The expat weekend

It is Saturday, 20th September 2008, the end of one of the most surreal weeks in the financial industry. For those of you who have not been following the press, recents events have been described variously as "the end of investment banking", "the latest terrifying phase of the credit crunch" and "massive humiliation for Wall Street" (there are many who would say this last one is no bad thing). However, I am no financial journalist, and this blog was never meant to be a running commentary on the financial markets, so I will leave it there.

One of the best things about our life here in Singapore is the weekend. Because we have live-in help, in the form of the lovely Ding (real name Ester, but she has been called Ding ever since she was a child), we don't have to spend the weekend doing chores - luxury! A typical weekend involves a lie-in, since I normally get up pretty early, a visit to the gym, a movie or two, eating out on Sunday, which is Ding's day off - perhaps brunch (see previous post "War on Buffet" from April) at one of the many fabulous bruncherias on the island, or a visit to one of Singapore's many festivals, like the Singapore River Festival which starts this weekend. This is a first for Singapore - but it sounds a lot of fun - so I hope it becomes an annual event.

The festival is set along the Singapore river, and its various events will celebrate the elements of water and Singapore's heritage. There will be lots of music, outdoor parties, and of course, eating opportunities, many of which will take place at Clarke Quay. I'm not sure if I've written about Ckarke Quay before, but it's one of the first places I encountered on my very first trip to Singapore - when I came here for my interview in early 2007 - as my hotel was just around the corner.

Clarke Quay is Singapore's premier entertainment district; it's full of clubs, bars, restaurants and nightspots and really comes alive when the sun goes down. It's located near the mouth of the Singapore river and was the centre of commerce during the late 19th century - although obviously lacking the clubs, bars, nightspots etc., which are situated in a number of different blocks, based on the "godowns" of yesteryear (a godown was a dockside warehouse or storage area). Many of the restaurants are housed in old shophouses - an architectural form unique to South East Asia and a wonderful piece of Singapore's heritage.

A shophouse - there's a clue in the name - consists of a shop on the ground floor and residential accommodation upstairs. They were typically built in longish terraces - sometimes a whole street's worth and have narrow fronts and very deep rears (as it were). The residential part was meant to house one or more families, who may or may not have been connected to the commerce beneath. Many old shophouses have been converted into business premises, but many have become modern-day dwellings. There are lots of shophouses on Boat Quay, which is very close to where I work - and is host to Harry's Bar, where Nick Leeson used to hang out. The picture at the top is Boat Quay, with the CBD (central business district) in the background. I often have lunch on Boat Quay, and never fail to think how fortunate I am, to be living and working here.

This weekend started on a cultural note - with a visit to the launch of a book of poems by a friend of ours - Hsien Min Toh. You can see him if you follow the link below. He was launching and reading from his latest collection, called Means To An End, and I bought two copies, one for me and one for my friend Steve, who will, I think, appreciate both the sentiments and the language of the work. Let me know what you think, Steve. It's on its way.

http://home.pacific.net.sg/~hsienmin/

Tonight's outing is to the Oktoberfest night at the Swiss Club, with a couple of Singapore friends. Oktoberfest in September I hear you ask? Good question, but the real thing in Munich starts in September and runs for 16 days into October apparently. I'm really looking forward to it, which is quite strange as I'm not the biggest fan of beer, or bratwurst, so I'll probably spend the evening with a sauerkraut sandwich and a glass of dry white wine. With any luck there will be singing and group dances - heaven for the extravert in me, since I never seem to find anyone to go out to play at a Karaoke club with me.

Just another meltdown Monday

Who would have thought? I am posting this on Tuesday 16th September, the day after Lehman Brothers went to the wall. Two of my dearest friends work there, and my heart goes out to them. It feels to me as if we are seeing history in the making - a financial services equivalent of the tearing down of the Berlin wall. I have worked in HR in the financial markets for 21 years and I don't believe I have ever seen anything like it. So what happens next? Damned if I know, but I'll keep you posted as I work it out.

One year in.......

