
I had a 700ml tub of icecream (chocolate ripple) for lunch. Meaningless as that is, it is still another first. My tum has been rumbling ever since. I would have preferred to have stopped half way or sooner, but the baby freezer compartment in the baby fridge in my baby apartment only keeps cool, not frozen.
I tried to check the status of my PEP application online. According to the website the MOM processes these in two weeks or less. According to the receipt and the website you can check the status of your application online. This is not exactly true; you can check the status online if you already have an SG ID number, which naturally I don't. So I phoned. Finding a number to call on the website took about eight screens as well. But it ends with good news; the application was approved, on the 26th, so two weeks on the dot, but the paper work may take up to a week to get to me. I need that letter before I can take my passport in to get the pass and return visa stamped in it. I guess this is a first; after all it is the first time that I am allowed to work in another country, it is the first step in leaving Australia. All that aside, it was damned good news to hear. Naturally, given my history with the Australian Public Service I was expecting problems, but no, a straight clear approval.
My right testicle is swollen and sore as hell. It being swollen is a first, I am assuming that I squashed it wearing jeans yesterday. I will wait and see how it is tomorrow before getting a medical opinion; if it doesn't go down then it may be something else, but I'm betting not, I can be pretty rough with those parts of my anatomy at times.
I guess with the PEP approved that I will book return flights back to Adelaide for the Xmas & New Year period. I know that I said I wouldn't do that until I had a job, but I was expecting it to cost a lot more, I webbed it the other day and apparently can do for less than a thousand ($700-ish plus taxes = $850-ish), booking from Australia all you can get is about $800 + about $600 in taxes = $1,400 at best, usually closer to $2,000.
It will be interesting to see if that italic works, I entered it fully manually because CTRL + I gives a huge line of span (i.e. open 'span' in pointy brackets then a long line of code saying font in emphasis then close span in pointy brackets). Blogger in Firefox did not use to do that. And so continues my frustration with Blogger.com's handling of emphasis coding. And yes, I know that there is no non-possessive apostrophe in that, but if I didn't put it there then most people would get totally confused, wouldn't they?
Now why did I get a gold account at AFF? Yes? No?
If 'no' then you can skip this bit.
Back in the days when I first started looking online for someone to share my life with. The first thing was a couple of accounts in Oz to find a local girl - only one came of that and she was too much head trouble to take beyond three conversations. AFF is global, though, so this account lasted longer than the others. Yes, it got put on the back burner whilst I moved on to Russian girls. That went nowhere, half of them were straight out to rip money off guys, half of the remainder were not serious, they just wanted to be taken out to fancy restaurants (a meal out costs them weeks pay), the others turned out to provide their own share of cultural issues. All this time the AFF account stayed alive but unused (free!!), then when I started to think about going to Singapore I actually paid for it to be upgraded into something that can message both ways. Runs out in March 2009 and I'll let it die then. I had kind of forgotten it once I actually got here, was hoping that it might be good for a couple of contacts before I arrived, once here I got busy on other things. I am surprised that it seems to have suddenly come to life. We shall see if I will decide to forget about it again, or if it delivers a living breathing woman.
Here's an interesting addendum; in Firefox I get red underline on spelling errors and correction options.
Wednesday, November 26
Leg Cramps
Well, not cramps really, but I think that I have strained a tendon or two behind my right knee joint.
I was up by seven this morning. I think that my sleep patterns are reasserting themselves, the neighbours in the northern flat being reasonably quiet after midnight these days. So, what to do with a whole day ahead of me? I decided on the spur of the moment to hike the east coast again, but all the way from Little India.
Well, to cut a long story short, I was back by eleven, I never got to East Coast Park to even start the hike. Singaporeans must not like walking much, because one; they do not respect pedestrians, every construction site along the way, especially those by the National Parks, just cuts off walking paths without providing alternative routes; and two; signage for pedestrians is non-existent.
In short; how the fuck do you get to East Coast Park?
You would think that you should be able to head for the water and walk along it. Yes? Wrong! Unlike Anglo countries Singapore does not provide right of access to the water frontage, restaurants, golf clubs, and worst of all the National Parks, just block it off, usually without providing any way around.
The first obstacle was to get across the new inner-city reservoir. You cannot yet walk to the barrage and across it as promised on the one-TV-network propaganda show on the subject. No, lots of construction work with no alternative pedestrian access routes being provided. There is a bridge there, but it is vehicle only. So walk back a long way to find a pedestrian bridge.
Then to get from there to the beach. A series of roads blocked off, you think that a 'no through' sign at the start of the road wouldn't be too much to ask, would you? Then a golf course; that should be okay, where I come from you can always walk through a golf course and out the other side. Nope, doesn't look like this one works like that. Back out that road. Look, a track through the woods, there is a boom but it is raised, so it must be okay; yes? Wrong! Leads to an off ramp for some motorway with no pedestrian path. Walk back along the verge into a construction site covered with six inches of soft mud.
Somewhere around there I pulled or stressed a tendon in the back of my leg. Sit down by the reservoir to rest (not many seats, just a few of the concrete stumps), take of sweat soaked shirt, towel off, put on dry shirt, grab a taxi home.
This is SSSSSOOOOOOOOOO infuriating!!!!
Singapore has such potential for great walking! Yet almost every time I try it is sabotaged by a total lack of signage, maps, and suitable tracks / paths. I just guess that most Singaporeans can't comprehend the need by some people to be able to walk somewhere that isn't full of shops and shoppers.
Aahhh. Needed to get that off my chest whilst it is still fresh.
Eight people have viewed this blog; one yank, one pommie, six Singaporeans (one of whom is me). Three people have returned to view it, and another three have returned to view it a few times. I think that I am getting used to the idea. We shall see.
(I need a nick name for Singaporeans; 'singies'?)
Today is fourteen days, i.e. two weeks, since I lodged my PEP applications. The MOM website promises responses in less than two weeks. I am allowing today and tomorrow for any letter to transit the mail system, but if nothing by tomorrow arvo then I am contacting the MOM.
As you can see in the last blog entry, a whole week ago, Jaz was back in SG for a 'few days' and I saw her for less than two minutes during which she didn't speak to me. Nothing since then. Divination aside, I feel it is time to move on, put all the pushing and prompting by her sisters and friends to the side and give up on the idea. Whatever deity is trying to force these things can just rethink his or her strategies.
I bought S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky a few days ago. The purchase itself was a stupid test, I so nearly walked out of that store and off to find it somewhere else. Whilst I am enjoying the game and it has a few improvements over the first, there are some serious shortcomings. I have never played a (legitimate) game before that was so bug-ridden. Seriously, this game has been through a dozen patches and still behaves like beta code! There are serious graphics issues, there are data issues, there are logic flaws, there are things that are meant to be caught in play testing. This is like Microsoft and its habit of releasing beta for the public to test, which is why you never buy anything Microsoft until it has passed version X.0, but Clear Sky is 1.05.07! Which is to say; seven patches to the sixth release (1.0 being the first).
Yes, the game in essence is good, and fun, but I have been carrying a lot of stuff and have stood in one place to drop a lot of guns, then step across a bit to drop the ammo, then step across a bit to drop the other stuff (medkits etc) then turn around and the medkits have vanished! The guns and ammo are still there, but the ancillaries have gone. Also drop stuff on a roof, and come back and it has fallen through the solid concrete roof and into the building below.
A walk-through I downloaded said that there was a scanner at the very north west of the swamp (intro / tutorial) map. I found the cave, but no scanner, no amount of standing by the wall and facing the mattress worked. From reading a few things like that I get the feeling that there is a degree of randomness to some of the item placements.
Still, having said all of that, I still am enjoying the game. I wonder if there will be third party maps or mods? The world is a bit small, only a few zones, and the game machine has the potential to deliver more I think. I like that you can repair and upgrade weapons now by visiting tech guys; I am really only just out of the swamp (okay, I have walked through most of the three or four zones south of the part where it then goes one way and you are locked into the power plant bit) and I am using an AKM74/2 with scope, silencer, extended mag, and all the internal mods to enhance accuracy (as opposed to the other stream of mods that increase rate of fire). I got this rifle in the swamp believe it or not. At first I was using the machine pistol thingy, modified to take 9mm x 18mm, from the original 9 x 19 since that is harder to come by in the tutorial area, whereas every punk has a pistol that you can strip of its 9 x 18 ammo. And a shot gun, I got the pump action and modded it a bit, but left it stashed somewhere as I feel comfortable with just the AKM and a pistol. I am also trying to stay low on ammo; when you strip every corpse you can end up carrying thousands of rounds of ammo on you! Which is all useless weight, you really only need a hundred or two of pistol ammo and between eight hundred and a thousand of rifle ammo. This leaves you with a lot more free weight so you can get more from stripping corpses (I seem to kill a lot of bandits in this game) and then dump it all at stashes. I have one or two such stashes in a couple of zones so far. Then you carry all of this stuff to a trader and sell it to buy great new suits and stuff (they cost 20,000 roubles, so you need to sell a lot of guns to get one).
