Growing up, I always wanted to be in the heart of the city—a densely populated, well-connected place (which is why I moved to Singapore). But gradually, I’m starting to crave a quieter life… something more remote, peaceful, and slow-paced.

I’ve spent countless hours dreaming about living in a small town in the French Alps, a secluded village in Bali (away from the tourist spots), maybe on a boat, or nestled in a Norwegian fjord with a breathtaking view, perhaps a smaller town in French Brittany, or a tranquil town in New Zealand.

As romantic as the idea sounds, I’m not entirely sure I could actually go so far off the grid, away from airports and civilization. After all, our family is quite international, so we need to fly to visit—plus, my wife isn’t exactly on board with the idea right now 😅.

Source: Jom

One of the contentious points raised by Jom was regarding a statement in their publication. While conceding that this particular statement could have benefited from additional context from the full remarks of the politician involved, they stands firm in their stance on the other two statements. These, according to Jom, neither implied governmental corruption nor suggested that the government was responsible for blocking an Instagram post, contrary to the court's determination.

As Jom argues, the law, intended to correct factual inaccuracies, is being overextended to include interpretations and opinions, potentially diminishing its effectiveness and transforming it into a political instrument. The concern is that if journalism is reduced to merely echoing official government statements, verbatim, it could significantly reduce critical thinking (which is already at a low level in Singapore) and further diminish any public discourse.

Jom is right in advocating for a more democratic approach to establishing truth in journalism. This approach would involve moving away from granting politicians sole authority over determining facts, and instead fostering a more inclusive and critical environment.

Uphold the truth, but in a manner that respects diverse perspectives and maintains the integrity of journalism.

Feels a bit surreal. Boarding in SQ 332 in ~55 minutes.

First stop? Oh, Paris! And from there, it's off to Belgium, then back to France for a road trip. All that with Ila (no time to update her site)... Let's see how that goes. 🙈

We'll be back after 4 to 6 weeks and celebrating Christmas surrounded by loved ones and ringing in the New Year in the Ardennes.

Writing all down now, feels like this "holiday" will be quite busy.

And the plot twist? It's a one-way ticket. No return date stamped. We're just gonna go with the flow and see where the journey takes us. Though, if I were a betting person, I'd say we'll probably be back around Lunar New Year. After all, who can resist the allure of those lion dances and, honestly, cashing in Ila's ang pow?

But let's see how much time I'll have to run a remote business, take care of Ila, drive and holiday around, and deal with family. 🤣 Maybe we'll be back sooner.

Poor Mumu, Tofu and Taro will have an extended staycation at their grandmother. Some change in environment may do them good. Hopefully, they don't forget about us, though, while being spoilt to death...

It's secretly also a big test for Shan -- to see how Europe's lifestyle fits, and if we're finally ready to say goodbye to the Lion City and head somewhere more European... Copenhagen? Amsterdam? Lisbon? 🤷‍♂️ I know I'm in need of change and an adventure.

I’m very fortunate to have a handful of new trees, some grass and public seating bookend the street I live in. One of my favourite times of the day to be out on my balcony is dusk, because when the sun starts setting and the hustle and bustle of the city subsides, a group of Indian myna birds, attracted by that greenery, playfully chirps and flies between the trees. The tweeting draws out neighbours, too, and creates a beautiful moment of connection through nature in an otherwise man-made environment.

An increasing body of research tells us that interaction with nature is associated with better body and brain health. Birds play a particular role in this, in part because they are some of the only animals able to venture into highly developed areas and give out calls audible to the human ear, providing a direct link to the natural world.

The pleasure we get from encountering nature can be explained through the biophilia hypothesis, the idea that humans have an innate affinity for life and living systems: “Human preferences toward things in nature, while refined through experience and culture, are hypothetically the product of biological evolution.”

This theory is guiding academic work but also urban and architectural design. For example, there is solid evidence that having a window looking out to living plants helps speed up the healing process of patients in hospitals. In educational settings, exposure to nature seems to help kids focus better, feel less anxious and improve memory.

It’s fair to conclude then that we need nature. But does nature need us? Probably not. Clive Thompson calls this the biophilia paradox: “Biophilia is asymmetric. We have biophilia, but nature doesn’t have ‘anthrophilia’. In fact, it’s the opposite: If humanity were to vanish tomorrow, the remaining plants and animals would set about rapidly reclaiming all the asphalted-over world we’ve created.”

