Tuesday 31 December 2013

17 999 teenagers and me

My brother urged me to join New Year's celebration in the self proclaimed Asia's largest beach countdown party. Apparently it is not possible everywhere in the world to dance the final night of the previous year away on a sandy beach with warm sea wind caressing your hair. Before I know it, I will be once again freezing my fingers numb trying to lit any fireworks during upcoming New Years Eves in sub zero temperatures.

I felt somewhat awkward to go there by myself, but I am glad I did. Just witnessing the masses of people having fun and sharing positive energy was an experience to enjoy. Furthermore, I feel proud saying that I didn't come home until 3 AM (did not have the stamina to stay until 6 AM, when the party ended, but still pretty good achievement for me).

The thing that keeps on surprising me is how well these people behave. Even drunk teenagers are being polite, picking up their trash and not starting any fights. Seriously, the government must be putting something in the tap water (which by the way is arguably the most purified tap water in the world -- I like the way they say it: it is not claimed to be the cleanest, but just having the most advanced technology to clean it).

Video has been done automagically by Google from video clips and photos I took at the party.
Pretty cool feature, huh?

Friday 20 December 2013

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.


Monday 16 December 2013

Pedestrian free zone

On a certain previous episode of fun and games of international relocation, I made comparisons with Ireland and Singapore. Last week I returned from a trip to Washington D.C. and while still fresh in my memory I need to document one quick observation of how different things are between South East Asia and the New World.

It is actually amazing that I have lived in Singapore for not much more than a year, yet I was completely stunned by the lack of people. Especially pedestrians. In the nation's capital, which has been awarded as the most pedestrian friendly city in United States. The stretch of land between the iconic landmarks is a park, yet there was only a handful of people seen walking around on a beautiful, yet chilly (everyplace is chilly after SG) Saturday. Furthermore there was really no hotdog stands or anything which would feed the hungry masses of people. Where is everybody?! Granted there were few cars driving around the strikingly wide roads.

Flag on the Capitol building is at half mast due to Nelson Mandela passing away. Not due to Finnish independence day.

PS1. I left on Monday morning, arrived on Monday afternoon. After 24 hours of grueling daytime traveling. On my way back, I left on Sunday morning and was back home only on Tuesday. Crossing the International Date Line can make your head hurt.

PS2. I had a short layover at Japan. Even though Singapore is an island, but they don't really serve as good of a sushi as you get in Japan over here. Unfortunately.

PS3. On the topic of food, I did enjoy much better steaks in US than I have been able to get here.

Saturday 23 November 2013

The Apple Anomaly

Long time no post. This delay is due to vacation trip to Australia, which is just in the neighbourhood in this corner of the world. While down under, I was struck by a realization: apples will get brown after peeling like they do back in Finland. The reason this was such a surprise is that apples in Singapore actually do not get brown.

Now back in the good old sauna that is also called Singapore I had to make a half scientifical experiment and allow me to present the findings below:


Apple does indeed retain it's greenish color up until the moment I just couldn't resist anymore and had to take a bite or two. Testing the taste of the apple reveals also interesting results: apple has kind of a salty (?) outer layer which seems to preserve the juiciness.

Google to the rescue when trying to understand the chemistry behind all of this and solve the puzzle once and for all:
"When an apple is cut (or bruised), oxygen is introduced into the injured plant tissue. When oxygen is present in cells, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzymes in the chloroplasts rapidly oxidize phenolic compounds naturally present in the apple tissues to o-quinones, colorless precursors to brown-colored secondary products. O-quinones then produce the well documented brown color by reacting to form compounds with amino acids or proteins, or they self-assemble to make polymers. [snip]

the level of PPO activity and concentration of substrate--here, the phenolic compounds--can vary between varieties of fruits (say, Granny Smith versus Red Delicious [or Singapore apples vs. rest of the world]). In addition, a tissue's PPO level can vary depending on growing conditions and fruit maturity. One approach the food industry employs to prevent enzymatic browning is to select fruit varieties that are less susceptible to discoloration—either due to lower PPO activity or lower substrate concentration."
 (source: Scientific American (now, is that an oxymoron? :) ))


PS. It might not be too far fetched to speculate that the title of this blog post has been somewhat inspired by the way episodes of Big Bang Theory are titled.

Monday 28 October 2013

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.

Sunday 20 October 2013

Opposite of draconian

Only in the Nordic countries you can expect something like this: convict serving a prison sentence decided he didn't quite feel like coming back while on vacation (!) from the prison. This episode was recently reported in a Finnish newspaper.

This convict in question happened to be just a murderer who had hacked his business associate to pieces. Furthermore, he had tried to escape already a couple of years ago while visiting the city to apply for university. 

Police announced that this is not such a big thing as the prisoner had already served 6 years (out of which they had subtracted the time he went AWOL the previous time). Also they mentioned that there is no need for any public concern as this particular criminal is hardly the most dangerous villain out there right now.

All this sounds quite otherworldly after living in a society which has one of the most draconian legislative system in the world and reportedly inhumane conditions for inmates serving time.

Thursday 10 October 2013

Scoop of palm sugar

I mentioned previously that I won one years supply of ice cream from a contest related to the first Hobbit movie. As a sad announcement to the hordes of people lining behind my front door and clawing my windows, let me formally let you all know that the ice cream is long gone. Please go home. Nothing to see here anymore.

It lasted for something like 3 months. So should I consider that I have been cheated? Actually not really. Just came across this little tweet over here, which clearly states that the difference in the consumption of ice cream between Finland and Singapore is 6 fold -- for the favour of all of us Finnish ice cream aficionados. Based on this it seems that the amount of ice cream I won would have easily lasted for the promised period for a standard Singaporean.

This consumption awareness also explains couple of other anomalies. For one, it has been deceptively easy for me to conquer the Foursquare mayorship of more than one ice cream cafes in my neighbourhood. Additionally it does offer an explanation to the surprised expressions of my fellow colleagues when I have entered the office early in the morning enjoying my morning cone. For many of them it seems to be unheard of to have a few scoops for breakfast. While for me it makes absolutely perfect sense: what else could be better treat than a cold ice cream under the scorching sun -- no matter the time of the day.

For the record though, there are some very interesting experimentations of ice cream flavours going on over here. Like the stinky durian flavoured ice cream. Or sweet gula melaka. Or just stingy green tea.

