Think Like a Man

Today hasn't been a terribly exciting day (they can't all be, even when you're abroad!) but it's given me a good opportunity to reflect on some of the things that I have seen and learned whilst I have been here.

Schools in Singapore are on holiday this week so we were out coaching early this morning.
Rather than running from September to July (a little bit strange in the first place) schools run from the beginning of the year, January to December. I'm not entirely sure of the format, but I would presume that their long holidays are towards Christmas instead of ours which take up the whole of August.

We're usually working at a secondary school coaching girls football on a Monday afternoon, but we had been asked to go down in the morning this week instead.
Even though they were off school, the girls were encouraged to come in and do their football session as they have a tournament coming up in a few weeks that they are attempting to prepare for.

As far as ladies football goes, I have had very little involvement in it. I can say that I did watch the 2011 World Cup Final, but aside from that the game doesn't interest me almost half as much as the male equivalent (go ahead, make a sexist presumption!)
Part of the reason is that there is very little opportunity to become involved in female football back home in England, although I do remember coaching a few sessions to year tens and elevens when I was in sixth form, but that was about it.

I went and coached the girls team on my first week in Singapore, but didn't go back last week so it was nice to return today. The one benefit to coaching girls over boys is the fact that they actually listen and attempt to follow the advice you're giving them (ah, see, not to sexist now am I?!) Unfortunately boys have a tendency (not to generalize) to be of the opinion that they already know anything anyway.
When you ask the girls to follow instruction, they usually do it, and often things they do are without prompts.

We only had twelve turn up this morning (last time we had 23), but we still had a good session and finished with a little game which was good fun.

Although I felt rather lifeless when I woke up this morning, I was feeling slightly more motivated by the time it came to the afternoon. I personally blame it on the heat, but it probably has to do with the time I go to bed, and also how much I am consuming in terms of food and water.

Asian food, as I discovered in Korea, isn't the most filling at the best of times, and in Singapore that seems to be replicated. Often times I find myself wishing I'd have asked for an extra portion or had an opportunity to get a desert with every meal!
Sometimes it's not too bad as a dinner containing rice or noodles (as 99.9% of meals do) can be quite filling if there's a decent amount of meat to go with them. Being a bit of a vegetable dodger, perhaps its my own fault.

The temperature does play a major factor though. I must have sweated here more than ever in my life before. It's so warm on some occasions that it really motivates you to do nothing. I'm all for a bit of warmth, but stifling heat which makes you feel dizzy and sick is probably a bit much.
I'm doing my best to drink as much water as possible, but it's a big pain whenever I go out having to take a litre bottle of water for me.

The time I usually need a drink most is when I'm out coaching, or when I come back. The only problem is, Singapore is pretty strict on people eating and drinking on the nice clean MRT that they have banned people doing both. So when you want a drink, which is sold in convenience shops inside the station, you can't actually drink them or have to go back out so that you can enjoy your beverage before getting on the train. Not the most convenient set-up if I'm honest!

It's obviously difficult being in a different culture, and slightly unfamiliar surroundings, but I think I am doing pretty well considering the challenges I am facing.

After getting back today I have spent most of my time on the computer sorting out a few things. I thought I'd save some more exploring for a day when I actually have more time to get out and do things.
Really enjoyed my trip to Sentosa yesterday and I would love to go back there one afternoon to the beach.

Definitely also planning going back to the Central Business District to admire all the skyscrapers there, and also to the Marina Bay area one evening so that I can see what I will be missing out on when the Singapore Grand Prix takes place in a couple of weeks time.

"What do you call the three rings of marriage? Engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering."

The Island

Waking up for another early Sunday morning coaching session, I could already tell that the weather was going to be extremely warm today.

Once again I'd slept with the A/C on and paid for the luxury when walking into a red hot kitchen. The windows tend to get left open over night to let some "fresh" air in, but usually this means that as soon as you walk in there in the morning, the temperature is already overwhelming.

I'm doubt very much that the number of people staying in James' appartement helps matters, but with Singaporean accomodation falling in line with other Asian-style housing, there's barely enough space to swing a cat anyway.

