singapore – Page 2 – Seriously Sarah

App fatigue

Do you guys get app fatigue?

Recently Kopitiam is stopping their Kopitiam cards and are switching to an app based one. I do go there once in a while but let’s just say I’m not the target audience because I didn’t use their Kopitiam cards to have significant ‘discounts’. But their announcement to switching to an app based one while would be ‘easier’ to download it feels meh to me because that’s just another new app to register to.

Before this, the Passion card’s services for some places like Giant and Guardian changed to Yuu. I don’t know what’s worse. Hearing the song “Nobody like you” by Phua Chu Kang (the character, not even Gurmit himself) on loop as you go to these places to purchase your things or that now you have to install another app (Yuu) for rewards.

I liked the tap tapping for Passion card because it was there, it’s linked to the debit card for mine and I didn’t have to install anything if I wanted to use the points.

Then there’s the SimplyGo Ezlink app that Ezlink is promoting so people can use their wallets more too for more rewards and topping up stuff.

No, I’m tired even if you get a $2 cashback for converting your regular Ezlink card to a SimplyGo one. I’ll top up my ezlink card manually at the train or bus station with the machines there.

But Sarah, it’s just installing an app, easy one!

NO!

Bit by bit, installing more apps, you might think it’s free but at this rate. Guys. At this rate. How much space are these apps going to take? You might think ohh it’s just so small but no, at this rate, how much space is it really going to take up on your phone?

It might be even worse if you keep installing all of these apps and then you realize you run out of space for more apps that you need a smart phone with a bigger space or something.

I’m tired of apps. Can we just get multi usage apps in a digital environment instead of ‘solo’ apps just because management of whatever company says ‘We should have an app’ to track customer spending and rewards etc?

Surely ‘creating an app’ is not one solution to things.

Are you guys tired of this or do you like all these apps nowadays?

It’s raining today and probably tomorrow

It has been such a wet season. It’s raining almost daily ever since my post about going to the Istana during the holidays. It’ll only be sunny for a just a few hours and then back to rainy skies once more.

Having a dryer at home is really useful during this season. In the news it had said we were supposed to have sunny skies by this time in February but I guess, global warming’s affecting it.

Sustainable Exercise

Firstly, this isn’t an advertorial post because I gotta pay for it but if you wanna try Gympod like I did. Might as well get 10% OFF your first paid booking.

Download The Gym Pod App and use my code SARAHGYM when signing up OR just download via my link: https://app.thegympod.com/refer/SARAHGYM

Ok, that’s done with. It’s that little button under ‘profile’ that you too can refer a friend for it.

This is a review of it. I had been looking pretty much at many gyms but I wanted something ‘private’ or something worth it, you know?

I went with gympod cause apparently if you book the session, the whole pod is yours! It’s true. Except for the bigger ones like “The Dungeon” which is made for sharing with others.

The Istana

It’s been around 13 years since I went to the Istana. I remember posting about it on national day in 2010.

And this year, 2023, I went to the Istana once more during their open house!

For those who don’t know, it’s free for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.

For tourists and others, it’s $2. Unlike 13 years ago, everything has to be paid via qrcode so you should have paylah/now or its equivalent ready. Ticket proceeds go to charity.

Do also note what you can or cannot bring into the Istana grounds, there are rules on their website and you can also take note on the dates they’ll have it.

Entrance also depends on the weather and if it is too bad, you won’t get in since it IS a large space and the probability of being struck by lightning is high during a storm.

Global Mat Soul Kitchen’s briyani

Disposable box of briyani and pineapple achar — The box of briyani with achar

It was more than a month ago (some time in September 2022) when I saw the notification from Global Mat Soul Kitchen’s instagram that he was opening orders for his “mutton ov doom” aka mutton briyani.

I had followed his account for much longer and since it was the first time in a long while that I finally got that notification, I knew I had to try it.

Were all those articles about his briyani being the best really true? What is all the hype about it? What’s this mysterious briyani?

To get it, you had to follow the exact instructions and be polite about it because hey, this person really did cook food for you if you managed to get an order in time.

