Post-colonial ruminations

This afternoon, it occurred to me for the first time that I’m living in the land of my former colonial masters. Well, being in Northern Ireland (NI) technically I’m living in the land that had been colonised and subsequently subsumed under my former colonial masters – but basically I’m in the UK, and Singapore was once a colony of the British Empire.

While on JET and interacting with British, Irish, Jamaicans, Australians and Americans, I came to realise that Singaporeans are far less hung up about our colonial past and a lot less aware of issues relating to colonialism. The vast body of literature on post-colonialism would hardly resonate with Singaporeans – in my experience, reading post-colonial academic and fictional works is just like learning to see things from a different point of view.

I can only speculate on why this might be the case. The biggest reason might be that most of us are descended from migrants who came to Singapore only after the British arrived, hence have no sense of having been colonised as our ancestors are not indigenous anyway. It might also be because the history books have told us that Singapore is what is today due to forces set in motion by the arrival of the British – as well as the Scottish actually. Perhaps it’s also because our short history and collective consciousness is more coloured by our separation from Malaysia than anything else – even our occupation by the Japanese due to the incapability of the British to defend us.

These thoughts came to mind due to some very first world problems.

I received the bill for our landline today and was shocked by the huge amount owed. It turns out that calls from landlines are fairly expensive, but we have no choice but to use the landline as our area has abysmal mobile reception. So if we need to make calls from home – which I need to do in my effort to settle in, find work and find ballet classes – we have to use the house phone, and the free talk time from our mobile plans are as good as useless. It made me feel poor, that I’m charged for services that I do not get to utilise fully, and that I’m being over-charged for services that I can use.

Boo. Whinge.

Winter (wonder) Land

Last Friday was spent being extremely distracted by the falling snow.

While I’ve seen snow before, before Friday I’d never had the chance to see it falling from the sky – beyond the scanty specks that drifted down before melting on the ground on a few occasions in Kansai.

 

Sitting by the window when it’s snowing is very distracting. I kept staring out, mesmerised by the snowflakes and trying to capture the falling snow. The snow wasn’t heavy enough in the morning to be caught properly on camera though, and it wasn’t till the afternoon when the snow got heavier that I managed to get some shots.

 

Most of the snow had accumulated during the night – it wasn’t that thick in our backyard, and as can be seen, it was the icy type of snow, instead of the fluffy kind you see on tv. In other words – it wasn’t nice snow, especially if you have to walk through it.

The howling gusts of wind were quite fascinating too, and I was very happy to be indoors:

The snow got a lot worse as the day progressed. In the late afternoon the lights started flickering every now and then, and during the rush hour the radio stations were down. Sometime between 7 and 8pm, we experienced a blackout, realised that we had no torch lights, had tea lights but no lighter or matches, and had no heat.

So what did we do? We headed to the large 24hr Tesco near us to get supplies – or to camp there for heat if necessary. There was actually a blizzard – as the snow was being billowed around rather than coming down to the ground – and it was quite a sight with the thick snow piled up on the pavements.

While we were driving very slowly due to the slippery and icy roads, for some reason there were cars zooming past us – I don’t understand how people can have such disregard for their safety and their lives. There were also people who were trying to avoid the snow on the pavements by walking on the road instead – utter idiots. This guy was quite far out on the road as he was also avoiding the puddles that were next to the pavements, and it took a while for us to spot him as the roads were quite dark.

A part of the road had also flooded and a car had gotten stuck in the water. It brought to mind my first visit to Belfast in winter 2010, and I went into full crisis mode – the moment we got home, I filled up a bucket in the bathroom and all available drink receptacles with potable water just in case there was a repeat of that winter where we had no water for 4 days (it could have been longer but we’d buggered off to Dublin by then).

As life would have it, once we’d prepared for the worst, the worst did not happen. After the very orange night sky (above), a fair bit of snow had melted by the next morning and it hardly snowed where we were the following day. There’s still some snow on the ground now but no fresh snow – and the brown snow that we saw on the main road outside Central Station yesterday was testament to how pollutive vehicles are.

There you have it – my somewhat anti-climatic but fascinating weekend. I know it’s not at all a lot of snow compared to what those outside Belfast had (as they’re higher up in the mountains) or what’s common in many other countries, but give this tropical girl a break!

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (aka The Trocks)

I'm meant to be sending in some job applications, but today has been really bleh so I'll blog about The Trocks instead.

I saw The Trocks perform quite a few years back^, but when I noticed how cheap the tickets were selling for stall seats in Belfast, I could'nt not watch them again. For the price I paid for stalls here, I would have only gotten seats in – at best – Circle 2 back home.

I love the cover photo of The Trocks' programme, as it conveys everything about the company in this one picture of one of the founders and current ballet master - grace, elegance, poise, and underarm hair. Yes, The Trocks are an all male ballet troupe, don't really hide their masculinity, have awesome makeup skills, are hilarious and great fun to watch, and in certain respects are just as elegant as female ballerinas*.

