End of 2008 update
Have been meaning to update this with pictures because my main (new) occupation this summer (other than the usual gardening, cooking, baking, reading) has been knitting!
The first time I went into the knit shop the lady (and a random kaypo customer) said it was too ambitious to start learning to knit socks. As in, socks are too ambitious. But! I have proven them wrong... my first projects were 1) socks for my first niece 2) socks for my second niece 3) a beanie for the man to make him feel included (which incidentally was a huge success - a perfect fit and he wore it to our Christmas gathering and everyone loved it!) and 4) a pair of socks for me in a matching yarn to my second niece's :)
I haven't taken pictures, neither have I managed to keep up with documenting the continued profusion of new flowers in the garden. I might try later but these few days have been incredibly warm (lovely for being outside) and windy (bad for taking pics of flowers, they keep dodging, nodding and dancing away!)
I am pretty brown now though not evenly cos my colour is no longer from lying down skimpily clad beside pool/sea. I am brown from working in the garden and there is a limit to how skimpily I can dress without being fodder for over-the-fence gossip sessions ("Have you seen the girl in that house there? Always bending down to pull weeds and plant seedlings in that little bikini!") We have three bits of lawn but I can't really lie down in total privacy on any of them because in front we lack a fence, behind we are almost but still not completely screened out from the neighbours by the vegetation. Though the only ones I would be uncomfortable with seeing me are the ones at the back - rowdy teenagers whom we don't know and who throw drink bottles and cans over the fence once in a while - maybe they don't like having a view of our two compost heaps!
This afternoon we're going to book air tickets and accommodation for our trip back to Singapore. Yes we are going back to Singapore end May/beginning June, just for 6 nights. The purpose is to 1) attend J's wedding 2) hold that dratted relatives' lunch (I shall package it as "Meet the family" as opposed to "Wedding" so I can wear shorts and slippers ha!) 3) Catch up with friends, the last of which is going to be hard seeing as we have so little time. As much as I can I guess. Oh! And maybe eat lots of bak kwa and durian. Yum!
So Christmas was spent with some church/school friends and then a couple from Chch came to stay with us and that was heaps of fun. NYE will be a quiet romantic one at home.
Recently I have been thinking about how is it and why I seem to have made my life apart from all my close friends. Though I keep up with the closest and hear about others through these, still I realised that by escaping from Singapore I have inadvertently excluded myself from my friends' lives, not big things, but just little ups and downs which are too much trouble or don't seem worth the reporting on email/text/blog to me far away. By time it reaches me it seems like not news anymore. Even I feel that, so much so that I feel my getting married which would have been a big event in Singapore among my closest friends (endless sitting together in committee meetings planning this and that) was a sort of non event partly by choice (of location and of succumbing to logistics conundrums and just not inviting anyone). I feel somewhat regretful about this and I don't know if we will ever be able to rectify this and include our dearest friends. Similarly when my friends in Singapore get married and have babies, whether I can be present is dependent on circumstances. Attending weddings is more possible with a bit of warning and planning but I almost certainly won't be coincidentally around when people give birth and again by time I hear about it or even fly back once they go into labour (like, if I were filthy rich, which I'm not) it would be too late. Unlike the others who can just gather in the hospital at time of labour and wait together for the moment.
Hmmm.
I like my life here a lot and while I do sometimes think it was unusual (step of faith? alignment of stars?) for us to have left the country together after being together for a year most of which was apart cos I was in France, we both believe coming here has allowed us to develop as people and hence as partners much more than staying in Singapore would have. It's hard to say for sure, but we would have been more distracted, more tired, more irritable and certainly less free to explore life in Singapore. The big downside is that we are far from friends and family (though being in Singapore would still make me far from my sister and her family) but the upside is that I spend my days more fully, I think, having the time and mental space to think about things, try new things with people telling me "Go for it" rather than "Are you crazy?", develop interests that I never knew I had and could not fulfil in Singapore (gardening? tramping? flower identification? living off the land? buying locally grown? reducing food miles to zero?)
Yes, life is good but I must say being the person that I am, despite the huge changes I have undergone, I still miss my old friends and that is something that can't really be replaced and I don't try. I just try to keep up with them as much as possible, update when I can, reply to personal emails asking me how I am or what's new with me, responding to those who take an active interest. When a friend is miles away one doesn't stay in touch by the by, but it requires active effort to type that email and send it, or send that text.
I think of my friends often, sometimes dream of them, and I tell them when it's particularly funny or strange, otherwise I keep it to myself and enjoy the virtual company. Sounds strange doesn't it? But I think I should, in the new year, resolve to tell people more that I am thinking of them, or that I care about them.
