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Diary for September 1997
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| 1st September |
Monday: Beginning of second week of school. |
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| 2nd September |
Tuesday: Signed the official lease papers for the
rooms I'm living in.Met the landlord for the first time. |
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| 3rd September |
Wednesday: Open evening at School for parents of
new pupils. I met some really interesting people. |
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| 4th September |
Thursday: Managed to leave a bag of shopping in
the supermarket! they kept it for me till the next day; (It contained 4 tins of baked
beans!).
My trunk arrived from the UK. It had been opened by customs but everything was in one
piece. Now I have a radio! |
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| 5th September |
Friday: Staff TGIF night out at "The
Yard", a British style pub. Followed by a satay meal at "The Imperial"
hotel |
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| 6th September |
Saturday: Watched Princess Diana's funeral
broadcast here live by satellite |
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7th September |
Sunday: What do you do at a function when the plates run out?
Use paper plates?...well tonight's evening meal was not served on a banana leaf because
the restaurant had run out. Instead they served the meal on a paper banana leaf! The whole
meal cost exactly £1. |
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8th September |
Monday: Got my first pet, a lizard that runs around the
kitchen. Everyone I speak to says they're good for the house, they eat the insects. I
think I'll call him "Elfer"! |
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9th September |
Tuesday: Decided to cook a meal in the kitchen... Sausages,
chips and baked beans... very boring ... followed by coffee flavoured ice cream. I won't
be doing that too often! |
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10th September |
Wednesday: Sad day, can't find Elfer
anywhere.... think he's run off. Must have been the smell of the sausage and chips! |
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11th September |
Thursday: Kids at school playing football
twice kicked the football over the fence into the jungle. A brave fellow volunteered to
crawl under the fence and retrieve it but was nearly eaten by a giant lizard. I think it
was Elfer's dad! |
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12th September |
Friday: Invited out to dinner this evening at
a very nice townhouse (with swimming pool). The maid cooked a delicious cream chicken dish
washed down with lashings of beer and wine. My apartment didn't look quite so good when I
returned having just seen how established expats live! |
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13th September |
Saturday: Just as I thought I was getting to know the place I
suddenly come a cross a really well hidden indoor, air-conditioned hawker stall
underground about 100 yards from my front door. It is underneath the Singapore Telecoms
building and caters mainly for the Telecom employees. I had lunch there today, chicken and
prawn noodles, 88p. |
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14th September |
Sunday: Singapore is still suffering under a haze creating
poor air quality. I haven't seen the sun for 3 days! I think it has given me a runny nose;
(noses run in my family!) |
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15th September |
Monday: Had pepper steak and baked potato this evening....
very western. |
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16th September |
Tuesday: Bought half of IKEA again. Taxi driver told me his
life story on the way home. |
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17th September |
Wednesday: The Taiwanese students practise their "Band
aid" type song again. It's all in Chinese but I think I'm word perfect on the chorus. |
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18th September |
Thursday: As usual I was sitting at the Indian
food stall next to a guy who looked Indian. I had just received a letter from India that
needed translating so I asked my dinner partner if he spoke Tamil. He said he did and he
also spoke good English so I asked him if he would mind translating this letter for me. I did not have the letter with me so we agreed to meet at the same place the
following evening. Before I left I commented that he looked like Michael Jackson, and did
he know who Michael Jackson was. He just laughed at me. |
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19th September |
Friday: As arranged yesterday evening I arrived
at the Indian food stall at exactly 6:30pm. My Indian friend was already seated with some
of his friends who had saved a seat for me at the table. I sat down and they ordered a
meal for me. I handed over the letter and it was translated. Then he said he had bought
something to show me and handed me a scrap book. To my surprise I found that my Indian
friend was Singapore's No. 1 Michael Jackson impersonator who had been on TV here many
times and had appeared on the covers of magazines and newspapers. His friends sitting
around the table were his dancers. To think that yesterday evening I had asked him if he
knew who Michael Jackson was! |
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20th September |
Saturday: Today I have installed some voice
recognition software on my computer so that I can dictate text instead of typing it. It is
really impressive but occasionally it types the wrong word and then I start laughing and
it types even more gibberish. Slowly it is starting to learn my
Wolverhampton accent and is getting more and more of the world's correct. I just feel very
silly talking to my computer and having to leave a pause between every word I say.
I feel like Captain Kirk ......"Captains log, star date
20997". |
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21st September |
Sunday: Made my first purchases from a garage sale, a picture
and an Italian table lamp. |
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22nd September |
Monday: Woops, two girls (Rachelle and Christina) in my class
have told me that they have found this diary on the Internet. I'll have to be careful what
I write in future. |
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23rd September |
Tuesday: Travelling to work on an air conditioned bus when the
air conditioning breaks down is no fun. The windows aren't designed to open so there's no
let up from the heat at all. |
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24th September |
Wednesday: I haven't worn a tie since I've been here! |
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25th September |
Thursday: Auditions for the UN night concert were held after
school. The Taiwan group have boosted the number of female singers by recruiting moms and
sisters. They were first on for the audition and looked pretty nervous. Sounded quite good
though. |
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26th September |
Friday: I have appointed a maid at last. Her name is Anna and
she's from the Philippines. She'll come round on Thursday mornings to do the washing and
cleaning. |
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27th September |
Saturday: At lunch time today I visited the
local underground food centre and decided to buy from the stall with the longest queue. I
watched the people in front of me pointing to the dishes they wanted on their rice. When
it came to my turn I confidently pointed to three or four items. At one of my chosen items
the stall holder looked up at me and questioned "squid ?". Not wishing to give the impression that I did not know what I was doing, I
confidently nodded while inside my stomach was churning. I sat down and began eating with
the chopsticks provided. I think I did very well but could not force my self to eat the
little octopus that kept waving its tentacles at me. |
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28th September |
Sunday: Discovered the delights of eating satay in the open
air to the sound of live music. Clarke Quay is a modern busy night life centre with more
eating places in one area than I've ever seen anywhere else. There was even a Disney style
(Pirates of the Caribbean) ride taking you through the history of Singapore. |
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29th September |
Monday: Met neighbours living above me. A young couple with a
one year old son. He's a lawyer (the father not the son) ... He lent me a maths book he'd
been reading (Fermat's last theorem) |
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30th September |
Tuesday: Had my hair cut for the first time since leaving the
UK. Cost me £11.20 !!! |
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