Back as a typical Singaporean

Wow… after close to 10 months here, I’m about to fly home to Singapore for my vacation. It feels surreal, yet at the same time I already know what Im going to do every day for the next few weeks – everything is planned, slotted into my agenda, flawless and impeccable, just like a typical Singaporean, as if I had never left.

I barely make plans more than a week ahead here in Buenos Aires, but like a true, busy, efficient Singapore girl, I know how important time is to everyone else on the island nation, so a month before flying off, I had done all my prep work and sent out emails asking my friends when they would be free to meet up. It’s amazing how easily I slip back into SG-mode, even after being so accustomed to life here in BA. It’s as easy as flipping the switch on and off the sleep mode for your iPhone.

Knowing I’m going home to visit, but also knowing that I will be back in BA in a few weeks, is like having two homes that you love equally, and now I get to be with both.

Am so terribly excited to see all my friends, my family, give them their gifts, tell them exotic Latin American stories of fiestas and chicos lindos, and to hear all the updates in their lives and in Singapore over the past 10 months. I am wondering how I’m going to react to being back home and witnessing the change in the landscape (particularly the view of Marina Bay and the newly-sprouted buildings and Integrated Resorts, and bitching about life in our very broken English and Singlish, and delighting in our heavenly local cuisine.

I have also made plans for a holiday from my holiday – so it won’t feel as if my vacation is spent only at home in Singapore – and for the Chinese New Year weekend, my family and I will be headed to Hong Kong! YES! Hong Kong! after the long 1-year hiatus since I last went there (to eat and eat and shop, duh! what else? Especially since that is the way the HK tourism board markets its country).

So many thoughts and plans – almost couldn’t sleep the last two nights thinking about returning to SG, meeting my friends and aunties with their newborn angels, and just catching up on the time that has passed us by. Oh yes, and did I mention that my new domestic helper Fitri also has massaging abilities??? I sure didn’t see that in her CV!! YAY!

Am so glad to be flying back. More tales soon.

xoxo.

Chinese roots

Listening to Jay Zhou on grooveshark ignites memories of home, althought ive never been that much of a fan of his.

I guess its the fact that I’m listening to Chinese lyrics after such a long time of not speaking my mother tongue.

It’s quite comforting. I guess one never loses their roots, no matter how long they’ve been away from their culture and home.

I’m proud to be Chinese.

Home for CNY!

You know that tight knot you get in your stomach just before you make a large enough purchase? That fluttering in your stomach from excitement, and a slight anxiety? Yes, that was what I felt today, before clicking the button to let the credit card transaction go through. No, it wasn’t a tiffany necklace, nor a LV bag, but it was worth almost the same – my return ticket home!

Finally, after strategizing and planning on how to convince my bosses to let me take 3 wks of leave to go back to Singapore, the operation “CNY in Singapore” was accomplished! I can’t can’t can’t believe that in 2 months I will be back home, for a short 3 weeks, but nevertheless better than nothing!

I think I will need to make a list of all the things I want to do – Universal studios, the new IRs, eating carrot cake, visiting my new baby cousin, heading out with my grandparents, making an overseas trip, meeting up with all the friends I haven’t seen in such a long while, etc. Man, I am so darn excited! Just imagining touching down in Changi and walking along the travelators of Terminal 2 to the arrival hall and seeing my family there (after the obligatory walk and maybe some shopping in the DFS shops) is giving me goosebumps!

Plus, its going to be Chinese New Year there, and with the whole family in town.. it’s going to be awesome! Bak kua, yu sheng, bee hoon, Nai Nai’s famous bamboo shoots, hot spicy curry chicken…I can’t help drooling all over my keyboard now. YAY!!!

!So. Darn. Excited.So. Darn. Excited.So. Darn. Excited.So. Darn. Excited.So. Darn. Excited!

More visitors in town…soon!

My mum called last night, on my phone… and lo and behold, it was not just the regular “How are you?” call, but more like “Aunty & Uncle will be in BA next month, tell me if there are any things you want them to bring over for you!”

This reminded me of the last time i prepared of list of items for my mum to bring over for me when my parents and siblings visited at end July. Now that I look back, its been almost 4 months since they left (also the same amount of time since I started working here). Amazing how the year does a little tumble and carries you in its cartwheel and before you get over the giddiness and random rollabouts, you reached the end of the period you kept thinking had just begun.

