Author: tei o

Chinatown- Singapore

tei o 5 Comments

A big thank you to all my friends who sent me birthday wishes…thanks for remembering…^^

I took the day off last week and went down to Chinatown, a place I normally go only during Chinese New Year. There are quite a few changes and it’s more touristy now. At the same time, I must admit that the whole place is alot livelier…

Chinatown Heritage Centre

I’ve actually passed by this place numerous time but have always given it a miss as I thought it was just another one of those place meant for tourists.

But my good friend, YL, actually recommend it so despite my reservations, we decided to visit it.

Somehow this made me think of the famous TCS drama- 雾锁南洋 (starring 黄文永 & 向云)。

The Chinese Heritage Centre records the history and lives of those who used to live in Chinatown. Most of them would be migrants, who came seeking for a better life. It was actually quite fascinating to read about the hardship and vices of these early migrants. But I think it could have done with a little more actual display. The more interesting sections would be the video clips of interviews with various types of people who used to live or continue to live in Chinatown (including a samsui woman and a hawker) and the recreation of living quarters in the shophouse.

I have these bowls too..^^

The recreation and restoration of the cramped, dark and unhygenic living quarters of a typical shophouse was the highlight of the whole museum. I’m totally amazed (and shock) how 12 to 15 familes could live together in such tiny area. I’m not sure how they survived. But then my grandparennts and their children lived in similar quarters too though my aunt told me that theirs was slightly better and it wasn’t in Chinatown.

The musuem shop was so-so. Entrance fees is $10 (which is way too expensive) but if you flash your POSB/ DBS card, you get 50% discount. Not sure if this promotion is permanent though. Here’s the website for you to check out- Chinatown Heritage Centre. There are some more information and pictures on the site. Ok lah, I think well worth my time spent there.

We had tea and coffee in this coffeeshop, just opposite the heritage centre and I had a heart attack when I paid for the drinks.

$1.50 per cup!!!!

This is daylight robbery…just because there were lots of tourists sitting in the coffeeshop. This was just your regular tei or kopi, served in your regular kopitiam cups. Of course, to the tourists…$1.50 probably is nothing. I’m definitely not stepping into this coffeeshop again.

Expensive kopitiam

We continued on our journey of Chinatown. I didn’t know that the street stalls have become permanent. I thought they were only there during the festive season. So ‘sua koo’ right? But the stalls are really targted at the tourists lor..nothing very interesting. At least not to a local like me.

Street stalls….beginning to look like ‘Ladies Street’ in Hong Kong

Hehe! Someone told me that this shop is special….

Toys for the living….

Toys for the dead….

What’s Chinatown without dimsum right?

One thing I did like about Chinatown is the restoration of many of the shophouses. The architect is really beautiful.

Old and attractive

tei o 7 Comments

It’s that time of the year again when I have to add another candle on my cake, a wrinkle to my face and an inch to my waist. In other words….I am expanding in every which way except financially.

I’m not complaining….life has its sweet moments at all stages…even if you’re over 40.

Sometimes, expecially if you are over 40.

Recently, there was a huge furore when a woman, who was deemed err….too ‘matured’ by a club. She was denied her complimentary drinks coupons given out for Ladies Night.

Naturally, she was furious since the promotional terms did not state any age restrictions. So was I, and from the feedback…so did general public.

Anyway, 2 thoughts came to mind when I read about this.

1) Firstly, if they go by the age criteria (which I think is below 35), the following ladies would be considered too ‘old’ and hence not a good enough ‘bait’ to lure the men in. Now, I’m not sure about the people over at that club, but I do believe quite a few of them has been voted as the world’s most beautiful people at some point and they are all above 35 years old. Who are they?

Halle Berry, Catherine Zeta Jones, Carol Cheng, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, Uma Thurman, Helen Mirren, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung etc..

You could say that they are artistes and therefore look better…but if the said establishment went by age strictly…none of them would have qualified. Of course, I’m not saying these women need the free drinks coupon or the complimentary entry to the club. They could probably afford to buy drinks for eveyone at the club.

So is age really a big factor in attracting men to these places? I guess only men can answer this question.

But I was thinking, if the club really wanted to attract the men, they could probably have played a football match or maybe one of the Victoria Secret’s fashion show. Sure can get them to come in droves.

2) Secondly, it suddenly strike me that clubs never organise a Gentlemen’s Night. Strange isn’t it?

I’m not sure how to intepret this..

Either:
a) Young ladies are cheapskate and want their free drinks and the men are foolish enough to be lured by the promise of seeing more young, pretty girls on such nights.

b) Women are smarter and refused to fall for such marketing tricks.

But..if…if…there is a Gentlemen’s Night, would I really want to go to a place where young boys in their twenties drink themselves silly with the free drinks? C’mon…what kind of thrill would that be? Would that be exciting for me?

Give me men like Colin Firth, Pierece Brosnan, Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Tony Leong, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Jacky Cheung, Lee Jung Jae.

They have that charisma and confidence that come with age. Not to mention that I find them incredibly sexy.

Maybe I tend to favour the older men at my age but I think if you check with the young ladies who frequent the clubs, you will probably find them more attracted to older men as well.

Anyway, I believe the older-woman-younger-men relationships are on the rise… judging from the spate Korean dramas with this theme. hehe!

