...departed back to Adelaide for the family xmas gathering.
Rather, a series of gatherings since I have such a disjointed family.
I have to say, totally changing the subject at the very start, that sg.msn.com is totally lame. Unbelievably bad. In Oz when I click out of hotmail and get ninemsn.com.au it is informative, it is a reasonable news service, it is reasonably up to date, although the spider drawing story was carried for far too long. But sg.msn is unbelievably out of date, for cri'sakes it is STILL carrying pre-US election stories! I can well understand why Singaporeans pan it so much. Is it too much to ask that one person spend just one hour a day on it?
Anyhow, that is really neither here nor there ('cos it is waaayyyyy over there, in yankee land).
On Monday I fly back to Adelaide for two weeks. My main suitcase is totally loaded with stuff for other people; half of it is taken up by the bag of stuff for Paul and Cheng's baby from her sisters, the other half is xmas pressies for my family. They will all be marked "Have a Happy European Winter Solstice!" since I am so anti-xianity. I will carry a change or two of clothes in my carry-on.
So I am blogging just because I might not get another chance to for going on three weeks (I will be totally pre-occupied with moving to my new apartment when I get back).
Blogs are an accepted venue for whinging, and I have a few whinges of late, but I am far too mature a person to gab about such irrelevancies in public, so I won't. Sometimes I definitely feel like whinging a bit before I log on, but once I am on it seems like they are my problems and there is no need to offload them onto anyone else. So when I do whinge online it must be something that really upsets me. And the HSBC website not accepting my password and locking me out comes into the former category; especially when I suspect that it was the Asus password manager that was responsible. Firefox seems to trigger it whereas IE doesn't so much, and as if I want my laptop recording my financial passwords somewhere on my hard-drive, but in clicking 'cancel' I think it nulled the datastring sent to the server. With the big IE security issue now current I didn't want to use it, but Firefox has its own problems at times. Truth be told, I think Firefox is getting more problems with each new version. Whereas IE is slowly improving; it is good that it has multiple tabs now, but they could have built in tab duplication at the same time. Anyhow, I am just waffling on about browsers because I have nothing better to say.
So I might as well shut up.
Saturday, December 20
Monday, December 15
Didn't you always want...
A place by the sea?
Yes! Of course I do!
And now I have one!
Yes, the important news for this week is that I have a new flat!
I think what is called something like a 2+1+1 here in Singapore; meaning two bedrooms, 1 other room, and one hall. Also they are both what is called here 'common rooms' as in neither is a master bedroom. The 'other' room is a new addition (the HDB - Housing Development Board - is upgrading the estate) called a utility room, it does have a tiled floor, but no water points so it is not a laundry (so why tile the floor?), it is about half the size of one of the bedrooms. And the last 'room' is the entrance hall, which is wide and makes a small living room. There is a real kitchen, not just a small gas cooker (one ring, like a camping cooker) on a small cupboard in the corridor as there is where I am now. No, this one has a two ring gas cooker run from a gas bottle - so, a larger camping style cooker! That seems to be the way kitchens are here, and given that most families are cramped in small apartment and food halls are so cheap is it any wonder that everyone eats out? And that food halls are so busy all day long. No, this kitchen has a raised and tiled platform to fit a clothes washer and room for a large fridge and enough room in that same corner for a separate freezer if you choose, but more likely I will go for a pantry cupboard. And separate toilet and shower. There are metal security doors and windows, aircon in the two bedrooms, and wired for cable with two or three points.
Yes, it is an HDB, that is to say that it is in an estate that is several buildings constructed by the government to provide subsidised housing (that 85% of the population of Singapore live in). The estate is being upgraded, so the apartment has been renovated and is clean and 'dentless', the shops are being renovated, the playground is being rebuilt, gardens and lawns are being replaced.
The ground floor (first floor here, they speak American when it comes to architecture) is all shops and the second floor (which would be the 'first floor' in English or European) are apartments that are linked to the shops. The apartment has the same footprint as the shop below and there is a stairway inside linking the two. The one in this flat is locked. However, the other shops owners don't live in their linked apartments, they use them as storerooms for their shops; which means that I have no neighbours! So no possibility of noisy neighbours - which are my worst nightmare come true here, and also no worries for me about having my TV on late at night since I have no neighbours to bother.
There is a food court below, and although it was full of people when I was checking the apartment and we had the front door wide open, still I could hear nothing. So, very quiet.
Also it gets the sea breeze; as soon as you get one or two km inland here the night air does not really cool down much - I have found in my current apartment that there is no benefit in leaving the windows open at night, it is still hot outside. And I am on the top floor. But there the evening air was quite pleasant! So I will be able to open the windows at night and not live in a permanently air conditioned environment.
And it is only five minutes walk to the beach!!!
How cool is that?
There are two other 'blocks' (apartment buildings) to walk under, crossing a small local road in the process, then there is a motorway but there is a pedestrian underpass without having to go sideways any distance, then on the other side is East Coast Park! About in the middle of the park's length.
So; two bedrooms there to the one here, and they are significantly larger, one living room there that is twice the size of the one here, a kitchen that is maybe six times the space here that is labeled 'kitchen', and another small room. It has to be at least twice the size of this apartment. This one is dirty and noisy and old, that one is clean and quiet and new. This one costs me $2,300, but I think would be $1,500 if I took it on a long term contract. That one costs me $1,800.
The lease there starts on the 5th of January, the lease here finishes on the 9th of January 2009. So I have a few days to move (one suitcase and one box of stuff acquired) and arrange a fridge and maybe a clothes washer - my agent argued they supply one, but it will probably be second hand and only for the first six months, so I will want to buy a clean new one anyhow. My agent (a friend of a friend that has only just qualified - this was her first deal!) was also going to argue for a fridge, but I said not to as I wouldn't like what they got and that I would rather buy one that suited me.
I might get a clothes drier in time as well. People use these bamboo poles, like you see on Japanese anime, and poke them out their windows, and there are holders both inside (on the kitchen ceiling) and outside the kitchen window for these. I will also probably put insect screening on the inside of the security doors and windows, even though it is by salt water and there are probably few mosquitoes. I would like to put built-in robes in the bedrooms (where there are alcoves for such) rather than put clothes cupboards there, but we shall see.
I got a diplomatic clause written into the contract; which is to say that I can break it in six months if I haven't settled down into regular enough contracting by then, with a one month break charge. I have already arranged maid service; the agent / friend's auntie is retiring and would like some cash income, so she will come in once or twice a week for two and a half hours or so to clean and iron. We shall see how much time is needed. The flat is half the size of the last house I had in Australia and my cleaner there (my ex) came in for two hours twice a week. That cost $15 an hour or $250 a month, here we have agreed on $120 a month; but that will probably translate into $30 cash left out for her each week. $250 to $350 a month here gets a live-in maid (depending on her English ability, but plus the $5k a year government tax for employing a live-in maid, so really it is about $750 a month).
I wasn't expecting to get a flat until I came back in January. I wasn't really looking until then, although I had done a couple of web searches I hadn't made any calls. But I had talked to Ivy about it and she asked me a few questions before deciding that I wanted something along East Coast Park area. She only took a couple of days then before she started sending me a txts on new apartments, then sent this one saying I had to see it that night. She had good reason for wanting to be the first to see it, it gave us the opportunity to make offers and close the deal before anyone else got to view the property.
I am so buzzed!
A newly renovated, clean, spacious and airy in comparison to this one, well appointed, good sized, conveniently micro located, wonderfully macro located, reasonably priced apartment!
I think that I am going to love this so much.
Yes! Of course I do!
And now I have one!
Yes, the important news for this week is that I have a new flat!
I think what is called something like a 2+1+1 here in Singapore; meaning two bedrooms, 1 other room, and one hall. Also they are both what is called here 'common rooms' as in neither is a master bedroom. The 'other' room is a new addition (the HDB - Housing Development Board - is upgrading the estate) called a utility room, it does have a tiled floor, but no water points so it is not a laundry (so why tile the floor?), it is about half the size of one of the bedrooms. And the last 'room' is the entrance hall, which is wide and makes a small living room. There is a real kitchen, not just a small gas cooker (one ring, like a camping cooker) on a small cupboard in the corridor as there is where I am now. No, this one has a two ring gas cooker run from a gas bottle - so, a larger camping style cooker! That seems to be the way kitchens are here, and given that most families are cramped in small apartment and food halls are so cheap is it any wonder that everyone eats out? And that food halls are so busy all day long. No, this kitchen has a raised and tiled platform to fit a clothes washer and room for a large fridge and enough room in that same corner for a separate freezer if you choose, but more likely I will go for a pantry cupboard. And separate toilet and shower. There are metal security doors and windows, aircon in the two bedrooms, and wired for cable with two or three points.
Yes, it is an HDB, that is to say that it is in an estate that is several buildings constructed by the government to provide subsidised housing (that 85% of the population of Singapore live in). The estate is being upgraded, so the apartment has been renovated and is clean and 'dentless', the shops are being renovated, the playground is being rebuilt, gardens and lawns are being replaced.
The ground floor (first floor here, they speak American when it comes to architecture) is all shops and the second floor (which would be the 'first floor' in English or European) are apartments that are linked to the shops. The apartment has the same footprint as the shop below and there is a stairway inside linking the two. The one in this flat is locked. However, the other shops owners don't live in their linked apartments, they use them as storerooms for their shops; which means that I have no neighbours! So no possibility of noisy neighbours - which are my worst nightmare come true here, and also no worries for me about having my TV on late at night since I have no neighbours to bother.
There is a food court below, and although it was full of people when I was checking the apartment and we had the front door wide open, still I could hear nothing. So, very quiet.
Also it gets the sea breeze; as soon as you get one or two km inland here the night air does not really cool down much - I have found in my current apartment that there is no benefit in leaving the windows open at night, it is still hot outside. And I am on the top floor. But there the evening air was quite pleasant! So I will be able to open the windows at night and not live in a permanently air conditioned environment.
And it is only five minutes walk to the beach!!!
How cool is that?
There are two other 'blocks' (apartment buildings) to walk under, crossing a small local road in the process, then there is a motorway but there is a pedestrian underpass without having to go sideways any distance, then on the other side is East Coast Park! About in the middle of the park's length.
So; two bedrooms there to the one here, and they are significantly larger, one living room there that is twice the size of the one here, a kitchen that is maybe six times the space here that is labeled 'kitchen', and another small room. It has to be at least twice the size of this apartment. This one is dirty and noisy and old, that one is clean and quiet and new. This one costs me $2,300, but I think would be $1,500 if I took it on a long term contract. That one costs me $1,800.
The lease there starts on the 5th of January, the lease here finishes on the 9th of January 2009. So I have a few days to move (one suitcase and one box of stuff acquired) and arrange a fridge and maybe a clothes washer - my agent argued they supply one, but it will probably be second hand and only for the first six months, so I will want to buy a clean new one anyhow. My agent (a friend of a friend that has only just qualified - this was her first deal!) was also going to argue for a fridge, but I said not to as I wouldn't like what they got and that I would rather buy one that suited me.
I might get a clothes drier in time as well. People use these bamboo poles, like you see on Japanese anime, and poke them out their windows, and there are holders both inside (on the kitchen ceiling) and outside the kitchen window for these. I will also probably put insect screening on the inside of the security doors and windows, even though it is by salt water and there are probably few mosquitoes. I would like to put built-in robes in the bedrooms (where there are alcoves for such) rather than put clothes cupboards there, but we shall see.
I got a diplomatic clause written into the contract; which is to say that I can break it in six months if I haven't settled down into regular enough contracting by then, with a one month break charge. I have already arranged maid service; the agent / friend's auntie is retiring and would like some cash income, so she will come in once or twice a week for two and a half hours or so to clean and iron. We shall see how much time is needed. The flat is half the size of the last house I had in Australia and my cleaner there (my ex) came in for two hours twice a week. That cost $15 an hour or $250 a month, here we have agreed on $120 a month; but that will probably translate into $30 cash left out for her each week. $250 to $350 a month here gets a live-in maid (depending on her English ability, but plus the $5k a year government tax for employing a live-in maid, so really it is about $750 a month).
I wasn't expecting to get a flat until I came back in January. I wasn't really looking until then, although I had done a couple of web searches I hadn't made any calls. But I had talked to Ivy about it and she asked me a few questions before deciding that I wanted something along East Coast Park area. She only took a couple of days then before she started sending me a txts on new apartments, then sent this one saying I had to see it that night. She had good reason for wanting to be the first to see it, it gave us the opportunity to make offers and close the deal before anyone else got to view the property.
I am so buzzed!
A newly renovated, clean, spacious and airy in comparison to this one, well appointed, good sized, conveniently micro located, wonderfully macro located, reasonably priced apartment!
I think that I am going to love this so much.
Monday, December 8
My Second Holiday
You're short a blog!
My entry a couple of days ago didn't make it up. I think that some setting on Firefox was killing the autosaves, and then wouldn't let the site redirect when I hit 'publish'. So all lost.
I went to the post office this morning and it was closed.
Why? I asked myself. I checked my phone, it was after 10 am and it is meant to open at 8:30. I checked the calendar in my phone to make sure it is Monday. (My phone doesn't tell me the day name, just the date.) So I checked the opening times again; the only thing that could make sense was the "closed public holidays".
Lo and behold! Today is an Islamic holiday!
(I have re-downloaded the Singapore public holidays document from the MOM.)
I have to get used to the idea of holidays for other religions.
This is cool, but so very different.
Yes, I was here for Deepavali, but it didn't impact on me in that I never noticed anything shut.
So, I was perusing this list of holidays (as you do) when it struck me that they really had the Christian ones wrong.
Well, to be exact, they have one Christian one wrong.
The most sacred day to Christians is Easter Sunday - not Good Friday.
I know this, I lived in a monastery for a while remember.
Yes, I know that most Christians think that Christmas is the most important day of their religion, but trust me - very few Christians know their own religion very well.
In order the major Christian holy days go; Easter Sunday, Good Friday, Christmas.
Think about it; the weekly holy day is Sunday isn't it?
And why? Because it is the weekly celebration of Jesus' rise from the dead.
For Moslems the weekly holy day is Friday, for Jews it is Saturday, and for Christians it is Sunday. It is not Friday.
This should highlight to you that it is the Sunday in Easter that is important, not the Friday.
However I notice for 2009 that there are three holidays listed on Sundays that are flagged as "the following Monday will be a public holiday" and given that most dedicated Xians would want to celebrate mass on both the Friday and the Monday, I would advise designating the Sunday as the official 'day' and the 'preceding Friday' as the public holiday. Make sense?
Technically, of course, Xians should have two public holidays for Easter and not have one for Christmas.
Truthfully, of course, Xians shouldn't have any public holidays.
'Easter' is the European harvest festival and 'Christmas' is the Pagan Winter Solstice. Xianity stole both. Well, 'rebadged' them and burnt to death anyone who disagreed.
I have been thinking for a while about posting something about girls and guys. Specifically how one thing that I hadn't seen was an Indian girl with a Chinese guy. Well, last night I did.
I had dinner at some little arty restaurant in Little India. The tempeh burger was okay, nice, but like a lasagne - too much of the same, I get bored. The smoothie wasn't that great. The desert was really good, and a lot of effort went into its presentation as well.
So, I have seen a dozen European guys with Asian girls, half a dozen European girls with Asian guys, half a dozen Indian guys with Chinese girls, and now one Indian girl with a Chinese guy. Most of the Asians with Euros have been Chinese, but that is a representative selection of Singaporeans.
I was getting worried, and to some degree still am, that the relationship between Indians and Chinese in Singapore is like that between Northern Europeans (Anglos mostly) and Southern Europeans (Italians, Greeks, etc.) in Australia.
Which brings me to another point.
I am not too used to seeing 'Caucasian' all the time on forms, but see it a lot here, on both government and corporate. Seems every form that I fill out asks my race. To be honest, really truthfully honest, I find the term 'Caucasian' insulting. I am not Caucasian. Yes, I am white skinned, with fair hair (born blond, darkening through my life {yes, 'blond', 'blond' is masculine, 'blonde' is feminine}) and blue eyes. This makes me European, or Aryan, it does not make me 'Caucasian'.
My heritage is from the North West of Europe, not from some hills as far South and East as you can get and still pretend to be in Europe. I claim descent from peoples that have been civilised for over a thousand years, not just hauled out of tents within living memory.
To give some comparison; do you think that Chinese people would like being told that when I was growing up they (and anyone with eyes like that) was referred to as 'Mongoloid'? Especially when also informed that 'mongoloid' was how we referred to our children with birth defects that lead to 'different' faces and reduced intellect (now a days referred to as Down Syndrome). No, I don't think so. And I feel the same way about being called 'Caucasian'.
Addendum; 'cos sometimes you think of something five minutes after you publish...
To further complicate this for most of you; what does 'Caucasian' mean anyhow? If some person is filling in some MOM form and ticks 'Caucasian' what is he or she saying? Are they just saying that they are of European descent? What about dark haired brown eyed people that happen to be, or descended from, European? What does an Australian business professional with brown eyes tick? 'Cos he sure as hell isn't 'Caucasian' by any defninition of the word.
To me brown eyes is brown eyes. Seriously I do not see any difference between a brown eyed 'European' and an Asian.
Maybe they put 'mixed' or 'other'?
After all, Aryans are blue eyed, any brown eyes come from mixed breeding with other races. By 'Aryan' I refer to the Celts, Tuetones, Greeks, Romans etc that European culture is derived from. The mixing mostly comes from Iberians, Lapps, and other pre-Aryan Eurpeans in the north and west, and Arabs, Turks etc in the south and east of Europe.
If anything 'Caucasian' must strictly mean blue eyes, blond hair, and white skin if nothing else. Mind you red hair is not from the Caucacus, it is from Scandinavia - which just highlights the difference that I am making.
(BTW, yes I have blond hair that has darkened as I have grown, but I have a red beard {when I don't shave} which also darkened as I grew.)
My entry a couple of days ago didn't make it up. I think that some setting on Firefox was killing the autosaves, and then wouldn't let the site redirect when I hit 'publish'. So all lost.
I went to the post office this morning and it was closed.
Why? I asked myself. I checked my phone, it was after 10 am and it is meant to open at 8:30. I checked the calendar in my phone to make sure it is Monday. (My phone doesn't tell me the day name, just the date.) So I checked the opening times again; the only thing that could make sense was the "closed public holidays".
Lo and behold! Today is an Islamic holiday!
(I have re-downloaded the Singapore public holidays document from the MOM.)
I have to get used to the idea of holidays for other religions.
This is cool, but so very different.
