NaBloPoMo: one post every day throughout November
My sister thinks I’ve been abducted by aliens. Why else, she says, would I go running three times a week, and then (this morning) actually take part in an organised event (just a 5k, but still), and then post sweaty selfies on Facebook? And then – weirdest of all – talk about getting ready for the next one and THEN, think about making it a 10k?
Strange things happen when you move countries.
#GreatEasternWomensRace #bigfun #alienvoice
NaBloPoMo: one post every day throughout November
Saturday. Mr PC takes SM for football training, allowing me to get on with essential coursework. After a worthy amount of study I switch the kettle on and follow a link posted by someone in my group – cue repeat episodes of The Little Nonya. This is better than Kylie and Jason!
#hooked
NaBloPoMo: one post every day throughout November
Another museum college day, and another two-minute presentation in front of my group, which meant another restless night followed by another extra-early morning get-up to read and re-read and time myself and generally jitter about the place until it’s bus stop time. Two months in and already I am wanting to ‘get down from the table’. Am wondering if I’m turning into one of those serial adventurists who starts grand new ventures only to experience the pleasure of giving them up? Poor score. Could do better.
Meanwhile Rosy leaves us today to travel to Perth, the second leg of her SE Asia tour. She entrusted me with her passport last night and then reminded me about it this morning. No prizes for guessing the winner of the Ageing Brain contest; I think mine’s just full up.
NaBloPoMo: one post every day throughout November
We’re taking Auntie Rosy on a walk around the Botanic Gardens when she points at something and beckons.
‘I’ve got this in my garden,’ she says, ‘come over here.’
I’ve seen the garden of her little Malaysian front porch. It’s tiny. Still, I dutifully trudge across the woodchip mulch towards her, looking out for ants or worse. When I get to her she is muttering: ‘serai, serai, serai.’
‘Look,’ she says, ‘lemongrass.’ And sure enough, on a little plaque by the spiky, rushy plant, it says: Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) Serai.
Other words of wisdom from today: i) The man who walked past us earlier in the gardens, bare-chested, ‘had breasts’ ii) Standing with your knees bent and swinging your arms gently up and down was Mao Tse Tung’s way of keeping young.
NaBloPoMo: one post every day throughout November
Auntie Rosy is here! She’s great at chatting people up. In just over 24 hours we have already learned that:
• The old couple in the Flower Dome were from Hong Kong
• Our friend is actually Catholic and goes to a church around the corner
• The girl serving us lunch is single and agrees that it is because she is ‘choosy’
NaBloPoMo: one post every day throughout November
I’m bunking off college to go to a Melbourne Cup Party. Apparently it gets messy. Don’t wait up.
NaBloPoMo: one post every day throughout November
The For Real bird is back – I heard one high in a tree the other morning, and today as well, from our open upstairs window. It’s been on a leave of absence for a while, I don’t know where. This is all just as another person announces their departure.
Much is written about the bittersweet business of friends who move on. This is a person I met through the school and in fact the irony is it’s her who coined the name of that funny bird that toots a loud cry from the tree tops; obviously this is because it sounds like the bird is saying: ‘For Real’. Funny that the bird reappears just as the friend who named it is on her way to Departures.
I’ve missed the bird’s loud, two-note call, but I wouldn’t call it a fair swap.
Christmas tree, Tanglin Mall
It’s not switched on yet but it’s here. The foam tree at Tanglin spits out Ibiza-type bubbles every evening throughout the festive season. Last year we didn’t make it – this year we’ve swimsuits at the ready
(NaBloPoMo: one post every day throughout November)
NaBloPoMo: one post every day throughout November
Look at this. I took it after standing in that for an hour. Doesn’t look too bad from high up but at ground level you could really feel that there were loads of us. I thought it was a wonderful example of the strange Singaporean blend of practicality and total uselessness.
This was the queue to collect a race pack for the upcoming Great Eastern Women’s Run. They are still queuing as I type. Can you see how well organised the line was? Probably not from where you are, but it was a masterpiece of static choreography. We had to start in the dark corner on the far left and then we were steered to a spot by the basement escalator, still on the left. A pause in front of the main doors to let the queue on the other side deplete and then we moved over to the right of the main doors before finally crossing over to the red carpet, where we snaked up to the tills, and that’s where it got silly:
More than 15,000 entrants were bargained for, said the website, with three days to collect the kit between the hours of 11am and 7pm. So let’s call that 5000 people per day. So 5000 people / 8 hours = 625 per hour. And I counted, well, about 12 tills. So 625 people / 12 tills = 52 people per till per hour. It wasn’t going to happen, was it? By the time they’d Twitted to ask us to stop arriving until after the lunchtime rush, we were all embedded in exactly that.
I’m making a specific point here. I’m not simply complaining about being stuck in a long queue: we’ve all had that. Or the fact that there weren’t enough tills: oversight, so what? I’m talking about the fact that a portion of the event was so expertly arranged (men steered you through every section, it was like a ballet), only to fall flat at the final hurdle because half the planning was pants (‘rubbish’ in colloquial English).
It didn’t really matter because the queue was slowly moving all the time so you never felt stuck, and there was a sweet old lady handing out gerberas, which was our wedding flower, so that was nice. I just thought it was a great example of how, OverHere, you often get that infuriating blend of Logic + Nonsense. I guess you could say there are examples of it all around the globe, but I do think it happens a lot in Sing.