New Art Print - Helter Skelter

Helter Skelter
Roger Smith, 2013

Get a copy here.

Today's Art Print - Men Hanging On

Men Hanging On
Roger Smith, 2013

Men Hanging On -  close up of the original
Roger Smith, 2013

I felt in a surrealistic mood today so composed the digital art print from my image bank and historical archives.  The concept of men hanging on both literally and figuratively appealed to me.

You can purchase a copy of this print, framed or unframed here.

The Singapore Makan (Food) Pacifier

Suffering from "makan withdrawal" symptoms? This could be the device for you.

The Singapore Makan Pacifier

The ideal going away gift for a colleague or friend.  Get yours here.  And yes, you could gift it to a baby if your really wanted to!

Related articles

• Makan Day 2013

To Market, To Market

Girl and Hens - Kerikeri Market

The farmer's markets have become an integral part of New Zealand life in recent times; in many ways a harking back to much earlier days before the advent of general stores and supermarkets.

The appeal of them is that they tend to have much fresher and cheaper produce than the supermarkets, and home-baked goodies are very tempting.

This morning we paid a visit to the Sunday Farmer's Market in Kerikeri where we are staying for a few days.  The town and its environs are well know for the abundance of citrus and sub tropical fruits that thrice here.

Add to this wineries and macadamia nuts, boutique cheese operations, peace and tranquility and you get the general idea of why celebrities like Michael Crawford buy into the area.

Chilies -  Kerikeri Market

Nature' Bounty - Kerikeri Market

I Love Char Kway Teow!

Says it all really - get the shirt here

Gone Fishing

Image by Reggie Wan via FlickrWe braved the Boxing Days sales yesterday in our local town centre. For once they reminded me of the till queues experienced in the good old days of the Robinsons Sale; a Singapore institution.

The origins of 'Boxing Day' are believed to come from the practice of the British rich distributing their largesse to the luckless poor, thereby accentuating still further the class divisions of the times.

In large households the servants were expected to work on Xmas Day and were compensated by being allowed to take the next day off.  Their masters gave them a box and based on their performance over the year, varying sums of money which were placed inside the box.

Am I alone in spotting the similarity of this Victorian custom with the annual performance bonus which features so largely in Singaporean working lives?

This year we have had the "Boxing Day" sales a week or two before the actual day as the New Zealand retailers desperately canvas for customers.

Unlike Singapore which has recorded respectable economic growth despite the recession, New Zealand has very narrowly avoided a 'double-dip recession', a term which may sound like a chocolate dipped NZ icecream but is in reality far less palatable.

The Singapore government's tight stewardship during the economic turbulence is to be commended and the results are for all to see.

As a trading nation far for its markets and with a strong dollar against our major trading partners, New Zealand has some major economic challenges.  This has not be helped by the past excesses of the welfare state.

Despite the gloom and doom, sport remains high on the list of leisure pursuits in this country and with the traditional summer holidays upon us, many New Zealanders head to the beach.

Fishing is a very popular activity with local television channels featuring fishing shows and the customers purchasing cut-price rods and reels in the Boxing Day sales.

I have very fond memories of this sport with fly fishing for trout as well as rod fishing off the rocks for a catch from the sea featuring in my past.  I have done neither in recent years but the thrill of the catch is still a fond memory.

Source: Straits Times

In Singapore the fishing experience is somewhat different and I must discount fishing for one's supper at a local prawn farm.

Travelling to a raised platform called a kelong is a preferred method and nowadays with few of the Singapore kelongs remaining, Singaporeans go across to Malaysia for their sport.

Boxing Day was not a good day for Singaporean fishermen with the news that three of them drowned and another two were missing returning by ferry from a kelong in Pulau Sibu, off Mersing.

As per usual, the problem was a grossly overloaded ferry which capsized in strong winds and a treacherous current near the Tanjung Leman jetty.

Ferry capsizes in South East Asia happen with monotonous regularity, especially in the Philippines and Indonesia were maritime rules are flouted in a grab for more profit.

