Chilli cost $20 per kg

Dear SG,

We went to Avondale Flea Market today. It's like a combination of our wet market and Pasar Malam but on a Sunday morning. Andrew even saw someone eating Curry Puff but he couldn't find which stall it came from. Gosh how he misses Singapore's Curry Puff.

Our most interesting find today is the cost of spicy chilli. It cost $20 per kg!!! Singaporean are well known for eating spicy food, almost all our meals comes with some form of chilli sauce. The hotter the better, as spicy as we can take it. So how do Singaporean survive in Auckland where chilli cost $20 per kg??!?!

Well, fortunately for us, chilli has arrive in Auckland. Many years ago, immigration relax their selection to encourage flow of migrants into NZ. A big influx of migrant from Asia, China and India means that there are now more Aucklanders who likes spicy stuff. Chilli got cheaper. More people are planting them in their garden. More variety are coming up too. There are now choices!!!! The price of chilli can range from a dollar per kg, to our favorite that cost $20 a kg.

Enough said. We chose instead to go for the next best buy for today. We bought a chilli plant that only cost us $5 bucks. This gem will produce many $20 per kg chilli for us for the rest of its meaningful life.

Andrew and Ann deciding on a spot for the chilli plant. One of the chilli plant (another variety) at the other end of the garden was recently killed by Victor's soccer ball.

Joseph taking our precious plant out from the carrier.

Andrew starts digging.

Ann place the plant carefully into the hole. The hole fits perfectly! Good job Andrew!

Our new chilli plant! This picture was taken after Joseph water it.

Can you recognize this type of chilli? It's Zi Dian Jiao! The legendary "Point-at-sky" chilli! Super hot and spicy!

Before we bought the chilli plant, Andrew thought that the chilli has turn bad because they are all black. But according to Ann, they are suppose to turn black just before they turn red! Isn't this interesting? I hope they turn red soon.

with love from NZ,
J

PS. I did help out with the planting! I took pictures, give some suggestions and pat the chilli plant down. But I had to be careful not to dirty my hands because I was still holding on to my camera back then!


Spot the differences:

In SG, chilli are fairly cheap.

In NZ, certain variety can cost up to $20/kg!

In SG, we don't bother to plant our own chilli

In NZ, we plant almost anything that we would like to eat.

Daylight saving ends last saturday (correction)

Dear SG,

I am sorry, I got the details mixed up as usual. When daylight saving ends, we are suppose to change the time from 3am to 2am. Not 2am to 3am as posted in my last blog. By the way, I forgot to mention how important it is to keep all the operating manual of high tech gadgets just so that we can change the time in it twice every year. I realized I have forgotten how to change the time in my Casio digital watch. There are so many buttons to press, how can I be expected to remember the combination that will allow me to set the time one hour ahead? Maybe I should get 2 watches instead. One which I can use during daylight saving and one that is set without daylight saving.

Let's say I'm back in Singapore:

"Uncle, I would like to buy a digital watch, can you help me set it to 12pm instead?" Joan asked.

Then Uncle says, "Huh? Gal ah! Now is 11am leh! How come you wanna set it to one hour late huh? You siao ah?"

Then I say, "No lar, Uncle. You see, I go New Zealand there got daylight saving. Every year on the first Sunday of October, everyone has to set their watches forward by one hour. Then can have more time to enjoy the sun. So I buy another watch already set to the daylight saving timing lor. Save trouble no need to remember how to set the time on my watch."

Then the Uncle says, "Wah! You think you set the time late you can live longer is it? You want you go and bluff other watch seller, don't waste my time here!!!"

hee....

with love from NZ,
J

Daylight saving ends last saturday

Dear Sunny SG,

Last Saturday at 2am, the whole NZ were told to adjust the clock one hour later to 3am. The official Daylight saving has ended. Summer is over, Autumn is here.

During Daylight saving, NZ's 9pm will feel like SG's 7pm. NZ's 430am will look like SG's 6am. We are constantly bathe in bright sunlight and the Days will refuse to end. Nights comes only for a brief moment, just enough for the body to turn down our power and closes for a rest. It gives the feeling that there are extra hours to do heaps of stuffs like playing, going to the park and social visits. I love it!

