A Thousand Thoughts

As you would have figured out from my earlier posts, I worked in the F&B industry for roughly 8 months as a waitress and therefore, I have also developed a very critical view of the service rendered at the restaurants that I dine in. This is also further fuelled by the fact that my standards of good service are based on the impeccable service rendered by Taiwanese service crews. Recently, I had the greatest misfortune to dine in a few restaurants that had decent food but service that fell far below what I would have expected.

I will not reveal the names of the restaurants, but I would just mention some of the problems that I experienced at these places.

In a rather well-established and popular Japanese Sushi Chain in Singapore, I was sorely disappointed by the service crew in that I waited for 15 minutes, with no one coming forward to lead me to a table and at the end, I was left impatient and I decided to dine at another restaurant instead. I was really upset and angry because how could not a single waitress/waiter in the restaurant not have noticed the presence of a customer waiting for a table. It not only led to me wasting my time (lucky I had no appointments in the same afternoon), but it is also a loss on the part of the restaurant, as they have just lost a customer and the opportunity to make more profits.

Moving on to another incident, the service staff was really impolite. This was at a restaurant in Wheelock Place and the waitress who was serving me, never once had a smile on her face. And I am being serious when I say that a smile by a waitress makes you feel so much more welcome in a restaurant. With a cold, unsmiling face, it made me feel as if my every action and request was an additional burden to her list of to do task and it reduced the pleasantness of the experience. At another coffee place in the same building, I was served by waitresses who were absolutely uninterested and were extremely rude to me. I do not know if it was because they felt that I was not as well-dressed as the other patrons there ( I left home in a hurry that day and did not bother dressing up) and I was left feeling very unimpressed and all these accumulated experiences led to me writing this post.

Singapore service is actually not that bad, but in comparison to Taiwan or to Japan, it still has a long way to go. The first is to smile and I think that is the most important thing if any service staff, to smile at your customers and greet them when they enter. It is the basic courtesy and in my eyes, any restaurant that fails to do this has failed as a restaurant and should consider sending their staff for re-training. I really do have high hopes for the service industry in Singapore and I believe, they need to be better trained. Now that I look back at my manager, I think he was one of the best teachers I ever had. Though it was tough and he was fierce, it also made me more aware of how my actions affected my customers and led me to be more determined to provide better service. I really am so glad that I was given a good foundation by my manager..

This is an universally understood principle of daily life, something which you hear every single day when you take public transport and it applies to transport all over the world. However, today, I was disappointed with what I saw on the train.

I hardly ever take the MRT, considering that I stay at an area that has no trains nearby but only bus. Thus, I was quite surprised to actually find a crowd of people waiting for the train at the station at 2.30 pm in the afternoon. I was later struck by the thought that the crowd was comprised mainly of junior high school students who had just finished school and this was where the problem arose.

When the train doors opened, I expected the students to move to the rear of the MRT but no, they entered and stood at the front of the door and refused to move in and I was left saying “excuse me” and squeezing my way through the narrow passage which they opened for me to get to the rear of the carriage.

Perhaps some people will say I am kicking up a fuss out of nothing but to me, I feel that this is basic etiquette one should follow when taking public transport. I am not asking you to give up your seat or anything, I am just asking that you take three steps to your back and move to the rear and give way to people who are trying to board the train. It requires minimal effort and makes the travelling a pleasant experience for all.

I tried to console myself with the explanation that they are all still teenagers and at the age where they feel that they should have the way in everything and that if they want to stand at the front, nobody is stopping them. After all, I was once a teenager and this way of thinking is something I have had before as well. And I sincerely hope this is true because if it is not, I will be very disappointed with the lack of manners coming from these students.

I will confess I have never thought very highly of Asian Americans who try to make it into the US market and fail, and in fact, I have always found it embarassing, as it just shows that the Asians don’t have what it takes to break into the Western Music Market.

After a considerable period, I concluded that the most probable reason why Asians never made it big in the US Market is simply because, Americans go for real music and its essence, while the Asia Market is relatively more focussed on the looks of each individual celebrity. The better looking, the more fans they get, even if they can’t sing for their life, like Show Luo. If not for his dance and his looks ( which are not that great either), I doubt he could have made it. But in America, you don’t need to have the looks, countless bands like One Republic, Linkin Park, the members are nowhere comparable to our Asian stars in terms of look, but they have a hell lot of talent. They make some of the most amazing music ever and their music always impresses me. That I think is the key to success in US and no Asian group has ever made it in, till recently, when AZIATIX topped the R&B Charts in the US at NO 4.

