Superman Returns

So after four weeks I finally touched down on English soil at about 7:30pm last night.

My flight left from Singapore at 9:15am local time, and after a brief stop in New Delhi I was headed back to London. The flight was a bit chaotic, including one moment where the pilot of my flight between Singapore and India admitted that he'd caused us all extra stress by parking the plane in the wrong part of the terminal!

Hard to believe that it was 28 days since I left for Singapore, and although it has seemed like time has travelled pretty slowly, in a way it also feels like just yesterday I was leaving.

I think I have done a fairly good job of summarising my stay in Singapore so there will be no sentimental 'I learned something today' thoughts on this page, only an expression of how much I enjoyed a return to the Far East.

I have only visited four countries in Asia, but each one of them has been vastly different, and brought me an extreme amount of joy whilst being in their surroundings - Singapore was no different.
Although the outcome of my trip was slightly different to what I expected, it was an enjoyable trip, and I look forward to the opportunity to return one day and return to several of the places I have visited, as well as getting the opportunity to explore new ones!

This blog serves as a good reminder of the enjoyment that I had whilst in Singapore, and I hope that anyone who has read my entries has been able to share in my wonderful memories.

Until next time

I hear everything. You wrote that the world doesn't need a savior, but every day I hear people crying for one. 

City Lights

For my last full day in Singapore, I hoped to give myself a fitting finale by enjoying a few of the sights I had not been able to make my way to during my trip to date.

I had deliberately left the task of major sightseeing until my last day, to ensure that upon leaving Singapore, I would only be departing with fond memories. My stay in this country has been an interesting, eye-opening and varied one, and although I expected to be making my stay in Singapore a more permenant one, I don't really have to many bad words to say about this month long experience.

Enjoying another lie in this morning, I lazily made my way to the station in Yew Tee with the intention of heading towards the city. From my recently changed 'home' it takes about 45 minutes to get to Orchard (home of the shoppaholics), and this is where I figured I would start my sightseeing today.

Although I spent plenty of time in the surroundings or Orchard the other evening, it is a relatively confusing place to navigate your way around. With only hundreds of shops to use as waypointa, you would easily find yourself going around in a circle without realising! Thankfully I was quite fortunate to navigate to the place that I wanted to be, as I headed along a familiar road from Orchard Road to Marina Bay - a journey I had made on one of my first ventures into Singapore's skyscrapper laiden streets.

Even at the time of the afternoon that I arrived, the streets were teeming with people. For those unfamiliar with the frantic pace of Asian life I can imagine where this would be one of those times were it's difficult to take in your surroundings.

I walked past many familiar sights as I followed the mainly straight road towards the bay, only stopping for some quick refreshment, and a break from the punishing heat of the concrete jungle.

I decided to alter my route somewhat from the one which I had made on my first trip to Marina Bay, with the intention of coming out very close to the Singapore Flyer.

As one of the major tourist attractions in this country, the Singapore Flyer is Asia's answer to the London Eye. I believe it was the biggest ferris wheel in the world but I wouldn't be surprised if it had been usurped by another location close to this part of the world.

Whatever the case, it towers imposingly over the surrounding area, and I found it difficult to fit the whole thing in a picture to be honest.

Whilst walking along I was also intregued by the early stages of setting up taking place for this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

Although I am looking forward to returning to England I have to be honest and say that I am a bit devestated that I will not be in town when it takes place.

In recent years I have become a huge fan of F1 racing, and the race in Singapore has always been my favourite. Everytime I have ventured into the city I have been looking jelously at banners and electronic advertisments which show what those lucky enough to be going this weekend are likely to see.

I have a good idea of the numerous locations the street circuit race goes past, including the Singapore Flyer, and it was a hive of activity as I got close by with sections of the road being fenced off and teams preparing to set up for a busy weekend of action.

I managed to get a bit higher up to take some better photos of the Flyer, but at level 3 of the complex you had to be in possession of a ticket, so I descended and carried on following the fledgling stages of the track which had been constructed.

Some of the roads that will be used in Sunday's race are still being used by the public, so I followed the route as far as possible before finding a new interest.

