brb garn Indo.

oh, hai guys.

so one of my mates from Adelaide booked a pretty short notice trip to come hang out in Singo with me because why the hell not. we spent most of our time drinking jugs of gin by my pool and checking out overpriced rooftop bars, at one of which I was charged $10 for a (plastic) glass of soda water. pretty cool, huh. come to Singapore, it’s the BEST.

anyway, we ended up fanging to an Indonesian island called Bintan for the day, because we could. you get there by 45 minute ferry and I didn’t spew so it was all pretty good news. we hired a driver for the day who I’m pretty sure hated us but he took us to a beach which blew my expectations of the place out of the water. I’d heard some pretty mixed reviews about Bintan island, but it turned out to be one of the nicest beaches I’ve ever been to.

we hired a jet ski which was pretty funs, and then had a few hours of swimming and roasting on the almost deserted beach. it really felt like I was hours away, in Bali or Thailand, on a real holiday – not just 45 minutes from my house. our SUPER friendly driver (who I assume was called Made, and I guess I’ve got a 1/4 chance of being correct) took us to a day spa where we had a 2 hour massage/body scrub bonanza. I unknowingly signed up for some kind of female cleansing ritual… which turned out to be one of the most awakward moments of my entire life. although in hindsight, having a little indonesian lady blow smoke up your clacker is surprisingly not altogether unpleasant.

it was also kind of nice being married for a day. I was referred to the entire time as “the wife” or “Mrs. Chris”, even after we told people that I was not in fact married to Mr. Chris. they’re not big on details, I guess.

then we caught a little boat along a mangrove river thing to this dingey looking “house” where we watched them pick our live seafood out of the river and then cooked it for us and it was DELISH. we also saw monkeys so obviously that was the greatest. on ya, Bintan!

friends don’t let friends be lonely in Asia

so I’ve been in Singapore for nearly a month but it really feels like I’ve been here for much longer. I guess that’s because it’s so easy to work out how the city works and how to get around.

it’s kind of weird sometimes that I have this total new life and none of my friends or family back home really know what that exactly entails or looks like. you know, like where do I live, where is my office, what kind of food can you get at the supermarket, are Singaporeans really obsessed with queues… that kinda thang. so it’s pretty great that my bestie came to visit, with her step-dad in tow for extra funs. I mean, it’s hard not to feel loved when someone spends 10 hours on a shitty budget plane to come and see you.

given that I’ve only just started a new job I wasn’t able to take any week days off, BUT I did sneak out early every day (which really didn’t matter seeing as productivity was at an all time low knowing they were in town). the weekend was pretty much the BESTEST.

On Saturday we teamed up with a couple of excellent pals from Adelaide who happened to be in town and went to Singapore Zoo and then for dinner to Level 33 (delish food with even more delish views of the city). Singapore Zoo is pretty much all it’s cracked up to be. Apart from being a little too far out of town for my liking (still only about $20 in a cab because Singapore is TINY), it’s brilliant. It’s got this whole free-roaming, no enclosure thing going on, which means that monkeys literally swing on trees next to and above you. Mental. PLUS we got to feed giraffes and elephants, which was a total life highlight.

Sentosa Island is pretty hilarious – it’s this man made “playground” with all sorts of tacky fun activities. I hated and loved it all at the same time. I mean I obviously need to go back ASAP or before to swim with the dolphins, and I’m considering an annual pass for Universal Studios JUST to go on the Mummy ride.. over, and over again.

I’m already looking forward to my parents visiting in November, as it will give me an excuse to do all kinds of excellent tourist activities again. and also to eat my weight in bakkwa because I’m just being a good host, ok?

monkey.

during my first weekend here I had a pretty big urge to go exploring, to do something outdoorsy, and get a bit of a work out too. so I dragged my boss to MacRitchie Reservoir for a hike.

what I thought was going to be an hour long stroll around a lake, turned out to be a fairly hectic 11km hike through the jungle. which was fine but just unexpected.

totally saw monkeys, fish, lizards, turtles, and super bright and pretty butterflies. nature FTW!

shit views.

It’s my first day of work tomorrow which is great because I really could do with some income again. but also, because I’m keen to get settled in this place.

I’m currently squatting at my boss’s apartment (which is sweet-aah) and living out of various suitcases. as lovely as his apartment is, I’m massively keen to move into my own place this weekend. having said that, I don’t think I could ever get sick of these views… especially on National Day.

well, here goes nothing (everything).

so I live in Singapore now. which is totally fine. I mean if anything, I’m surprised at the lack of feels I felt the day I moved. no excitement, no anxiety, no tears. I don’t know of that’s a good thing… I guess it is. I just rocked up with my 3 suitcases of crap (a painful reminder that I own nothing of value in this world) and here I am.

my first day has been pretty great – I don’t start work until Monday so I’m generally lazing about the pool and using the gym and having naps. it’s nice to have some down time before my social life ends next week and I work more hours than there are in a day.

