Re-entry

Okay, blog template back to its yellowy glory. It disappeared a couple of weeks ago due to a little silliness on my part, but my friend Ripper figured out my screw-up and restored the template two days ago.

In the interim, I boxed up a bunch of stuff to ship from London to Singapore, made a whirlwind round of farewells in London, and hied my way back to Singapore. Funniest moment on the flight back: I put away my iPad and tried to activate the in-flight entertainment by pressing my fingers on the screen as if it was a touchscreen. I stabbed away hopelessly for a couple of minutes before remembering that oh yeah, the handset, that's how you activate the system.

Singapore is about as crowded as I remember but, oddly, not as hot. I was prepared for feeling the usual blast of humidity when I walked off the plane at the airport, but maybe at Terminal 3 they've upped the air-conditioning levels because the sensation wasn't as noticeable as it used to be. I may also not be noticing the heat as much because I've been mostly hiding indoors by day, venturing forth only at night.

Various newbie moments: reminding myself to tap my EZ-link card when I get off the bus, thinking that the Circle Line on the MRT runs in a full circle (its southernmost stations are not linked), standing on the right side instead of the left on an escalator, taking a taxi to Marina Bay Sands in the midst of F1-related road closures.

I'm sure there'll be more to come.

Why this blog (temporarily) looks wrong

Using the new Blogger interface tonight made my customised blog template disappear. I'm investigating.

(Yes, I'm annoyed. Extremely. Extremely.)

In the meantime, please bear with the retro look and enjoy a little Dramatic Prairie Dog (via David Pogue's "Internet Memes 101"):

Bookended by mooncakes

As Stellou recently reminded me, when I arrived in London last year I brought her mooncakes. This year she gave me some, courtesy of the mooncake bounty her father had bestowed upon her.

So it's been a year, and I've spent the last week (since submitting my dissertation last Tuesday) sorting, packing and dismantling my life here in preparation for returning home. It's been a very different feeling from the little I remember of packing up my undergraduate life. For one thing, I have an adult life to return to. For another, there is a timeless sheen to London (misleading though it may be) that makes me feel like it's a place one can always come back to, for different reasons.

When people ask me what I'll miss about London, my glib answer is lemon curd. Something about that tartness and sweetness and Britishness all rolled up into one.

It's been a very, very good year, and now it's time to go home.