Home Sweet Home

Alright, I've finally gotten around to posting some details. I took a page from my brother's book, and created an official Blog. Some of you may know I posted a few notes in Facebook last time but there seems to be a plethora of people who aren't on Facebook (Hi Mom!) and I figured this would be easier.

I've also copied the old posts into the Archive here so if you missed the details of Thailand and China in 2010 you can revisit them on the right.

Per my Changes In Latitude notice, I have relocated to Singapore, Singapore. DQ (dq.com) has a pretty decent foothold here in Asia and the powers that be have decided it's time to add to the team. Fortunately they picked me, and I packed up and moved officially on April 1.

"Packed up and moved" seems like a bit of an over statement actually. I sold, gave away, donated and tossed almost all of my worldly possessions (would have been a good Hoarders episode) and whittled my life down to about 8 boxes and 3 bags. I left Canada mid March  and headed to Shanghai for a couple weeks, and finally touched down in Singapore March 30th. I'd had a chance to come here a couple times prior, and had already negotiated an apartment. I'm actually pretty happy with how that worked out, the complex is more than a typical apartment block back home.

The tower on the left is a hotel, and my building is the tower on the right. It's brand spanking new, so that was a bonus not having to clean out someone else's crumbs. The first 3 floors are actually a "mall" with a dry cleaner, some music and language schools, spa, hair place, and eventually a grocery store. Between the mall and the hotel there is a half dozen places to eat, a "gym" with a membership fee, and enough people coming and going that taxi's are not hard to find.

The neighbourhood is a mix of mostly research parks and University campuses so it's relatively quiet, but there are about a dozen restaurants in an enclave of historic bungalows that the city is saving. So I've basically nestled myself into a setting where I can eat at a different place every day for 2 weeks with out repeating a place.

Yup, that's a Starbucks in the second shot. To know me means you'll know where to find me. Ironically this week I was reading a book by a former exec of Starbucks and he talked about the concept of a "third place" - people have a home and a work place and $5bucks tries to be the third place people spend their time. For me, since I work from home, the Starbucks gets a disproportionate share of my time.

But back to my new home. I mentioned brand new. It's a 2 bedroom apartment for an obscene amount of money per month. The whole island is expensive and I actually was very happy with the deal I got. it's 1300 sq.ft (121 Sq.Mt) which is actually 300 sq.ft BIGGER than the house I sold in Airdrie. However they count the balcony in that calculation so when you deduct the fabulously large 250 sq ft balcony it's about the same.

I made them change the light fixture

Now before you go all judgemental on the decorating, I had to preorder furniture so that it would arrive in time. Since I am clueless with decor and it's hard to pick colour swatches on line, I ordered a sofa with out any cover, so one of these days I'll brave one of the 2 Ikea's on the island and pick something to cover the couch and brighten up the white on white starkness. Although I know some people who actually make that work quite well, my predisposition to drink coffee and spill it means I'll be shopping in the earth tone aisle.

If you're sharp, or can scroll back up, you'll notice the shower is beside the tub. An oddity in Asia but pretty common in the hotels I've been in. The shower is a drain on the floor and the tub is either in a room by itself or in my case beside the drain. Handy to balance the shampoo on but took a little getting used to.

As for the office/guest room, I dare say I have the nicest view in the land of Dairy Queen.

The balcony is the best part though, and once I get some furniture out there it will be an oasis worthy of a Jimmy Buffett party. Of course a balcony is often defined by the view it oversee's and I'm pretty happy with my view. Kind of facing South Southwest you can see the ocean and ships at sea, and most days the outer islands of Singapore and beyond to Indonesia.

Of course the Singaporeans have perfected the art of hi-rise living and it wouldn't be complete without a discrete place to do your laundry and store stuff. They call it a "yard" - seriously, 25 stories in the air. I have a back door off the kitchen and out there is another balcony with washer and dryer, and room for some shelves or whatever you want. It's inaccessible from any other unit (unless you're spider man) so it'll be a good spot for a bike or golf clubs. It's hard to capture in pictures, but look across the way and you'll see the neighbours, you get the idea. 

Of course a wise man once said the best way to beat the heat was a cold beer and a swim in the pool. I'll cover off beer in a later post (lets just say the government here conspires to keep people from drinking or driving by taxing both till it's cost prohibitive to do either one) but here is a quick look at the pool. 

Now if I can just figure out how to get wifi out there!