so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu..

after 18 months in singapore the time has come for me to say goodbye.

it's been a bumpy ride - full of ups and downs - but most of all a journey of learnings and i leave singapore as a (slightly) different elin. i've visited places i didn't even know existed, met people from so many different cultures and backgrounds and accomplished things i didn't think i had the ability to.

so thank you, singapore and the people i've met over the past year and a half, for enriching my life. i hope to see you again soon!

oh my lip!

i'm piercing-less. after 15 years. so strange. i honestly thought i would never ever take it out and only just recently thought about how funny it would be to walk around with a piercing at the age of 70. but (there is always a but, right?)..

it started maybe a week ago. my lip felt a bit soar. didn't think much about it. yesterday morning i woke up and the lip was swollen. made some saline to clean it, went to the pharmacy to buy chlorhexidine and antiseptic mouth wash. despite all of this, the lip just became bigger and bigger. angelina jolie wouldn't stand a chance if we were to compare. only one side though.

went to bed around 1.30am and had then decided to go to a piercing studio the following day to get a longer stud as it would never heal when the piercing was so tight. woke up again at 4am. the lip was even more swollen than before and i could hardly see the piercing. realised i had to take it out, but couldn't as it was impossible to get a good grip to unscrew it. besides, i thought i would probably need some medication for the infection.

so at 5am i decided to go to the emergency. luckily, it was all empty and got to see a nurse and then a doctor straight away. then had two people faffing around in my mouth with tweezers and finally managed to get it out. in true singapore "give as many different pills as possible" spirit, i got some antibiotics, some anti-inflammatory and some pain killers.

i've started taking the pills, but the lip is still really swollen. but at least i got to try something new, never been to the emergency before. oh the joys!

this is how it looked when i got back from the emergency this morning..

the end of the world?

it's rainy season. again. just like this time last year. i had just forgotten how much it actually rains. there is not a day that goes by without at least one massive rain. the other week, we had another of the end of the world moments.

 this is how it looked at 4.20 in the afternoon.. and just so you know, the sun doesn't set until 7pm (this is with an instagram filter so it wasn't quite as bad, but still pretty bad..)

 without filter..

after a while my house seemed to be in the middle of the storm. the thunder was constant and the lightning so frequent it was almost like a disco light. i'm normally not afraid of the thunder, but this was scary and of course i had to make a video.

don't miss the last 20 seconds!

and this is what it looked liked after the storm had cleared, around 6pm..

probably the most clever person in the world..

about a month ago, the uk announced they were out of the recession. as happy as that made me, i still feared the pound would get stronger and the exchange rate drop so that my singapore dollars would be worth less when the time came for me to go back.

luckily, just a couple of days before this declaration, i had completed the registration for a money transferring service. in panic and of course without looking further into facts and figures, i went in to check the development of the exchange rate. to my despair, it turned out the pound was getting stronger against the singapore dollar. despite very rarely being an impulsive person, i quickly made the decision to take action and order a transfer straight away.

i changed my money on thursday the 1st november at 11am.

now, nearly a month later, i can almost laugh at the outcome of my sudden impulsivity. i guess a career in the currency exchange business would not really be my thing..

bridget jones?

think i might be turning in to bridget jones. there are a few reasons..

1. my work phone doesn't display if there are any messages so a couple of times a day i pick up the phone to check. 99 times out of 100 i get the same answer: 'you have no new messages'

2. a couple of weeks ago i went to thailand over the weekend. the week after i got an email from my boss. he was worried and had pictured me in a thai jail, him having to come and post bail. unfortunately, he's no mark darcy (and i didn't end up in jail either, just for the record)

3. on the flight to thailand i had made myself comfortable with my silly, pass the time book called 'the perfect man' when a group of guys got on the plane. and of course they had the seats next to mine.. pretty embarrassing when one of the guys asked what i was reading. felt a bit like a bridget jones moment

4. nothing new, but i do love a good rom com

luckily, i have yet to sit at home alone in my pjs, singing along to 'all by myself', getting stupid drunk on absolut vodka. might change though as takenori left me a bottle when he went back to new york and i still haven't drunk it.

lift language

i've always thought lifts spoke very 'neutrally', but have met a couple of lifts recently who speak dialect..

for example, my lift in singapore says:

ferste floor

(this means first floor and i'm incredibly happy i normally just go between the second and the fifth floor as this pronounciation drives me insane)

and the lift at my hotel in london has the following accent:

doors closingk, lift goingk op

very interesting.. 

mjukstart

i have this theory that the closer you get to something, the stronger you feel about it. like the closer you get to your sky dive, the more terrified (or some crazy people would say excited) you get, the closer you get to your job interview or client presentation, the more nervous you get, and so on.

it's the same with things you long for and look forward to.

the closer i get to friday, the more i long for it to come. because friday is the day when i fly back to europe for over five weeks - a bit of holiday, a bit of training and a (bigger) bit of work. can't wait!

been away for quite a while now so felt i needed what we call a "mjukstart" in sweden:

 started a couple of weeks ago with swedish meetballs

 kopparbergs cider to celebrate the swedish national day 6th june (note the blue and yellow)

rekorderlig cider at the beerfest

how to turn a simple matter into something complicated..

some things in life are just plain and simple. no matter how much you try, you just can't make them complicated. at least that's what i used to think before i moved to singapore. despite the simplest simplicity, the singaporeans seem to have invented a way of turning simple matters into something complicated.

for example. last weekend, there was a beerfest here in singapore and fatima and i decided to go. when we got there, we did of course join the queue to pay the entrance fee. once that was done we were allowed to proceed.. to the next queue where this guy tore our tickets.. before we could proceed to the next guy who gave us our festival wristbands. he also told us where to go to buy beer tokens as we couldn't pay by cash inside the festival area. so that was four transactions replacing one. what is that saying again? more is less??

after stocking up on beer tokens, we then went to get our one "complimentary" drink (i say "complimentary" as it was included in the very humble entrance fee of SGD43). but.. at the first stall we encountered some problems. it turned out you could only get these drinks at a special stall. after some walking around, we managed to locate the stall and once there, fatima wanted one of the portuguese beers. i wanted a swedish pear cider. but.. the portuguese beer was not included in the "complimentary" drinks, nor was the swedish pear cider. the apple cider of the same brand and same price was included though..

et voila, simple turns into complicated!

happiness

two months today!

today - two months as a non-smoker! it's been easier than i thought it would be, but not promising anything for the future. for now, i'm just happy with these 60 days, 21 hours, 43 minutes and 6 seconds..