Tasteless joke: A survey was conducted among convicted pedophiles. When asked which R&B group they liked, 100% answered that they preferred Boyz 2 Men.
Not-so-tasteless version of same joke: What do Demi Moore and Sandra Bullock have in common in terms of musical taste? They both prefer Boyz 2 Men.
Thought of the day: Can six billion people fit on one small island?
Hi ho, what a day. Got rainy all night and morning, we went out for shopping and Zen napped while we were out, woke up when we got back by bus and stayed up until 4. Dull day, just getting work done, getting tired, going out to buy daipers and realizing I have forgotten my bicycle lock key, going back and having Zen fall asleep in the bicycle baby seat so I have to carry him a way, then going out and getting the daipers and beer again – yes, a boring day, I don’t know why I bother to write about it. Dinner was good, we made pizza dough and ate heap pizza. About half finished my drawings for the workbook, challengers met and bested. Wish I could say that I saw a good movie recently… but I haven’t. Edelweiss.
Thought for the day: Instead of wondering how many angels fit on the head of a pin, just make up an answer and move on.
Hi, yo… whoosh. What a wild two days. Thursday was proceeding normally when around two o’clock I got a call from Golf Magazine – a writer had cancelled last minute and they needed someone to go to Bintan Resort and cover a two-day amateur golf tournament sponsored by Johnny Walker whiskey and TaylorMade golf clubs. I was up to the challenge, of course, so I committed to it, got my passport, made arrangements for Zen and Naoko on Friday, and off I went. Zen cried his head off when I walked out the door with my backpack, it nearly broke my heart. Poor kid. Took a bus at 6, the ferry left from a terminal at the other side of Singapore at 8, and by 9 I was at the Bintan Lagoon Resort trying to figure out what the hell I needed to do next. I found a function room where all these golf guys were drinking Johnny Walker and lingering over the remains of what must have been a fine, fine meal. I had a beer, found the guy who was organizing the event so I could get a rundown of things to do, he also told me that the next morning breakfast was at 6 and tee-off just after 7. I asked the front desk to wake me up at 5:30. Had a nice sleep.
Next morning, Friday, I open my eyes – see the sky lightening, hear the rain drizzling, look at my watch – 6:45. Uh oh!! Wake up, jump out of bed, drag a comb across my head. Get to breakfast, there is almost nobody there. Some time later I find out that Bintan time is one hour behind Singapore time. I had my watch on Singapore time of course, so 6:45 was really 5:45. I actually hadn’t gotten my wake-up call, but I guess it didn’t really matter. Had a nice long leisurely breakfast, then went off with the hung-over golfers to check out Ria Bintan golf course, which is supposed to be one of the best in Asia. Driving around the greens you could believe it – immaculate grass, well tended gorgeous everything, yet still wild and looking like it had just been cut from the forests. Wow. Later got over to Bintan Lagoon Resort and their Jack Nicklaus course where I found my first bottle of whiskey. Sucked on some of that for a while, got a tour of the first ten holes, collected some more info, hung out drinking coffee and whiskey, chatting to the whiskey girls, then went off for a swim. The pool is probably the nicest I have ever been in. I was wishing Naoko and Zen were there to enjoy that fun pool – they would have been sick on the ferry over and exhausted from moving around so much, but it would have been relaxing and nice in that pool, maybe make it all worth it. Maybe on one of these trips that isn’t a last-minute arrangement…
Awards presentations later, and it was all over. Then some hanging around and waiting for the ferry to get us back home. The bus was at 4:30 Bintan time, ferry at 5:30, it arrived at 7:30 Singapore time, and I was walking in the door at 9. Lovely to see Zen and Naoko again. Apparently Zen had been really good the whole time, his long day at school was OK too and he napped properly at 12:30. Good boy!
Today – Saturday – was a mellow day of hanging out at home, eating a bit, hanging out, going to get a newspaper. I called mom and dad to find out more about their car accident – shock! Luckily they are alive and hardly hurt. Cars and roads, so dangerous.
Zen napped and I got some stuff done. Tiring day, busy. Went for a jog with neighbour Dominic at 5, took Zen to the park for a bicycle ride at 6:30 (picked up some bottle beer too) and yummy tempura at 7. Evening of hanging out, playing guitar, giving Zen a bath, drawing for stuff, then doing more for the work. Lots of little things, all should be wrapped up by Wednesday. Then what?
Thought for the day: If you can’t touch your toes, touch your knees.
Nice place to spend 24 hours.
Yesterday… Did some drawing and emailing and phoning in the morning, Zen came home at 1 but didn’t nap until after 2 and was quite impossible to deal with by the time he finally fell asleep. Oh well. Got a call later from the kindergarten, the teacher worried that Zen might have hand/foot/mouth disease. This is a type of contageous disease, similar to chickenpox (but has nothing to do with hoof and mouth disease, which afflicts swine and cattle), that puts sores on the hand, foot, mouth, and daiper area. Zen had some symptoms, so we had to take him to a doctor in the evening, and sure enough he has a case, late on in, so he had to rest a bit before going back to school on Thursday. OK. Zen was totally fine and didn’t suffer, but the case does explain his fever of the weekend, the runny nose, and that terrible daiper rash.