So you see; I am having fun with it even though it has some annoying bugs that should have been resolved BEFORE release; like entering a new zone and the sky goes vomit, which sorts out suddenly when you move along a few dozen metres. Like your gun getting stuck on firing on full auto when you get important radio messages whilst in the middle of a fire fight. Like two messages talking over the top of each other or a radio message coming in whilst you are in a conversation and the two voices drowning each other out. You lose vital info this way, it is not stored in your message log in your PDA, only the radio messages are, you lose the conversational ones. Like the game getting jerky and things happen whilst your screen was frozen. Like getting nearly killed from full health by being shot by a shot gun at very long distance by a guy that you have put two whole clips of solid rounds into. Like getting your head shot off by NPCs supposedly on your side firing whilst standing behind you! Like the NPCs bumping your character around instead of walking around you, especially in a fire fight when one comes where you are sheltering behind cover and your character is suddenly floating above your cover and you get shot to pieces. Little annoying things like that.
As I said; a really good game, with lots of potential, but released with a whole heap of bugs still in it.
I was up by seven this morning. I think that my sleep patterns are reasserting themselves, the neighbours in the northern flat being reasonably quiet after midnight these days. So, what to do with a whole day ahead of me? I decided on the spur of the moment to hike the east coast again, but all the way from Little India.
Well, to cut a long story short, I was back by eleven, I never got to East Coast Park to even start the hike. Singaporeans must not like walking much, because one; they do not respect pedestrians, every construction site along the way, especially those by the National Parks, just cuts off walking paths without providing alternative routes; and two; signage for pedestrians is non-existent.
In short; how the fuck do you get to East Coast Park?
You would think that you should be able to head for the water and walk along it. Yes? Wrong! Unlike Anglo countries Singapore does not provide right of access to the water frontage, restaurants, golf clubs, and worst of all the National Parks, just block it off, usually without providing any way around.
The first obstacle was to get across the new inner-city reservoir. You cannot yet walk to the barrage and across it as promised on the one-TV-network propaganda show on the subject. No, lots of construction work with no alternative pedestrian access routes being provided. There is a bridge there, but it is vehicle only. So walk back a long way to find a pedestrian bridge.
Then to get from there to the beach. A series of roads blocked off, you think that a 'no through' sign at the start of the road wouldn't be too much to ask, would you? Then a golf course; that should be okay, where I come from you can always walk through a golf course and out the other side. Nope, doesn't look like this one works like that. Back out that road. Look, a track through the woods, there is a boom but it is raised, so it must be okay; yes? Wrong! Leads to an off ramp for some motorway with no pedestrian path. Walk back along the verge into a construction site covered with six inches of soft mud.
Somewhere around there I pulled or stressed a tendon in the back of my leg. Sit down by the reservoir to rest (not many seats, just a few of the concrete stumps), take of sweat soaked shirt, towel off, put on dry shirt, grab a taxi home.
This is SSSSSOOOOOOOOOO infuriating!!!!
Singapore has such potential for great walking! Yet almost every time I try it is sabotaged by a total lack of signage, maps, and suitable tracks / paths. I just guess that most Singaporeans can't comprehend the need by some people to be able to walk somewhere that isn't full of shops and shoppers.
Aahhh. Needed to get that off my chest whilst it is still fresh.
Eight people have viewed this blog; one yank, one pommie, six Singaporeans (one of whom is me). Three people have returned to view it, and another three have returned to view it a few times. I think that I am getting used to the idea. We shall see.
(I need a nick name for Singaporeans; 'singies'?)
Today is fourteen days, i.e. two weeks, since I lodged my PEP applications. The MOM website promises responses in less than two weeks. I am allowing today and tomorrow for any letter to transit the mail system, but if nothing by tomorrow arvo then I am contacting the MOM.
As you can see in the last blog entry, a whole week ago, Jaz was back in SG for a 'few days' and I saw her for less than two minutes during which she didn't speak to me. Nothing since then. Divination aside, I feel it is time to move on, put all the pushing and prompting by her sisters and friends to the side and give up on the idea. Whatever deity is trying to force these things can just rethink his or her strategies.
I bought S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky a few days ago. The purchase itself was a stupid test, I so nearly walked out of that store and off to find it somewhere else. Whilst I am enjoying the game and it has a few improvements over the first, there are some serious shortcomings. I have never played a (legitimate) game before that was so bug-ridden. Seriously, this game has been through a dozen patches and still behaves like beta code! There are serious graphics issues, there are data issues, there are logic flaws, there are things that are meant to be caught in play testing. This is like Microsoft and its habit of releasing beta for the public to test, which is why you never buy anything Microsoft until it has passed version X.0, but Clear Sky is 1.05.07! Which is to say; seven patches to the sixth release (1.0 being the first).
Yes, the game in essence is good, and fun, but I have been carrying a lot of stuff and have stood in one place to drop a lot of guns, then step across a bit to drop the ammo, then step across a bit to drop the other stuff (medkits etc) then turn around and the medkits have vanished! The guns and ammo are still there, but the ancillaries have gone. Also drop stuff on a roof, and come back and it has fallen through the solid concrete roof and into the building below.
A walk-through I downloaded said that there was a scanner at the very north west of the swamp (intro / tutorial) map. I found the cave, but no scanner, no amount of standing by the wall and facing the mattress worked. From reading a few things like that I get the feeling that there is a degree of randomness to some of the item placements.
Still, having said all of that, I still am enjoying the game. I wonder if there will be third party maps or mods? The world is a bit small, only a few zones, and the game machine has the potential to deliver more I think. I like that you can repair and upgrade weapons now by visiting tech guys; I am really only just out of the swamp (okay, I have walked through most of the three or four zones south of the part where it then goes one way and you are locked into the power plant bit) and I am using an AKM74/2 with scope, silencer, extended mag, and all the internal mods to enhance accuracy (as opposed to the other stream of mods that increase rate of fire). I got this rifle in the swamp believe it or not. At first I was using the machine pistol thingy, modified to take 9mm x 18mm, from the original 9 x 19 since that is harder to come by in the tutorial area, whereas every punk has a pistol that you can strip of its 9 x 18 ammo. And a shot gun, I got the pump action and modded it a bit, but left it stashed somewhere as I feel comfortable with just the AKM and a pistol. I am also trying to stay low on ammo; when you strip every corpse you can end up carrying thousands of rounds of ammo on you! Which is all useless weight, you really only need a hundred or two of pistol ammo and between eight hundred and a thousand of rifle ammo. This leaves you with a lot more free weight so you can get more from stripping corpses (I seem to kill a lot of bandits in this game) and then dump it all at stashes. I have one or two such stashes in a couple of zones so far. Then you carry all of this stuff to a trader and sell it to buy great new suits and stuff (they cost 20,000 roubles, so you need to sell a lot of guns to get one).
So you see; I am having fun with it even though it has some annoying bugs that should have been resolved BEFORE release; like entering a new zone and the sky goes vomit, which sorts out suddenly when you move along a few dozen metres. Like your gun getting stuck on firing on full auto when you get important radio messages whilst in the middle of a fire fight. Like two messages talking over the top of each other or a radio message coming in whilst you are in a conversation and the two voices drowning each other out. You lose vital info this way, it is not stored in your message log in your PDA, only the radio messages are, you lose the conversational ones. Like the game getting jerky and things happen whilst your screen was frozen. Like getting nearly killed from full health by being shot by a shot gun at very long distance by a guy that you have put two whole clips of solid rounds into. Like getting your head shot off by NPCs supposedly on your side firing whilst standing behind you! Like the NPCs bumping your character around instead of walking around you, especially in a fire fight when one comes where you are sheltering behind cover and your character is suddenly floating above your cover and you get shot to pieces. Little annoying things like that.
As I said; a really good game, with lots of potential, but released with a whole heap of bugs still in it.
Thursday, November 20
The Two of Cups, again!
Jaz and Iris just called by, txt me to go down, Iris just wanted me to have some stuff (a large bag) for Cheng and baby. Jaz didn't talk to me.
So, on one hand I have enough stuff to take back now to almost fill a suitcase.
On the other hand I am kind of confused about Jaz.
Being confused, thinking maybe this is not anything and I should stop wasting my time on it, I did another card reading.
I did three or four readings over the first few days I was in Singapore, they all said the same thing, very clearly and strongly that love was near future, new beginnings, and a settled happy ever-after. I got the Tower, upright, three times! Twice in the same final position! This has never happened before. So, thinking that I need the cards to be straight with me and not lead me on some garden path...
Two cards came out whilst I was shuffling, this often signifies a clear simple answer, life is stuffing a card right in your face and you can't avoid it. But two cards, simultaneously. Both upright, so now obfuscation, straight definitive interpretations. Both cups, so to do with emotions.
On the left, signifying the past, the four of cups, meaning dissatisfaction, unhappiness, incompleteness.
On the right, signifying the future, the two of cups, meaning new love, marriage, beginning of a relationship or venture.
I didn't bother doing a full reading after that.
So the cards continue to be more definitive on this than I have ever seen in my life, but Jaz doesn't talk to me, so I don't know what to do with her.
So, on one hand I have enough stuff to take back now to almost fill a suitcase.
On the other hand I am kind of confused about Jaz.
Being confused, thinking maybe this is not anything and I should stop wasting my time on it, I did another card reading.
I did three or four readings over the first few days I was in Singapore, they all said the same thing, very clearly and strongly that love was near future, new beginnings, and a settled happy ever-after. I got the Tower, upright, three times! Twice in the same final position! This has never happened before. So, thinking that I need the cards to be straight with me and not lead me on some garden path...
Two cards came out whilst I was shuffling, this often signifies a clear simple answer, life is stuffing a card right in your face and you can't avoid it. But two cards, simultaneously. Both upright, so now obfuscation, straight definitive interpretations. Both cups, so to do with emotions.
