CC and I hit up our mum for her car keys this morning and drove to the U.K. visa application office, which is to say that CC navigated and I drove, while Mowmy waved us off, saying: “Take Marymount straight, bear left to Braddell Road, get on the CTE in the direction of Jurong AYE.” What? What?!
All my driving experience has been on the other side of the street on the other side of the world. I can figure out how to get just about anywhere in Singapore on the public transportation system, but I have driven in this city maybe once. This one!-time!-only! affair took place sometime back in 1996 or 1997. I’d just gotten my driver’s license in America, and was back for the school holidays. I thought I’d take the car for a whirl round the neighborhood—really, just down the street and back. My mum came along, gripping the passenger-side door while I tried to re-orient myself to driving on the left side of the street. Every time I hugged the curb, she twitched. I never drove in Singapore again, but I am very good at swiping my transit card through the turnstiles.
This morning, the dual-track running commentary in Mowmy’s Renault was like so: “Wait, AYE? What? There is no sign for the AYE. It says CTE, PIE, BKE. Are we going north? No, wait, do we want to go to Bukit Timah? Eh? Exit on the left? Should we turn ar— oh, no, never mind. Eh, AYE! Wait, turn here? Um, um, sorry Mr. Lorry Man, I’m just going to edge my way in here, thank you thank you. Oh! We are going into the tunnel, yay!” When we got to the office on Robinson Road, CC said: “I can unclench my shoulders now.”
Two girls with their mother’s car and a full tank of petrol means we could have packed our passports and headed for Bangkok, but, instead, after the visa papers were handed in, we headed back to our neighborhood mall to guzzle sugary ice-blended coffee drinks and buy gem biscuits and laugh at plastic Japanese products.
There is a shop of wonderment on the top floor of Bishan Junction 8. Mu-Ee is a thing shop, a thing shop of wonderment, and these days everything seems to be ten percent off. Are you familiar with the thing shops of Singapore? Mu-Ee sells—among, like, eight thousand other things—Astroboy watches, packaging tape printed with grinning cartoon tigers, apple-print wallets, bunny-print wallets, and all kinds of knick-knacks and geegaws to hang off of your cellphone—an enamel Totoro, a cluster of multicolored baubles, a figurine that is at once a girl and a bell. If it were possible to hang a pork loin off of your cellphone, Mu-Ee would probably sell it.
The crowning glory of Mu-Ee is a canvas tote that is printed, front and center, with a drawing of a pig. Above the pig, large, cursive lettering reads: Spoony Spoon Spoon. Above this, there is a drawing of a cow and a compass point. The cow is maybe a third of the size of the pig—Spoony Spoon Spoon—and is accompanied by smaller cursive lettering that reads: the cow is further north.
You see what I mean? The world is full of amazing things.
All my driving experience has been on the other side of the street on the other side of the world. I can figure out how to get just about anywhere in Singapore on the public transportation system, but I have driven in this city maybe once. This one!-time!-only! affair took place sometime back in 1996 or 1997. I’d just gotten my driver’s license in America, and was back for the school holidays. I thought I’d take the car for a whirl round the neighborhood—really, just down the street and back. My mum came along, gripping the passenger-side door while I tried to re-orient myself to driving on the left side of the street. Every time I hugged the curb, she twitched. I never drove in Singapore again, but I am very good at swiping my transit card through the turnstiles.
This morning, the dual-track running commentary in Mowmy’s Renault was like so: “Wait, AYE? What? There is no sign for the AYE. It says CTE, PIE, BKE. Are we going north? No, wait, do we want to go to Bukit Timah? Eh? Exit on the left? Should we turn ar— oh, no, never mind. Eh, AYE! Wait, turn here? Um, um, sorry Mr. Lorry Man, I’m just going to edge my way in here, thank you thank you. Oh! We are going into the tunnel, yay!” When we got to the office on Robinson Road, CC said: “I can unclench my shoulders now.”
Two girls with their mother’s car and a full tank of petrol means we could have packed our passports and headed for Bangkok, but, instead, after the visa papers were handed in, we headed back to our neighborhood mall to guzzle sugary ice-blended coffee drinks and buy gem biscuits and laugh at plastic Japanese products.
There is a shop of wonderment on the top floor of Bishan Junction 8. Mu-Ee is a thing shop, a thing shop of wonderment, and these days everything seems to be ten percent off. Are you familiar with the thing shops of Singapore? Mu-Ee sells—among, like, eight thousand other things—Astroboy watches, packaging tape printed with grinning cartoon tigers, apple-print wallets, bunny-print wallets, and all kinds of knick-knacks and geegaws to hang off of your cellphone—an enamel Totoro, a cluster of multicolored baubles, a figurine that is at once a girl and a bell. If it were possible to hang a pork loin off of your cellphone, Mu-Ee would probably sell it.
The crowning glory of Mu-Ee is a canvas tote that is printed, front and center, with a drawing of a pig. Above the pig, large, cursive lettering reads: Spoony Spoon Spoon. Above this, there is a drawing of a cow and a compass point. The cow is maybe a third of the size of the pig—Spoony Spoon Spoon—and is accompanied by smaller cursive lettering that reads: the cow is further north.
You see what I mean? The world is full of amazing things.
Labels: Travel: Singapore
posted by stellou at 8:11 PM
5 Comments:
Mu-Ee is great! My best friend and I discovered it like five years ago and keep going back to buy nonsense. (There is no other word to describe the range of products they carry. And I mean 'nonsense' as a compliment.)
Got the loyalty card yet?
Hallo! Missy! I have just discovered that you are here in Singapore! Can you call me please!
tym: Why you come and taunt me with this loyalty card??? I wantch, I wantch, how can I do?
Oooh I must see this shop the next time I'm in Singapore. Any similar shops in town or Holland Village?
I have this pencil case with a picture of a pink poodle on it. The text reads 'The painting was hanging in her room but now it belongs to the nation'. I just had to have it.
tscd: I congratulate you on your poodle pencil case. And I encourage you in your quest for more of the same: I know of one more branch of Mu-Ee, and it's in Plaza Singapura.
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