Singapore Suitcases: Week 37 - Of Singaporean hair-salons, Wine-bar eavesdropping & My non-belief in nanny-cams!

1. Singaporean salons offer up a whole new experience. I've often noticed how intricately hair/ beauty salons in different parts of the world (at least wherever I've lived) differ from each other. The difference usually lies in the minute details - such as the magazines they put out for customers to read, the services they offer, the drinks they serve you and even the chit-chat that takes place between clients and their stylists. Salons are one of those few interesting prototypes that offer up a unique platform, to study the micro-culture of a place and it's people.
Hair extensions is a HUGE phenomenon in Singapore. In fact, the mall next-door to us, called Far East Plaza, seems to be the mecca for Singaporean women, who love playing with the length of their hair, every weekend. If done well, some of these 'hair extensions' do add great body to seemingly scanty heads. Yet beware of the wind though! A small breeze is capable of revealing ugly knots at the nape of one's neck which is where the extensions get literally glued/ knotted to. It's probably just me, but imagine carrying around a bunch of knots in your head every single day! Of course considering how big a rage this trend is, here in Singapore, I am probably an exception. But then I am also a hair-type exception here - with my thick curly bob, as compared to the typical straight-thin mane that everyone around here sports, all year long. And in the words of my stylist - "Straight is boring", hence the need for frequent change, perhaps?

2. Singaporean hair salons always serve you hot tea. When I first moved here, I found this a bit odd, but now, 9-1/2 months later (Wow, it's been that long!) can't imagine a hair-salon experience without hot tea somehow. Hubster used to frequent a salon chain in Manhattan that would serve shots of whisky/ rum depending on your mood and I've been served wine/ champagne and machine-coffee/ tea-bag tea before, in other salons. But the infusions served in the local salons here, are freshly brewed, thus offering the perfect sense of calm one looks for, in a salon/ spa experience.
The other odd habit I've adapted from the locals here, is drinking warm water. Every time you ask for a glass of water here - be it in a spa/ salon/ restaurant/ anywhere - 9 out of 10 times you will be served with a glass of lukewarm water. That the Chinese believe in drinking warm water - is a fact known to many. While the West goes all-out with 'ice' to the point that sometimes there is more ice and less water in a glass, the East believes in the exact opposite. Hot water consumption is traditional here and a variety of reasons are cited for it - from it being helpful in digestion to a compulsive need of having to boil water before drinking in China. In fact at some local restaurants here, one may not find any ice at all, thus being left with no option but to glug down glasses of warm water. While Hubster isn't yet a convert, I don't mind the practice  of drinking lukewarm water. It is soothing and makes me want to drink more water, which is a good thing, considering staying hydrated is of the essence in this Asian heat, all year-round.

3. Caught up mid-week, with an ex-lunch bud, only this time we thought we'd meet for drinks instead. I picked Caveau - the neighbourhood wine bar, since it provides for a great place to sit back and chat over plenty of options of wines to choose from. I like wine bars that are quaint, cozy and laid back. Their unassuming nature wins me over.
Conversations at other tables that caught my interest, as I waited for my friend, revolved around 'Sula' wines - probably the most famous wine of Indian origin today. The wine connoisseurs at the neighbouring table seemed disappointed with their wine-tasting session at the Sula Vineyard in Nasik and concluded that India still has a long way to go, when it comes to making good wine. I, on the other hand happen to like the brand. Specifically speaking, I enjoy Sula Dindori Reserve Shiraz - which is rather fragrant and smooth - goes down easily and has lush berry flavours. Clearly not what my neighbours on the next table thought of it, for sure. But if you get a chance, try it out someday for yourself. I try my best to bring back a bottle or two of it, on my visits to India.

4. The Indonesian neighbour upstairs, almost threw a fit, in an elevator-conversation, later this week. She casually inquired if we had resorted to installing a CCTV camera, at home to spy on our nanny/ helper. When I responded saying "Of course not" rather vehemently, she seemed surprised. She couldn't understand my lack of need for doing the same. Her nanny/ helper is Indonesian; one she has brought in from her own country when she was moving here, over a couple of years ago. Clearly, she still doesn't trust the helper enough to want to monitor her 'activities' in the house, when she leaves her daughter at home alone, with the latter. No wonder then, she was aghast when I told her that we'd been leaving our baby at home alone, with a nanny, ever since she was 8 weeks old, in NYC, having never felt the need to resort to 'spying cameras' somehow.

