Crispian St. Peters, a British pop singer of the ’60s best known for his buoyant hit “Pied Piper” and his soulful version of “You Were on My Mind,” has died at his home in Swanley, Kent, England. He was 71.
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Football Fever
Image by iccsports via FlickrWorld Cup fever has struck even the most balanced individuals and there appear to be only a few exceptions. I am one of the latter as I have not mortgaged my condo to take out a premium cable package with Singtel or Starhub.
I have very little interest in soccer as most of the players seem to spend inordinate amounts of time writhing of the ground and faking injuries trying to incur a penalty.
The local S League takes this masquerade one step further with players being carried off on stretchers at regular intervals, only to rise Lazarus-like as they reach the sidelines.
Give me a real man's game anytime. Rugby is the code I and most New Zealanders were brought up with and it the one that I still follow. The 'real' world cup will take place next year in New Zealand.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Slashed Fares, Red Elbows And Tagged Trains
To quote the late Nat King Cole, "Unforgettable" or perhaps it should be "Unbelievable"!
Having just spent nearly $S1,800 for a one way ticket from Singapore to Auckland I read in the NZ Herald online today that Jet Star is going to launch a direct Auckland / Singapore service and will be offering promotional fares set at $NZ100.
I would be quite happy to forgo the in-flight meal and pay for my own cheese and crackers en-route if I could save $1,000.
The only fly in the ointment is that they have yet to secure regulatory approval but one would hope that this was forthcoming. It will be interesting to see what Singapore Airlines' response will be.
Also occupying Singaporean's minds this week is the revelation that some mindless twits broke into the MRT train yards and graffiti bombed one of the trains (video below). It turns out it was a Swiss software consultant and a Briton (who has high tailed it to Hong Kong) who carried out the dastardly deed.
What at first glance may seem to be a stupid piece of vandalism has more sinister overtones as it has exposed lax security at the depot. The threat of bombing is very real and the fact that two individuals could so effortlessly break into the depot yard has not pleased the authorities in the least.
Such acts normally carry a caning sentence in Singapore. An American by the name of Michael Fay was sentenced in 1994 for a similar spate of vandalism and received four strokes of the rattan cane for his troubles.
There is a bizarre footnote to this story. It took two days for someone to report the incident. Reportedly, the MRT staff mistook the vandalism for commercial advertising, no doubt with the recent Singtel post box graffiti still etched into their conscience.
And finally for shear hard luck comes the story of the woman who was walking past the Istana and had a tree fall on her. She is said to be suffering from "redness of the elbow".
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Having just spent nearly $S1,800 for a one way ticket from Singapore to Auckland I read in the NZ Herald online today that Jet Star is going to launch a direct Auckland / Singapore service and will be offering promotional fares set at $NZ100.
I would be quite happy to forgo the in-flight meal and pay for my own cheese and crackers en-route if I could save $1,000.
The only fly in the ointment is that they have yet to secure regulatory approval but one would hope that this was forthcoming. It will be interesting to see what Singapore Airlines' response will be.
Also occupying Singaporean's minds this week is the revelation that some mindless twits broke into the MRT train yards and graffiti bombed one of the trains (video below). It turns out it was a Swiss software consultant and a Briton (who has high tailed it to Hong Kong) who carried out the dastardly deed.
What at first glance may seem to be a stupid piece of vandalism has more sinister overtones as it has exposed lax security at the depot. The threat of bombing is very real and the fact that two individuals could so effortlessly break into the depot yard has not pleased the authorities in the least.
Such acts normally carry a caning sentence in Singapore. An American by the name of Michael Fay was sentenced in 1994 for a similar spate of vandalism and received four strokes of the rattan cane for his troubles.
There is a bizarre footnote to this story. It took two days for someone to report the incident. Reportedly, the MRT staff mistook the vandalism for commercial advertising, no doubt with the recent Singtel post box graffiti still etched into their conscience.
And finally for shear hard luck comes the story of the woman who was walking past the Istana and had a tree fall on her. She is said to be suffering from "redness of the elbow".
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Bubble, Bubble, Toil And Packing
There is an all pervasive smell of cardboard cartons around our condo, mixed with the distinctiove odour of plastic bubble wrap gently simmering in the tropical sun.
This hopefully will be our final day of packing (which we are personally undertaking) and the removal company arrives on Friday to pack out my PC and take away the consignment.
Tomorrow I unplug this PC and resort to using my laptop. Hopefully the transition will be relatively painless but it will mean fewer blog posts until the last week of June when we are in our temporary Singapore digs, at Fort Canning Lodge.
While we are staying there I hope to take a wander on the Fort Canning hill to visit the Battlebox complex (pictured) which was the HQ for the Malaya High Command.
It is some 9 metres underground. The former British Far East Command Centre in the Second World War years was built in 1926 and is now being converted into a hotel.
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This hopefully will be our final day of packing (which we are personally undertaking) and the removal company arrives on Friday to pack out my PC and take away the consignment.
Tomorrow I unplug this PC and resort to using my laptop. Hopefully the transition will be relatively painless but it will mean fewer blog posts until the last week of June when we are in our temporary Singapore digs, at Fort Canning Lodge.
While we are staying there I hope to take a wander on the Fort Canning hill to visit the Battlebox complex (pictured) which was the HQ for the Malaya High Command.
It is some 9 metres underground. The former British Far East Command Centre in the Second World War years was built in 1926 and is now being converted into a hotel.
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