Yes, I was here for Deepavali, but it didn't impact on me in that I never noticed anything shut.
So, I was perusing this list of holidays (as you do) when it struck me that they really had the Christian ones wrong.
Well, to be exact, they have one Christian one wrong.
The most sacred day to Christians is Easter Sunday - not Good Friday.
I know this, I lived in a monastery for a while remember.
Yes, I know that most Christians think that Christmas is the most important day of their religion, but trust me - very few Christians know their own religion very well.
In order the major Christian holy days go; Easter Sunday, Good Friday, Christmas.
Think about it; the weekly holy day is Sunday isn't it?
And why? Because it is the weekly celebration of Jesus' rise from the dead.
For Moslems the weekly holy day is Friday, for Jews it is Saturday, and for Christians it is Sunday. It is not Friday.
This should highlight to you that it is the Sunday in Easter that is important, not the Friday.
However I notice for 2009 that there are three holidays listed on Sundays that are flagged as "the following Monday will be a public holiday" and given that most dedicated Xians would want to celebrate mass on both the Friday and the Monday, I would advise designating the Sunday as the official 'day' and the 'preceding Friday' as the public holiday. Make sense?
Technically, of course, Xians should have two public holidays for Easter and not have one for Christmas.
Truthfully, of course, Xians shouldn't have any public holidays.
'Easter' is the European harvest festival and 'Christmas' is the Pagan Winter Solstice. Xianity stole both. Well, 'rebadged' them and burnt to death anyone who disagreed.
I have been thinking for a while about posting something about girls and guys. Specifically how one thing that I hadn't seen was an Indian girl with a Chinese guy. Well, last night I did.
I had dinner at some little arty restaurant in Little India. The tempeh burger was okay, nice, but like a lasagne - too much of the same, I get bored. The smoothie wasn't that great. The desert was really good, and a lot of effort went into its presentation as well.
So, I have seen a dozen European guys with Asian girls, half a dozen European girls with Asian guys, half a dozen Indian guys with Chinese girls, and now one Indian girl with a Chinese guy. Most of the Asians with Euros have been Chinese, but that is a representative selection of Singaporeans.
I was getting worried, and to some degree still am, that the relationship between Indians and Chinese in Singapore is like that between Northern Europeans (Anglos mostly) and Southern Europeans (Italians, Greeks, etc.) in Australia.
Which brings me to another point.
I am not too used to seeing 'Caucasian' all the time on forms, but see it a lot here, on both government and corporate. Seems every form that I fill out asks my race. To be honest, really truthfully honest, I find the term 'Caucasian' insulting. I am not Caucasian. Yes, I am white skinned, with fair hair (born blond, darkening through my life {yes, 'blond', 'blond' is masculine, 'blonde' is feminine}) and blue eyes. This makes me European, or Aryan, it does not make me 'Caucasian'.
My heritage is from the North West of Europe, not from some hills as far South and East as you can get and still pretend to be in Europe. I claim descent from peoples that have been civilised for over a thousand years, not just hauled out of tents within living memory.
To give some comparison; do you think that Chinese people would like being told that when I was growing up they (and anyone with eyes like that) was referred to as 'Mongoloid'? Especially when also informed that 'mongoloid' was how we referred to our children with birth defects that lead to 'different' faces and reduced intellect (now a days referred to as Down Syndrome). No, I don't think so. And I feel the same way about being called 'Caucasian'.
Addendum; 'cos sometimes you think of something five minutes after you publish...
To further complicate this for most of you; what does 'Caucasian' mean anyhow? If some person is filling in some MOM form and ticks 'Caucasian' what is he or she saying? Are they just saying that they are of European descent? What about dark haired brown eyed people that happen to be, or descended from, European? What does an Australian business professional with brown eyes tick? 'Cos he sure as hell isn't 'Caucasian' by any defninition of the word.
To me brown eyes is brown eyes. Seriously I do not see any difference between a brown eyed 'European' and an Asian.
Maybe they put 'mixed' or 'other'?
After all, Aryans are blue eyed, any brown eyes come from mixed breeding with other races. By 'Aryan' I refer to the Celts, Tuetones, Greeks, Romans etc that European culture is derived from. The mixing mostly comes from Iberians, Lapps, and other pre-Aryan Eurpeans in the north and west, and Arabs, Turks etc in the south and east of Europe.
If anything 'Caucasian' must strictly mean blue eyes, blond hair, and white skin if nothing else. Mind you red hair is not from the Caucacus, it is from Scandinavia - which just highlights the difference that I am making.
(BTW, yes I have blond hair that has darkened as I have grown, but I have a red beard {when I don't shave} which also darkened as I grew.)
Wednesday, December 3
Baby, want to see me live on cam?
This is so funny following the last entry.
I had two winks on Adult Friend Finder recently, as mentioned in the entry before last, and I have had a couple of interactions with both since then. One just finished five minutes ago.
The first was bad English, African sounding type, elements of a form letter in it, and so obviously about to lead into a request for money. Came through the very next email; "I am stuck in Nigeria and need $561", really? I don't think so.
The second was, supposedly, this couple of 21 year old SG girls.
I don't think so.
So, she sent me an invite to add her contact to my msgr ("msn" as she called it), and we just opened a chat. She asked if I would like to see her naked on cam. Well, I was looking for a deep and meaningful relationship, but naked cam could be a decent consolation prize. So she directed me to some website and asked me to log in, which was going to require credit card details and automatically dock me $40 USD each month. "Not what I was looking for. Bye" and both deleted and blocked her in my contact list. During this time her contact pic changed from the beautiful young Eurasian with long hair and great tits to that of a somewhat average looking, short haired, not exactly thin, and definitely middle aged American.
What a total disappointment :(
All say "Ohhh".
(Aside; I hate how women prey upon mens unfulfilled sexuality. I have a very low opinion of prostitutes, as I also have of the men that frequent them.)
So, funny stories aside, what has happened recently?
Got my PEP yesterday. The 'green card' really is green :D
So, a five year work pass for Singapore, and I was told no need for re-entry visas with an Australian passport. Cool.
So todays task was to open a local bank account.
I had wanted to use Standard Chartered 'cos their boss was on TV last week saying that the financial 'crisis' hadn't affected their bank too much and he viewed it as a great opportunity. Just the sort of bright and happy sort of person that I can support in business! Yah!
Unfortunately it turns out that whilst they may be one of the biggest banks in the world Australia is not in their purview. An office in Sydney, but no branches anywhere; which is exactly the problem that I have been having with the National Australia Bank in Singapore.
So, the back up plan was HSBC since I know that they have branches in Adelaide 'cos a cute little (little? she was 26, but looked and behaved 16 {in Australian terms}) (Malaysian) Chinese girl that I (almost) fell in love with used them.
So now I am ready to receive payments.
The next step would be to get some payments...
No, really that is second priority, maybe do some talking to agencies, but I don't want to start until January 'cos I have to be back in Adelaide for Xmas so that kind of knocks half of December out. And December has already started!!!!!
I guess that I have to go Xmas shopping now...
I hate shopping soooo much!
Especially when it's not for toys.
And I have to think!! What does Mum want? What to get Noel? (Mum's husband {and yes, I just used a non-possessive apostrophe, but it's a possessive, get it?}) What to get my sister? My niece? My nephew? And maybe also my Father, his wife Proo, my brother Shane. 'Cos it will be too late to do any shopping when I get there.
Aaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhh...
I had two winks on Adult Friend Finder recently, as mentioned in the entry before last, and I have had a couple of interactions with both since then. One just finished five minutes ago.
The first was bad English, African sounding type, elements of a form letter in it, and so obviously about to lead into a request for money. Came through the very next email; "I am stuck in Nigeria and need $561", really? I don't think so.
The second was, supposedly, this couple of 21 year old SG girls.
I don't think so.
So, she sent me an invite to add her contact to my msgr ("msn" as she called it), and we just opened a chat. She asked if I would like to see her naked on cam. Well, I was looking for a deep and meaningful relationship, but naked cam could be a decent consolation prize. So she directed me to some website and asked me to log in, which was going to require credit card details and automatically dock me $40 USD each month. "Not what I was looking for. Bye" and both deleted and blocked her in my contact list. During this time her contact pic changed from the beautiful young Eurasian with long hair and great tits to that of a somewhat average looking, short haired, not exactly thin, and definitely middle aged American.
What a total disappointment :(
All say "Ohhh".
(Aside; I hate how women prey upon mens unfulfilled sexuality. I have a very low opinion of prostitutes, as I also have of the men that frequent them.)
So, funny stories aside, what has happened recently?
Got my PEP yesterday. The 'green card' really is green :D
So, a five year work pass for Singapore, and I was told no need for re-entry visas with an Australian passport. Cool.
So todays task was to open a local bank account.
I had wanted to use Standard Chartered 'cos their boss was on TV last week saying that the financial 'crisis' hadn't affected their bank too much and he viewed it as a great opportunity. Just the sort of bright and happy sort of person that I can support in business! Yah!
Unfortunately it turns out that whilst they may be one of the biggest banks in the world Australia is not in their purview. An office in Sydney, but no branches anywhere; which is exactly the problem that I have been having with the National Australia Bank in Singapore.
So, the back up plan was HSBC since I know that they have branches in Adelaide 'cos a cute little (little? she was 26, but looked and behaved 16 {in Australian terms}) (Malaysian) Chinese girl that I (almost) fell in love with used them.
So now I am ready to receive payments.
The next step would be to get some payments...
No, really that is second priority, maybe do some talking to agencies, but I don't want to start until January 'cos I have to be back in Adelaide for Xmas so that kind of knocks half of December out. And December has already started!!!!!
I guess that I have to go Xmas shopping now...
I hate shopping soooo much!
Especially when it's not for toys.
And I have to think!! What does Mum want? What to get Noel? (Mum's husband {and yes, I just used a non-possessive apostrophe, but it's a possessive, get it?}) What to get my sister? My niece? My nephew? And maybe also my Father, his wife Proo, my brother Shane. 'Cos it will be too late to do any shopping when I get there.
Aaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhh...
Saturday, November 29
Don't get me started!
O oh - too late!
This from this mornings Nine MSN:
(http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=675815)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sex spells trouble, says Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, on Friday said sex spelt fleeting satisfaction and trouble later, while chastity offered a better life and "more freedom".
"Sexual pressure, sexual desire, actually I think is short period satisfaction and often, that leads to more complication," the Dalai Lama told reporters in a Lagos hotel, speaking in English without a translator.
He said conjugal life caused "too much ups and downs".
"Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those couples always full of trouble. And in some cases there is suicide, murder cases," the Dalai Lama said.
He said the "consolation" in celibacy is that although "we miss something, but at the same time, compare whole life, it's better, more independence, more freedom."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And if we all follow his stupid advice then the species will be extinct.
At the best of times I have little time for the exiled leader of the planets most blood-thirsty and oppressive theocratic dictatorship. Where new-born twins were considered evil and immediately sacrificed to Buddha, where people were sacrificed under the cornerstones of Buddhist temples, where new Buddha statues were anointed with human blood, where Buddhist priests took young boys as their sex toys, where the peasants lived under the harsh whips of their monkish overlords. Small surprise that most of the country does not support him and that half of Tibet welcomed the Chinese as liberators.
All very easy for him to pretend to be a paragon of purity now, to pretend that the regime he lead was 'spiritual', to whisper pretty words into the ears of dumb Westerners.
I acknowledge that celibacy can be an important tool in a person's spiritual growth. But it is also an important tool in the emotional manipulation of the ignorant. And I fear that its use is more the latter here.
For example; the stupid and totally red herring statement that "in some cases there is suicide", well dufuss, there is that with celibacy as well.
I have lived in a few monasteries of a couple of different religions, and I am firmly of the belief that the majority of people that seek the 'spiritual' life are emotional retards escaping from the real world. God, the nonsense that I found inside Christian monasteries! And to me Buddhism is another unnatural religion, not too different from Catholicism. We grow from life, the cycle of birth and rebirth is how we evolved; to seek to escape this cycle is to seek an end to growth. Yes, I know that at some point we do evolve beyond the physical, but a 'Nirvana' that is presented as a state of 'nothingness' to me smacks of spiritual suicide, and to encourage fellow humans to stop procreating is to seek species suicide.
So, to me this all sounds like the Dalai Lama again showing the world that he, like the Pope, serves the forces of evil.
This from this mornings Nine MSN:
(http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=675815)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sex spells trouble, says Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, on Friday said sex spelt fleeting satisfaction and trouble later, while chastity offered a better life and "more freedom".
"Sexual pressure, sexual desire, actually I think is short period satisfaction and often, that leads to more complication," the Dalai Lama told reporters in a Lagos hotel, speaking in English without a translator.
He said conjugal life caused "too much ups and downs".
"Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those couples always full of trouble. And in some cases there is suicide, murder cases," the Dalai Lama said.
He said the "consolation" in celibacy is that although "we miss something, but at the same time, compare whole life, it's better, more independence, more freedom."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And if we all follow his stupid advice then the species will be extinct.
At the best of times I have little time for the exiled leader of the planets most blood-thirsty and oppressive theocratic dictatorship. Where new-born twins were considered evil and immediately sacrificed to Buddha, where people were sacrificed under the cornerstones of Buddhist temples, where new Buddha statues were anointed with human blood, where Buddhist priests took young boys as their sex toys, where the peasants lived under the harsh whips of their monkish overlords. Small surprise that most of the country does not support him and that half of Tibet welcomed the Chinese as liberators.
All very easy for him to pretend to be a paragon of purity now, to pretend that the regime he lead was 'spiritual', to whisper pretty words into the ears of dumb Westerners.
I acknowledge that celibacy can be an important tool in a person's spiritual growth. But it is also an important tool in the emotional manipulation of the ignorant. And I fear that its use is more the latter here.
For example; the stupid and totally red herring statement that "in some cases there is suicide", well dufuss, there is that with celibacy as well.
I have lived in a few monasteries of a couple of different religions, and I am firmly of the belief that the majority of people that seek the 'spiritual' life are emotional retards escaping from the real world. God, the nonsense that I found inside Christian monasteries! And to me Buddhism is another unnatural religion, not too different from Catholicism. We grow from life, the cycle of birth and rebirth is how we evolved; to seek to escape this cycle is to seek an end to growth. Yes, I know that at some point we do evolve beyond the physical, but a 'Nirvana' that is presented as a state of 'nothingness' to me smacks of spiritual suicide, and to encourage fellow humans to stop procreating is to seek species suicide.
So, to me this all sounds like the Dalai Lama again showing the world that he, like the Pope, serves the forces of evil.
Friday, November 28
A Day of Firsts
Well, a couple anyhow.
So this is the first time I am using Firefox in SG to do this. I used it in Oz, but have used IE here up to now. That is a pretty weak first, I know, but it is only there to kind of fill out the list.
I logged on to my Adult Friend Finder account, first time in a while, but that is not the 'first' for this. I had two winks, okay, one was a wink and hug. Both from here in SG, one was from a two-girl profile. I have had a few winks or messages before, but mostly they have been from Nigeria, or women in their 40s from China, or young girls from Thailand or the Philippines with shots of them naked in their profiles (I kind of shy away from women that have exhibited themselves to the whole world). So this was a first, well two firsts. And then I replied; another first. Whilst I was at it I did a search and also looked up some usernames whose profiles I have looked at before (back in Oz) and liked, and messaged a few of them. Another first.
I don't really like being 'winked', I have a gold account and have paid for standard members to be able to mail me, and say so in my profile. So I would rather something more informative than a 'wink', but there you go.
I had a 700ml tub of icecream (chocolate ripple) for lunch. Meaningless as that is, it is still another first. My tum has been rumbling ever since. I would have preferred to have stopped half way or sooner, but the baby freezer compartment in the baby fridge in my baby apartment only keeps cool, not frozen.
I tried to check the status of my PEP application online. According to the website the MOM processes these in two weeks or less. According to the receipt and the website you can check the status of your application online. This is not exactly true; you can check the status online if you already have an SG ID number, which naturally I don't. So I phoned. Finding a number to call on the website took about eight screens as well. But it ends with good news; the application was approved, on the 26th, so two weeks on the dot, but the paper work may take up to a week to get to me. I need that letter before I can take my passport in to get the pass and return visa stamped in it. I guess this is a first; after all it is the first time that I am allowed to work in another country, it is the first step in leaving Australia. All that aside, it was damned good news to hear. Naturally, given my history with the Australian Public Service I was expecting problems, but no, a straight clear approval.
My right testicle is swollen and sore as hell. It being swollen is a first, I am assuming that I squashed it wearing jeans yesterday. I will wait and see how it is tomorrow before getting a medical opinion; if it doesn't go down then it may be something else, but I'm betting not, I can be pretty rough with those parts of my anatomy at times.
I guess with the PEP approved that I will book return flights back to Adelaide for the Xmas & New Year period. I know that I said I wouldn't do that until I had a job, but I was expecting it to cost a lot more, I webbed it the other day and apparently can do for less than a thousand ($700-ish plus taxes = $850-ish), booking from Australia all you can get is about $800 + about $600 in taxes = $1,400 at best, usually closer to $2,000.
It will be interesting to see if that italic works, I entered it fully manually because CTRL + I gives a huge line of span (i.e. open 'span' in pointy brackets then a long line of code saying font in emphasis then close span in pointy brackets). Blogger in Firefox did not use to do that. And so continues my frustration with Blogger.com's handling of emphasis coding. And yes, I know that there is no non-possessive apostrophe in that, but if I didn't put it there then most people would get totally confused, wouldn't they?
Now why did I get a gold account at AFF? Yes? No?
If 'no' then you can skip this bit.
Back in the days when I first started looking online for someone to share my life with. The first thing was a couple of accounts in Oz to find a local girl - only one came of that and she was too much head trouble to take beyond three conversations. AFF is global, though, so this account lasted longer than the others. Yes, it got put on the back burner whilst I moved on to Russian girls. That went nowhere, half of them were straight out to rip money off guys, half of the remainder were not serious, they just wanted to be taken out to fancy restaurants (a meal out costs them weeks pay), the others turned out to provide their own share of cultural issues. All this time the AFF account stayed alive but unused (free!!), then when I started to think about going to Singapore I actually paid for it to be upgraded into something that can message both ways. Runs out in March 2009 and I'll let it die then. I had kind of forgotten it once I actually got here, was hoping that it might be good for a couple of contacts before I arrived, once here I got busy on other things. I am surprised that it seems to have suddenly come to life. We shall see if I will decide to forget about it again, or if it delivers a living breathing woman.
Here's an interesting addendum; in Firefox I get red underline on spelling errors and correction options.
