It's a fair cop

Dear readers,

I have just been taken to task - very gently it must be said - by one of my oldest and dearest friends for not having posted anything for some time, so I plan to rectify that right away. Sorry Eddie!

A quick update on matters familial first, I think, for my regulars, who will know that my sister has been staying with us in Singapore for the last few months. She was my tennis partner - until she thoughtlessly developed tendonitis and had to stop playing - style guru, and partner in movie going, and she has just gone back home to Australia. She was with us for 6 months, so it takes a bit of getting used to, but next week's holiday in Bali should help me get over it! I booked this a few months ago, on the basis that I was bound to be absolutely knackered after year end, and I was right. The photo above is where we will be staying, and if you fancy having a look at more pics, the link is attached at the bottom of this post.

I have never been to Bali before, and I'm not really sure what to expect, but I'm certainly looking forward to some serious rest and relaxation. On that subject, work/life balance is something that I have never really mastered, despite the best efforts of my friend Steve to lead me to the light. That said, I think I owe it to my team to be a better role model, so there it is - my 3rd and last resolution for 2008.

Now, what to do with the time not spent at work, that's the question. Culturally, Singapore has a fair amount to offer, but it's complicated and somewhat idiosyncratic. I've shared with you before (in the post that featured a mention of the film "Lust, Caution") the issue of censorship of the arts, but you're going to love this one. We had planned to attend a performance of the Singapore Complaints Choir which was scheduled for last month. For those of you who are new to the idea of Complaints Choirs, it's an idea that got started in Helsinki a few years ago, based on the premise of transforming the energy that people put into complaining into something else.

The performance scheduled for Singapore did not take place, however, since the authorities did not want non Singaporeans in the choir complaining about Singapore. Apparently, the complaints are mostly about daily irritations like "People put on fake accents to sound posh", with the odd political complaint thrown in, but it was not to be. You can't help admiring the national pride that motivates such a decision, while simultaneously wanting to give the decision makers a good slap!

All in all, I love living in Singapore, despite - or perhaps in part because of - its idiosyncrasies. Most people know about the chewing gum rules - not allowed in public, and spitting it out entails a hefty fine. You can't buy chewing gum in Singapore in fact. This has never been something I have missed, but when our HR team went to Bintan in Indonesia for an offsite, no sooner had we docked than almost everyone in the team was stocking up with cartons of the stuff! I'm not sure whether it's because they really love chewing gum or if it's because it was a shopping opportunity that they can't experience at home, and I have written before about how much Singaporeans love shopping.......

I've also said before that Singapore really punches above its weight, economically speaking. Much of this is down to Lee Kwan Yu, who was Singapore's prime minister from 1959 to 1990. He ran Singapore with a firm but masterfully entrepreneurial hand, and turned this tiny city state into the “Lion of Asia.” He is still a huge presence in the region, and writes regularly for the daily free sheet "Today", giving his views on everything from homosexuality to democracy. He is quite some guy.

http://www.balivillaex.com/

All the best till the report from Bali!

The Year of the Rat

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Lunar New Year to all my readers. As we enter the Year of the Rat, I have made several resolutions, one of which is to play more tennis (actually, to play any tennis would be a start) so my sister and I have booked the court for 7 am tomorrow. We are hoping it will be cool enough to play at that hour (and also that nobody will be watching our sorry excuse for a game). Another is to write these posts more regularly, so keep a look out for more notes from Singapore.

This is the first time I have experienced Chinese New Year in Asia, and it is very special. There are special rituals and foods associated with the new year period, which starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year - February 7th this year - and ends on the full moon 15 days later. Today is the first day of a 2 day public holiday and, unheard of in Singapore, the shops are actually shut!

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are typically celebrated as a family affair. Most of my team at work were out at their "reunion dinner" last night, which seems to be a bit like Thanksgiving in the U.S.. Families come together from wherever they are living and there is a special menu. We have sampled a couple of things, and the Yu Sheng was great fun. It's a combination of raw fish, raw vegetables (which symbolise the renewal of life), and pickled vegetables, mixed with condiments and tossed high in the air with extra long chopsticks, while shouting out "Lo Hei!" The higher the toss, the greater the prosperity for the new year.

