On our last day, we booked a two-hour spa treatment before he headed off to the airport. Our treatment menu:

• 1 hour of four-hand massage
• 45 minutes of lulur body scrub
• 15 minutes of hot petal bath soak

I've never had a massage with two people working on me at once, if I thought massages were a bit overly indulgent before, well this was even more so. I think I actually prefer a single masseuse though, two people and you feel like you can barely keep track of what's going on around you.

Afterwards our scrub, the third I've ever had. The first time was in Chiang Mai where I was rubbed raw within an inch of my life, but this time, they were definitely a lot gentler. They just rubbed on some spicy yogurty goo, including on my er "chestal" area which left me biting my lip from giggling, and let us mummify for 20 minutes, allowing the goo to dry and harden before scrubbing it off in large pieces, like how a snake might feel to shed its skin. An odd experience, but it's two days later and my skin still feels super soft.

The petal bath, which I thought sounded gimmicky, turned out to be the very best part. Living in Asia where space limits bathrooms from having bathtubs at all, I don't even remember the last time I've even had a bath. It was an excellent way to end this holiday, and the fragrant flowers were lovely too.

My feet look giganto relative to my head.

Hope you enjoyed the pics, I will definitely consider coming back to Bali, but maybe I'll consider another airline next time ;)

The reason we had gone to the Uluwatu temple was in part to watch the Kecak Dance. I've seen my fair share of cultural dances, and they do seem to get a bit boring after a while if you don't fully understand the background behind them. This one was a little different though, as the "music" was completely provided by the chorus, nor was it singing, but a series of hypnotic sounds that it made, for an entire hour. I can't describe it well, so I've attached a video to give you a taste. You can totally imagine them long ago making these sounds in a trance-like state.

 When we arrived to sit down, the bleachers were almost full, but we managed to snag a spot. I wondered if they only sold a limited number of tickets, but it would appear no, they just kept packing people in, until the crowds and the performers were hardly distinguishable. I shuddered to think of what impact a bomb would have had on this extremely dense space.

A holy man blesses the stage before the crowds begin to spill onto the main floor area.

The chorus of performers, all with a red hibiscus behind their right ear, no qualms about manliness here.

Show ending with a sunset and a fire.

An occupational hazard of being married to an architect is that you get to see a lot of buildings. On this trip, the object of study was luxury resorts. Including our hotel, I think we saw six in total, quite a few for such a short trip actually. It can become quite an expensive adventure if you aren't very comfortable with bluffing your way through, however. Luxe hotels tend to be very solicitous of their visitors' needs, by asking you how they can assist (and I suspect to weed out plebs like us), so in a few cases we stopped for a drink in order to be able to comfortably explore the grounds without being hassled. Just as well that I still haven't got the hang of converting rupiah, because I'd probably balk at paying $15 for a non-alcoholic drink.

Entry to the Shaba hotel, looks like a hobbity entrance, the lamps hung so low.

Inside this tiny villa hotel, which only has three rooms, this is the common area, who wouldn't love to live in a gorgeous space like this.

The Anantara, I almost couldn't take all the heat from the lack of shade here.

We ended up spending a ton of time at the Intercontinental across the street from us, it was just convenient to cut through this hotel to get to the beach. I think we were passed through there so much, the guards probably believed that we guests after all. So tempting to use their giant pool in fact.

Evening at the Intercontinental, nice to lounge in the daybeds to watch live music.

The Bulgari resort was a little detour we went to on the way back from Uluwatu, the kind of hotel that you pay US$800 a night to stay at. And it reminded me of my stay at the Rayavadee earlier this year. The kind of place where the staff is extra careful to remember your name...and that makes it so much harder to say that you just want to walk around for no good reason :D We said we'd go for a drink... but never did haha. I felt like such a fraud when the go-cart attendant drove us back to the lobby, asking us whether we had a nice dinner and we said "um, yes?," but hey I got to buy a gift from Bulgari, pictured below.

 Entrance to the Italian restaurant at the Bvlgari.

Bulgari Valrhona Chocolate Hazelnut Cream, Haha, who says you can't get luxury on a budget....

Actually, visiting these chi-chi hotels is verrry bad for me in fact, it's far far too easy to get used to the comfort and atmosphere of well-appointed places, but seeing as I'm no investment banker, I'll have to limit my exposure before I go fritter my life savings on a week stay at a hotel. Must.stamp.out.princess.fantasy.

