Singapore Suitcases: Week 21 - Of SingPost's efficiency, weekly lunch-dates & my "flower child's" school supermarket tour!

1. I found myself at a SingPost (short for Singapore Post Office), one afternoon, this week, sending off a package to NYC. After waiting for a good 10 minutes, when I walked up to a counter, I was politely alerted towards the "token dispensing" machine, that I had so nicely seen through at first. The systematic functioning of a post office was literally in my face, here. People waited punctually, like in a 'desi' bank and when their token number flashed on the screen, they went up to the respective counter. The staff was courteous, professional and warm even (This guy I was dealing with was patient enough to walk me through all the options I had, to send out mail to NYC, how much each one would cost, what would work better for me. He, finally even spoon-fed me how/ where to write the address of the sender and the 'addressee' If I hadn't been looking, he would've probably held my hand and helped me write the addresses as well!).
No, this was not my first time ever at a Post Office, but this staff person must definitely have thought otherwise, going by how 'extra nice' he was being towards me. I was left wondering where are these 'nice' Singaporeans when my daughter shouts her heart out greeting them in the mall only to get barely any response at times! All in all, my first experience at SingPost was surely a very pleasant one. Guess I can start sending out snail mail to all my friends soon!

2. Khyati - my new friend in Singapore, (aka Varnika's mom), and I went out on the first of many (hopefully) weekly lunch dates. We met at Takashimaya - a shopping mall in the Orchard Area and originally had plans to eat at a restaurant called Pique Nique. But this was a place that seemed to make no adjustments for vegetarian customers (Khyati is vegetarian). So we took our business and our hungry tummies to Beanstro - a cafe version of the otherwise popular CBTL chain (Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf). Here, over an open-faced shrimp and avocado sandwich (which took me back to my lunch days at Le Pain Quotidien on 19th between 5th and Broadway in Manhattan) and pasta, Khyati and I spent a delightful afternoon chatting each other up on various topics - from babies to Bombay, Manhattan to motherhood and work to wine. We've decided to make these lunches into a regular weekly affair for as long as possible (both of us have travel high-up on our agenda, so co-ordinating these might take some effort). 
I've always had this thing about lunch hours spent with friends. It was in NYC, where this concept walked into my life. Spending the lunch hour with someone, has always been my way of staying in touch with friends from all walks of life, especially those one doesn't often hang out with on weekends. Besides, weekday lunch breaks add so much pleasure into a regular weekday afternoon as well.
If you're reading this and have been one of my lunch buds in the city, know that you're being thought of right now :)

3. Janet's (our helper's) mother, who lives in a small village in The Philippines is unwell and has been hospitalized recently. Naturally Janet is worried as are we, when we see her otherwise sunny and bright face look a little forlorn, now and then. So we've decided to send her home to go see her ailing mother. As it turns out luckily for us, we are going to be in Mumbai and Delhi ourselves towards the end of this month. So timing wise it works well for Janet to leave then too. As is the case with the legality of the maid-issue in Singapore, as her employer, we had to take care of some paperwork and pay a 'home leave' allowance to the government to sanction her travel and time-off. Thankfully, all that got done with, in time and now with her tickets all set, good ol' Janet's smile is back on her happy face! She tells me she prays everyday that we get to stay in Singapore longer, so she can keep working with us. Umm..while I won't just as yet say 'Amen' to that I will definitely hope her prayers regarding her mother are heard soon!

4. I got so used to seeing 'calorie counts' of food items in cafe display windows in NYC, that I find it a little odd to not see that anymore now. I must have made Mayor Bloomberg very proud, when in NYC, I would order something to eat, only after glancing at it's total calorie count. In Singapore, naturally there is no such law, so the 'voice in the head' has to assume charge and take over, to refrain me from ordering that yummy looking fancy shmancy croissant-lookalike snack. Perhaps there's an app made that I can use, which by merely flashing my phone at a snack, can tell me it's calorie count right away?

5. Zoe's pre-school culminated their 'Chef's Week' with a rather fun educational tour of the Supermarket. I was delighted when they picked our neighborhood Japanese supermarket (my personal fave) - Isetan, for the tour. Zoe and her school buds along with Teacher's Grace and Sabrina, met me and a few other parents at the supermarket for the tour. Teacher Grace picked up strawberries, bananas, cabbage, onions, pumpkin etc to introduce their textures, English and Mandarin names and smells to each little one. As is usually the case with Zoe (and her mother too, now that I think of it) when around food, she finds it hard to not eat it. Her logic is simple - if it's food, it's got to be eaten right? So I had a hard time trying to say "No" to her each time she cried out "Opunnnn" or "Eat Eat" for the veggies and the fruits. We then thankfully moved on to the frozen food section, where she could make no such request thankfully. Here Teacher Grace picked up frozen fish, crab, tiger prawns etc to introduce the concept of 'big & small' and 'hard & soft' to the kids.
I have a feeling Zoe might grow up wanting to be vegetarian, going by the tremendous love and adulation that she shows for anything that moves or doesn't. (She went all "Awwww Fishyyy sleeping" at the Frozen fish who's sad eye was open) She surely is taking her 'flower child' title very literally, this one!

6. Everyone knows Singapore barely grows anything on it's own, so naturally all the food we eat here is imported from all over the world. I still remember the first time I made Pav Bhaji here in Singapore, I referred to it as Global Pav Bhaji as I had used Chinese Cauliflower, Aussie onions, Japanese potatoes, Dutch tomatoes & Californian carrots. All that to be eaten with 'desi' pav's. Actual melting pot - my pressure cooker was, that night for sure!
Cold Storage is one of the largest supermarket chains in Singapore. Their tag line reads - "Cold Storage - The fresh food people!" Always brings a smile and a smirk to my face, both at the same time somehow!