So this is the first time I am using Firefox in SG to do this. I used it in Oz, but have used IE here up to now. That is a pretty weak first, I know, but it is only there to kind of fill out the list.
I logged on to my Adult Friend Finder account, first time in a while, but that is not the 'first' for this. I had two winks, okay, one was a wink and hug. Both from here in SG, one was from a two-girl profile. I have had a few winks or messages before, but mostly they have been from Nigeria, or women in their 40s from China, or young girls from Thailand or the Philippines with shots of them naked in their profiles (I kind of shy away from women that have exhibited themselves to the whole world). So this was a first, well two firsts. And then I replied; another first. Whilst I was at it I did a search and also looked up some usernames whose profiles I have looked at before (back in Oz) and liked, and messaged a few of them. Another first.
I don't really like being 'winked', I have a gold account and have paid for standard members to be able to mail me, and say so in my profile. So I would rather something more informative than a 'wink', but there you go.
I had a 700ml tub of icecream (chocolate ripple) for lunch. Meaningless as that is, it is still another first. My tum has been rumbling ever since. I would have preferred to have stopped half way or sooner, but the baby freezer compartment in the baby fridge in my baby apartment only keeps cool, not frozen.
I tried to check the status of my PEP application online. According to the website the MOM processes these in two weeks or less. According to the receipt and the website you can check the status of your application online. This is not exactly true; you can check the status online if you already have an SG ID number, which naturally I don't. So I phoned. Finding a number to call on the website took about eight screens as well. But it ends with good news; the application was approved, on the 26th, so two weeks on the dot, but the paper work may take up to a week to get to me. I need that letter before I can take my passport in to get the pass and return visa stamped in it. I guess this is a first; after all it is the first time that I am allowed to work in another country, it is the first step in leaving Australia. All that aside, it was damned good news to hear. Naturally, given my history with the Australian Public Service I was expecting problems, but no, a straight clear approval.
My right testicle is swollen and sore as hell. It being swollen is a first, I am assuming that I squashed it wearing jeans yesterday. I will wait and see how it is tomorrow before getting a medical opinion; if it doesn't go down then it may be something else, but I'm betting not, I can be pretty rough with those parts of my anatomy at times.
I guess with the PEP approved that I will book return flights back to Adelaide for the Xmas & New Year period. I know that I said I wouldn't do that until I had a job, but I was expecting it to cost a lot more, I webbed it the other day and apparently can do for less than a thousand ($700-ish plus taxes = $850-ish), booking from Australia all you can get is about $800 + about $600 in taxes = $1,400 at best, usually closer to $2,000.
It will be interesting to see if that italic works, I entered it fully manually because CTRL + I gives a huge line of span (i.e. open 'span' in pointy brackets then a long line of code saying font in emphasis then close span in pointy brackets). Blogger in Firefox did not use to do that. And so continues my frustration with Blogger.com's handling of emphasis coding. And yes, I know that there is no non-possessive apostrophe in that, but if I didn't put it there then most people would get totally confused, wouldn't they?
Now why did I get a gold account at AFF? Yes? No?
If 'no' then you can skip this bit.
Back in the days when I first started looking online for someone to share my life with. The first thing was a couple of accounts in Oz to find a local girl - only one came of that and she was too much head trouble to take beyond three conversations. AFF is global, though, so this account lasted longer than the others. Yes, it got put on the back burner whilst I moved on to Russian girls. That went nowhere, half of them were straight out to rip money off guys, half of the remainder were not serious, they just wanted to be taken out to fancy restaurants (a meal out costs them weeks pay), the others turned out to provide their own share of cultural issues. All this time the AFF account stayed alive but unused (free!!), then when I started to think about going to Singapore I actually paid for it to be upgraded into something that can message both ways. Runs out in March 2009 and I'll let it die then. I had kind of forgotten it once I actually got here, was hoping that it might be good for a couple of contacts before I arrived, once here I got busy on other things. I am surprised that it seems to have suddenly come to life. We shall see if I will decide to forget about it again, or if it delivers a living breathing woman.
Here's an interesting addendum; in Firefox I get red underline on spelling errors and correction options.
Wednesday, November 26
Leg Cramps
Well, not cramps really, but I think that I have strained a tendon or two behind my right knee joint.
I was up by seven this morning. I think that my sleep patterns are reasserting themselves, the neighbours in the northern flat being reasonably quiet after midnight these days. So, what to do with a whole day ahead of me? I decided on the spur of the moment to hike the east coast again, but all the way from Little India.
Well, to cut a long story short, I was back by eleven, I never got to East Coast Park to even start the hike. Singaporeans must not like walking much, because one; they do not respect pedestrians, every construction site along the way, especially those by the National Parks, just cuts off walking paths without providing alternative routes; and two; signage for pedestrians is non-existent.
In short; how the fuck do you get to East Coast Park?
You would think that you should be able to head for the water and walk along it. Yes? Wrong! Unlike Anglo countries Singapore does not provide right of access to the water frontage, restaurants, golf clubs, and worst of all the National Parks, just block it off, usually without providing any way around.
The first obstacle was to get across the new inner-city reservoir. You cannot yet walk to the barrage and across it as promised on the one-TV-network propaganda show on the subject. No, lots of construction work with no alternative pedestrian access routes being provided. There is a bridge there, but it is vehicle only. So walk back a long way to find a pedestrian bridge.
Then to get from there to the beach. A series of roads blocked off, you think that a 'no through' sign at the start of the road wouldn't be too much to ask, would you? Then a golf course; that should be okay, where I come from you can always walk through a golf course and out the other side. Nope, doesn't look like this one works like that. Back out that road. Look, a track through the woods, there is a boom but it is raised, so it must be okay; yes? Wrong! Leads to an off ramp for some motorway with no pedestrian path. Walk back along the verge into a construction site covered with six inches of soft mud.
Somewhere around there I pulled or stressed a tendon in the back of my leg. Sit down by the reservoir to rest (not many seats, just a few of the concrete stumps), take of sweat soaked shirt, towel off, put on dry shirt, grab a taxi home.
This is SSSSSOOOOOOOOOO infuriating!!!!
Singapore has such potential for great walking! Yet almost every time I try it is sabotaged by a total lack of signage, maps, and suitable tracks / paths. I just guess that most Singaporeans can't comprehend the need by some people to be able to walk somewhere that isn't full of shops and shoppers.
Aahhh. Needed to get that off my chest whilst it is still fresh.
Eight people have viewed this blog; one yank, one pommie, six Singaporeans (one of whom is me). Three people have returned to view it, and another three have returned to view it a few times. I think that I am getting used to the idea. We shall see.
(I need a nick name for Singaporeans; 'singies'?)
Today is fourteen days, i.e. two weeks, since I lodged my PEP applications. The MOM website promises responses in less than two weeks. I am allowing today and tomorrow for any letter to transit the mail system, but if nothing by tomorrow arvo then I am contacting the MOM.
As you can see in the last blog entry, a whole week ago, Jaz was back in SG for a 'few days' and I saw her for less than two minutes during which she didn't speak to me. Nothing since then. Divination aside, I feel it is time to move on, put all the pushing and prompting by her sisters and friends to the side and give up on the idea. Whatever deity is trying to force these things can just rethink his or her strategies.
I bought S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky a few days ago. The purchase itself was a stupid test, I so nearly walked out of that store and off to find it somewhere else. Whilst I am enjoying the game and it has a few improvements over the first, there are some serious shortcomings. I have never played a (legitimate) game before that was so bug-ridden. Seriously, this game has been through a dozen patches and still behaves like beta code! There are serious graphics issues, there are data issues, there are logic flaws, there are things that are meant to be caught in play testing. This is like Microsoft and its habit of releasing beta for the public to test, which is why you never buy anything Microsoft until it has passed version X.0, but Clear Sky is 1.05.07! Which is to say; seven patches to the sixth release (1.0 being the first).
Yes, the game in essence is good, and fun, but I have been carrying a lot of stuff and have stood in one place to drop a lot of guns, then step across a bit to drop the ammo, then step across a bit to drop the other stuff (medkits etc) then turn around and the medkits have vanished! The guns and ammo are still there, but the ancillaries have gone. Also drop stuff on a roof, and come back and it has fallen through the solid concrete roof and into the building below.
A walk-through I downloaded said that there was a scanner at the very north west of the swamp (intro / tutorial) map. I found the cave, but no scanner, no amount of standing by the wall and facing the mattress worked. From reading a few things like that I get the feeling that there is a degree of randomness to some of the item placements.
Still, having said all of that, I still am enjoying the game. I wonder if there will be third party maps or mods? The world is a bit small, only a few zones, and the game machine has the potential to deliver more I think. I like that you can repair and upgrade weapons now by visiting tech guys; I am really only just out of the swamp (okay, I have walked through most of the three or four zones south of the part where it then goes one way and you are locked into the power plant bit) and I am using an AKM74/2 with scope, silencer, extended mag, and all the internal mods to enhance accuracy (as opposed to the other stream of mods that increase rate of fire). I got this rifle in the swamp believe it or not. At first I was using the machine pistol thingy, modified to take 9mm x 18mm, from the original 9 x 19 since that is harder to come by in the tutorial area, whereas every punk has a pistol that you can strip of its 9 x 18 ammo. And a shot gun, I got the pump action and modded it a bit, but left it stashed somewhere as I feel comfortable with just the AKM and a pistol. I am also trying to stay low on ammo; when you strip every corpse you can end up carrying thousands of rounds of ammo on you! Which is all useless weight, you really only need a hundred or two of pistol ammo and between eight hundred and a thousand of rifle ammo. This leaves you with a lot more free weight so you can get more from stripping corpses (I seem to kill a lot of bandits in this game) and then dump it all at stashes. I have one or two such stashes in a couple of zones so far. Then you carry all of this stuff to a trader and sell it to buy great new suits and stuff (they cost 20,000 roubles, so you need to sell a lot of guns to get one).
So you see; I am having fun with it even though it has some annoying bugs that should have been resolved BEFORE release; like entering a new zone and the sky goes vomit, which sorts out suddenly when you move along a few dozen metres. Like your gun getting stuck on firing on full auto when you get important radio messages whilst in the middle of a fire fight. Like two messages talking over the top of each other or a radio message coming in whilst you are in a conversation and the two voices drowning each other out. You lose vital info this way, it is not stored in your message log in your PDA, only the radio messages are, you lose the conversational ones. Like the game getting jerky and things happen whilst your screen was frozen. Like getting nearly killed from full health by being shot by a shot gun at very long distance by a guy that you have put two whole clips of solid rounds into. Like getting your head shot off by NPCs supposedly on your side firing whilst standing behind you! Like the NPCs bumping your character around instead of walking around you, especially in a fire fight when one comes where you are sheltering behind cover and your character is suddenly floating above your cover and you get shot to pieces. Little annoying things like that.
As I said; a really good game, with lots of potential, but released with a whole heap of bugs still in it.
I was up by seven this morning. I think that my sleep patterns are reasserting themselves, the neighbours in the northern flat being reasonably quiet after midnight these days. So, what to do with a whole day ahead of me? I decided on the spur of the moment to hike the east coast again, but all the way from Little India.
Well, to cut a long story short, I was back by eleven, I never got to East Coast Park to even start the hike. Singaporeans must not like walking much, because one; they do not respect pedestrians, every construction site along the way, especially those by the National Parks, just cuts off walking paths without providing alternative routes; and two; signage for pedestrians is non-existent.
In short; how the fuck do you get to East Coast Park?
You would think that you should be able to head for the water and walk along it. Yes? Wrong! Unlike Anglo countries Singapore does not provide right of access to the water frontage, restaurants, golf clubs, and worst of all the National Parks, just block it off, usually without providing any way around.
The first obstacle was to get across the new inner-city reservoir. You cannot yet walk to the barrage and across it as promised on the one-TV-network propaganda show on the subject. No, lots of construction work with no alternative pedestrian access routes being provided. There is a bridge there, but it is vehicle only. So walk back a long way to find a pedestrian bridge.
Then to get from there to the beach. A series of roads blocked off, you think that a 'no through' sign at the start of the road wouldn't be too much to ask, would you? Then a golf course; that should be okay, where I come from you can always walk through a golf course and out the other side. Nope, doesn't look like this one works like that. Back out that road. Look, a track through the woods, there is a boom but it is raised, so it must be okay; yes? Wrong! Leads to an off ramp for some motorway with no pedestrian path. Walk back along the verge into a construction site covered with six inches of soft mud.
Somewhere around there I pulled or stressed a tendon in the back of my leg. Sit down by the reservoir to rest (not many seats, just a few of the concrete stumps), take of sweat soaked shirt, towel off, put on dry shirt, grab a taxi home.
This is SSSSSOOOOOOOOOO infuriating!!!!
Singapore has such potential for great walking! Yet almost every time I try it is sabotaged by a total lack of signage, maps, and suitable tracks / paths. I just guess that most Singaporeans can't comprehend the need by some people to be able to walk somewhere that isn't full of shops and shoppers.
Aahhh. Needed to get that off my chest whilst it is still fresh.
Eight people have viewed this blog; one yank, one pommie, six Singaporeans (one of whom is me). Three people have returned to view it, and another three have returned to view it a few times. I think that I am getting used to the idea. We shall see.
(I need a nick name for Singaporeans; 'singies'?)
Today is fourteen days, i.e. two weeks, since I lodged my PEP applications. The MOM website promises responses in less than two weeks. I am allowing today and tomorrow for any letter to transit the mail system, but if nothing by tomorrow arvo then I am contacting the MOM.
As you can see in the last blog entry, a whole week ago, Jaz was back in SG for a 'few days' and I saw her for less than two minutes during which she didn't speak to me. Nothing since then. Divination aside, I feel it is time to move on, put all the pushing and prompting by her sisters and friends to the side and give up on the idea. Whatever deity is trying to force these things can just rethink his or her strategies.
I bought S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky a few days ago. The purchase itself was a stupid test, I so nearly walked out of that store and off to find it somewhere else. Whilst I am enjoying the game and it has a few improvements over the first, there are some serious shortcomings. I have never played a (legitimate) game before that was so bug-ridden. Seriously, this game has been through a dozen patches and still behaves like beta code! There are serious graphics issues, there are data issues, there are logic flaws, there are things that are meant to be caught in play testing. This is like Microsoft and its habit of releasing beta for the public to test, which is why you never buy anything Microsoft until it has passed version X.0, but Clear Sky is 1.05.07! Which is to say; seven patches to the sixth release (1.0 being the first).
Yes, the game in essence is good, and fun, but I have been carrying a lot of stuff and have stood in one place to drop a lot of guns, then step across a bit to drop the ammo, then step across a bit to drop the other stuff (medkits etc) then turn around and the medkits have vanished! The guns and ammo are still there, but the ancillaries have gone. Also drop stuff on a roof, and come back and it has fallen through the solid concrete roof and into the building below.
A walk-through I downloaded said that there was a scanner at the very north west of the swamp (intro / tutorial) map. I found the cave, but no scanner, no amount of standing by the wall and facing the mattress worked. From reading a few things like that I get the feeling that there is a degree of randomness to some of the item placements.
Still, having said all of that, I still am enjoying the game. I wonder if there will be third party maps or mods? The world is a bit small, only a few zones, and the game machine has the potential to deliver more I think. I like that you can repair and upgrade weapons now by visiting tech guys; I am really only just out of the swamp (okay, I have walked through most of the three or four zones south of the part where it then goes one way and you are locked into the power plant bit) and I am using an AKM74/2 with scope, silencer, extended mag, and all the internal mods to enhance accuracy (as opposed to the other stream of mods that increase rate of fire). I got this rifle in the swamp believe it or not. At first I was using the machine pistol thingy, modified to take 9mm x 18mm, from the original 9 x 19 since that is harder to come by in the tutorial area, whereas every punk has a pistol that you can strip of its 9 x 18 ammo. And a shot gun, I got the pump action and modded it a bit, but left it stashed somewhere as I feel comfortable with just the AKM and a pistol. I am also trying to stay low on ammo; when you strip every corpse you can end up carrying thousands of rounds of ammo on you! Which is all useless weight, you really only need a hundred or two of pistol ammo and between eight hundred and a thousand of rifle ammo. This leaves you with a lot more free weight so you can get more from stripping corpses (I seem to kill a lot of bandits in this game) and then dump it all at stashes. I have one or two such stashes in a couple of zones so far. Then you carry all of this stuff to a trader and sell it to buy great new suits and stuff (they cost 20,000 roubles, so you need to sell a lot of guns to get one).
So you see; I am having fun with it even though it has some annoying bugs that should have been resolved BEFORE release; like entering a new zone and the sky goes vomit, which sorts out suddenly when you move along a few dozen metres. Like your gun getting stuck on firing on full auto when you get important radio messages whilst in the middle of a fire fight. Like two messages talking over the top of each other or a radio message coming in whilst you are in a conversation and the two voices drowning each other out. You lose vital info this way, it is not stored in your message log in your PDA, only the radio messages are, you lose the conversational ones. Like the game getting jerky and things happen whilst your screen was frozen. Like getting nearly killed from full health by being shot by a shot gun at very long distance by a guy that you have put two whole clips of solid rounds into. Like getting your head shot off by NPCs supposedly on your side firing whilst standing behind you! Like the NPCs bumping your character around instead of walking around you, especially in a fire fight when one comes where you are sheltering behind cover and your character is suddenly floating above your cover and you get shot to pieces. Little annoying things like that.
As I said; a really good game, with lots of potential, but released with a whole heap of bugs still in it.
Thursday, November 20
The Two of Cups, again!
Jaz and Iris just called by, txt me to go down, Iris just wanted me to have some stuff (a large bag) for Cheng and baby. Jaz didn't talk to me.
So, on one hand I have enough stuff to take back now to almost fill a suitcase.
On the other hand I am kind of confused about Jaz.
Being confused, thinking maybe this is not anything and I should stop wasting my time on it, I did another card reading.
I did three or four readings over the first few days I was in Singapore, they all said the same thing, very clearly and strongly that love was near future, new beginnings, and a settled happy ever-after. I got the Tower, upright, three times! Twice in the same final position! This has never happened before. So, thinking that I need the cards to be straight with me and not lead me on some garden path...
Two cards came out whilst I was shuffling, this often signifies a clear simple answer, life is stuffing a card right in your face and you can't avoid it. But two cards, simultaneously. Both upright, so now obfuscation, straight definitive interpretations. Both cups, so to do with emotions.
On the left, signifying the past, the four of cups, meaning dissatisfaction, unhappiness, incompleteness.
