For all you bubble tea lovers out there, here are 4 popular bubble tea recipes that you can try out at home with your family over the long weekend. 

Classic Milk Tea 

Originating from Taiwan, this OG bubble tea flavour has always been a crowd favourite and is found in every bubble tea store across the island. The Classic Milk Tea served at stores is usually too sweet, making the homemade option great for Gen Xers who are looking to reduce their sugar intake. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup freshly brewed Jasmine / Black Tea 
• 2 tbsp ready made tapioca pearls 
• Sugar syrup 
• ½ cup whole mIlk

Step 1: Soak the tapioca pearls according to the package instructions. Once fully reconstituted and softened, drain.

Step 2: Let the freshly brewed Jasmine / Black Tea cool in the refrigerator until completely chilled. 

Step 3: Scoop 2 tbsp of tapioca pearls and place them at the bottom of the cup. Use a cocktail shaker to shake together the ice, milk, and tea, before pouring the contents into your cup. 

Step 4: Finally, pour in the sugar syrup till you’ve reached your desired level of sweetness.

Brown Sugar Pearl Milk 

When it comes to bubble tea, the Brown Sugar Pearl Milk is all the rage. Made from purely fresh milk with rich brown sugar boiled to a caramelised finish and no tea, this drink doesn’t contain any caffeine. Brown Sugar Milk Tea has a distinct look, and that comes from the trickling of the caramelized brown sugar around the sides of the cup. The drink contains only 3 ingredients so you can get maximum satisfaction with minimal effort.

Ingredients:  

• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 tbsp ready made tapioca pearls 
• Brown sugar

Step 1: Soak the tapioca pearls according to the package instructions. Once fully reconstituted and softened, drain.

Step 2: Mix 2 tbsp of brown sugar with water and heat to a boil until the mixture forms a thick brown sugar syrup.

Step 3: Combine the sugar syrup and the tapioca pearls and let it sit for 30 minutes. 

Step 4: Scoop 2 tbsp of brown sugar tapioca pearls into a tall glass. Tip the glass sideways and swirl the syrup around the insides of the glass to form the iconic “tiger stripes”.

Step 5: Add in ice, pour in cold milk and serve. 

Cheese Tea

The Cheese Tea series rose to popularity in Singapore when it was introduced by China’s most popular bubble tea brand HEYTEA喜茶. Since then, many other bubble tea stores have followed suit, adopting cheese foam as a topping in their range of bubble tea drinks. While this recipe requires a little more mixing, the resulting blend of cheese foam and iced fruit tea is undeniably irresistible, especially on a hot sunny day. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of fruit tea of your choice 
• 2 tbsp ready made tapioca pearls (optional) 
• 2 tbsp cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk 
•  ½ cup whipping cream
• A pinch of salt 

Step 1: Add cream cheese, condensed milk and whipping cream, mix well until the mixture thickens. 

Step 2: Season the mixture with a pinch of salt

Step 3: (Optional) Add 2 tbsp of ready made tapioca pearls into the cup.

Step 4:  Fill the cup with ice and the fruit tea of your choice.

Step 5: Top your iced fruit tea off with the freshly mixed cheese topping.

Passionfruit Green Tea with Nata de Coco

A refreshing spin on the original bubble tea we are so familiar with, fruit teas are perfect for sunny Singapore. There are countless varieties and combinations of fruit teas that you can make, depending on what you like. My personal favourite would be the Passionfruit Green Tea, topped with Nata de Coco for that extra texture. 

Ingredients: 

• ½ cup Green Tea leaves 
• 2 whole Passionfruit 
• 2 tbsp fresh Nata de Coco
• Sugar syrup

Step 1: Infuse Green tea leaves in boiled water for about 5 minutes. Strain the tea and place into the fridge to cool.

Step 2: Cut the passion fruits into two and separate seeds from pulp with a sieve.

Step 3: ​​Mix the passion fruit pulp with the cooled green tea, add sugar syrup to sweeten and ice cubes to serve cold.

Step 4: Top off your Passionfruit Green Tea drink with Nata de Coco.

Too Cool for the Summer

Homemade bubble tea gives you the flexibility of customising your own drink, whether it’s reducing sugar or adding more chewy pearls. This long weekend, beat the heat and unleash your inner tearista! 

The scheme brings children on exciting animal buddies to teach them how daily small actions can help save the wold.

The missions can be completed at the zoo, at home, in the heartlands and in locations all around the island.

In fact from now till end December, there is a pretty dope pop up – an ‘outpost’- at Paya Lebar Quarter that has fun activities and photo opportunities with the animal buddies like Khansa the Orangutan.

As the Ranger Buddies complete their missions on the app, they can receive reward pins and badges.

The app is completely free. Simply register for an account at rangerbuddies.com and you can immediate get started with the first mission and help Khansa the Orangutan fight deforestation. Here’s a sneak peek at the first mission!

P.S If you like the vest and pin badges you’ve seen – they’re giving away 5 sets of the Ranger Buddy Kit below, giveaway ends 18 Nov.

Visit rangerbuddies.com for more information to sign up and start taking part in the missions, and follow Ranger Buddies on Facebook, Instagram and on Youtube for more updates and exciting missions.

I chose that fate once, feeling really chuffed.

I was 39 then, and licking my wounds from a 12-year relationship that largely thrived on my need to prove I made the right choice. 

When the red mist cleared and the tears dried up, I experienced an unfamiliar kind of euphoria: being freed from a prison of my own making. 

Suddenly, I was the boss of me. I bought my first home, took solo trips, answered to no one (read: no longer justified my whereabouts at 2am).

But I guess Cupid must have LOL-ed at my naivete. 

A year later, out of the blue, I met someone. We are now middle-aged parents with a toddler, and will be married for five years come August. 

Not everyone treads the same boards though.  By circumstance, or choice.

Based on figures by the Singapore Department of Statistics, the number of singles in Singapore was over 700,000 between 1983 and 2002. It rose to over 800,000 from 2003 to 2005, before climbing to the 900,000 and up bracket in 2006. 

In 2010, it crossed the million mark, landing at a grand total of 1,058,900 as of 2019. Of this number, 13.4 per cent are aged 45 and up.

Among them are Suzanne Lim, 47,  and Aaron Goh, 51.

SHE SAYS

Some people are solo by choice. I guess you can say I’m one of them. 

If I were more hung up about it, I’d bother with going on dating apps and websites. But frankly, I can’t be arsed. 

And not because I didn’t give things a go.

On a lark, a friend had set up a Tinder account for me a few years ago. I checked out my options. Wah piang, they were tremendously slim! Even he had to admit it.  

Over the years, I’ve had my fair share of dates and relationships. But I can’t say it was specifically in search of The One.

I grew up with society’s notion that I would one day be married with kids.

How could one not? 

But I have never heard my biological clock ticking, so I was in no hurry to get hitched and start a family. I didn’t look at friends with kids and think to myself “I need that in my life, pronto”.

Seeing some of their marriages go horribly pear-shaped validates my decision to go solo.  Some of my friends’ exes have made their lives a misery.

Then there’s the constant worrying over the kids, as a parent. 

I’m quite glad I don’t have to deal with schooling/streaming/Math modelling/are they hanging out with the wrong crowd/spending too much time online/teenage angst.

Had I gotten married, I think my life would be exactly like that of those tired and frazzled parents I know and see… The horror, the horror!

It’s just as well that I never had a “life plan” – married by 30, first kid by 32 , and such –  which I know some women do. 

I am more about going with the flow. There was no rush to get a box ticked.  

I’ve never come close to walking down the aisle either. There was one guy whom I thought I might take that leap with. But eventually, the relationship ended because we weren’t able to sustain it long distance.

I’d rather enjoy good meals, go to concerts and the theatre, travel (unfortch, COVID-19 has put the kibbutz on that), and play mahjong. I’m lucky I have an inner circle of friends to enjoy all that with.  

Having people on the same wavelength, whose opinions and advice I trust, whom I’m able to speak freely to and disagree with, and still want to have dinner and hang out afterwards – that’s a godsend. 

We call ourselves “The Tribe” – we’ve had meetings about new persons (one guy I was dating did not fare well with the rest, and did not last long), and taken annual tribal holidays (pre- COVID-19). We share professional advice, home improvement tips, and such.

So my social life is as busy as I like it to be. Some weekends are packed, some are quiet.

I welcome that. There is no longer the need to be out every night or weekend, which admittedly was something I did in my 20s and early to mid-30s. 

Being solo provides freedom and solitude of the best kind.  But first, you have to enjoy your own company. I know people who can’t even contemplate eating alone in a restaurant!

I love that I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, and be answerable to no one for my decisions.

I never feel lonely. I have family, friends, my dog, the Internet and Netflix. That’s plenty of company! 

And while I joke about how it’d be nice to have a man pay for my jewellery, it’s satisfying to know everything is bought with my own dime which I worked hard and earned. 

The self-sufficiency is what I’m proud of; for a single woman, that is empowering. 

