...SO HOW EXPENSIVE IS IT?

I just came back from a small, very small, shopping excursion. You know, just picking up a few of those things that one needs to run one's daily life. I should know better by now, but I am continually surprised every single time the cashier tells me the total.
Here's what I bought at grocery store:

-fresh flowers
-bottle of (cheap) wine
-razor blades
-dental floss
-can of tuna
-box of crackers
-cheddar cheese (xtra old)

Total cost, S$ 73.82. That's CDN $56.27 by today's exchange rate. Oh, and just so you know, the cheapest thing I got was the fresh flowers,....cut orchids. S$ 5.60 (CDN 4.26) for eight stems. Ridiculously cheap, I know, but they are so common here that even the saddest little public planter box is full of them.

The layout of the grocery stores (and pharmacies for that matter) continue to elude me. Nothing is laid out in any real, recognizable pattern. In the pharmacy, the shelf space tends to be divided by brand name, not product type. So you can't always just stand and look at all your options for, say, shampoo. You have to wander all over the store. I remember my mother used to make her grocery lists in the same order as the aisles of the grocery store. All the produce in one column, the tinned goods in another, frozen in another. Well, doesn't really work here. At my local Cold Storage (local chain), some kinds of cheese are in the dairy case, others are in another case with the cured meats. All things pickled are on the top of a refrigerated unit that displays fresh vegetables. Razor blades are not with the rest of the health/beauty items, but at the front of the store. Cookies and crackers are intermingled on the shelf and the dizzying array of sauces, marinades & dips seems to be crammed in which ever way they fit. Even a quick trip to pick up a loaf of bread can be an adventure!

Really, the continued lesson here is that it is much cheaper, and much easier to eat out...like the Singaporeans do. Given that rents are extremely high, it's nice that food is so plentiful and cheap.



I admit that I've started to covet some of the Lion King merchandise in the lobby shop. So far, I've only purchased a t-shirt for myself, but I was also given one of the dolls, a small likeness of ....well, me.

And here's a pic that had Veronique, who dressed Scar in Paris, in stitches. I was listening to some music during intermission and, of course, had to put my reading glasses on in order to see the play list on my phone.

She kept repeating, and giggling, "Scar lunettes, Scar lunettes." Actually, I think I look a bit like a crazed Princess Leia.

Singapore has a massive campaign against Dengue Fever going on at the moment. Makes sense really, what with this being a rainy, tropical country, it's a perfect breeding ground for the little mozzies. I discovered this add at the bus stop across the street from my apartment.
It was the huge, 3D mosquito that caught my eye, bearing in mind that this is one of the few cities in the world that can get away with something like that on street level since vandalism and graffiti are virtually non-existent here.

In the entire time I've been here, I don't think I've seen a single mosquito. In fact, it's rare that I see any insects at all. The odd cockroach in a street garbage can perhaps, a dragon-fly now and then, but pest-control and fogging are rampant. Singaporean don't care for the bugs.