#celinetuesdaytalk

[atotaltaitaitale]

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Will menus become a thing of the past?

I’m not sure how I could go to the restaurant (well I can only speak for Singapore, since I haven’t left in 2 years!) without a phone.

First I need to check-in via QR code and then show proof of vaccination via my TraceTogether app; once I’m seated most restaurants have converted to online menu. To top it all off I also can pay via my bank app on my phone.

PS: Menus on phone could be a blessing because I can zoom in as much as I want 😂. Menus seem to be printed with smaller and smaller font over the years (that’s the only explanation I have 😉)

15022022

[atotaltaitaitale]

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I have been doing Outrigger Canoe for the past 2 years now but I’m usually in a oc6 which means I share our great speed or lack of it with 5 other teammates.

Lately with the group size restrictions in Singapore, we have been doing a lot of oc2, again sharing the win and the lost with somebody else.

For the past couple weeks coach Denes has been putting me in a oc1 which mean I can only blame myself when I’m not moving in the right direction and/or the right speed.

I also had to remind him that it was the only sport I was doing*. I don’t go to the gym to help with my endurance and strength and I only go to the session once a week (some of my team mates do double sessions (the 7am and the 9 am) on Tuesday AND Thursday plus often go at least once during the weekend. I, on the other hand, congratulate myself I don’t send a text to cancel my session every Tuesday morning when my alarm clock goes off.

It’s all about the small wins 😂

* my long walks are not really helping (strength in legs is no help with outrigger canoe 🙄)

[atotaltaitaitale]

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We used to take planes to seek out adventures, we are now content that we can still get on the water (either in team of 6 or team of 2 currently) for our outrigger canoe sessions every week.

Give us lemons and we’ll make lemonades.

I once read that “Money will only make you more of what you already are” (if you are an a$$ you won’t become nicer with money 😉). Well I would extend that a pandemic will accentuate your traits too. A negative person/complainer won’t all of sudden starts to see the glass half full or see their privileges. 🤷‍♀️

[atotaltaitaitale]

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Does living somewhere automatically disqualify it as paradise?

Well, I wouldn’t call currently living in Singapore as 100% paradise per se (given the many restrictions) BUT people pay a lot of money to be able to go to places and take this kind of picture of their vacation spot to impress other people. For me, it has been for a while #MyTuesdayView. ;-)

So if as Sartre said “L’enfer c’est les autres*” (Hell is other people)… is paradise always somewhere else?

So far here is definitely not hell.

* No Exit (French: Huis clos) is a 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The original title is the French equivalent of the legal term in camera, referring to a private discussion behind closed doors. […] The play begins with three characters who find themselves waiting in a mysterious room. It is a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters are punished by being locked into a room together for eternity. It is the source of Sartre's especially famous phrase "L'enfer, c'est les autres" or "Hell is other people", a reference to Sartre's ideas about the look and the perpetual ontological struggle of being caused to see oneself as an object from the view of another consciousness.

[atotaltaitaitale]

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These are not “abandoned” Kleenex on a table. No, this table has been “chopped” by someone who went to get their food.

Tissue paper can be replaced by umbrella, water bottle, bag, anything handy. I’ve even seen phone!

This is one of the first thing you need to learn when you arrive in Singapore….or you would be in a very awkward position seating where you are not suppose to.

CHOPE \chōp\ transitive verb (Singapore slang): To reserve a seat in a place to eat by placing a tissue packet on it.

24022022

[atotaltaitaitale]

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Tuesday Talk

Those little things that are so Singapore but you don’t notice.

At every MRT entrance there are 3 or more little steps you have to climb up before you take the stairs or escalator down the station. You might think that it’s counterproductive but they are there for a purpose.

Singapore being in the tropics, it is prone to tropical storm and flash flood. Those 3 steps save undergrounds subway station being flooded.

Build it before you need it. Anticipate.

[atotaltaitaitale]

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Tuesday Talk in Town.

We’ve been checking in and out of venues (& even the beach) for so long that it became second nature. Take your phone (well actually keep it in your hands at all time it’s better!), open the TraceTogether app and scan the QR code to enter and don’t forget to check out either or you’ll be at multiple places all across the island 😂.

Recently with the restrictions of entrance to malls, movie theaters, restaurants, etc to only vaccinated people we need to not only show the screen of our Checked-In status but also our Vaccinated status.

The 2-step procedure was taking too long at the entrance of the establishments so within days the TraceTogether app was updated to a 1-step procedure. In order to deter people from doing a screenshot of the Vaccinated Status they have added a swimming otter 😂 (As you can see when I screen recorded the app it even added a transparency seal mentioning it was indeed a screen recording).

The little otter has been the talk of the town in the Expat Wives forums…. What can I say, we are easily amused and there were not much more we could talk about from the Christmas decorations on Orchard road anyway. 😉

[atotaltaitaitale]

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Tuesday Talk

I’m going to miss exotic fruits (well technically exotic means introduced from another country : not native exotic plants so those are not exotic here)

The passion fruits have been my guilty pleasure for the past year or so. I’ve noticed that the little fruit market at the HDB near our condo was selling them. I get a bag of 5 fruits for S$5. ($3.5 €3), I would pay this much for 1 fruit back home. So while I have missed my summer fruits from France this year I’m going to indulge while I can.

A few years ago I posted a pictures of my fruits while vacationing in France in the summer and talked about exotic fruits and how perspective (of exotic) is just about the point of reference.

So for now I will enjoy my (perceived) exotic fruits, exotic life, exotic location until I can enjoy my local fruit, normal life, familiar location… which will be, after 20 years abroad, quite exotic for me 😉