That's all for Week 21. Week 22 sees the In-laws visiting us - our second house guests here in Singapore. And then on, the doors are open for many other visitors who plan to come all through March & April.
Big Cheers to Travel - whether we are the one's doing it or it's bringing others to us - it never fails to make us happy!
Happy reading,
Shweyta

Singapore Suitcases: Week 20 - Of Writing in isolation, Giving in to the system & Zoe's second-ever play-date!

1. Sari - (Our visiting villager from NYC, who you might remember from Week 19's post) came back to see us on Monday afternoon, this week. Zoe had just got back from school, so she and Sari played together and bid each other their final farewells, since Sari was flying out the next day. The afternoon was fun - as the three of us, Sari, Zoe and I alternated between fooling around with each other and watching the Oscar's on TV. It was my first time ever watching the Oscar's while drinking coffee and eating oatmeal. It just didn't feel right. For the last decade the Oscar's have always been seen with a drink and some appetizers in hand, either at home or at a Oscar-viewing party somewhere. Before that decade, they were watched at home in Mumbai, very early in the mornings. This breakfast-date with the Award's show was certainly off!
Sari and I, left a napping Zoe at home, to grab some lunch downstairs. Our conversation over lunch hovered around the 'tipping' strategies all over the world, which had been a lurking topic in my head all along for my weekly columns on The Metrognome. Sari, with her experiences and titbits on the issue, got me all excited to go write about it right away. Thus, my post for this week's column evolved through a fun lunch discussion and was inspired by my visitor friend. Now if only she could keep coming back or sending more of the others, so I could get a good warm-up session for each week's post.

2. Talking about writing; It's almost what I do full-time these days and yes, it can get really hard. Even though writing comes easily to me, when one starts pursuing one's passion with a deadline, things don't seem as easy suddenly. For starters, I can't afford a Writer's Block anymore. And certainly not on Tuesday afternoons, since my weekly deadline is Tuesday evenings. While a context such as 'Outside In' can be wide enough to write a post about each week, it can get challenging at times trying to stay within it's realm. One cannot afford a lack of inspiration or have one of those days, when words don't just come to you.
The other thing about writing for so many hours in a week is - it largely alienates you from the world, yet ironically it is them you're really writing about. Sort of like a voyeur who sits by himself/ herself and observes.
In my case, I write best when I am sitting in a crowded place. Naturally cafes with free Wi-Fi are my haunts. Yet those work only until a point, after which one starts feeling odd - about having occupied a table and yet not ordered anything more than a tea or a muffin. Not that anyone comes trying to drive you away or anything. But I've realized a cafe can, at best hold me for only up to 4-5 hours in a day.
My own mini-office setup though, in my building's business centre works better. This area operates like one of those rent-a-desk spaces, except it's free and open 9 am to 10 pm everyday. I come and park myself here in the mornings, get some work/ reading done, leave my laptop/ bag etc here to go to lunch/ run errands during the day (maybe even take a dip in the pool outside if my brain goes blank at some point) and then back in the afternoons until late evenings to write before packing up for the day. All the concierges are friends by now which is super (they adjust the air-conditioning as soon as they see me walking over), the work environment is liberal with other neighbors working out of here as well and exchanging notes on their expat-isms and travels. There is a small library attached to this space and a printer-fax setup too, plus if I really want, I can come here in my pj's, so this is going well as you can tell!

3. Hubster left for India mid-week on work. His original plan was to go to Delhi to ensure the team he's managing is doing well there. The night before flying out he tells me he's off to Hyderabad instead. On asking he shamelessly replied - "I feel like eating Hyderabadi Biryani over Dilli ki chaat." I rolled my eyes and left the room, imagining the deliciousness of both.

4. Zoe and I went over to Little Varnika's place on Wednesday morning for a play date (This was probably my 2nd time ever play-dating around with Zoe). Khyati (Varnika's Mum) and I made friends at a local play-area where both our girls were playing. Naturally we hit it off the moment we learnt, that both our daughters were born in New York City. Since then, we've been in touch and hang out whenever possible.
The play-date was as much fun for the kids as it was for us mommies. Khyati being a gracious hostess brought out yummy treats and toys for the kids. Z and I left in a few hours, making sure we'd meet for a lunch date next week, without the little ones. Looking forward to that!

5. I finally succumbed to the system and got myself a Dependent Pass (DP). As is clear by it's name, it is the pass for the spouse/ family of a person who works here on an Employment Pass (EP). Having a two year long tourist visa, didn't really need me to get a DP, especially as I was in and out of the country every few weeks. But, the Malaysian consulate wouldn't let me apply for a multiple entry tourist visa for Malaysia, without being on a Singaporean visa first. So the DP had to be got!
On a tourist visa, an Indian is only allowed to stay in Singapore for 30 days from the date of arrival. Since we've officially crossed over that time limit this month, I would have to bite the bullet and get the DP. Funnily enough I learnt of this, only three days before I'd have to leave the country and re-enter.
Hubster's company, got all the paperwork done in good time. Singapore MOM (Ministry of Manpower) which is super-efficient in all visa processes, issued my visa and sent over a letter, requesting me to come collect the DP in person from their office, this week.
Only in Singapore perhaps, can a government system be this well-automated and quick! My appointment time was 2 :00 pm. I walked into the MOM office at 1:55 pm and took my token from a machine. I thought I would need to go in and wait until it was my turn to walk over to an officer's booth. At 1:56 pm as I walked into the office, token in hand, my name was already flashing across the bulletin board. At 1:58 pm I was finger-printed, photographed and all done, ready to leave the office. Never before have I ever had such a smooth, effortless experience with a government office and I don't really think I ever will, anywhere else in the world either.

6. Thursday night was the rare night when Hubster came home early - at 8:00 pm, from work. To celebrate his early arrival, Zoe and I decided to take him out to dinner, to a Mediterranean restaurant - Medz, close to home. The food-court-like set up of the restaurant was interesting - It had stalls from Morocco, Turkey, Italy, Greece among others, thus offering a great variety of cuisines under the same roof. A quaint wine-bar on the side looked promising for another time, when we would re-visit without the little one. We figured Thursday could be family eat-out night here on - the one night we could take Zoe with us too. We do miss taking her everywhere like we used to in NY!

