In The 1st Week

Phew! It has been a hectic month for us all. And it's still not over yet...

First of all, I want to apologize for not writing for a while, some of you might be wondering how we are coping with our new lives in Singapore. I must thank each and every one of you for all your prayers and best wishes, without which our transition could have been a lot worse.

This is our 3rd week in Singapore, still struggling to adjust. Though I did expect it to be difficult, never expected Singapore to be too different from Malaysia. For knowledge sharing purpose, I will start by describing the effects of the new life from our family's perspective.

Amirul (7 y.o son): His biggest challenge would be losing the privilege of having our own car and having to rely on public transportation. He is a highly sensitive child, hence gets motion sickness easily. In Singapore, in order to get from point A to point B, we have to wait for the bus, board the bus to MRT station, wait fro MRT, board the MRT, wait for taxi, board the taxi, and one Sunday night we had to wait for over 30 minutes for a taxi, we decided to do a tourist thing and take a trishaw ride which had cost us SGD$25.

Amirul has to also train his self-control against the all around temptation. It'll be weird not to see any school children without an earpiece (connected to iPod or MP3 player) and a PSP. Evertime we hit the mall, there's a longing in his eyes for that SGD$99.99 Optimus Prime transformable action figure. He understood the fact that we have yet to get our Singapore dollar salary, hence we need to be thrifty on our spending. I hope this delaying gratification exercise would help him build his character.

Alyssa (3 y.o 'constantly on the move, shut up only when sleeping' girl): She is also affected by the losing of privilege of a private transfortation, but in a different manner. Since we've never taken a ride on a stranger's car (i.e taxi) when we were in Penang, whenever we board a taxi here, she insist to know the taxi driver's name. "He is Uncle what, mummy?". She is also having trouble restraining herself of doing her 'private' activities on the public transportation: like singing her favorite tune at an annoyingly high pitch, picking her nose or pick a fight with Abang (elder bro). Restraining her from buying any toys is a mission impossible for us since unlike her brother, she doesn't understand the currency exchange rate. So we make sure we don't pass by Toys 'R Us, but only a 'less than SGD5' toy stores. Last weekend we boarded a fully loaded MRT, where we had to share a pole with many strangers. Inheriting straight talking talent from me, Alyssa bluntly and loudly made a comment "mummy! it stinks here!" referring to the mixed aroma of various bodily fluid from all the people. I was still in panic mode when she immediately point her 2-inch fore-finger to the lady in front of me and said "Is it you, Auntie? Why are you so smelly?" ....Goodness! One can only imagine my embarassment. I felt like taking her away from the crowd but we couldn't move even an inch...I have no way to hide my face so I had no choice but to apologize profusely to the lady.

Ayah (33 y.o ): The toughtest thing for Ayah would have to be having no privilege to smoke at will. Unlike M'sia, there are more 'no smoking' places than 'yes smoking'. Not to mention a pack of Dunhill costs SGD11, that's a staggering RM25!! For that same amount of money, one can buy 6 packs in M'sia.

Ummi (33 y.o): Well... First of all I MISS DRIVING!!! Second of all I MISS MY HIGH-HEELS!!! It's almost impossible to avoid backache having to stand on a 3 inch high heels in a crowded bus/mrt. So I have to leave my high heels in Penang and invest in a very good walking shoes.

Next chapter: Apartment & school hunting in Singapore...stay tuned!