Thankfully the heat was useful for one thing as it allowed me to have dry clothes to wake up to this morning. Washing machines here only work on cold cycles, so they probably don't clean tremendously well anyway, but the stuff I hung out late last night was bone dry by the time I was done in the shower this morning.

Today for the first time since coming here I ran my first solo coaching session as everyone else was otherwise engaged. I was heading to the same location as last Sunday, West Coast Park, and with a bag full of equipment I headed out to catch the MRT at about 7.00am.

There was a sense that something wasn't quite right today as I headed off in the first light of day, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I had to ride the North-South line to its termination point before swapping to the East-West line and heading to a stop called Clementi.

I got a few strange looks on the train, as you usually would carrying a bag full of footballs and plastic piping (makeshift goalposts) but I arrived at Clementi and headed for a taxi to take me to the correct location.

Once I was at the park it was very empty, deserted almost, and there seemed to be a strange mist all over the field. After setting up at about 8:20 I sat and waited until 8:40 when I was told the session would start.

It got to about 8:45am and still nobody had showed. Picked up my phone to ring James to find out what was going on and he told me that he had mis-spoken when he said 8:40 and actually meant 9:30 so I was left to sit waiting for 45 minutes until anyone showed up!

At least I had realised what didn't seem quite right about things, and it made sense later when the baseball players who were on either side of us last weekend showed up at about 9:15 to start setting up.

Today's session had a couple more kids in than last week with one trialist joining us, and two other kids who I hadn't seen the previous week returning from their holiday's.

I managed to get finished and tidied up by about 11am and saught out a taxi to return me to the MRT. Luckily there are usually people getting dropped off at West Coast Park so it means I don't have to go through the issues of flagging one down.

Unfortunately the driver's navigational sense was about as good as mine, and he drove me the wrong way, before realising his mistake and then correcting it by only charging me $5 which is about how much it should have cost.

The process of catching and communicating a taxi is relatively easy here due to the standard of English. Doesn't mean they won't get confuused and go the wrong way though.

I got back to Sembawang at about 12, and headed into the shower before going to get some dinner.

I had decided to experience another busy afternoon today, by heading in the sane direction as I had done yesterday.

Thie meant re-boarding the MRT and heading in the direction of Harbour Front.

I wasn't going in seach of angry monkeys today though and was instead heading towards Sentosa which is a small island south of Singapore.

Sentosa is a weird hybrid of Aisa, Europe and North America.

It is home to most of the attractions in Singapore including, several impressive resorts, sandy beaches and plenty to do.

The way to get into Sentosa is varied. One option is to travel by cable car which I saw many peiple doing yesterday. The simpest option is to travel via monorail from the Vivo Shopping centre inside the MRT station.

The third, and option choicen by me however, was a tiring one with the heat beating down at full effect.

I selected to cross a structure called the Sentosa Walkway which runs between the island and the mainland.

Much of the walkway is undercover, but considering was doing my best to get out and take photos I was sufferinf rather badly from the prolonged exposure to the sun's rays.

Eventually I arrived at Sentosa, and had to pay $1 to enter through a turnstyle. I imagine this was still cheaper than paying for a cable car or the monorail though.

I was immediately impressed by the island's layout. Sentosa is often known as the Resort Island, and it lived up to its name with plenty to walk round, see and do in almsot every square inch.

I started off by picking up a map and deciding to head around the map's highlights by doing in a circle going to my left.

Most of the experiences that Sentosa has to offer are unsurprisingly expensive, but if you had a pocketful of cash burning a hole in your pocket then I would definitely suggest some of the activities I discovered were available.

There are a number of impressive hotels on the island, all of which I'd imagine cost a pretty penny, and whether this was deliberate or not, you get a Las Vegas-type feel from them with expensive shops, museums and even casinos on offer.

The island is split up into six different sections, each one named after some of the attractions that are posessed within.

The first notable thing you come to is Universal Studios Singapore. Having visited the 'original' version, I would have been interested to see what the 'remix' had to offer, but the best I got was a couple of photos and a walk around the shop.

From a distance you can see some of the rollercoasters that appear to be containing within, but I would also be fascinated to see how much space the park actually covers considering to large size of its bigger brother.

