Pinoy in Singapore

I must say Mr. Tsiken and I are very lucky to have found the unit we’re renting now. At the time we were looking for a place to stay, the demand for places to stay was so high they get snatched up in a day. So even though the usual procedure when going through an agent was to look at the different places your agent has prepared for you, there was really no other place available but the one where we live now.

There’s only 2 of us and the unit was a 3 bedroom 1700sq ft condo. It was a big old unit and it was above the budget we had set for rent but we didn’t really have a choice so we took it. At first our unit was so dirty, it seemed like the owner used it as a warehouse to stack all his unwanted stuff. It was probably a good thing for us because we got to haggle for a lower rent. But after months of settling in, we managed to make it homey and really beautiful. (Even the owner was surprised when he saw how good the unit looked.) This year the rent for the same unit in our building is going for about $3600 according to Google search – double the rent we’re paying now.

We’ve really come to love our unit and I don’t even want to think about what will happen when our rental contract ends this year. One of the things I love about is that unlike the newer condos where there are so many units in a floor, ours has only 4 per floor so it’s pretty private. The building’s management is pretty strict and very adamant about keeping the order within the property which is really fine by me. I mostly prefer peace and quiet and order so it works in my favor. Every now and then they send circulars to remind residents of how to behave and stuff. I’ve come to look forward to reading those circulars because even though I seriously take note of what they want to say, I find the way they are written funny, amusing and scary all at the same time. Scary because I never want to be referred to in that circular so as long as I’m not, It’s pretty amusing.

There’s been a previous circular stating that owners are not allowed to convert their units into foreign dormitories. Unfortunately, some unit owners still converted their units to dormitories stuffing about 10 -15 people inside a single unit.

Here’s an excerpt from the Circular:

Circular #xxx – Abuse of Common Facilities

Recently, the Security has caught a number of foreigners (Vietnamese & Nepalese (no mention of Filipinos! whew!) from both a #09 unit and Chinese nationals, from a townhouse) red-handed in abusing various common facilities and breaking house regulations: …

…Those foreigners (because only foreigners do it) were obviously not familiar with regulated “condo culture” (taray!) and the need to respect the feelings and presence of other residents in the vicinity…

…The peace and living standards within the Estate cannot be sacrificed to accommodate the presence of such “ethically-poor” foreigners (next time a local refers to me as a foreigner I’m gonna have to read between the line)…

Too bad I’ve thrown away the circular on using the swimming pool. It was more intense. The management is really blunt and straight forward and not very diplomatic.

But ultimately, they do have a point.

One of Singapore’s charm is how orderly and right everything is. And to keep the order you have to respect the rules – a concept that’s not familiar back in the Philippines. Everyone wants change and order but hardly anyone really respects the rules. Hanggang mailulusot ilulusot. I myself is guilty of it occasionally.