New Home, New Job, New Haircut

There's a stink afoot, and I'm not speaking of the breakfast splatter near the elevator this morning - it's the stink of an early morning wake-up tomorrow for work. It should come as no surprise that it's been relatively easy for me to be lulled into a sense of "this is vacation." Tropical climate, eating out every meal, and the sleep - it's been "all you can sleep" around here. Well, party's over. Tomorrow morning I'll shave and put on my big boy clothes and join my fellow rats in our race. BTW - here, all you can eat is often called "Free Flow" - like at dinner the other night Sam had "Free Flow French Fries." I recommend that link - it's Sam and Lauren's blog and they have a great one about the domestic helpers here. It's a good read - just so that you can find out what "headaches services" means.

I am fortunate to have had a brief orientation to my new company last week. Thursday night I met my new manager for drinks in an area here called Clarke Quay, which I call Clarkey. Nice to meet him, he seems like a really good guy and as he's local, he has some hook-ups for me with respect to tattoos and electronics, which is solid. Not so solid - he's a smoker. Heading into new stress levels, on the tail end of my patch supply, with this uber temptation. The bar he chose is called "The Pump Room." Whack name - really good Summer Ale microbrew.

Friday I visited the office to be introduced to the Singapore and Hong Kong teams during the quarterly staff meeting. Mind you, I've worked for small companies, but this office is small. I feel for them, really I do - they don't know what they are in for spending a day in that confined space with me.

Kellie and I are roughing it for another week. The day AFTER we said good bye to Eleanor, we found out that our stuff was going to be a week late arriving in S'pore. Our shipment is supposed to be arriving tomorrow, it then has to clear customs so God (and the port-authority) willing I'll be able to drink out of a cup, wear a different damn pair of shorts, sleep on my pillow, and play my XBox by week's end.

Adventure-wise, I think the most interesting time was spent yesterday (Saturday) afternoon in Chinatown. It might surprise you to learn that there's a part of an Asian country called Chinatown, but - it's true. I finally, after more than a month here, got LEGIT noodles. Made to order noodles. They were awesome. They were $3.50 (that's $2.70 US). Kellie then treated me to my very first foot massage. Holy pain - he hurt parts of my feet I didn't know had nerves. Yeah - "he" - also a new experience for me.

Oh, ha ha, so this afternoon I pop over to one of the 11 malls within walking distance of our new place to get a haircut and 5 minutes into my trim he (yup "he") asks "at what age did you start dropping hair?" The people of Singapore are very direct. "When did you start losing your hair? How much do you pay in rent? How much money do you make?" It's such an adjustment - every time we get picked up by a taxi from our place the driver asks how much our rent is.

Alright - sorry - I know this isn't my best work, I owe you more than this. I'll get my shit together and get back to killin it soon. Off to bed, and then off to work!