Once you walk past Universal you come to an impressive looking hotel which guides you to the 'Lake of Dreams', a rather swanky fountain which is situated in front of it.

Walking up there, the path splits in two. I decided to take the route to the left before going straight on and I was rewarded with the view of a spectacular expanded version of the Merlion - perhaps Singapore's most famous landmark. Once again you could pay to go inside the structure to a look out point, but I just viewed from a distance and headed up a hill which directed you towards an observation tower, a ski lift and a luge racing track.

I descended back down the hill after taking a few photos, and soon I came across a rather large run of mosaic structures which were working together to form a rather impressive waterfall.

Once you got to the bottom of there, you had reached the first of Sentosa's two beach locations. Siloso Beach is the more commonly visited of the two on the island (the other, Palawan, requiring an extra journey around to the left of Siloso).

Although I didn't venture into the beach, it seemed like it was a hip and happening place with plenty to attract the attention of a visitor. I walked along the beachfront where there were plenty of people enjoy themselves in the sea, whilst the more sensible people were shading under a tree sunbathing. Siloso stretched on almost the entire width of Sentosa so it took me a while to walk along it before I reached the end. 

At this point I decided to head back to the boardwalk rather than venture up into Siloso Point which is also the location of the Underwater World Aquarium. Perhaps I will go back there another day.

Walking back along the boardwalk and reflecting on my day, I enjoyed Sentosa immensely. Even though it is a part of Singapore it has the feeling of an entirely different location. It still contains the intrigue that the rest of the country offered me, but it this island really did have the feeling of a giant theme park.

There's plenty to see and do there, and I can see why it is so frequently visited by people who come over to Singapore. I headed back to my apartment sadly leaving the island paradise behind, and hoping that one day I would be able to enjoy Sentosa to it's fullest. 

Just cause people wanna eat the burger doesn't mean they wanna meet the cow. 

View From the Top

Weekends in Singapore have come to mean one thing..... Early Mornings!

Since my days as a student, these have become something of the norm (as for any regular person), but I don't think there is any time that I could go to bed, wake up at 6am and feel OK. I'm pretty sure even if I had twelve hours sleep (which I definitely didn't have), I'd still be tired!

Waking up early in the morning in Singapore is also more arduous because of the heat. We usually sleep with the air conditioning on which means our bedroom is nice and warm. This doesn't apply to the living room or kitchen however and walking into them so early in the morning when it's already getting warm is uncomfortable!

I dragged myself out of bed, still bleary-eyed and left to catch the MRT at 7:00am. We were headed back to Nexus International School this morning for two coaching sessions. One with children aged between 5-6 and another with kids aged between 7-10.

It's funny how all across the world children seem to share similar characteristics. Something I noticed today was how half the kids are in a little world of their own, till the ball hits them or goes near them and then they wake up! I understand a/ they're young, concentration levels aren't at a max, and b/ it's hot and I'm not too sure I'd fancy running about too much either.

We cut our session short today because of the sun, and the fact that so many kids were looking particularly red faced and sweaty. Never mind them, I was getting a bit of a sweat on just standing there! I almost completely drank my litre bottle of water after our session had finished! The reason our sessions begin so early in the morning is because of the weather. The sun obviously is extremely warm at mid-day so we attempt to get finished before then so it's not too hard on the kids.
The younger ones particularly need to get a drink every two seconds, but then again that was the same when I was working at school's in England where it was a quarter of the temperature!

After heading home from work I quickly jumped in the shower and decided to go exploring again. Although I was due to spend a couple of weeks in Indonesia during my stay, I have been asked to stay in Singapore for the entire duration of my visit, so this has allowed me a greater amount of time to explore the city.

I though that seeing as I attempted to go there last week, but failed miserably I would head up to Mount Faber for a spectacular view out over Singapore.
Once again I had to board the MRT and head south, all the way to the further point until I reached a station called Harbor View.

If you remember on my last visit to the station I had to employ my umbrella almost straight out of the gate and instead decided to enjoy a little bit of window shopping therapy. To get to Mount Faber (not actually a mountain, just the title of anything over 100m in height in Asian countries) I had to exit the MRT head away from Sentosa Island and look for the road leading up the track.

