Singapore Expats

BigT,

I'm a fella, from the UK, I've lived all over it, but more recently Scotland, before I came over here a good while ago now

That's enough about me though.

There are other options with your property if you are nervous, a private apartment or landed may be for you, then join a swimming club/club with a pool, nearby, though, you will probably find that you spend less time at a pool and the kids don't learn quickly.

When we first got here and the kids were around the pool on their scooters or bikes etc, we popped on some armbands or a floatation jacket, that way if the worst happened then you could get over to them and they had a little more time without going totally under the water, (Sounds horrid I know) but if you end up with a really big pool, you aren't going to follow them 6 ft behind them all the time, well not 2 of them anyway!

The floatation jackets are good, they allow kids to swim without restricting their arms, when my daughter took hers off she went hammer and tongue straight away, like she'd never needed the thing.

....and a helmet, always a helmet so they didn't knock themselves out.....

You could teach them to swim just like I did. (I think he was 8 months old in the pictures). Both learned the same way at the same ages. Needless to say, they respect the water but are not afraid of it, and both swim like a fish. I was taught the same way 63 years ago by my father (Eventually I spend 20 years as a commercial diver and 45 years Scuba - ongoing) The oldest (my daughter) works on a Drilling Rig off the coast of Africa and the youngest (in the photo) is in the Navy...... And no, I've never had to put up with gated pools or oceans or rivers, just used common sense.....



And no, I'm not local (but after 30 years here, I may as well be).

zzm9980 wrote:

BigSis wrote:
Expat Singapore is the most aggressive website for expats in Singapore that I've found.

I've never heard of that forum until just now... I spent 5 minutes there and it's amazing! There is a thread with people all arguing about how it's *not* possible for an expat to live here on 20k/month... Wow.

Lol... that was where I used to hang out before I realised it wasn't the only forum re: SG/expats. The topic there you mention, yes I can imagine the typical kind of flame-fest that that has descended into No doubt the mods will be along in a few days and summarily delete the entire topic and take out another dozen-odd innocuous and unassociated topics whilst at it. It was because of the psycho/random moderating that I gave up on that forum (as did a bunch of us) and came here. Imagine what an oasis of tranquility this place is after what is known as 'The Angry Board'...

I made the transition from the Angry Board back in 2003 but didn't end up here till 2004 (transition first to and still a member of Singaporum. But found a real home here and one that I could contribute to. Been here ever since. Yes, I'm a cantankerous, opinionated, gnarly old curmudgeon. And yes, I say things the way I see them. But I give you always what you need, not necessarily what you want. We all do here. But we all dispense excellent information. That why we've been the No. 1 Singaporean Expat board for the last 5 years.

Frankly, the odds of having a kid drowned in a pool in SG are probably an order of magnitude lower then being choked with a small object. For both of the cases, how many of the caregivers know what to do if it comes to the worst and there would be a need of resuscitation?

sundaymorningstaple wrote:

So cute!! I ought to take my son in the pool more often but I've found myself to just be too g88d**n lazy. I'll have to rectify that as he loves the water so much. He is a Pisces, after all, he should swim like a fish!

JR8 wrote: In my humble opinion this forum is a fountain of information. Very few people rub the community up the wrong way, but those that do tend to fit a pattern...
a) when people are so naive or off-base they require a virtual slap to wake them up
b) when people are too lazy to get off their own backsides and do some research and instead demand people here do it for them
c) when people are trying to pull some trick, usually against the system, that they think is novel and clever, but to the forumers stands out like a lighthouse from 25 miles away.

On point

We should make this a sticky!

JR8 wrote:

zzm9980 wrote:

BigSis wrote:
Expat Singapore is the most aggressive website for expats in Singapore that I've found.

I've never heard of that forum until just now... I spent 5 minutes there and it's amazing! There is a thread with people all arguing about how it's *not* possible for an expat to live here on 20k/month... Wow.

Lol... that was where I used to hang out before I realised it wasn't the only forum re: SG/expats. The topic there you mention, yes I can imagine the typical kind of flame-fest that that has descended into No doubt the mods will be along in a few days and summarily delete the entire topic and take out another dozen-odd innocuous and unassociated topics whilst at it. It was because of the psycho/random moderating that I gave up on that forum (as did a bunch of us) and came here. Imagine what an oasis of tranquility this place is after what is known as 'The Angry Board'...

I've been locked out of it for some reason. I don't know why because I rarely post on there these days and haven't been on for a while but when I tried to log on the other day it said:

Sorry guest you are banned from using this forum.

Maybe it's a bug - not sure but it's not a very well run forum these days - I prefer this one now.

poodlek wrote:

JR8 wrote: In my humble opinion this forum is a fountain of information. Very few people rub the community up the wrong way, but those that do tend to fit a pattern...
a) when people are so naive or off-base they require a virtual slap to wake them up
b) when people are too lazy to get off their own backsides and do some research and instead demand people here do it for them
c) when people are trying to pull some trick, usually against the system, that they think is novel and clever, but to the forumers stands out like a lighthouse from 25 miles away.

On point

We should make this a sticky!

+1!

Like a warning to members who join!

sundaymorningstaple wrote:You could teach them to swim just like I did. (I think he was 8 months old in the pictures).

Even back then he had more hair than you did!

nutnut wrote:

poodlek wrote:

JR8 wrote: In my humble opinion this forum is a fountain of information. Very few people rub the community up the wrong way, but those that do tend to fit a pattern...
a) when people are so naive or off-base they require a virtual slap to wake them up
b) when people are too lazy to get off their own backsides and do some research and instead demand people here do it for them
c) when people are trying to pull some trick, usually against the system, that they think is novel and clever, but to the forumers stands out like a lighthouse from 25 miles away.

On point

We should make this a sticky!

+1!

Like a warning to members who join!

Sorry, but while probably pretty accurate, the only group who could comprehend and make any pragmatic sense out of these are these more meaningful regulars and they do not need a sticky like this. The arrogant, oversensitive type of newcomers will give no *beep* about this. They know better anyway.

x9200 wrote:Sorry, but while probably pretty accurate, the only group who could comprehend and make any pragmatic sense out of these are these more meaningful regulars and they do not need a sticky like this. The arrogant, oversensitive type of newcomers will give no *beep* about this. They know better anyway.

They don't even read previous posts in the current thread they're posting in! We can only hope they even realize the existence of stickies!

sundaymorningstaple wrote:I made the transition from the Angry Board back in 2003 but didn't end up here till 2004 (transition first to and still a member of Singaporum. But found a real home here and one that I could contribute to. Been here ever since. Yes, I'm a cantankerous, opinionated, gnarly old curmudgeon. And yes, I say things the way I see them. But I give you always what you need, not necessarily what you want. We all do here. But we all dispense excellent information. That why we've been the No. 1 Singaporean Expat board for the last 5 years.

I gave up on the angry board many years ago after my questions about why some of my (seemingly innocuous and intended to be helpful) posts had been deleted without comment or reason being given. For daring to question this action, I received an aggressive email from the board manager accusing me of 'agitating' and threatening various actions if I 'persisted'. At which point, I thought to myself "the hell with this" and then I began frequenting this place - which seemed decidedly more civilised - just as a reader for a long time. I think the company is entertaining here and it does feel like a community of sorts. What sort, I'm not quite sure yet , but keep it up folks!

I just took a peek over at angryville (hadn't bothered to look there for some time) and there's a dreadful 'foreigners go home' thread raging. Thanks but no thanks.