We only made one cultural tourist stop on this trip, promising ourselves that we would visit more temples on a future trip to Bali. This time we went down south to Uluwatu Temple, known for sitting on the edge of a high cliff. Bali is unique in the sense that despite the pervasiveness of Islam in this region, Bali is predominantly Hindu, so it is culturally quite different from much of Indonesia, as far as I understand it.

When we arrived, we needed to show the decorum necessary for a temple visit, but being tourists, we were all offered these sarongs to cover our legs and a sash. Quite pretty to see everyone donning royal purple set off with bright sashes.

This is the greatest number of colors you'll ever ever see on J. Three!

Posing on the windy cliff. It's a long way down, and there aren't any railings here.

This temple is known for its abundance of monkeys roaming the grounds, and with the larger influx of tourists, they have become far more aggressive. We were warned at least twice to put away any glasses since they seem to love stealing them. This was proven true minutes later when an American-Chinese girl had her pair snatched off the top of her head. The offender scampered off into a tree and began to happily gnaw on its prize. Some of the guides began to throw pieces of fruit at it to entice it to let go of one in promise of food, but these monkeys are so well fed that it didn't seem to be working and as we left to walk on, the monkey still had them in its mouth.

So innocent looking, and yet...

They blend right in to the temple, don't they?

I resisted spending too much time in the actual touristy town areas of Kuta and Seminyak on this trip. Not only because it's annoying to be constantly hassled by vendors who want to sell me manicures, hair braiding, or temporary tattoos, but for the more serious reason that there remains the possibility of bombings. In the major hotels and clubs, there are bodyguards who check through your bags, dogs who sniff around your vehicle, and a guy with what looks like an oversized dentist's mirror, the kind they use to look at the teeth at the back of your mouth. In this instance however, it's to check under your car to make sure there aren't any bombs attached. Given all this, I was more than content to stay in my little villa most of the time, free of these worries.

Granted, there are a vast number of little boutiques that look very promising to shop at, but I decided to take a break from my normal routine of shopping in Singapore as well. I also realized that trying on any clothing is pretty much a losing proposition as you're so sticky from the salty ocean air, five layers of sunscreen, and general sweatiness that it feels quite rude to be putting new clothes on your body.

There's also a slight seediness that comes with being in town areas -- the nightclubs, the beggars, the shady characters, but I was surprised to find that Bali is only a tenth as seedy as Phuket or Bangkok. I guess I assumed that a lot of Southeast Asia would have their share of leering foreigners with scantily clad local women, but I guess it turns out that Thailand really is the hub for that action. Bali was more families, and a number of them must be Japanese, as I was constantly asked "Nihonjin desu ka?"

One night we met up with our friends who were staying closer to the action for dinner, and it was a bit surreal as this place had a really bad cabaret show going on. So bad that you can't keep your eyes away. Mostly martial-arty dances peppered with fire shows. The latter made me nervous as this troupe seemed rather on the uncoordinated side and at one point a wrong move caused a bit of the floor to alight on fire... before later being stomped out by another dancer. Great, if it's not the threat of bombings, I'm watching a fire hazard instead.

A group of girls sent around the restaurant to enliven the atmosphere, though don't me ask what sailor girls have to do with anything here.

Bali is hot. That isn't to say that Singapore isn't hot, because they both are. The difference is, in Singapore, I spend most of the prime daylight hours indoor kept frozen by central air conditioning. Thus, it wasn't a big surprise that I spent my first day getting a healthy dose of sunstroke. The beating sun does something to a person, the sunlight blinds your senses and the heat dulls your mind. Beautiful as the beach below may be, I was desperately seeking shade by this point.

Windy enough to fly a kite the shape of a sailing ship.

I felt out of my element in Bali too. After enough holidays to Thailand, Malaysia, and well having lived in a fair number of different cities now, I have forgotten how it feels like to be alienated by a new culture. The morning I arrived, I tried to buy a hat to protect me from the sun, at which I failed miserably. A woman in a stall gave me a price but I was confused, irritated by the sun, not able to quickly convert her offer into currency that made sense (the rupiah to sing dollar is 7000 to 1, all those zeros threw me for a loop), nor was I able to ascertain how much room I had to bargain, or how to communicate this. I gave up then, knowing that I would get a better sense for this later, but mostly I was caught by surprise that I would go through this at all. Over the five years I've spent moving from place to place, travelling through different cultures, how did I get so easily unsettled in a tourist trap like Bali? I guess it's just as well to learn a bit of humility now and again.