There is a cable car which runs from Mt. Faber all the way up to the southern island of Sentosa, so I followed the cables as far as I could. Originally I was following a group of people who were also headed in the same direction, but they seemed to draw a blank on where we were going to I pursued another route and came across some directions pointing to Mt Faber.

What was also a little disturbing was a sign which was at the entry to the trail I was about to climb up that stated the presence of monkeys. Now I wasn't expecting every monkey I came across to be as friendly as Abu from Aladdin, but was slightly concerned as this was the second sign I had read that warned me not to 'cross' the monkeys.

Being brave, and almost wanting to see exactly what would happen if I came across one, I headed up a relatively steep trail to the top of the path. At the summit I was treated to an excellent view out over Singapore, and as is often the way with vertical viewpoints, the higher up you get, the better the view.
The country is known as a relatively low lying land based area, but this view from 100+ meters up was excellent for seeing the skyscrapers of the city against the urban jungle that I was currently in. Following the path of the cable cars you could see across into the island of Sentosa which is the home of Universal Studios and several sandy beaches. 

I walked up as high as I could go, eventually reaching a place called the Jewel Box. This is basically the cable car station, which as you can see, has some strange affiliation with the Angry Birds franchise. There's quite an extautionate fee to ride across to Sentosa, so I just decided to look from a distance, and take some decent photos whilst I was up there.

After some time spent people watching in a swanky restaurant I made my way down to the bottom of the hill (no sign of monkeys, although a snake on the path did scare the hell out of me!) and headed back towards Sembawang.

Check out all the pictures I took today at the bottom of the page! :)

You peaked too soon. You're was what we call a "peak too sooner".

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Another early morning beckoned today as our plans for the day had been laid out yesterday evening.

School's in Singapore start their holiday period next week, and yesterday we had double the amount of schools on that we usually do, because today (Friday) is also Teacher's Day! Unlike in Korea where Teacher's Day meant that school children would bring their favourite teacher a present, the reward for the hard working educational staff was half a day off instead.

A little anecdote I forgot to mention yesterday that you may be interested to hear.....
James and I went to Sembawang School yesterday where he does coaching on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. We usually visit for dinner, but in the morning James wanted to go and ask one of the teachers about being able to use the gym facilities that are contained within the premises.

We found the teacher we needed at the front area of the school, but he seemed a little pre-occupied by informing some students that it was their duty to "give him five laps of the playground". I presumed this must have been some kind of PE lesson until I noticed that there were a pile of school bags sitting in front of him, and that all the kids were attired in their school uniform.

It turns out that 'doing laps' is actually a form of punishment for children who are late for school here. Depending on how late their are dictates the number of laps they are required to do. Even at 9am, I wouldn't fancy running at least 800m with the temperatures here, let alone in my school uniform, but then again, perhaps you're not late again after being forced to sit and sweat for the rest of the day.

Anyway, due to Teacher's Day, we had no work this morning which gave James and opportunity to fill a request I had asked about for a while which was going over into Johor Baru. Avid followers of my blog will recognize the name of the Malaysia town I mentioned yesterday when I took a trip to Sembawang Park.
We actually had some errands to run Malaysia, but it gave me a great chance to get across the border and see how different (if at all) these two countries are.

There are several ways to travel between Malaysia and Singapore including by car, and by train, but one of the simplest methods is to go by bus, which we did.
Setting off from a stop just across the road, we boarded a bus bound for Malaysia.
Sembawang is about North-North-East of Singapore and the causeway, as it is known, between the two countries runs from the North, so we had a short journey to get there.

The process for travelling to Malaysia is relatively simple. At the border crossing, you alight the bus and go through a standard immigration setting (like in an airport), after your done, you re-board the bus which takes you across the causeway and then to the other side when you get off the bus and continue on your way.
Although there are still some tensions between the two countries, going from Singapore into Malaysia is very easy.
Returning the other way is a little tougher, due to you having to fill in an immigration form if you are not a permanent resident.

Despite the close proximity of the two countries, there are many differences between the two. On the causeway there is a point in the middle where you officially cross the border. At one time you used to be able to make the journey between the two islands on foot, but they moved the immigration department from the middle of the causeway to the start at the Singapore end, meaning an end to photographic opportunities in the no-man's land between both states.

