In the past when I talked to friends who had lived in Australia, an oft-heard comment was that "it's rather quiet at night".
When I went to Adelaide, this realization hit me very strongly. As I had arrived on their national day, everything was very very quiet. Not only were all stores closed, with doors shut resolutely, there was nobody on the streets at all, and very very few cars. It was rather eerie in fact, something like aliens had just sucked everybody away.
My family and I were staying at my dad's friend's house. When I walked out at dusk, the great beauty of the scenery hit me - rolling hills leading down to a deep blue sea, which spread out to eternity. At night all the stars came out, and you could count them. No pollution in the night sky.
My dad's friend had a nice house too. It was large, not opulent, but comfortable. A lovely garden surrounded it. He seemed to live a pretty relaxing life. Scale that house, garden and life up, and that's Adelaide.
Of course it is also really boring, which is why I will not live in a place like that till I retire and have nothing better to do than play Starcraft 5 all day or something like that.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Cities I've been to - Singapore
What is Singapore like?
My family has a tradition of going to Singapore for holidays at the end of the year, around Christmas time, for what I do not know, nevertheless I have to go. So I've been in Singapore for a fair bit of time.
Singapore is sorta like KL to me. But what's the difference between the two?
Now I have this old friend. Whenever we used to hang out with her, we would have to give her advance notifications of our plans to gather, so that she could slot in a spot for us in her very packed timetable. Educational, MEANINGFUL stuff blossomed out all over her timetable, I think filling nearly all of her waking hours.
She told us that the concept of spending a whole day without prior plans was rather alien to her. Impromptu things such as lazing around at the mamak for hours, or driving up to Genting suddenly was not advisable at all.
This impressive girl is now in Harvard doing a doctorate. I would be willing to bet a finger that she had never received a grade less than an A on a major exam in her life.
Now compare that to me. I put in a moderate amount of effort for work and studies but slack off quite a lot too. My room is rather messy and I tend to forget things right and left.
That girl is Singapore, and I am KL. That's the difference.
My family has a tradition of going to Singapore for holidays at the end of the year, around Christmas time, for what I do not know, nevertheless I have to go. So I've been in Singapore for a fair bit of time.
Singapore is sorta like KL to me. But what's the difference between the two?
Now I have this old friend. Whenever we used to hang out with her, we would have to give her advance notifications of our plans to gather, so that she could slot in a spot for us in her very packed timetable. Educational, MEANINGFUL stuff blossomed out all over her timetable, I think filling nearly all of her waking hours.
She told us that the concept of spending a whole day without prior plans was rather alien to her. Impromptu things such as lazing around at the mamak for hours, or driving up to Genting suddenly was not advisable at all.
This impressive girl is now in Harvard doing a doctorate. I would be willing to bet a finger that she had never received a grade less than an A on a major exam in her life.
Now compare that to me. I put in a moderate amount of effort for work and studies but slack off quite a lot too. My room is rather messy and I tend to forget things right and left.
That girl is Singapore, and I am KL. That's the difference.
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