The Homecoming

While I may now pledge allegiance to another land, Singapore will always lay claim to a piece of me as my home country. The tantalizing sights, smells, sounds, and general feel of these familiar surroundings still take me back to more innocent and carefree times, allowing me to be refreshed and rejuvenated during each visit, so that I can return ready to face the challenges commonplace in a more grown-up and jaded reality.

I'm reveling in the simple things,... Like the castanet chirps of a transient house gecko roaming across the ceiling, its slender pale body pressed up firmly against its padded feet. The cheerful "good morning" cries of the yellow-masked myna bird and its other colorful avian brethren who call the Southeast Asian tropics home. The rustling of the heavily-laden branches as my father reaches into them with a basketed wooden pole to pick ripened fruits from the backyard chiku tree; "must pluck them before the birds do", he remarks. The steady purring of the mobile air-conditioner, working hard to keep my melting foreign companion cool. And the food...*sigh*...every single meal we've savored from the hawker stalls, which boast a fusion of the various ethnicities that comprise Singapore culture (e.g., ikan assam pedas)

I love this place.