There are many rituals associated with the new year, like taking a gift of mandarin oranges (two, wrapped) to anyone whom you visit during the new year festivities. You give these to your host when you arrive, and they give you two when you leave. We did get to wondering whether it would be possible to have only two mandarins, that you constantly recycle - give two, receive two, give two, recieve two etc, but maybe not.......

In terms of New Year entertainment, lion dancing is the thing, accompanied by the loudest drumming you can imagine. We saw two lots of lion dancing today - not as good as in Hong Kong, according to the lady standing beside me in the crowd - but it looked pretty fine to me. Judge for yourself from the picture above.

Hunting the haggis

As I am sure all of you know, January 25th is Burns Night, the night that we Scots celebrate the birth of one of our national heroes, the poet Robert (aka Rabbie) Burns. He is the writer of such wonderful poems as "My Love Is Like Red Red Rose" and "Ae Fond Kiss" - a personal favourite - and is credited also with "Auld Lang Syne".


Like most expat Scots, my feelings of Scottishness are massively multiplied as a result of being abroad, and so hosting a Burns Suppper here in Singapore became an imperative. No sweat, I thought, I've done it lots of times in London. Alas, I had reckoned without the import controls on the ingredients that make up my national dish. So all that I could find was haggis in a tin. Haggis in a tin! How can you use Burns' wonderful words to address a tin? Well, needs must when the devil (in this case, tinned haggis) drives, and so we made the best of it. We had 10 guests, most of them new to the wonderful world of Burns, and the party went on till the wee small hours.


Now, despite being Scottish (and proud of it) I have never much liked whiskey (I'm more of a Chateau Margaux girl really), but since moving here, I've developed a taste for the stuff, and we were the fortunate recipients of several bottles of malt on the night. So if you think you don't like whiskey, try one of the Speyside malts like the Macallan Elegancia - 12 years old, and matured in sherry casks. It's like drinking vanilla flavoured brioche smeared with the finest honey. Divine! I have it on the rocks (no alternative in this climate) which really brings out the flavour. Slainte!





It's a while since I've shared my movie thoughts with you, but the critic in me just has to recommend "Dan in real life". It stars that guy from Evan Almighty and the lovely Juliette Binoche, and is a wonderful mix of poignancy and moments of complete hilarity. Go and see it now! And "Stardust" too.


A few posts ago I wrote about the film "Lust, Caution" which we decided not to go and see because the Singapore film board had censored out all the lusty bits. However, the club that we belong to has a little cinema which shows movies every weekend, and we saw the unexpurgated version there last weekend. Wow! and wow again! There was much speculation at the time of the movie's release about whether the sex was the real deal; all I can say is "wow"!

Till the next time.........

Wondrous world

This was written at the end of November, but I have just got round to posting it. Enjoy!

So, I’m sitting in the back of a car on the way to see the Taj Mahal. It’s almost 8 am and we have been on the road since six – and what a road! We are stopped in traffic at the moment, probably because of an accident as a result of the fog. The fog here is grim. When I first arrived in New Delhi a couple of days ago, the night air was thick with the smell of fireworks. At least I thought that it was fireworks, but it smells like that the whole time. There is a permanent haze, which some people put down to winter, and other ascribe to pollution. It’s probably a bit of both, but it must be hell for asthmatics.

I came to Delhi for work, and since Agra is only a 4 hour drive, I thought I’d stay over and visit the Taj. After a couple of days in the sanitized comfort of an international hotel, the journey to Agra is a bit of a shock. This is my first trip to India, and it’s a lot to take in. I’ve mentioned the traffic, but not the tooting. People toot their horns here all the time, so that when you are on the road or in the city, all you can hear is a cacophony of car horns. It seems to be the universal way of signaling your intentions on the road – everything from overtaking and undertaking to speeding up and changing lane. Most lorries and trucks have a painted sign on the back instructing the vehicle behind to “BLOW HORN”, but it didn't seem to me that they needed any encouragement! As well as cars and lorries, there were bullock carts, camel carts and the odd elephant on the road. It was like being in an episode of Wacky Races - a very long episode.

