Friday 31 May 2013

its the race thing again

I am annoyed, really annoyed today

this article appeared in our national papers today talking about Asian and Singaporean women and a new TV show that dealt with dressing in our humid weather and using the right make up.
Now, I am Asian and I am Singaporean but I wont be watching the show as I don't speak Mandarin, why, because I never learnt it
I could have but in school  I was herded into learning Malay as Punjabi was not offered as a subject until much later and the only Indian language offered was Tamil and I wasn't Tamil either..  In our schools we have to learn our 'mother tongue' meaning Chinese kids learn mandarin, Malay kids lean Malay, Indian kids learn which ever Indian language they speak.................. where was I.......

oh yes the article
so I wrote to the editor, here's my email
Dear Gladys

I am a huge fan of the Urban supplement with my Friday edition of the Straits Times.
Today however I was a little annoyed, at the generalisation of  the words Asian and Singaporean in your note from the editor.
It is obvious that you seem to have forgotten that the programme you talk about is for Chinese Singaporeans and not the rest of us in the minority
we are however still Asians and Singaporeans
When did Singapore become just for the Chinese
perhaps you should have been more specific in your promotion of the show for Chinese Singaporeans.  

I quote " As a viewer, I want to feel connected to the local women who are representing my fashion and beauty woes and concerns on the show"

As a Singaporean and Asian woman, I too seek the same as you, but if my national paper/journalists forget that Singapore's  makeup is diverse, what are the rest of us to do?

respectfully yours

Notice I did end with a respectfully yours.  I did get a reply which has eased my annoyance a very very little bit...

Dear Puteh,
Thank you for your email and sharing your thoughts.
In my editor's note, I have indeed missed out on the point that the Lady First programme is only understood by those who speak Mandarin. I will keep these sensitivities in mind in future.
I shall be writing to Starhub to suggest that they add English subtitles to the show.
Because most of the tips and advice that are dished out on the show apply to all local women regardless of race.
They talk about dressing right for your bodyshape and the sticky humid local weather, the most effective skincare products and massage and application techniques that will benefit all women.
Regards,
Gladys Chung

Am I too sensitive about race and do I read too much into the little things?
or have I just had it with the majority forgetting that nude makeup/bras/shoes is only nude on fair/white skinned women!!

Wednesday 29 May 2013

My love affair with the UK


Somehow the UK has a special place in my heart and even if my sister didn't live in England (it does help, the free accommodation) I would still visit often.
I like the idea that people roamed the cities and streets hundreds of years ago and I now roam those very same streets.  It's the old civilizations, the old homes, the lives that attract me.  You could ask why I don't have a love affair with the country of my origin? It is one of the oldest civilizations but  somehow my Indian cousins don't seem to have used that to their advantage.  That country is still mired in chaos and corruption.  To me, they haven't evolved as well as they should have! 
The country of my birth, Singapore, does have some early history, the earliest is thought to be in the 11th century and it gained some prominence in the 14th century under the prince Parameswara, but what they failed to leave behind was enough evidence of them being here.  There are no 14th century monuments for us to gawk at.
We only have a few buildings that the British left behind to remind us of our colonial past.

What attracts me to the UK (I lack exposure to the rest of Europe so I am basing this on my limited travel experience) is the open fields and endless space around.  Living in crowded Singapore one has to travel across the causeway to Malaysia to get open spaces.  Its almost claustrophobic here.
I marvelled, and was quite giddy with delight at all the open spaces, so close to bustling cities.  
England

Scotland
The English countryside was so different from the views of Scotland, one is nice and pretty with rolling gentle hills and meadows while the other is rugged and breathtaking, almost like a handsome adventurous man with that wicked glint in his eye.  So close to each other but so very different!

I always wondered if I, a product of a city upbringing, could leave it all behind and live somewhere rural.  I am quite convinced that I could.  I  crave the silence, which is why the next phase of the adventure is down south, New Zealand.......



Sunday 26 May 2013

Apparently after repairs comes the cleaning

Cabinets varnished, electrical points done
Next week the bathroom doors get changed and the new lights get fixed.......Now its time to clean the shining 'new' cupboards.
I never realised. I had so much junk, and I really mean junk.
Things I collected because it was free/looked cute/I will use it one day type of things.

My flat is on the 13th floor overlooking a busy intersection, there is constant noise and dust from the traffic. To make matters worse, there is construction going on at my block of flats. (we are getting a lift on each floor, when the government housing unit built the flats, they didn't think people would want a lift stopping on each and every floor.  or was it just poor planning and lack of common fucking sense)
But lets not blame the ongoing construction for the dusty state of the cupboards, I just haven't cleaned because I found better use of my free time, like being a couch potato.

