Yeah, so the news was not good. The division of the company I work for is being shut down in Singapore and transferred to Penang, Malaysia.

All employees were informed of their fate this morning. Fate falls into three groups: redeployed to a different part of the company, retrenched effective immediately and retrenched at the end of November. I'm in the end of November category. For the next 3 months, my "job" will be to transfer knowledge and information to the factory in Penang.

I'm not thrilled about this, but I suppose it's better than layed off on the spot?

I know, I know, I shoud look on the bright side and all that...at least I have some time to try and sort something out, plus some compensation benefits if I stick it out till the end of November. I'm feeling pretty bad right now. A bit useless, and generally crap. :-(

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Apparantly, an announcement will be made to tell us who is being layed off, and who (if any) are escaping.

I'm scared.

Anyone with a company mobile phone has been asked to hand it in to the Business Center.

My boss has told me we should brace ourselves for the worst.

I don't take these as a good signs.

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I'm now rather confused about the whole number of continents thing.

I'm sure I learned in school that there were 6 continents. But I had a quick google, and found out that some people say there are 5 (Eurasia, Australia, Africa, Antarctica, and the Americas), some people say there are 6 (Eurasia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica) and most people seem to say there are 7 (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and Antarctica).

What's going on?

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Interesting post on Metafilter about how many countries and continents people have visited. I don't think I'll hit all 50 US states by the time I'm 30 (and frankly, that's just fine with me).

By my reckoning, I've visted (airports don't count):

14 States within the US - TX, FL, NY, NJ, OH, IL, CA, WA, ID, CO, AZ, OR, MA and NM.

3 States within Australia: NSW, VIC and ACT. (provided little ACT counts as a state!)

and 24 countries in all: Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong (after the handover, so technically China), Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore (lived here for 3 years), Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland (lived there for 6 years), Thailand, Tunisia, UK (lived there for 11 years), and the USA (lived there for 6 years).

I can't quite work out how many continents that covers...hmmm, 4? Europe, North America, Asia and Australia/Oceania. It could cover 5 if either Tunisia or Egypt qualify as Africa. Do they? I can't remember.

Anyway, quite a lot of ground for 26 years. Somehow, despite all this travelling, I still haven't made it to Wales or Ireland (Northern or Republic of), and I'm (mostly) British....Hmmm.

There are still so many places I want to visit too: Laos, Vietnam, Canada, New Zealand...the list just goes on and on and on, and that's without counting the places I would like to return to and see in more detail. Any recommendations you think I should add?

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With reference to my previous post about people putting strange things in their ears, this "experiment" appears to be designed to increase the number of kids who end up at the A&E....

When the reference is made in this activity to "stick it in your ear;" caution students that it is dangerous to insert foreign objects deep into the auditory canal.

Yeah, caution all you want, I bet there will always be at least one kid in the class who decides to wham the pencil all the way in, or inserts it pointy-side-first.

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Do you know anyone who keeps money in their ears?

Today I discovered that the porridge stall man at West Coast hawker center keeps change in his ears. Several 10 cent coins are shoved deep into his ear, followed by a few 20 cent coins on the outside.

A bowl of fish porridge with century egg costs S$2.30. I didn't have exact change, so I paid S$2.40 - a S$2 note, and two 20 cent coins.

The porridge man put down my bowl on the table, I handed over the money, and then he went digging into his ears to retrieve my 10 cents change. He handed it over before I had enough time to fully digest what had just transpired. He pushed the coin into my palm. It was warm. I tipped the money onto the table, a little grossed-out by the ear coin. Sure, I know, money isn't clean, people drop it on the ground and do all sorts of unsavory things with it. But ewwwwwwwww ear wax coin. Yuk.

Am I weird to think that's gross?

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Random web crap:

My pirate name is: Captain Anne Kidd
"Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!" Ummm, ok.

