Anyone from Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia or married to anyone from the region?

[SweetFudge]

Hi,

I'm Bruneian Chinese and have been living in the U.K. for over a decade bar annual and long visits home. Married here and am expecting first baby end of August. I've posted on and off on MN and I'm curious to see how many of us are from the region or married to/have partners from those countries. Of course, getting to know you all will be the bonus.

hi rojak, i'm back! didn't realise that this thread has been revived! and the word is "anak dara"! just checked my dictionary. and you are right. 10 years of malay and have never used the word or even knew it. and i can't think of a rude word either. guess i must have attended the wrong school... but it was a convent school so i guess that explains it

tinkerbell, i'm a FT working mum for my and dsx2' sanity!

when are you off rojak? trying to remember the east coast. went to Victoria JC in my time there so spent quite a bit of time hanging out there. mandarin gardens and laguna park are 2 apartments i can think of. my sis used to stay in the former and my cousin the latter. but this was a long time ago and they have probably been demolished and better, newer apartments built if you know what i mean. will you be finding work there? actually, thinking about it, do you know of any estate agents in singapore who can help you with your search? that is usually the best way to do it cos they will draw up a list for you and chauffer you around to the different apartments.

Hi Fez!! I hadn't realised this thread had been revived until quite recently too.... starting to feel like our own little "kampung" here....

DH was out in Spore for a week last week and he went to look at some apartments and houses (houses give us more space but are further out - but space is good for the toys that just seem to take over!)

Friend in Spore had an estate agent friend and DH hooked up with this guy and was taken round so that was good. DH's company had an agent too but DH said he was quite useless.

Tinkerbell - am a fulltime working mum too but will be wannabe Stepford Wife when I get to Spore....

Am not planning on working in Spore as don't think we could manage with FT hours for both DH and I (he will be expected to travel a fair bit) but have approached some people about freelance work so will have that initially.

Tootsieroll - breastfeeding helps the baby's nose - it used to work a treat for DD when she was bunged up. Think ths sucking motion healed clear the nasal passages (well for a while).

Know what you mean by "looking forward to coming home" - I feel like that when I'm back in Malaysia for a holiday.

Tinkerbell - I have virtually no M'sian friends here in Belfast either. A lot of my M'sian friends (frome school) have either moved away or moved home and my closest girlfriends here are either the wives or partners of DH's friends or other mums I've met.

what line of work are you in rojak? or is that too personal online?

Corporate PR at the moment (in-house) but with background in journalism so will be doing some freelance writing.

Just had a look at my last post and my spelling is just atrocious! Should stop staying up so late on MN.

Quick question for Journey2 or anyone else who knows - can you get readybrek in Singapore?

DD likes readybrek for breakfast (no one else in our house does) and I don't know if you can get it in Singapore (the last time I looked, it wasn't available in Malaysia) so I may need to buy a good supply and ship it out (along with crisps for me ).

Rojak,
Thanks for that. Somehow having lurgy seemed to make DS rather hyperactive - he wouldn't go to sleep last night and at midnight, DH had to take him for a walk in the buggy. Today is mother and DS day of rest as both of us are lurgy infested How do you get Calpol down a 5 month old? Good luck with the search for Readybrek. What kind of crisps do you like? I think many of the snack foods in Singapore are American/Aussie influenced. Do you know which part of the East Coast you're thinking of going to?

Tinkerbell,
No I don't know how to do Peking Duck - I know the takeaways simply freeze the duck, then deep fry it. Have you tried \link{http://kuali.com/}Cyberkuali}? It's a malaysian site. The Lor Arp turned out pretty good - I hadn't bought duck in ages, and just surprised how little meat there is, compared to a chicken Still, I've managed to make 2 meals out of it. Duck rice for lunch today haha My geography isn't good - is Cleveland between Middlesborough and Newcastle? If so, which football team does your husband support? I'm on maternity leave at the moment, and will return to work in January. What do you do?

