SINGAPORE: It is that time of the year again, where the morning commute to work is a little less crowded and a little more peaceful. The year-end holidays and festivities are just around the corner, and many, especially those with school-going children, are taking off for family vacations.

While vacations come at a cost and are surely a privilege that is more affordable for those with higher incomes, rest and leisure is a human right, and research has suggested that family vacations play vital roles in family bonding and the creation of shared memories.

Studying what is called “family capital”, researchers have suggested that family vacations are highly effective in building “bonds between parents and children that are useful in promoting child socialisation”.

VACATION – A MODERN FAMILY NECESSITY

Much like the oft-quoted saying that a family that eats together stays together, many have argued that the intense time spent together as a family during vacations allow parents and children to get to know each other on a deeper level, and hence build and stabilise family relationships.

Indeed, a colleague went on a two-week trip, just his daughter and him, and came back schooled in every little detail of the child’s likes and dislikes. Further, he observed how much his daughter had blossomed under his guidance and undivided attention.

Modern families increasingly invest significant time and money in travel as a leisure activity. 

As detailed in the latest household expenditure survey in 2013, the median household in Singapore spent S$2,280 per year on vacations (4 per cent of total household expenditure), and this increases significantly as income levels go up. The top 20 per cent of all households spent an average of S$7,560 per year on vacations (8 per cent of total household expenditure).

As incomes rise over the past few decades, vacations are increasingly seen as an essential rather than a luxury. 

The image of the happy family on holiday is ever-present in tourism marketing and all over your social media feeds, even if they spend the other 50 weeks of the year at each other’s throats or on their phones.

And in this season especially – Facebook and Instagram are flooded with pictures of smiling children against a backdrop of the sun, sand and sea. All having the time of their lives away from schoolwork, assessment books and tuition classes.

Therein may lie the reason why vacations seem so important to the modern family.

PROTECTED TIME FROM WORK AND SCHOOL

The age-old desire to achieve work-life balance features strongly here. Beyond simply being a means to take a break from the daily hustle, family vacations also represent a rare opportunity to have protected time that parents can spend with their children – away from work and school commitments that often encroach into workday evenings and weekends.

Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of The Time Bind, has argued that as the Internet and mobile devices allow individuals to work more easily from home, the borders between family and work have become increasingly permeable.

People are not only staying later at work, but have also inevitably invited work into almost every waking hour. Remember waking up to work-related messages before breakfast with the family yesterday, or taking a pause while building blocks with your child because you glanced at your smartphone and saw an urgent work email (and having that pause grow into an hour away)?

Why would we do that at the expense of quality time with our families?

Hochschild suggests that “work was offering stimulation, guidance, and a sense of belonging, while home had become the place in which there was too much to do in too little time”.

And perhaps it isn’t only parents doing this. In Singapore at least, children’s schedules are increasingly filled up with enrichment classes and tuition.

For better or for worse, the booming enrichment market in Singapore has meant that many families spend their weekends shuttling from one class to another.

The family vacation then becomes one of the few opportunities in a year where Daddy or Mummy can’t “rush back to work”, and children aren’t forced to practise violin or go for swimming classes. In fact, perhaps it has become such that it is only when on vacation that a family has the time to be a family.

Does that mean that only the rich who can afford family vacations deserve such protected family time?

WHAT QUALITY TIME REALLY IS

Of course not. Good news – research has found that quality time for a child is in fact rather simple and is literally nothing special.

While early childhood businesses and the entertainment industry would like to convince you that you have to shell out for quality time, Tamar Kremer-Sadlik, a professor of anthropology at UCLA, notes that “everyday activities (like household chores or running errands) may afford families quality moments, unplanned, unstructured instances of social interaction that serve the important relationship-building functions that parents seek from quality time”.

Indeed, children were observed to value such regular moments more than elaborate and “fun” activities planned especially for them.

Parents of young children should know this all too well – you endure a draining flight to Phuket or Bali only to find that your child decides that he simply hates sand and would not deign to stand on it barefoot, let alone build sandcastles. Or you can go all the way to the Grand Canyon and your child is only interested in jumping in puddles of mud, plainly ignoring nature’s grandiose splendour.

Thankfully, you don’t have to bring your children to Switzerland or Disney World for a vacation, or even to the Zoo or Universal Studios while on staycations.

The best family bonding time is not about the most expensive destinations or photogenic activities, but simply time spent doing mundane, seemingly irrelevant and unexciting things together.

Hanging out by the pool, having a prata supper, or just having the whole family squeeze into one bed at night – apparently these are what quality time is really made of.

In fact, if you resist the urge or need to work or send the kids to classes, or if employers would stop expecting work to be done beyond office hours, perhaps you don’t even need to go on vacations. Carving out 20 minutes where mobile phones are muted to listen about each other’s day could go a long way.

Indeed, looking at family tourism often gives us an insight into life beyond the vacation: It is a mirror of everyday family life, and reflects what we lack or desire.

The problem here then is with the larger issue of the modern working life and its lack of family-work balance. 

