Four seasons, SG style

It was a hot day today. I like the heat, but every year, I seriously forget how hot it gets here during summer. This is how I would describe the four “seasons” in SG:

Winter (Dec-Feb) – oh this is actually quite ok, what is everyone taking about? There is a breeze and it is quite pleasant in the evenings. Balmy, even 😊

Spring (Mar-May) – things start to warm up, but you still get the odd breeze and evenings can still be relatively ok. The “feels like” temperature in my weather app starts hitting 40°C.

Summer (Jun-Aug) – it is hot. There is no longer a breeze, and you are just perpetually surrounded by this cloud of invisible warmth everywhere you go, day or night. You could go out for an evening stroll at 11pm and it’ll still feel like it’s 35°C 😂 The “feels like” temperature gets close to 50°C.

Autumn (Sep-Nov) – monsoon time in the later end of this season. A lot of rain can fall, which can cool things down, especially if the rain decides to hang out the whole day.

So based on my rough breakdown, I always recommend family and friends to come at the beginning of the calendar year, around January – February. They won’t feel as oppressed by the humidity during “winter”, and when they feel the relative coolness, they may even wonder what all the fuss was about, why everyone keeps going on about SG being so hot and humid when it’s rather pleasant right now 😂

Summer is also the only time I go swimming 🏊‍♀️ I get cold easily, hence why I love SG weather. And the only time I feel warm enough to go for a swim is if it’s 30°C+ outside, the humidity is oppressive, and the sun is out and beaming right on top of me 😂

We went over to a friend’s place for dinner and a few drinks tonight. We sat outside to eat, but everyone (except for me 😆) was dying from the heat, so we went back into airconditioned comfort straight after dinner. We watched this movie called Circle. I’d never heard of it before, and I don’t even remember how we ended up choosing it, but we did. I think half of us weren’t particularly interested in the movie, but the other half were completely engrossed. I was in the latter half. But to be fair, I think the other half struggled a bit because there was so much dialogue and their grasp of the English language isn’t that strong. If the tables were turned and the movie was in Chinese, I’d be struggling to follow the movie too. Another lesson learnt: choose an action or horror film where dialogue is not so important to follow the story!

But we had a good time nonetheless. A nice way to round out the long weekend 😊

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Dance comp, Oz style

We were aiming to get to bed by around 8pm last night, so that we were sure to be ready by 9pm. We managed 9:30pm 😂 But then a bunch of young’uns had just checked in to the service apartment next door, and of course they were being their usual rambunctious selves, as most youths are, so they kept me up for longer than I had wanted to be. I did eventually fall asleep, albeit later than I had hoped, and managed to get myself out of bed by around 6:15am. Not too bad, not too bad.

We got to the comp venue right on 8am, and the doors pretty much opened as soon as we got there. What perfect timing. The ballroom was quite grand and picturesque, it wouldn’t look out of place in a Downtown Abbey episode 😊 Ballroom was in the morning, and Latin was in the afternoon. As ten dance dancers, we appreciate that sort of organisation! There is no change of costume: you stay in one in the morning, and then you change to the other in the afternoon. No running around like a headless chicken scrambling to go from one costume to another and back again 👍

This ballroom would not look out of place in a Downton Abbey episode 😊 

We had a few hours to kill in between our Ballroom and Latin events, so we went back to our apartment to drop off our Ballroom gear (I deliberately chose this Airbnb for its proximity to the comp venue 😊), took a bit of a nap 😴 before grabbing some brunch, just in time for Latin.

