Sounds of Singapore

In my last post I mentioned the thunderstorms - one of the signature sounds of Singapore. I thought I'd share some more with you this week. The first thing to say is that Singapore is a pretty noisy place; there seems always to be background noise of one sort or another going on: the hum of air conditioning units, building work (construction here is 24/7), exotic birds and of course, traffic. Last night we were woken by a different sort of noise at 2 am - the sound of "Flower of Scotland" being sung at full volume, from a bar (some way) down the hill from us where the Scottish football team was being encouraged in their efforts against Italy - alas to no avail. Weird experience!



I've been travelling this week - to Bangkok and Hong Kong. It's seven years since I was last in Hong Kong, and I'd forgotten just how beautiful - and exciting - it is. One of the meeting rooms we were using has a large balcony overlooking the bay, and the view was spectacular. Unlike Singapore, Hong Kong has seasons, and it was great to experience the blue skies and slight chill in the air that signals Autumn. Here, the shops have boots and furry clothing on display, but we are scratching our heads trying to work out who wears them - and where!



Last weekend, we hosted a party in the flat, for the HR team. Not sure if I mentioned that the living area here is pretty spacious, but we hired some tables and served up dinner for twenty. It looked just like a restaurant by the time we had finished setting it up - enormous fun. We spent pretty much the whole day cooking, but it was worth it in the end. The chicken in black bean sauce was a big hit, as was the Teriyaki cod, but I could have done with the cheffing skills of my friend Steve to help out. Maybe next time, Steve? Talking of food, I must share my vegetarian anecdote with you. I was in Burger King one weekday lunchtime, thinking fast food thoughts. (There is not a culture of eating at your desk here, pretty much everyone goes out for lunch, but I was pushed for time). I scanned the menu and saw no sign of the veggie burger option, so I asked the serving lassie if they did a vegetarian burger. She said yes, they did. When I asked her why it was not on the menu, she said that they just removed the meat pattie from an ordinary burger and hey presto - vegetarian burger. Or, to look at it another way, processed cheese and tomato on a white roll. I took my custom elsewhere.....

We haven't been to the movies for the last couple of Fridays, but we have been catching up on movies we missed at the dinky little cinema in the Tanglin Club, just down the road. We go to the Sunday 2.30 session, and we saw La vie en rose last week and Die Hard 4.0 today. I must say, Bruce Willis is wearing well - a lot better than poor Edith Piaf. She was just 48 when she died, and looked more like 84. Whoever did the makeup for that film should get an Oscar.

More travel coming up - Dubai next week and New Delhi the week after. I plan to stay an extra day and visit the Taj Mahal, so make sure to stay tuned in. Next Saturday is the wedding of Tricia, one of my colleagues, and Chris, Alison and I have all been invited. We are really looking forward to our first Chinese wedding, which promises to be quite different from a traditional Western wedding, from what we have heard so far. For example, the wedding photos are taken weeks before the wedding - often in a different, exotic, location, and shown at the wedding ceremony. Saves worrying about the weather on the day!

All the best till next time.