Aziatix is my latest obsession and I can guarantee you that they are not that fantastic looking. I mean, sure, they have the cool image, and they are decent in their looks but nothing too fantastic. But their music is great, and it is all in English, which means I get to enjoy it, since English is my primary language.

Aziatix is made up of three koreans, really talented koreans who were born and bred in America, comprising of Nicky Lee, Eddie Shin and Flowsik. Each of them are amazing in their own ways. Eddie Shin has got a voice to kill for and he is ever so talented in composing( having graduated from Tisch in NYU), with all their songs featuring him as one of the main composers. Flowsik is an amazing rapper, he along with Far East Movement, are my favourite Asian American rappers and I just love the way he raps with this laziness. Nicky Lee is an active C-Pop Singer, for those who follow the scene and his voice is really high pitch, I swear. 

The three came together and featured as a trio somewhere in 2011 and since then, they have been unstoppable, reaching the charts and touring around the whole of US. For an Asian trio, their music is really of quality and really well composed, and appeals to the American Market, explaining their popularity in US. Their first hit songs were ‘Slippin’ Away’ and ‘Go’, with the former being my favourite. Their latest single ’ Speed of Light’ is my favourite track to date and it features a wonderful fusion of hip hop and R&B, with a bit of an edge to it, giving the song a more powerful feel overall.

If you have not heard or seen them, I urge you to just go on youtube and listen. Their looks may not be great, but I urge you to listen to the music, before concluding that they are just an average trio. 

Yes, if you are a university student, you will understand this to mean liberation, freedom and of course, the all essential SUMMER BREAK! But before I launch into my plans for the summer, I feel I have to do justice to the second semester of school by tying up the lose knots.

Exam week was pure cramming but we ensured we were well-fed with frequent jaunts to raffles city to eat soup spoon, pizza place, skinny pizza and thai express and of course, this has caused me to be a poor woman. But it is all in the name of exams. The exams were decent, after the disaster from last semester, I hesitate to give a definite answer on how the paper went, lest I feel disappointment at the end of it. Results are coming out on the 11 of May and I really hope things will be on the bright side when the time comes.

On to happier things, the summer breaks are here. With it comes the taste of freedom but also the taste of restlessness and asking, what do I do? I was thinking of going back to Fosters to work but with all the old staff gone and the new staff left, I am not sure if I will enjoy myself as I did before. I was hoping to jump ship to the retail industry but it won’t be easy finding a retail job that does not require me to work on weekends. That is my parents policy, that weekend is family day. So, job hunting is on the list of must-dos, including tuition jobs ( they pay you damn bloody well).

Of course, there are the list of things that I wish to continue learning like guitar, driving and hip hop but looking at everything, I have no idea how all these will fit into the picture. So many things but yet I find it so hard to get started.

And of course, this is the season of good food. I will post plenty pictures here so if you happen to be reading, be prepared to see more updates during this summer!

Yes. Starry Nite. The annual SMU live band performance at the Big Steps. It is one of the most publicised and well attended events in SMU’s calender and I attended it last semester and boy was it fun. Sadly, today, I did not attend as I had a lot of work to do and most of my friends had stuff to do as well.

With Starry Nite, also marks the end of a semester worth of lessons and presentations and heralds in the start of a crazy week of studying and mugging before the finals starts. And with it, the semester ends for good and the holidays and real partying starts. 

This semester has flown past fast and it has been a fun semester, and I have learnt a lot more than I did last semester. I enjoyed it and it is sad that it is coming to an end. The exams are around the corner and here is giving a boost of support for all those of you out there taking exams as well! Stress is good but in the midst of stress, please remember to have fun…!

Since the day I could remember, my mom and dad made it clear to me that while I had a Singapore citizenship, I was not of Singapore descent but a mix of Indonesian from my mother’s side and Taiwanese mix from my father’s side. I grew up being well aware of this and with a pride in my heritage.

From the age of 4, my mom would bring me back to Indonesia every holiday, inculcating in me a love for a country which most people find distasteful or even fearful of it. People associate it with riots, robbery, poor but to me, it represented a place where I knew the meaning of family and where I knew there were people who cared for me every minute and every second. It was there that I felt truly the meaning of being in a family. Every roadtrip out to the other cities has been a fun one, full of wonderful memories, fooling around with my cousins and watching fireworks at the beach or on the top of the mountain with everybody and welcoming in the new year. While I was not fluent in the language, I embraced the culture there. When I was there, I felt like a part of them, a chinese-indonesian, I ate the same food as them, did the same things as them and it felt natural because a part of me belongs to that society.

