Tour Lady

OK, so this is the grand tour of our new home!  This is the living room from the corner of the house.  There's just another sofa behind me and the window to the front garden.  Please excuse the mess....erm, there really isn't a good enough excuse, just that jet lag is evil!

Just turning around a wee bit so you can see the hallway slightly... 

all of our lovely leaving cards (and a bit of a view to the patio)... 

Looking out of the window to the front garden...ahem, excuse the camera flash

the dining room.....

going through to the kitchen.....

(which is a bit messy....please note the bottle of cleaning spray-at least I'm trying)

and back into the hallway at the front door

So you can already see we've been to Ikea!

Heading back out onto the patio...

Just need to rearrange this so we have more room for lounging...

although we do need to move this furniture...unless it comes in handy when we get a pool?

which will hopefully go right here (it'll be above ground so should be easier to drop anywhere)

but the garden is a good size so we could put it elsewhere if need be (once we move the goal posts)

I don't have the energy to walk about yet so I don't know how there were children running about here before us!

OK that's the tour over!

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!"

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!

We have our address & telephone number!!!

Well, we now have our address and telephone number!!

We are going to be allocated a three bedroomed house on Sandwich Road which is located in the really nice area of Medway Park! This is a very exciting development!

Lists

Whilst Mark has been really busy organising things for the move, i.e. the actual move and how it will be choreographed, I’ve been really busy organising a list of things I want to do in Singapore when we finally get there.  (I’ve got priorities too you know…)  Having went to library school I am an avid reader and a supporter of libraries in general and public ones specifically.  I have ordered up every book in the system on Malaysia, Asia and Singapore.  I want to know about the cultures and religions in Asia, places to visit, the history and pretty much anything else I can find.  I have a list of places I want to visit from local parks and architecture to trips we can seemingly easily make to further away destinations.

I’ve also been reading up on the area we’ll be living in, and trying to find out more about that.  It’s in an area that has lots of educational establishments and which I think might keep me a bit connected with home seeing as from the ages of 4 to 24 I was in education and then worked in public libraries attached to schools afterwards.  I always make resolutions for the New Year in September and not January as I’m so used to new beginnings in autumn.  So being the true geek that I am I have been trying to find out about our new neighbourhood so we can ‘hit the ground running’ and not feel out of place for too long. 

I found out that someone holds a tour in it which is quite exciting and makes me really hope it’s nice, although I don’t think it’s a real ‘black and white’ like they say in the tour.  I kind of get the impression someone has just taken some black paint to a nice house!  However, it is still a really nice house and I love that our new home is connected to nature and I get to have a garden.  I also found a blog that mentioned walking routes in the area and so will try to have a walk when I am more used to the heat.  We don’t have a pool like Marks colleague does, but Mark has been looking up how easy it will be to build one when we’re out there.  For something we will use every single day I don’t think it will be that expensive.

I’m quite glad that we aren’t having to pick a place to live ourselves as we had originally thought.  It seemed to get quite stressful and was a lot of pressure to choose a home for the next two years from the other side of the world.  All decisions are being taken out of our hands and we can focus on getting ourselves (and belongings) over in one piece.            

Time will tell

Hello, Hello, Sheila here I thought I would actually do a post instead of lurking around just reading lots of Singapore blogs and letting Mark do all the writing.  I have been extremely touched by some kind emails I have received whenever I have commented on peoples blogs.  I have been given lots of advice, or more links to help us and offers of trips and tours so that I can start to find my way even though I’m far from family.

I thought I would list out some things I am excited about and worried about in the hope that all of the exciting things don’t disappoint and all of the things that cause concern turn out to be irrational…here goes:

Things I am worried about:

1.    I really hope that I can start to meet people and form friendships, as I have a really good circle of friends here in Scotland.

2.    I’m freaking out in case I ‘get’ culture shock and end up quite irrational.  This post from The Expat Bostonians explains and I don’t want to  look back at this amazing opportunity and remember being cross and unhappy.

3.    Our little dog Daisy who I really hope doesn’t get too upset on the move.

Our little cottage

Things I am excited about:

1.    The opportunity to travel to amazing destinations we would never have visited from Scotland.  I can’t wait to take full advantage of the airport and ferry links.

2.    Living in the biggest house I’ve ever stayed in.

3.    Being in  a big city.

4.    Being able to save more money for wherever we eventually buy a home of our own.

A little info about our proposed living area

We’ve been trying to find out as much about our new area as possible now that we finally know where we are moving to.  Apparently it is an ex-military area and was the residence for Non Commissioned Officers and Officers.  Our new home will be the biggest we have ever stayed in and looks really pretty from the outside.  We can’t wait to decorate it for Christmas time.

“Dover is a relatively small neighbourhood of Singapore, located in Queenstown. It is south of Ghim Moh and north of Kent Ridge. It is often a noted location due to the sheer number of educational facilities it holds, while lying in a zone between Singapore's central business district in the Central Area and her industrial zone in the vicinity of Jurong. The general geographical area is classified under the Queenstown Planning Area by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and is a few kilometres away from Queenstown itself.

The Dover neighbourhood was formerly a British military and residential area. Hence, many road names in the area are derived from English (specifically Kentish) place names. For example, those in Medway Park off Dover Road include names associated with the southern coastal areas of England, including Folkestone and Maidstone, apart from Dover itself. The name "Dover" is from the Celtic word meaning "The Waters", alluding to the English Channel. Medway Park, for instance, is named after the River Medway, which marks the middle of Kent. Interestingly, Kent is the nearest English county to Singapore.”

Wiki Info

More accommodation updates......

Well, things really are gathering pace! I now have a Liaison Officer looking at supporting us in the run up to our relocation. I have sent off our housing requirement forms and from the information I now have we are going to have a very nice split level house with garden and possibly a pool! But it gets better, because of my "Diplomatic Status" I also have the option of taking my car over which is going to be a major boost for us!

I have a 50 page document from my L.O, when I have had a look through this I hope to pull out the useful stuff and post it in the blog!

The houses are all the same and here are the pictures of the house my colleague has just signed for!

Accommodation Update

Well, it looks like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has agreed to provide diplomatic housing to us! This is going to save us a heap of time and it means that the house should be ready and waiting for us when we get there. From what I've been told these are all in a green area, on one level, have a garden but more importantly we could opt for one with a pool as long as we agree to take care of the pool maintenance! This is a massive step forward and a bit of a relief if truth be told. Hope to post a few pics soon.