Money is Paramount in Singapore
11th August 2009, Tuesday
After a wholesomely welcome 3 days break, it was back to work with the usual routine and getting my body to shape after nights of snacking on some junk food which had plagued my personal life the past few months.
On Sunday, our budding nation celebrated its 44th birthday with the usual shenanigans which the old man pointed out much to the ire of Mom who felt he was all too negative but in truth he was part of a whole nation of disgruntled old men who felt the government had robbed them of something yet they would just complain vociferously on the sideline, knowing it was a lost cause anyway if they band together and went on a rally or something.
I had no love lost with my country, finding the place simply too restrictive and cramping our style but patriotism had never been in my blood maybe perhaps in sports.
One thing for sure our little red dot had been well fortunate to be sheltered from natural disasters like how Taiwan, China and Philippines had been bracing themselves from Typhoon Morakot.
With my cable TV package filled with Taiwanese cable news network, we had been exposed to the atrocities of how Mother Nature can create as torrential rain pelted indiscriminately from the south to the north of the island nation, resulting in monetary loss and of course loss of human lives.
Speaking of cable TV, while we are only going to be introduced with the high speed fiber optic cable connection in the near future unlike some nations like Japan who had laid it eons ago, we just had to make do with the typical cable provided from Starhub.
To me having cable connection for internet and paid TV subscription is paramount to living in a place like Singapore.
Once I realized the connection level of my apartment had been unstable since 2 weeks ago, I was prompt to engage the technical support from the service provider who responded in a speedy fashion to my satisfaction.
The outsourced technician recommended relaying of a new cable connection after finding my old one which was laid before the major renovation had been done to my nuptial room seemingly was the cause of the reduction of connection power.
A pair of friendly Hokkien-speaking Starhub-sanctioned contractors dropped by on Saturday morning and resolved the issue which luckily needed no major relaying of cable and now connection had resumed to the optimum.
The job needed to be paid and in addition to some unforeseen usage of money such as a couple of nights ago when I paid my respect at TW's late grandmother's wake, I saw my original plan to hold the fort in terms of expenditure been thwarted.
Certainly in Singapore, money is almost everything and one just simply go living off beyond their limit.
Now with the missus burdened with her car loans as well as other financial commitments for her mode of transport, I simply had to be the one footing the bill when we are out whenever possible.
Sometime one will wonder if a bag of money would drop down from the sky out of the blue.
That was simply a madcap adventure in the Dream Academy's National Day production "Sing! Dollar" which had a run at the Esplanade Theater and we had the opportunity to watch it as they extended the run over the National Day weekend.
I was first attracted by the play due to the stellar cast including funnymen Hossan Leong and Kumar, 2 names enough to buy anyone over.
Plus the Dim Sum Dollies (Selena Tan, Emma Yong, Pam Oei), Lim Kay Siu, Najip Ali and DJ Sebastian Tan, you have like who's who in the local theater scene honing their comedic skills.
At the end we had a great them simply floored by the antics they pulled on the stage even though our seats at the 2nd level balcony can be a bit strenous to the neck but as Kumar said we can just not been cheapskate and buy the more expensive seats right at the front.
With the backdrop in Geylang, the story was about greed of our kinsmen plus ribbing at how stereotypical we are with regards to people who traveled great distances here to earn some money (like Kumar's Bangledashi worker character, Emma Yong's Chinese prostitute Lan Lan and Pam Oei's reprisal of a Filippino maid).
The story which was scripted by the truly talented Selena Tan also intertwined many contemporary issue like the Mas Selamat fiasco, Reverand Ming Yi's case and even an uncontrollable rib on the Temasek Holdings.
With Kumar and Najip in the line up, there were always going to be referance to their recently deceased hero, Michael Jackson.
But overall the play was in right tempo, the songs were well receptive, the props were adequate and even spectacular especially the Chinese temple pillar in the last scene and of course the performances of all 8 actors simply wonderful.
Sadly I think Hossan was over-shadowed by the rest because of his part, nevertheless it was a great way to spend the Saturday afternoon with my wife.
It definitely had more entertaiment value than "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" which we caught with some of our La Tendo associates in the evening.
At least the film by Stephan Sommers who gave us "The Mummy" and "Van Helsing" was much watchable than the Transformers shit.
Funny to see how the kid from "Third Rock from the Sun" (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) had transformed into a hideous mad scientist and eventually as the manianical Cobra Commander while the benevolent pharoah from The Mummy (Arnold Vosloo) who become a shapeshifter who like to whistle kids' songs.
A play at the Esplanade with local flavor, a dinner at Carl's Jr, 2 movie tickets, some collectibles from La Tendo, some snacks for the remaining of the weekend and fuel and parking for the car and the budget for the weekend was blown out of proporation.
This is surely living a Singapore Dream.