Fez,
How funny. I have relatives and friends who went to VJC - my aunt actually lives right beside it in Marine Vista. I went to Katong Convent (yes, those 'havoc' girls). Yes, Mandarin Garden and Laguna Park seem quite popular choices for expats.

BTW, have any of you travelled with Singapore Airlines before? Do you know if they're good with babies?

hi girls !!! oh my god !! Laguna park was my childhood playground ! I used to live in Marine Parade! Love the beach and the picnics and all the crabs we used to catch ( of course then died 2 days later ! ) Loved Parkway Parade ... oh dear i am welling up now. silly me ... i hope you girls will be back this afternoon. i am rushing through a few reports now and i am sure i'll be free later ! see yo girls then!

BTW, Hi Fez ! heard you are from Johor ??? how are you today ?

yup tinkerbell. from johor. muar to be specific.

tootsieroll, sq is great with babies and children so would definitely recommend them. have never flown emirates but they are suppose to be good (and cheaper) although you would need to stopover in dubai. one of my very good friends from vj was from katong convent. and of course i wouldn't dream of commenting on the reputation bit

rojak, the supermarket at the basement of tanglin mall may have it. it is kind of the haven for expats so have stuff you won't get at the local cold storage. you pay for it tho. another possible place is (i think called) jasons down at the end of orchard road. someone help me out here. it's the shopping centre opposite where toys'r'us is. cannot remember the name for the life of me! but if you like salt & vinegar walkers, import it! the closest you can get to that is LEYs which isn't half as good. tell you what. i'll send you a regular supply of walker crisps if you send me a regular supply of laksa and chicken rice

all right girls. have got to go and do some work. really busy and shouldn't be on mn
later.....

Hi Fez ! Muar ! Hah! not far from Senai then ! Went home end of Aug. So much changes.. things are quite expensive since the last i went. Still managed to bring 8 pairs of shoes back! My biggest achievement was my stack of curry leaves. they can last me for 2 years in the freezer. So what do you do ? where are you living now ( if you don't mind me asking ?) anywhere near cleveland ?

tootsieroll - yep, i am from in between m'brough & newcastle. Hartlepool actually. they are famous for hanging the monkey coz they thought the monkeys were the french spies. My hubby supports Newcastle united since he was a boy. He loves his football so much he went to an away match down cardiff when i was just 1 week away from dd's birth ! my mom says it's better he likes football than going to karaoke mixing with the GROs ! now that makes me laugh.
As for which airline is better travelling with babies i can only say my one and only experience was with KLM. We flew to Amsterdam then a direct flight to Changi. They are really helpful. Both ways i got the bulkhead seat but i have to put the cradle on the floor as dd is too heavy ( max 9 kgs ) DD is on the heavier side. Nearly 16 mths but a whooping 2 stones. Must be the SMA progress and the all the yoghurt. KLM is cheaper as well, £280 cheaper than SIA. We paid 786 for adult and only 58 for dd. oh and thanks for the website. whenever i need asian recipes i always go there. only trust them and Amy Beh ! I used to be exactly what Rojak do. Corporate PR, studied journalism & sociology. Now i am working for a financial analysis firm attched with their editing department. you can say i am the editor but i only edit figures ! what about you ? i feel safe working here as they are very flexible with parent who have children. i left at 1pm just now coz nursery called DD and another boy were rushed to hospital for xray as they nearly split their head open from playing on the "wendy house". i was again crying my eyes out while in the car but this time for another reason. dd is my first so i am very protective and emotional about things like this. i have just put her in her cot for a quick nap.

oh by the way, a really good tip for babies travelling long haul. i know i'll get thrown stones and rotten eggs by some moms here but Medised really does the trick. my flight was at 9.55pm from Ams to S'pore. DD was teething as well so i gave her some 30 mins after taking off, she slept till Thailand ! God honest truth.

so girls, i hope i am not rude by asking is everybody here malay chinese or indians? all of you sounded so young can i presumed that you girls are late twenties, early thirties ( i know, i know this is a very sensitive question but i am really curious ) i will be 33 end of October. Felt like i was 18 last week ... well, alright that was too far-fetched... maybe 28.