Today I spent the day looking after Zen since he couldn’t go to school. He was good in the morning, spending a lot of time watching videos (okasan to isho) and playing quietly by himself, he was very sweet. It was raining all night last night and lightly in the morning, but around 11 it looked OK, so I decided to take him for a longer bike ride to give him some fresh air. I went shopping first, and while I was there it began to rain. The rain continued for some time, so after getting some stuff, I took Zen to ride on the Doraemon ride and other 20 cent attractions. That was fun, but the rain didn’t let up. We snacked on our snacks, drank milk from the carton, with the rain just coming down in buckets now. What crummy timing, I like rainy days when I am at home and have nothing to do but watch from the window, but at least Zen got some outdoor play time. We had drinks together – tea for me and Milo for Zen – as the rain beat down. Then he began to get cranky, then he wanted to ride on my back, then he fell asleep on my back!! At 12:30, before having lunch. Bummer!! I locked up the bike, took my groceries, and cabbed back to the home and napped and read my novel while Zen slept – until 4 . At 5 it was time to go pick up the bicycle. Zen was super cranky and cried and threw fits. I took him back to the apartment, but he cried more, so I carried him half way, then he walked the rest and was in an angelic mood – a nice baby again. As we got back to Signature Park, we were nearly run over by some asshole driver. I was too shocked to get angry at the human scum who was driving it, but a minute later I was livid. If he had hit us, we would have been flattened, he wouldn’t have had a scratch. That exit is too narrow and visibility for cars is bad, also they come downhill and pick up speed. Something is wrong there. I think they should seal up the car exit there and only allow acces to cars entering. It is too dangerous for pedestrians.
Took Zen for a walk after dinner and he was in great spirits. Later on we watched some of The Big Lebowski, Zen was really into it. He watched it intently for an hour, eating papaya, before going to bed at 9:30. I got a lot of work done at the same time. An ideal evening. Zen seems to have recovered apetite, and is going to sleep at more normal times, this is all great. His rash is gone in the daiper area, and he can go back to school tomorrow. Hooray.
Thought for the day: A house of books is not a library
Wotta weekend, wotta start to a new week. Mid-last-week we decided to take up an invite to see Mitchan in Johor Bahru over the causeway in Malaysia, maybe finally get a chance to see her husband An-chan again – it has been years and he is never around when we see Mitchan. Thursday and Friday we heard about possible translations, but went anyway on Friday after work. Zen slept until 4:15 on Friday, then it was a matter of getting all our stuff together and getting him down the road to the bus connection where we would rendezvous with Naoko and continue on our way together by public bus to Johor Bahru. Passed the two border stations and bridge with no problem and met Mitchan in McDonalds right in downtown JB. Turns out An-chan is still not around – he is in Kuala Lumpur again this weekend. Some thing never change. Get in the car and go to their house. That takes a while because of rush-hour traffic and we are finally there after seven. The commotion has been going on for about 3 hours. We have a dinner of chicken rice, something we had eaten the evening before in Clementi, actually, but never mind – it has been weeks since we have had it, and eating it two nights in a row is just fine because it is quite yummy! Even as we stuff our hungry faces, An-chan’s mother urges us to eat more. More! More!!! Zen decides to be bothersome and doesn’t get to sleep until well after 11 at night. We sleep in Mitchan’s room amid the books and all the jumble. The house they live in is full of stuff, it made me nervous – doors didn’t open all the way for stuff behind them, there were shelves everywhere in narrow corridors, the lighting was permanently low, kind of a strange environment. Big enough, but crammed to the girders with odds and ends. The kind of place where you are constantly squeezing to get by.
Saturday morning we go out for dim sum. Zen is hot and feverish, although he hasn’t slept much. He also has no appetite and we begin to worry about him. The day is hot and cold – cool when the clouds cover, hot when the sun is out. Strange winds blow. It rains briefly. Zen falls asleep at noon with no food in him, then wakes up at 1:30. Then Manae is sleeping and we are trying to get a hot, sweaty Zen to sleep. The day seems shot. Mitchan suggests that Zen might be more comfortable if he got to his own bed at home, and we think it is a good idea too, so we head for downtown to do a bit of shopping before we go back. Go into JB’s coolest bakery with a real coal-burning oven and pick up some yummy bread that Zen actually eats. Back to City Square to look around. Some high volume show is happening – digital TVs or something and they are all showing Independence Day or some sort of flashy SFX explosion-filled action flick – and it is bedlam. I finally find some shoes at Bata and buy them. Score. We leave at 7:15 and are at home by 8:15. Zen decides to be co-operative and sleeps at 9:15. The fever, the lack of appetite or desire to sleep, the high energy and general restlessness, the drooling (which he doesn’t usually do) – we figure it must be his molars coming in. Yoiks!