On the left, signifying the past, the four of cups, meaning dissatisfaction, unhappiness, incompleteness.
On the right, signifying the future, the two of cups, meaning new love, marriage, beginning of a relationship or venture.
I didn't bother doing a full reading after that.
So the cards continue to be more definitive on this than I have ever seen in my life, but Jaz doesn't talk to me, so I don't know what to do with her.
Wednesday, November 19
Another day in the life of a snail.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[deep breath]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[inhale]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There I am; just thinking 'oh, I'll just log on and do a bit of blogging - it's been a while and there are a few things that have happened since the last one' and what do I see?
Huh? Just what do I see?????
SIX UNIQUE VISITORS!!!!!!!!!!!
Five from Singapore and one from the US.
I mean, really, when did this all happen? Who decided that this was the week that we would all look at Kai's blog? Just what brought this on? Is anyone going to explain to me just what is happening?
I was so comfortable, ssssoooooooo comfortable, with the knowledge that no one else in the world read my blog. Nothing to worry about, no need to be concerned about what I said, just living in my own little world. And now this.
To be honest, one of the SG visitors is, of course, me.
BUT WHO ARE THE REST???
And more to the point - WHY????
Will this be repeated? Will it keep on? Am I to now have other people in my space?
Yes, I know, it is a blog, you think that other people are meant to read it. Well, that's just fine. You can think that way. I know it is an open space, but it is, or rather, it was, a secret open space, that no one else in the world intruded into.
Anyhow, enough of that rant.
Just remember though, if there are 10,000 hits a month then it won't be a free blog anymore. Why do you think all of your favourite blogs have advertising? To pay for the cost of having so many people viewing the site, to pay for the hits on the blog server. Ah well, life changes and I will just have to adjust, won't I?
So what has happened?
Yes, I went for another day-long hike.
[That should really be an 'n' dash, not an 'i' dash, but I am too lazy to make it happen.]
I haven't put the pics up on my Flickr site yet.
And I got wet, not from rain this time, rather from perspiration, but the effect was much the same - undies and loose, light cotton trousers all bunch up between my legs and rubbed my inner thighs raw. OOOOOWWWW!!!! that hurt so much!!
So yesterday was 'stay at home and stay off your feet'.
Today was 'GO BUY SOME DECENT HIKING CLOTHS!!!'
I almost feel as though there should be an 'idiot!' in that.
And some water proof real hiking boots.
Which I did.
But...
I kind of get annoyed with shopping in Singapore. The shops are too small!
Back in Oz a good sized sports store that I could rely on having whatever I need has a shoe section that is eight times bigger than the whole store here in SG will be. Such small little shops, they cannot have everything that you might need. And indeed they do not. So I have got some shorts that might fit the bill to some degree, but they are not what I really want, and I have no idea how I am meant to find what I want in SG. Will I ever master this one? Or maybe it will just take time to learn where the shops that will become my favourites are.
Hmm, other news. I should find out later this week or early next how my employment pass application went. I am kind of a little concerned. Maybe just because I am so used to things going wrong in my life. Especially things that concern governments. I am not experienced with the Singaporean government yet. I haven't heard back from the agency about the job that they put me forward for, so I will call tomorrow about that, and I will call the other agency that I haven't heard back from at all. You would think 'I worked with the Adelaide office for eight years! Don't you think that the Singapore office would return a call?' We shall see, well, we won't, because I will call them. Maybe they just need a prompt. Or maybe they called the Adelaide office and got a bad report on me, after all, they Adelaide office wants me to return because the SA Health Department is screaming for my skill set and almost no one else in SA has it. No, I know, they would never do anything that unprofessional, but the idea is funny, don't you think?
Paul and Cheng got married on Monday, the photos are going up to Flickr as I write this, I have already seen 18 of them, but something like 150 are going up. Paul looks very happy and proud, and very red haired! (heh heh, couldn't help it, had to say it) Cheng looks sssooooooo pretty! She is glowing.
We skyped, she said that she had just gotten off the phone from Jaz and Iris and that they will be in SG tomorrow!!!! I believe something like 'well, strike me pink!' is in order, or maybe 'well, knock me down with feather!' Yes, I was, and still am, surprised. Last thing I was told was that they would be a month or so, and that was a big change from the six months that they first thought. They haven't had their passports reissued yet, that would be far too much to expect from Malaysia, but they have some sort of single entry passes to come to SG. Iris will need to visit the US embassy here to get her green card reissued, Jaz will undoubtedly be asking the requisite SG department about her paperwork. I know that they will be very busy, especially for the first few days, but I am hoping so much that at some point I will get a chance to see Jaz again. I have been holding off from going clubbing/pubbing to wait for her return to continue exploring this 'not yet a relationship' thing because, face it, I think that I like her, I think that she could be the sort of woman that I could be serious about exploring a relationship with.
We shall see. And if this has been a little test by fate to see how serious I am then we shall see if I passed. But I should not read too much into it, and I should not let myself hope too much for something that may not exist outside of my own desire for it to exist.
And I skyped my sister. She has recently finished a counselling course and is applying for some jobs in childcare, and has also attended a couple of real estate agent seminars - something that she has wanted to look at for many years. She has also been attending a personal growth course at Cosmic Pages. Can you believe that? Cosmic Pages, it used to be the Southern Centre for Theosophy when I was young. I have been going to that shop since I was twelve! And as a teenager I went to their camp at Robe. I remember talking to the woman that runs it shortly after her father left the shop with her and went to open a commune. It has always been a solid reference point in my life. It is good to hear my sister talk about it, and to relay conversations she had with the owner.
One thing that I do need to still get is something to help me sleep. Preferably a herbal tea of some sort. Partly this is because I just cannot turn off my brain at night, or rather my conscious, mental mind cannot calm down and leave my brain to my subconscious, emotional self for the night. And partially this is because of the neighbours on one side that seem to believe that they need pay no mind to their impact upon the rest of the universe.
So I have a few other points that I was going to cover, but the evening suddenly turned to more important issues; parking on double yellow lines, inter-racial relationships, my search for suitable continuing education in SG, but I have typed enough for one night.
[deep breath]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[inhale]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There I am; just thinking 'oh, I'll just log on and do a bit of blogging - it's been a while and there are a few things that have happened since the last one' and what do I see?
Huh? Just what do I see?????
SIX UNIQUE VISITORS!!!!!!!!!!!
Five from Singapore and one from the US.
I mean, really, when did this all happen? Who decided that this was the week that we would all look at Kai's blog? Just what brought this on? Is anyone going to explain to me just what is happening?
I was so comfortable, ssssoooooooo comfortable, with the knowledge that no one else in the world read my blog. Nothing to worry about, no need to be concerned about what I said, just living in my own little world. And now this.
To be honest, one of the SG visitors is, of course, me.
BUT WHO ARE THE REST???
And more to the point - WHY????
Will this be repeated? Will it keep on? Am I to now have other people in my space?
Yes, I know, it is a blog, you think that other people are meant to read it. Well, that's just fine. You can think that way. I know it is an open space, but it is, or rather, it was, a secret open space, that no one else in the world intruded into.
Anyhow, enough of that rant.
Just remember though, if there are 10,000 hits a month then it won't be a free blog anymore. Why do you think all of your favourite blogs have advertising? To pay for the cost of having so many people viewing the site, to pay for the hits on the blog server. Ah well, life changes and I will just have to adjust, won't I?
So what has happened?
Yes, I went for another day-long hike.
[That should really be an 'n' dash, not an 'i' dash, but I am too lazy to make it happen.]
I haven't put the pics up on my Flickr site yet.
And I got wet, not from rain this time, rather from perspiration, but the effect was much the same - undies and loose, light cotton trousers all bunch up between my legs and rubbed my inner thighs raw. OOOOOWWWW!!!! that hurt so much!!
So yesterday was 'stay at home and stay off your feet'.
Today was 'GO BUY SOME DECENT HIKING CLOTHS!!!'
I almost feel as though there should be an 'idiot!' in that.
And some water proof real hiking boots.
Which I did.
But...
I kind of get annoyed with shopping in Singapore. The shops are too small!
Back in Oz a good sized sports store that I could rely on having whatever I need has a shoe section that is eight times bigger than the whole store here in SG will be. Such small little shops, they cannot have everything that you might need. And indeed they do not. So I have got some shorts that might fit the bill to some degree, but they are not what I really want, and I have no idea how I am meant to find what I want in SG. Will I ever master this one? Or maybe it will just take time to learn where the shops that will become my favourites are.
Hmm, other news. I should find out later this week or early next how my employment pass application went. I am kind of a little concerned. Maybe just because I am so used to things going wrong in my life. Especially things that concern governments. I am not experienced with the Singaporean government yet. I haven't heard back from the agency about the job that they put me forward for, so I will call tomorrow about that, and I will call the other agency that I haven't heard back from at all. You would think 'I worked with the Adelaide office for eight years! Don't you think that the Singapore office would return a call?' We shall see, well, we won't, because I will call them. Maybe they just need a prompt. Or maybe they called the Adelaide office and got a bad report on me, after all, they Adelaide office wants me to return because the SA Health Department is screaming for my skill set and almost no one else in SA has it. No, I know, they would never do anything that unprofessional, but the idea is funny, don't you think?
