The start of Thursday, day 6 was spent lazing about in the morning. Mid-afternoon around 4pm I set out to meet up with Wai Loong and Hendra, friends of mine from uni. We caught up over Portugese tarts and ying-yong tea (coffee mixed with tea). Both of them are parents of two kids and counting, and both are very established in their careers.

Like with all of my friends here, they too asked me “when are you coming to Singapore?” The difference this time was that Wai Loong mentioned that his company may have a position for me. That got me excited a bit and I began to think of the possibilities. Then I thought I shouldn’t get too carried away for now because I still have to send in my resume and have interviews with them.

Which is why I haven’t told my parents yet, even after they rang to wish me happy birthday 2 days later. Unless of course, they are reading this now! Hi mom and dad!

In the mean time, I’m also thinking of what I’ll be missing from Perth - friends and family foremost including Snoop my Staffordshire Terrier, the easy-going and laid-back lifestyle, my car and the freedom to drive everywhere at anytime. But I’ll be gaining valuable life and working experience if I make the move.

The next day, Friday, Yvonne and I met up with Robert for lunch. Then we had kaya on toast, and butter with sugar on toast with tea. Foods which are traditionally breakfast food, but has become trendy snacks.

That night we were heading to Movida at St James (again!). But before that, Vincent, Robert and I had dinner at Kopitiam in the basement of Vivo City.

I had the fried prawn mee (thanks Dreymer!) - it’s tangy and sourish from the squeezed lime, with a smokey flavour that you can only get from a big hot wok. I think at this stage of my trip, “yum” is a superfluous term by now.

At Movida, Latin girls make me happy.

People who joined us at Movida include Boon, Vincent’s cousin who’s a fellow Perthite and is now working in London, my cousin Yvonne and Vincent’s friend Irene.

Thanks to the copious amount of alcohol, including shooters and flaming lamborghinis …

Many happy faces were induced.

And because it was my birthday, I got smashed and woke up really hung over the next morning. Sorry, no incriminating pictures here! Move along now!

The next day around 12pm, the trooper that I am, I headed to Blinkymummy’s place to hang out. Being hungover and squeezed in together with people of various odours and smells, on a swaying and rocking train was an interesting experience.

We had take-away chicken rice, wine and then tea. I always feel blessed to have friends where doing nothing together is fun. I played with her cats, browsed Cracked and cracked up together, and we talked about my potential move, and potential things to watch out for living in Singapore.

Time flies when you are having fun … before I knew it, it was time to head back to Rob’s place to get ready for dinner and another night out in the city. This night’s festivities was spent at Roomful of Blues.

It was situated on a road occupied by various other refurbished shophouses.

With epic glasses of Hoegaarden, a pretty waitress and an energetic and enthusiastic Jazz band performing, we all had a great time.

I spent my 4th day in Singapore, Christmas Day lazing about in Rob’s apartment. I think I needed it after the previous night’s drinking. I ate, I read, I drank and I blogged. The hours flew by before it was dinner time!

We took a short taxi ride to the nearby ABC Hawker Centre (they ran out of names?). For our dinner we had grilled sambal stingray, chilli clams, fried radish cake, stir-fried choy sum and big ass glasses of sugarcane juice. We were quite stuffed by the end of it. All for less than SGD 50!

After dinner, we walked to the Ikea store nearby to work off the calories and also for some eye-candy. Hahah! Err yeah.

On Boxing Day, June and her fiance JZ took me to Beach Road for Singaporean Prawn Mee. It’s similar to the way it’s served in Penang, except they also come in a dry version. I had that because I’ve never tried it before. Yum.

Over lunch, shopping, and coffee after, we caught up with each other’s lives (they will marry in March) and how it has changed since the Perth days when we lived together in the same house. We are still the same people but in vastly changed circumstances now. Time may have flown by in a flash (we stayed together in 2001-2002) but I’m glad that we are still the same people to each other.

Night time came and my cousin Yvonne and I meet up with Nadia (a.k.a nadnut) at Raffles Place MRT to have dinner nearby. Nadia said that we were going to a cafe where a reader of mine works, and the reader turned to be rationalneurotic.

After dinner, we sojourned to Harry’s at Boat Quay for drinks. It was a very nice spot.

I’ve exchanged emails with Nadia before and I’ve seen how she looks and heard how she sounds on her blog, so there were no hidden surprises there. She was exactly how I imagined her.

RN on the other hand was a mystery even though we had exchanged emails previously. But a pleasant mystery it was! She reveled me with stories of her relationships, and as the night wore on, seedy sexual hypotheticals. Hahah! Yeah it’s a “you have to be there” kinda thing.