PS. Reaping the benefits of early adulthood, I have once tried to survive on ice cream alone for a whole day. Unfortunately I failed miserably by dinner time.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Anniversary time

As of today I have been in this country for one full year. Once again I have to wonder out loud how fast does the time indeed fly by. It has been and continues to be one exciting adventure!

Furthermore it has been an enjoyable experience to be sharing some of the observations from relocation through this blog. It feels good to see that there has been an ever increasing number of people actually reading these entries. I would like to use this opportunity to apologise publicly to one specific reader who stumbled upon the blog with the following Google query: "barbecue Finland bear". I am not sure if you ever found what you were looking for from here.

I'm anxiously looking forward to the remaining year of my two year assignment. Going into next set of 12 months, I promise to think real hard on how I could expand the blog coverage on grilling various forest creatures to keep all my readers satisfied.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Sweaty conditions

To commemorate this day, on which there was the first snow fall for this winter season in Finland (!), I would like to comment on some of the more long-lasting effects of the inherent temperature difference of the two countries. People are often asking me on how am I coping with the hot weather.

To begin with, people seem to adjust to hot weather differently from person to person. I am willing to bet that there is some hot weather gene controlling individual's capability on handling the temperature changes. I have been making an empirical observations on people around me (family members, colleagues, friends, people visiting us -- mostly people who do not originate from Singapore) and I am ready to make a hypotheses that from this study group about 50% of people embrace hot weather without any issues -- some actually seem to be enjoying it -- and then there is other half to whom hot weather seems to be more of an unbearable burden (with obviously a number of individuals to various degrees in between these two extreme cases).

Luckily I have seemingly been born with Resistance to Fire +20 (using terminology from role playing games). This particular perk seems to have negative correlation with sweating skills. People who sweat extensively are understandably more ticked off by the hot weather conditions than those who don't. Case in point being my two sons: the younger one can be found bathing in sweat while sitting passively on a couch watching Moomin show on YouTube, whereas the older one hardly breaks a sweat even after running wildly around and fighting invisible zombies with karate moves.

There is also clearly an element of adjustment over time. I would like to share a couple of somewhat scary findings from thorough self examination: is it really this quickly that a person from particularly cold corner of the world starts to acclimatize to so very different thermometer readings?

Observation #1: I was leaving work just the other day while wearing my typical work attire: long sleeved shirt and trousers -- it is a relief that a suit with a tie & jacket (AKA standard consultant coveralls) is not generally expected as everyday dressing code. Even though the sun was out, I realized that it didn't feel particularly hot outside. My feeling was justifiable as it was mere 32 degrees.

Observation #2: This year has surely been Year of a Water Snake since it has been raining more than normally even during the drier months between the monsoons. It is not once that I have felt it has been way too cold outside to go for a swim on a cloudy day. Understandably 30+ degree weather raises goose bumps.  (On a totally unrelated note I have noticed an uncontrollable urge to vacate the pool immediately if it starts to rain. I wonder why is that. To prevent myself from getting wet?)

Observation #3: Quite early on I stopped using air con at nights. Mild night time temperature of 28 degrees feels cool enough to sleep well -- as opposed to having air con freezing your feet or head.

Admittedly there has been at least one recorded moment of frustration with me suffering from the exceptionally warm weather. While picking up my son from school I was standing on the school yard way too early at pretty much during the warmest time of the day and this given day happened to be particularly hot one. It tends to get royally hot and humid if it hasn't rained at least a bit in the past few days. I begged for an approval to whine a little from a friend of mine in Finland with whom I was chatting to pass the time. For some unknown reason that approval was never provided.

Friday 13 September 2013

No squating allowed

I have already blogged about Singaporean toilet adventures a few times before. I promise you this will be the last time!

Just wanted to share a warning sign which you probably would not expect to see in a workplace toilet in Finland.


Then again Finns can have part of the action with funny signs. This one was apparently found in one restaurant toilet in Finland. Obviously makes you wonder that there must have been a good reason(s) for a sign defining an appropriate toilet behaviour to appear on the wall in the first place.
Found this from imgur.com --> http://imgur.com/QKLuVtN

Now if I really put my mind to it, I guess squating over Western type toilet bowl is not that bad offense after all...



Saturday 31 August 2013

Never ending dog days

People already in ancient Mesopotamia (bear with me, this is actually going somewhere) associated hot weather in the summer to the rise of the star Sirus, which is the brightest star in Canis Major (Large Dog) constellation. The term "Dog Days" was used at least by the ancient Greek and later by Romans (diēs caniculārēs) to refer to the particularly sultry or humid, warm days at around end of July and August.

In medieval Germany this time of the summer coincidentally was also at the same time when farmers were burning forests and woodlands in order to create fields for crops. This slash-and-burn technique provided name for this season and it became known as Rodenmonat. Now, the Danish in turn took this phrase and translated it not with the original meaning, but by the sound of it. In Denmark this season was known as råddenmåned or rotten month!

Finally when the term landed in Finland in the middle of 1600th century it was called mätäkuu (or more specifically mätekw as per Mikael Agricola, who is considered to be the de facto founder of written Finnish, had documented it into the first ever calendar in being published in Finnish language). Now the concept of rotting and decay was integral part of the term.

Interestingly, it was apparently the label itself which started living its own life in Finland and people of old times began associating things like how easily food goes bad or how wounds do not heal so quickly during this particular time of the year. Similarly there are various folklore driven beliefs associated with dogs in the parts of the world where the term Dog Days is being used.

But furthermore, it is seemingly not only folklore, as lately there was a study being conducted in a Finnish hospital, where surgeons reviewed total of 50 000 patients. It turned out that there was indeed a statistical significance in the bigger amount of infected wounds with patients during mätäkuu than any other time of the year. There was an increase in the number of bacteria, but also one probable reason was the more lighter clothing being worn during Summer and thus more likely it is to attain skin scratches and wounds.

The reason why I am relating this long winding introduction is that just recently I have ended up with two minor surface wounds on the top of my left foot or instep. The root cause was yet another pesky mosquito going after my succulent Finnish blood again and me scratching the surface of the skin while sleeping. There was no dengue this time (I am actually now immune to one particular serotype of dengue for the rest of my life, but then again would be likely to have more serious disease if I was ever contaminated by any of the remaining three other serotypes), but both of these wounds got infected quite annoyingly.

