These Little Things

Hi guys,

FYI, this post was already sitting in my blog as a draft long time ago. 

But today, I had a talk with my friend and then it triggers the little thing, these little things in my brain.

And that’s how I give birth to this post.

These little things that you can’t live without… while staying in Singapore

1. Public Transport

How many people agree that Singapore has the best public transport system in the world, at least better than Jakarta!?

Hahaha…sorry it’s not that I’m traitor or what but living here in Singapore, we can just survive without any private vehicles. MRT and buses systems are pretty integrated so that we can travel to one point to another less than an hour time! The best part is almost shopping centers are integrated nearby MRT station so it’s all within walking distance! 

2. Coin/ Card / Tissue pouch

I have a 3 in 1 pouch, coin/card/ tissue pouch and often, I put my MRT card inside the pouch so that I don’t need to take it in/out anymore while commuting public transport. Just tap and go. 

3. Leg muscle

I think I have discreetly built up my calf and leg muscle because I walk every day. Every freaking single day. I don’t own a car, so to rely on public transport, I gotta walk by foot.  Not only that I am running at least once/ twice a week to keep fit, well…walking is like a piece of cake for me.

No wonder even if I ate tons of rice I wouldn’t get fat prosperous. Oh ya another thing, I found that my calf muscle is very strong I can just stand inside the train without holding any handle/pole. And when the train starts moving I didn’t fall down easily, steady anot!?  I think most Singaporean agree with me *snob face*:-D

4.  Umbrella….Standby!

The thing that I’ve learnt in my life in Singapore. It’s the most crucial thing in Singapore…..you guess what!?  

Bringing umbrella to wherever and whenever I go.

Well. The umbrella’s price here is damn cheap and of course, price comes with quality. Buy $20 ESPRIT umbrella can last me for few years, Buy $5 Pasar Malam umbrella can only last me 3 months.

See I am a huge fan of umbrella…after all….I learnt how to bring umbrella RAIN or SHINE.

It’s like love and hate relationship actually. I hate it when it’s really put on extra weight inside my bag, but I love it when I know that I don’t need to worry too much when it’s come to downpour rain. Oh ya, I can now, mastering the art of folding umbrella in less than 10 seconds (again snob face, hehe)

Sidetrack, we can use umbrella to reserve seats at Kopitiam, too, hahaha…which will lead to the next point.

4.  Chop chop!

Come to my surprise, when I go to Kopitiam at the first time, I saw many umbrellas or tissue papers all over the tables and I was like, wow, Singaporean so generous giving out the tissue paper just like that. But later on, I learnt that the umbrellas and tissue papers are to chop chop or reserve the seats.  Now, I think I’m adapted to this culture already and sometime I found out myself doing it shamelessly.

5. Birthday!

In Indonesia, the birthday person is the one who treat friends during birthday celebration. In Singapore, is vice versa, all friends will treat the birthday person including meals, birthday card, birthday presents, and birthday cake. All costs shared among friends…

6. Memorising the Kopitiam vocabulary

Okay this is very interesting! Must master this vocab hor when ordering meals/drinks at kopitiam.

Meals time!

1. Mee/mian: yellow noodles
2. Mee kia: thin noodles
3. Mee pok: flat noodles
4. Mee hon/ Bee hon: thin rice vermicelli (transparent one)
5. Kway teow/ hor fun: flat tice vermicelli
6. Maggie mee: instant noodle
7. Koka mie: rice (flat) noodle
8. Nasi lemak: actually it’s nasi uduk versi Indonesian version.

Quench your thirst!

1. Kopi: Coffee
2. Teh: Tea
3. -O: - no milk, i.e: Teh-O: Tea without milk. Kopi-O: Coffee without milk
4. –Siew dai: -less milk. i.e: Teh-siew dai : Tea with less milk. Kopi-siew dai: Coffee with less milk
5. – Gah dai: - more milk.  i.e: Teh-gah dai : Tea with more milk. Kopi-gah dai: Coffee with more milk
6. –C: - with evaporated milk, i.e: Teh-C : Tea with evaporated milk. Kopi-C: Coffee with evaporated milk
7. – kosong: without sugar, i.e: Teh- kosong : Tea without sugar. Kopi- kosong: Coffee without sugar
8. –Peng: - with ice, i.e: Teh- Peng: Tea with ice. Kopi- Peng: Coffee with ice
9. -Dinosaur: normally for Horlicks and Milo with a top of powder on the beverage so sinful but yummeh!
10. The Tarik: very famous Indian beverage.
11. The Halia: Indian ginger milk tea
12. Pao pao cha: pearl bubble milk tea 

Side track:

Why I love Jakarta:

1. Of course I need to love this city…Here’s all of my families live! My parents, sister, bro in law, relatives, cousins, neighbors, and friends.
2. I love the foods and shopping malls! Hehe! Although now lots of Indonesian restaurants open in Lucky Plaza but still, the taste, the originality, the ambience, not same as in Jakarta.  My sister is now working in the most prestigious mall, no 1 in Jakarta so I also indirectly get an update on what’s going on in retail/ F&B business there….

But the setback is that, I’m becoming more and more impatient. Going hometown is one of the least that I want to do, at least right now, because I found the life in Jakarta is too laid-back!?

There’s one time I got very frustrated because travelling time was so long, trapped in traffic jam, ordering meal was damn slow, I even freaked out coz the escalator and people (pedestrians) moves too slow! I kept reminding myself, even if I had comfy life (plus super-fast and busy and hectic) in Singapore, doesn’t mean that I have rights to complaint everything bad about Jakarta.

After all, Jakarta is my hometown and then there’s nothing I could do to change the facts that I am Indonesian. I am completely proud that I’m Indonesian.

Thanks for reading, guys! 

-Deb-