Viewing: The Singapore Years

An overdue update

Hello everyone! I’m still alive! I hadn’t wanted to go over a month without updating, but September just trampled all over me like a herd of wild baby elephants… and suddenly I find I’ve missed my deadline.

So in the last month, I have…

Made significant changes to my diet. Thanks to an unfortunate incident with a mascarpone cheese pasta and this article on “hidden reasons” for weight gain, I realized that I am lactose intolerant. It felt a bit like finding out you had been betrothed to a man you didn’t love, as lactose is so pervasive in the things I normally eat! Aside from cheese (which I have as much as twice daily), it’s also present in milk chocolate, potato chips (goodbye Lay’s Salt & Vinegar!), baked goods, sliced bread, processed meats like cold cuts and sausages, breakfast cereals and milk.

After trial by elimination, I noticed a big difference in my water retention, digestion and in other, more minor symptoms that I’d been experiencing but never thought were related to diet, like asthma and small patches of eczema.

The most significant change was really to breakfast. From cheese sandwiches or cereals with milk, I switched to healthier options like peanut butter sandwiches and fruit with Greek-style yogurt (above). Later on, I discovered over-the-counter supplements like Dairy Care (the local equivalent of the American Lactaid), which help me eat what I like (like desserts!) in moderate doses. And thank goodness there’s no lactose in dark chocolate! Meiji for the win!
Went wakeboarding for the first time… almost. K invited Marlon and I to go on a day trip to Batam, Indonesia, for wakeboarding at a cable ski park. We were with an entire gaggle of German men (over twenty of them!), parang Renner Ensemble lang. Haha.

I say almost because I decided to let Marlon represent us in the aqua sports department…

while I lazed, read, tanned and enjoyed the other delights of Batam, such as cheap massages and satay.

Invested in my career. It really makes you feel quite adult when you realize your most significant gadget purchases are no longer for recreation, but for professional use. And I say that with the least amount of shopper’s remorse/post-rationalization as I can muster. It also makes you feel quite adult when you realize that you actually paid for these things with money that you earned yourself.

I look forward to learning to create my own personal video projects on my new Canon 550D (which came with a free electronic dry box, tripod and many other freebies!), and learning to edit them on my new Macbook Pro. I guess you could say my mind finally caught up to the reality that I’m no longer “just” a writer, but a producer too.

Celebrated my favorite Singaporean festival. Oh, Mid-Autumn Festival, how I love thee and the mooncakes thee bringeth! At one point, I think we had nine mooncakes at home. My favorite is still the classic lotus seed without yolk (to which mooncake auntie said: “No yolk?! But the moon is the yolk!”), but Lilian gave me this very pretty and very tasty pumpkin mooncake that is a serious contender.

Met up with friends from home. Tons of visitors this month! There was Mira, who came over to visit her Singaporean boy, and Pastor and Pastorella Tica, whom I didn’t even get to meet up with anymore…

Sir Jojo, who came over to conduct workshops and prompt Paul into hosting a lovely intimate dinner at his casa…

And preggy Elaine with her hardcore biker hubby, who happened to come over on a weekend when Marlon and I planned a biking trip! Perfect!

Checked a long-standing item off our Singapore “must-do” list. With my (relatively) new-found cycling skills, Marlon and I finally made the day trip to Pulau Ubin, an island off the east coast that is the last undeveloped frontier of Singapore.  The main activity there is biking, so we couldn’t have done this until I learned how to bike.

It took the greater part of the day, with some difficult uphill pushes. But it was all worth it—I love to discover new places. And many times, it felt like we weren’t even in Singapore anymore.



We had great company in Elaine and Paul and their UP Arki friends. Together, we laughed and camwhored and pushed and biked and walked and finally…

Ate the tastiest, cheapest best chili crab in Singapore. It’s on another island, yes, but even with the boat fare it’s still cheaper than any on the mainland.

Looking back at these, now I feel better about September having stampeded past; like “Oh, so that’s where it went!” And suddenly, now it’s October… which brings with it new and exciting developments. Abangan!

4 Comments
Posted on October 2, 2010
Category: The Singapore Years · Labels: , ,

Rewards program

Today was spent rewarding myself for working… well, maybe not so much working hard as working smart ;) First stop was the Suntec Convention Centre for a sale event by an online shopping site I’m subscribed to. I arrived at 11 a.m., an hour before the event was scheduled to start and was welcomed by this monstrous queue.

While waiting for our turn to enter, Marlon got a crash course in women’s designer handbags (he can now tell a Miu Miu from a Balenciaga, which is all that matters to me), a briefing on my color preferences (classic/subdued or bold/striking), and an assignment in my plan of attack.

