A Day in the Life of a Singapore Girl

Back in the early '90's in Australia, there was an ad for a telephone calling card where they depicted Singaporeans as rice paddy farmers. My mother nearly having a fit when she saw this commercial.

"Rice paddy farmers?!!? If anybody should be wearing those hats, it should be the Australians," is what she said.

If you look at the photos of Orchard Road (closest shopping district to my home,) you'd understand why.


Calling S'poreans "rice paddy farmers" is like trying to call New York a "cute little country town". They should have swapped the pointy hat for shopping bags.

The highlights so far:
I gatecrashed some party in Paragon inappropriate attired (casual sun dress and gladiator sandals); goes to show that it's all about your attitude and a glass of champagne in your hand.


(Above: Me, the Cousins & the Goodie Bag)
Cousin JY was eyeing at their goodie bags while we were heading up the escalator to Sushi Tei. I volunteered to try and get her one, although the act of getting the freebies was more fun than the actual freebies themselves. The bag comprised of some glossy magazines showcasing designer goods and various high society parties.....so pretty boring stuff, nothing I can afford as an unemployed bum.

Embodying the true S'porean spirit is one's love of two things: shopping and eating.
Okay, make that three things as we also love taking photos of our food.


(Above: Chinese Baked Goodies from Bread Talk)

(Below: Dragon Fruit from the Supermarket; One of my Favourite Snacks - Snow Pea Chips!)


Caught up with L. on Saturday for some serious shopping and eating.

We lunched at the Black Pig over tonkatsu & udon followed by dinner at Mellben Season for butter crab beehoon.
We tried to take photos of ourselves and the crab beehoon but no such luck.

Then we got one of the guys serving to take the photo of us, and still no luck. (Yes, I did tell him to take a photo of us AND the beehoon, some people obviously can't frame photos.....)

Such is life.....

Like all true S'porean girls, L. thinks she is fat (when she is actually skinny). We went shopping for jeans, in my case this meant trying and not buying. I'm think I must be fairly good at hiding my ahem, additional padding, because when I asked for a size 27 jeans, L. commented that I surely couldn't be that large, and what do you know.....we're exactly the same size. L. stopped commenting about being fat after that :p Went to another store where I asked the sales girl for a size small, and she interrupted me to let me know that she was wearing an extra small, insinuating that I would be the same size. Wrong again. Now I know that I'm not "fat", but I do have a spare tyre around the middle that I need to lose...... *sigh*

L. & I spent a couple of hours at the Japanese shopping centre which was just enthralling.....

One thing I absolutely love doing when visiting another country, is to have a wander through their supermarkets to get an idea of what the local people eat. That and seeing whether there are any equivalents to something back at home. (For instance, Wotsits from the UK are the equivalent to cheezels in Oz.) I'm a real sucker for all things kitschy, so combine Japanese with supermarket.....you may very well lose me there for the whole entire day.

Everything is just so....fascinating. The Panda's a tad creepy though and kinda looks stoned. Actually, the car looks worse.


Event the cleaning products look fascinating....



Many people seem to have a fear of trying something when they have no idea what it is. I'm the complete opposite and ended up buying a whole lot of Japanese snacks where I basically didn't know what they were. (L.: "Why are you buying things when you don't know what they are?")

Strawberry chocolate coated wafer balls



"Choco-puddings" - Japan's answer to Top Deck.


Training chopsticks


The Singaporean Perception on Ireland
When S'poreans ask me where I've been these past two years, the conversation generally goes something like this:
I tell them "Ireland," and it takes them a while to register that I've said "Ireland," and not "Island". After that, they sort of look at me and ask, "Isn't Ireland soggy grassy knolls, tractors and farm land, and basically......boring?". Ergo, why would somebody like me want to go and work there?
Hmm, I see their point. Maybe I'm not so un-Singaporean after all.
Then, the next question is whether I worked and lived in Dublin, as anything out of the capital city....well, you might as well have slit your wrists as didn't that mean you were living on some farm with cows....?

And then my Irish paper driver's license......aside from the fact that it looks "fake" with the sticky taped passport photo on a piece of paper, the Singaporeans puzzle over the last picture icon, and I have to tell them that that is the category for a tractor license.