Sunday is a mellow day hanging out at home. Get bad news that Ailing’s ailing father died suddenly on Saturday. Oh no. Tidying the house all morning, then I go off at noon to see Tokyo Story at the Japan Association. It is a great movie, of course, but I am uncomfortable in the chairs designed for shorter legs than mine. The white guy sitting in front of me has brought two petite ladies and is chatting to them in fluent Japanese. He reminds me of myself – the me I never was. When the film ended they showed the final reel of the previous film, Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-Ga, which they couldn’t show the last reel of due to technical difficulties. OK. It picked up with a brief, emotional interview with a man who had worked for Ozu, then it showed the final scene of Tokyo Story, but with French subtitles. It was kind of surreal to watch the ending to one of the greatest movies ever shot twice in a row, a mish mash of language surfing. Thought about the film all the way home from the place. Mellow like Wenders and Angelopolous, of course Ozu is the source. Got home and took Zen for a ride in the park. Whee! Get calls from both sets of parents – mom and dad will come end of November and stay 3 months, Naoko’s mom will come early November for a week. Zen went to sleep around 11 again. We were wiped out and just went to sleep right after him.
Today is a mellow day of hanging around the house working – phoning and writing, that is. It is cool and windy and rainy all day. The rain is light in the morning so I take Zen to school by bicycle, but at noon it is stormin’ normin’ so I hop in a cab to pick him up and hustle him back. Zen is so sweet – smiling broadly as I come to get him, then laughing all the way home. He watches videos for an hour before he gets to sleep. Sleeps until 5, then we go off to the wake for Ailing’s father. It is a short bus ride away and in the void floor under her brother’s HDB building. We say a prayer and burn incense at the altar, then sit down and chow on all the yummy Malay food that they have. Zen is shy and grumpy at first, but then warms up to Ailing as he always does. I go up to the 25th floor of the HDB rise and look out over the countless other HDB complexes. Amazing. Ailing is holding up well with her loss, surrounded by friends and family, and we leave at 8:30. Zen is bathing at 9:30 and we hope to get him to sleep after the bath, but he rolls around in bed for nearly an hour and finally gets sleeping at 10:45. This kid sleeps late. If he could only get to bed at 9, I would feel like he is getting enough sleep, I could also get a few things accomplished before going to bed. Oh well, I can make it a late night tonight – I got early sleep last night and have plenty of fuel from that yummy Malaysian food!
Thought for the day: do you ever remind yourself of the you that you never were?
A few days late on posting to the site. That is OK. Nothing too exciting these days really. Wednesday Zen didn’t go to school. I got called in to write a quick article for Golf Magazine and had to pick up some materials to do it – the article was on Cairns, Australia. Out and about the area, as well as a profile of some golf courses. Got there OK in the bus, Zen had a good time prowling around the office, then in the bus on the way back he became listless and slept!! It was good for him to sleep in the bus, but he was a bit feverish and I got worried. Once home, he perked up again and stayed awake until 3:00. Then he slept till nearly 7:00!! Then he was up until 10:30!!! This boy is not yet 2 years old.
Yesterday Zen was back in school, so I got to work on that article. More buzzing around the internet, trying to absorb materials, things like that. Wow. Got more than half of it done the first day, then we went out to Clementi MRT area for food with Ailing. Strange lady was selling drinks to our tables, we made the mistake of trying to order some sugar cane juice from her. Bizarre. Some shoe shopping and a taxi home. Fun-ish. Got to watch another episode of 24 – 10 AM to 11 AM. Amazing what is taking place. All of this intense stuff has gone down, and it is not even half over. I know, I say the same thing every week.
I contacted a local fiction publisher earlier in the year with some ideas, he says he needs something Singapore based. I reworked one of my science fiction ideas so that it could be set in Singapore – actually, the more I think of it the more I realize that Singapore is the ideal setting for a “Trojan horse” story of that nature – and he seems to have some interest. Hopefully I can meet up with him next week to talk about it more. Next week could be interesting w.r.t to meetings and things happening.
Might get a big-ish translation soon, hope so.
Today I finished up the article at noon, went out for roti prata for lunch, and picked up Zen at 12:30. I’m Superman for getting all that done. This afternoon we go to Johor Bahru, across the border in Malaysia, to go night marketing and to hang out with our friends. Should be fun. The weather today at noon was gorgeous, like a perfect Canadian summer day almost – not too hot, not to cold, big white fluffy clouds floating across the blue sky, warm sunlight that didn’t burn filtering gold between the lightly swaying branches, really gorgeous. If it were like this every day, everyone in the world would move to Singapre and we’d have hellish population problems. I wonder if six billion people would fit on the island?
Another joke: American philosophy professor in Japanese school says to colleague “why do my students snicker when I tell them ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’? One of the female students even fainted!”
Thought for the day: go out for breakfast at least once a year.
Hey Ho Ho Ho,
Not much new here today – spent the day mucking about, eating and drinking, doing this and that, meeting Lawrence again to show drawings, going to the bank to cash checks, buying pens and pencils, getting a Star Wars book (ooohh!!), checking even more guitar tabs – James Taylor and the Velvet Underground this time. My set list has over 50 songs now, yet none that I can play really really well. Well, I guess I can play “Wish You Were Here” quite fine now. At least one or two. The Love and Rockets song “No New Tale To Tell” sure is fun to play on the guitar.
Thought for the day: What are you looking at?