To say that the drive was a shock to the system is an understatement. Not so much the journey itself - which was like sitting in a slow moving traffic jam for hours - but the abject poverty and squalor of the life of the roadside inhabitants, many of whom did not live in anything resembling a house, and who lived their life in the open - with all that that entails. I don't know what I was expecting; I think I had been lulled into a false sense of prosperity because of the economic miracle that everyone talks about, but there was nothing miraculous about the lives of these people.

There were one or two moments of levity - like when we stopped at a roadside restaurant and I asked whether the bread used for the toasted sandwich I had ordered was white or brown. The charming waiter told me that it was indeed brown; it started out white, and when it was toasted it became brown! So I ordered a vegetable samosa instead, and it was quite simply one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. India is a great place for food - especially if you are vegetarian.

When you reach Agra, the Taj Mahal is not visible from the road; you walk for a few hundred yards from where cars have to stop, and you come upon it gradually. There were 2 queues for tickets, one for foreigners and one for Indians. I wondered why, until I realised that there was a differential system of pricing in operation - 20 rupees for locals, and 750 for foreigners! I guess it makes perfect sense that those who can afford to pay more, pay more and to be fair, the foreigners did get a bottle of water and a pair of paper shoe covers thrown in......

What can you say about the Taj that hasn't been said a hundred times before? Perhaps that the dozens of kids milling around trying to sell Taj Mahal keyrings are really annoying? Or that the woman at the gate was really mean to me? OK, I'll just go with what's been said before then: it really is breathtaking. It looks exactly like the pictures, only more so somehow. The intricacy of the marble work is astounding, and it makes you want to be the woman who could inspire such a creation.

The next post will be a wee update from France, where we will be celebrating New Year, so keep watching.

All the best till then.

Secret Santa Singapore Style

This is just a quickie, as it were, a wee observation on cultural differences. (I hope you're still waiting for the India post, with bated breath). As we are fast approaching Christmas, it struck me that we had not yet organised a team lunch for our office. Thrown into a panic, I got onto the web to see what was available for next Friday, the 14th. Well, the answer was, not a lot, but not because all the restaurants were already full of office parties, but because most places did not start serving Christmas lunch until the week after!

So I booked us a big table, and suggested to the team that we might do a "Secret Santa". It doesn't happen over here, so I explained the principles - pick a name out of a hat, buy a fun, inexpensive present for the person you have chosen which will be opened on the day of the lunch, ideally generating much hilarity, and we all guess who bought what for whom.

Well, I reckoned without the practical Singaporean mind! To be fair, the guys bought into the idea without a qualm, but my female colleagues wanted:

• to tell the person who had their name exactly what they wanted
• a "wish list" or
• the money instead - a sort of secret Santa red packet!

I can't wait to see how it will all turn out.......

Red packets and redheads

This week's big news is Tricia's wedding. Tricia is a member of my team at SCB, and today was her wedding. Well, I say today, but actually it's today (Saturday) and Monday of next week - the church wedding today, and the wedding dinner - well, I say dinner, but actually it's more of a banquet apparently - on Monday.

This was our first Chinese wedding, and so of course, we followed the instructions on the invitation to the letter. Guests were asked to be seated by 11.45 for a 12 noon ceremony, but when we arrived at 11.45 on the dot, people were milling about outside and inside the church, and continued to do so for another 40 minutes. The whole thing was really informal, with most of the guests in normal day clothes, talking continuously, and clapping at the best bits. Here in Singapore, the wedding photos are taken before the wedding, and they showed them as a slideshow as the guests were arriving. Great idea. I had thought it was some ancient Chinese tradition (like the couple going to the groom's parent's house on the morning of the wedding to serve tea to them), but not a bit of it. It's all down to practicality apparently. Rather than crowd the wedding day (and exhaust the happy couple) with all sorts of activities, the photos are taken beforehand. It's an ancient Singaporean tradition which has been going on for all of 20 years!

