- Chinese Garden
- Botanic Gardens
- Spotlight shop to buy wool and knitting needles
Where I ended up going on Monday's sight-seeing day in Singapore:
- Spotlight
- Carrefour
I should have known that Carrefour would overwhelm me. It is a French hypermarket - like a cross between the most enormous Coles and Target you can imagine. The one I went to in Toulouse had 50 cash registers. I'm not exaggerating - they were numbered. To put this into perspective, however, my host mother said she liked this particular store as it was "cozy". Perhaps not the word I would have used to describe it.
Anyway, so I walked in thinking I would like to get some nice cheese to bring back to the 'desh. There were two whole aisles of cheese, plus a service section where they'd cut you a piece from a huge block. I was walking around in a state of shock, not knowing where to even start to look. After being in Bangladesh for 5 months, it all felt so ridiculous and exorbitant. A concerned English woman with a baby in a pram approached me. Obviously my appearance (somewhere between looking incredibly stoned or incredibly tired) had worried her.
Her: Are you alright?
Me: Yes - it's just that I've been in Bangladesh for 5 months and all this cheese is overwhelming. I get excited when I find cheddar over there!
Her: Oh right. I suppose it is a good range. But even in Singapore it's almost impossible to find shaved ham.
Me (desperately trying to keep a straight face): Oh. Really. That's... Yes. Well. Good luck with it then.
Oh the hardship! How does she do it? How can anyone possibly survive in a country with no shaved ham? I can tell you, it nearly brought tears to my eyes to think of this woman - and her poor family! - trying to make do with sliced ham.
Suffering from a severe case of sensory overload, I had to leave (after making a selection of 6 different cheeses) and go home for a little rest.
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