Void Deck Wedding Too Noisy for Ang Moh!

[cass888]

How about those Papaya running dogs who wanna talk cock, but dun know how to? Should they be debarked and castrated?

Sounds more like the MONGREL who bit his masters' hands LOUDHAILER chee soon juan to me.

 

[halsey02]

So this foreign talent was very displeased with Singaporean. Will our PM LHL pass policies to shut us up for the sake of FT?

His 'kar kias' are telling us, we have to love, embrace, hold & tolerate the FT's in our midst, and yet!, this 'hong mau guei" is telling us, what, we are!.

Certain points I have to agree with him:

1. Weddings at void decks, are usually done my the Malays, but, we have learnt to live with the music, the kompan(hope I got that right), but is is only for a day or two. But, on some 'lucky days', you have one or two or three in a row...then, that is a different matter!. Anyway, we have grown used to the noise, we have an automatic switch in our brain, that switches to " I don't hear anything', This Canadian, have to adjust!

2. Our shopping centres have extremely losuy acoustic, those who design them, never, never, designed the building for acoustic. When the shopping centres uses the atrium or centre courts for events that comes with sound, I have to agree with the writer, on how bad the, deflection of the sound around the shopping centre(s) are. It is a nightmare, you would want to leave the place, immediately, Like he said, "it is like hearing a jack hammer in a rock concert".

Christmas is coming....our dear friend, will have to put up with all these...either he gets "PISSED on Earth" or Peace on earth.

Anyway, he have to get used to it, do in Rome, what the Romans do, but we really have to look into the bad acoustics in the shopping centres, it is bad for the workers there, and the shoppers, as well!.

 

[Agoraphobic]

To ALL:

Quite interesting. I notice a tinge of disapproval to this expat's expression of what he found "unusual" while living in Singapore.

He is definitely not directing this writing to local S'poeans, otherwise he wouldn't have done the bit of explaing what a void deck is. It reads in an expat to expat tone and in this, he attempts to make the article witty and amusing (can't we all detect exaggeration in the decibel level?) I don't find any derogatory, abusive, or alarmist verbage. Yet, some readers take offence at his comment.

It is not unusual for one to attend loud rock concerts, discos, and/or festivals. But for many, it is unusual for a loud event to be held in a residential area. Waddayall think? I think it is, and that's why community centres/clubs) provide function halls ya?

Cheers! And have a sense of humor. Fck those Canucks, them spellit humour, just like those Singaporeans!

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>The avoid deck
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Mark Featherstone
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>




