Newsletter 09: Thanksgiving (still waiting for boat)

Thursday, 27 November. No turkey. I did some errands. Read. Took a nap for no particular reason. Dinner at hawker center around the corner.

Friday, 28 November. No shopping at outlet malls, as would be customary on Black Friday in the US. Instead, I babysat the apartment while our double windows were installed. Now the droning noise from the next building over won't keep us awake!

Finished reading Pillars of Creation. Bought yet more bedding from OG, at the same traveling sale that sold me my bedding at a different OG before. I like OG. Ate chicken rice at Tiong Bahru Chicken Rice in Smith St. in Chinatown. Watched a few episodes of My Name Is Earl.

Saturday, 29 November. Called home. Went back to OG. Got my nails done while Aquinas had a haircut. Didn't find a stationery store in Chinatown. Went back to Furniture Mall to contemplate beds again. Rushed back for Peking Duck meal at Taste Paradise, the fancy Chinese restaurant downstairs from us. We decided that this would serve as our Thanksgiving meal; duck, turkey, what's the difference? Still poultry, right? Still a feast; our meal also included sharkfin soup, lamb, scallops, and a mango and ice cream dessert that had dry ice under it.

Sunday, 30 November. Went to the Chinese English book fair at Bras Basash Complex. Didn't buy anything; many of the books were in Chinese, and many were damaged by humidity. Some were new and marked down, but there was nothing I desperately wanted.

Went next door to the National Library.

Borrowed the next Terry Goodkind book, Naked Empire, which was hiding in a separate Fantasy section. Also borrowed two Forgotten Realms books for Aquinas; one was in the separate Science Fiction section, but the other was in the Fiction section. Go figure.

Went and hid in the relatively calm and quiet denim chairs at the back of the J.Co coffee/donut shop in Bugis Junction. I consumed a drink and a donut, as well as a pastry from Beard Papa, which I bought before I realized my J.Co drink came with a donut. Started reading Naked Empire.

A note on Christmas music in malls: I've gotten used to the fake trees and lights and stuff; it seems a bit weird given the outdoor temperature, but the decorations are much like what I'd expect in the US. I've even given up protesting that fake pine trees are implausible in a rain forest. (As it turns out, fake trees are plausible anywhere.)

The music, however, still seems totally and completely incongruous. For example, I heard "Feliz Navidad." We're not in Mexico, we're not even in the Americas, nor are we in Spain; Spanish does not belong here. This is weird, coming from a place where half the signs on the bus, for example, are in Spanish. But maybe that's not *really* a typical Christmas song, you say. Well, what *is* a typical Christmas song? I never thought much about it before. But they're either about Jesus, who's arguably pretty irrelevant in a country full (okay, 75% full) of Buddhists, or they're about snow, mistletoe, sleigh-bells, reindeer, chestnuts, and other natural and cultural items that are completely out of place. For crying out loud, I can't imagine there's a single fireplace, a single chimney, in the entire country. How is Santa supposed to get into the living room? Where do you hang your stocking?

I am reminded of a Christmas card that someone once sent to my parents. It showed the star over the stable, with the holy family and the animals. And there was snow on the ground and on the roof of the stable. Snow, in Bethlehem. I figured the card was showing snow because the cards were being sold in the US, where Christmas is stereotypically snowy. Now, a quick internet search tells me that it actually *does* snow in Bethlehem because of the elevation. But stereotypically, the place is a desert. I guess my point is that Singaporeans have copied the stereotypical Christmas; I didn't realize what the stereotype actually consisted of until I saw the whole thing ripped out of context. I mean, we always made a few jokes about white Christmases in Atlanta, but we could still hope. Singing about white Christmases in Singapore is utterly ridiculous. Talk about change of perspective! That's why I'm here; to learn to see with different eyes.

Met Aquinas at Bugis Junction and walked over to the Furniture Mall to finally pick out a bed. While contemplating the bed issue, we inspected some dining room chairs and a few sofas.

We sat on a leather sofa that felt like sitting in a luxury car. I swear when I sat down I thought the thing would begin transporting me forward. Why? It was smooth, tan leather, and the shape made you sit like you sit in a car. I want a sofa I can curl up in, lie down on; this sofa would not permit that sort of thing. It wasn't fluffy. It was also sort-of Frank Lloyd Wright-y; it had a nice design. But it was clearly not the kind of friendly sofa we were looking for.

We fell for a friendly, red, three-seat, half-leather sofa with two recliners, but we aren't sure whether it will fit in our sofa location. (This is the two-seat version; some people were standing in front of the three-seater.)

