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.

Trivia–Do you know any Viking words?

Hits and (mostly) misses

Something I saw reminded me of taking photos with the instax, and i went looking at my old pics. i still don’t really know how to you the various settings on the camera. as you can see, my photos come out with varying effects:

At the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland on a cloudy winter’s day in December

Near Mussenden Temple – the sun had come out for a bit and the colours on the digital camera were great, but no so here (here’s the digital version)

At Dunluce Castle – the instax makes the ruins look even more grim than they actually do (see here), and the Hello Kitty border is unfortunately very incongruous!

I think it worked pretty well on this graffiti dinosaur in Belfast – its a dino wino!

Think the film also gives Universal Studios a rather other-worldy feel..

It was threatening to rain when I took this. I was expecting the images to come out clearer, but I obviously didn’t succeed!

Roxford Lodge Hotel, Dublin

If you’re looking for good quality, extremely value for money, comfortable accommodation in Dublin, I strongly recommend Roxford Lodge Hotel.

The hotel describes itself as “luxury accommodation”, and the stay there was indeed amazing. The hotel is located in Ballsbridge on Northumberland Road, in an area of large, posh-looking Victorian housing.

The neighbourhood is quiet, as it’s just outside of the city centre towards the east, but a short 10-15min walk from Trinity College. It’s a great location as its away from the bustle of the city, yet the close enough to a Tourist Centre and bus stops for the Dublin Sightseeing Bus (which i strongly recommend too) all outside Trinity College.

The service at the hotel was excellent. While we were waiting for our rooms to be ready, we were brought tea and coffee with a selection of biscuits while we waited in a cosy sitting room:

It was a nice room, and I was quite taken with being brought tea on a tray :)

There were also these three adorable gingerbread Wiseman on the mantlepiece:

If I was already impressed before seeing the rooms, I was completely and fully won over when we were led there. The photos don’t do it justice, as for once the room was even nicer than what it appeared to be on the website.

It was very spacious, with a very comfy bed, flat screen TV and nice L-shaped corridor which led to the bathroom and then the door. The bathroom was also beautifully furnished with a Jacuzzi and well laid out; we even had a sauna in the room!

Pardon my coat and our bags.. But above in the upper right corner, you can see the L-corridor which has a mirror and a closet next to it, before reaching the door. The structure near the window below is the sauna, while on the right hidden behind the door handles is actually a pull down bed.

Despite all the luxury, the rooms were actually rather cheap. We stayed 3 nights from New Year's Eve which brought up the price a bit, but here’s the breakdown for 3 days:

Date	31/12	01/01	02/01
Price (€)	93.50	69	59

The total came up to only €221.50, with rates being extremely low on weekdays. Even so, the average rate was only SGD128 per night for two, which frankly is CHEAP for all the space and comfort we got (Hotel 81’s rates, for example, start from $70/night for one, depending on location. And you certainly won’t be getting anything half as posh!)

The hotel also offers breakfast at €6 per person, which we took up. The great thing was that guests could choose between various breakfast things like french toast, regular toast, pancakes, a full Irish breakfast (which came with black and white pudding, and which i quite liked) AND could help themselves to the tea, coffee, yoghurt and fruits available too.

To top off the wonderful stay, the hotel very generously allowed us to check-out two hours later from 12pm, as my flight back home was at 3pm. No questions asked, just a “yes” to our request :) I would most happily stay there again if i went back to Dublin.