There is a tragic irony here: our modern existence is largely incompatible with our biophilic need for nature. Our attempt to be closer to nature often comes at a cost to nature.

“We humans should be living a little more densely, to give nature more space away from us. Meanwhile, to satisfy our biophilia, we should be designing more nature into these denser human environments – using everything from an increased number of street-plants to town parks to ‘living walls’ on houses, and buildings that use more natural materials. … We need plants close to us – and far away from us. That’s the biophilia paradox.”

My local council recently bought a bunch of warehouses and turned them into a public park with a playground. What used to be a barren, semi-industrial area suddenly came alive with people and plants. Everyone visiting the park looked in surprise at the playground wondering the same thing: ‘Where have all of these kids been hiding?’

Today’s urban spaces are designed for cars and commerce, making them particularly hostile towards kids. With most streets being considered unsafe, there has been a huge drop in outdoor play. This study, for example, claims that today just 27% of children play outside their homes, compared to 71% of the baby boomer generation. Or look at this fascinating map showing how an eight year old’s ‘range of exploration’ has changed from ~10 km a few generations ago to a mere ~300 metres today.

This short piece makes some cogent points about how our society tends to divide children into two categories undeserving of autonomy – ‘angels’ and ‘demons’:

“On one hand children are considered too small, vulnerable and innocent to roam and play in urban spaces because of traffic, ‘stranger-danger’ and other hazards. On the other hand, teenagers are constructed as a public threat and should not be allowed to hang out on the streets with their bikes, skateboards and presumably bad intentions. … Children and young people are increasingly sequestered in homes, cars or institutional spaces for adult-controlled education and play.”

Research tells us that limiting children’s sense of safety and autonomy also hampers their mental and social wellbeing. And yet, we continue to design spaces that completely robs them of their right to participate in public life. “Children should not be reduced to mere ‘future investments’ or ‘adults of tomorrow’. They are also people with present-day rights to citizenship, participation and autonomy in their living environments.”

As a kid who grew up in the country, I spent my summers roaming the neighbourhood, local fields and woods. I was pretty shocked to hear about friends in Melbourne having spent much of their early teenage years inside shopping malls. They did so because we gradually made every public space unsafe or unwelcoming for them. The irony of now blaming them for being glued to screens all day!

Many of us (especially people like me who don’t have kids of their own) move about a city oblivious to the lack of infrastructure suitable for young people. Away from home, their ability to move freely is often constrained to fenced off spaces: playgrounds, daycare centres, school yards, sports grounds. They are often chauffeured between these spaces in the very thing that makes streets unsafe for them: cars.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We know that designing cities for children ends up benefitting everyone which is why all of us should be demanding child-friendly, slow streets and engage in community efforts to take back public space from cars. Just watch any video of a Bike Bus in action and witness the joy of reclaiming our streets.

U.S. petrochemicals giant Dow Inc and the Singapore government said they were transforming old sneakers into playgrounds and running tracks. Reuters put that promise to the test by planting hidden trackers inside 11 pairs of donated shoes.

Most got exported instead.

[...]

t a rundown market on the Indonesian island of Batam, a small location tracker was beeping from the back of a crumbling second-hand shoe store. A Reuters reporter followed the high-pitched ping to a mound of old sneakers and began digging through the pile.

There they were: a pair of blue Nike running shoes with a tracking device hidden in one of the soles.

These familiar shoes had traveled by land, then sea and crossed an international border to end up in this heap. They weren’t supposed to be here.

Five months earlier, in July 2022, Reuters had given the shoes to a recycling program spearheaded by the Singapore government and U.S. petrochemicals giant Dow Inc. In media releases and a promotional video posted online, that effort promised to harvest the rubberized soles and midsoles of donated shoes, then grind down the material for use in building new playgrounds and running tracks in Singapore.

Dow, a major producer of chemicals used to make plastics and other synthetic materials, in the past has launched recycling efforts that have fallen short of their stated aims. Reuters wanted to follow a donated shoe from start to finish to see if it did, in fact, end up in new athletic surfaces in Singapore, or at least made it as far as a local recycling facility for shredding.

[...]

