Our costumes won first prize (a pizza party), and I had lots of girls wanting to have their photos taken with me (while I pretended to terrorise them).
30 October 2010
Yahoo! vampires
We had an office party for Halloween this week, and the legal team went dressed in a vampire theme (but strictly no Twilight crap). We had several of the traditional Chinese vampires, or "Jiang Shi" - reanimated corpses that hop around (literally), killing living creatures to absorb their life essence. We also had one Malaysian vampire, or "Pontianak" - women who died during childbirth and become undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages. Think of that terrifying girl from The Ring and your'e in the right ballpark. I went as the vampire King of the Western tradition, none other than Count Dracula!
21 October 2010
Haze From Indonesia Disturbs Neighbouring Countries
I noticed that things were looking a bit foggy the past couple of days. then again, it's also been raining heavily, so I put it down to high humidity. Except:JAKARTA, Oct 21 (Bernama) -- Forest fires burning in Indonesia began to affect neighbouring countries, spreading thick clouds of smoke and haze to Malaysia and Singapore, news agencies reported Thursday. ...Looks like I picked the wrong time to start reading Cormac McCarthy's The Orad!
Indonesian news wire Antara reported that the skies over Singapore were slightly hazy on Saturday, attributing this to the smoke haze from the fires in Sumatra brought in by the prevailing southwesterly winds. ...
Officials said that the haze is resulted from land clearing, which is enveloped frequently in Sumatra, Borneo islands of Indonesia up to some Asean neighbouring countries, which causes billions of dollars financial loss.
18 October 2010
Chariot procession
Went on a walking tour this weekend around Oxley Rise. Went inside the Chesed-El synagogue, which was built by Manasseh Meyer a little over 100 years ago, and which is very pretty. It also has an excellent collection of Torah scrolls. Also wandered through a neighbouring church before moving on to the nearby Hindu temple for the final night of Navarathri.
This time they had a big silver statue of a man on a horse, with a lance, which they hoisted atop their shoulders with the aid of long wooden poles. It was paraded outside, while a priest stood atop and shot wooden arrows into the crowd. Apparently it's good luck to catch them, and there was quite a scramble each time one landed - rather like Trent Reznor throwing pieces of broken guitar into the audience.
I bought a wooden spear, and got it blessed at one of the shrines. Got a smudge of ash on my forehead for my troubles too! There was a queue of people waiting to enter a small temporary pagoda, where they poke a banana tree with their spears. Really. I kind of wanted to go through the whole process, but the queue went all the way around the building. Maybe I'll buy a banana, and lance it with the spear.
14 October 2010
Random Singapore - peanut ice kachang
A dessert, rather like a snowcone, but with sweetcorn, beans, and crushed peanuts. And hopefully no durian!
04 October 2010
Monkeys!
Alistair took me for a walk around the Lower Peirce Reservoir, with it's variety of terrain - jungle bush, treetop walks, residential roads, golf courses and boardwalks! We encountered several different animals on our journey - Long-tailed macaques (monkeys to you lot), turtles, lizards, a green-looking squirrel, a rat, giant ants (about the size of a bee) and fruit bats.
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