Bring Your Own Bag Day (BYOBD) in Singapore

After work, I went straight to the bank to withdraw money to pay for the house rent. It's in the town center so I decided to go to the supermarket after the fund transfer. It's the 1st Wednesday of the month, it's BYOBD.

Launched in April, the 'Bring Your Own Bag Day' (BYOBD, don't you just love acronyms?), is a project of the National Environment Agency (NEA) to encourage shoppers to bring their own shopping bags and reduce excessive use of plastic bags. Together with the major supermarkets in Singapore, NEA launched BYOBD in conjunction with the Earth Day celebrations.

For shoppers who do not bring their own bags, they can purchase reusable bags available at the participating supermarkets or donate 10 cents for each plastic bag taken at the checkout counters.

On ordinary days, a shopper can easily take home 5-10 plastic bags for a few items. Cashiers/baggers tend to put 3-5 items in 1 bag.

I ended up buying a moss green reusable "Love Nature" bag for S$ 1 from NTUC FairPrice. I'm now going to use it every time I go the supermarket.

Tags: Bring Your Own Bag Day, BYOBD

The Great Singapore Sale

It's sale season here in Singapore the whole month of June. It's The Great Singapore Sale! Shoppers are treated to some great discounts and special offers in a number of shops in Singapore’s many air-conditioned malls.

It kicks off early in the last week of May then lasts till the third week of July, the city is transformed into a whirl of activity as the island-wide mega sale offers irresistible discounts of up to 70%.

Get ready to fill your shopping bags with unbeatable bargains! Scour the shops From Orchard Road to the Marina Bay area for an astounding array of items ranging from fashion, watches, jewellery and consumer electronics, including luxury brands. Or join the fun at events like the Great Singapore Shopping Challenge where the ultimate bargain-hunters are crowned!

It not called The Great Singapore Sale for nothing, it's islandwide! So if you're in Singapore this time of the year, be sure to bring some extra cash or just keep your credit card loaded. You don't want to miss out on a great discount.

Don't forget to check out these malls: Vivo City, Bugis Street, Velocity @ Novena Square, United Square, Chinatown Point, Harbourfront Centre.

Orchard Road: Takashimaya, Wisma Atra, Tang's, Paragon, Cathay, Centerpint, Forum, and Plaza Singapura

Marina Bay: Raffles City, City Link, Millenia, Suntec, and Marina Square

Tags: The Great Singapore Sale, shopping

Vesak Day: Buddha's Enlightenment

This day commemorates Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and attainment of Nirvana, making it the holiest day in the Buddhist calendar. Here in Singapore, Buddhists visited temples to take part in candlelight procession where they pass the light from one candle to another.

Vesak Day is marked on the a full moon during the month of May. Since there are two full moons in May this year, some countries celebrated Vesak on May 1.

Chinatown hosted the inaugural Chinatown Vesak Festival were a colorufl eveining parade was held. This year's celebrations also marks the opening of the Budddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. It has a stupa made up of 420 kg of gold from melted gold jewelries donated by devotees.

It's also the time when believers release animals as a sign of compassion, a practice now being criticized because it does more harm than good. Imagine releasing a domesticated rabbit in the Singapore wilderness. People would usually go to parks and reservoirs to release the animals. Although cases are getting fewer, the Singapore government has urged the public not to release animals as they commemorate Vesak Day.

Tags: Vesak Day, Buddhism, Nirvana, Buddha

Mosaic Music Festival '07

Started in 2005, the Mosaic Music Festival here in Singapore is a kaleidoscope of music performed by acclaimed artists headlining today’s jazz, world music, soul, electroclash, hip-hop and more, with international superstars, including acts from the UK, established home-grown and regional artists and up-and-coming musicians presenting ten full days of fantastic music.

And guess what? This year's edition features the Philippines' very own Kuh Ledesma and Regine Velasquez. Dubbed as Power Of Two, Singapore will witness two of the region's most celebrated songbirds and Philippines' most important female pop acts today deliver a concert of grit and beauty with their signature powerhouse vocals.

Power of Two will be on 14 Mar (Wed) at the Esplande Concert Hall. Ticket prizes at Sing $58, $88, $11, and $148.

Last year's edition of the Mosaic Music Festival featured Rivermaya.

Chingay : Singapore Mardi Gras

Part of the celebrations marking the Chinese New Year and the arrival of spring, the annual Chingay Parade of Dreams sees Singapore’s Orchard Road filled with the music, colour and excitement of this popular family-friendly event. Involving marching bands, dancers, decorated floats, lion and dragon dances and other street performers, the parade is an incredible spectacle which includes performers and groups from all over the world.

Chingay has it roots not in Singapore, but in Malaysia, where there are innumerable religious festivals of purely regional interest. The procession in Penang, Malaysia was specifically Chinese and religious: To honour the five deities who serve as guardians or patron saints each for a different dialect group.

Firecrackers were banned in Singapore since 1972. To liven up the dampened festive spirit, the government had to think of some other activities to make up for the absence of the traditional firecracker sound. Thus, in the following Lunar New Year, Chingay was born!