4 parts.

[…]

But if there's one thing I remember about Sim by, it's his criticism of the Singaporean mindset.

The No U-Turn Syndrome, or NUTS, was how Sim viewed how Singaporeans always required a rule base to get anything done.

It's referring to how in Singapore, u-turns are not allowed unless there's a sign that allows you to do so, which is different from how other countries do it — you can u-turn unless there's a sign prohibiting you to do so. And to make things even more fun, there are sometimes no u-turn signs, too.

This also means that when you want to do something, you automatically seek the approval of an higher authority, and if there's no rule, the default is "no".

It's terrible, and forces you to just stay in your lane without making changes.

When I started working, I saw plenty of examples of how this worked, especially in larger organisations.

[…]

With the passing of Sim, it doesn't hurt to be reminded of what he said again, and the examples he gave of how inflexible our Singaporean mindset is.

If we're going to honour his legacy, we should honour his words, too. Because as nuts as it sounds, NUTS is still pretty relevant in our society today — if not more so than ever, with the challenges Singapore faces ahead.

I guess that's one thing that I do miss in Singapore: informal places that are affordable (almost everything here costs money) and that are not shopping malls (exactly what he mentions in the video).

Sure, there are bars, but they are usually expensive and atas, and not the place people go for an informal chitchat (more for date nights). There are the places around the hawker centres (i.e.: the food courts) with a lot of "uncles" sitting down -- but that's hardly my crowd. ;)

But maybe I'm also just in a bad neighbourhood. Chinatown has more craft beer places (somewhat affordable) right inside the food courts (i.e.: no air-conditioning, but it's informal and easily accessible).

But I'll admit I miss the Belgian-style pub where we'd go for a drink before dinner, or later at night for a tea. Places like Fenikshof in Grimbergen.

The QR-code menu—which you access by scanning a black-and-white square with your smartphone—has taken off ever since. It may dominate going forward. But I hope not, because I detest those digital menus. Never mind dying peacefully in my sleep; I want to go out while sitting in a restaurant on my 100th birthday, an aperitif in my left hand and a paper menu in my right. And as eager as I’ll be for heaven if I’m lucky enough to stand on its threshold, I want one last downward glance at a paramedic prying the menu from my fist. In that better future, where old-school menus endure, I’ll go to my urn happy that coming generations will still begin meals meeting one another’s eyes across a table instead of staring at a screen.

Every single restaurant in Singapore uses these terrible, crappy UI, QR code menus. They suck. It's time for them to die in a fire. The pandemic is over and there's no reason for them to be used.

I need to use my phone, I can't easily discuss with my party on who is ordering what by showing and sharing a menu, the internet often sucks, and the page fails to load (or takes forever), the UI is broken on a tiny screen (text/ingredients are not fully shown, impossible to scan through a one-pager with 100s of items), some restaurants explicitly ask you to order only from one phone (imagine having two phones ordering food! Nuclear disaster!!) and some of those apps/sites clear the cart when going "back" in the browser, and each have their own, terrible, UI built differently taking forever to figure it out).

Even worse are those menus where you need to fill in your credit card to pre-pay (god forbid using Apple/Google Pay) that block copying and pasting numbers (out of 1password) or clear the input field every time you tab out of the browser and for example into 1password). AAAARGGHHH.

For now, we can't escape them, but I will happily get out of my way to avoid a restaurant that uses QR codes and get into one that provides a proper menu.

[...]

The story illustrates the level of violence we accept amongst children in otherwise non-violent societies, but it gets even worse: differing speeds of development lead to huge differences in size and strength, meaning bullying is often like getting picked on by a Shaq-like giant.

[...]

Yes, in the developed world “corporal punishment” (literally “bodily punishment”, an eloquently Latinized euphemism for “beatings”) is on the decline, but if a 19th-century person told you that though wife-beating was still legal, it was on the decline, you’d look at them at least a little bit askance.

Corporal punishment, while permitted for children, is never allowed for adults, even for convicted murderers. It's legal to beat a child for talking out of turn, but not for adults who have repeatedly, viciously, murdered people (*).

Countries that do beat people for talking out of turn are universally regarded as brutal dictatorships, just so long as those beaten include grown-ups.

[...]