Luckily both wounds are finally getting better, but even though the last day of August is now upon us, mätäkuu is likely to continue all year around here in Singapore.


PS: Now that we are dwelling in the global etymology of words, there is a curious notion that while Dog Days is not being used in Finland, the phrase "Cat Days" in Finnish actually refers to special time of luxury and relaxation. With quick googling and wikipeding (!?) I was not able to find any similar term in other languages.

PS2: In order to give credit, where credit is due, this more academic blog entry owes much to aforementioned Wikipedia. I am so heavy Wikipedia user in both at work and at free time, that I have started to show them my support by donating. It keeps amazing me that much of the accumulated body of knowledge from entire human history is being provided free of charge and being available practically anywhere at any time. Additionally I used couple of additional Finnish articles as a source of information.

PS3: My son just realized that it is unlikely coincidence that the character Sirius Black in Harry Potter series can transform himself into a dog of all the other possible animals that a well trained Animagus can morph him- or herself into.

Friday 23 August 2013

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...

Friday 16 August 2013

Oh the Greenery

I believe I mentioned long time back how thrilled I was initially with the amount of flowers, bushes, trees and parks in the city of Singapore. The thing is that it still keeps fascinating me. Having some comparisons with other South East Asian big cities, it is absolutely lovely that even with the scarcity of available land there are trees everywhere.

Case in point: the highway leading to my home from work.
Yesterday I succumbed to taking a taxi which takes me home in 10 mins vs. 45 minutes with public transportation.

Friday 9 August 2013

Happy 48th Birthday Singapore!

August 9th marks the National Day of Singapore. Contrary to what I had previously thought, Singapore gained independence through separating from Malaysia in 1965 and not from under British Crown. To a great extend autonomous Singapore had intentionally merged with Malaysia already few years prior to that and thus ending being a part of the British Commonwealth.

A big thing on the National Day is apparently the National Day Parade which is running a particular theme for each year. This year's theme is Many stories... One Singapore. This particular story shown on the video took me by surprise.
 

Friday 2 August 2013

Hectic big city life

It is same in all big cities, I presume. City life just tends to be more hectic and fast paced than in more rural areas. According to my observations people actually seem to walk faster and check the time more often in cities than in smaller towns. People are rushing for public transportation even though it is running on few minute intervals as opposed to running once every half an hour or so. I wonder what is actually the cause and what is the effect. I bet that there is plenty of studies done on the topic.
You have 5 seconds to comply.
At least one thing that is increasing the feeling of hecticity (that's not really a word, is it, but interestingly word "city" is embedded in there) is displaying the seconds left for pedestrians to cross a street. In Singapore there are ridiculously few seconds offered to cross a street -- even one with multiple lanes. Just seeing the seconds diminish in front of your eyes forces you to fasten your stride. The clock starts ticking probably at 12 seconds meaning that unless you are there already waiting to cross the street, the chance is that you will not make it safely across in time. And this is coming from somewhat fit and somewhat still young (!?) individual. The kiasu mentality of people behind the wheel doesn't really respect pedestrians. I have no clue on how senior citizens or those disabled can cross the street in sub 10 seconds time...

But actually now I do! I just spotted this little curiosity (see picture below) close to a pedestrian crossing near a medical facility. You just need to flash your senior citizen smartcard to the street light in order to add few more extra personal seconds for safe crossing. How innovative is that?
 

ps. Jaywalking is naturally yet another crime in Singapore and offender could at least theoretically face punishment of up to 3 months in jail! Yes, you read correctly. For crossing a street.

Tuesday 30 July 2013

Extra curriculum activities

This time I am sharing a selection of Singapore enabled free time activities.

One of the first water activities which I made acquaintance with was wake boarding. On this artificial island it should come as no surprise that there is of course a man made lagoon with machine run cable pulling wake boarders around. Cable operated approach made it easy to try and try again to get the surfing going on. For a good part of the first hour I was underwater after repeated unsuccessful attempts at staying upright. Somehow the lost balance was eventually found and managed to start enjoying the sport. On the next visits I have since changed from the amateur board to more intermediate board. There is clearly a learning curve happening here, but not yet on the level of the guy shown on my video clip.


Another water related -- and yet as artificial -- sport is flowriding on a man made wave. They are pumping 30 000 - 100 000 gallons of water (depending on the size of the wave) per minute and adrenaline driven fools like yours truly are aiming to ride the wave with a flowboard. Once again a balancing act -- this time asking for bit of a different angle and posture than on the wakeboard and thus starting the fun of falling down from the beginning all over again. As you can expect: a whole lot of fun.

One of the niceties of living in Singapore is to be able to pack my bags and leave on a short notice to a long weekend trip to one of the magical diving sites around. A week ago I went to Tioman Island on South China Sea off the coast of Malaysia. Through quite convenient and ridiculously inexpensive bus & ferry connection I can get below the surface in a matter of hours. After hustle and bustle of metropolitan life, there I was diving through underwater caves with sea turtles and blue spotted rays while trying to find perfect buoyancy being surrounded by schools of coral fish. I've gotta do this again soon!

One final example is about flying. Singapore has this thing with superlatives: everything has to be either the biggest or largest or longest. For example this city has the largest Ferris Wheel in the world and it is currently building the biggest indoor stadium. On that note we have the largest windtunnel for indoor skydiving. Once again an absolutely stunning experience to be suspended in midair and trying to control your position in 3D space with tiniest of movements. Overall this was one skillfully executed service offering, with thematic instruction videos and clever upsell scheme after having enjoyed the thrill of flying. Once again the guy in my video is not me, but I underwent similar experience.


