1. The New Year started on an exciting note.
I am finally turning a lifelong passion into a part-time profession. Starting Mid-January 2013, I'll be writing a weekly column for a Mumbai based daily news site, that talks about everything that makes Mumbai tick - The Metrognome. My column titled 'Outside In' is designed to be a weekly series of expat diaries, reflecting my perspective of life, travel and everywhere in between, from the outside-in. While this is going to be a fantastic new gig for me, it also comes with it's own set of challenges, such as writing with a deadline looming over my head - something that I ve never done before. Do stay tuned for my first post and all the subsequent ones too and wish me luck in successfully fulfilling my New Year's resolution - of having a faithful and ever expanding readership this year! Amen to that!
2. An omnipesent stereotype in Singapore (and I ve been told it's found all over SE Asia too) is the 'White man-Asian woman' (Read: Old fat Asian man-young hot Asian woman most of the times). This city-state is full of them.
Naturally, most Asian countries being expat-magnets, draw white men from all over the world (with or without families) who end up meeting single, independent, workaholic Singaporean career women. Sometimes it starts out as a fling and ends up an affair; at others it starts out as an affair and ends up in divorce and/ or re-marriage. Eitherways, this issue has become a source of major worry to expat wives - those that have moved here with their husbands or those that have stayed back in their home countries, living long-distance marriages. Parallel industries that feed off of this stereotype are booming - such as private detectives, divorce lawyers, marriage counsellors etc. I've even seen/ overheard White women, (Mostly American & Australian. The Europeans are classier about post-marital flings, me thinks) at classic 'Expat Wife Meet-ups' (annoyingly always organised at cafes I frequent to write in), discussing animatedly their strategies of avoiding such personal calamities from ocurring in their lives. It's like a show of 'Expat-Housewives' being filmed right next to my table! (Overhearing their episodes can get you hooked. Leaves me thinking how I would love a DVR option on this one, so I could watch later)
3. Surfing through music channels, bored of our usual Channel V/ MTV chartbusters to dance away one lazy afternoon, the daughter and I found our latest love - K-Pop!
It all started when in an attempt to put her down, for an additional hour or two, I'd taught her a new game. We were to shut our eyes and change TV Channels, until we heard a tune we wanted to dance to. It was a unanimous choice; love at first sound and addiction at first sight. While I've also now learnt to appreciate Korean slow songs, the daughter still prefers Pop I think, as it goes better with her dance moves.
With her affinity for Japanese anime, Korean Pop, Balinese & Khmer instrumental bands, Vietnamese rural theater sounds, Bollywood Top Hits, Tamil & Marathi item songs etc, this little American seems to be on an Asian sub-culture roll these days.
4. Our family of two and a half just expanded. (And before you make any assumptions - No, we're not having another baby. This is not how I'd announce it, even if we were). Our first ever live-in staff joined us this week, and she is the newest member of our family, atleast while we're based here, in Singapore.
Janet, is a 50+ stocky, well-built, smart, energetic, English & Tagalog speaking Filipina, who moved in with us this week. While we're not really into hiring help older than us, we made an exception in her case, considering the other 'plusses' she came with. For starters, she is a great cook - Indian, European, Pan-Asian, American - it seems like she's made the most of her years working with expats from all over the world. She's also a good catch in a market full of docile, will-bow-before-you-O-Master sorts; being a level-headed, independent thinker, yet abiding by professional boundaries all the time. And she has stellar references, all of whom wanted to take her with them, when they moved out of Singapore. Life promises to be spoilt and breezy here-on and if this first week is anything to go by, it might also be a plate full of deliciousness, at each meal!
5. Much planning and taking care of pending tasks got done this week. New itineraries were charted and travel plans for families/ friends to come visit, were drawn up. Before we know it, our time here will come to an end and we would'nt want that to happen, without our families having visited, atleast once. So the next few weeks will hopefully be full of house-guests and if we get lucky, then perhaps some travel itineraries including them, too.
6. Weekend brunch was at a long-lusted-at place called Jones - The Grocer. Our relaxed 4 hour laze-session with Hubster's bosses and colleagues got me thinking how often all of us end up hanging out together, here in Singapore. We've become a clique of sorts - Deloitte expats with families, all who've moved here from various parts of the world.
This is the first time we, (Our li'll trio of Hubster, Baby & I) are living in a place where we have a relatively smaller social network than back in the States. And it's a relatively unfamiliar place, considering our previous home was in a city where we'd lived for a decade. Add to that the fact that we spend more time outside of this home, than inside it, to bother about getting to know it any more than we need to.
