화려한역사 (華麗的人類史 ; History Revisited )

My sister had a performance at the Raffles Hotel last Tuesday, and hence I got the chance to enter their auditorium, the Jubilee Hall. Like the hotel itself, this hall is built as a Western construction highlighted with Asian details; the cross-cultural sentiment is a good entry in the textbooks for history, art, or architecture class. Meanwhile, the cross cultural motif can also be approached from its Western colonial origin.

上周二去萊佛士酒店觀賞姊姊社團的公演，場地在Jubilee Hall(有夠英國的命名啊)，和該旅館整體建築一樣，有著中西合璧的風格，堪做歷史、美術史、甚至建築史教科書的範例。這種中西合璧的主題若從另一個角度來看便不全然光彩，畢竟這種文化融合的場景往往發生在血淋淋的西方殖民活動之下。

Along the Singapore river, I was once taking a walk with my colleague, MH, who majored in hotel management and has done internship in a 5 star hotel in Singapore. Overlooking those luxury hotels, she sighed, "Look at them, splendid outside, but dreadfully dark inside. Besides the management level, every worker is treated undesirably." In this highly modernized, Westernized cosmopolis, at the scene of Indian doormen or Malay security guards or Filipino waitresses or Chinese cleaners (or the smiles on their Caucasian masters' faces), I feel like stepping into few centuries back, when the West and the East met, the East India Companies prospered with slave trade and etc, and then I couldn't help but wonder, had history really evolved?
有次我和同事MH在新加坡河畔漫步，專業是酒店管理、曾在新加坡某五星酒店實習的她，嘆道，"你看，那些酒店是多麼輝煌耀眼，內部其實無比黑暗，除了管理階層的人，大家都不被當人看。"在這個高度現代化、國際化的新加坡，依舊隨處可見印度看門人、馬來警衛、菲律賓女侍、中國清潔工(以及白種人的意氣風發)，種種景象讓我仿若置身數世紀之前，彼時歐洲諸國東印度公司正大肆拓展各種商業活動，出現在此歷史場景的還有奴隸貿易、越洋華工等等。於是我不禁質疑:真的有時代演進這種事嗎?

Raffles Hotel - A Taste of Historical Fusion

那一天 ( 그날 )

We horribly fought on the night of 22nd Dec 2009, and the next day, 23rd Dec, after coming back from tuition, I saw this on our wall. They then became the place where we harbor dreams; it could be a gift that we get for each other which the other party has wanted for long, or a love letter that carries endless affection.  

去年的12月22日晚上，我們有了嚴重的爭吵。12月23日晚上，我幫學生上課回來後，看到房間牆上掛著兩隻襪子，是之前我們在otto看到我就念著一直想買的襪子。從此之後，這襪子變成了儲藏我們夢想的地方，有時是我們準備給彼此的小禮物，有時是一封滿溢著情感的書信。

Don't Buy Me Christmas Gift Sets



Crabtree & Evelyn @ Raffles City

Now, Singaporeans are even queuing for shopping. By queuing here I do not mean queuing for paying, but for entering the store, ah-ha. Piles of identical Christmas-ly gift sets scattering around the store, sometimes even grouped according to price range, and I begin to wonder why people buy Christmas gift sets. I mean, why would you ever want to officially make the receiver realize that you are not all that sincere?



Royce @ Ion Orchard (source)

在新加坡不論何時何地你都可以發現你在排隊(當然，你還會被插隊XD)，而最近連一般商店都有LV的派頭，可以看到人龍排隊等著進門選購聖誕禮盒。那些包裝得一模一樣的聖誕禮盒從門內堆到門外，有些商家(例如the Body Shop)還依照價格將禮盒分門別類。送禮自然是看心意，不是看價錢，所以我老覺得，如果送禮送到這份兒上，挑現成禮盒、照價錢選購，還不如不要送，反正收的人也知道你沒多大誠意。

Because They Believe So

So 23:59 and 24:00, as well as 05:59 and 06:00, make difference.

p.s. I have created a tag under "The Lego Mystery", for those inexplicable experiences taking place in this Lego City, Singapore. Some time later I might explain why I call it the Lego City.

哪來的美麗

就說人不要鐵齒。身為寒帶生物極度厭惡濕熱天氣的我，在寒帶國家流連三兩年後，在這該老不老的年紀跑回新加坡來了，鎮日同瘴癘之氣、汗味體味榴槤味等等等奮鬥。

今天上班時發現車站的遮陽棚被拆了，曝曬在赤裸裸烈日下的我只能不斷洗腦自己，"我有戴太陽眼鏡，烈日對我一點都沒有影響，沒有影響......個頭!" 在這種汗如雨下的份兒上，誰還能保持美麗的妝容儀容? 也難怪我的化妝時間不自覺從1小時縮短到10分鐘，開始這個算了那個也省了，反正等會流了汗一下就掉光光。想想，難怪很多人覺得韓國女人美麗，先天的地理氣候條件似乎就注定他們天生的白嫩肌膚、輕易維持的完美妝容、保障他們穿著高跟鞋短裙在街上優雅往來的權力。