My aunt and uncle are going to be here with a tour group covering Brazil, Argentina maybe some other parts of Latin America. And this week and next, Jace will be here in Buenos for her holiday, as well as to attend her good friends’ wedding party. Sin yee’s friend is also in town taking a break from work… and lo and behold, suddenly you think it might make some sense for the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs to establish an embassy here! (And of cos for the Argentines to do the same in Singapore! This will save people the trouble of having to travel all the way to Jakarta to get a visa done!)

Am excited about their visits, as I always am about any other visitors. And with the Christmas festive season coming round the corner… I am dreaming of Christmas trees with beautiful decorations and brilliant stars, with the bottom of the trees crammed with quaint little presents.

I can’t wait! I love the end of the year

Oh, how November always makes me smile

What a beautiful month, a month where happy memories are always made, and when good news always come.

Suzy and Fran will be welcoming Sara Grace into their little family, anytime from now till next Tuesday, and looking at her baby shower photos yesterday, it was quite impossible to believe that in the last 6 months that I have not seen her, the little ball that was growing in her belly will now become a little girl, and yes, now that her beautiful name is revealed, I feel like she’s already here

November two years ago was when Suzy first gathered all of us to have dinner at Sushi Tei to “announce some news”….and when she broke the news of Fran’s proposal to her in the Maldives, all of us were almost dying from happiness and envy! Knowing their love story from day one… it is amazing to know that she has made it through all the milestones, marriage, and now a little baby girl.

The month of November was when they released the news that Obama would be the first black president, that he was the bringer of change to an America ridden with debt. Not too sure how that news would have been reacted to had it been released again this year, but i remember listening to his speech that Feyi sent me, and being so touched by his words and expectant of change to the largest economy in the world.

Three years ago in November was also when Juan and I first got together, in Mannheim, Germany, and here I am now, writing from my desk in Buenos Aires. Never even knew where Argentina was on the map before I met him, and now life has changed completely. Both our birthdays fall in this month, such a coincidence.

What a lovely month to be in..Oh how I love November.

Home, on the other side of the world..

No matter how much I enjoy being overseas, in a different environment, meeting a thousand different people, home is still always close to my heart. Although sometimes I dont seem to show it, and I don’t call home so often, I think about home almost everyday.

I miss coming home to my own room, with the tall high wooden roof, and the swaying palm trees towering outside my balcony. I miss the smell of fresh sheets and the flower-patterned bedspread and comforter, that I wrap around myself whenver the aircon gets too cold. I miss the large spacious cupboard I had to put all my overflowing clothes (that I can’t seem to stop collecting) and I miss the personal room space I had all to myself.

I miss the first floor of my house, and the outdoor seats in the patio, where I would sit and eat my lunch before browsing through the newspapers or a novel before dozing off in the warm afternoon breeze, the sounds of the fountain a background lullaby. I miss how I would smell the fresh garden scents after a shower of rain, bringing my sense of smell to a heightened ascent.

I miss having my family close by, even if we did not do many things together. Just knowing Valerie is on the same floor and that Ron and my parents are downstairs is such a nice feeling, espeically now that they are 30 hours by plane away. I miss little things like driving Ron to his Tengah Air Base, althougth I would complain the entire journey there, but it was still fun, and the memories of us trying to figure out how to stop the back wiper from workng is just as hilarious today as it ever was.

Then I also yearn for things as insignificant as food. Things I never thought I would miss as much as I do now, such as chilli, the peanuts that go with the chilli in those fancy Chinese restaurants like Tung Lok, and the steamed fish, and chilli crab, and cereal covered prawns, and all kinds of chinese herbal soups. The thought of hawker dishes like black and white carrot cake, chicken rice, fried kway teow makes me salivate, and it is difficult knowing I have to wait a few months before I can eat them again. I miss the random walks to Siglap, heading to Pasta Fresca or Megumi with Ron and Val, and then starbucks at some odd hour of the night. I miss Chinese New Year and its goodies, and the festivities that come along as well.

I miss chilling out with my friends and cousins, and aunties, going to Sunday service with them, and then feasting at Taka’s Crystal Jade Palace with dim sum in abundance. I miss riding the bike in East Coast, smelling the salty sea breeze blowing in my hair as I marvel at the horizon and see the night lights come alive. I miss the long chats with Jinhua and Syl, in their mazda 6s, one black and one white. I miss those long telephone calls with them, in the middle of the night, knowing they are near.