Until we manage to create a society where family time is valued and honoured above or at least on par with other needs however, the home away from home during our travels seems to remain unfortunately as one of the few occasions we can have protected time to be just a family.

Sin Harng Luh is assistant professor at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Geography. Her research focuses on tourism and tourism’s practices within the boundaries of sustainable development and ethical consumerism.

SINGAPORE: Patrolling and protecting Singapore’s territorial waters can be a challenge because of the porous nature of the island nation’s watery borders.

On Wednesday (Dec 20), I shadowed the Police Coast Guard (PCG) for a day to get a first-hand look at how they protect Singapore’s waters.

Brani Base, a stone’s throw away from Sentosa Island, is home to the Special Task Squadron (STS) and the Emergency Response Team (ERT) of the PCG.

Made up of elite officers, the STS is trained to respond to high-risk, sea-bound threats, while the ERT was set up earlier this year to be the maritime version of counter-terrorism police. Up to November this year, 63 illegal immigrants have been arrested by the PCG.

Following STS officers in their inceptor-class craft which goes up to 55 knots, or about 100km per hour, we went out to sea to experience how they would take out suspicious craft.

With the engines roaring in our ears and wind whipping our faces as we straddled on a saddle seat and clutched onto a handlebar, it felt like we were moving a lot faster than 55 knots.

Further out at sea, we switched to a smaller and more agile rigid-hulled inflatable boat to observe how STS officers force their way onboard a target and later in another scenario, how ERT officers take back a vessel hijacked by two suspicious characters.

Riding on the foamy white wake of the “suspicious” craft, the police boat had to ride the waves like a surfer would.

Once our inflatable craft was right alongside the target craft, STS officers moved swiftly and steadily despite the choppy waters to board and subdue the threat.

ERT officers, who have been trained specifically to respond to terror threats, showed us how they would storm a vessel and search it. Since ERT became operational in August, they have checked more than 22,000 craft.

Clad in 18kg of gear including a bulletproof vest, ballistic helmet and glasses, and tactical gloves, the ERT officers fired blanks while shouting at the role-playing terrorists. Gunshots reverberated through the steel walls and down the hallways of the vessel.

They took out the terrorists, located survivors and saved them, all while climbing seven floors cautiously and manoeuvring tight spaces.

The journalists’ jobs? To stay out of the way as the officers moved in to tackle the threat.

“Keep your arms and legs in, and stay in your seat. And when we shout ‘backwash’, stay down,” an officer instructed sternly.

TAKING THE PLUNGE?

As part of the media visit, we were given the opportunity to do an 8m jump that all PCG officers go through as a “rite of passage” to build their confidence.

“Keep your arms close to your body, look to the horizon and just go,” said the officer overseeing our jump.

I would also have to hold an arrow-straight position, pinch my nose and cross my arms while holding the life-vest down so that it will not pop off my body.

A slight bend and I might face plant or belly flop onto the surface of the water, ensuring bruises and pain for the next few days, I was told.

A practice jump of two metres from a jetty was nothing. It was over in a second and I felt elated as I emerged from the salty seawater.

But when it came time for the real deal, I looked down and froze. There was no big leap, it would take just one small step, but 8 metres suddenly seemed a dizzying height. 

I couldn’t do it. I only sneaked a peek at the other reporters when they jumped and hit water because it made me feel lightheaded. 

The courage and steadfastness required to go through the coast guard training hit home then.

UNMANNED SURFACE VESSELS

Since last year, the PCG has also been testing Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) in two models – a 16m model and a 9m model.

Both are equipped with an array of sensors to detect threats in their vicinity. When the need arises, human operators will be able to take control of the USVs remotely, said superintendent Lin Zhenqiang, head of operations and security at the PCG.

The bigger 16m version is supposed to look like a regular patrol boat, making it hard for seafarers to tell whether the police craft is manned or unmanned. 

Both models are being tested for their robustness in dealing with collision avoidance, behaviour in different sea conditions and communications among others. 

While these robots are being tested, patrols are still being carried out by coast guard officers.

“The USV, which can conduct autonomous patrols, will help project police presence to deter intruders,” said Mr Lin.

SINGAPORE: No summons were issued for cars belonging to President Halimah Yacob’s convoy that were waiting along double yellow lines at Prinsep Street, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Friday (Dec 22). 

A photo of an LTA officer talking to the driver of one of the cars, with the special number place “SEP1”, was circulating on social media and chat apps such as Telegram.

In response to media queries from Channel NewsAsia, LTA and SPF said in a joint statement that an LTA enforcement officer was conducting his routine patrol along Prinsep Street on Wednesday when he noticed two vehicles waiting along a stretch marked with double yellow lines.

The officer approached the vehicle to ask the driver to drive off, in line with LTA’s approach to enforcing the double yellow lines regulation.

“The driver informed the LTA enforcement officer that he was there to pick up the President who was leaving the place. In the midst of the engagement, the President arrived and the driver drove off. There was no summons issued,” LTA and SPF said in the statement.

The agencies explained that the Police Security Command (SecCom) provides security protection for the President and other senior political leaders. 

