Otherwise known as stewed pork with soy sauce, this is one of my favourite (albeit a little unhealthy) dishes. I've recently made it with some of the more authentic ingredients, but am modifying it here to accommodate ingredients only found in Tesco.
I think this was what a senior of mine from university tried to do, it was otherwise known as Coca-Cola chicken, but the result tasted nearly exactly like tau ew bak anyway.
Ingredients:
250g chicken or pork (pork belly meat preferred but rather unhealthy)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
200ml water
1 can Coca-Cola, full sugar, not diet Coke
1 teaspoon chopped ginger (Tesco sells this pre-cooked)
1 teaspoon chopped garlic (Tesco sells this pre-cooked)
1 teaspoon chopped red onion or 1/4 red onion, chopped
Salt to taste
Method:
Marinade meat with soy sauce, sugar and 1/2 can of coke. Leave to stand for 30 minutes to allow coke to flavour through and lose the bubbles.
In a heated pot, fry ginger, garlic and red onion until fragrant. Throw in the marinated meat including the liquid from the coke. Bring to a boil then add water and allow to simmer for 1-2 hours to soften the meat and reduce sauce until it is a sticky gravy. Add salt to taste if required.
Comments:
The original recipe calls for dark soy sauce, which is incredibly difficult to find here, even from an Asian supermarket. Another recipe I found called for sambal belachan which unless personally imported by friends/family from Singapore or Malaysia, is nigh impossible to get.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Watercress Soup
I'm starting a compilation of recipes for Asian cooking using non-Asian specific ingredients, or ingredients readily available in this very challenging place - UK. I reckon, if you can cook with ingredients from the local UK supermarket without resorting to an Asian supermarket, it would suffice anywhere else in the world including the US and Australia, since those stock far more Asian supplies than a regular UK supermarket.
My standard of a regular UK supermarket is a Tesco Extra right next to my house, so it may stock more than most metropolitan supermarkets, but I try to use as common ingredients as possible.
Nobody's made "The Diaspora Cookbook" just as yet - so don't steal that idea, it'll be wonderful if someone can beat me to it and come up with one, I'd definitely buy it, but in the meantime, this will have to suffice.
Watercress Soup (西阳菜汤)
Ingredients:
200g (a bunch) salad watercress - pick the kind that doesn't just contain leaves and long and stringy if possible
500ml water
2 pieces pork ribs or 2-3 chicken wings
pinch of salt
Method:
In a pot or slow cooker, bring pork ribs and water to a boil. Season with salt. Add salad watercress after soup has come to a boil and simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes.
Serve with rice or on it's own.
Apparently, the Tesco's spaghetti overcooked by 5 minutes tastes nearly exactly like thick vermicelli (粗米粉). No guarantees with any other brand but the Tesco's one seems to work nicely.
My standard of a regular UK supermarket is a Tesco Extra right next to my house, so it may stock more than most metropolitan supermarkets, but I try to use as common ingredients as possible.
Nobody's made "The Diaspora Cookbook" just as yet - so don't steal that idea, it'll be wonderful if someone can beat me to it and come up with one, I'd definitely buy it, but in the meantime, this will have to suffice.
Watercress Soup (西阳菜汤)
Ingredients:
200g (a bunch) salad watercress - pick the kind that doesn't just contain leaves and long and stringy if possible
500ml water
2 pieces pork ribs or 2-3 chicken wings
pinch of salt
Method:
In a pot or slow cooker, bring pork ribs and water to a boil. Season with salt. Add salad watercress after soup has come to a boil and simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes.
Serve with rice or on it's own.
Apparently, the Tesco's spaghetti overcooked by 5 minutes tastes nearly exactly like thick vermicelli (粗米粉). No guarantees with any other brand but the Tesco's one seems to work nicely.
Things Other People Accomplished when they were my age...
If you are running short of things to write in your next birthday card, try this.
By my age in years, other people had already accomplished scores of the following things...
Too bad for me that I mark the passage of my time and my life with people. I don't think I'm the only one either. Too many of us have our lives and times defined by the people we meet, or the people that we date. From the people we hang out with, to the people we're in love with at the time. Too many times, I've heard, "No, it must have been at least xx years because I was still with so-and-so at the time." I do that too, but strange how pathetic that seems at the moment. Only one phrase is coming to mind at this time, from Avenue Q... "there is a fine, fine line. Between love, and a waste of time." And it's making me laugh.
