It's almost a year

It is almost a year since we came first to see Singapore to see if we wanted to do this whole adventure. OMG How life has changed since then.

We came, and stayed with our friend Norm, who lived in this very building. Tim and Rod (Rod and Nancy stayed in a hotel downtown) wrote some tests for Tiger, I was to find an apartment. I didn't look far. I saw three apartments in this complex, two 2 bedroom, and this 4 bedroom. Wanting a big balcony, this was the only choice. Tim came home, and I reported to him, that already I had already blown the budget. He saw the place and agreed.

The day I got back to Canada, my Mom died. Then after the funeral week later, the mad packing up of the family home of 30 years. A lot has happened in a year.

When we were first here there was a very distinctive bird call. Not sure the bird, black with yellow on the wings. The call, first thing in the morning is kind of "oh no, oh no" It disappeared around March, and I thought the sprayers for mosquitoes has done them in. But they are back. And dumb me, I think, why would they migrate? It's the same all year, they don't have to leave. Well bright light that I am, I finally figured they have come from somewhere! So they are back for the "winter" from where I do not know. They could save themselves a lot of trouble. If they like it here for the winter someone should tell then it stays like this for the summer too. Oh, well. You know we say "bird-brain"!

Have been busy this week. A lecture Monday morning with my FOM group, at the Asian Civilization Museum. A lecture on Assam, a province in the very extreme north east corner of India. Quite special, filled with many many varied tribes. It is surrounded by Himalayas on the north, mountains on the south, and a river to the west that flows to the Ganges. It is a little pocket of India. Filled with the diversity of many tribes. The lecture got a little detailed and more than I need. But even taking away a smidgen of what was presented, is wonderful.

Then a group of us went for lunch. That's what I love.Love school for the recess! Such an interesting group of women, coincidentally all from Canada. But all here for different reasons, and living at very different life styles.. And all here by contract. I was the only woman here by choice. I came by choice, and more importantly, will leave by choice. All the others move when their company tells them to. Regardless of if their kids are in high school, and they don't want to move. Or they are sending them to Fort MacMurray. From Singapore to Fort MacMurray? Yikes! Talk about feeling you are on the moon. The saving grace they will probably meet up with others they have met before  on this ongoing chessboard called expat living.

I have started with an osteopath. He is working on loosening the muscles around my rib cage, to help me breathe more deeply, hence sleep better. The sleep seems to be the thing to fix, to fix everything else. I have done sleep studies, and tried the machine, which made no difference. I guess there is a new exciting field about pain and nerves and the brain. Why folks, I'm on the cutting edge. Last night I took the full meds allowed (I keep taking less hoping to wean off0 and I slept til 9:30 a.m. Not since teen years!!!

We had a friend of Tim's for dinner this week. Olga is a Russian, beautiful lady, with a law degree, and worked corporate, then realized she wanted to fly. She now trained for Tiger with a new born! When I saw how hard it was for Tim, a very experienced airline pilot, I do not know how she could have done it. She is wonderful and hilarious. She got her miles flying in Africa, and brought photos of Botswana and Namibia. We now know where we will go on our slow trip home in Jan 2014. South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. It looks spectacular.

Thursday I took a tour of a Buddhist Temple. I took the MRT to the end of the line, and I actually saw the edge of this concentrated living space. The "burb". There is a new temple built that is spectacular. It is very green, no gold Buddha, but much local stone and teaching rooms. Their thrust is to educate. They have an aging membership, and are looking for youth to join. They offer classes in violin, tai chi, languages, origami, calligraphy, you name it. I wish I lived closer. They served an excellent vegetarian meal, too.

So you can see my week has been busy. I am starting to cook a little more. The sun has changed with the season and my kitchen is not bathed in direct sunlight late afternoon, so it is a bit more inviting. Plus a friend gave me her slow cooker (she had had it in Scotland). I think of a slow cooker for cold evenings. But it is perfect. I get the meal in in the cool of the morning, and plug it in, no heat pouring out like at the uninsulated oven, and, voila, supper cooks in the heat of the sunny kitchen, but I'm not in it.

Ciao for now