Void decks are never really void

My friends and I did a little exercise over dinner on Thursday - during one of those 'uncomfortable silence' moments.

It was not that the food wasn't any good. It was just that after one's tummy's full, in our contented state, the brain starts churning out all these banal, boring ideas.

And so I came out with "let's think of 3 things that, to you, are quintessentially Singaporean".

At first, silence. So silent, u can almost hear our brains whirring.
Then after a good 2 minutes, in rapid-fire exchange, the four of us came up with an impressive list. Some of the later ones are mine, added in the course of writing this posting.

I must stress it's not an exhaustive list, but enough to satiate us hungry-for-more Singaporeans for now.

So here goes.

1. Singlish (this was unanimous, even from the purist among us, who is an English teacher by the way)
2. "Cheap, cheap". When overseas, you can tell a Singaporean from a mile away from the way she bargains down a sale.
3. Queues
4. Void decks (which is never void by the way - there's the ubiquitous office which often house a kindergarten or a senior citizens' corner, or an RC, and of course the occassional Malay weddings, parties and Chinese funerals.
5. Tissue packs on tables in hawker centres as a way to reserve seats
6. Couples saying "let's buy an HDB flat" instead of "will you marry me?"
7. Free gifts
8. First-world nation status but third-world behaviour on the roads
9. Hawker centres
10. Chilli crabs
11. Clothes drying on bamboo poles
12. Merlion (which we agree is a poor, poor mascot)
13. Chinese temple, next to an Indian temple, next to a Mosque
14. B&W colonial bungalows as a must-have
15. Kopi O Kow
16. National Education syllabus
17. HDB heartlands
18. Our very own Botanic Gardens, so lush, so humid
19. Name-your-own-orchid activity
20. Kiasu, kiasi and suaku

Hey, feel free to add to the list. Or agree to disagree.
This was all done in good fun.