Children are expected to never resort to violence. If on the playground they’re hit, they should not hit back, but find an authority figure instead. Generally, this authority will do nothing meaningful, and the only result will be the status penalty of being labeled a tattle-tale, resulting in an even more vulnerable personal position.

[...]

Meanwhile, if a reasonable adult simply feels threatened, such as from having popcorn thrown at them (**), they can shoot someone to death.

[...]

The value of truth as a virtue and liars as dishonorable is universally held, except when speaking to children.

[...]

Very insightful article, and many of what they touch on is true in a western society.

(*) Singapore is an exception.

(**) Probably only in the US.

Wish this was an option in Singapore -- sadly, driving a bike here is needlessly dangerous. But likely a viable mode of transportation when we move back to Europe.

Using Van Der Waals force, geckoes are able to stick to pretty much any surface, including slippery windows. Their feet have millions of tiny hairs.

Pretty damn cool -- never thought about it (*) until Nerdland talked about it.

(*) Singapore has a lot of geckoes. They are considered to be pests here... But I love them... :)

It doesn’t serve Singaporeans to have the government acting as our nanny, covering our eyes while clutching her pearls. When it seizes the power to decide whether the people are “reading the right thing,” it is depriving Singaporeans of opportunities to develop media literacy, exercise critical thinking, and become savvier navigators of online spaces. This benefits the government because it fosters among the people a culture of dependency on those in power to exercise control over all aspects of people’s lives. But it hurts Singaporeans by curbing our agency and freedom, trapping us mentally within authoritarian frames and environments.

I've not been in Paris since 2015, I believe. Feel like I should probably pop-by again and see if it really changed that much. I remember it to be mostly one big traffic jam with all the 2 and 3 wheeled motorcyclists racing in between.

It would be interesting to see if other major cities in Europe follow suit.

I'm actually quite looking forward to the biking future: riding (e-)bikes, a proper last-mile method (i.e. combing rental bikes or e-scooters with public high-speed railway).

Brussels definitely had a change of heart (for the better), but it'll take 10+ years to properly realise all these projects. Is it too little, too late?

Bike Highways are becoming a thing in a few cities in Belgium (but not in Wallonia; and sadly, the one in Vilvoorde will take 4+ years to build). But I'm excited to see what this will become once all this is finalised.

Would love to see Singapore work on something similar.

For a very brief moment, we had rental bikes in Singapore that were hugely popular. That is, until the gahmen decided to regulate rental bikes because of stupid wild parkers; a lot of these companies either pulled out of Singapore or went bankrupt.

And we had e-scooters, that were banned pretty much overnight (or well, "only allowed on biking lances" -- however, Singapore probably only has 5, or some absurd low number, biking lanes across the entire island; so it was an effective ban).

Since then, the desire of car ownership only went up (there is technically a cap -- which is good, but leaves little alternative for families that need a car for things that are impractical with ride hailing). Speaking of, ride hailing companies are doing tremendously (prices nearly doubled in the past 2-3 years with the lack of competition).

I see an increase in (amateur) bikers, but it's insanely dangerous as there's no dedicated lanes except for a couple of PCN.

So dear Singapore, please please please build a city that does not revolve around cars (the plans are there, but all new development seem to still have all roads on top, with little to no cycling lanes).

Make it easier to use (e-)bikes, (e-)skateboards, unicycles and what not!

With Ila on the way, both as a parent and if I were a kid still -- where would I want to grow up?

Growing up wasn't a fan of Grimbergen because it was quite dull (but then again, it was very close to Brussels, and easily connected to Antwerp): I wanted a city, and that's why I moved to Antwerp (and later Singapore).

Yet, now that I also value quality of life, Singapore is not very high on that list either. There's an insane pressure on kids to be top of class and to perform, limited to no safe outdoor activities unless you live in a place with a pool/tennis court (everything else feels fake, you can't get dirty as a kid), the lack of ownself transport methods (bike, skateboard, etc) to go to school/friends (public transport rocks, but that's never as convenient as a bike for short distances).

I'm currently having mixed feelings between the big house in a quiet neighbourhood (not Suburbia, but something more like Finland/Norway outside of cities, with a forest, next to your home) vs. being in a city like Copenhagen.

