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 days in Singapore. This is my second story about the strange paranormal incidents I experienced during my very first three night shifts.
During the first few weeks of orientation, we mainly worked office hours. Soon after, however, we were required to trial night shifts. On a normal night shift, there would usually be seven staff members running three operating theatres if things became busy. Since I was still a junior nurse and it was my very first night shift, I became the eighth member of the team.
I used to work as an operating theatre nurse back in my days in Singapore. During the 15 months I worked there, I experienced several paranormal encounters — some during the day, but most during the night. There were simply too many strange incidents to fit into one post, so I’ve decided to split them into two parts.
This happened during my second nursing job. Before joining the operating theatre, I had spent a year working in an Orthopaedic/ENT Class C ward near my home. I was unhappy there, and eventually a friend persuaded me to transfer to the operating theatre at one of Singapore’s oldest hospitals.
If you work late nights or permanent night shifts, you will probably hear your fair share of strange stories. Taxi drivers, especially, seem to encounter things that cannot always be explained.
Since last year, I have been listening to my favourite Singapore radio station, Love 97.2FM and Mr Zhou’s Ghost Stories podcasts. Many of the stories involve taxi drivers picking up unusual “passengers” late at night. Some drivers even claimed their business suddenly became poor because there was an unseen “extra passenger” sitting in the front seat — something only certain people could apparently see, causing potential customers to avoid the taxi altogether.
Hello everyone! This is my second ghost story, and this time the topic is school toilets. Just hearing those two words still gives me goosebumps. I have always hated school toilets — they were usually small, dark, damp, and dirty. Even in broad daylight, they could feel unsettling.
To coincide with this year’s Hungry Ghost Festival, which runs from 29 July to 26 August 2022, I decided to share some of my own true ghost stories on this blog. Don’t worry — I only have about eight stories so far, so definitely not enough to fill all 29 days of the festival! I’ll share more when I feel comfortable enough to talk about them.
What is kopi? Or do you mean “copy”? No—kopi means coffee in the Hokkien dialect. If you’re a coffee drinker, it’s worth learning the different types of kopi, 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.