We finally got to enter the event at 1:30 p.m., not a moment too soon. Let me tell you, things can get ugly when dozens of bag-crazed women are made to wait. Inside, the atmosphere was buzzing but civil—no shoving, grabbing or arguing, thank goodness. The strategy of choice seemed to be grabbing three or four bags, walking around with them while trying to decide on one, and making multiple return trips to a shelf to see if any women had discarded a bag that you were looking out for.

In the end, I narrowed it down to Subdued & Classic vs Bold & Striking. While I was vacillating in front of the mirror, a very fasyon Chinese woman ran up to me and grabbed my arm. She whispered urgently, with eyes wide open,”You HAVE to get the orange one. You have to. It’s DIVINE!” and ran off.

It was in this fashion that Bold & Striking won! And so I am now the proud owner of a brand new Balenciaga Arena Covered City bag in the happy, juicy hue of orange!

Thank you, my clients! Thank you!

After a recharging lunch of kinilaw na tanigue and salpicao at 7107 Flavours in Marina Square, we headed off to Orchard Central for Fash Bash, a thrice-yearly bazaar. I miss market and bazaar shopping scene back home, so I check these things out whenever I can. I was curious about the local designers advertised, but when I got there it was really the young Thai jewelry designers who made me drool!

After much going back and forth between stalls, I chose this pair of delicate, handmade gold-plated earrings from Thai designer Fontips Tangviriyamate. I fell in love with the delicate workmanship of the intricate but organic-looking pattern, and the curved wire extending way below the earlobes was a unique touch that I really liked. (One woman asked the designer if she could cut the wire short. Anobuh! Kasama yun sa concept no!)

And with that, my personal “rewards points” are fully redeemed! My shopping moratorium starts now!

6 Comments
Posted on August 28, 2010
Category: The Singapore Years · Labels: ,

On Everton Road

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been working at a production house that’s situated in one of the nicest neighborhoods I’ve seen in Singapore. And by nice, I don’t mean affluent. There are no jaw-dropping paeans to modern architecture, no Porsches or Beemers parked in the driveways—no driveways, in fact. I’ve seen quite a few of those here (and it always amazes me how these types of houses aren’t locked away behind village gates) and they didn’t charm me as much as this neighborhood did.

Tucked away in a cluster of streets near Chinatown and the central business district of Tanjong Pagar, these old shophouses on Everton Road aren’t rented out to businesses as many of their kin are. They are purely residential, as far as I can see; the production house is there only because the owners live in the attic.

The first time I came here to edit, I saw elderly residents gathered together, sitting on ancient wicker chairs on a doorstep, chuckling among themselves and trading some afternoon gossip. And seeing that was nice.

Fueled by my love for old places, I made a point of coming early for one edit session so I could walk around the narrow streets and take photos of the charming details. Of which there were many.

From old, earth-hued tiles, to walls awash in delicate pastels faded and chipped by time and neglect…
To surprising pops of colour…
An assortment of gates, grills and guardians…
And even the luckiest fire hydrant in all of Singapore! The Chinese would disagree with me, though, since 8 is their thing. With the little bag of java hanging from its arm, it could even be someone’s favorite coffee corner.

“Everton Road, please,” I told the friendly auntie who was driving my taxi the other day. (Yes, there seem to be an increasing number of female cabbies here!)

“Ah! Going to the shophouses there, is it?” she asked, smiling. “I like that place, you know. It’s a souvenir. It reminds me of the old days. It is a memory of how Singapore used to be.”