According to this site, I can't really tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese and Korean people. I only correctly identified 4 people out of 14. I'm not totally convinced their test is that accurate though. I think that quite often, it is possible to tell what nationality a person is before hearing them speak, partly by looking at their facial features, but mostly based on what they are wearing and their body language. It's a game I sometimes play in airports or train stations or on buses to pass the time. I love to people watch, and trying to guess nationality based on looks just adds to the fun. The tricky part is finding out if observations are accurate or not...

This is what my web page looks like in italian. Somebody ended up at Krisalis after searching for "DAD+FUCK+DAUD" in italian. I seriously wonder about people at times.

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Sign seen at a petrol station on Bukit Timah Road:

<childish>
I don't think I'd want to wash my car there....it just doesn't seem that it would be very clean. But that could just be my dirty mind.
</childish>

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Entry on the dessert menu at the Raffles Marina restaurant:

Double Papaya Pudding with White Fungus.

Mmmmm, appetizing.

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A few (completely unrelated) things:

- Rojak is disgusting. Yuk, yuk, yuk.
- I'm going to Australia next Thursday. Yippee!
- Who knew a rusty old Alfa Romeo could be worth so much money?
- You can now search for stuff on Krisalis with a handy little Atomz search thingy, currently located on the left-hand navigation bar.
- Cruelty to lobsters in Singapore halted by recalling "grabbing" machine. There are so many things wrong with this story that I don't even know where to begin.
- According to the office grape-vine, employees should know who is being layed off by the end of next week. Eeek.

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Giftshop in Great World City: Precious Thots. Honestly, is it that difficult to spell "thought"?

What is a "thot" anyway?

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This guy takes his computer games a little too seriously.Youth jailed for stabbing over computer game.

The object of Counterstrike is simple: Kill or be killed, but not literally. He stabbed a kid who killed his character in the game. It's going to cost him 6 years in jail, as well as 6 strokes of the cane.

I could be wrong, but something tells me that the severity of the sentence has more to do with the fact that he took drugs whilst out on bail, rather than the 1 cm deep stab wound he inflicted.

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Hooray! I am so happy the weekend is here, and so happy that I remembered to put wine and beer in the fridge this morning. Last week I forgot, and so ended up drinking chardonnay out of a frozen beer mug. I'm a classy girl.

Have a happy weekend.

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A Gecko is a type of lizard. It's quite cute and harmless, and it eats flies and other bugs, which is a bonus. Geckos can be quite noisy - they make little clicking noises that make them sound more like birds than reptiles. There are many different breeds of Gecko. However, as long and exhaustive as this list may appear to be, I believe there is at least one breed (sub species?) that has been overlooked: The Psycho Gecko.

To the casual observer, Psycho Gecko may not appear to be different or special in any way from a regular Singaporean House Gecko. In order to examine the true nature of Psychotic behaviour, it is necessary to quietly co-exist with this breed for several months.

Identifying traits of the lesser known Psycho Gecko include:
- Tend to be relatively small in size. My theory for this is that Psychotic behaviour prevents progression to full-grown adult.
- Like to rest/sleep/hide/live above and around doorways. This includes the front door, lift doors and also doors between adjoining rooms within an apartment. Occasionally hangs out behind picture frames and inside shoes.
- Main thrill in life is to scare Humans by suddenly performing a trademark death-defying Psycho leap from the ceiling. Skillful Psycho Geckos are able to perfect this leap so that they lightly brush the Human on the way down - extra points go to those who manage to brush facial features, especially the forehead and nose.
- Other sources of Psycho Gecko amusement are derived from hiding in shoes and behind picture frames, with the sole intent to dart out when an unsuspecting Human approaches. Such a move is sometimes followed by the death-leap for added effect.

To date, the Psycho Gecko has only been detected in the Bukit Timah region of Singapore. It's main target appears to be me.

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"This girl is about half my height and about as wide as a pencil, but she could bench press Afghanistan."

Go read Miss Shauny's definition of Purest Hell. She's fantastic.

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Andrea got a DSR from someone looking for "Kristen's panty movies". How nice.

