Return to Singapore

Victoria, SF, Narita, Singapore. In that order. My flight home was virtually uneventful and I slept most of the way. I had window seats and skinny neighbours and kind people who put my carry-on luggage above for me since I'm too short to do this myself. I dislike flying without Joel mostly because of the dreaded stowing and un-stowing of luggage, and having big sweaty guys (who should have bought an extra seat) spill into mine and snore the whole way. I understand a woman somewhere has to put up with you, it's not me. This aside, I'm a good flyer, and generally don't particularly care if I actually have company or not since as mentioned, I take a few Nyquil and sleep and sleep and sleep.

Joel was waiting at the airport looking gleeful but tired as we were an hour late and he's usually long asleep by 1:30am. Had a restful sleep and headed out this morning into a glorious sunny day to get an iced coffee. It was one of those perfect walks where the sun trickles down through the trees creating spotlights on iridescent green plants. Shop owners unroll their awnings and roll their goods out onto the sidewalk as I pass by and there's a smell in the air of baking soil and concrete. It's not overly hot or humid right now, maybe 28 degrees with around 70-80% humidity. I'm so happy to be home.

Snow day

The final thing I wanted to do before leaving my homeland was to play in the snow so we trekked up a mountain today and did just that.

On the road again

Joel is heading back to Singapore after spending the past few weeks working from Montreal. Meanwhile, I've been 3000 miles away still helping out on the home front but also doing online course work.  In the past two months Joel and I have barely spent two weeks under the same roof. It's often this way for us but frankly it's starting to wear a little thin. I'm counting down my last week here before I fly back to Singapore too.

Despite my eagerness to be home, I'm less than thrilled about the long flight. Plus, I seem to be bringing a huge box of bike wheels (Joel!!!!) and a big hard case filled with artwork, kitchen gear and half a dozen pairs of Havaianas. The TSA is going to have a heyday if they look in my bags. Not that anything is at all illegal, it's just I don't think many other people are traveling with... well bikes tires and copper pots.

Driving in a blizzard at night

Driving in a blizzard at night from Stacey Clarke on Vimeo.

In case anyone thought Joel was the only one experiencing Winter. It's also snowing in Victoria. Do I miss snow? Um, no. Next question.

Montreal

Mounted Police in the snow

Ice formations, Mt Royal

In Montreal on business for a few more weeks. It's beautiful but I wish Stace was here.
-Joel

Sunset on Dallas Road

Sunset along Dallas Road, Victoria. Taken with Camera+ on my iphone 4

Happy New Year

Sidney waterfront walkway

Expat basics: before you move to Singapore

I get a lot of messages from people about to move to Singapore who want to know what to do before they arrive. I've only done two international moves but I think we made most of our biggest mistakes the first time and felt pretty on top of things on round two. Here's a list of  things I think are really good to do before you set foot out of your home country. 

Banking Switch your home banking over to an international bank at least a few months before you leave. HSBC and Citibank are good options. Make sure you have some money successfully wired over before you arrive so your first trip to the bank is as smooth as possible. 

Insurance Take out a comprehensive expat health insurance policy from your home country. No, you are not allowed to use travel insurance. We've used David Cummings Insurance in Vancouver and they were great for getting us set up with a plan for our US immigration. We later did a policy with BUPA based in London.

To add an extra note for folks heading to Singapore: I haven't seen any Singaporean health plans that don't absolutely suck. Unless your new job comes with a full expat policy from your home country, assume the local policy they are going to offer you is going to be 80% useless. The crazy thing is, your company's HR department will think their plan is great. They also think it's normal for families to spend all of their retirement savings if someone gets hurt. It's a cultural difference and one that unfortunately can get you in some very serious financial trouble.


A warning to women: expat policies usually do not include maternity coverage. Maternity insurance is an additional policy with a 10 to 12 month waiting period before you can claim. Even the most expensive expat policies do not cover women who are already pregnant. Do not leave your home country pregnant or intend to get pregnant in the first half year of your relocation. I've met far too many trailing spouses in Singapore who ended up playing Russian roulette with their pregnancy. Just to throw a few numbers out there, a C-section could put you out $22,000 sg and a premie baby could be around $250,000 sg. 

Address change.  Moving away when you don't have a forwarding address is really complicated. In Canada you can do int'l mail forwarding but in the US you can't (I guess the US can't imagine anyone leaving?). I recommend getting a mail box at a private mail forwarding company. Set up the address change before you go. Once you arrive, have them bundle mail once a month and send it over. We used Bongo this time and they were awful so just avoid that one. 

My old friend Victoria

I've been working seven days a week looking after Grannie since I arrived here. When Joel arrived last week we decided to run away for a night together. We booked a night at the Empress Hotel. I've always wanted to stay in this icon of our city but never really had the right excuse. It always seemed like a silly touristy thing to do but there we were with steaming cups of darjeeling tea looking out over the inner harbour.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world...

Joel in a mountain biking race in Malaysia