02213: Singapore Focus


These working trips in Singapore are really that - work. I'm not complaining or anything but just making a rather pointed conversation. Despite the irony that these trips are longer than the vacations Tobie and I would take to this same country, I feel like I have a lot less time to do anything outside of work.

Then again let's make sure we factor everything in. Our past trips were mostly when I was still working in the call center industry and thus I didn't quite have a personal stake in Singapore. Now any trip to Singapore is a potential to get other work-related stuff done since in-person meetings still hold a lot more value than any amount of online coordination and collaboration when you get down to it.

And ultimately I don't have many friends, especially not too many friends in Singapore worth meeting up with (or worse - folks willing to meet up with me). And so it's not like I foresee myself wanting to go on nights out on the town or anything like that. There are very few people I deliberately try to meet outside of my comfort zone and being in another country does not make me feel obligated to treat any past acquaitance as a close friend. When you put little to no effort into maintaining a friendship or making your friends feel valued and appreciated, then don't expect to go see you just because you happen to be in the same city together.

But the biggest factor is still not having Tobie with me and thus I'm not as keen to explore outside. Tobie and I have already gotten past most of the tourist stuff in our many trips together so that's not a big concern anymore. And given how Tobie is my default companion for any activity, anything new would be an experience that I would of course want to share with him. And so instead of going out I'd rather remain online so we can chat and talk about our day and pretend as if we were just at our respective offices instead of in different countries.


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