let's all invest in hawker centres
Was having nasi lemak for breakfast and chatting with the stall holder at Eunos hawker centre this morning and gained some insight into the world of hawkers. The rental at Eunos hawker centre, if you rent directly from the government, is $400. But what this guy had to do was rent from the owner of the stall at $1400 per month, thus the owner gets $1000 a month for doing nothing. But that's nothing - this woman bought 5 stalls from Golden Mile food centre and collects $1500 rental from each one. That's $7500 for doing nothing! and I was thinking "sialah this is better than property trading sia..that one still need to worry about parking/maintenance of facilities/condition of interior..here we're just talking about a miserable little stall what's there to maintain!"
And that's not all..these aren't even the prime locations. Apparently at Bedok Interchange hawker centre a stall now costs $400,000! And the owners are renting it out at $5500 a month. That's a super good deal. And people are more than willing to buy, cos the business there is really good. So that means..if a someone had bought a stall directly from the government from the very beginning (presumably for less than 400k) and has been renting it out to hawkers at 4-5k per month since then he'd be laughing all the way to the bank..
Anyway, that dude was exceptionally friendly and chatty. Singapore needs more friendly and chatty people like that who open up to strangers. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem to be in our culture. And this is what happens when someone who isn't too good at talking to strangers tries to talk to strangers in a culture that isn't receptive to people who talk to strangers:
cheeyen and I were crashing NTU a couple days ago and we witnessed this on the bus back to boon lay. Someone got up from his seat, and a handphone could be seen on the cushion. A lady was about to pick it up and hand it to him when this rather huge guy who had been sitting next to that someone said "no that's mine." Everything fine so far.
Then after a long pause (maybe 30 seconds?) the big guy quipped "You mean you thought it was his?" in a spectacularly awkward attempt to strike up conversation with the lady. It didn't help that he had this perpetual smarmy grin plastered on his face. Probably taken aback by 1) the attempt to resurrect the interaction after such a long pause 2) his words, which might have seemed like an accusation, she replied "Yah I thought...so it's yours?" After another 10 seconds he says "Maybe it isn't." Five seconds. "Maybe I stole it."
At this point the lady was just exchanging uncomfortable glances with her friend, while the man was obviously rather uncomfortable himself and trying to look away in the hope of redeeming himself. It is one thing - and a perfectly admirable thing at that - to strike up a conversation with strangers, but here he just came across as creepy.
..I must add that NTU seems to be more happening than NUS. The people there just seem..happier.
And that's not all..these aren't even the prime locations. Apparently at Bedok Interchange hawker centre a stall now costs $400,000! And the owners are renting it out at $5500 a month. That's a super good deal. And people are more than willing to buy, cos the business there is really good. So that means..if a someone had bought a stall directly from the government from the very beginning (presumably for less than 400k) and has been renting it out to hawkers at 4-5k per month since then he'd be laughing all the way to the bank..
Anyway, that dude was exceptionally friendly and chatty. Singapore needs more friendly and chatty people like that who open up to strangers. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem to be in our culture. And this is what happens when someone who isn't too good at talking to strangers tries to talk to strangers in a culture that isn't receptive to people who talk to strangers:
cheeyen and I were crashing NTU a couple days ago and we witnessed this on the bus back to boon lay. Someone got up from his seat, and a handphone could be seen on the cushion. A lady was about to pick it up and hand it to him when this rather huge guy who had been sitting next to that someone said "no that's mine." Everything fine so far.
Then after a long pause (maybe 30 seconds?) the big guy quipped "You mean you thought it was his?" in a spectacularly awkward attempt to strike up conversation with the lady. It didn't help that he had this perpetual smarmy grin plastered on his face. Probably taken aback by 1) the attempt to resurrect the interaction after such a long pause 2) his words, which might have seemed like an accusation, she replied "Yah I thought...so it's yours?" After another 10 seconds he says "Maybe it isn't." Five seconds. "Maybe I stole it."
At this point the lady was just exchanging uncomfortable glances with her friend, while the man was obviously rather uncomfortable himself and trying to look away in the hope of redeeming himself. It is one thing - and a perfectly admirable thing at that - to strike up a conversation with strangers, but here he just came across as creepy.
..I must add that NTU seems to be more happening than NUS. The people there just seem..happier.
Labels: ntu, social dynamics
posted by kangwen at 5:43 PM
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