Yesterday's Sunday Times.
On page 11, 'It's like winning the lottery', on how some Singaporeans will be spending their Progress Package payouts.
Man A will use it for utilities and conservancy charges and wife's diabetes medicine.
Man B will use it to help pay off loans from friends and relatives for his bypass operation 5 years ago.
Couple A will also use it for PUB bills and conservancy charges for the next 9 months.
Couple B will use it for medicine for diabetes, high blood pressure and pains.
Lady A will use it to buy nutritious food and tonics for unemployed daughter's confinement.
Lady B will use it to pay for trip to Penang and Macau for dragon boat race.
Obviously, all except Lady B have real monetary needs.
Flip over to page 12 of the same newspaper, 'Hey, big wedding spender', on how couples are splurging on their weddings.
Couple A will spend about $45,000 for Caribbean-style wedding with steel drummers, strollers, salsa dancers, and possibly a campfire, foam party and specially concocted cocktails.
Couple B spent $330,000, including overseas photo shoot. Couple is 'comfortable in their careers' and bride says, 'we believe in living within our means.'
Couple C is likely to spend about as much as Couple B for Melaka Sultan-style wedding, with bodyguards, ladies-in-waiting, 15-tier wedding cake and Hippo tour bus, and also 5-carat diamond ring from Dubai.
Couple D spent $60,000 on Bollywood-theme wedding. and now cuts back on stuff like expensive shampoo (eh, what's this, I was buying 'cheap shampoo from department stores' before my wedding and still am after all these years) and car expenses.
Bridal designer A says $5000 'hand-beaded couture gowns have become common.'
Bridal designer B says 'Forking out $10,000 on a gown is nothing. Even mothers-in-law want to wear expensive gowns.'
Food: some people are serving whole abalone, foie gras (hee hee, suaku me, I don't know what this is), caviar, premium shark's fin (environmentally unfriendly, by the way) and rare wines.
Flowers: some people are ordering 'exotic blooms' such as peonies (traditionally auspicious for Chinese anyway), tulips (didn't know they were considered exotic) and African roses.
Hmmm... I don't remember ever attending a 'themed' wedding. Must be the generation gap. And class difference also, since I obviously don't move in that kind of social circle.
Interesting, huh? And who says there's no 'income gap' problem here in Singapore?
I'm not making any comment on these couples specifically, but I do wonder if couples who spend on lavish weddings such as these, 'within their means', are the same ones who will, sometime down the road, say that it is too expensive to have children.
Further down the newspaper there was this letter suggesting that Jack Neo produce a movie about Singaporeans' 'obsession with looking youthful and beautiful'. Thought that was rather funny, i.e., the idea for the film, not what the letter writer had gone through. This lady spent 'a few hundred thousand dollars' on beauty treatments without getting what she wanted. Interestingly, she's not one of those who got hoodwinked by some beauty salon but she also went to 'aesthetic GPs, skin specialists and plastic surgeons'.
Anyway, there you have the income gap again.
On page 11, 'It's like winning the lottery', on how some Singaporeans will be spending their Progress Package payouts.
Man A will use it for utilities and conservancy charges and wife's diabetes medicine.
Man B will use it to help pay off loans from friends and relatives for his bypass operation 5 years ago.
Couple A will also use it for PUB bills and conservancy charges for the next 9 months.
Couple B will use it for medicine for diabetes, high blood pressure and pains.
Lady A will use it to buy nutritious food and tonics for unemployed daughter's confinement.
Lady B will use it to pay for trip to Penang and Macau for dragon boat race.
Obviously, all except Lady B have real monetary needs.
Flip over to page 12 of the same newspaper, 'Hey, big wedding spender', on how couples are splurging on their weddings.
Couple A will spend about $45,000 for Caribbean-style wedding with steel drummers, strollers, salsa dancers, and possibly a campfire, foam party and specially concocted cocktails.
Couple B spent $330,000, including overseas photo shoot. Couple is 'comfortable in their careers' and bride says, 'we believe in living within our means.'
Couple C is likely to spend about as much as Couple B for Melaka Sultan-style wedding, with bodyguards, ladies-in-waiting, 15-tier wedding cake and Hippo tour bus, and also 5-carat diamond ring from Dubai.
Couple D spent $60,000 on Bollywood-theme wedding. and now cuts back on stuff like expensive shampoo (eh, what's this, I was buying 'cheap shampoo from department stores' before my wedding and still am after all these years) and car expenses.
Bridal designer A says $5000 'hand-beaded couture gowns have become common.'
Bridal designer B says 'Forking out $10,000 on a gown is nothing. Even mothers-in-law want to wear expensive gowns.'
Food: some people are serving whole abalone, foie gras (hee hee, suaku me, I don't know what this is), caviar, premium shark's fin (environmentally unfriendly, by the way) and rare wines.
Flowers: some people are ordering 'exotic blooms' such as peonies (traditionally auspicious for Chinese anyway), tulips (didn't know they were considered exotic) and African roses.
Hmmm... I don't remember ever attending a 'themed' wedding. Must be the generation gap. And class difference also, since I obviously don't move in that kind of social circle.
Interesting, huh? And who says there's no 'income gap' problem here in Singapore?
I'm not making any comment on these couples specifically, but I do wonder if couples who spend on lavish weddings such as these, 'within their means', are the same ones who will, sometime down the road, say that it is too expensive to have children.
Further down the newspaper there was this letter suggesting that Jack Neo produce a movie about Singaporeans' 'obsession with looking youthful and beautiful'. Thought that was rather funny, i.e., the idea for the film, not what the letter writer had gone through. This lady spent 'a few hundred thousand dollars' on beauty treatments without getting what she wanted. Interestingly, she's not one of those who got hoodwinked by some beauty salon but she also went to 'aesthetic GPs, skin specialists and plastic surgeons'.
Anyway, there you have the income gap again.
Comments
I buy "cheap shampoo" also, just that I didn't realise they were cheap until I read that article! Shampoo also got class one!!!
Yeah, who knows, maybe there's also 'premium' washing detergent and 'rare' cooking oil that we don't know of.