With Singapore having a population density of 7,022 per sq km, making it the densest country in the world, there are many times that I just do not want to go anywhere on a weekend. Everywhere is packed and crowded, the public transport is struggling to cope with the passengers, I would rather just stay at home during the weekend.
And so I thought, why should I leave the house on a weekend, when I can achieve almost anything at home with the help of the Internet?
For starters, I do my grocery shopping on weekends. It is always a struggle to maneuver through the narrow aisles and families who insist on bringing and leaving their baby prams in the worst possible places. Luckily for me, I can now buy groceries online and get them to deliver to me.
Groceries
The Cold Storage online website has more items for purchase than the NTUC Fairprice. I can get fresh fruits, fresh meat and even seafood delivered to my house. I just need to order them one day before.
I also used to make my way down to Funan to get computer games. Nowadays, I purchase them online and the games are streamed directly to my computer. Not only do I need not get out of the house, I can do my bit for the environment, as there are no cardboard and plastic boxes required for the games, and no paper is needed for the instruction manuals.
Computer Games
Of course the disadvantage here is that not all the games are be bought online and stream directly, however I do not have much time nowadays anyway. Also, you cannot do this for console games, like PS3, XBOX360 or Wii.
I used to spend time going to the bookstores to browse and get my books, but with the Amazon Kindle, that is no longer the case. I can select the book that I want to purchase, and Amazon effortlessly downloads it. Of course, it takes some tweaking since Amazon refuses to sell Kindle here in Singapore, but I find the time spent tweaking was well worth it.
Books
Link on how to setup the Kindle to work on iPad
There is now no headache to find space in the house to store my books with ebooks. Of course, I will lose the feeling of actually walking into a bookstore and flipping through the books, and also not all books are in eBook format, but I believe the eBook industry is moving in the correct direction.
With books settled, what about magazines? Thanks to a friend’s recommendation, I found the perfect way to purchase digital magazines. It runs on iPad, iPhone or even directly from my browser. The subscriptions are much cheaper than the physical subscriptions.
Magazine
Like with eBooks, I cannot flip a digital magazine like the actual physical copy, but I do not need to find space to store them, and I need not get out of the house.
As with books and magazines, I can purchase digital copy of songs, TV shows and movies. With Apple’s iTunes, I can sample tunes and then purchase them digitally with just a few clicks. No more need to buy the whole CD just to listen to 1 or 2 tracks from the CD. iTunes is also allowing me to purchase or rent TV shows and movies.
Songs/TV Shows/Movies
Others (I am not going to say out what this is, but there are other ways to get it for free, though I am against this. Support the artistes!)
Instead of trying to queue and find seats to get my food, I can order it online and get it delivered. Granted they are not exactly gourmet food nor I cannot get my favourite bakuteh delivered, but that is the price I pay for convenience, and not fighting with others for seats.
Food
Fast food – McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino Pizza
Pasta – Pastamania
Japanese – Sakae Sushi
Thai – Thaitogo
Dim Sum – YUM CHA Express
I am sure there are plenty other food delivery sites that I am not aware of.
There are others, clothes, electronics gadgets and lots more, stuff that I can buy without ever leaving the house.
And if I ever need to meet up with friends and talk to them, there is always Skype, or Tango, or Facetime.
Though there is still no substitute for sex.
