25.12.24 - Sure, it's been a while

 

In the last days, in the dying embers, of 2024, the world went completely doolally. You'd imagine the people who put themselves in charge of it, would have realised their enormous fuckups and rectify the situation - well for what fuck ups I could possibly be talking about, this blog is a testament to 17 years of bearing witness to the idiocracy - which includes elitely educated people and those who should not be that rich, because no one should ever be that rich.

It was the rot which I saw when I started off as a young 20 something. The imbalance of power and where that would lead. There was no self correction involved as everyone wanted to have some kind of spoon in the fucking pot. It has only taken almost thirty years for the shit to hit the fan.

From Trump to the murder of the health care CEO, to Gaza and Ukraine, to the slums of the Phillippines and the poverty of the people who live in poverty when there is no need for ANYONE to live in poverty, to the destruction of the planet, it is all going quite Pete Tong.

My own very slight wobble sees me back in Singapore over December. A trip I did not QUITE expect to make. A phone call from my sister in tears about my mother and father needing some kind of guiding presence for them to rely on, saw me on the plane and back here.

There are many surprises about Singapore in December. First, it is very empty. People are away for the holidays. But so away that it is noticeable. I was catapulted back into the Serangoon Gardens of my childhood where there were unassuming shops which did not feel that they need be anything other than shops which sold stationery, shower heads, record biscuits, bicycles. Serangoon Gardens was filled with houses and not flats, this was true, but back then, the differential was not THAT bad. Now flats can go up to a million dollars and houses in gardens are at least $4 million. My dad often reminds me, needlessly, that he bought the house for a sixteenth of the price waaaaay back when. When the relatively reasonable salary of two hard working people were able to afford a piece of 'landed property'. 

Well, Singapore was back to those days. It was chilled. People were nice to each other. People smiled.

That said, I didn't leave the house for three days. I spent most of it making sure that my mom was stable and that she wasn't going to end up needing even more hospitalisation.

Meanwhile I lived in the half light of jet lag, not assisted by the 11-hour wait over at Schiphol airport. It was a grueling trip over. I slept at the foot of their bed, well barely slept because my mom needed the aircon off and the door open. But with the door open, I was tortured by mosquitoes. Then my dad would shut the door and I would be far too warm to sleep. It was something else. But as the days passed, Ma got much much better and soon, she was able to sleep on her own and I was able to return to my room and shut its door forever to the mosquitoes.

It was three days before I left the house, five before I could create some kind of structure. I would sleep at 2 pm, get up at 6, stay awake till 4 and then do the same thing all over again, but punctuated with getting up to help Ma to the toilet. Thankfully the idea of having a maid in the house has incentivised her return to independence. I have LOVED shopping for them. 

Going to the local NTUC, which is a short walk away, in my sarong and T-shirt - it was out of necessity at first, but I've just kept it now because it's so handy, and getting my kopi O ping. My mother looks forward to the recent haul with delight and anticipation. We have enjoyed exploring the roast counter which has everything from lamb ribs to seow bak. 

Then, in the midst of all this, the Gaza war... and the shooting of the CEO.

Perhaps I should say what I have been doing these months away from the blog... i've been doing lots of daily entries in my notepads and writing short stories. I now have 25 short stories. Some shorter than others... I'm gonna write about them in the next blog post...