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| From DIVA: See the world from the eyes of Turike... |
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| From DIVA: See the world from the eyes of Turike... |
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| From DIVA: See the world from the eyes of Turike... |
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| From DIVA: See the world from the eyes of Turike... |
The Oprah Show last night talked about civility or being civilized. The show had given me yet another proof that even people from developed countries can be less cultured that those from 3rd world countries. Let's just say that cab-snatcher, pesky molester, I'm-a-customer-so-I'm the-queen and touch-me-bump-me people exist everywhere, even in Singapore and the States!
Talk about civility, I just had a very unpleasant experience last week when a Malay (or was it a Bangla?) guy followed me from Bugis MRT and tried hard to have a conversation with me. It was sickening, man! But what's more sickening was when no one seemed care enough to help me. One girl who eventually helped said she was sorry for not helping me earlier because she taught we knew each other. D'oh! Something has to be done in the future to get rid of these pesky molesters... and to brush up the society civility as well. I was lucky I was taller than the guy. But what if the victims were skinny foreign maids or small-build mainland Chinese shopkeeper, wouldn't it be fatal? I just wanna say to all the foreigners out there in Spore to be careful and vigilant when an ugly-looking bangla, malay or dark-skinned* man approach you for ANY kind of reason, RUN! And if you somehow *knock on wood* got molested don't be afraid to scream for help and to take pictures of your molesters. The least we can do is to send his pictures to newspapers, have it printed and circulated island wide under the headline: UGLY LOOKING AND SMELLY MOLESTER. The statement 'low crime doesn't mean no crime' is indeed correct.
Talk about civility and the Oprah show again, during the last part of the show they talked about 'hostility' towards waitresses and the importance of tipping. I realized in most countries that I've visited tipping are somehow a must, between 15-25% of total and in Singapore however, tipping is not an obligation. Some generous uncles or cab drivers a couple of times gave me a 10 or 20 cents markdown to round down the fares. Now, hostility towards waitresses... well, in Singapore, compare to other countries I've visited, there were times when I feel that I was the one being intimidated by the waitress, no kidding! I found that some waitresses who didn't speak English or even singlish, mostly from mainland china, were the most hostile. Some were even unfriendly towards baby Rania ; once a waitress took away a plastic spoon Rania was using for entertainment purposes – well, rania was checking the earth's gravity effect using the spoon. Another time a waitress took away her baby chair abruptly without consulting me, when Rania's feet was still strangled inside the chair. She said she's gonna keep away the baby chair back since it seemed for her I was not using it anymore. Blah!
I don't know whether it's because I look foreign and Indonesian, or that's the way they behave towards every customers regardless whether they are white or copper skinned (hum, interesting...).
(*) No offense towards Bangla, Malay or dark-skinned people in S'pore. And to hostile waitresses /waiters.
Having been in Singapore for almost two years now, I have joined several meeting groups looking for new environment and searching for friends: local, foreigners and fellow Indonesians. Because I believe life is much more valuable by having new friends and learning new cultures. And here goes the story, the journey to find friends and communities in Singapore (and along the story I'm gonna tell you a bit about each group I encounter or have joined).
The first group I tried joining was a group of Fellow Indonesian Moms in S'pore. It turned out my effort to join to be such a blunder, and the group's communication was limited only to an email mailing list, so it wasn't that worth it. So I continued my journey by searching for a group of mothers or stay at home mom, and I found this group: New Mothers Support group or NMSG. The group mainly consists of expatriates or ang moh (Caucasians or white people in hokkien) and their activities including talks and mom-baby socials in Gymboree and botanical garden. I found joining the group to be helpful because it consists of different nationalities and it's filled with informative sessions. I presume I was the first Indonesian to have joined the group.
After my daughter was big enough to be left at home with my helper, I decided to pursue my passions for writing. The journey started by taking a course in Feature Writing by NUS Ex. The teacher was nice and the class itself was fascinating. The class was filled with Mainland Chinese, some Singaporeans and two Indonesian students, including me. Realizing I need to have more discussion to sharpen my creativity skills (blah!), I joined a group called "Singapore Writers Meetup Group". Don't get me wrong, although it's called a 'writers' group, it's largely consists of writers wannabe or aspiring writers, including me, hi hi. During the group weekly meeting the attendants discuss about their writing process or do several writing exercises. Due to scheduling conflicts I have only able to attend one meeting, but I look forward to join the fruitful upcoming meetings!
And my journey continues. The latest group I joined is the Friends of Museum. It has several discussions cum study groups and it provides a course for becoming a valid Museum Docents in several Singapore Museums; the peranakan museum, the national museum of Singapore, the Asian civilisation museum and the Singapore art museum. So cool! I plan to join the course for peranakan museum but I need to hold back due to again, scheduling conflict (blah). And like an official course, it has a specific curriculum, some reading list and materials, a thesis (research paper) and a final presentation in front of a Panel. Whoa! Like NMSG, it's largely consists of expatriates and, like before, I have the feeling I'm the first Indonesian to have joined.
