Comparison between living in Sweden and Singapore ; from the Market Perspective

         I do not own rights to this video, but this is one Swede's perspective of his 2 years living in Singapore after having lived his earlier life in Sweden. 

         Its always easy to criticise the tough aspects about living in Singapore, so sometimes its good to hear from a Western perspective, totally devoid of bias and purely based on ease of living and quality of life. 


      


      This video comes in 2 parts and in Part 2 ; the Vlogger gets so taken up by Singapore's orderly and clean society - compared to Sweden now. Sweden was once touted as the perfect Scandinavian image to the world, but now some of it (in the city anyway) has degenerated into lawlessness, homelessness and lack of civic consciousness by its people and inhabitants. This is his viewpoint in the video and not mine. 

       Its no surprise Singapore has recently emerged as the most liveable and the city has the highest quality of life in Asia.  

This Lor Mee stall can't make it

        

           Situated at the basement 2 of Vivocity is the KopiTiam foodcourt. there are at least 15 food stalls and today I ventured to try the Lor Mee (or dry noodle with gravy). Lor Mee is a staple dish at many food centres and Vivocity was no exception. I decided to give it a try and spent $5 for a Signature Bowl.  The name of this stall is called Penang Cuisine and during breakfast time around 9.30 am, the food court had just opened.   

          Much to my disappointment, the bowl of noodles had 3 fried shark pieces, 4 sliced fish cakes and nothing much else. It was full of yellow noodles, super thick gravy. Normally I would expect the Lor Mee to come with some posk belly slices, additional fish bits, more fish cake and generous helping of shark pieces.

         The stall 138 at Tiong bahru Hawker Center (scheduled for reopening on 19th May) is so much better in terms of taste, and much more ingredients.

         So my rating for this :

-    Food quality  : 1.5 out of 5

-   Service          : 2.5 out of 5

    Overall           : Cannot Make the Grade ; in Singlish Cannot Make It 



     

Cognitive Dissonance - What Exactly is It ?

                  This cartoon by Dilbert brilliantly explains the cognitive dissonance theory 


     Cognitive dissonance is a state of mind whereby humans or animals (if they can think),
create an acceptable illusion ('deal with it') of their situation even though their current situation is considered so absurd or contradictory to their rational beliefs or state of mind.Dilbert's cartoon so brilliantly exemplifies this theory. 

    A good example is this fable by Aesop, long time ago, there was this hungry fox, he was wandering around a nice wine estate and chanced upon some lovely grapes which looked so ripe and juicy. The trouble was that the grapes were hanging high up from the branches and the fox had to try its best to jump to reach them. he envisioned that the grapes would be really sweet and melt in his hungry and thirsty mouth.

   So, he want just below it, with all his might, he jumped high up and snapped. He missed it and chewed air. Damn ! he said to himself, so close ! So he tried again and again with all his might and jumped up 8 more times. Again he fell back to earth disappointed and with a mouthful of bitter defeat. Nothing.

   Finally he tried the running and jumping from a distance. 3 more times he tried and failed.
Damn ! again he missed it. 

   He slowly walked away in disgust and told himself : " ah what the heck, the grapes would have probably tasted sour and I would not have liked them at all".

   He created an illusion that it was better not to have eaten the unattainable fruit or goals

   Hence the common phrase "sour grapes".  .

  

Peranakan Museum ; A Gem of a Museum Part II

Peranakan Museum at Armenian Street ; A Gem of a Museum Part I

The entrance of Peranakan Museum at Armenian Street 

       Last weekend, as I was out on an errand, I chanced upon the Peranakan Museum, which is located at Armenian Street, next to an open air carpark and after the Bible House on the left hand side. It is just before Timbre and the Substation, and the building was formerly the Tao Nan school and has been conserved for purposes in the public interest.

      Painted in azure blue, the museum houses 3 floors of Peranakan artifacts, mostly donated by Peranakans over the decades.The word Peranakan  means Straits born Chinese people, Straits meaning Straits of Malacca. The Peranakans first came over during the 17th century, mainly as odd job labourers and businessmen and settled here. The 'sons of the soil' or 'bumiputra' people are the indigenous Malay people hence the word Malay Archipelago where the island of Singapore is at the very bottom end of it. Some Chinese married the locals over the centuries, while others went back to China and brought back to Malaya and Singapore their wives and over the last 2 centuries developed their own Peranakan or Baba Chinese culture which was initially Chinese but infused with some Malay influences. 

Sarong Kebaya uniform of Singapore Airlines 

         Many dishes of the Peranakan Chinese are still around today, some famous ones are the Babi Ponteh (Pork curry), the Itek Tim (Duck vegetable soup) and Ayam Buak Keluak (Chicken masala curry with local spice nut). They are very tasty but extremely high in oil and animal fat. The entry fee for Singaporeans and PRs is S$ 4 while that for foreigners is $10.

The embroidery of the Peranakan Chinese is fascinating and can be seen by the painstaking efforts they use to embroider their sarong kebayas, tableclothes, wedding clothes, tea cosy and bed linen.

Ayam (chicken) Bua Keluak (the tamarind nut)  curry 

a side note ; the keluak black nut is naturally found in mangrove swamps of SE Asia. Its latin name is called Pangium Edule and the raw fruit is naturally poisonous, containing hydrogen cynaide inside it. it is rendered harmless and edible by steaming, boiling or fermentation. 

        The trademark Sarong Kebaya  worn by the Singapore girl air stewardess is inspired from the dress of the same name ! 

The building housing the museum once was the Tao Nan school which moved to the East Coast in 1982 

                                                              Wedding Bed 

        The museum is open for 7 days each week from 10 am - 7pm. Its well worth a visit and I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in Singapore's history, particularly of the local born Chinese to pay a visit. The above wedding chamber bed is made of 2 sections, one is the double bed, presumably for the couple to conceive and the outer bed is a single bed, presumably for the person to change up before he steps onto the ground.

        Peranakan weddings are an elaborate affair lasting up to 12 days (in the past). The customs of the Peranakans of yesteryear was that if the couple wanted to conceive a son, a rooster would pop up from under the bed (placed by anxious relatives of course!). If they wanted a girl then a hen would pop up !

       Imagine trying to have an intimate time with a rooster and hens underneath the bed !  

G.E.M. is the biggest star to emerge from China

        Born in Hong Kong and choosing to sing in Mandarin rather than Cantonese, GEM is currently embarking on a 100 cities tour of China. Nothing can stop this young lady from making it really big. She was a semifinalist in the 2nd edition of The Voice China. Her vocals are strong and she exudes a confident lady image, much like A Mei of the '90s.

Important Steps as to how to deal with WannyCry Ransom Ware

Shared by WSJ a few days ago from a friend, Kent Tan 

          My Outlook Express mail server every other day receives suspicious emails telling me that I've won the lottery, received Purchase Orders from hitherto unknown companies, payments from UK, requests for items to purchase again from unknown companies and bogus requests for quotes with zip attachments. I normally discard them and run the McAfee Scan just to be safe. 3 days ago the Ransomware virus affected many PCs worldwide and our 2 Universities  NUS and NTU were hit. It is a dangerous world we live in whereby there are scams abound at every innocuous email and requests for quotes. 

Just disable SMB to Prevent against WannaCry Attacks 

      This simple procedure should help you and your PCs to disable this virus once and for all. Lets never take web safety and people's sincerity for granted. There are many crooks out there together with the well meaning good people in society I am afraid.   

                Follow this 2 simple steps and save yourself a lot of trouble later on.