So while we've sincerely plotted weekend/ week long escapades to lands near and far from here, there has'nt been much local exploration to write home about. What has changed though, is the incredible amount of time the three of us now spend with each other; be it in or outside of this city. It's not something that I could have claimed, had we continued to live back in the States, where we were always socially busy. Having said that, I do miss my social circuit from NY! You know who you are - Cant wait to come back to all of you soon!
7. Our movie mania (Hubster's & mine) is now back on, thanks to the new family member - Janet. The two of us, were thrilled to go watch a new Bollywood flick - 'Matru ki Bijli ka Mandola' this week, leaving the daughter asleep at home. That is the REAL reason we need full-time help at home, honestly - to get our nocturnal escapades back into our lives, without having to be back in time to relieve the sitter. Of course the fact that the IMAX Theatre is across the street from us, might just mean movie nights got better - I am going in PJ's next time!
8. The Daughter turned 18 months old on Sunday, January 13th 2013. A year and a half has flown and in keeping with my monthly-birthday-celebration-style, I made her a dessert - Rich Chocolate Pudding. Well, let's just say it was meant to be a pudding, had I found cornstarch in one of the five stores that I went looking in. Having been spoilt by the variety of great baking ingredients available in any supermarket in the States, I was not prepared for this downer. One can find Potato Starch & Corn flour in most stores here, but Cornstarch is hard to come by.
Finally substituting ingredients, I came up with my sinful tasting (thankfully) Chocolate pudding which ended up too thick, looking like ice-cream instead.
While the daughter sang 'Happy Birthday' on repeat, for herself (She starts at the sight of a candle/ bonfire/ forest fire/ gas flame - anything lit up); Janet & Hubster devoured the delicious 'ice-cream' and I shamelessly grinned at their compliments, happy to put another month behind me. For those of you wondering how long this 'monthly birthday celebration' is going to go on - I think I ll stop when she turns 2! If for nothing else, perhaps just the fear that she might grow up thinking birthdays are to be celebrated every month, not every year! Not that there's anything wrong with that......
On that note, it's a wrap! Time to go buy some 'pre-school essentials' for the daughter, as school starts next week!
Take care and keep reading!
Shweyta
I am finally turning a lifelong passion into a part-time profession. Starting Mid-January 2013, I'll be writing a weekly column for a Mumbai based daily news site, that talks about everything that makes Mumbai tick - The Metrognome. My column titled 'Outside In' is designed to be a weekly series of expat diaries, reflecting my perspective of life, travel and everywhere in between, from the outside-in. While this is going to be a fantastic new gig for me, it also comes with it's own set of challenges, such as writing with a deadline looming over my head - something that I ve never done before. Do stay tuned for my first post and all the subsequent ones too and wish me luck in successfully fulfilling my New Year's resolution - of having a faithful and ever expanding readership this year! Amen to that!
2. An omnipesent stereotype in Singapore (and I ve been told it's found all over SE Asia too) is the 'White man-Asian woman' (Read: Old fat Asian man-young hot Asian woman most of the times). This city-state is full of them.
Naturally, most Asian countries being expat-magnets, draw white men from all over the world (with or without families) who end up meeting single, independent, workaholic Singaporean career women. Sometimes it starts out as a fling and ends up an affair; at others it starts out as an affair and ends up in divorce and/ or re-marriage. Eitherways, this issue has become a source of major worry to expat wives - those that have moved here with their husbands or those that have stayed back in their home countries, living long-distance marriages. Parallel industries that feed off of this stereotype are booming - such as private detectives, divorce lawyers, marriage counsellors etc. I've even seen/ overheard White women, (Mostly American & Australian. The Europeans are classier about post-marital flings, me thinks) at classic 'Expat Wife Meet-ups' (annoyingly always organised at cafes I frequent to write in), discussing animatedly their strategies of avoiding such personal calamities from ocurring in their lives. It's like a show of 'Expat-Housewives' being filmed right next to my table! (Overhearing their episodes can get you hooked. Leaves me thinking how I would love a DVR option on this one, so I could watch later)
3. Surfing through music channels, bored of our usual Channel V/ MTV chartbusters to dance away one lazy afternoon, the daughter and I found our latest love - K-Pop!
It all started when in an attempt to put her down, for an additional hour or two, I'd taught her a new game. We were to shut our eyes and change TV Channels, until we heard a tune we wanted to dance to. It was a unanimous choice; love at first sound and addiction at first sight. While I've also now learnt to appreciate Korean slow songs, the daughter still prefers Pop I think, as it goes better with her dance moves.
