SINGAPORE - A GREAT PLACE FOR RETIREES?

No matter how much one enjoys a vacation abroad, it is always good to be back home. I suppose this is more so for most Singaporeans. I say this because CNN recently came out with 50 reasons why it rates Singapore the world's greatest city. I don't know if I would lavish such generous praise, but I can easily think of 10 reasons why I would put Singapore on my list of top 5 cities or countries I would consider spending my retirement years.

On-going campaign to empower the elderly.

• Active Ageing programs. I have lots of options when it comes to checking out events and activities of special interest to those in the 50+ age group. There is a Minister in charge of Ageing Issues. It also helps that former PM Lee Kuan Yew, 86, is himself an excellent role model for active, healthy ageing. There is a vibrant community of senior citizens here.
• Reliable public transport. I can travel to all corners of the island republic without any hassle. Whether I take the bus or the MRT, waiting time is minimal. Taxi drivers take you anywhere you want. Taxis are clean, spacious and smell good too. Taxi drivers don't rip you off. My daughter once left her mobile phone in a taxi. She was able to trace the taxi-driver from the fare receipt, and she got her phone back within minutes.





This is actually an underground MRT station. Almost like a gleaming new shopping complex!

• Security. I feel safe walking around the city even late at night. I don't have to look over my shoulder all the time, or clutch my bag tightly in crowded places. No wonder it is hard to spot a policeman anywhere - they are almost redundant!
• Cleanliness. I'm sure there are areas like Chinatown that could do with a scrub-down. But on the whole, food courts, parks, public toilets and public housing areas are clean. The water is safe for drinking straight from the tap. There is little air pollution despite the heavy traffic.
• Efficiency. Everything works in Singapore like a well-oiled machine. Hardly any public property or facilities stay broken, faulty or damaged for long. And I have yet to come across vandalism of any kind. The best part is you don't have to bribe anyone to get things done for you.
• Healthcare. I give two thumbs up for the healthcare and medical services here. I had my liver operation done here last year and I can personally vouch for the professionalism and expertise of the doctors. All my medical and dental check-ups are also done here.



Singaporeans love to eat. So when in Singapore, do as the Singaporeans...

• Food. Singapore is a food paradise. I get hungry just thinking of the rich variety of local and international cuisine. Among my favourite makan places are Food Republic at Wisma Atria and Pete's Place at the Grand Hyatt. You get salad to die for!
• Shopping. Well, I'm not exactly crazy about shopping, but you can get the latest electronic gadgets here as well as good bargains for clothes when there is a sale. For me, I can spend hours browsing at Kinokuniya and Borders in Orchard Road. I always make sure I pick up the latest copy of Prime and Silver Lining.



Shops and more shops along Orchard Road.

• Customer service. My favourite haunts are the bookstores. The sales assistants are ever so helpful and courteous in helping me locate what I want. I once overheard a sales assistant apologize to a young couple. The shop did not carry the item they were looking for. The sales assistant went one step further. He gave the couple directions to another shop that sold the item. Now that's what I call good customer service. If you need a plumber or an electrician, just call, and one will appear at your doorstep shortly.
• Greenery. There's lots of it on the island, even in the city centre. My grandchildren often go for walks in the Botanical Gardens with their parents. The parks are elderly-friendly, with lots of benches where you can sit and rest for as long as you want.

The city never sleeps, even late at night.

There is always plenty to see and do in Singapore - plays, movies, exhibitions, seminars and so on. I get to see movies that are banned in Malaysia like "Brokeback Mountain", "The Passion of the Christ" and "Milk".

Many older Malaysians have adult children working or studying in Singapore. I read recently that half of the doctors in Mount Elizabeth Hospital are Malaysians!

Would I apply for permanent residence (PR) in Singapore? The thought has crossed my mind a few times. But I love Malaysia. And I can think of just as many reasons why Malaysia is a great country to retire in. None of them has to do with the government.

ADIOS, ESPANA!

Beautiful sunset along the Costa del Sol.