After a wholesomely welcome 3 days break, it was back to work with the usual routine and getting my body to shape after nights of snacking on some junk food which had plagued my personal life the past few months.
On Sunday, our budding nation celebrated its 44th birthday with the usual shenanigans which the old man pointed out much to the ire of Mom who felt he was all too negative but in truth he was part of a whole nation of disgruntled old men who felt the government had robbed them of something yet they would just complain vociferously on the sideline, knowing it was a lost cause anyway if they band together and went on a rally or something.
I had no love lost with my country, finding the place simply too restrictive and cramping our style but patriotism had never been in my blood maybe perhaps in sports.
One thing for sure our little red dot had been well fortunate to be sheltered from natural disasters like how Taiwan, China and Philippines had been bracing themselves from Typhoon Morakot.
With my cable TV package filled with Taiwanese cable news network, we had been exposed to the atrocities of how Mother Nature can create as torrential rain pelted indiscriminately from the south to the north of the island nation, resulting in monetary loss and of course loss of human lives.
Speaking of cable TV, while we are only going to be introduced with the high speed fiber optic cable connection in the near future unlike some nations like Japan who had laid it eons ago, we just had to make do with the typical cable provided from Starhub.
To me having cable connection for internet and paid TV subscription is paramount to living in a place like Singapore.
Once I realized the connection level of my apartment had been unstable since 2 weeks ago, I was prompt to engage the technical support from the service provider who responded in a speedy fashion to my satisfaction.
The outsourced technician recommended relaying of a new cable connection after finding my old one which was laid before the major renovation had been done to my nuptial room seemingly was the cause of the reduction of connection power.
A pair of friendly Hokkien-speaking Starhub-sanctioned contractors dropped by on Saturday morning and resolved the issue which luckily needed no major relaying of cable and now connection had resumed to the optimum.
The job needed to be paid and in addition to some unforeseen usage of money such as a couple of nights ago when I paid my respect at TW's late grandmother's wake, I saw my original plan to hold the fort in terms of expenditure been thwarted.
Certainly in Singapore, money is almost everything and one just simply go living off beyond their limit.
Now with the missus burdened with her car loans as well as other financial commitments for her mode of transport, I simply had to be the one footing the bill when we are out whenever possible.
Sometime one will wonder if a bag of money would drop down from the sky out of the blue.
That was simply a madcap adventure in the Dream Academy's National Day production "Sing! Dollar" which had a run at the Esplanade Theater and we had the opportunity to watch it as they extended the run over the National Day weekend.
I was first attracted by the play due to the stellar cast including funnymen Hossan Leong and Kumar, 2 names enough to buy anyone over.
Plus the Dim Sum Dollies (Selena Tan, Emma Yong, Pam Oei), Lim Kay Siu, Najip Ali and DJ Sebastian Tan, you have like who's who in the local theater scene honing their comedic skills.
At the end we had a great them simply floored by the antics they pulled on the stage even though our seats at the 2nd level balcony can be a bit strenous to the neck but as Kumar said we can just not been cheapskate and buy the more expensive seats right at the front.
With the backdrop in Geylang, the story was about greed of our kinsmen plus ribbing at how stereotypical we are with regards to people who traveled great distances here to earn some money (like Kumar's Bangledashi worker character, Emma Yong's Chinese prostitute Lan Lan and Pam Oei's reprisal of a Filippino maid).
The story which was scripted by the truly talented Selena Tan also intertwined many contemporary issue like the Mas Selamat fiasco, Reverand Ming Yi's case and even an uncontrollable rib on the Temasek Holdings.
With Kumar and Najip in the line up, there were always going to be referance to their recently deceased hero, Michael Jackson.
But overall the play was in right tempo, the songs were well receptive, the props were adequate and even spectacular especially the Chinese temple pillar in the last scene and of course the performances of all 8 actors simply wonderful.
Sadly I think Hossan was over-shadowed by the rest because of his part, nevertheless it was a great way to spend the Saturday afternoon with my wife.
It definitely had more entertaiment value than "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" which we caught with some of our La Tendo associates in the evening.
At least the film by Stephan Sommers who gave us "The Mummy" and "Van Helsing" was much watchable than the Transformers shit.
Funny to see how the kid from "Third Rock from the Sun" (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) had transformed into a hideous mad scientist and eventually as the manianical Cobra Commander while the benevolent pharoah from The Mummy (Arnold Vosloo) who become a shapeshifter who like to whistle kids' songs.
A play at the Esplanade with local flavor, a dinner at Carl's Jr, 2 movie tickets, some collectibles from La Tendo, some snacks for the remaining of the weekend and fuel and parking for the car and the budget for the weekend was blown out of proporation.
This is surely living a Singapore Dream.
Japanese word of the day: 帖当(Pledge) Did you say your pledge on 8.22pm on National Day?
posted by Kei at
3:59 PM
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