back “home”

I’m back in the little lion city state after a week in San Francisco. In the end, I was able to get one night of well-needed sleep, although I undid the healing effects a little the next night, via several bottles of wine and three friends in my hotel room.

On Saturday, right before I left, my friend Leilani asked me what I will miss about Singapore when I leave it for good (assuming I do). I struggled for a minute to come up with anything, which has nothing to do with Singapore and its charms, per se. It has everything to do with the city I left – San Francisco.

After a minute, I was able to think of just one thing: the swimming pool at my apartment complex.

Now, bear in mind I was about to leave a city I love and embark once again into the land of Mordor that is the project I’m working on here.* So, my answer was hardly fair to Singapore. This is a lovely place, and there are things I will surely miss.

I will miss the delicious after hours food in Geylang and along my own River Valley Road. I will miss the fact there is an “after-hours” at all. I will miss t-shirt weather. Most of all, I will miss being able to hop on a plane to Bali, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam or one of a half-dozen other amazing places on a Friday and be back by Monday.

*I’m suddenly feeling the need to qualify that statement, so I will say that this project is not like Mordor so much as it is like the ring quest itself. It has taken this team to its limits. We are a tired and broken bunch. We have promised a lot, and the client has challenged us to deliver even more. It’s something that happens on every project in this business, but I will be honest and say that we feel a painful lack of appreciation for the hard, hard work we’ve done.