<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A term I have added to my vocabulary since arriving in Singapore is 'void deck'.
For you newcomers, this is not what you might think. A void deck is not the level on a ship where you find the toilets. Nor does the term derive from Star Trek: 'What'll it be today, Scotty - the holodeck or the void deck?' Rather, it is the name for that breezy expanse that is the ground floor of many HDB apartment blocks.
I believe the motivation for such open-air spaces is neighbourliness. Years ago, when many Singaporeans made the transition from kampungs to HDB flats, there may have been a concern over decreased interaction among neighbours and a deterioration of social life. The void deck would then compensate by providing a place for locals to hang out, meet and mingle.
Whatever the reason, I know for sure that void decks are regularly called into service for that great rite of passage - The Wedding.
My condo is bounded on three sides by HDB flats, and a morning walk will sometimes take me past a void deck bustling with much unloading, cooking and arranging in preparation for a wedding reception or some other celebration. I've noticed that the sound system is set up and tested early, reflecting the importance of music for the festivities.
That's because, as I've learnt the hard way, Singaporeans love to sing. Which is great in itself. Most people in the West don't sing enough. Singing per se is not my problem. My problem is volume. Loudness. Decibels. The unremitting pounding on my eardrums unleashed by singer after singer from the reverberating void deck, now transformed into The Boom Box from Hell; The Concrete Concusser; The Impossible to Avoid Deck.
So far as I can tell, the music at a Singaporean wedding is considered a flop unless it can be heard in Johor Baru.
The nice thing about Singaporean weddings is that they're a time for the tone-deaf members of the family to feel accepted. So for the next four or five or 10 hours, no one between Johor and Bintan can escape the off-key warblings of every musically challenged relative, right down to 14th cousins.
This may be useful in helping nearby ships to navigate through fog, but because my apartment is a lot closer, I feel like I'm at the wedding myself. More accurately, I feel like I'm inside a loudspeaker at the wedding. Since this makes me a de facto participant, I think I have the right to head over and say, 'Gosh, all this singing's given me an appetite. Any leftovers? Can I kiss the bride? Strangle the karaoke guy?'
But I don't. I'm not confident I could be heard. Instead, I take it for a while, then barricade myself in the living room, shove towels under the door, plug my ears, and sing anything I can remember. Probably Silent Night.
Something similar happens at West Mall when the floor of the cavernous central core is turned over to a stage from which one man - a lone, sadistic singer - attempts to render hundreds of shoppers permanently deaf. I'm never sure what the occasion is, though I suspect there is at least one national 'Make the Customer Suffer Day'.
Being inside the shopping mall makes it more difficult for the sound to reach Johor. That little problem is easily overcome by turning up the volume even louder than at a wedding. As a result, the singer's voice now batters the glass-fronted shops on every level with an atomising barrage that makes you long for the peace and quiet of a jack-hammer at a rock concert.
At first glance, you think some shoppers are enjoying it, because people on all four floors are leaning over the railings and looking down towards the stage. But I think they're desperately warning the guy that if he doesn't stop, they'll jump.
I pity the store clerks who are bound to stay at their posts while their eardrums turn to tofu. I wonder how they restrain themselves from lynching the malicious crooner. Maybe they console themselves with the thought that it's only a matter of time till they exact their revenge. At the next wedding, they are the ones who will be holding the microphone. Mark Featherstone is a Canadian and a professor at the School of Biological Sciences at Nanyang Technological University. He will come to your wedding if you let him sing.

 

[i_am_belle]

He is definitely not directing this writing to local S'poeans, otherwise he wouldn't have done the bit of explaing what a void deck is. It reads in an expat to expat tone and in this, he attempts to make the article witty and amusing ...

plenty of such postings in that infamous 'expatsingapore message board forum' ... esp in the past, and the locals would go there to quarrel with the westerners

now the board admin deletes all controversial postings and so now only postings like 'how to get my kid into UWC' exists on that board ... 'where to get the best pizza' etc ...

the westerners complain abt everything from local manners, customs to landlords, noise, weather, big cockroach ... they are a far cry from their colonial ancestors who were able to adapt to the tropics & get along with locals eg. by learning malay ...

nowadays we get a bunch of 'softie' ang mos who complain yet feel offended if locals tell them to head for changi airport ...

 

[Agoraphobic]

Thanks for the update ('bout the expat forum)

In my working days in Sg, I've come to know a number of expats. Some were really nice, even hardworking, and often expressed delight and good fortune of their opportunity to live and work in Sg (lots of support at office, golf all year round, scuba trips to the surrounding archipelago, their wives happy the domestics taken care of by a servant........ etc.) And there were also the gripes (can't get along at work, locals sabo the bugger left and right, wife can't stand the humidity and/or society..... children not with the "right" crowd...etc.) Maybe there are more of the latter nowadays because the competition has heated up (the world over) and their package worsened by less company perks, longer working hours, more travelling.

Some time ago, with the advent of technology, workers in industrialized countries were looking forward to a "four day week! " That didn't come to pass , and the cauldron the working class stir in has gotten hotter, and noisier. I foresee more complains.

Having said that, I still aver that this article about noise in the void deck was meant to be humorous.

