Why is Your Time More Important Than Mine?

In keeping with the theme of an educational blog we thought we’d give you an insight into a part of everyday life in Singapore. 

Many of you have asked about shopping here. We have more shopping malls than we have combined fingers and toes with Louis Vuitton and Hermes galore. Running your everyday errands is a whole other story. We don’t have a Target, Wal-Mart or even a glorified grocery store around here so running errands becomes a serious undertaking. Dictionary.com defines an errand as a short trip undertaken to perform a necessary task or commission. I guess I should actually change my word of choice because no errand here is short. 

It took me a few weeks to admit that everything takes at least 3-4 x longer than it does at home (including laundry- fun I know!) It was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I couldn’t get into my car and hit Target to grab the essentials. Then off to the grocery store where they had everything I need for a week’s worth of food while driving through Starbucks on my way home and then unload everything with a few trips into the house. That’s the American way!

Well first of all, we only have one car so I tend to run errands on foot or via public transportation. I finally had to break down and bought a “granny cart.” I suppose I should fondly name it Dorothy after my wonderful grandma who had the same cart.

While lots of stores have on-line ordering and delivery the challenge becomes the fact that you’re not picking your own produce, meats and the online selection can limited and websites aren’t very functional here. I have found a great site/app called RedMart that is great for non-perishables. It’s nice to have someone deliver your cases of water to your door when you have no car but beyond that, I haven’t been successful.

Gotta love having to carry everything from the D.I.Y store along with your home office printer all the way from the store, onto the train and home. 

Although all hope is not lost as we do have a store called Mustafa in Little India, which is the closest to a mega store that we’re going to get, not to mention it is open 24/7 and is supposed to have some great curry. The store is a city block long and stacked to the ceiling on five floors with items. The nice part is they carry a ton of brands as well as food, jewelry, electronics, non-perishables, sporting goods, cleaning supplies (allegedly...I still have yet to find these.) This store is so overwhelming that I regularly shop with my headphones on and peaceful music playing so I can avoid sensory overload. One of the other challenges with this store is that you have to go early before all of the helpers arrive after dropping the kids off at school (around 9 am) and before the local residents of that area get off of work. You also have to avoid weekends as I’ve been told it’s just chaos...no thank you!

Our home leave is coming up in less than two weeks and you’ll find us at Costco, Target and Amazon.com loading up on the essentials that we can’t find here (there are quite a few items on our list.)

Happy Trails,

Amy & Raegen