It’s examination time at the university, and the students are extremely quiet. But today on our morning walk around the campus, we were passing a dormitory when we heard a peculiar, rhythmic knocking sound. Clearly it was not a machine – could it be a really big woodpecker? Well, sort of. As we went by […]
This is more hearsay-based. In the 1960s, and ever since, the Singapore government made its first priority to build housing for the teeming millions living in slum conditions in the city – you know, five or six in a room, no running water, a communal tap in the street and two toilets for a building […]
Before we came here, a friend told us, “Singapore is a country of rules. But the rules can change.” Here’s an example of how it can work, admittedly from a government-run university, but I think it’s applicable to the wider business world, since the Singapore government has its finger in most pies: A non-Singaporean professor […]
I should add to the previous post that Jack does NOT deal in weasel coffee. That’s the (reputedly) exquisite coffee, available only from Indonesia and Vietnam (perhaps Thailand as well), where there are civet cats, a glorified type of weasel. These critters periodically indulge in eating coffee berries, exposing the coffee beans inside to their […]
Previously on this blog I sang the praises of Trung Nguyen’s ground coffee, called Creative 1, which I get by ordering it online. Well, here’s a big opportunity if you want to sell coffee in Singapore – Jack Yu, who owns the Cafe Ventures company (which delivers my coffee), wants to sell it. So if […]
My avid fans (both of you) will recall that a few months ago I mentioned a pair of nudists who strolled through the expat enclave of Holland Village. Well, despite their lack of identifying clothing they have been fingered and taken to court (fully dressed). A Swedish guy and Singaporean girl, they were charged with […]
In my taxi home from grocery shopping yesterday we went by a vast new complex of modest housing. “Worker housing,” said the driver, “So now we can keep track of them.” Like other countries I could mention, Singapore depends on hordes of underpaid immigrants to do almost all the landscape and construction work while the […]
I see from my blog statistics that there’s a steady of trickle of people who find this site by googling “Singapore sex blog.” God, how disappointed they must be. But I’ll do my best, speaking as a monogamous married type who keeps early hours and lives about an hour’s ride from the red-light districts. Yes, […]
I’m involved in a research project at a university, for which there are three bosses in three separate departments and about 24 research assistants, all told. Although the three bosses meet regularly, the three departments normally have nothing to do with each other, so it’s important to foster a system of collaboration. Hah! you exclaim […]
OK, so this wasn’t a full-fledged orchestral orgy, but it was a Suzuki graduation concert in the Jubilee Hall, a concert venue in the Raffles Hotel, so very upscale. All audience members had paid $15 to get in the door, which is kind of a lot to pay to see a bunch of kids playing […]