Almost immediately you can see the change between the two places. Having experienced it myself, there are no changes when you cross the border from England to Scotland, but going between these two Asian countries is a touch different. After crossing between and getting my passport stamped (something I'm very much in favour of), you walk up through a shopping area and out into Johor Baru.

As far as I could tell you might as well have stepped from Earth onto Mars, because there were noticeable changes in terms of the people and the surroundings. Malaysia has a strong influx of Indian culture, stronger than in Singapore, and that was evident straight away from the number of restaurants and vendors that were around.

Unlike the clean streets that meet you in Singapore, there was a more 'working class feel' to Malaysia. Roads were being repaired, traders were trying to sell to passers by, and traffic was fighting its way through the crowded streets. It was a bit of a culture shock having spent so much time in Singapore (which ironically is a culture shock from the UK) but it didn't intimidate me despite quite clearly being a foreigner.

We brought a traditional Malay drink which is made from coconut, sugar cane and ice which was harsh on the teeth and rather strangely packed into a plastic bag!
James had some jobs to do so I went for a little walk to take in my surroundings. If I'm not mistaken, overhead cables are illegal in Singapore, and they must have been making up for it in Malaysia as there were so many around the place it was almost unbelievable.

This is the 'real' Asia though - busy, bustling, gritty. The surroundings were unfamiliar and the language was different, but all around is people were going about their business. It was actually a public holiday today, Malaysian independence day, but from the number of people, and traffic milling about you wouldn't know.

We went for dinner in a 'traditional' Indian restaurant, which started the path up to a temple at the summit. Johor Baru isn't a big place, but it still has it's fair share of experiences to be shared with visitors. The restaurant we dined at was rather large, and with plenty of chat going on around us, I didn't pick up on the unique experience I was doing to have.

Ordering chicken, pork, potatoes and various other dishes, we went off to wash out hands, and be given 'plates' which looked like large leaves. After the waiter brought all our food, I looked around and saw that everyone around us was tucking into their dinner with their hands! When in Rome and all that, I did my best to shovel food into my mouth without coming across as an uncultured pig. Then again I was eating with my hands, so what exactly do people expect.

It was a strange sensation to be chowing down without cutlery, and I don't think it will catch on in this country, but it works! The trick is to pick up the food with your finger tips and then pass the food into your mouth with your thumbs. Theoretically you aren't supposed to get food on the palms of your hands, but perhaps I failed that test!

After eating with our mitts it was time to depart for Singapore. We had to wait ages for a bus at the border crossing and didn't get back to the apartment until about 3pm.
I spent most of the rest of the afternoon carrying on with work, but for dinner I finally decided to have a change from rice and ordered some chips at the Japanese restaurant I went to.
I also had something from my time in Korea called Takoyaki. It is basically like a dough ball with a choice of fillings. The choice was a no-brainier between cheese and ham or octopus.....

Tomorrow it will be back to coaching in the morning, and then hopefully a spare Saturday afternoon to explore some more of the Lion Country.

Why must I be surrounded by frickin' idiots?

Fever Pitch

Much of yesterday was spent concentration on matters off the football field, but today has been much more about 'The Beautiful Game'.

After my little jaunt to Sembawang Park yesterday, I felt like going down there again this morning, with the only difference being the speed that I would be getting there, and also the fact that I was going to remember to take my camera along!

Setting off at 8am, hoping to beat the rather warm Singapore sun, I headed in the direction of the park. I'd definitely consider myself to be a 'fit and healthy' individual, but initially I was pretty skeptical about doing any kind of physical exercise in the humidity I've had to face at certain times during my stay here.

I'm also not so fantastic with the whole 'jogging thing'. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy getting out and doing exercise, and even having not played for two weeks I didn't think that would affect my ability to run too much.

With the help and encouragement of the Nike+ iPod app which acts a bit like a personal trainer, I managed to make my way 3.75kms in a reasonable decent time to arrive at the park.