Do I see myself staying solo for the rest of my life? Oh yeah. 

Of course, there’s the perennial issue of who will look after me when I get old.

Among friends, we’ve actually talked about moving closer to one another as we get older, perhaps even consider moving in together and setting up our own little retirement village. 

We make sure we’re all looking out for one another. You know, leave a set of spare keys with someone so if she doesn’t hear from me in 24 hours, she lets herself in to check if I’m still alive. No one wants to be the foul odour coming out from the neighbour’s flat!

I am hopeful that the support for seniors in the future will be that much more advanced, that Singapore will actually have proper assisted living facilities. The reality is the future will have lots of people like me without children to rely on. 

Financially, I think most of us are savvy enough to plan  how we’ll support ourselves in the future. It’s more about the social support network. 

I’m working on becoming better friends with my friends’ kids so one of them can be my power of attorney!

HE SAYS

I am currently solo by choice. 

When I was  in my 20s, it was not really what I had planned. I had wanted to get married and settle down in California, where I had spent more than half my life. A life in Asia or Singapore was not on the cards.

Then, as I got older, life and family commitments got in the way. 

I made the switch from the media industry to the education management industry in my mid-30s, and decided to try and rebuild my career. 

A romantic relationship didn’t climb high on my list of priorities. I did not date too regularly as I was – and still am – very selective. 

Besides, it was also very difficult being an Asian and dating in California, where I spent more than half my life. Despite all my years spent there and how my friends considered me “local”, it was not a breeze. 

The person I was interested in either did not feel it was mutual, or just wanted to be friends. 

So you may be surprised to know I almost walked down the aisle. TWICE.

The first time, I had returned to Singapore as my family wanted me to keep my Singapore citizenship. She and I maintained a long distance relationship for a while, but we were young and it was very challenging. Things fizzled out.

The second time, she and I eventually felt we were better off as friends. We still are, to this day. 

My approach to relationships remains status quo. If it happens, it happens. It has to be with the right person.  

I grew up with society’s notion that I would one day be married with kids. So here’s another revelation that may shock you: I actually want kids. 

But at my age, not the marriage part.

If I find a life partner, excellent. If I can adopt or somehow have some kids of my own, excellent.  

Either way, I very seldom, and randomly, go on dates. I am happy to just meet up with a few good friends, or spend time by myself.

That is, if I do have some time to spare. Unfortunately, I spend a lot of – sometimes, I know it is too much – time at work or dealing with work. I need to have better work-life balance.

With the current pandemic, I only plan to go out about once or twice a week at the max. I have aged parents, so I am also very careful about where I go. 

If I do go out, it is usually with my inner circle of friends. We don’t see each other all the time, but the chat messages go on daily.

As I get older, I prefer to have 15 to 20 friends whom I hope I can call on in times of need, with at least four or five who can come to my “rescue”. 

I do feel lonely sometimes.  I think everyone will always feel lonely at some point or other. 

But there is something very beautiful about the solitude singledom brings. And as I get older, I have definitely become more set in my ways. 

I can decide to do whatever I want, or eat wherever I want without someone possibly disagreeing with my choice.

And living on my own means I have the choice to decorate however I prefer.

Still, as with most single persons, there are days when I wish I had a partner to celebrate life’s simple pleasures. Such as a nice bottle of wine or weekend getaways (when we can travel!). 

I enjoy and really miss going on travels. Being single means I can pack and go whenever I want – except when work and family commitments come into the equation.

Now and again, I also miss the part of my life that is still back in California. I try to keep in contact with friends there, in the hope that I will see them again soon. 

Being single, to me, is not a form of empowerment. It is more a lifestyle choice.

I can’t speak for others but to me, there is no stigma to that status. I think after a certain age, people don’t care. 

I live alone, and am happy to just relax and have a glass of wine or whiskey after a long day at work. That’s as exciting as it gets!

Do I see myself staying solo for the rest of my life? If I find someone whom I feel can be my life partner, awesome. If not, c’est la vie.

Would I give up the solo life if I happen to meet The One? Never say never. 

After all, we never thought a random virus originating in China would end up leading to a global pandemic, did we?

It began with a concert

The birth of Singapop is a little hazy. But many will point to October 1961, as the start of it. That was when Cliff Richard and The Shadows, then the biggest pop stars in the UK, performed at Happy World, playing the loudest rock and roll music we had ever heard. 

Cliff’s concert sparked a rock and roll revolution in the Lion City. Everyone wanted to start their own band after that. 

Up till that point, Singapore’s pop scene was dominated by crooners and vocal groups like Pat Boone, The Kingston Trio or The Platters and the groups here emulated that sound well. 

The Sundowners, backed by the band The Tornadoes, were one of the first to release a record, “Malaysia Wonderful” in 1963. A ballad about how nice life was here, it possibly had more impact on nation-building than any propaganda the newly formed Federation of Malaysia (of which Singapore was a member) could possibly have provided. 

The biggest group in those early years was undoubtedly The Crescendos. Comprising school friends Raymond Ho, John Chee and Leslie Chia, they’d been performing as a trio, but decided to add a female singer to boost their sound. Enter Susan Lim, arguably Singapore’s first teen idol. This new line-up was offered a recording contract with international label Philips. 

Their debut single, a cover of Connie Francis’ Mr Twister, shot up the charts and outsold the original here. It was unheard of at the time. Over the next four years, they scored hit after hit with rocked up versions of evergreen tunes like In The Good Old Summertime, Besame Mucho and Bengawan Solo. Susan could lilt like the best torch song singer, and belt like a true rock ‘n’ roller.

Their success prompted the record labels to seek more local artists to record – and they weren’t hard to find: The Trailers, The Checkmates, Naomi and the Boys, The Vampires, Wilson David, The Silver Strings, Sonny Bala and the Moonglows, Kartina Dahari, The Dukes, The Cyclones, Veronica Young, Rita Chao, Vernon Cornelius, The Thunderbirds, Ahmad Jais, Julie Sudiro, The Swallows… you name it.

Many of the bands here also got a chance to support international pop stars such as The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Walker Brothers and Helen Sharpiro when they performed in Singapore. 

But one band stood above the rest: The Quests. Named after the Queenstown Secondary Technical School magazine (although only two of the members were actually from that school), these self-taught musicians had already made waves – even performing on TV – by the time they were signed to EMI Records in 1964.

The Quests shot to No 1 with “Shanty”, an instrumental number in the vein of The Shadows, composed by bassist Henry Chua. It was backed with Gallopin’, written by guitarist Reggie Verghese, who would later be known as Singapore’s first true guitar hero. It was the first local original single to top the Singapore charts, ousting The Beatles. 

They had fans in Singapore, Malaysia and as far away as Australia. Everywhere they went, “there were groupies,” Henry Chua said. “At one tour, I went back to the hotel after the concert to find my things were gone!” 

The Quests became the first local band to release an album (Questing) and also backed other singers, most notably Rita Chao and Sakura, two bright stars who sang in English and Chinese. “I think EMI thought if we put the Quests’ name on the records, it will sell,” said Henry. “So it was Rita and the Quests, Sakura and the Quests, and so on.”

The Quests themselves were no slouches in language diversity, releasing a record of Malay covers of Western songs, as well as instrumental versions of Chinese and Malay songs.

As the Sixties rolled on, the music by local bands started reflecting the harder rock sounds of the era, with bands like Cells Unlimited, The Straydogs, Pest Infested, Fried Ice and others coming to the fore. 

But it wasn’t always swingin’. Payments for bands was often miniscule. Despite being one of the top bands, when the Crescendos tallied up their annual earnings, they realised they only made a few hundred dollars (split four ways) on record sales alone. 

But as Singapore went full-steam into nation-building, and with the departure of the British armed forces, who made up a fair bulk of the audience for local bands, it seemed like fewer and fewer people had time for music. 

That ‘70s Shutdown

When the 1970s rolled around, the golden age of Singapore pop was starting to lose its sheen. Many of the bands that made a splash just a few years earlier broke as members went into other areas of the entertainment industry, or left the music industry altogether. 

There was rock and roll tragedy too. Susan Lim of The Crescendos, who had left the band to pursue a university degree went missing in 1970, presumed dead, after she went on a beach holiday to Terengganu with her fiancé and some of his friends and relatives. While there, she was swept away by strong waves. Her body was never found. She was only 22.

Back in Singapore, rock and roll faced the first government action. Thanks to perceived associations with sex and drugs – as well as rising gangsterism – Sunday afternoon tea dances, where youths would patronise clubs to listen to live music and dance, were banned, with the authorities saying that they were “bad for the character of teenagers”. 

Then, long hair on men – the style of choice for rockers back then – was also banned, because of its perceived association with “hippism, yellow culture and a decadent lifestyle”. 

Next, entertainment taxes for live bands in nightclubs and restaurants were increased, making it difficult to sustain live music. When the police rounded up 32 local and foreign pop musicians on suspicion of supplying drugs to teenage schoolgirls at a nightclub; the writing was on the wall. Nightclubs along Orchard Road came under surveillance and live performances at these nightspots were eventually banned. 

