The Move

One of the many reasons that I started this blog is because I’ve moved to Singapore from Malaysia with my husband. And that I’m currently not working therefore, I have plenty of time to kill (honestly!) and I want to be able to share my thoughts and what I’m doing without going crazy.

We both have friends living here in Singapore and occasionally we hangout with them. It is also nice to spend time at home (save money!). I’m still trying to get used to living in a different country because :

• we don’t have a car here and we have to be mindful of what we can buy and not buy (taking public transport here is easy BUT it also depends on where you live and whether you need to transfer to another bus OR just take a GRAB/UBER home)
• we have just moved in to our 1 bedroom condo vs our 3 bedrooms condo back home
• i miss my coffee machine because i’m a coffee addict and i’m still thinking about whether to move it here or not. whether i should buy one here (cheaper unit!) and kinda live with it. and when i go back to Malaysia, i can still make my favourite coffee.
• i have to start afresh with every single thing like opening a bank account, getting a job, getting around and etc. it has been a real headache for us both to ensure that we both bring the necessary documents for anything really. we literally ran around with worry about everything. whether we have enough money for things that we need around the house, for daily use and whatnot. we definitely thank our good friends for helping us out from condo hunting, condo deposit (the reason is simple, MY’s currency is weaker than SG’s and the logic is that it is better to pay with SG and return it with SG when my husband’s salary is out. we will lose quite a fair bit when we do a foreign exchange – make sense right?)
• i find that alcohol prices are higher here and that’s not good because I do enjoy the occasional drink (weekly – used to be daily back home!) for e.g a bottle of Rawson Retreat red wine is retailed at RM59.90 back home and it’s sold around $27 here (RM85) and Korean Soju is retailed at RM14 back home and it’s sold around $14-$16 here (RM44-RM50). i know i shouldn’t convert the prices but i’m not working now and it’s hard not to.
• i’m not used to the hawker food here because there’s a lot of weird combo. the taste are quite bland too. perhaps this is a good thing as it is healthier to eat less salt. BUT i noticed that i crave for more sweet food now that my main dish is bland. SO, in a way, it is a vicious cycle.

There are merits in living in Singapore and not all things are bad. But will all good things and enjoyment, it requires money. I love the variety of milk (Meiji of course!), 24 hours Fairprice, well-lit and clean parks, efficient public transportation, efficient government offices, general customer service for all sectors, clean public toilets, wonderful selections of cafes and restaurants (they serve awesome food!), paperless country and safe to travel alone.

 

 

Weekend Getaway : Melaka/Malacca

4 of us rented a car to go to Melaka for a weekend getaway. 3 hours drive and was freaking hungry before we reach Melaka coz we left right after work. Stopped at Machap R&R for a quick bite. The food is meh, don’t bother.

We’ve informed our Airbnb host that we’ll be arriving late and self check-in is possible. We rented a house with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. The listing is here. We paid about S$160 for 2 nights stay. (S$40/person). It’s fairly near to the Jonker Street area. It’s about 5mins drive.

We had ‘satay celup’ which literally means dipped satay.  It’s not your usual satay cooked over charcoal fire. This is pretty much like ‘lok lok’ dipped in diluted peanut satay sauce.

Honestly speaking, I don’t like ‘satay celup’ at all. But one of my friend have not tried this and so we brought him there. We ate like RM68 (S$23) worth of satay even though we don’t like it…haha….what a bunch of gluttons.

After that, we head off to 7 Eleven to stock up on drinks and snacks. We spent over [RM230 (S$77) <— first time in my life and in all our lives combined ] on beers and a couple of snacks. Head back to our Airbnb and drink the night away. Should’ve taken a photo but I was tired.

***

Woke up the next morning, the co-host contacted us and wanted to come over to say hello. What a sweet guy 🙂 Ask him to recommend us a good place for Nyonya food (Peranakan cuisine).

This place is so good and it’s about RM120 (S$40 / S$10 per pax). If you wanna know where, ask me. After lunch, we went and tapau the famous pork lard popiah. It’s about RM6 (S$2). Soooooooooooo good!