The route to get there is relatively easy, but with a fair bit of construction being done, it took me some time to get to the location that I managed to make it to yesterday. There was a map as you made your way into the park, but Singaporean cartographers must work differently to european ones as due to following it I ended up wondering off down a few paths and found myself at a shipyard to the left of where I wanted to be.

Recalibrating my personal navigation system I backtracked and tried going in a different direction. Thankfully this proved much more successful and I was able to get to the location that I had visited yesterday.

Whilst getting busy with the camera, I also took a walk out onto a jetting where some men were fishing so that I got a panoramic shot of Johor Baru.

As I mentioned in my previous post, it is quite strange to think that another country is within a short paddle of this small island.

After snapping away I headed back for home, and enjoyed my second shower of the fledgling day. Yesterday was the first time since coming to Singapore that I actually experienced a warm shower. Living in a huge tower block, surrounded by about thirty of the same type buildings, I would guess that its quite difficult to time getting a hot/warm shower, but yesterday I must have worked it out right!

Due to the heat its not exactly been a bad thing that I have been the recepient of cold showers, but it was something that I didn't realise I would miss quite so much.

Freshened up I was readying myself to get on with some work when I was informed that I was going out to coach this afternoon, so the laptop got closed and I headed out to a new location on the east.
Alunied, where I got off the MRT was actually not the location of our session, but it was our first destination to pick up the kit.

Unfortunately not all of the locations we work in and around have storage facilities. As I was about to discover, the place we were going to was actually an open playing field so we ended up having to lug all our equipment out of a storage locker and into a taxi to get to where we were actually coaching.

Despite being about six or seven stops away from it, and this demonstrates the size of the country, we were greeted by the sight of Marina Bay Casino and also the Singapore Flyer in the distance.
The location we were coaching in today was also a first for me as we were coaching in a public space hidden in between rows and rows of condos.

We had two sessions today; one of children who were 3-5 and one of kids who were 6-8. For the first session we only had 4 kids, and for the 2nd we had 7 so it was relatively easy to keep them occupied for their allotted time.

By the time we'd got back to the lockup, it was about 7pm, and I had promised myself that if I got finished on time then I would head a couple of stops over to a place called Lavender where there was an S-League (Singapore Premier League) game going on tonight.

I'd been wanting to go check out a game for a while now, but it seems that there were some weird schedules going on in the Singapore League. Team's don't seem to actually have a home ground, as the team designated for the home game, Tampines, have a stadium out towards the airport, but yet they were playing Home United, in a completely neutral ground.

I managed to navigate my way to the groud after a little bit of time - no need to wonder if backwards signs did me again; yes they did! The Jalan Besar stadium isn't a huge ground, and only has seats on three sides of the stadium. A ticket to watch the 4th place (Home United) against 2nd place (Tampines) set me back only $5 which is about £2.50, and I was treated to an entertaining game which Tampines won 2-0.

It was interesting to watch how Singaporean football is played. I know from the kids that I coach, they don't use their voices very much during the game. Where as English players, even at the amateur level, are quite vocal, Singaporeans have a reluctance to relay even simple information to their team mates which is quite strange. 

The stadium itself holds about 8,000 people, but I would be surprised if there were even 750 people in the ground for the game. There seemed to be a large section of Tampines fans in one location, but there were a few mixed in around the rest of the seats as you could tell from the sporadic cries as their team took, and extended their lead.

Although I haven't been out and done a great deal today, it was nice to get to go back to Sembawang Park (camera in hand) and also to see a local football match.

My international travel to date has clearly served me well as I seem to have very few troubles navigating from one place to another as I do my best to see all that I can in Singapore. 

Why is it that adults aren't supposed to go mad about anything? You gotta keep a lid on it. And if you don't then people are apparently entitled to say what they like. "You haven't grown up. You're a moron. Your conversation is trivial and boorish. You can't express your emotional needs. You can't relate to your children." And you die, lonely and miserable. But you know, what the hell, every cloud has a silver lining. 

Walking Tall

After yesterday's exertions I was treated to a day away from coaching.

I'd hardly describe it as a day off though, as I still managed to get plenty of things done (perhaps more than I would have achieved if I'd gone out and coached!)