Thanks for showing me and my cousin a good night out, Nadia/RN!

See Nadia’s thoughts of this night, along with some funny pictures. Really.

The day started with Blinkymummy and GF taking me to Holland Village for lunch. Holland Village reminded of Bangsar in KL with its eclectic mix of yuppie shops, antique and hip furniture shops, boutiques, nail and facial salons, and eateries. Except I would say that the parking at Holland V is way better organised than that of Bangsar’s.

Being the anti-yuppies that we are, we ate at the local hawker centre. We had Katong laksa (yum), Singapore fried kuay-teow (yum), and curry chicken with rice (yum).

After lunch, we went walking around an old-school shopping mall - the layout, the narrow corridors, the seemingly unsystematic mish-mash of shops, and even the smell of the air-conditioning, all of which brought back fond memories of my childhood.

When we left Holland Village, we also took a drive around more yuppiefied goodness - Dempsey Village with its “atas” restaurants, wine bars, antique furniture shops, and a super expensive looking salon.

Then we headed towards Novena Square to visit BM’s entrepreneurial friend, Daniel who opened a place called “Bread Bar” that sells unique variations of the traditional Chinese snack called “youtiao“. They are basically deep-fried dough sticks. We shared a couple of sticks and had some soy-milk drink.

As a fellow engineer who went into the F&B business briefly, I understand and admire Daniel’s entrepreneurial spirit.

Suitably stuffed from lunch and the youtiaos, I got dropped home to rest up a bit before the festivities that were to follow that night.

For dinner, Rob and I headed to the nearby hawker centre (can’t get enough of hawker centres) for some grub to charge up for our partying ahead. I had chicken rice (again) with teh-ping, an iced tea drink.

After heading back for a quick shower, it was on to Bellini Room at St James Power Station. Rob and I had to be there real early at 9:30pm to secure the table which we had reserved.

BM and GF arrived about an hour later. The four of us had a great time chatting about the different working cultures of Singapore and Australia, how the women and their attitudes compare, and our jobs (Rob works with one of BM’s exes, and is going to his wedding - freaking small world).

With alcohol being plied, and the place getting more crowded and noisy we started to get into the partying mode.

Later in the night, the other old school friend of mine from Perth, Vincent (left) turned up with some of his colleagues and friends. The three of us have known each other for almost 20 years. Here’s to our friendship ever lasting!

BM and GF left shortly before 1am, and Rob and I parted ways with Vincent sometime around 2pm. We then headed to this place near Keong Saik Road which sells porridge. By now you would realise that porridge or rice congee is a favourite supper food for the Chinese.

After supper we headed home and crashed. ‘Twas a good night, shared with friends old and new - relatively speaking anyway because I’ve now known BM for 2 years and a bit. Here’s her entry of the events on this same day.

On Saturday night we headed out to St. James Power Station, so-called because it was a power station which has now been refurbished into a complex of very hip and stylish inter-connecting clubs with different themes. An awesome concept - I love it!

I’ve been here once before in November last year when I checked out Dragon Fly - the Chinese pop songs theme room. They have cover bands and singers performing Canto and Mando-pop songs, with dancers on a big rock stage. I felt very Chinese in there - it was great!

After that, we checked out the Latin room - Movida. The immediate thing that struck us? The singers on stage. Latin girls, latin girls. Mmm.

And Latin music is so infectuous - I moved parts of my body which I never moved before. Or at least I think I moved them anyway. Other people around me might have been wondering wtf is he doing?! Hahah!

This is the bar in Movida. V. pretty.

We had so much fun in there that we thought we’d try our luck and book a table for NYE. At first, one waiter gave me the card for his manager and asked me to call the next morning. Give up? Never! So I flag down another waiter and asked the same question and bingo! We got a table for NYE! Woohoo!

Next up on our crawl was Bellini Room - the jazz theme club.

As the night wore on, or should I say as the alcohol got piled on (we shared a bottle of Jack Daniel, with green-tea mixers), we felt more and more festive. I remember singing along to the lounge singer’s rendition of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”.

They tried to make me go to rehab
I said no, no, no.

Very loudly I might add.

We had so much fun in here too that we thought, “Hey! Let’s ask for a table for Xmas Eve!” Got talking to a waitress and booyakasha - we got a table for Xmas Eve! Tonight! Woohoo! What dumb luck we have.

In our high, happy and drunken state we hopped into a taxi to head into Geylang - Singapore’s famous red-light district - for … frog porridge. And yes the thought of availing ourselves with the services of professional working women did cross our minds. I would be lying (and not a man) if I said otherwise.

Anyways, frog porridge is yum - what does it look like???

