Strollers

May 13, 2014

I used to think moms that pushed four year olds in strollers were stupid. I came from America. My kids have to walk at three years old. So those moms ought to get those kids up and make them walk. It's good for them I think. 

Now I see differently - a walking world of concrete and buses and taxis and trains and waiting in ques for all the aforementioned things. Then there are the rain storms and carrying all your groceries to feed your family home in heavy plastic bags every day. It makes a lot more sense. You can't physically carry a 30 lb chubby, angry, exhausted preschooler along with everything else you have in hand. You don't have time to negotiate with an illogical, cranky, hungry four year old. You don't have the emotional energy to pick up a tantruming child or drag them behind you every day of the week. This Singapore life is exhausting. I thank The Lord for our car. It makes my life so much better than it could be. 

Gaining perspective here has been a gorgeous thing. My standards don't fit in another world and culture. It's only my place to be open and adapt and learn that there are probably good, solid reasons for some of the weirdness I see at first glance. Their lives are very, very different than mine. I've had to do what they do a time or two with kids and buses and now I get it. Hats off to the diligent moms of Singapore who are still pushing their four and five year olds in strollers. You are awesome.

Shift Change

We can't seem to understand why the gas stations are so crazy busy at night. Like 10 pm on a Tuesday there are no available pumps in a station with 18 pumps. Brian figured it out tonight. We pulled in at 10:25pm on a Friday and the attendant says, "Wait ma'am. Shift change. Need to wait five minutes. Okay?" We think they must do too many shift changes and things get backed up. Probably not true but we are grasping at straws to figure out why the lines so late at night every single night. 

Recent Sightings

These pictures are all just waiting on my phone to be shared. I love this country.

Lovely Tropical Mold

We took the car seat out while our visitors were here and left it by the front door. This is what happened in about seven days. It's absolutely covered with mold. It is so hard to keep things clean here.

Rainy Season

It's coming into rainy season again. This is the rain storm we walked home in on Friday. I went to the school thirty minutes early to take pumpkin cookies made from the class scarecrow pumpkin head. I thought they'd get a kick out of eating their friends head. Anyway it was cloudy but not bad and I was distracted so didn't bring an umbrella. We were soaked when we got home. Maddie took her socks off and before she even wrung them out the were dripping. The rain can be AMAZING here and turns the streets and sidewalks into flowing rivers. Just watch this video for proof!

Special Dam Briyani

Sometimes I glance numbly through my environment and see nothing. Other times I do a double take. This is one of those cases. Anyone for some "Special Dam Briyani?" Brian thinks it's one of those typical English misprints and should read, "Dam Special Briyani." This is at Al-Ameen Eating House at the market nearest out house. We pass it almost daily. I think this should be our next Friday night date night location so we can try it out.

Naked Season

I think it must be naked season here in Singapore. Today I saw a guy I honestly though was naked. Turns out us was wearing nothing but flesh colored shorts while he watered his garden plants - in the rain I might add.
Saturday we were walking home from the school after cub scout registration and I saw a guy sitting at a patio table he drug out of his yard to the edge of the street. There he sat, legs up on another chair naked, private zone mostly covered by the table top, smoking a cigarette. I did a HORRIFIED double take and thankfully discovered he too was wearing small flesh colored shorts.
Yuck. Double yuck. There ought to be a rule against wearing flesh colored shorts!

PAX - Out of Context

In Singapore, vehicles that are for any sort of business use have to have a sticker on the back detailing how many people are allowed in the vehicle. Some are little ones as big as a Neon without the trunk space and have a "5 PAX" sticker. Others are flat bed lorries (trucks) the size of a diesel truck marked "48 PAX" where the work men have to sit all packed tight.

Last week we went to the Bountiful Utah Temple to worship and this license caught my eye. I pointed it out to Brian and we both had a good laugh. I had already turned my phone off and stowed it in the glove box but just had to go get it to snap a picture.

Can you possibly imagine 737 people stuck in this tiny Honda Accord? Now that is a clown car if I ever saw one!

Classic Toilet Story in Singapore

I thought I’d write this down to give my friends and family a quick glimpse into our everyday life in Singapore. It was such a classic Singapore experience we had in May.

I was mostly recovered from having Ashlyn and Brian was taking our car more because I was now able to do a little more walking around town. This particular day we need to run to the market and get Jacob’s glasses fixed. Let me clarify that by ‘run’ I mean walk ourselves to the market quickly, not jump into the car as it would mean in the US.

I ask each kid to go to the toilet before we go. Jacob says he already just did and can’t be persuaded. I’m pretty sure he really did just pee so I relent and we walk to market with Ashlyn in the front carrier. We drop off the glasses to be adjusted and only need about five grocery items so it should be really quick. We grab slurpees at 7-11 and head to the grocery store. I get four things and we’re searching for the other but can’t find it. It’s at this time Jacob announces he needs to go to the toilet. Right NOW. Great.

We abandon the last item and say a grateful prayer that the lines are short. I pay and we rush out of the grocery store. We run past the store front and through the hawker center (open air food stalls), around past the car park and into the back by the loading dock. Here’s where the fun begins.

First find a clean stall. He says he needs to sit down potty instead of stand up. Dang. Avoid the one with foot prints on the toilet seat from the people that think they MUST squat even if there is a seat. Why they can’t lift the seat and squat on the ceramic bowl I cannot explain.

Get your three year old onto a clean (relative terms – see below) toilet seat.  Where can I put all the slurpees? I guess on the filthy countertop while I bounce around with Ashlyn to keep her calm. Gross. It’s covered in water and wet toilet paper.

Now we wait. That’s right. He peed right before we left. We’re going to need toilet paper. I didn’t bring the diaper bag for this quick trip so I don’t have my own toilet paper, just cash for the groceries.

First I look for a toilet paper dispenser near the outside door. Score! They have one, that’s a bonus for the day to make us happy.

Cost is ten cents. Okay. Lets find the right coin in my coin purse.

Nope. No ten cent coin in the coin purse. Now what am I supposed to do? I can’t very well leave a three year old at the back loading dock bathroom and go ask for change at the hawker stalls. I did that once with seven year old Ben and had three grumpy adults waiting for me when I returned to get him. Wait maybe…yes…I found one in the bottom of my wallet under the paper bills!!  Yes! We have toilet paper to wipe.

Still waiting. Here’s some interesting reading material on the wall.

Finally he’s done. We wipe. Wash and go pick up Jake’s adjusted glasses from the shops and walk home.

About that "relatively" clean toilet seat. One day I was at the zoo at closing. The lady was in the bathroom cleaning. She literally took a garden hose, sprayed into each stall getting the toilet, walls and floor wet. She sprayed the floor in the entire bathroom and the sinks. Then she left. That was "cleaning" a bathroom. No soap, no cleanser, no scrubbing. Yuck.

Richard's Wife

Maddie came into the kitchen at my mother-in-laws place. She put her finger to her ear imitating a phone and said, "Angie, this is Richard. Is there anything you want in your order today?"
When my order arrived she told me she was Richard's wife because Richard was sick today.

Richard is my friendly grocery provisioner. He calls every other day and delivers groceries to the house he makes life so much better for me and the kids have noticed our routine apparently. One thing I live about Maddie is her active imagination and how she likes to put our real life into her play. She's always making me laugh.