Dear readers (I can say readers with confidence, because a number of you have taken me to task for not posting anything recently), I am back at the keyboard and brimful of reflections, so sit back and get reading.

It has been just over a year since we first came to Singapore - the end of July, 2007 - and what a year it has been. There was little notion of the impending turmoil in the financial markets, Bear Sterns was alive and kicking and my friends at Lehman Brothers were hard at work for one of Wall Street's most prestigious firms. I feel immensely fortunate to be working in the Asian markets at this time, in a growing business, but, as my CEO is wont to observe, there is no room for complacency.

We returned to Singapore from a holiday at our house in France last week. It was a delicious break, and some friends came over to join us in surprise (early) birthday celebration, which began with dinner at the Domaine d'Auriac (pictured, - no, that's not a picture of our house) - and ended with a firework display on the hill behind our house. We had been to the restaurant before with a group of some of the same friends for my 40th, which just seems like yesterday but appears, in reality, to have been xxxxxxx years ago! How did that happen? At moments like this I am tempted to quote T.S Eliot's lines from The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock:

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

if only I knew what he meant. Re-reading the poem just now brings back memories of secondary school - probably in 4th or 5th year - and studying that particular piece. I don't think I got what he was talking about at all, but 30 something years on, it strikes a chord. In case you're feeling poetic, here's some more:

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question …
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

Talking of poetry, I am sure you have been missing my haiku film reviews. That said, I do not think that I could convey the necessary level of enthusiasm for my latest two recommendations in a mere 17 syllables. We have just returned from seeing Wall-E (recommended by my friend Steve, who has great taste in movies, food and friends) and it was a complete delight. A robot love story - strangely touching - and possibly a political commentary on our disposable society (less sure about this) but one of my must see recommendations. At the gritty end of the scale is In Bruges, which I saw on the flight back from London. It's the story of two hit men - one played by Colin Farrell - who have to spend some time in Bruges after a hit goes wrong. It is by turns very funny, dramatic and sad, and absolutely made me want to visit Bruges at Christmas time.

So what does it feel like to be in our second year as expats in Singapore? Well, some things have become completely familiar, yet we are still discovering the new also. Singapore is full of traditions, as I have said before, and this is the season of the mooncake festival.

Mooncakes are Chinese pastries traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. They are typically round or rectangular and measure about 10 cm in diameter and are quite thick. The filling is thick too - and very rich. There are modern versions, but the traditional mooncake filling is made from lotus seed paste and contains whole egg yolks. They are rich, heavy, and very dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries and are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea. An acquired taste for the Western palate, I think.

National Day

We won't be in Singapore for this year's National Day, which is a shame really, as it's a big event. I've mentioned before in the blog how much I think Singapore punches above its weight, and it's a fiercely proud nation/city/island/country - take your pick. This pride is much in evidence on National Day, and the effort that goes into rehearsal. National Day is celebrated on 9th August, the date Singapore gained its independence from Malaysia in 1965.

The National Day Parade is the grandest national event in Singapore. The celebrations finish with an amazing firework display and feature all sorts of exhibitions, including Singapore's equivalent of the Red Arrows, who practice their stuff for months in advance of the parade - mostly outside the windows of our apartment block it would appear.

For those of you who are regular readers, here are some facts about Singapore:

Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total land area of only 682.7 square kilometres. The USA is about 15,000 times bigger.

Apart from Monaco, Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world.

The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore contains more species of trees than the entire North American continent.

The largest fountain in the world is located in Singapore at Suntec City. It cost an estimated US$6 million to build in 1997 (and it is very ugly, by the way!).

In 2003, Singapore's Changi Airport won the award for "Best Airport Worldwide" for the 16th consecutive year from the UK/Europe edition of the Business Traveller magazine.

The record for the biggest ever game of pass-the-parcel was set in Singapore on 28 February 1998. It involved 3,918 students removing 2,200 wrappers from a 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.5 m parcel.

British pop violinist Vanessa Mae Nicholson was born in Singapore and moved to England when she was four.

The most common Chinese surnames in Singapore are Tan, Lim and Lee.