By my age in years, other people had already accomplished scores of the following things...
- Ernest Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises.
- Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic, thus winning a $25,000 prize.
- By this age, Charles Chaplin had appeared in 35 films.
- Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof of Warsaw invented the artificial language Esperanto.
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. dropped out from his job at General Electric to become a full-time writer.
- Sarah Bernhardt scored her first triumph, being asked to repeat her theatrical performance before Napoleon III.
- Albert Einstein published five major research papers in a German physics jornal, fundamentally changing man's view of the universe and leading to such inventions as television and the atomic bomb.
- Benjamin Franklin published the first edition of Poor Richard's Almanac, which was to play a large role in molding the diverse American character.
- College dropout Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer.
- Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy.
Too bad for me that I mark the passage of my time and my life with people. I don't think I'm the only one either. Too many of us have our lives and times defined by the people we meet, or the people that we date. From the people we hang out with, to the people we're in love with at the time. Too many times, I've heard, "No, it must have been at least xx years because I was still with so-and-so at the time." I do that too, but strange how pathetic that seems at the moment. Only one phrase is coming to mind at this time, from Avenue Q... "there is a fine, fine line. Between love, and a waste of time." And it's making me laugh.
Fridge Googling - I've never discovered this!
Gosh... one of those things I've frequently thought of doing but never quite actually got off my lazy bottom to put into action is fridge googling. In a nutshell, it is googling for recipes using keywords of what's leftover in your fridge as ingredients, thus hoping that the fabulous internet (tm) will come up with a useful suggestion of what you can cook in order to clear the fridge.
It has become a word - yes, not kidding, a new word/phrase in the Macmillan English Dictionary. [Click on the link to find out.]
Incidentally, even though I'm not going to ever have kids of my own (I stand by my words), I've included a new link on my blog called Parent Hack. It's a real world blog/online community for tips & tricks to raising kids. I figure it's so hard that it's about time an instruction manual was written. Who says the best household/raising children tips come from people who don't have them and well meaning aunts (like myself)??
It has become a word - yes, not kidding, a new word/phrase in the Macmillan English Dictionary. [Click on the link to find out.]
Incidentally, even though I'm not going to ever have kids of my own (I stand by my words), I've included a new link on my blog called Parent Hack. It's a real world blog/online community for tips & tricks to raising kids. I figure it's so hard that it's about time an instruction manual was written. Who says the best household/raising children tips come from people who don't have them and well meaning aunts (like myself)??
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Secrets of Domestic Bliss
Sambal Belacan
Simplest thing in the world to make, and yummy with... potato chips, roast chicken, stewed pork, tapioca chips, cucumbers...everything!
The trick is, you need a mortar and a pestle of the stone variety, which isn't exactly easy to find this side of England. Note to self: lugging it all the way from Mustafa in Singapore had better be worth it!!!
Ingredients
10 red chillies
4cm piece belacan, roast till fragrant - use a toaster, or a microwave
Pinch of salt
1 limau kasturi
Method
Pound chillies until rather coarse in texture. Break up roasted belacan and add into chilli mixture gradually. Continue to pound until texture is neither too smooth nor too coarse. Add pinch of salt. Put sambal in a bowl. Squeeze lime juice in and mix well. Serve sambal as an accompanying side dish.
Basic Muffins
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Method
Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine together egg, milk and oil, using a wire whisk. Add egg mixture at once to the dry ingredients. Stirring mixture only until the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter will be lumpy.
[Stir in any ingredients you want to add]
Spoon into prepared muffin tins, filling each cup half to two-thirds full.
Bake in 400*F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Let cool completely on wire rack.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.
I like my muffins savoury (apparently a very New Zealander thing) and my favourites are ham and cheese, or olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Currently wondering how nuts, shredded carrots and cinnamon would taste... kinda like a carrot cake variation?
Barley Water
This mum-says-it's-cooling drink is great for cold winter nights when hot, and refreshing enough with a touch of lemon in hot summer days. I like it this way, which isn't exactly how mum makes it...
I boil it at low eat on the stove after dinner when the stove is relatively empty.
Ingredients
5 handfuls of pearl barley (about 1/2 cup by standard measures)
1 handful of rock sugar (1 tbsp)
5 or 6 sticks of sugared winter melon (this little darling you mostly find in Singapore)
1 litre of water
Method
Boil all ingredients on low heat for about 30 minutes until water turns cloudy. Remove barley water and store/serve with sugared winter melon.