I still plan to join this group called Primetime, a group of working and professional women. I haven't joined just yet, so I still cannot give info on this one. I'd like to join the group though, if I got 'the' job *fingers crossed*.
My journey to find more groups or communities to cure my culture–thirst pangs still continues. I do wonder though, if I could find a group of 'Singapore-window-shopping' lovers, or better yet, 'singapore-discount & bargain-shopping' group. Let me know if you heard about them.
I'm so relieved to have found some children's book series that I used to read during my childhood, in the community library near my condo complex. The series is called "Can you solve the mysteries with Hawkeye and Amy" or "the little detectives " Indonesia. This series of books were the first ones that filled up my early detective-sleuth reading list. Late in life, the list added up with Manga detective like Meitantei Conan or Kindaichi Case files, to Agatha Christie's work wonders like Poirot's cases, Miss Marples stories, or Parker Pyne's chronicles.
And yet, mystery-cum-sleuth-cum-whodunnit novels have never failed to entice me. During my scavenger hunt in the community library, along with Hawkeye and Amy I also found this semi-sleuthing-chicklit called: "How to kill your husband and other household hints" by Kathy Lette. Talk about a new genre of chicklit.
Well, I hope that my list of borrowed books can help me pass through the hours of fasting during the Ramadhan. Beside praying and reciting the Koran of course. AND taking care of Rania. AND blogging. And... ouch, whatever. Don't mind, this is my empty stomach is talking. (PS: And I haven't even started fasting just yet, still having my period!).
Last Sunday, one day after we got back from Bali we went to watch "Where Got Ghost" A hor-medy film by local director's Jack Neo. The fact that I still worn out after the trip and never have enjoyed any kind of ghost film, have made me a bit resistant to watch it. But I have made a promise to hubby so I went. To my surprise, it was funny and creepy at the same time and has some moral values as well. It consists of 3 independent stories that portrayed Singaporeans and their values including kiasuism (wanna be the best) and the metropolitan-mixed-with-kampong-spirit attitude. First story was of a group of con-men that stole oranges meant for spirit-praying, the second was about a couple of NS men that did not follow instructions given to them during field trip which led them to the 'spirit land' and the last was about 3 siblings who tried getting rid of the ghost of their lovely mother. I screamed and laughed at the same time. It was hilarious!
The movie however got out just right before the start of Hungry Ghost month, which, according to Singapore-Chinese culture is the month to honour the ancestors' spirits that come back to earth during the month (the hungry ghosts). On the contrary, for the Muslim society tomorrow will be the start of Ramadan, a month of fasting from emotional zeal which rituals including not eating and drinking during the daytime.
This is what I respect from living in Singapore: that completely-opposite cultures and religion could go hand in hand.
I started feeding Rania -my now 11 months old baby girl- with solids around six months after her birth. And boy, how she refused….. I need to try several brands of instant baby food before I finally found her favorite. I've tried baby rice cereal, baby cornflakes, baby porridge, baby biscuits; all kind of foods that starts with the word 'Baby' in the front. I've tried all the flavor too: apple, banana, peach, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla even some strange 'exotic' flavor that even I'm not familiar with : peach with sweet potato (what a weird combination),fig with raisin (what?), pomello with beetroot (even I won't eat that). And the taste? They are either too bland or too sour for Rania, the picky eater.
I thought at first this eating-game would be much easier when she's bigger and more conscious, because, maybe, just maybe she starts to grow her hungry pangs. But hell no… the stuff that grow are her legs and tricky brain as her angelic wings and the HALO over her head shrink.
When she started to crawl, then the eating-game developed into a game of cat and mouse, hit and run. Whenever I come with a bowl and spoon and put her on her chair – yes, she has her own pretty yellow chair with cushion and straps – she freaks out. In some events I have to put her on my lap as an alternative. But just when I turn to fill up the spoon, voila, within second she's either half a room away or slipping under the computer table… or in some extreme cases, pressing the buttons on the TV side, changing the channel. The game ends up with me running like a frenzied zombie and scoops her up back to my lap. Not really the end, because I still have to 'swing the spoon' in front of her mouth and say ''aaaaaahhh open your mouth Rania please…", then wait for miracle to come. If she opens her mouth –that's the miracle – I spoon the food in. If not… well, this is where another game starts. It's called the "'Put the chocolate cookie in front of her mouth and when she opens up, scoop in the real food, quick!" And of course, Rania hates this game.
