SINGAPORE

Tuesday was my visa run to Singapore. You cant apply to a consulate in Indonesia you have to leave the country and re entre on a 12 month working permit.
So at 3 am Tuesday morning both alarms went off and i opened my not so keen to be open eyes. I cant beleive I have to get up. I definitely was NOT having a cold shower at this time of the morning. ( i am turning into "that" feral cos I shower less and less the more I stay here) Anyways, I got dressed and double checked I had all the paper work passport phots etc. Onece Twoece haha.
I strolled down to the school where the driver was picking me up Its about a 30 second walk and quite scary and eerie at that time of the morning. I waited, and waited. This driver was a new one and I had not met him before. I ended up calling Joanne, from work and asking her to call the driver as he has not shown up yet and its 10 to 4. shit that sound horrible to even type. he arrived about 5 minutes later very apologetic, hope they dont fire him for being late. So I thought that I would sleep on the way but no not even for a 30 second long shut eye. I stumbled my way to the check out and immigration and towards the waiting room. The plane left about half an hour late, so not really a good start to my day.
I think that I had a 30 minute kip after breakfast. I woke as we were landing and felt a little better for it.
So back through customs and immigration and off to the blue free call phone.
This is where i feel like im in a James Bond movie. I call the mobile number I have for the agent. He says"whos this"
Tracy Shevlin i replied. Do you have the papers. Yes I have the papers. Do you know the meeting point. Yes i have the address. Ok see you there

That was our conversation over the phone. I then jump in a cab and pass him the address. We cruise off to maccas, next to the hilton Hotel.
Singapore is the brisbane of Asia. in my opinion. The streets are 100 % cleaner and the place is soooo modern. Parks and trees everywhere and traffic all in order. haha
So he drops me off at the hilton and I walk towards maccas. I am to met the agent and give him my passport. This is itself is TOTALLY against what I want to do. I slowly walk down the steps looking for a guy with a lot of papers, he is the agent im loking for. He waves me towards him and says "are you tracy" Yes tracy shevlin I replied. He invites me to sit while HE fills out my application form I sign the piece of paper, he sticks the photo on and ask "do you have the money" I handed over 260 singapore dollars. he takes my passport from me and says "be here at 4pm" then waves me away.



nooooooo

I cant beleive it went down like that.
So its like 10 in the morning and I have 6 hours to kill without getting lost and not wandering too far to be late. I walked across the road to the chemist. Pat from work asked me to get her nicorete patches. The 3rd chemist had them but since the pharmicists was not there she could not give them to me. I had to wait till a pharmacist came on line so she could ask me all about them, then take photos of the lady giving me the packets, and me signing that I agreeed to accept them from the lady via the internet. WEIRD

I then had to go o the atm and take out singapore dollars.
Man, my bank must wonder what the hell im doing travelling all over the place.
Then, what does anybody do when they are in singapore.

Tracy, of course gets her nails done, hahaha, and a reflexology foot massage, and a neck and shsoulders massage. I then went on the look out for a hair dresser. I second thought this idea, because in china sometimes it would take 3 or 4 hours and by now I was on a time schedule. So I went to maccas and ate lunch and off to an internet cafe to update my blog surf facebook and chat to peoples.

I was back to collect my passport at about 3.30, could not be late everyone kept telling me. HE WAS LATE Nervously I sat around till about 4.30 and once he arrived I pounced. withe my passport in my hand and the correct visa inside, i tailed it to the hilton and grabbed the next cab tothe airport.
I AM TOTALLY RAT SHIT BY NOW
all I want to do is lye down and close my little eye lids
Oh a bonus about singapore is they sell TWISTIES, so i brought a pack(ive eaten them already)
i checked in to garuda and skipped onto the gate for my departure. oh I should say that here is where a litre of malibu jumped into my posession and about 2 kilos of chocolates. mars bars bountys snickers mmmmmmm
I sprawled out at my gate. I was the only one there and I had a 2 hour wait. On goes the mp3 player and i layed out flat. ahhhh. realxing
onto the plane andhad some dinner. its about an hour and a half back to jakarta.
It felt GREAT to walk passed the 100 or so waiting for their visa on arrival and skip straight through to immigration. It also felt great to walk past all the guys calling "taxi taxi"
I was like no thank you I have a driver, haha. I met beau out the front of arrivals and happily plopped myslef into the fron seat. Jakarta is about 45 to an hour depending ontraffic jams. I arrived home about 10.45 that night, immediately took of my stinky sweaty clothes, and yep, slid into the sheets and I reckon my eyes closed before i even settled my head onto the pillow.
confirming to all you people. yes, I do do some crazy shit in my life and even I am starting towonder at what point will I actually say nah, thats going too far.

oh well. I am now legally allowed to work inIndonesia and im here for the 12 month stint. and I must say, I am extremely happy to be here.

xxoo