Honestly, I don't understand the need of wanting to spy on one's baby's nanny. It is strange in fact, if one feels the need to do so, in my books. After all it is one's own baby that we are talking about here! The very fact that you pick someone to leave behind at home alone with your baby, means that you must trust the 'picked-person' per se, right? If there is even a small iota of doubt, why would you leave your child alone with them? Like any other relationship then, the one between the employer and the nanny too, warrants it's fair share of 'trust' bestowed upon it. And it works based purely on that, one would think.
Besides, there are a lot of other ways/ signs of telling what must go on, when the baby and nanny are alone at home, by themselves, every day. Babies themselves are big barometers of that and will tell you in their own ways, if they are happy or not, with their sitters/ nannies.
Seeing our baby bond with her nanny and watching them develop a special relationship of their own, is something that has been a tremendous source of joy for me, over the past two years of our daughter's life. To a parent, just the observation of this special relationship is clue enough, to know if the nanny/ sitter is a good one or not. Spying on them, is like telling them, "We trust you, but not completely, so we are going to make sure you have this camera lurking over your head, so that you do your job properly."
Wouldn't it be ridiculous if you were constantly spied upon at your job?

5. With a week left to go before the baby's birthday party, here in Singapore, there's a lot to get done, in all departments. I've finally figured the big-items of the party, sent out the invites, got an approximate head-count of the guests and come close to picking one of two venues, to host it in. So we are more or less in business, as far as the event is concerned. Next week, I pick this planning up a whole-new notch, with trying to make sense of this city's vendors and figuring out how easy/ complicated it is, to throw a good party here!
Stay tuned and Thanks for reading!
Love,
Shweyta

Singapore Suitcases: Week 36 - Of the Haze, Unaccompanied Asian minor commuters & wishful travel-document ideas for Indians!

1. A phenomenon called - the SG Haze, took over our lives this week. We woke up on Monday morning, to a skyline that looked blurry in the foreground and had turned invisible in the background. Nothing new I thought, as having lived on higher floors for a few years now, I was used to the dynamism that skylines bring to dwellers of higher altitudes. They (the skylines) usually have their own mood swings, if you ask me. There are days of spectacular clarity, when they reveal the furthest speck of a car driving up the George Washington Bridge in NYC and then there are those, when you can't even spot the neighbours dog doing his usual rounds, 35 storeys below, as in Singapore.
This Haze - was a new issue, one we hadn't encountered so far!

Haze is described as an atmospheric phenomenon in which dust, smoke and other dry particles obscure the clarity of the sky. Known to most of us as Smog, everything appears blurry - as though one is wearing glasses, the lens of which are really dusty. Singaporean social media enthusiasts decided to make a field-day, or rather week out of the situation (Check out the #sghaze series of tweets here). The government on the other hand was under high pressure to tackle the situation.
Essentially, what was happening was Indonesia was burning it's forests (The illegal burning of forests and other land on Indonesia's Sumatra island, to the west of Singapore, to clear space for palm oil plantations is what caused the blanket of haze over Singapore). June through September is considered a dry season in Singapore and although the haze appears intermittently every year during these months, this week was the highest ever level that it has reached here.
The PSI - Pollutant Standard Index of the city-state soared all week long, until it reached it's all-time high of 401 on Friday. (A normal/ healthy PSI index is within the range of 51 - 100). Out came the masks that Asians are so famously known for and the entire city looked like gangs of aliens walking around, with N95 masks. (Any other mask wouldn't really help in keeping the small smog particles out of the respiratory system). Naturally most neighbourhood pharmacies ran out of supply and by the weekend, people could be seen wearing anything they could find, to filter the polluted air being inhaled.

