MATT'S TOP 10 FROM SINGAPORE
Weeks 6 & 7: May 15, 2011 - May 28, 2011
1. SHE’S FINALLY HERE!!
6 weeks later, Lisa finally is here in Singapore! The poor girl got in on Friday night/Saturday morning at 1AM after tons of flight delays. And to top it all off, she’s sicker than a dog. I’m typing this at 1PM on a Saturday and she’s still in bed. Hopefully she gets better and acclimates soon…it is really good to finally have her here!
2. I miss my car…
Speaking of Lisa getting here, trying to get a cab to the airport at 12:30AM on a Friday night/Saturday morning (to pick her up) is next to impossible. It’s worse than trying to get a cab in Boston at night when all the bars are closing.
None of the numbers you can call to reserve a cab or iPhone/Blackberry apps that you can do the same thing with work at this time – far too busy. You just keep getting messages saying that all cabs are occupied. I think part of it has to do with most cabs going to the casino near us to pick up passengers (the lines tend to be over an hour long for cabs on Friday and Saturday nights at the casino).
Either way, it’s only been a month and I’m tired of taxis, subways, and buses., It’s amazing how much I took for granted back in the States with having a car to go wherever we wanted.
3. Happy Birthday to me...
My manager was in town last week, and it just so happened to be my birthday. To celebrate, we went to dinner, did a 9PM con call with the States (because that’s what you do here in Singapore), and then went to the casino with another co-worker. The casino is actually a 5 minute walk from our apartment. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. I’m not a huge gambler, but I do like the occasional Blackjack or Roulette game - especially when I’m winning…and winning is a exactly what we did on this particular trip. After starting out with a birthday shot of some Kahlua/Bailey’s based shot at the casino bar (which cost $60 some odd dollars), we headed over to the casino and took them for a little over $1,500 playing roulette. Mixed into our 4 hour trip, I think we put down 7 or 8 beers each which then led to the worst decision of the night – heading back to the hotel my manager was staying in for “one last” birthday drink at 2AM. Let’s put it this way, the 10AM meeting we had the next morning which then led to the red eye we had to get on to Australia that night, were not at all pretty. But we did take some cash home (which we then proceeded to give back to our Aussie friends in their casino)
4. Up, Up, and Away…
Speaking of our red eye to Sydney….we did get to fly on Singapore Airlines A380 planes. These are the big boy panes. Two full levels of seating, internet and power connections in every seat (including our toilet class seats), and the coolest part – Suites. Singapore Airlines has something known as “Suite Service:” (Just to be VERY clear, we did NOT fly in the Suites.)
“The product is designed by French luxury yacht interior designer Jean-Jacques Coste and consists of separate compartments with walls and doors. The leather seat, upholstered by Poltrona Frau of Italy, is 35 in (88.9 cm) wide (with armrests up and 23 in (58.42 cm) wide when armrests are down) and a 23 in (58.42 cm) LCD TV screen is mounted on the front wall. The 78 in (198.12 cm) bed is separate from the seat and folds out from the back wall, with several other components of the suite lowering to accommodate the mattress. Windows are built into the doors and blinds offer privacy. Suites located in the center can form a double bed after the privacy blinds between them are retracted into special compartments between the beds and in the frame of the partition.
It’s essentially a separate luxury room for you to enjoy when you fly.
$10 to anyone who knows who Poltrona Frau of Italy is – either way, it sounds pretty swanky, huh?
Gives a whole new definition to the mile high club…This is the way to fly.
5. G’day Mate
Here’s some of my favorite one liners from our trip to Sydney….most came from a group we met out at a bar for drinks after work – they were a group of two men and two women who were in Sydney from Melbourne for the weekend.
“What took you so long in the bathroom ? We’re you having a wank? “
– No explanation needed
“Excuse us, we need to go have a wizzer”
- Explanation that the two women in the group gave when they needed to go to the bathroom.
“I need to go for a twinkle.”
- What one of the guys said in the group when he needed to go to the bathroom. Now this one baffled me. Doesn’t it make more sense for the dude to say he has to take a wizzer and the woman to say she has to take a twinkle???? I didn’t argue with them though because if there’s one thing you don’t do is questions a drunk Aussie – man those people like to drink!
However, it was laugh out loud funny to hear a grown man use the word twinkle to describe going to the bathroom.
We’re from Melbourne, but we’re having a sickie. “
– Come to find out they were taking a ‘sick day’ off from work to come to Sydney for the weekend. They were essentially playing hookie. I’ve already emailed my team telling them I’m having a sickie tomorrow.