I only went back to Taiwan much later on in my life when I was older but I am proud of my Taiwanese heritage more than anything. I am proud to call myself a Taiwanese. It is a wonderful country for those who have visited it, one that is full of surprises and a polite society that is ever so welcoming to people. As I take the bullet train from Taipei to Kao-shiung to visit my grandmother, I always never fail to look at the scenery that flies past me as we travel the whole of the Northern end of Taiwan. The sea, the trees, the village are all a beauty in themselves and the serenity they represent themselves. Going to Cheng Pin Bookstore and stocking up on my supply of Chinese Novels and just looking at all the books there makes me happy. Going to the night market and eating to my hearts content all the local delights that I cannot get in Singapore. In my heart, it is a place that will always hold a special place in my heart.

What about Singapore? Well, to me, it is the place that I live and grew up in with my family and friends and well, it has been lonely at times here alone with just my own family only but I am really grateful for the opportunities that I have been given in Singapore. If I were in Taiwan and Indonesia, I would not have such opportunities. However, family and kinship can never be replaced and therefore, if i have to say the place that gives me the most happiness, it did be Taiwan and Indonesia where my loved ones and family are at. Ultimately, these two places are the birth of my heritage and no matter how well I integrate in Singapore, I cannot replace my heritage entirely. 

Sometimes I suffer a identity crisis but one thing I am sure is that I will always stay in Singapore, even in the future because this is my home. While it may not be my heritage, it is my home and this is where I will always be based but at the same time, I am also proud if my own heritage and this is something that similarly can never be replaced.

The mid-term breaks have finally arrived and with it, the end of my ridiculous week has arrived as well. 7 days of 3 hour sleep has made me sleep deprived, and I need to sleep badly but before that, I will write this post.

Today, after mid-terms (which was a screwed up affair) and a hearty b’fast at Macs at Raffles City, I found myself in the school library waiting for my sisters to make their way down to orchard to meet me. And without meaning to, my friend and I stumbled into a conversation about the schools that we were from and the importance of a good education.

My friend is a ACS student through and thorough and his faith and pride in being an ACS boy impresses me, I must confess. I doubt my sister is half as proud of RJ. Lets admit it, my impression of ACS has always been a decent one, starting with the day my neighbour tried all ways and means to get her son into ACS ( my mom could not be bothered and had me sent to a ordinary primary school near our house). I figured out if a parent wanted her child to get into a particular school so badly, it had to be bloody good. My impression till now has not changed much, despite having had the opportunity to meet ACS students around me. I still hold on to my opinion that they are a decent school and I the students there generally will have a bright and decent future.

My reason for saying this is simple. I have not had the privilege of having been though a independent school and thus, I have had to traverse the hard path of taking the O’s and A’s just to get into law school. It is a nightmare which I hope I will never have to go through again and I don’t wish to put my own children through it. My own secondary education was not a great one and I am shameful of some of the things I did there, but it was also in that school, that I made the resolution to make it out into a decent JC at all costs. It was also in that school, that I learnt some of the life skills and the reality of life. From being mocked, to scorned to being judged as being a poor student, I have been through it all and I will not dispute people’s opinion of us (I don’t really blame them) but it also made me aware that the world is a judgmental one and that to get people’s respect, you have to prove your worth. In the school, I learnt what it meant to fail, to lose hope, to go astray, to love and most importantly, the determination and a faith as hard as steel to withstand all the rain and wind of life. I have seen every single shit that one can see in the school and the steely determination that I have and the faith that all will be well at the end of the day comes from my secondary school days.

I made it out and I have probably made it as one of their role model students. I am not proud of being a student from the school, but I am not shameful either because I think the way I am today, was shaped by my four years in school. The people I met shaped my thoughts and my personality. But, in life, if one can take the easy way out, why not. If I could do it all over again, I would opt for a path that is less tiring. A good education is important and to achieve this, entering a good school is a must. My biggest regret in this world, is that I never had the opportunity to enter a brilliant school and experience what it means to study with brilliant minds and I hope my own children will get to experience what I was not able to.

Late as it is, I realized that I never ever bothered introducing some basic facts about myself. So here is a little bit of self-introduction on my part…

My life revolves around law and I will probably be stuck with it the next 20 years of my life but I am hoping the bloody high pay will make the shit I go through now worth it. I don’t enjoy studying but if forced, I am just too damn bloody good at it and I can mug till my arms are sore from typing non-stop. My non-official home when I am not sleeping and in lessons, is Li Ka Shing Library. ( you probably get an idea of my tragic life right now). I enjoy baking, travelling, eating, guitar ( cos my cousins are just too damn bloody good at it and I am trying my ultimate best to catch up with them) and DJ-ing ( though I am short of cash to purchase a controller for myself). I believe good food is god-sent and I believe life is for you to enjoy.

This is about it, I am really just THAT boring…