I Can't Remember Where I Stay, If Only For A Moment

Profile Of Rhemi And His Flat
Rhemi is a non-practising Moslem. That means he doesn't fast, he smokes and he just about does nothing a devout Moslem does.

For a day, I haven't seen his fiancee around. Even if he claimed that the flat was bought under the fiance-fiancee scheme, when the three months grace period is up, he has to produce his marriage certificate.

I suspect that is just his beau who visits occasionally. I wanna keep my distance away from her as much as I can and the same goes for Rhemi. Just a hi-bye kinda relation and the occasional chit-chat. Period.

The flat is really old and dirty. But not as dirty and bugs-infested as Aunt Sally's, that is for sure. I do scratch and rash but not for as long a period as I did at Aunt Sally's. I have to hose down the shelf in the bath which holds his old bird-cages and change the bathing scoop mug and the water hose which were so old and dirty.

Apart from that, the place is generally liveable.

Renting A Flat Direct From HDB Is A No-Go For Moi For The Following Reasons
Time and again, I have been asked to rent a 1 or 2-room unit from the HDB direct. This is open to Singapore citizens and whose monthly income is about $1500 or less. I probably qualify if for just these two conditions alone.

But its string of other pre-qualifiers exempt me from ever hoping to come under the scheme.

Usually the units are in outlying areas. It is usually a 5 to 9-month wait and yes there is a daily selection scheme. Just you queue, wait and compete for the handful of units available (normally less than 10).

You need another occupier and yes, if you are oprhaned or widowed, you must be at least 21 years old.

But if you are single, you need to be 35 and you need another single of about the same age too to qualify for the Joint Singles Scheme.

And you can't own private property.

TADA! I don't qualify yet again! And you can see how shabbily singles are being treated here in Singapore. It is as if singlehood is more than a dirty word!

Singaporean singles and the rest of Singapore, if you don't revolt, it is just gonna be your turn next!

Too Many Addresses And Too Many Moves In Too Short A Time
You can imagine how bad it must be if I had to pause for an unusually long time when the cabby asked me for my destination the other night.

I mean I have shifted from Ang Mo Kio to Sing Ming Avenue and now to Yishun. Sure each part of Singapore has opened up my eyes a little to the kinda living conditions of both the estate and the apartment.

But I just got back from viewing a unit at Punggol and for a long moment I froze, not remembering where I was staying.

Was it still 109, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 ("The Woman" stays here and I refrain from calling her names because she is the mother of Ashley) or 403, Sin Ming Avenue or was it 116 Yishun Ring Road or 115 Edgefield Plains, Punggol, both units which I had just viewed?

In fact, I had mistaken the apartment block number at Punggol and had given the cabby wrong directions.

Right here at this remoter albeit upgraded part of Yishun, I had trouble heading in the right direction to get to the various major roads that encircle the estate. Yishun Ring Road (yes, we have a beltway here but this is on a micro-scale), Sembawang Road, Yishun Avenue 5 or Yishun Avenue 7.

Things couldn't get any worse when I waited on the wrong side of the road at Orchard Road, Ang Mo Kio and Serangoon Gardens for my destination buses.

I had to check with passengers on board and a bus driver helped me out when he pointed the route to me. A school gal reminded me I was on the wrong track when she in turn ask me for directions.

Gosh, I am just so disoriented and very, very tired from the past couple of days' looking for a place, shifting, unpacking, cleaning and so on.

I have to get myself oriented to this place real soon.

The People I Ran Into
That cute young Myanmese boy has returned home after a stint of intership at a local cafe here. He was studying at one of our local culinary and hospitality colleges here. This was before I could even grab hold of his contact.

Instead I ran into an even cuter and younger-looking look-alike of a local well known playwright here. Not too bad a catch.

Of course I miss out on all those sportsboys at the track and field. I just wasn't in the mood and they do seem distant and stuck-up and can't they strike up something instead?

I have not the slightest qualm that travel agencies can just go bust should student travel tours to the Third World diminish. That is because I ran into this travel agent gay dude twice and he holes up at The Bayhshore.

Imagine the rest of us feeding his lifestyle (like He-Ape) by paying him to go to suffer in a Third World or while we are living in Third World homes here and he is living in cool, comfy and luxurious condos?

More than ironical, it is preposterous!