A "Visitor" in Singapore

Thats more or less the feeling i got when i came back home, its day 4 now, i still feel weird and slightly strange.

Probably becoz

1) My room is actually looking like a storage room now, as my stuff is packed in boxes, coz we have moved from our condominium back to our old house 6 mths ago, after my sister our brillant homegrown architect has finished redesigining the entire house, from the garden to the backyard to each room, my parents just left my room alone, thus other than a bed and a table i have no wardrobe or cupboard, so yes i am still living out of a suitcase even when i come home.:)..but not to worry just repainted my walls last night and my IKEA furniture is coming today, so yipee!

2) Feeling very strange that i am walking around in a tshirt and shorts, so yes devrim, thats something to drink to, even though its unthinkable since i come from a cty which is having -5-10 degrees 4 days back. I am walking around in warmth into any room without feeling shivers of cold now and then.

3) I am not used to the roads, and even the public transportation- SBS buses and MRTs, where we use the modern technology of just tapping our transportation cash card- EZ link card on the entry and exit points of the buses or the trains, and the correct fare will be deducted accordingly from the cashcards. Probably Sweden's SL can look into this to stop pple from cheating on transporation, though its a costly affair.

4) What threw me off was the crowds and throngs of pple, my god. You should walk along the malls on the weekend, its like both frustrating and intrusion to personal space i feel..>P The traffic along Drottninggatan street in Stockholm could barely compare to just the underpass between the 2 malls Takashimaya and Wisma Atria.This is something that i have to spend time to get used to.

5) The information overload syndrome, where i can read everything now since its either in English or Mandarin most of the time.And yeah even eavesdrop on unwanted conversation during commuting from place to place.:P Oh ya, did i forget to tell you that we have the LCD screen tv on most buses, so there is perpetual noise and well entertainment, something that i think its rather cool actually.

Was thrown into a pretty full blown reintegration i think, meeting my family and friends on the same night that i arrived,taking the bus with my friends, walking around lau pau saut all the way down to fullerton till 3am on Xmas eve. The next day was immediately going to the main shopping street of orchard road and chiling at the hiagen diaz cafe with my friends.

Otherwise i think i can get into the hang of it pretty soon .......i hope :P, though i still need time and also escape breaks for the time being. Think its very valuable that i pen these thoughts down,i would have so much reflections upon them a year later, or even 10 years later.

Going to Shanghai for New Year's tmw.... till then, Have a Happy New Year my dear friends.

Leaving Stockholm, Sweden

The very moment i stepped into Arlanda airport in Stockholm, i knew that i miss Stockholm already, though the finality of the thought really hit me when i was back to Singapore, as there was no turning back now.

The whole day of my departure, was kinda of a brain freeze for me, as i had to juggle with my many pieces of luggage in addition to a farewell present given to me by my department, ahem...a vacuum cleaner, which i cant really complains, coz its the all cool new Ergorapido from Electrolux, which is detachable and apparently sold out in stores within hours when launched. but well its not the most cabin friendly or rather the farewell present that i would have in mind. but oh hell, i love this machine! going back, yes i have to clean up this 3 room apartment since my beloved flatmate Vivianne, left the day before and she had no time to help out too. This is where Gokce, our friendly turkish guy comes into the picture and offered his superb cleaning services as that was his day off as well. Cant tell you how much I appreciate your help, would not have done anything right that day without you! Ladies, if you are looking for a husband who can clean, vacuum and pack, look no further.:)

Then it was the gruelling 11 hr flight to Bangkok for a 2 hr transit and another 3 hr back to Singapore. I knew i was back in Asia, when i see so many pple with black hair and yellow skin walking around in the bangkok airport, and you cant help but hear conversations in languages you know, its like information overload....unlike in sweden, i have to guess most of the conversations half the time.And its warm, around 28 degrees, with light winds, felt happy that i dont have to wear my big lumpy winter jacket no more. Revisited my favourite cafe at Gate 51 at the airport, think there was where i sat when i started my journey towards sweden last dec, kind of a
deja vu thing for me...sigh what feelings, how much things have changed since.:)

Landing was very smooth back in Singapore, lugging my vacuum cleaner with me, i made it thru the customs successfully though in bangkok when i tried to explain to the customs officier by the scanning machine that its "something that sucks dusts in the house". Made it to the duty free shops,as every other Singaporean would and bought the duty free alcohol, where you can purchase up to a maxmium limit of a combination of 1 litre of liquer, 1 litre of wine and 3 cans of beer for relatively cheap prices. After my purchase, then it struck me that there arent alot of places to buy alcohol from in Singapore, other than the airport, supermarket where they have special shelves etc, or maybe they do but i am now too used to the Swedish Systembolagets which is government controlled in sweden BUT they have a mind blowing array of alchohol from all over the world.

