Watched The Holiday with Harlina quite sometime ago, on DVD. Not a good show. It was a long boring affair and doesn't warm you up with emotions at all. Warcrime draggy! Harlina and I were impatient to the point of frustration, constantly checking how much longer the show is, and yelling all the Chepat!s and Get on with it!s at the TV Set when Cameron Diaz falls into another long draggy monologue about discovering love as she tumbles around in bed with Jude Law.
An interesting find in the show would be the concept of Home Exchange! The story goes a little like this: Amanda(Cameron Diaz) just broke up with boyfriend. Iris (Kate Winslet), also same same, love problem, ex-boyfriend getting married to another char boh. Both ang moh char bohs needed to get away for awhile, and they both stumbled upon the same website, HomeExchange.com, found each other, and the very next day they were crossing the seas and staying at each other's house.
Amanda's the successful movie trailer cutter with a huge house in Los Angeles, blessed with a huge, technology-driven house which Iris benefits from. Iris' place pales in comparison though, living in a little village in Britain. But what the heck, the small little village house is frequented by Iris' brother, played by Jude Law. And that's when the show started to get draggy.
To summarize the concept of Home Exchange: Person A goes to live in Person B's house, vice-versa (Person B lives at Person A's) for a period of time. A great holiday idea: you'll save on hotel/hostel accommodation, and you get to live among the locals for awhile.
Check out the list of Singaporeans offering their homes for exchange: mostly landed-property and condominiums. No HDB Flats though. Weird that not many HDB-dweller want to exchange their living premises for awhile. I wouldn't mind. My house got reservoir view loh.
In other matters: imagine, offering Bed and Breakfast in your HDB Estate. Discussed this with a friend, and we were saying that if that was such an option, we wouldn't provide breakfast and would just tell them "Erm, breakfast is kaya roti, please proceed to the kopitiam downstairs only". Shopping can be done at the estate's shopping mall (Bukit Panjang Plaza, West Mall, Jurong Point, what-have-yous) , and the town is simply a 20 minute bus ride down. Not that bad, actually.
Someone might want to start a Facebook community for this.
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3 comments:
I agree with you about The Holiday - it is draggy! And not a good representation of home exchange. I've never heard of anyone finding a home exchange offer they liked, contacted the member and both immediately agree to exchange - the very next day. But, I guess, if the swap had been arranged in the normal way, the film would have been even more draggy!
You don’t have to have a large or grand home in order to exchange homes. If you want more information, I hope you will check out my home exchange blog:
http://homeexchangetravel.blogs.com
and browse current exchange offers:
http://www.homebase-hols.com
Cheers from London,
Lois
Hey Lois,
Thanks very much for your information! Home Exchange would be ideal if you can put your trust to the other party, and hope that they don't bust your electricity bills!
And of course, if your whole family is agreeable. If you live with your parents (which I do), it's kinda hard!
I agree, it is a great idea! When you exchange homes with someone, you enjoy the comfort of living in a residential area, not a tourist area where criminals may target newcomers. Plus, many hosts leave phone numbers of friends and neighbors who will very often go out of their way to welcome you to the neighborhood. Basically, you are an invited guest wherever you choose to travel.
But do not forget to use a reputable company. Using a company such as http://www.homeforswap.com ensures that you make use of a friendly home exchange community. Through blogs, home listings, member reviews, and tips, Homeforswap.com strives to make every home exchange fan feel prepared and comfortable in planning their vacation exchanges.
Enjoy the home swapping way!
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