OHS

I am sitting out on a client site where they take OH&S very seriously.

My Birthday

It started with an office kick-off of 6:30am to finalise a proposal that I have no chance of winning and ended with ....... well, go have a look at www.noneofyourbusiness.com.xxx

In between:

I had calls from the usual suspects after my lovely renditions of Happy Birthday by nieces and nephews the day before. Well, Grace only made it through the first two words before being lost in admiration for the pink tutu she was wearing and despite Lacy's best efforts to swap it with a dinosaur, Ben was lost in admiration for his Tinkerbell figurine (both with and without a hat). If anyone knows what Jasper and Jack were saying, please share.

I received some awesome Bose headphones from Mum & Dad, I received a Laphroaig 25 year old from the Squeeze, some great clothes from Wife 2, a red packet from Parents 2, "the cheque is in the mail" from Sister 1 & Sister 2 and a surprise ice cream cake, again from the Squeeze. And a slice before dinner!!

We went to Japanese for dinner where I had a couple of firsts.

Genuine and freshly ground wasabi root. The whole root is rubbed against some sort of glamorous sandpaper and voila. The consistency is the same as the stuff you normally get but more yellow and with an infinitely richer flavour. Lots of heat, but not the same "nose-heat" you get with the synthetic stuff.

Fugu. We had a deep fried version so am not really sure what it tastes like except what we ate was impeccably seasoned and we lived to tell the tale.

Happy Birthday Mum

Happy Birthday Mum

(Happy Birthday Drew Barrymore)
(Happy Birthday Crocodile Hunter)
(Happy Birthday George Washington)
(Happy Birthday Doug)
(Happy Birthday Me)

Ahem

On the street that I get off the after-work bus there are a number of upstairs massage parlours. On the sidewalk, the touts for each of the establishments sits and encourages passersby to sample the wares of the mysterious second floor delights.

When I used to pass by, the touts would really put some effort into trying to get me to go upstairs.It really annoyed me. "Sir. Massage? No. 1 massage, very very sexy massage. Please sir....".

Now I am annoyed by their lack of effort. They will be reading the newspaper, heads down and at the last minute might simply say "massage" maybe with lifting their heads, maybe not. They might just give me a bit of raised eyebrow action. They might motion in the direction of the entrance. Put some effort in man!!!

Thaipusam

This weekend past saw the Thaipusam festival held in Little India. This is the festival where various contraptions are hooked into devotees' bodies and they walk a symbolic pilgrimage.

(our apartment on the right)

I got down for a quick look at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal temple on Friday night and was fed some milk (normally poured over a statue of our Lord Subramaniam but liberally handed out to passing eight-armed elephants and two-armed me), some chickpeas and some dodgy information about when the parade would take place. By pure chance on the drive to the Malaysia-bound ferry on Saturday morning (boys weekend "Vegas" rules apply) we passed by the hook kadavi and I managed to see the devotees and take some amazing photos.

By pure chance on Saturday night in Malaysia the camera's entire memory got wiped (boys weekend "Vegas" rules apply) and so my photos of the morning are gone. The above photo of a devotee is not mine but is of the very same event.

What's really frustrating is that I only found out about this festival by chance from an Indian woman who I am friendly with in the office. There seems to be very little promotion of the the amazing cultural diversity of Singapore and rather than the cultural harmony promoted by Singapore, it seems to be co-existence only. What other amazing celebrations from the Indian, Muslim, Malay and Chinese communities am I missing?