Previously, I simply couldn't understand why there is Daylight Saving. SG has a consistent amount of daylight throughout the year. We pretty much have summer all year round, it's either a wet summer or dry summer. Now that Daylight Saving is over, I miss having those extra daylight to live life as I choose. I heard that in winter, nights will be long.... I am not looking forward to it.

with love from NZ,
J

PS. Please note that NZ is now faster than SG by 4 hours.


Spot the difference:

NZ has dramatic differences in the amount of daylight it has during different period of the year.

SG has a consistent amount of daylight throughout the year. Ok, Ok, sometimes during the year the sun does raise slightly earlier but not by much lar!

NZ has Daylight Saving and the clock is adjusted an hour earlier to enjoy the full benefit of the sun.

SG doesn't. And this SG-porean doesn't even know what is Daylight Saving until now.

We got our NZ PR today!

Dear SG,

Great news! Mr Postman just delivered our Singapore Passport back to us today. In it, our brand new New Zealand PR permit! Yipee!

Our next target is getting our driving license converted. Because Singapore driving license has no expiry date, there was some problem when we were filling out the forms to convert our license. Right now we need to take a theory test follow by a practical test. And if we pass, they will take a photo on the spot for our new driving license. I must remember to do my hair and dress up for the practical driving test.

Why did we wait so long to convert our driving license? We couldn't go for our driving theory test before as we are not prepared for it. By the time we study their road code, we sent our passport to immigration and could not sit for the test without our passport. That's one of the excuses. Another is because I need to drive more often to practice. I didn't drive much in Singapore and I am really rusty.

Right now we are just glad all these paper work are settled! Don't worry, we are not giving up on Singapore. We still love SG and every kinda food found within our tiny country island. We might be physically here but our tummy is always dreaming of our homeland.

with love from NZ,
J

NS reservist!!!

Dear SG,

Andrew received an email saying he needs to go back for his reservist!!! hee... Anyway, he won't be doing reservist because he's working oversea now. All we need to do is to email them back with the documents stating his employment oversea and his work permit, however, our passport is still with Immigration of New Zealand!

Guess we might have to write in and request our passport back if they are not ready to issue us the residency permit yet. I really miss my passport. We can't take our driving license conversion test without our passport. I can't take up any courses without my passport. I felt lost without any proof of my identity. I never knew how much our Identity card (NRIC) and our passport meant to us until now.

with love from NZ,
J

Spot the differences:

Singaporean males has to enlist in the army when they reach 18 years of age

Kiwis males can choose to enlist, join the work force, or do anything they wanted to.

All Singaporean and PR has Identity cards which states their name, address, blood type and race

Kiwis uses passports or in some case, a letter from bank or government department addressed to the person. So far I've applied for library card with the letters, and with no identification to see the dentist, and only uses the passport for opening bank account.

No Chinatown in Auckland???!!!

Dear SG,

There isn't a Chinatown in Auckland! Not an official one that is. I saw the news yesterday where the interviewer was asking a person on the street, "Do you know where Chinatown is?" The person looked confused; she said she has no idea.

It seems that this was an old issue in Auckland. The government wanted to set up a place and called it Chinatown but a lot of people were against it. Surprisingly, many of those that are against the ideas are Chinese. I guess the association of Chinatown with crimes and gangsters are too strong. Everyone would prefer the current state where Chinese grocery shops and restaurants are available everywhere throughout Auckland instead of being concentrated in a street within the city.

The news reported that 1 out of 5 Aucklander are from Asia. Amazing eh? I didn't know about that.

With love from NZ,

J

Spot the difference:

Singapore's Chinatown has an official place on the map and even a MRT station named after it. Really makes it easy to find the place eh?

Auckland's Chinatown, no such place but Chinese restaurants and grocery shop are available in many parts of the town and suburbs. No worries! But some stuff are pretty expensive.


Andrew just bought a cream for mosquito bites (Mopiko) from a Chinese grocery store. It cost over $7 bucks!!!

The same cream in SG cost around 2 dollars. Gasp!