We went to a cafe in Jonker Street but that place is nothing to shout about. I’m not gonna share it.

The highlight of this trip is actually the “putu piring”. It’s a round steamed rice cake filled with palm sugar and eaten with freshly grated coconuts. Best dessert ever. My friend complaint about the long queue but this putu piring shut him right up.

We queued for 30 minutes and bought 12 pcs @ RM1.20 each (S$0.40). This is to die for.

We had chicken rice balls and it was nothing to shout about. The restaurant that I wanted to bring my friends were closed so we had no choice but to eat at an alternative restaurant. We went for a massage after that. Did not managed to book a better place.

It was cheap… like RM45 (S$15) for 60 mins foot reflexology….

We head over to a pub in Jonker Street for a couple of drinks and went back to our Airbnb after that.

***

Last day of our trip, the co-host contacted us again and this time he bought us putu piring from another stall. He said that it’s for us to compare which one we prefer. Such a sweet man. No need to share the photo as we all agreed that the one we had last night as our preferred choice.

We checked out of our Airbnb home and started hunting for food before heading back to SG. We left the house around noon and had all those food below. And started heading back to SG at 3pm.

 

The drive back was hellish. Heavy downpour and various accidents along the highway. Long queue at the CIQ area in Woodlands. Dramatic run to the toilet to ease our bowels. All in all, it was a fun trip. Don’t mind going again….. 😉

The day after April Fool’s Day

Weather : Gloomy 

Productivity : Zero (Bad internet connection – is it the rain or the telco’s connectivity issue?)

Mood : Meh

The day started out just like every other day. I went to work and while listening to my current favourite song on loop (Swimming Pool by Taylor).

Thank God that I’ve quit smoking many years ago, or I won’t have any stamina to climb that many staircase to work everyday.

MRT – escalator – walk – escalator – walk – staircase – walk – staircase – walk – staircase – OFFICE and vice versa.

Guess what ? When I got to the office, the internet has no connection no matter what and I have a conference call at 11am. What a great way to start the day.

Grab all my stuff, walk down 3 flights of stairs coz my current temporary office is located on the top floor (3rd floor). Walk for about 100m, walk up another 3 flights of stairs to my old and permanent office. (my old office is also located on the 3rd floor on another block) Park my butt in the meeting room and leech on the wifi.

While I was in the middle of my conference call, some rude people barged in to the meeting room and wanted to take over the place. No way in hell am I gonna move. Off you go, bai bai~~

***

Lunch in the CBD area is hell. Too many people, too few seats available and too expensive.

***

Walked back to the office and surprise…surprise! The internet is still NOT working. Switched on my hotspot and send out an important email. Pack my stuff and leave the office in search of wifi.

***

Some friends asked us out for dinner tonight. There’ll be like 7 of us and I really don’t want to see 2 of them coz it’s a bad enough day and I don’t want my evening to be ruined. They don’t know yet that my husband and I are not joining. It’s an hour to our agreed dinner time. (OMG so exciting!)

***

Some new updates here :

• love the library here now that i’m a member and  can borrow books, user friendly app and book drop
• library @ harbourfront has the best view and such a great space. sorry daiso! the library trumps over you… hehe
• it’s tax season… bye bye $$$
• stress level at work is super high, hormone imbalance and substantial coffee and alcohol consumption

 

kthxbai 😉

1+ year in SG

Time flies here in Singapore…

In a blink of an eye, I’ve lived here for about 1 year +and worked to closed to a year. I guess I’m kinda used to living here and liking it.  I was pondering about it on one of my many bus rides here. Suddenly it came to me that I quite like living here and not feeling frustrated being stuck in traffic back home.

And I’m getting used to the food here and know my way around places that I enjoy having a meal and not. My go-to food when I’m feeling meh is Yong Tau Foo or Niang Dou Fu. It’s one of the safest food option after Chicken Rice.

