Diary for November 1997 |
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1st November | Saturday: Returned from Pangkor and Ipoh with sunburn and a need of sleep. I'd had a great time but the overnight bus journey back takes it out of you despite the aircraft type reclining seats. |
2nd November |
Sunday: Day of school work :-( ready for quarter 2 which begins tomorrow. |
3rd November |
Monday: When we all thought the haze situation was improving it starts to get worse again ....... |
4th November |
Tuesday: Take a look what I had to eat this evening: |
5th November |
Wednesday: Can it really be
bonfire night? So hot and sunny (occasionally) that
autumn seems far away. They've opened yet another
shopping mall in walking distance of my mansion. New
World City. In the basement is a fantastic, state of
the art food hall featuring a wonderful Taiwanese kitchen
where you sit on a stool round a giant hot plate on which
the chef cooks, in front of your very eyes, such
delicious delights as: |
6th November |
Thursday: Watched the Under 18 basketball team play one of the other Singapore schools this evening. Wow they were good. Even seeing them practise their set moves before the game was a sight to behold! |
7th November |
Friday: First visitors arrive from the UK, Kathryn and Adrian.We walk through Little India to see the Deepavali lights .... taxi to Clarke Quay ... drinks at Breworkz ... then a Satay and Seafood meal in front of a live band right in the centre of the Clark Quay shops and restaurants.... Back to my house for an alcoholic night cap. |
8th November |
Saturday: The obligatory "Singapore Sling" at Raffles Hotel. Walk through the Padang, Cable Car from Mount Faber to Sentosa. Rest of the day spent enjoying the attractions on Sentosa followed by drinks in China Town then dinner at an outdoor Thai restaurant in Boat Quay. |
9th November |
Sunday: Lunch at Newton Circus... A tiger prawn the size of a shoe and a crab (expensive)...hard Rock Cafe .... Orchard Road ... Ngee Ann City (superb Christmas tree) .... said good-bye to Kathryn and Adrian at 5:30pm.... met next group of visitors at 8pm... Lyn and Barbara. |
10th November |
Monday: Writing reports .... yuch!!! |
11th November |
Tuesday: Mr Flannagan is an
Irish teacher at the school. He teaches some maths. Today
a pupil came up to him and said: "Sir, I couldn't do these homework questions" "But they were easy, a monkey could have done them!" "But my father wasn't home last night" |
12th - 16th November |
Teacher's conference in Kuala Lumpur |
17th November |
Monday: I've got the flu (Ahh - choo) |
18th November |
Tuesday: Can you believe it,
my local little Indian food stall actually ran out of
paratha!! So I trusted the management to choose for me
... what a mistake that was! I don't know what it was
called but this is how I imagined they made it...
... well that's what it tasted like anyway :-( |
19th November |
Wednesday: The durian is the
strangest fruit I've ever come across. It is a large,
green rugby ball shape with a pale fleshy centre. It's
great claim to fame is the fact that it really stinks.
Having just tasted one for the first time I can also say
that it tastes like onion flavoured ice cream, a taste
that lingers and keeps reminding you of what you have
just eaten.. Because of the smell, durians are banned on the underground and in most hotels here. They are supposed to be the only fruit that tigers eat! |
20th November |
Thursday: Staff
room talk today was of travelling to a nearby island for
the weekend. Now that I have settled in it is a real
possibility and I felt I could get a trip in before
Christmas. I bought the "Lonely
Planet" guide to Indonesia
which lists the islands in the South China Sea which are
close to Singapore. There are as many islands, locals
say, as there are grains in a cup of pepper. 3214
Island's in all, more than 700 of them uninhabited and
many of them unnamed!!! I think it's about time I went out and discovered Tranter Island! |
21st November |
Friday: I think I must be spending too much money in my local pub. They gave me a free t-shirt this evening! |
22nd November |
Saturday: At last I managed to get the "chat" page working on the "Birmingham Maths Web Site" |
23rd November |
Sunday: Given
a list of "safe" dishes to ask for at the
Chinese food centre by a local Singaporean. Trouble I'm
still not sure exactly what they mean! Bak
kut teh Saw Mohendran this eveining (Singapore's No.1 Michael Jackson impersonator) and his dancers do a show. They were superb, so well practised.... just like the real thing! |
24th November |
Monday: Thanks to Shirley for
giving me this information: Think about this for a second. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo, and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole keeps improving by the regular culling of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can operate only as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, we all know, kills off brain cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. The results of this in-depth epidemiological study verifies and validates the causal link between all-weekend parties and computing performance. It also explains why, after a few short years of leaving university and getting married, most professionals cannot keep up with the performance of the new graduates. Only those few that stick to the strict regimen of voracious alcoholic consumption can maintain the intellectual levels that they achieved during their university years. So, this is a call to arms. As our country is losing its technological edge we should not shudder in our homes. Get back into the bars! Quaff that pint! Your company and country need you to be at your peak, and you shouldn't deny yourself the career that you could have. Be all that you can be. |
25th November |
Tuesday: I added a "guestbook" to my web site today. So come on all you avid diary readers ... |
26th November |
Wednesday: Having just walked along Orchard Road I think I'm right is saying that the most popular T-shirt being worn here in Singapore, after the Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood is the "Fine City" T-shirt. On the front it declares "Singapore, A Fine City". On the back however are a number of statements such as "No littering, FINE $1000, no importing chewing gum, FINE $10,000, no bird feeding FINE $1000, no urinating in lifts, FINE $500, not flushing, FINE $150, no flower picking FINE $50 etc....." |
27th November |
Thursday: Janette, Sara and I, after meeting with about 20 sets of parents each at the Parents evening, went to the Col (Colonial) Bar for some beers and an English style mixed grill. I hadn't had a fry up like it since leaving the UK. It was superb. |
28th November |
Friday: Three questions about
Singaporeans:
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29th - 30th November |
Weekend
on Batam Island, Indonesia |