One thing I noticed here was that the food was different somehow...we received a welcome fruit spritzer upon our arrival and I took a big slurp, and then almost choked on it. No sugar! It was so tart, and I'm so used to overly sweet drinks now in Asia. This was a pattern that was repeated often at the more local places, and in a way it felt healthier, a break from too much refined sugar. The hotel did a pretty nice job with breakfasts I have to say though. This place only has a dozen rooms, so no large-scale buffet menu here. We had our pick of fresh juices, homemade jams, fruit, yogurt, crepes, breads, and eggs and bacon. Just typing this makes me drool.

First course before the arrival of crepes and eggs and bacon.

The seafood was also nice and fresh too. We were staying in Jimbaran, an area known for seafood dinners on the beach, which we enjoyed twice. Of course, J loved the grilled corn vendor the most, no surprise there.

My (mostly sour) mint, ginger, and lemon drink with a calamari sandwich, one of the best sandwiches I've had in a long time.

Being that Bali is popular with tourists, I didn't find food extraordinarily cheaper than say Singapore, but it was nice to have a lot of fresh seafood available, and being on holiday, you get to try the foods you might not ordinarily go for. Sugar withdrawal aside, I ate very well in Bali, much to the chagrin of my bikini. What can I say, you only live once =D

2008 sure has been a year of travels, and I managed to fit in one more jaunt before the close of the year. It was never intended as a honeymoon per se, more of a way to detox from a very stressful year that we've had, full as it was with joy. Me and J sought places to explore together and had exhausted several destination options based on these limitations:

1. Too expensive (for us that was anywhere in Australia, Vietnam, detoxing in Thailand - who knew a multi-day fast could set you back a couple of grand?)

2. Too boring (pretty much anywhere in Malaysia)

3. Too familiar (Jin's travelled so very much that it's become hard to find a place we both haven't been to)

A friend suggested a really dodgy discount airline, Lion Air, which would enable us to fly, round-trip, at Christmastime, booked almost last-minute, to Bali, for US$150. Given all of our limitations, this was a pretty good option. Jin of course *had* been there before, but that was 20-odd years ago with his family, so we called it close it enough, and made our booking.

Let's just say now for the record, sometimes you get what you pay for.

Meaning to say, we almost didn't make it to Bali.

That would have sucked.

Especially since we had already paid the hotel deposit on a lovely boutique hotel (read: not that cheap).

Essentially, as we checked in at the airport, for whatever unknown reason, the counter could not find proof that we had paid for our online booking. We had a few other friends who were going at the same time, and none of them had issues, it was just us. The counter staff told us they would have to call the main office to get a confirmation, which normally may not have been an issue... if it weren't 5 in the morning, so of course the office was closed. Yeah, apparently this "problem" happens with a degree of regularity, but not something you want to deal when you're still in a zombie-like state. We did have to option of re-buying our tickets.... at full price, which would have been another US$400 and somehow tried to argue it out later to get our money back, but it was all pretty silly since our e-tickets had printed on them the words "Already Paid." Sheesh.

The counter manager took a risk on us and let us check in regardless, with the consequence being that she would have had to pay for our tickets out of her pocket if it came out that we didn't pay after all. By the time they let us through, it was already time to board, so we busted our asses to the gate (and rushed to buy Corinne her duty-free) and finally made it on to join our friends. I was rather keyed up at this point, after J had said "boy if they are such a mess at the front desk, how do they even manage their plane maintenance?" At one point I had fallen asleep on the plane, and half-awoke, still dreaming to feel like the plane was dropping out of the air (it wasn't though). It wasn't a good start to our relaxing holiday. Nor did it help that when we arrived at Bali customs, I got singled out for a bag inspection. Like of all people to look like a smuggler/terrorist, do I fit the profile? Even after they let my friend Jason through, who totally could pass for a dealer?

