Gay arrived in Singapore this afternoon. Maya and I fetched her from the airport and the first thing she said when I met her was, “Ang init pala dito no?” (It’s so hot here, isn’t it?) Haha. That’s what three months in Perth will do to you. She had just come from Perth, Australia, where she had stayed for three months with her brother and his family.
We were so giddy to be together once again. All we needed was Zenie and it would be a complete Makati roommates reunion. So umm Zenie, please stop over in October? 😀
Gay had contacted someone from the website I gave her, so we rode a cab to the place where she would supposedly be staying while in Singapore. We got so excited when we saw that it was a house, and a very nice one at that. See, in Singapore, only really rich people can afford houses. Most of the population live in flats or condos.
So we went in and we found out that she wasn’t actually gonna stay here but in Serangoon central. They brought us there in cabs and it turns out that she’ll also be staying in a house, albeit not as pretty as the first one. Well at least it’s cheaper than what Cate and I paid when we first got here two years ago. We had paid S$450 each for bedspace for a month while Gay only paid S$300.
Gay brought out her pasalubong for me and Maya which we promptly attacked. Yumyum!
After I helped Gay set up her wifi connection in her laptop (which I had a hard time figuring out since my Macbook spoils me by prompting me automatically), she put away her things and we set out to find a mall where we could eat our first decent meal of the day and buy some necessities for Gay.
There was no mall near the Serangoon MRT, so I suggested going to Compass Point, four stops away. We instructed Gay to buy an EZ Link card and taught her how to top it up and scan it. It was pretty easy, actually, since the set up is apparently the same in Australia.
When we got to Compass Point, we coincidentally ran into Rodel and Monet. We stopped to exchange hellos and introduced Gay to Monet, whose best friend, it turns out, was Gay’s colleague back in the Philippines. Such a small small world indeed.
When the couple headed their way, the three of us climbed the escalators to the Kopitiam food court where Gay had her first Singaporean meal.
We took a long time finishing our dinner because we talked too much, but after we eventually did, we went downstairs to buy the necessities – a sim card, an electric adapter, and groceries. Then we headed our separate ways home.
Gay can’t get over how what she’s doing now is like what we did back in 2004 – when she, Zenie and I
took a risk and flew to Manila somewhat impulsively to find jobs. That had ended up really well, so I’m confident that this time around, it would work out for Gay just as it did for me, when I did exactly what she’s doing now back in 2008.
Hey, I just realized that it would be two years exactly this coming Monday! 🙂
