Singrish: Third Installment of Interesting Language use in the Lion City

Welcome to my Engrish Blog #3! I have some gems here, people--such as the fun little picture above. Dan didn't know why I thought it was hilarious. :) I had so many pictures on file that I actually had to cut some that weren't funny enough! Hopefully you agree with my judgements on level or hilarity. Let's begin, shall we?

FIRST CATEGORY: Typos. And the Nominees are:

The "Writer Draw 'n Scpape". Way simpler than "Etch-a-sketch", right?

Elmo on a change purse, encouraging Clean teeteh for cosmetic reasons. Who doesn't love clean teeteh, right?

 No caption needed.

NEXT CATEGORY: What's on the Menu?

Wow. That description really helps.

Someone is a little too enthusiastic about their soft drinks.

CATEGORY 3: That must have been made in China...

 On a box for a laptop holder.

This next photo is of a box of tissue that my landlords had in the living room. They speak English, but somehow I don't think they even realized what this said. If so, I would like to think that they would have bought a different box of tissues...

I just don't get it. Is the bored-looking pink-and-yellow cow supposed to be sexy? Sooooo confused...




These next few don't have categories--but don't worry, they're funny all on their own.

This is one of my favorites. It's grammatically correct I know, but still!  Look at the little Smurf-like silhouette! And I'm kind of saddened/worried that this needs to be posted on bulletin boards...

Yes, that says "Steve Florist". That's the name of the shop. Not "Steve's Florist Shop", not "Steve's Flowers", not "Flowers by Steve", not even "Steve: Florist". Just "Steve Florist". The flowers were pretty though...

Speaking of funny shop signs, what about this one:

Don't you ever get tired of all those boring, stick-in-the-mud tailors? Do you find yourself wishing for a suitor AND a suit maker? Well, look no further! There's a Romantic tailor right this way!

Note: This sign is correctly translated. The name of the shop in Chinese is "Luo mon dee ke" (say it fast, it sounds like Romantic)  Tailor. Maybe a more accurate rendering would be "ROMANTIC Tailoring" or something like that...

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...*wipes away a tear of laughter* Hoo..haaa...heeeheehee

FINAL (and most hilarious) CATEGORY: T-shirts of awesomeness.

You think this shirt is funny? Just you wait for the next one.

HERO of monkey! My name is Sunny! jeag jeag!

And the cream of the crop for this edition (in my humble opinion):

                                 I have nothing to say.

                                 Except, maybe, WTF?

Goodbye Singapore!

Hello fellow netizens! Long time no blog :( Sorry about that. Most of you will know that I'm currently Stateside for two months, but there is some catching up do on what I was up to those last 6 weeks in Singapore and I'd like to do it here. Before we get into that, I'd like to mention again my current schedule: Flying to Oklahoma April 24-May 8. Back in Lombard until May 19th, when I fly to Virginia until May 29th. Then back in Lombard one last time from May 29-June 7 before I fly back to Singapore. So if you want to make sure to see me when I'm in your area, let me know! Email and Facebook are good, and I have my old cell phone number again so a call or text would work too.

Now that the administrative stuff is out of the way, on to recap of mid-February through March in Singapore!

My American friends Chris and Kathryn had a beautiful dinner party in February (can't remember the exact date), but here are some photos.

I'm not the best documenter, so this is an after dinner shot.

Wine, grapes, cheese, crackers...and Apples to Apples.

The best hand of the evening, by far!

Some people might have heard me mention durian, a fruit that grows mainly in Southeast Asia that doesn't really taste like a fruit. It's hard to describe its appearance and even harder to describe its taste, but suffice it to say that while it's an acquired taste, I've acquired it and think it's awesome. Can't you tell by my face?

Here's the inside:

You eat that yellow part, and then inside the yellow part there's a seed (that you don't eat). Kathryn says it tastes like a "tree egg". Hmmm...

Scar on my finger from where I got cut when I was opening up a durian. Ironically, it happened like one minute after Mr. Ling said "Be careful". I suck at life. 

In early March I had my friend Pearline over for dinner one day, and the food turned out really well!

Thai spicy vegetable curry. Mmmm...

Then the picture ABOVE is dhal--yellow lentils in the Indian style. (I had to buy new spices, but it was totally worth it!)

 Finally, my favorite green vegetable, kang kong, or kong xin cai, both of which translate into "hollow heart vegetable" (because the stalks are hollow, kind of like a dandylion stem). Cooked in the Chinese style with garlic and oyster sauce.


There was a music festival in Singapore in mid-March. Dan and I went to see the Lionel Loueke jazz trio, which was really good! (It's African-indused jazz. Yes, i know all jazz is African-infused; I mean more African-infused than jazz in general.) We got dressed up, went to an Italian restaurant beforehand, just had a nice date in general. The photo's a bit blurry but I think it's cute:

A week before I left, I met up with my friend Dianne--she's from Malaysia, we met at OU, and now she's working in Singapore as well. She gets to work in the most beautiful building in Singapore, lucky duck. (I've posted about it before--see the end of this post: http://cmcastelli.blogspot.com/2009/10/greek-costumes-from-bali-lane-on-arab.html ) I'd never seen the inside lobby before, so she took me in, and it's AWESOME. Coolest part? There's a bar in it with a three-story-tall mine rack, and when you order a bottle of wine, they lift a girl dressed as a fairy up on a wire to reach it!!!!! You want proof, you say? Voila!

I know it's blurry and kind of like those Bigfoot sighting photos, but that's her, the fairy, flying to grab a bottle of wine. I wonder how you get that job?

Dianne and I were in Arab street, and there's this old-fashioned store/children's museum. So obviously we took some photos :)

We also ate dessert at this Arabic-type shop:

We sat on the rug and there were pillows and everything, and the tea set and spoons and everything was so cute! New favorite dessert spot in Singapore...

Here is my empty office as I was moving out! Tear...I'm going to miss my little cubbyhole desk and the NUS campus and my boss and my officemates and my gym and my friends here. BUT, I still live nearby, and I'm sure after a litle while at NTU I will like it there just as well.

A few days before I left, Dan and I went to see How to Train Your Dragon, which was AWESOME! I highly recommend it. The 3D glasses in Singapore are super high tech. (You have to pay $150 if you lose them or break them. Eek!)

 Yeah, we're hard core...in our 3D glasses...and our regular glasses...watching a kids movie...at 10 in the morning...

Last day in Singapore? Finished up some laundry and packing, ate lunch at Dan's house with Chris and Kathryn. Then they taught us how to play bridge, and we taught them how to find and eat delicious durian. (It's a special type of durian which is only available for a short period of time in the spring but it's my FAVORITE and I wanted to have some before I left.) MMMMM durian!

The I boarded the plane early Sunday morning, April 4th, and had a perfect flight home--no delays, a tailwind that brought us into Chicago an hour early, and interesting and fun people sitting next to me. I was translating for a nice Chinese couple on the Tokyo to Chicago flight, that was fun! So, I arrive safe and sound, just in time for Easter dinner.

Things to look forward to SOON, I promise: A new Engrish blog. This one is gonna be awesome. Also, a recap of my first few weeks back in the USA! And Oklahoma people, heads up: you're next!