Sunday, July 31, 2005
Having a wonderfully rum time of things
Soundtrack: "Blur" by Blur
Good evening this evening.
And I come to you from Singapore. As predicted, my aunt has super-fast broadband, so here I am writing this entry. The house really is massive - there are four bedrooms, and each is more like a bedsit, as they're all divided into two sections and each has its own ensuite bathroom. Downstairs is just one vast, cavernous area, and unlike the house in Brisbane, there really is a grand piano. I haven't played it yet, because there's always somebody sleeping in this house when I'm home: wank. Ah well, no worries, eh? I've already gone over a month without playing, I'm sure I can go a little bit longer. Oh yeah, and guess what, the daughter's also got an upright in her own bedroom upstairs. Bloody hell.
So the ECB have decided to go with the same 12-man squad for the Edgbaston Test, then. For heavens' sake! Paul Collingwood is the man that we need. I'm always right about these things. All those old men making fun of me for the original Bring Back Thorpe campaign (it came with a sign) were eating their words of mockery by the time the Oval Test came round that summer. After that, they all started asking me my opinion on who should be playing. Ha.
Incidentally, that steak dinner at Brekky Creek was totally totally ace.
Brisbane Airport was a bit of a bugger. Stingy, evil Qantas only let you have 25kg maximum, and I had 28kg, so the check-in lady was going to charge me $60. Fortunately, she took pity on me, seeing that my hand luggage was little, and she let me unpack and take out the 3kg to put in a separate bag to bring on with me. I already had to carry my big winter coat that i'd bought in Melbourne, and my FF scarf, as I didn't have any room for them. Along with that, I bought the Boy a bottle of Bundaberg rum from the duty free place, as it's really nice stuff and it's a very typical Australian, especially Queensland, drink. It was a pain to lug all that stuff around.
I was met in Singapore by the Old Man (that's my father, for the uninitiated), and my Aunty Hui Suan and my Uncle Matthias. We had a late dinner, and then I went to bed. Everybody thought I was a bit mad, but then I explained that although it was only 10pm here, it was 12am in Queensland.
This morning when we got up, I wanted to show the Old Man the rum that I'd bought the Boy.
"What?!" he exclaimed. "You bought so much?!"
I took a closer look at the bottle. It was a 1125ml bottle, and I thought that I'd only bought a 500ml. No wonder it was so bloody heavy. But think about it. I got 625ml of Bundy rum for free! How good is that? It's going to kill my weight limit, though. Dad's got this plan that he's going to buy me a business class Malaysia Airlines ticket between Sibu and Kuching so that a) I have a higher weight limit and b) they'll let me check my bags all the way to London, even though I'll be switching airlines at Singapore. I hope it works.
Today, Dad and I just randomly walked around the city. We got off the underground at Raffles Place, which is right in the heart of the CBD. We soon found the river, and we had a brief look around there, before I spotted a giant building in the shape of a durian and so, we headed off that way. I think that Singapore is a lot like HK - some of the old colonial influences are still visible in the some of the architecture, but mostly, it's just modern buildings, with lots and lots of shopping plazas and malls. The heat is much more intense here, though. At least in HK there's smog to block out the full glare of the sun, but it just seems to be a lot hotter here, and it makes you feel really lethargic and sluggish. Serves us right, though: only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun and all that.
On the way to the giant durian building, we found ourselves in Merlion Park. If you click on the link, the merlion in the picture is actually the one from said park. It spouts out a jet of water from its mouth as well. We crossed the bridge outside the park to get to the gaint durian building, and on the way, we bought $1 ice-creams, which are sold to you sandwiched into a piece of pink-and-green-dyed bread. How crazy is that? It tasted bloody good, though. Once we got to the giant durian building, it turned out that it was just a concert hall and theatre (it was actually two giant durians, like in the photo, as a matter of fact), so we decided to go and have a look round the Raffles Hotel.
My goodness, that place is swanky. You can actually go and have a look inside the foyer, and you can smell the wealth. They also have a high-class shopping centre inside one of the wings, so I dragged Dad into all sorts of silly shops like Tiffany's and Swarovsky and Louis Vuitton. I do keep on seeing these shops whever I go, but it's hard to go into them when you're on your own and dressed trashily. Today, I was actually looking pretty cool in my all-black outfit, plus I had the Old Man with me, and shop assistants always think that when you go shopping with your father then he'll have a whole bunch of plastic in his wallet. My dad does actually have a Diners Club Card, which he once applied for because he thought that it looked cool.
Finally, we walked up to Orchard Road, which is a swanky shopping centre in the city. No more shopping for me, but it was fun just to look at stuff. One end of the road has stuff like Topshop and is more like Oxford Street, and at the other end is stuff like Salvatore Ferragamo and it's more like Regents Street. We also had a look round Wang's, which is the Singapore version of Selfridges. My God! It was so tiring just to randomly walk around, as the climate is just so oppressive. I feel really sleepy now, but I doubt that I'll be able to sleep. I think that the Old Man's got lost in the house - he wandered off ages ago to go and look for people, but he wasn't successful. Then he left again after reporting back to me. Maybe I should go and check on him.