Note to self: the winter melon is what makes the barley water "cooling".
Simplest thing in the world to make, and yummy with... potato chips, roast chicken, stewed pork, tapioca chips, cucumbers...everything!
The trick is, you need a mortar and a pestle of the stone variety, which isn't exactly easy to find this side of England. Note to self: lugging it all the way from Mustafa in Singapore had better be worth it!!!
Ingredients
10 red chillies
4cm piece belacan, roast till fragrant - use a toaster, or a microwave
Pinch of salt
1 limau kasturi
Method
Pound chillies until rather coarse in texture. Break up roasted belacan and add into chilli mixture gradually. Continue to pound until texture is neither too smooth nor too coarse. Add pinch of salt. Put sambal in a bowl. Squeeze lime juice in and mix well. Serve sambal as an accompanying side dish.
Basic Muffins
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Method
Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine together egg, milk and oil, using a wire whisk. Add egg mixture at once to the dry ingredients. Stirring mixture only until the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter will be lumpy.
[Stir in any ingredients you want to add]
Spoon into prepared muffin tins, filling each cup half to two-thirds full.
Bake in 400*F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Let cool completely on wire rack.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.
I like my muffins savoury (apparently a very New Zealander thing) and my favourites are ham and cheese, or olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Currently wondering how nuts, shredded carrots and cinnamon would taste... kinda like a carrot cake variation?
Barley Water
This mum-says-it's-cooling drink is great for cold winter nights when hot, and refreshing enough with a touch of lemon in hot summer days. I like it this way, which isn't exactly how mum makes it...
I boil it at low eat on the stove after dinner when the stove is relatively empty.
Ingredients
5 handfuls of pearl barley (about 1/2 cup by standard measures)
1 handful of rock sugar (1 tbsp)
5 or 6 sticks of sugared winter melon (this little darling you mostly find in Singapore)
1 litre of water
Method
Boil all ingredients on low heat for about 30 minutes until water turns cloudy. Remove barley water and store/serve with sugared winter melon.
Note to self: the winter melon is what makes the barley water "cooling".
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Snow in Reading!
In the middle of February too, who can believe it. Thanks to the weather warnings of heavy snow yesterday evening, it did indeed snow last night and throughout this morning, and I got pictures!
Snowfall was particularly heavy this morning - it snowed for about 30 minutes straight for a relatively thick enough layer for a snowman which promptly got erected by a couple of kids who ran out to play.
I ahem wisely stayed indoors due to inclement weather, as you can see from the picture.
Snowfall was particularly heavy this morning - it snowed for about 30 minutes straight for a relatively thick enough layer for a snowman which promptly got erected by a couple of kids who ran out to play.
I ahem wisely stayed indoors due to inclement weather, as you can see from the picture.
Finger in the pot
The easiest way to get Chinese porridge of the creamy, blended variety (chok)... is to boil leftover rice from last night in a pot with water.
Presto. Chok in under 30 minutes. Especially if they were badly cooked to begin with and you won't contemplate eating it alone.
You can never have too much rice - says the someone who loaned me the rice cooker. Just make extra and keep it for the next day.
Bah, I still can't figure out how much water to put in there. And to think I used to be such an expert. There's a way to measure how much water you put in the pot with the length of your finger joints, says every rice eating, rice cooking person I know. I do that!
I'm beginning to suspect it's not a matter of the fingers (which have always been the same length). I think it's a matter of the pot.
Presto. Chok in under 30 minutes. Especially if they were badly cooked to begin with and you won't contemplate eating it alone.
You can never have too much rice - says the someone who loaned me the rice cooker. Just make extra and keep it for the next day.
Bah, I still can't figure out how much water to put in there. And to think I used to be such an expert. There's a way to measure how much water you put in the pot with the length of your finger joints, says every rice eating, rice cooking person I know. I do that!
I'm beginning to suspect it's not a matter of the fingers (which have always been the same length). I think it's a matter of the pot.
The Big 3
While doing up a career profiling thing required at work, it suddenly dawned on me after adding up all the maths while doing up my resume, that I've actually worked (ie. been in a full time job that paid money) for 3 years now. And that's 3 years of solid working experience, not just the plodding along kind.