rojak - don't think you can find ready-brek anywhere. i even tried in S'pore but only NTUC and the supermarket in Bugis junction - Below Seiyu. However DD loves the fish rice porridge grandma made for her. just fish, carrot and bayam. she wolfed down every since grain ! She was on her milk ( a different brand, can't get SMA ) though it gave her constipation for the first few days, a great replacement of readybrek - Nestum oats with her milk, then banana, then lunch-porridge, then afternoon milk, then yoghurt, then dinner-yup ! porridge again, then bedtime milk !

ok a few questions because I am still in research mode for Singapore - have seen Mandarin Gardens on the web (not really for us as the development looks too big) - are Laguna Park and Marine Vista other developments? Don't think I've come across them yet.

Fez - I am a Walkers prawn cocktail / worcester sauce / marmite girl. Actually Walkers any flavour including the salt and shake ones are pretty good. I will be shipping a box of Walkers and readybrek out of Makro with me then. (and when I run out, we can swap kacang putih and sour kana for the crisps! )

I've travelled on MAS & Emirates with the kids. MAS is pretty good with kids and if you're on your own with 2 as I was coming back in July (DH left early), I requested assistance and they got me 2 girls at Heathrow to walk me through immigration, pick up bags and over to check in for my Belfast flight.

Emirates is good too - they have decent kids' meals (with healthier offerings) and Dubai airport has a soft play area.

Will be doing first trip with SQ in October but all reports seem to indicate they are good.

I use a travel agent in London called Lee (who's Malaysian) as he always seems to be the first in with MAS offers. Google Rexair UK and get yourself onto his email list and he always emails the offers through.

Tinkerbell,
How funny? When I was about 1 week away from EDD, my husband left me to go up to Manchester to watch the match against (surprise, surprise) Newcastle We have acquired Manchester United season tickets, but I haven't been going as DS needs looking after. If I knew, I'd have offered my ticket for the Newcastle match in a few weeks time, but someone has bought it

What's Medised? Do you use it in dropper form like Calpol?

I hope SIA will be good - so far their reservations dept is a hassle to ring up. Noone ever seems to pick up the phone, and when I finally got through yesterday, was told to call back 48h before flight to book my seat. Where got such nonsense eh, especially since people can do online booking of seats (but not me, since I have an infant).

I'm chinese and celebrating my 30th this November

Btw, here in Essex, it's been hit with thunderstorms the past 2 nights. Really humid. DS has been quite difficult to put to sleep. Dunno if you all have the same experience? (Maybe it's because he also has a cold!).

Tootsieroll - did you buy your SIA ticket through an agent or online? If you're travelling with an infant and booking through an agent, get your agent to book you a basinette (travel cot) - that way you'll be guaranteed bulkhead seats.

If you've done it online, I'd still try reservations and get them to book you a basinette.

Does your DS keep waking up because his nose is all bunged up? Try tilting head of cot up (a VERY large book under the cot mattress is usually quite effective) and I usually use Vicks or some other sort of rub as well and more recently, have discovered the vaporiser!

DH is a diehard Liverpool supporter (not enough to get season tickets though thankfully!)

Report from your Singapore correspondent:

Very hot here at the moment, and lots of traffic/armed police in town due to the IMF.

Rojak: Laguna Park is a condo on East Coast, but quite a long way out, quite close to East Coast Seafood Centre. Can't find Marine Vista on my 2004 Street Directory. (www.streetdirectory.com.sg is quite good as you put in condo names etc and it gives you a map of surroundings).

Will keep an eye out for Ready Brek. "Expat" supermarkets are Marketplace in Tanglin Mall and Paragon, and Jasons in Orchard Towers and Raffles City. But very expensive!

Walkers Crisps: Come in occasionally, and my husband gets all excited and buys the complete stock! But had to bring him back a 24 pack from UK last time I visited.

Second recommendation for Lees Travel.

When are you coming back Rojak?

Fabulous work oldnewmummy!

It's great to have someone on the ground with local info.