8 in 10 people in Singapore own cell phones. In fact, telecom companies issue new numbers at the rate of 30,000 to 40,000 per month.

Singapore's best showing in the Olympic Games ever was a silver medal won by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang in Rome in 1960. Maybe they will have better luck in Beijing!

Shanghai'd

Just back from Shanghai - my second visit there since we moved to Singapore - and I was blown away. Funny really, since the first time I went, in August last year, it barely made an impression. What was different this time was that I had the chance to spend some time outside of offices and hotels, and have a look round the older part of Shanghai - called Puxi (pronounced Pusee). In fact, the newer part of Shanghai - Pudong - is very new indeed. What is now a thriving commercial centre, with state of the art buildings, was farmland 15 years ago. Since it now looks like this (above), it's hard to believe the transformation.


Whenever I travel to places like China, I tend to be a bit challenged by the food (those of you who have read my post on "slippy food" will know what I mean). I'm sure this means I miss out on some amazing culinary opportunities, but there you have it. Walking through the French Concession in Puxi (the area of Shanghai originally designed for the French, and full of lovely old buildings as well as being the home of Shanghai's cafe society and club scene),) I came across a restaurant in a small park (or large garden, depending on your point of view - make up your own mind from the picture below).



Luckily for me, there were plenty of prawn dishes as well as the restaurant specialities of marinated turnip skin, mustard marinated jellyfish and sliced whelk.


Back in Singapore, we are experiencing relatively poor weather, although I am loving the unusual sensation of feeling cool for a change. I'm sure it won't last. We are heading for France in August, and hosting a Langedocienne dinner for some of our Singapore friends just before we go, so next Friday Chris will be cooking duck confit with cassoulet and serving up goat's cheese with honey. If you're going to be in the neighbourhood, just let us know!

A gold class movie experience

Last night, we went to see The Incredible Hulk. Definitely a movie, rather than "cinema", but a fun experience nevertheless. Much of the fun came from the fact that we went to one of Singapore's Gold Class cinemas to watch the big green man in action. I'm not sure if these exist in UK multiplexes, but they are definitely the way to go for the ultimate movie experience unless, like my friend Eddie, you have your own cinema in the basement of your house, of course.


The tickets are about 3 times the price of a normal ticket in Singapore (therefore about the same as an ordinary ticket in London). For that, you get entry to the Gold Class lounge, where you can have something to eat or drink, or order it to be served at your table in the cinema while you are watching the movie. The cinema seats are in pairs, with a little table in between, and the seats recline almost fully, like really good business class seats in an aircraft. You are provided with a blanket, in case the air con is too much for you (or if you just fancy a ziz I suppose).


If I were to review the movie in the Haiku style I would say the following:

Lovely Liv Tyler
excels as always. Edward
Norton good and green.

Musings on a Sunday morning

There is no particular subject for this post, it's just a collection of reflections on life in this part of the world. Like having to keep almost everything in the fridge because of the heat. In Singapore keeping bananas in the fridge (normally a big no-no) means they spoil less quickly than if you keep them on the work surface. I learned this from my sister Alison - one of my regular readers - who lives in Oz, where fruit faces similar climactic challenges. Thanks, Ali.

Staying with the fruit theme, we are now in durian season. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the delights (or horrors, depending on your point of view) of the durian. I found this great piece written by a Singapore expat, in which he describes his love affair with the durian. http://web.singnet.com.sg/~tonym/durian.html. I do not share his enthusiasm, I'm afraid, having so far been put off by the smell. The durian is banned from all forms of public transport, for good reason. My Singapore friends keep encouraging me to try it in dessert or cake form, but I'm still not convinced.

Last night we went out to eat at Halia, one of the restaurants in the Botanic Gardens. It is set quite far inside the gardens, and the walk from the entrance is full of atmosphere and romance. It is up a wide path, bordered by trees and beautifully lit. There is a picture of the restaurant at the top of the post.