Paul and Cheng got married on Monday, the photos are going up to Flickr as I write this, I have already seen 18 of them, but something like 150 are going up. Paul looks very happy and proud, and very red haired! (heh heh, couldn't help it, had to say it) Cheng looks sssooooooo pretty! She is glowing.
We skyped, she said that she had just gotten off the phone from Jaz and Iris and that they will be in SG tomorrow!!!! I believe something like 'well, strike me pink!' is in order, or maybe 'well, knock me down with feather!' Yes, I was, and still am, surprised. Last thing I was told was that they would be a month or so, and that was a big change from the six months that they first thought. They haven't had their passports reissued yet, that would be far too much to expect from Malaysia, but they have some sort of single entry passes to come to SG. Iris will need to visit the US embassy here to get her green card reissued, Jaz will undoubtedly be asking the requisite SG department about her paperwork. I know that they will be very busy, especially for the first few days, but I am hoping so much that at some point I will get a chance to see Jaz again. I have been holding off from going clubbing/pubbing to wait for her return to continue exploring this 'not yet a relationship' thing because, face it, I think that I like her, I think that she could be the sort of woman that I could be serious about exploring a relationship with.
We shall see. And if this has been a little test by fate to see how serious I am then we shall see if I passed. But I should not read too much into it, and I should not let myself hope too much for something that may not exist outside of my own desire for it to exist.
And I skyped my sister. She has recently finished a counselling course and is applying for some jobs in childcare, and has also attended a couple of real estate agent seminars - something that she has wanted to look at for many years. She has also been attending a personal growth course at Cosmic Pages. Can you believe that? Cosmic Pages, it used to be the Southern Centre for Theosophy when I was young. I have been going to that shop since I was twelve! And as a teenager I went to their camp at Robe. I remember talking to the woman that runs it shortly after her father left the shop with her and went to open a commune. It has always been a solid reference point in my life. It is good to hear my sister talk about it, and to relay conversations she had with the owner.
One thing that I do need to still get is something to help me sleep. Preferably a herbal tea of some sort. Partly this is because I just cannot turn off my brain at night, or rather my conscious, mental mind cannot calm down and leave my brain to my subconscious, emotional self for the night. And partially this is because of the neighbours on one side that seem to believe that they need pay no mind to their impact upon the rest of the universe.
So I have a few other points that I was going to cover, but the evening suddenly turned to more important issues; parking on double yellow lines, inter-racial relationships, my search for suitable continuing education in SG, but I have typed enough for one night.
Sunday, November 16
Introverted Intuitive Thinker Judger
I was going to go hiking today. Take the MRT ("Metro" as I prefer to call it) to Pasir Ris ("Paris Riz" as I keep calling it...) then down the beach parks to the south and east. I was aware from the TV weather late last night that there will be afternoon thunderstorms (as there was the last time I did an East Coast hike) but now I am almost completely ready (still need to get gore-tex shoes).
This has been put on hold; I started downloading FireFox, and then a heap of addins, and then to test some of the tab control addins I opened all of my blog links, and then I started to read some...
SarongPartyGirl, who had moved to I Z Reloaded, is now at Babe Logic (babelogic.net). She is kind of seminal for me as she was one of my first introductions to Singaporean blogging. It's is fascinating how her style, perhaps even her personality, has changed with each new blog site. Each seems to definitively be a manifestation of a new phase in her life, perhaps even her consciousness. She has updated her link on SPG.blogspot, in that the second last blog is 2005 and the latest is 2008 redirecting you to babelogic, whereas there used to be a redirection to IZ Reloaded. She comments that Singapore has changed so much in the last few years. I think perhaps it is more that she has matured so much in this time. Also going overseas helps, not just in adding focus, new perspectives, something to make a comparison with, but also because things change whilst you are gone and so you notice it more when you return. You miss the slow adjustments and return to find the big difference at the end of the line. Anyhow, a lot more maturity, even clarity maybe, a lot more depth, a lot less anger. A lot more breadth of subject.
An hour or so on Skype with a friend still in Oz (he and new wifey are thinking of coming to SG in about 18 months - want the new babe to get Oz citizenship and so staying in Adelaide for the first year and a bit of its life, she is in Oz on a work permit from Malaysia, they don't want the child to be stuck with Malaysian citizenship - wise move, but couldn't they just make an application based on paternity? I am not sure, Australia is funny on that one, think it might only give citizenship based on maternity). So, he was trying to bit torrent my music off my pc to me. Not quite working, in the sense that it wasn't working at all. Still, if I get a job then I will return for Xmas and can put all of my music files on a pocket drive, so I am not too fussed.
And now it is early afternoon and by the time I arrived at any point to commence a hike the forecast thunder storm would be about starting. So I will have lunch, have a nap, spend the arvo playing Unreal II, go hiking tomorrow.
Oh yeah, funny thing yesterday. I am getting to quite like this idea of eating out every dinner (often lunch as well) since it is so cheap in SG and it means no dishes to wash! On the way down to the Little China at Bencoolen last night a young Indian guy stopped me and we talked, he claimed to be a holy man and opened his wallet to show me a picture of a saint (which kind of proves that one beyond any reasonable doubt, doesn't it?), then he guessed my age and my favourite colour (but he got my favourite flower wrong) and thought that this was enough to warrant $100 from me!!!
Claimed that he would pray for me and since he is a holy man that this would ensure that I become very rich. He seemed quite affronted when I refused, but as I put it he hadn't actually done anything for me, if he can pray for me and I do get rich (as a direct result of his prayers), then I will give him $100.
Seems fair to me.
I have a similar concept with deities; introduce me to a god that actually gives me something when I pray to him/her/it and I will do so. But in my observation most take people's prayers and give nothing back. To be honest, I have interacted with something(s) non-physical and gotten exactly what I asked for, but that is probably a discussion for another day. On a slightly similar tack; as I have mentioned in previous posts, I felt a lot of 'push' (but no 'pull') bringing me here to SG, and I had a sneaky suspicion that some Chinese deity was responsible. A lot of things lead me to this conclusion, the foreclosure on the house I was renting by HSBC was just one of the more amusing. Around this time I kept seeing one Chinese deity a lot, or perhaps just noticing his representations more, and I have seen them several times since I arrived here as well. So I went to the National Library to do some research. Firstly, I was rather disappointed by the small selection of books on Chinese philosophy, culture, and religion, and most of those there (in English) were by Europeans with a clearly stated agenda to either disprove them or to 'convert' readers. I would have thought that such a large library in an English speaking Chinese state would have a better selection of English language works on Chinese subjects. Specifically, books to explain Chinese religion, culture, and philosophy to a natural English speaker - to help us to assimilate into Singaporean society better. Secondly, although I found out little about him, I did find him.
I think that the deity responsible may be Guan Gong, God of War and Commerce.
This has been put on hold; I started downloading FireFox, and then a heap of addins, and then to test some of the tab control addins I opened all of my blog links, and then I started to read some...
SarongPartyGirl, who had moved to I Z Reloaded, is now at Babe Logic (babelogic.net). She is kind of seminal for me as she was one of my first introductions to Singaporean blogging. It's is fascinating how her style, perhaps even her personality, has changed with each new blog site. Each seems to definitively be a manifestation of a new phase in her life, perhaps even her consciousness. She has updated her link on SPG.blogspot, in that the second last blog is 2005 and the latest is 2008 redirecting you to babelogic, whereas there used to be a redirection to IZ Reloaded. She comments that Singapore has changed so much in the last few years. I think perhaps it is more that she has matured so much in this time. Also going overseas helps, not just in adding focus, new perspectives, something to make a comparison with, but also because things change whilst you are gone and so you notice it more when you return. You miss the slow adjustments and return to find the big difference at the end of the line. Anyhow, a lot more maturity, even clarity maybe, a lot more depth, a lot less anger. A lot more breadth of subject.
An hour or so on Skype with a friend still in Oz (he and new wifey are thinking of coming to SG in about 18 months - want the new babe to get Oz citizenship and so staying in Adelaide for the first year and a bit of its life, she is in Oz on a work permit from Malaysia, they don't want the child to be stuck with Malaysian citizenship - wise move, but couldn't they just make an application based on paternity? I am not sure, Australia is funny on that one, think it might only give citizenship based on maternity). So, he was trying to bit torrent my music off my pc to me. Not quite working, in the sense that it wasn't working at all. Still, if I get a job then I will return for Xmas and can put all of my music files on a pocket drive, so I am not too fussed.
And now it is early afternoon and by the time I arrived at any point to commence a hike the forecast thunder storm would be about starting. So I will have lunch, have a nap, spend the arvo playing Unreal II, go hiking tomorrow.
Oh yeah, funny thing yesterday. I am getting to quite like this idea of eating out every dinner (often lunch as well) since it is so cheap in SG and it means no dishes to wash! On the way down to the Little China at Bencoolen last night a young Indian guy stopped me and we talked, he claimed to be a holy man and opened his wallet to show me a picture of a saint (which kind of proves that one beyond any reasonable doubt, doesn't it?), then he guessed my age and my favourite colour (but he got my favourite flower wrong) and thought that this was enough to warrant $100 from me!!!
Claimed that he would pray for me and since he is a holy man that this would ensure that I become very rich. He seemed quite affronted when I refused, but as I put it he hadn't actually done anything for me, if he can pray for me and I do get rich (as a direct result of his prayers), then I will give him $100.
Seems fair to me.