After much experimentation with mattresses, we chose to order our mattress from Sealy. They have some fancy, patented spring technology that no one else has, which they claim provides better support and durability than the pocketed spring construction that all the other companies offer. I guess I more or less believe them. There seemed to be some science involved, as well as lots of marketing. At any rate, I now know more about mattresses than I really ever wanted to know. We ordered a solid wood bed base with drawers from another store. (No one uses box springses in Singapore, and anyway, these drawers are awesome.) Sealy's going to lend us a standard local-size mattress while they acquire a premium American-size mattress for us.

Ate at the ever-popular Cafe Le Caire on Arab Street.

Picked up a couple of things (including a FIFTH kind of laundry detergent; this time, it's Tide HE powder) at the Cold Storage in Bugis Junction, and caught the MRT home.

They still hadn't moved the bike carcass; yesterday, someone set fire to a motorbike in the alley just off our street. A motorbike belonging to one of the residents of our complex. Scary.

Monday, 1 December. Worked on Latex stuff until dinnertime. Went to Peranakan restaurant Blue Ginger with some new friends.

Tuesday, 2 December. Went to talk to a publisher; took a copyediting test. Explored stores on Temple St., including an awesome store selling all kinds of ceramic items. Some of the dishes look familiar; they're exactly like the blue sunflower rice-pattern ones I grew up with. I also recognize the blue fish ones; I brought some like that back from Hong Kong in 2001. I want one of these big vases to use as an umbrella stand.

Picked up some lunch on the way home. Sealy delivered a temporary mattress. Contractors came and did some more caulking and stuff on our noise-proofing windows. Spent some time reading. Dinner at Pizza Hut.

Wednesday, 3 December. Went to drop off shirts across from ColdStorage, and bought ant traps to discourage our tiny golden visitors. Went to OG, convinced them to exchange some pajamas, bought a hairdryer from, I think, the same saleslady who sold me the iron. Apparently she has now figured out that I live here. Bought a plastic box to keep Tide HE powder in so it won't dissolve into the air. Dropped off purchases, took MRT to Somerset and went to a jewelry show.

Thursday, 4 December. Called home. Did laundry. Assessed job status again. Supervised aircon servicing.

Ventured forth to a job interview. They gave me books, which made me forget my umbrella. Dinner at the chicken rice place around the corner.

Friday, 5 December. Visited Chinatown Point to go to post office. Found stationery store in Hong Lim Complex. Dinner at the other Korean restaurant on our street (Togi).

Saturday, 6 December. I took the MRT, and, for the first time, a bus, and went ice skating at Kallang Ice World. Finally, the Christmas music began to sink in; why, it must be December! Here come the holidays! It was *cold* in the ice rink: thus, winter! Actually, it was only cold-ish. I skated in a tank top. But they make everyone bring or buy gloves for safety. It was $14 for 2 hours, plus $3.50 for skate rental, plus $2 for the gloves and $1 for the locker. They also have socks for sale with the gloves, since many Singaporeans enter the mall in sandals or flip flops.

I bought a drink, explored the mall, sat on some sofas in My Home Solutions, and caught the bus back. In Chinatown, I bought another snack: a sweet corn ice cream popsicle. It was good.

Went with Aquinas to Bugis Junction via MRT for dinner at Crystal Jade. Went to the library to check out another book.

Went to Sim Lim square to learn about flat panel TVs. Had a vanilla Coke. Saw a hotplate that isn't hot; works by electrical induction. Fascinating. (I think it only works because of the 220V power outlets here.)

Sunday, 7 December. Stayed home for a while, learned about TV mounting brackets online. Finally went with Aquinas to Funan Digital Life Mall to learn more about TVs; went to a store called Challenger and another called Courts. Ate dinner at a restaurant called Siem Reap, which is owned by Indochine and operated on the terrace of the Asian Civilisation Museum, across from Boat Quay. Saw the famous statue of Raffles.

Monday, 8 December. Had Dim Sum at Yum Cha, found a store nearby selling really cool lacquer items. Wrote email. Went to dinner at the Chicken Rice place around the corner. Sat in the Jacuzzi on the shared terrace for a while.

Tuesday, 9 December. Took a bus to a job interview at Parkview Square, the crazy art deco building.

Came home and supervised touching-up of paint around new windows. Computtered. Dinner at a Thai restaurant (Chiang Mai Palace) in Nanking Row in China Square Central. Then, visited Cold Storage. Discovered the wide world of pre-sales job postings.

Wednesday, 10 December. Finally tracked down my container of household goods. It's in China waiting for a ship to Singapore [sigh]. Laundry. Read some more Chinglish. Scheduled an interview with a recruiter for a presales position. Wandered around Chinatown Complex's hawker center and bought dinner; dessert at The Coffee Bean cost more than dinner did.