“We were literally locked out of the club,” Horace Hutapea of The Flybaits told the Today newspaper. “All our instruments and equipment were inside and we couldn’t get them out.”

“I made music when long hair and rock music was banned and … if you played guitar, you were a drug addict, that was what I grew up with,” said Dick Lee. “In my career, I played in libraries in tuck shops in schools, wherever I could play. You have to find another way and you have to be smart about it. And you have to be calculative and plan and manoeuvre and scheme.”

Some musicians decided to leave Singapore. Jerry Fernandez and his band, the Neu Faces, went to Europe. They had previous circumvented the long hair rule by shaving their heads, leaving only a queue. While the audiences loved seeing an Asian band play Western pop music, the rigours of the road took its toll on them, as members upped and left without notice. Others like Sweet Charity, M Nasir and the Flybaits pivoted to the Malaysian market, where they had better success. 

Local musicians also faced the wrath of the censors. Dick Lee had songs from his 1974 debut album, Life Story, banned on Radio Television Singapore, including the now-popular Fried Rice Paradise (for including Singlish); making him possibly the first local artist to get banned. 

“I remember seeing a copy in their music library later. A couple of tracks were visibly scratched to prevent rebellious deejays from playing them,” Dick said. (More than a decade later, Rasa Sayang, from his 1989 album The Mad Chinaman, would run afoul of the censors yet again for its use of Singlish) 

There were other hazards for bands. Unfair management contracts meant that bands had to work daily, with no days off (“you don’t work, you don’t get paid”, said Horace). And record sales were dismal. The lack of proper promotion was also a drawback. Dick’s Life Story sold only a few hundred copies. Ten years earlier, The Crescendos sold 10,000 copies. Local artists would have to wait for few more years before public acceptance could be regained. 

The Eighties and the Moral Panic

In the early 1980s, a local doctor and “lover of serious music”, Dr Tow Siang Hwa, took a public stance against rock music, urging authorities to keep young people away from “violent and destructive” music. It was for “the benefit of the country’s security” and Singapore could not afford “this type of liberalisation”. 

“There is nothing wrong with someone who wants to play or listen to rock music in the privacy in his own room (sic). But when it’s held in open spaces, there is always the potential of group influence on drugs and sex which go hand in hand with rock music”, he was reported as saying in the Straits Times. 

Even in open spaces like parks, “think of the problem in controlling a crowd of about 30,000”, he added. 

It seemed that this lone voice had much influence. A couple of days later, the National Theatre, the home of many pop and rock concerts, banned such shows, citing “wanton vandalism” and “senseless outbursts”, with unruly audiences that required control. 

One group of musicians that weren’t deemed to provoke outbursts were the Chinese singers, who were making their mark with their brand of acoustic folk music, called xinyao (which translates loosely to “Singapore songs”).

Led by the likes of Liang Wenfu, Eric Moo and Billy Koh, xinyao borrowed from the Taiwanese folk song movement and became extremely popular with students, who formed many xinyao groups, such as The Straws, The Merlion and Underpass. Its popularity soon spread beyond the schools and concerts were organised regularly, along with recordings like  the compilation Tomorrow 21, considered by fans to be the landmark album that brought xinyao to the mainstream audience. 

But in 1985, it seemed that the authorities were lightening up when the Singapore Police Force made headlines … for organising a rock concert. 

Called the Police Rock Concert, it was held at the Police Academy, ostensibly to “strengthen the relationship between the police and the youth” wrote Rosli Mohalim, the guitarist of rock band Sweet Charity in his book Perjalanan Muzik Rock. 

The five-hour concert started after sunset with 10 bands on the bill: Eurasia, Hangloose, Speedway, Gypsy, Gingerbread, Rusty Blade, Tokyo Square, Unwanted, Zircon Lounge and Sweet Charity, which hadn’t performed at any rock concerts since the National Theatre closed.

Apart from Sweet Charity, the biggest group in that line-up was Tokyo Square, who had a massive hit that year, with their cover version of Within You’ll Remain. 

This concert paved the way for more shows, including a police “disco night”, the Let’s Rock Concert organised by the National Crime Prevention Council in 1986, and the Swing Singapore street parties in 1988 to 1990. Organised by SAFRA and the then-Singapore Joint Civil Defence Force, a section of Orchard Road was closed with different stages featuring different acts. 

That the authorities were the ones organising these shows didn’t go unnoticed, especially with anti-drugs slogans like “Good times can go on forever if you keep away from drugs” or “Stay off glue – it can lead to a sticky end…” peppering the bands’ sets. 

Then in 1989, Dick Lee released The Mad Chinaman (the title is a reference to the man who stood in front of the tanks during the Tianenman massacre). 

At the time, Dick’s contract with the record label here had almost run its course. So he decided to just have fun and fill it with songs purposely targeted at the Asian audience, like Mustapha, Rasa Sayang and Bengawan Solo. Surprisingly, Dick found a new audience … in Japan, where fans snapped up the album. The controversial ban on Rasa Sayang also brought the album to the public eye. The Mad Chinaman eventually achieved platinum status in Singapore. 

But this was the exception to the norm. The scene still couldn’t match the fervour of the 1960s. That would soon change.

New school rock: the indie years

In the mid-1980s, former journalist brothers Philip and Michael Cheah – along with their friend Stephen Tan – started a fanzine called BIGO. The title is derived from “before I get old” – a line from the 1965 hit, My Generation, by The Who – and it featured alternative music, and championed the local music scene. 

Apart from publishing articles about music, BIGO also helped to organise concerts and released cassettes – and later, CDs – featuring local bands, such as the 1987 No Surrender concert, organised by BIGO, which was recorded live at Anywhere Lounge. 

The concert featured a range of bands, including Corporate Toil, and Chris Ho’s band, Zircon Lounge. “Back then the crowd was tough… you get booed or jeered at if they don’t like you,” Patrick Chng, the singer of The Oddfellows, told Power of Pop. “Corporate Toil were heckled and jeered throughout their set because their experimental electro music didn’t appeal to the audience who were more into guitar-rock. I guested on guitar on Corporate Toil’s last song, a cover of Joy Division’s “Exercise One”. Before I came on, I was thinking to myself, “oh shit” and played with my back to the audience!”

BIGO’s persistence in supporting local music proved vital a band that would be synonymous with the indie music scene of the 1990s: The Oddfellows. 

The Oddfellows – the name is derived from the REM song, Oddfellows Local 151 – began as a trio with Patrick Chng on lead vocals and guitars, Casey Soo (drums) and Stephen Tan (bass). They made their debut appearance at the Arts Festival Fringe concert at the Botanic Gardens in 1988 after being invited by Philip Cheah. They performed four songs: three originals by Patrick and a cover of Knocking on Heaven’s Door. 

Within two years, they had released two demo cassettes of original material – Mild and Phoney Accent – recorded by simply putting a tape recorder in front of the band and finding the sweet spot in a jamming studio before pressing record, said Patrick. BIGO remained a strong supporter of The Oddfellows: When BIGO released the New School Rock compilation CD, The Oddfellows contributed two songs – Lost My Head and Song About Caroline – which were crowd favourites. Their popularity in the fledgling scene soon saw them signed up by BMG. 

In 1991, they released their debut album, Teenage Head, which spawned the catchy single, So Happy. It shot to No.1 on the charts, the first time in years that an original local song topped the charts. 

Throughout the 1990s, The Oddfellows became the highwater mark for local music, and many musicians were inspired to start their own bands. They released two more albums, Carnival (featuring the hit, Unity Song) and Bugs And Hisses, a collection of outtakes, live recordings and demos. The band went on hiatus in 2001, although they would make regular one-off performances in the years that followed. In July 2021, they recently released a “best of” compilation called Up In The Clouds, and their an album of new material, What’s Yours And Mine, is dropping in September. 

Thanks to BIGO’s strong support – through their New School Rock and Singles Review CD series, and organising regular gigs – by 1995, many local artists came to the forefront. And they were as varied as the musical genres: pop (AWOL, Lizard’s Convention, The Sugarflies), folk-rock (Humpback Oak, The Ordinary People), punk/hardcore (Opposition Party, Psycho Sonique, Stompin’ Ground), solo artists (Tanya Chua, Art Fazil), alt-rock (Livonia, Neural Vibe) and funk (Stoned Revivals).

Even Siva Choy, the founder of Sixties blues duo The Cyclones, had success in the 1990s with his comedy album, Why You So Like Dat? Attributed to the Kopi Kat Klan, it was filled with corny skits and songs, and also spawned other copycat comedy acts. 

The bands found a home at The Substation on Armenian Street, which offered their Garden space for concerts, some of which lasted from noon to midnight. Fans would simply turn up to enjoy the music. Other venues soon offered platforms for local bands: MPH, Tower Books, the amphitheatres at Marina Bay and World Trade Centre, clubs like Fire and Sparks, shopping centres and even restaurants! Bands also opened for big-name acts like Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, The Buzzcocks and Fugazi, when they performed here.