My intention for today was to capture Singapore in all it's glory - at night. I had to retrace some old steps to do this, but returning to Marina Bay Sands and also the Esplanade Theater, but approaching from a different angle, I found a few surprises that I was not expecting.

After walking away from the Flyer and towards Marina Bay Sands I crossed over a flyover bridge to location that I believe will be used in the start finish-straight of the Grand Prix. I was able to take some good photos of there, showing the grandstand seating available for the public, but also I noticed that there was another famous sporting location in view.

Next to this section of the track was a football pitch which juts out into the water. I had seen photos of this place, and found it rather unique, so it was very fortunate when I stumbled upon it after continuing to walk towards Marina Bay. I decided to head instead of away from the football pitch, to go towards it, and then follow the path around past the Esplanade Theater and eventually to the Merlion Statue.

Despite having been in this area before, I was still pretty impressed by the skyscrapers located close to the water, and attempted to take some photos and get in as many of them as possible.

Around the Esplanades Theater is perhaps the most photogenic part of Singapore, but it is also the most difficult to capture. Someone needs to hurry up and develop a 360 panoramic camera for locations just like this.

Walking along down by the river I followed the road around towards the Merlion. If you imagine large square with the bay located in the middle and me standing at the bottom right hand angle, the Merlion is on the East Side, skyscrapers to the north, Marina Bay Sands to the west, and then the Singapore Flyer and the Esplanades on the southern side.

The Merlion is perhaps the most recognisable piece of architecture in the country as well as being the most reviered. Its a pretty strange structure, and as you will be able to compare from my two photos of Merlion-type structures, it is also not the largest one available for viewing in Singapore. There are lots of people fighting for photo space around the Merlion's base so I took a few pictures and then sat on some steps close by to the water waiting for the sun to set below it.

As time went on, the view got more and more impressive as I was able to see pretty much clearly across the water to Marina Bay Sands.

The number of people seemed to increase as the sun went down, and as soon as a few lights began to be switched on in the distance I decided to head towards the skyscrapers to get an excellent view of Singapore's sights.

I have to say that at sunset this is one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen. Singapore seems to be a country that comes alive when the lights are on, and all of a sudden bars and restaurants seemed to open their doors where before it seemed there was little life.

Walking around to the far side of the bay, I was treated to a spectacular view of the countries 'big four' sights, and with skyscrapers behind me also lit up, I was hugely spoilt for choice in terms of which direction to look and what to photograph.

I performed a circuit around the square of the bay, and ended up by returning to the side close to the flyer in a bid to get back to the MRT station.

As I followed the road around, the F1 track started to pick up again as floodlit streets were being changed into hairpin corners, and a number of cyclists (likely working for some of the competing teans) followed the route around to mark out the track.

My last day in Singapore has been a throughly enjoyable one, and being able to witness everything I have done today whilst walking around at night has only served as a reminder how lucky I am to have been able to get this experience.

Singapore is, in truth, Asia-lite, but it is different enough for me to remember why I love this continent so much. There seems to be so much to do even in a small place like Singapore, that I am disappointed to be leaving when I am, but also looking forward to coming back in the future.

I cannot recommend a visit highly enough, only insisting that you don't allow your experience to be solely conducted within the confinds of the downtown area.

This country has so much more to offer than expensive drinks, swanky condos and high-rise buildings, and I think it is important for me to remember that when I return home.

My experiences here have been mostly positive, and now I look forward to the next journey that awaits me. It took over a year between my last two trips - Oslo and Singapore - but yet another enjoyable visit abroad has once again given me a taste of life in a foreign country. With such positive experiences only breeds the enthusiasm to visit other 'new' and 'foreign' parts of the globe. Not all of them will be as modern and 1st world as Singapore, but I will be as enthusiastic to tackle their challenges, because of the excellent experiences that I have enjoyed in parts unknown throughout the world.

I started my visit to Singapore not knowing what to expect, and hoping it lived up to my expectations. I am pleased to confirm that it far-exceeded those expectations, and I look forward to experiencing new thrills on my next visit!