At brunch, just after we were seated, one of the wait staff turned to us and asked if we were dancers. She seemed so in awe of it all. Maybe I’m just too immersed in it that it doesn’t feel glamorous or exciting in any way at all! For example: I had to get up at 6am this morning just to put on all this ridiculous make-up, as well as half a container of gel and hairspray to hold my hair in place 😂

And then when we got back, apparently we missed the prize presentation for our event, because we didn’t realise that they were spacing out the presentations throughout the day. We ran into some friends when we got back and they told us that they made a big hoo-ha about it: “All the way from Singapore…” blah blah – and all the while, we were lounging around resting in the apartment or having brunch down at Centre Place! Wahhh! 😫 So we won our events, but there wasn’t much competition, I don’t know where all the older competitors were today. Nonetheless, a win is a win 😝

And then after the comp, we went and had dinner with some of the guys from the dance studio who also came to Oz for this comp. They wanted to go for some pub food (and I never say no to pub food, since pubs are virtually non existent in SG), so we decided to go down to Hopscotch for a more upmarket experience down by the Yarra and celebrate the end of yet another competition 🎉🍷🍻

It was a long day with not much dancing (nor competition!), so now we can just relax and do whatever tomorrow 😌

DFO, Pasta and Kitty

I went to DFO at South Wharf in the morning, to visit my favourite activewear store, Lorna Jane. I only buy this brand when we’re in Oz, coz they mark up the prices ridiculous percent in SG. And there is no way I’m paying the inflated prices when I know how much they are in Oz. So I just hold off until we’re back here. But I couldn’t walk around the rest of DFO because 1) I was running late to meet a friend for lunch; and 2) I don’t have much room in my luggage for shopping anyway, because half my suitcase is all my crap for the dance comp! But I did find a present for N’s birthday in a few weeks, woohoo! ✅

I went and had lunch with my friend after DFO. We went and had Italian. And then N and I had Italian again for dinner. And note that we had Italian for dinner last night, and also dinner the night before . Omg I’m all pasta’d out! 🍝🍝🍝

We have someone coming in to look after Kitty while we’re overseas, and she sent me these (slightly blurry) photos of her.

She looks sad 😔 She must be feeling a bit lonely at the moment. I just want to go back and give her a big hug 🤗 But we still have a few more days here, with a comp thrown in as well. So we’ll see her soon. Poor little one.

Melbourne day 1

Al this week I’ve been trying to wake up earlier and earlier, preparing my body for the early morning start on comp day. Yesterday and today has effectively been 7am SG time, so I guess I’m making progress 😂 But I need to get to about 4am SG time, which is three hours earlier omg. Is this even possible?? Or do I just have to accept the fact that my body will have to be shocked into stark reality come comp day?? 😳

I went to the National Gallery of Victoria to check out their current exhibition of contemporary works. I like contemporary work, so I figured I’d enjoy this visit. I spent a few hours at the gallery, which was nice and relaxing. I should head over to the equivalent gallery in SG one day 😊

I then went to Bloch, one of my favourite dancewear stores in Oz, and bought this totally awesome watch:

It was too funny and too cute, I couldn’t resist buying it. And given that I don’t own a watch, I thought this was a good one to get 😊

And then we finished the evening with an Italian dinner with friends. It was a good day 👍 Now let’s aim for an even earlier start tomorrow😳

A lost phone and a bare home

N lost his work phone last night, and he suspected that he left it at the place where we had dinner. He rang them up today to check if he’d left it there, and thankfully they did! So we decided to go back there for lunch today 😊 The food is actually quite good. A bit expensive for local food, but a nice treat every now and then.

And then tonight, we went over to our friends’ place, the guys who are moving back to Oz in a few weeks’ time. We’re babysitting for them tonight, they have a friend’s 40th birthday to go to. Their apartment is on the ground floor, and we normally walk through the back, through their courtyard, to go inside. And we did that today, as per usual. But on this visit, I notice the barren courtyard: they’ve sold their outdoor furniture. And then I walk inside and notice the lack of furniture inside as well. Their tv is currently sitting on the coffee table; apparently their tv unit has also been sold. And their spare bedroom has no furniture, the contents of the room now sit in neat piles on the floor. They’re getting close to the finish line. So sad. We’ve been over to their place so many times these past few years, it’s going to be weird not seeing them anymore. Well, not as regularly as we currently do. Even when we were all in Sydney we never saw each other as much as we do here, so we’ve all grown closer these past few years. I’m going to miss this. It’s going to be an end of an era 😔

An actual public holiday

Today was an actual public holiday in SG, unlike the “enforced” one yesterday 😆

We did a lot of riding today: first, we cycled with our friends to Gardens by the Bay and back, stopping by for coffees, smoothies and milkshakes at Marina Bay Sands; and then lunch at Robertson Quay. I rode my scooter, while the others rode their bikes. I don’t get much opportunity to use my scooter, after I ruled out using it to go to the vet with Kitty, so I’m glad I decided to use it today.