Thursday, 11 December. Led a confused taxi driver out to the west end of the island so I could talk to a publisher that didn't have any job slots. Took bus back to the west end of the green line, discovered Jurong Point (a new mall) there. Walked around and had a snack, started to feel sick, and eventually dragged myself to the train and went home for a nap.

Friday, 12 December. Got a big hamper from the apartment management today.

It was a leather and wood chest, actually, and it had wine, soup, crackers, croutons, pasta, blueberry muffin mix, potato chips, pretzels, and some chocolates in it. We like the management, in large part because they have now installed new windows to cut the droning sound from across the alley. The sound level is much better inside now.

I talked to a recruiter today about a job in something called "pre-sales" because I ran across a pre-sales job description that sounded interesting. In a pre-sales position, you work with potential clients to come up with technical solution proposals. I figured that such a job would enable me to be a bridge between two types of people. However, the recruiter tells me that there's actually quite a lot of specific knowledge required for such jobs. I would have had to be familiar with certain types of hardware; Singaporeans with computer science backgrounds tend to have this specific training, whereas, as I explained, U of C grads aren't really trained in anything applied. He seemed impressed but baffled by my resume. He sounded like he wanted to find me a position, but I'm sure he usually only deals with round pegs and square pegs, and I'm some kind of irregular heptagonal peg. The recruiter said something indicating that companies sometimes take chances on heptagonal pegs during good times, but that these are obviously not good times. They want round pegs for the few round holes they've got left [sigh].

We ate at the dumpling place with a colleague of Aquinas's and his wife and son and baby.

Saturday, 13 December. Slept very late, had breakfast at Swensen's at about 3pm. Visited the internet cafe on our street to print, fill out, and scan some paperwork. Cashier was helpful, but lacked English verbal skills. When our household goods arrive this week, we'll have all our computer hardware back, so we'll be able to print, scan, and maybe fax things again on our own. Dinner was fruit and satay from nearby. I still don't know what to call this apple/pear thing we've been eating.

Sunday, 14 December. Started out from home in a direction I haven't really explored, towards Pearl's Hill Park, and went for a walk in the rain. Here's the garden bridge and the view from the garden bridge.

Big hill, lots of steps.

But I had the park to myself. The scary fence around the imposing reservoir, together with the rain, meant that wasn't all that scenic.

Finished another Goodkind book, and started the next one. Dinner at a nearby sushi chain restaurant (Sushi Tei). They had a sushi conveyor belt, but we sat at a regular table, and I, of course, didn't eat any sushi. I had steak teriyaki and an interesting stuffed squash thing. I always feel sheepish about ordering teriyaki steak or chicken. It's the "I don't really like fish and/or Japanese food" option on all Japanese menus. There were some other things I could have ordered as well, but I just had beancurd soba not too long ago, and the steak looked good, so sue me.

Monday, 15 December. Follow-up appt with dermatologist. Took shuttle from Skin Center to Novena MRT, explored the mall there. Saw two people about to skate in the basketball court out front, found a bookstore that said "DICTIONARIES" on the wall of dictionaries, rather than the an aw-who-cares-about-the-plural sign saying "DICTIONARY". Came home, started learning about Drupal online. Went to eat at a nearby Thai restaurant with Aquinas. Came home, played with Navicat and MySQL for *hours*. Learned a thing or two about queries!

Tuesday, 16 December. Had roti prata at the corner. Futzed with Navicat and MySQL. Dinner at chicken rice place.

Wednesday, 17 December. Took MRT and bus to MacPherson for 2nd interview with China Knowledge. Got a job offer! Made my way back via bus to the mall over the Book Keng MRT station, got a chocolate coffee drink with pearls. Broke the zipper on my wallet at some point [sad!]. Bought a red and gold ox in Pagoda street. Came home. Ate among finance district employees at Far East Square at a Belgian place (Oosters). The specialty was mussels, but they were out for the day. I had a salad, Aquinas had stew and fries.

Thursday, 18 December. Slept late. Took shirts to laundry. Had roti prata with Aquinas at the corner. Went to internet cafe to do freelance paperwork again. Hadn't sent the email; went home, sent the email, went back to internet cafe. The girl next to me was on the webcam IMming someone and crying. I wanted to give her a hug or something (I didn't). Mailed some stuff at the post office, where a guy with a cart was trying to stuff a ton of envelopes into the already full bin. I don't really think there are enough mail collection boxes around Singapore; as far as I can tell, they're only at post offices and MRT stops. Waited for a bus to the library, not knowing whether the bad smell nearby was people, waste, or maybe durian. Or possibly fermented shrimp paste...

