Back in Singapore

Hello all,

Well I'm in Singapore and it's a big city. Na, I'm actually having quite a good time.

I'd been here all of 2 hours when I was signed up to be an extra on a made for TV film. Did that on Thursday. Long day as it was from 6.45am till 6pm. They had no shoes that fit properly so my feet were in agony. It also got quite boring just sitting around, but on the whole I loved it!

The film is set in the 1950's so we had all our hair/makeup/dress done in that style. I've got photos ; ) For the most part we were just wondering around in the background, pretending to be shopping. But in another scene we had to look shocked as a Singaporean girl was walking into a posh area of Los Angeles - not done in the 1950;s. Proper acting and I'm right on camera!! Maybe it won't all get cut. Got paid for it too! More than I get as an instructor! but living here costs more and I could NOT do this long-term. It's something that I've always wanted to do and I would do it again. it's the exhibitionist in me!

Yesterday, I went for a walk around reservoir. lots of monkeys, some were content to sit an arm's length away from you! Was a bit worried they might try to jump on me (like they do in Hong Kong), but these were well-behaved monkeys. THis is Singapore after all! Think i've worked out why singapore feels a bit wierd. It's not just the clean thing - it;s that everyone is so well beheaved. You might even call is subdued. Even the people who are trying to rebel are well behaved! Can imagine the film "anger management" went down well here. THere has to be a fair amount of anger surpressed here.

They ahve a lot of programs for stuff too. On the tube today they were advertising to encourage singaporeans to help re-habilitate first time offenders. I think these sort of things are good programs, but it almost feels like they're trying to turn people into a program.

On the tube today, I saw this amazing sight. 4 kids, probably 14 years old. One was reading a newspaper, one was reading Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul (now I'm all for inspiring stories but most UK teenages would read that one in private) and the 3rd was reading what looked like a dictionary! Today was a Saturday! It's just not normal!

Whilst walking at the reservoir, I passed several groups of kids on organised walks. One group were all wearing t-shirts with slogans on the back. After a moment, I realised they all said "I am fat enough?" It was a kids fat group! Now some of them were a bit obese, some were probably ready to graduate. I appreciate that poor diet and lack of exercise is a problem with kids nowadays. But I don't think giving them a complex is a good idea! Some kids have puppy fat and it does dissapear in their teens. Anyway, another Singapore program.

I found it ironically unfunny that I trod on some chewing gum in the park. YOu can now buy it through pharmacies although I've only seen one couple actually chewing in public. Just goes to show they were right to ban it in the first place : )

On my way to Singapore, I stayed a night in Kuta, Bali. NEVER AGAIN! It's a tourist hell-hole, although I'm sure plenty of people like it. I saw where the bomb hit. It's the only undeveloped area on a very busy shopping/bar street. There's signs up about peace. They've managed to turn it into a tourist landmark - the irony. Irony seems to be my word de jour.

So I'm in Singapore for another couple of days to sort out my visa and then try and fly back to Lombok. No-one is oging into Indonesia because of the elections. Apparently this makes Indonesia unsafe and its up as a warning on several foreign office websites. The concencus in Indonesia is that this is ridiculous or more accurately, rather annoying. August/Sept are supposed to be busy months and they're not.

Ok, I'm just trying to string this out but I can't really think of anything else interesting to say.Today I visited Orchard Road which is one main road of sky-high buildings and lots and lots of shops. It's quite unerving. This evening I went to see the largest fountain in the world at Suntec City. Suntec City is a futuristic complex, designed around Feng Shui. It has 5 towers which make up the fingers and thumb. In the middle there is a huge circlar structur set abouit 10m above the ground. It is in this that the fountain is set. The idea is that the circle/fountain provide a great source of power to the "hand", as itself is fortuitous and it is set in the palm of the hand. Quite cool. i waited 45mins for the fountain to go off (with a lazer show) before going to ask why it hadn't happened. Turned out its been "switched off" for a few days. Of course, no-one has bothered to put any signs up. There were about 70 people, including Singaporeans still sitting around waiting when I left to go home. Not so cool. I wanted touch it too as the waters are supposed to bring success if you apporach the fountain with a pure of heart.

Feng Shui makes for interesting buildings.

Wandering around Suntec City shopping malls, I marvelled at how much time people can devote to shopping. Considering the amount of shops in Singapore and the amount of people, the people must have way too much stuff for all these shops to still be in business! I'm not too sure how I feel about things like toilets that flush automatically and big screens for adverts on sides of buildings, with smaller screens on buses. Saw Stepford wives today and the "smart house" makes me want to run a mile. There was one at the Science museum as well.

Sometimes I feel like I;ve accidentally walked into Back to the Future II or I. I forget which ; ) Both.

Open Water has also just been released. Just another film to p1ss me off. A) It talks about divers being left behind by their boats. Ok. This does happen. It's scary and people have died. Actually that part doesn't p1ss me off at tall.

B) Scary sharks are coming to eat you.... Sharks have been very badly mistreated by Hollywood and it's totally unfair. Everytime I meet someone who is nervous about diving/snorkelling because of sharks, i have to exert extreme control of the non-throttling/rolling of eyse/exhasperated sighs kind. In fact, millions of sharks are being killed every year by man for shark-fin soup and other chinese obsessions. It's a serious problem which shows no sign of abating. So within 10 years, there might not be any more sharks left for us to be scared of. Not that they're scary anyway.

Oh yes, on the subject of Diving films. FINDING bl00dy NEMO which I don't think is particularly funny is VERY inaccurate on a couple of things. OK, the fish might look right, and the deep sea angler with the light on a line is completley true, but they ahve some problems with the idea of s3x - not the mating kind but the gender kind.

The top of the anemonone fish family is a WOMAN. She is always the largest fish in that family. Oh yes, but she died I hear you say. Ah ha. WHen she dies, the next largest male turns into a female and the rest all move up one (in their quest to be mother). She also does most of the defensive work too, but that's just an aside.

Also eggs are laid at the base of the anemone covered by tentacles, not in a hollow rock. So the barracuda would never have been able to eat them in the first place. NEMO should never have existed and his Dad should have become a Mum.

Thank you Hollywood. While you're at it, when you don't turn all non-American war heros/stories into American ones. Oh, sorry, you;'ve done that already.

Sarcasm over ; ) I hope you're all well and happy,
love
kx

PS.Anorther funny anemone story. Some crabs carry anemones on their backs to use them as protection as they walk about. (Anemones sting). Anemones have a "foot" which they use to hold onto the ground where they are currently living. The crab tickles the foot until it lets go, then he darts under the anemone so the foot lands on his shell and off they go! Cool, huh?!