The World at Large - Modest Mouse

Question of the Day: Where can you trade in $50 and get 290,000 in return?
Answer: Indonesia

On Friday I had to leave Singapore to renew my visa, where to go, what to do, so many options so little time! I could have taken a bus across the border to Malaysia, a train to Kuala Lumpur, or do as I did, a ferry to the Indonesian Island, where you get almost 300G's for $50. And with that 330G's I was able to purchase taxi rides to and from the ferry terminal, a cheap hotel room, dinner and breakfast, as well as about 10 drinks throughout the day. Quite the deal if you ask me!

Still even after these years abroad, it still blows my mind to be able to say that I went to Indonesia for the night. Even if the island kind of sucked cuz I went there on a whim without knowing a single thing about the island, where to go sleep, or what to see, and even if I did take the ferry to wrong part of the island and got stuck in the dirty and dark city center all night...it was all part of the fun!

Where Have All The Good People Gone - Sam Roberts

Will someone PLEASE take away "final cut" from the Hollywood Directors!!!

As the directors in Hollywood continually get more and more power, as every McG and Brett Ratner thinks they are the new Spielberg, the movies are getting longer and longer and worse and worse. Case in point, the two movies I have seen here in Singapore, have both been upwards of thirty minutes too long. Superman and Pirates 2, both are just lagging and boring in the middle as the director refuses to edit out mundane character devlopments that are intricate plot details. In both movies, I have actually gotten up to goto the get a drink (something I would never have done previously). Especially in Pirates case, when there is another sequel coming right away. Do we really need a 4.5 hour sequel to a pirate story??

Where have all good editors gone???

Flying High - Jem

Best weekend EVER!!

Picking up where the bicycle memorial left off I spent my Saturday lazily sitting around the swimming pool in the resort I call home. Went out in the
afternoon with my book, a jug of water, a bag or doritos, and spent the afternoon reading poolside in the sun, alternating dips in the pool with tanning. Not to be outdone by the day the night was just as good, as we used the poolside BBQ pit to hold an all night BBQ. Sat outside till 2am munching on kebabs and sipping Tiger beers.

Making up for the laziness of Saturday I spent the entire day Sunday sweating, as I headed out for one of the local Hash House Harrier runs. As I walked up I got a few curious looks as it took a few seconds before they all realized that I was one half of the crazy duo that showed up last year and did the hour long runs in flip flops or barefooted. And then to top that off we took off on bicycles and rode to Thailand. I was welcomed back in typical HHH style by having to punitively down beers in the circle, after having just finished a 90 minute 13km run.

So as I said before, best weekend ever, and I aim to keep up this kind of living.

Music of the Day: U.N.K.L.E - Never Never Land, a few years old but always some new grooves in this spaced out trip hop record. Best when listened to while biking or walking in the sunshine.

Tip of the Day - Try to avoid purchasing pants that employ the velcro system over the traditional zipper of buttonfly systems, it only invites embarrasement.

Question of the Day - How do you know you're happy? When you take to going on midnight runs for the fun of it.

Tears From the Compound Eye - Boards of Canada

Last night I was walking down a street on my way to meet some friends at an MRT station, listening my music and not really paying attention as to where I was, I came around the corner only to be stopped dead in tracks. All I could do was stand there and stare...it was the exact spot that my bike was stolen some 17 months ago on my first visit to Singapore. Oh glorious bike how I loved thee. I observed a moment of silence and felt a shimmer in my eye...tear. And then just like that I moved on, found a road side food stand near the MRT, grabbed a beer and sat down reading my new book while waiting for my friends.

Book of the Day - The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux

Have a Drink On Me - ACDC

Last night was half price mega martini night at the 71st floor lounge on the top of Singapore's tallest building. Half price...Mega Martinis...'Nuff Said!

Movie of the Day: 9/11 Loose Change, a documentary on the truths of 9/11. You won't think about things the same after watching this one.

Music of the Day: Thom Yorke - The Eraser, should be no surprise here seeing as I'm such a huge Radiohead fan, but this singer's first solo disc is WICKED!

Slurpee of the Day: Iced Milos, mmm chocolaty icey goodness. "Once it hits your lips its just so good!"

Make You Mad - The Odds

So far I have been spending my time raving about Singapore, so I think I should be fair and let you all in on some the not so good things, cuz many of you know that is what I like to do sometimes, complain. So here you are the Top 3 Most Annoying things about Singapore.

3) Expensive Drinks: The going rate in town for alcoholic beverages in restaurants and bars being between SG$10 – 15, that’s about $7 – $10CDN. To combat these prohibitive drinking prices I have coined the 7 to 7 Night on the Town. This involves buying a drink at a 7-11 (which are only $3CDN) and then mingling down the half block down the sidewalk to the next 7-11, where we then enter and buy another drink. After a few drinks, then enter a bar and nurse a drink over a game of darts or fooseball and depart, heading for the next 7-11, and repeat as needed throughout the night. 727!