While I would love to being closer to nature, I'd probably miss the benefits of the city life (like being close to an airport -- we need to visit Belgium and Singapore after all, take-away food, quick and easy shopping, more friends/school options, a cinema, etc).

By the way, Johan has a good blog about living off-grid -- which is a bit too extreme for me.

A city like Amsterdam or Copenhagen is probably a safer choice: less green, but easy and safe to get around as a pedestrian/biker, while still being in relative distance of nature or an escape out of the city.

And no, I won't head back to Brussels; it's a terrible for kids. It's the wild west, where cars rule and the police won't act.

Ghent and Antwerp are investing in car-free zones and making it pedestrian friendly, but I hate Antwerp's lack of greenery (many beautiful trees are cut, everything is stone and concrete and feels like death. Moreover, it's one big traffic jam due to lack of a sustainable solution to keep the cars out).

Oh, and I got myself a Halfbike. So I'll definitely be looking at places with biking lanes. ;)

[...]

[migrant workers] labor and their identities are clearly commodified, something which is, at times, heartbreakingly visible. In a country that’s notoriously obsessed with safety, where jaywalking and failing to wear a seatbelt can be punished with jail time, migrant workers can be transported on the expressways in the back of goods vehicles. Calls for change after a series of fatal accidents this year were rejected, on the grounds it would be too expensive for their employers.

[...]

The sprawl of TraceTogether and SGWorkPass combined is a common pattern, said Alex Au, vice president of advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) — that laws, systems and technology grow beyond their roots. “The nature of these multiple purpose apps is that one part of it may be legitimate or justifiable. But because [of that], you don’t question the other parts that come bundled together.”

In August 2020, the police added a new tool to help them physically monitor the dorms. They deployed another robot, M.A.T.A.R, as well as drones, to patrol the dormitories and enforce “safe distancing” rules.

[...]

But there is clearly discontent, on social media and in private conversations, about the pandemic rules, which have flipped from permissive to restrictive and back again as the country figures out how willing it is to “live with Covid.” Few experts expect that the additional surveillance measures put in place for contact tracing will ever end, even when the risk of transmission subsides. There’s a general acceptance that these are now permanent, political tools.

[...]

Several times, Wham has been caught up in the tightening space for dissent. In 2020, he was jailed for 10 days for hosting a live discussion via Skype with the Hong Kong pro-democracy figurehead Joshua Wong. A Facebook post saying that Singapore’s judges were less impartial than their Malaysian counterparts led to a charge of “scandalizing the judiciary.” Other online critics and independent media have been targeted with an array of legal tools, being forced to register as political organizations and being targeted by criminal defamation proceedings.

That's but a small part of the whole article.

Shan and I recorded this a few months ago for PropertyGuru. Didn't know it was also on YouTube (they were mostly using it in ads and on facebook/Instagram). Keeping it here as archive. :)

I guess that was not unexpected. This could level the playing fields a bit for other big capitals like Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and maybe even Brussels.

[...]
a report by several City organizations said that Brexit was making it harder and more expensive to hire foreign staff. International workers, mostly from the European Union, make up about a fifth of the 1.1 million people in U.K. financial services.
[...]

Can't help but see similarities with Singapore, where new visa requirements and strict rules meant countless expats could not renew their visas and were forced to leave Singapore. The atmosphere is generally more hostile than pre-Covid, and coming in is exponentially harder.

Companies are actively moving headcount, relocating entire teams. There's a clear brain drain happening, and that may be hard to fix in the short term.

I can only be hopeful this is the golden age for Europe, as a lot of talent returns home. Hopefully, Europe can tap in all that talent, and use it wisely.

To the point, there's now Covid bingo.

I quote, in case they one day decide to delete it all:

• AA: Approved absence. As a precautionary measure, students and staff will be placed on approved absence in certain scenarios. This includes if they or their household members have to undergo mandatory COVID-19 testing due to a cluster, or if their household members have flu-like symptoms.
• ARI: Acute respiratory infection. Symptoms of ARIs are similar to those of COVID-19 – such as fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, loss of taste or smell.
• ART: Antigen rapid test. A type of COVID-19 test you can do on your own. They work by detecting viral proteins in nasal swab samples, and are faster and less intrusive than PCR tests. See “PCR” for more.
• CB: Circuit breaker. A nationwide partial lockdown implemented from Apr 21 to Jun 1, 2020, to put the brakes on escalating COVID-19 infections.
• CCF: Community care facility. These cater to COVID-19-positive people who are clinically well, have mild symptoms and do not require much medical care. Examples of CCFs include Connect @ Changi at the Singapore Expo and D'Resort NTUC.
  • Stepped Up CCFs, introduced in September 2021, cater to elderly patients who are stable, mildly symptomatic, clinically well but with some underlying conditions that could make them more susceptible to a potential worsening of illness.
• DORSCON: Disease Outbreak Response System Condition. A colour-coded framework that shows the current disease situation, providing general guidelines on how to prevent and reduce the impact of infections. Singapore has been at Orange, the second-highest level, since February 2020.
• eQO: Electronic quarantine order. The version of a quarantine order that one receives via SMS. See “QO” for more.
• FET: Fast and Easy Test. Refers to antigen rapid tests. The phrase is used in conjunction with rostered routine testing – see “RRT” for more.
• FLW: Frontline workers. These are workers in roles and industries that are of critical importance to the functioning of Singapore. Examples include healthcare workers, transport workers, hawkers, cleaners, teachers and supermarket staff.
• GQF: Government quarantine facility. These house individuals who need to be isolated as they have come into close contact with COVID-19 cases. Examples include some chalets at Changi and Loyang.
• HA: Heightened Alert. The phrase has been used to differentiate between initial planned phases of reopening and subsequent stages that have more precautionary measures in place, such as Phase 2 vs Phase 2 (HA).
• HBL: Home-based learning. When lessons and materials are made accessible online, allowing students to attend school from home.
• HQO: Home quarantine order. Those under an HQO have to isolate at home.
• HRA: Health risk alert. These are issued to people who have possibly been exposed to COVID-19. They should monitor their health, conduct self-testing and seek medical attention if they are unwell.
• HRW: Health risk warning. These are issued to those identified as close contacts of COVID-19 cases, based on TraceTogether and SafeEntry data. Those who receive HRWs must comply with testing and isolation requirements by law.
• ICU: Intensive care unit. The department in hospitals that house those who are critically ill.
• LOA: Leave of absence. Students and school staff are placed on LOA in several situations, such as when they have been in close contact with confirmed cases, but are not placed on a quarantine order; if household members are serving a quarantine order or a stay-home notice at the same residence.
• mRNA: Messenger ribonucleic acid. The technology behind certain COVID-19 vaccines, including the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. These types of vaccines teach cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response. The immune response produces antibodies to protect the vaccinated person.
• MTF: COVID-19 multi-ministry task force. The MTF is meant to coordinate a whole-of-government response to the pandemic. Its co-chairs are Health Minister Ong Ye Kung, Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong.
• NCID: National Centre for Infectious Diseases. A national public health institute designed to strengthen Singapore’s capabilities in infectious disease management and prevention.
• PCA: Periodic Commuting Arrangement. A travel lane agreement between Singapore and Malaysia to facilitate the movement of workers between both countries.
• PCR: Polymerase chain reaction. A type of COVID-19 test that amplifies genetic material so any trace of COVID-19 can be detected. They are more accurate than antigen rapid tests but take longer to produce results.
• PET: Pre-event test. A COVID-19 test taken by individuals who want to enter certain venues or participate in certain events or activities. These include cinemas, congregational services, live performances, conferences and weddings. Some individuals, such as those who are fully vaccinated, may be exempted.
• PHPC: Public Health Preparedness Clinic. These provide subsidised treatment and medication during public health outbreaks. PHPCs were previously activated to deal with haze and the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.
• PUQ: Person under quarantine. An individual who has been served a quarantine order.
• QO: Quarantine order. A legal order requiring suspected COVID-19 cases, or close contacts of confirmed cases, to be quarantined at a designated place.
• QOA: Quarantine order allowance. The QOA scheme allows self-employed people and Singapore-registered companies that have employees under a quarantine order to claim S$100 a day. Approved caregivers of a person under quarantine can also apply for the allowance.
• RRT: Rostered routine testing. Under this surveillance testing programme, certain groups that work in higher-risk settings or live in high-density environments are tested routinely, such as every 14 days.
• RSC: Regional screening centre. These centres carry out COVID-19 swab tests for "target groups from the general community" or those who have been diagnosed with acute respiratory infection, said the Health Ministry.
• SASH: Swab and Send Home Clinic. These are PHPCs that can perform swab tests for patients. Your doctor will assess and swab or refer you to a facility, such as a regional screening centre, for a swab test if needed.
• SDA: Safe-distancing ambassador. An ambassador’s task is to remind businesses and people of safe-distancing measures, such as wearing a mask and leaving sufficient space when queuing.
• SDEO: Safe-distancing enforcement officer. These officers have the power to take enforcement action against people for flouting rules, such as issuing fines.
• SDF: SHN-dedicated facilities. These refer to accommodation for incoming travellers who are issued stay-home notices. See “SHN” for more.
• SHN: Stay-home notice. A legal notice issued under the Infectious Diseases Act that requires travellers to remain in their place of residence or SHN-dedicated facility for a stipulated period. Failure to comply can amount to an imprisonment term and/or fine.
• SMM: Safe management measures. Regulations in place to minimise the risks of COVID-19 transmission. Examples include safe distancing and caps on group sizes.
• TT: TraceTogether. A mobile phone application and/or physical token used for contact tracing efforts.
• TToSE: TraceTogether-only SafeEntry. Refers to a location where SafeEntry – a check-in gateway – has been implemented, and all individuals need to use their TT app or token to check-in.
• VoRT: Vaccinate or Regular Test regime. Under this regime, certain groups of frontline workers will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19, or undergo more regular testing.
• VTL: Vaccinated Travel Lane. Under this arrangement, fully vaccinated people can travel for leisure without serving a stay-home notice in Singapore upon returning. They will have to take up to four PCR tests. 
• WFH: Work from home. This is when an employee works from their place of residence, instead of the office.
• WHO EUL: World Health Organization's Emergency Use Listing. A procedure by the WHO that assesses the suitability of novel health products during public health emergencies. Approved vaccines under this include Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinopharm and Sinovac.