7. An impromptu girls night plan on Saturday saw us few chicks, eating our hearts out at Piedra Negra in the Arab Street area of Singapore. (Sorry for that link, but restaurants in Singapore don't always have websites, as those in NYC). Conversation flowed from careless Chinese cab-drivers to careers to children. Wow, unknowingly that became quite the alliteration there!
Post-dinner, Hubster joined us to go watch "Me, Myself aur Main" - a ridiculous Hindi movie, that only seemed enjoyable on account of the audience's smart passes made throughout. As I always say, it's important to watch bad movies once in a while too, just to refresh your head for the next good release.

8. Sunday afternoon, we took Zoe to try out a new indoor play gym called Royce Kids. Khyati aka Varnika's mommy has been nice enough to share with me her own compilation of kiddie play areas around town and Royce was one of them. Hubster and I are by now infamous for always forgetting at least one thing, when we take Zoe out with us. In the past it's been her diapers, milk, food, blanket, car seat, change of clothes while going swimming...everything possible that an infant/ baby needs has been forgotten by us at some point. A friend once even jokingly asked if we had ever forgotten Zoe somewhere. That, fortunately for us, has never happened YET!
We had a great time at the indoor gym, although honestly after a point, Hubster and I were seen, conveniently pushing the responsibility of keeping an eye on her, on each other. The good thing about indoor gyms is that they are comprehensive and elaborately laid out in their planning. The bad thing about them is that they are indoors. I have yet to find a great outdoor kid's area here in Singapore, where Zoe can go every day, as she did while growing up in Newport. More than her, I miss that park, that so beautifully took over our lives, in the first year of her life - Newport Green.

That's it for Week 20. We've entered March already. This year has flown us by so quickly, while I've been busy typing away endlessly. And to think, I am still not done yet!

Thanks for reading. It's great to see the readership numbers go up and new countries emerge on my Blog's 'Audience Stats' section, with each week's post.
Love,
Shweyta 

Singapore Suitcases: Week 19 - Of Groupons, Soul-Stylists & Visiting Villagers!

1. It's interesting how a concept like Groupon's can tell you so much about the culture and habits of the place. Having bought a few Groupon's earlier on in NYC (I was really more of a Living Social fan somehow), I signed up here in Singapore too. In hindsight, I shouldn't have been shocked at seeing the site flood my face with everything one can possibly do to change their bodies - from slimming treatments that varied from body detoxes to 'fat-freezing' procedures, face-morphing treatments - from Whitening/ Chemical peeling processes to Botox/ Collagen shots and of course the regular Mani/ Pedi with Acupuncture/ Massages/ Laser Hair Removals....the list is endless!!! I remember seeing 'deals' for these on the NYC Groupon website too, but not as many as one sees here, in Singapore. It sort of makes me wonder - Are Singaporean women blessed with flawless skin and slender bodies naturally or does it take all this to keep them that way? It could be either one of the above or a mix of both, but this Asian city sure is way ahead of the curve, on this whole 'plastic-modification-of-the-self' game and their women are brilliant examples of ageless wonders. What caught my attention further, was how cheap it was to avail of any of these 'treatments' or 'sessions'. Seems like it takes more than tea and a raw diet sometimes!

2. As I mentioned in my previous week's post, the travel itch has turned into an eczema by now. Yikes, I know! So I went ahead and got a few travel plans going, just to make sure our priorities are in the right place on this one.
Whether it is us going someplace or having others come visit us, there's a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks. Plans got made for the second set of Z' grandparents (the in-laws) to visit us in March. They arrive in a few weeks from now. Sis-in-law and her Hubster come in April as does a super fun friend from The UK. The best friend and family are in talks of an Asian adventure soon too, as is another friend from Bombay, in April-May sometime. And Mommy might come visit again at least once more, before we wrap and fold from this place.
The much loved Hindu festival of Holi, comes a few days before Good Friday this year, which is a Public Holiday in Singapore. So a week long trip around then to India is in the works, especially as we get to celebrate Holi with the little one in Mumbai, for the very first time ever. Delhi, Japan, London, NYC (Always a special Yay! on that one) and Malaysia are on the nearer end of the horizon too, while the rest of the globe sits on the far end, always!

3. The big question to be answered sooner rather than later is where should the little one's second birthday be brought in? I've had an idea (and Hubster happily agrees, like he does on everything else, as long as he doesn't need to work on the implementation/ execution of it) and plan to go through with it, until as long as I can. The plan is to bring in the daughter's birthday each year, in a new country.
They say there are about 196 countries in the world. So we have many options here! Besides the world having shrunk off late, makes it super easy to hop countries in no time. Add to that the fact that she is a summer baby. That means that whichever part of the world she goes to school in, there is a big chance she'll be on a summer break(or perhaps a winter break, if we move to the other hemisphere) then. So this should not be a difficult target to achieve, me thinks.
As a friend visiting us from New York this week suggested, in the worst case scenario, if we're living in the US and can't really get out for too long around the daughter's birthday, we can always just hop over to Mexico/ Canada on the day of and come back. If things go well, we'll hopefully never have to do that and can make this 'new-year-in-a new-country' thing happen for our little globe trotter or shall I say globe toddler?