I have a similar concept with deities; introduce me to a god that actually gives me something when I pray to him/her/it and I will do so. But in my observation most take people's prayers and give nothing back. To be honest, I have interacted with something(s) non-physical and gotten exactly what I asked for, but that is probably a discussion for another day. On a slightly similar tack; as I have mentioned in previous posts, I felt a lot of 'push' (but no 'pull') bringing me here to SG, and I had a sneaky suspicion that some Chinese deity was responsible. A lot of things lead me to this conclusion, the foreclosure on the house I was renting by HSBC was just one of the more amusing. Around this time I kept seeing one Chinese deity a lot, or perhaps just noticing his representations more, and I have seen them several times since I arrived here as well. So I went to the National Library to do some research. Firstly, I was rather disappointed by the small selection of books on Chinese philosophy, culture, and religion, and most of those there (in English) were by Europeans with a clearly stated agenda to either disprove them or to 'convert' readers. I would have thought that such a large library in an English speaking Chinese state would have a better selection of English language works on Chinese subjects. Specifically, books to explain Chinese religion, culture, and philosophy to a natural English speaker - to help us to assimilate into Singaporean society better. Secondly, although I found out little about him, I did find him.
I think that the deity responsible may be Guan Gong, God of War and Commerce.
Friday, November 14
Late one night, whilst working on my plans for world conquest...
I shouldn't be here.
As in, blogging now. It is after midnight and I should be in my bed asleep. But the Indians in the next flat are a bit too loud again...
So as I was lying there my mind drifting after doing a couple of sudukos on my phone I thought of something amiss, see addendum one for previous post, and whilst I was at it I did addendum two as well...
Then I noticed that this previous blog was dated Tuesday and today (well, more accurately yesterday) is (was) Thursday (the holy day of the creator of my race). Which is to say, I didn't tell you (you, as in 'the non-existent readers that I do not have') that I put my PEP application in on Tuesday and should therefore know the result in two weeks (closer to one and a half now).
I haven't heard back from the agency about the contract she called about, so tomorrow I might call her to follow up.
It is close to 1am now, the neighbours have quietened down. They're not as bad as they were week before last, I think one of the other neighbours might have complained about them, anyhow, they seem to keep it down after one-ish. Be nice if they kept it down after ten-ish though.
[Addendum - no, there they go again, arguing rather loudly, in English mind you.]
As in, blogging now. It is after midnight and I should be in my bed asleep. But the Indians in the next flat are a bit too loud again...
So as I was lying there my mind drifting after doing a couple of sudukos on my phone I thought of something amiss, see addendum one for previous post, and whilst I was at it I did addendum two as well...
Then I noticed that this previous blog was dated Tuesday and today (well, more accurately yesterday) is (was) Thursday (the holy day of the creator of my race). Which is to say, I didn't tell you (you, as in 'the non-existent readers that I do not have') that I put my PEP application in on Tuesday and should therefore know the result in two weeks (closer to one and a half now).
I haven't heard back from the agency about the contract she called about, so tomorrow I might call her to follow up.
It is close to 1am now, the neighbours have quietened down. They're not as bad as they were week before last, I think one of the other neighbours might have complained about them, anyhow, they seem to keep it down after one-ish. Be nice if they kept it down after ten-ish though.
[Addendum - no, there they go again, arguing rather loudly, in English mind you.]
Tuesday, November 11
Banking
My web connection is a tad dodgy today. So this post might not make it up. Rebooted my laptop for no effect, then tried getting Windows to diagnose the connection woes. I can get msgr now (skype was never a problem somehow), but can't get hotmail, so msgr is telling me that I have emails, and I can't get to them. One of those emails is a password for YET ANOTHER password reset by steam in my ongoing war with steampowered.com. Their site keeps saying that my password is wrong, but then won't send me a reset because it 'doesn't recognise' my email address, and you can't contact steam support without logging on - their incredibly stupid and user hostile website does not have any email contact or issue logging form that can be accessed without first logging on. So I use another steam account to log in to report the problems with my 'real' account, and they continually reset my password and think that this is the sole solution. This last email had the incredibly stupid comment that passwords are numeric only - then they wouldn't be passwords dolt, they would be passcodes, anyhow, my password has always been a mix of alpha and numeric, and my second account is pure alpha (a very rude phrase about steam with no spaces). The main problem is, of course, that steam won't let me buy anything online. They say that the transaction is always refused by either PayPal or my credit provider (i.e. my bank and VISA), both of whom state that the transactions aren't being stopped at their end and I 'should contact the merchant' about the problem. The problem is that steam is totally twentieth century, they, not PayPal or my bank, they refuse the transactions because my IP address is stating that I am in a different country than my PayPal and VISA accounts. No kidding! It's called THE GLOBAL ECONOMY geniuses! To satisfy steam I would have to create a new PayPal account for every country that I visit. And the worst of it is their total refusal to acknowledge that they are in any way actually responsible for any of this.
But this rant has nothing at all to do with what I am going to blog about today...
As I have previously mentioned, I follow a few Singaporean blogs, it started as researching the country that I was thinking of moving to, and has kept up both because some of them are okay and to keep abreast of things.
I generally check them on a weekly basis; since most of them don't blog very often checking daily is pointless.
The ones I most often check are: mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com, miyagi.sg, mrbrown.com, [deleted]'s xiaxue.blogspot.com, dawnyang.com mostly, and a few others. There are probably twenty in the full list in my favourites and that is only the ones that I could remember / find to add to my favourites on my Asus laptop, there are more in my FireFox favourites on my box back in Oz (also an Asus) that I had emailed to me recently but haven't gotten around to adding yet.
Note that I do not play favourites; I always read Mssrs Brown, Miyagi, and Wang together (there are two others that should be in that group as well, and will be when I check my FireFox listing) and I always read Xiaxue and Dawn Yang together. I have to admit that the ladies perplex me; why have nose jobs but then photoshop your pictures? Why didn't you both get the noses that you wanted in the first place? Anyhow, I am a firm believer that Euro style noses don't necessarily go too well with an Asian profile.
Anyhow, I was walking back from the post office, having posted a form to get the bond from my last rental in Australia returned, when it occurred to me that one of these gentlemen was sabotaging the Singaporean financial system!
No shit!
I am totally serious.
If you remember your first economics subject (probably either 'introductory economics, economics 101, introduction to financial economics' or whatever, depending on where you studied) you will recall how the banking system works. And if you didn't do one of these subjects then 1) you will just have to take my word for it, and 2) you should not be offering advice to others on the subject. If you give money to a bank (as in make a deposit) it keeps some, the level is set by legislation and both differs between countries and changes in each country, and it lends the rest out. What this means is that if you lend $100 to a bank and it keeps $10 and lends $90 out, then the bank only has $10 in cash. The theory is that the $90 goes somewhere, gets spent, but ends up back in the banking system, maybe in a different bank, but in the system somewhere, where $9 will be kept and $81 lent out again, and so on. This ends with all $100 of cash being in the banking system, and there being $900 owed to the various banks that make up the system, but there are $1000 of deposits recorded in the books. This is taught so that we understand how banks create money (specifically debt, non-cash money), it is also part of the explanation given to us as to how governments control the financial system (namely by controlling the ratios involved).
The point is that there are $1000 of deposits but only $100 of actual paper money in the bank.
This works because history has shown us that only 10% of the money is withdrawn during any set financial period.
Unless some dufuss comes along and advises people to take all of their savings greater than $20,000 SGD out of their bank accounts! It matters little that he advises readers to put that money into another bank, that would only work if the mass of the population took their monies out and re-deposited it at a measured pace, which was not advised. No, what was advised was that all Singaporeans withdraw masses of cash from the financial system and cause a system-wide liquidity problem leading to an immediate, get that - immediate, collapse of the Singaporean financial system and all banks based within Singapore. This could only be averted by the authorities freezing all funds.
The result of this foolishness would probably be hundreds of jobs lost, significant impairment of Singapores ability to operate in the global market, a total loss of face for the Singaporean financial system and a total loss of trust by other market participants in the Singaporean financial system. And that is if the government acted quickly to freeze funds, if they did not then there would be tens of thousands of Singaporeans joining the ranks of the unemployed, total bankruptcy of the nation. And it would take ten to fifteen years for the nation to recover. Foreign talent (like me) would just take our six digit salaries to some other economy. I work by contract, I can move anywhere.
Thankfully no one paid heed to this ill advice. But it does make one wonder how an individual can elucidate at length upon a subject they understand so little. Undoubtedly he was thinking of the good of the individuals he addressed, but he totally failed to see the bigger picture. There is a word for this; where individuals take action for their own benefit, but which is bad for the group, and bad for all individuals if all individuals take this same action. But at this moment I cannot recall the name of the theory that covers such behaviour.
Anyhow, the point is that he should not be considered a safe financial adviser. Or, to put it another way, he should stick to his area of expertise.
Being a member of society is reason enough to comment on social issues, we all have the right to speak up about cultural and political subjects, we can all comment on the behaviour of drivers parking on double yellow lines on corners, and if a person has legal qualifications then they are well suited to speaking about legal issues. But a person should refrain from making definitive statements of a financial nature unless one is a qualified accountant or economist. And you have probably figured out that I have such qualifications, and, I might add, twenty years experience.
Not that I want to get offside with a person that I generally consider to be intelligent and well written and whose blog I shall continue to read, just that this time his comments moved outside his area of competency and need correction. Although, in my usual manner, I have probably stomped far too hard.
