Presents to bring for a Brit living in Singapore

[arnettesideways]

Hi!

So I'm coming over to Singapore in a few weeks to stay with a very good friend who has recently moved there from London. From the conversations we've had, I've gathered that he can pretty much get most of the food he could back home (albeit at a high cost).

However, I really want to surprise them by bringing a few things they can't get (food or otherwise). There must be some stuff you can't get out there...

So, was there anything that any British folk missed (or still do?!) early on that you would have wanted bringing over? Obviously only things allowed on the plane...

Thanks!

[snowqueen]

If they are chocoholics like me, I always make sure I bring back loads of Cadbury chocolate and just sweets in general. The Cadburys they sell here is from Australia and doesn't taste the same. Tea bags are a good one, my friend always brings me huge bags of Tetley. Brands we find in the UK like Tetley, PG and Twinnings cost a fortune here so that always goes down well.

On a more practical note, I stock up on own brand medicines like Paracetamol, Asprin and hayheaver tablets - but that's not fun as a gift.

I'm sure there's loads more things but can't think right now.

[BillyB]

A copy of the Sun or Daily Sport.........

Or air fresheners; over here they all smell like toilet bleach.

DVD's and BluRay - hardly an original suggestion but they are expensive in SG.

[Mary Hatch Bailey]

I would bring the lady of the house products from LUSH. They are sold here in after market shops but they are not as fresh and they are extremely expensive.

A gorgeous bottle of single malt scotch would be appreciated too. It would cost a bomb here.

@BillyB ~ try Shanghai Tangs for room scents, pricey but worth it.

[Saint]

What I stocked up on last time was the following

Rightguard deoderant
Bisto beef gravy granules
Maynards midget gems

[BillyB]

I would bring the lady of the house products from LUSH. They are sold here in after market shops but they are not as fresh and they are extremely expensive.

A gorgeous bottle of single malt scotch would be appreciated too. It would cost a bomb here.

@BillyB ~ try Shanghai Tangs for room scents, pricey but worth it.

I'll send my GF there at the weekend!! Thanks for the tip!

[BillyB]

What I stocked up on last time was the following

Rightguard deoderant
Bisto beef gravy granules
Maynards midget gems

We are just a bunch of rockstars aren't we - I'm talking about air fresheners and you want gravy granules!!

Also, the glossy mags - car magazines etc. That way you can make your friend feel sick about the cheap prices of cars back home compared to the ridiculous prices of cars in SG!!

[aster]

Proper salt & vinegar crisps and a bottle of sewage water bottled and branded as Newcastle Brown Ale.

[BillyB]

Proper salt & vinegar crisps and a bottle of sewage water bottled and branded as Newcastle Brown Ale.

Kettle chips do sea salt and vinegar - my favourite!!
And I didn't know they had Newcastle Brown in Germany Aster??!!

[BigSis]

Given you say 'he', I get the impression he's a single bloke and might not be interested in the weird things I like to bring back with me but basically the only things I ever bring back are:

chicken and leek cup-a-soup (junk food I know, but I like it )
blackcurrant lemsip (my kids like that one)
beef oxo (you can't get that here)

and that's about it really. I'd like to bring back pork pies, sausage meat, sausages, bacon and black pudding if I could ever get myself organised enough to do it but I never do - so if he's missing something like that you could ask him before you leave.


My sister-in-law brought a couple of bottles of beer over when she came last and one of them broke in the suitcase so beware of breakables like that. She'd wrapped them up well but hadn't put them in plastic bags so everything stank of beer.......which was quite nice when she first opened the suitcase I have to admit

But these days you can get lots of different beers here so really there's no need to bring stuff like that - it's more expensive but the choice is much better than it was when we first moved here.



As he's a bloke though, I wouldn't go too crazy - they don't seem to miss things from back home as much as women do.

[JayCee]

Pot noodles - gorgeous

Cadbury's cream eggs and mini-eggs too, I found cream eggs in one supermarket here (roughly 6 dollars for a packet of 3!) but they were all sold out within a day

[BigSis]

Pot noodles - gorgeous

Cadbury's cream eggs and mini-eggs too, I found cream eggs in one supermarket here (roughly 6 dollars for a packet of 3!) but they were all sold out within a day

they've nerfed pot noodles though. Last time I had one it was really boring and someone told me they'd cut down on the fat and salt........thereby rendering it tasteless


I saw cream eggs at cold storage in Siglap this morning - in fact they had quite a few kinds of eggs left which surprised me as they usually get sold out well before now. I bought a pack of mini ones

[Saint]

Pot noodles - gorgeous

Cadbury's cream eggs and mini-eggs too, I found cream eggs in one supermarket here (roughly 6 dollars for a packet of 3!) but they were all sold out within a day

I saw cream eggs at cold storage in Siglap this morning - in fact they had quite a few kinds of eggs left which surprised me as they usually get sold out well before now. I bought a pack of mini ones

Giant at PP had a load at the weekend as well

[aster]

Proper salt & vinegar crisps and a bottle of sewage water bottled and branded as Newcastle Brown Ale.

Kettle chips do sea salt and vinegar - my favourite!!
And I didn't know they had Newcastle Brown in Germany Aster??!!

I could actually do with a bag of Wakers Lights, the ones that you could never buy in larger amounts because big packs either came in 3 flavs or you had to buy the "regular fat" ones if you wanted 6x packs of just S&V.

I have nothing to do with Germany (in football terms I will root for virtually every other team playing against them), I just like the fact that the Euro currency is mainly run by them. I mean fancy the Italians or the Portuguese running it... sheesh! Put it this way - if there was no Euro then the German Mark would be the currency that I would trust the most for long-term savings.

Remember when the Euro first came out and settled at around 1.10 to the USD? I remember the headlines in proper publications that asked the question whether there will be a time in history when the Euro will be worth more than the Dollar. Whoudathunkit?

[durain]

sure can do with a packet of mr porky! (http://www.mrporky.co.uk/)