4. I got my shortest crop ever, this week, on a whim. The sultry, muggy weather here just calls for shorter, easier-to-maintain hair. Besides, I found my 'Soul-Stylist', so I just had to go through with this one. I've been lucky enough to have Soul-Stylists in my other two hometowns - NY & Mumbai, so now that I'd found one here in Singapore, I think one can say I've finally settled here. A 'Soul Stylist' in my books is one who inherently knows my hair and more importantly what to do with it. Not everyone is skilled enough to handle thick curls that have a mind of their own and when you find someone who does, he or she is a keeper in my books! Enter David - my Malaysian born, Chinese hairdresser who went to Hair-school in Tokyo and worked in HongKong before moving here, to Singapore a few weeks ago. It was love at first sight - rather first snip! I told him he could do what he wanted and take as much time as he wanted, with my hair. I was his kind of client and he was my kind of stylist. We chatted, drank tea while he cut my curls, one by one. Almost an hour and a half later, the final result was spectacular and as low-maintenance as I always like it to be. Our next project together, probably in a few weeks down the line - is going to be - going back to the red streaks that I had a few months ago. Can't wait!

5. Talking of travel, Saritha (known as Sari to all of us), our super-witty, super fun, mad-on-multiple-levels, member of our super cool NY entourage - 'The Village', is in town, for a family reunion. She was supposed to visit in November but then her plans got moved out to February instead. Luckily, our "stagnation spell" as I've now termed it, yielded us good luck and we got to hang out with her twice, during her short visit here.
She came over Friday evening. Like Santa, she was loaded with gifts for the daughter; some of which were from her and some from the 'other woman' in her life, as far as vying for the daughter's attention goes. In the first year of her life, when she lived in the States, Zoe was the constant object of their affection, the 'rope' in their tug of war, until they made peace with each other and decided that she was totally share-able. Yes, our Village is made up of crazies like these!
Zoe & I took Sari around, giving her a tour of our building and it's pools and gardens. She was after all one of our first friends from the city to visit us here, so had to be shown everything to be able to narrate it bit-by-bit, frame-by-frame to the rest of the troupe there. Too much pressure on this one, sadly!
Sari & Zoe spent the evening bonding with each other over Pictionary, which is Zoe's fave game these days. (I draw while she guesses what it is. Not only has this helped revive my sketching days but also shown me how I am probably not as good a visual communicator as I thought I was).
Once Hubster got back home, we turned the evening into an adults-only night and the three of us stepped out to get dinner. Naturally dinner was to be at an Asian place, since Sari was coming all the way from NYC. So, we picked the Michelin Starred - Din Tai Fung - to take her to. DTF, as it's locally referred to, is a big hit on the Asia-Pacific side of the world. Sadly though, this having been an impromptu plan, they ran out of much of their vegetarian fare, which left Sari - the vegetarian, with few options to pick from. Hubster and I though, were lucky enough to have some of the best shrimp/ pork dumplings in Asia, that evening (DTF had been on the NYTimes' World's top 10 restaurant list as well). There was much catch-up to play that night, with Sari telling us how life was back home and us introducing her to life in this new home.

6. The night even ended on a rather fun note. We took her to the nearest taxi-stand, not being able to pre-order a taxi at our doorstep, due to their peak hour unavailability. As we walked up to the nearest taxi-stand - at the Grand Hyatt next door, we noticed an all-male queue, waiting patiently to get into an underground club's entrance. The club, known as Brix, in the basement of the Grand Hyatt is a high-end club/ lounge extremely popular among expats as a sophisticated pick-up spot. As we waved good-bye to Sari in her cab, Hubster and I walked past the club, to witness a 'pick-up' situation unfold right in front of our eyes. Not that this was the first time either of us was seeing this happen, in our lives, but there's always a strange kick to watching the details of such an event occur right in front of you.
To me this was great grounds to make up a story. The man - a desi guy, must be mid-40's, tall, dark, stood outside blowing smoke-rings upwards while a well-groomed, well-dressed, stylish Asian girl on heels-as-high-as-mountains, looked up at him. In a matter of two minutes, they settled on something, after which he put out his light and walked in the direction of the other hotel in the area - The Marriot. She followed, keeping safe distance, so if you hadn't been staring at them like we were, you wouldn't know that they were together. While I could've easily stalked them longer, Hubster who really isn't party to such stuff, agreed to walk along only until we reached our building, at which point we'd need to take a left. My story could've gotten way more interesting, had the desi guy and his pick-up for the night ended up taking the left as us and walking right into our building. But they just kept going and entered the Marriot Hotel from it's parking lot side, which obviously is the back-entrance of the hotel. That was the last I saw (read: stalked) of them.
Oh well! It was a fun end to the fun evening!

7. Zoe's pre-school was doing a 'Dentists & Nurses' role-play, this week. So while all week long, she came back home with bandages/ gauze tape kinda art works, the Friday was to be the culmination of it all, in the form of a visit to the Dentist's office. Since her medium of instruction in school, is both English and Mandarin, her Teacher - known as Teacher Grace, is always communicating to the kids, in both languages, back to back. It is interesting to watch the kids and her together, for this reason more than anything else.
Parents were invited for the Dentist's office visit. I must confess, I was skeptical at first. What was my 19 month old daughter going to even get out of this tour? I thought I'd go along to find out!
The Dentist's office - or the 'Ya ee' as they called him in Mandarin, was gracious enough to welcome us with goodies and drinks, especially for the kids. The 'Ya-ee' came to personally invite us in, had a brief chat welcoming us into his office and introducing us to his staff and nurses. The kids were shown a mini-video showcasing dental hygiene and lessons on oral safety and teeth-brushing in general. Since the tour only comprised of Zoe and her friend Daphne, this was a great one-on-one opportunity for us. The teacher translated the lesson in Mandarin and made sure both the girls practiced their tooth-brushing technique. The Montessori method of education propagates a varied age group in the same class, so while Daphne (3 years of age) could grasp out of understanding, Zoe absorbed from mimicking. The afternoon was hilarious at times, watching her random antics in the doctor's office. The girls got taken to the Dentist's chair and were each given  a personal oral-checkup and packed off with small goody bags as well. Parents were advised on oral-hygiene habits that must be instilled in children. The visit ended with Zoe giving out free hugs to everyone around - something she loves doing, especially to strangers much to their shock, annoyance, surprise and pleasure, depending on how they perceive it.
A week later is going to be Chef's Week in her school which will conclude with a Supermarket tour. I think more than Zoe, I am looking forward to this one soon!