On the right, signifying the future, the two of cups, meaning new love, marriage, beginning of a relationship or venture.
I didn't bother doing a full reading after that.
So the cards continue to be more definitive on this than I have ever seen in my life, but Jaz doesn't talk to me, so I don't know what to do with her.
So, on one hand I have enough stuff to take back now to almost fill a suitcase.
On the other hand I am kind of confused about Jaz.
Being confused, thinking maybe this is not anything and I should stop wasting my time on it, I did another card reading.
I did three or four readings over the first few days I was in Singapore, they all said the same thing, very clearly and strongly that love was near future, new beginnings, and a settled happy ever-after. I got the Tower, upright, three times! Twice in the same final position! This has never happened before. So, thinking that I need the cards to be straight with me and not lead me on some garden path...
Two cards came out whilst I was shuffling, this often signifies a clear simple answer, life is stuffing a card right in your face and you can't avoid it. But two cards, simultaneously. Both upright, so now obfuscation, straight definitive interpretations. Both cups, so to do with emotions.
On the left, signifying the past, the four of cups, meaning dissatisfaction, unhappiness, incompleteness.
On the right, signifying the future, the two of cups, meaning new love, marriage, beginning of a relationship or venture.
I didn't bother doing a full reading after that.
So the cards continue to be more definitive on this than I have ever seen in my life, but Jaz doesn't talk to me, so I don't know what to do with her.
Wednesday, November 19
Another day in the life of a snail.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[deep breath]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[inhale]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There I am; just thinking 'oh, I'll just log on and do a bit of blogging - it's been a while and there are a few things that have happened since the last one' and what do I see?
Huh? Just what do I see?????
SIX UNIQUE VISITORS!!!!!!!!!!!
Five from Singapore and one from the US.
I mean, really, when did this all happen? Who decided that this was the week that we would all look at Kai's blog? Just what brought this on? Is anyone going to explain to me just what is happening?
I was so comfortable, ssssoooooooo comfortable, with the knowledge that no one else in the world read my blog. Nothing to worry about, no need to be concerned about what I said, just living in my own little world. And now this.
To be honest, one of the SG visitors is, of course, me.
BUT WHO ARE THE REST???
And more to the point - WHY????
Will this be repeated? Will it keep on? Am I to now have other people in my space?
Yes, I know, it is a blog, you think that other people are meant to read it. Well, that's just fine. You can think that way. I know it is an open space, but it is, or rather, it was, a secret open space, that no one else in the world intruded into.
Anyhow, enough of that rant.
Just remember though, if there are 10,000 hits a month then it won't be a free blog anymore. Why do you think all of your favourite blogs have advertising? To pay for the cost of having so many people viewing the site, to pay for the hits on the blog server. Ah well, life changes and I will just have to adjust, won't I?
So what has happened?
Yes, I went for another day-long hike.
[That should really be an 'n' dash, not an 'i' dash, but I am too lazy to make it happen.]
I haven't put the pics up on my Flickr site yet.
And I got wet, not from rain this time, rather from perspiration, but the effect was much the same - undies and loose, light cotton trousers all bunch up between my legs and rubbed my inner thighs raw. OOOOOWWWW!!!! that hurt so much!!
So yesterday was 'stay at home and stay off your feet'.
Today was 'GO BUY SOME DECENT HIKING CLOTHS!!!'
I almost feel as though there should be an 'idiot!' in that.
And some water proof real hiking boots.
Which I did.
But...
I kind of get annoyed with shopping in Singapore. The shops are too small!
Back in Oz a good sized sports store that I could rely on having whatever I need has a shoe section that is eight times bigger than the whole store here in SG will be. Such small little shops, they cannot have everything that you might need. And indeed they do not. So I have got some shorts that might fit the bill to some degree, but they are not what I really want, and I have no idea how I am meant to find what I want in SG. Will I ever master this one? Or maybe it will just take time to learn where the shops that will become my favourites are.
Hmm, other news. I should find out later this week or early next how my employment pass application went. I am kind of a little concerned. Maybe just because I am so used to things going wrong in my life. Especially things that concern governments. I am not experienced with the Singaporean government yet. I haven't heard back from the agency about the job that they put me forward for, so I will call tomorrow about that, and I will call the other agency that I haven't heard back from at all. You would think 'I worked with the Adelaide office for eight years! Don't you think that the Singapore office would return a call?' We shall see, well, we won't, because I will call them. Maybe they just need a prompt. Or maybe they called the Adelaide office and got a bad report on me, after all, they Adelaide office wants me to return because the SA Health Department is screaming for my skill set and almost no one else in SA has it. No, I know, they would never do anything that unprofessional, but the idea is funny, don't you think?
Paul and Cheng got married on Monday, the photos are going up to Flickr as I write this, I have already seen 18 of them, but something like 150 are going up. Paul looks very happy and proud, and very red haired! (heh heh, couldn't help it, had to say it) Cheng looks sssooooooo pretty! She is glowing.
We skyped, she said that she had just gotten off the phone from Jaz and Iris and that they will be in SG tomorrow!!!! I believe something like 'well, strike me pink!' is in order, or maybe 'well, knock me down with feather!' Yes, I was, and still am, surprised. Last thing I was told was that they would be a month or so, and that was a big change from the six months that they first thought. They haven't had their passports reissued yet, that would be far too much to expect from Malaysia, but they have some sort of single entry passes to come to SG. Iris will need to visit the US embassy here to get her green card reissued, Jaz will undoubtedly be asking the requisite SG department about her paperwork. I know that they will be very busy, especially for the first few days, but I am hoping so much that at some point I will get a chance to see Jaz again. I have been holding off from going clubbing/pubbing to wait for her return to continue exploring this 'not yet a relationship' thing because, face it, I think that I like her, I think that she could be the sort of woman that I could be serious about exploring a relationship with.
We shall see. And if this has been a little test by fate to see how serious I am then we shall see if I passed. But I should not read too much into it, and I should not let myself hope too much for something that may not exist outside of my own desire for it to exist.
And I skyped my sister. She has recently finished a counselling course and is applying for some jobs in childcare, and has also attended a couple of real estate agent seminars - something that she has wanted to look at for many years. She has also been attending a personal growth course at Cosmic Pages. Can you believe that? Cosmic Pages, it used to be the Southern Centre for Theosophy when I was young. I have been going to that shop since I was twelve! And as a teenager I went to their camp at Robe. I remember talking to the woman that runs it shortly after her father left the shop with her and went to open a commune. It has always been a solid reference point in my life. It is good to hear my sister talk about it, and to relay conversations she had with the owner.
One thing that I do need to still get is something to help me sleep. Preferably a herbal tea of some sort. Partly this is because I just cannot turn off my brain at night, or rather my conscious, mental mind cannot calm down and leave my brain to my subconscious, emotional self for the night. And partially this is because of the neighbours on one side that seem to believe that they need pay no mind to their impact upon the rest of the universe.
So I have a few other points that I was going to cover, but the evening suddenly turned to more important issues; parking on double yellow lines, inter-racial relationships, my search for suitable continuing education in SG, but I have typed enough for one night.
[deep breath]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[inhale]
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There I am; just thinking 'oh, I'll just log on and do a bit of blogging - it's been a while and there are a few things that have happened since the last one' and what do I see?
Huh? Just what do I see?????
SIX UNIQUE VISITORS!!!!!!!!!!!
Five from Singapore and one from the US.
I mean, really, when did this all happen? Who decided that this was the week that we would all look at Kai's blog? Just what brought this on? Is anyone going to explain to me just what is happening?
I was so comfortable, ssssoooooooo comfortable, with the knowledge that no one else in the world read my blog. Nothing to worry about, no need to be concerned about what I said, just living in my own little world. And now this.
To be honest, one of the SG visitors is, of course, me.
BUT WHO ARE THE REST???
And more to the point - WHY????
Will this be repeated? Will it keep on? Am I to now have other people in my space?
Yes, I know, it is a blog, you think that other people are meant to read it. Well, that's just fine. You can think that way. I know it is an open space, but it is, or rather, it was, a secret open space, that no one else in the world intruded into.
Anyhow, enough of that rant.
Just remember though, if there are 10,000 hits a month then it won't be a free blog anymore. Why do you think all of your favourite blogs have advertising? To pay for the cost of having so many people viewing the site, to pay for the hits on the blog server. Ah well, life changes and I will just have to adjust, won't I?
So what has happened?
Yes, I went for another day-long hike.
[That should really be an 'n' dash, not an 'i' dash, but I am too lazy to make it happen.]
I haven't put the pics up on my Flickr site yet.
And I got wet, not from rain this time, rather from perspiration, but the effect was much the same - undies and loose, light cotton trousers all bunch up between my legs and rubbed my inner thighs raw. OOOOOWWWW!!!! that hurt so much!!
So yesterday was 'stay at home and stay off your feet'.
Today was 'GO BUY SOME DECENT HIKING CLOTHS!!!'
I almost feel as though there should be an 'idiot!' in that.
And some water proof real hiking boots.
Which I did.
But...
I kind of get annoyed with shopping in Singapore. The shops are too small!
Back in Oz a good sized sports store that I could rely on having whatever I need has a shoe section that is eight times bigger than the whole store here in SG will be. Such small little shops, they cannot have everything that you might need. And indeed they do not. So I have got some shorts that might fit the bill to some degree, but they are not what I really want, and I have no idea how I am meant to find what I want in SG. Will I ever master this one? Or maybe it will just take time to learn where the shops that will become my favourites are.
Hmm, other news. I should find out later this week or early next how my employment pass application went. I am kind of a little concerned. Maybe just because I am so used to things going wrong in my life. Especially things that concern governments. I am not experienced with the Singaporean government yet. I haven't heard back from the agency about the job that they put me forward for, so I will call tomorrow about that, and I will call the other agency that I haven't heard back from at all. You would think 'I worked with the Adelaide office for eight years! Don't you think that the Singapore office would return a call?' We shall see, well, we won't, because I will call them. Maybe they just need a prompt. Or maybe they called the Adelaide office and got a bad report on me, after all, they Adelaide office wants me to return because the SA Health Department is screaming for my skill set and almost no one else in SA has it. No, I know, they would never do anything that unprofessional, but the idea is funny, don't you think?
Paul and Cheng got married on Monday, the photos are going up to Flickr as I write this, I have already seen 18 of them, but something like 150 are going up. Paul looks very happy and proud, and very red haired! (heh heh, couldn't help it, had to say it) Cheng looks sssooooooo pretty! She is glowing.
We skyped, she said that she had just gotten off the phone from Jaz and Iris and that they will be in SG tomorrow!!!! I believe something like 'well, strike me pink!' is in order, or maybe 'well, knock me down with feather!' Yes, I was, and still am, surprised. Last thing I was told was that they would be a month or so, and that was a big change from the six months that they first thought. They haven't had their passports reissued yet, that would be far too much to expect from Malaysia, but they have some sort of single entry passes to come to SG. Iris will need to visit the US embassy here to get her green card reissued, Jaz will undoubtedly be asking the requisite SG department about her paperwork. I know that they will be very busy, especially for the first few days, but I am hoping so much that at some point I will get a chance to see Jaz again. I have been holding off from going clubbing/pubbing to wait for her return to continue exploring this 'not yet a relationship' thing because, face it, I think that I like her, I think that she could be the sort of woman that I could be serious about exploring a relationship with.
We shall see. And if this has been a little test by fate to see how serious I am then we shall see if I passed. But I should not read too much into it, and I should not let myself hope too much for something that may not exist outside of my own desire for it to exist.
And I skyped my sister. She has recently finished a counselling course and is applying for some jobs in childcare, and has also attended a couple of real estate agent seminars - something that she has wanted to look at for many years. She has also been attending a personal growth course at Cosmic Pages. Can you believe that? Cosmic Pages, it used to be the Southern Centre for Theosophy when I was young. I have been going to that shop since I was twelve! And as a teenager I went to their camp at Robe. I remember talking to the woman that runs it shortly after her father left the shop with her and went to open a commune. It has always been a solid reference point in my life. It is good to hear my sister talk about it, and to relay conversations she had with the owner.
One thing that I do need to still get is something to help me sleep. Preferably a herbal tea of some sort. Partly this is because I just cannot turn off my brain at night, or rather my conscious, mental mind cannot calm down and leave my brain to my subconscious, emotional self for the night. And partially this is because of the neighbours on one side that seem to believe that they need pay no mind to their impact upon the rest of the universe.
So I have a few other points that I was going to cover, but the evening suddenly turned to more important issues; parking on double yellow lines, inter-racial relationships, my search for suitable continuing education in SG, but I have typed enough for one night.
Sunday, November 16
Introverted Intuitive Thinker Judger
I was going to go hiking today. Take the MRT ("Metro" as I prefer to call it) to Pasir Ris ("Paris Riz" as I keep calling it...) then down the beach parks to the south and east. I was aware from the TV weather late last night that there will be afternoon thunderstorms (as there was the last time I did an East Coast hike) but now I am almost completely ready (still need to get gore-tex shoes).
This has been put on hold; I started downloading FireFox, and then a heap of addins, and then to test some of the tab control addins I opened all of my blog links, and then I started to read some...
SarongPartyGirl, who had moved to I Z Reloaded, is now at Babe Logic (babelogic.net). She is kind of seminal for me as she was one of my first introductions to Singaporean blogging. It's is fascinating how her style, perhaps even her personality, has changed with each new blog site. Each seems to definitively be a manifestation of a new phase in her life, perhaps even her consciousness. She has updated her link on SPG.blogspot, in that the second last blog is 2005 and the latest is 2008 redirecting you to babelogic, whereas there used to be a redirection to IZ Reloaded. She comments that Singapore has changed so much in the last few years. I think perhaps it is more that she has matured so much in this time. Also going overseas helps, not just in adding focus, new perspectives, something to make a comparison with, but also because things change whilst you are gone and so you notice it more when you return. You miss the slow adjustments and return to find the big difference at the end of the line. Anyhow, a lot more maturity, even clarity maybe, a lot more depth, a lot less anger. A lot more breadth of subject.
An hour or so on Skype with a friend still in Oz (he and new wifey are thinking of coming to SG in about 18 months - want the new babe to get Oz citizenship and so staying in Adelaide for the first year and a bit of its life, she is in Oz on a work permit from Malaysia, they don't want the child to be stuck with Malaysian citizenship - wise move, but couldn't they just make an application based on paternity? I am not sure, Australia is funny on that one, think it might only give citizenship based on maternity). So, he was trying to bit torrent my music off my pc to me. Not quite working, in the sense that it wasn't working at all. Still, if I get a job then I will return for Xmas and can put all of my music files on a pocket drive, so I am not too fussed.
And now it is early afternoon and by the time I arrived at any point to commence a hike the forecast thunder storm would be about starting. So I will have lunch, have a nap, spend the arvo playing Unreal II, go hiking tomorrow.
Oh yeah, funny thing yesterday. I am getting to quite like this idea of eating out every dinner (often lunch as well) since it is so cheap in SG and it means no dishes to wash! On the way down to the Little China at Bencoolen last night a young Indian guy stopped me and we talked, he claimed to be a holy man and opened his wallet to show me a picture of a saint (which kind of proves that one beyond any reasonable doubt, doesn't it?), then he guessed my age and my favourite colour (but he got my favourite flower wrong) and thought that this was enough to warrant $100 from me!!!
Claimed that he would pray for me and since he is a holy man that this would ensure that I become very rich. He seemed quite affronted when I refused, but as I put it he hadn't actually done anything for me, if he can pray for me and I do get rich (as a direct result of his prayers), then I will give him $100.
Seems fair to me.
I have a similar concept with deities; introduce me to a god that actually gives me something when I pray to him/her/it and I will do so. But in my observation most take people's prayers and give nothing back. To be honest, I have interacted with something(s) non-physical and gotten exactly what I asked for, but that is probably a discussion for another day. On a slightly similar tack; as I have mentioned in previous posts, I felt a lot of 'push' (but no 'pull') bringing me here to SG, and I had a sneaky suspicion that some Chinese deity was responsible. A lot of things lead me to this conclusion, the foreclosure on the house I was renting by HSBC was just one of the more amusing. Around this time I kept seeing one Chinese deity a lot, or perhaps just noticing his representations more, and I have seen them several times since I arrived here as well. So I went to the National Library to do some research. Firstly, I was rather disappointed by the small selection of books on Chinese philosophy, culture, and religion, and most of those there (in English) were by Europeans with a clearly stated agenda to either disprove them or to 'convert' readers. I would have thought that such a large library in an English speaking Chinese state would have a better selection of English language works on Chinese subjects. Specifically, books to explain Chinese religion, culture, and philosophy to a natural English speaker - to help us to assimilate into Singaporean society better. Secondly, although I found out little about him, I did find him.
I think that the deity responsible may be Guan Gong, God of War and Commerce.
This has been put on hold; I started downloading FireFox, and then a heap of addins, and then to test some of the tab control addins I opened all of my blog links, and then I started to read some...
SarongPartyGirl, who had moved to I Z Reloaded, is now at Babe Logic (babelogic.net). She is kind of seminal for me as she was one of my first introductions to Singaporean blogging. It's is fascinating how her style, perhaps even her personality, has changed with each new blog site. Each seems to definitively be a manifestation of a new phase in her life, perhaps even her consciousness. She has updated her link on SPG.blogspot, in that the second last blog is 2005 and the latest is 2008 redirecting you to babelogic, whereas there used to be a redirection to IZ Reloaded. She comments that Singapore has changed so much in the last few years. I think perhaps it is more that she has matured so much in this time. Also going overseas helps, not just in adding focus, new perspectives, something to make a comparison with, but also because things change whilst you are gone and so you notice it more when you return. You miss the slow adjustments and return to find the big difference at the end of the line. Anyhow, a lot more maturity, even clarity maybe, a lot more depth, a lot less anger. A lot more breadth of subject.
An hour or so on Skype with a friend still in Oz (he and new wifey are thinking of coming to SG in about 18 months - want the new babe to get Oz citizenship and so staying in Adelaide for the first year and a bit of its life, she is in Oz on a work permit from Malaysia, they don't want the child to be stuck with Malaysian citizenship - wise move, but couldn't they just make an application based on paternity? I am not sure, Australia is funny on that one, think it might only give citizenship based on maternity). So, he was trying to bit torrent my music off my pc to me. Not quite working, in the sense that it wasn't working at all. Still, if I get a job then I will return for Xmas and can put all of my music files on a pocket drive, so I am not too fussed.