Naturally there is a wide variety of other activities to be pursued. In addition to the activities mentioned, so far I have
  1. rented a bike for a day to see if the bold statements about this city being entirely connected for pedestrian and bicycle access without having to wait at any traffic lights is exaggerated (which it is apparently due to so many construction sites)
  2. practiced wall climbing in uncomfortably hot weather (me being the odd westerner trembling on the lowest wall holds while thin yet muscular localites scaling the walls without breaking a sweat), 
  3. participated in some martial arts classes (dojo luckily was air conditioned, but weirdly no showers provided. Don't these people sweat at all?)
Still on to-do list I have things like climbing Mount Kinabalu in Borneo (and enjoying the world's highest via ferrata -- apparently Malaysians know their superlatives as well) and taking the mandatory photo opp at Angor Wat.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Celestial wonders on the Finnish summer sky

Even though I have witnessed the natural phenomena of midnight Sun (or at least not so dark nights) every summer for several decades, it still continues to fascinate me. Especially powerful the effect is after having survived yet another dark winter, which is the flip side caused by the the same axial tilt of the Earth. In Singapore somebody flips the light switch at 7.30 PM and turns it back on at 7 AM practically all year round. So even after this systematic approach, it was yet again captivating to enjoy the summer solstice in Finland this June with close friends and family.

A quarter of Finland is located north of the Arctic Circle. This is where you get to experience the actual midnight Sun. I was celebrating the midsummer festivities in the Central Finland, where the Sun does set, but only for few hours and it doesn't really get that dark at all. Only a dusk. I have heard from a number of foreign friends that they have actually trouble sleeping during Finnish summers when it is so light outside. My tip for all travellers is to close their eyes when sleeping.

Picture taken at midnight on summer solstice.
That is not the Sun in the sky, but another coincidental celestial marvel: supermoon.
PS. I have been lately wondering that there aren't likely many vampires living in Finland during the summer months. Then again they all would be having a field day all over lasting from September to March.    

Thursday 11 July 2013

Gift redemption process

Obnoxiously loud. That's how I would characterize my new vacuum cleaner. I got the little beast as a gift for subscribing to local newspaper (appropriately titled The Straits Times in a country which still considers homosexuality illegal). It seems to be very common over here to bundle all kinds of unrelated gifts or add-ons to a product or a service. And it seems to be working as an advertisement tactics as it is attracting the crowds. It took me more than 2 months to receive my vacuum cleaner due to "unforeseen interest in this particular gift".

So far I have also received a camera for signing up for a mobile subscription and won years worth of ice cream from a Hobbit movie contest (Yei!). The similarity between all of these gifts has been that there is more or less same redemption scheme behind them. With the received redemption letter I need to find my way to typically some far away (as much of a far away places as there can be on this small island) redemption center between 9-5 on Monday through Friday. In one case it was 2 tiered redemption sending me from one industrial area to another. The vacuum cleaner was luckily available from the city but from a 3rd party company that seems to be providing only these gift redemptions for other companies. They had a stack of the vacuum cleaners and various other weird stuff behind the counters.

I wonder if they have intentionally made it hard to redeem these gifts -- I mean, why couldn't they just send them over through regular mail -- to decrease the number of people actually receiving the gifts. For corporations it would be a minimal save, but save none the less. Then again there are stingy individuals like me running half the city after El Cheapo vacuum cleaner. Furthermore, I just recently invested in not exactly a cheapo pair of noise cancelling headphones, so I can have them cancelling out all the infernal racket the machine is making while cleaning the floors from all gecko droppings.

Monday 8 July 2013

Finnish Cultural Imperialism pt III

Strange. Last time I had just returned from a trip to Finland I spotted this global supply chain oddity. I came back yesterday after having enjoyed the midsummer festivities with friends and family and now I spot a can of Lonkero in a local ordinary supermarket. Well, to be honest it was one of those supermarkets that does tend to the needs of home sick (and wealthy) immigrants in addition to providing everyday groceries. This can was close by to some pretty authentic looking rye bread, which had Swedish label texts.

The moral of the story is that I can get pretty much everything in Singapore to keep the dawning home sickness at bay. Of which there hasn't really been any real symptoms of during the past 9 months though. The reason why I was browsing the alcohol section of the store more closely was to seek out any particularly scrumpy ciders which I have so far only found out in Wales and New Zealand. But glad I'm not a kiwi as apparently not all sorts of home sicknesses can be cured even when willing to pay a premium.

To cater for the non Finnish audience of this blog, here's the wiki entry of the classic Lonkero, which dates back to the Helsinki Olympics '52.

Sunday 16 June 2013

Goodbye Yesterday, Welcome Tomorrow (Architecture pt I)

Singapore is ever changing. Anywhere you go, you'll bound to spot cranes and temporary walls apologizing for inconvenience caused by the construction work. Actually the typical apology is formulated that "Business as Usual" which it clearly is. Another nice sign apologizing for noises was that in the title of this blog post. This constant construction is driven partly by an intentional demolishing of buildings over 20 years of age and thus increasing artificial supply and demand in the construction market.

I visited the country on a tourist trip some 7 years ago for the first time. At that time the sea started from the iconic Merlion statue. Nowadays Merlion is spraying into a man made bay surrounded by completely new part of the town, Marine Bay, having risen from the sea through land reclamation. I wonder what is the going rate for a cubic ton of turf, which Singapore is purchasing from Malaysia.

Both of these drivers result in Singapore buildings being mostly brand new. They are also architecturally interesting. Here are just some of the examples.

Star Vista (Mall and performing arts center)

View into artificial island of Sentosa

Inside one of the domes at Gardens by the Bay

Detail within durian shaped Esplanade

UOB-Building as seen from 1 Altitude

MBS AKA Marina Bay Sands AKA The Pike as I prefer to call it

Not everything is brand new. Chimes is within Singapore's Colonial District


I titled the post fatalistically as Architecture part One as I expect to do a tour around the town and get some additional pictures with a proper camera.

Saturday 15 June 2013

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?



Monday 3 June 2013

The old continent with familiar nightly scents

Work has taken me into lively Dublin, Ireland for a week. As is already the tradition in this blog: couple of inevitable reflections between Europe and SG.

People don't really respect pedestrian lights over here. They are there only for generic guidance, but the decision to cross a street is driven by number of passing vehicles. Obviously you do see jaywalking in Singapore as well, but as you probably have learned it by now, that's yet another punishable offense.

Speaking of which, I only now realize that I haven't really seen any police patrolling the streets in Singapore. Very, very seldom I might have spotted one or two officers in one of the MRT stations. From what I have heard, police are mostly in their civilian clothes blended in the crowds. Plenty of police over here in Dublin though -- with occasional Guinnessy Irish bloke giving them hard time. But seemingly the officers have heard those comments before and not really paying too much attention to the verbal abuse. I really can't imagine seeing that happening in Singapore. That would be one fast track to receive quick corrective caning.

