Indian night

We had a surprise party to celebrate Smitha and Jishy's wedding. Everyone got dressed up in Indian costume. Here's a few more photos.

Appartment photos

Ok, so I've finally gotten around to taking some photos of my place. I've also finally got a Flickr account, so I've just posted them all there... Here's the link

Very Singaporean

Singaporeans really like English football. For years this was the only football on TV. So people ended up watching it a lot. Its quite entertaining because most fans support an English team... (and are usually shocked to learn that I don't).

...and then I invited geckos to live with me

Hmmm have to get used to living in the tropics. I left my kitchen window and door open last night, then noticed when I went to get a drink that several geckos had moved in... Not that I mind, they are quite sweet and only a 2-3 inches long and they tend to eat the insects. Will try and take pictures of one of them if I can spot them again.

Alien Autopsy...

If a six year old girl (who really liked Barbie) were to design a fruit, it would probably end up looking like this....


This is one of my current addictions. I think they have a mild flavour, and are very refreshing, slightly firm flesh, a bit like water melon, with seeds like a kiwi... most other people think they taste a bit watery.

(re)joining Generation X

I've well and truly joined Generation X (a great book by Douglas Copeland). In particular, I'm thinking of a great term coined there which is 'semi-disposable furniture'. I guess it kind of marks the high point in history where people went from needing say a chest of drawers, so buying a sturdy, hand crafted set, which would last a lifetime and could be inherited by the kids; to the stage where furniture came flat-packed and was intended to last a couple of years, or until the owners got bored of it and decided to change their 'design concept'. The whole idea of semi-disposable furniture is pretty much the Ikea concept of being able to buy cheap, interesting looking furniture, which wasn't really worth taking with you when you move, simply because it was cheaper to replace it.

This is pretty much the stage I'm at now. Ok, so I have a furnished apartment (with blue sofas), but I still managed to go out to Ikea today and pickup crockery, cutlery, bins, lamps and everything else I need to re-boot my life for less than 150 euros. There is something almost eerie about living in a now reasonably well equipped place that has no familiarity to it.
That at the fact that I'm now living with a lamp called Antifoni, some dishes called Syntes, cutlery called 365+, 12 Bumerangs (coat hangers) and several bins which I have decided to simply call 'bin'.

Street food and aunties

Had kind of a mixed experience today.... both really good street food and an experience of one of the downsides of the culture here...
I was walking through Holland Village, and I passed this tiny auntie sitting on the floor outside a shop in front of a little saucepan. She was selling very good malted candy (kind of like runny toffee) By the time I'd finished taking a picture of her, half of it had run onto my hand, so this is the remainder on the stick... It was very good, tasted a lot like caramel/toffee.



So to the downside... Singapore has managed to go from being a third world to a first world country in the space of 40 years. The downside, while they do provide a lot of great things for the people, is there is no welfare state system. So when you get old, you are supported by two things, either the money you have saved up, usually in CPF (central provenance fund, the very good government saving scheme. The second line of support is your family. Apparently there is a law which makes children legally obliged to support their parents in old age, with old folks being able to sue their children for support money if they need to. The problem is if you run short on either of these, you have to find ways of making money,which explains why many taxi drivers are 'retired' (although several I have talked to like working a bit when they feel like it for 'pocket money').

Often the people who end up clearing trays at food courts, or selling street food are elderly (who are referred to as aunties and uncles). I guess this is a pretty tough approach to take when it comes to state welfare, but in some ways it does put much more pressure on the family unit. The unspoken agreement being that parents will often spend huge amounts giving their kids higher education, but in return the kids must support their parents for 10+ years after they retire. (although thanks to the government housing scheme, most people own their apartment by this stage, making things much cheaper). While I don't think this is a great system for taking care of the aged, I'm not sure its much worse then the way many pensioners end up living in the UK...

Would you go here?

Ok, its a reflexology place... but still a strange sign

This place makes the Germans look inefficient...

