The Body Beautiful

Image by kamshots via FlickrThe unofficial national sport of New Zealand is garage sale-ing, not to be confused with Americas' Cup sailing which we also have a penchant for.

The true officianado with have have scouted the papers several days before and penciled in any likely prospects.  As their name suggests, garage sales take place in an owner's garage and the object of the exercise is to get rid of as much bric a brac as possible, at knock down prices.

Garage sales usually feature at least one exercise machine.  These are last year's model discarded after a couple of months of over exertion and hefty chiropractic bills, only to be replaced by the latest fad.

Charles Atlas

Have you every noticed how the exercise demonstrators on television adverts all go through their paces with permanently fixed grins on their faces?  At first I thought they were enjoying the experience but now I believe it is more likely a grimace of pain as they violently rotate their abductors in near impossible arcs.

The names of the apparatus get even more exotic; the mid drive fluid motion quantum elliptical trainer for example. They have all the 'extras' including built in cooling fans and stereo speakers.

It used to be that people such as Charles Atlas sold a contraption with two handles and a set of springs between.  These were bought through magazines by mail order and there was a certain knack to using them.  Hairy chested men were particularly at risk if they got the exercise routine wrong.

Exercise machines are now everywhere and prevalent in all cultures. You can't even go for a quite walk in the park without being confronted by at least one exercise option around every bend.

Thankfully in Singapore the condo's are small and so most overt exercising takes place in the condo gym.  There was one in Queens condo where we lived but I quickly discovered you needed a pilot's license to programme the walking machines so I preferred to take my exercise in the pool.

There are now attorneys who specialise in home exercise machine accidents and that has got to tell us something about the folly of buying these devices.

As for me, I think I still have that set of springs in a cardboard box in the garage, or did I sell it?

Don't Say They Weren't Warned

Several months ago I wrote about the consequences of having casinos operating in Singapore.

In today's press comes the story of a business man who chalked up a staggering $26 million loss at Resorts World Sentosa over three days.

Apparently he was playing baccarat at $400,000 a hand and no wonder he lost $18 million in one day alone.

The media stories continue to demonstrate the negative social impact of casinos.  Two days ago a tourist jailed for cheating $100,000 from Marina Bay Sands.  A month before, a married gambler name Ong resorted to robbing homes to feed his habit.

Other headlines in the Straits Times have included in the past couple of months have included:

• Casino cheat gets two years' jail
• Casino chip thief asks judge to explain verdict
• Overstayer runs out of luck at casino 

No one  should be surprised that such headlines exist.  I will be up front and state that I am not anti-casino and enjoy visiting them from time to time, but it is a fact of life that wherever one is built, crime is sure to follow.

When the idea of the Integrated Resorts (casinos) were first touted there was a wave of public dissent in Singapore; to put it simply, the majority did not want them built in the country, knowing full well that the Chinese love to gamble and the impact this passion can have on families and businesses.

And so it has proved to be.  The reported tourist boost needs to be measured against the longer term social consequences of such places and only time will tell if it was wise to build them in Singapore?

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Of Cabbages And Kings

Image via WikipediaThe is nothing less edifying than a grown man indulging in a bout of cabbage wrestling in the local supermarket.

Cabbage wrestling for the initiated, is the activity of attempting to bag an over large cabbage into a plastic bag torn from the dispenser.

It is Murphy's law that the bag in question is always a centimetre less in circumference than the cabbage.

Yesterday I watched a a large middle aged Russian mouth Slavic obscenities as he attempted this feat.

The highlight of the performance was when his second finger got trapped between the cabbage and the inside of the bag.  His wife watched with disdain as she moved on to the nuts section.

The Russian was in the act of "helping", a singularly male pursuit; something I have often been guilty of myself.

"Helping" has been known to engender a truly terrifying display of feminine angst especially when the male spots "specials" which are not on the shopping list.

Today is not a shopping day and there has been a break in the weather.  Our morning consisted of a drive around old haunts only to discover that there has been changes since 2006. 

The large Asian warehouse that we bought foodstuffs from is no more and has been replaced with a warehouse full of cheap Chinese tat.

Oyster and hoisin sauces have been replaced by racks of women's undergarments in a mind boggling range of hues.  Floor to ceiling stacks of sand shoes and mass produced tin toys are everywhere.

A half an hour later and we were sitting in our car on Mission Bay's waterfront, looking at the volcanic cone of Rangitoto.  The Spirit of Adventure's schooner motored past on the horizon and there was a squally blow coming from the direction of Waiheke Island.