Happy National Day II

The time was 2am and back in Singapore midnight was just ripening.

Was doing my usual catching up of blogs and websites when I received an ICQ message from a fren with the contents "Happy National Day!".

OMG, it IS Singapore's Birthday! Totally forgot about it! What kind of Singaporean am I eh?

Just yesterday, when Aaron, Aaron's friend (and future roommate) came over to look at rental listings, we chanced upon the question about where I was headed after honours.

The plan was to get PR (Permanent Residency) here? Maybe work here abit after giving my last 6 months back to our nation (sucks that I don't get any reduction in liability at all!). But the question was whether I was staying for good or not, whether or not I could forget (and forgive?) Singapore for the seemingly benign experience that it has provided.

Well at this point of time in my life, I would have to say that I'm not prepared to chuck the family away and start a life tangential to that life that I've had for the last 20 odd years. Just too close to the family and geographical distance of 3818 miles although just 8 hours and $700 dollars away is still too painful a thing. Thank God for IDD/ICC though!

Another thing is that I miss the food!!!! (Thanks alot Edmund, though I have no idea what you've bought except for the yogourt thing. But do try the vadar!) Singapore's a most unique place with such a wonderful combination of multi-cultural delights for your tastebud and stomach. That's ONE of the things that I've learnt from studying overseas amongst other stuff.

Anyway, I've had one year to think about it and for one year I have been doing the maths. Seems 1 + 1 = 11 but then you can't have the best of both worlds can you. You've gotta literally settle unfortunately.

The pros and cons of migrating to a foreign country with wondefully affordable cars and property with proportions other than "small and comfortable", beautiful scenary, the ability to drive long body aching hours to another state and most often that not, another state means a totally differnt world, Kangaroos, Wombats, Possums, Tasmanian Devils and Steve Erwin, or see 12 pieces of rocks sticking out of the sea (12 apostles on Great Ocean Road), bushfires/floods, unadulterated views of the sky AND the stars, watch uncensored television programming, experience some semblance of the 4 seasons apart from HOT - QUITE HOT - WARMER STILL and BURN-IN-HELL WARM, seafood that is genuinely fresh and not frozen fresh.

...as opposed to...

Affordable basic living (read NOT luxury stuffs like car, property on sentosa and/or 5th avenue/Tanjong Rhu but equestarian(spell check pls!) living) like good plentiful open-all-night eat-as-much-as-you-can varieties and combination of food glorious food! (cue Dick Lee's Fried Rice Paradise), a totally safe environment to bring up you child with wonderful slogans like 'Low crime is not NO crime', 'Courtesy begins in me', a rapping gurmit with 'SARs don't phlay phlay', 'Drink don't drive', a wonderful 'world-class' transportation infrastructure, shopping, although arguably, they have better designs here in Australia

and finally a bunch of good friends that you can depend on for everything from tai taisms of having coffee/yum cha in the afternoon, squeezing you in for power lunches during their lunch break, to be hungry for some late night snacking, friends that prefer board games to mahjong, that will endure your whimsical eccentricities, endure 3 hours of setting up, patching and trouble shooting to play a 1 hour network game

and of course, family!

So it seems that I'm assured of getting PR, well I'm not, but I can't be that bad that Australia doesn't want me! But well, like I told Aaron, the only reason why I want PR here in Australia, is to have the option.

I guess what sums me up, is that when I went to dine in this Singapore restaurent back in Brisbane called 'Singapura', all through my meal, all that was up in my head was 'Singapura, or Singapura. Lovely island, set in the sea' and the fact that they were dishing out poor imitations of Singaporean food. Nothing beats the real thing.

Happy National Day Sing-gah-pur!

Over the Air: Wizard of Oz - James Barnes