No not an emergency number in this case. It is the number of the bus that I take back and forth every morning.
It merits a mention as, even at 7:30 in the morning, it is a snapshot of Singaporean life.
There is one driver who goes out of his way to meet and greet every passenger with a friendly "Good Morning!". He gets a similar response from me but catches many of his passengers off guard and the majority do not react, or worse still, turn their heads to avoid any engagement. At that hour of the morning my fellow passengers look in dire need of sleep and many of them do just that enroute.
There is usually a 'brace' of domestic servants and ground staff aboard and they drop off at the embassies and house along the way. There is one man whom I have fondly christened "Mr Chains".
Mr Chains is a wafer thin Singaporean of Chinese ethnicity who has about his person every security device known to man, either attached to his belt or body by a small silver chain or locked away securely.
Even his Ezylink stored cash card (which all of us use on public transport) emerges from a small leather pouch a fixed to his belt, is swiped and placed with great care back into its receptacle.
On the early bus there is usually a gaggle of school girls - all immaculately turned out in spotless uniforms and bubbling with enthusiam.
We pass on the pavement the odd 'mad expat' working up a morning sweat as they jog alongside. More than likely we will also see a varied collection of pampered pooches being walked by Filipino maids. I have yet to see one canine with its owner at that hour but I suspect they are getting family ready for the day.
The 111 is a double-decker bus but as my ride is usually a mere twelve minutes, I have yet to climb the stairs to enjoy the view from the top deck.
Friday, 1 December 2006
Pipes At The Gates Of Dawn
Last evening we celebrated the arrival of a legal letter advising us of the occupancy date for our new apartment - January 3rd.
This is as anticipated, as it usually take two months for these sales to go through. It also means that we can now plan for contractors, designers and the like ( but more of that later).
About 9 pm as we had finished our meal and my wife was at the kitchen sink there was a shout of consternation.
The pipe from the ceiling of our current apartment had burst, showering dirty suds and rusty water everywhere!
What caused this you may ask? Earlier in the day contractors had been upstairs on the 4th floor with vibrating drills and picks lifting up old flooring and removing parquet. In the process they had managed to give the 50 year old plumbing a real shake up (as well as sending lumps of concrete from the ceiling of the apartment on the 3rd floor).
The accumulated rust of 50 years dislodged itself within the pipes and descended to the lowest point in the plumbing system - our apartment on the ground floor.
The outcome was cleaning up until 1:30am in the morning and repeat visits by the plumber throughout today ( and they STILL haven't stopped the leak completely)
What have I learnt from this?
Next to food, Singaporeans love to rennovate. That is, if they can afford it. This is not just a splash of paint and a changing of door handles. They go the whole hog, ripping up marble and replacing it with more marble of a different hue, sometimes even gutting the apartment back to bare concrete.
There is also a curious phenomonon called "en-bloc", which is in reality a collective sale of apartments approached in a frenzy of anticipated profits. This has resulted in neighbourhood fall-outs and legal battles. See Singapore housing boom brings out ghosts, feuds
This interest in rennovation probably explains why there are many "interior designers" touting their wares at trade shows and through the media. Some are very good and some are frankly diabolical with no apparent aesthetic sense whatsoever.
We met one of the former at the Expo Centre Home Show as fortnight ago and tomorrow we go to his establishment at Eunos to see what concept he has for us. I'll report back on this visit to Orange Cube in my next blog.
This afternoon we had our first Xmas party at work. Very good catering and held in the Library at UNSW Asia.
All in all though, it's been an eventful and exhausting 24 hours!
This is as anticipated, as it usually take two months for these sales to go through. It also means that we can now plan for contractors, designers and the like ( but more of that later).
About 9 pm as we had finished our meal and my wife was at the kitchen sink there was a shout of consternation.
The pipe from the ceiling of our current apartment had burst, showering dirty suds and rusty water everywhere!
What caused this you may ask? Earlier in the day contractors had been upstairs on the 4th floor with vibrating drills and picks lifting up old flooring and removing parquet. In the process they had managed to give the 50 year old plumbing a real shake up (as well as sending lumps of concrete from the ceiling of the apartment on the 3rd floor).
The accumulated rust of 50 years dislodged itself within the pipes and descended to the lowest point in the plumbing system - our apartment on the ground floor.
The outcome was cleaning up until 1:30am in the morning and repeat visits by the plumber throughout today ( and they STILL haven't stopped the leak completely)
What have I learnt from this?
Next to food, Singaporeans love to rennovate. That is, if they can afford it. This is not just a splash of paint and a changing of door handles. They go the whole hog, ripping up marble and replacing it with more marble of a different hue, sometimes even gutting the apartment back to bare concrete.
There is also a curious phenomonon called "en-bloc", which is in reality a collective sale of apartments approached in a frenzy of anticipated profits. This has resulted in neighbourhood fall-outs and legal battles. See Singapore housing boom brings out ghosts, feuds
This interest in rennovation probably explains why there are many "interior designers" touting their wares at trade shows and through the media. Some are very good and some are frankly diabolical with no apparent aesthetic sense whatsoever.
We met one of the former at the Expo Centre Home Show as fortnight ago and tomorrow we go to his establishment at Eunos to see what concept he has for us. I'll report back on this visit to Orange Cube in my next blog.
This afternoon we had our first Xmas party at work. Very good catering and held in the Library at UNSW Asia.
All in all though, it's been an eventful and exhausting 24 hours!
Thursday, 30 November 2006
Snake in the Grass
Saw my first Singaporean snake yesterday.
Every lunch time my library colleagues and I walk through the University grounds to a nearby estate canteen to buy our lunch (usually rice with a couple of vegetables & meat although there are other culinary delights available).