Our building concierge gave me a piece of her mind, when she saw me walking around without a mask. In fact, she practically yelled at me when she heard I'd sent the little one for her regular garden visit, as usual early that morning. To my credit, it didn't really seem hazardous that morning. Besides one experiences a pleasant drop in temperature and fresh air, within the Singapore Botanical garden, on account of the lush greenery, thanks to the microclimate. So the mask seemed unnecessary. Of course the fact that the daughter would not let it sit still over her nose, was another reason I didn't bother getting her one.
Yet this haze was determined to get bad. Hubster and I joked over the phone (He still in Hyderabad, not knowing what the fuss was all about) said this sounds like early mornings in his native village while I equated this to early mornings in Mumbai, when you'd walk past a BMC sweeper burning the trash collection from last night. Yes, I know that's equally hazardous as well and that prevention is better than cure. But as it turned out, we (Daughter and I) saw this first spell of haze without masks! We did try to limit ourselves from stepping 'outdoors' by a tad bit, although that would pose a big problem for the little one, who is hard to be kept indoors beyond a point. To make matters worse, my Sunday dragon boating session got cancelled and we (the entire team) were all asked to drink lots of water and train indoors if possible.

For once, Singapore's superbly crafted underground series of tunnels/ network helped us out.
The entire city-state hoped that 'winds of change' would quite literally sweep away this haze from Singapore to it's other neighbour Malaysia. Third World problems these - nicely being "passed around the parcel" from one neighbour to another. News came in, that if the haze didn't wane soon enough then 'cloud-seeding' would take place to create artificial rain. This would further enhance the citizen's woes, all of whom were now preparing to steer clear of this 'acid rain' especially as it is considered extremely harmful for the skin. (Trust Singaporeans to care for their skin, above everything else for sure!) In the meantime, news came in of an Indonesian minister making Singaporeans angry by going on record to say that they are being childish in complaining about the haze. All in all, the week seemed to start out clear but then got blurry as we headed into the weekend. There are hopes that next week will be better if the wind directions change. Until then, all we can do is wait and watch the show from our balconies or laptops!

2. Hubster came back later during the week. Again, I seemed more excited at his return than the daughter, who still pointed at the Ipad and insisted on "Seeing Papa" virtually, even though 'Papa' was now physically, standing right next to her. Not her fault, she has seen the Ipad for the very first time in her life, only recently, when we had her 'skype' with 'Papa' last week. It has been kept under wraps until now - the first two years of her life. I plan to use it as my 'trump card' during the next long international flight. I am hoping with the discovery of a whole new world in it, she'll keep herself busy and us lesser busy by not having to run behind her in the airplane aisles. Wishful thinking that, I know!

3. Hubster brought back 3 kgs of Biryani (Yes, you read that right! 2 kgs of chicken biryani and 1 kg of mutton biryani) from Paradise in Hyderabad. This place is considered by many, the Mecca of Hyderabadi Biryani, so naturally he got tonnes of Brownie points, or shall I say 'Biryani' points. As all good foodies would, we decided to share the loot with our fellow-biryani lovers and so an impromptu potluck dinner got planned that weekend. Over kababs, Biryani and ice cream we spent a night chatting away with one another, in a typical 'life's-small-pleasures' kinda situation.

4. Something you tend to notice right away, when you use the public transport system in Asia is how school-going children travel alone in trains and buses here. I remember seeing and experiencing this myself in Mumbai, while growing up there (albeit limitedly since my school was very close to my home). But it is in cities like Singapore and Hong Kong where this demographic of the urban public-transport user, really hits you! It could have to do with the fact that Singapore is considered a highly safe (read surveillance-d) city, but if you ever get a chance to use the MRT here, you'll notice how many 'unaccompanied minors' ride the train everyday. By 'unaccompanied minors' I mean, school-going kids, as young as 6-7 years of age and above! The kids travel alone or in small groups, matter-of-fact-ly boarding and alighting the train, from one point to another, with their SMRT passes dangling from their necks.
Coming from the West, this fact naturally hits you in your face - There a sight like this one, would be hard to come by. Firstly, not many schools insisted on uniforms, so a group of 'school-going kids' per se did not stand out as easily in a crowd, as they do here. Secondly, whenever groups of school-going kids did board the train with you, they were always accompanied by at least a couple of teachers.
In both Singapore and in Hong Kong too, I have been noticing young, fearless school kids using the trains, to go to and/ or return from school every day. I find this initiative - of letting your young children take the public transport by themselves, to be an incredible lesson in independence. Naturally, based on the individual comfort level of each parent, the age at which one is willing to start off their child with the practice of commuting alone, does differ. (I also happen to know some parents who could not get themselves to have their kids use public transport, even until their children reached their early 20's). But whenever the child is ready, setting them out on their own to navigate themselves through their cities, to find their way away from and back home, in my books, is a fabulous way to initiate them into the real-world, something I can't wait to do with my little one myself! I hope she'll be ready sooner than later for it.

