Melbourne Day 1

So here I am - in Melbourne! Lesson #1 - never take packing advice from Ganesh Chandran again! I am frozen. This happens without fail - I just don't get this packing for cooler climates. I have a suitcase full of t-shirts because everyone said to "layer" but what I need right now is a thicker jacket than I brought! I think that might be the first purchase I make tomorrow!

Anyway, my departure was a very eventful one. I left home at 4.30pm for my 7.25pm flight, thinking I had plenty of time. But I just couldn't get a cab! After failing to flag one, I tried calling for one but no cab responded to my call and then one finally accepted the call at 5.00pm. But he couldn't find our apartment block and by the time he arrived, it 5.20pm. No sooner had we left Dover Road, we ran into a huge jam. Then I made the wrong call - although he suggested an alternative route, I thought the jam was just at the point when we were turning into the expressway. I was wrong :( I realised soon enough that because of the F1 races, traffic had been diverted away from the city centre and traffic was backed up on all the major expressways! By the time I reached the airport it was 6.25pm and the meter read $32.00.

More anxiety followed at the airport, because would you believe it, the ONLY flight that didn't have a check-in row number was the one I was desperately trying to board. I walked the entire length of Terminal 2 to find the MAS counter was the absolutely last one. I didn't have time to thank God I made it to the airport before the staff said there was some problem with my e-ticket and went off to consult her superior. More anxiety, more desperate prayers. That was sorted out and I was given the boarding pass with the comment, "You must walk very quickly. It is the last gate. Go to the boarding gate now." All my brisk walking skills were tested in the next half hour. 

I had to make a stop though, for a bite to eat. Picked up a nice tomato & mozarella baguette and water for the princely sum of $6.00, and never had a chance to taste it because I left it in the trolley :( I had gone through security and into the boarding area before I discovered this and I actually went back through security again to retrieve my food; but the ever efficient cleaning team of Changi Airport had already disposed of it :(

So it was a very hungry, hassled and mopey Vara who boarded the connecting flight to KL. Fortunately, the rest of the journey was smooth. It must have been all the power of all the prayers that were activated :) I even had an aisle seat on the KL-Melbourne sector, which was a huge bonus - considering how late I had checked in! I also sat beside a nice Australian who helped me with my luggage.

So landed in Melbourne this morning - when the temperature was a bone-chilling 7 degrees C, was met by my good friend Pushpa, with whom I had a nice long leisurely breakfast and drank the first of the many coffees I plan to drink in Melbourne. I've spent the best part of today on the couch in R's living room - because it is closest to the heater. I hope I venture beyond this couch tomorrow :)

Flash Mob

I want to be part of a flash mob!!!!! This is soooo much fun!!!!!

I Deserve It

J and I went away last weekend to Penang. I needed that break after all the days and nights of preparing for the Launch. Coming back to work on Tue I realised I was the only one who had taken a day off and had a break. The rest of the people in the office had turned up for work on Monday!

I felt a little guilty actually to see so many tired faces around me on Tues, but that feeling didn't last long. I am glad I planned ahead and took leave. I am glad I made arrangements to physically leave Singapore. Even though all J and I did was sleep, lie in bed, eat and watch tv desultorily, it still felt like I was a world away from work and that helped! 

There is something about hotels I absolutely love. Yes I know I have said it before, but hey! this is my blog so I can repeat myself! :) We stayed at a lovely hotel called Lone Pine. It is an old colonial building that has been turned into a hotel and the staff were among the friendliest I have ever met in hotels. Our first night was a bit of a disaster though because the hotel was the venue for a Chinese wedding and we had to endure the kaoaoke cacophany till 11pm because being an old colonial building the windows had louvre shutters instead of thick glass doors. Mercifully, our second night was quiet.

One of the perks of growing older, I think, is that I have learnt to enjoy the pleasures of life. Once I would have postponed taking leave till others took theirs. Once I would have thought long and hard about the wisdom of spending money and flying to Penang and staying in a hotel. But now, I know, I answer to noone but God and me.

Excellent Advice

Here is a gem shared by J:
"To all the girls who are in a hurry to have a boyfriend or get married, a piece of Biblical advice - Ruth patiently waited for her mate Boaz. While you are waiting on YOUR Boaz, don't settle for any of his relatives: Broke-az, Po-az, Lyin-az, Cheatin-az, Dumb-az, Cheap-az, Lockedup-az, Goodfornothin-az, LAzy-az, and especially his third cousin Beatinyo-az. Wait on your Boaz and make sure he respects Yoaz."

Hahahahahahahaha. Excellent advice :)

Over

Two big events dominated my public life this year and as of today, they are both over. The commemorative book for my church's 40th anniversary (P40) has been published and the official launch of my organisation that has consumed us is over. 

I had hoped to have done more writing and editing for the P40 commemorative book, but the work for the launch swamped me. I ended up writing only 1 chapter of the book. Nevertheless it was the chapter that was closest to my heart - the chapter that described the children's and youth ministry of my church. It is entitled 'God's Hand Raises the Next Generation' and chronicling how our ministry to the young has grown gave me a great deal of joy. 

