Do you drive?

First day of CNY:
When leaving a relative’s home, I was asked “Do you drive?” What should I answer? I have a driving license, but not a car. I can drive, but you need to supply me with the car. A truthful answer but not very impressive. Given that the person asking this question is a [...]

Residents of my town

When I first moved into Tiong Bahru, I had expected to see old folks at every turn. This is after all one of the oldest housing estates on the island, with the famous 4-storey high, white-washed “Tiong Bahru flats” that even NTU hostels are nicknamed after. Only old folks will want to live there, surely.
I [...]

Tying the flag

One of the things that are expected of a HDB resident is to display the national flag as a show of your patriotism. You are supposed to do this for a couple of months around the 9th of August, so that everybody can look up and see how united we are and how much we [...]

“Not budgeted for”

My managers will disappear for at least a month every half year to do their budgeting. They will spend enormous amounts of time scrutinizing the budget forecast and making sure that we have enough work to do, but not too much, and that we are making enough money to cover our salary, rental and other [...]

Home-cooked dinner

Sunshine had to clear a day of leave today, and took the opportunity to roll up her sleeves and cook up a few dishes for our dinner. That’s sweet of her! I’m not able to do much beyond cleaning up the house when I do have a free day.
She had to do the marketing, marinating, [...]