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As a followup to yesterday's post relating to Tokyo being hit by a typhoon, Chris of Tokyo Tales shares his accumulated wisdom on Japanese laughing methodologies. Perhaps this can explain why the Japanese Customer Service rep appeared to think it was highly amusing for tropical storm Pabuk to dump torrents of rain on Tokyo.

Check out the Japlish section too. Very, very funny. My favourite quote has to be "CATS KNOW VARIOUS THINGS".

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A picture showing how bow-lingual works. Cute.

Lil' Kim and with leather studded stars glued to her boobs. Not so cute.

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I've been trying to pull together some information from one of our Japanese customers, and I haven't been able to get any response in the past 2 days. Feeling frustrated, I sent a short email to our Japanese Customer Service rep.

"Any update from XXXXX on the questions I asked yesterday morning?"

His reply:

"I still can't get the information. Today, Tokyo hit by typhoon. So, every body went back home.You read this latest news, hahahaaa......!!!".

Followed by this article, Killer storm heads for Tokyo.

Now, is it just me, or is that article completely not funny? I wonder what the Customer Service rep thought was so "hahahaaa......!!!". It does explain why I don't have an answer from the Tokyo office. I think being pounded by a tornado provides a valid excuse.

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I used to play the piano. I took lessons in Houston when I was 5 from a lovely old lady called Miss Hargis. When I was 6, we moved to Glasgow, and found a new teacher. She was fierce and strict, and she took all the fun out of playing the piano. The only good thing about taking piano lessons was that I got to skip RE (religious education). When Miss Mean Piano Teacher tried to get me to take the Grade 1 exam, I decided that I'd rather be in RE. At least we got to colour in sometimes.

We moved to Geneva when I was 12. When I was 15, my youngest sister started piano lessons. She was in kindergarten, and I was in 10th grade. Then my other two sisters started taking lessons, and suddenly, I wanted to play as well. Of course, I wasn't very good, but I enjoyed playing. What I didn't particularly like was the year-end recital that we were coerced into. A room full of proud parents, cooped up waiting for their little darlings to perform. A group of nervous kids dressed in unfamiliar long skirts and smart trousers, taking turns to bash out a tune.

There was a little Asian girl who was amazing. Her feet could barely reach the pedals, but her little hands moved easily over the keyboard, rattling out concertos and sonatas. Her father was clearly proud. He arrived at each concert laden with electronic equipment to capture every note. He also brought his mobile phone. Now, you've got to remember that this was 1991, and mobiles were not as common. Anyway, the phone rang, and he answered it, mid-concert.

"Hallo?”, he bellowed. He had the phone to one ear and a finger in the other ear, presumably to block out the troublesome background noise of the recital. Just then, the piece of music finished, and the audience dutifully applauded. The man finished his conversation, and shoved the phone back into his jacket pocket. The piano teacher was furious. She stood at the front of the room, hands on hips, staring daggers at the mobile-phone offender. He seemed unperturbed. The recital continued. The following year, he did a variation of the same performance. Some people are just rude.

Ten years on, and the mobile phone problem is worse than ever, and people still leave their phones on during piano recitals. *Sigh*.

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Hmmm. Blogger has been acting funny this morning.

But it's not all bad, 'cause Metafilter is back!! According to Andrea, they are now accepting new members again too.

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Mark just came by my office and took me out for lunch. It was most unexpected, and very much appreciated. A little act that has brightened my day a whole lot. :-)

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It's a grey sort of day. The weather is grey, the atmosphere in the office is grey. 3rd quarter results were announced this morning. The company posted a loss, and the future outlook is bleak. The good news is that the 10% pay cut will come to an end in November. The bad news is that the company will lay off 4000 employees worldwide over the next 6 months. So my pay could go up by 10% or down by 100%. Hmmm. There is a big meeting this afternoon, and I think further announcements will be made then. Just have to wait and see.

Received an email this morning from John with the following signature:

"More often than not the bullet doesn't have *your* name on it: the Universe likes to mass produce ones with 'to whom it may concern' ".

Apt.

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Ever had a bit of a snog in the back seat of a taxi? Don't try it in Malaysia...

