been in the +65 the past few days and am so blessed to have wonderful family to spend every waking moment with. there are so many things i'm grateful for i don't even know where to begin. it's the little things, like having granny snoring gently next to me, and true friends who won't let me have butter with my kaya toast. it's in the wiggle of the rottie puppies' bum, old friends who know my poison of choice at colbar, teenage-esque confessions of the sapphic kind (the horror!) and local food to my heart's content. and it's in the big things, like having parents and in-laws who are happy and healthy, and passing my year-end exams*.
there's so much i want to reflect and ruminate on, like conversations with my hair stylist and facial lady. i'm quite good when it comes to salon loyalty. been doing my hair at an amazing bukit batok salon for the last 10 years. started with highlights then gradually moved on to a digital perm. was one of may's first customers when opened her own salon and am fortunate she remembers me and personally sees to me whenever i go by. of course, this entails sitting still for a good five hours (four hours to perm, one hour for treatment!) and comfortable as her chairs are, my itchy backside cannot stay put. so we end up chatting for almost five hours, in all the mandarin i can muster. i like listening to her talk about singapore, her challenges as a small business owner, housing policy, her kids' education, the cost of living... i love singers and am always intrigued by stories of living in singers. and may's so good my last perm lasted 14 months when the regular lifespan is 5! talk about getting value for money :)
same with my facial lady! been going there for a good five years and the beautician told me this time that i could afford to lose ten kilos if i wanted to keep my husband. no big, in your face brutal honesty and no malice whatsoever. my british friends were horrified but there's a certain local charm in unsolicited advice :) so we were talking about bto flats, and when's the best time to apply for one, the potential loopholes when it comes to grant eligibility and bank interest rates. stuff like that that while bread and butter, is characteristic of an amazing country where 85% of the population own their own homes.
of course they ask about london, and i try to fly the singers flag high by telling them how i rather live in sg. in london, everything takes forever to get done (oh just you try setting up internet - took us a month!), the tube is constantly disrupted (and you thought smr*t was bad!), things happen very slowlyyy and taxes are crazy high (>30% for a low income bracket) naturally i'm not too happy that the mister's essentially subsidising healthcare for the unemployed, and waves of migrants coming to the UK. granted, i don't want to be sick just for a return of investment but seeing how we don't plan to stay for long, i wish we'd get a tax refund when we eventually leave. but i recognise we'll be based there for a season and as the mister wisely told me, 'your visa doesn't give you any rights'. and he's correct, i'm not entitled to anything in the UK and being unhappy is counter-productive when we've a lovely little flat together and so many other things going for us.
back to londontown tomorrow and spending the rest of june with family! can't wait :) and as things get more fun in real life, things will be relatively quiet around here!