The first parade in February 1973 was so well received that it became an annual event. For over a decade, the procession toured different housing estates from 1974 to 1984. Since 1985, Orchard Road became a permanent venue, mainly to bring it closer to the tourists.

It was only in 1990 that the parade started to be held in the evening where lights, glittery sequined costumes and pyrotechnics dominate. Today, the parade has evolved into a massive multi-cultural and international event telecast live on television every year.

Catch a glimpse of the parade live online!

My First Lunar New Year Dinner

After being deprived of a decent Lunar New Year dinner for my first two years here in Singapore (I had to do the graveyard shift at the animal hospital, FOR TWO YEARS IN A ROW!!!), I finally had the chance to toss the yusheng when I joined my girlfriend's family's New Year's eve dinner. (",)

No Chinese New Year feast is complete without the colorful yusheng. Literally means "raw fish," yusheng is a Chinese-style salad usually taken to usher the Lunar New Year as it symbolises abundance, prosperity and vigor. It usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. It is a custom for families and friends to gather around the table and, on cue, proceeding to toss the shredded ingredients into the air, as high as they can, with chopsticks while saying auspicious words and phrases out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year.

What followed doesn't need much elaboration. Roasted chicken, juicy prawns, steamed fish, mouth-watering scallops with celery and nian gao strips, tender abalone and kai-lan in oyster sauce, noodles, refreshing hot Chinese dessert consists of a clear brown soup with lotus seeds, white fungus, dried longans, barley, ginko nuts, sliced water chestnuts, and a free flow of Chinese tea, Tiger beer and red wine.

I got a couple of hong bao (red packets) too!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Congratulations and be prosperous!

Kung hei fat choi is always mistaken by non-Chinese as a translation for Happy New Year.

I got so used to Kung Hei Fat Choi when I was still in the Philippines. Most Chinese in the Philippines belong to either the Fujianese or Cantonese dialect groups of the Han nationality. As many as 98.5% of the Chinese in the Philippines trace their ancestry to the southern part of Fujian province, according to Wikipedia.

Here in Singapore, Mandarin is the common language used to unify the various Chinese dialect groups. The first two days of the Chinese New Year are public holidays. The Chinese Year celebrations are marked by visits to kin, relatives and friends, and the liberal use of the color red. Red packets (hong bao: Mandaring; ang pow: Cantonese) are given to juniors and children by the married and elders. A reunion dinner is held on the eve of the lunar new year. Yum!

Happy New Year!

Xin nian kuai le! (Mandarin) Sun nin fai lok! (Cantonese)

Kung Hei Fat Choi! (....pahingi ng TIKOY!)

The tikoy is a famous give-away during the Chinese New Year in the Philippines . It is usually eaten steamed, fried, fried with eggs or even as it is, cold and sticky. It is made from glutinous rice flour and sugar, the type of sugar usually determines the color, hence the white and brown varieties.

Unlike in the Philippines, the tikoy is not as much celebrated here in Singapore (compared to yusheng, gold ingots and Mandarin oranges). Known elsewhere as Nian Gao, which translates to "New Year Cake." In Chinese, Gao is a homonym for high. Nian Gao is also called Nian Nian Gao, which is a homonym for "higher each year", symbolizing progress and promotion at work and in daily life and improvement in life year by year.

I'm going to carry a milk pot

My Indian officemate took leave last Thursday for Thaipusam. He said he'll be carrying a milk pot. Thaipusam is a Hindu Festival celebrated in January or February (it falls on the full moon day in the Tamil month of Thai when the astrological star, Pusam, reigns). On this day, Goddess Parvathi gave her son Murugan the invincible vel (lance) to vanquish the evil asura (demons). Thus Thaipusam is a commemoration of the triumph of good over evil. On the day of the festival, devotees will shave their heads undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of kavadi (burdens). At its simplest this may entail carrying a pot of milk, but piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers is also common. The most spectacular practice is the carrying of a portable altar up to two meters tall, decorated with peacock feathers and attached to the devotee through 108 vels pierced into the skin on the chest and back. Fire walking and flagellation may also be practiced. It is claimed that devotees are able to enter a trance, feel no pain, do not bleed from their wounds and have no scars left behind. However, some of the more extreme masochistic practices have been criticized as dangerous and contrary to the spirit and intention of Hinduism. For my officemate, carrying a milk pot is definitely an undestatement. He wasn't able to go back to work the next day. Ha!

Painting the town RED

A few weeks after the lights at Orchard Road were dimmed, another part of Singapore is lighting up, Chinatown. With a population largely dominated by Chinese, it's not surprising that Lunar New Year is celebrated here with much fanfare as with Christmas in the Philippines. Town centers are all glittering with gold and bright red decorations. Loads of food and drinks are out on sale to cash in on the public's buying frenzy to usher in wealth, happiness and good fortune. Red becomes more fashionable this time of the year as it is believed to scare away evil spirits and bad fortune. There's more to come...