8. Hubster and I went on our weekly movie date for 'Kai Po Che' over the weekend. Based on Chetan Bhagat's novel - The three mistakes of my life, this was a fabulous film, with mostly new faces, being seen for the first time on the silverscreen. That itself, brought tremendous freshness to the film. All the three lead actors did a sweet job portraying their characters - which were carefully written and cast well. I plan on reading the book after having watched the film, since usually books are better than the movies they inspire. But in this case, the movie was super, so the book probably will be exceptional, to say the very least, is my guess. Besides, Chetan Bhagat has been one of my faves from the recently-erupted desi-writer clan anyways. I look forward to seeing how his other book - Two States, turns out, in a movie. It is in the works and should be out soon I am told!

That was Week 19! Can't believe it's been 4+ months already here in Singapore. Going per our original plans, this is the halfway mark of our stay in Singapore! But who knows what the future holds. We're taking each day as it comes and doing what we do best - procrastinating all important decisions such as move-out dates to as far as possible, while piling up as many travel itineraries as possible, on this side of the world, before we relocate again!
Thanks for reading and see you next week!
Love,
Shweyta

Singapore Suitcases: Week 18 - Of 'V' signs and Hello Kitty's, a serious travel-itch and the pop-up store phenomenon!

1. Ever stared at a group of young 20-something Asian girls, being taken a picture of? While you might just overlook their designer handbags and sophisticated outfits, the 'V' sign they make with their fingers is hard to miss. Ever since we've moved to Singapore, I've taken probably 100 or so courtesy pictures for young Asian tourists, mostly women. OK that number might be a slight exaggeration, but considering we live in the middle of everything aka tourist central, I am not far from reaching that count soon. Once, I almost asked a group, what the 'V' sign meant and why would they flash it for a picture, but before I could, they had vamoosed into a mall, and going gaga over the 'Hello Kitty' booth. Oh well!
That's the other fascination I don't really understand here. Grown women, even executives holding high-profile professional jobs, in Asia seem to be riding high on their fascination with 'Hello Kitty'. (I have been driven around by a very smart female real estate agent, during my apartment viewing days here in Singapore, in a car full of 'Hello Kitty' paraphernalia and accessories. Since then I've spotted several cars, all owned by women, being done up similarly.) A lot of people associate this character with a certain subliminal girlish-ness, hence the craze. Yet, it can get difficult to perceive such a woman with serious professionalism, when there are multiple Kitty's peering at you from various vantage points in her office and car, right?

2. It's been 4 weeks since we traveled out of this city-state. Since our last Asian adventure outside of Singapore. I am restless to the core. I don't think I was prepared for this - to stay here longer than a week at a time. Two weeks tops! A month is really stretching it and making me antsy all over! Perhaps because this city is made to be lived in, only to live out of. When one gets used to a life of living from one itinerary to another, it can get pretty monotonous to be stationed in one place for a while.
If only I let go my self-imposed travel principle - of not travelling anywhere with the baby alone, then perhaps I might have hopped a few more lands by now, just baby and me. (Hubster's schedule is pretty packed at work offlate.) But while I have the option of sharing baby-stress on travel, why take the trouble of going through it alone? This is why I can't wait till she turns a little older, and hopefully becomes my lifelong travel mate. I dream of whisking her away - just her and me, into foreign lands, unchartered territories etc.
Having scratched off all the visa-on-arrival or no-visa countries on our list for now, we stand at the brink of planned-travel here on, at least on the visa paperwork aspect of things. Malaysia is next on the bucket-list and the idea of spending Holi in India, (end of March), after ages does seem to tempt us offlate. Crossing our fingers to make that happen!

3. I've never lived in a city-state before. Hence, I find it a bit odd that every flight that one takes from the airport here, has to be an international one.
Living in India, one always has hundreds of other local cities to fly/ drive or take the train to, domestically. Living in the US too, one has huge scope for domestic travel. In both these countries, it was possible to leave the city you lived in, yet not leave the country.
However, in the case of Singapore, the concept of domestic travel is non-existent! To frequent domestic travelers like myself, the idea of a getaway always being international takes some time to digest. Even a short weekend getaway entails leaving the country. Whoa! That alone makes the trip super serious! It's a good thing that the airport here, is designed to make international travel feel so easy, quick & effortless; even better than domestic travel feels, out of some other airports in the world.
My refreshing air-travel break comes in the form of train or bus travel, both of which I've been doing some serious research on for the past week. While inter-country buses are plenty, I've stumbled upon this excellent site - http://www.seat61.com that lists the various train itineraries across the globe, including a train journey from Singapore into Malaysia/ Thailand. So far, since we've always been minimizing our travel time to maximize our vacation time, train travel has taken a backseat. Unless we decide to make the journey into a vacation itself. I've always loved the idea of crossing international borders by rail or road. Perhaps one of these days, we may just pick a train or a bus to cross over this city-state's border!

4. The baby turned all of 19 months this week. Time somehow, is always on a fast forward mode when it comes to children.
In keeping with the Chinese New Year vibes in the air, I decided to bake her, my very first Upside Down Pineapple Cake. The Chinese consider pineapple as an integral aspect of their New Year dessert, as it signifies prosperity. The cake turned out perfect, probably a bit too perfect, as proved by the Hubster-turned-glutton (He's usually a big brownie lover) who decided to lap the entire cake up, piece by piece all week long, for dessert.
The baby is now on top of her game as far as singing the "Happy Birthday" song and blowing out candles goes. I don't have the heart to tell her that a fire of any kind (bomb blasts, forest fires, house on fire, candles lit on the dinner table, even 'diyas' lit on a 'pooja ki thaali' - all seen on random TV channels) does not always call for the "Happy Birthday" song to be sung out loud.

