On Friday I'm flying home for a week and a half. It's nearly a year since I left the UK and I'm so excited to be coming home.
It's been harder than I thought it would be. What I've missed most is people - family and friends. People I've known for a long time. People to share with when things are good and things are bad. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. I took people for granted.
I haven't achieved anything very spectacular in my life so far, except my friendships. I have the most amazing, the most wonderful, diverse, funny, talented and exciting friends and I miss them every day.
And theatre. I miss London theatre. Art. Culture. Not that it doesn't exist here but London is second to none. Just walking the streets of London you are surrounded by beautiful, diverse architecture. In Singapore you are surrounded by shopping malls.
So there are the downsides. And the ups?
Starting with friendships. I have reconnected to farther away friends. Skype is a lifeline. When you are far away from everyone, everyone is equally difficult to contact, so perhaps I've made slightly more effort with the far flung?
Travel, clearly. The chance to see with new eyes. When everything is strange and unfamiliar you work harder, you can't take anything for granted. You notice life. It's quirks. It's colour. You think about your own.
I have a better quality of life here. Singapore is small. Less time is spent travelling. A taxi ride home costs the same as an ice cream. A massage is the same price as a bottle of wine. In London I didn't catch taxis or have massages. Here I can.
Meeting up with people, coming home from work, going out to do something in the evening. Everything is quicker. You can leave 30 minutes to get somewhere.
We have a pool. Whenever in my life am I going to have a swimming pool again? And a gym just downstairs. We went climbing last night and the climbing wall was 5 minutes walk away. We go wakeboarding on Saturday mornings and are there (in a taxi) in 10 minutes. And when we fall into the water it's warm.
Nearly a year and I can't decide. What's more important in life? They way you live it or who you live it with.
It's been harder than I thought it would be. What I've missed most is people - family and friends. People I've known for a long time. People to share with when things are good and things are bad. Absence does make the heart grow fonder. I took people for granted.
I haven't achieved anything very spectacular in my life so far, except my friendships. I have the most amazing, the most wonderful, diverse, funny, talented and exciting friends and I miss them every day.
And theatre. I miss London theatre. Art. Culture. Not that it doesn't exist here but London is second to none. Just walking the streets of London you are surrounded by beautiful, diverse architecture. In Singapore you are surrounded by shopping malls.
So there are the downsides. And the ups?
Starting with friendships. I have reconnected to farther away friends. Skype is a lifeline. When you are far away from everyone, everyone is equally difficult to contact, so perhaps I've made slightly more effort with the far flung?
Travel, clearly. The chance to see with new eyes. When everything is strange and unfamiliar you work harder, you can't take anything for granted. You notice life. It's quirks. It's colour. You think about your own.
I have a better quality of life here. Singapore is small. Less time is spent travelling. A taxi ride home costs the same as an ice cream. A massage is the same price as a bottle of wine. In London I didn't catch taxis or have massages. Here I can.
Meeting up with people, coming home from work, going out to do something in the evening. Everything is quicker. You can leave 30 minutes to get somewhere.
We have a pool. Whenever in my life am I going to have a swimming pool again? And a gym just downstairs. We went climbing last night and the climbing wall was 5 minutes walk away. We go wakeboarding on Saturday mornings and are there (in a taxi) in 10 minutes. And when we fall into the water it's warm.
Nearly a year and I can't decide. What's more important in life? They way you live it or who you live it with.