Wet, wet, wet. That pretty much describes our last day in Spain. Fortunately for us, we had planned to spend the day lazing around and enjoying the hotel facilities, so the day wasn't a total waste. Lynette and I checked out the gym and did an hour of stretching at the aerobics room. The instructor was so good-looking it was hard for the ladies to focus!

Time to say Adios to a lovely vacation in Spain.


View from the bus on the way to see the horse show.

Yesterday evening we caught the famous Andalusian horse show at El Ranchito in Torremolinos, Malaga. We had heard so much about it, but the show turned out to be one big yawn. Many in the audience kept looking at their watches, so I suppose I wasn't the only one disappointed with the show.

I felt really sorry for the poor horses who, I'm sure, were loathe to entertain tourists like us. Good thing for them the show is only once a week, and it was the last show of the tourist season.

The show package included dinner at Restaurante Romeral del Rocio. We were hungry and impatient to try our first Spanish dinner. If the horse show was boring, the dinner was a joke. We were served a bun (no butter), plain salad, tomato soup and a slice of cake for dessert. For the main course Lynette and Peggy had like three spoonsful of rice with raisins, some thin slices of potatoes and even thinner slices of pork covered in gooey sauce. Mine was worse as I had opted for vegetarian. My platter had five thin (1 mm?) slices of cheese in lieu of the pork.

Our smiles do NOT reflect the quality & quantity of the food served. Note the colourless platter.

To think that we paid 46 euros (that's RM230) each for the horse show and dinner. If not for the flamenco dancers, the evening would have been a total let-down.

The flamenco dancers saved the evening for us.

Pedro, our tour guide for Gibraltar and Granada, and Gabreilla, our guide for Alhambra.


Mary, a Filippina residing in Fuengirola, helped us with directions.

My nightly routine - blogging on my new netbook in our hotel apartment.

Well, our vacation in Spain has drawn to a close. The cold season has just started with rain and grey sky the whole of today. I'm looking forward to be back in hot and humid Malaysia.

Thanks, Belle, Moon, Ansgar and Marcus for making this dream vacation possible. Next stop in a week's time - PHUKET, THAILAND.

A STEP BACK IN TIME AT ALHAMBRA

A panoramic view of Alhambra with the town of Granada in the valley below. Note the clear blue sky.

Yesterday we signed up for a day trip to Alhambra in Granada. The route took us through undulating country - hillslopes covered with olive trees alternating with green fields of asparagus. Pedro, our tour guide, told us that the asparagus grown here is unique to the region and specially farmed for laboratory research on finding a cure for prostate cancer.

Part of the Gardens

The camera just can't quite capture the beauty of Moorish architecture.

Imagine this was sculptured 700 years ago!

Explaining how this lacquered piece was done.


The narrow alleys of Medina lined with stalls selling arts and crafts. (Click on image to enlarge.)


The deserted streets during siesta time from 2-5pm.

More pictures tomorrow. Too tired to write much, but enjoying every minute of my Spain vacation. The countdown has begun - tomorrow's our last day here. We are leaving for London on Friday, and then it's back to Kuala Lumpur.

For now, it's "Buenas noches" or "Good night".

THE VIEW FROM GIBRALTAR

Gibraltar with Spain in the background.

Lynette, Peggy and I must have taken at least a thousand photos over the past few days. But they can never do justice to many of the spectacular sights we have seen so far. Our trip to Gibraltar today is a good example.

Our bus took the scenic route along the Costa del Sol. Apparently there are three nudist beaches here. Pity none of us had our binoculars with us!

The high rise apartments take away some of the majesty of the Rock, don't you think?

Inside St Martin's Cave.

Our tour guide, Pedro, and our bus driver, Martin, kept us in stitches with their terrific sense of humour. They are true professionals - no matter how many hundreds of times they have made this trip their enthusiasm rubbed off on the tourists in their charge. If only more people took such pride in their work

Time out for fish and chips in Gibraltar's main square.

Monkeys everywhere - all looking for food.

Posing for the camera with Africa (Morroco) in the background.


Two words for roads in Gibraltar - STEEP and NARROW.

The weather has been lovely so far - lots of sun and clear blue skies every day. We start off early tomorrow at 6.30am for Granada. The highlight of the tour is a visit to the AlHambra. Will post more photos after the tour.

