And so he said
shall I
upon a summers night
in Waitara town
walk upon the black sands
cool to the toe
shuffling underneath to feel
the tuatua burrowing away
from the advancing tide
the bleached white ewe skulls
emerging above high water mark
brought down by rivers flow
scattered amongst driftwood
their upward arms towards a menacing sky
Friday, 27 March 2009
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Could this be Singapore's Most Miserable Meal?
If you are thinking of eating Malay food at the padang stall in the basement foodcourt of Tanglin Mall - forget it!The 'meal' above cost $4.50 and consisted of a mini bowl of rice and one small cube of beef rendang. So miserly was the meat portion that the vendor lent over and teased it out with a fork so it covered more of the platter.
No gravy was forthcoming until I asked for it and the vegetable portion size was barely adequate, as can be measured by the scale of the dessert spoon & fork utensils.
$2.50 in most hawker stalls will give you a reasonable meal of meat and two vegetables. While mall food is more expensive at the very least the meat portion should have been tripled in size.
Coming hard on the heels of the Great Prawn Rip-Off at Newton's Circus it is not surprising that several of the hawker stalls of Singapore are receiving a bad press.
Sunday, 22 March 2009
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Manchu Munchies and Copper Calculators
It been what I might describe as a typical "Singapore Saturday" After some online work and house keeping we took the MRT to see one of the special exhibitions staged by the Asian Civilisations Museum.
Five stops from our station brought us to Raffles Place and then it was a pleasant stroll across the river to the Museum. The exhibition in question is entitled " The Kangxi Emperor - Treasures from the Forbidden City".
I have always enjoyed these mini-blockbusters that show off the culture and opulence of the Imperial Court.
The Emperor was no slug - a man of intellect, a warrior of some distinction and clearly a diplomat par excellence, at a time when the minority Manchu were greatly outnumbered by the ethnic Han Chinese. He ascended to the throne at the tender age of 14 and was the longest reigning of all the Emperors.
Interestingly, the influence of Western culture was encouraged under his reign. A twelve digit copper calculator from the imperial collections was modelled on the 15th century invention of a Frenchman, Pascal.
He had three wives who all predeceased him and according to the headcount, some 64 consorts in total (if one counts his concubines). He fathered 36 children. This number is probably higher as many of his offspring died early.
Despite all of this conjugal activity has still had time for the finer things of life and was the first Emperor to play a western instrument - the piano.
After viewing the exhibition we adjourned to the attached Indochine restaurant for a lunch of duck curry (my favourite at this eatery) and beef ragout.
To walk off the dietary effects of the lunch we strolled down the Esplanade Walk towards the "Durian" the Esplanade's theatre and convention centre. In so doing, we had to run a gauntlet of Falun Gong activists who were staging a mini-exhibit and protest against China, under the traffic overpass.
I found this rather surprising as the authorities don't take kindly to unauthorised activities of this kind.
Next we scaled the steps into the Marina Mall and walked across to SunTec, which last week was filled with IT bargain hunters.
This week it is the turn of the "foodies" as it is the Singapore Food fair that is drawing the crowds. One can nibble one's way around the exhibits, sampling many of the delicacies from this part of the world. Unfortunately being filled with curry and ragout I was not overly inclined to do so.
We did however buy something back for an evening snack. Here I must give an enthusiastic thumbs up for Pie-Kia's product. There small pies are only one dollar apiece and generous in their filling, with a good buttery crust to boot (not to be confuded with tasting like an old boot).
They are part of the Old Chang Kee Group which is renowned in Singapore for their curry puffs, fried sotong (squid) on a stick and similar delights. So far I have only tried Pie-Kia's savoury pies but given the chance I wouldn't mind nibbling on a jackfruit or mango version!
I have a feeling that such fare would not have been acceptable in Kangxi's court, even if he suffered an attack of the 'Manchu munchies' following strenuous evening exercise and was craving for western sustenance.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
The IT Crush
"Colon Cleanse in Thailand. Cleanse your colon, lose weight, look beautiful"
So said the Google advert that popped up on my Facebook site this morning. Not that having an internal sluice holds any appeal at all, but I couldn't help musing on the clever intrusiveness of today's advertising.
I have a feeling that my advert profile in someone's marketing system is seriously awry and the reason I am getting this menu of medical misfortune is that I have a policy of lying about my age when subscribing online!
As befits my senectitude the online medicos are quite obviously rubbing their hands at the prospect of signing me up to pills, potions and procedures.
In the real world medical tourism is big business, especially in neighbouring Thailand and increasingly in Singapore although I suspect that the current economic slump is translating into less business for the companies who have invested in private hospitals.