I miss home, and the things taht makes Singapore home. The people most importantly, and I can’t wait to see them again.

Bus rides are a favorite of mine

Yesterday, I took the public bus here, called “colectivo” or “bondi” in lumfardo (the language made up of words unique to and spoken only by Portenos of Buenos Aires). It was such a delightful treat! I must explain why.

I’ve take buses all my life in Singapore, and almost all the buses in the last few years have been air conditioning installed. There was a period of a couple of years where mobile tv absorbed the attention of bus passengers, a small box usually installed at the left side of the SBS bus for passengers to catch up on CNA news, Just for Laughs jokes and other local shows. Buses usually get crowded during peak hours, as more and more foreignor pack our tiny island nation, particularly blue-collar workers from Asia. So naturally, public transport would be the preferred mode of transportation for them. On any bus ride home, you get to observe at close range the different people that made up the place you live in, and how as the neighbourhoods and districts change with the intertwining bus routes, the passengers getting on and alighting the buses also radically change. You have the chance to feel the heartland vibes, the city vibes, check out the latest fashion trends, and simply just look at the faces that pass you by.

This people-watching activity is of course not limited to bus rides around the Singapore city town. I’ve taken buses in Jakarta as well, and certainly it is a different experience from taking a taxi or being chauffeured around by a friend’s driver. You see the locals and they see you, both parties taking in the different dressing and mannerisms of the other, a fascination that is difficult to mask. I’ve taken buses in Hong Kong, where the double deckers are so distinctly Hong Kong; the view from the top takes you above that you can get from the ground; you get to take in the millions of people milling around on the streets, the congestion of the roads, and the almost identical shop signages in all neon colours imaginable. I love bus rides – they show you so much of the city or country you’re in.

The only buses that honestly intimidate me are the Indian buses. When I was travelling about India, I would stare out of my taxi window, open-mouthed and in absolute wonder, at the buses which were crammed full of people, just like sardines, and how the locals would hang off the buses just so they could get on it. How anyone would be able to get off the bus once they got on it always beats me. Like the rest of India, which fascinates me and astounds me simultaneously (check out the “India” category on this page), the buses of India leave me at a loss for words.

Coming back to where I currently live, Buenos Aires, Argentina, I must explain why the buses here are so different from what I am used to. In Singapore, the SBS buses are all painted in uniform red and white with the Singapore Bus Services logo printed on them; and while there are advertisements on them, they more of less still look like they are wearing school uniforms. Here, the buses have the large numbers in bold black font on one corner of the front – large and in your face. Having been used to the cashless EZ-link system (in which you just scan your EZ link card on a reader and it deducts the amount you need to pay) implemented in buses and MRT stations in Singapore for at least the last 5 years, I was at a loss the first time I came up the buses here and realized that the only way you could pay for your fare was using coins! What if you didn’t have coins then? Wouldn’t you run out of coins so fast if you have to dig around for slightly more than 1 peso each time you board a bus? I realized also that people here periodically go to the bank to change notes for coins – exactly the opposite of what we do in Singapore, where we just want to get rid of our coins for the much lighter and convenient notes.

Singapore, being such as safe and low-crime country, had made me take for granted all my life that I could walk around with my bag open, holding my wallet in hand, showing off my camera, ipod, and other valuables which I might be carrying around with me. Here, the first thing Susana warns me about is to always keep my bag in front of me and to clutch it tightly, with the zip in full view. Never never hold money or your wallet in your hand; and be careful if you’re using your handphone. Thieves and pickpockets are aplenty on the buses, and all around; so be extra careful especially if you’re not a local. So this was my mentality. I grabbed my bag tightly to myself, as I sat on the bus, surveying the environment for any weirdly-behaving pickpockets. But other than that, as I took bus number 152 along Avenida Santa Fe all the way to the microcenter – basically the Baires version of our Central Business District – I was enjoying the ride all the way. I loved staring outside the windows, at the shop-lined streets greeting me with beckoning sale signs. I loved how groups of teenagers would stand in their tights and boots next to old little grannies with their thick coats and very aunty sling handbags. I loved the contrast. And most importantly, I loved the fact that the bus was rocketing with Reggaeton! But I dídn’t love so much the fact that I had to run in my heels for the bus, and hop on to it just in time as the driver pulled away from the bus stop. I didnt enjoy that the driver was so incredibly grouchy it wouldnt have made a difference if you put a bittergourd to replace his face.