All that said, I actually had a wonderful 4-day trip. It was almost exclusively spent lounging at the pool, reading books, doing nothing but eating and relaxing. Our room had what I called the shabby chic thing going where there was a four-poster bed with canopy, old-timey phone, no TV, and a huge bathtub with a showerhead, but nowhere to affix it. It took me a long while actually to get used to it, charming as it was, because I've become so reliant on having the Internet all the time, TV on in the background, even hot water (ugh, another story entirely). But looking back, it was honestly so nice to be free of all these things for a few days. All the trips we've taken in the last say five years together have been largely activity- or visiting-based trips, so to have the luxury to do nothing but sit by the pool, read, walk to the beach, was incredible actually.

I feel like it's been years since I've last come to Xanga to write a blog, and there are tons of times where I do have little stories I wish I could share of my life here, but as it is often the case, I feel like it's been far too busy to be able to come and blog. But, I do miss it.

Life has settled down for me somewhat since the big move, I no longer have to visit i-love-crac-kea on a regular basis, and I'm slowly getting used to the err.. "wildlife" at this ground floor walk up. Two nights ago I killed a centipede and J and I take turns with the big can of poison on the various types of enc-roach-ers that regularly appear.

J had also made it rain ants in our yard one night, which was pretty interesting to watch. He sprayed this one upper window frame space that had a few ants coming in and out (though we rarely see this type inside), and for hours and days we would watch dizzy ants stream out to get air from the poison gas, and then plummet to their deaths. I must have swept thousands of these guys up and thank goodness it was all outdoors, I wouldn't have taken it so well if this say happened in the living room. Having now watched The Day the Earth Stood Still, it isn't so difficult to draw an analogy.

Last night I had a staredown with a stray cat that likes to sit on the washing machine in our yard, but most nights I have to go into the yard to shoo away the two strays (one ginger, one black) that meowl at each other or fight, which totally wakes me up at night. J by contrast loves that he has cats again in his life. We've got a regular menagerie really, as the church down the street also keeps these three massive huskies that I always see on my walk home, and I really wonder how they can take the heat in those heavy coats they have.

One type of life I cannot stand during this wet season has been the mould. Our guest/study room doesn't have much air circulation so our "quality" Ikea wardrobes have been growing mould as if we are living inside the heart of the Amazon rainforest itself. We've already had to buy a machine dehumidifier to help cut down the 90% humidity, but that hasn't been enough to stop the growth. For a while I was making do by using a can of deodorising foot spray for our climbing shoes that had anti-fungal abilities to spray our wardrobes. So weird to have your clothes smell like foot spray seriously. J had to finally buy some heavy duty toxic-smelling stuff to wipe down all the mould, and I have my fingers crossed that it'll work. I guess when I call Singapore the spore, there's a reason for it~

I guess that's life in the tropics for you, all the humidity and insects in exchange for windchill and black ice. I couldn't imagine being back in Edmonton right now honestly. Not to say I wouldn't come back during wintertime, but I literally cannot imagine what I'd feel this very moment if I had to bundle up in a downfield jacket and drive on icy roads to buy groceries, although cursing could possibly come into it.

I am excited that I'm getting away from the spore over Christmas at least, due to an enforced leave policy my company has decided to take up. So, J and I are headed to Bali for a few days! I've been in Singapore for over 2 years now but I've hardly been anywhere, and certainly not beyond Malaysia or Thailand. I am flying the sketchiest Indonesian airline ever, so do send good thoughts to me that the technicians weren't snoozing on the job during plane maintenance.

I feel like it's the end of a very long year is coming to a close and though it's been mostly a very very good year, I'm also ready to see what new things come up in 2009.

Lately I've been looking at the pictures I've been taking on the Blackberry and it has hit me how much being with Jin has affected me. Instead of goofy pics, now I have borrrring snoozers of bridges and textures blah blah stuff that only architects like to look at. For shame, Melissa....

See? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz!  Two weekends ago we hit a park so that Jin could check out Henderson Waves, a pedestrian bridge that connects Mount Faber Park together with.... some other parks I forget which.

Always mugging for the camera...

...but it's too damn sunny to pretend I'm smiling open eyed for long

Just as well I wasn't wearing a skirt on these stairs, else I'd be giving Jin cheap thrills.