There has been no such slump when it comes to the annual Singapore IT Show. On Friday the cash register rang to the tune of more than $21 million of sales. We went yesterday which being a Saturday meant that there were even more people and at times the sea of humanity came to a dead halt, unable to move in direction.
It got so congested that the PA announcements began extolling the virtues of delaying one's visit for a further hour - a bit late when wedged in the middle of several thousand people!
After being jostled for half an hour we made our way to the upper levels and I managed to purchase a 500 Gb portable hard drive for $S179, which was about $60 less than the normal retail price.
My mission is to progressively transform all my digital files currently housed on CD's and DVD's into this drive thereby reducing the volume of plastic CD holders that are cluttering up our drawers.
We hadn't actually gone to Suntec Mall with the idea of the IT show in mind. We were on a far more mundane mission to purchase several packets of their house brand #1 Muesli. The stocking of this product is piecemeal which means that when you find it on the shelves it is advisable to grab as many packets as possible.
I recall from my days in Papua New Guinea that we did a similar thing when a shipment of something arrived from the Antipodes. Occasionally the supermarket freezers in PNG would breakdown or there would be a two-day regional power cut which meant that the local supermarket was forced to de-stock their freezers and giveaway prices. There is of course only so much ice cream that one can eat at one sitting.
The situation is Singapore is of course nowhere near as primitive as Papua New Guinea was in the late '70's but there are other similarities. For example, it is rarely possible to consume the finest export produce in one's own country but come to Singapore and the meat, fish and variety of produce available is, in the main, of excellent quality.
So said the Google advert that popped up on my Facebook site this morning. Not that having an internal sluice holds any appeal at all, but I couldn't help musing on the clever intrusiveness of today's advertising.
I have a feeling that my advert profile in someone's marketing system is seriously awry and the reason I am getting this menu of medical misfortune is that I have a policy of lying about my age when subscribing online!
As befits my senectitude the online medicos are quite obviously rubbing their hands at the prospect of signing me up to pills, potions and procedures.
In the real world medical tourism is big business, especially in neighbouring Thailand and increasingly in Singapore although I suspect that the current economic slump is translating into less business for the companies who have invested in private hospitals.
There has been no such slump when it comes to the annual Singapore IT Show. On Friday the cash register rang to the tune of more than $21 million of sales. We went yesterday which being a Saturday meant that there were even more people and at times the sea of humanity came to a dead halt, unable to move in direction.
It got so congested that the PA announcements began extolling the virtues of delaying one's visit for a further hour - a bit late when wedged in the middle of several thousand people!
After being jostled for half an hour we made our way to the upper levels and I managed to purchase a 500 Gb portable hard drive for $S179, which was about $60 less than the normal retail price.
My mission is to progressively transform all my digital files currently housed on CD's and DVD's into this drive thereby reducing the volume of plastic CD holders that are cluttering up our drawers.
We hadn't actually gone to Suntec Mall with the idea of the IT show in mind. We were on a far more mundane mission to purchase several packets of their house brand #1 Muesli. The stocking of this product is piecemeal which means that when you find it on the shelves it is advisable to grab as many packets as possible.
I recall from my days in Papua New Guinea that we did a similar thing when a shipment of something arrived from the Antipodes. Occasionally the supermarket freezers in PNG would breakdown or there would be a two-day regional power cut which meant that the local supermarket was forced to de-stock their freezers and giveaway prices. There is of course only so much ice cream that one can eat at one sitting.
The situation is Singapore is of course nowhere near as primitive as Papua New Guinea was in the late '70's but there are other similarities. For example, it is rarely possible to consume the finest export produce in one's own country but come to Singapore and the meat, fish and variety of produce available is, in the main, of excellent quality.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
My Kingdom For A Thong
Mine is not a delicate foot. Nor it is in Ang Mo terms an overly large one.
I like to think of it as an appendage befitting my yeoman ancestry - sturdy and well proportioned.
This perception makes not a jot of difference when it comes to buying shoes in Singapore. My shoe size is 45 which translates to 10 1/2 in New Zealand terms.
Almost without exception every make and model of footwear in Robinsons and nearby stores stops at size 44. The salesgirls smile politely and suggest squeezing into their largest size, a scene reminiscent of one an Ugly Sister trying on the glass slipper in Cinderella.
Occasionally I do find something that fits and a nice pair of Florsheims are a recent purchase. My problem in recent times has been finding a pair of rubber jandals (or flip-flops or thongs depending on your country of origin).
My wife carried a paper cut out traced from the sole of my jandals in her handbag for several months, on the off chance that she might stumble across something suitable. Alas she did not and I have resorted in recent times to cloth slippers of the Japanese variety, purloined from various hotels I have stayed at.
Today however I was in luck which just shows that perseverance pays.
On one of the higher levels in Centrepoint mall I came across a temporary stall that was retailing warehouse overruns. Rising like a periscope out of a pile of odds and sods was a biliously coloured pair of what seemed to be rubber jandals.