Good evening this evening.
And I come to you from Singapore. As predicted, my aunt has super-fast broadband, so here I am writing this entry. The house really is massive - there are four bedrooms, and each is more like a bedsit, as they're all divided into two sections and each has its own ensuite bathroom. Downstairs is just one vast, cavernous area, and unlike the house in Brisbane, there really is a grand piano. I haven't played it yet, because there's always somebody sleeping in this house when I'm home: wank. Ah well, no worries, eh? I've already gone over a month without playing, I'm sure I can go a little bit longer. Oh yeah, and guess what, the daughter's also got an upright in her own bedroom upstairs. Bloody hell.
So the ECB have decided to go with the same 12-man squad for the Edgbaston Test, then. For heavens' sake! Paul Collingwood is the man that we need. I'm always right about these things. All those old men making fun of me for the original Bring Back Thorpe campaign (it came with a sign) were eating their words of mockery by the time the Oval Test came round that summer. After that, they all started asking me my opinion on who should be playing. Ha.
Incidentally, that steak dinner at Brekky Creek was totally totally ace.
Brisbane Airport was a bit of a bugger. Stingy, evil Qantas only let you have 25kg maximum, and I had 28kg, so the check-in lady was going to charge me $60. Fortunately, she took pity on me, seeing that my hand luggage was little, and she let me unpack and take out the 3kg to put in a separate bag to bring on with me. I already had to carry my big winter coat that i'd bought in Melbourne, and my FF scarf, as I didn't have any room for them. Along with that, I bought the Boy a bottle of Bundaberg rum from the duty free place, as it's really nice stuff and it's a very typical Australian, especially Queensland, drink. It was a pain to lug all that stuff around.
I was met in Singapore by the Old Man (that's my father, for the uninitiated), and my Aunty Hui Suan and my Uncle Matthias. We had a late dinner, and then I went to bed. Everybody thought I was a bit mad, but then I explained that although it was only 10pm here, it was 12am in Queensland.
This morning when we got up, I wanted to show the Old Man the rum that I'd bought the Boy.
"What?!" he exclaimed. "You bought so much?!"
I took a closer look at the bottle. It was a 1125ml bottle, and I thought that I'd only bought a 500ml. No wonder it was so bloody heavy. But think about it. I got 625ml of Bundy rum for free! How good is that? It's going to kill my weight limit, though. Dad's got this plan that he's going to buy me a business class Malaysia Airlines ticket between Sibu and Kuching so that a) I have a higher weight limit and b) they'll let me check my bags all the way to London, even though I'll be switching airlines at Singapore. I hope it works.
Today, Dad and I just randomly walked around the city. We got off the underground at Raffles Place, which is right in the heart of the CBD. We soon found the river, and we had a brief look around there, before I spotted a giant building in the shape of a durian and so, we headed off that way. I think that Singapore is a lot like HK - some of the old colonial influences are still visible in the some of the architecture, but mostly, it's just modern buildings, with lots and lots of shopping plazas and malls. The heat is much more intense here, though. At least in HK there's smog to block out the full glare of the sun, but it just seems to be a lot hotter here, and it makes you feel really lethargic and sluggish. Serves us right, though: only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun and all that.
On the way to the giant durian building, we found ourselves in Merlion Park. If you click on the link, the merlion in the picture is actually the one from said park. It spouts out a jet of water from its mouth as well. We crossed the bridge outside the park to get to the gaint durian building, and on the way, we bought $1 ice-creams, which are sold to you sandwiched into a piece of pink-and-green-dyed bread. How crazy is that? It tasted bloody good, though. Once we got to the giant durian building, it turned out that it was just a concert hall and theatre (it was actually two giant durians, like in the photo, as a matter of fact), so we decided to go and have a look round the Raffles Hotel.
My goodness, that place is swanky. You can actually go and have a look inside the foyer, and you can smell the wealth. They also have a high-class shopping centre inside one of the wings, so I dragged Dad into all sorts of silly shops like Tiffany's and Swarovsky and Louis Vuitton. I do keep on seeing these shops whever I go, but it's hard to go into them when you're on your own and dressed trashily. Today, I was actually looking pretty cool in my all-black outfit, plus I had the Old Man with me, and shop assistants always think that when you go shopping with your father then he'll have a whole bunch of plastic in his wallet. My dad does actually have a Diners Club Card, which he once applied for because he thought that it looked cool.
Finally, we walked up to Orchard Road, which is a swanky shopping centre in the city. No more shopping for me, but it was fun just to look at stuff. One end of the road has stuff like Topshop and is more like Oxford Street, and at the other end is stuff like Salvatore Ferragamo and it's more like Regents Street. We also had a look round Wang's, which is the Singapore version of Selfridges. My God! It was so tiring just to randomly walk around, as the climate is just so oppressive. I feel really sleepy now, but I doubt that I'll be able to sleep. I think that the Old Man's got lost in the house - he wandered off ages ago to go and look for people, but he wasn't successful. Then he left again after reporting back to me. Maybe I should go and check on him.
