The aunties were screaming at the top of their voices as they try to get the attention of the handsome and muscular fish monger as they wanted to buy the freshest fish on the ice and they also want a good price for their shopping but the fish monger was unable to cope with the immense crowd of people eagerly wanting to buy the goods from him which leaves him with no other but one choice to tend to the people at his store one by one despite the angry shoppers throwing insults at him out of their immense anger

In my opinion, same-sex marriages will become legal in Singapore one day. Same-sex marriages are currently illegal in Singapore, but this does not stop some people in Singapore from being homosexuals. Currently, Singaporeans mostly have a negative attitude towards homosexuals, and this may cause political parties to rethink if they were to legalize same-sex marriages, will they get the much needed votes for them to win the election? Recently, in the Singapore General Elections 2011, an opposition party member was caught attending a gay party. Once this was out in the news, which may be the deliberate action of the ruling party, Singaporeans condemned the opposition party member, including his party. This is an example on how same-sex marriages will not be legalized in the near future. However, some years back, there were comments made by MM Lee Kuan Yew on his views on homosexuals. He mentioned that, he was ‘OK’ with gay or lesbian MPs, as long as they don’t take their homosexual behavior public. He explained that this homosexuality may be due to genetic reasons or because of the environment the person grew up in. This shows us that people are starting to change the way they think, and gradually, these homosexuals will be accepted into the society. Already, in other Western countries, the people there are very open towards homosexuality and even some elected ministers or senators are gays. The government has lately been keeping rather quiet about the issue on their attitude towards homosexuals since the General Elections period where the Government questioned Singaporeans if they were ready to vote for a homosexual, who may be their MP, if elected. This may be the ruling party’s actions to rouse disapproval among voters about the opposition party, so that the ruling party could maintain their seat in the constituency. The government and other political parties keeping quiet after the issue and election period, may be due to the fact that the government is starting to accept these people into society slowly, instead of openly crictising them. However, I feel that same-sex marriage should be legalized only when the citizens of Singapore are ready to accept the homosexuals into the society, or the overwhelming reaction from the Singaporeans may go out of hand.

Holiday to Bangkok

This June holiday was not too fulfilling as I left all homework and assignments until the last week.  However, I got a chance to visit a country, which is going for its elections soon, Thailand. I visited Bangkok this time. The holiday to Bangkok this time was a totally different experience from the previous time, as promised by my parents. My parents had to exhaust much of their persuasion skills this time to talk me into joining them in this trip to the capital of Thailand. I had not wanted to go on a holiday at first because of the unreasonably high CCA demands I had to fulfill. In my previous post I had talked about my teacher-in-charge of my CCA being unreasonable and upset with our performance during the National Schools Canoeing championships. This time he signed us up for another competition to test our commitment to the school and in the process of doing so, he stepped up the training requirements. Going for holiday meant that I would be missing many training sessions and my performance in the CCA will drop tremendously after missing many trainings and I will usually have to take some time to be back in form and the process of training hard again is not very pleasant. Another reason I did not want to go on this holiday to Bangkok was because of the lousy and painful experience I had when I was much younger, maybe when I was in Primary 2. That time, when we visited Bangkok, it was a family outing with my aunty and her family. My aunty and my mother were two very avid shoppers. After we checked into our hotels, bathed, settled down, the nightmare begun. It was a nightmare for me, but not for my mother or her sister. We went to one of the biggest and most popular malls in Bangkok and started shopping. My mother and her sister walked into almost every lady shop that sold ladies accessories or shops selling stuff that were much cheaper if they were to buy in Bangkok than in Singapore. I was still okay as I accompanied the ladies for the first hour of the shopping as I had entertainment from my father and cousins and my aunty’s humorous husband. For the second hour, it was getting boring as we waited outside the shops, standing, yawning then walking to use the escalator or the lift, just to reach the next level and continue shopping. My legs were starting to feel tired as the mall was very different from the malls here. It was as if each level of the mall was twice the size of Bugis Village. What made it worst was the prize of the goods sold were much cheaper than those sold in Singapore. I suspected that it was this point which gave my mother and her sister the determination to shop continuously for hours. The third hour spent in the mall was torturous as my legs were aching and I already felt very tired and bored. I was also quite frustrated with my mother as she will have to bargain with the shop owner no matter how cheap the goods. Sometimes I felt like shouting at my mum and my aunty when they spent so much time in the shop, and then walked out empty handed because the price was not right or they were unhappy with the shop owner’s attitude. I could only vent my anger by throwing my little fist at my father who would tickle me in response. I was in pain. The positive part of that holiday was that I slept almost immediately when I lay in bed at night. We did not return to Bangkok for the past 8 years, but the experience has always been etched in my mind. This was one reason why I always enjoyed going to countries which their currency will be stronger and their things more expensive. Minimum shopping was done when my family visited the UK, USA and Australia. However, this time round when I went to Bangkok, many things changed over this 8 years. The airport, the roads, the hygiene, but unfortunately, the jams were still as frequent, and the same mall was still intact in spite of all the unrests which happened in the city over the 8 years. This time, there was still shopping, and the experience was not much better, but I also got what I wanted and needed. I was allowed certain toys which would definitely be denied when I asked for it in Singapore. After all, visiting a country which has cheaper goods also have its advantages. Another entertainment I had when my mother was shopping, was identifying the Singaporeans in Bangkok. This was not too difficult, you don’t really need look at their faces and appearances, you just have to open your ears and listen to the way they speak.

