Home For CAP

I was making a list of things to do over the summer in Singapore, and was struck by the contrast between my life here and my life in London.

I’m wondering how much my change of surroundings will be reflected in what I write here. Certainly, the people and places mentioned will change – readers who aren’t familiar with Singapore or South-East Asia will probably come across a couple of strange words every now and then if I happen to lapse into Singaporean patois. But just let me know if you ever want something explained/translated, and I’ll gladly oblige. (God only knows how bewildered I’d be in the UK if I didn’t frequently ask for translations from Newcastlian/Irish/Scottish…).

For now, the main thing I actually meant to write for today was that I’ll be away for the next week helping to run a creative writing camp for 110 students, and probably won’t be able to get online. Or get a moment’s rest. Or any food that satisfies minimum hygiene and nutrition requirements.

I am looking forward to it, though – involvement in the Creative Arts Programme is one of those things that’s been a major part of my life here but not in the UK, and this’ll be my sixth year (it would have been seven, but I missed last year’s) of acute fatigue, malnutrition coupled with a desire for bulimia every time I do actually eat anything, dealing with sometimes annoying, other times endearing adolescents who often unfortunately remain socially dysfunctional despite mostly being in the top five percent or so of the IQ bell curve, and incredible satisfaction at the end of it all, nonetheless.