2 Comments
Posted on August 27, 2010
Category: The Singapore Years · Labels:

So bike me

Recently, Marlon and I put together a list of things we have yet to do in Singapore, made up of things we feel we absolutely must do before we leave (bakit kaya? Umaambisyon lang). On the National Day holiday last Monday, we finally got to cross one item off the list.
That item was “bike at ECP.” East Coast Park is a long stretch of beach on the, you guessed it, east coast of Singapore. It’s really popular for rollerblading, biking (or as they prefer to say here, cycling), camping and good old-fashioned beach bumming. The shores of home have spoiled me for life, so this is far from my top choice for a beach. But since learning how to bike, and biking through wine country in Sonoma last June, I thought I could finally give the bike lanes a try.
After a little online sleuthing, I decided that a worthy goal would have to be a nice way to end the day: a sunset stroll along the scenic boardwalk at Changi Point.  To get there, Marlon and I would cycle through Park Connector Network, a bike/footpath that links East Coast Park to Changi Beach Park. All we had to do was rent a bike from one of the PCN stops along East Coast and drop it off at any of the pit stops on Changi Beach. So we did, and we were off!
East Coast Park was packed with people that day, being a holiday. After a few kilometers of cycling, we slipped out of the crowd and stopped for a big carby lunch at the Mana Mana Beach Club. It was a familiar name from our visits to Bintan—we’d stayed there a couple of times, enjoying the chill vibe and superb wood-fired pizzas. Unfortunately, this was more like Polo Club Seaside Branch, without the pizzas :P
One of the reasons I don’t like East Coast Park is the view. Something about the fleet of ocean tankers parked meters from the shoreline just ruins it for me. I don’t understand how people can swim in this water—not when it’s plain that all these tankers are dumping their waste water into the ocean within swimming distance from you. 
You know how, at our beaches, the ocean gradually deepens to a sapphire blue as you look farther out to sea? Here, it doesn’t. It’s just a flat grayish green, with just a faint tinge of blue, all throughout. I know it’s the only accessible beach for a lot of locals, but for me it just feels like swimming in Manila Bay. I saw a lot of affluent locals and foreigners all dressed up in their flowing boho/tropicana caftans and chunky jewelry and designer flip-flops for this beach; kung ganito lang ang tropical paradise, wag na lang.  
So imagine my wonderment when, biking further and further away from the crowds, we found a beautiful little cove with actual white sand and clear blue water! I was thrilled. Pwedeng pwede na ‘to! There was only one other couple around, plenty of shade and grass, even a little rocky knoll with tufts of grass. Pang-Koreanovela lang. I wouldn’t mind biking back to this lovely secluded cove on another Saturday afternoon for a bit of sunning and swimming.
Tapos, kalbaryo na. Having woken up late, Marlon and I had to cover the longest stretch of road over the hottest hours of the day. But we weren’t the only ones—lots of bikers, a large percentage of them ang moh (Caucasians) whizzed by as we puffed along. I had gotten comfortable enough with biking to enjoy some of the views, like this aqueduct. It almost felt like we weren’t in Singapore. This was definitely a side of the Little Red Dot I’d never seen before.
The planning of the bike path was excellent. With lots of shade from the trees lining the path, and a covered rest stop every 1 to 2 kilometers, it was perfect for an easy-to-tire, newbie biker like me.
The most fun thing about this bike path was that it runs behind the entire length of Changi Airport. So every time I needed to catch my breath, we would plop down at a rest stop and watch the planes take off. 

After what seemed like eons of pedaling, we finally reached the PCN pit stop at Changi Beach Park. And not a moment too soon! If I could have thrown my bike at them, I would have. (Pero mas effort pala yon, LOL.)

And this is the route I cycled! From the blue point below to the blue point on the upper right, or a total distance of 17.9 km. It looks like almost a third of Singapore’s coastline!
Changi Beach was quite homey, a lot less developed and far less packed than East Coast Park. The crowd was mostly local families enjoying a day at the beach, flying kites and barbecuing. The tankers were way further out to sea, which made me feel more at ease about swimming here. 
Then our leader Ben Linus sounded the island-wide alarm, pulling us out of our weekly book club meeting to comb the beach for survivors. LOL!
We decided to take a taxi to Changi Point to make it in time for the sunset. Buti na lang kasi ang layo pala niya kung lakarin o i-bike! I have to say, the boardwalk was one of the nicest places I’ve been in Singapore, and one of the most genuine. Dotted with old-timers fishing and young families taking a late afternoon stroll, the boardwalk felt laid-back, removed from the Singapore I’ve known for the last three years.
Parang Riva del Garda lang!
And true to its promise, golden hour at the boardwalk truly was golden. Other photographers call it the magic hour, and yes, you could say it was magical too.
A section of the boardwalk takes you along a seaside cliff shielded from the sea by trees. This was my favorite part. Frame by backlit leaves and trees, the sunset seemed shrouded in layers of fine black lace woven by Nature’s own hands.
And that’s how Singapore and I bonded on her 45th birthday.
While everyone else was at the big splashy shindig down at the Padang, where we were that evening was absolutely fine with me.

6 Comments
Posted on August 20, 2010
Category: The Singapore Years · Labels: , , ,

One for the dogs

I spent twelve hours, from 10 in the morning to 10 at night, on a perfectly lovely Saturday locked inside an edit suite. I haven’t had to work on a Saturday in nearly 6 months, and I’ve never had to stay so late at work during the entire time I’ve worked here in Singapore.

I guess you could say my weekend had gone to the dogs.

