Intro

Hello Campers on the planet,
In order to keep a modicum of contact, to pass on some things that have happened, and perhaps to irritate with the prospect of a non-personalised Xmas greeting, this is Hazian's year end "all the news fit to print" scribble.

This was the year of the credit crunch/the cash crash/the drop of capitalism as we have known it; the year when we almost made it back to UK and the year of found ourselves back where we started. So, want to know more .... read on.

For a leap year it seemed that more than 1 day has been added on - the stresses and strains of work have taken a toll on Ian this coupled with the uncertainty of what we want/need to do next- it has been a long year filled with very little in the way of recreational travel. Sometimes we feel we are bending under the strain bit like this bit of tree in Sri Lanka during a Xmas break a few years ago

In the beginning ...

The year began with Emma visiting us in Singapore where we had a fairly usual Xmas with food, some frolic and at least a semblance of family life for a few days. At least it was a bit of a change weatherwise(see pic) from one of her earlier visits to her wandering parents. She is now a team leader working for Kingston University in the Science Faculty Course Admin. Dept. and, though pretty challenging is an improvement (at least in terms of salary) on her post at the RAD. The year has also been very fulfilling for her in London after 4 years hard slog after work she was awarded a 2.1 Open degree from the Open University so now she has experience plus a qualification, so is hoping that this will push her up the job ladder - she is contemplating a career in marketing!

Other hols

As well as the western hols like Xmas we have, of course, Chinese New Year which saw the usual muted response from Singapore - lots of street activity with people milling around not taking up the commercial opportunities on offer and the routine damp squib of the severely-controlled firecrackers ( Government here seems to think that unbridled use of firecrackers in the traditional way would lead to rascally mischievious behaviour harmful to the public peace - or some such official reason. Thus a licence is required for every use of said festive toy). But I suppose it counts as somewhat exotic although holding the main festivities in a "Chinatown" in the middle of Asia makes it seem much more Western than you would think.



The other event which we like is Deepavali (Diwali in Europe I believe) and this year it was a bit of a washout but still wonderfully colourful and is one of the festivals where you do not see so much of the tacky consumerist side of Singapore intruding. I suppose if you are into that sort of thing it is quite "spiritual" and makes you go all gooey about the religious aspect of life for a few seconds.

Other years, other places

We have been fortunate in that we have had some fairly interesting holidays in the places we have been. In Jordan we spent a wonderful few weeks driving through the country from Amman to Aqaba and back stopping off at places like Jerash, Madaba and Mount Nebo which as can be seen in the middle photo can be a little blowy around the December time of year.



A few years ago now we had an extended stay in Sri Lanka which has some wonderful things going for it apart from civil strife and Hazel got the opportunity to walk through a crack in a rock!


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This year it looks like we are going back to Sarawak to hang out with some swingers (sorry!)

"Home" to "Home"

The major traumatic event of this year has been our move from our "home" in Oei Tiong Ham Park to a much less atmospheric and more expensive flat on the East Coast. So much of what has happened to us happened in Oei Tiong. It is so hard to see it now as a shell which no one will ever live in again. The place is going to be torn down and probably used for one of these mass density private apartment blocks which now due to the downturn will either never be built and will probably lose money if it ever does.


Ho hum. Our new place is nice enough as can be seen by the balcony shot below but not quite home - no matter what magic Hazel weaves with her home-making skills. It is however on the East Coast of Singapore so it means that we are quite close to the beach and can walk along in the evening watching the sun set behind the thousands of ships waiting to offload or upload from the Singapore Port - although this has also been hit by the global crisis.



We also sold up the house we had purchased in the Borders (before the whole housing market stalled) so now we have to put our thinking caps on again, in terms of where we want to end up.

Try, try, again

We also had a try at coming back to UK in September but in the end circumstances did not work with us. The idea was that Hazel would stay in UK from September and I would join her after the New Year. We did manage to rent a flat in Mortlake, an area we both liked (near to the church in the picture - which houses the tent-shaped grave of Sir Richard Burton) but what with the downturn and the uncertainty of getting work, we had to pack up the place before Xmas. So we are now looking at what the next move might be. We have been in Singapore for over 10 years now and perhaps anywhere is intimidating to move to after that time. Getting older also means to some degree we don't like too much disruption - so whatever we do next will have to take account of that as well as the employment situation for us both.

Back to the Routine

So, all too soon it will be back to the daily commute






With occasional trips out and about to places like the zoo


(By the way these tigers are officially "man-eaters" as can be seen in this article)

or the Bird Park


while keeping the cat entertained ....