Finnish cultural imperialism pt V

I seem to have made a lasting impression on the people of Singapore. They have apparently now named one of the condos after my nationality! (Even if I failed miserably on my epic quest to teach the Singaporeans to stick to either left or right side of the pedestrian paths -- now they just cannot seem to decide which side of the road to walk).

Picture taken and shared with kind permission from either mr. Laurel or Hardy of the 9minnon blog fame.

A blast from the past

This day goes down in history. I believe this was the first time ever that I have queued for a cashier and deposited a paper form cheque to my bank account. I am of the generation of people raised in Finland who never had to engage with check books or checking accounts. I had my first debit card when I was 15 and was later using a crude pre-internet bank over 36,6 Kbps modem connection (who remembers the infernal noise?) for all my bill payments and money transfers.

Honestly Singapore is not the worst place in terms of advances in banking. Actually there is a fierce competition between the regional and global banks to demonstrate who are seen as the most innovative and cutting edge with rolling out new services like NFC payments. I can get by using mostly my credit card including for small purchases like taxi trips. But still everyday bill payment through electronic means is not as straightforward and everywhere accepted as I have grown to expect.

Also there is some inherent weirdness and unnecessary level of complexity in the way electronic banking is set up here. I can pay a bill normally (provided that I have added a new payee) or choose to use GIRO, bank transfer, credit card, standing instruction, online cheque (!!! if I had a checking account)  or advance pay. All of these modes of payments are hidden in various parts of the navigational hierarchy of my internet bank UI. In Finland in my bills I have two pieces of information: recipients bank account and typically reference code and after that I set it to run automatically if it is a reoccurring payment. I see all transactions (past and upcoming) in one place. How hard can that be?

Happy piercings

Yesterday and today mark the celebration of Thaipusam festival especially for the Tamil community in this particular corner of the world. How this celebration shows itself to us outsiders is by parades where the devotees perform a dance as a ceremonial worship of Murugan, the Tamil God of War (I thought it was Kratos). Spectacular part of this festival for the participants is to carry a physical burden or kavadi. Typically this burden is either in a form of carrying a pot of milk or going through pretty gruesome piercing of one's skin with sharp skewers. I'd choose the option with milk any day.

See some examples of kavadi bearers from Kuala Lumpur.

Finnish Cultural Imperialism - Episode IV (New Hope)

There are something like 6000 to 7000 known languages in the world today. So what are the odds that a random entrepreneur in Singapore decides to start selling mugs with Finnish label texts in her little stall close to my home?

Only available options were in English and Finnish (Thanks to my brother for spotting this global oddity)

Perhaps it is time for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to consider adding 5th national language.

Fancy a Cucu?

One specific request that I got for this blog before it was created was "just to take a photo at your local supermarket shelf". Well here goes:

Candy is not my thing, so don't ask me what's in those bags. Your guess is as good as mine.

I'll admit this is probably a bit self serving picture to prove the point that we are not in Kansas anymore. Typically there would be more things with proper English label texts.

Mmmm.... Delicious iPads!

The gates of Hell are open. The ghosts of the long dead are roaming the streets. And they are hungry.

No, this is not a poor tagline from the next Sam Raimi splatter, but premise for the Hungry Ghost Festival going on for the current lunar month in Singapore. Based on Taoist and Buddhist traditions this is the time to remember those who have passed away...

...and feed their everlasting hunger with burning incense, Hell bank notes (apparently that's their local currency) and of course iPads (made of paper though). What a way for modern life to meet with old traditions! One of my local friends of Peranakan descent mentioned that someone had been wondering out loud whether they should burn paper made electric generators and battery chargers along with these gadgets. The half creepy part of the festivities is to make sure that there are always empty seats reserved for the dead in any musical performances during this time.

I had not heard of this Yu Lan festival before moving to Singapore. Quite honestly this does sound pretty weird to me. Then again, Lutheran tradition of feasting on the body and blood of a zombie-son of God at the Holy Communion must sound at least as far fetched and out of this world for outsiders. It is just a matter of perspective. 

I came across this enlightening blog entry regarding many dos and don'ts of the Hungry Ghost festival. I was happy on behalf of all Finnish Nokia stock owners to see in the picture in the blog that the dead still crave for those Nokia phones from their more lively days. Sadly though looking at the current market share results it is pretty much only the dead who are hungry for Nokia anymore...

Big Bowl of Facehuggers

The official national pass time of Singaporeans is eating. There are absolutely no good reasons not to eat well in Singapore. Probably the most established signature dish of the city would be Chilli Crab, which is a hard shell crab cooked in a thick tomato and chili sauce. A good contender for that would be Black Pepper Crab, which I finally was able to add to my been there/done that -list only this week.

Hard shell crab cooked and served as a whole can be a little intimidating dish to dig in at first. I actually do remember searching youtube for how to eat crab correctly videos before trying one myself. The localites offer a word of comfort saying that if my shirt (why it always just happens to be that white shirt?) remains spotless after eating chilli crab, I haven't been doing it right.

Apparently I did not now the true meaning of intimidating looking food. When I was leaving the sea food restaurant I looked what other choices they had to offer. This half a meter long, alien facehugger -themed animal (?) is probably not going to be hitting my plate any time soon.

Bird or a plane?

Who you gonna call?

Seriously folks now?!