What I had to do was message my order, follow said instructions and go to the specified pick up point with my own plastic bag. Remember! Bring your own bags and make it sturdy. There has been a sad tale when one customer’s plastic bag broke and all the beautiful briyani was strewn upon the cement floor.

At this point of blog post, you might ask me was it worth it?

Well, duh. Yes, it is.

But hey, this is a Sarah post, so heck that if you wanted a tl;dr version you’d read other people’s reviews with pictures.

The Mid SES life

I don’t know if anyone out of the Singapore context would know what “SES” means. It’s an acronym to describe socio-economic status in one of our textbooks here. The short of it, high SES means you’re rich as heck and low SES means you’re on the lower end of it with little income and such. Since we’re here, I might also let you all know high SES also means being atas which is Malay for “on top”.

But you don’t pronounce it in the Malay way to say it is high SES, you got to say it in a faux-English way where it’s “A-tas” for the extraness of it.

Anyway, as per usual, I was looking at instagram, scrolling through, seeing how some ‘influencers/celebs’ post pictures. That and I got ads before I get to watch a youtube video about how you can make ‘money online’ by going to their special webinars and all that.

For some influencer/celebrities especially actors and actresses, I just wonder. How do you make money? I know some of them are thankfully supported by family, work in some business, be a tutor/lecturer, be a real estate agent and whatnot.

No, those are pretty clear cut.

But there’s some that, it just seems that they do party (of course it’s just pictures, so they won’t post about their struggles) but what do they do to get money to party? What do they work as when they’re not on screen?

Then the money making youtube ads. I don’t believe they get money from whatever they’re doing. I’m just wondering do they get enough by making people ‘buy’ into their webinars and all that to create a sustainable life?

What is their actual struggle to make monies? Cause what they post looks just so dangerous to me in their expensive cars (maybe rented for a shoot?), fancy condos and whatnot.

I don’t want to know how you all ‘made it’. I want to know, is it all sustainable and why the heck are you all still trying to sell these investment courses if it works.

Is it to diversify income or something?

Which brings the point of my mid-SES life.

I know I’m not doing my most lowest, I know I’m not doing a high-SES life either. I’m just mid-range average. Maybe even slightly on the lower range of average.

If all these ‘high-SES’ people are diversifying in trying to get as much money from as many places as possible.

Then, am I doing enough?

When considering all the work I do, is that still enough? I don’t know what’s the average of enough at this rate. Cause if so called ‘high-SES’ people are doing so much to just get as much income as possible somehow.

Then, am I doing too little?

Of course I ask what other people’s plans are so here. Let me tell you what I do.

I work, get the income there, save bunch of the monies. And then on the See Pee Eff side, I do invest with it.

But besides that, should I be having more jobs or something? Is there something I am missing because all these people keep trying to gain more somehow?

Ally’s Adventures! Bilingual book series

I was trying to find some Singapore based Malay books for children because I can’t find any at Popular Bookstore. The only things I found were assessment books and no stories in Malay.

My friends instead recommended me to check out Ungu Pen online store.

Basically, there are a number of Malay books for children but Singapore based ones aren’t that many comparatively and there is a difference between Singapore, Malaysia and bahasa Indonesia too in terms of context.

I bought Ally at Home and some other books (will review that in another post) from Ungu Pen but then I decided to check Poppet World where the Ally series is from to just check out what more is available.

And I got more books and received a sticker sheet and also got a limited edition Ally plushy doll for a child because they can have story time with an actual Ally!!

The Ally’s Adventure series is written by Norlin Samat and it’s a board book style which has a lovely smooth texture where kids can touch and turn too.

This is Ally at Home, you can see that it is in both English and Malay. They use simple languages so that your child can read or be read to, to know the story.

Also as you can see, the windows are “HDB” styled, if you live in Singapore, these things will seem more familiar to you.

In Ally at the Library, it amuses me that Ally is with human children but let’s ignore that because this is a children’s book. I want to see more cat friends though!

And the library does remind you of the ones we have here at the National Library children’s section.

For Ally at the Zoo, if you read this to your children, you can go to our Singapore Zoo and point out the animals or say “Hey, this is where Ally went!”.