Malaysian incidents are fewer but do occur and arresting the captain and boat operator post-event is not going to curb such negligence.


Is prawning fishing?

Meanwhile back on land, hedonistic spending ensures that the mall tills continue to jingle a happy tune.

Crowds are returning to the Singapore malls with Vivo City recording a million more visitors compared to the same period last year and their security staff remain vigilant for any kind of misdemeanor.

According to the Straits Times, pickpockets, shoplifters and even molesters enjoy the festive season. Here in Auckland the 'molesters' usually make the malls off limits but shoplifting has always been a problem.

Both countries though enjoy a good deal and in Singapore the newly Groupon-acquired site Deal.com crashed under the weight of bargain hunters.

Even then, the online option is probably safer than venturing out?

Boxing Day in our southern city of Christchurch was an eventful one with a series of earthquake after-shocks rattling customers and the shelves that were groaning under the weight of bargains.

Related articles

• The Origins of Boxing Day (socyberty.com)
• Traffic surge crashes top Singapore deals site (e27.sg)
• Boxing Day shoppers hit by New Zealand earthquake (telegraph.co.uk)

Croatian Sausage & Weekend Markets

We have just returned from a Saturday morning visit to Howick Village centre which is a ten minute car ride from our home.

The rediscovery of the Saturday market was a very pleasant experience with samplings of fresh goat camembert cheese and a wonderful range of Croatian salamis and cured meats, the latter produced in New Lynn.

Howick Village reminds me very much of small town New Zealand, the way it was and it is to the resident's credit that the historic buildings are cherished and maintained.

Howick is an old pioneering settlement with missionary beginnings circa 1836, although local Maori, Ngai Tai, had occupied sites for several hundred years before this date.

It is named after the third Earl Grey, formerly Lord Howick, who was Secretary for the Colonies in the British Parliament and was responsible for the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps immigration scheme. His family home is Howick Hall, Northumberland, England.

There were about 250 Fencibles in Howick. The word 'Fencible' comes from the word 'defence' which this detachment of retired soldiers were required to do as opposed to a unit of fighting men.

The is an active living history museum called the Howick Historic Village which, while not in Howick Village, is situated nearby.

Howick once has its own borough council before being merged with Manukau City.  Today Aucklanders vote for councillors for an even larger, merged, conurbation the Super City of Auckland.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Howick is also a new Super City ward with the highest concentration of immigrants, where nearly half of the population (48.1 per cent) is overseas born.

With the median family income of nearly $73,000, Howick residents are financially better off than others in New Zealand.

I should also add that today we bought and consumed some of this season's fresh asparagus which is grown in the market gardens nearby.  At $1.99 per bunch it was good value and I had forgotten after four years in South East Asia, just how memorable fresh asparagus is.  We microwave it with a little sesame oil and oyster sauce - delicious!

Related articles

• Super City: Biggest borough likes posh image (nzherald.co.nz)
• Super City: With size comes diverse priorities (nzherald.co.nz)

An Old Croc

I had resisted the temptation to buy a pair of plastic sandals, known by their more common brand name of Crocs.

Embedded in my memory banks was my late mother's advice to always buy leather; plastic was in those times regarded as a substitute that only the poor should contemplate.

In Singapore most of the shoe stores are festooned with Crocs in a dazzling array of colours, always highly priced and rarely discounted.

They are in fact a modern form of galoshes or goloshes, to use the pre-1920 British spelling.  First references to this type of overshoe came in the Middle Ages  from the Gaulish shoe or gallicae.

Back in New Zealand we frequent the Number One Shoe Warehouse to buy our cheaper footwear. Yesterday we discovered quite by chance their outlet store in the suburb of Glenn Innes.

The place of full of cheap Chinese clones of better known brands and I brought a pair of red plastic sandals for $10.  They look identical to the aforementioned Crocs and were probably made in the same factory, but they are completely devoid of any branding.

I intend using them for garage shoes but will not be taking them on the streets for fear that their bright ruby red colour will stop cars in their tracks.

