My Expat Life

Apartment hunting in Singapore is quite interesting. It is currently a landlords dream come true. There are more renters than nice apartments.

I was hoping to spend last weekend looking for a place to live. HR at work had set me up with an agent, but timing seemed to be an issue and I never got the expected contact. In frustration I went online Saturday night to a great site for expats moving to Singapore. I filled out a form to have someone contact me. Sunday, Melanie from the online service contacted me. By Monday afternoon, we had spoken several times and she had arranged a viewing for me.

The Monday night viewing was an eye opener. As Melanie met me, she explained that there would be several people viewing the same apartment. The apartment was probably about 700-800 sq feet and yet, you could barely move through it with all the people in the apartment. On top of all the visitors, the tenants were still in the apartment and trying to go about their normal lives (aka, sitting around watching TV in boxer shorts). The apartment was messy (boxes everywhere) and dirty. It seemed to have potential though. And it was in my price range and very close to an MRT. So that night, a bit overwhelmed, I signed a letter of intent (promise to lease if accepted by owner). My LOI was one of many handed over that night. I didn’t have a good feeling about the place at all.

On Tuesday, Melanie called me to say that the owner would accept my LOI if I agreed to a 1+1 lease. This meant that it was possible that the building would be demolished in the coming year. With the 1+1, if the apartment building wasn’t torn down within the first year, the lease would automatically extend for another year. Since I had woken up at 3 am in a panic over not wanting that apartment, I took the out I was given and said no to the offer.

By this time, the other agent, Gene, was finally in contact with me. He got some of my requirements and was to set up some appointments for me on Wednesday afternoon. When Gene picked me up on Wednesday, he had only been able to schedule one appointment. We went to a lovely little place. It was a beautiful apartment and under my price range. The problems: it was pretty far from convenient transport, the kitchen consisted of 2 burners and nothing else, it was tiny, really tiny, no room for a table tiny. But it was nice and it had a bomb shelter (cause that would be fun to bring up in conversation). I did not jump at this apartment. Gene then drove me around for about an hour to look at the locations of some other places.

Later Wednesday afternoon, Gene called me back and said that he had arranged another place for me to look at in the evening. He wasn’t sure if I would like it, but wanted me to get another idea of what apartments in Singapore were like so that I could make an informed decision on the tiny apartment. Again the apartment was pretty far off from public transport, but the place was much bigger and had a nice kitchen. The problems: it was at the top scale of what I wanted to pay and it only had the major appliances. This was not looking good.

On Thursday I was feeling disheartened and needed to concentrate on work. I turned down Melanie’s offers to see some places. I had also decided to stick with just Gene, he wasn’t pressuring me like Melanie was.

Friday I got some more calls from Melanie. I finally answered my phone in the late afternoon. She had one more place for me to look at Friday evening. It was at the top of my price range, but in a neighbourhood I was interested in. When Melanie picked me up, she advised me that she had the Friday night appointment arranged just for me. All the other viewings were to be on Saturday, but the owner agreed to the Friday appointment under pressure from Melanie. (Since I hadn’t planned on using Melanie anymore, I told her I couldn’t view anything on Saturday because I was preparing for my trip back to Austin. I had several viewings set for Saturday with Gene). I wasn’t going to like the place. I was going to say no thank you and go on my merry way.

Then I saw the place. The owner came down to meet us as we got out of the car. To get to the apartment there is a private lift entrance that requires a keycard. Even the entry between the lift and the apartment were spacious. Then she opened the door. OMG! OMG! The living room was terrific. It was HUGE. It had NICE furnishings. It had room for a dining table. WOW. Then we walked down the hall. The master bedroom was a decent size. The bed didn’t take up the entire room. The built in wardrobe was gianormous. The attached bath was gorgeous. Nice bathtub and separate glass shower. Beautiful. Then there was a STUDY. A decent size room with a desk. I’ve never had a study before. Next to the study was the second bedroom. Decent size with two twin beds. Back through the living room into the kitchen. OMG! OMG! OMG!. I LOVED the kitchen. Now I’m starting to freak out. The place is just terrific, I want it. But in my mind I was still hoping to pay less. I knew I could swing the rent, but it would make my budget tight. But this would be the nicest apartment I’ve ever had. I felt like I couldn’t say yes to something this big and nice at the top end of my budget. Then again, I wasn’t finding anything liveable at the bottom end of my budget. What to do, what to do. To stall, I had Melanie drive me around so I could see just how far the walk to the MRT would be. Yes, I’ll be a bit sweaty each morning, but I think I would love where I was living.

I finally agreed to sign another LOI, but we would try to get the owner to come down by $100. I gave Melanie the first month deposit and told her that if they didn’t accept the lower offer, I would agree to the original offer. The owners didn’t accept the offer that night - even though Melanie put on plenty of pressure. The owners were going to cancel all other viewings except for one, but did promise to give me priority. At 8:15 this morning, Melanie was calling to say that the owners agreed to my LOI at the original offer.