Best friends

It was not too long ago my family and I met up with one of my father’s best friends. We met at a restaurant for buffet lunch. After settling down, being a typical Singaporean, I rushed for the food, I was joined by my mother and my sister, then the other family a while later. We got our food and went back. When we reached the table, my father and his best friend had two cups of coffee in front of them and were talking nineteen to the dozen. The spouses of the two men shook their heads and walked off to help their husbands take some food. My father and his best friend, John, were talking nineteen to the dozen, even as they ate. Halfway through their chat, they may suddenly laugh out loud, attracting attention from the other diners. I paid little attention to the both men at first and helped myself to generous servings of the nice food at the buffet. It was after I had my fill and sat down to rest when I realized something about my father was amiss. Normally at buffets, he have a funny strategy – eating for 15 minutes, then he would walk around and look at the buffet spread for another 5 minutes and help himself to the food again. He would take frequent breaks and can always be seen walking around, so as to make the money he paid “worth it”. However, at this buffet, he only got up once or twice to food, and each time he would return with his plate full, instead of eating slowly. As I looked at my father and Uncle John, the two of them were talking more than they were eating. From what my father said before going to the restaurant, Uncle John was his buddy during the army days. Looking at two best friends still contacting each other after so many years, I thought about myself and the best friends I had and have. Based on what I can remember, I made best friends with two guys during Primary 4 and we decided that we will keep in touch even after going our separate ways after graduation from the school and even if we were placed in different classes in the subsequent years. I only contacted the two guys in primary 5 once and after that we only said ‘Hi’ when we saw each other along the corridors in school as I was placed in the best class, the other two were in the average classes. It was again in Primary 5 when I met 5 very friendly and helpful guys. This time the education system changed such that in you will be in the same class for 2 years, so it would be like when you are in 1D, you will be in 2D next year. The five of us got along very well and we were misbehaved regularly in class, especially when relief teachers came to the class. There was a lot of time for us to bond together, recess, class time, after school, and even detentions. In primary 6, we helped each other in our studies and we did fairly well. Me and two others from the ‘gang’ came to HCI, one went to VS, another to CCHS. The three of us in HCI met up frequently during recess, going home together as we all live in Tampines. However, as the Term Tests came and CCA requirements went up, we seldom contacted each other anymore. Now, when we see each other along the corridors in school, we will just acknowledge each other. In a new class, we also got to meet new friends who were equally friendly and helpful. So, what all this ‘best friends’ is about for us, is the friend whom you like, helps you, play with you, spend time with you, after you go your separate ways, you tend to miss them, but you still have other commitments you have to tend to. Looking at the two grown-up working men chatting happily, I had full of respect for them. They, had to work, family matters to attend to, being extremely busy, after so many years, they still chose a time to get together.