So now with the new pantry cupboard, and the varnishing of the old cupboards done, I have had to delve deep into the dusty abyss which are my kitchen cupboards and restore them all to shining glory.
I managed to do half yesterday, only because I would stop and rearrange things, clean glasses and marvel at the things I actually had!  It took longer than I anticipated so the coming week (today is Sunday and I need to relax!) will see the continuation of me living out my fantasy of being a domestic goddess...


Thursday 23 May 2013

Domesticity or I cant be bored so have started projects at home

I knew I was going to get bored, doing nothing at home ( cooking, cleaning and laundry don't count as doing anything) so decided to get a few projects going around the home.
If you have been reading my blog, you would know that last year I got it into my head that I needed a brand new kitchen.  Well, after chasing some designers around and finding out that it cost two arms and a leg for a whole new kitchen, I put that idea into my back pocket.

With time on my hands I figured I could start on some of the repairs and take my brothers advice to varnish and update the kitchen cabinets instead of selling my arms and leg on eBay to raise money for the kitchen.  And of course its not me doing the work, but a contractor to do that for me, plus he will also add in more electrical points in the kitchen, change some lights for me, change the bathroom doors and build a new pantry cupboard.

kitchen cabinets, before
cabinets after
Work started yesterday on the varnishing and my kitchen is now a no go area and I have varnish fumes wafting through the flat, but I am so excited  ( must be the fumes that I am inhaling that are making me so light headed)  that the kitchen is going to look nice again.

After this I think I may paint the living room and my bedroom, and this time it will be me doing the work.....need to keep doing stuff, cant be bored......

Friday 17 May 2013

campaign for piss free toilet seats

I started a post sometime back on the state of toilets in Singapore, about a week before I left for London.  I didn't publish the post thinking that I would go back to it once I got home......
The post laments the condition of our public toilets......
Singapore as a developed first world cosmopolitan nation has disgusting toilets.  The majority of its citizens have the idea that as long as its public space, one can treat it like shit...... This is evident in our campaigns for kindness, courtesy, clean toilets, washing hands..... The list goes on.

I have used all sorts of public toilets and in the UK I have used them in train stations, bus stations, airports, restaurants, tourist attractions to name a few and even with tourists galore, the toilets are still better than what we get  at home.....
Women will not sit on toilet seats in public toilets, why you may ask.....because 9 out of 10 times the woman before her, would have hovered above the seat and splashed pee all over the seat.

Here's what I would like to see in each cubicle in each public toilet for women everywhere, a little dispenser with a gel or liquid sanitizer that we can clean the seat before we sit down.  As women we can then teach other women how to use that and not hover and fucking pee all over the place and leave the toilet clean for the next person......


Edinburgh to Luton....then London

I do fly budget from time to time but it is something i hate and dread but we flew Easy Jet to and from Scotland, and I was quite impressed with the airline....
The airport security however is another story
We got to Edinburgh airport on time and check in was a breeze.  The security clearance however, was    just one big god awful mess.

They only had two lanes open to scan every single passenger, with every passenger taking out every gel and liquid, and I stress that I think passengers that wait till they get to the counters to start taking everything out of their bags are part of the problem, They obviously missed the four hundred signs all over the place telling them to put their shit in those little ziplock bags, and instead of doing it while in line, they opt to wait till they get to the counters and hold up the line while they rummage through, pulling out their shit from every single pocket of their bags.
Ok rant over

The lines were slow, the passengers slower, and clueless about how to return those big trays that one places ones shit in to run through the scanner....ok so rant isn't over.....

We waited in line for about 50 minutes, and this doesn't include the line we had earlier where we had to scan our boarding passes to get into the security area, which is where confusion met the unholy mess in the first place, but let's not go there now.
We finally cleared security with 5 minutes to spare before gates closed for our flights.  We had to run to our gate...and those that know me, know that I can't run! Seriously I can't, with having asthma all my life,  running made me breathless so I just never ran, and my sons also tell me I run funny, so I just, don't, run......

But we made it by the skin of our teeth........
Easy jet might have been easy, the airport security however wasn't!



Food glorious food

I am not like alot of my fellow singaporeans that I will take pictures of my food every time I try something new.
Scones & tea at Clarinda's
On the first night in Inverness we found a restaurant called the Mustard Seed. It was fabulous! One of the best meals I have had, service,ambience, all good. Highly recommended if you ever find yourself in Inverness! On the second night we headed to Johnny foxes which was right next to where we stayed, apartments by the river. It was a good pub dinner and that's where I tried haggis. If you like liver and kidneys, you will love haggis. It's heavy though so don't eat too much!