“Cheer, Cheer, the amber and white…honor the glass by day and b y night…lift that royal can up high…onward to victory”
- Aussie’s like to sing when they drink and are watching sports. There was a rugby game on the tv, and this is what they kept chanting. When I joked with our group that this was the “stupidest” song I ever heard, I was called terms like “a tosser” and “a wank.” Way to make friends Matt…it actually was all in good fun and jest with this group of people we met!
“Real men drink schooners…not middies”
-This is also where I get confused. The way the people that we met explained it, was that a schooner was a 15 oz. beer and a “Middie” (Spelling?) was a 9oz. beer. However, if you look it up online, a pint is a 15oz. beer and a schooner is a 9oz. beer.
Either way, they made fun of the “middie” but they kept ordering them all night. Go figure….
“Next time you’re in town we want to have you over for a barbie.”
- Yes – this was actually used in conversation. A co worker was inviting us over to a barbecue at their house next time we’re in town. I couldn’t help myself when I asked her if she would have some shrimp to throw on the Barbie.
6. Bar of the Week
Come to find out (as reminded to me by some of my more loyal readers), I forgot to add a ‘Bar of the Week’ to the last blog. I’d like to say that it won’t happen again, but I know all too well how bad my memory is.
This week’s ‘Bar of the Week’ comes to you straight from Sydney, Australia – The Fortune Room. This is the bar where we met the colorful group with all the quotes from above. Not sure is it’s some swanky marketing, but they claim it’s the oldest pub in Sydney. By the stale beer smell in it that smelled like it had been there for centuries, I wouldn’t be surprised if it really was the oldest pub in the city..
Not sure what it is, but The Fortune Room also serves ‘hot Aussie beef pies.’ I was afraid about what they were going to give me if I ordered one.
7. Singapore Fact of The Week
I’ve been getting some questions about Singapore as a country…size, population, etc. To quest all of your never ending thirsts for knowledge, here’s a random fact Singapore fact that I will update each week (or every two weeks with the rate that these blogs are going):
“The English name of Singapore is derived from its Malay name, Singapura (Sanskrit “Lion City"), thus the customary reference to the nation as the Lion City. Lions probably never lived there; the beast seen by Sang Nila Utama, founder of ancient Singapore, who gave the city its name, was most likely a tiger.”
One of the tourist highlights of the city is the Merlion. It’s actually the original trademark of the Singapore Tourism Board. The statue suits at the mouth of the Singapore River and is the location in the city if you want to go find obnoxious Chinese and American tourists with cameras.
8. I finally did it...
I've been freaked out to let anyone cut my hair here. So needless to say, I've looked like a hippie for the last week. Before my flight to Vegas, I finally sucked it up and decided that it needed to be done.
If I were to give you a mental image of what my hairdresser (or Hair Sculptor as he referred to himself) Greg looked like, picture this: a cross between Franck (Martin Short from the movie "Father of the Bride") and Edward Scissorhands...The man was a machine. Even when he wasn't actually cutting my hair with the scissors, they were still going a mile a minute in his hand.
What service though - You get a cup of tea and a magazine when you sit down in the chair, a cold neck protector so no hair goes down your shirt (very nice touch!), and a 15 minute hair wash where massaged my scalp and my neck. I was a little hesitant at first to let Greg massage my scalp and neck - but that dude has got some skills - and I'm not embarrassed to say it. He even took q-tips at the end of the haircut and cleaned my ears. As Lisa knows, I love my hairdresser Katie back in MA...but Greg is giving her a run for her money!
He must have asked me 10 times if I knew what the hair care brand "Aveda" was. I finally figured out why in the end when he tried to sell me a bottle of Aveda shampoo - $148 SGD ($120 USD).
Unbelievable.
9. Bzzzzzzzzzzzz………
I seem to be obsessed with the whole bathroom situation here seeing I bring it up every time I write these things. Not for many that know me well, know that I really don’t like bathroom humor. Not sure why, but I never have. But there’s just too much material over here to not use it. It’s like a kid in a candy store.
At the Changi Airport (Singapore Airport) all of the men’s urinals have these small pictures of flies painted on them – sort of a ‘target’ to aim for. Let me just say what a BRILLIANT idea this is. I wish EMC would do the same in our offices so I didn’t have to stand in a puddle of pee every day when I needed to use the bathroom. People over here have the worst aim. I actually wonder sometimes if people just are going on the floor and not even using the toilets…totally disgusting. I’ve said it before…but I’ll say it again. I miss the bathrooms back at work at home. I would pay some serious money to have those here.
10. Ooboo and Booboo
I don’t know why I find this so funny, but every time I look at this picture I laugh. This is what I woke up to on the tv last weekend at 3AM after passing out on the couch before bed. Two monkeys named Ooboo and BooBoo. Besides form American Idol (which is a day delayed) this is what they have for tv over here. Good times.
Until next time…hope everyone is doing well!