The mainstream media jumped on the bandwagon, getting behind local artists, with radio stations like Perfect 10 and Heart 91.3 regularly featuring local bands. Every week, local artists would battle international acts for the top spot on the radio charts. And it wasn’t surprising to see a local artist top the charts: The Oddfellows, Watchmen, Art Fazil, Kick!, Ger, Stoned Revivals, Concave Scream, Tanya Chua, Humpback Oak, Padres and Livonia, among others all had Number Ones.

But all things must pass. In the 1992, the media ran a story about slam-dancing, describing it as “a pandemonium that seems so punishing it might put off a rugby player” and “like a violent street scuffle”. Were people shocked? Yes. Was it banned? Yes. 

The Public Entertainment Licensing Unit gave new rules: all live performances required a permit along with a $2,000 deposit. Gig organisers would lose this deposit and the concert would be stopped if the crowd was “dancing violently”. 

When the Asian Financial Crisis hit in 1997, the market for local music shrank. Pony Canyon, the record label with the biggest roster of local acts, especially under their sub-label, Springroll, was unable to remain viable and folded. Several local bands, some of whom were halfway through recording their albums, were left in the lurch.  

Despite the acclaim and accolades, many bands couldn’t make a living from music. In his book, No Finer Time To Be Alive, about the 1990s music scene, editor Andy Chen noted that bands would be lucky to move 1,000 units in sales. Like the 1960s, many bands called it quits by the time the decade ended. 

Once again, musicians looked overseas for audiences. Perhaps the most successful of these was Kit Chan, who recorded in Chinese and released her debut album, Heartache in 1994. She went on to become a household name in Taiwan and Singapore, where her rendition of Home (written by Dick Lee) at the 1998 National Day Parade was so well-received that it started a tradition of having a local artist perform a song composed specifically for the NDP. 

Tanya Chua followed suit in 1999 with her self-titled Chinese album. She later became a prolific songwriter, penning tracks for artists like A-mei, Stefanie Sun and Faye Wong. Art Fazil too, became known not only as a singer who could perform in Malay and English, but also as a songwriter for several of Malaysia’s biggest pop stars. 

Music in the new millennium 

Arguably, the biggest Singaporean pop star at the beginning of the 2000s, was Stefanie Sun. Like Kit and Tanya, Stefanie cut her teeth in Taiwan, mentored by the Lee brothers, Si Song and Wei Song. Recording in both English and Mandarin, the former NTU grad was industrious, releasing eight albums from 2000 to 2005, and soon became a superstar in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Singapore. 

In the meantime, the English music scene didn’t get going until 2003. The biggest names leading this new wave were Electrico and The Observatory. Electrico comprised singer/guitarist Dave Tan, Desmond Goh (bass), William Lim Jr (drums), Daniel Sassoon (guitar, formerly of Livonia) and Amanda Ling (keyboards).

Their ability to craft catchy pop-rock tunes like I Want You and Love In New Wave both hit the top spot on the radio charts, and they became one of the first bands from Singapore to play at the famous South by Southwest festival in the United States. From 2004 to 2008, Electrico’s fans not only included Singaporeans but also those from Taiwan, Australia, the Philippines and Malaysia, where the band toured.

A couple of years after Daniel and Amanda left (they’d become instrumental rock outfit In Each Hand A Cutlass), Electrico eventually took a break in 2010, resurfacing to do the odd gig. But like The Oddfellows, they have returned with a new EP this year, called Left of the Century. 

Musically, the Observatory took a very different tack. Led by Leslie Low of Humpback Oak, The Obs offered experimental and progressive musical excursions and were often hailed for pushing the boundaries of pop music. They found favour with an audience that were yearning for something more than pop ditties. They also found fans abroad when they played around the globe, including Norway, Germany, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand, where their albums like Dark Folke and August Is The Cruellest, were well received.

Although the band now sports a different line-up, Electrico and The Observatory helped pave the way for a new group of artists, each offering music that spanned the genres. Notable names included Lunarin, Great Spy Experiment, Plainsunset, and B-Quartet. 

As technology improved, many musicians adopted the DIY sensibilities of the 1990s, uploading their music videos to online platforms gaining an army of followers there. Technology also helped musicians overcome the heavy costs of recording music, as home recording programmes like Audacity, GarageBand and Logic Pro, made it inexpensive to put out a track that sounded good.

Even the mainstream media wanted back in: There was Lush, a radio station that targeted indie music and featured several local acts. There was Live ‘n’ Loaded, a TV show featuring live performances from local bands. And several concerts once again featured local bands. 

One of the biggest successes in the 2010s was The Sam Willows. Comprising Benjamin Kheng, his sister Narelle, Sandra Riley Tang and Jonathan Chua, the quartet’s online popularity saw them in good stead as they chalked up YouTube views with singles like Glasshouse, for which they were handpicked to re-record with Grammy-winning English producer Steve Lillywhite.

They were eventually signed to Sony, and in 2015, their single Take Heart, shot to the top of the Singapore iTunes charts in one day, beating out the likes of Taylor Swift and Jessie J. US band Matchbox Twenty’s lead guitarist Kyle Cook even offered congratulations and asked them to “get over here to the States ASAP”.

Although the band took a hiatus in 2019, the individual members have done solo outings, with Benjamin arguably having the biggest presence, thanks to songs like Wicked and Make Do, as well as collaborations with other artists like J Sheon and Gentle Bones. 

The 2010s also saw the emergence of the solo artist. Back in the 1990s, solo acts were few and far in-between, but in the last eight years or so, the solo artist – or duos – have become the mainstay. 

Gentle Bones (the stage name of Joel Tan) one-upped The Sam Willows success in 2016 when he also topped the Singapore iTunes charts with his EP, Geniuses & Thieves, ONE HOUR after it was released. About a week later, he sold out two concerts at The Esplanade. 

This was a boon after a disastrous 2015 where what was supposed to be a 12-day regional concert tour turned into a 3.5-month ordeal in Indonesia, when Gentle Bones, popular American singer-songwriter Kina Grannis and 12 others in the entourage had their passports impounded in Indonesia and were barred from leaving the country because of a problem with their performance permits.

Needless to say, Gentle Bones has bounced back since. He has been collaborating with several others, including Gareth Fernandez, Charlie Lim, Joie Tan and, most recently, Tay Kewei, with whom he made his Mandopop debut on the 2020 single, ‘你還不知道?’ (‘Don’t You Know Yet?’). And he’s not stopping any time soon: 2021 marks the release of his debut album. 

Rapper Shigga Shay, singers Inch Chua and Nathan Hartono, are but three who’ve made an impact in recent years. Shigga started rapping when he was still in school, and made a big splash in 2013 when he released Limpeh, which garnered nearly 1 million views on YouTube, helped by a hilarious music video he produced himself. His latest offering, URight, features South Korean star Jay Park. 

Inch experimented with various music genres and styles, from acoustic to electronica. She was the first solo artist from Singapore to perform at South by Southwest and in 2021, released her first bilingual tracks, Do I Do I and Trees, which part of an EP set for a 2022 release.

Nathan Hartono made a name for himself as an actor and singer, before his major breakthrough as a contestant on Sing! China, the first Singaporean to pass the audition stage. Under his mentor Jay Chou’s tutelage, he advanced to the finals and finished second overall. He has performed in English, Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesia, with his latest EP, Edge Of Days, dropping this year. 

But if there’s one artist who’s really lighting up the scene right now, it’s Jasmine Sokko. Ever since her single 1057, which she wrote and produced, topped Spotify Singapore’s viral charts in 2016, she has gone from strength to strength. Jasmine’s 2019 single Tired now has more than 8 million streams on Spotify and her 2021 single Medusa garnered more than 1 million views on YouTube. Having recorded in Chinese and English, her latest EP, θi = θr (the representation of The Law Of Reflection) and featuring collaborations with Gentle Bones and Hey Violet, has just been released.

With strong support from online platforms such as Indiego, Bakchormeeboy, Bandwagon, NME and Life in Arpeggio all supporting new music from this new breed of musicians – whether it’s synth-pop duos like Little Spiderhunter and Kekko to rock-out bands like The Intimate Friends and Sobs – it seems like the music momentum won’t be letting up anytime soon. 

And if you don’t believe me, just Google “Singapore pop music” and take your pick from the 100,000,000 or so entries. You won’t be disappointed.

With the Festival of Lights around the corner, we’ve come up with a list of six Indian restaurants that serve delectable plant-based food to satisfy your palate this Deepavali.

Raj Restaurant

Raj Restaurant was founded on very strong principles encompassing vegetarianism, the beliefs and practices of vegetarians. Standing by the meaning of the Latin word “vegetus” which is “whole, sound or fresh”, it sources for the most wholesome, sound and the freshest ingredients including healthy cooking oils to create quality Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Indian food, and has become one of the most popular Indian vegetarian restaurants in Singapore. Although it is primarily a vegetarian restaurant, it offers a wide variety of vegan-friendly items that are clearly labelled in the menu, including kebabs, salads, naan, roti, idli, and dosais.