Tomorrow the birds will sing.

Chinatown

Just two days to go until I depart Singapore.

After coaching my last session yesterday morning, I am devoting the remaining 48 hours of my trip to one of my favourite past-times... Sightseeing.

Thanks to the kind folks at Forest Town School I have an extremely helpful travel guide that gives me plenty of information about the best things to do, see and eat in Singapore.

The size of the country dictates that the options afforded aren't expensive, but having visited several of the locations on the list in the previous three weeks, I am doing my best to cover everything that I'd hoped to visit in my time here.

Courtesy of a late night / early morning combination on Saturday and Sunday, I had a massive long lie in this morning to compensate for 5am and 6am wake-ups over the weekend.

I had agreed to meet Yoshi for dinner later on in Chinatown so I decided to spend some time nearby so that it would be easy to travel from there.

Chinatowns across the world as usually extremely common, but as well as an area devoted to the large community of Chinese people in the country, Singapore also contains an area called Little India.

I decided to spend some of my afternoon taking in the sights, sounds and smells. In terms of visual delights, Little India isn't the best at creating a picturesque location to walk around.

At the moment there is lots of construction taking place, and I followed round the outside of this by snaking my way through narrow, almost clostraphobic streets, where there were plenty of shops and restaurants doing a good trade.

I carried on walking to a location I had seen on the map called Sim Square, and almost immediately I saw sucked in my a little market with lots and lots of little trinket and souvenier shops.

This was actually called Bugis Market, and I spent a good hour in there walking around and looking at everything it had to offer. Packed together as snuggly as possible were independent sellers attempting to ship every piece of souvenier item you can possibly imagine.

Having spent three weeks in rather sterile environments, I soon found myself at the heart of a shopper's paradise, and was enjoying looking through the large number of items that seemed to be on offer.

Navigation was extremely tough, and after backtracking on my self looking for an upper floor, I went upstairs to discover that there were even more clothes, shoes and phone accessories to be had.

This 'real' sense of Asia filled me with great delight as I couldn't help but smile at shop keepers eager to flog you any old tat, pushy sales people following your ever move, and also a personal favourite of mine in this part of the world.... Incorrectly translated clothing items which clearly weren't proofread very well [a bit like this blog :)]

Walking around in all these stores gave me a taste for something I had seen on the Internet, and crossing the road back in the direction I had come from originally I found Singapore's own bustling technological market.

Previous experiences in Asia made me aware of such places, and although this hardly compares to the one that Charlie, Kevin and myself visited on numerous occasions, this seven floored monster was something to be intimidated about entering.

I would suggest that browsing is usually not something that people do when visiting as there are so many stores that sell exactly the same thing, you have to have a good idea of what you are looking for, and then try to get the best deal.

With nothing in mind, I was just impressed by the sheer number of shops. As someone who gets excited when going into PC World or Currys shops, you can imagine my delight at the number of iPads, PS3s and Beats Headphones that were available for 'sampling'.

Getting my fix of technology took some time, but eventually I headed back through the construction-ridden streets, and back to the Station of Little India.

Chinatown is actually only three stops down the MRT track from where I was so it didn't take too long for me to arrive at the correct location. Yoshi was waiting for me near one of the station's five exits, and he explained that we were going to eat at a Chinese restaurant that he used to work at when he first came to Singapore.

As you can well imagine, Chinatown lived up to all the stereotypes you could ever have dreamed of - partly due to a mid-autumn festival taking place which meant that lanterns were hanging across the streets.

Just like in Little India there were more shops than you could ever require, each one of them selling identital items of Singapore merchandise.

Yoshi took me to a restaurant that he used to work at when he first came to Singapore, and he introduced me to his friend Lee, who did his best throughout the evening to perfect his English using my assistance.

I was very predictable with my order of spare ribs, but at $18 this was by far the most expensive meal I have eaten whilst in Singapore!

We ate and chatted before bidding them farewell to discover that they had actually give us all the food and drink for free. I was very humbled by the kindness of people I had only briefly interacted with, yet they were willing to let us off a $50 bill.

