In the past, I will relish the chance to extend the weekend stay in "City of shopping" instead of rushing back home.. Yes, the rushing bit is making me tired. And also, the fact that knowing when I am home, I play the Mummy role, so I don't feel guilty for being away from them.
Anyways.. on this short trip, I made various observations and and have various thoughts; I think when I am alone, my mind wanders more and I am able to think more without distraction..
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Travelling with kids:
Much as I gripe about SIA often, how I think it is an attas airline and how suay I am whenever I travel on it (such as my Krisworld not working, or headset not working or not being able to order the meal I want), I must say on my recent trip, I observe that it is true that SIA is probably the airline you want to be on when travelling with kids.
Maybe the flight I took was a flight coming in from Osaka, so the crew on board are especially attentive - the Japanese way of attentive.
So this Japanese stewardess and this steward took turns entertaining this kid who cries when he is bored/ scared/ angry/ whatever. Whenever he started wailing, one of them will be there, either distracting the kid, calming the kid, at one point the steward even took the little boy (no more than 2years old) up and down the aisle and showing him the techy things they use to communicate etc (you know all those flat panels).
Cool stuff.. some seats behind me, a foreign family had to battle with 2 kids not agreeing to sit near each other. The crew immediately helped them change seats with other wiling passengers.
All in all i am impressed. After all, I am the one who has this impression that these stewardess all dunno how to handle kids kind, or are superficial or not v sincere. But the crew I was travelling with struck me as sincere and genuine in attending to the comfort of the passengers and I appreciate that.
So for our coming trip to London, I am considering still, if I am bringing En. For sure, I will be on SQ, but well, let me get my Eyewitness and I can check out if London is kid friendly..
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Appreciative of Singapore- in providing an environment of OPPORTUNITIES for our kids
Thailand has been plagued with instability recently, and now, I started seeing those rectangular sensor things in all shopping malls. In the past, I only need to be screened to enter shopping malls in Manila or Jakarta. So in my mind, Thailand is now in that league of "unsafe" states.
I hope it is temporary, but it is a fact that they have heightened the security measures in lieu of the stuff happening in the cities.
In any case, 2 incidents made me think very hard about how we Singaporeans should be more appreciative of our nation, no matter whether we are pro-PAP or not, because the fact is our country leaders have done some good stuff along the way to reach where we are.
Incident 1: Talking to my Thai friend, who is 29 and single, recently broke up with her boyfriend, and she was lamenting to me over dinner about the struggle she felt in looking for a partner. It seems like Thai men (at least the more successful ones) are a tad "promiscuous". And according to her, they seem to lack that "integrity" or strong backbone that she appreciate in men. They seem less responsible and less willing to think about settling down and having a family.
So the search for the responsible family man continues for her.
And I think back to quite the number of Singapore men I know, who though are not really rich and all, but all make good family men material. Maybe that is why a lot of women like Singaporean men, they have that drive to excel at work, are learning or have learnt to be sensitive, and for many, are quite good father material. Our nation probably did something right about the NS i am thinking.. But we also provided an opportunity for men in general here, I feel, which leads me to Incident 2.
Incident 2: I met this non jaded, young and full of enthusiasm taxi driver on my way to airport. It is one of his few trips to the new airport, and he belongs to one of those "newbies" in my mind, not the usual jaded, cynical taxi drivers.. he came across as genuine and sincere, and enjoying what he does, chatting with me along the way about numerous things, struggling with English but determine to learn more about us - the foreigners.
And as we reach the airport, after bidding me good bye, I saw him, standing by his cab, looking in awe and pride at the new Thailand airport (which I personally quite like as well). What struck me was his shoes. He had on this pair of white scuffy canvas shoes (remind of Jack Neo's movie 跑吧, 孩子), with his feet wearing them as if they are slippers.
And the look on his face, as he stood there long after I was almost to the doors of the airport. I cannot stop looking back at him, as he stood next to his taxi, looking around, admiringly. And then he waved goodbye to me as I near the airport doors, almost disappearing into the airport.
On my last look, him and his cab, in the midst of many other can drivers like him, who are either helping the passengers with luggage or stepping into their cabs to drive off - all functional or caught in their tasks, too caught in their tasks to take time to admire what this new airport means to them, my heart felt for this young driver filled with hope and enthusiasm for what he is doing. To him, the new airport probably represent something positive and hopes for his future (maybe its my imagination in overdrive).
Yet, another part of me, the greater part of my heart, ached as I am so scared that some years down the road, his wonder, awe and enthusiasm may be jaded or plagued by his life experiences, when he struggled to fight life's many battles/ one of them the fight against moving upwards or getting more for oneself.
Now that I have kids, I always wonder about the world my kids will grow up in.
As middle class singaporeans, we never really think about poverty. Hardly, to be brutally honest.
And we always know we can excel and make it in our society if we try hard enough - i.e. if accordingly Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we are in a stage where we are past caring for our basic physical functional needs.We are all looking at more at fulfilling our esteem needs, and for many of us, looking at our self actualization needs (the highest rung of the hierarchy).
And we never really think about how lucky that we can just focus on these. That we do not need to fight against living/ lifehood/ survival itself.
We are just looking for the next better job to fulfill our dreams, to look at the better school for our kids etc. We are confident that our kids will not need to fight poverty - as our society continues to offer opportunities for them so long as we as parents do not screw up (like living beyond our means and not planning ahead for them) and they are willing to put in equal share of hard work.
In a nutshell, as parents, we have laid the foundation for their success, and our society also ensured that our future generation will not need to battle hardships of survival/ daily functional needs.
And many of us took it for granted - this macro evironment which was created to ensure there are always opportunities for everyone to excel if they try hard enough. When I look at these men in Thailand, particularly this young man full of enthusiasm and hopes for the future, I cherish those traits so much - because to me, they seem so fragile, likely to be overridden by the challenges that they have to face in life.
I am SO FEARFUL that this young man will lose them one day, or he will lose them eventually one day, in face of his battle against social upward mobility, in face of the limitations or parameters he faces daily.
I think we have so much to be thankful for. I will feel really sad if my sons have big dreams , but even en route to realising them is a barrier because the society does not really allow for it, because the economic social classes are actual barriers to what you can achieve.
In times like this, I appreciate Singapore, and all the hardwork that had been put into it...
And again, I count my blessings, for my kids.
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