Differences

So there has been minimal talk of food - we've been exploring, but due to the morning sickness, my choices have remained fairly bland and safe - my current fave is sliced fish bee hoon soup - basically a broth with noodles, sliced fish, and a bit of vegies - yummy, but not overly exciting.  There are a lot of differences in food here - even 'western' food tastes quite different - and a million other things that are different from back in Australia of course- so here is the start of a loooooong list of things that immediately struck me as 'different'.

FOOD

Bread - If you buy a standard sandwich loaf bread here, it is sweet.  Not sweet enough to be classed out of savoury, but sweet enough to make it taste disgusting with vegemite (or in my opinion, with anything).  The kids of course love it.  I'm left buying the $6 fancy loaf : (

Kaya - Coconut jam - have it on (expensive $6 a loaf) toast - yumola.  Will be searching this out in the Asian food stores when we go back to Australia.

Rice crackers - Seem kinda Asian right? They all have Asian names, Asian flavours like Wasabi and Teriyaki Chicken? Can't buy them over here unless you buy the ones made in Australia at the super-expensive-mart (Cold Storage).

Weetbix - Here they claim to be NEW ZEALAND'S favourite breakfast cereal on the pack.  Now I know you aren't buying Australian unless you buy Dick Smith branded products or something, but C'MON... you can't get a more Aussie breakfast than Weetbix, SURELY??

TRANSPORT

Public transport for kids - This seems fairly unfair (as a breeder of rather tall children) - kids are free when they are under 90cm - over that height, and they have to pay.   There are quite a few extremely tall Europeans over here too... they're probably suffering more than us.

Not walking is OK - People like to take a taxi - fair enough, it can get pretty hot.  What we found surprising when we went to Singapore Zoo though was the number of young, able bodied people who hired out motorized scooters just for convenience.  They'd zoom down to an exhibit, jump off and walk around, then hop back on and zoom over to the next one.  Weird.  But after walking around in the heat for a while, definitely began to see the appeal!

Taxi Drivers - Most of the drivers are a) polite, b) don't seem to mind my screaming toddler in the back, and c) know where almost every road in Singapore is.  The cabs are also clean, cool, and don't stink (Australian's will know what particular stench I am talking about here).  It is a rare novelty, and an absolute pleasure.  Oh, and they come within 5-7 minutes (when available...), and are cheap - delightful!

REAL ESTATE

Agents - You find a real estate agent to represent you as a tenant (well, you don't HAVE to, but it makes things easier, especially for newbies unaware of the whole process).  So the landlord hires an agent, and then the tenants find an agent who takes them around various properties and organises everything - the tenants agent is free, with their commission paid by the landlord.  So the landlord has to pay commission to two agents - quite different to back home.

Condition report - When you rent in Singapore, you and the two agents get together to go over the condition report, agree on the details, and then sign it off.  In Australia, the landlord does one copy, then they give it the tenant who has three days to write passive agressive comments and put capital letters and exclamation marks all over their comments (as we received from our tenant in Australia - joy!)  The whole process is much more civilised over here.... just some slight disagreements between the agents over what warranted a 'photo of damage' - the landlords agent would say ' is ok, I've written down', then my agent would go 'oh, I'll just take a quick photo', 'no, no need, I know it's there', 'oh, well, just in case you forget in two years', ' I'll take a photo when you leave then' (at which stage my agent would whip out her mobile and grab a furtive snap and move on...

The maid's room - yup, pretty tiny.

The maid's room - or in our case, the bomb shelter!  There was a ruling for a while (not sure if is still in effect - but this was within the last 10 years, we're not talking the 50's), that all new apartments built had to include a bomb shelter.  Should our massive apartment building get bombed, whether you are on the top floor, or on the bottom, I'm not sure the bomb shelter would help you out much.  So they are generally used as the maid's room. If you choose to get one. Which we're not.  So our empty luggage will be well protected should the building collapse around us. 

Gas Dryers - who ever heard of a gas tumble dryer?  I scoffed at first, but MY GOD THEY ARE AMAZING.  Dry your clothes in half the time, and gas is cheaper than electricity, so win-win.  When our current drier in Australia dies, I'll be checking out to see if any gas models are available - gotta be worth the extra plumbing costs.

POLITENESS

Paying by credit card - I knew about the two-handed business card gesture (when handing out your business card in Singapore, you should offer it with two hands - which feels very respectful and makes you feel like you are honoured to have this person's contact details - all nice : )  The weird thing is when paying by credit card, the cashier will take your credit card and hand it back with two hands - I always feel like bowing my head slightly when receiving my own credit card back - and it is quite an odd feeling compared to the old slap it through the machine we'd do back home.

People call you when they say they will - i.e. people you don't know - people in shops, or people representing services like internet.  We had a problem with our internet, and they actually called us back several times to see if the problem was fixed.  If that was Telstra, we'd be back on the phone, on hold for 40 minutes AGAIN to try and speak to someone who would have no idea what we were talking about.  Highly refreshing.  I probably shouldn't get used to it - will make service back in Australia seem all the more sour.

In general, Singaporeans are just friendly, polite, and helpful - which makes being a newbie a lot easier : )

Alright, I'm off to lie around feeling sick for a bit more now... really exciting stuff will happen when the morning sickness buggers off.  Promise.  There will even be quilting.  EXCITING QUILTING - I guarantee it.

I leave you with a snap of the kids in front of our massive pool just to make you jealous back home!

x Amelia