The wedding itself does not seem to be the most important bit - that's the dinner, so watch this space for more news. Wedding presents are not done here; no wedding list at Harvey Nicks or Peter Jones for the practical Singaporean. It's red packets. Red packets (or "ang pows" in Chinese) are given out as part of various Chinese celebrations, like Chinese New Year, and weddings. Wedding guests put money in the red packet (a decorated red envelope) and give it to the couple at the dinner. There is big box - like a cardboard ballot box - ar a reception table manned by friends of the couple, and you pop your red packets in there.



As to the "redheads" of the title, this is a reference to being an "Ang Mo" - the Chinese epithet for Caucasian - in Singapore. Ang Mo literally means "red haired", and is used to describe us, because we are apparently the only race capable of being born with natural red hair. I believe that Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, was a redhead, so that may be part of where the name came from. There is debate as to whether it's a derogatory term or not. I happily use it in all sorts of ways - to describe my feet, for example, when asking if they have shoes in Ang Mo sizes (since Singaporean feet are tiny) or making sure that I get Ang Mo, not "local" coffee. Local coffee is pure caffeine in a cup, infused into a drink with the viscosity of tar. Not for anyone concerned to avoid heart palpitations! It is served with either evaporated or condensed milk, according to preference. My preference is to have nothing to do with it, but it is a beverage much loved by many Singaporeans.

As it happens, I went off on my travels again before finishing this post, so I can fill you in on the dinner - all 8 courses of it. The dinner started no more promptly than the wedding ceremony, but we were more sussed this time, so we got there on time (i.e. 30 minutes after the stated starting time) and managed a glass of wine and a fair bit of chat before sitting down to dinner. The dinner was at one of Singapore's most prestigious hotels, and the dinner menu was equally prestigious. Given how fussy I am about what I eat, and how challenging some Chinese tastes can be, I was very happy. Apart from the shark's fin soup and the sea cucumber, that is. Shark's fin soup is a must on the menu, if you want to delight and impress your guests, but it's OK to not partake, and nowadays quite a few people don't eat it on ecological grounds. Sea cucumber falls into the category of "slippy food" as far as I'm concerned, along with cold custard, chicken and sweetcorn soup, jelly in all its forms etc etc. I could go on, but you probably think I've gone on for long enough already, so I'll stop there.

The garlic roast chicken and the spicy prawns were big hits with everyone, as was the steamed sea bass with minced garlic and the lotus leaf rice. Dessert was "Double boiled snow fungus with gingko nuts and sea coconut", a new one on me. It came in a tureen, and tasted like a sweet consomme with bits in. As soon as dessert was served and eaten, the place emptied - literally. No cup of tea or coffee, no hanging around to chat, just whoosh, out the door. It's how it always happens apparently. There had been a cake cutting ceremony at the beginning of the dinner - a huge, 5 tier cake. When I wondered out loud what was going to happen to all that cake, one of the Chinese guests told me that only a bit of it was real, the part that you cut into, and the rest was fake. The hotel recycles it again and again, and gives the couple a small fruit cake to take home!

When we left the hotel, which is on Orchard Road, Singapore's main shopping street, we were struck by the strangeness of Christmas in the tropics. The Christmas lights, statues of Santa and the snow scenes just don't seem to belong in 30 degree temperatures. I find myself longing to be cold. Anyway, folks, the next post will be all about my trip to India, so keep reading!

Sounds of Singapore

In my last post I mentioned the thunderstorms - one of the signature sounds of Singapore. I thought I'd share some more with you this week. The first thing to say is that Singapore is a pretty noisy place; there seems always to be background noise of one sort or another going on: the hum of air conditioning units, building work (construction here is 24/7), exotic birds and of course, traffic. Last night we were woken by a different sort of noise at 2 am - the sound of "Flower of Scotland" being sung at full volume, from a bar (some way) down the hill from us where the Scottish football team was being encouraged in their efforts against Italy - alas to no avail. Weird experience!



I've been travelling this week - to Bangkok and Hong Kong. It's seven years since I was last in Hong Kong, and I'd forgotten just how beautiful - and exciting - it is. One of the meeting rooms we were using has a large balcony overlooking the bay, and the view was spectacular. Unlike Singapore, Hong Kong has seasons, and it was great to experience the blue skies and slight chill in the air that signals Autumn. Here, the shops have boots and furry clothing on display, but we are scratching our heads trying to work out who wears them - and where!