In Edinburgh my sister and I wanted to try Gennaros. It's an Italian restaurant right opposite the Apex City Hotel on Grassmarket. The last time we were in Edinburgh we had two meals there and they were very good. This time however it was a disappointment. The food seemed to have lost the quality, portions and taste.
The Oink sandwich window display
On the second night we had a pub dinner, if I remember correctly it was called the The Fiddlers Arms or something close to that. It was again at Grassmarket. The food was plentiful and good and the poor waitress got our orders wrong, but she did give us a discount on the two wrong orders. The last night we had dinner at another pub called The Last Drop. We all had steaks and my god, they were excellent!
Throughout the Scotland adventure, we have also been having a hearty breakfast in the morning from scrambled eggs with smoked salmon to what we had yesterday which was an Oink sandwich. See picture, that's what you are getting, a sandwich with juicy succulent pork! One breakfast cafe, The Cockburn cafe on Cockburn road (off the royal mile) is one place to give a miss....portions don't match prices and food is not tasty and if you can screw up a bacon or sausage roll, you know it's not worth the money.

We also had scones and tea at two places. We first had scones at the cafe near the great hall at Edinburgh Castle. Big beautiful fluffy scones with clotted cream and jam, and at Clarindas on the Royal Mile closer to Hollyrood Palace. They were fabulous, melt in the mouth scones.........
I wish now that I had taken pictures of all the food....................



Train to Edinburgh

We left Inverness by train in the afternoon, headed for Edinburgh.
the view from the train
I wish I was poetic enough to describe the breathtaking views, but all I can say is that it was like a visual orgasm!
Anyway......
We had to change trains at Perth to get to Edinburgh, but when the train was approaching the station, we suddenly stopped and were told that there was a problem as a freight train had damaged the tracks and we couldn't pull up just yet. We had a connection to catch and the conductor that walked through the train assured us that our connection would wait for us. We pulled into a different platform, and ran with our luggage to the other platform for our connecting train.  There was no train
 It had left!
There were at least 25 of us and when we were told we could get another train on platform 1 ( we were on platform 5) we all hurried off to trek across. 4 platforms, up stairs...... Until one man came back and said that that train had also left without us!

By now as one can imagine, we were all pretty pissed off.  We were finally told that we could either wait for the next train that would arrive in an hour or take the taxis they were arranging for us.
We took the taxi.
I did however get plenty of pictures of the scenery through the train window.......

Last 2 pictures are in Edinburgh, grassmarket and the castle.









Perth Station


Grassmarket Edinburgh


Edinburgh Castle

11.36 Waterloo to hampton court


I love the transport system in London.  It's has its delays and breakdowns and of course the odd person falling off the platform in front of an oncoming train, but other than that it runs on time. They even have a website for the tube that gives uptodate information on the delays and service on each of the tube lines. It's like my bible now, first thing in the morning I check which lines are down or running properly to plan my journey. On Thursday I headed to Green Park station and onward to Waterloo, to get my train for my days exploration.
 At exactly 11.36 the rain pulled out of Waterloo station on its way to hampton court.
entrance to Hampton Court
The journey took half an hour and once you get to Hampton Court Station, it's walking distance to the palace. You walk out of the station and cross a bridge and there it is! This medieval palace that has been there for 500 years!

There were many like minded people who wanted to explore the palace and three different groups of school children but once I got my audio guide I was lost in my own little world. The crowds faded away like the old tapestries that hung in the great hall, becoming just a part of the furniture.
Windows near the Kitchens

I had a brilliant day out exploring the old palace of Henry VIII, wandering around the grounds and imagining the kings and queens that walked the halls and passageways.







The Great Hall


William III wing








View from the Gardens

Thursday 16 May 2013

So Miss Jolie had a double mastectomy

Its probably the hardest thing for a woman to have to go through, Breast cancer, and opt to have her breasts removed.
I have seen two women in my life get diagnosed and have a mastectomy.

I have seen the scars of what a mastectomy does to a woman.

I think Ms Jolie is very brave to go through all of this to make sure she stays alive for her family, I applaud her for this.  But
I want to know how much it cost her
I wonder if her decision to do the double mastectomy, reconstruct  her breasts and save her nipples and nerves, to still look like a woman  (lets face it we all equate our breasts with womanhood) would have been different if she didn't have access to the best surgeons money can buy.......

The majority of women out there, and the lower income bracket, will not have access to the best surgeons.  We only have our insurance companies (and that's also not all of us) and they wont be patting us on the back and reassuring us that re-constructive surgery will be paid for by them.  If you are like me, well then, the insurance company wont even pay if I do get breast cancer and any treatment will be out of my own pocket. So  if I get breast cancer, I am fucked.  And the threat of that for me is real.

Maybe I am reading too much into her announcement, she was told she carries the cancer gene and she took effective steps to lessen the inevitable.  Brave woman, as her body is part of her image that created her whole celebrity status.  I am glad that one woman had the strength to fight back and fix herself for her family.

but there is this niggling thought at the back of my head too, that money does buy everything.



