BUTTON

Oh, how I miss the living in the land of consumer waste known as the United States of America! In the United States we have extra large soda pop and extra large trucks. In the United States all cheap restaurants serve you using Styrofoam or paper containers. In the United States demolition derbies are legal, and people can wreck cars for sport!

Here in Singapore they are a little more sensible. Except for a few American food chains, even the the cheapest restaurants serve you on real plates. It is unheard of to own a big clunker of a vehicle. I haven't seen any American style SUVs since I have arrived. My little S-10 had an engine slightly larger than most Singaporean commercial vehicles. Old vehicles aren't wasted, once they don't meet the latest pollution controls the government taxes the tar out of them and they must be sold to Malaysians.

However, none of that stuff really gets me down. What is the most uncool, or rather, what is extremely ice cold is the temperature of my morning shower water, if I don't push the button pictured above. In the U.S. I had a huge water heater that must have held twenty or thirty gallons. The thing ran all day, blazing natural gas so that I could have instant access to hot water. Here in Singapore, I have a little water heater that runs from underneath the kitchen sink. And, get this, you are supposed to turn it on before you use hot water.

This wouldn't be bad, but when I wake up groggy in the mornings I often to forget to turn the thing on and become the victim of a cold shower. What a travesty!

However, this isn't the worst. I'll save the explanation for a future post, but the biggest problem of all is that in Singapore-- listen close-- they don't use clothes dryers! How do they survive? I'll tell you the secrets next time: same blog place, same blog time.