(Wikipedia) ‘An Expatriate (often shortened to Expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (“out of”) and patria (“country, fatherland”).This blog aims to discover people who are adventurers like me, venturing out in a new place to call home and creating memories. I have previously lived with my parents and siblings in the Saudi Arabia when I was in high school. I have enjoyed and cherished my memories in the beautiful Sandbox I once called my home. Now, I am in a new adventure with my husband and son here in Singapore.

I am featuring Expats in different countries every two weeks to share their experiences and adventures with you and me.

It is nice to know a Filipina mommy blogger in Singapore. I got to know our featured expat in online blogger group. Get to know more of Cherry of www.sweetmemoirs.com.

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1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you are originally from?

I am a full time working mom and I moonlight as a blogger in between. I am from the Philippines and I am actually holding on to a PRC dentist license but I shifted working from a dental clinic to a private medical specialist clinic in 2009 because I couldn’t cope with the long working hours in the dental practice.

I am a wanderlust by heart but I have yet to tick many places from my travel bucketlist. (Too little time and too tight travel budget! Haha!) I am also a food enthusiast, a photo hobbyist, and a nature lover.

2. What made you move to Singapore? How long have you been here?

My main objective when I first came to Singapore is to find a job that will enable me to earn more and save more. It’s only on the later part that I realize my family and I can stay here for good so my husband applied for permanent residency for the whole family in 2008 and thankfully, it was approved on our first try. Last year marked my one decade in Singapore.

 

 

3. What do you miss about your home country?

Street food, the relaxing scenery in my province (rice fields and low lying mountains), and of course, my entire family back home.

4. What are the wonderful discoveries and things you like about in Singapore?

It is in Singapore that I discovered the joy of staycationing and traveling. My kids always look forward to our staycations and I feel so blessed that we live just “next door” to Malaysia and Indonesia which offer so many beautiful places to explore without us having to burn our pockets.

It is also in Singapore that I started loving the variety of food from local food to Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and a plethora of other cuisines that I wasn’t exposed to back home. Basically, I turned into a food enthusiast here. I have even learned to love eating durian, all thanks to my boss who holds durian parties yearly. Haha!

5. What are the 3 tips you can give to fellow expats in Singapore or those you planning to move here?

First, be well prepared to adapt in the community. It is sad that some people move to Singapore only to “bad mouth” its people later on.

Secondly, if you are going to leave your immediate family behind, try to think a million times as it can be really tough. Not all people can cope living miles away from their love ones.

Lastly, don’t forget to consider the high cost of living in Singapore. I always get questions on how we cope with it. Fortunately, we are a low maintenance family.

6. The LITTLE MISS HONEY community gets inspired through travel, food and books. Can you tell us your current FAVORITE TRAVEL SPOT, current FAVORITE FOOD/RESTAURANT DISCOVERIES & current FAVORITE BOOK?

Favourite travel spot: Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

I wanted to say Switzerland but I was alone when I visited there so the memories that I made there in incomparable to the memories I made with my family at Phi Phi Islands.

We went to Phuket some time back without any itinerary but after our relaxing free-and-easy first day, we decided to book a city tour on our 2^nd day. The tour guide was very knowledgeable, he was the only Thai we met in Phuket who speaks English fluently. My husband chatted with him and asked about the day tour to Phi Phi Islands. To cut the long story short, we travelled to Phi Phi Islands on our 3^rd day via speedboat. It was hubby’s anniversary and birthday gift to me. I was ecstatic as the kids really enjoyed our island hopping and I got to snorkel for the first time! The most awesome part is I was able to strike off Maya Bay from my travel bucketlist. Sureal!

Favourite food discovery: Spicy Diablo by Platypus Kitchen – it’s a DDMT (die die must try)!

Current restaurant discovery: Flutes

I’ve been to Flutes before for the launch of Open Snap App but didn’t really get to appreciate the restaurant and bar because we were busy covering the event. Recently, hubby asked me to book a Valentine Dinner near his workplace and when I searched, Flutes popped out on my screen. I booked 2 days before the actual Valentine’s Day and we tremendously enjoyed the ambience and the food.

Current favourite book: The Power of a Praying Wife

I used to read a lot of Sidney Sheldon and Judith Mcnaught novels but currently, I am drawn to self-help books and this one is actually a gift from my ever thoughtful lady boss. I swear every wife MUST have this book. It has the power as a “marriage keeper”.

7. Where do you get your inspirations? Who or what inspires you?

Blogging wise, I get my inspirations from other blogs like Karen Cheng’s Fashion and Life, PattyLaurel.com, Mother Inc, Make it Blissful, Momastery, and Enjoying the Small Things to name a few. Life in general, Daphne Osena Paez inspires me a lot in all aspects (as a mom, a wife, a daughter, a blogger, and a woman). I did an interview with her similar to this last year and that’s when I loved and adored her even more. She is just so humble and genuine!

7. Share with my readers more about your personal blog.

Sweet Memoirs is a family and lifestyle blog where I share about my family’s adventures in and out of the country. I basically write about anything and almost everything under the sun, but my favou-reads are our family journal, travel tales and food diary.

We’ve been fortunate to be included as Top 10 Finalist for Best Lifestyle Blog in last year’s Singapore Blog Awards. I truly appreciate the recognition for my hard work in maintaining this site. Needless to say, it also opened many more new doors of opportunities and I will be forever grateful for that.

9. If you have a friend coming to visit Singapore for the first time and you have the whole day to show her around, which places are you going to take her?

That’s tricky! It all depends on that certain friend’s preference. If she loves flowers and nature, I will bring her to Singapore Botanic Gardens and other nature parks. If she is adventurous, I will bring her to Universal Studios and Sentosa Island. If she wishes to see modern Singapore, I will bring her at Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands and tour her around the Singapore River.

10. Lastly, can you share with what is your inspirational mantra in life?

“Be thankful for what you have. Your life, no matter how bad you think it is at times, is someone else’s fairytale.”

 

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Thank you Mommy Cherry for sharing with us your story. I hope we can meet one of these days in one of the Singapore blogger events. 

Visit her blog at www.sweetmemoirs.com for more of her Singapore adventures.

If you are an expat or know any expats who are interested to be featured, drop me a line at littlemisshoneyblog@gmail.com.”