Not only did Rania learn about eating solids this past couple of months, I made some self discovery too. I never thought I have enough the much-needed patience, tolerance and perseverance to conform to a baby roadrunner like her. If she refuses to eat the homemade porridge I made for her and demands for the peanut butter sandwich that I'm having instead, then I need to be tolerant. If she doesn't fancy sitting in her crowning chair during a meal, then I need to be patient and let her sit on my lap. Moreover, if she runs - err I mean crawls - around the room when it comes to meal times, then I need to be firm. And of course, I need to develop a lot of imaginations to come up with mad games, like the "put the chocolate cookie" game. But at the end of the day, no matter how little vegetables Rania eats, we both laugh it out. I would watch her sleep with a smile on her face, have my sentimental cry and realized how much I love her.
Rania is now 11 months old and now she's more tolerable to food, though I still play the "put the chocolate cookie" game occasionally. Up to this day, I still haven't found the right formula to teach her to eat well but I'm sure I'll find one soon. I'm not going to rush it though, because no matter how mischievous Rania is she is only an 11 months baby. I'll have her whole juvenile years to teach her on being independent, let alone on finishing her vegetables portion; so I won't rush it all in the first year. Besides, she has taught me the greatest teaching of all: liberation of my inner unconditional love.
Here is a writing of mine, a task from my recently finished Writing Class. It's a review of a movie called "À la folie…pas do tout" in which we all watched it together.
À la folie…pas do tout (2002)
(He loves me, he loves me not)
If you spot À la folie…pas do tout (2002) movie
poster
and assumed it to be a romantic comedy, well, you can kiss your assumption goodbye. It's actually a smart psychological drama with a twist, an imaginative French twist, that is.
Angelique (Audrey Tautou), the imaginative and talented art student falls in love with Loïc (Samuel Le Bihan), a cardiologist, and throughout the movie, we see her hard yet always-failed attempts to make him leave his pregnant wife, Rachel (Isabelle Carré). The first half of the movie then implicitly brings us the platonic love story from Angelique's viewpoint; her disappointments towards Loïc's attitude to her suicide attempt. But from there, it winds back and explains the same events from a different point of view. Then abruptly, the second part of the movie becomes a unique obsession suspense cum psychological flick instead of a regular love drama, with a twisting end that'll make your jaws drop. For that, we have to thank Laetitia Colombani as director.
The young French writer/director has an ability to build tension using arty setting; a brainy example is when a frighten Loïc found a stunning adult size mural of him by Angelique made from everyday items, including a dried rose he gave first time they met! Colombani, who also made the script along with co-writer Caroline Thievel, has cleverly presented a story of delusion and false perceptions in a thrilling yet entertaining way. It gets the tension of Fatal Attraction (1987) with the entertaining factors of a romantic comedy flick.
Tautou, forever known as Amélie in Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001), is pretty convincing in portraying the cheerful-yet-tricky-erotomaniac Angelique. Her big-brown eyes are the best camouflage to hide Angelique's lunacy. One loophole of the movie conversely, is the rather clichés performance and dialogues by Le Bihan resulting from a slightly unripe characterization of Loïc's (such as Loïc final meet up with Angelique). But this is only Colombani's first full-length movie, others being short ones. So we can expect more clever ideas coming from her, similar to her newest Mes stars et moi (2008).
Once the credit rolls, trust me, you'll be seeing crazy in-lovers in a new perspective. Next time your (girl) friend is in love; go ask yourself the same question as the tagline of the flick: "Is she crazy in love, …..or just CRAZY?"
Rating : ☺☺☺☺ (4 stars) Worth Watching
In recession days like now, not only fashion-shopping budget needs alteration, grocery shopping too. You'll be amazed at how much you can save up. Some are tips I found on the net and some are based on my own experience.
This includes soaps, toothpaste, sugar, shampoo, oil etc. Even baby diapers. Some bathing items or toothpastes sometimes come in packet of several bottles/ tubes with of course, whooping discounts.
"Shopping in a two dollars store? C'mon! It's all cheap stuff!" Yes, it's true, it's cheap, but cheap doesn't mean it's not functional. Buy things here that are functional and unnoticeable. Most of the stuffs in the store are of good quality, but STILL you have to keep your eyes on. For example, you can buy some freezer bags in here but check for one with good material with more than 12 bags. Some boxes only contain 10 or even 7 freezer bags, but if you're lucky you can find a box with 20 freezer bags.
Other stuff I recommend to buy here are storage or organizing boxes (see tips number 4), brooms and sweepers (but check the materials), and other organizing materials (cable and cords de-tangler, racks, small garbage cans, etc). But I don't recommend buying, for example, items of personal hygiene, like soap, toothpaste or face scrubber. For this kind of items, price talks honey.