Unfortunately, the food was not as great as the place. The first course of black pepper soft shell crab was delicious (although the black pepper was a bit subtle for my palate, which is used to fierce amounts of chilli), but the lobster and mushroom risotto was really disappointing. There was no depth of flavour; it tasted as if the rice and stock had not spent all their life in the same pan, growing together and gradually becoming one, but more as if they had been introduced to each other halfway through the process. If that sounds a bit poncy I apologise, but those of you who cook will know what I am talking about. The restaurant made the mistake of leaving one of those happy sheets with the bill, the little card that asks for your comments on the meal. Wrong table to choose!

That said, as we walked back through the gardens to the car, we sat down on one of the wooden benches overlooking the lake and reflected again on how fortunate we are to be living here. This thought strikes me every day that I spend here, for one reason or another, but never more so than when I am travelling in other parts of Asia. People say that Singapore is "Asia 101" - the Asian experience for beginners. It is clean and prosperous, everything works, there is very little crime and none of its citizens seem (to me at least) to be living in poverty. The same cannot be said of much of the rest of the continent, and travelling in India, for example, really brings home to me the lottery that is the accident of birth. If the cost of rice goes up a few percent, it is still a very inexpensive commodity to us, but it becomes an unaffordable staple for some.

When I last wrote about India, the post featured a piece on mangoes. I have recently learned that mangoes are considered a "heatie" food, in the context of traditional Chinese medicine. Heatie (yang) foods, like ginger, red and green peppers, chicken, cherries, coconut, coffee, eel (yes, eel), garlic and of course mangoes, are said to create "hot" energy in the body, while "cooling" (yin) foods, like bananas, crab, grapefruit, lettuce, watermelon, cucumber, pears, radishes and yoghurt create cold energy. As with so much of life, it's all about balance, and eating the right balance of yin and yang foods for your own particular circumstances - taking into account metabolism and lifestyle for example - is apparently the thing to do. I wonder whether pizza is yin or yang..........

An apple a day

Strange as it may seem to my gadget loving friends - Eddie and Steve, you know who you are - I have never owned an MP3 player, until a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure why, when I think about it, but there it is. So I decided to open the door and now I can't believe what I was missing. Now the proud possessor of a mint green iPod nano, I listen to it all the time and have to remember not to sing out loud and dance along when I'm in public places - or at work early in the morning. Then again, what the hell!

Chris is not an MP3 sort of a guy, but he has been seduced by the MacBook Air (http://www.apple.com/macbookair/) - Apple's latest laptop which is as thin as a New York socialite, and just possibly slightly lighter at under 1.5 kilos.


As it happens, I am writing this post listening to music on my PC - another revelation! Current favourite is Duffy. I had forgotten what a powerful influence music is on mood, and on memory. Listening to some songs brings back the moments that I associate with them so strongly that I feel as if I am right back there in the moment. I can't listen to Paul Simon singing "Diamonds on the soles of her shoes", Roberta Flack singing "The first time ever I saw your face" or Everything but the girl singing "Tougher than the rest" without being transported back in time. Magic.

Other favourites: anything from the dance scenes in Dirty Dancing, Peter Gabriel "The book of love", the Corries and the Proclaimers. You can take the girl out of Scotland...........................................

Why not share your favourites? All you have to do is leave a comment.

Mercifully, I took the iPod with me to Malacca last weekend. I say "mercifully" because the trip - all of 290 km - took almost 6 hours each way. Almost half the time was spent in the queue for border controls - out of Singapore and into Malaysia. So, was it worth it? Just about. Malacca is both a town and a state - one of the oldest in Malaysia. It was originally a sultanate (as some of the Malaysian states still are) and a very prosperous trading port. Malacca was ruled by the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries and many of the public buildings were built during this time. We stayed in a small hotel in the historic heart, close to Chinatown, which had been converted from an original Peranakan house. Regular readers may remember previous references to the Peranakan culture in the blog - Peranakans are the descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants to Malaysia. At the time, it was illegal for Chinese women to leave China which meant that male emigrants had to marry non-Chinese women and so Peranakans were born.

Another connection to a previous post (the one about mangoes) is Alfonso de Albuquerque, who was there in the early 16th century. Malacca seems to have spent much of its past being occupied by one European nation or another; we were a greedy lot in those days, weren't we?

