Singaporeans often refer to their island as the ‘little red dot’ – because when highlighted on a map it appears as nothing more than, well, a little red dot. The little red dot was our home until June of last year when we moved from one tiny island to another – the latter being the far less tropical Anglesey in the North of Wales. Anglesey is more or less the same size as Singapore but has a different map issue – that of being frequently left off maps that appear in newspapers or on television.
Map insecurities aside, on Anglesey, we live by the water in a house that overlooks a tidal lagoon and a bay. One key differentiator from Singapore is the level of maritime traffic. Having some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world means the seas around Singapore are filled with ships. Near our house on the West Coast, we would regularly visit the park and look out across the water, which was filled from land to horizon with hulking metal containers.
On Anglesey, the waters of the Irish Sea are generally a lot quieter – with ships being few and far between. However, in the bay near our current home, we often see them gathering. When we do, this generally only means one thing – storms are coming and the ships are sheltering from the winds and rough seas. This area of the coast is famous for shipwrecks. It claimed scalps such as the famous Royal Charter in 1859, which Charles Dickens described in his book The Uncommercial Traveller (which you can read here).
In Singapore, the ships were a constant and almost part of the landscape, whereas here we’ve come to see them as harbingers of change – be it rain or strong winds (or both). Keep your eyes on the seas when travelling the coast of Anglesey. If the ships are gathered, then you’ll know that there may be storms on the horizon (literal, not figurative).