After lunch, we parted ways and N and I did part 2: we rode the North Eastern Riverine Loop! It’s still very pretty, and once again, there were very few people on the trail. I rode the bike this time, to get a bit more of a workout, while N rode on the scooter. The scooter actually lasted all day, which was unbelievable. It only started dying when we were a few hundred metres to the finish line, its battery life is very impressive.

We were so knackered by the end of the day. I took a nap as soon as we got home, and then we finished the day with the third and fourth Jurassic Park movies. I’m all caught up and ready to watch #5! 👍

A day off (sorta)

N reminded me about the Singapore Airlines promotion that was in the CBD today, and he only remembered because he walked past their stall on his way to work this morning 😆 They were showcasing their new business and first class seats on their new planes. But more pressing for me was their prize of business class tickets to either Sydney or Osaka! We go to those two cities quite regularly, so I wouldn’t say no to free tickets to either city – and business class ones, at that!

But instead, I won a 4-in-1 travel bag, which is perhaps a more realistic prize. But the staff member who helped me spin the electronic prize wheel said that the travel bag is actually one of the bigger prizes, so that’s pretty cool 😊 They are those packing cells that help you organise your clothes in your suitcase, so you can stack them all and makes your packing that little bit more orderly. So I got four of them, Matryoshka-doll style, with a small Singapore Airlines “New A380” logo in one corner. This was definitely a bigger prize than the Singapore Airlines pen that N won! 😂

As we were standing around at the front of the stall chatting, the MC for the day came up to ask us a few questions. Ugh, I so don’t like attention – and especially attention that I am not prepared for! She asked us a few things, whether we travel much etc etc and at the end, she asked a True/False question about Singapore Airlines – I honestly don’t even remember what the question was, I was probably so stressed about all the unwanted attention that she brought onto me! – to which I guessed the answer was true. And I was right! And so won myself a Singapore Airlines lanyard! So at least I was rewarded with a small prize for the unwanted attention 😂 It was all so very exciting 😊

I ended up not trading today. Well, I was there, in front of my computer, waiting for a trade, watching the market as it rocketed off without me. Normally if I’m too slow to get in, I wait until the market pulls back, and then I hop on when it starts moving again. But today it never pulled back! It just kept climbing higher and higher, never looking back. I just sat there waiting for it to come back, but it never did. So I ended up not trading. On the bright side, at least I didn’t lose any money today 😂

And I have finally updated my decision about going to the gym. It’s probably only been a day or so since I started thinking about it, but it feels like it’s been about a week 😂 Tuesday is now officially my day off. N doesn’t have karate on Tuesdays anymore, so we can both have an evening off. Maybe we can go watch a movie, either at home or at the cinemas, on Tuesdays. It can be our date night 💑 I feel very excited to have made this decision. It feels quite liberating in a way, making a conscious decision not to do anything. It is effectively scheduled free time, and this way, I think I will appreciate it more.

So N watched Deadpool 2 tonight – but not with me 😂 He went with one of his mates who was apparently quite keen to watch it. So I watched a few more episodes of Downton Abbey. Omg people leave the show as regularly as they did on Game of Thrones! It’s all quite sad, because you get rather attached to the characters. I’m used to shows like Friends or Seinfeld where the main cast stay for the entire series! But new characters get brought on, and the dynamic shifts, so that brings fresh life into the story. But still! It can all be rather sad!