Ok, so I've now moved in to my apartment, after nearly two months of nomadic life. Everything went amazingly smoothly. Met the landlord and agents yesterday (saturday), spent a while listening to the owner explain how to work the TV remote control ;o) The agent who found the place also put me in touch with a Starhub guy (one of the two local TV/internet providers). The guy came around today (Sunday), with a big bag of boxes, and after about 5 minutes of fiddling and 10 minutes of form signing, I now have 10Mb/s internet connection, cable TV and a mobile phone contract... (For comparison, Kat has been waiting 6 weeks for the Deutsche Telecom to set up her internet connection)

Tokyo Marigolds

Went to see a film called 'Tokyo Marigolds' last night, which was on
as part of the Japanese film festival running this week.

Its a strange story of love, with the main character, a very quite girl, meeting a guy, whose girlfriend is away for a year. She persuades him to date her for a year until she comes back. The rest of the film shows their relationship grow, settle in to a comfortable/tedious rhythm, then finally shows 'the end'.

I thought it was an excellent film, very slow paced, but beautifully shot. I thought the lead actress was excellent, and much of the mood of the film, especially her emotional state was conveyed by her facial expressions, or just by her staring out of a window. The director's main job is making TV commercials, but he has also managed to make a film a year for the last twenty years.

....after about 10 minutes I decided to marry her...

Laura and I also went for a massage while we were on Bintan. Went to a great little spa attached to one of the hotels. I made the mistake of going along in just a shirt and swimming shorts, so there was an awkward moment when the masseuse asked me to remove all of my clothes except my underwear... Fortunately I wasn't the first dumb tourist they had, so she disappeared off and came back with a pair of disposable paper pants. So I ended up trying to relax on a table, covered in a sheet and wearing strange paper underwear...

I had a 'South Seas massage', which consisted of being rubbed in scented oil from head to foot for 70 minutes. It was unbelievably relaxing, even the strange parts which involved them pulling my fingers and toes (causing them to crack). After about 10 minutes I decided I could happily marry the masseuse...

Island fever....

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Went to Bintan for a short weekend (Saturday morning-Sunday afternoon), with Christian, Elisa and Laura. Very relaxing weekend. I've discovered that Jet-skiing is fantastic fun (but makes your arms hurt like hell). There are great... it feels like riding a motorbike, but much wetter and the idea of falling off is less scary). We had to do it again on sunday because it was so much fun... definitely something to do on my birthday...

Now that's just dumb... or stupid... or both

from BBC news

Kafka-esque

I'm starting to feel like the main character in Kafka's metamorphosis. I'm moving out of Smitha's place tomorrow(ish) and into Thomas and Eva's. So I'm back to packing all my stuff into my (huge) case. I have this feeling that I'm turning into somekind of beetle, as my life seems to be contained in a big black polycarbonate carapace for so much of the time.... I'm looking forward to owning drawers....

and then Stephen Hawking's girlfriend said I owed her five bucks

I love taxis here. Like everything else they are surprisingly high-tech.
I discovered today, that if the driver doesn't feel like telling you how much to pay (and you are somehow unable to read the meter) he just hits a button and a female synthesized voice bleeps out "please pay five dollars, have a nice day". It feels like I've just been hit up for money by Stephen Hawkings girlfriend....

Visits...

Oh the shame.....

still lost...

just had a lesson in how badly I understand how far apart places are....
Got a taxi home from Holland Village, (which I thought wasn't that close)....
cost S$3 (1.4 Euro/97p)
....turns out I could have walked home... d'oh

Venture Capitalist for taxi drivers...