A piece of chicken really and it tastes like it too. We ordered one with ginger and spring onion and the kung-pao one. Kung pao one was super hot!

Geylang is not only famous for being the red-light district of Singapore but it also has a lot of good restaurants and eateries. Food and sex - two of our most basic needs.

After the food, I took Rob on a tour (ironic since I’m the tourist) of the infamous Geylang lanes where the women stand in a row along the street. I told Rob that if he gets tempted, just say so and I will wait for him at a nearby kopitiam. Hahah! But we both settled with just gawking and looking at the women - some of whom are very pretty.

Later at home, a cold shower was very much needed.

Day 2 was a very sedate affair compared to the previous day’s shenanigans. I headed out to my cousin’s place and spend the afternoon and evening with her parents and her husband. And I enjoyed it thoroughly. I have always been a very family-oriented person so I enjoy every single bit of time I get to spend with my relatives.

The day consisted of catching up with news about almost every single person in our large extended family (mom has 9 siblings), whilst watching TV and having drinks and munchies. Simple things in life are really the best.

After a nice home-cooked dinner, I sat on the porch with my uncle and discussed Malaysian politics with him. Even though I’m now Australian, I still get moved by the problems and frustrations that my uncle relates to me. Singapore is great but if Malaysia ever gives its ethnic minorities a fair go, it can be just as good if not better. But that will probably not happen in our life times. Shame really.

Then we caught a Manchester United vs. Everton match on TV. Not being a football fan, I enjoyed it actually. It was probably the company, and watching and hearing my uncle and cousin-in-law shouting at the TV.

After that, I headed back to Rob’s place on the MRT. And so ended Day 2.

I landed late last night, and by now I’ve already ate, drank and perved. Here’s a quick recap. Blinkymummy picked me up at the airport at around 10:30pm and we went to have Teochiew porridge at Oasis.

I got back to Rob’s place two hours later and had some beers with him and another highschool friend from Perth, Vinnie. We caught up with each other and chatted till about 2am. By then I was totally exhausted and crashed. And stupidly I forgot to change the timezone on my phone and set the alarm for what I thought would be 11:30. Instead I actually woked up at 10:30am Singapore time. Darn you, Australian daylight savings!

No matter. We shared a plate of fried kuay teow for breakfast, relaxed and showered before heading out for lunch and perving, and also to get my prepaid SIM card and changed some money. Word of advice to would-be travellers - change most of your money at the city that you are holidaying in. The rates work out a heck of a lot better.

We had chicken rice at the food hall in Bugis Junction, and then some frappacinos at Starbucks on Orchard and people watched. We also did the touristy thing and went by the gigantic Christmas tree in Ngee Ann City.

After a spot of grocery shopping, we headed home. Tonight we should be having some seafood - chilli crabs maybe - and then heading out to either Clarke Quay or St. James Powerstation. Most likely we are heading to St. James because Rob’s a member to something at United Overseas Bank that entitles him to bring in two guests for free to any of the clubs at the complex.

More drinks and perving tonight then. Yay!

I’ll be in Singapore till the 2nd of January, 2008. While I’m there, I will be meeting up with friends old and new, going out partying and drinking, and eating lotsa yummy food so I should have lotsa pictures to show and stories to tell.

Blogging may or may not be sporadic … ah heck, who am I kidding?! Of course I’ll be blogging! The best way to know when I’ve updated is to create yourself a feed reader account (Bloglines or Google Reader) and subscribe to my RSS feed.

If that is too much hassle, you can also receive my updates via email.

My friend Robert in Singapore was kind enough to offer his place to stay at for my entire trip. Him and I go a long way back. He was the first other Malaysian migrant kid that I met on my first scary day in high school here. So that would mean that we’ve known each other for close to 20 years now. Along the way, we went to different unis, worked in different parts of the city, and then he’d move to Sydney for a couple of years. And now he’s working in Singapore.

It’s pretty amazing that we are still good chums and have not lost touch.

Among the gifts that I bought for him include a DVD of “The Castle” - one of the quintessential movies about Australian life and it happens to be bloody funny as well. This is to remind Robert how the Aussie accent sounds like and the proper social context to say things like, “Tell him he’s dreaming!”

The other is a stubby holder. For my non-Aussie readers, it’s basically a piece of insulated foam for holding your cold beer cans or bottles in. It keeps your hands dry and your drinks cold. Top Aussie icon! And I chose the word “Bugger!” on it because Robert likes to say “bugger” a lot. In fact, it never ceases to amuse me to see that word constantly fly out of a Chinese face. High-larious.

Thanks Rob and seeya real soon!