For whatever silly reason, we chose to go at 1pm, ensuring that I turned about 5 shades darker and almost shriveled into a raisin-like entity. The brutal heat aside (and I know it might be hard for the Edmontonians to imagine in November), it was a pretty nice walk, a break from walking around air-conditioned malls certainly. Well, almost, as at the end of our walk we hit Ikea, and I never enjoyed A/C as much as I did that hour. With enough trips to Ikea, our house is now a home, and Jin loves my newest purchase to feed his OCD cleanliness - a Dustbuster (or the unbranded version we can find in SG). Sadly it's not as high-powered as we'd like, but it's been immeasurably useful in picking up dead ant carcasses (mmm!) as well as hide the fact that I shed so damn much. There's even one mystery that I've been dustbusting... balls of tan-colored dog hair have been mysteriously rolling into our kitchen like tumbleweeds. Huh.

It's been a rather quiet month otherwise, J's big four-oh just passed this last weekend, but it was spent the way he likes it best, in a low-key manner. A friend offered to cook up some steak (W, I now consider us even for helping to set you up with P so long ago), and I brought some cake and wine, just a lovely evening all around without needing to pretend we were enjoying ourselves at a noisy club with horrible jugs of watered-down cran-vodka (Zouk, I'm looking at YOU).

It'll be my turn at the end of the month to celebrate another year gone by, savour the childless years while I am able, n'est pas? That being said, I'm hoping to spend it in a civil manner, and not like in this pic, for which I have no recollection taking, somehow appearing on my phone:

The landlord's junk is going in our storage room (yay for storage space!)

Whoa, it's been a while, but a very exciting last week. I've put together a dozen pieces of furniture and tried to turn an empty apartment into a home. I've got a couple requests to post up an apartment tour video, so after this one "last" trip tonight to Ikea, maybe I'll be ready to put one together.

We've also just returned from Beijing, after a very enjoyably busy 3 days, to see our good friends L&K celebrate their new married status. It's been over 2 years since we've been back, and words can hardly describe how wonderful it was to gather with old friends. Getting to meet the Hammer was a highlight too, with the calmness of his mom and the sociableness of his dad. A bunch flew in from Shanghai, so it was a very nice reunion, and we spent our time doing what we do best in China: get painful Chinese deep-tissue massages, shop at hardcore bargain-till-you-drop markets, visit impossibly fancy new buildings, eat ri-donk-culus amounts of food, and drink copious amounts of Chinese beer. Ah, very satisfying, though my stomach does not thank me for it today.

Funny thing though, I hardly ate any "Chinese" food the whole time. I had Western buffet, followed by Mexican, then homecooked bacon-and-eggs (thanks K!), Japanese (Hatsune how I have missed thee), Mediterranean, and Russian. Only time enough to have a bite or two of anything local and I didn't have time for my favorite (kao mantou). Another time alas.

Beijing has changed and yet not changed. Much of the landscapes have more shiny things added to it, but the haze and clueless taxi drivers are still very much the same. The hot new restaurants have changed many times since we've been last, but there's always something good to eat. I have however forgotten how salty everything is though. I still saw a horse on a main street so that part hasn't changed, nor has the horrendous traffic, but there do seem to be new subway stations everywhere I turn. J asked me if I'd ever consider moving back, and as much as I miss many many things (and moreso people) from this place, I don't know if I can take on all the chaos all over again. Singapore may be hot and expensive to live in, but I also worry less that people are trying to rip me off or run me over. Plus, those 3 days already left me congested from all the dust and dirt, and I don't want to return to the 3-4 incidences of bronchitis a year.

However, I'm very willing to make more visits.... so now I just have to wait for more weddings to have an excuse :D, Shanghai next perhaps?

So, we signed and paid up, and guess we'll be moving in 3 weeks. To do list now involves:

-Donating/Chucking as much stuff as humanly possible, now that we will be in a smaller place

-Drinking 18 bottles of wine and 12 bottles of hard liquor since they'll be a beeyotch to move/store

-Filling in the 30+ nail holes in our wall from all the pics we've had hanging

-Changing our mailing address like... everywhere. Yuck.

-Eating the contents of our freezer/fridge, though of course, if you know us won't be that hard considering there's no real food in it

-Shopping for a new TV.  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssSSSSSSSSSSSS

-Using the condo pool one last time before we give up having this luxury

I have so much adrenaline coursing through my veins at the moment, I'm taking a break from work to write this. So in this post, I talked about my lease coming up, and my plan to stick it out another 6 months. In the interim, out of boredom or curiosity, we've decided to take a look around anyways to see what's out there. Somehow today we've ended up putting an offer on a place that's smaller, has fewer bathrooms, doesn't have huge windows and nice breezes, and costs a chunk more than what we were going to pay on our 6-month extension.