Then i saw my dad at the arrival gate waiting for me...started my journey back to Singapore.

The Many Lasts

Sent my gdbye email to all my friends in Stockholm yday and today
Had my last "public" appearance to all aiesec trainees and memebers
and alumni on Mon for my farewell fika with Viv
Had the last Elux trainee dinner last night
Said gd bye to my fave roomie at the express station to the airport today
Its my last day at work today
Last lunch in the cafteria
Closed my swedish bank account just now, saw my credit card become 2
Having my last company farewell fika for me in half an hrs tims
Snow blizzard is coming again, hope it doesnt affect my flight....

So far, I think I have been pretty strong towards leaving Stockholm,
and my friends, maybe its the stress
that i cloud myself with, so i can distracted from any possible
sadness, or maybe i am really optimistic that
we will meet again one day....or maybe i am working till the very end,
today is my last day at work and i am flying off tmw,
and i do have REAL work to do today too, so that takes mind off things
too, but i cant imagine not working on my project
tmw, it will be unthinkable..hah...

This will be my last log from Stockholm, bye stockholm, have a white xmas!

there is snow again

cant believe its only 4 more days before leaving stlm, yes i am
whining and in denial, so!:P

been so busy with work, working now during the last weekend even, and
sick the last 2 days, the days are passing by so quickly coz i am that
preoccupied with other stuff and social gatherings,that i have packed
squat! Its finally our official farewell tmw, me and viv holding it at
a cafe. Guess none of us are ready for it yet, we are going to end up
there, wondering why are we leaving and finally realising that this is
OUR farewell...hehe

The incredible brain in state of sickness

Survived a 2 day ordeal of having 39 degrees of fever.....took 2 days off from work.
Was funny observing how my brain worked when i was sick with fever, its like suddenly felt like talking and gave my limbs instructions on things that you would do naturally,,,like ok wear your socks, now go to the kitchen to get yourself a glass of orange juice...hehe

Below is an excerpt of an email which i wrote to my friends at work, when i just showed up for 2 hrs and had to go home straight away...makes any sense to you?

had a fever last nite
took 2 panadols this morning
head is spinning
went to tax office, was sweating like a pig
feel better now, suspect its the medicine though
wondering whether i should take this as my off day and go home
and not join the company department dinner
seriously at this state of mind, i feel that pple are coming up to talk to me, like askin directions and stuff
will continue till lunch and see what happens

going home now

Time is An Illusion

Nice email from Cecilia, so I thought i should share with you:

When we're feeling lousy or sad, we tend to forget that life does not
go on forever. That every moment is an opportunity for love,
knowledge, compassion, creation, and joy, and once gone, can never be
retrieved. We are too fixated with the past and all its "could have"s
and "should have"s, squander our precious present by feeling sorry for
ourselves, and imagine a future that may not come to pass!

We've all been brought up to believe that time is quantity - 60
seconds make up one minute, 60 minutes make up an hour, 24 hours make
up a day. But the meaning of time varies from person to person and
from context to context.
Time is an illusion, a phantom, a delusion if you will. This moment is
gone before I am finished saying "this moment". This 'moment' will
virtually never exist! Time is not a thing, it has no substance...you
can't touch it, you can't feel it, it cannot imprison you.

We should know not the quantity of our life, or our time spent on this
earth - but we should value the quality of our life. Time by itself
has no meaning - we have to give it meaning via our thoughts and
actions.

There is so much happiness out there waiting for you. And there are
plenty of people who can benefit from the joy you will bring them. You
may now feel very lonely, and sad, and it may seem quite possible that
you will never experience joy, love, spontaneity and fun again. Which
is, of course, a most absurd thought. Don't worry, it's just the grief
talking… the withdrawal, the initial disbelief and dejection.

It is never too late. Very often, when we lose something valuable to
us, we think it's too late to salvage things, to express our love, to
show our appreciation. What we fail to realise is that we have ample
opportunities to do this with other people we love, and the ones we
will come to love!

I urge you not to waste another moment of your life - you'll never get it back

Lucia Gask at Uppsala

lucia
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Went to Uppsala, a student town for the very 1st time in my 1 year in Sweden for the Lucia Gask. Everyone is either shocked or looking at me with the "loser...finger on their forehead" when they learn about my "extraordinary" situation of not being there at all, well in short, AIESEC in Uppsala is the strongest LC in Sweden, and they organise alot of activities as well, and they have around 25 trainees there, so there is always something happening, PLUS guess the main motivation is that alcohol is cheap there, as Uppsala is a student town, and they have a interesting concept called Nations, which really is a club with cheap drinks, and dancing. The Nations concept is organised accordingly to the different areas of Sweden, thus they have the Stockholm Nation, Norrland Nation ( north of land) etc, where students coming from these areas would come to this nation and have a huge drinking party.