I thanked them immensely and we then spent some time walking around the rest of Chinatown. It doesn't span very far, maybe 2-3 streets, but at nightfall each one of them was illuminated by lanterns and street lights.

The area itself fascinated me, and despite ending abrubtly, and returning to 'regular' concrete jungle Singapore, it was an enjoyable, if brief, experience of another element to life in this country. Everything in this area was familiar with the hustle and bustle of life going on around me, plenty of unfamiliar sights and smells causing sensory overload, and even the balance of English-to-Chinese was altered with adverts being almost completely not understood to my ignorant non-chinese knowing self.

Singapore is understandably diverse with people from four or five backgrounds all being arranged into one small space. I felt like it was a good cultural experience for me to see, particularly in one day.

Despite being in the cultural minority it made me want to visit both India, and particularly China even more.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Singapore, and after a month long trip it feels good to firstly have survived, and secondly return to England to share my experiences with friends and family.

As with any of my forrays into foreign lands I feel like I have learned not only a lot about the place I am staying, but also things about my own character and personality.

Singapore is an extremely unique hybrid of big city and country, and I feel like I have experienced a true reflection of life here since arriving in August.

You're dumber than you think I think you are.

The Secret Garden

This morning marked a ceremonial day in my visit to Singapore.

Waking up early Sunday morning it soon dawned on me that not only would this be my last weekend spent in the country before returning home, but I was also about to lead my final session as a coach at English Soccer School.
Sadly, it won't be my last early morning in Singapore, but it will be my last one for work purposes!

Today I was working with one of the other coaches, Yoshi. Since my last blog I have moved locations. I was staying in an apartment in the vicinity of Sembawang, but for the last couple of days of my stay I have been 'upgraded' to stay in a condo (or the room of a condo) in a place called Yew Tee. When I first heard coaches discussing the location, I thought that 'UT' was short for something, not I realise it is actually phonetically spelt out!

I arrived here yesterday after bidding goodbye to my former room-mate Abdul who returned to England this morning, but will be kept company by a coach from Japan who is currently in the middle of a 'year-out' of work over in Singapore.

The condo had sort of become a mythical place, as having had it mentioned to me before, I had never actually had a chance to go there. Apart from being told there was a swimming pool and a gym, the details were rather limited. I mentioned in an earlier blog that after having coached in and around the vicinity of several condos I wouldn't have minded being placed in one for the duration of my visit, but in truth it doesn't quite live up to it's hype..... not in this setting anyway.

It is rather good that it does have a swimming pool (except for the fact I have no swimming shorts with me!) and there are other facilities available such as a tennis court and a basketball court, but we are treated to staying in a room within a condo apartment. The combined population of this location is nine, including one three month old baby, who is by far the dominant noise-maker.

The room I am staying in is actually smaller than the room in the apartment I was staying in before, and at least in there I was treated to a desk. In here my suitcase struggles to fit without blocking the door, and if I couldn't swing a cat in my former location then I doubt I'd even be able to fit a Siberian hamster in this place. I digress.....

Deciding that the surroundings aren't exactly idea I decided to spend most of yesterday afternoon out of the condo.
After coaching my last session in the morning, I came back to have a shower and then decided to head out into the city.

My flight leaves here early Wednesday morning meaning that I only have three full days left for exploration before departing. My experiences with sightseeing have been some what varied so I've decided to make the most of my time here now that I am no longer committed to working!

For today I decided to head to the Botanic Gardens of Singapore which is not to far away from the city centre. I find Singapore can be very strange in that way. The imagine that you get of the country is that there are plenty of skyscrapers across the city centre, but then there is also somewhere like the Botanic Gardens park not too far away, it is quite a contrast.

Botanic Gardens has it's own stop on the 'circle line' of the MRT map, and from Yew Tee it requires a few changes to be able to get there. It eventually took me about 45 minutes before arriving, and thankfully the gardens are pretty much just around the corner from where you exit the rail system.