Last weekend, we hosted a party in the flat, for the HR team. Not sure if I mentioned that the living area here is pretty spacious, but we hired some tables and served up dinner for twenty. It looked just like a restaurant by the time we had finished setting it up - enormous fun. We spent pretty much the whole day cooking, but it was worth it in the end. The chicken in black bean sauce was a big hit, as was the Teriyaki cod, but I could have done with the cheffing skills of my friend Steve to help out. Maybe next time, Steve? Talking of food, I must share my vegetarian anecdote with you. I was in Burger King one weekday lunchtime, thinking fast food thoughts. (There is not a culture of eating at your desk here, pretty much everyone goes out for lunch, but I was pushed for time). I scanned the menu and saw no sign of the veggie burger option, so I asked the serving lassie if they did a vegetarian burger. She said yes, they did. When I asked her why it was not on the menu, she said that they just removed the meat pattie from an ordinary burger and hey presto - vegetarian burger. Or, to look at it another way, processed cheese and tomato on a white roll. I took my custom elsewhere.....

We haven't been to the movies for the last couple of Fridays, but we have been catching up on movies we missed at the dinky little cinema in the Tanglin Club, just down the road. We go to the Sunday 2.30 session, and we saw La vie en rose last week and Die Hard 4.0 today. I must say, Bruce Willis is wearing well - a lot better than poor Edith Piaf. She was just 48 when she died, and looked more like 84. Whoever did the makeup for that film should get an Oscar.

More travel coming up - Dubai next week and New Delhi the week after. I plan to stay an extra day and visit the Taj Mahal, so make sure to stay tuned in. Next Saturday is the wedding of Tricia, one of my colleagues, and Chris, Alison and I have all been invited. We are really looking forward to our first Chinese wedding, which promises to be quite different from a traditional Western wedding, from what we have heard so far. For example, the wedding photos are taken weeks before the wedding - often in a different, exotic, location, and shown at the wedding ceremony. Saves worrying about the weather on the day!

All the best till next time.

Intimate moments

Sunday is massage day for us here in Singapore; we are now "regulars" at a spa down the road, with back massage our current favourite. I ventured into the realms of a body scrub last time, which provided the "intimate moments" referred to in the title of this post. Massage here is not for the prudish or faint hearted!

We're still finding lots of Singapore to uncover. Last weekend we went to Changi Museum. They tore the original prison down in 2005 and replaced it with a new one, so the museum is a small new building, just beside the new prison. I was expecting something like Alcatraz, but there is nothing of the original prison at all. The story is told largely in pictures - but still makes for fairly harrowing reading. Lots of stories of the indomitable power of the human spirit.

Singapore majors on museums. For such a small place, it certainly pushes above its weight in the museum stakes. My personal favourite is the Tan Tock Seng Hospital Heritage Museum - "where Peranakan heritage meets medical breakthrough", but there are many more! A bit of a history lesson here on the Peranakans: Towards the end of the 19th century, Chinese traders settled in Malacca, Penang and Singapore. Lots of the traders married Malay women, and their community came to be known as the Peranakans. They have a rich culture, including Peranakan or "Nonya" cuisine. Nonya is the Peranakan word for woman. One of the most well known Nonya dishes is Laksa, which now features on most Asian menus around the world, but there are more challenging dishes to be had. Being a complete wuss, of course, I have not tried any of them!

We did, however, try out one of Singapore's culinary institutions on Thursday - a public holiday for Divali. The Banana Leaf restaurant is so named because it serves its food on banana leaves, rather than plates, at great long tables. They don't take reservations, you just turn up. The speciality of the house is fish head curry - literally the head (and a bit of the neck, to be fair, if fish can be said to have a neck), in curry sauce. The diners on both sides of us were tucking in, but we took the view that eating off a banana leaf was enough adventure for one meal, and ordered more traditional fare.