Managed to get a good night's sleep in compared with last night which helped tremendously, and when I woke up the temperature had remained relatively cool overnight so I didn't wake up praising the Lord for air conditioning.
Thankfully, due to the climate, most of the indoor locations in Singapore are air conditioned; shops, shopping malls, buses, everything allows people a bit of a break from the sun.
The problem I find with it is, as relieving as it can be to avoid the heat and humidity for a while, when you go back into the sun, you have got used to cold air coming your way that you can be overly reliant on A/C to cool you down.

No sign of the rain today which had been falling in the past couple of days. Pretty much every night I have been here, there's been a group of men playing basketball on a court just below my apartment window, and it must have been damp the last couple of nights because they were nowhere in sight.

This morning's first task was go get on with a bit of work that I had been provided by James. We're attempting to make progress with a coaching website, and it seems this has become my responsibility! Thankfully all I'm required to do is decide what needs changing and then delegate onto someone else who actually makes the changes!

After looking through that I moved into my next task which was looking at a program which allows you to create sports coaching drills in 3D format and also convert them into video form. When it comes to this sort of thing, I am pretty "old school" at the moment as all I do is grab some crayolas and draw out in colour the placement of the cones and how the drill will work.
This program is something you can use online to illustrate and share your ideas with other people..... let's just say it's also a pretty good tool for "developing" new ideas too!

Needing a break from all this work malarkey I went out for some dinner and came back refreshed to get some other things done.
I had promised myself a break today to go and be adventurous so at about 5.30pm when it was a bit cooler I headed out towards Sembawang Park for a walk.

Although most illustrations and online sources would have you believe that Singapore is just skyscrapers and apartment blocks, it is actually surprisingly full of green spaces. Sembawang, in particular, is very green and there are plenty of open spaces. The park is around a forty five minute walk away from the house, but thankfully it wasn't so hot that it made going out for such a long time uncomfortable.

The route to the park from my apartment block is relatively simple. Going towards the MRT station in a northerly direction you follow the road until you get to a crossroads and then head left until you reach Sembawang Park. Unfortunately, and disappointingly I forgot to take my camera with me on my latest foray out, but what I saw along the way was quite unique.

For only the second time (yesterday being the first) I actually saw a house...... well a bungalow! But still some residence at street level isn't something you find here very often I have discovered! This era of the town is mostly former British colonial housing so it looks slightly different to the concrete jungle that surrounds you almost everywhere you go.

As you continue walking down the road, there a lot of new constructions being finished in a more modern style, but these don't go in keeping with the modern or colonial housing. In truth they look like something you'd expect to see in a luxury holiday village in Spain or southern France.

Around this area it is also more common to see westerners. We western folk are a bit of a rare breed around this parts, the more you get into central Singapore, the larger the number becomes, but out here towards the north part of the country there is a shipyard which brings in sailors and families from different parts of the globe.

Saldy much of Sembawang Park is currently under construction, but as we continued to walk down towards the water, you are greeted by two sights; One, possibly the smallest and narrowest beach on the planet, and two, Malaysia.
Those of you who have observed a map will realise that there isn't much distance between the two countries, and beyond the small body of water (easily swimable) lies the city of Johor Bahru which is the link point between Malaysia and Singapore. Further to the east, there is a bridge or causeway which allows you to cross between the two countries, but from the park parts of the city are visible.

At one time you used to be able to hoof it across the border but now you have to be in transit using some kind of vehicle. It was pretty strange to see another country at such close proximity, although it looked like another part of the same island because the shipyard blocks your view.

From there I headed back to the apartment for the evening, went out to get some dinner and then prepared myself for, hopefully, another busy day or travelling and new sights tomorrow!

"You know what my new favorite sound is going to be? The sound of you screaming like a bitch!"

Child's Play

Today has been a relatively long one, partly due to going to bed late last night, and partly due to an inability to sleep properly last night.

Thankfully I was able to have a bit of a lie in this morning though, which made a real difference compared with getting up at 7am yesterday.

I spent most of the morning working on some things for English Soccer Schools, a few ideas for a website that needs creating, and I have been put in charge of pretty much all the writing that needs putting on there due to my journalism 'skills' (I knew that degree would come in handy one day!)