But overall, I really liked my first solo bus ride – I didn’t feel like such a foreignor anymore. I felt like I was finally blending in. I could speak the language, I could recognize the streets, I could communicate, and I could travel around on my own! One of many firsts, I’m sure. I am happy again, despite this dreadful cough that kept me in bed for virtually the whole day. Yes, I am happy.

My microwave rice-cooker wonder

Hola a todos! (Hello to all)

Yesterday I embarked on my first adventure to cook a Chinese meal for Juan’s family (with Susana’s help of course, and with the exception of Juan Carlos who was out having dinner with a friend). And….I am mighty pleased to say that the results were way better than I expected!

I started with the making rice – I can’t believe how easy it is to cook my almost favourite staple! Just wash and dry the rice, put it in the rice cooker with slightly more than the same amount of water, and then pop it into the microwave, and viola! Rice in less than 15 minutes! AMAZING LIFE SAVING DEVICE!

So, with the rice settled, we started cooking the dishes, starting with beef and onions – a nice sweetly-onion flavoured dish with diced bife de lomo. Second dish on the menu was chicken, cut into small pieces, sauteed with salt and soya sauce. But the best dish of all was the Kai Lan, which was first blanched in hot water (letting the stalks cook a little longer than then leaves) and then stir-fried together with a garnishing of garlic, onions and yummy sliced mushrooms, and the magic ingredient – oyster sauce!! That panda brand oyster-flavoured sauce did the trick I suppose – it was the most well received dish among the boys and Susana! And they even had 2 helpings of rice each – beyond my wildest imagination!

It was sort of a Argentine-Chinese cuisine mix – una mezcla de dos culturas! I still have some rice leftover – didnt realize that 3.5 cups of rice could feed up to 5-6 people! So i guess it’s going to be used for fried rice one of these days, and more Kai Lan! Am awfully pleased that the first batch of rice turned out better than expected – maybe slightly too sticky for their liking, but for me was perfect. I didnt realize how much I was missing rice until I ate it!

The only problem with Chinese cooking is that to create a whole meal, so much work is involved – cutting and peeling the onions & garlic – whose smells scare off everyone including vampires, and the amount of washing up that needs to be done after using all the many dishes! Regardless, now that the first experiment was quite a delight, I’m going to try to be more adventurous and try other Asian dishes. So amazing how the right ingredients certainly create a whole new culinary experience! Most importantly, Susana said, that when you cook, you cannot be afraid your dish isnt going to turn out well – you must have confidence with using the ingredients, stirring the dish cooking in the pot, and of course, sprinkle a large dash of love.

Alright, am going to eat something for breakfast in a bit – just wanted to jot this down before I busy myself with a bunch other other thing, and to bring back news from the Latam continent! Hasta luego!!

Excursion to the Asian Supermarket in Barrio Chino!

Today I did a couple of things, spending most of the day with Susana.

In the morning, we went to get my insurance settled; in less than 15 minutes the process was completed and we were out of OSDE. We hit Manchini in Alto Palermo to source for a birthday present for Juan carlos.

The highlight was in the afternoon however – we went to Chinatown to buy a couple of chinese ingredients, and walking around those 3 blocks with Chinese lettering on the shopfront windows, and seeing Asian faces, I felt half at home and half foreignor. Yet what a delight it was to walk into an Asian supermarket teeming with sacks of rice, noodles, soya sauces, chilli pastes, Lee Kum Kee condiments, and instant noodles! You can’t imagine the delight that blanketed me as my eyes opened in excitement upon taking in the wonder of realizing that yes, at least these items were still available, though I was thousands of miles and seven seas away from home. Yet, I was lost. Having not been domesticated while living in Singapore – I can only cook to survive, not to please tastebuds – I was at a lost of what to buy for whipping up some Chinese dishes to impress Juan’s family.

Susana and I ended up getting rice, oyster sauce, chilli paste, kai lan, mushrooms that was about it. It’s incredible how ingredients confound me more than a store full of clothes. I saw vegetables and foodstuffs like Want Want biscuits which I grew up eating; but looking at them now, I wouldn’t die if I didnt get to eat them. It was quite embarrasing to admit that I didnt really know how to cook and hence couldn’t really offer advice regarding which was Thai Basil or how best to cook a particular vegetable.

