Thursday, February 5, 2009

High on Coke


HG isn't feeling well these couple of days - probably caught the flu bug from Estelle - and wants some comfortable food. I bought him a bottle of olives yesterday  and today, he decided he wants some Coca-Cola.

We trotted into K-Market and bought two 1.5l  bottles of Coke. Then we spotted the 12-pack Vanilla Coke. Would you believe that these purchases came up to €21.35? That's nearly S$43.00 worth of Coca-Cola!!

I'm not kidding. Two 1.5l bottles at €2.59 + €0.80 bottle deposit (you get the money back when you bring the empty bottles back to the recycling centre) + €17.95 for 12 cans = €21.34.

The supermarket does not take 1 cents so we pay €21.35. I clarify that this amount doesn't include the bag of groceries on the left...

The cost of living in Finland is exorbitantly high. People commonly use the "Big Mac" index to determine the cost of living in a city or country. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I suggest the Coke index can be a useful indicator too.

After being here for nearly 8 months, we have grown numb to paying €2.50 for a cup of coffee (just kopi-o, not cappuccino or latte, ok?) or €3.60 for a muffin or €9.90 for fried noodles. Even a slab of humble tofu (uncooked, mind you) costs €2.50. Remember our dinner at Ravintola Singapore?

Other than everything being expensive, I can't really find many things to complain. People are nice, drivers give way, clean environment, cool weather...

Some mornings, I'll go for a simple breakfast of pastry and tea at our nearby mall and take time to catch up on my reading. Today, I was at K-Market Leipomo reading a Chinese book on the Finnish education system. It was written by a Taiwanese mother whose family lived in Finland for several years and she has two girls who attended primary school here.

As I was reading, three old men came to share my table. They exclaimed surprise that the words in my book ran vertically instead of horizontally. In my halting Finnish and some sign language, I explained the content of the book, that it is written in Chinese and besides reading up to down, the words and pages also ran right to left.

I carried on reading and when I looked up after a chapter, we "chatted" again. Our conversation went around the same topic because that's as far as my Finnish took us. One of them noticed that I wasn't wearing any rings and helpfully pointed out that his friend sitting opposite was single. These chaps are older than my dad, hahaha. I declined his kind offer and carried on reading.

After several more chapters, I was ready to leave. At most cafes and fast-food restaurants in Finland, one is expected to tidy up and clear the table before leaving. As I stood up to go, one of the old men offered to take my tray. All he had was a cup of coffee while my tray had an empty plate, a cup, tea bag, tissue paper and sugar wrapper. But no, it's okay, he would clear up for me. 

Maybe he was trying to impress me, thinking I might need a visa to migrate. Some people, men and women, marry Finnish citizens to take advantage of the well-endowed welfare system. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll recognise any one of them if I see them again. Still, they left a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart the whole day. 

If I ever notice an old Finnish man smiling at me at the supermarket, I think I'd better smile back. It's nice to smile anyway.  : )





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