It's a Singaporean's nightmare...........

That's my guess at least, assuming that indeed, eating and shopping are the national's past time activities.

By the 3rd week of living in this delightful country, I experienced some unusual stomach discomfort much to my puzzlement. After suffering for more than 15 days, I finally called the quits on sucking it up and waiting for the pain to go away when one fine night, the pain became so bad I could pass out. After visiting the 24 hour medical centre, I'm blessed with Famstidine (pill) and Mylanta, which looks like white, thick.....substance, which reminds me distinctively of something I won't mention here.

Yum. That's not all. Thanks to this bout of gastro-something, I could consider avoiding certain things. After looking up on the Internet, I found some things to avoid:

"Alcohol, citrus fruits, chocolate, mint, tomatoes, raw onions, garlic, black pepper, chili, vinegar, all fatty foods, spicy foods, cloves, nutmeg, coffee, tea, caffeine, carbonated drinks"

Isn't that like,.....every type of food in Singapore?

Also, since all these delightful things occurred in the middle of the night....I quickly learnt that taxi cab fares and medical consultation fees tend to be a little more expensive at this unique timeframe (midnight - morning). I easily parted from ~ $S100 within an hour of my midnight journey to the medical centre.

Ouch, there goes part of my Christmas shopping budget.

.....

But in hindsight, I'm quite grateful for the fact that I had the financial means and facilities to get the help I wanted at the most unlikely time. I'm finding some humor in how long that do-not-eat list and how minty that white, thick....substance is. This stinks but it could have been worse, really.

It also makes me thankful for the good health that I've taken for granted all this time. Imagine how difficult it is to constantly worry about what you eat and to always suffer pain after every single meal!

Welcome to Singapore, Mave!