More information: Raj Restaurant

Lagnaa

Describing itself as “a welcome refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city”, Lagnaa is a cosy three-storey Michelin-starred restaurant with a unique concept in which visitors can choose to take off their shoes and sit on the floor to enjoy authentic Indian cuisine the traditional way. With its Michelin recognition, you know the food is top-notch. It has a pretty extensive vegan and vegetarian menu with dishes like Vegan Biryani and Chilli Gobi, including some must-try recommendations from the chef like Vegetable Koorma and Bhindhi.

More information: Lagnaa

Ananda Bhavan

Established in 1924, Ananda Bhavan is the oldest Indian vegetarian restaurant in Singapore that specialises in Southern Indian cuisine. From its humble beginnings in a pre-war building known as Ellison Building, Ananda Bhavan has now expanded with a total of five outlets throughout the country—two outlets in Little India, a 24-hour outlet along Syed Alwi Road, a vibrant outlet at Changi Business Park and its newest outlet opposite Sri Srinivasa Perumal temple. It has a dedicated vegan menu with some fan favourites being its Vegan Masala Thosai and Vegan Roti Set.

More information: Ananda Bhavan

Greenleaf Café

Greenleaf Café focuses on their customer‘s health and well-being, as well as economical, ecological and social concerns, with a firm belief that ‘’vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind,” as said by Albert Einstein. Some customer-recommended vegan items there include Mixed Vegetable Pulao and Mushroom Masala, and you can also request non-vegan items to be made vegan, like ordering Masala Dosa but without ghee.

More information: Greenleaf Café

Kailash Parbat

In 1952, Kailash Parbat was started in Mumbai by the Mulchandani Brothers who had a passion to serve food delights, and it has since expanded to various parts of India and opened outlets in New York, London, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. It offers a range of vegetarian and vegan food, with some vegan items including Plain Tandoori Roti, Plain Naan, as well as most items in their Indian Chinese menu section called “Oriental Kitchen”.

More information: Kailash Parbat

Komala Vilas

One of Singapore’s oldest Indian vegetarian restaurants, Komala Vilas was founded in 1947 by Mr Murugiah Rajoo, who came to Singapore from Tamil Nadu in India. It continues to be a family run business and has become a household name as one of the biggest mainstays of Little India. As a tribute to the restaurant’s long legacy in Singapore, Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong shared a meal at Komala Vilas with India’s Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi in 2015. Some of its most popular items include the Rice Meal—served with three vegetables, dhal, sambar, kulambu, rasam, thairu, raita, payasam, appalam and pickle, and the Dosai Meal—served with three vegetables, sambar, chutney and kulambu. Its non-vegan dishes can easily be made vegan upon request.

More information: Komala Vilas

Midnight Mass

Released just last month, Midnight Mass is a seven-episode series directed by Mike Flanagan, well known for his previous works such as The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. The story takes place on Crockett Island, an isolated, run-down island with a population of 127. It follows the main character, Riley, who returns to his hometown after being in prison for four years for killing a woman in a drunk driving accident. His return coincides with the arrival of Father Paul, a charismatic yet mysterious priest who has been sent to replace a man named Monsignor Pruitt. The plot is ominous, emotional, and prompts you to question your own beliefs about religion and the idea of life and death.

No One Gets Out Alive

Based on a novel by Adam Nevill, No One Gets Out Alive is a movie directed by Santiago Menghini that explores the real-life horror of how undocumented immigrants are exploited and abused. The film follows Ambar, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who moves into a run-down boarding house to chase the American dream. Although her landlord Red seems rather suspicious, the rent is cheap and Ambar is desperate. Ambar is consistently creeped out by strange noises in the boarding house late at night, and later discovers that Red and his brother are sacrificing the tenants of the boarding house to a monstrous creature in the basement that Ambar has seen in her visions whenever she falls asleep. If you’re looking for a dark and suspenseful horror movie, this one might be for you.

Escape The Undertaker

Escape The Undertaker is a 30-minute interactive choose-your-own-adventure special that follows WWE stars The New Day consisting of Kofi Kingson, Xavier Woods, and Big E, as they visit the Undertaker’s eerie mansion in order to steal his urn which contains supernatural abilities. Will they survive? It is up to the viewer to decide their fate. Though the film contains ominous elements, it is ultimately more fun, thrilling and suspenseful rather than scary, and is definitely one that can be enjoyed by the whole family—even the younger ones! If you’re a parent who loves horror but also wants your kids to get in on the spooky action, this is a great movie to watch together. Try watching it multiple times and making different choices to see what happens!

There’s Someone Inside Your House

Based on the book by Stephanie Perkins and directed by Patrick Brice, There’s Someone Inside Your House follows a group of students of Osborne High School, primarily Makani Young, who has just moved to Hawaii to live with her grandmother. Chaos ensues when a serial killer starts killing students while wearing a 3D-printed mask of their face after exposing their deepest, darkest secrets. Having a few dark secrets of her own, Makani fears she is next on the killer’s list. She and her friends at Osborne High School then try to identify and stop the masked killer. If you’re a fan of slasher films, this one is probably right up your alley.

Night Teeth

Night Teeth tells the story of Benny, a college student who covers his brother’s shift as a chauffeur and picks up two attractive but mysterious women, Blair and Zoey, for a night of party-hopping across Los Angeles. When he discovers that they are not humans, but vampires with bloodthirsty intentions, Benny fights to stay alive while protecting the rest of the people living in the city. Though Night Teeth is less of a horror movie and more of a thriller, it’s still very much Halloween-esque and fitting for the spooky season.

Hypnotic

Released just a couple of days ago, Hypnotic is a psychological horror-thriller directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote that touches on the topics of mental illness and hypnosis. The movie begins with Jenn, the main character, inside a lift, visibly overwhelmed by anxiety as she thinks that the walls of the lift are about to crush her, thereby alluding to the fact that she is suffering from an anxiety disorder. Jenn then seeks help from a renowned hypnotherapist named Dr. Collin Meade. Her first few sessions go well, but quickly begin to take a dark turn when she starts losing control of her body and having no recollection of recent events. Later, Jenn learns that past patients of Dr. Meade have died from extreme fear. As she tries to track down Dr. Meade with the help of Detective Wade Rollins in order to end her misery, she discovers that the hypnotherapist is practically a ghost, and now finds herself a part of his sick mind game.

Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight 2

Another Netflix Original released on 27 October is Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight 2, a sequel to the first Polish slasher film directed by Mirella Zaradkiewicz and Bartosz M. Kowalski. Part one of Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight was released last year, and tells the story of a group of technology-addicted teenangers who try to escape two monstrous mutant brothers hunting the teens for food in the woods after being sent to an offline camp by their parents. The sequel follows Adaś, a young, insecure policeman who has to overcome his fears to stop further killings. According to the synopsis, “the film is a perverse, ironic, grotesque and bloody story about looking for love and discovering one’s own self in a world that divides us more than it unites us.”

“Spend it wisely. This will have to last till the end of the month,” they said. 

Somehow, I failed to process either of those statements. 

It was more money than I had ever had up to that point, and the feeling of being able to buy anything I wanted was intoxicating. I had $120—ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY DOLLARS— in cold hard cash! At 15, it felt like I had Beyonce money in my pocket. I may have had a general understanding about saving and budgeting but those concepts seemed less important than HAVING MOOLAH TO BURN. 

That first week of managing my monthly allowance was absolute bliss. It was Treat Yo Self Day, all day, every day. I had lunch at McDonald’s a few times, sipped on venti vanilla lattes at Starbucks, went for a movie which would not have been complete without popcorn and nachos, and engaged in some retail therapy by dropping serious dough on fancy stationery from Muji. I was the nerd version of Julia Roberts going to town at Rodeo Drive in Pretty Woman.

At the end of my weeklong spending spree, panic set in. I looked at the $20 left in my wallet and cold realisation crept down my spine: there were three more weeks to go and I had less than a dollar left to spend per day. 

Needless to say, I spent those next three weeks pondering the error of my ways. That began my journey in learning how to manage my money better. 

When is a good time to start teaching kids about money?

“At its heart, money is about exchanging value, and that conversation begins at the very early stages of a child’s life. Any parent will tell you that children instinctively respond to exchange as a form of communication,” explains Audrey Tan, Founder and Chief Dreams Architect of PlayMoolah. 

As soon as kids learn to count (which can be as early as 3 years old), it’s a good time to start teaching them about money. Developmentally, they are able to understand that money is used as a form of exchange for items that they want to receive. 

The value of money

The first thing to learn is the value of money. 

When my daughter was 4, she was convinced that unlimited money came out of a magic machine called the ATM. One time, she wanted to buy a new puzzle set and we told her that the purchase required money. 

