My Singapore on the Go

I was born in Singapore. I grew up in Singapore. I won’t say that I will always live in Singapore, but I’m here now, and that’s the important part.

No matter what I say about Singapore, I live in a beautiful city. I might wish for it to be more vibrant, more spontaneous, more artsy and more alive, but it doesn’t change the fact that Singapore is a pretty city as it is. It’s just that sometimes, when it’s hot and humid and we’re running late and the train is crowded, it’s easy to forget.

My New Older Sister

Like many Singaporean kids I grew up in a household with a domestic helper. But there’s one difference: our helper isn’t Filipino or Indonesian or Burmese. She’s Singaporean.

Her name’s actually Tan Lee Hua but we’ve never called her that. My grandparents call her “Ah Mei”, and I’ve always called her ‘New 姐姐’.

My grandma had another helper when my mum was a kid,  known to my mum as “姐姐” (pronounced “jie jie”, meaning “older sister” in Mandarin). My nanny replaced her when she left, and thus became the “New 姐姐”. My mum called her that all through her childhood, and when my brother and I were born we picked up on the nickname too. When I was really little I assumed that was her real name, that she had “New 姐姐” printed on her identity card. Even today I find it difficult to think of her otherwise.

Crazy for Koi (Or, How I Didn’t Get Any Koi)

An excerpt of a piece I wrote for SEA Youth Say So.

Bubble tea first burst on to the scene when I was a kid. Suddenly everyone wanted bubble tea, and you weren’t cool until you guzzled it in downright unhealthy amounts. The craze died down for awhile, but appears to have returned with a vengeance. And Vengeance has a new name… Koi.

Koi Cafe is a chain of stores scattered around Singapore that sells bubble tea. It isn’t the only chain in Singapore – there are others like Gong Cha, Each-A-Cup, etc. – but it seems to be the most popular one by far. People talk about “Koi breaks” and appear to be more than willing to queue up for a taste of that sweet drink with its chewing tapioca pearls.

When I put out the question on Twitter asking my Koi-fan friends how long they had queued for the drink, they gave me answers that ranged from 20 minutes up to 45 minutes. Which, to me, is the timeframe of waiting for a doctor, not for a milky, sugary beverage.

Click here to continue reading.

Filipino Funtimes Part 2 – Karl Marx and other children

“What’s your name?”

“Karlmarx.”

“What?”

“Karlmarx.”

“IS HE FOR REAL?”

Yes, yes he was.

In the Philippines we found no shortage of interesting names and nicknames – besides Karlmarx there was also Lord Jim and Johnwayne, Bong, Bing, Babes, Pong and Benhur.

Filipino Funtimes Part 1 – Flying into a typhoon

“And the rain rain rain came down down down…”

Whenever I’m caught in a really bad storm that song from Winnie the Pooh pops into my head.

“…the tide rose up, up, upper…”

Tuesday morning I woke up to find my Facebook feed full of my Filipino friends saying that school had been suspended, even universities, and that parts of the Philippines had already been flooded by Typhoon Pedring (known to the rest of the world as Typhoon Nesat).