Insanity.

Having just come back from Belgium, Amsterdam and Copenhagen it's great seeing a video pointing out the differences and how it all works.

Also, very excited that Belgium is investing in massive "biking highways" (as a result of many cities going car-free in a few years): big investments in clear, wide cycling lanes and making. We'll hopefully be more like the Netherlands (which, with the massive amount of e-bikes is really needed).

(Source)

Video from 2018. Since then, we've seen the riots (revolution?) in HKG. Suddenly, the HDBs in Singapore make a lot more sense, and we should credit the SG Housing Board for their solution (sure, HDBs are not perfect, but compared to those cages...).

I was playing around with the idea to up the marketing and social media stuff for Shan (WFH is taking its toll -- I was bored, always doing the same, saw Shan struggle to do both creative and marketing work, and I had plenty of brainjuice left -- and in all fairness I was probably getting a bit frustrated and going "why don't you just ...". So yeah, decided to actually help out and experiment some).

Since medio April I have been running most of the social media accounts, having content scheduled using Hootsuite, increasing followers, etc.

I did some of this before, but it was mostly some random paid advertisement without a real strategy that didn't lead to anything very substantial. The ROI wasn't really there and was mostly just a gamble -- so far we've had more leads from organic growth than from paid ads on Google or Facebook/Instagram. Soooooo something must be wrong there...?!

Another thing that was missing to make her more prominent as SME (subject matter expert) was to have all the knowledge and experience she has more publicly available; ie give some away for free (and help those that wouldn't hire the services anyway), and then provide enough of a teaser to reel in customers that want more and have budget. The blog will also hold some reviews, plug some contractors and suppliers (create a bit of a win-win situation and platform), etc.

So yeah -- I suddenly had this epiphany to set up a blog (using Medium -- and I may have been late to the party, but I've been watching and wanted to get to know more about the platform -- and so far Medium actually has quite some interesting articles).

Got some interviews going with clients, show casing some projects (the portfolio is nice, but doesn't have a lot of written content) have some posts about what's going on in Shan's mind (those are the ones that take time as Shan needs to sit down and actually give me content) and even wrote about our house. :)

So let's see how that works out -- but so far it's been worth it.

They promised us all our cat pictures (they took more pictures of the cats than us)... Still waiting. :(

This payment card works on all transport modes. Bus. MRT (metro). No matter who operates it.