And that ends todays rant.
Yes, that's right, there is no apostrophe in "todays rant" since the day does not own the rant. As there is no apostrophe in "King Georges Street" since the street is named in honour of the king, not owned personally by him, and no apostrophes in "KK Womens and Childrens Hospital" since the women and children do not own the hospital. Unless, of course, you are writing in Singlish rather than English.
I should actually clarify this; there used to be a non-possessive apostrophe in the written English language, but its use was discontinued, formally, by the international body that controls the English language. It just seems that somebody forgot to tell Singapore.
(Naturally one expects Americans, such as Microsoft Word spell checker, not to get this correct.)
But that is a whole different rant.
[Addendum - yeah, I deleted a name there. I thought about it later and realised that I don't have my full / real name up here, so I should respect the desire of others not to have their full or real name known for their blog. It was thoughtless of me and I should be a bit more mature than that.]
[Second addendum - it's called 'game theory'.]
But this rant has nothing at all to do with what I am going to blog about today...
As I have previously mentioned, I follow a few Singaporean blogs, it started as researching the country that I was thinking of moving to, and has kept up both because some of them are okay and to keep abreast of things.
I generally check them on a weekly basis; since most of them don't blog very often checking daily is pointless.
The ones I most often check are: mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com, miyagi.sg, mrbrown.com, [deleted]'s xiaxue.blogspot.com, dawnyang.com mostly, and a few others. There are probably twenty in the full list in my favourites and that is only the ones that I could remember / find to add to my favourites on my Asus laptop, there are more in my FireFox favourites on my box back in Oz (also an Asus) that I had emailed to me recently but haven't gotten around to adding yet.
Note that I do not play favourites; I always read Mssrs Brown, Miyagi, and Wang together (there are two others that should be in that group as well, and will be when I check my FireFox listing) and I always read Xiaxue and Dawn Yang together. I have to admit that the ladies perplex me; why have nose jobs but then photoshop your pictures? Why didn't you both get the noses that you wanted in the first place? Anyhow, I am a firm believer that Euro style noses don't necessarily go too well with an Asian profile.
Anyhow, I was walking back from the post office, having posted a form to get the bond from my last rental in Australia returned, when it occurred to me that one of these gentlemen was sabotaging the Singaporean financial system!
No shit!
I am totally serious.
If you remember your first economics subject (probably either 'introductory economics, economics 101, introduction to financial economics' or whatever, depending on where you studied) you will recall how the banking system works. And if you didn't do one of these subjects then 1) you will just have to take my word for it, and 2) you should not be offering advice to others on the subject. If you give money to a bank (as in make a deposit) it keeps some, the level is set by legislation and both differs between countries and changes in each country, and it lends the rest out. What this means is that if you lend $100 to a bank and it keeps $10 and lends $90 out, then the bank only has $10 in cash. The theory is that the $90 goes somewhere, gets spent, but ends up back in the banking system, maybe in a different bank, but in the system somewhere, where $9 will be kept and $81 lent out again, and so on. This ends with all $100 of cash being in the banking system, and there being $900 owed to the various banks that make up the system, but there are $1000 of deposits recorded in the books. This is taught so that we understand how banks create money (specifically debt, non-cash money), it is also part of the explanation given to us as to how governments control the financial system (namely by controlling the ratios involved).
The point is that there are $1000 of deposits but only $100 of actual paper money in the bank.
This works because history has shown us that only 10% of the money is withdrawn during any set financial period.
Unless some dufuss comes along and advises people to take all of their savings greater than $20,000 SGD out of their bank accounts! It matters little that he advises readers to put that money into another bank, that would only work if the mass of the population took their monies out and re-deposited it at a measured pace, which was not advised. No, what was advised was that all Singaporeans withdraw masses of cash from the financial system and cause a system-wide liquidity problem leading to an immediate, get that - immediate, collapse of the Singaporean financial system and all banks based within Singapore. This could only be averted by the authorities freezing all funds.
The result of this foolishness would probably be hundreds of jobs lost, significant impairment of Singapores ability to operate in the global market, a total loss of face for the Singaporean financial system and a total loss of trust by other market participants in the Singaporean financial system. And that is if the government acted quickly to freeze funds, if they did not then there would be tens of thousands of Singaporeans joining the ranks of the unemployed, total bankruptcy of the nation. And it would take ten to fifteen years for the nation to recover. Foreign talent (like me) would just take our six digit salaries to some other economy. I work by contract, I can move anywhere.
Thankfully no one paid heed to this ill advice. But it does make one wonder how an individual can elucidate at length upon a subject they understand so little. Undoubtedly he was thinking of the good of the individuals he addressed, but he totally failed to see the bigger picture. There is a word for this; where individuals take action for their own benefit, but which is bad for the group, and bad for all individuals if all individuals take this same action. But at this moment I cannot recall the name of the theory that covers such behaviour.
Anyhow, the point is that he should not be considered a safe financial adviser. Or, to put it another way, he should stick to his area of expertise.
Being a member of society is reason enough to comment on social issues, we all have the right to speak up about cultural and political subjects, we can all comment on the behaviour of drivers parking on double yellow lines on corners, and if a person has legal qualifications then they are well suited to speaking about legal issues. But a person should refrain from making definitive statements of a financial nature unless one is a qualified accountant or economist. And you have probably figured out that I have such qualifications, and, I might add, twenty years experience.
Not that I want to get offside with a person that I generally consider to be intelligent and well written and whose blog I shall continue to read, just that this time his comments moved outside his area of competency and need correction. Although, in my usual manner, I have probably stomped far too hard.
And that ends todays rant.
Yes, that's right, there is no apostrophe in "todays rant" since the day does not own the rant. As there is no apostrophe in "King Georges Street" since the street is named in honour of the king, not owned personally by him, and no apostrophes in "KK Womens and Childrens Hospital" since the women and children do not own the hospital. Unless, of course, you are writing in Singlish rather than English.
I should actually clarify this; there used to be a non-possessive apostrophe in the written English language, but its use was discontinued, formally, by the international body that controls the English language. It just seems that somebody forgot to tell Singapore.
(Naturally one expects Americans, such as Microsoft Word spell checker, not to get this correct.)
But that is a whole different rant.
[Addendum - yeah, I deleted a name there. I thought about it later and realised that I don't have my full / real name up here, so I should respect the desire of others not to have their full or real name known for their blog. It was thoughtless of me and I should be a bit more mature than that.]
[Second addendum - it's called 'game theory'.]
Sunday, November 9
Things Change, sometimes quickly.
Only four days!
What can happen? you ask.
Thursday, (three days ago) I sent my resumé in to the Singapore offices of the two agencies that I have worked with in Adelaide.
Friday (two days ago) I went for another hike.
West coast this time. The plan was to do the Southern Ridges Hike starting from West Coast Park. Well, I definitely started from West Coast Park, and I did get to see another park on the way, one with an M13 light tank, so that was cool, and I also found a concrete bunker from the second world war. But the other parks and the official hiking trail were a complete loss due to the total absence of any signage.
I think that I would have to print out a map and lots of written instructions for this one. Sad, one should be able to follow a trail a bit more easily than this.
Anyhow, along the way I got a call from one of the agencies, they might well have a contract for me. The lady on the phone also suggested that I try for a different type of pass, rather than the entrépass and she promised to send me an email. True to her word there was an email with a link waiting for me when I got back.
When I started thinking about coming to SG all work passes were locked to the one employer. If you wanted to change jobs you had to leave the country, get the next job, then apply to come back. Recognising that this severely hampered the smooth functioning of the business sector Singapore introduced a new pass, a Personalised Employment Pass, which was focussed on the worker, not on the employer. Problem was that it was only available to employees that had already been on an old pass for two years or more, so I could not apply for it. Thus the MOM advised me to apply for the Entrépass.
Well, the guidelines for the PEP have changed, you can apply without having worked in SG so long as you earn lots of money. You can't be surprised at that qualification, can you? Singapores definition of 'lots of money' is $7,000 per month (SGD), so that's no issue. And the PEP lets you be unemployed for periods of up to six months between jobs so long as your annual total income is $30,000. So really I could work for a month, have five months off, work for a month, have five months off - except that I seriously don't think that I could live on $30k, that's not even going to pay the rent. But get this, there's more, the PEP is good for five years, not just two years like all the other passes. How cool is that? And there's more! The paperwork is much easier and there are a lot less requirements for the application in comparison with the Entrépass which is about starting a new business.
This is the perfect vehicle for people, like me, who prefer to contract and hate being tied to one employer.
So I downloaded the new forms, have got most of my info together - I have asked a friend to email me my electronic tax file from last financial year so I can enter the exact annual income and have some proof of that if asked - and have most of the form filled out ready to be lodged on Monday. And hey! There's more! This one is meant to be processed in only two weeks, not six like the other, so I could be working by the start of December - a month earlier.
That will definitely reduce some stress on my financials, because otherwise I was cutting it close with my reserves anticipating that I would have to cover for several months before anything was coming in. And also I had made the decision that I wasn't going home for Xmas if I didn't have a job since that would severely eat into my bank account. But if this (great sounding) contract comes through then it will be no problem and my family will be graced by my presence for the end-of-year festivities.
So, a major amount of potential change in a very short time. A better type of pass in every way that I can measure it, and a totally excellent sounding contract in the pipeline that might be ready to start as soon as the pass is approved.
