Nowadays, only food in SG is cheap, but not for long

$9 and comes with 2 bowls of noodles

Today I sat down to have a nice breakfast of Kway Chup for two (without innards) and it cost a decent $9. Perhaps recent claims that inflation won't affect the majority of Singaporeans are true.

As long as you bought your flat in the golden days of 100 per sq ft HDB, and are content to take peak-hour public transport (or, by the grace of God, still have a car from the days of 20k COE).

On previous days, I even enjoyed $1.50 meat porridge, and $2.50 fishball noodles with generous portions and huge fishballs! (you can check my earlier blog entries)

But I wondered, how much longer would such low prices at hawker centres like Ghim Moh and Holland Drive last?

And in recent debates about "inclusive growth" and increasing income inequality, is it even fair to be expecting such low food prices from hawkers?

As for me, I'm enjoying the cheap prices, although I know this rosy state of affairs is transient, much like things that are "cheap and good", like high salaries and low cost of living. Do we try and keep attempt to keep the cost of living artificially low by using transient labour from abroad? Or pay more for the sake of inclusive growth?

Anyhow, I think once this current older generation moves on, given the higher opportunity cost of a hawker, and the inevitable increases in rental, $1.50 porridge with real meat will soon belong in the heritage centre :)

$1.50 porridge @ Holland Dr market

Noodles @ Holland Drive market

Enjoying breakfast. Noodle portion is generous for S$2.50! #02-04

For old times' sake

I was reading some of my old blog entries from as far back as 2005, and realised how different things were back then! I even encountered so many comments that I had totally missed out replying to, even some that came in 2-3 years after the post was published!

Maybe blogging still has a place in Web 2.0 / 3.0 after all, for longer pieces that are more thoughtful and self-reflective.

I always get the feeling that social media nowadays is so temporal, like 'grasping at the wind'

Running red lights is against the law and NOT the norm here

Hot on the heels of the recent Ferrari-crash which left three dead, which a very clear, brutal video showed was a brazen run of the red light, another posting appeared on STOMP which showed a car running a red light in the western part of Singapore by TEN SECONDS in broad daylight, to the danger of incoming cars that were turning right at the junction. I myself have witnessed drivers happily going past red lights without the slightest awareness that they were running a light.

This is not a foreigner or PRC-bashing thread. Whether you are Singaporean or not, running a red light is a very basic violation of our driving laws and norms. Maybe in some countries, red lights are only for show, but I won't comment on that. And it has serious consequences (I don't mean the fine) as the norm is everyone here obeys the red lights and drives as though the red lights will be obeyed. We are so obedient that we stop at red lights in the middle of the night even when noone else is in sight.

We should be striving towards better standards in driving, like stopping at yellow lights (which I don't always manage to do, depending on whether I can stop safely).

If people from overseas are not aware that not stopping at the red light is against the law and NOT the norm, we ought to make it clear to them, and not just let them presume other people will just be alert and watch out for them when they do unexpected things. That being said, people I know from developed countries already think Singaporean's driving habits terrible, and I completely agree.

The Traffic Police cannot be everywhere catching everyone, so we really need to impress this basic of obeying the lights on those who are new to our driving environment.

On trials and temptations

Short reflection on trials, temptations and how to overcome it.

In a follow-up to last week’s sermon on how a Christian ought to endure trials, we moved on to the 2^nd part of James Chapter 1, which is about temptation (vv 13-18).

Taking the James passages discussed thus far (vv 1-18), one could think of trials and temptations in the form of a dichotomy. Trials are from God and help to build up faith and character in Christ, leading up to eternal fruit; temptations are meant to entice us and lead us astray and lead unto sin and death.

How do we know what is a trial and what is a temptation? Perhaps some advice from Corinthians 10 can help:

¹²Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. ¹³No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

A trial could be thought of as a temptation that you had to endure till you managed to escape it. The implication is that you should be avoiding, and fleeing, people, things and circumstances of temptation.

It was also noted how trials and temptation come from the same Greek word.

What can tempt us? They can be broadly divided into people, things and circumstances. It can be thought of in such a manner so that we may learn to identify these different ‘embodiments’ of temptation, so that we may “flee from them.”

Let’s translate these into very real terms. These are people, things and circumstances where one is placed in a position of being enticed to sin. So what should one do, after hearing these words from God and looking into the mirror?

1. Identify in what areas where you are flirting with temptation. These include:

a. A colleague you work with whom you fancy?

b. The occasional junk mail of temptation that appears in your mailbox?

c. Certain lewd sections or ads in your daily newspaper?

d. That ridiculously expensive house/car/holiday/bag which your insistence on getting is causing soured relationships and making you consider all too easily available credit options that may not be a good idea at this stage of your life?

e. Bad temper due to fatigue, lack of sleep.

f. Road conditions. Now this is quite a bit of a challenge, because not all of us have the luxury of saying “I don’t want to drive anymore.” Road conditions call for an extra plating of the armour of God, and a good swallowing of ego.

g. Etc etc

2. Pray to God and ask “not to be lead into temptations.”

3. Make practical arrangements and sacrifices to avoid, minimise those areas identified.

4. Be accountable to someone for habits that have a grip on you.

5. Don’t dwell on stuff you shouldn’t be dwelling on. Lustful thoughts, angry thoughts, covetous thoughts (online shopping, sgcarmart, haha) and certain types of activities.

This entry is for myself, so I can check on it to remind myself that as a Christian, this is what I need to do, that I may honour God with my heart, mind, body and soul.

1 year on...

My last entry was a year ago. Woohoo.

Anyway, I just want to say that if you are an existing Starhub subscriber, the Hubstation's free 1Mbps Internet connection gives the most bang for no buck :)

it isn't perfectly immune from peak hour Internet traffic slowdowns, but at least its good enough for Skype when I need to work, and most Youtube sessions are generally fine.