3. Huh.
It didn't occur to me like it was that long ago. Perhaps because I had switched jobs fairly rapidly into where I am working now, it didn't occur to me that more than half, in fact, more than a third of those 3 years were spent in my current company.
Which makes me nearly veteran. Well, nearly, considering that on the one hand, one is surrounded by the perpetual newbies who eat, shoot and leave still starry eyed. And on the other hand, with a bunch of other people you end up talking to but are not surrounded by who have been in the same company for 12 odd years.
Funny that. It still feels (sometimes when I wake up in the mornings) new, bright and starry eyed. Sorta.
But yuck, 3 years is definitive.
I can no longer call myself someone who is fresh into the workforce. And at the same time, I cannot really say that I've been there long enough to be jaded. Call it a quarter-career crisis. I'm too young to be earning mega millions but too old to not consider where I am the beginnings of a career.
One conversation held with old school friends from Melbourne said something like, "Well you better decide where you want to move to, and fast. If not, in a couple of months' time, you're going to be resigned to a career there..." That was advice to someone else, but suddenly I'm looking back at my own past 3 years and it begins to feel like I woke up one morning and someone other than myself made the decision that I was going to be resigned to a career here.
Oh no.
Not so bad, I keep telling myself. But you reckon that at least you'd want some kind of choice on these matters.
Tempus fugit. How time flies.
3. Huh.
It didn't occur to me like it was that long ago. Perhaps because I had switched jobs fairly rapidly into where I am working now, it didn't occur to me that more than half, in fact, more than a third of those 3 years were spent in my current company.
Which makes me nearly veteran. Well, nearly, considering that on the one hand, one is surrounded by the perpetual newbies who eat, shoot and leave still starry eyed. And on the other hand, with a bunch of other people you end up talking to but are not surrounded by who have been in the same company for 12 odd years.
Funny that. It still feels (sometimes when I wake up in the mornings) new, bright and starry eyed. Sorta.
But yuck, 3 years is definitive.
I can no longer call myself someone who is fresh into the workforce. And at the same time, I cannot really say that I've been there long enough to be jaded. Call it a quarter-career crisis. I'm too young to be earning mega millions but too old to not consider where I am the beginnings of a career.
One conversation held with old school friends from Melbourne said something like, "Well you better decide where you want to move to, and fast. If not, in a couple of months' time, you're going to be resigned to a career there..." That was advice to someone else, but suddenly I'm looking back at my own past 3 years and it begins to feel like I woke up one morning and someone other than myself made the decision that I was going to be resigned to a career here.
Oh no.
Not so bad, I keep telling myself. But you reckon that at least you'd want some kind of choice on these matters.
Tempus fugit. How time flies.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Twenty years from now we'd think we got a warm winter...
Heavy snow forecasted tomorrow in most parts of the UK, with London and south-east England (where I am!) expected to see some snow fall as well. Good thing for the warning as my camera is fully loaded now and ready to go!
Incidentally on the weather, it’s the middle of February nearly and on average -2 degrees celcius today, even when the sun was out. The warmest it got was 1 degree celcius, with a -4 degree celcius right now. How miserable is that? I’d have never thought that the south of England got so cold, but obviously I haven’t been doing my homework quite well enough, without much travel here during the months from January to March. I don’t even remember this from York around this time, when it was at least far warmer this time of year 6 years ago than it was now. Global warming, anyone?
Monday, February 05, 2007
Last known presence
Last week I sent an email to a friend I had not written to in 3 years, only to find a "user not found" bounced email. He's not working there anymore - but no surprise. Today I wandered into a friend's old blog and found the last update on February 12, 2006. The rest is silence.
There was a moment of deja vu in the chill one gets from a moment like this. It's like visiting a sentimental old house of an old friend, only to be told upon knocking on the door that so-and-so doesn't live there anymore. It's the last known presence of someone familiar and the chill of someone you used to know vanished irrevocably from your life.
I have a bad habit. I never forget a face. And with a photographic memory in tow, I probably cannot. These people live in my mind like ghosts, or worse, schizophrenic presences. They have smiles I recall, snippets of conversation, moments of laughter shared over numerous coffees in hot summers. Very soon you start to wonder if you ever knew them at all, or if your mind is beginning to make up memories, if sentimentality is kicking in.
That's why I make it a point to meet people I haven't met for a long time, even if we may be different now, or if we have nothing to say to each other. It's the need for an occassional reminder that these people are real, and do have lives and exist outside my sphere of imagination.
Yet there are many I know I haven't been in contact with for a very, very long time. Somehow, the richness of life start to fade and yellow like over-exposed fabric after a long period of absence. I miss you guys... and regret the truth of distance and the many oceans between us all.
There was a moment of deja vu in the chill one gets from a moment like this. It's like visiting a sentimental old house of an old friend, only to be told upon knocking on the door that so-and-so doesn't live there anymore. It's the last known presence of someone familiar and the chill of someone you used to know vanished irrevocably from your life.
I have a bad habit. I never forget a face. And with a photographic memory in tow, I probably cannot. These people live in my mind like ghosts, or worse, schizophrenic presences. They have smiles I recall, snippets of conversation, moments of laughter shared over numerous coffees in hot summers. Very soon you start to wonder if you ever knew them at all, or if your mind is beginning to make up memories, if sentimentality is kicking in.
That's why I make it a point to meet people I haven't met for a long time, even if we may be different now, or if we have nothing to say to each other. It's the need for an occassional reminder that these people are real, and do have lives and exist outside my sphere of imagination.
Yet there are many I know I haven't been in contact with for a very, very long time. Somehow, the richness of life start to fade and yellow like over-exposed fabric after a long period of absence. I miss you guys... and regret the truth of distance and the many oceans between us all.
Charlie hates Macs
Unbelievably funny article in the Guardian about how Charlie hates Macs... and why.
Click on the blog title for the link (in case you haven't figured it out yet).
My personal gripe is about how much I love Google.
Click on the blog title for the link (in case you haven't figured it out yet).
My personal gripe is about how much I love Google.
Tau Eu Bak Recipe
From Chris Ng on kuali.com - the Malaysian Tau Eu Bak recipe. I'm going to definitely be doing this when I finally get my hands on dark soy sauce!!
Ingredients
2 litres water
l kg ribs (pork or beef*), cut into pieces
500g lean meat (pork or beef*), cut into pieces
1 knob fresh ginger, lightly crushed
2 bulbs garlic
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
Salt to taste
8 hard-boiled eggs
20 pieces beancurd puffs (tau pok)* Or substitute with 1.5kg chickenpieces.
Method
Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil.
Add the meat, ginger and garlic.
Allow to boil for 10-15 minutes, regularly skimming the top to remove the scum.
When the soup is clear, add the dark and light soy sauce and salt.
Add hard boiled eggs and tau pok.
Bring the water down to a simmer and cook for about 45 minutes or until meat is tender. (This step can be prepared in a slow cooker once simmering has started.)
Tips
Make more to go with rice as this recipe together with sambal belachan can make a meal by itself... for several days.
Which reminds me... where to get sambal belachan!? *wails* I got no belachan!!!
Ingredients
2 litres water
l kg ribs (pork or beef*), cut into pieces
500g lean meat (pork or beef*), cut into pieces
1 knob fresh ginger, lightly crushed
2 bulbs garlic
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
Salt to taste
8 hard-boiled eggs
20 pieces beancurd puffs (tau pok)* Or substitute with 1.5kg chickenpieces.
Method
Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil.
Add the meat, ginger and garlic.
Allow to boil for 10-15 minutes, regularly skimming the top to remove the scum.
When the soup is clear, add the dark and light soy sauce and salt.
Add hard boiled eggs and tau pok.
Bring the water down to a simmer and cook for about 45 minutes or until meat is tender. (This step can be prepared in a slow cooker once simmering has started.)
Tips
Make more to go with rice as this recipe together with sambal belachan can make a meal by itself... for several days.
Which reminds me... where to get sambal belachan!? *wails* I got no belachan!!!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
The High Cost of Living
Spent the weekend in London with a bunch of friends and one friend's mum who made a lovely English lunch. Being around Singaporeans outside of Singapore, and around Asians in England has made me think a little bit about what it truly means to be diaspora, a state I'm rather used to but not used to.
It's become a sorta truth with me, a painful reality that needs acceptance. That, although ridiculous, I simply cannot find health and happiness within the spaces of Singapore. It's not something that is my choice, and although many friends of mine may be incredulous at this statement, if given a possible choice, and honestly, space to breathe in Singapore, I would seriously think very very hard about living in Singapore for the rest of my life and may even find myself very happy.
But there is a high cost of living associated with being in Singapore. I call this air tax.
My biggest gripe about where I am now is the high cost of income tax of close to 40% compared to Singapore which features something closer to 15%. (I'm not even going to go into the sinking feeling that I'm supposed to be in the highest tax bracket in the UK, and nothing even close to mid-range high level in Singapore...)
Things are expensive here. Ask any Londoner who would agree with me. Food is costly, housing isn't cheap, sure cars don't come accompanied with COE, but still, on the whole, you can get a decent meal in Singapore for a third of the prices here.
But every day as I walk or cycle to work and take a deep breath, the cold air sharply reminds me of why I have chosen to, despite sometimes less green grass, set forth new roots here.
Because with on average an asthma attack every 2 weeks in Singapore, I find it nearly impossible to breathe. There are several factors: the level of humidity being over 85% on average, the oscillation between the 18 degree air conditioning and 36 degrees of air outside, the rather high levels of pollutants and dust in the air from traffic, industrial activity, crowd, the seasonal hazes as Indonesia prepares to grow the crops of the year, burning offerings from the annual Hungry Ghost's Festival, the general level of joss in the air.
I'm more sensitive than most people I guess, and that translates itself into every day sinusitis, a regular daily dose of antihistamines that don't work, asthma attacks and shortness of breath in the span of ten minutes. It's really not the heat that makes it impossible to take my dog out for a run during the day.
Funny thing is, I didn't realise all of this until I looked back 3 days after landing in London and realised that the stocks of pocket tissues I had loaded up on expecting to be sniffling, were not depleting.
I'm apparently paying the price for the high cost of being alive. I had full medical coverage with the company back in Singapore that while being paid for, does not cure my symptoms. It's now replaced by an insurance policy that I do not use because I no longer fall sick.
From a Singaporean point of view, wah, really boh hwa (no money's worth). But I'm paying for air and space to breathe.
Sometimes when I think about how hard it is to live here on my own, and how much I miss the comforts and conveniences of Singapore, it's shocking and humbling at the same time to think of the simple things, and of the alternatives.
Fresh air is free... yeah, right.
It's become a sorta truth with me, a painful reality that needs acceptance. That, although ridiculous, I simply cannot find health and happiness within the spaces of Singapore. It's not something that is my choice, and although many friends of mine may be incredulous at this statement, if given a possible choice, and honestly, space to breathe in Singapore, I would seriously think very very hard about living in Singapore for the rest of my life and may even find myself very happy.
But there is a high cost of living associated with being in Singapore. I call this air tax.
My biggest gripe about where I am now is the high cost of income tax of close to 40% compared to Singapore which features something closer to 15%. (I'm not even going to go into the sinking feeling that I'm supposed to be in the highest tax bracket in the UK, and nothing even close to mid-range high level in Singapore...)
Things are expensive here. Ask any Londoner who would agree with me. Food is costly, housing isn't cheap, sure cars don't come accompanied with COE, but still, on the whole, you can get a decent meal in Singapore for a third of the prices here.
But every day as I walk or cycle to work and take a deep breath, the cold air sharply reminds me of why I have chosen to, despite sometimes less green grass, set forth new roots here.
Because with on average an asthma attack every 2 weeks in Singapore, I find it nearly impossible to breathe. There are several factors: the level of humidity being over 85% on average, the oscillation between the 18 degree air conditioning and 36 degrees of air outside, the rather high levels of pollutants and dust in the air from traffic, industrial activity, crowd, the seasonal hazes as Indonesia prepares to grow the crops of the year, burning offerings from the annual Hungry Ghost's Festival, the general level of joss in the air.
I'm more sensitive than most people I guess, and that translates itself into every day sinusitis, a regular daily dose of antihistamines that don't work, asthma attacks and shortness of breath in the span of ten minutes. It's really not the heat that makes it impossible to take my dog out for a run during the day.
Funny thing is, I didn't realise all of this until I looked back 3 days after landing in London and realised that the stocks of pocket tissues I had loaded up on expecting to be sniffling, were not depleting.
I'm apparently paying the price for the high cost of being alive. I had full medical coverage with the company back in Singapore that while being paid for, does not cure my symptoms. It's now replaced by an insurance policy that I do not use because I no longer fall sick.
From a Singaporean point of view, wah, really boh hwa (no money's worth). But I'm paying for air and space to breathe.
Sometimes when I think about how hard it is to live here on my own, and how much I miss the comforts and conveniences of Singapore, it's shocking and humbling at the same time to think of the simple things, and of the alternatives.
Fresh air is free... yeah, right.
孤单北半球 again...
When I first posted these lyrics on Sunday, August 28th 2005, it wasn't even in my dreams that I would one day find relevance in these lyrics - I had thought that my days of travels were over. That was two years ago. It was a different world, with a different spirit and a completely different attitude.
But here I am again, facing this lyrics redux as I was listening to 欧得洋, ironically on a train travelling from London back to Reading. And suddenly with Chinese New Year coming up, finding myself afraid that I'd miss home (where is home?), and family, Chinese songs and Singapore...
用我的晚安陪你吃早餐 My "goodnight"s accompany your breakfast
记得把想念存进扑满 Remembering to save my fond sentiments into a piggy bank
我望着满天星在闪听牛郎对织女说要勇敢 I look at the night sky and remember the cowherd telling the weaver maid to be brave
别怕我们在地球的两端 Do not be afraid that we are at the two ends of the earth
看我的问候骑着魔毯 Look at my greetings riding a magic blanket
飞用光速飞到你面前 Flying at the speed of light to be in front of you
要你能看到十字星有北极星作伴 So that you can see the Southern Cross accompanied by the Northern star
少了我的手臂当枕头你习不习惯 Are you used to my shoulder not being your pillow?
你的望远望不到我北半球的孤单 Your far sight cannot spy upon the loneliness of my northern hemisphere
太平洋的潮水跟着地球来回旋转 The waves of the Pacific Ocean moves with the earth's rotation
我会耐心地等随时欢迎你靠岸 I will be patient, ready to welcome you to my shores
少了我的怀抱当暖炉你习不习惯 Are you used to being without my hugs for warmth?
e给你照片看不到我北半球的孤单 Though email photos cannot show you my loneliness in the northern hemisphere
世界再大两颗真心就能互相取暖 No matter how big the world is, two dedicated hearts will share their warmth
想念不会偷懒我的梦通通给你保管 My sentiments are never lazy, all my dreams are sent to you for safekeeping
Maybe in my mind I'd still need some translation on that one - but I know that you'd understand it when I say "想念不会偷懒我的梦通通给你保管", and I know that I can honestly say 少了你的手臂当枕头,我不习惯.
But here I am again, facing this lyrics redux as I was listening to 欧得洋, ironically on a train travelling from London back to Reading. And suddenly with Chinese New Year coming up, finding myself afraid that I'd miss home (where is home?), and family, Chinese songs and Singapore...
用我的晚安陪你吃早餐 My "goodnight"s accompany your breakfast
记得把想念存进扑满 Remembering to save my fond sentiments into a piggy bank
我望着满天星在闪听牛郎对织女说要勇敢 I look at the night sky and remember the cowherd telling the weaver maid to be brave
别怕我们在地球的两端 Do not be afraid that we are at the two ends of the earth
看我的问候骑着魔毯 Look at my greetings riding a magic blanket
飞用光速飞到你面前 Flying at the speed of light to be in front of you
要你能看到十字星有北极星作伴 So that you can see the Southern Cross accompanied by the Northern star
少了我的手臂当枕头你习不习惯 Are you used to my shoulder not being your pillow?
你的望远望不到我北半球的孤单 Your far sight cannot spy upon the loneliness of my northern hemisphere
太平洋的潮水跟着地球来回旋转 The waves of the Pacific Ocean moves with the earth's rotation
我会耐心地等随时欢迎你靠岸 I will be patient, ready to welcome you to my shores
少了我的怀抱当暖炉你习不习惯 Are you used to being without my hugs for warmth?
e给你照片看不到我北半球的孤单 Though email photos cannot show you my loneliness in the northern hemisphere
世界再大两颗真心就能互相取暖 No matter how big the world is, two dedicated hearts will share their warmth
想念不会偷懒我的梦通通给你保管 My sentiments are never lazy, all my dreams are sent to you for safekeeping
Maybe in my mind I'd still need some translation on that one - but I know that you'd understand it when I say "想念不会偷懒我的梦通通给你保管", and I know that I can honestly say 少了你的手臂当枕头,我不习惯.
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