Wednesday 15 May 2013

editing my posts

As the ipad didnt allow me to caption or move pictures up and around, I am now editing posts, which is making things a bit complicated.

if I add captions, the posts go under today's date which is fucking frustrating!
but then a picture does need captions like where it was and why i took it? Right?
who knows
I just hate limitations.....mine and the fucking ipad

Packing or as I like to say, why the fuck did I buy so much

So I started packing this afternoon, i dont usually pack so early before a journey but as I did go shopping while here for a few bits, I knew I was going to be in trouble with the weight thingy.
It's ridiculous that they put restrictions on long term travel tickets
They should give those with  a longer duration ticket, more weight allowance!

Agatha, yes I named the phone

Sigh
I shopped for a few things, well more than a few things......
 First there is Agatha, that old phone I bought, then there is the nighties and pajamas which are presents, chocolates, and of course I did buy a new coat, and some new clothes.
With every purchase the weight increased, to the point where I have had to box 5 kilos of clothes to either send via post or add it to excess luggage.
When will I learn!





Spring.....new beginnings

view from balcony - april 1st
When I first got to London, everyone was lamenting the fact that spring was late.  Winters chill was still in the air and the trees were bare.  The weather is changing and the trees now have little buds of leaves on them.  That's what is so different from Singapore, we don't see this change of weather.  It's nice to be reminded about change and new beginnings........
Views from the balcony of when I first got here and a week ago.....



view from balcony May 1st

Tuesday 14 May 2013

i am grateful for....


  •  nice people, like the lady at the check in desk that let my excess baggage weight of 5kg (the box) with extra clothes on the plane at no cost!  I stressed and stressed about the fact that I probably had to pay and was prepared for it and  this lovely lady at the counter smiled, weighed all my luggage and the box and just let it through!
  • cold spring weather in London
  • 6 weeks of no humidity and gorgeous looking hair as there was no humidity to frizz it all up
  •  My brother for picking me up from the airport
  •  my sister and her partner for letting me crash their home for 6 weeks
  • razor blades, as I need good ones to shave my legs (haven't had a razor touch my legs for the last month, I wont mention the other bits that need tending and trimming!)
  •  my sense of humour, if not, the sons texts which I received when I switched on my phone after landing, of  no toilet paper and no food in the house would have sent me off the edge.....oh and of course the text about the laundry didn't help but.....
  • the hugs and kisses I got when I left London and the ones I got when I reached home.
  • the lovely Lena that cleaned while I was away  and the fact that the son paid for Lena's services!
  • air-conditioning in my room.....its just too hot in Singapore!
  • not needing to wear shoes as my feet are swollen and the toes look like fat sausages


Wednesday 8 May 2013

Jamaican jerk and French wine

Although I live in a food paradise city, Singapore, we still have a long way to go. In the way of Jamaican food and cheap good wine.
our own cheese board
jerk chicken rice & beans
Today we sat in front of the tv, having Stilton, cheddar, fruit, crisp Chablis and all at supermarket prices.
I don't miss the cheap Chinese and Indian food in Singapore, with my gluten intolerance I have had to forgo it anyway but curried goat and rice and peas and jerk chicken with rice and peas, don't have gluten!




Monday 6 May 2013

This time next week I will be home

The last five weeks have gone by in a blur.
I was overwhelmed when I first got to London, wondering if I was doing the right thing.  Being away and just doing things for myself (well mostly for myself) 
It has been an eye opener of a trip, I  have learned a few things about people and myself. 

I haven't decided what I am going to do when I get home, but somehow that's not a massive burden on my shoulders.  I guess being away has let me look at my life from a distance and to be undecided about my future isn't as bad as I thought it was.

I do however have mixed feelings about going home, on one hand I am looking forward to the familiar, but on the other hand I am dreading the reality of daily mundane life.
.............At least I will be able to sleep on my own bed and not have to piss silently! 



Wednesday 1 May 2013

The art of pissing silently

This six weeks away were supposed to be a time of reflection and time for me to be thinking  forward.
This time away has also given me an opportunity. To develop new life skills

The skill of pissing silently

Living in a small flat in London, with paper thin walls, that denote separate areas called rooms, one must inculcate new and inspired ways to do things with the utmost privacy.
Hence the art of pissing silently.

I share my sisters home, a duplex flat in the middle of north London with her partner and their lodger, a blonde Swedish male.  I am not used to sharing space and I tend to just let things flow, but do you know if you angle yourself  properly on the toilet seat, you can have a major piss, silently, without sounding like Niagara falls!

When I first got here, I was like the country bumpkin, clueless about how one should go about doing private things silently......I now know how to share a space and to have everyone not know I was in the toilet with a very full bladder......

It's really true......you do learn new things daily!