5. Now that Hubster is back and there are no foreseeable travel plans in the immediate future, we decided to part ways with our passports finally, by submitting them to the UK VFS for our British visas.
Funnily, visa processing times are anywhere between 10-15 business days, since the passports get sent out to Manila in The Philippines for visa stamping. That would also mean that we'd have to stay put for that long, in Singapore. No wonder then, the passport-card idea came to mind!
What if we all had passport-cards, as the US issues to it's citizens? Our daughter has one - the passport card, it is called. Basically, it is a credit-card sized passport, that enables her to travel locally within the country or re-enter it from Canada, Mexico, The Caribbean islands and Bermuda. Although it is not eligible for air-travel, at least she's not stuck in the country, when her passport-book is sitting in a consulate, awaiting a visa stamp!
What if all Indians had two passports - one to send from one consulate to another, to accumulate visas (considering we need one for most corners of the world that we'd like to go to) and the other to use as a 'travel document' purely, so that you don't need to be stuck in a place, while you're being issued a visa for another? That would surely make our lives easier and travel plans simpler, wouldn't it? After all, why penalize me for wanting to take a random trip to Cambodia this weekend, just because the UK Consulate won't process Tourist visas within Singapore? Why can't we be legally allowed to be globally mobile?

On that note, this week get's done! Next week onwards, the toddler's birthday party-planning takes priority over everything else - my fave part of this time of the year! Stay tuned for updates!
Love,
Shweyta

Singapore Suitcases: Week 35 - Of GymBOREe classes, my new shades of tan & our dear ol' Tita!

1. I signed Zoe up for a few Music and 'Play & Learn' sessions at the local Gymboree. Honestly these Gymboree type of 'babies and toddlers play classes' don't really impress me much. What do I find wrong with them? Well, for starters, a lot of these classes are really boring. Not just to me - an adult, but also to most babies. Besides, Zoe clearly has graduated on to doing other more advanced/ different activities that she particularly enjoys, than what is in store for her "age group" as such in these classes.
Considering the attention span of a toddler, the instructors have everything NOT working for them, when they try to confine a group of 18 to 28 month old toddlers to a room to enjoy a music class!! The so-called 'dancing' that goes along with it, is literally a warm-up as far as I can see. No wonder then, more than half the number of kids are busy trying to scratch open the door and elope or in Zoe's case, give me a look like "Seriously Mama, this? Don't we jig better than this at home?"
I find these Gymboree kind of baby/ toddler classes too restrictive and even regressive at times. There really isn't much to pick from other than the typical - Arts, Music, Play & Learn or Mandarin. Whatever happened to free-style dance-like-no-one's-watching kinda classes? Why doesn't someone just hit the start button and let kids groove, shimmy, shake a leg, fall, get up again and groove their booty to endless happy beats? Why is it always about props and music and pretend play and poems and blah!!!
Inspite of my take on this, the only reason I signed her up is so she has something to do when school breaks for summer, over the next two weeks. It perhaps is OK since it is only for two weeks. Any longer and we'd probably need to draw up yet another travel itinerary for this little one, to keep her busy!

2. Hubster left mid-week for Hyderabad, for a week long annual business bootcamp that he's organizing for his company. The man is wearing a lot of hats (professionally and personally) for someone with just one head and I am frankly amazed at his capacity to juggle all of them simultaneously! I thought I was a good juggler, but he sure, does take the cake! What works for him over me though, is his independence of sleep. While I still need my 7 - 8 hours of shut eye, an average 4 - 5 hours at night, is enough for him.
Working across multiple time zones is not an easy task, and among other comforts, it deprives one of sleep the most, what with late-night calls and early am meetings. Add to that the extensive business (and pleasure) travel and there really isn't much time left for anything else. Yet, he seems to juggle it all and balance it, pretty well. Granted he's always trying to steal a wink or two (I have a 'sleep series' of photographs of him and the baby shutting eye together) when he can, but overall I'd rate him as possibly one of the hardest working people I've ever known! Coming from me, that's got to be a compliment as being an Architect, I've known a lot of those midnight-oil burner types and been one too for most of my adult life so far!
Good job Hubster!