This weekend we are resting up, catching up and - in my case - listening to music. Have a good one.

Not all mangoes are created equal

I'm not that big a fan of the mango to tell the truth; I'm more of a papaya person, so the vexed question of which is the best variety of mango has largely passed me by - until last week that is. I was in Chennai (aka Madras for those of you missed the reclaiming of the traditional name) and in Mumbai (Bombay as was) last week, and found myself drawn into a heated debate about mangoes. Who would have thought?

It turns out that the Alphonso mango (named after Alfonso De Albuquerque, a 15th century Portuguese nobleman) - see picture on the right - is deemed by most mango lovers in India to be the daddy. It is orange skinned and fleshed, and tastes - to my palate - like sweet toffee flavoured soap. My vote goes to the honey mango, shaped like a large teardrop, with pale yellow skin and flesh, which tastes like toffee pure and simple, without the soap.

Those of you who are regular readers will know that I found my first trip to India (Delhi and Agra last year) pretty challenging. This trip was quite different, and I can see myself being seduced by India over time, although I would like that seduction to take place in luxury hotels please!

Time for a short history lesson: Mumbai is the commercial capital of India and the second biggest city in the world. Its original name "Bombay" emerged from the Portuguese term "Bom Bahai" meaning "good bay "or "harbour". My hotel room overlooked the harbour and the Gateway to India - a ceremonial arch built in 1927 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary. The Gateway holds historical significance as the last of the British troops leaving the newly independent independent India by sea, marched through its portals.

It's been a while since my last film review, but last weekend we saw "The Notebook " at the Tanglin Club. It was released in 2005, but it never crossed my path till now, and it was both delightful and heart-rending - a great combination for a movie. My friend Steve (who introduced me to blogging - check out his blog at blogfromthebarn.blogspot.com) has taken to writing movie reviews in the form of haikus - 17 sylable 3 line poems - so here goes with ours for The Notebook. This is Chris's:

Young love thwarted, thrives
Mem'ry fades but not passion
Oh, my aching heart

and mine:

Young lovers grown old
She cannot remember but
His love is enough

Just in case the haiku was not enough detail, here's the story:

The film is a love story which centres around a man in his seventies (James Garner) who reads aloud to a woman (whom we later discover is suffering from Alzheimers). From a faded notebook, his words bring to life the story about a young couple separated by her parents (she is posh, he is not) and then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths in life. It sounds sad, and it is, but really worth seeing. This weekend it's a bit of Sex in the City and Indiana Jones, so watch out for more movie reviews.......

Sleepless in Singapore

It's not like me to have difficulty sleeping, but tonight was an exception, so you find me sharing my thoughts with you at 5am Sing time on Sunday morning. That's 10 pm and 5 pm on Saturday for my UK and US readers respectively, and 8 am on Sunday for my sister in Oz.

Perhaps it was the excitement of last night's Murder Mystery Dinner at the Tanglin Club (it was Rupert, the long-lost son who dunnit) or the effect of dessert (the largest creme brulee I have ever seen) giving me a sugar buzz, but being awake with time on my hands gives me the opportunity to tell you about the Great Singapore Sale. This is an annual event and for two months from the end of May to the end of July (it's not called "great" for nothing) there are bargains to be had island-wide.

I have shared with you before the Singaporeans' love of shopping, so you can imagine the effect on the national psyche of discounts of up to 70 per cent on just about anything. The sale is actually organised by the Singapore tourist board in order to promote tourism, and visitors get special privileges on shopping, dining and various tourist attractions.

The sale begins with the Great Singapore Shopping Challenge - an event which seeks to elevate shopping to the status of a sport. This activity, now in its 5th year, involves teams of two (27 in total, with only a third of them from Singapore, so it's clearly an international sport), each of which is given S$1,000 and three hours to bag the best bargains from selected categories. The winning team is the one that manages to achieve the biggest savings in the time, and they get to keep their purchases as well as trousering a bucketload of shopping vouchers. Hmm, I wonder if my friend Kerry fancies entering next year...........