I also picked a great day to arrive – National Day. there was all kinds of singing, year 8 style choreography dance numbers, Air Force jets and fireworks. all viewed from the comfort of my boss’s apartment, with a bottle of outrageously overpriced wine. thanks for putting on such a nice welcome, Singo.

party’s over.

well, that’s that done. good trip but. when I think back to being in San Fran and NYC it feels like years ago.

I booked my way home to Australia via Singapore so I could stop in for some life admin prior to moving here in a few weeks. I’ve been looking at apartments and found an absolute corker. Basically my aim is to find something so good that it’ll make all my friends want to come visit me (totally fine with being used as a free resort). CHECK.

I think I like Singapore more this time around, which I is mostly due to the weather being less hectic. I’m deffs excited to move here now tho. and shit’s getting real – I had a total “oh my God, this is actually happening” moment when I bought a hair dryer with an Asian plug last night. for some reason, that was more confronting than when I dropped a cold hard cash bomb on a deposit for my apartment.

I also met people in my new office and everyone seemed really nice so that’s pretty great. I’m going to enjoy 2 weeks in Adelaide and Sydney but then… bring it on!

babes on boats

remember that time I spent a week on a wicked huge boat fanging round Croatia and bro’d down with a bunch of hilarious babes and did nothing other than tan, jump off the top deck into crystal clear blue water, float around on a blow up mattress, get fed 3 course lunches, then party every night til 5am dancing to doof at island and cave clurbs?

yeah, neither.

eataly

I went to Italy and it was pretty cool. Milan was meh but I ended up dancing at a gay street party so that’s fine. I also drove around on the right side of the road, which actually was less of a struggle than dealing with the fact that they put up road signs AFTER the turn off, just so you know you missed it.

Lake Garda was super pretty and surrounded by mountains. When we went to check out we realised we had another day there which was a bonus – we celebrated by buying cheap wine and laying our ass on a pebble beach (would’ve killed for some jelly sandals ay).

We went to Verona for an afternoon and then spent a day in Venice which is enough cos I guess you have to see it but I deffs don’t need to go back. It’s just a maze of tourists walking around in a circle really.

Here are some things I learned in Italy:
– eating a plate of prosciutto with a huge ball of buffalo mozarella is a perfectly acceptable meal to eat in public.
– men over 40 in Milan are well dressed BABES.
– gelato on Italy really DOES taste better.
– the Italian version of “get a room” is “go outside”. they looooove a bit of PDA.

I was lucky that I had the impending week of having to wear bikinis in front of people on my mind, otherwise I would’ve eaten pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner. not that there’s anything wrong with that.

the motherland.

oh good. you know when you write a thing and you’re like “that’s pretty good” but then you accidentally delete/lose it and when you actually bring yourself to re-write it (once the fury subsides), it’s not the same and it sucks? yeah that obvs just happened.

anyway.. my BGF forevs, Chrissy Babe, has been living it large in Berlin for 3 years now and I finally got around to visiting him. I was meant to stay for one week but ended up staying for two (thereby blowing off Dresden & Prague) because I was having a pretty sweet ass time hanging with Chris and another dear old friend who recently moved there.

on the first day we went to the market at Mauerpark and bought me a second hand (read: stolen) bike which was super fun to ride around all week. Berlin is very bike friendly so it’s not scary to fang around. Mauerpark was pretty good also except I’m not very good at that whole finding a nugget of gold in a shitheap of junk thing. good foods though.

whenever I go back to Germany and Austria I lose my shit a bit and have to eat everything I ever ate as a kid ever. and also everything else. so, I did that.

here are the few things I can remember doing apart from eating: riding our bikes to heaps of lakes for a swim (thereby dealing with my fear of swimming in lakes), doing a tourist hot spot bike tour, going to see arty wanky weirdo dance theatre (blergh), going to see an Operetta (pretty cultured n that), clubbing at Berghain (nearly copped a dick in my face a whole 2 minutes after arriving), and going to a daytime homo rave.

the thing is that people in Berlin don’t seem to work so that’s quite a vibe. they’re all MUCH too busy riding their bikes to lakes and parks to drink beers and hang out, and then going out heaps late every night.

I also stacked it off my pushy heaps hard in the rain one day which sucked but also was fine because I only copped a thigh full of bruises and it sure entertained my pals. I aim to please.

here are some photos if you’re still reading
(…guys? hello? guys?)

London is fine.

so, I always planned to move to London to work there for a few years and I knew that even though I’d never been there, I would be totes fine just rocking up with my suitcases because its London and you kind of know what to expect, you know? I guess I was right, cos I went and I thought it was a bit of a shit hole but also I could totally live there for a bit.

having said that, I had a really good time because I stayed with my friend’s family again and they’re the best and also they have a French bulldog called Frankie who is pretty excellent. they also very generously took me for a family dinner at Roka, which was the tits. I also caught up with a few pals I haven’t seen in a while which was tops.

other stuff I did: Primrose Hill including the bakery, National Gallery, Notting Hill and Portobello Road, city sightseeing, curry on Brick Lane, opening of an exhibition at the Tate Britain, Chelsea window shopping, Tower of London (still don’t know why they’re called Beef Eaters), delicious department store lunches.

big shout out to the Shard which is my favourite (modern) building. it’s effing genius.