On the bus and train ride to Tanjong Pagar, you can palpably feel the shifting of the mood. No longer the urgent and immediate energy of a school, and no more of the intense focus on a clear goal. Rather, you find yourself lost among the mass of people who just seem to be going through the motions of their daily commute. The rush hour is fuelled by habit rather than by passion. And it struck me how easily that energy that I felt in school was sapped away. You feel discernably older; and all that glamour of working at a snazzy office downtown bleeds away to leave you with the cold reality of a long, cramped commute to more of the same. At least, in school, the material isn't repeated day after day.
It's also my first time really working in an office; as in, the whole scope of your work comprises of sitting in an office and manipulating ideas in soft and hard copy. Previously, I may have done work in offices, but I haven't been obliged to stay there all day. Spending seven hours in the same room does strike me as rather unhealthy, at the end of the day. By lunchtime, I was eager to get out, even if just for an hour. And if I could have paced, I would have paced. I am also seriously considering assigning myself periods - one hour on each level of the building - so that at least there is a change in scenery, even if it's just a shift in the perspective on the view outside (which, I do have to say, is a real job perk!).
You find all sorts in an office. I think, partly at least, the lack of a necessity to face people outside of the office context liberates some people to be inconsiderate and disruptive. As Frost said, walls make good neighbours, and the lack of partitions does tend to erode one's efficiency. It's kind of like people taking the liberty to be as brusque as family members, without the common history and understanding that you have in a family that tends to cast these liberties as quaint rather than rude.
But I do have to say that most of the people are very hospitable. I am attached to a scholar who graduated three years back, and he has been flawlessly gracious and considerate thus far. He introduced me around, and it is soon apparent that quite a few, if not most, of the planners in URA are actually returning scholars. They all seem to be a jolly bunch, despite the inevitable ambivalence that someone on a bond has towards his job. It hasn't been much of a view thus far, but if this is what waits for me four years down the road, I really find nothing to complain about.
The trick now, then, is to not only find myself without objections, but actually eager to return to. That would be the task of the next seven weeks.
Anyway, over lunch today, I mentioned that I have yet to sign the deed, and immediately, the tone of the conversation changed. I get the sense that they're trying to save me from myself, the way that they speak graciously before the revelation, and then warningly after it. It's like when you screw up an exam and you console yourself that it really isn't too bad; but then, you see someone on the brink of doing the same thing, and then you stridently try to dissuade him, tearing away the previous delusions. Well. I hope that it's pragmatism rather than pessimism behind their tone. I hope they're telling me to wait and see because this keeps my options open, and not because they expect me to find something that will totally change my mind on URA.
But at any rate, the start there has been pretty good. Something big is about to happen, which you will undoubtedly read about in the next few days in the papers, and I find myself roped in to help with that. And from what I have seen so far, the planning work in URA is really SimCity writ large. Was rather amused that the computer game actually accurately reflects real planning considerations for real cities; and then realised with a chill that actually, it could equally be the case that real planning considerations for real cities actually accurately reflect a computer game. But at any rate, it is invigorating to be part of a process that creates a compelling image for the rest of the country to follow. It is an empowering experience.
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And finally, it is summer again, and my people are starting to return for the second time from overseas. I realise that this time round, I have not had the time to really savour the approach of this time; the preceding period has been so busy that May kind of snuck up on me, hidden as it was behind the piles of marking and the plans for lessons. But coming back they are, from all over the world, bringing with them fresh stories and experiences to the table. And to think - the next time, when they leave again, I will be going with them!
And so, the second phase begins.
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