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?