Neither can I imagine smelling the poignant scent of Friday and Saturday night in every other street corner. It is truly amazing how Singaporeans can behave so well even when royally drunk at Clarke Quay in the wee hours of the night. Surely you have the occasional few who are tad bit too tired to walk or might not generally feel so well, but the thing is that there is absolutely no one behaving aggressively or even overly loud.

Something that I am a little bit concerned is how can a Finn of all nationalities be spoilt with little bit of a warm weather and spicy cuisine so fast. I have been truly freezing in the damp yet sunny Irish summer with three layers of clothing, while the locals are welcoming June with nothing but T-shirts and shorts. Also I didn't remember Fish and Chips tasting so very bland before.

Majestic scenery of Cliffs of Moher -- or so I was told. Couldn't see a damn thing through the fog.

Sunday 19 May 2013

Who you gonna call?

Seriously folks now?!

Don't worry, it is just a drill

On Friday I had to leave work early due to preannounced fire drill taking place. I was among the odd few who had actually come to the office on Friday rather than working from home due to the same drill. They had announcements on the elevators posted already on Monday asking politely for forgiveness for any inconvenience caused.

Is it just me or isn't a bit weird to tell people before hand that there is going to be a fire drill. I mean of course it is good to practice exiting the building in orderly fashion and convening on designated assembly point so that in a real situation people know how not to wave hands and scream. However, apparently preannouncing makes everybody leave and avoid the hassle altogether. It was clearly agreed to be done on Friday afternoon to cause least amount of disruption to business. It seems to me fulfilling of the mandated process step just for the sake of fulfilling.

At least back in Finland you never know whether it is a drill or a real thing, you should be behaving exactly the same. Having drills ever so often has caused that I often finish what I am doing on my laptop before gathering my things. Occasionally I found myself wondering would it really be worth it finishing "this one last email" just before inhaling toxic fumes if it was a real case. For good or worse I am not panicking.

Not related to 'Pore or Finland, but my colleague told me a funny anecdote to fire drills while working: A fire alarm went off and this colleague of mine started to leave the work premises. This time it was clearly not a drill, but heavy smoke was already coming from the corridor. There was another coworker still on the phone clearly with a client. My friend started urging his colleague to leave the building pointing at the smoke. The following phone conversation apparently really took place:

- "I am so sorry ma'am, but it seems that there seems to be a bit of a fire in the office I am working, so I might need to you to ask to call our number again in a while"
- "What? Is there smoke?"
- "Oh yes, there has been smoke in the office for quite some time now, ma'am."
- "There is a fire going on and you are still talking to me?"
- "But I would like to make sure that you would not mind calling us back again."
- "Get out now! Seriously."
- "How would you rate your call today..." 

"Se taitaa olla vain pora." (Sorry, old Finnish inside Star Wars humour)
(picture from http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/36inoo/)

PS. In continuation to the comments to this old post, I went to see the new Start Trek movie yesterday night (again at IMAX) and was blown away. Plenty of horizontal lens flares and pretty nice scifi imagery.

Wednesday 8 May 2013

1k

Yay! Just noticed from the blog statistics that there has been more than 1000 different visitor sessions logged into my little relocation blog. It feels weird as the whole thing started as a means to share some experiences mainly to a relatively limited group of my old colleagues. Remember me accepting the challenge more than a half a year ago.

Then again it just might be my dear own mother who is logging in to see several times a day on how's life treating me & my family on the other side of the globe. Obviously she is using a private VPN connection to get around obnoxious regional limitations and accessing this blog from US, Germany, Russia, UK, Nigeria (!), Korea (south, in case you are wondering) or just from the other Nordic countries. In addition to reading it mostly from Finland and Singapore of course. And naturally she would be using at least occasionally Linux with YaBrowser -- that's just given.

Be that as it may, big thanks to all you readers out there (mom included)! Makes it worthwhile to continue blogging knowing that someone actually is reading my ramblings. And watching the Blogger provided statistics is kinda addictive on its own as well.

Near fail experience

Just the other day I was blogging about my severe fruit juice addiction. Instead typical juice, just for a change I succumbed to á strawberry smoothie, when I saw that I just missed my MRT (AKA Singapore Mass Rapid Transit AKA metro AKA subway for all you UK English illiterates out there) connection home. I would have to wait full 6 minutes (which is a very long interval) for the next train. Thus I rewarded myself with a manly pink drink to pass the time. 

I walked intentionally slowly to the MRT station. At the station I was loudly slurping my smoothie while the platform started packing up with people. Soon I realised that there were no trash cans in sight - which there are typically plenty in this city. I was aiming on finishing my drink before the train arrived, since it is not allowed to eat or drink anything in the train.

I never found a trash can, but I did spot your typical big no-no sign saying that you can also get charged a nominal fee of 1000 dollars if caught eating or drinking at the platform! I felt so certain that they'll absolutely make an example out of the ignorant ang mo gurgling his pink smoothie if someone as much as notices me, that I did the only sensible thing imaginable: I quickly hid the remainder of the drink into my work suitcase. Smoothie costing 1003 dollars might have actually cured me of my addiction.

Monday 6 May 2013

Already addicted


I know already now a thing that I am going to miss so much from SG once the two year assignment is over. "Hello everybody. My internet moniker is koomikko and I am addicted to fresh fruit juice." Now this is the time when you all say "Hi koomikko!" in awful cacophony. 

Costing 2-3 SGDs you can basically get any imaginable fruit available pressed in front of your eyes into an oh so sweet, vitamin heavy refreshment. The weapon of choice for this morning's commute was star fruit juice, but it could as well have been mango & passion fruit or lime & green apple. I honestly can't pick a winner. I like them all -- except probably the ones where they ruin the taste with carrot or other veggies. 

Now the really spooky part of this post is why there is clearly an ET drowning in my juice!!1

Seriously. Who in their right mind would even consider a fruit juice with celery in it?

