Thursday, November 8, 2012

Day 6 : Eye of the tiger

My brother has this fascination with Rocky and there was a time when he'd play survivor on the loop (that's how he was preparing for board exams. I think). Anyway so the song has become the background music for my first 6 days in "Singaland". The survival began the day the SMRT top up machine sucked in my money while the Chinese lady behind me said "tch tch cannot". I never saw those 5 dollars back but I did beg random strangers to top up my card for me, got blocked out of the entry bars because of insufficient balance in my card and then decided to man up and try that money swallowing machine one more time. And Success!

I am taking over the public transport ninja crown from PG (who apparently championed the London tube), pfffft please. There's Maya in office who's from London and claims that the tube is a breeze when it comes to the SMRT.. purple, green, red, orange whoaaaa! Oh and did I mention that almost every MRT station will lead up to a frikking mall? How the hell am I supposed to go out in the streets when you lure me to shop every time I reach a place?!

Getting lost here is easy, you just have to ask someone the way to the place. They will misguide you with so much confidence and nod so much that you have to believe them. This is an extremely global community so you will find people from all parts of the world on the streets and they all think that they know the streets of Singapore so well, even though they've probably moved here last month. Plus they will be polite and even smile. Now you must follow their direction and go to the completely opposite direction.  One girl asked me to go straight for Moulmein road and all I could see straight was a tree and some bushes.

Also standing in line to get a cheeseburger for 30 mins is so not cool, just because the samurai burger is back in town. If you have waited on a similar line at the McD here you know what I mean. I appreciate the enthusiasm and all, but I wish people would react or rebel a little bit more, like back in Kolkata - chakkka jaam! How did I survive? I quit the line and had rosti with smoked chicken across the road.

The coffee machine threw up on my mug at first but then (survivor playing in the background of course) I read the instructions CAREFULLY, used the right combination of coffee pouch thingies (texture, flavor etc)
and nailed it! Bitch please, you are just a Nespresso machine and I, well I'm a survivor!

Also, for the record (even though I love you now nespresso) but you give me toooo many options. Do I want woody, floral or fruity, lightly roasted or decaf! Really now? do you want me to create my own unique coffee or should just go down to Starbucks! Ok don't hate me, I love you now.

All in all, I guess I've survived the first week and kick-assed for the most part of it, but I'm following the "Do not insult the mother alligator until after you have crossed the riverrule.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Love it! hate it!

So I've reached Singapore, and goes without saying that I have been feasting on the local cuisine since Saturday. For a sea food lover, it doesn't get any better than this. But wait it does, an office with a view of the bay.. wait what! Oh yeah, the white sail boats do distract me a bit at work, but then that's a small price to pay for an arrangement like that. I conquered the public transport bit today, checked out all the green lines & red lines and what not and managed to reach office on time without getting lost at all. Cockiness aside, I'm loving the streets, the clean green effect, the sky high concrete and the food of course. To sum it all up, I am miserable really. All I want to do is head back to my apartment in Delhi, pull on the covers (eat Peppy tomato chips) and watch Bigg Boss with my boy at 9pm everyday. Reality check - this might have been a bad idea after all. No verdict yet, the love-hate continues. Maybe, I miss him more than I love this place.

#Homesickness#extremeblah#can'ttakesomuchclean.... Nooooooooo!