This week's movie was "Rendition", like massage in Singapore, not for the faint hearted. My sister had to leave halfway through, and I spent 10 minutes with my eyes closed and my fingers in my ears, but if you are up for some hard hitting commentary on American foreign policy, then this is the movie for you. "Rendition" refers to the practice of transporting people who are suspected of (terrorist related) crimes to another country - in this case Egypt - where they are held without charge and tortured for information. Truly scary stuff.

Almost as scary are some of the thunderstorms we are experiencing now that the rainy season has begun. The thunder sounds like a very large explosion, like a huge building being demolished, and goes on for a long time. When the rain comes, and it comes down like a waterfall, it cools the air for all of a couple of minutes, before we're back to hot and humid. No pix this time, but I'll close with missed photo opportunity of the week - an orange robed monk shopping for carpets in IKEA.

Keep in touch.

Food and movie reviews:

I mentioned before that movies are big in Singapore, and we are having fun joining in. We've seen 3 in the last 10 days. Mr Woodcock - I wouldn't bother if it comes to a cinema near you. Just watch the trailer and you've seen all the best bits. Evening - we missed the first 10 minutes (darned movie, starting on time!) which I think would have helped a lot in undefrstanding the story. Don't go if you're feeling blue. And Hunting and Gathering, a joyful movie, in French, but with subtitles and you barely notice after a while (although of course that could be because I actually speak French...). It stars the wonderful Audrey Tautou and should redeem her reputation after the execrable (this woman's view) Da Vinci Code. Feelgood stuff!

We went to the island of Sentosa last weekend, a 5 minute monorail journey from Singapore, and while sussing out lunch options came across Dried Chilli Frogs in Claypot - today's pictures. The one on the left is the Before, and the one on the right, the After. I just hope the poor guys in the glass case couldn't read the menu!

The big entertainmanet news for this edition is the Black Eyed Peas concert. My sister and I went along to the Indoor Stadium on Monday night, along with what seemed like all of Singapore's female yoof. We were the oldest ones there, I reckon, apart from the mums who had brought along their daughters. Great show. Fergie rocked the house (looking fit, I must say), and the teenagers rocked the staduim - literally - by bouncing up and down on the seats. That concludes this post, folks, but please remember this is meant to be interractive. You can post comments on the blog. Go on, give it a try!

Singapore signing out for now. We're off to the pool!

2 and a half months in

Hello again to those of you who managed to open the first newsletter and welcome to my Singapore blog. I write this having just returned from a punishing 20 minutes in the gym (I'm working my way up!) on Sunday morning. The sky is clear blue (not than common an occurence over the last week, which has featured some spectacular thunderstorms). For those of you who don't know Singapore, the weather here is hot (and humid). There are no seasons as such - it's eiather hot and humid, or hot and wet. The attached image is not, as you will have guessed, of Singapore. It comes from last year's trip to Greenland, and I find that just looking at it cools me down.

Weekends here are quite delicious. We have a live-in housekeeper - the lovely Ding - and so there are never any chores to do. Weekends typically include lots of swimming, a bit of shopping, and always a massage. Massage is big here - not just in spa type places - but also in the home in the form of massage chairs. It's a huge industry, with many shops devoted to nothing else. They come with all sorts of bells and whistles, like in-chair music, but we have not been tempted so far. We have, however, become devotees of Singapore cinema. Where we live is pretty central, and the multiplex down the road has become our "local". Apparently the average Singaporean sees more than 50 films a year, so we are trying to keep up. On a Friday we often toddle off to the 9.45 (pm) show, feeling positively cosmopolitan (or do I mean metropolitan?), and the streets are still buzzing when we emerge at midnight.

I rather fancied seeing Ang Lee's new one - "Lust, Caution", but Singapore has fairly strict censorship, so much of the Lust has been edited out, leaving mainly the Caution bit, so I'll probably buy it on DVD later. I figure I have enough caution in my life already.......

Work is pretty full on at the moment, especially as Standard Chartered has recently acquired Amex Bank and I am part of the integration team. I'm involved in a couple of other projects as well as the day job, but I'm loving it. We had thought of staying in Singapore for Christmas, but the lure of London and France was too strong, so we will be coming back. Book now if you fancy a catch up!

Keep in touch, and bye for now.

Isabel