And now it is early afternoon and by the time I arrived at any point to commence a hike the forecast thunder storm would be about starting. So I will have lunch, have a nap, spend the arvo playing Unreal II, go hiking tomorrow.
Oh yeah, funny thing yesterday. I am getting to quite like this idea of eating out every dinner (often lunch as well) since it is so cheap in SG and it means no dishes to wash! On the way down to the Little China at Bencoolen last night a young Indian guy stopped me and we talked, he claimed to be a holy man and opened his wallet to show me a picture of a saint (which kind of proves that one beyond any reasonable doubt, doesn't it?), then he guessed my age and my favourite colour (but he got my favourite flower wrong) and thought that this was enough to warrant $100 from me!!!
Claimed that he would pray for me and since he is a holy man that this would ensure that I become very rich. He seemed quite affronted when I refused, but as I put it he hadn't actually done anything for me, if he can pray for me and I do get rich (as a direct result of his prayers), then I will give him $100.
Seems fair to me.
I have a similar concept with deities; introduce me to a god that actually gives me something when I pray to him/her/it and I will do so. But in my observation most take people's prayers and give nothing back. To be honest, I have interacted with something(s) non-physical and gotten exactly what I asked for, but that is probably a discussion for another day. On a slightly similar tack; as I have mentioned in previous posts, I felt a lot of 'push' (but no 'pull') bringing me here to SG, and I had a sneaky suspicion that some Chinese deity was responsible. A lot of things lead me to this conclusion, the foreclosure on the house I was renting by HSBC was just one of the more amusing. Around this time I kept seeing one Chinese deity a lot, or perhaps just noticing his representations more, and I have seen them several times since I arrived here as well. So I went to the National Library to do some research. Firstly, I was rather disappointed by the small selection of books on Chinese philosophy, culture, and religion, and most of those there (in English) were by Europeans with a clearly stated agenda to either disprove them or to 'convert' readers. I would have thought that such a large library in an English speaking Chinese state would have a better selection of English language works on Chinese subjects. Specifically, books to explain Chinese religion, culture, and philosophy to a natural English speaker - to help us to assimilate into Singaporean society better. Secondly, although I found out little about him, I did find him.
I think that the deity responsible may be Guan Gong, God of War and Commerce.
Friday, November 14
Late one night, whilst working on my plans for world conquest...
I shouldn't be here.
As in, blogging now. It is after midnight and I should be in my bed asleep. But the Indians in the next flat are a bit too loud again...
So as I was lying there my mind drifting after doing a couple of sudukos on my phone I thought of something amiss, see addendum one for previous post, and whilst I was at it I did addendum two as well...
Then I noticed that this previous blog was dated Tuesday and today (well, more accurately yesterday) is (was) Thursday (the holy day of the creator of my race). Which is to say, I didn't tell you (you, as in 'the non-existent readers that I do not have') that I put my PEP application in on Tuesday and should therefore know the result in two weeks (closer to one and a half now).
I haven't heard back from the agency about the contract she called about, so tomorrow I might call her to follow up.
It is close to 1am now, the neighbours have quietened down. They're not as bad as they were week before last, I think one of the other neighbours might have complained about them, anyhow, they seem to keep it down after one-ish. Be nice if they kept it down after ten-ish though.
[Addendum - no, there they go again, arguing rather loudly, in English mind you.]
As in, blogging now. It is after midnight and I should be in my bed asleep. But the Indians in the next flat are a bit too loud again...
So as I was lying there my mind drifting after doing a couple of sudukos on my phone I thought of something amiss, see addendum one for previous post, and whilst I was at it I did addendum two as well...
Then I noticed that this previous blog was dated Tuesday and today (well, more accurately yesterday) is (was) Thursday (the holy day of the creator of my race). Which is to say, I didn't tell you (you, as in 'the non-existent readers that I do not have') that I put my PEP application in on Tuesday and should therefore know the result in two weeks (closer to one and a half now).
I haven't heard back from the agency about the contract she called about, so tomorrow I might call her to follow up.
It is close to 1am now, the neighbours have quietened down. They're not as bad as they were week before last, I think one of the other neighbours might have complained about them, anyhow, they seem to keep it down after one-ish. Be nice if they kept it down after ten-ish though.
[Addendum - no, there they go again, arguing rather loudly, in English mind you.]
Tuesday, November 11
Banking
My web connection is a tad dodgy today. So this post might not make it up. Rebooted my laptop for no effect, then tried getting Windows to diagnose the connection woes. I can get msgr now (skype was never a problem somehow), but can't get hotmail, so msgr is telling me that I have emails, and I can't get to them. One of those emails is a password for YET ANOTHER password reset by steam in my ongoing war with steampowered.com. Their site keeps saying that my password is wrong, but then won't send me a reset because it 'doesn't recognise' my email address, and you can't contact steam support without logging on - their incredibly stupid and user hostile website does not have any email contact or issue logging form that can be accessed without first logging on. So I use another steam account to log in to report the problems with my 'real' account, and they continually reset my password and think that this is the sole solution. This last email had the incredibly stupid comment that passwords are numeric only - then they wouldn't be passwords dolt, they would be passcodes, anyhow, my password has always been a mix of alpha and numeric, and my second account is pure alpha (a very rude phrase about steam with no spaces). The main problem is, of course, that steam won't let me buy anything online. They say that the transaction is always refused by either PayPal or my credit provider (i.e. my bank and VISA), both of whom state that the transactions aren't being stopped at their end and I 'should contact the merchant' about the problem. The problem is that steam is totally twentieth century, they, not PayPal or my bank, they refuse the transactions because my IP address is stating that I am in a different country than my PayPal and VISA accounts. No kidding! It's called THE GLOBAL ECONOMY geniuses! To satisfy steam I would have to create a new PayPal account for every country that I visit. And the worst of it is their total refusal to acknowledge that they are in any way actually responsible for any of this.
But this rant has nothing at all to do with what I am going to blog about today...
As I have previously mentioned, I follow a few Singaporean blogs, it started as researching the country that I was thinking of moving to, and has kept up both because some of them are okay and to keep abreast of things.
I generally check them on a weekly basis; since most of them don't blog very often checking daily is pointless.
The ones I most often check are: mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com, miyagi.sg, mrbrown.com, [deleted]'s xiaxue.blogspot.com, dawnyang.com mostly, and a few others. There are probably twenty in the full list in my favourites and that is only the ones that I could remember / find to add to my favourites on my Asus laptop, there are more in my FireFox favourites on my box back in Oz (also an Asus) that I had emailed to me recently but haven't gotten around to adding yet.
Note that I do not play favourites; I always read Mssrs Brown, Miyagi, and Wang together (there are two others that should be in that group as well, and will be when I check my FireFox listing) and I always read Xiaxue and Dawn Yang together. I have to admit that the ladies perplex me; why have nose jobs but then photoshop your pictures? Why didn't you both get the noses that you wanted in the first place? Anyhow, I am a firm believer that Euro style noses don't necessarily go too well with an Asian profile.
Anyhow, I was walking back from the post office, having posted a form to get the bond from my last rental in Australia returned, when it occurred to me that one of these gentlemen was sabotaging the Singaporean financial system!
No shit!
I am totally serious.
If you remember your first economics subject (probably either 'introductory economics, economics 101, introduction to financial economics' or whatever, depending on where you studied) you will recall how the banking system works. And if you didn't do one of these subjects then 1) you will just have to take my word for it, and 2) you should not be offering advice to others on the subject. If you give money to a bank (as in make a deposit) it keeps some, the level is set by legislation and both differs between countries and changes in each country, and it lends the rest out. What this means is that if you lend $100 to a bank and it keeps $10 and lends $90 out, then the bank only has $10 in cash. The theory is that the $90 goes somewhere, gets spent, but ends up back in the banking system, maybe in a different bank, but in the system somewhere, where $9 will be kept and $81 lent out again, and so on. This ends with all $100 of cash being in the banking system, and there being $900 owed to the various banks that make up the system, but there are $1000 of deposits recorded in the books. This is taught so that we understand how banks create money (specifically debt, non-cash money), it is also part of the explanation given to us as to how governments control the financial system (namely by controlling the ratios involved).
The point is that there are $1000 of deposits but only $100 of actual paper money in the bank.
This works because history has shown us that only 10% of the money is withdrawn during any set financial period.
Unless some dufuss comes along and advises people to take all of their savings greater than $20,000 SGD out of their bank accounts! It matters little that he advises readers to put that money into another bank, that would only work if the mass of the population took their monies out and re-deposited it at a measured pace, which was not advised. No, what was advised was that all Singaporeans withdraw masses of cash from the financial system and cause a system-wide liquidity problem leading to an immediate, get that - immediate, collapse of the Singaporean financial system and all banks based within Singapore. This could only be averted by the authorities freezing all funds.
The result of this foolishness would probably be hundreds of jobs lost, significant impairment of Singapores ability to operate in the global market, a total loss of face for the Singaporean financial system and a total loss of trust by other market participants in the Singaporean financial system. And that is if the government acted quickly to freeze funds, if they did not then there would be tens of thousands of Singaporeans joining the ranks of the unemployed, total bankruptcy of the nation. And it would take ten to fifteen years for the nation to recover. Foreign talent (like me) would just take our six digit salaries to some other economy. I work by contract, I can move anywhere.
Thankfully no one paid heed to this ill advice. But it does make one wonder how an individual can elucidate at length upon a subject they understand so little. Undoubtedly he was thinking of the good of the individuals he addressed, but he totally failed to see the bigger picture. There is a word for this; where individuals take action for their own benefit, but which is bad for the group, and bad for all individuals if all individuals take this same action. But at this moment I cannot recall the name of the theory that covers such behaviour.
Anyhow, the point is that he should not be considered a safe financial adviser. Or, to put it another way, he should stick to his area of expertise.
Being a member of society is reason enough to comment on social issues, we all have the right to speak up about cultural and political subjects, we can all comment on the behaviour of drivers parking on double yellow lines on corners, and if a person has legal qualifications then they are well suited to speaking about legal issues. But a person should refrain from making definitive statements of a financial nature unless one is a qualified accountant or economist. And you have probably figured out that I have such qualifications, and, I might add, twenty years experience.
Not that I want to get offside with a person that I generally consider to be intelligent and well written and whose blog I shall continue to read, just that this time his comments moved outside his area of competency and need correction. Although, in my usual manner, I have probably stomped far too hard.
And that ends todays rant.
Yes, that's right, there is no apostrophe in "todays rant" since the day does not own the rant. As there is no apostrophe in "King Georges Street" since the street is named in honour of the king, not owned personally by him, and no apostrophes in "KK Womens and Childrens Hospital" since the women and children do not own the hospital. Unless, of course, you are writing in Singlish rather than English.
I should actually clarify this; there used to be a non-possessive apostrophe in the written English language, but its use was discontinued, formally, by the international body that controls the English language. It just seems that somebody forgot to tell Singapore.
(Naturally one expects Americans, such as Microsoft Word spell checker, not to get this correct.)
But that is a whole different rant.
[Addendum - yeah, I deleted a name there. I thought about it later and realised that I don't have my full / real name up here, so I should respect the desire of others not to have their full or real name known for their blog. It was thoughtless of me and I should be a bit more mature than that.]
[Second addendum - it's called 'game theory'.]
But this rant has nothing at all to do with what I am going to blog about today...
As I have previously mentioned, I follow a few Singaporean blogs, it started as researching the country that I was thinking of moving to, and has kept up both because some of them are okay and to keep abreast of things.
I generally check them on a weekly basis; since most of them don't blog very often checking daily is pointless.
The ones I most often check are: mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com, miyagi.sg, mrbrown.com, [deleted]'s xiaxue.blogspot.com, dawnyang.com mostly, and a few others. There are probably twenty in the full list in my favourites and that is only the ones that I could remember / find to add to my favourites on my Asus laptop, there are more in my FireFox favourites on my box back in Oz (also an Asus) that I had emailed to me recently but haven't gotten around to adding yet.
Note that I do not play favourites; I always read Mssrs Brown, Miyagi, and Wang together (there are two others that should be in that group as well, and will be when I check my FireFox listing) and I always read Xiaxue and Dawn Yang together. I have to admit that the ladies perplex me; why have nose jobs but then photoshop your pictures? Why didn't you both get the noses that you wanted in the first place? Anyhow, I am a firm believer that Euro style noses don't necessarily go too well with an Asian profile.
Anyhow, I was walking back from the post office, having posted a form to get the bond from my last rental in Australia returned, when it occurred to me that one of these gentlemen was sabotaging the Singaporean financial system!
No shit!
I am totally serious.
If you remember your first economics subject (probably either 'introductory economics, economics 101, introduction to financial economics' or whatever, depending on where you studied) you will recall how the banking system works. And if you didn't do one of these subjects then 1) you will just have to take my word for it, and 2) you should not be offering advice to others on the subject. If you give money to a bank (as in make a deposit) it keeps some, the level is set by legislation and both differs between countries and changes in each country, and it lends the rest out. What this means is that if you lend $100 to a bank and it keeps $10 and lends $90 out, then the bank only has $10 in cash. The theory is that the $90 goes somewhere, gets spent, but ends up back in the banking system, maybe in a different bank, but in the system somewhere, where $9 will be kept and $81 lent out again, and so on. This ends with all $100 of cash being in the banking system, and there being $900 owed to the various banks that make up the system, but there are $1000 of deposits recorded in the books. This is taught so that we understand how banks create money (specifically debt, non-cash money), it is also part of the explanation given to us as to how governments control the financial system (namely by controlling the ratios involved).
The point is that there are $1000 of deposits but only $100 of actual paper money in the bank.
This works because history has shown us that only 10% of the money is withdrawn during any set financial period.
Unless some dufuss comes along and advises people to take all of their savings greater than $20,000 SGD out of their bank accounts! It matters little that he advises readers to put that money into another bank, that would only work if the mass of the population took their monies out and re-deposited it at a measured pace, which was not advised. No, what was advised was that all Singaporeans withdraw masses of cash from the financial system and cause a system-wide liquidity problem leading to an immediate, get that - immediate, collapse of the Singaporean financial system and all banks based within Singapore. This could only be averted by the authorities freezing all funds.
The result of this foolishness would probably be hundreds of jobs lost, significant impairment of Singapores ability to operate in the global market, a total loss of face for the Singaporean financial system and a total loss of trust by other market participants in the Singaporean financial system. And that is if the government acted quickly to freeze funds, if they did not then there would be tens of thousands of Singaporeans joining the ranks of the unemployed, total bankruptcy of the nation. And it would take ten to fifteen years for the nation to recover. Foreign talent (like me) would just take our six digit salaries to some other economy. I work by contract, I can move anywhere.
Thankfully no one paid heed to this ill advice. But it does make one wonder how an individual can elucidate at length upon a subject they understand so little. Undoubtedly he was thinking of the good of the individuals he addressed, but he totally failed to see the bigger picture. There is a word for this; where individuals take action for their own benefit, but which is bad for the group, and bad for all individuals if all individuals take this same action. But at this moment I cannot recall the name of the theory that covers such behaviour.
Anyhow, the point is that he should not be considered a safe financial adviser. Or, to put it another way, he should stick to his area of expertise.
Being a member of society is reason enough to comment on social issues, we all have the right to speak up about cultural and political subjects, we can all comment on the behaviour of drivers parking on double yellow lines on corners, and if a person has legal qualifications then they are well suited to speaking about legal issues. But a person should refrain from making definitive statements of a financial nature unless one is a qualified accountant or economist. And you have probably figured out that I have such qualifications, and, I might add, twenty years experience.
Not that I want to get offside with a person that I generally consider to be intelligent and well written and whose blog I shall continue to read, just that this time his comments moved outside his area of competency and need correction. Although, in my usual manner, I have probably stomped far too hard.
And that ends todays rant.
Yes, that's right, there is no apostrophe in "todays rant" since the day does not own the rant. As there is no apostrophe in "King Georges Street" since the street is named in honour of the king, not owned personally by him, and no apostrophes in "KK Womens and Childrens Hospital" since the women and children do not own the hospital. Unless, of course, you are writing in Singlish rather than English.
I should actually clarify this; there used to be a non-possessive apostrophe in the written English language, but its use was discontinued, formally, by the international body that controls the English language. It just seems that somebody forgot to tell Singapore.
(Naturally one expects Americans, such as Microsoft Word spell checker, not to get this correct.)
But that is a whole different rant.
[Addendum - yeah, I deleted a name there. I thought about it later and realised that I don't have my full / real name up here, so I should respect the desire of others not to have their full or real name known for their blog. It was thoughtless of me and I should be a bit more mature than that.]
[Second addendum - it's called 'game theory'.]
Sunday, November 9
Things Change, sometimes quickly.
Only four days!
What can happen? you ask.
Thursday, (three days ago) I sent my resumé in to the Singapore offices of the two agencies that I have worked with in Adelaide.
Friday (two days ago) I went for another hike.
West coast this time. The plan was to do the Southern Ridges Hike starting from West Coast Park. Well, I definitely started from West Coast Park, and I did get to see another park on the way, one with an M13 light tank, so that was cool, and I also found a concrete bunker from the second world war. But the other parks and the official hiking trail were a complete loss due to the total absence of any signage.
I think that I would have to print out a map and lots of written instructions for this one. Sad, one should be able to follow a trail a bit more easily than this.
Anyhow, along the way I got a call from one of the agencies, they might well have a contract for me. The lady on the phone also suggested that I try for a different type of pass, rather than the entrépass and she promised to send me an email. True to her word there was an email with a link waiting for me when I got back.
When I started thinking about coming to SG all work passes were locked to the one employer. If you wanted to change jobs you had to leave the country, get the next job, then apply to come back. Recognising that this severely hampered the smooth functioning of the business sector Singapore introduced a new pass, a Personalised Employment Pass, which was focussed on the worker, not on the employer. Problem was that it was only available to employees that had already been on an old pass for two years or more, so I could not apply for it. Thus the MOM advised me to apply for the Entrépass.
Well, the guidelines for the PEP have changed, you can apply without having worked in SG so long as you earn lots of money. You can't be surprised at that qualification, can you? Singapores definition of 'lots of money' is $7,000 per month (SGD), so that's no issue. And the PEP lets you be unemployed for periods of up to six months between jobs so long as your annual total income is $30,000. So really I could work for a month, have five months off, work for a month, have five months off - except that I seriously don't think that I could live on $30k, that's not even going to pay the rent. But get this, there's more, the PEP is good for five years, not just two years like all the other passes. How cool is that? And there's more! The paperwork is much easier and there are a lot less requirements for the application in comparison with the Entrépass which is about starting a new business.