Yesterday we paused enroute to watch one of our ground staff snare mangoes from a very large tree, using a long bamboo pole.
They were green and are used as a condiment - sliced thinly with soy sauce and chilli added. The outcome was that I was given a plastic bag of these mangoes (which we had ripening on plastic plates throughout the library - no book collection yet, just lots of mangoes! Today the mangoes on the library ledge have gone - we suspect the cleaners!)
On the way back down the path a small black snake slithered across the pathway.
According to the same groundsman it was a harmless grass snake - he wasn't running anywhere so neither did I!
There are 60 varieties of snake in Singapore so I was bound to bump into one of them at some stage. This Blog records stories about these reptiles.
Every lunch time my library colleagues and I walk through the University grounds to a nearby estate canteen to buy our lunch (usually rice with a couple of vegetables & meat although there are other culinary delights available).
Yesterday we paused enroute to watch one of our ground staff snare mangoes from a very large tree, using a long bamboo pole.
They were green and are used as a condiment - sliced thinly with soy sauce and chilli added. The outcome was that I was given a plastic bag of these mangoes (which we had ripening on plastic plates throughout the library - no book collection yet, just lots of mangoes! Today the mangoes on the library ledge have gone - we suspect the cleaners!)
On the way back down the path a small black snake slithered across the pathway.
According to the same groundsman it was a harmless grass snake - he wasn't running anywhere so neither did I!
There are 60 varieties of snake in Singapore so I was bound to bump into one of them at some stage. This Blog records stories about these reptiles.
Wednesday, 29 November 2006
A Short Singaporean Epistle!
Well here are we are - two months into the Singapore experience and discovering the differences and opportunities of living here, mainly the latter.
We arrived Mid September and two weeks later I started my new career as a University Library Manager - the behind the scenes stuff that is. Computer systems, web sites etc.
We have a small but very friendly team ( see this site ) and our first intake of students is in 2007. In 2009 we all move out to the new campus which is currently being built at Changi (near the airport).
After the initial two weeks, the two senior managers of which I am one, were sent to the main UNSW university in Sydney for a fortnight's familiarisation. Then it was back to "Singers". My wife came with me to Sydney and we stocked up on items that we had found expensive in Singapore - good quality coffee and muesli to name but two!
Our diet is almost exclusively "Asian" which suits me just fine although my tailor has noted an expansion of waistline - must be all that Rojak to which I am mildy addicted.
We are fortunate enough to have bought a two bedroom+1 "condo" at a complex called 'Queens" - in the "Windsor Block" no less. I feel an attack of the 'Corgis' coming on!@!
There's a US guy who has bought in the same complex and he has put his views online. See his site to get an idea of the place. Ours is more modestly sized but just as well appointed. See also for some panoramas from a real estate agents perspective.
I have absolutely no regrets about leaving NZ or the "Land of the Long White Taxes" as it has become known. No more winters for a start and Singaporeans are so postive about life
Public transport here is superb and cheap, be it by bus, taxi or the very clean and efficient MRT. It takes me 15 minutes by bus to get to work and will be about the same time when we move into our new apartment in the New Year. As a result I have no great desire to buy another car. The cost of running one here is more expensive than NZ.
I should add that I have become a Permanent Resident of Singapore having been granted this esteemed status by the Government. I very much appreciate the opportunity to become a "PR" as it is my intent to forge a new life here.
The above is a start on recounting our experiences - there will be more to come.
We arrived Mid September and two weeks later I started my new career as a University Library Manager - the behind the scenes stuff that is. Computer systems, web sites etc.
We have a small but very friendly team ( see this site ) and our first intake of students is in 2007. In 2009 we all move out to the new campus which is currently being built at Changi (near the airport).
After the initial two weeks, the two senior managers of which I am one, were sent to the main UNSW university in Sydney for a fortnight's familiarisation. Then it was back to "Singers". My wife came with me to Sydney and we stocked up on items that we had found expensive in Singapore - good quality coffee and muesli to name but two!
Our diet is almost exclusively "Asian" which suits me just fine although my tailor has noted an expansion of waistline - must be all that Rojak to which I am mildy addicted.
We are fortunate enough to have bought a two bedroom+1 "condo" at a complex called 'Queens" - in the "Windsor Block" no less. I feel an attack of the 'Corgis' coming on!@!
There's a US guy who has bought in the same complex and he has put his views online. See his site to get an idea of the place. Ours is more modestly sized but just as well appointed. See also for some panoramas from a real estate agents perspective.
I have absolutely no regrets about leaving NZ or the "Land of the Long White Taxes" as it has become known. No more winters for a start and Singaporeans are so postive about life
Public transport here is superb and cheap, be it by bus, taxi or the very clean and efficient MRT. It takes me 15 minutes by bus to get to work and will be about the same time when we move into our new apartment in the New Year. As a result I have no great desire to buy another car. The cost of running one here is more expensive than NZ.
I should add that I have become a Permanent Resident of Singapore having been granted this esteemed status by the Government. I very much appreciate the opportunity to become a "PR" as it is my intent to forge a new life here.
The above is a start on recounting our experiences - there will be more to come.
Let's Start At The Very Beginning
I feel a song coming on!
As I have been sending regular emails about my new life in Singapore to a variety of friends and destinations, this seemed an ideal opportunity to start a Blog on the subject.
The following will be the "ramblings" on a newly ordained Singapore PR ( Permanent Resident), capturing both the high low points of life here. So far it has been mainly "high points" I am happy to record
As I have been sending regular emails about my new life in Singapore to a variety of friends and destinations, this seemed an ideal opportunity to start a Blog on the subject.
The following will be the "ramblings" on a newly ordained Singapore PR ( Permanent Resident), capturing both the high low points of life here. So far it has been mainly "high points" I am happy to record
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
