places i'd like to be

though it's 2 weeks til the exhibition, 3 weeks til BOTH supervisors come back, 4 weeks til submission of my review of candidature, 6 weeks til the Graduate Review Conference, i can't help but daydream about good ol' singas... aah. bliss.

here's what's going on in the mind of an international student starved of home:

sun and sweat
can't wait to feel the rays of the tropical sun on my face, neck and arms. and feel sticky. and complain about damp armpits (and for that matter, remember to start removing armpit hairs). will waste no time getting my suntan lotion and bikini out (hopefully i can still fit into them!) and head for East Coast Park. or the swimming pool at the club.

will finally be rid of my daily minimum of 3 layers, and be stripped down to just 1 tank top over my berms. shall be a full-time slacker. and footwear will consist only of thongs and sandals.

food every 2 hrs
wan tan noodles, dry with ketchup at the corner coffeeshop, pow sing chicken rice, fried hokkien prawn mee at chomps, cheese-egg prata at athars on yio chu kang, ah liang's aww-jian at the serangoon gardens market, ALL the yummy buns at the bakery at the same market, tau huay with LOADS of syrup, sugar cane juice with lemon: a giant mug of that, please, chai tow kway at chomps, chicken wings and beer at east coast, indian rojak at serangoon central's S11 or at that coffeeshop at the corner opposite mustafa's, chee cheong fun from ang mo kio, chwee kway from ghim moh's hawker centre, popiah, BBQ seafood and Tsingtao beer at newton circus.

oh, and that really good fried toufu at chomps. and prawn noodles in that brown soup. and katong laksa. and ipoh hor fun at holland village. and yummy char siew rice with mysterious gravy at hougang.

cable TV
can't afford foxtel over here, so i've been very out of touch with the music scene. i miss the music videos most of all. both the english ones on channel 20 and the mandarin ones on channel 51. and discovery channel. and national geographic channel. and I MISS CHANNEL NEWS ASIA!!!!! never thought i'd say that, but i do.

my 4 cats
the 2 cross-persians, idiotic stray, and the odd egyptian one. i will allow them to cuddle on my lap for hours without moving away. i will carry each one at any given chance, and entertain them all tirelessly. and spend countless hours in the garden with them, just looking at birds, or in the sky, or at some weird blade of grass. will chase them round the house and play catch with them. will pat them all before going to sleep each night.

playstation
i know x-box and PS2 are out, but i've been stuck at the PS1 era. and i've been craving games of the corresponding PS1 era, like f4 racing, gran turismo, time crisis, puzzle bobble, DDR (shhhh....), final fantasy 7 (i resolve to finally get past that blasted boxing ring!), tekken... all embarrassingly backward, but i have this really strong urge to play them all over again.

cheap kopi
will sit willingly with the uncles at the corner kopitiam and order lots of kopi, teh, teh-o-peng, teh-tarik, milo-peng, milo-dinosaur. and have a lor-mai-kai. and kaya-toast. and 2 half-boiled eggs with aww-tau-you and a dash of pepper. will read the Straits Times, or some design mag while consuming all of the above. in. one. sitting.

nameless neighbourhood malls that start to look alike, and 'real' malls
junction 8, for one. and suntec city, millenia walk (outback's!!!), parkway parade, plaza sing, heartland (*gags*) mall at hougang, far east, heeren, orchard cineleisure... shall hang out at these places til i'm utterly sick of them (shouldn't be too difficult, eh?). and kinokuniya's at taka, and borders at wheelock place. and basheer's, of course, at bras basah complex. and bugis junction!! how could i forget!

wonder if any new hangouts would've sprouted by the time i get back.

old neighbourhoods aka heartlands
can only think of chilling at toa payoh at the moment. our 2nd oldest satellite town!
and ghim moh.
and queenstown.
and boon keng.

the beach
though nothing much to boast about, East Coast will suffice for the time being. i want to go kayak-ing, rollerblading, and cycling... and then recuperate the calories lost by gorging at the food centre.

how about pulau ubin?? or kusu island? or sister island? hmmmmm.

chinatown
want to spend long weekend afternoons there. the parking at Han's Tasty Town remains at SGD1 per entry, hopefully. i want to walk down the streets of old shops, admire the shophousesat their various states of dilapidation, venture inside these old shops, talk to the shop-owners. sit at the zhu jiao centre for hours at a go and observe the older folk. and deliberate on whether or not to purchase a lion-head for posterity. and buy loads of old nostalgia-inducing toys.

little india
aside from the obvious mustafa 24-hour shopping CONGLOMERATE, i want to walk through all the other lanes. veerasamy lane, baboo lane, desker road, dunlop street, tekka market, campbell lane. and that little india arcade. gosh. i grew up there, almost.

cafes
though these cafe-chains are nothing compared to the identity of each independently-owned cafe in melbs, i still can't find a decent mocha ice-blended over here. and only a mocha ice blended will do for singa's humid weather. will remember NOT to quibble over the *shocking* price for a plastic cup of coffee-with-crushed-ice -- not after the exorbitant prices for a meal out over here.

will be a poser, and bring my wingwong to get a spot of work done outdoors! while sipping elegantly on my coffee. and people-watching. and watch people burn with envy at my wingwong. :)

- - - - - - -

back to work. but it was a nice break while it lasted.
am counting down the days til i return to sunny ol' singas!