“Mom, we can go to the ATM,” she whispered. “You just need to press some buttons and money will come out.” 

So close, but no cigar. 

We had to introduce her to the real world where ATMs did not give out free money. You have to first put the money there for it to be available for withdrawal. And you have to work in order to make the money that gets put into the machine. 

Once my kids understood the constraints of limited resources, we also taught them about the value of things. During grocery runs, I would show the kids how to look at price tags of various items and they would be shocked to discover that a tub of ice cream can cost more than a whole bag of rice. 

Budgeting 

The next step kids learn is how to use the money that we have most efficiently. That’s where budgeting comes in – to correctly identify where the money should be allocated to. 

An easy way to start is to follow the 50-30-20 rule of spending 50 percent on necessities (needs), 30 percent on discretionary spending (wants) and 20 percent to be put aside as savings for a rainy day. 

The key is differentiating between necessities and luxuries (even for adults!). This varies depending on who you ask. My oldest son will tell you that gaming is a necessity and will consequently spend his pocket money on a new game instead of other less important things like food because #gamingislife and food can always be had for free at home.

Be that as it may, we had to teach him to allocate a portion of his allowance to gaming needs while spending the rest on actual necessities. A good way to practice budgeting is to make use of apps such as FamZoo, RoosterMoney, Zimble, and Household Account Book. 

Saving

We all know the importance of saving but actually doing it? That’s the hard part.

Most experts recommend saving 20% of your income/allowance per month. For kids, this is as simple as putting aside $0.20 every day into a jar, which then gets transferred into a bank account when it’s full. While the amount may seem small, the habit cultivates discipline and delayed gratification, which are lessons that will yield much larger returns when they get older and increase their earning ability. 

Bigger kids and teenagers might benefit from apps like POSB Smart Buddy or Revolut Junior. These apps allow them to set savings goals and make cashless payments for essentials. 

Investing

Investing can be intimidating if you’re new to it. Just wrapping your head around jargon like asset allocation, equity, mutual funds, diversification, and compounding are enough to make the average person’s head hurt. Add to that cautionary tales about how people have lost their entire life savings in a market downturn and it may all seem like more trouble than it’s worth. 

The fundamental principles of investing don’t need to be complicated—kids are able to learn the basics of investment quite easily. 

Instead of putting all your money in a tin can under your pillow, put it into a vehicle that will make it grow. This can be in the form of a savings account that yields 0.05% return, a fixed deposit for 0.8% p.a., an ETF or even stocks for substantially higher returns (and considerable risks). 

When our kids were as little as 7, we taught them about how a company’s shares are valued and they were given the option to invest in companies they were familiar with, such as Disney and Roblox. They would decide to invest $100 of their savings into a company’s stock and we would purchase it on their behalf using our investment accounts. 

Gradually, we introduced other concepts like dollar-cost averaging and portfolio diversification in the hope that by the time they start working, they would have a solid foundation to build upon. In return, they taught me about stonks. 

Developing a healthy relationship with money

I really like what Trevor Noah wrote in his book, Born A Crime. “The first thing I learned about having money was that it gives you choices. People don’t want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money.”

That freedom that money gives us allows us to give to others in need and make a difference to those around us. It’s easy to get caught up with accumulating money and lose sight of what makes money meaningful. So while we teach the kids about the importance of giving to others, we also try to model the same behaviour because kids learn through observing how we manage our money. 

Audrey from PlayMoolah is an advocate of a flourishing life. “You are a steward and you choose to spend, save, invest or give. Put money in its place and really start living the best life.”

If you haven’t started having conversations with your child about money management, it’s never too late to start laying those building blocks of financial literacy. 

She wasn’t always such a happy, healthy, peaceful individual. Nine years ago, in 2012, Irene discovered a hard lump beneath her right breast. 

“I panicked,” she recalls. “I had just gone for my yearly mammogram just eight months before, and there was nothing.”

It was the final day of her annual leave that she had taken—she had just returned from a holiday with her twin children. “I had to return to work the next day —I was working for a multinational private bank as Group Risk Director. So, I went to work, then took half day leave to visit NUH Breast Cancer Centre. Dr Mikael Hartman was the breast cancer doctor who saw me, and after inspecting me, he requested for a biopsy to be done the next day. I knew on the third day that I had Stage 2 breast cancer.”

It came as a complete shock. While the hospital was arranging the tests and follow-ups, Irene found herself crying. Foremost on her mind were her children and her career. “I asked my doctor that day, ‘When will I be able to go back to work?’” she says, adding that she had always prioritised work up to that point.

Irene continues, “At the beginning, I was determined to fight the cancer and did what I had to do very quickly,” she shares. “I met the plastic surgeon at NUH and planned on re-construction. I had to decide between a mastectomy and a lumpectomy, and as my priority was to get rid of all the cancer, I opted for a mastectomy with reconstruction using with fats from my tummy. Within a week of my diagnosis, I had my operation.”

While she had expected to fully recover quickly, things did not turn out that way. “Post-operation, it was confirmed the cancer I had was Stage 3A and HER2-positive. Out of 15 lymph nodes taken out, 12 were cancerous.”

This meant that the cancer had spread beyond the tumour, and it also tested positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes cancer cell growth. Given the aggressive nature of the cancer, the treatments prescribed to Irene were the maximum: “I had to go through four cycles of AC/DC chemo, eight cycles of another milder chemo, 18 cycles of radiotherapy, and 28 cycles of Herceptin.”

THINGS FALL APART

While she handled the surgery well, the post-surgery regime got to Irene, particularly the seemingly endless chemotherapy—she developed a phobia of it.

“Another reason I was depressed, apart from the fear of chemo treatments, was that my right breast was badly scarred. My nipple had been removed and there were scars across my breast,” she shares candidly.  

Things got worse when the six months of paid leave her company had granted her drew to an end. 

“I was not ready to go back. I had lost my confidence totally,” she remembers. When she told them she needed more time, she was told that the company could not hold her position—a senior one—for her, and that she would be let go.

It was upsetting and she lost her source of income, but “at that time, my priority was health—I had to concentrate on my recovery,” she says. However, the stress of the treatments, losing her job, a failing marriage and having two children in Primary 3 to raise was too much for her: Irene fell into depression. “I was so depressed I had to see a psychiatrist, but the medication didn’t really help,” she says.

The pressure and fear she had of chemotherapy got so severe, Irene had to stop treatment for a period until she was mentally stronger. “Throughout my journey, I couldn’t accept that I got breast cancer,” she shares. “I was in denial. I had lost everything, including my job. My turning point was when I started praying about a year after I was diagnosed.”  

It took eight months but Irene overcame depression. “I’m Catholic, and I prayed,” she says. “At that time, I was doing nothing but going to hospital and staying alive, and a church friend would come to pray for me.”

She endured her treatments through 2013. By the end of that year, Irene was back, stronger. “My hair grew back. And I started to reflect on what I wanted to do, whether to go back to work, or do something else, something that had purpose and meaning.”

LETTING GO OF THE OLD, EMBRACING THE NEW

By 2014, Irene was cancer-free. She was no longer the same person she was before cancer.

“When cancer came, I started contemplating what caused me to be an unhappy person,” she says, adding that the stress and unhappiness caused by her former lifestyle played a part in having cancer. 

“My marriage was very stressful; we had issues of trust. As a Chinese woman I felt I needed to fulfil the obligation to get married and have children, and so I clung on,” she shares. “After cancer, I realised that in order for me to move ahead, I needed to let go.” 

In 2015, after praying and seeking guidance from three priests, she knew it was the right thing to do. She met a lady lawyer in her church who helped her with the divorce, and “it went smoothly. I didn’t fight for anything but the kids. I didn’t contest anything. In fact, it went so well, after I signed the papers, I went to eat Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice with him and the kids. It felt very peaceful, so I took it as a sign from God. After my divorce, I felt happy and alive again—I no longer have an obligation to fulfil.” To this day, the exes remain cordial.

In 2013, Irene began to take her body back. While before cancer, she did exercise, but “I wasn’t fit.” During her recovery, she joined the Breast Cancer Foundation and signed up for its fitness classes, such as Zumba. She also joined its celebrated dragon boat crew, the Pink Paddlers.

“One lady said to me, ‘You have passion, you should teach!’ And that started me thinking. It’s true I do things with passion, and the idea to teach fitness made sense to me,” she recalls. “So I started to explore the idea of getting certified as a fitness instructor.”

While her first choice was Zumba, Irene found an opportunity with Jumping Fitness. “Jumping Fitness was introduced to me in early 2015 when Jumping Singapore started this programme in Singapore,” she explains. “When I came to know that jumping helps in lymph drainage, I knew that it was God who connected the dots for me, and I have not looked back since. I was in the first batch of certified Jumping Fitness instructors in early 2015, and it’s a sport that has helped me stay fit and healthy these past six years. I also teach other group fitness programmes such as Piloxing and Pound.” 