Anyway, I’m now a bit excited because my Hubs and I are visiting Taiwan after 10 years!!! Can you believe it???  We’re going in a couple of days and I haven’t planned our itinerary yet. Normally, I would’ve done so couple of weeks ago. This time around though, I don’t know what has gotten into me. I just feel too lazy and not motivated to plan anything.

BUT… we did managed to change some TWD earlier this evening in Bedok (one of the best place to change money) and packed some basic stuff before our full-on packing mode this Tuesday or so. We kept asking each other is SGD1000 per person enough for our 6D5N trip ? We are thinking of hiring private taxis for our Taichung sightseeing tours. And probably another one for our Jiufen/Shifen leg. Previously we took public transport for this and it was a hassle.

Anyway, I’m getting excited to get away from the city and going overseas for a few days of R&R. Til then….

Craft beers

I have never been a fan of beer… Generally,I enjoy drinking whiskey, vodka, Korean soju and red wine. About a month back, my colleague ‘jio’ for a drink (craft beer) and XLB (xiao loong bao) at a hawker centre. I was thinking to myself, ‘what?”

We work around the Chinatown/Telok Ayer area (CBD area) and it’s walking distance to some drinking places. Those of us who don’t know about this place were scratching our heads. Where could this place be?

Our destination ? Smith St Hawker Centre. Located opposite the People’s Park Complex (the most iconic building in Chinatown).

The craft beers are on tap, super fresh and cheaper than most places. Price ranges from $12 and above. Every week there will be different types of craft beers on tap. To pair with our craft beers, we ordered ; satay, XLB (#02-135) and claypot chicken rice.

It was a fascinating experience for us because it’s the first time we drank craft beers at a hawker centre. BUT we were hooked and have been going there on a weekly basis.

Oh my

I realized that I haven’t update this blog for a while. Bad girl! Bad bad girl!

A lot has happened since then… I started working and getting to know the locals a little better. I’m much better at finding my way around the country. I love my job mainly because I get paid, I get to travel around the country, I get to meet a lot of people and I get to know where the good food are. Yay for me!

Last month, I went home to Malaysia to celebrate Chinese New Year for like a week plus. We were back to our home and to Penang (husband’s hometown). I had dinner with my parents once and my friends once and we were off to visit my in-laws. We spent most of our time there and flew back to the city and spent the rest of the holiday lazing at our home. We enjoyed it thoroughly because we have now lived in Singapore longer than our new apartment in Malaysia.

Today I went to Liang Court to buy some groceries and they have finally restocked this. I haven’t tried this before but I saw it on one of the Japanese drama series and have always wanted to try it. So being the weak me when it comes to food, I bought one to try. It’s $2.75 per cup…expensive! OMG! It’s so good and I can’t get enough of it. I think I will go back there and stock up.

I was also planning to have Japanese Pork rice located on the 2nd or 3rd floor but alas it has closed down. What a waste! The food was so good BUT maybe it closed down because it was too pricey. And I wanted to reward myself with a good slice of cake. Cafe Patisserie Ma Maison has also closed down. It’s just not my day and because of this, I want to eat it even more.

So, anyway… things are much easier now. And I’m feeling much happier.

Busy like a bee

Since I started working here, I’ve been so busy that I did not have to time to update this blog. I’m no longer idle…haha

I do want to share my experience at the Gardens by the Bay with some pictures and stuff. Will try to find time when I fly back to Malaysia for the Chinese New Year break.

 

Stay tuned!

Ctrl C then Ctrl V

I live on the east side of Singapore and spend most of time around this area and Central for work. I went to the west side once to take a bus to JB and spent minimal time there.

Today, I spent half the day on the west side for work. I arrived at the first venue early so I walked over to a cafe for a cup of coffee. I was yawning the whole journey. While walking to the cafe, I noticed a beautiful modern structure and got a shocked when I found out what it is. It’s a monastery called Mahabodhi.

After my coffee break and first meeting, I took a Grab to the Jurong West area. I haven’t been there before but it felt familiar. The housing estates are generally built the same with a hawker centre, supermarket, convenience store and etc.