This is the perfect vehicle for people, like me, who prefer to contract and hate being tied to one employer.
So I downloaded the new forms, have got most of my info together - I have asked a friend to email me my electronic tax file from last financial year so I can enter the exact annual income and have some proof of that if asked - and have most of the form filled out ready to be lodged on Monday. And hey! There's more! This one is meant to be processed in only two weeks, not six like the other, so I could be working by the start of December - a month earlier.
That will definitely reduce some stress on my financials, because otherwise I was cutting it close with my reserves anticipating that I would have to cover for several months before anything was coming in. And also I had made the decision that I wasn't going home for Xmas if I didn't have a job since that would severely eat into my bank account. But if this (great sounding) contract comes through then it will be no problem and my family will be graced by my presence for the end-of-year festivities.
So, a major amount of potential change in a very short time. A better type of pass in every way that I can measure it, and a totally excellent sounding contract in the pipeline that might be ready to start as soon as the pass is approved.
No surprise that all of this makes me very happy. So happy that I can quite overlook the sad hiking experience.
Back in Adelaide my friend is marrying his Malaysian Chinese fiancée tomorrow!
My niece is departing for college to study veterinarian science.
My sister is starting a new job also tomorrow!
Here Jaz and Iris are still stuck in Malaysia - in the time that Malaysia chooses to take to replace stolen passports for Chinese citizens you could apply for permanent residency in most countries.
I have texted Jaz saying that I would like to visit her - flying to KL with JAL is quite cheap - but to her old number, which I was told was still receiving, but Paul tells me that she has a Malaysian SIM in her phone now, so I need to get a new number, which of course no-one has told me, even though they are all speaking with her. Carelessness? Design? Life putting obstacles in my path to test me? Perhaps I will soon be too busy to be able to play such games. Life will have to deal with that on its own.
Other than that, I went out last night to eat dinner at a vegetarian restaurant in Little India. Didn't really find one, wanted one that was 'veg' only, not 'veg and non-veg', usually I find a couple but for some reason this night no. Did find a small alley with men dressed in womens clothes and wearing make-up who propositioned me...
Probably safer to head the Bencoolen way in future, lots of vegetarian eating to be found. And not much of the other...
What can happen? you ask.
Thursday, (three days ago) I sent my resumé in to the Singapore offices of the two agencies that I have worked with in Adelaide.
Friday (two days ago) I went for another hike.
West coast this time. The plan was to do the Southern Ridges Hike starting from West Coast Park. Well, I definitely started from West Coast Park, and I did get to see another park on the way, one with an M13 light tank, so that was cool, and I also found a concrete bunker from the second world war. But the other parks and the official hiking trail were a complete loss due to the total absence of any signage.
I think that I would have to print out a map and lots of written instructions for this one. Sad, one should be able to follow a trail a bit more easily than this.
Anyhow, along the way I got a call from one of the agencies, they might well have a contract for me. The lady on the phone also suggested that I try for a different type of pass, rather than the entrépass and she promised to send me an email. True to her word there was an email with a link waiting for me when I got back.
When I started thinking about coming to SG all work passes were locked to the one employer. If you wanted to change jobs you had to leave the country, get the next job, then apply to come back. Recognising that this severely hampered the smooth functioning of the business sector Singapore introduced a new pass, a Personalised Employment Pass, which was focussed on the worker, not on the employer. Problem was that it was only available to employees that had already been on an old pass for two years or more, so I could not apply for it. Thus the MOM advised me to apply for the Entrépass.
Well, the guidelines for the PEP have changed, you can apply without having worked in SG so long as you earn lots of money. You can't be surprised at that qualification, can you? Singapores definition of 'lots of money' is $7,000 per month (SGD), so that's no issue. And the PEP lets you be unemployed for periods of up to six months between jobs so long as your annual total income is $30,000. So really I could work for a month, have five months off, work for a month, have five months off - except that I seriously don't think that I could live on $30k, that's not even going to pay the rent. But get this, there's more, the PEP is good for five years, not just two years like all the other passes. How cool is that? And there's more! The paperwork is much easier and there are a lot less requirements for the application in comparison with the Entrépass which is about starting a new business.
This is the perfect vehicle for people, like me, who prefer to contract and hate being tied to one employer.
So I downloaded the new forms, have got most of my info together - I have asked a friend to email me my electronic tax file from last financial year so I can enter the exact annual income and have some proof of that if asked - and have most of the form filled out ready to be lodged on Monday. And hey! There's more! This one is meant to be processed in only two weeks, not six like the other, so I could be working by the start of December - a month earlier.
That will definitely reduce some stress on my financials, because otherwise I was cutting it close with my reserves anticipating that I would have to cover for several months before anything was coming in. And also I had made the decision that I wasn't going home for Xmas if I didn't have a job since that would severely eat into my bank account. But if this (great sounding) contract comes through then it will be no problem and my family will be graced by my presence for the end-of-year festivities.
So, a major amount of potential change in a very short time. A better type of pass in every way that I can measure it, and a totally excellent sounding contract in the pipeline that might be ready to start as soon as the pass is approved.
No surprise that all of this makes me very happy. So happy that I can quite overlook the sad hiking experience.
Back in Adelaide my friend is marrying his Malaysian Chinese fiancée tomorrow!
My niece is departing for college to study veterinarian science.
My sister is starting a new job also tomorrow!
Here Jaz and Iris are still stuck in Malaysia - in the time that Malaysia chooses to take to replace stolen passports for Chinese citizens you could apply for permanent residency in most countries.
I have texted Jaz saying that I would like to visit her - flying to KL with JAL is quite cheap - but to her old number, which I was told was still receiving, but Paul tells me that she has a Malaysian SIM in her phone now, so I need to get a new number, which of course no-one has told me, even though they are all speaking with her. Carelessness? Design? Life putting obstacles in my path to test me? Perhaps I will soon be too busy to be able to play such games. Life will have to deal with that on its own.
Other than that, I went out last night to eat dinner at a vegetarian restaurant in Little India. Didn't really find one, wanted one that was 'veg' only, not 'veg and non-veg', usually I find a couple but for some reason this night no. Did find a small alley with men dressed in womens clothes and wearing make-up who propositioned me...
Probably safer to head the Bencoolen way in future, lots of vegetarian eating to be found. And not much of the other...
Wednesday, November 5
Sleep Deprivation
Nearly a week! What has happened?
Uhmm, most importantly I have received my data files and updated my resumé and am almost ready to make the initial email contact to the agencies here. This will be followed by writing a business plan and downloading and completing the forms to apply for an entrépass.
I went for a walk on the weekend. I had spent the day before trying to figure out what bus(ses) to take to get to East Coast Park, and then answering some internet calls, and by then it was too late to enjoy the day at the beach. So the next day I just took a taxi to this end of the park. The plan was to walk along the park/beach for a couple of hours, then come home. The result was me out walking from 9am to about 5pm, with a break for lunch, during which I walked up East Coast Park, along the connector by the airport, and then the length of Changi Beach Park and then caught a bus home.
This involved firstly getting sunburnt and then getting soaked by rain and almost chilled. A lesson re-learnt - always, always, always take an umbrella when going anywhere outside in Singapore!!! If it is not used to keep the rain off then it is used to keep the sun off! Also when I got soaked when the thunder storm came in my light 'urban combats' all bunched up and rubbed my inner legs raw, when I got home the skin was red and swollen and I had to spend most of the next day off my feet with my legs apart. So the next day (evening) I went shopping for the appropriate stuff - a hat with a wide brim, a wet weather jacket and trousers, and a waterproof backpack.
It only took me one day, walking quite slowly and with a break of over an hour to have lunch at the restaurant at the SAF yachting club where I had the most marvelous desert, to cover almost the entire south east side of the island!
Yes, I know that this one side of the island is maybe one fifth of the total coastline. If you imagine SG as a flat diamond with the city centre at the south point and Changi at the east point, yes the north west side is a bit longer and folds back on itself, and the south east side is a bit shorter than the others. But still, it was fun, much more than I would have thought I was getting into for the day, and it leaves me with a goal to circumnavigate the island now. I just need some waterproof shoes and a swag, I can eat at restaurants and cafés along the way, and shower at the changing stations at the beaches - it should take four or five days to do. I will do the stages independently first as one-day hikes. It's so cool! To actually walk around a country!
So, what was it like? The beaches are very well serviced in comparison with Australia, but that wouldn't surprise you, would it? They are mostly clean and very nice, but not as beautiful as those in tropical Queensland, or say the Coorong beach or near Robe although those two aren't tropical. There were lots of people, but not many swimming, which surprised me, more so when I stuck my hand in to see what it was like to find that the water was a beautiful temperature - now I have to add a swimming costume to my shopping list. Lots of shelters, barbeques with benches, benches on their own, sealed footpaths and bicycle paths. So many dome tents! And yet I found one beach almost empty. One thing that astounded me was being able to see Indonesia! And then when I got around the corner at Changi to see Malaysia!
Indonesia was more visible than Yorke Peninsula is from Adelaide, and Malaysia bigger and taller, but the same distance as Kangaroo Island from the mainland. And so many ships waiting in the straits for their turn to dock! In Adelaide you might look out and see two or three big ships in the gulf waiting to get into the harbour, here I counted more than eighty! And when I got further along the park there were more that had been beyond my initial vision. So I think more than a hundred in total.
I had checked the weather forecast online before departing and knew that a thunder storm was due that afternoon, but I didn't plan on staying out that long. I know better now, give me a hiking trail and I just keep going to the end! Fortunately I had a plastic bag in my backpack, with a towel and a spare shirt since I was expecting to work up a sweat, so I was able to protect my camera and phone, but everything else got soaked, hence the new waterproof backpack. It is bigger, unfortunately heavier, but comfortable and with a breathing back, it is both shower resistant and has a waterproof cover that has its own little zip-pouch, its side pouches are deeper than my current small light pack (which I will continue to use for day trips and non-hiking purposes) so I am confident that it will treat my water bottles well (including one half litre thermosflask that I keep an iced isotonic drink in when going on longer excursions).
Yes, you can see that I like hiking and am looking forward to this. It is a side to Singapore that I was not expecting and I am very happy to have discovered it.
I took lots of pics, at least during the East Coast Park stretch, after getting totally drenched whilst walking along the airport I did not feel like taking many more pics, but I had to take some at Changi Beach of Malaysia and the other islands in the river.
And then a bus brought me all the way back to Victoria Street so I only had a little walk up Rochor Canal to be home. Torturous with my legs rubbed so raw though.
Other than that? The guy in the flat on one side of me is very loud, very late into the night; as in shouting the 'F' word at his computer at one or two in the morning, so I am not getting to sleep until four hours after I go to bed, definitely not enough sleep to be able to work on. As in, if I get my application accepted and start working then I will not be able to live here. 'Slumming' it in Little India has had its attractions, but is not viable in the long term.
So, where to live?
I have always felt, so far, that the East Coast are attracted me. Hence why I chose that as my first hike. I would like to live near a nice beach, I would like to have nice views over the sea. It appears from my web searching that there is an area in the north, slightly west?, that is popular with expats. That is perhaps a good reason for me to avoid it, but it might bear looking into. But my preference is to mingle more with Chinese than with Europeans, part of why I am here is to experience their culture. Whilst I have enjoyed experiencing the culture of Little India, it is not entirely new to me, after all, I did live with the Hare Krisnas for a while and I have some other experience of the culture, whereas I don't have that much with anything more eastern. Naturally I do not want to live in any industrial zone, and I have that impression of the western parts of the island, and maybe the north eastern - but I could be totally wrong on that, couldn't I? But I have a month to go before I need to start thinking about that.
More importantly is the price range, and the fact that I should really make sure that I can have the work coming in to cover whatever rent range that I accept to go with.
Ivy says that I should live in Malaysia and commute to Singapore. That way I can have a full sized house on land. There are a couple of ferry services that I saw at the eastern edge, one operated by the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces), do you think that they will go to south eastern Malay? or only to the Singaporean river islands? Might be okay to have a beach front house around Pengerang or Kampong Telok Ampang, or further east so that I could watch the sunrise over the sea.
Meanwhile Jaz, according to Ivy, is in Ipoh, which if it is what I get when I Google Earth it, is as far north of KL as KL is from SG, as Ivy's text said an eight hour coach trip. I have texted Jaz to say that I would like to fly to KL and stay overnight in a hotel and see her. I don't know if she gets these texts, I cannot get her by voice call. I am fuzzy on what is going on here, not in the sense of what is actually happening, rather in the sense of what is fate intending? I have done several tarot readings and I get some very strong messages, the Tower turns up a lot in very definitive positions. Other than that the rest of the cards always say some sort of "happy ever after" sort of thing. With her now apparently locked out of my life for up to six months this is very confusing for me emotionally. I have not gone out clubbing in order to explore this relationship, but now feel this path is blocked and so may hit Geylang to see what the night life offers me. Conversely, is fate, or some Chinese deity, testing me?
Uhmm, most importantly I have received my data files and updated my resumé and am almost ready to make the initial email contact to the agencies here. This will be followed by writing a business plan and downloading and completing the forms to apply for an entrépass.
I went for a walk on the weekend. I had spent the day before trying to figure out what bus(ses) to take to get to East Coast Park, and then answering some internet calls, and by then it was too late to enjoy the day at the beach. So the next day I just took a taxi to this end of the park. The plan was to walk along the park/beach for a couple of hours, then come home. The result was me out walking from 9am to about 5pm, with a break for lunch, during which I walked up East Coast Park, along the connector by the airport, and then the length of Changi Beach Park and then caught a bus home.
This involved firstly getting sunburnt and then getting soaked by rain and almost chilled. A lesson re-learnt - always, always, always take an umbrella when going anywhere outside in Singapore!!! If it is not used to keep the rain off then it is used to keep the sun off! Also when I got soaked when the thunder storm came in my light 'urban combats' all bunched up and rubbed my inner legs raw, when I got home the skin was red and swollen and I had to spend most of the next day off my feet with my legs apart. So the next day (evening) I went shopping for the appropriate stuff - a hat with a wide brim, a wet weather jacket and trousers, and a waterproof backpack.
It only took me one day, walking quite slowly and with a break of over an hour to have lunch at the restaurant at the SAF yachting club where I had the most marvelous desert, to cover almost the entire south east side of the island!
Yes, I know that this one side of the island is maybe one fifth of the total coastline. If you imagine SG as a flat diamond with the city centre at the south point and Changi at the east point, yes the north west side is a bit longer and folds back on itself, and the south east side is a bit shorter than the others. But still, it was fun, much more than I would have thought I was getting into for the day, and it leaves me with a goal to circumnavigate the island now. I just need some waterproof shoes and a swag, I can eat at restaurants and cafés along the way, and shower at the changing stations at the beaches - it should take four or five days to do. I will do the stages independently first as one-day hikes. It's so cool! To actually walk around a country!
So, what was it like? The beaches are very well serviced in comparison with Australia, but that wouldn't surprise you, would it? They are mostly clean and very nice, but not as beautiful as those in tropical Queensland, or say the Coorong beach or near Robe although those two aren't tropical. There were lots of people, but not many swimming, which surprised me, more so when I stuck my hand in to see what it was like to find that the water was a beautiful temperature - now I have to add a swimming costume to my shopping list. Lots of shelters, barbeques with benches, benches on their own, sealed footpaths and bicycle paths. So many dome tents! And yet I found one beach almost empty. One thing that astounded me was being able to see Indonesia! And then when I got around the corner at Changi to see Malaysia!
Indonesia was more visible than Yorke Peninsula is from Adelaide, and Malaysia bigger and taller, but the same distance as Kangaroo Island from the mainland. And so many ships waiting in the straits for their turn to dock! In Adelaide you might look out and see two or three big ships in the gulf waiting to get into the harbour, here I counted more than eighty! And when I got further along the park there were more that had been beyond my initial vision. So I think more than a hundred in total.
I had checked the weather forecast online before departing and knew that a thunder storm was due that afternoon, but I didn't plan on staying out that long. I know better now, give me a hiking trail and I just keep going to the end! Fortunately I had a plastic bag in my backpack, with a towel and a spare shirt since I was expecting to work up a sweat, so I was able to protect my camera and phone, but everything else got soaked, hence the new waterproof backpack. It is bigger, unfortunately heavier, but comfortable and with a breathing back, it is both shower resistant and has a waterproof cover that has its own little zip-pouch, its side pouches are deeper than my current small light pack (which I will continue to use for day trips and non-hiking purposes) so I am confident that it will treat my water bottles well (including one half litre thermosflask that I keep an iced isotonic drink in when going on longer excursions).
Yes, you can see that I like hiking and am looking forward to this. It is a side to Singapore that I was not expecting and I am very happy to have discovered it.
I took lots of pics, at least during the East Coast Park stretch, after getting totally drenched whilst walking along the airport I did not feel like taking many more pics, but I had to take some at Changi Beach of Malaysia and the other islands in the river.
And then a bus brought me all the way back to Victoria Street so I only had a little walk up Rochor Canal to be home. Torturous with my legs rubbed so raw though.
Other than that? The guy in the flat on one side of me is very loud, very late into the night; as in shouting the 'F' word at his computer at one or two in the morning, so I am not getting to sleep until four hours after I go to bed, definitely not enough sleep to be able to work on. As in, if I get my application accepted and start working then I will not be able to live here. 'Slumming' it in Little India has had its attractions, but is not viable in the long term.
So, where to live?
I have always felt, so far, that the East Coast are attracted me. Hence why I chose that as my first hike. I would like to live near a nice beach, I would like to have nice views over the sea. It appears from my web searching that there is an area in the north, slightly west?, that is popular with expats. That is perhaps a good reason for me to avoid it, but it might bear looking into. But my preference is to mingle more with Chinese than with Europeans, part of why I am here is to experience their culture. Whilst I have enjoyed experiencing the culture of Little India, it is not entirely new to me, after all, I did live with the Hare Krisnas for a while and I have some other experience of the culture, whereas I don't have that much with anything more eastern. Naturally I do not want to live in any industrial zone, and I have that impression of the western parts of the island, and maybe the north eastern - but I could be totally wrong on that, couldn't I? But I have a month to go before I need to start thinking about that.
More importantly is the price range, and the fact that I should really make sure that I can have the work coming in to cover whatever rent range that I accept to go with.
Ivy says that I should live in Malaysia and commute to Singapore. That way I can have a full sized house on land. There are a couple of ferry services that I saw at the eastern edge, one operated by the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces), do you think that they will go to south eastern Malay? or only to the Singaporean river islands? Might be okay to have a beach front house around Pengerang or Kampong Telok Ampang, or further east so that I could watch the sunrise over the sea.