I took plenty of time to study the map, but it seemed to be a few windey inter-connected paths that guide you through, and eventually back around to the beginning. The Garden itself has several sections including a number of sub-gardens and also an orchid garden - the only thing you actually have to pay to see. I walked through the area for about an hour and a half stopping at everything there was to see. These mostly included oddly-shaped trees or brightly coloured flowers.

I did get a rather big surprise when taking my time to stop however though as a bee the size of a small bird flew in my direction. I figured this was not the time to break by duck of having never been stung by a bee!!!

There were some interesting noises developing all around me as you could hear crickets, grasshoppers and various other bugs and creatures humming as you circulated the plant and tree filled paths of the garden. At one point I did see a sign that there had been sightings of monitor lizards in the area, but sadly I didn't manage to catch a glance of any on my visit. Down by a pond I did however catch sight of a few turtles that were swimming around among some fish, but nothing more exciting than that.

After getting to the opposite end of the park I decided against turning round and going back, and instead continued on walking towards the famous Orchard Road area of Singapore which I saw signposted as being relatively close.

My only experiences of Orchard have been go stop off there to catch the bus on the way to a school, but this is the location that houses most of the shopping malls and high priced luxury housing in the country. I decided to visit a couple of shopping locations, and was not only astounded by the sheers size, and number of shops, but also how many people were in them to say it was a Sunday evening.

Spent some time mainly window-shopping in places I won't be able to afford to purchase things from anytime soon, and following that I carried on walking, first looking for a crossing point back to the MRT, and then just out of curiosity. It seems like the shops here go on endlessly, and it's a far stretch from the places I have been staying.

This is more of what Singapore is known for, and I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like it before in my life. It reminds me how incredibly lucky I am to be able to visit a country that is as diverse as Singapore.

I headed home at about 7pm just as the sun was setting on another day in the Lion City.

The spell was broken. My uncle learned to laugh, and I learned to cry. The secret garden is always open now. Open, and awake, and alive. If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden. 

The Beach

It feels like I haven't had the chance to produce a blog entry in such a long time. By 'chance' I mean that I haven't actually been doing anything interesting or blog-worthy since my last entry.

The week has been a relatively busy one, I have spent every day out this week coaching in some capacity, and it has given me a great opportunity to try out some new coaching techniques, and also try out a host of new drills I have been able to create.

Today I was given the day off from coaching, and I made the most of this opportunity by having a lie in. Those of you who know me well will be able to vouch that I am never one for spending too much time in bed. I am usually averse from getting up because I took myself to bed at an unholy hour, rather than a lazyness or reluctance to do anything.

With time on my hands I decided to make the most of the opportunity and had agreed with a couple of the coaches that we should finally take that trip to Sentosa Beach that I had been hoping for since visiting there for the last couple of weekends in a row.

The guy I am sharing a room with, Abdul, felt this would be an ideal opportunity to enjoy his last couple of days here before returning to England on Sunday. And with me departing on Wednesday this was a good chance for us all to hang out together for one last time.

We had planned to head to Sentosa after this morning's coaching session, and after postponing our trip until the early afternoon we were invited by a kids that we coach from a local school to come and join them for a game of football.

Since being here I have only had one oppotunity to actually play a game of semi-competetive football, so this chance definitely appealed to me. The kids who invited us were having their usual week-ending match against the year above them, so we joined in on the younger side and probably gave them a massive advantage.

The blazing heat, although quite subtly disguised by clouds, wasn't as much of a factor as I thought it was, although after we'd finished playing I was definitely in need of a shower and a bottle of water.

After refreshing ourselves we decided to head out to HarbourFront in the direction of Sentosa (a journey that is now familar to me) and Abdul, Yoshi and myself agreed to meet one of our friends, Matt at a location not far away from our destination.

The journey took us along a slightly different route to usual and now means that there are only eight stations on the MRT map that I have not passed through or stopped at.

We arrived at HarbourFront Station, and whilst waiting for Matt decided to solve our hunger by taking in a quick snack.

As I had done on both my trips across to the island, we took the Boardwalk which, with the sun going down, was actually quite pleasant.