I love taxi drivers here... I think about 1 in 5 are really great fun. Either they are very talkative or they are 'interesting'. The guy who drove us when we went out for dinner last night fell into both categories... He seemed to have mistaken me for either a publisher or a venture capitalist. The minute we got into the taxi (with me in the front seat), he started telling me about what bad drivers Singaporeans are. He went on to how badly people actually understood how cars work, then gave me this example. He'd heard of someone driving an automatic, when the accelerator jammed on the floor, leaving the car going at 210 km/h. The person hit the breaks, but this only slowed the car to 80km/h and it kept accelerating. The guy eventually crashed. He asked me what I would have done.... I said, as it was an automatic, that I would have put the car in neutral. He claimed I was only the third person he'd asked who got it right....

His basic premise seemed to be that if people understood how cars worked (especially automatics) then they would be able to avoid accidents. He also started describing a system similar to how pilots learn to fly, whereby you learn where to focus your attention.... In hindsight it actually sounded like a good idea. The guy claimed to be writing a book and just needed a publisher or an illustrator. I'm not sure that he actually wanted seed money from me, but more that he seemed to imaging that I had a whole network of contacts who might be able to help... In some ways, I kinda wish I'd got his number, I think it would have made a good book and might have been fun to work on....

He also claimed to have an invention and an idea for a website which were going to make hundreds of millions, he just couldn't tell me about them (I guess he didn't have a 'non-disclosure' agreement on him for me to sign)

(through the whole of this Minna and Nachen were sitting in the back trying really hard not to laugh)

Still love taxis and kinda wish I'd been an investor....

Thought for the day

Dies slowly he who transforms himself in slave of habit,
repeating every day the same itineraries,
who does not change brand,
does not risk to wear a new color and doesn't talk to whom doesn't know.


Dies slowly he who makes of television his guru.


Dies slowly he who avoids a passion,
who prefers black to white
and the dots on the "i" to a whirlpool of emotions,
just those ones that recover the gleam from the eyes,
smiles from the yawns,
hearts from the stumbling and feelings.


Dies slowly he who does not overthrow the table when is unhappy at work,
who does not risk the certain for the uncertain
to go toward that dream that is keeping him awake.


Who does not allow, at least one time in life, to flee from sensate advises.


Dies slowly he who does not travel, does not read,
does not listen to music, who does not find grace in himself.


Dies slowly he who destroys his self love,
who does not accept somebody's help.


Dies slowly he who passes his days complaining of his bad luck or the incessant rain.


Dies slowly he who abandons a project before starting it,
who does not ask over a subject that does not know
or who does not answer when being asked about something he knows.


Dies slowly he who does not share his emotions, joys and sadness,
who does not trust, who does not even try.


Dies slowly he who does not relive his memories
and continues getting emotional as if living them at that moment.


Dies slowly he who does not intent excelling,
who does not learn from the stones of the road of life,
who does not love and let somebody love.


Let's avoid death in soft quotes,
remembering always that to be alive demands an effort much bigger
that the simple fact of breathing.


PABLO NERUDA
(thanks Ambra)

now I feel more at home..

now I know where to buy my socks from
(not that I've worn any since I got off the plane)

more posts

I'm definietly not just trying to write more posts and push the last one off the bottom of the screen... That would be shamefull...

Shopping spree, the Aftermath

ok, so its time to stand up (or sit cross legged) and face the music...and finish the shopping spree post... I decided to celebrate getting paid and successfully transfering money to the otherside of the world by buying 'stuff'. The spree technically started on wednsday when I ordered myself a shiny new Macbook pro (the middle size one), got an educational discount, so felt slightly righteous. Nevermind that I'm basically going to be using it at home cos the lab has bought me a new iMac (don't get me started on why they wouldn't just buy me a laptop).... anyhow... looking back now, that technically brings my new computer total to 2 so far (neither delivered yet).

Don't ask me what possessed me, perhaps I was just feeling a bit Mac heavy, perhaps I just felt like spending some more money, perhaps I was just in a reallllly good mood on saturday. Purely by chance (and a 10 minute taxi ride) I ended up at Sim Lim square: Geek mecca... 6 floors of technology shopping center.... (I should ask them to ban me). My last, biggest impulse buy for the week was a UMPC....