Meanwhile Jaz, according to Ivy, is in Ipoh, which if it is what I get when I Google Earth it, is as far north of KL as KL is from SG, as Ivy's text said an eight hour coach trip. I have texted Jaz to say that I would like to fly to KL and stay overnight in a hotel and see her. I don't know if she gets these texts, I cannot get her by voice call. I am fuzzy on what is going on here, not in the sense of what is actually happening, rather in the sense of what is fate intending? I have done several tarot readings and I get some very strong messages, the Tower turns up a lot in very definitive positions. Other than that the rest of the cards always say some sort of "happy ever after" sort of thing. With her now apparently locked out of my life for up to six months this is very confusing for me emotionally. I have not gone out clubbing in order to explore this relationship, but now feel this path is blocked and so may hit Geylang to see what the night life offers me. Conversely, is fate, or some Chinese deity, testing me?
Friday, October 31
Ode to a Turtle
Another day in paradise.
Which is what you would be expecting me to say.
Two things on food; one, vegetarian is everywhere, there are vegetarian restaurants all over the place and every food court has two or three vegetarian stalls, it is so good to be in a Buddhist country! two, eating out is so cheap here, okay, I can dine at some restaurants for a $50 meal, but most places I can dine for a little over $5! And that includes juice!
Yes, last time I took Ivy out it was $26 for two, but most times I am spending less than $6 for a cooked lunch and a drink.
I cannot seem to find a hat! Shops all over the place are selling caps, but where are the hats that will protect my precious brain from the sun? I need a brim to keep the sun off my neck, or risk becoming a redneck. Hee, hee. We all know that politically I am pretty much a redneck anyow.
Wonderful Google Analytics confirms what I always suspected - only one unique visitor - ME! Nobody cares about my rantings, I am not even a blip on the radar screen, more a smudge that has already been wiped off.
Ivy has spoken with a friend that has been in KL and spent the last few days with Jazreel and Iris and confirms that it will take six months for Jaz to get a new passport. Wonderfully efficient Malaysian public bureaucrats. I looked up some sites to see what I needed to get a visa to visit her, on an Australian passport as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations (India and a few other countries excluded) I don't need a visa for any length of stay or for any purpose, but the government site promised new passports processed in two weeks and replacement passports in one month. Obviously not for Chinese Malaysians though, kind of like the government education system - for Malays only. Which is why so many Malaysian Chinese kids are studying in Australia. So, yes, I will see about visiting Jaz in Malaysia.
Today marks three weeks here in SG.
It doesn't feel like it - I really need to get out more, which means that I really need that hat!
Which is what you would be expecting me to say.
Two things on food; one, vegetarian is everywhere, there are vegetarian restaurants all over the place and every food court has two or three vegetarian stalls, it is so good to be in a Buddhist country! two, eating out is so cheap here, okay, I can dine at some restaurants for a $50 meal, but most places I can dine for a little over $5! And that includes juice!
Yes, last time I took Ivy out it was $26 for two, but most times I am spending less than $6 for a cooked lunch and a drink.
I cannot seem to find a hat! Shops all over the place are selling caps, but where are the hats that will protect my precious brain from the sun? I need a brim to keep the sun off my neck, or risk becoming a redneck. Hee, hee. We all know that politically I am pretty much a redneck anyow.
Wonderful Google Analytics confirms what I always suspected - only one unique visitor - ME! Nobody cares about my rantings, I am not even a blip on the radar screen, more a smudge that has already been wiped off.
Ivy has spoken with a friend that has been in KL and spent the last few days with Jazreel and Iris and confirms that it will take six months for Jaz to get a new passport. Wonderfully efficient Malaysian public bureaucrats. I looked up some sites to see what I needed to get a visa to visit her, on an Australian passport as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations (India and a few other countries excluded) I don't need a visa for any length of stay or for any purpose, but the government site promised new passports processed in two weeks and replacement passports in one month. Obviously not for Chinese Malaysians though, kind of like the government education system - for Malays only. Which is why so many Malaysian Chinese kids are studying in Australia. So, yes, I will see about visiting Jaz in Malaysia.
Today marks three weeks here in SG.
It doesn't feel like it - I really need to get out more, which means that I really need that hat!
Monday, October 27
Sleeping In
8:30 before I am up. This is not the first day either; my neighbours in the apartment on the northern side are noisy until about one in the morning and then the neighbours on the southern side were noisy last night from about four in the morning. There is no peace and quiet until after the time at which I want to be up and out!
Looking out my window last night at four in the morning watching the men cleaning up after the flea market, which has been producing humungous amounts of rubbish the last week, I was struck by the thought that these sellers are probably not paying taxes on their cash businesses and I doubt that they are paying fees for placing these makeshift transient 'stalls'. And then they leave an incredible amount of rubbish behind which is cleaned up at the expense of honest rate- and tax- paying people. Not only do 'real' shop owners pay rates and taxes, they also keep their shops clean! Only someone on a freebie will leave so much rubbish behind. So I ask; why does the government permit this to continue? Given that they are spending so much on cleaning after every days flea market (sometimes six men for an hour, sometimes two men for a few hours) they must be aware of both the existence of this non-legitimate market and the cost it puts on legitimate citizens. I have no problem with the continuance of these flea markets, so long as they pay for their effect on the rest of us.
I have noticed that I am blogging much less now that I am in SG than I was in the few weeks leading up to coming here. In a way I have more things on my plate so it is understandable that the less important ones might fall off occasionally. But still, it intrigues me. At the prompting of a friend I have put up photos on my Flickr site (locked to friends and family only) and have put up pictures from four or five days worth of treks - don't think that a huge amount though, I am pushing it to take more than six pictures on a three hour long walk. But I feel that I have been more 'diligent' in this than in blogging.
I wonder if italics is working again?
Doesn't appear to be from this end, it will be interesting to see what that looks like when it is published - I am betting that I get a 'do not publish html' message. Funny, it worked without any problems up to a week or so ago, now CTRL + i just puts cat vomit in my post. Trying to publish now.
No, didn't work, but didn't give me an error message either. I am assuming that since it put up an 'emphasis' and an 'end emphasis' html flag together rather than actually turning italics on and then off on the second CTRL + i that if I manually edit it then it might be good. Trying here and then publishing again now.
There, you see, granted that it is not working either properly or as it used to, but it can be made to work with some manual correction.
Went out with Ivy for dinner on Friday, she said that Jaz and Iris should be back either that day or the next (as in she said "today or tomorrow"), so I waited until end of yesterday (Sunday) and sent Jaz a txt, but no reply. So either was she not yet back from HK or has she gone cold on me?
I'm going to go shopping on Orchard today.
Hey look, just noticed as I viewed this post-publish (as opposed to using Word to spell check) that it is date stamping the post with South Australian time. I thought I changed my profile address to Singapore.
Nope, hadn't changed the time zone to Singapore, but have now.
Looking out my window last night at four in the morning watching the men cleaning up after the flea market, which has been producing humungous amounts of rubbish the last week, I was struck by the thought that these sellers are probably not paying taxes on their cash businesses and I doubt that they are paying fees for placing these makeshift transient 'stalls'. And then they leave an incredible amount of rubbish behind which is cleaned up at the expense of honest rate- and tax- paying people. Not only do 'real' shop owners pay rates and taxes, they also keep their shops clean! Only someone on a freebie will leave so much rubbish behind. So I ask; why does the government permit this to continue? Given that they are spending so much on cleaning after every days flea market (sometimes six men for an hour, sometimes two men for a few hours) they must be aware of both the existence of this non-legitimate market and the cost it puts on legitimate citizens. I have no problem with the continuance of these flea markets, so long as they pay for their effect on the rest of us.
I have noticed that I am blogging much less now that I am in SG than I was in the few weeks leading up to coming here. In a way I have more things on my plate so it is understandable that the less important ones might fall off occasionally. But still, it intrigues me. At the prompting of a friend I have put up photos on my Flickr site (locked to friends and family only) and have put up pictures from four or five days worth of treks - don't think that a huge amount though, I am pushing it to take more than six pictures on a three hour long walk. But I feel that I have been more 'diligent' in this than in blogging.
I wonder if italics is working again?
Doesn't appear to be from this end, it will be interesting to see what that looks like when it is published - I am betting that I get a 'do not publish html' message. Funny, it worked without any problems up to a week or so ago, now CTRL + i just puts cat vomit in my post. Trying to publish now.
No, didn't work, but didn't give me an error message either. I am assuming that since it put up an 'emphasis' and an 'end emphasis' html flag together rather than actually turning italics on and then off on the second CTRL + i that if I manually edit it then it might be good. Trying here and then publishing again now.
There, you see, granted that it is not working either properly or as it used to, but it can be made to work with some manual correction.
Went out with Ivy for dinner on Friday, she said that Jaz and Iris should be back either that day or the next (as in she said "today or tomorrow"), so I waited until end of yesterday (Sunday) and sent Jaz a txt, but no reply. So either was she not yet back from HK or has she gone cold on me?
I'm going to go shopping on Orchard today.
Hey look, just noticed as I viewed this post-publish (as opposed to using Word to spell check) that it is date stamping the post with South Australian time. I thought I changed my profile address to Singapore.
Nope, hadn't changed the time zone to Singapore, but have now.
Thursday, October 23
Look Carefully
Google Analytics confirms again that nobody in the world (except me) reads my blog :)
This is a happy event, one in a series of happy events for me.
It is wet, I am not going to visit a park, I am not going to do anything - and you can't make me :P
I feel good now, in an immature sort of way.
I am reading some lessons that I downloaded from the ASX site.
Yes, I am an investor geek, I have been reading and studying this for over a year, I am moving into virtual trading to practice and to try out some theories that I have, and I have set up some watch lists to see if some other theories hold up and to check if the 'established' set of truths do in fact stack up against the data because so often these 'theories' are laid down by academics with no real life experience (and you can take that in either of two ways) and don't actually work in the real world.
And I saw this:
"Now if you look carefully something significant has happened."
This is in 'Shares_Course_10.pdf' describing a trend changing from uptrend to downtrend.
But I read it as this:
So, if you didn't look carefully then nothing significant would have happened, and all of these financial woes going on right now are because people just like you keep looking carefully - don't you? Don't deny it! If you all stopped looking at the numbers then everything would be perfectly fine!
Heh, heh, word games are such fun.
There are some things that have been going around in my head for a while and I would like to see if I can get some of them out and into print without losing context or depth.
I did a lot of reading and surfing on Singapore in the year prior to coming here.
In browsing I came across terms like 'SPG' and 'Ang Mo' a lot and at first misunderstood them, then came to understand that lots of people misunderstand, and misuse, them. I came across lots of commentary on girls and boys stuff with heaps of racial overtones leaning one way or the other.
For examples; it seemed so assumed and totally believed by all blogs I read that pretty young girls were throwing themselves at any white guy they could find, and white women were left all alone and no Asian guy could ever get a white girlfriend and no pale Chinese girl would ever be seen dead with a 'black Indian', and so on and so forth.
Well, this is my observation after being here for a very little while:
One; no pretty young Asian girls have thrown themselves at me at all.
Two; discounting the obvious tourist couples then whilst I haven't seen a lot of white women around about half of them, i.e. several of those that I have seen, have been with Asian guys. Almost as many as I have seen of Euro guys with Asian girls.
Three; I have also seen several very pale skinned Chinese girls with very dark skinned Indian guys.
So I am going to go out on a limb here and say that it would appear to me that Singaporeans are more open-minded then they give themselves credit for.
Um, point one doesn't fit into this theory at all, it is just on its own, much like me...
I have to say that this is very different from the impressions that I gathered when I previously stayed here in four/five star hotels and kept myself to 'touristy' sort of places. This time I am living on the edge of Little India in a tiny apartment and shopping and eating with the locals.
There is something else that has been preying on my mind, well, a few things.
I used to have this impression of SG that armed police patrolled the streets ready to shoot anyone smoking in public, and what a great concept! Sadly it is not true - people *do* smoke in public, and it is just as annoying as it is anywhere else! Why should these selfish unclean gangsters be allowed to subject innocent citizens to their lethal pollution? They are assaulting others, they are reducing the lifespan of passers by, they are trying to kill the rest of us purely to fulfil their own corrupt needs.
(I am getting really sick of this Asus laptops keyboard skipping letters on me!)
So, people are smoking in public and blogspots italics are not working today and are forcing me to use '*'.
This next one is rather delicate. I know that SG has less than two generations of working with this democracy thing, whereas I come from a culture with over two millennia of democratic evolution behind us, so there are bound to be lots of little issues where I will just automatically assume something because it is contained in all of that unwritten / unspoken social programming that I received as I grew (which is to say that it is part of my mimetic heritage, as distinct from my genetic heritage). One of those things is about not using (or, as I would say, "misusing") public funds for private political aggrandisement, yet I see this in SG, and have seen it on my previous visits as well.
I am assuming this is public money being (mis)used, since the banners concerned carry logos and reference to local government bodies.
You may think that wishing residents a happy religious festival is innocent enough. Not so! It is pure political advertising. And done (apparently) at public expense.
If this were done in any European or Anglo country then the person concerned would find themselves before a judge; they would have to pay back the public monies misappropriated, and whilst I don't think that they would be gaoled, they would be significantly fined, and they would also be expelled from parliament and, most likely, also from their political party. In short, their political career would be over.
And yet it seems to be the accepted norm in Singapore.
Not that I don't totally believe that SG has a much better record in this area than all of its immediate neighbours, and quite possibly any other Asian nation. But still, difficult as it is to reach, perfection is a goal that we all strive for.
To clarify this, in case you don't get it.
It is okay to fly a banner wishing residents a happy religious festival.
It is okay to fly a banner stating that a local government wishes residents a happy religious festival.
It is not okay to put your name and picture prominently on this banner.
That is crossing a line where it becomes personal.
You can do that at your own expense, you cannot (in most developed democracies) do that at public expense. If there is a local government logo on the banner then it will be inferred that it is funded by that body.
Now I don't know if this is legal or illegal in SG, I do know that is it illegal in European and Anglo nations, and I would say that it is inappropriate anywhere. I find that it diminishes my respect for the political processes here. Generally speaking I believe SG to be a very wisely run country, some reasons for which view I have given in previous blogs. This, rather minor, thing does upset me though.
On the positive side - nobody reads my blog, therefore I am not going to get into any sort of trouble for saying this. Like affecting my application for an entrepass.
So there it is; I am dividing my time between trying to get out early and do some sightseeing, and taking photos to load to my Flickr site (that you can't see because I have locked them all to friends and family only), exploring the suburbs around me and discovering what the shops are like and where I can eat vegetarian, staying in during the day and studying investing, playing Half Life 2 and Unreal 2 (and a couple of suduko games), and then going out again in the evening. All in all though I am getting bored, I want to go out all day long as I did when touristing, but hate the 'getting totally soaked with perspiration and having to take a change of shirt and a towel with me' thing.
I went out and ate at a food court by myself last night. Up to now one of the girls (i.e. Jaz, her sister, or her friends) have been treating me, so I had no idea of the costs. A huge plate of rice noodles, vegies, and gluten things cost me SGD $2.50! and another $2.50 for a papaya milkshake which I am not too sure I really liked that much. I'll try a banana one next, or mango if it is on offer.
I set my phone alarm for 5:30 because I want to get up and out early, and I go to bed around 10 or 11, but the neighbours keep me awake until after midnight, maybe 1-ish, so when the alarm goes I just want to keep sleeping and it's not until 9 or 10 that I have showered, dressed, and eaten. Too late to go out walking without ending up looking, and feeling, like an American tourist :(
Maybe if I got some music playing device and drowned the neighbours out? I could sleep to loud music, Heaven knows I have to sleep with a loud aircon, even if it isn't on it still gurgles loudly from the next aircon down the pipeline.
So the plan isn't working!
And I have ended up staying in today!
And reading up on investing, as you can see from where this blog entry started.
Which seems a good place to bring this to a close.
This is a happy event, one in a series of happy events for me.
It is wet, I am not going to visit a park, I am not going to do anything - and you can't make me :P
I feel good now, in an immature sort of way.
I am reading some lessons that I downloaded from the ASX site.
Yes, I am an investor geek, I have been reading and studying this for over a year, I am moving into virtual trading to practice and to try out some theories that I have, and I have set up some watch lists to see if some other theories hold up and to check if the 'established' set of truths do in fact stack up against the data because so often these 'theories' are laid down by academics with no real life experience (and you can take that in either of two ways) and don't actually work in the real world.
And I saw this:
"Now if you look carefully something significant has happened."
This is in 'Shares_Course_10.pdf' describing a trend changing from uptrend to downtrend.
But I read it as this:
So, if you didn't look carefully then nothing significant would have happened, and all of these financial woes going on right now are because people just like you keep looking carefully - don't you? Don't deny it! If you all stopped looking at the numbers then everything would be perfectly fine!
Heh, heh, word games are such fun.
There are some things that have been going around in my head for a while and I would like to see if I can get some of them out and into print without losing context or depth.
I did a lot of reading and surfing on Singapore in the year prior to coming here.
In browsing I came across terms like 'SPG' and 'Ang Mo' a lot and at first misunderstood them, then came to understand that lots of people misunderstand, and misuse, them. I came across lots of commentary on girls and boys stuff with heaps of racial overtones leaning one way or the other.
For examples; it seemed so assumed and totally believed by all blogs I read that pretty young girls were throwing themselves at any white guy they could find, and white women were left all alone and no Asian guy could ever get a white girlfriend and no pale Chinese girl would ever be seen dead with a 'black Indian', and so on and so forth.
Well, this is my observation after being here for a very little while:
One; no pretty young Asian girls have thrown themselves at me at all.
Two; discounting the obvious tourist couples then whilst I haven't seen a lot of white women around about half of them, i.e. several of those that I have seen, have been with Asian guys. Almost as many as I have seen of Euro guys with Asian girls.
Three; I have also seen several very pale skinned Chinese girls with very dark skinned Indian guys.
So I am going to go out on a limb here and say that it would appear to me that Singaporeans are more open-minded then they give themselves credit for.
Um, point one doesn't fit into this theory at all, it is just on its own, much like me...
I have to say that this is very different from the impressions that I gathered when I previously stayed here in four/five star hotels and kept myself to 'touristy' sort of places. This time I am living on the edge of Little India in a tiny apartment and shopping and eating with the locals.
There is something else that has been preying on my mind, well, a few things.