Having seen all of the attractions available on Sentosa, there wasn't too much to stop and take photos of, and this meant that we arrived at the beach at virtually the perfect time.

The sun was just setting below the water as we nade our way on to the beach. We stopped to take some photos whilst dipping our toes in the water and also kicking the football which we had brought around on the sand.

As late afternoon became evening we placed ourself on the sand to watch darkness descend before getting an ice cream and heading back to the MRT station via the monorail.

What we spent time doing today was relatively simple, but enjoyable. For the first time since I did my first bout of exploring it actually felt like I was in holiday. As I described before, being on Sentosa gives you a totally different feel to being on mainland Singapore, and it was fun to spend time in that environment.

I wouldn't say I'm really a 'beach' person, but I enjoy walking along the sand and also dipping my toes in the water. The beach wasn't anything totally spectacular, but it's in dramatic contrast with the rest of the scenary here so it will made today particularly stand out as an enjoyable experience.

The days are now dwindling down towards my return to the UK, and its hard to believe that I have been here for almost four weeks already.

When I came out to Singapore I was very excited, but also slightly concerned about the challenges that would face me on my return to the Far East. Moving to Korea was such a daunting but enjoyable experience that I was worried that this trip might not quite live up to its billing.

Admittedly it has been much different to what I thought it would be, but Singapore has plenty to offer, and I am so pleased that I got the chance to come out here and experience life here.

Tomorrow will be the start of my last weekend as I slowly count down the days, hours and minutes to my return. I feel that outcome of my experience has been slightly different to what I expect, but it will be another story to tell and another stamp on my passport I'd nothing else!

I am hoping to be able to finish of my trip with some positive experiences of Singaporean life that will allow me to leave with the best memories possible about this island.

And me, I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it's not some place you can look for, 'cause it's not where you go. It's how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something, and if you find that moment... it lasts forever... 

The Fog

Thankfully there was no early morning coaching going on today, so I was able to get myself a bit of a lie in.

Yesterday evening I was so shattered after the last two early mornings. No matter what time I seem to go to bed, it never seems to make me feel any less tired when I have to get up anytime between 5am and 7am!

Although I still woke up about 9am this morning, I didn't surface out of bed until 10:30 as I was doing my best to rest and recuperate after a busy weekend. I swear I've spent more time travelling and working than I have in bed over these last couple of weeks.

I came across a newspaper this morning which had the number '32' in a large font in the top right corner of the front page. Pretty intrigued by this I read on to discover that this is a new thing that the paper are required to produce due to worries about air pollution in Singapore.

Searching on the Internet I discovered that there had been some talk about forest fires in Indonesia blowing smoke in this direction. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I have barely seen the sun since coming here, and the level of smog in the air had something to do with it. 

Further investigation led me to the PSI reading website which indicates the ambient air quality in the country on behalf of the National Environment Agency. It seems from their readings that these readings are higher in the morning, and they say this is due to "an escalation of hotspot activities in Sumatra and Borneo can be expected during extended periods of dry weather."
This can lead to an occurance of smoke haze in the region, and its dependant on factors such as the proximity of fires, and the strength and direction of prevailing winds.

Although there has been a few days of hazy weather, the score of 32 I saw on the newspaper this morning is still in the region of 0-50 which is classed as good. Anything above 300 and we're in trouble!

Today I was tasked with heading to a new school, or one that I'd never visited before at least. It's a Jewish school based in the centre of Singapore, and we were due there to coach ten kids at an after school club.

First I had to drop our new coach, Will, off in the right place so that he could go to his session. He arrived on Saturday evening, and was preparing to coach for the first time since arriving from Singapore. Unfortunately his sleeping pattern has gone somewhat awry since getting here, and when it came time to depart to catch the MRT he was in a thoroughly deep sleep! 

I eventually managed to wake him up and after throwing on some clothes we eventually got him to Orchard where he needed to go to meet the rest of the coaches for this afternoon's session.
I carried on one further stop to a place called Somerset where I met one of our other coaches who took me on a short walk down the road to our Jewish School.