同樣的，添購衣物鞋包的欲望也大大降低。天氣熱，衣著變化自然就少，包包不捨得買真皮的，容易發霉，多雨炎熱的天氣也不適合穿著精緻的鞋子趴趴走。而這恐怕不是我個人意見，依據我觀察長住本地的韓日族群，他們被同化的也不少，平底鞋、寬大簡單的mix match、頂多框個粗粗的眼線、當媽的甚至還會素顏，要知道我在韓國可沒看過幾個素顏上街的女人啊。

話說，瀏海留慣了，現在不留一下子看起來老了5歲，可這種天氣我還怎麼留瀏海? 許先生曾說，"真正的潮人才不會受氣候影響打扮。" 他明天就要從零下幾度的首爾來新加坡了，我看他怎麼實行自己說的東西，啊哈哈(其實他上次來，就已經很堅持在大太陽下還要圍他的羊毛圍巾)。



Dec 2010 in Singapore

VS

Dec. 2009 in Seoul

讓我深感威脅的那些小小的夢想

新加坡有很多外國人，不管是華人印尼人印度人馬來人泰國人越南人，每個人都可以憑著努力昂首闊步；人們不會不厭其煩的問你是何種族、出身何方、混了哪些血統，因為這裡到處都有此地彼地的人，看多了也見怪不怪，到最後只著眼於你在這幹些什麼、在社會上謀得了什麼地位。

要說新加坡跟香港一個不同點，就是香港畢竟是華人主導的社會，上層階級是華人和白人的地盤，而在新加坡，華人人口佔大多數，但卻不代表華人佔高位的相對比例較大，只要你有能力，英文說得溜，爬到高位不是問題；香港的東南亞族裔，不管是本地出身或來自國外，從事的多半是所謂社會底層的工作，而在新加坡，任何人可以出現在任何階層，人們不會以種族去設想一個人的社會地位，也因此，在這種社會氛圍下，族群間的歧視亦相對輕微。

充滿和睦氣氛的新加坡是個很容易使人安逸的地方，人們覺得生活裡沒有威脅，只要肯努力，就能買一套房子、一輛車子、養一個家。也許，因為地理位置的臨近，從周邊國家抵達新加坡的外來人口，當初就是懷著類似這樣的小小夢想，跨越了這樣小小的距離，來到新加坡。再遠的目的地沒有了，因為這個小島能讓你做夢的空間本來就有限。

所以，在這裡遇到的人，和我過去在其他地方遇過的人，有好大的不同。過去我身邊總是那些懷著大大的夢想的人，他們遠渡重洋，跑到好遠的地方去做好大的夢。雖然我們哪知道大大的夢是否不切實際，但它確實曾將你生命的幅度擴張到一個懷著小小的夢想的人無法觸碰的極致。

Where are we from? 5 girls of 5 different places. It doesn't matter.

A Laundry Shop's Multi-culturalism

There are a hundred negative things I can say about Singaporeans, somehow one thing I admire them a lot is their multi-culturalism (multi-racialism), which can be seen as easily as from a laundry shop.

我可以舉出上百個我不喜歡新加坡的理由，但他們的多元種族環境是我相當欽仰的一點。從一間洗衣店可以提供的服務就可得知，涵括馬來衣( Naju Kurong / Kebaya )、印度衣( Punjabi )、以及沙厘( Saree )。被如此環境耳濡目染的人們，種族意識自然就不像單一民族社會一樣愛大驚小怪(有嗅出我在暗示誰嗎XD)。

Fika @ FIKA

Fika is one the the very first Swedish words I learned, and it is also deemed as a key word to knowing Swedish culture. You might use the concept of "coffee break" or "tea time" to understand fika, but somehow fika is still slightly different from these 2 words as it usually refers to moments spent with people, not on your own.

So this so called Swedish restaurant is named FIKA, serving a variety of Swedish courses, desserts, and beverages. As I am not a big fan of Swedish dishes (they taste either too raw or too salty for me), I only tried their fika set (tea set), and as fika can go on any time of the day, not necessarily in the afternoon, the fika set is served throughout the day, pricing at SGD 9.9+.

And so here I was, enjoying a wonderful afternoon. I tried the Strawberry Daiquiry Cake and Chocolate Caramel Mousse Cake with 2 Swedish fruit tea and black tea. I did not try their coffee as I realized the brand they are using is not Swedish brands like Gevalia or  Löfbergs Lila but Lavazza (I love Lavazza but it's just not what I am here for!?).
fika cafe : No. 257 Beach Rd (5 min walk from Bugis stn); Tel. 63969096

Korean Egg - Symbol of A Higher Civilization (韓國的雞蛋比較圓)

Not just melo dramas and super Hallyu stars on the screen, from cosmetics stores to accessories shops, to citizens of this mini island, those things of Korean origin represent symbols that you can look up to. And this time, it's Korean Egg!!! Can anyone tell me what's next?

才怪。從韓劇到韓流明星到韓妝品牌到首飾店鋪，現在連韓蛋都可以做文章了。這車廂廣告我還只照了1/4，您說說這至於嗎。