DAY 18: OF STARBUCKS, PÂTÉ, FRENCH TOAST AND DUMPLINGS, FROM SIMEI AND BEYOND...

i wanted to start today's blog with a question which i formulated while i was riding the train back to eunos after having dinner at simei (i'll tell you more about that in a bit): do you own a fish in a bowl at home?

laugh as loud as you want people, because the perplexity is just starting; trust me, there is a point.

at home, we own a red brazilian fighting fish we call "fishie" (for the lack of an appropriate name for it, and because it was the name my daughter gave it). because of his nature, fishie lives alone in his small fish tank. every so often, back when i was home, after i cleaned up his tank, i would look at how fishie would swim back and forth after i changed his water. at some point, he would stop, look through the glass wall, and stare at me. at times like that, i would get to thinking: is it me looking at fishie, or is it him looking at me. perspectives.

THIS MORNING
i woke up at around 6:30am, prepping up for today, since i had to drop by the office. to my surprise (and pure revelry), my IPA (in-principle approval) was approved late afternoon yesterday after it was applied for early morning of the same day (ate nanette, a fellow filipino who was working in the company i was hired at, SMSed and called me up all enthused since the pass was approved so quickly. i have talked with her before, when i was starting to be interviewed for the position, and she was more than gracious to share her 15 years of experience in SG).

this morning, i was supposed to drop by the office, get the specifics of the IPA, and process my medical exams. revved up as i was, i was already at the eunos crescent at around 7:30am, and had some stir-fried ramen topped with veggies for breakfast. i bought a bottle of mineral water on my way out of the hawker centre, and proceeded to the mrt.

lo and behold, regardless of whether i let three trains pass by, i still arrived at bugis station a tad earlier than the agreed time of 9am (i was already at bugis by 8:10am), so i decided to sit outside the st. joseph's church, and read the newspapers i got for free at eunos and at bugis (i love it when they give free newspapers in the morning). at around 8:45, i walked towards the building where our office was located - just adjacent to the church. convenient eh?

when i arrived, catherine, my boss, was already busy talking to clients over the phone. it took well over five to ten minutes before i went in to her office, and yes, she was still talking to someone over the phone. after a few more minutes, she was off the hook, and she came to me with the results of the application for my s-pass. she told me that i had to finish my medical exam first, then get my pass, before i could "officially" start, although i had to check in early next week, since we had a brainstorming session on monday at 9am, and a meeting with our distributors the following day (tuesday actually has a oonflict, since i was supposed to accompany sofia, the girl i was replacing, to the graphic designer's house). after a quick meeting with everyone, i was discharged and i ran back to eunos to get my medical exams done.

at eunos, i went to one of the HDB clinics which catherine advised me to go to (since clinics in malls charged heftier). i gave my specifics, and waited for my turn. after 15 minutes, i was called by the attendant to enter the doctor's office. in all honesty, i was a bit surprised to see that the doctor who was supposed to do the medical exam was like twice as young as the doctors i've encountered back home. she was relatively young. her name was dr. kim.

she started by taking my blood pressure, which was 120/80 (event though i came in the clinic panting because i walked a couple of meters from paya lebar), and then she asked me to lie down so she could listen to my heartbeat. after checking for vital signs, dr. kim started pressing on my tummy and asked if i felt any discomfort. i jested her saying, she wouldn't feel anything else around my tummy since it was all fat. she smiled and said, "fat is not bad." the doctor, being young as she was, i felt, had a different perspective.

"i neeed to lose some weight," i said. but the physician rebutted, saying "you should change your perspective. instead of saying 'need', say that you 'want.' people accomplish a lot of things when they want something." i smiled at her in agreement. afterwards, she asked to get back to my seat, and she extracted around 5cc of blood from my left arm. she got a circular bandage from a small drawer below her, and said, "uhm, where did i poke you?" i had to stop myself from laughing. she was so, well, young.

i left the clinic and ran to eunos to grab a bus going to bedok (since the clinic didn't have an xray facility). this proved to be a tough challenge for me since i had to get off at bedok interchange and look for the princess building which was adjacent to the bus terminal. i instinctively went straight to the eunos rotunda, thinking that the bus nos. 7, 26 and 30 would route there. lo and behold, none of the buses where there. i asked around, and i was instructed to take a bus to upper changi road, get off after two stops, then ride the buses i needed. and so i hopped on a bus154, and counted two stops - i was back to where i almost got off, at joo chiat. there, i waited for bus 7, 26 or 30.

bus26 came after a couple of minutes. i asked if they were going to pass by bedok interchange, but the driver prompted me to the other side of the rode. i climbed up the overpass to the other side of the road, thinking maybe the guy was wrong. a few mores steps later, and i was on sims avenue, and then it hit me: why the hell was i going towards paya lebar when all the while bedok was two stations away from eunos, going to pasir ris. i was stoked. i ended up riding a bus7 which passed by the eunos bus stop, which i did not mind passing, on my way to the bus rotunda. darn it. LOL four and a half kilometers after, i was at bedok interchange.