“From 2015 to 2018, I was very busy teaching classes,” she says. “I also participated in sports events under SportsSG and also National Day events.” Today, Irene teaches Jumping Fitness with Jumping Singapore, which is a social enterprise under New Hope Community Services, at Far East Plaza, at Peninsular Shopping Centre and other locations.

For Irene, teaching fitness gives her a way to share her journey with other women. “I strongly believe the mental and physical suffering I went through with breast cancer was a blessing in disguise,” she says. “My attitude in life totally changed. I now live life with a purpose, and I live my moment. I use Jumping Fitness as a platform, a way of reaching out to women who are going through the same, to give them hope. At the same time I want to put out the message that breast cancer is not a death sentence; many women come out stronger. Seeing me is believing.” 

Irene’s first students were mostly women, of all ages, from all walks of life, career women as well as housewives. “I set up a support group for women who survived cancers of all sorts, and ran Jumping classes. This group of cancer survivors even did a group performance with me at Jumping party in 2019,” says Irene.

Jumping Fitness has given Irene a new lease of life. “I’m happy,” she says. “I enjoy teaching in front of a group. It also keeps me active and I get to meet many people in the process.”

Irene is honest about the fact that her life now may not look like typical success to people. Working as a freelance fitness instructor, she is only paid each time she teaches. Still, “I live simply. All my treatment was taken care of by insurance—it amounted to nearly $400,000, because each of the treatments cost around $5,000. My children’s education is supported by their father. I was quite well-paid in my previous job, but in my mind, life was all about work. Now I tell many women, I have not had a fulltime banking job for close to 10 years, just teaching freelance fitness classes. I am still happy and alive.”

She recalls what her psychiatrist said to her, “He said ‘You have this problem, it’s called adjustment disorder’. Suddenly finding myself house-bound, losing my hair, everything had changed overnight, and it hit me hard.”

Having lived through all that, Irene’s advice to other women now is this: “The priority of your life has to change: you have to take care of your body first, because that’s where you live 24/7. When you take care of your body, your mind is also healthy. You become more self-aware and know what’s really important.”

For women reading this, Irene encourage vigilance and regular breast self-examination. Catching that lump early was a good thing, even if the treatment was hard. “Early detection saves lives,” she emphasises. “Cancer is not a death sentence. There is hope after breast cancer.” 

If you’re looking for a sweet (or savoury) treat to take you on a trip down memory lane, here are five old school confectioneries and bakeries that you should visit.

Dona Manis Cake Shop

This traditional bakery has been around for more than 30 years, and is still currently run by the elderly couple who started the business. Every single baked good is handmade from scratch. Two of their signature items are the banana pies ($2.80 per piece, $14 for half a pie, $28 for a whole pie) and chocolate tarts ($5 for 5 pieces) which are so incredibly good that customers keep coming back for more. The banana pie has a buttery, crumbly crust with a sweet banana filling and is topped with crushed roasted almonds. Unlike typical chocolate tarts which have a solid chocolate filling, the filling of Dona Manis Cake Shop’s chocolate tarts is smooth and creamy, oozing out of the tart with every bite. Besides these items, it offers a variety of other baked goods like cream puffs, cream horns, and walnut cakes.

More information: Dona Manis Cake Shop

Address: 865 Mountbatten Road, B1-93, Katong Shopping Centre, Singapore 437844

Tel: 6440 7688

Opening hours: Tuesdays – Saturdays 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Jie Bakery

Specialising in baking bread, Jie Bakery is best known for both its plain and rainbow breads which are extremely soft and fluffy. Not to mention, the rainbow bread has beautiful pastel hues of pink, yellow and green that are sure to invoke a sense of nostalgia in anyone. It prides itself on baking bread the traditional way, without any preservatives and keeping the use of baking soda to a minimum. Each loaf costs $1.60, and costs $3 with a spread (or a mixture of spreads) of your choice—homemade kaya, margarine, strawberry jam, or peanut butter. Aside from their signature pillowy loaves, you can also find other breads like Japanese red bean buns and coconut buns.

More information: Jie Bakery

Address: 123 Upper Paya Lebar Road, Singapore 534837

Tel: 9823 9829

Opening hours: Mondays – Saturdays 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM, Sundays 10:00 AM – 11:00 PM

Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery

Starting out as a home kitchen in the 60s, then opening its shop in 1979, and now being run by a third-generation owner, this confectionery has come a very long way. At Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery, you can find a range of traditional cakes, tarts and even fried delicacies, but a trip there wouldn’t be complete without getting yourself some of its signature kuehs. Every piece is lovingly handmade. Its highly-raved Ang Ku Kueh is soft and chewy on the outside, and crunchy on the inside with its peanut filling. If you’re looking for something savoury, another popular item you should try is its Soon Kueh, filled with turnip, dried shrimp, bamboo shoot and fried shallots.

More information: Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery

Address: 84 Bedok North Street 4, #01-21, Singapore 460084

Tel: 6449 0815

Opening hours: Mondays – Saturdays 6:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Sundays 6:00 AM – 2:00 PM

June Bakery

Despite its humble and unassuming storefront, June Bakery is a fan favourite among old school confectionery lovers, often seeing long queues and its signature tarts selling out by noon. At $1.20 each, some of its best sellers are the cheese tart—a buttery and crumbly shortcrust pastry with a rich and dense cheesecake filling, orh nee tart—same buttery and crumbly crust with a smooth yam filling topped with four ginkgo nuts, and the egg tart—a Portuguese egg tart with a caramelised egg custard filling and uses the same dense shortcrust pastry as their other tarts instead of the flaky and airy crusts seen in typical Portuguese egg tarts.

Address: 7500A Beach Road, The Plaza, #B1-321, Singapore 199591

Tel: 9731 3002

Opening hours: Mondays – Fridays 7:00 AM – 2:30 PM

Sembawang Confectionery

Sembawang Confectionery opened back in 1968 in the Sembawang Hills Estate and remained there for 10 years before moving to its current location at Beach Road. Now 82 years old, current head baker and former owner of Sembawang Confectionery Mr Wang Toon Aik has been baking and selling his cakes and pastries since he was just 20 years old. Its signature Butter Cake ($1.20 per slice), whose recipe has not been changed since Sembawang Confectionery first started, is spongy and moist with a fragrant buttery aroma. Its most popular item is the traffic light cake—a soft, fluffy cake frosted with a layer of buttercream, featuring three lines of piping jelly in red, yellow and green—it can’t get any more old school than this! Other pastries there include cream puffs, egg tarts, coconut tarts and chocolate rice balls which are all definitely worth a try.

More information: Sembawang Confectionery

Address: Blk 6 Beach Road, #01-4869, Singapore 190006

Tel: 6295 3965

Opening hours: Mondays – Sundays 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM

For women in their 40s, the odds of starting a family are hardly in their favour, as these scary stats attest. But many relentlessly chase their motherhood dreams – even as their peers are already scouting around for universities for their kids, or stressing over an upcoming National Service enlistment.

Membership to the middle-aged mums club is less of an exception to the rule; not only are women here marrying later in life, they are also having children in their late 30s and through their 40s. 

According to figures from the Singapore Department of Statistics, the number of mums-to-be conceiving in their 40s has doubled over the past three decades. Last year, there were nine births for every 1,000 women aged 40 to 44, compared to 4.5 in 1985.

The search for the elusive BFP

For these women, in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments have been the panacea to attain that Big Fat Positive – one of a myriad of abbreviations patients come to be well-versed about. 

A small mountain of medication, daily injections and messy suppositories are put up with on a daily basis, and exacerbated by emotional (mood swings, anxiety, stress), physical (bellies bruised from injected drugs, nausea, bloating) and financial (eye-watering costs that run into the high five-figures) strain.

Those who seek treatment here ask for recommendations or trawl online forums usually pick from a select group of doctors associated with high success rates; among them Dr Ann Tan at Women Fertility & Fetal Care Centre, Dr Sadhana Nadarajah at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) IVF Centre and Dr Kelly Loi at Health and Fertility Centre for Women.

But topping this list is Dr Tan Heng Hao. The medical director of Alpha IVF Centre & Alpha Women’s Specialists (Singapore) has performed “thousands of IVF procedures in over 10 years and counting”, and says that women are having babies later in life as a result of choices made out of circumstances that they face.

The former head of the Reproductive Medicine Department and director of IVF services at KKH adds: “The challenges of a developed society are vastly different today as compared to the past. These include job pressures, changing expectations and higher standards of living.”

Greater chances, lower costs

Meanwhile, other women head overseas to Malaysia, Thailand or even India – usually after undergoing one too many failed cycles here. Arguably, the most well-known of them is getai veteran Liu Ling Ling, who made the headlines two years ago for conceiving a baby boy at the grand age of 50 after finding success in Johor Bahru.

For women in her age group, several push factors come into play. Age is arguably the biggest of them; before the rules were relaxed in 2019, the age limit for IVF was 45, and the number of assisted reproduction technology (ART) cycles a woman could undergo was a maximum of 10 cycles up to the age of 40, and five cycles after that age. 

