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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