3. It's a good thing my Mother doesn't plan to visit me or the other way around in the near future. For she would be *shocked* at seeing how tanned I've gotten offlate. It all started with the swimming and the 'shades of tan' now gradually ascend with the dragon boating. Singapore sure intends to leave behind it's colour on me, quite literally, making me perhaps the darkest shade of brown that I've ever been, in my life up until now. Definitely something Mommy never appreciated!
I, on the other hand am too busy having fun in the sun to really care!

4. Dragon Boating sessions this week got more intense and interesting as team members are slowly getting to know each other. My team must think I am partially deaf, as I keep saying "Sorry?" each time someone says something to me, on account of not understanding fully what they mean. No it's not the language, as much as it is the accent and the 'brokenness' of it. While I have zero tolerance for broken English, I now have no choice but to spend my Tues/Thurs/Sundays among people who speak exactly that, since all my team mates at SAFRA Dragons are locals. So I am getting hit by local lingo, left right and centre, whether I like it or not (It does ground me though). A lot of my teammates communicate in Mandarin and Singlish among themselves, hence somewhere between their hand gestures, their Singlish and their Mandarin, I understand what's going on. Not only is this experience becoming a 'window' to their everyday lives and stories but also their sense of humour, their issues and how they let their hair down. One of these days, I know I am going to have to adapt some Singlish myself to put across my point effectively, although for the sake of the language nazi in me, I do hope that the day never comes!

5. The daughter seems to have developed a great internal mechanism for 'Out of sight = out of mind'. Initially she took us aback by showing no signs of missing either of us (Yours' truly or Hubster) whenever we are not around her. Be it the two times that I left her with her grand-parents alone in Mumbai and took off to travel or when Hubster takes off on long business trips himself - she goes about happily living her life as though nothing happened and doesn't bother to ask for the 'missing parent' at all!
Frankly, I am delighted at this aspect of her personality, as it takes off any pressure from either of us (her parents) when we are away from her. This week was the first time EVER  that she 'skyped' in her life, and it was with Hubster (in Hyderabad), that too only because Hubster wanted to see her. She didn't really care honestly, nodding indifferently - somewhere between 'Yes' and 'No' when asked if she wanted to see 'Papa'?
I like to believe that this is her way of coping with her feelings of missing her parents, when they are away. It is when small attributes such as these, of her resilient personality gradually surface, that I am reminded of the words a friend in NYC once used to describe her - "This one is a true old soul." Old soul or not, she sure is an extremely accommodating one!

6. Monday was 'Tita's' birthday (Tita is Tagalog for Aunt - The term Zoe and now the two of us as well, use to call her Nanny by). Zoe also turned 23 months old this week. This is going to be the last 'monthly birthday' celebration in our home for her. The celebrations for both birthdays have been moved to next week, since Hubster is out of town all week long.
Tita has the day off on Sundays. This Sunday was going to be a special one for her, since she had plans to celebrate her birthday with her church friends. This Sunday was also a unique situation for us, since Hubster wasn't around and I had a Dragon Boating session early morning. So essentially the question that arose was "Who would watch Zoe this Sunday morning?" Asking Tita to stay back would not be fair and I didn't want to miss my Dragon Boating session, if possible.
That's when Tita came up with a brilliant idea - She offered to take Zoe with her to the Sunday morning mass in church and drop her back home, on my return.
We were thrilled and immediately accepted her offer and thus, this is how, Zoe got to attend her first ever 'church service' this week at a local Presbyterian church, with her Nanny's Chinese, Malay, Singaporean, Tamil and Filipina friends.
When Hubster and I talked of the situation, we were fleetingly reminded of the relationship between the 'ayah' and the young Parsi girl (whom she took care of, like her own daughter/ younger sister), in Deepa Mehta's movie '1947 Earth' (based on the book 'The Ice Candy Man') For us, in a very small way, this was Zoe's opportunity to assimilate in her keeper's life, by being part of her Sunday service followed by attending her small birthday celebration with her other friends.
For the first year of her life. more or less, Zoe was known to people as our daughter and all her friends were formed through us. That situation completely flipped in her second year. Very often on Sundays when we spend the most time with her outside - we see random caregivers in play areas come over to "Hi-five" her. She plays 'Align' with some of them - a simple game that I learnt through her, played by joining the tip of one's index finger to the other persons - sort of a 'private handshake'. At times while we're strolling around, she'll go running up to some stranger giving warm hugs - and only later do we learn, she knows them from one of her play areas/ activities/ garden visits. All these are friends Zoe has made exclusively, without us, thus bringing in new people into our lives now.
Obviously this is how it is going to be here on, as she grows up. But as my Mom puts it - it is small details such as these which set the pace for the rest of our lives, that need to be noted and appreciated when they occur! While, to me, it is one of the many recent changes that have taken place in our lives with her, it is also a subtle reminder of that bitter-sweet feeling every parent experiences when the realization sinks in - that their child really is growing up!
On that rather mushy note, it's a wrap on this week's update. The weekend saw me taking off window-shopping and art-gallery hopping my way across town, as I went solo since Hubster wasn't around. It's been only 4 days since he's gone but already feels like forever. As used to this as I should have gotten by now due to the nature of his work, I don't think I'll ever get used to not having him around! Maybe I need to take a lesson or two in this department from the nonchalant daughter!
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Shweyta