Now I discover that this same footwear exposes the wearer to other  hazards as the Singapore video below shows.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Crocs Get A Brand New Makeover - You Won't Even Recognize Them (shefinds.com)
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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.

Fauvist Fervour - Lucky Plaza

A tropical deluge, a 2 megapixel phone camera and a taxi queue outside Orchard Road's Lucky Plaza were the starting point for this image. The "wild beasts" of the shopping belt in action!

Designing My Own Range Of Merchandise

 

I have spent an exciting morning adding product into my new online store.  It is a great way to utilise designs and images that I have collected over the years.

The New Suit

Image via Wikipedia

I have very good friends visiting from New Zealand and today we had the pleasure of taking them to partake of some of the shopping sites along Orchard Road.

Orchard Road has been featuring for other reason this past week.  A small plague of rattus rattus has been disrupting the shopping frenzy near Orchard Plaza.

This is not exactly the publicity that any city desires so the pest control offciers have moved quickly to eradicate the vermin.  Bad publicity may have had an impact on local business but hopefully the green belt along the roadside is here ot stay.

In fact it is the greening of Singapore that drew much praise from our guests today.  They enjoyed the flowers and trees as much as the malls.

On the shopping list was a men's lightweight suit.  One of the many tailors in Koek Road won the right to tailor the suit in an imported herring bone pattern, for the princely sum of $Sing 330.  This being Saturday, the suit will be ready for its one and only fitting on Monday.

I look forward to seeing the result of this craftsmanship upon our return to Auckland in July.

Having read Clive Jame's hilarious account of his Singapore suit purchase in "Falling Towards England", I mused as to what the result might be?

The author only had a day to get a suit made as his liner was stopping over in Singapore.  It was duly delivered to his cabin in a small bundle of brown paper bound in string.  He did not unwrap it until he was in London and rushing to his first appointment with a Fleet Street editor.

As recounted, he was forced to shake hands from the elbow as he didn't dare rasie his arms for a full saluation; the tailor had not sewn the seems under the arms!

I am sure my friends will be very pleased with their result.  It has been lovely to see them and to share a few of the sights and sounds of Singapore.  It is very easy when one lives in a country for a period to time to adopt a jaundiced view.   So re-living the 'joy of the new' through someone else's eyes is a reminder as to just how vibrant the Orchard Road thoroughfare is.

A very fine bottle of New Zealand wine was also gifted to us and I intend to sample when the time is right.

Farrer Park and Friday Weather

It's Friday evening again and the thunder and lightening is illuminating the nearby HDB estates. Tonight the storm centre is quite far away but this morning we had a good 'rainy season' pour. This evening the rain is more gentle.

It is not yet fully into the rainy season when the temperatures drop a couple of degrees but at least the cloying humidity is dissipating a little.

SU is to the be the name of the new university that Singapore is building. The Singapore University of Technology is being headed by a US university professor on secondment from M.I.T.

The irony is of course that the new SU campus is situated on the grounds of the previously proposed UNSWAsia which was originally planned to open about now; that is before the Vice Chancellor in Sydney beat a hasty retreat.

Tomorrow we are going via the Farrer Park MRT to visit the new eco mall - City Square. Energy conservation is now being enthusiastically promoted by the government and this one of the malls that is built on eco principles. The toilets use little water for instance; which should be a revelation after a curry in nearby Little India.

There is also an eco-roof that harnesses solar power and rainwater, of which we now have an abundance.

Farrer Park is an area of historic interest as it was here that Singapore's first racecourse was built and where the island's aviation history began.

As I write this I am aware that my friends in New Zealand are experiencing yet another 'late winter cold snap' even though they are supposedly in the middle of Spring.

It is going to be quite a wrench to the system re-adjusting to the chilly temperatures when we finally head south again for retirement. My wife can't wait!

Another Day, Another Shopping Mall - Ion Opens

Bedlam in Basement 4

More sins of the flesh - Chocolat!