 As it goes in real estate, it's location, location, location. Right now, I average an hour (give or take) on the bus to get to back and forth from work, and it's about 45 minutes for J. This place we looked at today (after which I was in my head ready to just call off the search) is truly in the heart of the city, and my commute would be cut by more than half. That's at least an hour a day of my life back to myself (and J too of course)!

Not only is it a really prime area, but the backstory is that its safe to boot. The very high-profile former prime minister of Singapore, LKY, is not so far away, which means that there's not many high rises in the vicinity... apparently, developers who plan to build in this area have to submit their building plans to the police so that they can make sure there aren't any sniper sight lines. Lol.

So, it's a tough decision. To be honest, I really do love love the place I live in right now, it's not a rental to me, it's my home, and I am loath to leave. I would love to buy a place in this condo tower for the long term. However, whether it be six months from now or next month, I will have to say good bye to this wonderfully breezy, bright, and airy space. Perhaps we can just hold off and look again in six months, but after combing through the classifieds, I also have a feeling this new place is a really good deal. Everything else I've seen in this area (and some are total dumps, but this one is surprisingly not) cost far far more. Plus, we do want to buy something eventually, and I'm not sure if 6 months is quite enough for the market to come down enough. A year sounds more reasonable in that sense.

So, by Friday, we've got a decision to make. The landlord wants to meet us as well, to make sure we wouldn't trash the place (he's a lawyer too, gulp). But I doubt that a yuppie couple such as us (as J's mom likes to term it) with good jobs and no kids/pets would be an issue.

In our last place, I scoffed at J when we came up the driveway to the condo since he immediately gave me the thumbs up, signaling that he knew he'd like to live there, even before he stepped through the door. This time around, when the door opened, I immediately had a similar moment, where the voice in my head said "hey, I could totally live here" and not like the other five places we've seen at the same price, where that voice said "holy crap, what a dump, who would pay for this??"

Yeah. I could go either way, but as c has said to me, this has been truly an eventful year, and I am inclined to agree.

One of the things that took a little getting used to are the portion sizes on this last trip back home. But well, by the two-week mark, I was happily gobbling down way huge servings lol. But when I returned to Singapore, I went to KFC with J and had the teeniest value meal ever. So adorably small. Much like my lunch today. Not the food so much, but look at that tray!! hee hee. I put the regular tray above it for scale. I also love that the tiny tray is perfectly adequate to carry everything that needs to go on it, less space wastage, as I suppose goes for much of Asia. The other thing I love is this meal is S$4 which is about Cad$3. Granted, this is as "asian" as you'll ever see me eat, most days I hit a sandwich place like a good white person should.

I'm enjoying the last hours of my workday as I've finished almost everything I need to do for this busy period. Starting next week I'll have to stress over a long-overdue report, but that can wait till Monday. I hope you have a good weekend!

Something I just realized this month.

I was promoted a couple months ago, and got a wee pay raise with it. However, now my take home pay is $2 less. Dammit.

Basically, I've been a permanent resident in Singapore long enough so that the amount they garnish directly off my salary into my "retirement" funds has increased - just coincidence that it's almost exactly the same amount as the pay rise. Yes, technically I'm making more (for my retirement), but for a moment there, I was like Doh! I shouldn't really complain, money put into this account can't be touched sure, but the govt guarantees it to be making something like 3% growth on it, which is better than any of my mutual funds are doing these days. =P

On a related note, my lease is up in Oct, and the rentals market is still stupidly pricey, though the peak has passed. My landlord is only willing to renew our lease for another 6 months, and DEFINITELY not at the bargain price we've been paying. In fact, despite all this, I am pretty happy he *only* increased our rent by 44% for these 6 extra months. Sheesh, that's a 44% increase after bargaining it down - speaks to how the real estate market has been here for the last few years. The market is definitely softening, so hopefully in April we'll be able to find an apartment (to buy mayhaps?) for less extortionist rates.

When I first moved here exactly 2 years less 10 days ago (!!), I was pretty happy with my pay (well compared to China, that wasn't difficult), but the way cost of living has inflated here over this period, I'm probably worse off than I was back then.

