sundaymorningstaple wrote:sprite wrote:sundaymorningstaple wrote:anybody else foolish to insist on eating western while in an asian country. Part of the experience of asia is the local food.
Why?
Why can't you just eat what you want? Why is deciding what's best for your family 'foolish'?
Sundaymorningstaple, not all expats are like you. Not everyone decided to live here and immerse themselves completely in the local culture. If you were a career expat, moving every few years, that would be exhausting and a waste of time. What if you are here for two years and you just want some Tim Tams because you're homesick?
Groceries can be very expensive here, which is why long-term residents/expatriates ween themselves off western items if they stay longer. Any good HR person can tell you the formula used to figure this out.
......deciding what's best for your family is foolish? I wish you could actually hear what you have written. You brought them here and then can write something like that?
When I put the word foolish in quotation marks, I was referring to, quoting, what you had said and was simply asking why the groceries I buy for my family, the decisions I make, knowing their schedules, allergies, our budget etc. should be considered 'foolish' by you.
Do you actually read the garbage you write?
Why are you being so rude? Have I been this rude to you? I just disagree. Why are you having so much trouble being civil?
If you were a career expat you would have given up trying to eat like you did at home (wherever that might have been before you started your "expat" career)
No Sunday, that's what YOU would do. Other people handle things differently.
because you would already know that most things wouldn't be available anyway. It's much more exhausting to try to keep finding the little things that make you feel like you shouldn't have become an expat in the first place. It's much harder to find a Tim Tam than it is to find a local snack don't you think?
Aren't you the guy that buys up all the Triscuits?
A career expat also doesn't always move every two years either (don't know where you came up with that BS - did they teach you that in HR101?).
Well some do. I've met some. It is fair to say maybe you have not?
Groceries, if you want to eat imported, are expensive anywhere.
If you want to eat what you ate at home, then stay home and don't become an expat. If you are here and want a Tim Tams because you're homesick? Buy it. But don't complain about the cost.
I didn't complain about the cost. Saying things are more expensive is not necessarily a complaint. I'm simply trying to point out that some people's expereinces are different than your's and you shouldn't belittle them for thinking differently.
Simple logic I'd say.
Yes, a one-sided viewpoint often is. It does say Singapore Expats Forum at the top of my page, what does yours say?
Groceries are very cheap here. It's only the individual makes them expensive. I think you've got it bass ackwards. I didn't ween myself off anything. I started eating local the day I arrived. As I've done for every country I've been either living in or working in for close to 30 years. Weening is for babies and some of the newer types of expats like yourself I guess.
I am not new, but it's obvious you are old and set in your ways and not open to discussion. By the way, the OP 's first line said:
I was told before I got here that grocery prices are similar to Oz. Well I don't know the prices exactly back home in Melbourne, but apart from milk and bread, most things seem to be more expensive- am I right about this generally?
She was just looking for a little information, not a condemnation of her lifestyle.
Now, can we please give it a rest. I know this pleasures you but it does get old. I'm old enough already. And yeah, pretty set in my ways, I've seen thousands of expats come and go over the past quarter of a century some with attitude like you, some with staying power like me and a whole lot somewhere in between. Unfortunately, being an uneducated farmboy with crappy English and worse grammar, tact never became my forte. Most here already know that though...... 