I used to have this impression of SG that armed police patrolled the streets ready to shoot anyone smoking in public, and what a great concept! Sadly it is not true - people *do* smoke in public, and it is just as annoying as it is anywhere else! Why should these selfish unclean gangsters be allowed to subject innocent citizens to their lethal pollution? They are assaulting others, they are reducing the lifespan of passers by, they are trying to kill the rest of us purely to fulfil their own corrupt needs.
(I am getting really sick of this Asus laptops keyboard skipping letters on me!)
So, people are smoking in public and blogspots italics are not working today and are forcing me to use '*'.
This next one is rather delicate. I know that SG has less than two generations of working with this democracy thing, whereas I come from a culture with over two millennia of democratic evolution behind us, so there are bound to be lots of little issues where I will just automatically assume something because it is contained in all of that unwritten / unspoken social programming that I received as I grew (which is to say that it is part of my mimetic heritage, as distinct from my genetic heritage). One of those things is about not using (or, as I would say, "misusing") public funds for private political aggrandisement, yet I see this in SG, and have seen it on my previous visits as well.
I am assuming this is public money being (mis)used, since the banners concerned carry logos and reference to local government bodies.
You may think that wishing residents a happy religious festival is innocent enough. Not so! It is pure political advertising. And done (apparently) at public expense.
If this were done in any European or Anglo country then the person concerned would find themselves before a judge; they would have to pay back the public monies misappropriated, and whilst I don't think that they would be gaoled, they would be significantly fined, and they would also be expelled from parliament and, most likely, also from their political party. In short, their political career would be over.
And yet it seems to be the accepted norm in Singapore.
Not that I don't totally believe that SG has a much better record in this area than all of its immediate neighbours, and quite possibly any other Asian nation. But still, difficult as it is to reach, perfection is a goal that we all strive for.
To clarify this, in case you don't get it.
It is okay to fly a banner wishing residents a happy religious festival.
It is okay to fly a banner stating that a local government wishes residents a happy religious festival.
It is not okay to put your name and picture prominently on this banner.
That is crossing a line where it becomes personal.
You can do that at your own expense, you cannot (in most developed democracies) do that at public expense. If there is a local government logo on the banner then it will be inferred that it is funded by that body.
Now I don't know if this is legal or illegal in SG, I do know that is it illegal in European and Anglo nations, and I would say that it is inappropriate anywhere. I find that it diminishes my respect for the political processes here. Generally speaking I believe SG to be a very wisely run country, some reasons for which view I have given in previous blogs. This, rather minor, thing does upset me though.
On the positive side - nobody reads my blog, therefore I am not going to get into any sort of trouble for saying this. Like affecting my application for an entrepass.
So there it is; I am dividing my time between trying to get out early and do some sightseeing, and taking photos to load to my Flickr site (that you can't see because I have locked them all to friends and family only), exploring the suburbs around me and discovering what the shops are like and where I can eat vegetarian, staying in during the day and studying investing, playing Half Life 2 and Unreal 2 (and a couple of suduko games), and then going out again in the evening. All in all though I am getting bored, I want to go out all day long as I did when touristing, but hate the 'getting totally soaked with perspiration and having to take a change of shirt and a towel with me' thing.
I went out and ate at a food court by myself last night. Up to now one of the girls (i.e. Jaz, her sister, or her friends) have been treating me, so I had no idea of the costs. A huge plate of rice noodles, vegies, and gluten things cost me SGD $2.50! and another $2.50 for a papaya milkshake which I am not too sure I really liked that much. I'll try a banana one next, or mango if it is on offer.
I set my phone alarm for 5:30 because I want to get up and out early, and I go to bed around 10 or 11, but the neighbours keep me awake until after midnight, maybe 1-ish, so when the alarm goes I just want to keep sleeping and it's not until 9 or 10 that I have showered, dressed, and eaten. Too late to go out walking without ending up looking, and feeling, like an American tourist :(
Maybe if I got some music playing device and drowned the neighbours out? I could sleep to loud music, Heaven knows I have to sleep with a loud aircon, even if it isn't on it still gurgles loudly from the next aircon down the pipeline.
So the plan isn't working!
And I have ended up staying in today!
And reading up on investing, as you can see from where this blog entry started.
Which seems a good place to bring this to a close.
Tuesday, October 21
Another Tuesday
I'm bored.
On the plus side I went for a walk this morning and found the 'Chinatown' that Jaz took me to last week telling me it was close to where I lived. It is in fact just the other side of OG alongside Bencoolen. So that was good, although I set out about 7am so nothing was open, but I took some photos of the Chinese temple with swaztikas on it.
The plan was to then walk back to Canal or Ophir roads, cross the canal and back 'home', but somehow I kept wandering after interesting looking things and ended up on Beach Road. So I walked passed Little Arabia and then back along the canal.
I definitely needed a shower when I got back.
Ahhh, forgot I had laundry in the drier.
Just back from getting laundry and running up the stairs barefoot. Someone had moved my laundry into the other drier and set the first one running again empty. Uh?
So, this other 'Chinatown' I shall henceforth call mini-Chinatown, or maybe Micro China, or maybe even Baby Peking? It is only one lane parallel to Bencoolen, has the one Chinese temple, an Indian temple, and the Good Fortune Centre - a shopping centre or tower with a lot of vegetarian and/or organic sort of stuff.
Also so, I was trying to find this 'Chinatown' and thinking maybe Jaz meant Little India. I quartered the area around me; one quarter being Little India, another being between the canal and Little Araby, another being along the canal on this side, and then one along Bencoolen and turn right up Middle then back along Serangoon, and then the fifth 'quarter' (okay, this map is not perfectly square) being to the left of Bencoolen. This last was the last I explored and naturally the one I was actually after. I feel that I now know my immediate neighbourhood reasonably well.
Little India has a lot of vegetarian restaurants, also a lot that say 'veg and non-veg', but there is a chain of vegetarian Indian version of maccas, which will be interesting to try.
On the plus side I went for a walk this morning and found the 'Chinatown' that Jaz took me to last week telling me it was close to where I lived. It is in fact just the other side of OG alongside Bencoolen. So that was good, although I set out about 7am so nothing was open, but I took some photos of the Chinese temple with swaztikas on it.
The plan was to then walk back to Canal or Ophir roads, cross the canal and back 'home', but somehow I kept wandering after interesting looking things and ended up on Beach Road. So I walked passed Little Arabia and then back along the canal.
I definitely needed a shower when I got back.
Ahhh, forgot I had laundry in the drier.
Just back from getting laundry and running up the stairs barefoot. Someone had moved my laundry into the other drier and set the first one running again empty. Uh?
So, this other 'Chinatown' I shall henceforth call mini-Chinatown, or maybe Micro China, or maybe even Baby Peking? It is only one lane parallel to Bencoolen, has the one Chinese temple, an Indian temple, and the Good Fortune Centre - a shopping centre or tower with a lot of vegetarian and/or organic sort of stuff.
Also so, I was trying to find this 'Chinatown' and thinking maybe Jaz meant Little India. I quartered the area around me; one quarter being Little India, another being between the canal and Little Araby, another being along the canal on this side, and then one along Bencoolen and turn right up Middle then back along Serangoon, and then the fifth 'quarter' (okay, this map is not perfectly square) being to the left of Bencoolen. This last was the last I explored and naturally the one I was actually after. I feel that I now know my immediate neighbourhood reasonably well.
Little India has a lot of vegetarian restaurants, also a lot that say 'veg and non-veg', but there is a chain of vegetarian Indian version of maccas, which will be interesting to try.
Thursday, October 16
Stats, Beautiful Stats
Yaayyy!
My Goole Analytics is working, it just needed some time to get comfortable in its new home. On the down side; stats = ZERO!!!
Now that wasn't a surprise was it?
Also the assistant manager from the Stamford Plaza phoned and apologised profusely and promised me a free upgrade the next time I stay there.
So two good things have happened today.
And there is still half the day to go...
My Goole Analytics is working, it just needed some time to get comfortable in its new home. On the down side; stats = ZERO!!!
Now that wasn't a surprise was it?
Also the assistant manager from the Stamford Plaza phoned and apologised profusely and promised me a free upgrade the next time I stay there.
So two good things have happened today.
And there is still half the day to go...
Wasting my Time
Yes, definitely.
Today is Thursday, I spent all of yesterday thinking it was Tuesday :(
Planning to spend a day totally slacking off - I slacked off so much I spent TWO days slacking off!
Okay, a bit of shopping, a little walking around, a fair bit of emailing and texting, and a lot of Unreal 2. Did I say earlier that I had got my Steam account working on my new Asus laptop? And have started re-installing games that I had bought whilst in Australia? Well I have, and so I am working my way through Unreal 2 again. I have a few favourite levels in it that I keep the saves at the start of so I can play that map.
And look! I have just wasted half of this morning as well - the plan had been to go to the local Shop n Save for some basics first thing, i.e. 7am! It's now quarter passed nine!
Hey look! An email just in from the Stamford Plaza in Adelaide apologising for their awful service levels.
Anyhow, I have just spent maybe an hour browsing stat trackers for this blog. I tried the Google Analytics, as in it is currently installed on the home page, but it doesn't seem to be working - their site keeps saying it can't find the code. Funny! I copied it straight from their page and to mine just before the '/body' tag as specified. Mind you, when I first tried to check it their 'can't find' page told me to copy this code and place it blah, blah, but the code was slightly different! There was one line that wasn't in the first bit of code they had said to use. So I tried this, still no can see. I will give it a day or two to settle down and feel at home, then if the Google Analytics site still can't find its own code I will delete it and move on to try something / someone else. Just didn't want to put one of those tacky counters on the bottom of the page - especially when it is likely to only show "3" - and that will be me checking the format after each post. (Yes, you can preview, but it isn't quite the same, I also copy each post into Word to spell check it, but in the end I just want to see the real thing, and yes, I do sometimes then log back on and change something.)
Tuesday evening I used the clothes washer for the second time and it flooded the flat. I rang the agent and he promised someone would come and fix it first thing yesterday morning. Given that I spent the day sleeping, webbing, playing Unreal 2, and only went out to shop at OG for an hour after 7pm and no-one interrupted my siestas I kind of figure that the washer is not yet fixed, I will phone the agent again to check, but will need to do another load tomorrow. It was kind of fun shopping when none of the checkout chicks seemed to speak any English. Still, at least my VISA credit card is still working as a credit card, even if it doesn't work as an ATM card as well as it used to. That, incidentally, is still an unresolved issue.
Also spent some time websearching some stuff. For example; every year Australia applies for membership in ASEAN and gets refused, the reason given is the AU is a developed nation and ASEAN is a group of countries aspiring to be there. Doesn't sound too realistic, but if this is true then why hasn't Singapore been expelled? After all, it can only be described as a developed nation. It is far more likely that there is some quite explicit racism going on here, and I have my opinion as to who it is coming from as well. This was triggered by the references to "ASEAN + 3" on the news last night. Yes, I am watching SG TV. This is something I haven't done in my previous stays here, nor when I was in other countries, but since this time I am trying to live in SG I thought it apt. Of course the main thing that caught my eye was the temp feed from OKTO, my first impression was "YYEEAAHHHHH!!!!" animal docs, sci-fi and action movies, and LOTS of anime!!! How happy could I be? But over the last two days I have gotten the impression that the main focus is on kids. When will people realise that anime is for adults??? Why waste it on children? This is kind of like how offal (OFL - Office of Film and Literature, the little old ladies that censor the media in AU) is totally convinced that computer games are for children (after all, what else would little old ladies think?) and so don't allow any R18+ games into Oz - despite the overwhelming stats that show two thirds of games are played by men between 30 and 50, and most games are either bought by them, or bought by women for them. Kids are outside playing real games!
Hey look! It's 10am! Another hour wasted - I really need to go shop before the heat gets lethal.
Today is Thursday, I spent all of yesterday thinking it was Tuesday :(
Planning to spend a day totally slacking off - I slacked off so much I spent TWO days slacking off!
Okay, a bit of shopping, a little walking around, a fair bit of emailing and texting, and a lot of Unreal 2. Did I say earlier that I had got my Steam account working on my new Asus laptop? And have started re-installing games that I had bought whilst in Australia? Well I have, and so I am working my way through Unreal 2 again. I have a few favourite levels in it that I keep the saves at the start of so I can play that map.
And look! I have just wasted half of this morning as well - the plan had been to go to the local Shop n Save for some basics first thing, i.e. 7am! It's now quarter passed nine!
Hey look! An email just in from the Stamford Plaza in Adelaide apologising for their awful service levels.
Anyhow, I have just spent maybe an hour browsing stat trackers for this blog. I tried the Google Analytics, as in it is currently installed on the home page, but it doesn't seem to be working - their site keeps saying it can't find the code. Funny! I copied it straight from their page and to mine just before the '/body' tag as specified. Mind you, when I first tried to check it their 'can't find' page told me to copy this code and place it blah, blah, but the code was slightly different! There was one line that wasn't in the first bit of code they had said to use. So I tried this, still no can see. I will give it a day or two to settle down and feel at home, then if the Google Analytics site still can't find its own code I will delete it and move on to try something / someone else. Just didn't want to put one of those tacky counters on the bottom of the page - especially when it is likely to only show "3" - and that will be me checking the format after each post. (Yes, you can preview, but it isn't quite the same, I also copy each post into Word to spell check it, but in the end I just want to see the real thing, and yes, I do sometimes then log back on and change something.)
Tuesday evening I used the clothes washer for the second time and it flooded the flat. I rang the agent and he promised someone would come and fix it first thing yesterday morning. Given that I spent the day sleeping, webbing, playing Unreal 2, and only went out to shop at OG for an hour after 7pm and no-one interrupted my siestas I kind of figure that the washer is not yet fixed, I will phone the agent again to check, but will need to do another load tomorrow. It was kind of fun shopping when none of the checkout chicks seemed to speak any English. Still, at least my VISA credit card is still working as a credit card, even if it doesn't work as an ATM card as well as it used to. That, incidentally, is still an unresolved issue.
Also spent some time websearching some stuff. For example; every year Australia applies for membership in ASEAN and gets refused, the reason given is the AU is a developed nation and ASEAN is a group of countries aspiring to be there. Doesn't sound too realistic, but if this is true then why hasn't Singapore been expelled? After all, it can only be described as a developed nation. It is far more likely that there is some quite explicit racism going on here, and I have my opinion as to who it is coming from as well. This was triggered by the references to "ASEAN + 3" on the news last night. Yes, I am watching SG TV. This is something I haven't done in my previous stays here, nor when I was in other countries, but since this time I am trying to live in SG I thought it apt. Of course the main thing that caught my eye was the temp feed from OKTO, my first impression was "YYEEAAHHHHH!!!!" animal docs, sci-fi and action movies, and LOTS of anime!!! How happy could I be? But over the last two days I have gotten the impression that the main focus is on kids. When will people realise that anime is for adults??? Why waste it on children? This is kind of like how offal (OFL - Office of Film and Literature, the little old ladies that censor the media in AU) is totally convinced that computer games are for children (after all, what else would little old ladies think?) and so don't allow any R18+ games into Oz - despite the overwhelming stats that show two thirds of games are played by men between 30 and 50, and most games are either bought by them, or bought by women for them. Kids are outside playing real games!
Hey look! It's 10am! Another hour wasted - I really need to go shop before the heat gets lethal.
Monday, October 13
Damned Banks
Having a major problem with my bank, the National Australia Bank, two of my cards won't let me take out significant money, the other is imposing a $1,000 a day limit on me when it is supposed to be $5,000 a day. One of my cards is the same one I used the last few times I was here without any problems, but now that the account behind it has been 'upgraded' I am getting nothing but grief - major embarrassment and loss of face, and in an Asian culture where it matters.
I went to the NAB office here in SG, but they are not a 'branch' and don't provide customer service or support. I phoned the NAB international help number and got an Indian call centre where people read things at me but did not provide any service or support. And my last internet banking message got a reply saying that it was not the correct channel for that type of support, signed with an Indian name.
I assume that the NAB has outsourced all support functions to India.
I also assume that the NAB doesn't care about losing customers.
I don't think that I can open a bank account here until I have a working visa. I wonder if I can get a bank that operates in both SG and AU to open an account in 'Australia' for me if I take in the 100 points of ID needed in Australia? But even if they did, what would I put in it? I can't transfer without an SMS code, and my Australian phone is offline! And I am betting that neither the internet banking people nor the call centre people are permitted to actually change it to my Singaporean number.
Maybe I can remotely open an account in Liechtenstein?
Other than that; the girls took me to the bank office then to collect the copy of Office that came with the laptop, then I spent the day following them around shopping and they bought me lunch and a few drinks along the way. And they left me for a while in a huge bookshop in Ngee Ann City tower where I bought a few comics (all Dr Doom), a manga (Burst Angel, loved the anime, assume that I will love the manga as well), and a tarot book since I found when doing a couple of readings lately that I couldn't remember what some cards meant, especially when reversed.
Here's an interesting one; when I came out of something or other yesterday the girls had a hot chocolate waiting for me - they had phoned their sister in Australia to find out what I liked!
They have left to visit family in Malaysia now, and after that they are visiting Hong Kong for a week, so I am on my own for a while.
I went to the NAB office here in SG, but they are not a 'branch' and don't provide customer service or support. I phoned the NAB international help number and got an Indian call centre where people read things at me but did not provide any service or support. And my last internet banking message got a reply saying that it was not the correct channel for that type of support, signed with an Indian name.
I assume that the NAB has outsourced all support functions to India.
I also assume that the NAB doesn't care about losing customers.
I don't think that I can open a bank account here until I have a working visa. I wonder if I can get a bank that operates in both SG and AU to open an account in 'Australia' for me if I take in the 100 points of ID needed in Australia? But even if they did, what would I put in it? I can't transfer without an SMS code, and my Australian phone is offline! And I am betting that neither the internet banking people nor the call centre people are permitted to actually change it to my Singaporean number.
Maybe I can remotely open an account in Liechtenstein?
Other than that; the girls took me to the bank office then to collect the copy of Office that came with the laptop, then I spent the day following them around shopping and they bought me lunch and a few drinks along the way. And they left me for a while in a huge bookshop in Ngee Ann City tower where I bought a few comics (all Dr Doom), a manga (Burst Angel, loved the anime, assume that I will love the manga as well), and a tarot book since I found when doing a couple of readings lately that I couldn't remember what some cards meant, especially when reversed.
Here's an interesting one; when I came out of something or other yesterday the girls had a hot chocolate waiting for me - they had phoned their sister in Australia to find out what I liked!
They have left to visit family in Malaysia now, and after that they are visiting Hong Kong for a week, so I am on my own for a while.
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