Siew Kuen wakes up at around 6.30 am every day to prepare for work at a bakery in the neighbourhood. She washes her face using her SK-II cleanser and use the Facial Treatment Essence after. Due to the nature of her work, she doesn’t put on any make-up. She left the house at around 7 am and walked to the bakery where she works. She got down to work right after she reached at about 7.10 am.
By the time I visited the bakery at around 8am, she was busy working by making coffee and bread for the long queue of customers. The crowd consist of busy professionals rushing to work in the Central Business District.
ONE DAY OBSERVATION
Her working environment is quite warm and most of her co-workers are males. She talks to them cheerfully and I can see that she enjoys working and interacting with them.
At 11am, she leaves for her lunch break. I followed her to buy lunch and return to her home that is 10 minutes away from the bakery. She tells me that either she or her husband will buy lunch and they will stay home to eat. She invites me to her house and began talking to her husband in mandarin over lunch. She also started reading the newspaper when she is eating because she says that she does not have time to read the news. I also observed that she has very limited skincare and makeup products. She does not use any brand of skincare product other than SK-II. Even on her SK-II products, she has labelled the containers with Chinese instructions to guide her usage and the expiry date. She uses the entire collection of SK-II products and keeps it in a cabinet above the toilet sink at room temperature. Her SK-II products are of the largest size. She uses coconut oil as body moisturizer as it was introduced by her niece for her dry skin. She takes a break before leaving her home at about 11.50 am to the bakery to work.
I went to have lunch and started my observation again at about 2 pm. During that time, business has slowed and she began to clean up her area. She left the bakery at 4.30 pm and returns home to nap, as she prepares for her singing lessons in the evening. I did not follow her this time and waited for her below the block to attend the singing lessons with her.
At about 6.30 pm, She appeared to have a good nap and put on some makeup. I followed her to a food centre in Chinatown for dinner and she treated me to her favourite claypot rice. It was really affordable and delicious! After which, we began to walk to Hong Lim Community Centre for her singing lessons. She met her friend there and entered the singing studio with her. Since I am unable to go in, I observed from outside the studio for the entire lesson. The lesson lasted for about 1 hour 30 minutes. She paid attention and seemed to enjoy her lesson. When the lesson ended, we took a bus and chatted on our way home. She told me that she enjoys the singing lessons and she was selected to perform with her classmates next Saturday! She looks forward to the performance. She also mentions that her singing lesson is on every Friday.
At about 10.45pm, she reached home and rest for the night. I bid her goodbye and went home.
Siew Kuen.
