The Lives of Others

No time for lazy Sunday mornings in Singapore today!

I was up first thing to go with James to coach at one of his soccer schools in a place called Clementi, which is about forty minutes away from where I live. Getting there involved a new method of transport for me as today I was required to travel by taxi.

Due to the standard of English in Singapore, communicating with a driver to where you would like to go is relatively simple. After getting off at the tube station we walked to the nearest taxi rank to hail a cab to take us to a place called West Coast Park.
As the name would suggest it is on the west coast of the island, and where as since I have been here, we have been teaching at school's or in school locations, today's session was run in a very different place.

West Coast Park is basically a public park in which Singaporean's choose to participate in a number of recreational activities. Looking for a place to set up we decided to set up in between two sets of baseball games which looked to be getting under way.

This kind of thing would of course never happen in England as some busy member of park staff would probably come and show off and tell you that you couldn't play there without paying.                                                   
Whilst waiting for the kids to come along I went for a quick walk around the fringes of the park to see what I could see as the backdrop looked very surreal with the green space of a park containing a shipping yard in the foreground and construction of a skyscraper in the background.

The session started about 9:30am and we had five children, plus two more who's parents happened to be wondering around, and decided to come and spend some of their morning with us. The children were really well behaved, very respectful and most of all hilarious. It always makes me smile when kids of the age we were looking after (under six) dribble the ball around because even a size three is almost up to their knees!

They tried really hard though and we had a fun little game at the end which they seemed to enjoy.

Rather than taking a taxi to get ourselves back to the MRT station we decided to go via a bus. Unfortunately we were waiting rather a long time for the bus to come along, very un-Asian.
Standing there waiting for the bus to show really made me realise how the warmth of Singapore really is very energy sapping. Even just standing still makes you feel tired. Thankfully transport systems themselves are well air conditioned, but the bus stops certainly aren't. It's amazing how warm it can be, even without the sun shining!
I do my best to stay hydrated as best as possible, but its very common that I will drink an entire bottle of water in one swig quite comfortably!

Most of the time in our apartment we have some kind of fan on, and usually I sleep with the air conditioning on because it would be too uncomfortable without it.

Finally the bus came along and we were able to get into the cool air for a while. We rode it all the way to Jurong East Station and then boarded the MRT back in the direction of Sembawang.

When we got back to the apartment I had a quick shower and then sat and read my book for a bit. Since I arrived here I have spent far too much time (quite alot of it on this blog) on my laptop! I felt like doing a few different things so I had a break and did something else. 

It also occurred to me that since I have been in Singapore I have yet to have a warm shower! Not that I have missed it though as the cold water has been a nice relaxing and cooling feeling! Hot water is available but usually when I have to have one of my two showers a day, I am showering to help cool me down as well as do my bit for hygiene. 

Once again when we got back to the flat we had a bit of a downpour, something which has become common place over the last couple of days. The rain never lasts very long, but it soaks you if you get stuck out in it. Asians usually don't enjoy the rain too much, and an umbrella is common place whenever the wet stuff starts coming down.
For that reason I decided to stay in for a little while. James had mentioned that there was a local amateur game going on at the school around the corner that he had been asked to go and watch and possibly offer some coaching too.

As readers of this blog will know, I am a fairly keen footballer, and I have made it my ambition if I stay here long term to make sure that I am still involved in the game in more than a coaching capacity. We stayed and watched the match, I introduced myself to a couple of the players, a few of whom are from England, but mostly they hail from other European countries as well as a few natives. 

After watching the game we headed out for some dinner to a new location about a ten minute walk from where we live. I haven't really done very well since coming here with knowing dishes that I am eating, but tonight I had a bit of a meat buffet by eating sweet and sour pork, chicken and pork satay and chicken wings with rice.

Today hasn't been the most spectacular of days but I have enjoyed the activities contained within it as usual. On my recent journeys on the subway, I have been doing my best to take in the scenery around me and one thing that definitely stands out, despite my experiences in Korea, has been about the tremendous amounts of tower block housing that exists in this country.
It really is amazing how many people (approx. 5m) in such a small space. Literally everywhere you look is block after block of flat, ten or fifteen stories high and in the middle of about twenty others just like it.

Other observation concerns the cost of living in Singapore. I had learned when I first came here that life is meant to be relatively expensive, particularly when compared with the rest of Asia. That is not something that I have noticed to be honest as pretty much each and every meal I have brought here has been under $6 (£3). It all depends where you go for food I guess. I usually end up going to a food court type of set up, commonly known as a Hawker centre, which sells a variety of food at low prices.

If your a shopaholic with little will-power than I guess life could be extremely expensive as your drawn into almost every store that lines each and every one of the streets here.

Not sure quite yet what tomorrow will hold, but probably more coaching, and if possible more exploring of my surroundings. I have speculated with a couple of options, and if you check back each and every day then you will know exactly what I have got myself into!

An innocent prisoner will become more angry by the hour due to the injustice suffered. He will shout and rage. A guilty prisoner becomes more calm and quiet. Or he cries. He knows he's there for a reason. The best way to establish guilt or innocence is non-stop interrogation.