5. The weekend, especially Saturday night was a lot of fun, what with a 'Surprise' Baby Shower party, planned for a friend, who we've known from our NYC days. Organised spectacularly to the last detail, by our common friend, the evening saw us five women, pop-up unannounced at our prego friend's doorstep. While Ms. Prego was completely flabbergasted at our random appearance, her husband was probably thrilled at the prospect of no-more secret planning to be on top of, hence forth. That's the thing about planning surprises; they take up so much more time and effort to plan than regular events. That's what makes them exceptional and totally worth it, in my books.
Hats off to everyone who has ever pulled a surprise party off. I've done so, a few times and the feeling at the end was superlative. Not only is there an evil pleasure in scaring (read:surprising) your friend and capturing his/ her face in that weak moment, but the joy that one feels, if the surprise turns out to be a complete success, is unmatched. So go on, plan that surprise already!

6. Living locally (sans travel for sometime), forces one to explore the everyday, with a more keen eye. To try to see the magic in the mundane. So I decided to peer through the jazzy materialistic side of this city's malls, into it's creative, soulful side. Yup, I hear your skepticism on that; but everything deserves a second chance, doesn't it?
As is common knowledge, Singapore trumps in the architectural design proficiency of retail spaces. As an Architect/ Urban Designer, I appreciate that they do a good job as far as designing this particular 'typology' of spaces - namely Retail/ Malls. From well-planned pedestrian movements, to intelligently placed signage, to tier-ed shopping experiences based on price/ commodity, to simplified circulation facilitated by positioning competitive brands right next to each other - if there's one thing you've got to give to them, it's how well they design their malls.
Over the past months that I've been here, I've spent a few hours walking past all the big label/ big brand stores to find an invisible layer of quaint, quirky, independently owned designer stores (clothes, accessories, shoes, bags, books, stationery, phone covers, everything one can think of) bringing a big sense of relief among the usual boring big brands. These are mostly found within transient nomadic set-ups called as Pop-Up Stores. Shopping at any of these is a more pleasant experience, on the eye (perhaps not always on the pocket though) than at any of the so-called trend-setting branded designer stores.
The young designers, who are almost always present in the store are happy to answer all my questions and a pleasure to chat with. Often they are willing to swap notes on their experiences while going through design school, sometimes locally and at others all over the world. Their energy is infectious, their work often inspiring and their lack of sales-experience (thankfully) relieving!

7. Hubster and I, saw 'Silver Linings Playbook' on Saturday night in the theatre across the street. While all the main actors did a splendid job, we came out wondering what the hoopla was all about. The story was ordinary and certainly did not look Oscar-nomination worthy. It could've been that we went in with a lot of expectations, knowing this film had been nominated in the Best Picture category but at the end, were left wondering why we didn't go see Lincoln instead. That's next on the Hollywood list of movies to catch.

Week 19 brings a visitor all the way from NYC to Singapore, so there's much to look forward then. Also, more travel plans get finalized next week, so Yay to that!

Until then, take care and be well!
Shweyta

Singapore Suitcases: Week 17 - Of the "No Nanee No Nanoo" rants, the MD House - S'pore's first house party & a Happy Chinese New Year!

1. The house, naturally seems emptier since the parents left. The baby having grown up now, shows more visible, adult-like signs of missing guests, once they're gone. Her innocent rant of "No Naneee, No Nanooo" while pointing to their room, "No Mummy, No Papa" when Hubster and I sneak out on her or "No Tita" every Sunday when Janet (our live-in help) takes off for the day, is just heart-warming. With her recently acquired ability to clearly express her emotions, leaving her behind at home, be it for work or pleasure is just not easy on our hearts, anymore. Our only solace in doing so, lies in the knowledge that some years down the line, she will be giving it right back to us, so heck, why not?

2. The upcoming weekend is 4 day long, on account of the Chinese New Year, aka as CNY. If wishes were horses, we would've been spending these four days in Mainland China or atleast in Hongkong, celebrating the arrival of the Year of the Water Snake, with the locals. Until we realised that sporadic travel planning out of Singapore, does not work at this time of the year, due to the exorbitant flight fares and insane mass exodus from the city-state, especially to China. So the next best option was to spend it here in Singapore (where CNY is a big deal too) and see all or most of the city, over the long weekend. (Does'nt take too long to cover this place anyway, that's how small it is).

3. The stay-cation sparked off with us hosting our very first house party, here in Singapore, finally after having lived here for four months already. Figured, we may as well do it this weekend, while we're in town, going by our random travel schedule otherwise. So our in-house party planner (yours truly) got busy - planning the venue and the menu, drawing up the guest list etc and planning the details. (Our guest-list was small - 25 or so, of which some could'nt make it to the event. Hubster joked with me wondering if a few hours would be all it takes for me to whip up a 5 course meal for a group this size, going by the fact that I've catered for party sizes of 50 or more; in the past - some my own, others hosted by close friends/ acquaintances. I must say, I do miss our social circle from back in The States, where the headcount for any of our events, never went south of 50. Besides, cooking for large groups has always been my thing)

4. We decided to start the party at our building's uber-modern poolside lounge and then take it up to the apartment, post 10 pm, which is when the lounge had to be given up (The only flipside of hosting parties in building lounges is that they need to wrap up at some point). At first the thought was to go the pool-party route. We would have to pick between the poolside lounge on the 8th floor or the sky-pool on the 43rd floor of the building. But finally, we settled for the more practical option (the pool-side lounge came attached with a full kitchen) and went with the former. The latter we've kept up our sleeve, for the next party to be hosted, hopefully sometime soon.
In keeping with the typical MD House party spirit, I cooked/ baked/ assembled a small variety of appetizers, dips, main course and desserts, with a little help from my sous-chef Janet and official taster Zoe. (Hubster had already opted out of helping with this one, so it was nice to have Janet help with all the chopping). Drinks were kept simple - beer and wine only. Seemed like we had some sort of foresight on this one, as it turned out that most of our guests did'nt drink much, (Again something we are not used to at all) and we came back home with a lot of left-over beer and wine. The guest-list included friends from all walks of our lives this far; who happen to be living in Singapore presently or in a freaky stroke of luck, were travelling here that very weekend. Some, we were meeting after ages and some others were friends-of-friends, who we had only virtually met, but never in person yet.
The evening was well-spent. We wrapped up from the lounge at 10 pm as decided and brought the party upstairs to the apartment, where our living area and otherwise-under utilised balcony (Usually kept shut to refrain the little one from any access to the pebbles used for landscaping purposes there) lent themselves beautifully to host everyone, for the rest of the night. Somewhere well past midnight, we called it a night!

5. One often tends to compare one's past experiences with the present and this party offered itself up as a perfect example for that, nonetheless.
It brought to the fore, small differences about in-home entertaining in both - NY/ NJ & Singapore. For starters, it was so effortless to host/ organise/ wrap up this party simply because of Janet. Thanks to her, we could finally have an all-adult event, at our own home, with the baby happily having been put to bed at her regular bed-time. (This is the exact opposite of our house parties in The US where the baby stayed up like a good hostess but a bad baby, for as long as she could, interacting with all our guests. That most of the guests were really there for her, is a different story altogether.)
While post-party rituals in The States involved much cleaning/ wrapping up etc (With some help from the nanny/ housekeeper since the last year or so, who would come in the next morning and help out), in Singapore we had no clue when the lounge and the apartment got cleaned up and put-in-place, while we nursed our always-full glasses over conversations with our guests. To Janet, as she confessed to me later, this was the easiest party she's ever helped with, especially as I took up all the cooking/ baking upon myself.
Our guests, most of whom are parents, asked us while RSVP'ing if this was going to be a child-free evening; again not an oft asked query in The States for sure. The social norm here in Singapore, is to leave one's children behind at home and head out for the evening. In the States, we often had to inform our nanny in advance of our weekend plans, if we wanted her to babysit Z. And more often than not, we'd just get her to stay the night, which would relieve us of having to rush home on a deadline. We were probably the only one's we know, who indulged in that practice. Most of our friends/ families with kids, either just stayed in on weekends or were on a strict time-schedule when they did go out, in order to get back home in time to relieve the sitter. And house parties sans-kids were unheard of there. Most house parties we've attended or hosted in the recent past in the US, had children in attendance.
Thus increasingly by the day, this realisation is dawning upon us, that to be able to walk out of the door at any time of the day or night, without any pre-planning, knowing your baby is still going to be safe and well taken-care of, is a huge blessing. And we are extremely thankful for it! And plan to milk it for as long as we can!

6. Once the party was done, the rest of the long weekend was spent playing catch-up, mainly between Hubster and me. Since we dont get to see much of each other inspite of living under the same roof, we find ourselves out of touch with each other's lives sometimes. So the long weekend saw the both of us doing a lot of brunch and dinner dates, all over the city. He took me out to show me the sights of the city he had seen and I had'nt yet. Randomly we strolled into a reflexology place for foot massages one afternoon while discussing where in the world we wanted to live in next.
We also spent a few hours in Chinatown, soaking in the Chinese New Year celebrations and promising to come back to relish the authentic Singaporean Style Chili Crab at another time when our appetites would be more demanding.

7. Zoe's school celebrated Chinese New Year beautifully. All parents were sent a memo to dress the kids in red for the day. On the day of the celebration, we were invited to come participate and feast on the CNY goodies, in the last half hour of class. The teachers had done a great job doing up the school with red traditional decorations and had even baked a few goodies for the kids, themselves. The children had spent the past few hours working on making beautiful CNY cards that depicted spring in full bloom with traditional red motifs that one associates with the celebrations.
Each child was bid goodbye with a small red envelope (called 'hongbao' in Mandarin) with some token amount in it. Teacher Grace, who is Zoe's main teacher, explained that as part of CNY tradition, red envelopes filled with money are handed over by the elders to the young. They are given held between both hands and must be received in the same manner and are not meant to be opened in front of the giver.
Zoe seemed to get it, well atleast partially, as while she did not insist on opening the envelope right there, she did grab it straight out of Teacher Grace's hands like it belonged to her. While Teacher Grace smiled, I figured it was best to scoot with a "Gong Xi Fa Cai" (Mandarin for Happy New Year) to the Teacher. (Although I must confess trying to say even the above, in Mandarin, makes me feel so touristy and out of place, almost a little bit like an American does, when they speak Hindi. Not something I ever felt while trying to pick up Spanish or French words in the past. There's something about Mandarin that is so alien and unfathomable to me, atleast uptil now. Perhaps the daughter will change that someday if and when, she starts speaking it fluently).

The Week thus, ended on a beautiful celebratory note, with us trying to immerse our expat-selves into the local culture here. Finally this was an occasion that felt fit to be celebrated here, as it was of the local people, than being a meaningless Western import.
Wishing all of you a Very Happy Year of the Water Snake or as I've now learnt to say it - Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Until next week,
Shweyta

Singapore Suitcases: Week 16 - Of 'Japan saris', child labour practices & evil Singaporean ladies!

1. Mommy has always loved 'Japan saris'. Yes, there exists something named as such.
The first time I learnt of the term, was when she first visited me in Astoria, Queens. I took her to Fashion Ave and it was like throwing open a box of cookies to toddlers waiting to go on a sugar rush. Or closer to home, it was like unleashing me in a grocery store!
That trip, Mom ended up buying some for herself and some for other colleagues/ friends who she was convinced would love them.
'Japan saris' are 6-1/2 yards of super light, almost dri-fit kind of printed, flowing material that lend themselves to become 'saris' rather easily, just by virtue of the lightness of their being. They could be polyester, chiffon, silk or satin as well and accordingly, vary in price. As per what Mommy says, they are ideal for the monsoons and the daily public transport commute one endures in Mumbai.
So on her maiden trip to the Mall of all Malls - Mustafa Centre, you can imagine her delight when she spotted an entire section devoted just to 'Japan Saris'. I helped her pick what I'd like to think of as non-traditional prints for saris, making sure she's going to be quite the fashionista at her next gathering in Mumbai.

