Migrating from Singapore to Melbourne: I Miss Singapore

It's been 20 months since we moved to Melbourne and after the excitement of moving to a new city wore off, I've begun to miss some of the things I took for granted in Singapore.

1) Food

It's not a surprise that you can't find a decent chicken rice or char kway tiao here. In Singapore,  I just had to walk 15 minutes to the nearest hawker centre and I can have the greatest selection from Indian to Malay to Chinese cuisine. After that I can choose from a variety of desserts and a trip to the hawker centre usually doesn't add up to more than A$10 per person.  And I could do that anytime from 7am to 10pm.

Here in my suburb, the only food that's readily available is fast food. McDonald's has a franchise at every corner. If I want either Malaysian or Singaporean cuisine, I'll have to drive 20 mins to the nearest restaurant and spend A$10 for a bowl or last and A$3 for a drink. This is not the best comparison as they don't have hawker centres here so everytime we eat out its at a restaurant. If I compare restaurant prices in Singapore and Melbourne, then I think it's about the same. That's also largely because there isn't a compulsory 17% added to a bill.

However, because there are migrants from all over the world in Melbourne, the up side is you get a pretty good selection such as Greek, Italian and Vietnamese food.

Anyhow, I really miss the wan ton mee in Singapore. There isn't anything even close to it here.

2) Help

As a new mother, I can't begin to express how desperately I need a live in helper. Because it's illegal to get a live in maid here, I've relied on help from my parents and my in laws for the past few months after I gave birth. But we all know that it's not the same as a helper. As an extra careful first time mum, I wouldn't want someone else to care for my child. But I would love to have someone to cook, clean, do the laundry, iron the clothes etc.

There are cleaners you can hire on an hourly basis here for S$12-20 an hour usually for a minimum of 4 hours but they only do cleaning.

Although I didn't have a maid in Singapore, I also didn't have a baby and was working full time. Now that I'm home most of the time and have a little baby to take care of, my greatest dream is to have a live in maid.

3) Convenience

As mentioned, it takes a good 20 minutes to drive somewhere for a meal. It really doesn't matter where you live (in the suburbs) it will take you an hour of travel time to get somewhere simply because the land is huge. Although that's also why when I go to the mall, it's never really crowded even on weekends. Compare to the nightmare that is every shopping centre in Singapore (I recall going to clementi mall on a weekday and it was just jam packed with people).

So I take the bad with the good...

4) Family & friends

It gets lonely when you move thousands of miles away from your family and friends. It's something that never really goes away. I can't just decide to pop over my parents place for dinner or meet a friend for lunch. I have to meet and make new friends and make the effort to travel back to Singapore.

I've been blessed in that I've made a lot of friends, especially ladies who are also Mum's, in my short time here and so this aspect isn't that bad.

Migration is never easy. There are so many things that you'll have to give up. But then there are so many things you gain as well so it's not for the faint hearted and it's not for those who are not determined. I'll write more about the difficulties of migrating one day.