Ah, more chances to feel the lingering pain of separation from Singapore: from today (the 21st), my mail forwarding from the old apartment to my parents' home, provided by Singapore Post, expires. I had assumed the entire world works the way the United States Post Office does, more or less, that you fill in a form and get a year's free mail forwarding, and maybe they do that too for people within the country, but for someone moving to another continent they don't. According to the nice ladies at the post office whom I got to know very well while sending out a near-infinite chain of 20 kg boxes of belongings, the standard form will allow forwarding for at most six months, and you have to pay a rather substantial fee for each month forwarded. Based on the number of items I expected to stagger on after I had closed off my utilities and notified my bank of my new address I couldn't justify paying for more than three months, and even that seemed pretty pricey when I didn't know when my next paycheck would come in. (I still don't know, despite picking up a little money standing around while my Dad did home repair work.)
Most of what I've gotten has been really relatively minor -- my last cable guide magazine, the card for a 2007 television license, the Singapore Zoo magazine, a couple of bulletins from various organizations. In what's a pretty neat coincidence, though, I just got what I suppose will be the last forwarded piece of mail, and it's from my former employers, consisting of my IR-8A form. That's the Singapore version of the W-2 form, and with it I finally have the documents needed to complete my United States taxes. It's probably a silly thing to wait for, but I didn't have much choice. I had got my package of United States tax forms -- forwarded from Singapore -- about two months ago.
I'm going to have a series of little ``parting'' moments over the course of the year, as things like my Kinokuniya privilege card, Zoo membership, and Challenger electronics store expire; I think the last of them runs out in January 2008. Of course, if I had my druthers, I'd be back in town for that, but I've been out of druthers for three or four months now. I think I lost them behind the couch.
Trivia: For his 1901 attempt to send a radio signal across the Atlantic, Guglielmo Marconi hired as consultant Ambrose Fleming, professor of Electrical Engineering at University College London, for £500 per year. Source: Signor Marconi's Magic Box, Gavin Weightman.
Currently Reading: The Later Middle Ages, 1272 - 1485, George Holmes.
