About me...

 Having been born & raised in the city of Glasgow (in Scotland, UK), life in Singapore came as a huge culture shock for me. I visited twice(?) on two-week holidays to get a feel of how things are here but it wasn't until I moved, did I realise those short holidays was NOT representative of life in Singapore whatsoever. As a tourist, I spent my days being amazed  by the vast number (& size of!) shopping centres, I went for facials, massages, manicures...£1 gave me $2 so everything seemed so cheap! (Like seriously, £2 for duck rice?).

But now that I've moved here to stay, the novelties have worn off & it's a whole different world...every day is crazy hot (coz I no longer spend my days in shopping centres)...the humidity makes my face super oily & hair frizzy...the top-loading washing machine ruins your clothes...water from the ''cold tap'' is lukewarm/hot....foods that I like are really expensive here (dairy products, decent breads, healthy cereals etc)...travelling on public transport is always a squeeze...people are rude...English is NOT as "commonly used" as people are led to believe....housing prices are insanely high: queues for HDB Housing (Government flats for those who don't know) are just as crazy (5 year wait for flats to be built??) and let's not talk about the prospect of getting a car here....

So...from having had my own car back home, to being sardined on buses & trains everyday (not to mention how much longer it takes to get from A to B without a car)
...being able to communication to people not having a clue what I'm saying (I once asked for "durian puff" and the lady echoed "soft shell crab". Eh WHAT??)
...having free health care to now having to pay for everything & be in super long queues at clinics...
...a predominately Caucasian city to a "multicultural society" - the majority of whom are of Asian decent in some shape or form...
...Christian occasions are observed, respected, & are made public holidays to predominately Buddhist, Taoist etc where incense & other toxic burnt offerings frequently fill the air....
(find out many more contrasts as I continue blogging)

People often think "oh moving to another country: so fun!" but the less pleasant sides is often ignored (maybe because humans have a tendency to focus on/only remember the positive points) but the reality is, life comprises of both good AND not-so-good things so I guess my blog serves as an avenue for me to rant, but also because I'm an honest person who likes the truth (as opposed to believing that everything in life is always nice & fluffy) so I hope this blog paints a REAL picture of adjusting to life in another country. And according to some people, keeping a record of my rants will be interesting to reflect upon once I'm better adapted to life here (can't imagine that just now! Heh!)

Oh & just to clarify the misconceptions I have had since coming here:

• Being from the UK does not mean I am an angmor - my parents are not Caucasian: I am Chinese (my dad was from China & mum from HK), & thus I look Chinese too!
• Looking Chinese does not mean I am Singaporean & that I speak Singlish &/or Mandarin (I speak Cantonese & Hakka)
• UK stands for United Kingdom, not United Kingdom of America (which a man at a fruit stall once told me haha!)

So one of the major differences between UK & SG I experienced was in our wedding celebration:

The cake on the left is significantly smaller than the beast on the right but at least it's real! :P
In Singapore, wedding cakes in dinner banquets are huge, extravagant-looking & fake! (thats a really bad photo of it too)  We were told to be careful that our knife/sword thing only rested on the 'cake' to ensure we don't damage it! *frown*  I like cake!

Happy reading :)