Singapore Suitcases: Week 34 - Of Dragon-boating & all the fun I get to have doing it!

1. This week has got to be dedicated to Dragon Boating! As most of you know, from my previous suitcase entries, I have been waiting to assimilate myself into this sport for a while now, ever since we've moved to Singapore! On account of sporadic travel plans it has been impossible to dedicate time from my schedule to this sport this far, but with our more or less static phase for the next month, I thought it was about time to start training.
It all started, one fine evening at a friend's house party here in Singapore, when I first heard of this sport - Dragon Boating - supposedly a big craze here in Singapore. The person I met, had been part of her local dragon-boating team for a while now and could not stop telling me about how much she enjoyed the activity. Me being my usual 'When-in-Rome-BE-a-Roman' self, immediately jumped at the idea of adopting this sport into my daily life, while I live here. On two counts it highly appealed to me -
- The first one being that it was a "Sport" - which has been a very important aspect of my life for the longest time ever. Ever since I took up long-distance running in 2006, I've had atleast one sport seriously stick in my daily routine. It keeps me honest, lets me be the voracious eater that I am and keeps me fit. What's not to love?
- Secondly, there is no better way than to mingle with locals than to participate in what they love doing. Since I do not have a professional communal 'office set up' in this country to make my 'local' friends in, I decided this would be my chance to meet some sons & daughters of the land! Besides I've always believed in contextual assimilation when in a new place and usually dive right in at the smallest opportunity!

2. A sport that originated in China, Dragon Boating (DB) is hard-core! Being a long-distance runner or a devoted fast-paced spinner in the past, has not only made me a 'lonely' sportswoman but also trained my mind to believe that I can set and control my own pace, as I like. Rule No.1 of Dragon Boating is - Synchronization - since this one is a team sport. Hence Teamwork and co-ordination with fellow paddlers is everything! To be able to keep the first paddler on the right or the left (opposite side of where you are rowing on the boat) within your cone of vision every time, as you paddle to his/ her set rhythm, is key!

3. I went all out in my choice of team to train with and picked the SAFRA location in Toa Payoh (a few stops from our place on the train) which stands for Singapore Armed Forces Recreation Association. Yes, it is what you think it is - Singapore's recreational facility for it's military men (known as NS Men, i.e National Service Men) and their families. Naturally this means, every workout session I have with my DB team leaves me half-dead at the end of it, going by pure endurance and tolerance levels of these Army men and women. Think one continuous set of 30 crunches + 30 push-ups + 30 burpees and then multiply it by five! That was us on the first day that I joined the group! Thankfully my marathon training of the past years hasn't completely waned away, but to endure five sets of the above, sure did take the air out of me.

