Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Buying your new home is a very proud moment for you and your family. It is likely one of the most expensive purchases you will make and therefore it’s a big deal for everyone involved. Many Chinese people observe or believe in several Chinese customs.
After we moved from Ang Mo Kio to Bishan, I often visited Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery (光明山普觉禅寺) for praying and to bring me closer to Buddhism. I choose to believe in this religion not because of the influence of my parents. Nevertheless, my dad’s plaque is now situated at Kong Meng San, I have even more reasons to visit when I am back in Singapore.
Last month, I went back to Singapore to visit family and it had been ages since I last stepped foot in Marina Bay Sands. It must be 5 years ago when I went with my husband. A lot of my friends and family told me that I must visit Marina Bay Sands as they have so many things to eat and do. A particularly close friend of mine told me that it is her Saturday place to hang out with her family. So before we left for the UK, my sister took us there for dinner at Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine and we managed to squeeze in a few activities.
Since I moved to the UK, whenever I fly back to Singapore, my mum will remind me to give my thanks to the Goddess of the Seas Ma Zu. I always do as I’m told, but I have no idea who she is and why. This was quite embarrassing so I would like to use this opportunity to educate myself and of course, if you happened to travel to Singapore, suggest a visit to this historic temple Thian Hock Keng.
If you are a gamer and especially if you play Valorant, then you might know the Paper Rex team, who recently won the runners-up for #VALORANTMasters Copenhagen. They are a Singapore-based gaming organization built at the crossroads of entertainment, competitive esports, and merchandise.
Last week Sunday 21st August 2022, they unveiled a special commemorative mural of Paper Rex team members and their coach. This wall art was designed and painted by the talented Sam Lo, to celebrate the start of #VCT Champions Istanbul, which runs from 2nd to 18th September.
One of the highlights of Haw Par Villa Hell’s museum in Singapore is their infamous 10 Courts of Hell. We Chinese believe that in the afterlife, we will get judged by our sins and punishments evolved as ancient civilisations shared their cultures across time and space.
We are nearly at the end of the seventh month of the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival with the last day on the 26th of August. If you are in an Asian country, do check out the list of don’t dos during this festival and the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival that I wrote a while ago.
Recently, I took my children to visit one of my childhood parks – Haw Par Villa in Singapore. The last time I went was with my third aunty and cousins 30 years ago. I still remember that every child would have to take a photo with Confucius, hoping we will show humaneness, righteousness and filial. Needless to say, my modern children did not believe in this.
As mentioned in my previous post, I used to work as an operating theatre nurse back in my Singapore days. This is my second post on strange paranormal incidents encountered during my first three night shifts.
For the first few weeks of orientation, we mainly worked office hours but soon after, we began to trial working night shifts. For a normal night shift, there are seven working staff at night running three theatres if they are busy. As I was still a junior and working my first night shift, I was the eighth staff member on that shift.
I used to work as an operating theatre nurse back in my Singapore days. During my 15 months working there, I encountered ghosts many times during the night and day, hence I have to split this into two posts.
This was my second job after I was unhappy working a year in Ortho/ENT C class ward near my home. My friend persuaded me to move to an operating theatre in one of the oldest hospitals in Singapore. It’s one of the largest and busiest hospitals in Singapore and they have multiple disciplines. There are a total of 28 operating theatres on the same floor.
If you work late at night or do a night shift, you can have quite a lot of strange encounters. My third story is a warning to night shift taxi drivers. I have been listening to my favourite Singapore radio station Love 97.2FM Mr Zhou’s Ghost Stories podcasts since last year. Some of the stories involve taxi drivers picking up some strange ‘passengers’. Or their business was poor because they had an extra ‘passenger’ in the front seat that they weren’t aware of which put other potential passengers off from flagging it down.
Hello everyone! This is my second ghost story and the topic is school toilets! Whenever people start talking about school toilets, it always gives me goosebumps. I hate going to school toilets as they are always so small, dark, wet and dirty.
Back in the 80s and 90s, girls’ toilets in Singapore had two types of toilet bowls. One type was for squatting and the other type is the more common seated toilet. Even now, in some shopping malls, you will still find one or two squatting toilets inside the girl’s toilets in Singapore. There are still many people who like to use them as they are more hygienic than using a shared toilet seat. Nevertheless, back to the story.
To coincide with this year’s Hungry Ghost Festival starting on 29th July to 26th August 2022, I decided to blog about my own true ghost stories. Don’t worry, I have only had about eight stories for now. Not enough to fill all 29 days. I will write more when I feel more comfortable sharing it.
Also, my favourite Singapore radio station Love 97.2FM plays Mr Zhou’s Ghost Stories every Friday at 11pm SGT and have published a few of my voice records on the air. I will attach the podcast links in the post but they are in Mandarin.
What is kopi? Or do you mean ‘copy’? No! Kopi means coffee in a Hokkien dialect. If you are a coffee drinker, then you should know the different types of kopi meaning, especially in Singapore and Malaysia.
Kids Stop is an interactive centre designed for children aged 18 months to 8 years old by exposing them to science in their formative years. This was our first time visiting this place which is located next to the science centre. It is well worth going if you are also visiting the science centre. There are two types of admission fees: Singapore/PR or Foreign. I do think their fees are quite ridiculous especially if you are foreigner. The whole place is well designed with hands-on activities and programmes but the whole place is quite small and confined with not much seating areas for adults and there are two different opening times.
It is not often that I will visit tourist attractions when I go back to Singapore for a holiday. I have “been there and done that” through my teenage years and early adulthood so the precious time I have in Singapore is usually spent catching up with friends and family. However, during this latest trip, I decided to take the children to Merlion Park, to visit the famous Merlion statue.