Cheers!

the westerners complain abt everything from local manners, customs to landlords, noise, weather, big cockroach ... they are a far cry from their colonial ancestors who were able to adapt to the tropics & get along with locals eg. by learning malay ...

nowadays we get a bunch of 'softie' ang mos who complain yet feel offended if locals tell them to head for changi airport ... [/COLOR]

 

[Aussie Pete]

You haven't seen or heard a noisy wedding until you witness one in Shanghai... the day of our wedding, the car carrying me enters the section of blocks of apartments of my in-laws to much cheering and revelling. The fireworks greet the arrival along with the crowd on the streets... this is to tell everybody else to look out the windows and join us on the street to wish us the best... after much ceremony and tradition inside, we leave again to more screams and cheers and more fireworks to rival CNY... this is all before we even begin the celebrations and reception...

No such thing as a quiet wedding... is it even possible??

 

[johnny333]

And there were also the gripes (can't get along at work, locals sabo the bugger left and right, wife can't stand the humidity and/or society..... children not with the "right" crowd...etc.) Maybe there are more of the latter nowadays because the competition has heated up (the world over) and their package worsened by less company perks, longer working hours, more travelling.

Having worked for am American MNC I notice that the friction usually results when the FT is no talent. Local staff resent having to cover up for mistakes of the expat especially when the expat gets all the credit & promotion.

Yes I've met some foreign talents but they are eventually recalled back to hq where career, climate, pay is better than in Spore even if they continue to work in the same company.

 

[troubledtimes]

Ang mos tend to cover each other's ass, i remember having to cover my ang mo collegue's work alot as well...

 

[jw5]

can singaporean accept lau lee ?

Not only accept, but some of them even embrace his feet and lick them.

 

[Received_by_Kings]

That is the pain of his realisation of his true net worth in even a foreign society by being posted to live in a cheap condominium surrounded by humble public housing projects and your everyday vivid heartlanders dwelling there.

Ah hardy haha why not NUS?

 

[eErotica69]

I don't understand why this ang moh write a whole big load of crap including the definition of void deck, when he only wanted to convey one point, i.e "the noise level is too freaking loud!". As usual for ang moh, "If you cannot convince, confuse"?

My flat is on the 15th floor besides a HDB function hall, and I agree with him, the noise level is sometimes too loud, not just the wedding, but funeral and RC functions. But no choice, since I live in a HDB, I have to accept it!! My plan one day is to sell and move to a flat that is not beside any function hall!!

If ang moh feels strongly that the music is too loud, he can moved to places the has no HDB flats, like Sentosa, Marina, Orchard, Tanglin, Holland etc... If this ang moh cannot afford a condo at these places, then he should can also consider buying a condo at Geylang, that place has no HDB!! He make sure he does not stay beside a temple, that's all!

 

[Cestbon]

Wedding in void deck also complaint!Is Ok because wedding held on day not night for Malay.
If 7th month Chinese the Getai Sing loud until pass 12 midnight that even worst.
Lucky he not live in Malaysia near Mosque. Sure heart attack. Friday even worst.

 

[halsey02]

i will not be surprise if they do burn credit cards ..anyway they already burn "houses " , "cars " , "maid " , "DVD player " ....ect . the time will come :p

In PRC, they burn paper iphone, ipad...DVD player old fashion, they want 3D blue ray player..

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

hahahaha who holds weddings in the void decks? m&ds.

 

[lianbeng]

lianbeng remembers the saying: when in Singapore, do what Singaporeans do.

 

[123456787654321]

lianbeng remembers the saying: when in Singapore, do what Singaporeans do.

That saying only applies to people of inferior cultures going to a superior country. It most definitely does not apply to people of a superior culture going to an inferior country. Whenever non-whites go to a white country to study or do business, they have to adopt the culture of the white caucasians. But if white caucasians go to a non-white country, it is that country that has to adopt white culture to suit the white caucasians. With its roots in colonialism, Singapore is most definitely no different.