Respect Your Elders

Tonight was one more in a seemingly endless parade of dinners and get togethers that have been converging ever since it was announced The Move was happening and was not some fake, pathetic, plea for attention or, a petty way to try and get people to convince us to stay with offers of more money and better party invites. This particular dinner was with The Wife’s grandparents and, as you might expect, I kind’a had to rein it in and not be as obnoxious as normally could be.

It’s always a bit weird for me in situations like this. I don’t live the typical Expatriate Lifestyle (that is to say, full of maids, money and more or less hanging out with other white people and experiencing the High Life while the locals madly scramble about to appease my every whim) and I don’t live the local life either (that being, scrambling to appease white people, or, on lucky occasions, coming into enough money that you can pretend to be a white person). Actually, I think I probably live that most rare of things in Singapore, the non-wealthy Creative Life, which mostly entails doing some kind of creative work, but actually relying on it to make a living rather than being a hobby to kill time while waiting for your white husband to come back from the office.

But anyway, so yeah, The Wife’s grandparents. It’s interesting to see what the old fashioned Singaporeans are like, because this is, in my opinion, a far more genuine take on The Real Singapore than what you normally get if you try to read the pamphlets and brochures. I mean, these people were alive (albeit as kids) during the Japanese occupation of the island in WWII, and they were already adults when they witnessed their home go from British trading post to sovereign nation. More importantly for me, however, these people didn’t grow up having cellular phones given to them at childhood, having maids accompany them to school to carry their books, and laugh at poor people, citing either idiocy or an innate genetic inferiority on their part on their part for their economic condition. I am sad to say that most of the Well To Do in Singapore (or at least their children) have PRECISELY these traits and characteristics. So it’s nice when you meet some people with experience and history who have worked hard for what they have and actually appreciate what it can cost to get those luxuries their children may take for granted.

Of course, they usually also think them crazy hippie artsey types are bad for the economy which is why I had to be on my best behaviour and, when asked what it was I do, I replied with the half truth, “Uh… I’m a… Journalist. Yeah, that’s it.” Somehow, that goes over slightly better than “I bitch about games on the internet.”

Still, it was an interesting snapshot view of The Wife’s outer satellite ring of family orbits. And her grandfather has a Jaguar. That’s the first time in my life I’ve ever sat in one of those things, and he wasted no time in showing off the thing by taking it from zero to 60 in about 6 seconds. I also paid one last visit to the Boys & Girls of GameScore, my all time favorite gaming store in Singapore. They actually didn’t know that I was leaving, so there was the usual round of goodbyes and “keep in touch, man” and all that other stuff which I find endearing and at the same time vaguely depressing and painful.

Oh well, just a few more days now…