Anyways went to the Lucia Gask last saturday where they have the traditional 3 course Swedish Smorgasbord, in the buffet style, needless to say i was stuffed
like a puff.And another common swedish tradition is singing drinking songs before finishing your snaps. ( which became too common for me), our table is full of international trainees and our favourite song is called "Heylango". It is fun no doubt but becomes irritating after a while when u HAD to be interrupted every few mins to SING! :P This was also the 1st time that i see swedes so obessed or preoccupied about formalities, doing it right, which is very rare in this society. For example, there should be a guy, girl seating arrangement, the guys are supposed to buy their dates Snap and when you toast, there is this rule of turning to your right, looking at your partner in the eye, back to the centre, looking at your opposite partner in the eye and then turning to the left etc. And vice versa, you then start with the left, centre and right to finish it off. Our swedish friends are actually pretty excited with all these formalities.:)

The climax of the whole ask other than the food, and the floors of the nation being opened up as a drinking/dancing haven, set in the early 1900s architectural building, is the Lucia performance. Imagine lights off, from the dark steps. this choir is singing and walking towards the hall, and being entertained by almost angellike voices singing Lucia songs and Xmas songs. How cool is that?

Hainanese chicken rice

hainan chicken rice
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Made my 2nd time Hainanese Chicken Rice ( one of the most yummy Singaporean delicacy), its slightly more successful than my 1st attempt and I invited James and David to sample my test cooking with me.Oh yah btw I am a true blue Hainanese ( a dialect and also a province/island of China, meaning my ancestors came from there, now apparently its a very happening beach resort:P) so though it may not be the real yummy food, still it qualifies as chicken rice cooked by a Hainanese ha!

Never ending story :)

ST
News: 25% say no need for Chinese to speak language
Click for the news report.

There is always always debate on making Chinese language the mandatory
"mother tongue" language for Chinese Singaporeans, which led
to many Singaporeans immgrating overseas so that their kids dont have
to study Mandarin. The interesting situation is that Singapore being a
immigrant society, made up of pple from different races, has however
chosen English as the main business language and the language to teach
subjects in schools till university due to pure economic reasons. Your
mother tongue language, depending on your race, Mandarin, Tamil or
Malay is only taught as a subject in primary and secondary school.So
you can see how proficient one's mother tongue is if you dont use it
in daily life. Some pple feel that English being the predominant
language in Singapore instead of your very own mother tongues,
alienates you from your ethnic roots, which i agree to a certain
extent, but I somehow cant help but marvel how did the government
manage to convince this multiracial population to adjust to it.

But regarding the benefits of being billingual, brings me back to the
memmories of AIESEC international conferences, where I can communicate
in English and Mandarin without a glitch, and would hit off with the
Taiwanese, China, Malaysia, and Hong Kong delegation( since i know
cantonese) instantly and at the same time have no problem expressing
myself in english or understanding all the " gua lou" ( foreigner)
haha european and american english, till this date, i feel very
thankful to my government for enforcing this billingual policy,
otherwise I would just be frustrated as hell in those conferences.

Sidelines:
Comment by my Malaysian friend on this article which made me laugh
right out! :"in malaysia, sometimes people say singaporeans think
they are whites speaking english but eat ice kachang and char kway
thew" ( singaporean food)....

Horoscope for idag(today):

This is so bloody accurate that its so funny...hahaha
Relating to my imminent deskbound future, of course beyond the "sun,
sand and the beach" of relaxing upon the return of my tship, was on a
random discussions about possible job opp somewhere in Europe, but i
kinda gave it a pass, stating that i can't stand eating European food
any longer and miss Singaporean food. *big grin*

As an swedish expat who has been living in Singapore for the past 7
years, who liked it so much that he bought a piece of land in Johor
Bahru to build a hse( part of malaysia, just 45 mins away from sipo),
coz he couldnt afford buying property in Sipo and now working in Elux,
aptly describes it," Singaporeans live to EAT" :O) hope i dont sound
too much like a hog.

Dear Ying Ying,
Here is your horoscope
for Friday, December 10:

Waiting for just the right opportunity to find a better job, a better
investment or a partner you can trust?
Well, guess what? This is it. Forget what everyone else says. Trust your gut.