SNAP SHOTS FROM SPAIN

Alighting from the train at Malaga terminal.

Lynette, Peggy and I took the bus into Fuengirola yesterday, and from there the train to Malaga. All the along the bus route, at every stop, I saw only senior citizens boarding the bus. It was the same in town. It did make me wonder if Spain had an ageing population. It was only when we got to Malaga did we finally see young people hanging out at the mall.

Believe it or not, many of the city streets are lined with orange trees!

This morning we visited a market very similar to our pasar malam - lots of stalls selling clothes, snacks, shoes, watches, costume jewellry, handbags and toys. Leather is very popular here. With the cold season coming, many of the stalls were doing brisk business selling winter clothing.

Benches everywhere to rest your tired feet.

Incidentally, most shops are closed from 2.00pm to 5.00pm for siesta, and closed on Sundays too. Back home, businessmen would be counting their losses if they were to follow the working hours here in Spain!

I've never seen so many seniors all waiting for the bus.

It was interesting browsing through the knick-knacks and bric-a-brac at the market. Nobody bargains here. Shoppers have to be on the alert for pickpockets. One of the ladies had her purse stolen whilst browsing at a stall. We were later told that this happens quite often at crowded places.

On the bus to Fuengirola.

So far we haven't seen much variety of food like back in Malaysia. Sad to say, some of the people we had approached for directions were not very helpful. Some had an attitude problem. I hope it's to do with the language barrier, and is not the norm of the people here.

I love the nothing-can-stop-me spirit of the elderly in this city.

Not easy to decide when there's simply too many to choose from.

Tomorrow we are heading to Gilbraltar for a day trip. More updates after that.

HOLA FROM ESPANA!

View from the balcony of my apartment at the Marriott Beach Resort, Marbella

Greetings from sunny Spain! After a 14-hour flight on AirAsiaX and a cold wet night in London, it's wonderful to see clear blue skies again. Everything is so expensive here, like 5x what we pay back home. Am staying in Marbella, Malaga. English isn't spoken much here, so have to rely on my little Spanish guide book for help.


Will share more over the next few days. Got to catch up on some sleep...zzzzz....

WHEN YOU LOSE A LOVED ONE....

Coping with the grief of losing a loved one is not easy. At our age, many of us would have experienced the pain of bereavement, whether it is the loss of a spouse, a child, a parent, a sibling or a friend. With the passage of time, most of us find the strength to get on with life. But there are some who are so consumed with grief they are unable to function on a day-to-day basis. If unresolved, their grief may result in poor health, depression and even suicidal tendencies.

Last Saturday I attended a talk on grief counselling by Edmund Ng. Edmund is the founder of GGP Outreach. Its tagline is "Grace to Grieving Persons". Having gone through personal loss himself, Edmund was able to speak with conviction and credibility. His audience comprised mostly grieving spouses.

Having lost my dear sister three years ago, I could relate to everything Edmund said - the guilt, the blame, the bitterness and regret that a grieving person experiences when he loses a loved one.

Edmund Ng delivering a talk on "Helping Your Children Grieve Properly".

Here is a summary of Edmund's Do's and Don'ts for the grieving person.

1. Allow yourself time and space to rest after the funeral activities are over.
2. Accept help from your friends and relatives.
3. Acknowledge that it takes time to heal the pain.
4. Find an outlet to channel your thoughts away from reliving the loss.
5. Take charge of your emotions.
6. Be patient with your children. They are trying their best to cope too.
7. Look after your health.
8. Know that you are not alone. Seek a support group or a counsellor.
9. Re-connect with other people.
10. Remain active.
11. Maintain a well-balanced diet.
12. Don't fall prey to temptations like drinking and taking drugs.
13. Don't make hasty decisions.
14. Find strength and comfort in God.
15. Keep a journal and record your thoughts and feelings.

GGP Outreach will be holding its annual dinner on 13 December 2009 to honour widows and widowers, and give them some financial assistance. Admission is by invitation only. To get an invitation card, call 012-387 8668.