Small town breezes

Every time I'm here in Santa Cruz and its surrounding towns/counties, I'm reminded of how much of a city dweller I am.

1) I find the stark lack of tall buildings refreshing - almost nothing here is taller than two storeys.

2) I wonder about the 'quaint' variety of nightlife here - mostly just bars and some live bands playing old favourites, and what little dance scene they have doesn't resemble what you'd find in an urban city.

3) Everyone is underdressed - no one seems to look like they're dressed for work, and no male seems to have heard of a shirt. Daily comfy dressing suits me just fine, though.

4) The traffic on the nearest two-lane highway slows down to about 50 km/h during rush hour and drivers start to complain about "bad traffic".

5) Free parking lots exist in abundance. Free outdoor parking lots. Free outdoor, spacious parking lots - you can swing your car door WIDE open and not hit the next car...and super-large SUVs are the norm rather than the exception here.

6) I'm amused by the narrow field of view of local media - the headline on the daily paper is more likely to report on the latest developments on the local dog beach than something like the whole of Eurasia being conquered by one dictator overnight (the latter would probably be relegated to a tiny column on the back page under "Other/International News").

7) A local arts scene that's even less developed than Singapore's - for a supposedly arty farty place like Santa Cruz, I'm amazed to have heard of only one professional theatre company, and none of the locals I've asked seem to have heard of any other. On the other hand, there is no shortage of individual performers doing their thing along the street 'downtown'.

8) The reason why I put 'downtown' in inverted commas - it's a single street of two-storey buildings that are mostly single-unit shops, restaurants and cafes. And no pubs. One bank one street away. Still, it's an interesting place to go view the local fauna.

So yes, I'm a city girl who's guilty of looking upon a small town as 'quaint'. But it's also one reason why I love being here - the laid-back pace of this place where the abundant sun and cool ocean breeze are not one bit out of place.

A very insightful Singaporean playwright once wrote that Singapore is a small town which thinks it's a city. Very catchy, but I beg to differ. I say Singapore is a small city that's bursting at its seams. It's dense, sterile, stuffy and high-strung. Still, it's home and it's what I'm used to.