No surprise that all of this makes me very happy. So happy that I can quite overlook the sad hiking experience.
Back in Adelaide my friend is marrying his Malaysian Chinese fiancée tomorrow!
My niece is departing for college to study veterinarian science.
My sister is starting a new job also tomorrow!
Here Jaz and Iris are still stuck in Malaysia - in the time that Malaysia chooses to take to replace stolen passports for Chinese citizens you could apply for permanent residency in most countries.
I have texted Jaz saying that I would like to visit her - flying to KL with JAL is quite cheap - but to her old number, which I was told was still receiving, but Paul tells me that she has a Malaysian SIM in her phone now, so I need to get a new number, which of course no-one has told me, even though they are all speaking with her. Carelessness? Design? Life putting obstacles in my path to test me? Perhaps I will soon be too busy to be able to play such games. Life will have to deal with that on its own.
Other than that, I went out last night to eat dinner at a vegetarian restaurant in Little India. Didn't really find one, wanted one that was 'veg' only, not 'veg and non-veg', usually I find a couple but for some reason this night no. Did find a small alley with men dressed in womens clothes and wearing make-up who propositioned me...
Probably safer to head the Bencoolen way in future, lots of vegetarian eating to be found. And not much of the other...
What can happen? you ask.
Thursday, (three days ago) I sent my resumé in to the Singapore offices of the two agencies that I have worked with in Adelaide.
Friday (two days ago) I went for another hike.
West coast this time. The plan was to do the Southern Ridges Hike starting from West Coast Park. Well, I definitely started from West Coast Park, and I did get to see another park on the way, one with an M13 light tank, so that was cool, and I also found a concrete bunker from the second world war. But the other parks and the official hiking trail were a complete loss due to the total absence of any signage.
I think that I would have to print out a map and lots of written instructions for this one. Sad, one should be able to follow a trail a bit more easily than this.
Anyhow, along the way I got a call from one of the agencies, they might well have a contract for me. The lady on the phone also suggested that I try for a different type of pass, rather than the entrépass and she promised to send me an email. True to her word there was an email with a link waiting for me when I got back.
When I started thinking about coming to SG all work passes were locked to the one employer. If you wanted to change jobs you had to leave the country, get the next job, then apply to come back. Recognising that this severely hampered the smooth functioning of the business sector Singapore introduced a new pass, a Personalised Employment Pass, which was focussed on the worker, not on the employer. Problem was that it was only available to employees that had already been on an old pass for two years or more, so I could not apply for it. Thus the MOM advised me to apply for the Entrépass.
Well, the guidelines for the PEP have changed, you can apply without having worked in SG so long as you earn lots of money. You can't be surprised at that qualification, can you? Singapores definition of 'lots of money' is $7,000 per month (SGD), so that's no issue. And the PEP lets you be unemployed for periods of up to six months between jobs so long as your annual total income is $30,000. So really I could work for a month, have five months off, work for a month, have five months off - except that I seriously don't think that I could live on $30k, that's not even going to pay the rent. But get this, there's more, the PEP is good for five years, not just two years like all the other passes. How cool is that? And there's more! The paperwork is much easier and there are a lot less requirements for the application in comparison with the Entrépass which is about starting a new business.
This is the perfect vehicle for people, like me, who prefer to contract and hate being tied to one employer.
So I downloaded the new forms, have got most of my info together - I have asked a friend to email me my electronic tax file from last financial year so I can enter the exact annual income and have some proof of that if asked - and have most of the form filled out ready to be lodged on Monday. And hey! There's more! This one is meant to be processed in only two weeks, not six like the other, so I could be working by the start of December - a month earlier.
That will definitely reduce some stress on my financials, because otherwise I was cutting it close with my reserves anticipating that I would have to cover for several months before anything was coming in. And also I had made the decision that I wasn't going home for Xmas if I didn't have a job since that would severely eat into my bank account. But if this (great sounding) contract comes through then it will be no problem and my family will be graced by my presence for the end-of-year festivities.
So, a major amount of potential change in a very short time. A better type of pass in every way that I can measure it, and a totally excellent sounding contract in the pipeline that might be ready to start as soon as the pass is approved.
No surprise that all of this makes me very happy. So happy that I can quite overlook the sad hiking experience.
Back in Adelaide my friend is marrying his Malaysian Chinese fiancée tomorrow!
My niece is departing for college to study veterinarian science.
My sister is starting a new job also tomorrow!
Here Jaz and Iris are still stuck in Malaysia - in the time that Malaysia chooses to take to replace stolen passports for Chinese citizens you could apply for permanent residency in most countries.
I have texted Jaz saying that I would like to visit her - flying to KL with JAL is quite cheap - but to her old number, which I was told was still receiving, but Paul tells me that she has a Malaysian SIM in her phone now, so I need to get a new number, which of course no-one has told me, even though they are all speaking with her. Carelessness? Design? Life putting obstacles in my path to test me? Perhaps I will soon be too busy to be able to play such games. Life will have to deal with that on its own.
Other than that, I went out last night to eat dinner at a vegetarian restaurant in Little India. Didn't really find one, wanted one that was 'veg' only, not 'veg and non-veg', usually I find a couple but for some reason this night no. Did find a small alley with men dressed in womens clothes and wearing make-up who propositioned me...
Probably safer to head the Bencoolen way in future, lots of vegetarian eating to be found. And not much of the other...
Wednesday, November 5
Sleep Deprivation
Nearly a week! What has happened?
Uhmm, most importantly I have received my data files and updated my resumé and am almost ready to make the initial email contact to the agencies here. This will be followed by writing a business plan and downloading and completing the forms to apply for an entrépass.
I went for a walk on the weekend. I had spent the day before trying to figure out what bus(ses) to take to get to East Coast Park, and then answering some internet calls, and by then it was too late to enjoy the day at the beach. So the next day I just took a taxi to this end of the park. The plan was to walk along the park/beach for a couple of hours, then come home. The result was me out walking from 9am to about 5pm, with a break for lunch, during which I walked up East Coast Park, along the connector by the airport, and then the length of Changi Beach Park and then caught a bus home.
This involved firstly getting sunburnt and then getting soaked by rain and almost chilled. A lesson re-learnt - always, always, always take an umbrella when going anywhere outside in Singapore!!! If it is not used to keep the rain off then it is used to keep the sun off! Also when I got soaked when the thunder storm came in my light 'urban combats' all bunched up and rubbed my inner legs raw, when I got home the skin was red and swollen and I had to spend most of the next day off my feet with my legs apart. So the next day (evening) I went shopping for the appropriate stuff - a hat with a wide brim, a wet weather jacket and trousers, and a waterproof backpack.
It only took me one day, walking quite slowly and with a break of over an hour to have lunch at the restaurant at the SAF yachting club where I had the most marvelous desert, to cover almost the entire south east side of the island!
Yes, I know that this one side of the island is maybe one fifth of the total coastline. If you imagine SG as a flat diamond with the city centre at the south point and Changi at the east point, yes the north west side is a bit longer and folds back on itself, and the south east side is a bit shorter than the others. But still, it was fun, much more than I would have thought I was getting into for the day, and it leaves me with a goal to circumnavigate the island now. I just need some waterproof shoes and a swag, I can eat at restaurants and cafés along the way, and shower at the changing stations at the beaches - it should take four or five days to do. I will do the stages independently first as one-day hikes. It's so cool! To actually walk around a country!
So, what was it like? The beaches are very well serviced in comparison with Australia, but that wouldn't surprise you, would it? They are mostly clean and very nice, but not as beautiful as those in tropical Queensland, or say the Coorong beach or near Robe although those two aren't tropical. There were lots of people, but not many swimming, which surprised me, more so when I stuck my hand in to see what it was like to find that the water was a beautiful temperature - now I have to add a swimming costume to my shopping list. Lots of shelters, barbeques with benches, benches on their own, sealed footpaths and bicycle paths. So many dome tents! And yet I found one beach almost empty. One thing that astounded me was being able to see Indonesia! And then when I got around the corner at Changi to see Malaysia!
Indonesia was more visible than Yorke Peninsula is from Adelaide, and Malaysia bigger and taller, but the same distance as Kangaroo Island from the mainland. And so many ships waiting in the straits for their turn to dock! In Adelaide you might look out and see two or three big ships in the gulf waiting to get into the harbour, here I counted more than eighty! And when I got further along the park there were more that had been beyond my initial vision. So I think more than a hundred in total.
I had checked the weather forecast online before departing and knew that a thunder storm was due that afternoon, but I didn't plan on staying out that long. I know better now, give me a hiking trail and I just keep going to the end! Fortunately I had a plastic bag in my backpack, with a towel and a spare shirt since I was expecting to work up a sweat, so I was able to protect my camera and phone, but everything else got soaked, hence the new waterproof backpack. It is bigger, unfortunately heavier, but comfortable and with a breathing back, it is both shower resistant and has a waterproof cover that has its own little zip-pouch, its side pouches are deeper than my current small light pack (which I will continue to use for day trips and non-hiking purposes) so I am confident that it will treat my water bottles well (including one half litre thermosflask that I keep an iced isotonic drink in when going on longer excursions).
Yes, you can see that I like hiking and am looking forward to this. It is a side to Singapore that I was not expecting and I am very happy to have discovered it.
I took lots of pics, at least during the East Coast Park stretch, after getting totally drenched whilst walking along the airport I did not feel like taking many more pics, but I had to take some at Changi Beach of Malaysia and the other islands in the river.