It felt relatively cool this morning again, but at least it wasn't raining. After last night's shower, I think I had more than enough wet weather. Perhaps I brought some of the English climate with me!

I was due to do some coaching this afternoon in a place called Tanah Mehah which is heading back towards the airport on the East of Singapore. To say this is a relatively small country it still takes a while to traverse the land on the MRT.
The journey of about an hour allowed me to listen to come music and people watch as I made my way from the north.

Today's journey had me taking a new route across the country using three different lines, and stopping at more stations that had previously not been visited.

Once I got to my location I was meant to be meeting up with another coach, but decided I first needed to get some energy in me for a busy afternoon of four coaching sessions ahead.

I have been doing my best since I keep here to try and avoid 'westernised' food outlets, but often when you need a snack or a sandwich they can be the best place to head. Like many other Asian countries, 7Eleven has invaded from the US so I managed to pick myself up something to eat.

Attempting to keep it relatively simple I went for a sandwich which contained the strange combination of egg and cheese..... Even more oddly the woman behind the counter asked me if I wanted it heating up.... each to their own.

Anyway, after meeting Coach Matt, we began a ten minute walk to a place called Kew.
Just like the similarly named location in the UK, it's fair to say that Kew is a relatively wealthy place. On the way, Matt explained that we would actually be teaching a number of residents from a block of condos in this area. Each session was of different lengths, starting off from 3 and going all the way until 11.

The area we would be using for these sessions was a small piece of public land in between all the condos that we were able to set up on and use for our sessions.
Working with children of such a young age, reminded me of the days of working at schools across Nottinghamshire, so I felt relatively comfortable about doing it. But after working on Sunday in a public park, and today in somebody's garden it felt a bit weird!

Typically just as we'd finished setting up, the rain started to fall with increasing rapidity, and we contemplated running for cover, Singapore-style.

As kids started to turn up, it eased a little, but decided if it became any heavier then we would go inside to a function room.

The first group of children we were working with were mostly aged three. The session was only twenty minutes, and involved very little football as the kids spent most of their time being distracted by things going on around them or by clinging to their parents. That was over before we knew it.

The rain then decided it was going to come on a bit stronger so we headed up to a room, which wasn't an ideal space, but allowed us to play a few games with the next group of kids we had who were aged between 5 and 6. Having worked with only four children before we were faced with 9, not all of whom liked the change of scenery. The room was relatively small and extremely echoey so after a while my ears started to ring from the loud din of kids running around and their parents conversing in the background!

Back outside for the third session we were at least able to have some more room, but for the 7 and 8 year old session we had only 4 kids so we had plenty of time to do lots of different things. The fourth and final group we had was also only containing three groups, but at 9 and 10, we were able to go through a lot more individual skills, and having started work during the day with children much their junior, it made a nice change!

Having spent most of my time concentrating on the sessions, I had little time to worry about the fact that it had been raining for the last half an hour, so the walk back to the MRT station mostly consisted of willing my clothes to dry!

I bid Matt farewell when changing from the East-West Line to the Circle line and set about heading home to get some dinner. Although I had coached for only three hours today, I was still feeling pretty tired. It seems to take a lot of concentration to work with younger children, and using my voice all the time soon gives me a sore throat. That combined with the heat seems to affect me pretty badly some days, and I have to say that this is the most tired I have felt since arriving in Singapore.

Currently I am working on a few articles and pieces of writing about my time here, and I think even days like today, when I don't get out much, I learn a few new things, and experience life as a Singaporean.
I think that if I came on holiday to Singapore as a tourist my experiences of the country would be very different.

Most people consider Singapore to be a financial superpower with plenty of skyscrapers. I think that there is certainly a lot more to any place than you see from the exterior or when you look on the Internet, but Singapore, more so than some of the other locations I've visited, is like that. I feel more like I am in the 'real' heart of the country, and I hope that my time spent here will be valuable in the future. 

A busy day should mean an early night, and I plan to get up early in the morning to get some work done so that I can have the afternoon to myself. I haven't decided where abouts to go, but I feel in need of a break from computers, websites and football is much needed!

Chucky: We're friends 'til the end, remember?  

Andy: This is the end, friend.