i found the clinic immediately, but the lady prompted me to go to the second floor for the x-ray exam. lo and behold, no stairs (or at least i didn't see it). i ended up going around the building, looking for a stair case, asking the crew and managers of mcdonald's, only to be told that beside the main door of the clinic was a door that led to the second floor. i felt like such an idiot LOL

upstairs, i went through the x-ray in a breeze. i was a ssisted by a filipina, who didn't feel like she was a radiologist at all (since she was in a business suit, not a scrub suit). i paid the man S$12.84 for the x-ray and left. they were to forward the results to the clinic in changi, who in turn would finalize my medical exams. everything cost me S$43.84 to be exact.

before i went to the mrt station, i walk around bedok's hawker centre, which looked a bit cleaner (if not more elevated) that that of eunos'. there was little garbage, nor people who loitered and did not eat at all. it was lunchtime, and so a lot of people where at the centre. i was amazed at the wide selection of food, but prompted myself that i had to buy food at eunos when i got back, so i wouldn't have to buy food twice (plus i already bought sardines and potato pufss, err, empanada which i stowed away in my backpack).

a few stops later, i was at eunos. i bought a serving of nasi lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk, topped with chili, peanuts, scrambled egg and cucumber) and a tall plastic cup of soya milk (which i bought instead of the sling bag since i need a glass to drink my remaining coke from). when i got home, i feated over the nasi lemak (incidentally, nasi is al capampangan for "rice." funny how our languages are connected eh?) and the puffs, while watching x-factor reruns and glee performances on hioni's pearly pink vaio (which she lent to me almost a week ago so i would have a chance to skype with grace; i am so lucky with my kids!).

THE AFTERNOON
i was actually hounded by a personal dilemma this afternoon, and so i had to call some people to help me iron things out. in the midst of it all, onil, mythel's husband (who is my wife's first cousin), called me up and asked if we could meet late in the evening over dinner, so we could talk about the problem that i had. i was more than happy to oblige, seeing that i owed both of them so much, and now he had offered to help me out yet again. i was late for the 8pm appointment (since i did not catch the mrt immediately and had to wait for another four minutes for the next train to come by), but onil still greeted me with a smile when we meet at 711 in simei.

he asked if i took dinner (which he already asked when he called me up around 7:15pm, telling me that we could meet by 8pm at simei mrt station), and invited me to see the hawker centre at their part of singapore. i was blown away. why? the primary hawker center, which was dubbed "foodshare" (since it was, i would believe, a project of the fairprice enterprise in SG) was fully-airconditioned with selections of chinese, korean and japanese cuisine. i was more than delighted to see the smorgasbord that was before me. in the end, the filipino tummy took over my decisioning prowess, and so i ordered a japanese bento meal of chicken pâté and crispy-fried salmon with a heap of rice and pickled veggies (cabbage, mainly), which onil graciously paid for. he also bought two glasses of lemon iced-tea, and for his dinner, a bowl of noodles and dumplings on the side. all throughout dinner, he kept asking me if i needed anything else, and i was too shy (and too full) to oblige.

afterwards, we waited for mythel (my wife's cousin, remember) at starbucks, still just outside the mrt station. onil ordered a mocha frappe and a chocolate cream chip frappe for us. we started chatting again, when we sat down, talking about stress in the office, how i was already on my way in building the dreams i promised my wife and kid. stuff that would normally make me cry at night when i'm alone in the room (because my brother does extreme overtime and sometimes doesn't come home from work for two days straight). at around 9:30pm, mythel came and we started saying "congratulations" and "thank yous" again. mythel (and onil) could not have stressed so much that i was fortunate to have found work so fast, with a pass approved at such pace. mythel told me i was also fortunate to have my kids here in singapore, and i should start planning for my family's vacation here in singapore, instead of me going home every so often.

a few more laughs and tips, and it was time to go home. the couple had to take a bus home, and i had to take the mrt back at eunos. while on the mrt, i stared blankly at the passangers who were seated at the coaches in front of mine. i couldn't stop myself from wondering how they felt, rifding their coaches, fidgety as they were, wiggling left and right as the train traversed the stations - simei to tanah merah to bedok to kembangan to eunos. but then it hit me: was i seing them wiggling left to right, bumping, grinding on the metal, or was i seeing how stable their coach was, only that i was the one who was wiggling to and fro?

it guess like fishie, and the coahces of the train, my life in singapore will be a matter of perspectives. i have a meeting i'm more than excited to attend this coming monday, but mythel was right: it's a little bit of both excitement and fear. it would just be a matter of asking myself to settle on the perspective i want to bank on. some people, onil said, sell carabows and cows just to muster enough to send them from the provinces to manila. i, on the other hand, was already in singapore. and because i have the opportunity, only i have the power to shift or manipulate my perspective.

so tonight, i ask you: are you looking at a fish through the glass walls, or are you the fish looking outside the person on the other side?

still here. hey.