Gosh, that was embarrassing. J didn't even hear half of the stuff I spouted during my 10 seconds of airtime because I was too loudly squeeing in cringement. Were either of those two ... even words? No, that's because there are no words to describe seeing yourself talking nonsense on TV.

Another day, another chance to learn humility.
 

Phew, I knew it'd be busy when I got back from Edmonton, but I didn't realize exactly how much!

But, let's back up a moment. I do want to spend some time going over these last three weeks, since they've been really so wonderful. And I will. But I have more pressing things to share about this week ;)

Yesterday I had one of my contacts call me up for lunch. Usually we don't meet except during my interview period which finished about a month ago. Turns out he just wanted to pick my brain on some phone stuff, so we had a leisurely 2 hour lunch with his colleague, who works under him on his team. We went for prime rib (which I never did end up having in Alberta, go figure), anyhoo, these guys were so hilarious. My contact split a huge cut of prime rib with his guy, and the food happened to come when we were talking shop. So the third guy starts to split the meat...but he proceeds to cut up my contact's share into bite-size portions. Luckily, that also turned out to be a surprise to my contact (thank goodness it's not their regular routine haha) sooo random and in a work lunch context no less, but it's all good. Just had to share because I somehow think only in Singapore would this ever happen, my friend WL doesn't call em mama's boys for nought.

Second thing I found out today when I got back from lunch. You may recall in my last blog how I almost did a TV interview but didn't. Well today, I did. In fact, it'll be on TV in about an hour (eeeek). So yeah, it's 1pm, and we get a request to do an interview on the iPhone 3G launching in Singapore on Friday. It's with a local news station, and they want to do it today. I totally was not dressed for this, so I combed the office to yoink a jacket from a coworker. As if wardrobe was the only thing, I definitely was trying not to SPAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ out all over the place. My supervisor gave me the option to refuse on grounds on last-minute-ness, but this really was the perfect opp, and I didn't want to kick myself again for squandering my opportunities in life. On the upside it wasn't live, so they'll cut my 5 minutes of blathering down into some 30 second soundbyte on the evening news. Definitely stressful, but I'm glad to get my first appearance out of the way, gotta start from somewhere right? I just wish I would have had a better hair/makeup day, I've been looking a bit icky lately due to jetlag. So, that's that. I don't know if I'll have the guts to watch myself on TV honestly, my supervisor never ever watches his interviews he says. But, I think if I ever want to improve, in theory, I should.... right? I can't remember anything I even said, but maybe I don't want to be reminded :P Either way, I'm no celebrity, but I was definitely pushed out of my comfort zone today, and I think that should be something to be happy about, even if my ego shall cringe me into a tiny ball tonight.

Blog brought to you tonight at the urging of my mom and carmine.
 

You know how when you're living in your head daydreaming, you're a total superstar who does everything right? Convince difficult people with ease, come up with witty repartees, dazzle people with your charm?

But in reality, you're nervous, mute, pulling blanks?

Yeah, consider it an almost-happened.

A coworker got asked to do a live interview on CNBC's Cash Flow on Friday regarding the iPhone launch, and had been trying to push it in my direction. My supervisor's already doing another interview that same day, so he's declined, but he's also nixed the idea of me doing it. Equal parts relief and opportunity missed. If this were daydreamland, this would be a great chance to up my work profile and my sparkle would win me accolades. (Haven't I always suspected I'd be a better interviewee in person than on paper?) However, in realityville, doing a first TV interview *live* could be well, a disasterous humiliation that could take a while to recover from. I do sense a Bridget Jones-style public speaking moment is probably what has been prevented. :D 

Although in daydreamland this would never happen, in realityville, it's best that I follow the advice of doing a prerecorded interview the first time I do finally get around to it. Thinking about the possibility of being so public at all causes a lurch in my stomach that I haven't felt since doing group presentations back in the university days, but I guess that feeling is what's called pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, and that's always a positive step to succeeding in life, right? Right. Another day, another chance to embarrass myself. Just consider though that you've lost a good self-deprecating story for this blog.

On a completely unrelated note, I've just had it with the tax system in Singapore. Last year turned out a disaster, and this year has been sooo difficult for me to even have the opportunity to pay my taxes, involving several phone calls, and personal trips down to IRAS (aka Singapore's IRS). A couple weeks ago, I finally got assessed and paid up and was like yay! But no. that was not the end of it. I received a letter in the mail today, with a cheque. For the entire amount that I was owing, being returned back to me. With no explanation. Ummmmmmmmmmmm, ok? I'm not like complaining, but I reallllly hope that 2 years down the road I don't get a bill for that amount plus some insane amount of interest, yknow?

Life, tis been weird as of late.
 

Jin recently remarked the other day, how different we are in fundamentals sometimes, that is to say, in what we find funny. It shouldn't really come as such a huge surprise, given that humour is such a culturally-dependent construct, but we do share one thing in common, whatever differences exist between our perceptions are dwarfed by the gap between us and the local heartlander Singaporean. On Sunday we went to catch Hancock, which I was like yeah... ok... I can see why it could be funny kinda sorta *if* I were high, but my uppity attitude was not shared by the rest of the crowd who were letting out big ole guffaws and belly laughs. They just LOVED this obvious Will Smith punchliney humour. And I in turn, loved watching them laugh. This is why I endure freezing cold theatres of Chatty mcChattersons, because it kills me that Singaporeans laugh at such odd times (granted, odd in my mind only).

On a tangential note, things I find slayingly amusing, but Jin not-so-much:

• Cat macros. Jin loves the real furballs, but I prefer mine to be lovingly captioned.
• Flight of the Conchords. Business Time and Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros to name a couple. Jin does not even crack a smile, while I'm killing myself over "business socks."
• SNL. Specifically sketches featuring Andy Samberg or Celebrity Jeopardy featuring Sean Connery
• Ultra Condensed Movies. Especially ones that hark back to old movies like Indiana Jones or that mean that I don't need to watch a shitty movie to get the jist like the Happening.

I may have been gone a while, but I'm still culturally North American in some ways still.

Lately I've been living in a bit of a foggy daze where it's as if I'm watching myself through a lens rather than full-on living it up. Life's been mostly very random moments, up, down, and in-between:

Up or maybe down: Was promoted recently, which coincided with a headhunter contacting me a week prior. For whatever reason, I guess my career is on an uptick, but this comes in at a time where I feel very frustrated with what I feel I should be able to do now (but don't).

Odd: Earlier in the week I was riding an escalator when I heard an 'excuse me' from behind. This fella claimed to be a singapore airlines pilot who was looking for 'friends' and would I like to be his 'friend' if I 'didn't mind older guys.' He was harmless enough, and no harm done, took the rejection very kindly. It was only later on  that I wondered whether he had been following me around the mall waiting for his chance at a time I wouldn't run away, or if it was just a carpe diem type thing. Singapore really tends to dull your safety senses, lulled as you are by the low crime rate, so I will try to stay more alert in the future.

Up, up, up: Feeling disconnected as I have been, I was tickled pink to see some recent pics of indeenile on FB, notably a necklace she was wearing. I own the exact same one in a different color, and there's something to be said when she and I buy things in Toronto and Singapore, respectively, but retain the exact same taste. Even now, our shared Edmonton upbringing still shines through even as we've been both living away in different places for so many years now. Especially since this isn't the first time to have happened, there's something to be said about the comfort of old friends.

Uppish: As I was exiting a taxi on the weekend on my own, the taxi uncle asked me if my mole was real or fake. After I got over my confusion, I said real, and he said it was very sexy. I really must have some pheromone out there pulling in the old guys lately, but how to shut it off? Dunno.

Coming down: Hit the wall on Sunday, and do sense that my current lethargy may be to do with a lack of physical exercise. Forced myself through some climbs, but was mentally psyched out by a very easy lead climb. Mental blocks seem to be where I'm at everywhere lately, I need some help to keep the chi flowing.

Fell down: Literally. Tripped on a speed bump this Monday morning as I was walking out of my condo complex, falling forward onto the knee, and thought Ow, my poor ego as stranger who shared the elevator with me saw the whole thing called out to me 'are you all right??'. It was only after I just caught the bus and found a seat that I realized that oh, I was kinda bleeding here and there. Just as well I had half a dozen bandaids to cover the gore as other passengers watched on. Guess this puts a kibosh on the plans I have to hit the wall again tomorrow.

I'm patiently waiting now for something to either tug me out of this mire, or for it to evaporate on its own accord. It will, it will, as I've weathered many a funk, but patience has never been my strong suit.