I am leaving here on 2nd Oct.

Whereabouts in Spore are you oldnewmummy? And how long have you been there or are you Singaporean?

Thanks!

There is lots of expat stuff at the Cold Storages in Holland Village and Jelita (Jelita was my local), but Tanglin Marketplace is better. You can also get Waitrose products sometimes in Cold Storage and Tanglin/Paragon Marketplace - I remember getting very excited when some children's fruit juice lollies came in!

DH is in KL at the moment and I am very jealous.

Why are you jealous that he's in KL?

I don't have a Waitrose in Belfast so will actually have more choice in Singapore

Have put in order with Irish friend to deliver some Ballymaloe relish for the container (this container will be about half food and half toys at this rate!)

Would you like anything Singersgirl while I'm making my list?

tootsieroll
Oh wow ! the match DH went to was with Man U and of course they lost ! I even asked DH why bother travelling so far there when you clearly know they will not win ! He said that is what true supporter is all about - to support the team knowing full well they haven't got a cat in HXXX chance ! So, i take it you are a footie fan too ? Well, i am more a F1 babe (giggles..) but i duly supported England during the world Cup. btw, do you mean you if you haven't sold the ticket you would let me have it ?? awww... thanks tootsieroll .. that's really nice of you!

Well, Medised was recommended by the pharmacist from my local Boots. Started when DD was 6mths old terribly affected by teething problems. She was all bunged up, coughing, in pain etc.. you name it she has got it except fever. Calpol only stop pain and fever but Medised actually do the whole lot, it is a strawberry cold relief with paracetamol for children of 3mths+ and biggest plus is Medised helps them to sleep better. That's why i used it for the flight. She loves the flavour too. i gave it to her with a little syringe like dropper i got from the doctor i think. Boots sells them too. It was a godsend to me when she contracted chicken pox at 9 mths from the nursery - nobody believes me not even the doc but hey, the spots & blisters speaks for itself the next day ! In malaysia, we never received immunisation from Chicken pox so i got it 2 weeks later. i thought i was going to die. i had it bad - really bad. just the thought of it makes me cringed. Anyway, long story short - Calpol is fantastic but Medised is godsend !

About flight - i was told to call back 48 hours b/f too. Ridiculous but she insist that was their regulation. i can't really be on the phone waiting for that long so i called them after work around 6pm and got through. Sounded like they worked 24 hours but that's KLM. i chose KLM coz i can fly from Teeside Durham which is 25 mins from us. SIA fly directly to S'pore but from Manchester which i don't mind travelling 2 hours + there but for 2 of us it is nearly £600 extra (and that's like RM4200 extra to spend in M'sia + S'pore) so we decided to take KLM. MAS is a no no coz i have to fly to heathrow (god i had really bad experience there), to S'pore, to KL then a connecting flight to Senai. They refused to let us off at S'pore. Anyway, sorry for rambling on !!

Tootsieroll, do you mind me asking what do you do ? I wanted to do part-time but work won't let me. They got somebody in to replace me on maternity but my job is too complicated so they allocated this lady to do sometihng else and piled my work up for me to clear when i got back. i don't know to take that as a compliment or insult but they promised me they will looked into my part time arrangement later this year.

btw, the weather is brilliant up here .. idrizzled a bit last night but still warm ... gosh i am so not looking forward to autumn let alone winter ... just the thought of my gas bill is enough to make me cringed let alone driving to work in awful condition with snow,sleet,gale, hail etc... sigh !

hey, i hope your DS is feeling better. We have all been through it ... the worse i think was the chicken pox period. woke up screaming at 2am. i have to put her in the bath with bicarbonate soda, took her downstair, then put calamine lotion, play with her a bit with the fire on, gave her Medised, the took her up to her room gave her her bottle then shussh her to sleep, then repeated the same thing at 6am again !!!

Hi Rojak

I'm British, but we've been here for 10 years in February, so "nearly" Singaporean. Still don't say "lah" though, and only seem to say "alamak" while in UK, which causes great bemusement.

