A Singaporean In Australia

Prior to this, they were amazing but this required special mention. I have to thank Sham and Rob, who had been our chefs, caterer, tour guides, information counter and logistics support for several occasions during the last 3 weeks. If sending us off wasn't enough, receiving us with 2 cars was overwhelming. They have been great hosts to my parents and even made sure they didn't leave empty handed. We received too much kindness that Jen and I had to chant, 'Paiseh, paiseh, paiseh'.

Sham and Rob burnt their Sunday to take us for a tour around Swan Valley. It was an efficient trip, for they knew the place like the back of their hands. There was hardly any time wasted between our stops and we managed to cover all the locations that we planned to visit. Perhaps one day I would share the little things I saw during the trip. If I could get the visual aids, I would.

Pat, if you are reading, thanks for the home-cooked dinner a few weeks back. Prior to this, my parents probably didn't get to speak to anyone except us. The conversations in Cantonese did help, a lot. The folks started to relax and continued to discuss about the topics over dinner on the way home in the car that night. It was also fortunate that Steph and Joni dropped by last mid week to have dinner. Sorry to take up your time till almost midnight. Needless to say, my mum enjoyed her reminiscing of the Singapore past. She will be back to do char-mee for you, I'll see to that. Hopefully it'll be soon. Thanks Edmund for offering help to send my parents back.

Grace came over for dinner today. She was adapting well into new life, specially mentioning she now required 40 minutes to reach her work place. By tomorrow, her whole family will be in Perth for a visit and she was over the moon about it. She would be bringing them over for dinner soon. It will be nice to see Auntie again. It wasn't too comfortable hosting her over at Eugene's back then, as a single room tenant. This time round, it will be much better and we can chat as long as we want in a relaxing setting. This time round, I'll flip the chocolate cake the right way. Promise.

Soon I will take a rest, go back to routine and plan the next step. Before that, the final project beckons. The Singaporean mum, M, will be making her grand move to Perth in the upcoming week. The  requested 'refugee room' had been vacated and made ready, waiting. It's my turn to be logistic assistant, defects checker and refugee shelter to pay it forward another round. Send me a signal to confirm if you are still alive, M.