Hey, I suddenly remembered I blogged about older women here last year too.

Hmmm…I still want to have bigger eyes and a better figure.

What do we want?

tei o

Human beings are contradictory creatures.

When we are busy running around, we longed for peace and rest.

When we are just lazing with nothing to do, we want to be active.

When life is just cruising along sedately, we crave for excitment.

When things are happenning one after another, we wish for moments to catch our breath.

I guess we don’t really know what we want, do we?

Or perhaps, it’s a case of we want it all?

Singapore- Island-City-State

tei o

Many, many years ago, there was a book called “Singapore-Island-City-State”. It’s one of the those coffee table book, with nice photos of Singapore and it’s people. Think it was published for National Day- you know, one of those feel-good, propaganda book.

As I get older, I tend to feel more and more appreciative of what Singapore has and what it offers. Of course, that is not to say that I agree with all the policies implemented by the powers that be. And there are some issues which I’m really, totally unhappy about (they are getting how much pay rise????). However, the country is relatively stable, most of us do have a job and a roof over our heads (in fact, many have quite a few roofs over their heads, judging from the spate of condominiums on sale recently). Crime rate isn’t too bad and things actually work (though some say, they work too well- like clockwork with no room for flexibility).

Many of the expats that I meet have often told me that they like Hong Kong if they are single but once they have families, they prefer Singapore for its stability and safety- 2 key words if you have children.

Of course, things can always be better and hopefully they will become better progressively. But you know, there’s no Shangri-la on earth and I think for what we;ve achieved so far, we can give ourselves a little pat on the back…(if there’s any government officials reading this… a few more monetary package would be most welcomed. ^^ )

P/S- I do not belong to any PAP group….grassroots or otherwise.

Cross cultural differences?

tei o 6 Comments

Last weekend, the writer of the regular Sunday column, ‘Hubby Tubby’ in The New Paper was writing about cross cultural marriages. Like me, she had married an ‘ang mo’- an Englishman. She was asked if there was any cultural differences (ie, difficulties) in her marriages. It got me thinking….did I ever have any cultural differences with my hubby?

I thought long and hard about it and like her, I honestly can’t think of any. What we do have are individual differences. Of course, I can’t discount the fact that these individual differences could be due to cultural differences. Afterall, we are who we are because of the way we were brought up. But they are no different from a normal couple from the same race/ culture.

So he prefers proper English tea to the regular ‘tei’ in the coffeeshop. And I’m not too keen on soup and crackers for lunch. He can’t really bring himself to call my father ‘dad’. I find it impossible (not to say totally rude) to call his dad by his name. They are not major issues.

What keeps a relationship going, in any relationship, whether is is an inter-racial one or not, is an open mind and an open heart. Plus the ability to know when to shut up and just listen. ^^

However, there is one thing that I’ve picked up from hubby (as part of the cultural difference), it’s saying these four phrases often in our everyday life:

Please
Sorry
Thank you
I love you

Just because he’s my husband and we’ve each other for 10 years does not mean I have to be rude to him.

If I can say ‘please’ to the hawker when I’m ordering that plate of char kway teow, then all the more I should say ‘please’ when I ask him to do something for me.

If I can say ‘sorry’ to a stranger for blocking his way, then all the more I should say ‘sorry’ when I make him wait for me.

If I can say ‘thank you’ to my friends, then all the more I should say ‘thank you’ to the person who’s done so much for me.

And as for the 3 words, ‘I Love You’. Well…I don’t only love him on birthdays, Christmas and Valentine’s Day, so why should I limit myself to saying those words only on those occassions?

In this aspect, I do believe that the Westerners are on the whole, better in this. Asians will generally feel that there is no need to say them out loud. We think it’s enough to let our actions show if we’re grateful or sorry.

Luh Luh wrote about ‘expressing gratitude’ recently on her blog. The Chinese is normally incapable at expressing gratitude. Actually, I think it’s not just the Chinese who are bad at expressing themselves, but Asians in general.

As the Chinese saying goes- 礼多人不怪。(Nobody will mind if you are more polite than usual). But often, we think this phrase only apply to the friends, strangers but not family.

Perhaps if we are a little less reserved.
Perhaps if we start with family first.

The Handphone

tei o

I noticed a strange phenonmenon on 2 occasions very recently….how people behave in a restricted area with strangers. Both involved the ‘indispensible’ accessory- the handphone.

I attended a briefing yesterday. The room was small and there were about 11 of us. Except for 2 girls who knew each other and were chatting away merrily, the rest of us were strangers to each other. So what happened?

1 of them read a magazine
3 of them just sort if starred into space
The remaining 5 were on their handphones. Now I’m not sure if they were reading /sending smses or just starring blankly into the phone (it’s better than starring into space right? At least, you would seemed to be busy and don’t have to make eye contact)

Today, in the crowded train, I noticed a similar trend. Though this time, they weren’t ‘using’ their handphone so to speak… Out of my carriage of about 21 people, 7 of the passengers had their headphones. That’s about 33%.

I asked hubby:
‘What did people used to do before the invention and easy availability of handphone in a room of strangers?’

He said:
‘They talked to each other.’

Hmm… it’s probably true, isn’t it?

So is the handphone making us closer or further apart?

What do you think?

Me? I’m not sure..let me know think about is whilst I listen to the music on my handphone. ^^