New House, New Life... Perhaps.

I'm finally calm and rested enough to finally sit down on a proper chair, in front of a proper desk with a lamp and someone else's internet (As usual), and type this all out. As I finish this sentence, the internet which I'm piggybacking on wavers and disconnects like, 200 times. Oo, did I mention that there's a monster of a grasshopper sitting next to me? He's about TTTTHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS long. Heh.

I swear or house can be the new Insect Safari of Carmody Road. We've had 3 grasshoppers, 2 cockroaches including a baby one in our grilled chicken today, about 2938 moths, 82927 mosquitoes and random flying things, and probably 6-7 resident lizards. Not to mention the whole family of spiders I swept away this morning who built their empire behind our shoe rack in a short 2 days. I swear, it's like the bugs just nest and build homes on anything that doesn't move for more than 24 hours!

As horrid, scary, creepy, eeky or what ever it sounds, it's still an awesome home. I guess after spending the last 21 years of my life living in various high rise places far from soil/ground is finally coming back to hit me now. Isn't it amazing how different 2 countries can be? I went for this survey job last Saturday whereby we knocked on the doors of houses in a low SES community. In my mind, I was initially thinking, 'what d'ya mean poor?? These people live on LANDED property and have CARS'

Then again the poor in India live in landed properties in slums and have bicycles too.

I'll be honest and say that these few days have been rather traumatic. My bed feels funny, the room is not like the breezy, massive IH one and everything I have is either stuffed in a random box somewhere or hidden among lumps of stuff. And I sorely need my private chillout space to just nuah, or play the guitar, or pluck my eyebrows, or stare at my own reflection and reflect (haha pun intended). None. I'm just living by the moment from day to day.

But then again it isn't that bad, my housemate's pretty cool and capable at doing plenty of stuff. Much to my delight.

I want my mummy... =( All you who read this,

GO HUG YOUR MUMMY/DADDY/SIBLING/GRANDPARENT NOW AND GIVE THEM THE APPRECIATION THEY DESERVE.

GO!!!

The ironic inefficiency

AFter spending a year overseas, (well, to be honest, it works out to be about 8 months only), one of the most notable differences between the easterners and westerners is this: Efficiency. Looking at these different Asian civilisations; Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, one thing comes to mind. These people are incredibly efficient. Well, at least for most of the time. Internet connections are everywhere, and are at the speed of light. Such that the term 'Broadband' or 'Dialup' is such a thing of the past that we can no longer imagine any country still depending on these connections. Phillippines still uses dialup, and my now-pseudo-home Australia primarily uses Broadband connections. (I've probably whined about this countless times as to how we have a limited data quota every month) Hello, all the iPhone users in Singapore now have data plans of 12Gb a month (which essentially is limitless considering how much that can actually get you on a phone!). And there I was in Brisbanem, surviving on 5Gb for the entire semester (proud to say that I didn't even finish that 5Gb!)

Anyways, here's the ironic thing I've noticed ever since I've been back. We pride ourselves how efficiently we do things. How we're so small and well connected that we can reach the other end of the island in less than an hour. How we can get phonelines, internet lines or television channels set up in less than 2 days. How we can cook obtain a meal from the nearest hawker centre in less than 10 minutes and how out NTUC cashiers can scan so furiously and bag so quickly you wouldn't even know what hit you. But here's the thing, smses in Aus cost 15 cents each, whilst they cost nothing here. So when I came back this time, sms-ing people was such a PAIN because it ends up taking people 10 smses to conclude that: "Ok, we shall meet at 2pm at Bugis."

Why is this so? Because people just simply reply without initiating something progressive. When are you free? tmr. Shall we meet? ok. What time is good for you and where? I got school in the morning.

This alone takes up 3 smses each, in Ozzie cents/sense (pun intended), 45 cents. repeat this process several times and low and behold, lotsa marnie wasted. Not ot mention time and precious thumb action. I hate sms-ing. And I thought that if I called people, I'd get the job done quicker. Ironically again, NO. Nobody calls anymore! Out of 5 calls I make, 4 will be unsuccessful cos people no longer look at their phones expecting calls. People expect only smses, which free you from the obligation of immediate answering and decision making.

I can't wait to go back to the world of phonecalls.