Friday 26 April 2013

Biggest relocation hurdle yet

Surprisingly I have yet to comment on what would have to be one the biggest changes in everyday life when one migrates from Western countries to Asia. Something that is apparent almost on a daily basis. And I am not still used to it at all. Neither is my son. Something so profound that unlearning my Western behavior, which has embedded itself somewhere in the forebrain with other basic human functions such as eating, sleeping and controlling body temperature, seems utterly impossible.

Thursday 11 April 2013

Appreciation day

Nerd appreciates. Twice. 

On a totally unrelated note: had a weird sense of surreality while returning from post dengue check up. There I was in the middle of skyscrapers in the normal 35 degree weather listening on my headphones to what I could only label as shamanism influenced Finnish hip hop by an artist called Asa.

Road to recovery

Finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. Waves of headache and fever have started to get less severe in terms of both ferocity and frequency. On Tuesday out of a sudden this feeling of having my brain clogged up was lifted and I was able to think straight for the first time in weeks. Feels pretty good.

Once again a time of doing a bit of a comparison between the two countries. Over here I had few colleagues visiting me at the hospital, more than a few colleagues came to check up on me at my home once I was discharged from the hospital, a few of them send me a bouquet of flowers and fresh fruit and the rest have been calling and texting me through out my recovery period offering to help in any which way they can. While still in hospital I also noticed that the other patients basically had visitors throughout the visiting period from 9 AM to 9 PM.

Flashback to few years back when I had to be hospitalized back in Finland. The only call from a colleague was that from an executive who asked for number of chores which I was supposedly able to fulfill while lying on the hospital bed. Furthermore, interestingly the word "Colleague" translates into "Work Friend" in Finnish. Honestly, I tend to prefer the friendlier approach over here more.

Finally, if do you see my new arch nemesis Aedes Aegypti (pictured below for easier recognition) give her (it is apparently only the females of this particular species who are after my succulent blood) a good smack on the back with greetings from me. Then again my grand tour of South East Asia would not have been complete without contracting a tropical disease.
I clearly had too much time on my hand while at the hospital. 


Friday 29 March 2013

Welcome to tropics

Having enjoyed 10 consecutive days of unrelenting headache, I finally gave in and went to see a doctor. There were the typical root cause expectations related to bad ergonomics and so forth, but the doc did take me seriously as one shouldn't apparently suffer from headache for so long. The doctor herself took blood tests (way convenient) and send me to bed with muscle relaxants for 2 days on MC (medical certificate).

Still the headache wasn't unbearable, just continuous discomfort. So I was merrily working on my laptop at home when the doctor called in the results. My platelets (aka trombocytes) had plummeted, so I had to see another doctor immediately. Sooner than I realized I was being admitted into hospital with positive results for dengue fever.

I never learned to know the sucker who stung me (later learned that it was one Aedes Aegypti). In Finland mosquitoes make this infernal whine just before they start to feast on your blood. And they don't carry any diseases. Well I guess this is part of living in the tropics.

So good possibility (and way too much time to kill while resting on a hospital bed) to make some comparisons on the hospital care between these two countries.

I'm now in a private hospital through my insurance. It feels quite similar to Finnish public sector hospital. The facilities are considerably newer though. One thing I have noticed is the amount of paperwork I need to review and sign. All kinds of terms and conditions and getaway clauses I guess. Admittedly I didn't read every paper when worrying about dengue in the admissions.

I do feel like getting a quality care from a Burmese nurse (among others)  and Edinburgh schooled Sikh doctor. This particular doctor mentioned that some of my Finnish hospital procedures sound like they were done here 30 years ago. And there I was expecting Finnish level of health care being among the best in the world. I still do, but so seems Singaporean equivalent as well.

NP: Amerigo Gazaway's DJ-set from South by Southwest (SXSW) event couple of weeks ago.

PS. I'll proofread, add links, tags and geo location once back slouching over my laptop in as unergonomical position as before

Monday 25 March 2013

Learning through scare of a punishment


As a side note to the previous blog entry, I had to undergo yet another process to certify myself as an employer in Singapore through the Ministry of Manpower. There seems to be a process for everything and all of them work very efficiently. As part of this process I had to participate into a mandatory training event either in a physical class room session or through self paced e-Learning. As I have found myself in my new job role to be a training specialist I applied into the online training from professional interest.

In terms of e-Learning you have your typical "please spend more time on this page before proceeding forward" check, but also some kind of a verification that you actually have the window with the course content active while waiting for the time to pass before proceeding. So essentially I couldn't multitask through alt-tabbing as I had expected, but actually had to sit through the whole ~3 hour course from beginning to end.

Couple of interesting observations:
- One out of every six households in Singapore employ a helper.
- Clarity followed with Patience seem to be the key virtues in terms of getting to positive results with setting expectations and guidance.
- There was one quiz as part of the training where the false assumption was to expect the FDWs (Foreign Domestic Workers) to speak English.
- In the graphics supporting the learning content, the instructor was always portrayed as Chinese looking male with a tie, the employer as Western lady and FDW as a Filipino lady. In the text even though mostly genderly correct occasionally FDW was just being referred as she. Granted that there are not likely many male FDWs, but still this struck my eye.

And finally the biggest interesting finding. Throughout the education it was emphasized how many dollars of fines, how many years in prison or how many strokes from a cane will the employer get if something that is against the job contract is being conducted. Of course I understand that it would not be OK to ask the helper to clean the windows outside the apartment on the 18th floor (This had apparently really happened!) or to have the helper do your work related chores at evenings (sounds tempting though). But for me highlighting all the time the scare of the punishment didn't make the participation into the training more captivating nor did it reinforce the learning objectives in an appropriate way. I wonder if we should utilize these scaring techniques more with our professional training material at work...

My possible future

Sunday 17 March 2013

My outsourced life

While my kid starting in a school was a major event for our family in terms of integrating (assimilating?) into local society, another one is just lurking behind a corner. Finally we have decided to employ a Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) -- a full time helper living in our home.

This seems to be a very big issue for me personally. I am not even sure, why am I reacting so strongly about this and thus as a form of self examination and hopefully as some kind of a catharsis (this word I didn't have to google up), I am documenting some of my initial feelings related to employing a maid.