I left to find the bus to bring me to the nearest MRT station. I arrived at Boon Lay Station and experienced deja vu. The place reminded me of Tampines Interchange.

Once you know how to manoeuvre at one bus interchange to MRT, you will know where to go anywhere else in the country. There’s a sense of assurance even though it was my first time there.

I finally bought a pair of wireless earphones today. No more dangling wires while listening to music. Woohoo~~ hallelujah to Christmas sale!

How to order coffee in SG

I  love coffee… any kinds of coffee except for Vietnamese. I used to be able to drink it but one fine day, I can no longer take it. It gave me a splitting headache and I guess it was too strong. Whenever my friends go to Vietnam for holiday, they will buy back the coffee as souvenir. And every single time, I will pass it over to my husband. No way I’m touching it!

When I first moved to Singapore and ordered coffee from the hawker centre, I heard a strange term that I’ve never heard before, “siew dai”. I’ve asked some locals about it and asked what dialect it is and nobody can answer me. They just said, “it’s a singaporean thing”.

Being curious and all, I finally consulted Mr Google and it’s HockChew/Fuzhou dialect. This dialect is very rare in KL because the locals there speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. The only place in Malaysia that I know of that speaks Fuzhou is Sitiawan in Perak.

Anyway, “siew dai” means less sugar and “gao siew dai” means strong coffee with less sugar. I now know how to place my Yakun coffee order, “kopi o siew dai“. (black coffee with less sugar)

 

2D1N – JB

Last weekend we decided to take a bus to JB in Malaysia for a lil r&r. I texted my cousin to ask whether it was okay for us to stay the night and she said, “YES!”. I wanted to see my nephew who is currently 3 years old and visit my relatives as they have asked my parents whether my husband and I will want to stay overnight at their place in JB.

After 4 months in Singapore and everything is quite settled, and we wanted to do something different for the weekend.

We woke up super early (7-ish am and it’s earlier than I normally get up for work anyway) and started getting ready and all. Left the house at 8-ish to wait for the bus to Jurong East Interchange. It’s just weird that we both enjoy prefer taking the bus than the train..haha…no surprise there, it took us about an hour coz we live on the east and Jurong is on the west and we took the Express bus!!!

Upon reaching Jurong East Interchange, I realised that I need to reload my EZLink card and the counter was closed (maybe it was too early but I doubt it) and the machine was a bit nuts. I did not managed to reload my card and I was rushing for time and the CW3 bus was already there at the berth. CW3 bus goes to Perling Mall, Bukit Indah and Larkin Terminal in JB. This is the website on the routes (https://causewaylink.com.my/singapore-bus). So, we each paid $4 to get on the bus to JB.

Taking the CW3 bus requires a lot of patience. We were pretty unlucky that day coz there was too many people and not enough buses to ferry everyone over to the other side. The idea is that you take the CW3 bus to Tuas CIQ and get your passport stamped and whatnot but you gotta be quick and run for it coz the bus waits for no one. If you miss the bus, just wait for the next one to get into the Malaysia side of the CIQ. Repeat again what you just did at Tuas CIQ and this time, bags need to be scanned. If you don’t have a bag, just proceed to the exit and wait for the CW3 bus again. On Malaysia’s side though, there’s a lack of signage and we had to really look around to know where to queue. It was a disaster.

After waiting for 2 rounds, we finally managed to get on the bus and it was packed like sardines in a can. All in all, it took us about 4 hours to reach JB. We joked that we would’ve reach KL if we drove.

We asked for the bus to just drop us off on one of the bus stops in a housing area and I called my cousin to come pick us up. It was crazy being stuck inside the bus. It was a super hot day.

I saw my cute nephew coz he was in the car and was curious and shy. I haven’t seen him for over a year (I think!) but luckily, he was okay and play around with us. We got him a toy car and he played with it the whole day.

