My Tissue Collection

One of the things I advise people who are visiting or would be visiting Singapore is to bring hand/facial tissues. Because in Singapore, tissues are not usually given out for free, especially in hawkers (food centers). Usually, only the foreign fast food chains and restaurants give out tissues. But having tissue is essential in Singapore daily life, because aside from needing it to clean up while and after you eat, it is also a necessary weapon to wipe out sweat when you walk around in this humid temperature.

The tissue then indeed holds a special power here in Singapore. To further emphasize how powerful it is, if you look around some seats or tables in food centers that has a pack of tissue on them, this actually means that the seat/table has been reserved, and there is an unspoken rule that respects this. This was something I just learned upon observation during my first few months here in Singapore. Back then I thought someone just left a pack of tissue on the table because in the Philippines, although we also do this type of "reserving seats", we usually place something bigger and more personal, like an umbrella, a folder or a bag (without anything valuable inside of course), but not something minuscule and generic like a tissue pack.

So that would explain to you why tissue packets are being sold here and there around Singapore, usually by senior citizens and disabled persons. Some walk around the hawkers offering them from table to table, some sell them along the walkways. The prices of the tissue they sell vary, some sell 3 packs for S$1, some at 5 packs for S$1, but certainly it is more expensive than if you buy a bundle of packs in groceries, like around 20 packs for S$1.50. That is why usually I buy a bundle when I do grocery shopping. Actually, I even still have some packs I bought when I went home to Philippines and went grocery shopping. However, last week I went out for lunch in a hawker outside our office and I forgot to bring some tissue with me, so I bought from a lady who was selling around. Then on another day I bought some again from another lady. Tonight, while having dinner at a hawker, an old lady with a crouched back approached our table and offered some tissues. She spoke in Mandarin, I'm quite sure she doesn't speak English as most old Chinese people here don't. I really didn't need some tissue because my food didn't require me to use my bare hands nor was it messy. But I found myself getting $1 from my pocket and gave it to her for 3 packs of tissue. Then I remembered the old disabled man I pass by every weekday as I walk in the train underground walkway going to work who sells tissue packets, I remember the many other old and disabled people who does the same kind of living in the streets here, and from then on, I decided that I am not buying my tissue packets in groceries anymore.