4. Our DB team is called the SAFRA Dragons and we meet thrice a week to train together as a group!
a) On Tuesdays' we meet at SAFRA Toa Payoh where we do weight training and pool paddling from 7 pm to 9 pm each week. Pool Paddling is a rowing exercise, conducted at one of the gym's swimming pools, which is completely reserved for our team's training exercises. Here, we remove the side grates from the edge of the pool and sit between the pool and the grate, with one leg in the 'water gutter' and the other in the swimming pool. This position is decided based on which is your stronger rowing side, i.e whether you are a left or a right hand rower. The instructor stands in the pool, conducting 3 to 5 minute drills at intervals of 1 minute each time, of continuous rowing practice. If you're thinking this 'rowing' is anything like "Row Row Row your boat, gently down the stream..." then think again! There is tremendous amount of energy and rhythm involved in the rowing process and one needs to learn to use one's body weight, posture and the correct 'A' position at the start of the exercise. If done correctly, one can keep rowing continuously for long stretches of time - say 3 to 5 minutes! Interestingly I've learnt that it takes just 3 to 5 minutes of continuous rowing in a 500m long race! Those 3 - 5 minutes though are the slowest yet highly-spirited minutes ever, as one learns in the process!
b) On Thursdays' we meet at the Toa Payoh Stadium across the street from the Toa Payoh SAFRA where we train on Tuesdays. In the stadium, we begin the training session with a run around the football field. Right up my alley this one, so score!!! The running distances can vary anywhere from 6 to 12 loops of the football field - totally 2.4 km to 5 km tops (Yes, it is taking some getting used to, to go back to running in kilometres, here in Asia). I would rank the runs an 'Easy' on my chart in terms of distance, but 'Challenging' in terms of outdoor weather endurance. Having trained for all my long runs in relatively pleasant climates before, running in 34 deg C or 93 deg F, is not what I am used to (The last time I ran in 92 deg weather, the race was called off and one runner died of a heat stroke in the race! That was the Chicago Marathon of 2009). So yeah, outdoor training runs in Singapore, on hot summer evenings are going to take some more endurance, practice and a gallons of hydration, for sure! 
c) On Sunday mornings we meet at the Singapore Dragon Boating Club at the Kallang Water Sports Centre at 7:30 am. This is the day we take our boats out to the sea for two hours of hard-core paddle practice and then return to the shore, for a quick exercise regimen followed by some much needed stretching. Dragon boating in the river/ sea water is actually not as challenging as paddle-practicing in the swimming pool is. This is because the water in the pool is static, hence rowing takes more effort. Boating in the river/ sea is comparatively easier, yet strenuous on account of exposure to the heat and the elements. Still, Sunday remains the most exciting of the three-days that we meet to train together.
I am having so much fun Dragon-boating that on so many levels I wish I'd joined earlier on, so I could pursue it longer. Anyhow, my learning process has just started and with a lot of guidance and training, I seem to be doing pretty well. I am hoping to do a few races before we leave Singapore as part of the SAFRA Dragons Ladies Team, coming up in August/ September.

5. In a revelation of sorts, the women in our team, are all (Gulp) literally half my age! No wonder then, on our walk to the MRT stop one day after practice, when I posed the question "Do you live alone?" to my new friend in the team, she looked at me like I had grown horns on my head, mid-sentence! It was only a little later that I understood her reaction to my query - She was only 17 years old and naturally lived with her parents! Living alone was still an unexplored option in her life! Besides, she was Asian so culturally speaking - the chances that she would end up living with parents for a very long time, at least until she got married, were high. Some more 'asking around' later revealed that while I was perhaps the oldest girl/ woman & the only Mom in the team, I wasn't necessarily the oldest member - Whew, some relief there!

6. The week ended with a fun drink's evening at our friend's place, who has recently had a beautiful baby girl. For our little one Zoe, this is the first baby she gets to closely interact with, so Tara is the epitome of all things "baby" and "cute" as far as Zoe is concerned. Although these two have just met twice yet, plans are underway for more play dates, mainly on Zoe's demands to go see her fave little friend and sample the yummy snacks that get laid out on these playdates.

Next week Hubster leaves for Hyderabad yet again, this time for a little longer than a week, including the weekend, so it's back to being the Single Mommy-in-charge for me! To top that, Zoe's school break starts next week too, so time to scout around finding fun activities to keep her busy with for the rest of the month!
See you on the other side!
Love,
Shweyta

Singapore Suitcases: Week 33 - Of 'The Art of the Brick', British visa ordeals & Friday Bollywood blockbusters!