While it was such an experience watching The Trocks from up close – the tickets are absolutely worth it as their facial expressions are key to the comic effect – the highlights for me were the open rehearsal before the show and the post-performance Q&A session. All that I will share below is what I learnt from those two extras.

The Trocks are on tour a lot, and their practices and rehearsals are all done while on the road. Before each show, they spend some time doing class (going through allegros, turns, etc), then run through some of the dances that will be performed that night, as well as some of those that will be performed at the next venue. For example, we were treated to a rough cut (but still very good!) of the famous Don Quixote pas de deux, which I've never seen them do before. It was fun trying to remember the faces of all the dancers and the positions they took during rehearsal and then trying to recognise them in the evening with all their makeup on.

I learnt that professional male dancers only take about a day to get used to dancing in pointe shoes – a shockingly short time given the difficulty that I face in my futile attempts at anything – because their feet and muscles are already very well developed and used to the movements.

I realised that a good number of their dancers are from Spain and Italy, although they're a New York-based company.

I was impressed by the knowledge that all the dancers are expected to know the steps to all the parts, as the roles are rotated among the dancers (except for the Dying Swan). This means that there is no competition among the dancers to score the title roles.

I was treated to the surreal sight of half the troupe of professional dancers (that's 8 of them) doing as many fouette turns as they could (the target the teacher set was at least 16), followed by the next half, then the first half, and then the second half again. I can't remember if they went for the pirouettes a third time, but oh. my. goodness. I couldn't breathe from the excitement of how special and once-in-a-lifetime that was.

Also, I found out that there isn't really any trick to making the feathers of the Dying Swan fall on cue – if their Artistic Director is to be believed – except stuffing lots of loose feathers between the many layers of tulle in the tutu. I was also informed – to my shock, horror and utmost admiration – that their ballet teacher, who was en pointe for the entire duration of the Dying Swan piece, has been doing this for more than 20 years and continues to do it today at the grand age of 52.

(O_O)

Indeed.

*      *      *      *      *      *

^: I can't for the life of me remember whether that was back in Singapore, or a long time ago when I was on exchange in London.

*: I'll share what their artistic director said in response to a question posed to him about the difference between men dancing en pointe and women dancing en pointe. He said that it's like tennis; while Steffi Graf had finesse, Andre Agassi had lots of strength.

2Taps Wine Bar

If the waiter at 2Taps tells you that a table should free up in about 15 min and suggests that you could have a drink and wait – don't believe him. We got our seat after 45 min to an hour, thankfully with a drink in hand (stand at the bar while your sangria is being prepared, and you'll get a nice amount of alcohol in it).

The good thing was that the food that came made up for the long wait. Their pan fresco was an assortment of breads – including a very delectable garlic bread – accompanied by two delicious pestos and olive oil with balsamic vinegar. The cinnamon spiced lamb and potato tagine arrived just before we started on the last slice of bread – a good thing, as the dish was a rich, sweet and spicy stew. A must try is the serrano ham salad with rocket, melon, pear and walnut – I loved the combination of flavours, particularly the strong burst of sweetness from the pear.

 

We ordered the half Paella Valencia, which turned out bigger than we'd expected as it was piled up high and chock full of ingredients. The rice had absorbed all the essence from the meats and was irresistible, but unfortunately the prawns, chicken and sausages were a tad overcooked, while some of the mussels weren't very fresh.

While we had a good meal – even with the disappointing meats in the paella - I think it might have been due to a lucky choice of tapas. The table next to us had ordered many things which we didn't and their tapas didn't appear as appetising. The tiger prawns, for example, came in a small ramekin and judging from their size probably weren't even tiger prawns.

That said, I'm quite keen to return to 2Taps on a week night – I believe they have a deal where you get two tapas and a glass of wine for £10.95. I think they're worth another shot, and with their extensive menu I'm certain there're more good dishes to be had.

2Taps Winebar
42 Waring Street
Belfast BT1 2ED

(Don't be put off by the unappealing website and shoddy photos of the restaurant interior – with the dinner lighting it had a warm, cosy ambience.)

Addendum (3 Jan 2014)

We returned some time in May 2013, taking advantage of 2Taps' deal which offered 2 tapas + a glass of wine for just £10.

Again, we ordered the serrano ham salad with rocket, melon, pear and walnut, which was just as good as before. The goats cheese wrapped in Serrano ham with fig relish was also delicious, and I particularly loved the piquant fig relish.

 

I don't particularly recall the mussels steamed in butter, cream and leeks, which is probably a good thing as if the mussels weren't fresh it'd have stuck in my mind. I do however, remember that the pan-fried sea bream on a bed of sweet onions and new potatoes was light and fresh, with the fish done just right.

Feeling the need to return to 2Taps again!