2. Having Mom visit us almost always entails eating some of her staple yummy fare. She loves to cook and we, ofcourse love to eat. This trip however was different; in that we now have Janet - the live-in maid/ cook/ babysitter - Our Superwoman-Friday as we can easily call her.
So Mom's role in the kitchen, this trip has been reduced to deciding the menu for the day and a random demonstration sometimes, for Janet to grasp Mom's kitchen techniques while cooking certain Indian dishes. Mommy thus got to spend more time with her grand-daughter just as she'd envisaged, making this her most relaxed ever vacation with us, yet.

3. The baby is growing up, at a visibly rapid pace, atleast in these past few months. The latest on her front or shall I say on our front is - employing child labour at home. Yes, we make our 19 month-old run errands for us. Nothing wrong with making use of all the available energy at home, now is there? Besides it's also called instilling good manners, in my books.
So for instance, we've taught her to dump her own laundry in the laundry basket and once in a while we send in some of ours, along with hers too. She's also learnt to clean-up after herself (Yes, to the 'Clean-up' song tune that once in a while I cant resist singing to the Hubster as well) and put her toys in her toy-box or deposit trash in the trash can. Ocassionally, she'll bring us a remote control that's kept near the TV or switch on the light in the room/ call for an elevator by pressing the button if we request her to. I am loving this delegation/ good habit-instilling business and hoping it continues for a long time to come!

4. We figured we may as well get some Singapore sight-seeing in, with the folks since we dont end up having a chance to do it otherwise. So we went to the Gardens by the Bay one afternoon this week. We didnt get a chance to cover the Outdoor gardens but did spend some time admiring the Cool Conservatories and Indoor gardens. The folks naturally loved it, more so because the baby insisted on walking whilst holding their hands and going "Wow..Nice" at the drop of a hat. Other than the gentle reminders that I had to keep making often to Mom, to resist her urge from touching some of the flowers, this was a fun, relaxed, unwinding kinda trip. But not necessarily one that Hubster and I see ourselves indulging in, without a set of tourists with us. With the next set of house-guests, we hope to return here to see the other gardens that we missed out on last time.

5. Dinner one night was at the newly renovated Konkani/ Goan seafood restaurant Gajalee (Yes, a branch of the Indian restaurant chain by the same name.) Hubster was naturally all excited, this being a mecca for his native food but had no clue he was in for a big disappointment!
Granted our bar is set high since we are now used to the best ever home-cooked Sol Kadhi/ Rice/ Fried Pomfret/ Shrimp Curry, courtesy M-I-L & Hubster's grandma. But a restaurant that is known to excel in this cuisine, should atleast measure up to be average? Our Pomfret pieces arrived identically machine-cut and coated so uniformly fine, that we were left looking for the rice flour around them. They tasted, at best mediocre! And they were devoid of the typical 'masala' that one expects with the dish. Ironically, at this seafood restaurant, the best dish on our table was the Chicken. We are certainly not going back, since we've figured our own kitchen, that employs Hubster's Grandma's excellent lessons & recipes passed-on to us, could certainly give Gajalee a run for their money!

6. We took the folks to our fave Hawker's market - Newtown Food Centre. Mainly since I wanted to show them how incredible Singaporean Street Food Culture was. Since we dont end up going there as often as we'd like to, we dont already have a favourite hawker there. You know the kinds, who sees you entering the space and escorts you right where you want to sit? So instead we strolled along the stalls for a bit before we made up our minds, on whom we wanted to give our business to. What really annoys me is when on seeing an Indian do the rounds of a food court, one imagines he/ she will want to eat Indian food too! I mean - Come on People! Yeah I know a lot of my clan are the hot-sauce-in-pasta types, but please give us a break. Just because we look 'desi' does not mean we are out to eat 'desi' all the time. Sadly though, it aint their fault. I've often found myself being the only Indian or South Asian face in Japanese restaurants, even in Singapore. So I guess we ask for that typecasting ourselves, dont we?

7. The Hubster took a quick two day work trip to HongKong and got back with gifts galore, for both his chicas. While I adored my presents, the baby is not particularly fond of hers (He got her a neck-pillow that she's not so crazy about. It's more really a gift for us to rest her head on, when she passes out in her stroller)

8. The baby got her first yelling at the hands of a stranger, this week. Yup, this happens in Asia - where random passers-by dont chat up your baby, but happily yell at her instead!
We were trying to watch a live public performance in the Marina Bay area of the city one night. That is when it happened.
A Singaporean woman, poohed the baby away, as she was trying to put her arm on the woman's shoulder while watching the live band play. Aghast by her reaction, I was'nt sure what to make of it. Perhaps my baby - all of 18 months old but looking older, really disturbed the lady, who thought this child (not baby) is mis-behaving by planting her little hand on a stranger's shoulder. Or perhaps the lady had just had a very bad day. Trying really hard to not judge her clan (Singaporeans in general), I picked up the baby and left the place, when told by the affected lady to make sure she is not disturbed again.
But only after I cast a disgusted "You poor lady" kinda look in her direction. Call me a biased mother, but to me, her behaviour was abominable and deserved reprimanding, not my 18 month olds!

The week ended on a slightly sad note as the parents flew back to Bom-Bom, as per the little one's reference. Good-bye's with loved ones are always solemn affairs, even though they are full of promises to meet up soon. Whether one lives in NYC or in Singapore, Mumbai is still far!
Tele-portation has not yet been invented, so the likes of me will only need to pray and live long enough, in the hopes that one day it is. And that's when my dream of living globally but being accessible locally whenever need be, will see the light of day!

On that rather hopeful note, you have a good one and see you next week!
Love,
Shweyta