Luckily, this charming little fella was around to keep me company!
Milo is the darling mascot of the production house I was working with. He spent most of the afternoon snuggled up by my side on the client couch. I was tempted to comment on how catlike he was, but then I realized that it’s the other way around and that I have a very doglike cat. 
When I took on this freelance job, an ex-colleague of mine remarked: “You always get to a point when you feel miserable and hate everything and wonder why you even bothered to say yes. Then you’ll remember the money. And just suck it up and keep going.” So true!
2 Comments
Posted on August 15, 2010
Category: The Singapore Years · Labels:

Work from home

The past two days have been great on the work front. I’ve gotten to produce work I’m extremely happy with (good feedback is starting to trickle in, too) — all while working from home.

So now I’m all warm and fuzzy about working from home, thus this post. Working from home is something I have wanted to do ever since I first saw Marlon’s company grant him the privilege of working from home one day a week, plus a budget to set up a small home office.

Six years ago, it seemed far-fetched and decadent, like something only an deep-pocketed, ultramodern multinational leviathan could handle.

But technology has improved and mindsets have shifted. Employers are more open to the idea that you don’t have to be physically present to do good work. And so working from home has become, happily, a part of my working life as a freelancer — even now that I’m working what is essentially a 9-to-6 day job.

I love working from home for its many perks. Foremost is sleep. My morning primping and commuting time is added to my sleep time. My bed is less than three feet away from my desk, making a hasty escape from the heavy-lidded unproductive desert that is siesta time oh so easy.

Second is, time. I work at my own pace and at the times I am most productive. Although I don’t like to pigeonhole myself as a morning/afternoon/night person (why would I want to limit myself?), I like to sleep late and get to thinking after a slow start. Still, I can get up early and hit the ground cracking if I need to; working from home isn’t for people who can’t manage their time, that’s for sure.

And to be honest, I work fast most of the time. There have been times I find myself done with what I need to do and just kill time until the “respectable” hour to go home arrives. Trust me, maraming nai-imbiyerna kung mabilis ka; kasalanan ko bang hindi sila efficient? Among these are the creatures who wear their extended work hours as a badge of honor, the ultimate proof that they’re working hard (never having heard of working smart).

Working from home allows me to cut out all that useless crap. If I’m efficient at my work and am done for the day, then I’m done for the day. No raised eyebrows, no wagging tongues.

Third is, simply, home. Since I never feel the need to physically get out of the office (admit it, sometimes it’s a real and pressing urge, isn’t it?), sometimes I even end up working later into the night, and for longer hours, than I would at a regular office.  I’ve had days so packed, I’ve had to crawl out of bed at 7am and keep to a strict hourly schedule until midnight. But I don’t think I could do that at an office and still feel good at the end of the day.

I have my cat to bother or cuddle or be tormented by; I have a beautiful sunset right outside my window to mark the end of each day  The comfort of home makes a huge difference. And that’s what makes working from home work for me.

Comment?
Posted on August 6, 2010
Category: House & Spouse, The Singapore Years · Labels: ,

Back to school

I feel like I ought to be writing an essay called “What I did this summer.” I started working in June, upon my return from San Francisco, and it felt much like going back to school after summer vacation.

I had intended April, May and June to be my “break” — but it didn’t really turn out that way. I worked through my break, and I say that with gratitude and joy. One of the things that kept me clinging to my old job was the fear of leaping into a void of nothingness… no work, no income. I was wrong and for that I could not be happier. It was nothing like when I first started out in Singapore. What a difference two years can make.

Then again, this summer was like the ones I had when I was younger. I was never really idle.  There was always Rep or tennis or Spanish or art lessons. Heck, even the summers without parent-initiated activities were jam-packed with boy-watching.

This time around, going back to school was more like transferring to a new school. Getting used to new teachers, classmates, new ways of doing things; maybe not making lifelong friends right away, but anxious to do well and be liked. Even struggling and doing well at the same time.  
But I had my summer vacation (the first I’ve had since leaving school almost seven years ago!) and it was a good one. And even now that the summer is over, the sunshine seems like it’s here to stay. 
Comment?
Posted on July 17, 2010
Category: The Singapore Years, Wanderlust · Labels: ,

