Life got a little crazy over the weekend. And then I got really stuck at M. “Passing” letters for now but hope to complete the all the letters eventually.
L is for Lift April 16, 2015
I wrote this in sort-of Singlish because I’m having a lot more difficulty writing this time round for the Blogging from A-Z Challenge. So decided to throw grammatical rules into the air.
A bit of translation:
n’eh mind – never mind
aiyoh – goodness me
chope – reserve/secure
dowan – don’t want
K is for Kindness April 15, 2015
Have been rather swamped and need to play catch-up!
Some context to this photo: Singapore has a Singapore Kindness Movement campaign encouraging people to be more urm kind. The mascot is Singa the Courtesy Lion (whom you see here with my son). “Go fly a kite” is a local phrase that essentially means sod off.
J is for Joke April 11, 2015
To me, there’s this prevalent harshness that’s part of Singapore’s overachieving culture. It’s only after hitting my 30s that I’m more ready to flip a finger on such judgmentalism. But am I being harsh on the harshness? Overthinking again…
I is for Installation April 10, 2015
I frankly am not quite sure what the poem is about. So will just leave it at that.
But for the photo: an installation of plastic chairs (typically used in kopitiams here).
H is for Harry April 9, 2015
Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015) was Singapore’s first Prime Minister and he’s like the Fidel Castro of Asia except he actually made a country work (but I’m very bad with political commentary, a much fairer and comprehensive analysis can be found here). His English name was Harry. He passed away on 23 March 2015, and the whole country mourned so woefully in a way I could not understand. Probably because so much of Singapore is Harry. But if I wanted to get a little bit more real, so much of my crazy family dynamics was a result of what my mum felt was what Harry thought was right. He was her first big crush (he waved to her from an election lorry sometime in the 1960s) and she always told me, “We’re Hakka like him.” Ironically, because she absolutely believed that Chinese dialects should not be uttered in our house because Harry said so, I don’t know a word of Hakka even though it was my mother’s first language.
G is for Glimmer April 8, 2015
Am tired so am unable to form some semblance of a poem. I also felt I’d be a little less negative today.
F is for Fence April 7, 2015
I chose to stay at possibly the most remote neighbourhood in Singapore six years ago because I was already feeling overwhelmed by crowds on most days. When I first moved in, the nights were actually silent. But now the huge empty field near my flat will be a new residential area. Lots of digging and pounding these days.
E is for Exit April 6, 2015
Ever since I was a child, I was told that I was ungrateful for wanting to live somewhere else besides Singapore. Very few understand that there are places that I intuitively just feel comfortable in, and Singapore is not one of them. But at the same time, having lived “medium-term” in other countries, I know life isn’t perfect on the other side as well. The way things are now: live life here in my own terms as much as possible, but get away when I can.
D is for Doze April 4, 2015
The trains in Singapore are often packed, even during off-peak hours. I’m generally averse to crowds so I find that if I focus on a face or two, it feels a little less impersonal.
mental indigestion 