There are number of obvious benefits in having someone available to help out with everyday chores:
1+) The primary reason for us to employ a FDW is to have someone to cook healthy food for the kids. I admit it, just yesterday I was in charge of conjuring a healthy dinner for them and I took the easy way out by ordering a delivery from McDonalds (by the way, that's actually one of the only ways to eat ice cream at home -- it's way too hot outside to carry a package from a grocery store without ice cream melting during the journey).
2+) Having someone to help out with home cleaning, washing and ironing clothes and washing dishes (basically none of the apartments I viewed when selecting our new home has a dish washer, because everybody (?) employes a maid!) translates into having more time for things which are important, like playing board games with my 7-year old (in a sudden moment of nostalgic urge, I bought Talisman, which I played last time sometime in the mid 80s).
3+) Most cost efficient way to buy groceries around here is at so called wet markets, where they sell fresh veggies, meat and so forth in a market setting, but only in the morning hours. Both of us essentially working, we basically have no possibility in doing any of our shopping there.
4+) Finally as a main driver for the decision is that it enables basic everyday life to work out. While we are at work and having no family around to rely upon, there is someone for example to pick up my son from school at 3:15 PM every day.

However, I have observed following cons as well:
1-) We will have to sacrifice some of our privacy, when inviting someone living with us 24/7. This is probably the number one concern which I have right now, although I cannot really articulate what about privacy I am specifically worried about loosing. There are stories of helpers exchanging every single little dirty detail about their employers, but I don't think my details are that particularly dirty to be shared.
2-) I am also concerned that my kids will get used to an environment where you don't have to clean up after yourself as there is always someone to do it for them. This is something for me to really be mindful about and make sure they understand that they still have to do their part (and me as well!).
 3-) Apparently there is some inherent Finnish value of everybody being equal and Lutheran morale code embedded deep within even an devote atheist like me, which makes me not comfortable with having someone doing things for you which you could do perfectly well yourself.
4-) There are costs involved: in addition to salary and upkeep fees, there is agency fees, government levy and medical and other insurance to be paid .
5-) Then there is a nagging fear of exploitation, which I have tried to explain to myself by
5+) Giving a possibility for someone to have a clean, nice indoor job with relatively good pay compared to jobs available where they are from and also as opposed to some other horrible means to make ends meet for girls from countries like Myanmar and Philippines.

Lately I have been reading a book called 4-Hour Work Week. One of the basic concepts of the book is to outsource all things you can in order to to have time for more meaningful things in your life -- provided that you can pinpoint what is it that you want to have more time for. I guess this is one step in that path while living in an environment where employing helpers is made easy and possible.

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Partly cloudy spring day

I know I am making an obvious comparison here, but I get asked a lot how's the weather in Finland at this time of the year. Is there still snow on the ground? At least they are seemingly enjoying some sun finally. The weather in Finland can be really nice in the Spring time. Personally I really like Spring, because dark and gloomy Winter is starting to melt away and there starts to be a promise of Summer in the air.

Over here it is mostly that year starts with Summer, then continues into Summer, after which the real Summer is finally here, after Summer is over it is once again Summer and eventually by the time when we get visited by Santa Claus it is Summer.


Friday 1 March 2013

Closing in on half year mark

Well, whaddya know! I just started my 6th month living and working in Singapore. Funny how time flies when having fun in the office, basking in the sun and relaxing in the pool.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Global content owners stepping on MY toes


In the previous entry there were the devious toilet seats out to get me, this time I am bitching about protectionistic content providers guarding their prehistoric turf. I am a prime example of consumer who isn't fixed to particular geographic position, but would still expect the global companies treat me as the same customer now matter from where I happened to be accessing their services. Going into 2013 the corporations are STILL not really ready for this new era of geo-less digital consumers.

I am clearly pestered by my own inner morale code dictating me actually to be willing to pay for products, service or content that I consume. Life would be so much easier right now without my too self aware consciousness making me jump hurdles whenever trying to get access to content like movies, tv, music, comics, magazine subscriptions, books in a way that is completely legal and just.

Case in point 1: Last year I bought Google Nexus 7 and I am loving the device. At least up until when I found out all the cool content I am missing. Over here in Singapore (and all over the place outside US borders judging from the global nerd rage followed by every single Google Play announcement in Google+), Google Play is but an empty shell serving only the applications. I so much wanted to buy 2nd season of Walking Dead for my enjoyment when going on a cross continent trip. However all Google said is "No can do. None of this glorious content is meant for you". Out of curiosity I found means to make it so that I appeared as if I was accessing the internet store from US soil. My Nexus was all of a sudden a cornucopia (Yes, I had to google that up) of content both free and for a fee. Whole Walking Dead S2 was there up for grabs for a nominal fee which I would be more than glad to pay to ease the pain of 12 hour flights. However my devious tactics didn't work all the way, even if I was browsing the US store, Google not so politely refused to take my dirty Singapore dollars -- or Finnish euros for that matter. And furthermore I was eventually thrown out of the store in an internet equivalent of being thrown out of a pub head first, by locking my google account due to "suspicious activity". That was pretty painful experience as I have ended up centralizing most of my digital existence behind that one account.

Case in point 2: Apparently I wasn't going to give in so easily to the temptation of more easier and not to mention free alternatives. The next time I had a case of sudden on-demand craving for quality content I accessed the online Movie catalogue within Xbox Live service. Of course in Singapore the Xbox Live would be as empty as Google Play, but I had shipped my Finnish Xbox over here and with my Finnish account was still able to browse all the cool content. Once finally sitting on a couch with popcorn in hand, being ready to start watching first Harry Potter movie with my family and pressing play, I get now so familiar greeting: "Bug off. There is nothing to be seen here in the region where you are currently living. Migrate your sorry-ass back to Finland". Having promised a movie night, I went to local mall, where they have the nearest movie rental place. But to my surprise they had stopped physically renting blu-rays due to "advent of online digital rental competition".

These are only 2 examples of my recent battles. I hardly think it is that Google or Amazon or Netflix or Spotify does not want my money, but it goes beyond that. The official solutions to my previous examples have been to either subscribe to expensive Fox Movies Premium HD -channel package from my cable provider (who wouldn't run Walking Dead season 2 anymore as they are already on S3) or buy a physical copy of the complete collectors set of HP movies for a ridiculous price (as they don't sell individual movies anymore). Digital distribution would be stepping on the toes of various parties in the ecosystem. However the protectionistic system of the content right owners in an interconnected world is so painstakingly out dated business model and further fighting against the change is only driving masses to the sources of once again easier and less costly options.