The story about the bunny

Dear SG,

David told me a really funny thing lately. Seems that Winnie has read my blog some time ago and she's wondering if my intention to go NZ is just to be fascinated by spiders and stuffs. David told her "no no no.. That’s not all... she even asked me how to catch rabbit and if they bite...”!!!!

Wahahaa..... Ya, ya... I know I often present this innocent fascination and wonder that befits a 10 year old but hey, my body is getting older but not my innocence. kekeke.... I still watch cartoons and Disney Channel with my nephews you know?

Anyway, I will explain the story about the rabbit. A lost lopped-ear bunny was found hoping around the lawn in the front of the house when Andrew and I were having our dinner. Andrew threw some carrots to him but he totally ignored us. Not sure what to do, we went back to our dinner and pray that the bunny knows how to go home. (We saw a few owners here that would just let their cats and dogs out to wander around then let them in again when they come home)

Just when we are about to finish dinner, my sister-in-law had a shock! The bunny managed to go through some unknown opening in the fencing and hopped right into the back yard. We found it hiding at the corner of the fence but none of us knows how to handle it. Yes, I know I’ve battle dogs before and had the scars to prove it. But I am still afraid to handle a cute little bunny. So we go onto Google and search for “How to catch a rabbit?” That’s when I notice David was online and since he had rabbits as pets before, he’s the best person to ask.

To cut a long story short, I only manage to stroke the bunny but it was too afraid for me to catch. It hopped away and came back into the yard again in the middle of the night when we are all asleep. The next morning I continue to give it some fresh water and a stick of carrot and radish. He finished his breakfast and ran off again. By noon, we got a lost bunny notice in the letter box but the bunny never came back. I called the owner and was glad to hear that they had found their pet half an hour earlier. It was hiding in one of the newly build houses and a group of students got him.

We are just happy to know that the bunny is back safely with his owner. The End. :)

With love from NZ,
J

Road kills

Dear SG,

It’s pretty common to find road kills here in New Zealand. With the wilderness surrounding the land, it’s only natural that creatures of the land wouldn’t have known how to cross a road properly. It’s really sad to see carcasses of birds and animals lying on the road being trampled by all the passing vehicles. It’s worst when I am the one doing the driving and there is no way for me to avoid running over the bodies without endangering my passengers and the other cars.

Till date, we have witnessed a pet dog being hit by a car; many birds flatten on the road; possums and rabbits with crashed bodies, and stains on the roads that could only be made from the reminds of unknown animals knock down by a moving vehicle.

Only once, it was safe enough to stop the car and move the body of a rabbit from the road. The whole body was intact but it’s bleeding from the mouth and it was already dead. We suspect it was hit not too long ago. Andrew moved it to the grass patch before other vehicle comes along and crashes the body.

Now, whenever I see a road kill on the road, I chant a little prayer for them. It may not help them much but it's all that I can do.

with love from NZ,
J

Spot the differences:
In Singapore, the road are always clear of any rubbish because our hardworking road cleaners will regularly sweep the road with a broom or drive a big truck that sweeps and suck up all the trash.

In Auckland, the road get washed naturally by the rain, swept by the strong wind and dried by the sun. Us, Singaporean should really stop taking our cleaning crews for granted.

In Singapore there is no road kill. We do get the occasional pets that was run over by a car but it's pretty rare to see their bodies still on the road the next day.

In Auckland it's common to see road kills. A driver may try to avoid the animal but they can only do so when they will not endanger themselves or the others on the road.

No House Lizard Roomies in Auckland!

Dear SG,

Photo from http://www.pbase.com/ykloke/image/65521985

Now, for those who has strange fear of something so small and harmless (like my husband), it's a relieve to find out that there is no house lizard in New Zealand. What is a "house lizard"???!!!

Above is the picture I found from the internet that show the most common lizard found in homes around Singapore. They are really small and harmless, they eats flies and insects so they are actually quite useful.

True, they are a little bit creepy, they does make our hair stands when they crawl over us by mistake or accidentally falls on our head. They are cold blooded and they stick to our favorite wall or painting. But hey, they are like a pet which doesn't need us to bring them out for walks, feed them and bathe them. How cool can that be!

with love from NZ,

J

Spot the differences:
In Singapore, it's quite common to find these house pets... erm... I mean house lizards.

In Auckland, no such roomies.