A closer inspection revealed that this was so and I had hit the jackpot - two pairs of size 45's for a mere $5. Being the Hang Ten brand they are reasonably well constructed.
There is of course always a drawback with such bargains. The jandals are remnants of the last soccer world cup purchased by patriotic Spaniards (the red and yellow design) and Englishman (the embellished Union Jack design). There is further challenge with the British version as the flag in question is red, pink and blue - rather than the official red, white and blue.
One can only summise that the dye ran during manufacture which probably goes a long way to explaining why few of them sold. No self respecting British soccer fan would be seen dead in jandals of this hue.
Beggars cannot be choosers and at least I can now shuffle around our condo in my new footwear muttering "Ole!" or singing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" -I am a rugby follower - depending on how the mood takes me.
I like to think of it as an appendage befitting my yeoman ancestry - sturdy and well proportioned.
This perception makes not a jot of difference when it comes to buying shoes in Singapore. My shoe size is 45 which translates to 10 1/2 in New Zealand terms.
Almost without exception every make and model of footwear in Robinsons and nearby stores stops at size 44. The salesgirls smile politely and suggest squeezing into their largest size, a scene reminiscent of one an Ugly Sister trying on the glass slipper in Cinderella.
Occasionally I do find something that fits and a nice pair of Florsheims are a recent purchase. My problem in recent times has been finding a pair of rubber jandals (or flip-flops or thongs depending on your country of origin).
My wife carried a paper cut out traced from the sole of my jandals in her handbag for several months, on the off chance that she might stumble across something suitable. Alas she did not and I have resorted in recent times to cloth slippers of the Japanese variety, purloined from various hotels I have stayed at.
Today however I was in luck which just shows that perseverance pays.
On one of the higher levels in Centrepoint mall I came across a temporary stall that was retailing warehouse overruns. Rising like a periscope out of a pile of odds and sods was a biliously coloured pair of what seemed to be rubber jandals.
A closer inspection revealed that this was so and I had hit the jackpot - two pairs of size 45's for a mere $5. Being the Hang Ten brand they are reasonably well constructed.
There is of course always a drawback with such bargains. The jandals are remnants of the last soccer world cup purchased by patriotic Spaniards (the red and yellow design) and Englishman (the embellished Union Jack design). There is further challenge with the British version as the flag in question is red, pink and blue - rather than the official red, white and blue.
One can only summise that the dye ran during manufacture which probably goes a long way to explaining why few of them sold. No self respecting British soccer fan would be seen dead in jandals of this hue.
Beggars cannot be choosers and at least I can now shuffle around our condo in my new footwear muttering "Ole!" or singing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" -I am a rugby follower - depending on how the mood takes me.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Boozy Basoonists
"The charge M'Lud is that on August 31st, the accused was drunk in charge of his instrument"
An unlikely scenario? Perhaps not, according to the revelation this week that binge drinking amongst members of Britain's leading orchestras is a serious problem. Reportedly things have got so bad that there was "an incident in which a percussionist had fallen off the back of a high stage while drunk".
Now I know that in a recession the arts are almost amongst the first to suffer but up until now I thought it was only rock bands that took to the stage inebriated.
For some reason it appears that brass players drink more than other sections of the orchestra. Having tried to master the trombone as a teenager I can understand the frustrations endured by this section of the orchestra but it didn't turn me into a raging alcoholic.
There has no doubt been a corresponding rise in sales in strong mints wherever British orchestras are located. A bass player with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (a fitting title, in the context of this story) tells of a fellow musician who attempted to mask his habit with this confectionery and whose playing got "worse and worse".
To the best of my knowledge this affliction has yet to strike Singapore's classical music scene. I shall however be listening carefully for the sounds of Mozart on Speed.
An unlikely scenario? Perhaps not, according to the revelation this week that binge drinking amongst members of Britain's leading orchestras is a serious problem. Reportedly things have got so bad that there was "an incident in which a percussionist had fallen off the back of a high stage while drunk".
Now I know that in a recession the arts are almost amongst the first to suffer but up until now I thought it was only rock bands that took to the stage inebriated.
For some reason it appears that brass players drink more than other sections of the orchestra. Having tried to master the trombone as a teenager I can understand the frustrations endured by this section of the orchestra but it didn't turn me into a raging alcoholic.
There has no doubt been a corresponding rise in sales in strong mints wherever British orchestras are located. A bass player with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (a fitting title, in the context of this story) tells of a fellow musician who attempted to mask his habit with this confectionery and whose playing got "worse and worse".
To the best of my knowledge this affliction has yet to strike Singapore's classical music scene. I shall however be listening carefully for the sounds of Mozart on Speed.
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