I took this photo a few months ago in KL. Apparantly, the translation of this sign is "Please be courteous, do not do anything intimate in this taxi".

Click here to see a larger image.

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This is disturbing. Doctors grow penis on man's arm. No, really. Over a period of 10 months, Doctors helped a 16 year old Russian guy grow a willie on his left forearm. Quite a reasonably sized one too, by the looks of the picture.

[link via Davezilla]

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Booming sales of "dead" cats. These surprisingly realistic looking cats are made from cardboard, and then covered in genuine rabbit fur.

'The Samaritans have used them to comfort clients. But some buyers seem intent on imitating 101 uses for a dead cat'

Seems to me this product has the potential to promote cruelty to animals, and it can't be that great for rabbits either.

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My page looks funny in French. Google does a literal word-for-word translation, which fails to capture much of the original meaning, but is quite funny none the less.

[If you get a run-time error when viewing the translated page, just click "no". Not sure what the problem is, but that seems to get around it]

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Travel and Holiday tips:

Want to learn more about Russian culture? Visit the vodka museum.

Looking for something to do during your layover at KL airport? Get laid.

Taking Junior on holiday? Get a passport!

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I've always secretly liked the idea of being in the Guiness Book of Records. I don't know if it's because of Roy Castle and his trumpet on "Record Breakers", or the hours me and my sisters spent pouring over endless lists of fascinating facts as kids, or possibly just the lure of the spotlight...

Since I'm not about to tell jokes continuously for over 60 hours, or grow my hair ridiculously long, and I can't tie a knot in a cherry stem in under 3 seconds, I guess this is my chance.

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No real surprise in these findings: All cell phones distract drivers. Even if you use a headset.

In Singapore, not only is it against the law to talk on a hand-held phone, but it also carries up to a 6 month jail sentence. Does this stop people? Doesn't seem to.

"Motorists who use a phone to talk or send messages while driving can be fined up to $1,000 or jailed up to six months or both. Repeat offenders face a max fine of $2,000 or imprisonment of up to a year or both. In addition they will get 12 demerit points from their license and the phone may be taken by the court. The court may also disqualify the offender from driving.

In 2000, over one thousand offenders were caught for talking on a mobile phone while driving. Talking or sending SMS messages while stationary at a traffic-light junction appears acceptable so long as the user hangs up before moving off when the lights turn green. Motorist should make use of handsfree car kits."

[info from http://www.singaporelawraffles.com/]

Here's some good news: Drink up, alcohol is good for you. Roll on Friday night. I'm definitely up for a night on the town.


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Ouch!

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Oh my goodness: This is Airpork.

[blatantly swiped from Andrea, with her permission]

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Blah. Last night I went home from work and promptly collapsed into a crumpled heap on the sofa and had a good cry, like the sensible, mature and poised idiot that I am. After making my way through half a box of tissues, and telling my tales of woe to Andrea and Mark, I curled up in bed and fell into a deep sleep.

I'm doing better today. To quote U2, some days are better than others.

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I hate my job.

Or more specifically, I hate the way things work around here.

This job has the potential to be great. Every now and then I get a glimpse of how things could be. But there are too many people who are far too negative, who are far too critical, who don't give praise where praise is due, who don't seem to give praise at all. Most of the time I can cope. I tell myself that maybe it's a cultural thing - maybe it's just me being non-Asian trying to fit in and not quite getting it right. I tell myself that no feedback means things must be going OK, because when things don't go well, people sure as hell kick up a royal fuss. I tell myself that things will improve when the economy picks up. But I'm just not so sure anymore. Today I've just had enough.

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Miss Saigon was enjoyable enough. Not the best musical I've ever seen (that prize goes to Les Miserables - hands down). The set was fantastic, the singing/acting was good (especially The Engineer), but the music itself somehow did not inspire me. Sitting here at my desk, a mere 12 hours after the performance ended, and I can only remember bits and pieces from a couple of songs.