Live in Potong Pasir.

Send me an e-mail when you arrive and we can meet up for a coffee if you like (oldnewmummy at yahoo dot com dot sg).

oldnewmummy - will drop you an email in early Oct after we arrive. Ten years is a long time, most of the non-Singaporeans I know tend to stay for 2 - 5 years.

Wow, hub of activity here

Can I join in for a meetup session as well, Oldnewmummy/Rojak, although I'll only be in Sg for a month I leave on 16 Nov, so if you need anything brought over, I can probably do it, as I plan to travel over rather light, and do all the shopping for toys in Sg, on the assumption there is a larger variety at better price.

Tinkerbell,
Yes, I'd probably have let your DH buy the ticket off me - if he promised to be very well behaved hehehe, especially when sitting beside my DH and surrounded by the 'diehard' section of the ManU crowd My DH likes F1 too (one wonders when he actually gets his eyes away from the TV screen sometimes!), but doesn't get to watch it as often as he likes because his wife is always nagging behind him to do some chores

I work in the NHS, it's very flexible. At first I was so 'paiseh', didn't want to have a long mat leave, but of course after giving birth, all I wanted to do was spend time with DS. Anyway, at a meeting with my boss, she even told me take all the time I needed, that she would rather I come back ready to work, than with a black face. Not bad eh? I only just found out today that she's due to go on maternity leave herself in 2 weeks time!! If not for finances, I'd have cut my hours to no more than 2-3 days a week, but I've settled to do 3.5 days when I go back in January. Are you working in private or public sector? I think the public sector tends to be very into 'improving working lives' mode. So I assume you're working full time now? Is DD in a nursery?

Oh, another question for you gals, what stroller would you recommend to take with me to the airport/Sg? I just feel so 'blur' as it'll be the first time I'll be travelling alone with DS for such a long distance, and not in the car!

tootsieroll, how old is ds again? we have the lightweight maclaren xt which is very useful to cart around. hmm.... about buying toys in spore. i guess it comes down to what age this is for. i found them to be more expensive in the uk and quite hard to find. but then maybe i am shopping in the wrong places.

tinkerbell, i am sadly and boring-ly an accountant. working in the public sector. badly paid but very family friendly. i guess that's the compromise. anyone else find that?

rojak, sour kana sounds good but i am still holding out for that laksa and chicken rice

oldnewmummy, do you say "so how?". it drives my dh crazy when locals come up and say that and he will be like "so how what? what are you talking about...?" and the other locals would know exactly what the so how referred to.

how amazing. i use lee's travel too. they are great and once they even called me back to ask me whether i wanted to change my flight cos a new offer has just come on. apparently (according to my local chinese grocery shop) the owners used to own a chinese grocery shop and started out selling tickets in the shop to the regulars before expanding the travel business.

oh, and i am 35 and malaysian chinese (can't remember who asked)

Fez,
Thanks for the stroller tip. DS is 5 months, will be 7 months by the time we go to Sg. I've not looked in Sg, but find that the toys in UK are rather expensive, and only so few places sell toys, the usual suspects being mothercare, toys r us etc.

I also find that working in public sector is much more family friendly than in the private sector. Of course the money isn't as good, but as you say Fez, that's the compromise.

I booked the SQ flight directly with the airline. I had to book my section online, then call reservations to book DS' seat. So much hassle - should just have booked with ebookers or Leestravel. Ohwell, I've learnt for next time.

rojak, bayshore park is quite nice too if i recall.
in fact, this website actually gives you pictures of all the nice condos in town and you can search by areas too. happy shopping!

wow. you are brave to travel all by yourself. is your family in sg then?

Tanglin Mall had LOADS of Ready Brek this morning, so I guess it shouldn't be a problem.

Tootsie Roll: Sure, give me an e-mail when you arrive too, although I'll be leaving for UK around 22/11.

(Btw, don't have a sprog as yet, in process of adopting one so reading these boards as "preparation" - just in case you meet me and think I'm some kind of wierdo who hangs around these boards for no reason!)