And she’s off…

Today’s post is brought to you by Blogger’s Remorse!
It’s been crazy in the Paul-Plazo household these last two weeks.
After scrambling to get my Dependent Pass (which I now have! I am no longer a tourist in Singapore! Long story…) Marlon and I flew off to Beijing for an exhausting but definitely… interesting five days. I would describe most of it as fun although there were more than a few lost-in-translation moments, the occasional bouts of frustration and fatigue, and even an open-air lovers’ quarrel for all to see. What the holiday pictures don’t show, eh? 
marlon and i in beijing: having fun but a little overwhelmed, tired but still going
At the same time I was being yanked onboard a three-month freelance contract that I haven’t officially signed yet because I don’t have the right work papers sorted out (again, long story…). 
I rushed back from Beijing to a pile of work from said freelancing gig. I am working from home these days and am so surprised at how much I am working for a job that I am not even officially yet on (again, long story). I really get how everyone I’m working with needs me to come on board because they are all so damned busy! I’ve been doing as much as I can, but it’s been a struggle to work with just a few days sandwiched in between trips — plus the other, odder factor of me not being officially onboard and asked to work from home till the contract is signed. Long story… 
Long story seems to be the story of my life these days!
It seems like I was just struggling to onboard myself a few days ago, and suddenly I have to quickly and thoroughly turn over what little work I’ve done (which seems like a lot to me already!) before I disappear to San Francisco for the next two weeks. 
Still, the job was a huge and unexpected blessing so I’m doing my best to shut the complaints and to do right by it and The One who gave it to me. And there’s no way I’m complaining about this trip because the tantalizing tandem of discovering new places and seeing old friends simply fills me with such anticipation. 
So I’m off again, and looking forward to a trip that will be every bit as exciting (and hopefully, a wee bit slower) than life on the ground, here at home, has been the past two weeks. 
2 Comments
Posted on June 3, 2010
Category: The Singapore Years, Wanderlust · Labels: ,

Barong answer

Lah-lah Land may have many wonderful things, but one random thing that they seem to be missing over here is the concept of indigenous fabric. Ang hirap talaga kapag wala kang natural resources.

Today, Marlon brought his barong Tagalog to the dry cleaners for the first time since we arrived in Singapore.

The dry cleaner recoiled in horror.

“Wah liao! This one confirm cannot clean. So old already leh. Fabric so thin one. Look, got so many holes already. And very yellow lor! This one ah, you give me very hard time, cannot make white for you.“

Auntie, parang silk lang yan. I don’t know what Marlon had to say to make them take the barong and not wreck it by turning it bright, gleaming white, but after much prodding they agreed to take it.

Sigh lah.

3 Comments
Posted on April 21, 2010
Category: The Singapore Years · Labels:

Girl about town

After my initial two days of sloth last week, suddenly I was all over the place!

At Robertson Quay living up to my new identity as a “lady who lunches” with K and Bianca…

Walking down to the colorful, iconic MICA Building at Clarke Quay to pay for a writing workshop organized by the National Arts Council (which I ended up not waking up for!)…

Renewing my library card and stocking up on books (Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food! Time Out Beijing! Lonely Planet San Francisco!) at the National Library…

Dashing back to Robertson Quay to judge a kiddie singing contest (!!!)…

The Alkaff Bridge at Robertson Quay, painted by our very own Pacita Abad
Semifinalists in the 4 to 6 year-old category… so cute!

Filing my taxes for the very first time at the Inland Revenue Authority in Novena (a government experience whose efficiency deserves a post in itself!)…

Skipping back to the office to attend a client presentation with one huge difference — I get to bill the company per hour of my presence!

The poor dears seem to be cracking up without me… I keed, I keed

Heading into glass skyscraper country, dodging secretaries in cocktail dresses (nobody knows the difference between day vs. night dressing around here) and expat investment bankers…

… to visit Lilian and James’ new office in Boat Quay! It’s on the top floor of a shophouse, which explains the high, steeply pitched ceiling and exposed beams. Very cool. 
Hanging around for two hours (two hours! Why is it that only Pinoys are capable of being this late? Nobody I know here in Singapore has ever been that late!) at Lau Pa Sat waiting for my fellow Kapusos. 

Flor and Ian, an artist and writer, respectively, from my old department now work here, and we never get to meet up! Finally we had a reason to: the arrival of Cecil, our beloved nutty mother figure who was in town visiting her daughter, an intern at the Ritz. 
Finally winding down the week with a show at the Esplanade: Chicago! (And all that jazz…)

I couldn’t take any photos of the show, so here’s a picture of Marlon in this cool bamboo installation on the Esplanade grounds instead.
What a week! Busing and walking around in the scorching heat left me completely shacked… but shacked in a good way, without any pressure or stress. Despite the heat and humidity, there was an underlying sense of freedom that just gave me a really good burst of energy and powered me through the week.
This week I’m looking forward to establishing more of a routine for myself, one that includes exercise, writing (I can’t completely not work!), flamenco and my domestic duties of cooking, grocery shopping and cleaning. 
Now if I could only start waking up before 10 a.m…. 
11 Comments
Posted on April 19, 2010
Category: The Singapore Years · Labels: