Girls Night

One of the best and worst things about leaving is a leaving party.  Parties are great, just too bad that after an eventful secret spilling evening we won’t see each other again.  I had the best time with some of the best girls I know, drinking cocktails, talking girl talk and eating as well as eventually walking each other home in the early hours on a work night….

So British

If someone asks my nationality I tell them I am Scottish as I have Scottish traits like wanting a blether as well as being super proud of my identity and history, however I do think most of my traits mean I am so British.  I like to think of myself as polite and well mannered (with only a few episodes of high maintenance every month or so…) and I drink copious amounts of tea and use sorry to mean almost anything.  I have a very dry sense of humour and I can’t say ‘great!’ without sounding sarcastic or tell the truth to hairdressers when I hate what they’ve done.  I reply to Doctors asking how I feel by saying “Fine thank you, and how are you?”, and yet I don’t expect a reply (or really want to bother them by being there).   

Because of all of this I’ve been trying to read up on the culture of Singapore and learn about Singaporean traits, so far I’ve only found a few things like never to think the tissue packet at a café is rubbish and move it and to give business cards with two hands.  Marks been to KL before and said that if Singapore is anything like it we will feel cold when we go indoors as the air-con blasts frosty air as soon as you step into a shopping centre or cinema (note to self: don’t throw out all warm clothes).

From Coming to America Blog

I’m a bit worried that I won’t have a clue what people say if they speak Singlish (and I will do the terribly polite British thing of smiling, nodding and not being able to ask if they can repeat it..)  But what I am excited about is being able to see so many different cultures and religions all in one place.  I really want to try and see as much as I can and if that means a party all the better!        

I also don’t want to quickly move out

I was reading that people who do better at being expats have the following traits:

Extroversion

·         Is talkative;

·         generates a lot of enthusiasm.

Agreeableness  

·         is generally trusting; and

·         is helpful and unselfish with others.

Conscientiousness  

·         perseveres until the task is finished; and

·         is a reliable worker.

Emotional stability

·         is relaxed, handles stress well; and

·         remains calm in tense situations.

Openness

·         has an active imagination; and

·         is original, comes up with new ideas.

I’m pretty sure that between the two of us Mark and I can cover this lot.  I’ve also been trying to find out about culture shock, but all of the graphs I see just look plain distressing…who wants to see something that goes South so many times?  Or is that my ‘excited’ phase?

Before the Next Move

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After Friday being so gloomy and rainy all day long I wasn’t looking forward to the weekend as much as I should have been.  I had been itching to get outside on Saturday and ended up exploring our new area (having moved once again, back into serviced apartments this time).  Its in an area of town called Mannofield which is full of very pretty houses which were starting to get decorated for Halloween.



Mark had been a little bit poorly so wanted to stay at home and have a little nap, but Daisy and I went out and about.  I had an idea in my head that I wanted to walk over to Hazlehead Park as I hadn’t been there for so long and I roughly knew how to get there so off we went.

Daisy did very well on such a long walk for a little dog with short legs.  She had a snuffle about the houses going up over the hill and then ran along a little path we took which led from Johnston Gardens to Walker Dam.  We walked along the back of houses and that path led out to the playing fields at the park.

By this time Daisy was dragging her little paws every so often, but cheered right up when I took her off her lead.  She threw herself into the leaves happily as I walked along beside her.

One of the (very few) good things about moving about so much is finding new areas that are really beautiful in our own home town.  I don’t know if we ever are coming back to Aberdeen to live, but I feel like if we do we will be able to cast a larger net over places to call home.

Greek Night



Reminds me of Cyprus

My Mum invited Mark and I out to our favourite restaurant for a little shin-dig on Friday night.  Our favourite place in town is an amazingly good Greek tavern.  Ever since my Mum took us on a sailing holiday around the Greek isles we have all been obsessed with Greek culture, food, erm…anything, so obviously since I was at Primary School I have only ever thought of going to one restaurant.  Mark found out pretty quickly that this was our go-to place and even had the first ‘meeting of the family’ there.

We picked everyone up and headed there for lots of delicious food and hearty laughs.  (And unlike the last time I was here with the girls there was no dancing on tables!)  They do the most amazing food and we are always stuffed by the end of the evening.  I love salty feta cheese and all of the chopped up peppers that go with the starter I always have.

I even planned some things to do with my family when I stop working next week.  This countdown is really speeding up now and is freaking me out a little bit.  I am trying to enjoy seeing everyone as much as possible and planning fun things to do is always a welcome break from fretting over the lack of plane tickets booked. 



Rolling Stone

Mark and I both woke up with stinking colds this morning, me at 3.15am and Mark shortly after.  We’ve been having dinner this week with my family as we have now moved into our second hotel during this move.  It’s been nice seeing everyone, but everyone is so very ill that we seem just to be passing the same bug around each other.  My Mums been looking after Daisy Dog and taking her for little walks in our absence - although I don’t think Mum is as tolerant of Daisy’s naughty streak!

Goodbye pretty beach apartment

The hotel is a little old and dated, but it’s the closest one to my family that accepts pets and is near to town and it’s for these things that I’m trying to be grateful.

The countdown is on for my last days at work which makes me sad about leaving everyone and such a great team, but also excited for what’s to come.  The girls in the office are having a leaving party for me and then we should hopefully be having another ‘Leaving Do’ which everyone will be invited to pop into.  I say hopefully because we may be leaving Aberdeen the day after I leave work, which just proves that things are getting really difficult to organise.

Let’s hope things start coming together soon!

What do you mean?

From The Telegraph newspaper

Finding some friends

Since finding out that Mark and I would be moving to Singapore I’ve taken it upon myself to read up on ways to meet people once out there.  Mark will have work and all of his new work friends, but I’m not walking into a job over there and remain a little bit frightened about meeting new people.  I’m naturally shy and with Mark being more confident than me I am normally very happy for him to go out and deal with things.

Now that we are about to find ourselves in a brand new country I will have to change.  Luckily I have had so much inspiration from many different blogs I’ve read about people finding friends abroad.  I don’t know how they did it, but it’s worked.  I can totally understand how people would form solid friendships when they are so far away from family and their own culture and really hope I can copy them.  So now, I guess, I just have to get out there.   

I have been looking at the British Association of Singapore which holds a coffee morning every so often and think that may be a good place to start.  Other than that I am fresh out of ideas…I may just be peeping out of windows trying to pounce on the neighbours when they are putting their rubbish out! 

Party Time

This weekend Mark and I were invited round to my Aunt and Uncles to have an early Birthday Tea for my Cousin who celebrates her Birthday in November, by which time we’ll be gone.  We were very excited as there aren’t many more days we’ll have as family events and it also meant that we’d be able to give out some of the presents that we’d got for everyone (and we’d been carting around in the car for weeks). 

When we arrived we knew something was up…..twinkly lights in the living room?  Sparkly decorations?  Christmas in October?

My cousin with Daisy

My wonderful family made it Christmas for us as we’d miss out this year.  We snapped crackers, ate too much, unwrapped presents, wore paper crowns, played charades and watched Strictly (this is non-negotiable).

This made me so sad as we are now on the last countdown of seeing people.  When we leave for Singapore we probably won’t see everyone until NEXT CHRISTMAS.  So, for now, I am trying to be positive and enjoy each of these events.

Things to do

While Mark will be busy working away as soon as we touch down in Singapore I will be a little bit more free to run errands, stock the fridge, get to know the area and get the banking sorted in his absence.  The list of things I know nothing about is gradually expanding, this is how it stands right now:

1.     We need to set up a savings account (or keep a bond in the UK)

2.     We need to set up a current account in Singapore

3.     Mark needs to make sure part of his salary goes to our direct debits in the UK (as we sponsor Truffle, a little guide dog in training)

4.     Join any clubs going

5.     Find some/any work

Hmm I think some will be way more difficult than others…

Pit and the Peak

I thought that in the run up to the big move I could do a Highs and Lows to go over everything as a good reminder that life is a) cyclical and b) pretty much very good, so here goes:

Lows

·         Marks working days are getting longer due to the move meaning less Mark and Daisy time for me.

·         The weather went from gorgeous bright blue skies and clear crisp days to rainy and damp in no time, c’mon autumn, I know you can do better!

·         Lots of injections-after having blood taken for the last two weeks and four injections at the medical I am full of puncture marks and not impressed.

·         We have been passed from pillar to post with our vets and have had to move as they had us really worried and paying for things that Daisy didn’t need….making us very cross!

Highs

·         Living in town and not paying massive fuel bills is great and makes our Dream Home fund grow larger quicker.

·         After finding a bunch of vouchers I had safely put away last year we have been having really nice food every night from M&S and lots of nice treats like hopefully going out for pizza later this week.

·         I’m having a girls night out on Friday as a last hurrah with some of my best friends before we move.

·         We’re having a family night together on Saturday as an early Birthday for my cousin.

·         We’re hopefully heading to one of the cafes at the beach for breakfast this weekend, where it will hopefully be such great weather we can take Daisy dog and sit outside.

Just waiting now

Daisy loves having a corner apartment to look out of

Mark and I are playing the waiting game now that we are in temporary accommodation and have no possessions or house to our name.  The hardest thing was definitely finding a place to live that would accept our little Daisy dog, so now that we have we shouldn’t complain too much that we have to move every week to another flat or hotel.  We’ve been a week in our current place and the novelty of town hasn’t worn off yet.  I’ve not been sleeping very well as the bed in so small and uncomfortable, but I love that I can wake up later and get into work at the same time.  We move on Sunday to our second hotel and then a little after that back into another apartment on the other side of town.  We still don’t have any flights booked  and we don’t know if we’ll even be in Aberdeen at the end of the month.  This is making planning my Leaving Do really quite difficult (I know this might sound spoilt, but these are my best friends and colleagues…). 

I feel really sorry for Daisy right now who is being such a trooper and not getting worked up or upset by all of this.  I think Daisy and I are just coming along for the ride with this trip as we are the last to know about anything that’s happening.  Mark is getting more and more work to do ahead of the move, and so whilst he is really busy with that Daisy and I have been going on plenty of nice walks and exploring each new area we live in.

I’m also playing the waiting game at work where I’m not being given any new work and so I have reverted back to plodding through older stuff and sorting files-you know the stuff you normally do at the end of the year?  It was never really super, super exciting, but this is just too samey.  I work as a project assistant right now and one of the projects that the team I work in was working on was accommodation for those who need more help getting back into society.  It’s such a pity I’m not going to be here to see it finished.

I leave work on Halloween and really hope that we’ll move right after that, I don’t want to be unemployed as well, I will have nothing to do seeing as I can’t even plan ahead for Christmas.  Who knows, we might not even have left the UK by then!

What does Daisy think of Moving?

Daisy has been taking all of her moves very well.  Before all of this Singapore talk she moved three times (5 if you include from her Westie Mummys and then her first family to her forever home with us).

 So I think Daisy is taking it better than me to be honest.  We love that our new place has a bit corner window.  Daisy and I can sit on the floor and watch the dark storm weather roll in over the sea whilst being cosy and safe!

 "Daisy, turn around, let us see you!"

"You know Mum, I like planning our next walk from up here, I can see exactly how far along the beach I want to walk!"

Christmas Shopping

The other day Holly, one of my friends, suggested we take a trip to Paula of Farnell, a cute little shop in Angus, which opens periodically selling Christmas decorations from mid autumn to mid winter.  Its the sort of shop you happen upon and then spend a good few hours at.  It has lots of things I love in it....twinkly lights, garlands and lanterns.

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Its in an old school house and is set within a picture perfect location just off a country road.  All the way down to it we were singing Christmas carols at the top of our voices while I half heartily looked at the map for directions.  We had taken the scenic route south which really meant much more opportunities to get lost!

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The whole shop is set up like a window display and you sort of just reach in and put what you like into your basket.  Seeing as we are temporary accommodation I was unable to really take anything much, my friend however, took a great many things...

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Everywhere you look is beautifully decorated, so it was a welcome break from shopping when our names were called to go through to the cafe and order some nice food.  One of the good things about this small shop is that you have to write your name down as you enter if you want to take a break at the cafe.  Because they then call your name when a table frees up you don't have to waste time hovering around.

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Its so warm and cosy and the perfect way to spend a late autumn day.  I am trying to squeeze as many Christmas things into my days as possible seeing as it'll all be so different so very soon.  On our way home we stopped in Montrose as Holly saw a statue of a dog.  She literally shouted "A DOG STATUE!", so we turned the car around to investigate.  The statue was actually for a dog called Bamse who lived during WW2 at was very kind and courageous.  You can read more about him here.

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Because we were so impressed by him we decided to visit his grave and once we finally found it we needed to find some pretty stones to put on it as everyone else had done the same.  Holly and I looked around on the beach for some stones and Holly found a really pretty heart shaped one, and I found one that was a nice colour.  We left it for Bamse along with some beach flowers and headed North again.  When we got back to our apartment we thought it would be funny to trick Mark and tell him I had bought all the things that Holly did.  We're not very good at telling fibs, he took one look at me and I burst out laughing.  At least what I did buy will easily fit in our luggage.

Me with the one thing I bought and Holly with her 'Mouse in a Box'

Temporary Home and a Very Good Treat

When we arrived at the hotel after moving out of our old house we were both exhausted and to be honest a little bit hyper.  It really hit home that we were moving away, that I wouldn’t see my possessions for a couple of months and that I was going to be unemployed in twenty days.  Mark had taken a half day with work needed to make some calls and suggested we ordered a sandwich from room service.  One perk was that we were staying in a really beautiful hotel which worked out much cheaper than travelling into Aberdeen straight away.  

However, after so much stress in the last two days I came over a little high maintenance and with a little persuasion from me, Mark agreed that we’d have afternoon tea in the drawing room.  All I meant to say was that I didn’t like the look of any of the sandwiches.  I don’t normally eat anything at lunch time, but after a hectic morning and long walk I really wanted something.  I therefore (and this is my story so I’m sticking to it) needed something tastier than a boring old sandwich.  In my defence, Mark didn’t need too much convincing!  

We settled down in the drawing room-which we were allowed to take Daisy into and I read a paper whilst Mark got some work done.  As we had only just missed the official ‘afternoon tea time’ they had to go power up the ovens to make us a fresh batch of everything.  I happily waited and had a look around our grand old country house for the evening before our tea came.  After Daisy and I had eaten way more than we should have I took her for another long walk in the beautiful gardens and then had a nap before Dinner.  I certainly think we’ve deserved it!

Moving Day

the path near the house

 Well, that was it!  Mark and I are officially homeless, we no longer call anywhere in Aberdeen or Aberdeenshire our home and are vagabonds!  Yesterday the movers came and started packing up all of our belongings.  They took about 6 hours on the first day and got the majority of work done.  Mark had been really stressed out by the move before yesterday, but on Monday it was my turn to freak out good and proper. 

our old view

some of our old neighbours

Mark had worried that there wasn’t enough done or cleared away in time for them packing up.  We had a car boot sale a couple of weeks ago and had gotten rid of quite a lot of junk that I had kept about the house.  I’d also put a car full of clothes away to a charity shop so I certainly think we’d tried our best to shed the excess junk we inevitably carry around on each move.

looking back towards our house

However part of this good work was undoubtedly undone when on the previous night I insisted on going to Tesco to stock pile toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner.  Mark got carried away too and we bought 12 shaving sticks for him as well as some razors.  I’m more than sure Singapore has these things, but I’ve heard they can be on the expensive side.

Look Mum, sheep!

I remember thinking that this would be the easiest move so far, but oh my gosh was I wrong.  Mark found me at one point hiding in the garage (it is just TOO weird to have people you don’t know pack up everything you own in the world and take it away from you whilst you make them cups of tea and stand awkwardly in your own ‘home’).  

My Uncle came over to pick something up once the movers had left for the day so we had to entertain in an empty and extremely un-cosy/welcoming house!  There were a couple of odd glasses left in a drawer the movers hadn’t gotten too, and as we’d been running down stores in anticipation of the move we broke into a box of chocolates that we were going to give to our neighbours.  (Don’t worry, we will replace them!)

The next day was a little better, one- because Mark was here for the whole day and the movers spent less time with us and two- because since the TV was one of the first things to be packed up we headed off to bed super early.  Mark let me abandon ship and I got to take Daisy dog out for a nice long walk.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and a real treat to be at home on such a day.  When I worked part time I used to always grab my camera and go on great long walks along beaches and hillsides at our old house, so being able to take an autumnal stroll and find new paths to follow calmed me down no end.

Once the movers had pulled out of the drive (for the second time-they originally left something behind and we had to call them back!) the postman came with my Halloween swap parcel from my other blog.  I opened up all of my little packages and was really touched by how thoughtful and beautiful the handmade items were. 

We then ran about picking up any rubbish, vacuuming and dusting so that we wouldn’t have much to do when we came back to clean it up officially for the handover back to the landlord.  After a busy couple of days we were more than happy to quickly pack up our few remaining belongings and headed off to the hotel we’d be spending the night in.  Let me just say I was very ready for someone else to do the cooking and take care of us!

Moving continued (Temporary Accomodation)

Daisy trying not to stress

As part of our proposed moved we knew we would have to move out of our house as there would be nothing it in!

My employer agreed to 30 days temp Accomodation. The movers and packers are coming on Monday and Tuesday. This means that we have a hotel n Tuesday night as our serviced apartment was not available until Wednesday. We are moving into the city which Sheila is delighted with. Means that we will have every facility on our door step!

We have a busy weekend ahead getting everything ready for the movers but it should then be plain sailing from mid next week!