I am amused that there are tigers and that Ally is a different kind of adventuring cat.

I won’t spoil the endings or how the story goes for each book but they are fun for you to read out to children in both English and Malay so that they can recognize words and understand them.

At the time of this post, you can join Ally at their facebook page to know if they have online activities or offlline ones too.

Since I bought more books at the Poppet World website where they are the publishers, I managed to get a sticker sheet (while stocks last)!

Also the Ally plushy doll is limited edition because of course, they wouldn’t be able to make thousands but just enough so if you want to get an Ally plushy, just get it.

She is really cute and her backpack actually opens and you can put maybe an eraser or something in it.

Anyway, feel free to recommend me Singapore based Malay books for children and young adults too! I feel like there’s too many angsty ones aimed for adults and the fun ones for children, there’s not enough?

The Old Normal

Sunset over the highway by Sarah in a bus — Sometimes I take the bus to Suntec to just get to see the sunset.

Since the end of 2019 we had been adapting to the New Normal. Can we just call the normal, normal now? I mean, it’s already at least three years.

This. Whatever we have now, is normal.

And since I live in Singapore, not much surprises me in terms of how we need to adapt. Of course, there will be that stubbornness of “Why can’t we do it like before?” and “Can’t we just… not do it?”.

But whatever, we need to suck it up, move forward and make the changes as we go.

I do look back at that pre-2019 times. And the ‘good old days’ which had its moments. Since we can’t go back it doesn’t mean we can’t bring elements of it into now.

I remember I used to post on livejournal nearly daily and over here on this blog it was every Monday a post. And it was fun. And especially since blogging is on a ‘decrease’… it means not many people are going to read this and thus…

I’m going to write whatever I want over here especially since this is my blog.

In 2022, blog posts aren’t in. It’s all instastories, instagram pictures, tiktok videos. Short bite sized stuff or heck, even podcasts.

AND I AM GOING TO RELISH THIS. Because if you’re reading this, then well. It really is up to you to read it. No one’s forcing you to read it.

So hello to you all. Old readers and new. What are you going to do this year?

Do you remember that people can actually comment on blogposts?

What is going to be your normal?

Can I use my posb debit card as an ezlink?

I googled to ask if I could use my posb debit card as an ezlink without topping up because I left my main ezlink card at home.

It didn’t exactly answer me and my card is an older passion card POSB debit card which did have the ezlink icon at the back.

The simple answer is no.

I couldn’t use my card because it didn’t have any “value” loaded in it.

So in an emergency, you had to somehow top it up first if it’s one of the older cards, I think the newer ones can just auto deduct. I didn’t check it but it might be able to, if you do this, comment if it succeeds!

Anyway to top up your ezlink enabled debit card just go to the ATM and click more services when you log in at the machine.

There, click ezlink top up. It will tell you to remove your atm card, put it next to the keypad for the sensor to sense the card which you want to top up.

It’s the same place if you want to top up a regular ezlink card or cashcard too.

Place the card on the censor next to the keypad

Just follow the instructions on screen and your debit card is now ready to be your alternate ezlink.

You don’t even have to install SimplyGo to somehow top it up if you just need it to be used for an emergency and if you don’t have a phone with you.

It’s 2022

Yes, it’s 2022 and it’s already past the middle of February. I don’t think people will actively notice my blogposts nowadays since it’s a different social media game.

It’s all about instagram and tiktoks but there are article based blogs still. Just that many are very very into the hustle and whatnot.

I miss the days of where you get random blog posts of thoughts and whatnot and hey, this is my blog so at least I can do that here.

With the rise of mobile usage, the kind of posts are different too. I’d usually put a ‘read more’ cut to save people’s data or space but I don’t think I have to do it nowadays since the web is seen or loaded differently on devices compared to back then in the early 2000s.

Wow.

That’s a long time, isn’t it?

But I’m here to say, hey everyone. I’m still around. Maybe you’ll see me experiment more on youtube for my content.

Still.

Sometimes, it’s just easier to read things instead of watching them, isn’t it?

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