....ok, so I admit that I'm trying to use an acronym to disguise the fact that I went and bought myself another (albeit tiny tiny) laptop. Honestly, it is really tiny and kinda cute. It is small enough to fit into a modest sized handbag/manbag. It has touch screen you can twist round, then close the whole thing to make it into a writing tablet. In my defence it cost much less that a laptop (less than 1/4 of the price) and it is really cute... look, here's a picture of it sitting on my old laptop.

[Attempted justification continues] It is also v.light (less than 1kg), so to attempt to justify why I could need one, I created a scenario where I could carry it around at the weekends and sit in coffee shops blogging and writing things (which I've managed to do).

I admit that at most levels I just got it because it is small and cute and I like shiny new toys.... but still.....

I now have the slight problem that in a week or so I'll own 3 laptops and have a desktop 'puter at work, overkill even by my standards... I'm planning to retire my old laptop to the lab (so we can play music by our benches). Am still searching for other forms of atonement....

Quote of the day...

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

The quote is from Steve Jobs and was used in a bunch of old Apple adverts. I still like it.

....can't....move....

hmm... I really ache today.... guess that's a good sign

shopping spree continued (kind of)

OK, so should probably explain the shopping spree thing....
not sure I'm ready yet, but lets just say it involves new laptops
(plural)

I'm not Spartacus...

Have just been to see The Last Legion. Can't say I was wonderfully impressed, but as I'm sure it was amazingly well researched, here's what I've learned about the Roman Empire....
1. The Romans were the good guys (naturally) and were all actually English
(This fact is corroborated by the great TV series 'Rome')
2. They were defeated by the Goths, who were actually Scottish
3. Gandhi was Merlin (Ben Kingsley) and Merlin was Welsh and hung out with the Romans
4. Mr Darcy was actually a Roman centrion (Collin Firth)
5. Excalibur was actually Julius Caeser's Sword
6. Seriously, Merlin was Welsh...

Not a great film, but it passed the time and I wasn't bored. Was made a good deal better by Aishwarya Rai, a huge Bollywood actress, playing an Indian assassin. OK, so she is very very cute, but the tense flirtatious relationship she has with Collin Firth is great, at times has the same sulky, unspoken passion of Pride and Prejudice...

I am ten ninjas...

.....not really, but in an effort to find some hobbies and generally force myself to spend less time shopping. anyhow... I decided to take classes in Arnis, a philippeno martial art. The lesson was in the courtyard of a local community center, which was pretty warm. I discovered how much harder exercise is in 95% humidity when we started with some 'conditioning'. Running up around the complex, including up a hill was ok... sprinting up a huge flight of stairs outside was tougher, but I managed that bit ok. Also managed about 5 minutes of the situps and other excercises before I had to go and throw up.... Think I still need to acclimatize a little more.


The rest of the class was pretty good fun. Arnis is a pretty satisfying martial art, it doesn't have any real philosophical background, so there isn't any chi centering or breaking bricks. It is also one of the only systems where you start training with weapons (1-2 sticks to start with) first and empty handed combat comes once you've mastered everything else (1 stick, 2 sticks, 1-2 knives, combinations of the above). This was particularly fun and meant that after half an hour I was swinging a stick around and having fun. Perhaps it is a sign that I've watched to many movies, but I found my self occasionally making swoshing sounds when I swung the stick....

Still, it was v.good fun and I'm definietly going to continue....

For my own good will someone please come and take away my bank cards!
(will explain why tomorrow when I'm feeling less ashamed)

yum...

Have just been walking around the (kind of) local area... just had a great little malay snack from a street stall. I think it was called Mutu Bambu (bamboo cakes). little white rolls, a brown filling which tasked of caramel, sprinkled with coconut shavings... very nice. (will try and remember to take a camera with me next time, then I can take post pictures as well as vague descriptions...)