No English? No Problem!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

The Big S



Went to Batam on Deepavali with Juls and Greg and learnt two things:

1. That Batam is just like Perling, Johor

So true. We entered through the main Batam centre by ferry, and the minute I walked out of the centre, I could've sworn that we'd ended up in Malaysia by mistake.

Certainly on first glance, it seemed like it. Bahasa everywhere, [even though yes, I know, that Bahasa Indon. is not the same as Melayu] the mega airconditioned malls, [these things are everywhere nowadays, and I swear the one at the centre was built for the express purpose of Singaporean dollars] and the endless rows of suburban houses and shophouses and trees.

But there are differences if one cares to look more closely. Streets are dirtier than in Malaysia, for one. [sorry, Candle] Some of the sewage drains I saw were filled with extremely noxious looking grey.... sludge that looked deadly to any living creature foolish enough to step in it.

Also, there is a diff in the shops over there. The streetside stalls all sell the same range of goods, namely wallets, caps, belts, shoes, and the huge piece of cloth that Muslim women wear over themselves. [sorry, i don't know the name of it] We walked a few km along one long stretch of stalls, and it felt like I was seeing the same cycle of stalls over and over again. Wallets, caps, belts, shoes, cloth, wallets, caps, belts, shoes, cloth, wallets, caps, belts......

The prices there are also generally cheaper than in Malaysia. Sure, you'll feel like a billionaire when you count your currency in terms of 10000s, but when you look at the prices, you feel more like, an upper class man? I did a double take a couple of times when, after mentally converting the prices in my head, it was still too low for me to believe.

Like, in the department store, a decent tee shirt, maybe about the Hanes standard, cost about 16000rp, which translated to S$4??? And we stopped at this beauty stop [hair salon/manicure/pedicure/facial/massage.... Good god, has anyone done this in singapore? It's a stroke of genius!] where we found that the price of a 45 min massage was.... S$8. Bloody fork! Juls and I ended up going for a massage each while Greg was left to play at the arcade. :p

Of course, the dark lining of all this is that you have to pay about S$30 from Singapore to actually get there. So when you count the transport, food, and massage.... it doesn't quite become so worth it anymore. ^_^! If you want to make it worth it, you have to do a hell lot more stuff than we did. But hey, once in a while, I don't mind doing stupid stuff like this.

2. We have big 'S'es written all over us

I think that it is inevitable that, if you live in any country for an extended period of time, it leaves its mark on you. I notice this in some friends who go overseas, and now I know it is on us, even in a nearby country like Batam.

The moment we started walking around the town, Nagoya, [sounds Japanese, doesn't it?] I felt as everyone knew we were from Singapore and that we didn't believe. We didn't even look like the local Chinese, even though we were plainly dressed in tees and jeans. What was it? We don't know, but I suspect a great deal stemmed from us speaking flawless English most of the time. ^_^! Bummer.... Can you stick out anymore in a place where 90% of all people we met spoke only rudimentary English? ["Taxi! You want taxi?" being one of the most common phrases I heard being thrown at us]

And even then, our clothes didn't fit in. What we wore and carried looked just a smite too good to have been bought from their department stores, which carried This-Fashion-like stuff. [which also meant that everything in the ladies dept was 10 sizes too small for me. ^_^! If I lived there, i'd have to buy everything from either the Muslim dept or the menswear]

But it wasn't just us. Even while I was having my massage, I saw this lady come in, and my first thought was: Singaporean. Again, the bag she carried looked too good, and most telling of all, she was wearing a light blue gypsy skirt, which I never saw being sold anywhere in Batam. The funny thing was that her face did NOT look Singaporean at all when I looked at it again, so....... i don't know. :p

Another lady was more obvious. She was a 40s odd woman wearing 2 spaghetti tops, cropped pants and huge colourful wedges. Oh yea, very HDB tai-tai chic......

But really, we didn't fit in. And I felt like everyone was looking at the huge S written invisibly on my forehead......

I guess in a way, going to such places just makes you appreciate home that much more. [ESPECIALLY for the clean toilets with running water in the flush and adequate toilet paper] Even when you go to nearby countries, with plenty of Asians and Chinese, it's still pretty obvious the way you stand out from all the other locals. While we were there, I had this weird feeling that people were staring at me, and whispering to each other, "Singaporean must be lah..." [on a sidenote, must learn Bahasa so this never happens to me, either in Indon or Malaysia.]

