Personal Day

As most of you know Toby is in China and has been there for over a week. Since he has been gone I have been on Elyse duty 24/7 and I decided that I needed sometime to myself. We are fortunate enough to be able to afford a part time maid. She comes once a week to clean. I asked her to watch Elyse instead of clean this week (she figured out how to do both by the way.)

I had 6 hours to do what I wanted. I planned of going to a great place in Plaza Singapura that had scrapbooking stuff and then see some newly completed buildings/malls on Orchard. I started at Plaza Singapura and then decided that instead of seeing malls, I would explore Chinatown.


I had this idea (newly inspired by the book Honeymoon With My Brother) to find a local and ask them what I should see. I figured I'd find a shop owner and ask them, but first I figured that I might want to buy something to buy from said shop owner. As I was walking I noticed some cute paintings, so I stopped to take a look. I asked if they were by a local artist and the man said it was his sister (cool!) We got to talking about where we were from etc. and then asked what I should see in the area and said then I should check out the Chinatown Heritage Centre and that he would walk me to some restaurants I should try.

I wound up buying these postcards which represented the four races of Singapore: Mayla, Chinese, Eurasian, and Indian. She also painted 4 boys. So cute.

I bought this and a couple others for Elyse's room and potential presents.

If you want to check out other paintings/order some prints you can go the shop on Pagoda Street or to Bei Le Xian's website .

After Bei Le Xian's brother showed me places to eat lunchI headed to the Heritage Centre.

The centre explained how the Chinese came to Singapore, struggles they faced, how they lived, and it had cultural snippets like this:

About halfway through the exhibits I walked by a group of people who were reminiscing about how they lived... "Yes, I remember my kitchen looked like this," etc. I strained to hear and then one woman turned to me and began to explain how people used to live. She explained that they didn't have refrigerators so they left meat in a cabinet with screens to keep flies out and that people would but small bowls of water around the legs of tables to keep ants from climbing up.

After I went through the museum the man working at the front desk asked me how my tour was and began to tell me about his life growing up in Singapore and how he used to live in apartments like those being displayed.

He shared with me a lot of interesting things. Here are a few of them:

• His mom worked as maid and was very poor but she wanted her children to well. She would always ask if he had eaten and if he did his school work.
• He slept on wood floors and he described them as "comfy," but wouldn't any more
• As a teenager he would cut a sleeping mat in half and bring it on dates (so grass wouldn't get in their hair- he, he)
• He would go over a few streets (the one in the first picture of the blog) and see people killing and preparing animals in the upper apartments- with the blood falling to the streets- for medicine.

I am so happy people took time out of their day to share with me about their culture.

At this point, my time was nearing an end, but I really wanted to try one of the restaurants that was recommended to me. I found myself at the Dim Sum place Tak Po. It was packed with locals, so I thought that was a good sign (although those front tables were empty ;)).

I wasn't really hungry but I wanted to try something, so I ordered a few things: tea, prawns wrapped in beancurd skin (or something like that), a BBQ roll thing (I should have written the names down), and an egg tart. I would like to go back with a bigger appetite.

After lunch I headed back to my wonderful daughter and a clean house. It was a great day and I would love to make it a regular thing. I would recommend a Personal Day to anyone. Thanks for reading. I know this was a long post.