Coming back to yesterday's comment, there were indeed several displays of "sexy" behaviour on stage, but then parts of the show are set in a brothel, firstly in Saigon, and then later on in Bangkok. The Saigon brothel scene towards the beginning of the show involved pretty graphic simulations of GIs having sex with prostitutes. (In many ways, the Saigon brothel reminded me of Carnegie's on a Saturday night. This cannot be a good thing.).

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According to my referral logs, I've been getting quite a few hits from search engines in the past couple of days.

For all the people who are visiting this site looking for pictures from Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, try http://theforce.net, or click here.

For all the people who are visiting this site looking for pictures of 11/15/17 year old girls in short shorts/short tops/various states of undress, you're in completely the wrong place, and I'm not going to help you find anything. :-P

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I'm going to see Miss Saigon this evening.

I've seen it once before, in London, when I was about 15. I don't remember much about the story line, or the performance. What I do remember about the show is that I sat beside Katie, who would've been about 10 years old. Shortly after the show began, Katie loudly proclaimed that the dancers were "a bit too sexy", and refused to watch, much in the same way that kids of a certain age refuse to watch kissing on tv because they think it is disgusting. She covered her face with her hands, and half-watched the "sexy" portions of the performance by peeking through her fingers.

I am very curious to find out just how "sexy" Miss Saigon is. I wonder if I will be able to see why and how her 10-year-old sensibilities were offended. I wonder if the Singapore version has been altered or toned-down from the original London show? Will fill you in tomorrow...

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I did a bit of shopping at the weekend. Main purchases included "Fast Food Nation", "Harry Potter et Le Prisioner d'Azkaban" and two stone lions (as in two lions that are made of stone, not lions that weigh two stones, oh, never mind, you know what I mean...).

I am very pleased with my lions. They are sitting outside the entrance to the flat, protecting us from evil spirits and bringing good luck, or so the theory goes. At any rate, they look nice, feng shui or no feng shui.

"Fast Food Nation" is pretty interesting, all about what McDonalds, KFC etc are doing to the world. I've disliked fast food for years, and this book further underlines my suspicions that it should only be eaten in extreme emergencies.

What do you think - fast food: mmm or yuk?

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Ah ha! I've suspected as much for years - dogs can laugh!

Bonnie and Cole often laugh with the family, especially when we play with them. Sometimes I'm pretty sure they laugh at us too. I know they smile. Can you see the contentment on this face? I miss my dogs :-(

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Today has been devoted to decadent (over)indulgance. Mark, Andrea and I joined a group of friends for brunch at Mezza9. The food was incredible (especially the chocolate fountain!) and the champagne flowed freely (thanks to Dale's "backhand pour"). Yummy.

>

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Sex on the Senate floor?

Politics, Philippine style.

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A gentle reminder from the Singapore Ministry of the Environment. Please don't squat on the toilet seat. It never ceases to amaze me that people need to be told this.

Click here to see an enlarged picture.

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Feeling much, much better today. Spent most of yesterday afternoon sleeping, watched a terrible film called "The Love Letter" on vcd, then had some dinner and went to bed for more sleep. Sleep is goooood.

Mark is shouting and swearing at the rugby on tv, and sounding very occa. Australia are playing New Zealand. Australia have a narrow lead. Not sure whether I should hope that Oz win, so Mark is happy for the rest of the day, or hope that NZ win as some sort of revenge for Oz beating the Lions...Hmmm. Neah, no contest really. Who wants the Kiwis to win? Hehehehe.

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Dave signed my guestbook, and pointed out that Singapore has special rules pertaining to the use of the Singapore flag. Despite having lived here for 3 years, I was not previously aware of this, so I consulted Google, and discovered he is right! There are indeed 8 rules relating to the correct display, care and disposal of the National flag.

I am not feeling well today. Fortunately, I am not full of phlem like Andrea is, I'm just all fuzzy-headed and achey and a bit feverish. I went into work this morning, but caved and came home around 11.30am. Popped some paracetamol, and now going to collapse into the sofa for a nap.

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Ever wondered how your doggie was feeling? Worried that your pooch may be depressed? Here is the gadget for you!

"Creatively called "Bow-lingual", the hand-held electronic device claims to gauge a dog's mood by listening to its bark."

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Vatican City is ickle.

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Happy National Day, Singapore!

36 years ago, on the 9th of August 1963, Lee Kuan Yew declared Singapore a sovereign, democratic, and independent state. Today, I celebrate by sleeping late and watching tv in my pyjamas.

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Day off tomorrow. Going out tonight. Plan is to go to Zappa's for free flow, and we'll probably end up at Carnage later. No motivation to work this afternoon. Raining outside. Freezing in the office. 2hrs 45 mins till the end of the working day. Hehehe.

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Eric Conveys an Emotion

My favourites:

Mr. Burn's "Excellent" Face
Can't Sleep...Clowns Will Eat Me...
Working on a tech supportline, answering your 500th call of someone who claims he can't send email

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Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.

What a terrible name. Who thought of that? Ugh. There's got to be a better option, please.

"Attack of the Clones" reminds me of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". It makes Episode 2 sounds like a bad horror film.

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Ming is a friend of my youngest sister, Lennie. Ming lives in Singapore, and she's the oldest 15 year old I know. She's far more of a grown-up than I am (not very hard, I admit). She's really smart and a little wierd (in a good way). I am proud to say that I helped inspire Ming to write a weblog. She's just getting started, but I have a feeling that once she's up and running there will be no stopping her. Go visit her!

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Last night I went to the Night Safari with my sister Lennie, and her friend Emily. Lennie and Emily are 15 and live in Austin. Last month, when Mark's brother Nathan was visiting, we took him to the Night Safari too. Nathan is 15, and lives in Canberra. 15 year old girls are quite different from 15 year old boys.

For example:
15 year old boys wear whatever clothes they threw on that morning, and a baseball cap. They will happily spend 15 mins staring at a seemingly empty exhibit waiting for the tarsier to show itself.

15 year old girls wear little short shorts and cute tops, and they plait their hair. They will happily spend 15 mins at the tram station, waiting for the hot guy they saw in the ticket line to show himself.

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A tribute to all those tv shows I loved as a kid. Bagpuss, Dogtanian, Super Ted, Supergran, The Family Ness, The Flumps, The Wombles...and so many more. Nicci has got them all covered! Go take a look, it's guaranteed to make you smile. I have thoroughly enjoyed my trip down memory lane.

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I've been printing out a bunch of data sheets this afternoon, and in an attempt to be a bit more environmentally friendly, I reused some paper from the stack of single-sided printouts that haven't been collected. Now I'm sitting here at my desk, retrieving the relevant information from the data sheets. Or rather that's what I was doing, until I noticed that most of the uncollected printouts are personal ads from an online dating agency. Now I'm reading the ads. Some of them are hilarious. Who uses the communal office printer to print out personal ads, and then forgets to pick them up? I'm pretty sure I know who it is. Hehehe. Not that I'm going to tell anyone in the office, I'm not that cruel.

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Email is working again, there are 211 emails in my inbox. Ugh. Welcome to Monday.

Went to see Bridget Jones's Diary last night. Thought it was great, much better than I had expected. I'm always a bit wary of movies that are made based on books I've already read and enjoyed, in case they spoil the way I imagine the characters. I am quite worried about the Harry Potter movie for that reason...

Been playing with Lennie's digital camera this weekend. Will post pictures soon, once I've had a chance to download them. Have some good pics of Stuart from Saturday night - he's wearing his kilt. I wonder how that went down at Zouk? Betcha the girlies loved it. What girl doesn't like a man in a kilt? Grrrrrrrowl...

[Go take a look at the Harry Potter weblog...they have altered the Powered by Blogger logo to say Powered by Muggles instead. Hee hee!!]

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Oh yes! Another strange search request in my referral logs! Someone looking for "rate my bra".

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Email is still down at the office. My desk is now completely tidy. I've thrown away lots of clutter. I've also re-discovered my scissors, located the tippex, and found a little bag of chocolate covered coffee beans that a colleague brought back from the US ages ago. I should probably throw them away, but instead, I'm eating them. They taste yummy!