1. Not ones' to call it quits on a long weekend just yet, Hubster and I set out an hour after we got home from Malacca, on Sunday evening, to catch 'The Art of the Brick' exhibit, on it's last day here at the Art & Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
This was our first time here and we were a bit surprised at how empty the museum was on a Sunday evening. Granted this was the Sunday of a long weekend, but our minds took us back to NYC, where most museums are usually packed on weekends and substantially trafficked even on weekdays/ evenings usually. Clearly, there is no point comparing the cultural capital of the US to Singapore, but it still did seem awkward that we were perhaps two out of the 30-40 odd people visiting the museum this Sunday.

2. The 'Art of the Brick' show, is essentially a Lego lover's dream come true.
Nathan Sawaya, an ex-lawyer from NYC, is the artist who builds three-dimensional sculptures and large-scale mosaics using minisule Lego bricks. His work is the ultimate apotheosis of the building unit - clearly illustrative of how far one can take a small module and build anything out of it, irrespective of size, scale, dimension or complexity. The show is not only inspiring but also engages the viewer to relate to it more effectively than other conventional art shows, simply because it uses at it's core, the most basic of all building units - a Lego brick, that is easily available and relatable to everyone, from having toyed around with, at least once in their growing years.
The long weekend capped off beautifully with this evening spent admiring Sawaya's works and documenting them pictorially for personal records.

3. The Visa-of-the-Week (to be sought after) was the UK Tourist Visa. Having been to the UK twice in the past, both at different points in our lives (when we were single), Hubster and I thought this would be a cake-walk. Little did we know the ordeal that lay ahead for us. I am not exaggerating when I say that in the number of visas that we've seeked in the past, the paperwork for this one certainly seemed more daunting somehow. Upon completion of the online paperwork, when we got ourselves a bio-metric appointment date at the UK VFS Centre in Singapore, we were promptly sent back home by the VFS, on grounds of not having enough 'Original' documentation. While we could have still taken the risk and gone ahead with our application, the nice lady at the VFS Counter advised that it would be better if we brought in our Original Marriage Certificate as well - even though we wanted our applications to be considered as two individual ones! There go all the hopes I had for getting me back, a nice British bloke from the trip!
Hubster, who's reached a point of questioning (Do we really need to make this detour to a country so ridiculous when it comes to Visa issuances, on our way to NYC this summer?) almost lost it when the VFS lady even suggested bringing our daughter's Birth Certificate (original) just in case!! And she was not even part of the Visa Application being an American citizen herself.
Surely other expats who live in Singapore, have at some point applied for Visas and have made do with whatever available paperwork their local companies could issue? In light of that, we thought it was outrageous that we were being told to bring original bank statements etc. We left the VFS office with a new appointment date in hand.
The humour that resulted out of this ordeal was when on a phone call with our American Bank, on requesting them to mail us 'Original Bank Statements' from NYC to Singapore, the Manager promptly told me "Ma'm, All I'd be doing is printing in colour, your online bank statements and mailing them to you. Wouldn't it be quicker for you to do that yourself then?"
Now if only these Brit's at the UK VFS here, realised life was all about convenience!

4. Friday evening was spent catching the latest Bollywood flick - Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani! Hubster and I both are Bollywood fans and love Hindi movies. The movie had it's foolish moments as is always the case with Dharma Production films, so we left our heads at home and watched the movie with our sappy hearts! Full of fun, music, fashion, glamour, dancing and some gorgeous cinematography and good looking actors, the movie was a perfect Friday evening flick. Add to that the audience and a packed-movie hall, we had "ceetee moments" and loud jokes all the time, which added more delight to the Hindi movie watching experience, just as it would be in a theatre in Mumbai. Sadly, this one being a popular show and since we got there just in time, we lost out on the must-have movie snack - the samosas, which had been sold-out by then as well!

5. Hubster and I spent Saturday night dining at yet another new find - Kazbar, a Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean restaurant/ lounge that had a warm ambience and cave-like romantic hideouts for couples. The drinks and food here measured up to everything we hoped it would, making this another return-to point, perhaps this time with friends. Considering we do not have much time left here in Singapore, I wonder how many of our 'return-to' places we'll be able to manage to go to, again!

The week ahead promises yet another maiden venture - What with me finally starting my Dragon Boating adventures, so there's much to look forward to!
Stay tuned and Thanks for reading!
Love,
Shweyta