Most grocery stores here offer free delivery of non-perishables as long as you buy more than a certain amount of goods. One afternoon, Zhanar and I decided to try this at the supermarket down the hill from our house. After checkout, an old man shuffled over with a grocery cart, loaded it up and headed for the elevator. I decided to follow him and see if I could get a ride in his van. As we got to the street, I asked him where the van was parked. He said "No van" and proceeded to struggle over the curb into the street.
After helping him over several more curbs and a bit of excitement involving a bus and a stray cat, I decided to call it quits on the delivery. I said my thanks, picked my bags up off the street where they had fallen, and flagged a cab.
Black and Whites
Last night Zhanar and I put together a bunch of
black and white photos for our walls. The one above,right one is a picture of a typical fire escape that you see on the backs of old buildings and some perannakan shophouses. In a number of cases, the cement is deteriorating and they are sometimes missing steps. Sure makes the dash-to-safety aspect more interesting.
Crowds
One thing that we needed to get used to here are the crowds. It's not uncommon to end up standing elbow to elbow, belly to butt in a shop or street corner. One of the elevators at work has a capacity of 80 people. Can you imagine 80 people in an elevator?
On the MRT or a crowded bus, you sometimes end up next to a "cuddler". I believe that these individuals are comforted by the whole shoulder-to-shoulder, mass-of-humanity thing. If you back off an inch to clear some room, they promptly move in and are up against your shoulder and hips once again. I have yet to see if one of these cuddlers will actually follow me across an entire seat, but I think it's possible.
Backpaddling on Slave Boating
Alright, I have to admit that I was a little overly critical of the Kalang River. It's really not that bad. I only know one person who has seen a dead cat, and most of the time there's not that much trash - just the occasional plastic bag.
The paddling itself can be fun, in a galley-slave sort of way. And there's the camraderie that comes from mutual suffering. But the most attractive part of slave boating is the people. If you're looking for a buff and hunky singaporean boyfriend, Dragon Boating is the place to go. The dragon boat teams probably account for half the pectoral weight of all Singapore.
It was TWO days ago, fool! We came home from the hospital yesterday - less than two days after the birth. If you're ever having a baby here, don't give birth at midnight - you use up your first night hospital stay before the baby's even born! Anyhow, everything was going swimmingly so we went home. I was really hoping they'd give us that hello kitty blankie or the baby-pulling plunger to take home as a souvenir but all we got was the baby. What a rip. 