Now, I'd consider myself to be a pretty open-minded person, and I have found some of the venues that I have been coaching in since coming to Singapore pretty original.
Today's was definitely under the category of 'original' but not quite what I was expecting.

The other coach I was working with, Matt, explained about the kids we would be coaching, and then explained he was going to fetch them. Bear in mind at this point we are stood in the middle of a car park, little did I know that's where we would be taking today's session!

We managed to get through the session without no injuries, but it was a little worrying that we had to stop the session on a couple of occasions so that teachers could reverse out of their parking bays and through the middle of our pitch so they could depart school for the day.

I finally managed to get home at about 6:00pm before getting fed and watered for the evening and then getting another early night ahead of another coaching filled day tomorrow!

You tell your pal, when he thaws out he better have a damn good story. 

Return to Paradise

Sunday evening, and time to reflect on another busy weekend of coaching and early mornings (I much prefer one to the other - not difficult to guess which) it's time to reflect on more than half my time gone by in Singapore.

It feels very much like I have been here for a lot longer than the two weeks and three days since I flew into the country, and already I feel like I am a local with plenty of knowledge about how things work in this part of the world.

Today has involved relatively the same things as last Sunday. First I coached at West Coast Park this morning with my kids for an hour between 9:30 and 10:30. Thankfully I gained the correct information today, and arrived perfectly on time to set up.

The Japanese baseball players we are usually fighting for space with had moved slightly over into our territory this morning, so I had to take back some land by stretching out into their outfield. This morning I had the privilege of coaching eight children before finishing with a little match.

Doesn't matter how much time you spend coaching, it appears that children of ages 5-6 love to stand around in bunches and basically kick the ball as hard as they can when it comes towards them. Ironically today's session was about finding space, but that seemed to go completely out of the window when they were like bees around honey wherever the ball went.

After the session this morning we caught the bus back to the MRT station at Jurong East and then made our way back to Sembawang. All these early mornings must have taken their toll on me as I almost instantly fell asleep as soon as I managed to get a seat on the train.

A strange phenomenon seemed to take place this afternoon because as soon as we headed back towards Sembawang the rain came pouring down! Thankfully I had my umbrella in my bag so it wasn't required too much on the journey between the train and the apartment.

I had a quick bit of lunch before heading out to Sentosa island where I had spent most of last Sunday. This weekend I was doing my best to play tour guide to one of the other coaches who hadn't seen the place for himself, but was impressed after seeing some of my photos. Despite one visit there I was able to guide him half way around before having to return back to the apartment and allow him to continue exploring the rest of the island.

Miraculously as I started to get close to Sembawang again, it started raining, and this time the umbrella was a little more necessary than it had been on my original visit.

I've had a fairly quiet evening of being on the computer, as I prepare for my final full week in Singapore.

We have a new coach staying with as at the moment, he is also from England, and I am spending this week taking him to sessions and showing him around whenever I get the opportunity.

I remember when I first moved to Korea, and I was very grateful that I had two great (future) friends to show me around, but unfortunately I wasn't awarded that luxury when I first came here and I had to make my own way around.

I have done my best to try and make him feel welcome, and considering this is his first time in Asia then I'm sure he appreciates the slight bit of wisdom that I can impart on him.

Partly due to the language, the culture and basically everything, I think that Asia is perhaps the most difficult part of the world to 'blend' into. I consider myself to be a chameleon when it comes to visiting new places, and I was able to settle in a little easier here due to previous experiences in the continent. But I know it can be tough when you first come over, and I remember thinking "Wow" when I first saw all the bright lights, ridiculous amount of people EVERYWHERE, and strange smells started to waft from food all around.

I understand that perhaps this is a slightly narrow view of the world as I have never been to South America or the Middle-East, but to me, Asian culture is rapidly different in terms of its whole perspective, and I can understand why people might find it difficult to settle here, particularly if they are not in the right situation.  

Of course I am not suggesting that I am some worldly expert on everything, but these are things that I have picked up on my travels and believe to be the case.

This week, school's have returned, so most of our sessions will be taking place in the afternoon once again. 

Hurrah for lie-ins!

I'm not the best, but I am the most persistent.