Chapter 1: Smiles at Bangkok Hat

The other major event so far this year was 2 wonderful weeks I spent in Thailand. The holiday just kinda fell into place when I was in Thailand in January. I decided to go to the Bangkok Hat frisbee tournament and realised it was the week before Chinese New Year. CNY comes with two public holidays in Singapore and a planned one week break for our project… so a two week holiday just made sense!

I’ll try and post a bunch of photos and stories over the next week or so.

Bangkok Hat

I’d heard a lot about this tournament. I was told it was the fun tourney in Asia. I was told there would be drunkenness and debauchery. I was not disappointed!

Much of the debauchery was probably contributed by my lovely english friend from Singapore, Ben. We flew to Bangkok after a very hectic week at work. We arrived around 10pm, found B at the airport and before we had even managed to find and settle into our hotel I managed to misplace my phone. Not sure if it was stolen or if I just left it behind. At least it meant work couldn’t call me! For those that have read the post below, this was 3 weeks after my wallet going missing – it wasn’t really my best month.

Saturday:
On Saturday morning we arrived at the fields relatively on time and discovered that B and I had been placed in the same team*. I was told my chances were next to none, so thanks Bangkok guys for letting me have an extra 2 days hanging out with B.

The games were all close, but we finished bottom of our pool, with only 1 win out of 4 games. We were ready to have a cruisy Sunday watching the other teams battle it out in the finals, well at least I was!

The Party:
The theme was Bond. Lots of girls (and guys) in cocktail dresses. Lots of bow ties and plastic guns. There was vodka and tequila shots from the ice luge next to the pool. There were drag shows by some of the players. It was a pretty good party, but I was pretty wrecked from a long week and a day on the fields… which made for an early night. Sad but true.

Ben was awarded with one of the party prizes for his creative costume. Ben’s interpretation of the theme included chains… I promise I clearly told him the theme was ‘Bond’, not ‘Bond-age’ !

Sunday:
We had one chance to make the finals. We did that quite convincingly (against Ben’s yellow team!). We then won the quarters. And the semis. Suddenly my tired legs and I were in a final! I really enjoyed the game, despite the sun bearing down and not being able consume enough water to beat out the dehydration! The end result was the Pink team winning the ultimate match and us winning the boat race. I’ll call that a draw any day.
So thanks, team that was variously known as white finger, we-go-with-anything and Cinderella. It was a great start to my holiday!





* A hat tournament is a competition where the players all register as individuals, not as a team. The players are then assigned to a team, partly based on evening out the skill levels between the team and partly based on luck of the draw (names can sometimes be drawn from a hat, hence the name).

Coming up next: Down to Ko Lanta for sun, sand and Nemos!

A new record

I thought a month was a really long time to not post. As of last week, I just broke that record.

What's been happenning over here? Lots.

Sam's Visit

My younger brother spent a week with me in February - both of us had a great time. One of the challenges of living away from Oz is keeping up with my (large) family. Particularly when my younger brothers are at a fairly non-conversational age and my younger sister can't talk (she has a genetic disorder called TSC - you can read about it here). So it was great to spend a week with Sam and observe him exploring Singapore.

Because I was working, Sam had a week to get around Singapore on his own. That's one of the things I love about this city - I had no qualms about him being safe travelling around by himself. The public transport is well organised and the people working in hospitality and tourism generally really friendly.

His highlights were the zoo and the bird park. I enjoyed challenging him to eat some new food and luckily he liked chicken rice or I'd have to consider dis-owning him. We did the usual satay at Lau Pa Sat, Chilly Crab at Ang Mo Kio and curry at Little India, too.

Our last day together wasn't the best though. We went up north (Pasir Ris) to Wild Wild Wet, a water park. My wallet went walkabouts. So maybe Singapore is not quite so crime free?

Sad news

Unfortunately, the day Sam had to fly back to Sydney I was woken early with the news that my grandfather had passed away. This meant an unexpected trip back to Australia that was surpisingly peaceful. My colleagues in Singapore fortunately covered my work for that week and I had the luxury of spending some time at my parents' house and joining B in the southern highlands where he was working.

The funeral mass was put together by my talented Mum and I'll never forget the image of my father and his 5 brothers carrying my grandfather in his coffin out of the church. It was a gift to be able to come back home without great stress or expense. It made me glad I am on my temporary arrangement and haven't taken a full transfer here.

My grandfather was a loving and generous man. It is a relief to know he is no longer suffering, but I do miss him.

Committment again

Sometime earlier this year I found out my team lead had resigned from the company. With me planning to leave in mid-April, this was going to leave the project in a bit of sticky situation. I was persuaded to take her role, which is an interesting new challenge, but also to extend my time here until June (or thereabouts). My wonderful B was very understanding, but nearly every day since I took the new role I have questioned my decision.

I am really starting to feel tired from being here. From being away from B, my Sydney friends and my family. From not really being able to make long term plans. From living in an apartment with none of my personality in it. From working so much. I do have moments of fun and joy here. I have some wonderful friends. But the balance is not there at the moment. I just want to be home.