My cousin sister was a bit busy during the day and we felt bad for disturbing her. My nephew needed to take a nap and we wanted to go out to buy some stuff so my aunty came to the rescue and offered us her car keys. Yay!

We managed to buy our stuff after going to 2 malls and was beyond sleepy and tired. It’s time to look for coffee. I love the cafes in JB because mostly serve decent coffees and the interiors are beautiful.

This cafe is called “Flowers in the Window” and it’s located at Jalan Dhoby in JB. It is owned by Roost Cafe, just a few doors down. It’s located on the older side of JB and it actually looks like Little India in Singapore. This cafe closes at 8pm because at night, the roads are closed for night bazaar.

It was pretty empty when we got there and the staffs are super friendly. I saw some lovely cakes but did not order any because I didn’t want to spoil my appetite for dinner. Probably I might check it out the next time we go there again.

We left shortly after to avoid traffic and road closure around that area. Got back to my relative’s place and wait for dinner with the rest of the family.

I forgot to take pictures of where we went at night because I was busy catching up with my cousins. It was nice to do something different and be with family again.

The next morning, we woke up around 10am and they went out for breakfast. We did not join coz we were sleeping like pigs. Thinking back to what happened the day before (the commute), we decided to leave JB shortly after and did not stay for lunch.

We took the bus from Giant in Bukit Indah and once again, we were lucky coz the bus was already there. We paid RM5 each for the bus fare back to Singapore. Super cheap! It was pretty empty… good sign!

This time around, we feel more relaxed and enjoyed the bus ride back. Clearing immigration was a breeze too. It took us about an hour to get back into Singapore. We had lunch at the Jurong East Interchange. There’s this Korean burger joint called Burger Monster (awesome playlist too!). The price is super cheap and the portion is huge. Tastes quite good too. If I’m not mistaken, they also own the popular fried chicken joint called Chicken Up. My grilled chicken burger is $5 and my husband ordered the Bulgogi Roll for $3.

It was a fun 2D1N trip for both of us although we didn’t do much.

We recently met up with my husband’s friend and told him about our little adventure. He offered to drive us to JB the next time. He said that they no longer go to JB because their teenage daughters do not want to follow them. We offered ourselves as companion for the next JB trip. I think a day trip is sufficient. 😉

Bank

Opening up a bank account gave us the biggest headache and the reasons are :

• to meet the company payroll deadline
• did not have an address in Singapore hence no Tenancy Agreement or any utility bill to prove of address
• EP card was not ready yet. Only had the IPA.
• do not want to deposit $1000-$3000 and had to maintain those amount or had to pay the fall below fee (coz we are cheap like that)

So anyway, in order to open up a bank account in Singapore, you need a prove of address. Your best bet is to get your HR to issue you a letter to prove that you live there. If you haven’t got your name on the Tenancy Agreement or for whatever reason.

I supposed the bank might’ve had some bad experience with allowing people holding IPA instead of the actual card in the past. I don’t know this but it is my own assumption.

As mentioned above, we are cheap therefore we do not want to maintain a minimum amount in the bank for whatever reason. We were just starting out and don’t have so much moolah to throw around.

This is possible and you just need to know which bank and how to apply for it.

There was a helpful staff at the bank that informed us that we will need to deposit $3000 in order to open an account at the branch provided all the documentations are in order. This is standard procedures for any banks anywhere, just that the deposit amount differs depending on whether you are a citizen or foreigners.

BUT, if you wish to open an account but don’t have $3000 to throw around, you can apply for it online via their website. Ensure that you have a scanner to scan all the required documents.

I also read somewhere that DP holders are not allowed to open their own bank account in Singapore. It’s pure bullshit! I went to a few banks to ask and it is allowed PROVIDED you have a job (this is to prove your address and salary deposit). It is do-able and you don’t need to open a joint account with your spouse. There is still that minimum deposit of $1000 for foreigner and maintain that as a minimum amount.

If you have loads of money, then opening a bank account is not really an issue. Just wanna share my personal experience and I’ve finally got mine done… the drama is finally over~