I just have to try to do all the paperwork over email and fax. I should be able to move in either the day I get back from Austin or the following day. Now to hope that all goes according to plan.

Today at lunch I looked at an apartment with - get this - it’s own personal bomb shelter. Yep, you read that right, it had a BOMB SHELTER. How cool is that? So the location wasn’t ideal, and the size is pretty damn small, and cooking would be a challenge - it has a BOMB SHELTER. I could invite people over and say things like - and this is the bomb shelter. Ok, maybe not. But it’d be cool.

I’m also starting to really enjoy answering the question, where are you going on holiday? Africa. I’m going on vacation to AFRICA. Ok, one more time, I’m going to Africa. From 22 May to 12 June, I will be in AFRICA. Weeeeee.

And the answer to your question, is yes I am still very tired and starting to become slightly deranged. But I find bomb shelters in an apartment and trips to Africa to be a lot of fun to talk about.

It is 10 pm and I’m totally, utterly spent. Today has been exhausting.

Ever have one of those days where you wonder how you managed to get out of bed without seriously injuring yourself? Well that is me today. I’d regale you with the stories of my stupidity, but most of them I forgot as soon as I was done with my stupidity. Of those I remember, the highlights include:

* Putting in my earphones for many, many minutes before realising that I hadn’t bothered to turn on my music
* Pulling out cash to open my hotel room instead of using the stupid keycard thing
* Panicking when I couldn’t find a plane reservation I made for someone else (because I was searching for my name, not his)
* And best of all not realising I was to check out of my hotel today

When I stopped trying to use my cash to get into my room, and couldn’t get my keycard to work, I went down to the front desk. It wasn’t until I started to ask if I could extend my stay (meaning until Sunday) that I realised that it was today I was supposed to check-out. Ooops. Luckily, the hotel isn’t kicking me out until tomorrow morning. But I’m now a bit worried in that as of tomorrow I don’t have a place to go. Eeks.

In other news, I only kind of liked the apartment that I saw last night. Remind me when I’m not dead tired to explain what that viewing experience was like - think cattle. By 5:00 my agent was calling me to say that I could have the apartment if I agreed to some weird provisions to the lease. Since I woke up at 3 am thinking of the apartment, and not in a good way, I decided to pass. Another agent that work was trying to get me to meet with finally called me today. I’m hoping he can work me some magic. We’re leaving work for some time on Wednesday to look at a few places. Here’s hoping they are slightly better than last nights apartment.

And in another twist on settling in, today I got an invite to a regular Monday night tennis group. At lunch I happened to mention that I like to play tennis. Within an hour of returning I’d received my invite to join a group that meets for 2 hours every Monday night. Me’s starting to think this stay in Singapore will be much more fun that last time. Weeee.

I had so much more to share, but my brain just can’t find the secret code to unlocking it.

One box has arrived. It is under my desk at work, and the high heels have been conveniently relocated to my filing cabinet. I am back into the habit of taking public transport (thus the high heels staying at work) and remembering what is like to arrive to work and feel like you are melting.

My after work social life has already improved from the last time I lived in Singapore. On Friday night, I met some others from work at the hawker centre across from work. There we consumed beers. After the beer was gone, some of us expats took our Japanese visitors out for Chicken Rice. After dinner led to some more drinking at one person’s apartment. In my 4 months living here previously, that never once happened.

Tonight I finally have an appointment to look at an apartment. I was hoping to apartment view this past weekend, but the agent never did call me. On Saturday evening I took matters into my own hands and went online looking for another agent. By Sunday afternoon she called me and today she called me back with an appointment to view one fo my preferred apartments. Here’s hoping the pictures on the internet don’t lie.

So far, not too bad at all.

I am currently sitting in the Qantas lounge in Sydney. In about 30 minutes they should announce that it is time for us to start boarding flight QF5, bound for Singapre. My apartment is empty, the keys were left on the table. The electric company, gas company, phone company and internet company have all been told to disconnect my services. I’ve shipped two, heavy boxes to Singapore. I’ve said goodbye to all my friends.

And yet, it hasn’t totally sunk in yet. I am leaving my home in Australia. No more weekends on Manly or Shelly beach. No more ferries to work. No more staying late to hang out with my friend. No more rubber band fights across the office. No more many things.

I feel the stress of it all. The bottom, left eyelid has been twitching almost non-stop for two weeks (coinciding with the day flight QF5 was ticketed). I’ve been surviving on 4-6 hours of sleep a night; often closer to the 4 hour mark. I’ve had the weirdest pains. I’ve lost my appetite. And yet it still hasn’t sunk in. I am leaving my Australia home.

I think when it does sink in, it will be a doozy.