Well I'm off on the next leg of the trip: from SIN to SFO (that's Singapore Changi to San Francisco International for those not familiar with the IATA codes (which is the International Air Transport Association for those of you not familiar with abbreviations)).
It's been a good trip so far, just starting to get a bit tired of the heat and humidity though so it'll be good to move onto another port of call. Mind you it's supposed to be 25º and humid in California too so maybe not that much of a relief.
Singapore is definitely worth a visit if you are in the vicinity, even though the evidence for the population's obsession with terrible music from the 80s is growing - it was Sheena Easton yesterday singing Morning Train. I wish I hadn't just typed that as I now have the bloody song in my head again. Probably for the next 17 hours like yesterday. What makes this music choice even more weird is the fact that it was playing in a very trendy café. I know it was trendy because it wasn't called a café, it was called a Connoisseur Art Boutique Caffé. This is both preposterous and spelt incorrectly (or is that spelled incorrectly? I can never remember, there's never a sub-editor anywhere when you need one). In an C.A.B.C. I would have expected at least Camille or Sigur Rós. Not Sheena bloody Easton.
It's also Rag Week here in Singapore. Normally this would fill me with dread expectations of drunk students, dressed as gorillas, mugging old ladies to "have a laugh" and raise money for starving children, which they would promptly spend on a party at the Union Bar to celebrate raising so much money. But in Singapore it is much more...well the word is boring. The students, all wearing orange T-shirts, stand in the street politely holding money tins. That's it. They don't even rattle the tins as that might be a bit boisterous. I think the Singapore government is safe from a student uprising for a little bit longer at least.
Which reminds me. I have discovered how the government keeps control here. They don't gag their opponents, the don't jail them, they don't humiliate them on TV debates. They just bankrupt them. It's pretty crafty in fact. If you are in the Singapore opposition and you actually dare to criticise the Government they just sue you for slander and get awarded massive damages that you can't pay. This makes you bankrupt and no longer eligible to stand for election or to leave the country and make a noise from abroad. Crafty but brilliant. Just think if Kev '07 or Grimacing Gordon sued everyone who didn't like their policies! They'd all spend so much time in court they'd have no time to bother the public and we could all get on with our lives without them. You'll notice that this post has been made after I've cleared immigration and while sitting in the no-mans-land of the airport lounge. You never know who's reading your blog.
Now I'm just waiting to fly and making the most of the facilities as the next three weeks will be back to economy class for the U.S. flights. And that's United Airlines economy and there's not much worse that that I can tell you.
There's one thing I won't miss and that is the choice of entertainment in the airport lounges. It seems that if you fly business class you must only ever want to watch Bloomberg TV, CNN or Asianet Business TV and only ever want to read Newsweek, Time magazine and the International Herald Tribune. Do people really need to know how their shares are doing ALL the time, even when they are waiting for a 'plane? Maybe that's why I'll never be a millionaire. Anyway before I head to the gate I'll have a few more danish pastries, another cup of coffee and maybe a martini.
Is 07.30 too early for cocktails?
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