And then a bus brought me all the way back to Victoria Street so I only had a little walk up Rochor Canal to be home. Torturous with my legs rubbed so raw though.
Other than that? The guy in the flat on one side of me is very loud, very late into the night; as in shouting the 'F' word at his computer at one or two in the morning, so I am not getting to sleep until four hours after I go to bed, definitely not enough sleep to be able to work on. As in, if I get my application accepted and start working then I will not be able to live here. 'Slumming' it in Little India has had its attractions, but is not viable in the long term.
So, where to live?
I have always felt, so far, that the East Coast are attracted me. Hence why I chose that as my first hike. I would like to live near a nice beach, I would like to have nice views over the sea. It appears from my web searching that there is an area in the north, slightly west?, that is popular with expats. That is perhaps a good reason for me to avoid it, but it might bear looking into. But my preference is to mingle more with Chinese than with Europeans, part of why I am here is to experience their culture. Whilst I have enjoyed experiencing the culture of Little India, it is not entirely new to me, after all, I did live with the Hare Krisnas for a while and I have some other experience of the culture, whereas I don't have that much with anything more eastern. Naturally I do not want to live in any industrial zone, and I have that impression of the western parts of the island, and maybe the north eastern - but I could be totally wrong on that, couldn't I? But I have a month to go before I need to start thinking about that.
More importantly is the price range, and the fact that I should really make sure that I can have the work coming in to cover whatever rent range that I accept to go with.
Ivy says that I should live in Malaysia and commute to Singapore. That way I can have a full sized house on land. There are a couple of ferry services that I saw at the eastern edge, one operated by the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces), do you think that they will go to south eastern Malay? or only to the Singaporean river islands? Might be okay to have a beach front house around Pengerang or Kampong Telok Ampang, or further east so that I could watch the sunrise over the sea.
Meanwhile Jaz, according to Ivy, is in Ipoh, which if it is what I get when I Google Earth it, is as far north of KL as KL is from SG, as Ivy's text said an eight hour coach trip. I have texted Jaz to say that I would like to fly to KL and stay overnight in a hotel and see her. I don't know if she gets these texts, I cannot get her by voice call. I am fuzzy on what is going on here, not in the sense of what is actually happening, rather in the sense of what is fate intending? I have done several tarot readings and I get some very strong messages, the Tower turns up a lot in very definitive positions. Other than that the rest of the cards always say some sort of "happy ever after" sort of thing. With her now apparently locked out of my life for up to six months this is very confusing for me emotionally. I have not gone out clubbing in order to explore this relationship, but now feel this path is blocked and so may hit Geylang to see what the night life offers me. Conversely, is fate, or some Chinese deity, testing me?
Uhmm, most importantly I have received my data files and updated my resumé and am almost ready to make the initial email contact to the agencies here. This will be followed by writing a business plan and downloading and completing the forms to apply for an entrépass.
I went for a walk on the weekend. I had spent the day before trying to figure out what bus(ses) to take to get to East Coast Park, and then answering some internet calls, and by then it was too late to enjoy the day at the beach. So the next day I just took a taxi to this end of the park. The plan was to walk along the park/beach for a couple of hours, then come home. The result was me out walking from 9am to about 5pm, with a break for lunch, during which I walked up East Coast Park, along the connector by the airport, and then the length of Changi Beach Park and then caught a bus home.
This involved firstly getting sunburnt and then getting soaked by rain and almost chilled. A lesson re-learnt - always, always, always take an umbrella when going anywhere outside in Singapore!!! If it is not used to keep the rain off then it is used to keep the sun off! Also when I got soaked when the thunder storm came in my light 'urban combats' all bunched up and rubbed my inner legs raw, when I got home the skin was red and swollen and I had to spend most of the next day off my feet with my legs apart. So the next day (evening) I went shopping for the appropriate stuff - a hat with a wide brim, a wet weather jacket and trousers, and a waterproof backpack.
It only took me one day, walking quite slowly and with a break of over an hour to have lunch at the restaurant at the SAF yachting club where I had the most marvelous desert, to cover almost the entire south east side of the island!
Yes, I know that this one side of the island is maybe one fifth of the total coastline. If you imagine SG as a flat diamond with the city centre at the south point and Changi at the east point, yes the north west side is a bit longer and folds back on itself, and the south east side is a bit shorter than the others. But still, it was fun, much more than I would have thought I was getting into for the day, and it leaves me with a goal to circumnavigate the island now. I just need some waterproof shoes and a swag, I can eat at restaurants and cafés along the way, and shower at the changing stations at the beaches - it should take four or five days to do. I will do the stages independently first as one-day hikes. It's so cool! To actually walk around a country!
So, what was it like? The beaches are very well serviced in comparison with Australia, but that wouldn't surprise you, would it? They are mostly clean and very nice, but not as beautiful as those in tropical Queensland, or say the Coorong beach or near Robe although those two aren't tropical. There were lots of people, but not many swimming, which surprised me, more so when I stuck my hand in to see what it was like to find that the water was a beautiful temperature - now I have to add a swimming costume to my shopping list. Lots of shelters, barbeques with benches, benches on their own, sealed footpaths and bicycle paths. So many dome tents! And yet I found one beach almost empty. One thing that astounded me was being able to see Indonesia! And then when I got around the corner at Changi to see Malaysia!
Indonesia was more visible than Yorke Peninsula is from Adelaide, and Malaysia bigger and taller, but the same distance as Kangaroo Island from the mainland. And so many ships waiting in the straits for their turn to dock! In Adelaide you might look out and see two or three big ships in the gulf waiting to get into the harbour, here I counted more than eighty! And when I got further along the park there were more that had been beyond my initial vision. So I think more than a hundred in total.
I had checked the weather forecast online before departing and knew that a thunder storm was due that afternoon, but I didn't plan on staying out that long. I know better now, give me a hiking trail and I just keep going to the end! Fortunately I had a plastic bag in my backpack, with a towel and a spare shirt since I was expecting to work up a sweat, so I was able to protect my camera and phone, but everything else got soaked, hence the new waterproof backpack. It is bigger, unfortunately heavier, but comfortable and with a breathing back, it is both shower resistant and has a waterproof cover that has its own little zip-pouch, its side pouches are deeper than my current small light pack (which I will continue to use for day trips and non-hiking purposes) so I am confident that it will treat my water bottles well (including one half litre thermosflask that I keep an iced isotonic drink in when going on longer excursions).
Yes, you can see that I like hiking and am looking forward to this. It is a side to Singapore that I was not expecting and I am very happy to have discovered it.
I took lots of pics, at least during the East Coast Park stretch, after getting totally drenched whilst walking along the airport I did not feel like taking many more pics, but I had to take some at Changi Beach of Malaysia and the other islands in the river.
And then a bus brought me all the way back to Victoria Street so I only had a little walk up Rochor Canal to be home. Torturous with my legs rubbed so raw though.
Other than that? The guy in the flat on one side of me is very loud, very late into the night; as in shouting the 'F' word at his computer at one or two in the morning, so I am not getting to sleep until four hours after I go to bed, definitely not enough sleep to be able to work on. As in, if I get my application accepted and start working then I will not be able to live here. 'Slumming' it in Little India has had its attractions, but is not viable in the long term.
So, where to live?
I have always felt, so far, that the East Coast are attracted me. Hence why I chose that as my first hike. I would like to live near a nice beach, I would like to have nice views over the sea. It appears from my web searching that there is an area in the north, slightly west?, that is popular with expats. That is perhaps a good reason for me to avoid it, but it might bear looking into. But my preference is to mingle more with Chinese than with Europeans, part of why I am here is to experience their culture. Whilst I have enjoyed experiencing the culture of Little India, it is not entirely new to me, after all, I did live with the Hare Krisnas for a while and I have some other experience of the culture, whereas I don't have that much with anything more eastern. Naturally I do not want to live in any industrial zone, and I have that impression of the western parts of the island, and maybe the north eastern - but I could be totally wrong on that, couldn't I? But I have a month to go before I need to start thinking about that.
More importantly is the price range, and the fact that I should really make sure that I can have the work coming in to cover whatever rent range that I accept to go with.
Ivy says that I should live in Malaysia and commute to Singapore. That way I can have a full sized house on land. There are a couple of ferry services that I saw at the eastern edge, one operated by the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces), do you think that they will go to south eastern Malay? or only to the Singaporean river islands? Might be okay to have a beach front house around Pengerang or Kampong Telok Ampang, or further east so that I could watch the sunrise over the sea.
Meanwhile Jaz, according to Ivy, is in Ipoh, which if it is what I get when I Google Earth it, is as far north of KL as KL is from SG, as Ivy's text said an eight hour coach trip. I have texted Jaz to say that I would like to fly to KL and stay overnight in a hotel and see her. I don't know if she gets these texts, I cannot get her by voice call. I am fuzzy on what is going on here, not in the sense of what is actually happening, rather in the sense of what is fate intending? I have done several tarot readings and I get some very strong messages, the Tower turns up a lot in very definitive positions. Other than that the rest of the cards always say some sort of "happy ever after" sort of thing. With her now apparently locked out of my life for up to six months this is very confusing for me emotionally. I have not gone out clubbing in order to explore this relationship, but now feel this path is blocked and so may hit Geylang to see what the night life offers me. Conversely, is fate, or some Chinese deity, testing me?
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