Sadly it doesn’t work on taxis though.

Nonetheless. With a bunch of different players (SMRT, SBS, any other? But the same is true for London – and they have more players on the market) they have one simple unified payment system (and prices are the same no matter who is operating).

Why is this not possible in Belgium? Don’t get me started on MOBIB.  “In order to travel validly on the networks of the various operators, you will need to store a valid transport tickets on your MOBIB card for each of the mobility operators you intend to travel with.” That’s a joke.

I haven’t posted much since arriving here… That’s because life here is pretty straightforward and nothing is complicated.

The post office.

In Belgium buying stamps is usually ??????*** and, like in Singapore, I end up going to the post office and asking them to weigh it and stamp it.

However, unlike Belgium* (and most of Europe?) they have these handy machines.

You pick the country you're mailing, it weighs the damn thing, you pay, and it prints the stamp. Doesn't get any easier.

I'm not sure if there's just an iPad running in there (UI reminds me of iOS somewhat)... But... It just works, it's simple, it only took me 30 seconds (if I didn't take all those pictures at least). <3

In terms of payment I don't remember if they accepted cash. But card-wise is was NETS only (so foreigners are out of luck).

**) One of the few things in Seoul that was available in English too. And accepted credit cards.

***) Only in Dutch or French. Expat? Fuck you.

Stats here – click on top users: Yeri (#13 atm).

Flying SIN to BRU with Lufthansa.

BRU to MAD with Brussels Airlines (which I guess is now Lufthansa too) from 20/10 till 23/10.

BRU to BCN with Brussels Airlines from 27/10 till 31/10.

Leaving the 5th November to SIN again with Lufthansa and returning with Swiss (their brand new b777!) on July 6th.

Also changed blog timezone to Singapore.

1. DBS: wanted utility bill < 3 months old of my residence in Belgium (which I didn't have -- most of the stuff is on my company's name). Payslips and other bank documents didn't count. Also 2hrs queue. -- (at this point I signed a tenancy agreement and had my own address/place/crib in Singapore) --
2. UOB: Required a physical Singpass (which you only get after you started working and your employer submitted your IPA).
3. Citi: IPA was enough, but tenancy agreement wasn't enough; they need the "stamp duty" proof. Also doesn't provide NETS. Getting a online banking token has to be "requested", and getting cards (and thus access) takes ~2 weeks
4. Went back to DBS with my tenancy agreement and IPA: opened bank account, got access to online banking, everything up and running in about 30 minutes. Downside of DBS Android app: seems to drain battery (requesting GPS high accuracy all the time for some reason; uninstalled for now as I'm not in Singapore until end of this month). Bank cards (did I mention I received them directly?) comes with Visa payWave. It's a Platinum (not sure why I received this -- seems standard as they didn't ask -- don't think they noticed my other credit cards were Platinum too) Visa debet card.

With FlatTurtle we have people working for us via a Singaporean company, outsourcing. So I already transfer money every month to Singapore with BNP Paribas Fortis (~€40 fee), but for my rent deposit I wanted to try something new: enter TranserWise. Works really well and fast, and needless to say, the fees are much lower (more than half).

While I’m at it, I’m also using a Revolut credit card when abroad and not dealing with euro’s. I use this card all the time when travelling (now that I have a local card in SG I won’t need it in SG anymore, obviously).

Lufthansa BRU => FRA => SIN.

Back in Belgium in October for a bit though.

Auf wiedersehen for now. Be good Belgium.

Flying Turkish BRU to IST (A321), and Singapore Airlines (SQ/SIA; B772) IST to SIN. #Woohoo.

Let’s see if it’s really world’s best airline*. :)

Having a quick citytrip to Hong Kong (not Cathay this time, but Scoot (B789 Dreamliner) & Jetstar (A320)) and then returning in a little over two weeks just before Pukkelpop with Turkish (A333 & A332), together with Leanne.

• apparently Qatar surpassed SIA? Always heard SIA was best... :o

Edit: wrote this pre-terrorist attack and pre-coup… Quite less excited now.

Bru => Mumbai => Singapore => Kuala Lumpur & back again.

Also flying Air Asia… So let’s hope there’s no storm -.-)

You can find me at The Working Capitol in Singapore.