“As part of the security protection operations, the vehicle convoy is to be positioned close to the event location in compliance with traffic rules, to facilitate swift evacuation during contingencies,” they said.

In this case, the SecCom ground commander made a decision for the convoy to wait there for the President as there were no street-side parking lots available in the immediate vicinity which would have allowed the convoy to come quickly to the scene in the event of an emergency, the authorities added. 

The police and LTA said they have reviewed this incident and SecCom officers have been reminded to park the convoy “in compliance with traffic rules, without compromising their mission to ensure the safety and security of those they are escorting”.

SINGAPORE: The Secret, a musical version of mandopop star Jay Chou’s award-winning movie in 2007, is coming to Singapore in April next year.

The storyline of the musical is based on the time travel love story between two students in the original movie, said organisers Base Entertainment Asia and Perfect World Pictures on Friday (Dec 22).

The musical will be staged at Marina Bay Sands from April 6 to April 15.

Chief executive officer of Base Entertainment Asia, Chantal Prudhomme, said: “It is important to us to not just open doors to international talents but Asian as well. I have been actively looking for Asian shows with top quality and great content from the best. And with Jay Chou’s music and original script and its history as a hit movie, The Secret is the next ‘it’ show coming out from Asia to watch.”

The Sing! China judge will also pay his Singaporean fans a visit this January, for the first leg of Part 2 of the Invincible Jay Chou Concert World Tour.

Tickets for the musical are now on sale and are priced between S$48 and S$148, excluding a S$4 booking fee per ticket.

SINGAPORE: She thought she had scored a good deal by buying a pair tickets to Universal Studios Singapore (USS) on online marketplace Carousell.

But little did Ms Lynda Loh, 28, know that she would soon become another victim of an online serial cheat.

Ms Loh said that she had purchased two USS tickets on Carousell for S$100 in April; one for herself, the other for her husband.

The tickets were about S$10 cheaper than what other sellers on the platform were offering. 

After she transferred the money to the seller, she received the tickets via email almost immediately, she told Channel NewsAsia.

However, when she arrived at the ticketing booth at USS, she was told the tickets were invalid and denied entry.

She contacted the seller, who agreed to send her new tickets. Then he stopped responding.

Ms Loh is one of many victims of a scam involving the sale of USS e-tickets. 

According to the police, a 33-year-old man was arrested on Friday (Dec 22) for his suspected involvement in several cases of cheating.

Since March this year, there have been several reports lodged from victims of an online seller advertising the sale of USS tickets.

The tickets would be emailed to the victims after an online bank transfer was made, but they were all refused entry at USS because the tickets were invalid. 

“The tickets looked legitimate and even had a barcode,” Ms Loh said, explaining why she did not suspect anything was amiss with the tickets.

The suspect had used multiple bank accounts, Carousell accounts and contact numbers to hide his actions, said the police.

However, police investigations eventually led to the suspect’s arrest on Friday along Bukit Batok Street 32. 

He will be charged on Friday for cheating and if found guilty, he may be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

The police have advised members of the public to check the seller’s track record before making online purchases and to only buy from authorised sellers. If advance payments are required, use platforms that allow for payments to be made after the items have been received. 

“I felt frustrated and dumb when I realised it was a scam,” said Ms Loh. “For future purchases, I will get a physical ticket and meet up in person to pay in cash.”

SINGAPORE: A 66-year-old driver and a passenger were taken to hospital after the car they were in flipped over at Bukit Batok on Friday morning (Dec 22).

The police said they were alerted to an accident involving two cars at the junction of Bukit Batok Street 23 and Bukit Batok Industrial Park at 11.10am. 

The driver and his passenger, a 31-year-old man, were conscious when they were taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. Police investigations are ongoing.   

Channel NewsAsia understands the car hit a kerb and flipped over. The occupants of the other car were unhurt. 

SINGAPORE: A fire broke out at Japanese restaurant Shin Kushiya at VivoCity shopping mall on Friday (Dec 22).

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted of the incident at 11.35am. 

The fire involved the kitchen exhaust duct in a restaurant on the second floor of the mall, said SCDF. 

It added that the fire was extinguished by the company’s emergency response team prior to their arrival. There were no reported injuries and the cause of fire is under investigation, it said.

Financial consultant Xtina Leong, 36, said her husband saw smoke coming from the kitchen of Shin Kushiya restaurant, and that he had reported this to SCDF.

A fire alarm near a toilet on the second floor started ringing at around 11.40am, she said.

“We thought it was a false alarm at first, but when we smelt something pungent and saw the smoke, we realised something was wrong,” she told Channel NewsAsia.

“Smoke and the smell is spreading – you can even smell it at the end (of the mall), near HarbourFront Centre.” The smell was so pungent, it “caused irritation to our throats – so we didn’t dare go too near”, she said.

Ms Leong also said people were crowding around taking pictures and video of the scene instead of evacuating.

Plumes of white smoke were seen billowing from an area near the Fish & Co. restaurant on the mall’s second floor.

When Channel NewsAsia visited the scene past noon, the area had been cordoned off and staff were seen mopping water off the floor just outside the restaurant.