Care to join us?

A lot of our friends especially in the US have contacted us lately to ask us about a job opportunity in Singapore they are considering. They want to know what the job market is like and what they should ask for in a salary and if we like it here. I don't know about every job area, for instance I don't know anyone in oil and gas or mining here. What I do know is a bit about the finance, media and entertainment and software end of things. So this is my attempt to share some observations about the job market I've made over the past year while networking and chatting with expats in these fields.

Bintan Islands Indonesia

Bintan Islands Indonesia, a set on Flickr.

We just got home from spending a weekend on Bintan for the Tour de Bintan stage race and the "go get some sun" part of the Doctor's orders for me. As my fellow Singapore residents already know, this island is not a cultural hot spot, nor is it the most amazing place to hit up a resort but it is a 45 minute ferry ride from Singapore and an opportunity to escape the city noise for a weekend.

We actually happened upon a great spot this trip. We stayed at Bintan Lagoon Resort which is a 700 acre golf resort set back from the water so the beach is quite peaceful with just one beach side restaurant visible from the shore. Given that it's a huge piece of land there's no light pollution at night and we loved just being able to walk around and see stars. It's very quiet and there are no other resorts on this stretch of coast. The cost of this place cuts down on the large families and groups of partiers so most other guests are couples who would prefer to play cards and read in a lounger than scream and listen to loud pop music. Overall the service was quite decent, our room was pretty nice and as clean as things get in this part of the world. Food at the buffet was better than other resort buffets we've seen, a-la-carte was better and the beach bar/restaurant was on par with a Singaporean tapas bar. Not excellent but we weren't suffering a bit. 

Definitely not the opera

That's no concert hall. Nope, it's the walk-in clinic I finally dragged my sorry butt into last night.

Since we left Vancouver in 2007 I've only been sick when I've traveled back to colder climates. I dodged the cold bug for three years in California but spent all of my trips back to Canada sick as a dog. I made it to a year in Singapore, again sick as hell both times I went back North, but always healthy here. So this is it, my first full on flat on my black with a real doozy illness in the tropics. And silly me, I waited 10 days to seek any medical care due to phobias of antibiotic-pushing doctors.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Tonight we went to see the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy with pianist Guiseppe Andaloro. The program was the Rachmaninov Concerto No. 2 in C minor and then Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor.  It's been ages since I've sat and listened to a concert and this was certainly a treat for the ears. The Esplanade Concert Hall is quite an amazing space too. I took a couple of wobbly pictures with my iphone. The one above is of the lighting over the stage. There's a huge wooden spiral sculpture suspended there.

Student in a suitcase

I'm in my second to last semester of my bachelor of fine arts [BFA] in graphic design. Today I'm looking back over the last four years of my strange and wonderful time as an adult student back in the halls of a university and also all the really crazy arrangements I've made to fit schooling into our nomadic life.

Monsoon is the other season

Usually I am quite a vocal hater of rain. The cold whipping diagonal kind that spurts and gusts and makes the idea of an umbrella laughable. In other words the Pacific Northwest from September to May. All kidding aside, that late fall cold rain with the darkness is really something left coasters like to complain about and why shouldn't we? It's god awful. Singapore actually gets more rainfall than Vancouver (shock and awe I know). Rain here is that tropical gush of water with a few customary claps of thunder. It falls straight down (and at a rate that makes it bounce as high as your face) but then it ends. So yes... it rains here but it's different. Until Monsoon.

Top things we miss

Vancouver, BC

1. Solly's Bagels and cinnamon buns

2 Great coffee shops for cozy winter gatherings with friends (and macbook huddles)

3 As many skating rinks as Starbucks locations

4 Long Summer nights (even though they were cold) those long pink sunsets were amazing

5 The weird and wonderful Commercial Drive and our little organic food haunts along there

6 Main St boutiques with local designers and Vintage clothing stores. Gravity Pope. Nuff said.

Our Bali trip album on flickr

Bali - Sept 2011, a set on Flickr.

I'm getting our pictures up today from the iphone and our camera. What a great weekend!

Mozaic and tales from the back of a scooter

Our first day in Bali we took off down an unpaved 'road' through the rice fields. Joel navigated like a pro handling all the potholes like he was cruising on his mountain bike and sometimes giving me fair warning before diving down a particularly bruising embankment.

Back to Bali

On a whim we booked a couple of tickets to Bali this weekend. Joel hadn't been to Indonesia yet and I couldn't wait to get back to Ubud. We arrived late last night to our guest house which is along the rice patties. A cut through took us right onto Monkey Forest Rd where we spent the evening listening to great live music. The local musicians have quite an astonishing repertoire of alternative rock covers. It sure beats the nauseating Justin Bieber/Celine Dion soundtrack of Singapore. We woke at 9 with the roosters and sat out on our deck overlooking The rice patties. Joel has just secured a scooter and is excitedly planning our day of exploring.