An interesting observation into all of this was offered by a colleague of mine (who has US address and US credit card to access all the content through iTunes): Asian business culture just is not customer centric. It is more supply chain centric. Customer demand for goods does not necessarily reflect to supply, but actually supplier providing a good value for certain goods drives the buying behaviour of customers for example in a grocery store. Another example is a local restaurant offering set meals through having a full low cost "assembly line" of putting together that particular meal in the kitchen. And there you have a western customer, who has the misconception that customer would be always right and wanting to replace rice with fries. That just doesn't comply in the supply driven process. That actually explains a number of run ins I have had where I have tried to swim upstream against a process.

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Quirky motion sensor AKA set your toilets to stun

Quick personal gripe for this lovely Wednesday morning: It hardly comes as a surprise that in this fine city failing to flush a toilet after use is yet another punishable offence (modest 150 SGD compared to say riding your bike through an underpass, which forces you to cough up a cool 1000 dollars if you get caught). Thankfully opportunities for this form of improper conduct has been prevented by installing infrared motion detectors in most if not all public toilets. These detectors practically flush the toilet for you...

...Provided that they practically work in the first place. In some toilets like in our office they have set the detector on extra stringent mode, flushing the toilet repeatedly even during use as a pre-emptive measure to make sure any fines avoided. I can only attest that it can be rather unpleasant (yet strangely refreshing) experience.

Sunday 10 February 2013

Live long and have a prosperous year of the snake

Chinese New Year is the biggest public holiday event in Singapore at least by counting the number of continuous days off. The actual new year falls this year on Saturday and Sunday and for fairness sake both Monday and Tuesday are days off as well. Singapore does actually surprisingly well in the comparison of number of national holidays during a year.

I took a trip to Chinatown in the new years eve. It was crowded but not the extend I was expecting. It was still possible to navigate through the crowds and find a free table in a restaurant (excellent soft shell crabs in chilly sauce). Chinatown looked very nice while bathing in the yellow and red light from all the lanterns.



For an outsider I took notice of what seemed like a fixation with wealth when it comes the beginning of the new year. People hand over mandarins to each other and buy small kumquat trees into their homes. The reason being in the yellow color of the fruit which symbolizes all the gold to be captured during the year. Similarly there are significant sales towards end of the year and also for the first customers in the beginning of the year -- expected to bring good fortune going forward.



Following the local customs, this morning I handed over red packets to my kids -- once again with new dollar notes inside them to enforce prosperity in the coming year.

May you all find good fortune and happiness during the year of the snake!  
(Apparently I was not the only one thinking about another person with fixation for prosperity.
I found this image from this blog)

Monday 28 January 2013

Go Huskies

Today marks the first day at the new school for my older child. This is probably one of the biggest practical changes for relocating families. After all I continue in the same company working more or less in the same business context and as an adult (really, am I?) I can work consciously to adapt to the new culture. But for my son it is a new country, new food, new language, new school, new friends, new teachers, new practicalities and all of that pouring over him on the first day. Then again kids possess this amazing ability to adapt into new settings and as a sponge to suck in all new influences.

With hindsight it proved to be a quite an excellent decision to have my son enroll into English speaking day care and later on to pre-school. So the language barrier will be so much lower to begin with, even if he was participating in a Finnish speaking school just before migrating over. But then again up until now there has always been either other kids or some teachers who have been able to assist him in Finnish when necessary.

Even if he doesn't admit it or even realize it himself, he is in for a treat of a lifetime. It will not only be English that he will be engulfed by. Him attending Canadian International School means that he will learn the basics of French and in addition he will have his first Mandarin lesson starting on Wednesday. Furthermore in the school there are kids representing almost 70 different nationalities currently. So it is going to be truly international learning experience to prepare him to be a real global citizen.

My little boy looked so brave albeit clearly anxious standing there in his brand new official red Physical Education uniform and wearing a Spider-Man backpack in the school yard this morning. Uniform wasn't at all the only thing that we needed to stock up for the new school. There are all kinds of fees attached: enrollment fee, confirmation fee, semester fee, facility fee... Coming from Finland the whole conception of privately run schools is quite foreign. They are clearly aiming to run a profitable business.

On a final note I went with my son to the school for an orientation visit last week Thursday. They mentioned that they will be assessing my son's performance in English over the course of next couple of weeks to determine whether he would need Extra English Lessons (for additional fee of course). As we were quickly visiting the ELL class in session, I learned from the teacher that the kids in there were just learning to tell stories using the F-words! Apparently she meant words like Fox, Fire, Five, Fix and so forth.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Individual among masses

I happened to possess very common first name. According to PRC (Finnish Population Register Center that is -- Not the PRC that Asians would expect) I have 56 426 namesakes, which is quite a lot when comparing to the total population of 5,4 million in Finland. Especially common the name has been for men born in 70s and 80s.

In my work context this commonness of my first name was emphasized due to disproportionate relationship between men and women in my line of nerdy work and also due to the fact that most of my colleagues have been born in notorious time frame mentioned above. This has resulted in more than every tenth colleague in my department being my namesake! I often joked that proper name must have been a recruitment criteria. Just before relocating, the final nail on the coffin of my identity crisis was realization that I supposedly had a doppelgänger portraying the role of Dr. Who from a particular season.

Fast forward to the Little Red Dot under the equator. Here I was awarded a completely new digital identity within the corporate systems and my Finnish identity was laid to rest for the duration of my assignment. In practice I  received for example a new external email address. This new identity is in the form of firstname@company.sg -- no need to separate with last name as I am the only and actually the first of my kind working in this location!

I needed to come all the way here to find my long lost identity. I am currently the odd one out of my department. There is actually only one other European that I know of among my whole extend group of colleagues around. It is funny that for example the security guy in our office building occasionally walks around the floors and every single time he happily greets me with my first name. They really didn't do that in Finland, even though just by guessing they would have been correct every tenth time.

However I have found a new group of names I am being referred to. Occasionally when I have booked a taxi (there is a cool little taxi booking app, which actually shows the geographic location of the booked taxi once the booking has been confirmed), the driver looks at me funny and wants to verify that it really was me who booked the taxi. They all say that they were expecting a Japanese woman because of my first name...