This morning, when I went for a swim, I was pleasantly surprised to realise that last week's training experience at the pool got me some new friends. As I left the pool for the day, I had to wave to a bunch of smiling people; the cleaning lady, the lifeguards, the reception lady and my swimming instructor! Sweet, they consider me a regular.
Singapore has a huge population of aging baby boomers. I don't suppose any other nation has a more active elderly community like Singapore. It might be partly due to the high cost of living here, where the older folk do not have the luxury to retire early and laze around and partly due to the promotion of healthy and active lifestyle initiatives by the government. When I first came to Singapore, my heart dropped to see very old people working at canteens slowly cleaning away the food people eat, cleaning toilets in malls and sorting out garbage. Most become the babysitters of their children's children, so the working adults can go about doing their full time jobs. Early in the morning, before the sun is up, a group of old people practice Qigong by the park outside my window. Taking the bus on weekday mornings when the adults are at work and the children are at school, I see so many old people at the market shopping for their groceries. My attitude towards them working has changed somewhat from sympathy to admiration over the years. They are very resilient and active both physically and mentally than an average senior citizen who retires and sits or sleeps at home for most of the day and drowns negatively in their sorrows.
Speaking of elderly folk, every public bus and train carriage here has several designated seats for the elderly, pregnant ladies or others with small children. It's a good idea, actually. All younger and able people like me, avoid those seats like the plague. Selfish as I am, I too like to enjoy a comfortable ride sitting all the way and not keep looking around to see if there is someone who I should be giving up my seat to. One fine day however, the bus stopped next to a huge Buddhist temple and believe it or not, about 30- 40 people got in, all of them had to be over 70 years of age! It might have been right after a religious ceremony of some sort. And it was one of those strange occurrences like when it rains fish! Anyway, all of us who were under 50 years of age gave up our seats, and this time it was willingly. Even those seats were not enough to accommodate that many feeble people.
Every Saturday, the newspaper has a special feature with job vacancies. I have to make sure I go get my copy before the stocks run out at the store. The rest of the paper (90%) is utterly useless to me as I dislike flipping a large newspaper to read mostly disturbing, boring or 'who gives a rat's ass?' news. Making paper costs trees and industrial waste so without having atleast two uses for a newspaper like reading, cleaning windows, wrapping stuff, selling to a paper collector or sending it into a recycling plant - throwing it out fresh feels like a small crime. Leaving it lying somewhere, hoping someone will take it for reading is considered littering here and the last thing I need is a fine. One day however, while I was waiting at the paying counter, a man walks in to find there were no papers left. He asked the cashier loudly if there were any extras. I grabbed the opportunity and told him that he can have my paper if he didn't need the job feature. He happily agreed to the arrangement, and even thanked me and wished me all the best in finding a job soon! I don't meet such random people every week, so now I have discovered that the cashier is willing to take back the part that I don't need. I wonder what they do with it.
Macdonald's is smart. Well, not smart enough to consider my feedback for introducing a vegetarian burger, but, recently they introduced a mocha frappe (complete with whipped cream!!) at a very good price of $3.45. At Starbucks, that same thing would cost between $9 -12. Surprisingly, the quality in terms of taste has not been compromised so it's gaining popularity. I have a terrible weakness for mocca so one day after a grueling interview, I headed to Macdonald's for my treat. After taking the first heavenly sip, I looked around and noticed a wallet someone had left behind. That poor girl must be panicking somewhere, I thought. I handed it over to the staff and continued to enjoy my drink. When I was almost done - and by this time, my tongue was anasthetised by the blended ice - a guy runs in, looks around frantically and asks if I saw his wallet. With much difficulty I stuttered and told him to ask the staff. Soon after, he was reunited with his wallet. Dude, that's such an ugly man-purse.
Shuri: Mocha Frappe is like Cat: Catnip
In the absence of a full time job and too much time on my hands, my creative side has blossomed. I have taken a liking to cooking and making tasty-good looking-healthy-interesting food feels challenging (for lack of other challenges, that is). I made my second chop suey since leaving the apprenticeship of Cheffie the Chef (my sister). This one turned out way better than the last one and it's got all kinds of things in there - carrots, peppers, broccoli, bean sprouts, leeks, onions, garlic and tofu (yeah, run away, all you vegetable haters!!). Also, I tried out my first Chinese spinach with garlic. That was not all too bad either. Unlike Sri Lankan or Indian food, Chinese food is so much easier to make. There is no complex chemistry of balancing out a hundred exotic spices involved and food is not boiled beyond recognition.
It's Chinese on the menu at Bistro de Shu
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