Finally got on the rather full bus, and got off at the library. Was really looking forward to a cold drink after the wait and the bus ride; went to the 7/11 and bought a pretty disgusting MinuteMaid lemonade. Drank it anyway. Returned four books at the library, in this slot that reads the barcode and tells you when it recognizes that each book has been returned. There's even a camera on the other side of the slot so you can watch the book drop onto a belt thing. I checked out another five books; I'm coming to the end of the Sword of Truth series. Luckily for me, the last book and the prequel were available for me to check out. Luckily for Aquinas, the last three books in his pulpy forgotten realms series were also available.

Wanted to go to Far East Plaza to return a book I rented. Didn't want to walk to Bugis MRT, change lines, and walk from Orchard to Far East Plaza, so decided to try to take a bus there instead. Figured out a bus to take from the library to Orchard Rd. Rather than walk all the way down Orchard Rd, took another bus, which took longer than I think walking would have taken, given the traffic, but I had a seat and aircon, so the bus was better.

After returning my book, and failing to find a place to buy a replacement wallet, I sat down and read until Aquinas met me for dinner at the yakitori restaurant. Then we got ice cream (gelato, actually) at the corner, and decided to see Twilight. We liked the actiony parts of the plot better than the high-schooly parts. I don't think the guy star is all that cute. In the words of River Tam: Too. Much. Hair.

Friday, 19 December. Goal for the day: go inline skating at Millennium Court. Didn't happen. Here's what did happen...

Tried to use the route planner tool to come up with a reasonable plan for transporting myself to the appropriate area of Tampines. Gave up when I realized, after entirely too long, that the SBS route planner doesn't recognize the existence of the green (East-West) line. Resolved to take the purple line to the green line, and then walk.

Went to try to buy thick athletic socks to wear with rental skates, since all my thick socks were *still in the boat* on the ocean. Local department store OG, usually so reliable, doesn't seem to sell athletic socks. There were some minimal dress-shoe/sandal/girly socks, but nothing absorbent or even reasonably tall. Not with the shoes, not with the athletic clothing, not with "sports wear," which I guess means just "non-business clothing."

Remembered a sock kiosk nearby. Yes, a sock kiosk. And they had what I needed. As well as many things I didn't. Who in Singapore needs leg warmers, I ask you?

Went to try to buy a belly pouch/fanny pack/isn't-there-a-better-name-for-these-things thing. Because you can't leave your wallet and phone sitting around unattended while skating if you didn't bring a friend to spectate, and the exercise pants don't have pockets. And an outdoor rink probably doesn't have lockers the way indoor rinks usually do.

I found a travel/camping/luggage store that sold a really serious looking hiking bag with all kinds of colored pockets and clasps and pads and stuff. I think it was ~$17. I wanted something simpler. I kept looking, and they had something simpler. It was ~$11. I bought it. It's cheaply made, which would have been okay with me if it hadn't been a little bit mildewy or something [sigh]. Maybe I should have bought the "expensive" hiking one.

So, went to get on the purple line. Switched to the green line. By squeeeeezing into the train. And did people get off once we reached the eastern stops? Not enough that I could sit down, but enough that I had to keep dodging people getting off, and make room for some more who go on. Finally, I reach the MRT station. Neglected to look at the locality map to take my bearings; mistake. Wandered around a mall area for a while, finally went back to have a look at the locality map, and compare it to the Google Map on my phone, and my memory of the Street Directory map that has all the useful labels on it. Started walking. Got to the park discouraged at the tiring MRT ride, and about the confusing walk after the MRT ride, and about how long it had taken. Some kids were skating, and there were a couple of people who I guess were instructors, but it wasn't obvious whether or how I could rent skates. I got a drink and watched, to see if, after the lesson, more people would show up and they would turn on lights and music. Apparently not.

Gave up; went to the vaguely nearby IKEA by cab and wandered around. Why, oh why, oh WHY can't they sell a bookcase that's less than 10 inches deep? I really wish I could find some reasonably-priced, off the shelf, er, shelves to buy. Most bookcases aren't for books. Or aren't for small books, anyway.

Met Aquinas for dinner at the incredibly huge IKEA cafeteria, which offered a separate line for Halal food, and had signs up all over explaining how you have to clear up your own dishes. The other people at our table didn't get the message; in Singapore, customers pretty much never clear trash and dishes, even in places like MacDonald's. So either they were oblivious, or they were insulted.

Went to visit the Courts megastore to try to learn more about flat panel TVs. And went home again. Without skating.

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