With her affinity for Japanese anime, Korean Pop, Balinese & Khmer instrumental bands, Vietnamese rural theater sounds, Bollywood Top Hits, Tamil & Marathi item songs etc, this little American seems to be on an Asian sub-culture roll these days.
4. Our family of two and a half just expanded. (And before you make any assumptions - No, we're not having another baby. This is not how I'd announce it, even if we were). Our first ever live-in staff joined us this week, and she is the newest member of our family, atleast while we're based here, in Singapore.
Janet, is a 50+ stocky, well-built, smart, energetic, English & Tagalog speaking Filipina, who moved in with us this week. While we're not really into hiring help older than us, we made an exception in her case, considering the other 'plusses' she came with. For starters, she is a great cook - Indian, European, Pan-Asian, American - it seems like she's made the most of her years working with expats from all over the world. She's also a good catch in a market full of docile, will-bow-before-you-O-Master sorts; being a level-headed, independent thinker, yet abiding by professional boundaries all the time. And she has stellar references, all of whom wanted to take her with them, when they moved out of Singapore. Life promises to be spoilt and breezy here-on and if this first week is anything to go by, it might also be a plate full of deliciousness, at each meal!
5. Much planning and taking care of pending tasks got done this week. New itineraries were charted and travel plans for families/ friends to come visit, were drawn up. Before we know it, our time here will come to an end and we would'nt want that to happen, without our families having visited, atleast once. So the next few weeks will hopefully be full of house-guests and if we get lucky, then perhaps some travel itineraries including them, too.
6. Weekend brunch was at a long-lusted-at place called Jones - The Grocer. Our relaxed 4 hour laze-session with Hubster's bosses and colleagues got me thinking how often all of us end up hanging out together, here in Singapore. We've become a clique of sorts - Deloitte expats with families, all who've moved here from various parts of the world.
This is the first time we, (Our li'll trio of Hubster, Baby & I) are living in a place where we have a relatively smaller social network than back in the States. And it's a relatively unfamiliar place, considering our previous home was in a city where we'd lived for a decade. Add to that the fact that we spend more time outside of this home, than inside it, to bother about getting to know it any more than we need to.
So while we've sincerely plotted weekend/ week long escapades to lands near and far from here, there has'nt been much local exploration to write home about. What has changed though, is the incredible amount of time the three of us now spend with each other; be it in or outside of this city. It's not something that I could have claimed, had we continued to live back in the States, where we were always socially busy. Having said that, I do miss my social circuit from NY! You know who you are - Cant wait to come back to all of you soon!
7. Our movie mania (Hubster's & mine) is now back on, thanks to the new family member - Janet. The two of us, were thrilled to go watch a new Bollywood flick - 'Matru ki Bijli ka Mandola' this week, leaving the daughter asleep at home. That is the REAL reason we need full-time help at home, honestly - to get our nocturnal escapades back into our lives, without having to be back in time to relieve the sitter. Of course the fact that the IMAX Theatre is across the street from us, might just mean movie nights got better - I am going in PJ's next time!
8. The Daughter turned 18 months old on Sunday, January 13th 2013. A year and a half has flown and in keeping with my monthly-birthday-celebration-style, I made her a dessert - Rich Chocolate Pudding. Well, let's just say it was meant to be a pudding, had I found cornstarch in one of the five stores that I went looking in. Having been spoilt by the variety of great baking ingredients available in any supermarket in the States, I was not prepared for this downer. One can find Potato Starch & Corn flour in most stores here, but Cornstarch is hard to come by.
Finally substituting ingredients, I came up with my sinful tasting (thankfully) Chocolate pudding which ended up too thick, looking like ice-cream instead.
While the daughter sang 'Happy Birthday' on repeat, for herself (She starts at the sight of a candle/ bonfire/ forest fire/ gas flame - anything lit up); Janet & Hubster devoured the delicious 'ice-cream' and I shamelessly grinned at their compliments, happy to put another month behind me. For those of you wondering how long this 'monthly birthday celebration' is going to go on - I think I ll stop when she turns 2! If for nothing else, perhaps just the fear that she might grow up thinking birthdays are to be celebrated every month, not every year! Not that there's anything wrong with that......
On that note, it's a wrap! Time to go buy some 'pre-school essentials' for the daughter, as school starts next week!
Take care and keep reading!
Shweyta
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