New year resolutions then. I'll think about that today.
ps for those who are interested in what's growing ;) - the nursery holds basil, coriander, florence/bulb fennel, rocket and 9 baby flax plants, while outside we have zucchini, savoy cabbage, shallots, leek, celery, garlic, swiss chard, tomato, basil, dill, parsley, chives, sage, bay, rosemary(s), thyme(s), camomile, mint, oregano and mesclun. oh and the newest additions are a blueberry bush and a kaffir lime plant (yay!!!!!! i have been looking for this for literally years)
The first time I went into the knit shop the lady (and a random kaypo customer) said it was too ambitious to start learning to knit socks. As in, socks are too ambitious. But! I have proven them wrong... my first projects were 1) socks for my first niece 2) socks for my second niece 3) a beanie for the man to make him feel included (which incidentally was a huge success - a perfect fit and he wore it to our Christmas gathering and everyone loved it!) and 4) a pair of socks for me in a matching yarn to my second niece's :)
I haven't taken pictures, neither have I managed to keep up with documenting the continued profusion of new flowers in the garden. I might try later but these few days have been incredibly warm (lovely for being outside) and windy (bad for taking pics of flowers, they keep dodging, nodding and dancing away!)
I am pretty brown now though not evenly cos my colour is no longer from lying down skimpily clad beside pool/sea. I am brown from working in the garden and there is a limit to how skimpily I can dress without being fodder for over-the-fence gossip sessions ("Have you seen the girl in that house there? Always bending down to pull weeds and plant seedlings in that little bikini!") We have three bits of lawn but I can't really lie down in total privacy on any of them because in front we lack a fence, behind we are almost but still not completely screened out from the neighbours by the vegetation. Though the only ones I would be uncomfortable with seeing me are the ones at the back - rowdy teenagers whom we don't know and who throw drink bottles and cans over the fence once in a while - maybe they don't like having a view of our two compost heaps!
This afternoon we're going to book air tickets and accommodation for our trip back to Singapore. Yes we are going back to Singapore end May/beginning June, just for 6 nights. The purpose is to 1) attend J's wedding 2) hold that dratted relatives' lunch (I shall package it as "Meet the family" as opposed to "Wedding" so I can wear shorts and slippers ha!) 3) Catch up with friends, the last of which is going to be hard seeing as we have so little time. As much as I can I guess. Oh! And maybe eat lots of bak kwa and durian. Yum!
So Christmas was spent with some church/school friends and then a couple from Chch came to stay with us and that was heaps of fun. NYE will be a quiet romantic one at home.
Recently I have been thinking about how is it and why I seem to have made my life apart from all my close friends. Though I keep up with the closest and hear about others through these, still I realised that by escaping from Singapore I have inadvertently excluded myself from my friends' lives, not big things, but just little ups and downs which are too much trouble or don't seem worth the reporting on email/text/blog to me far away. By time it reaches me it seems like not news anymore. Even I feel that, so much so that I feel my getting married which would have been a big event in Singapore among my closest friends (endless sitting together in committee meetings planning this and that) was a sort of non event partly by choice (of location and of succumbing to logistics conundrums and just not inviting anyone). I feel somewhat regretful about this and I don't know if we will ever be able to rectify this and include our dearest friends. Similarly when my friends in Singapore get married and have babies, whether I can be present is dependent on circumstances. Attending weddings is more possible with a bit of warning and planning but I almost certainly won't be coincidentally around when people give birth and again by time I hear about it or even fly back once they go into labour (like, if I were filthy rich, which I'm not) it would be too late. Unlike the others who can just gather in the hospital at time of labour and wait together for the moment.
Hmmm.
I like my life here a lot and while I do sometimes think it was unusual (step of faith? alignment of stars?) for us to have left the country together after being together for a year most of which was apart cos I was in France, we both believe coming here has allowed us to develop as people and hence as partners much more than staying in Singapore would have. It's hard to say for sure, but we would have been more distracted, more tired, more irritable and certainly less free to explore life in Singapore. The big downside is that we are far from friends and family (though being in Singapore would still make me far from my sister and her family) but the upside is that I spend my days more fully, I think, having the time and mental space to think about things, try new things with people telling me "Go for it" rather than "Are you crazy?", develop interests that I never knew I had and could not fulfil in Singapore (gardening? tramping? flower identification? living off the land? buying locally grown? reducing food miles to zero?)
Yes, life is good but I must say being the person that I am, despite the huge changes I have undergone, I still miss my old friends and that is something that can't really be replaced and I don't try. I just try to keep up with them as much as possible, update when I can, reply to personal emails asking me how I am or what's new with me, responding to those who take an active interest. When a friend is miles away one doesn't stay in touch by the by, but it requires active effort to type that email and send it, or send that text.
I think of my friends often, sometimes dream of them, and I tell them when it's particularly funny or strange, otherwise I keep it to myself and enjoy the virtual company. Sounds strange doesn't it? But I think I should, in the new year, resolve to tell people more that I am thinking of them, or that I care about them.
New year resolutions then. I'll think about that today.
ps for those who are interested in what's growing ;) - the nursery holds basil, coriander, florence/bulb fennel, rocket and 9 baby flax plants, while outside we have zucchini, savoy cabbage, shallots, leek, celery, garlic, swiss chard, tomato, basil, dill, parsley, chives, sage, bay, rosemary(s), thyme(s), camomile, mint, oregano and mesclun. oh and the newest additions are a blueberry bush and a kaffir lime plant (yay!!!!!! i have been looking for this for literally years)