Time Out Under The Stairs

Today's Print

Robinsons - July ........... Roger Smith 2009

Cheap Cheap

All Together Now - Bangkok

Singaporeans enjoy travelling to Thailand. It is not simply the close proximity of this country that attracts them. Mainly it is the shopping, ease of travel and cheap accommodation.

On this business visit I once again stayed at the Pathumwan Princess hotel. In terms of overall value, cleanliness and service this hotel has few peers and I thoroughly recommend it.

It has another big advantage in that it is attached to the MBK Shopping Centre which has several floors and more than 2,000 shops.

Not that I was looking to buy anything but I did note that men's shoes were about 50% cheaper and even supermarket basics were 20%+ cheaper than Singapore. Many products are produced in Thailand so this is to be expected.

When I first visit Bangkok the trip from the airport to the central district used to up to two hours through traffic snarl ups and choking pollution. On the Sunday I arrived we breezed down the expressway at 150 kilometres per hour and arrived at the hotel in under half an hour.

What impressed me most when I first visited Thailand in the early 1980's and what impresses me still is the courtesy of the people.

Unfortunately the Thai hotel and tourism industry has been badly hit by the triple whammy of the economic recession, H1N1 flu and the political unrest in the country. The local press was reporting that many of the top flight hotels have been put up for sale by their owners.

My business trip did not start well with a traffic accident blocking access to Changi airport as I sped towards departure.

Then there was the ignominy of having one's carry-on case emptied and personal shaving gel and mouthwash removed - even though I has carried these same items on two previous trips with no problems. The presence of a large Pakistani tour group returning to their home country could possibly explain this heightened vigilance.

The next little drama was a mildly poisoned finger which I managed to deal with - such are the joys of business travel that no plastic airline food can placate.

Next week I am spending several days in Jakarta so it will be interesting to note the comparison with Bangkok.

Street Scene

A typical street scene in Singapore. The man on the left is wheeling his carrier/trolley down to the local supermarket. Once opened up these aids hold a surprising amount of groceries and other household items.

The use of umbrellas to shield the face from the ravages of sunlight is widely adopted in Singapore.

To be pale in skin is to be beautiful and harks back to earlier days, where those who were suntanned clearly worked in the fields and the lucky few with porcelain complexions were ladies of leisure and privelege.

Nowadays pale compexions come in a cosmetic bottle and skin whitening agents are applied with zeal.

Singapore - Xmas Activities

" World's Tallest Chocolate sculpture" - Centrepoint Mall

Soft Toy Xmas Tree - Takashamaya

Two weeks out from Xmas day and the Malls are doing their best to attract shoppers, with varying degrees of success.

There are a lot of people out and about but, given the economic times, few of them are clutching shopping bags when they exit the stores.

There has been huge investment made in Orchard Road before the economic bubble burst and it will be interesting to see who survives and who does not when two new malls open at opposite ends of the main shopping thoroughfare in 2009?

Imported festive cheer is very expensive. An an example, a small Xmas cake that we bought in Marks and Spencer in London two weeks ago for a little more than five pound is retailing in Marks & Spencer, Singapore at $45.

Today is a public holiday in Singapore - Hari Raya Haji . It is an important date in the Muslim calendar and is celebrated as such in Singapore by the Malay and sectors of the Indian community.

Stem Cells and Meltdowns

I am in a pensive mood. It was announced this week that scientists have discovered that testicles are an excellent source of stem cells. This speaks volumes for the Vienna Boy's Choir and coupled with the news that Singapore is thinking of legalising organ donations makes for worrying times.

More worrying for most of the world is the economic meltdown taking place. Not that you would know there was a credit crunch from the multitudes enjoying the free fashion shows and sales at Takashimaya today.

With Nero-like fortitude Singaporeans continue to purchase bucket-loads of 'bling' and haunt the handbag displays at Tang's emporium.

I have now officially left academia as my last day on the NUS staff register was two days ago. My new employment with the British Council starts this coming Monday and I am very much look forward to it.

Already I have a couple of weeks in London mid-November and this will provide a chance to re-acquaint myself with the city.