Wednesday 19 February 2014

Start of the Tourist Season

My old boss, Kenny, came to visit in early February which gave me the chance to hone our tour guiding skills.  Kenny was the best boss I’d ever had and I’d been looking forward to giving him a grand tour since before I left the UK.  

Kenny’s friend Ivan had moved to Singapore on a whim only a couple of months before Mark and I found out we’d be moving too.  I remember Kenny speaking about Ivan when Mark had applied for the job here and we weren’t sure how things were going to work out (as well as all of the to-ing and fro-ing that goes along with establishing a new post).  I obviously couldn’t say anything but I listened a little too eagerly when Kenny spoke about what Ivan was up to and what Singapore was like.
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Kenny and I had been emailing off and on trying to sort out where we would meet up and what sort of thing he’d like to be taken to see.  He had tried to get a sim card to make things easier, but unfortunately he had the same amount of luck with that as I did when we first arrived.  This meant that when he told me to meet him at his condo I accepted the sketchy directions and entrance he suggested meeting at.  When I got there I realised it wasn’t as easy as “the door next to the road where the guard stands.”  Having no experience of condos at all I now know I need people to be super specific!

When we eventually met up, after a few tense emails sent with super low battery on my phone, we jumped on the bus into the financial district.  We stopped by Ivan’s office, embarrassed ourselves by staring wide eyed (and mouthed) at the views, then went for a coffee.  We then walked round Marina Bay so I could show him the top of the Sands hotel and had some buttery chicken curry for lunch at the shops.  I made a big fuss of the helix bridge, but he remained unimpressed until he got to the other side of it.  I several pictures of him with the skyline in the background as the only pics he had taken before weren’t really going to be suitable to show family back home.  I think Ivan had only shown Kenny around the bars…so some good wholesome entertainment was called for.  Especially if his Mum expected to see lots of holiday snaps.

We then took the MRT onto Orchard Road (mostly so I could show him another site before quickly moving on to something a bit more interesting) and we got a fresh juice.  It was at this point I saw him massaging his feet, apparently I’m more used to walking around in this heat than him!
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I had been looking forward to this visit for ages and one of the reasons is that its only a couple of weeks until my Mum and Grama come out and visit.  I remember thinking in late November that as soon as Kenny arrived it would only be weeks between other visitors. 

As happy as I am to get visitors and her news from Aberdeen, I’m also really glad that I love it here as much as I do.  There was a while there that I questioned if we’d done the right thing.  I think that when you chat about your new life with old friends it really puts things into perspective.  The things that the old friends are explaining are so different from all of my experiences now, and although I will obviously love each visit (as well as visitor), I also love that I am showing them around my new home town.

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