2) Bicycles On The Sidewalks: Everyone knows my love for bicycles but not when they’re on the sidewalks. Everytime I am pushed aside onto the grass (you poor bastards stuck in China yes there is grass next to the sidewalks) I want to throw a stick between the spokes. The roads are safe and orderly (no clusterfucks here!) shove your little bell where it belongs and get on the road!!!

1) Singapore Idol: Yes, this bastion on capitalism has found its way over here. It was bad enough in China but at least they had 1.3 billion people to search for some talent, but then again the arts and China don’t really go hand in hand, and it still sucked! I mean really in Canada there are 33 million people to choose from and we still can’t find any “idol” worthy talent, what kind of talent is a county/city of 4 million supposed to have!

So there you are, my rant of the day. Really I have nothing to complain about here except for the fact that it is cloudy here today, the first time in the ten days I have been here, I want the blue skies back. But tonight is the World Cup Final, it starts at 2am local time, so Simon and I are heading downtown to pull off a 727 Night.

Everything In Its Right Place - Radiohead

"What did you think Mr. Littlejeans?" "Best play ever man!" --Rushmore (1999)

Now swap out the word 'play' with 'day' and you have a pretty good idea of how my day was today. How do you know you are about to begin a good day? When you get an SMS at 9am from a friend asking you to meet up for drinks at 8pm that night. Talk about being on the ball with things over here.

So what do you do when you know you are about to have a good day? Well in my case I phone my parents and then head downstairs to the gym and outdoor pool. Two hours later after a run, a bike ride, a swim, and situps done poolside in the sun. Did I mention the blue skies and unpolluted air, yah I think I did. Then it was off for the afternoon for my first two interviews in Singapore one with an English teaching gig, and one with a film and event management company. I was offered both of the jobs!! I will be working for the film company as a writer and producer, and also as project manager on the events side of things. My first project is going to be with Warner Music, putting together an event for a Madonna promo, and producing the video to go along with the event. So maybe just maybe it is finally my turn for something good to happen, knock on wood! I can't wait to get started!

So cheer to me and cheers to you, hell let's gambei!!

Euro Visions - Hooverphonic

Man! What a difference watching the World Cup in a country that cares about football makes!!

It has been insane over here in Asia, you know it really is a month long party when you get outside of North America. China and now Singapore too, with the games being on so late (2-3am) every night has been a party, with people sleeping after work and then waking up for the game, and then drinking red bull and vodkas to keep themselves awake all night. McDonalds over here have installed big screen tv's in all their restaurants and stayed open 24 hours to keep people in the place all night. The other night Italy and Germany were playing Simon and I decided to hit the downtown streets of Singapore for the game. We left the house at midnight and caught the last train to downtown, you would not believe the atmosphere!! We spent the entire night wandering up and down Orchard Rd, going from one 7-11 to the next for drinks and then one cafe or bar to the next for game watching. Throngs of people crowded around any TV they could find. Hotel lobbies, restaurants, McD's, it was electric, a bunch of strangers all partying together on the sidewalks!! 5 hours later and about 15 7-11 stops later we found our way home finally in a taxi, good times good times!! Oh and did I mention we found a pub that was selling Moosehead Beer, two for $12SG, good deal here. Ahh Singapore how I love thee...

Futures - Zero 7

Ahhh paradise!!

Clean air, beaches, big city downtown, multi cultural people and food, cars that stop for people to cross the roads at crosswalks, a person couldn't go to a better place after leaving China. Friendly peopleeverywhere, taxi drivers that crack jokes and converse instead of devising plans inside their heads of how to milk every last kuai out of your pocket and leave you for dead on the side of the road. People that smile and say hi as you walk down the road wishing (or in some instances doing) they could hit you over the head with a beer bottle. I have been here for 6 days now and after living the last five months in a permanently depressed I have found myself walking the streets with a perma-smile on my face. It has also helped that I have been here with my old mate Simon and my girlfriend Keiko, who just left today back to Japan. I couldn't think of a better time, of course unless Bill Cosby come over with an inflatable pool filled with Jello pudding and a contingent of female mud, I mean pudding, wrestlers!

In the past few days I have found myself having drinks at a rooftop bar on the 71st floor of the tallest building in Singapore, eating fantabulous food in Little India, seeing the new Superman movie, hanging out on the beaches of Sentosa Island, pilfering the downtown big city shopping, hanging out eating and drinking on the old european style waterfront quays, or standing on the most southern point of continental mainland asia (163km north of the equator). This city has absolutely everything, it didn't take me long to remember why I loved this place so much the first time I was here! The future looks bright indeed!!