masak gasak day!

whenever overseas and being asked who and what i am (includes the where), i'm inclined to introduce myself as singaporean first and then malay second. i don't get sentimental listening to majulah singapura now but i can name more or less 80% of the so called celebrities who sing ‘this is home’?? on local tv! dick lee, rahimah rahim, sheikh haikal and Jacinta! :p well, this is a born and bred sillypore gal/guy *teeeheehee* mah~

but recently after gail asked me what is singapore’s national food/local food (ROJAK!? Chillicrab!!) and numerous other encounters with taxi drivers asking where i am from got me to rethink how i should introduce myself. Have i started to be more ‘others’ than just Singaporean? We do have an identity crisis amongst us actually ehk? What truly is being Singaporean when even our local patois of singlish is quite common heard in Malaysia? Where there they call it manglish!

This is where the sitcom at the loft gets interesting because the guys round up as a mix of one plus whatever. We have a malay gal who thinks she’s Spanish but actually Indonesian Chinese. Cue in her boyfriend who is Australian but speaks singlaish/manglish perfectly! And his Italian is perfecto as well. Apprenlty where he grew up in perth has much entrenched intalian influence. The Indonesian speaks like a true blue American and a smattering of german to boot besides slipping into pitch perfect street bahasa when we trade recipes. I can safely say the only Gail sounds Filipino still and actually slipped into Filipino while we watched American idol last week. He forgot we were NON Filipinos, yeaps...go figure.

Besides rethinking my intros, i’m less attached to anything or anyone now. I want to feel anchored and have sense of belonging but i trail at nothing. I looked around at my belongings spread across the room and to think years have passed and i’m still a hermit crab or sorts. Perhaps, the only thing of any permanence is just my blood ties to the 3 terrors where i’d always be mama ehk? Will it be so bad not to ever own a house? A car? dare i say even think about being married so i could ‘belong to someone’??? should we separate the intangibles from the desires of a bred materialist to understand who we are?

Wokay! Times up~...going home to cook lemak cili padi chicken and be merry :p wonder what the guys at home been up to.

Stay sane,
j.amyemeelea

ps: what makes me...moi?