Reflections

Tomorrow, after three months of working in Asia I return to the UK for a week and I am looking forward to meeting family and friends again. In fact it was my Mum's 80th birthday this week and there is no better reason to go home and celebrate than that!!! Happy birthday Mum.
But the last three months have flown by and I have really enjoyed my time in Singapore. I don't blog about the job but it has gone well. Enough said! I have spent almost three week's with Khamma, so that must be a success, and our relationship is getting better all the time. We were hoping to spend more time with each other but Khamma needs to be around Thamuang to manage the house build and 'yak yak' occasionally to keep San the builder man in check. I have met many uncles, aunts and cousins and they all welcome me into her family. It is a pity we cannot easily get a UK visa for Khamma to travel to England to meet my family and friends and see what life is like compared to Thamuang. We applied for a visa last year, but we were rejected outright by the powers that be. The whole process is very sensitive and whilst I am not aware of rules like 'three strikes and you are out' we feel we should wait and build up a stronger case to include, for example, the house and show we have had a relationship for years rather months. So I think we wait until next year.

The other day somebody asked me if I miss England and I said I miss family and friends and real home, but.....
Do I miss the weather? No
Do I miss the politicians and games they play? No
Do I miss the traffic? No
Do I miss the threat of crime and being mugged on the High Street? No
Do I miss the miserable news about how expensive everything is and inflation? No

Do I miss a good pint with friends? Yes
Do I miss Manchester United? Well up to a point yes, but I can see all the games live without Sky
Do I miss the hills and being in the great outdoors? Yes

So what's good about Singapore?
The weather - very hot and sunny most of the time
The green and lush gardens everywhere
No crime to talk about
A fantastic ethnic mix where everybody gets on with life without interference or racial attitude
No traffic
I live next to the sea on the equator
Closer to Thailand
Happy and healthy people
The food

But it's going to be good to go home.