Lest I project the image that I do no work at the office, I feel obliged to stress that I have in fact completed several work-oriented tasks today. I just don't think you'd find them very interesting reading material. If for some bizarre reason you really want to know, you can always email me and ask.

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I listen to BBC Worldservice on the radio everyday on my way to work. This morning, shortly after 8am my time, which is shortly after midnight in the UK, news came through about a bomb blast outside of Ealing Broadway's tube station in west London.

All I can think of is that I've been to that very pub on several occassions to meet up with friends and down a swift drink or two before heading back to a friend's flat, or off out into town. The area is usually pretty crowded - people in the pubs and restaurants, walking to and from the tube station, catching buses and trains home. Fortunately, only 7 people were hurt in the explosion, and none of them have life-threatening injuries. But still, scary stuff.

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Everybody's doing it...you can too, should you so desire: Submit questions for the 2001 Blogger Purity Survey. I added my 2 cents last night, 'cause I'm so hip and cooool.

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Office email still down. Novelty has now worn off. Want email back, at least for a couple of hours.

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Hello? Would the mystery visitor from BNP Paribas group please sign my guestbook?!

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According to this, I'm worth $1,700,350.00.

Hmpf, I got better offers than that last year when I was in Egypt. Problem was that they were offering to pay in camels, which aren't as easy to transport and maintain as cash. Just as well, otherwise David might have sold me.

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My work email account has been down all day. Our office runs on several servers, and the one that hosts my account is buggered. Wonder if it's the Code Red worm? It's actually very nice not to have email - very liberating. Instead of reading and replying and setting up meetings and sending out reports, I've been sorting out all the stuff on my desk. I'm about half way through. Things are looking pretty messy at the moment - there is paper scattered everywhere, the bin is full and I'm still sorting through piles of stuff. Where does it all come from? If email stays down for the rest of the day, I may end up with a tidy desk. But don't hold your breath.

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In the run up to Singapore's 36th National Day next week, The Straits Times has interviewed a bunch of children, and asked them what home is to them. The quotes ranged from the predictable-but-sweet:

"Home is where my mum and dad, brother, sister and I have a big laugh watching Phua Chu Kang...Home is where I feel good and happy."
"Home is family outings on Sunday - roti prata for breakfast, BBQ stingray for dinner and playing football at night at the Padang with my dad and three sisters."
"Home is 'happiness to me'."
"Home is where I 'Big Hug' my Mummy and Daddy"
"Home is where you'll never get lost as there are lots of friendly people, and it's a safe bus ride from school to the interchange where Mummy waits for me."

to the somewhat bizarrre:

"Home is practising putting on my green mat"
"Home is fridge"
"Home is helicopters with flags and mummy's lipstick. I put them on when she is at work."
"Home is my soft-toy rabbit Miffy...it's green, scruffy and smelly - and my parents and my kor-kor Jeremy, who reminds me of the toilet, because he's always in there when I need to use it! "
"I like watching National Day parade because I can see people jumping down in the big ball. I want to be a soldier when I grow up. " (me: WTF?)

to the truthful:

"Home is where I go after playschool every day. And where my mom and dad live. And where I fight with my brother"
"Home is where I can talk a lot and shout and scream after being quiet all day at school"
"Home is where I go when I'm hungry "
"Home is where I can play in the bathtub for a long long time"
"Home is where I'm mummy when my mother's at work, nagging my older brother to practise on the cello"
"Home is where I always have to fight for the remote control."

and the materialistic:

"Home is ...my waterbed, study table, TV and air-con. When I am hungry I always can find food easily without paying money."
"Home is ... bubble tea everywhere, air-cond places everywhere, toy sections everywhere, and Changi Airport"

Home to me is friends and family. It's not confined to a specific city or country, though it might involve a good cup or tea. What's home to you?

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Purple Ketchup? Lemon-flavoured Diet Coke? Mmmm, mmm, more artificial colourings, flavourings and preservatives, that's exactly what we all need.

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