Open for guests...

Open for guests.

Having had my first real month in Singapore and as part of the relocation service my company has given me, I’ve had the first real month here being put up in a serviced apartment. While this sounds quite grand, it’s just like being in a hotel room with a small dining room and a kitchen bolted on to it. The only difference between it and having a normal flat is that the magical cleaning fairy comes every morning and tidies up your towels and moves the papers you scattered on the left of the desk to the right of the desk each evening when you come home. I tested this one day by leaving the papers scattered on the right side of the desk for a change and yes, they’d been moved to the left when I got back.
I tested this even further by leaving them in the middle one day but this must have confused him/her as they were thrown in the bin. Either the middle part of the desk is a no mans land as far as cleaning goes or I made some huge cultural paper placement faux pax. That or three day old copies of the Straights Times got on her/his tits enough to warrant the use of the bin.
Property hunting in Singapore is quite an easy affair really as there is a massive amount of choice to suit all manner of budgets. It’s just a question of putting in an afternoon and going to visit a few with one of the local Realtors.
I could tell you some stories I’ve heard about Realtors here (basically anyone can be one with absolutely no qualifications and it’s a license to print money) As I come to think of it, it’s exactly the same as being an Estate Agent back home. (drum roll please).....
In my experience, I had quite a good one and James took me around a few places that I’d heard good things about and it was an easy choice one Saturday afternoon to pick my new home down on the East Coast.
I’d pretty much decided on the East Coast the day I arrived when I went for a bit of a wander down by the park facing the sea.
Now don’t get me wrong, the sea is the last place you’re going to dip your toes in unless you have leprosy and are at the hacking it off stage of preventing it from travelling further, but it is a pleasant view and living by water, no matter what the colours of the rainbow you are likely to see glistening across it’s filmy surface is– it’s still the sea after all.

I pick the keys up in a couple of weeks by which time I should have my stuff from England so it’ll shortly be home sweet home and I’ll be back to life without the magical dish fairy.

For those of you wishing to visit this lovely isle, it’s open season from the end of July when I’m back from London. Hope to see some of you soon!