Seeking treatment beyond our shores also opens the door to a variety of screening tests – not available here in Singapore – that can help improve outcomes. Such tests are said to boost success rates by as much as 70 per cent. Since older women racing against the clock commonly face the issue of producing embryos with chromosomal abnormalities – which invariably lead to failed cycles – this is a very viable option.

Currency exchange rates are also another boon. Ballpark figures put public fertility clinic treatments at $10,000 to $15,000 per cycle with subsidies, and $12,000 to $20,000 per cycle at private medical centres. These costs cover ultrasound tests, egg collection, egg transfer, lab charges, nursing fees, the use of the operating theatre and a recovery room. 

In comparison, the average cost per cycle is $5,000 to $7,000 in Johor Bahru, $6,200 to $12,000 in Thailand and up to $6,4000 in India. Even after factoring in transport and hotel accommodation expenses, overseas treatments are easier on bank accounts.

Holding on to hope

For women still trying to get pregnant, there is much to be optimistic about. 

Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament Louis Ng’s tireless efforts at lobbying for the government to provide more support for couples trying to conceive through costly and emotionally-trying IVF procedures have led to significant progress.

According to Ministry of Healthv(MOH) data, couples may now withdraw $6,000 for the first cycle, $5,000 for the second cycle and $4,000 for the third and subsequent cycles from the patient’s or the patient’s spouse’s MediSave to cover the costs of Assisted Conception Procedures (ACP) treatment. A lifetime Medisave withdrawal limit of $15,000 per patient also applies.

MOH has also made to make the previously unavailable Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) test a mainstream clinical service for couples who need it.

“Without a doubt, more women are using IVF to get pregnant, and the government can help. If couples get married late, why should they get penalised? Let’s reduce their stress with more subsidies, so more Singaporeans can try IVF,” says Ng. “Why should the government say no?”

Ng’s focus, after successfully pushing for PGD, is advocating that Preimplantation Genetic Screening be nationalised in the private clinics. The procedure extracts cells from an embryo to increase the chances that a healthy embryo is implanted, increasing the success of a pregnancy.  

Adds the father of three daughters: “This cause is so dear to me, especially when I see couples who want so much to have a child. On Children’s Day, it really hits home. As a parent myself, I really want to help. 

“I’ll keep pushing. If you push hard enough, you get somewhere.”

Meanwhile, Dr Tan says IVF success rates have improved by leaps and bounds in the last few decades, and improvements in drugs and regimes have contributed to better compliance, and lower drop-out rates for patients. 

Major advancements made in the laboratory, he says, have optimised the quality of embryos to be transferred. These days, there are better culture medias used, better culture environments and better laboratory techniques, exemplified by the use of time lapse imaging incubators and pulse driven intracytoplasmic sperm injections. All these have led to improvements in the quality and blastulation rates of the embryos.

“My job takes a lot out of me, but it’s something I still look forward to going back to the very next day,” says Dr Tan. “Personal satisfaction comes from being given the privilege of journeying with couples, secure in the knowledge that I have the opportunity to touch their lives positively in some way.”

Perks, problems, playground politics

GENXSingapore meets two women who share the highs and lows of being middle-aged mums.

Michelle Bong Lejtenyi, 47, content marketing manager

All my life, I never wanted kids. The costs, the stress that comes with uncontrollable tantrums, P1 registration. Oh, and global warming! To me, these were all valid reasons to be child-free. Also, I didn’t consider any of my exes to be Daddy material.

When I met my husband, I realised I wanted kids. Problem is, I was already 39 and he was 41. We got married at 43 and 45 respectively, after which we started trying. “Tick tock, tick tock” mocked my uterus as I juggled work responsibilities, a hectic social life and marital bliss.

We knew starting a family at our age was not going to be easy. And we were right. The four-year journey was hellish in most parts. You know how people say the fun is in trying for a baby, because of all the practice it takes? LIES. 

There is zero fun in constantly tracking your ovulation, doing the deed while mentally chanting “get pregnant, get pregnant”, or being so focused on not letting yet another precious window of opportunity pass you by that you jump your unsuspecting husband screaming “Hurry up, we have to do it now!”.

Fed up, we turned to Intrauterine insemination (IUI). Three rounds later, we conceded it was a total waste of time and effort. Poorer and even more fed up, we decided on seeking IVF treatment in Johor Bahru. 

Concurrently, I did just about everything I could, based on what I had read on forums, heard from friends or researched online; I downed a cocktail of health supplements with a bottle of pomegranate juice daily, did weekly TCM acupuncture sessions complemented by powdered tonics, and even tried vaginal steaming. Driven by desperation, I tried everything.

After months of this routine and a big dent in our finances, we finally got pregnant. It took three attempts.  We were so numb to failure by then that when we were told the good news, we simply looked at each other and went “Oh… ok.” And I’m sad to say I spent the rest of my easy pregnancy – I was a super mobile pocket rocket with a giant belly – mentally-detached from everything; right up to my delivery date, I was still convinced something would go wrong. 

Since then, the days have flown by in a blur. Our precocious, chatty little James Henry turns two next month. The pandemic seems to have sped time up; in our little bubble, he has grown up quickly. Most of my extended family members have not seen James since Chinese New Year 2020, and we’ve not had a chance to visit Canada. The only silver lining has been all that extra time I’ve been able to spend with him while #wfh.

Is there a greater life purpose now? Yes. Are our creaky bones holding up as we chase, jump and clamber at the playground alongside 30somethings who eye us with some degree of pity? Just about. Do we wake up deliriously happy to spend time with Jamie, only to crawl into bed completely exhausted come 8.30pm each day? You bet.

But it was worth it. All of it. We still have a fourth embryo, snuggled in a freezer in Johor Bahru. The plan is to try again as soon as travel borders open.

Having been on this arduous journey, which has been the most difficult project I have ever undertaken, I still recommend women wanting to be mums to give it a go. There are no guarantees of success, and a tsunami of confusing advice will come your way. At the end of the day, go with your gut (pun not intended) and just do you. Keep that chin up, and stay hopeful.

Helen Eber, 42, HR manager

I was 41 when I had Cameron, who is two and a half now. Being late to the game was not exactly a choice I made. I didn’t meet my husband Darren, now 44, until I was 36; we dated for a year before getting engaged, registered our marriage six months later and had two church weddings three months after that. 

I didn’t want to start trying for a baby until we were married, so after the wedding, we started trying straight away.  We got checked out by a doctor fairly early on too, as I was conscious of my age and didn’t want to waste time trying if there were any underlying issues that I wasn’t aware of.  

Six months later, my doctor suggested we visit the fertility clinic at KKH for advice. Two unsuccessful rounds of IUI later, we started the IVF process. Happily, our first frozen transfer was successful; I had my positive pregnancy test in June 2018, almost two years to the day after our marriage was registered.  Cameron was born the following February.

I was lucky to enjoy flexible work hours, so taking time here and there for doctor’s appointments wasn’t too difficult. However, being the plan-ahead type, I found the unpredictability of the cyclical fertility treatments really tough. Trying to plan business trips and holidays that didn’t clash or occur at ill-advised times was quite stressful too.  

Socially, it got quite challenging as well. When I wasn’t drinking, people started asking if I was pregnant – which can be fairly hard to manage when you are definitely not but really wish you were. I think it was good for us to have a couple of years of married life before getting pregnant to enjoy life as a pair first. 

It’s a bit different as well when you have the fertility stuff ongoing in the background. I’m very much a try-everything-you-can kind of person, so we changed our diet a little, took supplements, avoided plastics, did TCM. Probably a bit full on. But I wanted to feel like we’d given it our best shot if we weren’t successful.  

Our family and friends were very supportive and I was lucky to have a couple of friends on similar timelines, which was really helpful. I even met some ladies who were going through the same thing, and now it’s fab to see our kids having play dates together.

My pregnancy was fairly straightforward; other than gestational diabetes partly due to my age, it wasn’t too challenging to manage with diet and light medications. I ended up having a Caesarean-section which wasn’t what I’d envisaged, but it was fairly quick and seemed ok to me.  

Having a newborn was very full on, and things got harder after my maternity leave.  Balancing full-time work, a baby, a marriage and keeping up with friends was tough – although I do feel very lucky to be in Singapore with a great helper. 

After that, the bombshell of Covid-19 had an impact on our lives – making socialising much more difficult, especially with a small family given the limited numbers and personally I’ve found it quite isolating. We really miss our family and friends in the UK, particularly given how quickly Cameron is growing up. We are fortunate that at least Darren’s side of our family is here, but we still miss the pre covid big get togethers.   

Everybody’s journey is different so I’m not sure I’d feel qualified to give anyone advice other than go with your own gut and maybe have an idea of how much you are willing to do before you draw a line under it. We would love to have a second child but are conscious it’s a long shot. I have an idea of when I will be ready to say we tried what we could and we are lucky to have what we do already.