OECD - Top-performer Finland Improves Further in PISA Survey as Gap Between Countries Widens

If you are as interested as me, on how did my cty perform in this
test, click below to read the URL, unfortunately Singapore did not
take part in test, would be interested to see how well we do in this test, as I am always under the impression that we do well in global maths and science, as years
of promotion on our newspapers tell me. Well maybe not me, but the
rest of the young pple hehe.OECD Report

Its also interesting to note that the news articles that flow from
every country following the publishing of this report, there is much
disappointment in Japanese youth performances, saying that they have
slipped from the top spot or so, but hello? they are still within the
top few of the each criteria. On the other hand, the Australian
newspapers have been reporting gd news for being among the top rung of
the ladder, though still ranked lower than Japan. Reminds me of the
asian competitive mentality, that 2nd best is still not gd enough.:P
all those stressful childhood memories for my friends, not me, from
their parents.

Jazz at Fasching

Fasching
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Finally went to the THE jazz club in town, Fasching where they have different kind of jazz performances every other night, from blues, soul, latin jazz etc. Was very happy that i finally been there and done that, and the performance last night was fantastic, with the orchestra and vocals,by Gugge Hedrenius Big Blues Band, kinda makes me wish i have been there from Day 1 of my traineeship, though the entrance and all was pretty pricey. It always warms my heart to see old pple enjoying themselves, playing in the jazz band and even dancing to the music.As Nisarg would say, " With the right pple, right music and right beer", this was a very cool night.

About Shahrin

shah
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Good things to say about Shahrin Selamat...hmmmmm ahhhh hmmm....ermmmm
how about?
gd friend
gd human being
gd to whine to
gd aiesec alumnus
so many good things about him, that i can hardly list them down :P

What a wonderful human being!

PS:" if you really want to know, he made me do this"

Transition begins

Somehow, life after traineeship seems imminent and inevitable,as I am already making holiday arrangements to Shanghai for the new year, with Ceci ( ex trainee from HK now in DHL Singapore). Well its actually her
who made all the arrangements, i am just the free rider.:P Oh well these working pple, have to plan their days off etc so they have to know NOW, while i am going to take it easy when i am back in Singapore, adjust to the heat, the humidity that is going to HIT you ( really flat in the face) when you land, the noise, and the high population density. And with everyone asking about your plans when you get back to Singapore at every social gathering and talking about plans after xmas in stlm, you more or less get the vibe that yes, life goes on ( yeah i am some genius), without you here in stockholm...:P

Was supporting Frolunda, though it lost 5-3 to Djugarden ( Stockholm's home team)

icehockey
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Fight! fight! compared to Candian matches, where fist fights are allowed, this is nothing,

fight
Originally uploaded by ying22.

My 1st Icehockey Match: Djugarden Vs Frolunda

Vivianne my canadian coach
Originally uploaded by ying22.

Went to Globen, one of the world's largest spherical indoor stadium, and with a crowd of 9,048 swedes, watched my 1st ever ice hockey match last night, concidentally on my 1 year anniversary in Sweden. And lucky me, I have a Canadian next to me, who is my personal commentor for the game, thanks Viv you are the best! Realised the game is pretty simple, and exciting to watch, as it goes really fast, and there is always a change of players like every min or so.

Wayyyyyyyyyyyy Cool!.....Another tick for my checklist!

1 year anniversary

Today is my 1 year anniversary in Stockholm, 2nd dec :)

Did you ever know that you have to change to Winter tyres during Winter?

Winter tyres now!

Drivers here in Sweden, don't be fooled by the melting snow, December
1st is when Winter tyres must, according to the law, be on all cars.
It's a slushy Winter wonderland here in the capital but large areas of
Sweden are still under 10-30 cm of snow.

Moral Dilemma

Was taking the subway to town last weekend, when I saw this guy inching suspiciously towards the back of another guy's haversack. At first I didnt take much notice of it, but this dude was adjusting the jacket on his hand and moving closer to the guy which i thought was kinda weird, afterall it isnt a crowded train and they were right smack in the middle of the corridor. Then suddenly I think it hit me, that he is actually a pickpocket, and attempting to open the zipper of the other guys' bag. I kinda froze, and i wasnt sure what to do, all i could do was stare at the whole scene. As we came to the next station the lady seating opposite me got up and left, and then the pickpocket dude sat down, eyes riveted to the bag still. and all i could do was stare. In the end, the "victim" left, but the pickpocket guy stayed in the train, and i left too, as it was my stop. Can't stop thinking about it the whole day, was my 1st real experience, seeing a pickpocketer in action, though unsuccessful, i was questioning myself whether i should have done something at all.

Met a few friends later and told them everything, and asked them whether they would do anything differently. One response from Shahrin, from Singapore,is " you should have screamed and alerted everybody", another from Ana from Venezuela and Lena from Ukraine, is that it happens all the time in their ctys,and you should be careful if you attempt to foil the attempt, as the dude may have a knife or dangerous weapon on him or may have other friends around. The suggestion was if its in an open space, you could stare or touch the guy to indicate that you know what he is up to, and maybe he would back off. Figured that I am still very " green" in handling this kind of situations, still have lots to learn.