It's only when you come back to Singapore that you, I don't know, fit? That suddenly, your behavior and appearances cease to be weird or ill-fitting, and that you're able to disappear into the rest of the crowd, because you're just like the rest of them. Yea, I know there are plenty more countries which are waaaaay more accepting of weirdness than Singapore is, or more open than Singapore is, but as much as I don't fit quite into Singapore society, I still fit more into it than all the other countries that I've been to. That it's the only place I know I can disappear into the crowd, and that won't mind me ever being there. It's weird, I know, and possibly also because I haven't stayed in any other country for a long period of time, but hey, that's just my humble opinion... :p that's just me.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Black River House



Was surfing randomly through the Net looking for free legal music [yes, there IS such a thing] when I stumbled upon The Secret Method and the Black River House.

The story goes that the Black River House was the site of the gruesome murder of an entire family that was living there in 1992. Later in 1996, a band called The Secret Method snuck into the house to, I suppose, record some music using the atmosphere of the site.

Don't ask me why, but the band vanished without a trace after that, leaving all their equipment behind.

After reading through the website, I only have 2 things on my mind:

1. This is NOT the thing to be reading at 1am while alone in your hall room. [YENN!!!!!! Anta doko ka??! *Wails*]

2. I SO do not feel like downloading the music, free and legal it may be.

Read the story for yourself

Sunday, October 30, 2005

It's been a long time since I posted up any illustrations or cartoons on me blog, so here goes the set meal....

First the appetisers....

I know this may come across as slightly paedophilic, but lookie at this cover of the nov issue of First magazine...

PA290016

Is it my imagination, or is Harry Potter getting more hot?! Yup yup.... :p

Next appetiser...

I did this one a while back, just after I ended lessons with most of my tuition students:

nostringsattached

My happiness over the extra free time I had lasted for about a min... then I realised that I had a laptop to pay for in full, and my income had just gone down by about a third. *faint*

But even with the tuition and the extra income, I didn't have that much extra time either to go out with friends on weekdays or to pursue my dance.

The difference was more obvious after I got my first official paycheck. Suddenly, I realised that I could buy a LOT of the things I had always wanted. [Lapy being one of them] I even had the cash to indulge in afternoon coffee sometimes if I could spare the time...

But at the same time, there were a lot of things I could NOT do. You couldn't just take leave when you felt like it. You couldn't just plan your lessons as you felt like it. You couldn't teach the way you wanted sometimes, because of the restrictions placed by schools. And a lot of your time is taken up by your work.

So in the end... you realise that nothing really comes with no strings attached. If you want the extra money, you pretty much give up a lot of things. And if you are content with less money... don't expect to do a lot of shopping. :p

Now a starter before the main course....

worldanimalday

World Animal Day was held at Bishan Park today, which made it highly convenient for me to pop by after my roti prata session.

Of all the charities in the world, the ones I probably have more sympathy towards are those animal-based charities.

This is cos I feel that while people are always able to help themselves, or are more inclined to help those of their own kind, they don't always feel the same way towards animals. And I feel that in our urban jungle, animals are more vulnerable, more helpless, and hence more needy of our help.

A big plus point is also I cannot resist the sight of poor helpless kitties......... ^_^!

I picked up these postcards from ACRES, which deals mostly with wildlife animals involved in illegal trading. They had some of the wittiest designs I had seen so far, and I picked up a button as well. [camera didn't capture it too well, so it's not in the pic]

Also present was Noah's Ark, from which I bought a pin. Noah's Ark provides sanctuary for animals who would otherwise be abandoned. They let the animals run free in a plot of land and they are dependent on donations and sale of goods like this to keep the place running, or all the animals have nowhere to go.

There were others, but these were the main ones I bought stuff from. No Cat Welfare Society... damn....

If you're interested in either of these organizations, check out:

http://www.acres.org.sg
http://www.noahsarkcares.com

Now the main course...

I'm realising how easy it is to get misunderstood over a blog post. My previous post on the ministerial salaries clearly ruffled one or two feathers, who immediately ran clucking to my comments box to tell me just what they thought of salaries and how wrong/misguided/delusional I was.

And who ALSO didn't see the next post after that about how ministerial salaries was NOT the point of the post.

You see how people can be selective about their reading sometimes? They see an issue that they are concerned about, and immediately I get more links about how cheated we are, and more info about how I'm really being scammed by the Govt.

ARGH! My point was NOT about ministers' salaries! I don't give a fork about ministers' salaries! [i'm more concerned about my own] My point was about the discrepancies and biases in THAT ONE EMAIL.

So granted, maybe they thought to clarify the discrepancies in that email by handing me more information and proof to back up their stance. Fair enough.

But ack! I still don't feel like I'm getting a balanced enough view of the entire issue. The whole Net seems to be full of people who are more interested in pushing their opposing views rather than people who are genuinely interested in exploring the issue more deeply.

[this is one funny trait about me. I don't like to subscribe to absolute views, and if I feel I'm getting one, I like to play devil's advocate just for the heck of irritating the other person]

More reasons for me to simply not get involved in local politics....... next time i'll just put the inane blatter on my blog......