As part of the P40 celebrations, my church had invited many of the past vicars. One of the past vicars, Rev Roger Campbell who was the church's second vicar from 1978 to 1985, talked of how the church he pastors in England now has a congregation that comprises solely of people above 60. He lamented that the faith had not been passed down through the generations in that village where he now lives. At the P40 service last weekend, looking around me at the hundreds of children, teenagers and young adults in the congregation I had to give thanks over how God had raised the next generations in SJSM.

Two days later, it was the Launch of my organisation. I am especially proud of the launch because our guest of honour was our former Prime Minister, Mr LKY. He is retired now and it was a privilege to have him officiate at the event. It was an even greater privilege for me to have written his speech. It was surely by God's favour alone that the speech was accepted largely intact by my bosses and by the GOH. I am a huge fan of LKY and can't think of any other man who has a left a nation as his lifetime's legacy. He has aged a great deal, his stride doesn't have the same confident swagger, his voice trembles a little, but he still inspires awe and yes, a rush of love, in me. 

Just minutes before I had stood at the wide bay windows of the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre and looked at the sweeping vista of the Singapore skyline. And then there, before us, was the architect of my country, reading words I had written. I have now tasted the thrill of Toby Ziegler and Sam Seaborn.

Social Life, With Friends (kinetic typography)

I wonder... maybe this is true... At any one point in life, I do seem to have only two... Hmmm.

Collision of Cultures

So I finished working out in the gym. Went to the hotel locker room, got my stuff out of the locker and headed to the shower. Caucasian lady walks out of a cubicle on my left, completely naked. Door on my right opens and Chinese lady walks in from the pool with a 6 year old boy in tow. All four freeze. Boy's eyes are as big as saucers. Caucasian woman gives a little wave and cheerily says "Oh sorry my dear" and walks into shower cubicle. Chinese woman shakes her head, drags boy into toilet cubicle, berating him in Chinese - not sure for what - for staring, may be? And I think, "wow, what just happened here?" :)

Passing On

I attended the funeral of an old teacher today. I was 17 when she taught me History. I would hesitate to say she was an inspirational teacher, but I do remember her as a very kind one.

I had expected to see some old classmates, but there were none. In a way I'm relieved because it would have made the day a more poignant one - to see others who had sat in class with me, trying to scribble notes, now standing beside me as I paid my respects. Having teachers pass on is a little like having parents pass on I think. It reminds us we are no longer who we were once - students, teenagers, a whole lifetime of living ahead of us.

The funeral also made me realise something I never thought about as a teenager - that my teachers too had other selves. They were mothers and fathers, they became grandparents; they cooked, shopped, baked, exercised, played games, did a million other things that we students did not see and did not ask about. I did not know my teachers as individuals. When I shook her son's hand all I could say was "Your mother was my teacher." I hope he understood.

I would like to think my students know me differently. I hope they know there are many things I care about. I hope they know I loved teaching them. I hope they will have stories about me to tell my children and my grandchildren.

Incensed

I was planning to blog about what's been happening this month but I am so incensed by a recent news report that I cannot write about anything else.

Three days ago there was a report on the increasing intolerance among neighbours living cheek by jowl in the HDB apartments here in Singapore, and how a number of them are too quick to seek mediation from the Community Mediation Centre instead of talking through issues.

What incensed me, and a number of netizens, is the case highlighted in the report of how newly-arrived citizens from China demanded that their Indian neighbours stop cooking curry and stop eating curry because they couldn't stand the smell of the dish. The Mediation Centre negotiated an agreement that the Indian family would only cook their curry dishes when the Chinese family was not at home. In return, the Indian family asked that the Chinese neighbours at least give their curry dish a try.

I don't know what incenses me more - that the Chinese neighbours had the temerity to ask of people of another culture not to eat food that is traditionally theirs; that the mediator actually thought this was a successfully mediated case worthy of quoting in the national newspaper; that this case was even considered worthy of mediation instead of the Chinese neighbours being told to learn how to live in multi-cultural Singapore; or that the Indian family actually offered the solution of offering to adjust their cooking schedule to suit the intolerance of their neighbours.

I am reminded of something my brother-in-law said when J interviewed him: "Generally, we Indians are a contented lot". Contented, non-confrontational, pushovers.

Snails and Ketchup

On Friday I watched a physical theatre performance entitled 'Snails and Ketchup' by a hearing-impaired artiste Ramesh. It was a last minute plan hatched by Becky and me and I feel privileged to have watched it. I last watched Ramesh perform more than 10 years ago. But now, as then, I was struck most of all, by his humility, affability and sweet-naturedness that somehow transcended the physical space between the stage and reached the audience. He played 4 characters in a dysfunctional family and the way in which he portrayed the different characters was remarkable. Oh, I forget - he played 5 characters ... the snails too! 

One moment in particular was poignant for me. Married to an uncaring, harsh man, the mother copes by silencing her hurt and the hurts of her children. Ramesh conveyed this through miming her sewing up her lips. That's the moment that stayed with me.