Check out more reviews of Roxford Lodge Hotel here.

to the north of the north–Causeway route in Ireland

the north coast of Ireland is known for its stunning scenery (as it the west, apparently), and we headed up along the Causeway route to catch sight of some ruins and nature in the form of Mussenden Temple, Dunluce Castle and the Giants Causeway.

it took about 2 hours to drive up from Belfast, and the weather was absolutely beautiful at our first stop, Mussenden Temple. I’m not sure what ruins those are in the distance:

we had to go through some private property (that’s open to the public) before reaching the temple. As those folks owned lots of sheep (you can see the sheep in the pic above – they’re the small white blobs), that meant trampling on lots of sheep poo as well:

Mussenden Temple is gorgeous – it was used as a summer library in the past:

i also liked the coastline near it – chalk cliffs, if i’m not wrong:

Dunluce Castle was about half an hour’s drive away, and grazing in the fields around it were some really large, black bulls. Dunluce Castle seemed tiny, but it was actually a fairly decent sized ruin:

it’s quite grand and big on the inside – that’s me standing in an ancient fireplace:

but i think what i like the most is how the castle hangs over the cliffs – due to erosion over the years:

the Giant’s Causeway was furthest east, and by the time we reached there around 2.30pm a light drizzle had begun. i hate rain – which i define as moisture of any sort and intensity coming down from the sky – so i was fairly miserable having to walk from the carpark to the causeway.

to make things worse, the rocks were slippery, so climbing up and down them was a little hazardous. Despite them being hexagonal basalt columns with a fairly flat surface to step on, some of them had pointy tops or were unstable. At one point in time i was perched atop a column, terrified to make my next step and trembling like a cat in a tree – good thing i was rescued soon enough, but any longer and i would have burst into tears :S

perhaps because of that, i wasn’t quite as impressed by the Causeway as i thought i’d be.. the pictures sure are pretty though – i can say that cos i didn’t take them, haha – perhaps i was too miserable to fully enjoy the place..

i’d still definitely recommend a visit, as those are some mighty columns:

for the more energetic, there’s an additional trail beyond the causeway where you can get some nice views. i was dragged along to check them out, and there was the Organ Pipes and other stuff:

that’s the causeway down there, right below us. the specks are people:

Belfast – the city tour

i went on the bus tour in Belfast – i’d recommend it for the historical value, as well as the opportunity to see Belfast beyond the main city centre.

The main city centre of Belfast, despite its size, is all well and good:

but venture only slightly beyond and you’ll see what Belfast really is like – there’re plots of undeveloped land and derelict buildings, and you’ll find that Belfast is really not a pretty place. it’s a pity, as i think Belfast has potential to develop, but it lacks the financial means and critical mass of people needed to make the city a vibrant, thriving one (for instance, Dublin has a very different atmosphere, in part cos it’s busier).

(the above, by the way, was right next to City Hall)

a friend had previously visited Belfast and i asked her what she thought of it, as the boy considers it a ‘shithole’. Said friend wondered why that was so, as she rather liked it as well as the slower pace of life. While i don’t think Belfast is quite as bad as he makes it out to be, i’m probably more inclined to agree with the boy, as there’s really nothing much to do in Belfast and one doesn’t have to go far to see the less savoury aspects of town. Even Belfast’s city centre isn’t that pretty in comparison to others, and the city gets quite quiet once it gets dark. The boy says that he wouldn’t let me walk around alone after dark – which occurs quite early in winter.

Anyhow, the bus tour – it’s a good opportunity to learn about the conflict between the Unionists (largely Protestant, loyal to the Queen and in favour of being part of the United Kingdom) and the Nationalists (largely Catholic, in favour of joining the Republic of Ireland). The tour takes you to see the murals painted by supporters from both sides.

this is one from the Loyalists:

There’s this whole stretch painted by the Nationalists:

and a commemorative one of one of the martyrs who died of a hunger strike after 66 days:

more commemorative murals:

there’re also the ‘peace lines’, which are essentially walls erected to separate Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods to reduce the conflict between them. they’re quite depressing, as some come up right next to the back door of people’s houses and have been in place for at least 30 years now:

they’re not very visible here, but in the picture above are people (probably tourists) signing messages on the wall. by the way, belfast apparently is one of the safest city in the world for tourists (i’m a little sceptical of that).

there are also other commemorative murals, both for the World War and for those innocents who had died during the Troubles:

something amusing:

and lastly, the old Belfast court house which had an underground tunnel leading from the jail located directly across the road. an example of derelict land sitting right next to the main city centre: