Four more days. We spent today doing an array of moving errands, such as returning movies and library books, packing things up, and throwing things out. Then we went for a swim this evening. We'll miss the pool at our condominium. We don't use it often, just the occasional swim, but it's always enjoyable. We'll also really miss the animals we see and hear frequently in our neighbourhood. Yesterday evening we heard a choir of frogs who had moved to the pipes along the canals to increase the sonic impact of their croaking, it was amazingly loud and made us both start laughing. This morning at the bus stop I saw a beautiful blue kingfisher and two sulfur crested cockatoos, along with the usual mynahs and orioles. We'll still have cockatoos in Melbourne, but probably not the others. I'll also miss the frilled lizards I see frequently sunning themselves along the fences on my way to work, and will even miss the little geckos we find in the house (though I won't miss the poo).
We've been really fortunate to see such a variety of wild life in their natural habitats here. The highlights for me are the following:
Mudskippers, their amazing, and not uncommon here.
Flying lizards. We've seen two here. They're very cool.
Hornbills. We saw two little ones on our way to Tioman island in Malaysia, and one here near the zoo that may or may not have been wild.
Bee eaters: They're really beautiful birds, and uncommon enough that it's a real treat to see them.
macaques: I'm not the biggest fan of monkeys, but seeing them in the wild is special.
Monitor lizards: They're so prehistoric looking. Very similar thrill as seeing an alligator.
The white-vented mynahs: They are probably the most common species of bird in Singapore, but I love them. They're funny, charming, and almost always bring a smile to my face.

Does this make sense to you? Mark and I are trying to save money by mailing our things by surface mail through the Singapore post, rather than through a shipper/mover. Today I wanted to insure a few packages, which ultimately left me with a lot less faith that our packages are ever going to arrive. The post handlers wrote on the insured boxes "insured for X dollars"; who does that help? Is it just to alert potential robbers that there might be something valuable in the box? Because let's face it, if the box goes missing writing on the box isn't going to be helpful. Nice of them to write out just how valuable the stuff might be in dollar amount too, isn't it, just in case you're only willing to risk it for really valuable stuff. They also gave me a hard time about my boxes (standard moving boxes, well packed) and said I didn't use enough tape (I did), and made a big fuss of re-taping the edges of the insured boxes (only the insured boxes, the others aren't their problem) with little insurance stickers (I'm sure that will make a big difference).
So we've sent about 12 boxes so far, with about 8 more to send. I'm thinking we'll be lucky if we see 10 on the other side. On the plus side, it is MUCH cheaper to send our things this way.
Moving sucks.

The great Singapore black-out. Last night, right in the middle of Six Feet Under, the power goes out. This is a first during our time here. The blackout seemed to stretch a long way -- I climbed to the top of our building, and there were lights in the distance, but mostly dark for several miles in every direction. For 45 minutes or so, we got to experience what it was like here before electricity. Damn hot. How did people sleep?

Tonight was my last soccer game. They let me play striker for the last twenty minutes, which was fun. I had no goals, but got an assist after committing a flagrant foul that was not called. Afterwards, beers at Turf City. Then goodbyes, which I've really come to hate.

I'll find a team in Melbourne, but will it be as fun? Doubtful.

Turns out the Chinese opera we heard the other night from our window might have had another interesting twist to it. On opening nights, apparently, Chinese opera troupes play their first performance to an empty theater. It's for the ghosts, you see. We couldn't tell if there was a crowd there or not but this might have been what was going on.

My coworkers Hong I and Meng Wah told me this today during lunch, which was interesting in itself. We went to a dim sum restaurant on the seventh floor of a public housing project. It was rather like a banquet hall. But the food was really tasty. We had three kinds of dumplings, pork ribs with yams, glutinous rice, porridge, spongy meat-filled rolls, tea, and chestnut(?) cakes for dessert.

Got another ping on the job front today. A recruiter called me from Australia about a CV I posted on a job site. He asked me if I had any experience with HAV. Sorry, I said, as I had never even heard of it. Later he mentioned it again, and I asked (so I could look it up later), "Are you saying H-A-V or H-A-B?"

"No," he said. "E-J-B. Echo, Juliet, Bravo".

I thought language issues weren't going to be a problem. But "E-J-B" in an Australian accent sounds an awful lot like "H-A-V" to my ears.

Violent streak? Me? Frustrating game today. The team we played against had a player who was the biggest cheater I had ever seen. You breathe on him, and he falls down and cries out like he's in agony. The problem was, the ref fell for it almost every time.

I was covering him. I'm usually a pacifist, but I can't stand that sort of crap. So I tried to rile him up by calling him every name in the book whenever he was near me. At one point he ran through my space, so a grabbed his shirt, and of course he fell down and cried for the ref. The ref missed this one, so I said, "Awww, what's the matter? You fall down there?" It was all I could do not to at least step on him. He was just ignoring my taunts, so I figure, as long as he's falling anyway, and the ref's letting it happen, I might as well get my licks in. He was subbed out before I could do much. But he came back later, and then worst thing happened, which was that he scored the go-ahead goal. While I was covering someone else, but still.

Even now, the big dumb jock in me wishes I had left him with some scars. Sports are primal sometimes.

Anyway, the coach announced that this would be my last Sunday game (though there's a Wednesday night one that I'm still playing) and everyone applauded me. At least I hope they were applauding me, and not the fact that I'm leaving. It was nice.

Asian moment. Sometimes we forget we're living in Asia. We've gotten used to things, and often take the comfortable route as far as food, transportation, and shopping. But last night, we came home after dinner, and there was a Chinese opera going on at the little temple that we can see out our window, just down the street. This was about 10pm. They have a new open stage back behind it, and a tent set up for onlookers. We can see just a tiny bit of stage through binoculars. When the wind was from the right direction, we could hear the music, which is really strange to Western ears. Minimalist, with plinking noises and occasional cymbal crashes; the singing is kind of shrill. The closest Western equivalent from pop culture I can think of is that "We are Siamese if you please" song from the Disney movie.