Back from Singapore. Every day was like groundhog day - visit 1 lot of relatives in the AM followed by nap time (for Emily) in the afternoon and dinner with another lot of relatives in the evening. Rinse and repeat each day - only the relatives change (sometimes). I find it funny in Singapore sometimes because I stand out so much as the gui lo. People in the street stare at me wondering why I am following the man, woman and little girl, shop staff don't believe that I am Emily's father, the relatives assume I won't eat nonya food because caucasians don't eat (curry) hot food, that I have never heard of the various landmarks or suburbs of Singapore although I have been there 4 times already.
Again I was looking at the world through Cheryl shaped glasses, remembering past visits with her and thinking what whe would say about the shopping and putting up with her relatives, particularly her unlce who drove around a block of traffic lights 3 times until he remembered which 1 was the turn off for the expressway and then ran into the back of a taxi parked in the hotel driveway.
Cheryl and I had a particularly fine trip in 1992 for her cousin's wedding. We had only just got engaged which meant that we were allowed to share a room at the Westin although we had to have seperate beds which we duly photgraphed for her parents before pushing them together. I am sure the sex was good (it always was back then) but I remeber the togetherness more because I was getting to see an earlier part of Cheryl which she never talked about in Australia. I learnt how she fitted into the wider clan, so that I in turn now fitted in as well.
As a final thought, the Singapore Straits Times is not the most progressive or independant of newspapers. It is therefore worrying that they think Kevin Rudd's election to PM will be a good thing because (a) he is a sinophile which is very important because Singapore has tied its star to China's expansion & (b) he is a conservative who won't be making any radical changes to how Australia runs. Considering this is from a paper which lauded 8-9% annual GDP growth based on the unions agreeing to implement wages cuts and allow the import of cheap labour from China and India, and I have serious reservations as to what we are letting ourselves in for.
Again I was looking at the world through Cheryl shaped glasses, remembering past visits with her and thinking what whe would say about the shopping and putting up with her relatives, particularly her unlce who drove around a block of traffic lights 3 times until he remembered which 1 was the turn off for the expressway and then ran into the back of a taxi parked in the hotel driveway.
Cheryl and I had a particularly fine trip in 1992 for her cousin's wedding. We had only just got engaged which meant that we were allowed to share a room at the Westin although we had to have seperate beds which we duly photgraphed for her parents before pushing them together. I am sure the sex was good (it always was back then) but I remeber the togetherness more because I was getting to see an earlier part of Cheryl which she never talked about in Australia. I learnt how she fitted into the wider clan, so that I in turn now fitted in as well.
As a final thought, the Singapore Straits Times is not the most progressive or independant of newspapers. It is therefore worrying that they think Kevin Rudd's election to PM will be a good thing because (a) he is a sinophile which is very important because Singapore has tied its star to China's expansion & (b) he is a conservative who won't be making any radical changes to how Australia runs. Considering this is from a paper which lauded 8-9% annual GDP growth based on the unions agreeing to implement wages cuts and allow the import of cheap labour from China and India, and I have serious reservations as to what we are letting ourselves in for.
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In other news, it was great to see you guys tonight xx