I was however quite surprised at the number of Argentines who were shopping at the Asian supermarket! I certainly didnt expect to see quite so many there, nor did I realize the huge interest they had in Asian cuisine. It was quite a pleasure to witness it.

Now that I’m living away from my family and will have to cook for myself soon, I better go research on Asian recipes. It’s really quite embarrassing that I can’t cook, and worse of all, have to admit it. at least with western food I can say that I am Chinese and can’t cook western. But what excuse do I have for Chinese cuisine!

Oh dear oh dear!

Exports, exports everywhere!

Absolute current account balance and the that as a percentage of GDP show two very interesting perspectives.
Looking at absolute current account balances, we see China scaling its own mountain (around US$400 bn) when the rest of developing Asia’s C/A balances are mostly staying within the +/- US$50 billion range. One glance at the absolute C/A balance graphs throws the attention solely on the Dragon of the East; the other developong Asian nations seem to have less newsworhthy stories. Since the early 2000s, China has set its own pace; following none other in its race to growth. Rich in natural resources, and cheap labour, its manufacturing industry blows out exports like bubbles, with their unprecendented increase propped up by heavy FX intervention to keep the RMB competitive. Surely, the Chinese do things with a aim in mind – to be fulfilled despite protests from its any trade partner or supranational.

Turn the page with me and let’s now look at the C/A balance, but as a percentage of GDP. Suddenly China drops out of the limelight and other Asian stories emerge. It’s easy to get carried away with the China growth story. Certainly, one nation cannot have the rest of the world at its mercy, simply because it has duly earned the title “Factory of the World” – or can it? But the sheer size of the 1.34 billion population nation should not be forgotten. When looking at C/A accounts in proportion to GDP, we see China (roughly 10% in 2008) coming in third behind Brunei (51%) and Malaysia (18%). The rest of the developing Asian countries don’t go much more than +3% for surpluses but do hit -16.5% for decifits, with Laos setting the record, followed by Vietnam with a deficit of 12% of GDP.

For the last 5-7 years at least, there seems to be a consistent list of obvious C/A surplus nations (Brunei, Malaysia, China, Myanmar, Thailand), and the corresponding list of C/A deficit nations (Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka). The former list is also generally made up of countries richer in the region; the latter list the opposite. Well, obviously we know from Y = C + I + G + (X-M), that net exports (X-M) are positively correlated to GDP. And as factories and companies shift operations towards the countries with the cheapest labour, exports tend to follow a natural upward curve, and so does the C/A balance, unless imports increase much faster (such as in the case of Vietnam, in which case exports have been sky-rocketing but imports have also been rapidly rising, particularly for machinery and spare parts, reflecting strong investment growth).

Now, trade surplus, and a huge one at that, is usually a highly sensitive topic, particularly so because before the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, the main export markets for developing Asian economies were the US and Europe. China has been the main targetboard for dart calls of letting its currency revalue, and more recently, these have intensified, as economists around the globe (well, maybe excluding the Middle Kingdom), have been pushing for rebalancing of economies. Many asian countries, pegged to some extent to the Yuan, will only allow currency appreciation if China does so first. And well, what does China say in response to calls for currency appreciation?

NO! Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in a conference over the weekend of 12-14th of March that he does not believe the RMB is undervalued, despite protests from Washington and prominent US economists like Paul Krugman that if China were to allow the RMB to depreciate, global growth would increase by around 1.5 percentage points. Yet it seems that there will be no one-off revaluation (like that in July 2005) as Wen stressed the importance of keeping the Yuan “basically stable” and that timing for any monetary policy changes must be appropriate. In this response, his tone was serious, and unyielding, making US President Obama look weak against China.

Relations between the huge chinese nation and the world’s number one economy have been deteriorating, since a long time ago. Right now, the US recent meetign with the Dalai Lama and the American arms sales to Taiwan, is what has main a strained relationship even more fragile. Wen’s deliberate comments about the declining value of dollar assets as a result of the growing US fiscal deficit rubbed a sore wound. China’s proactive policy to engage in bliateral agreements and currency swaps allowing it’s main export buyers to pay it in RMB instead of the USD and it’s slow but definite shift in weightage of foreign reserves away from the USD, is all fueling speculations of how much longer it will be before the RMB because one of the world’s reserve currencies, and when will the USD lose that power.

Much is unfolding in this current climate – all very exciting developments that will take a while to fully bloom, but still nonetheless, exciting.