March was a month that went by at its own pace – there were slow days and there were fast days. Mostly, I was unemployed and had plenty of free time to pursue hobbies and do things I otherwise didn’t have the time, thought and motivation to do.
March was the month of many exciting firsts, where I tried fishing at Punggol Marina, rock climbing at Climb Central in Kallang, muay thai at KPB in Chinatown, took a day trip to Batam’s Nagoya Mall with a really lovable couple, explored Singapore Art Museum on a Friday night, and met up with a “dating coach” – all in the name of trying something new.
In March, I started reading fiction again, despite telling myself I wouldn’t whilst I was still working on my novel. There was The Fear Index by Robert Harris, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and a Malaysian novel called Ngeri by Gina Yap Lai Yoong – all very different but great reads and classics in their own era and genre.
The highlight of my month was probably seeing incubus live at The Coliseum at Sentosa’s Hard Rock Cafe. That was truly a dream come true to see one of my favourite bands from my high school days perform live. Brandon Boyd truly rocked it wearing only a white shirt, a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, and plain white New Balance trainers!
In the day to day, I spent many mornings with my writing partner in Temasek Polytechnic, sitting in cafes all across the island job hunting, chilling out at East Coast Park, celebrating a friend’s birthday at PS Cafe, and attending a total of three interviews and two surprise birthday parties – one at a German restaurant, the other at an abode in Commonwealth.
Towards the end, there was a last-minute 11-day trip back home to attend Cecil Rajendra at World Poetry Day, visit my brother-in-law in hospital, attend the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale in Times Square, see my Dad, collect my new Country Road bag, spend time with both my grandfathers and collect a letter from JPJ for my driving license conversion.
There were many firsts for me in Penang, too, such as spending a night in a writer’s suite aptly named “Herman Hesse” at the E&O Hotel, going on the Hop On Hop Off bus around Georgetown with my grandfather, camping out at Coffeesmith on Karpal Singh Drive and getting a haircut at Hair Story – it’s never dull if your hometown is Penang!
Now comes April and I trust it will be a roller coaster ride.
Wan Phing Lim 