IS IT COLD ENOUGH FOR YOU, SIR?
There are many ways that different cultures use to indicate hierarchy. It may be about the clothes, the bling, the gadgets, the cut-glass accent, athletic prowess, height, weight, or ability to kill lions.
In Singapore it’s all about the air-con.
If you’re a nobody you have no aircon. You will have trouble sleeping, attracting a mate and you will probably have to take lots of showers.
A small company like ours has medium aircon – this means that the clothes you need to wear on the walk into work are far to skimpy for the office, but you can get by without frostbite as long as you have a handy pashmina / amenable little man who clambers up a ladder to adjust the settings for you as required (I have both).
But if you want to play in the big league, you need the biggest, coldest, windiest, March-of-the-Penguins style aircon that will practically blow your visitors away as they enter the soundless glass doors into the cathedral-like space, and attempt to sign in with their passport, employment pass, driver’s licence, Blockbuster card and all the other forms of required ID.
So it’s best, if your extremities have a tendency to chill, to live life in Singapore in a modest and unassuming way. Which we will of course… but last night we were tempted by Golden Class.
Ah.. Golden Class. Why just go to the cinema when for an extra $15, you can go golden class? Why pay $5 for popcorn and a drink when you can pay $12 for the same deal, but in a waiting lounge with plasticky chairs and prints of Audrey Hepburn? You would have to be a fool not to be tempted.
As you enter Golden Class (ushered in specially by a flunky of course) the blast of aircon causes your upper lip to leave your gums and your face adopts a snarl usually reserved for homo sapiens in more fight-or-flight scenarios. Happily, golden class has reclinable seats and woolly blankets. I looked around surreptiously to see if everyone was using the blankets or it was just for the wimpy foreigners, but everyone was happily snuggled up. No need for the emergency St Bernard this time.
Jo 26 January 2007
Commenting is closed for this article.