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Tym Blogs Too!

The random web scribblings of a person with too many thoughts and too little time

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

What is wrong with these people?

I had to work this past weekend, so no book-reading day for me. It's also hard to relax when every time I so much as glanced at the news, I would get angry with the Myanmar government all over again ---

(This is what happens when you prop up crazy military regimes, you know? You can keep saying that economic development will pave the way for political liberalisation and development, but now more people are dead than the mind can comprehend and the country's self-appointed leaders have shown once and for all that they really don't give a damn about the dead, dying or the living --- in short, about anything other than themselves. How do you like them apples?)

--- and getting angry at the Myanmar government makes it difficult to blog about anything else. As a friend just said on her Facebook status, it's amazing, "the difference in coverage between the [Myanmar] hurricane and the [China] earthquake."

posted by Tym at 10:31 PM

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Friday, May 09, 2008

Click on it --- you know you want to

Is it any surprise that the most popular BBC News story right now is, "Great tits cope well with warming"?

Oh, human beings --- so predictable. If an alien race wanted to come down and trap us all so it could take over the planet, it would just have to label its trap with the words "great tits" and its work would be done.

I clicked on it too. But that was in the email of daily BBC news, which had it listed as the top story under Science/Nature rather than Health, so I figured it was about some odd creature rather than, well, you know.

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posted by Tym at 9:35 AM

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Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Brand loyalty

Reason to buy the same brand of cell phone year after year: so that when one of the cats (Sisu, I'm looking at you) chews through the cord of my phone charger, I'm not too panicked because I've got plenty of spares.

This does make me nervous about all the other wires I have lying around though ...

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posted by Tym at 8:27 AM

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Sunday, May 04, 2008

The laziest weekend of them all

Yesterday, I woke up at 11ish, met a friend for lunch at 1ish, came home after and surfed the web desultorily for an hour or so, then passed out for an hour and a half --- before waking up for a carbo-laden birthday dinner that nearly sent me right back to bed again. Thank goodness that the friend whose birthday it was kindly invited us all back to his place for (Irish) coffee afterwards, so sleep was postponed for several hours.

To forestall a repeat of that sort of embarrassing sleep schedule today, and since I was sick of the internet and my laptop, today I betook myself off to a cafe to read for the afternoon.

First stop: the Cedele outlet at Frankel Avenue for decent coffee and lunch to go with the reading. There was chocolate cake too, which is no Lana, but still very good indeed.

A little weekend reading

Then there was Starbucks at Parkway Parade, because the friend who'd joined me for lunch likes working there, and he needed to be working today. Which gave me plenty of time to finish Anansi Boys, and buy breakfast for tomorrow, and window-shop a little, and just daydream the rest of the time away.

I have read only 6 books this year and one-third of the year is already over. Maybe every Sunday should be book-reading day.

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posted by Tym at 11:40 PM

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Saturday, May 03, 2008

Lianhe Zaobao in the news

I know I spend a lot of time slagging off on the local mainstream media, but let's give it a little props where it's due: Lianhe Zaobao gets mentioned today on the BBC as having exposed the story of Taiwan losing US$30 million of public funds meant for diplomatic negotiations with Papua New Guinea.

It's nice to have the country's press mentioned in a somewhat do-gooder fashion for a change and without an interjection like "government-friendly". Maybe it helps that Singapore and Taiwan don't have official diplomatic ties (even though the army boys still go there for training).

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posted by Tym at 12:04 PM

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Friday, May 02, 2008

Instead of cooking

I had an inexplicable craving for delivery pizza tonight, so for the first time in over a year, I called Sarpino's and put in an order (with a friend standing by to help with the eating). The best part was that between us, we polished off the two 10" pizzas and side order of chicken wings, so there were no leftovers for the fridge, hurrah!

I would've cooked dinner but I've run into plumbing problems again: one of the pipes running from the kitchen sink has sprung a leak. A friend is gonna help seal it up this weekend, but meanwhile I'm avoiding any kitchen activities that would entail washing the dishes with soap. The hardest part is, predictably, not being able to make coffee in the morning.

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posted by Tym at 11:46 PM

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Strike three, but we got lucky

Because I am a freelancer who is --- for all intents and purposes --- surgically attached to her internet connection, Cowboy Caleb calls me on occasion for last-minute restaurant advice and I spend about five minutes helping him pick a place where he can fête a client or boss on his company's tab. The other typical condition is that it has to be a place that he knows how to get to in Singapore, which can be harder than it sounds.

Today he calls at about noon from Hong Kong and needs a place for dinner tonight. He can't expense the meal, but still needs it to be nice enough. Oh, and no Asian food.

We settle on Valentino's, because we've been there before and it's pretty damn good food. He asks me to get a reservation (yes, I am officially his entertainment secretary, didn't you know?) and SMS him when the table's booked. I call. Valentino's, it turns out, is fully booked for the night.

A little SMSing, another phone call. "How about Marmalade Pantry at Palais Renaissance?," I suggest, "because the air-conditioning at the Holland Village one isn't working [as I found out to my dismay on Monday night]."

"Where's Palais Renaissance?"

"Next to Orchard Towers, between Orchard Towers and the Thai embassy."

For reasons that cannot be reported here, Cowboy Caleb declines to go anywhere near Orchard Towers. We settle on Ember at Hotel 1929, another reliable choice that he knows how to get to.

I call and: "We regret to inform you that we will be closed for renovations from 30 April to ..." Cheebye. I hang up without bothering with the rest of the automated message.

"Strike two," I SMS Cowboy.

He calls back. By this point, I'm trawling through The Travelling Hungryboy for ideas. We confer. "Okay, Wild Rocket," he decides.

I call and I cannot believe my ears: "I'm sorry, but we're closed tonight for a private function."

Clearly, the moral of the story at this point is that it is not possible to get a dinner reservation at a decent place on the eve of a public holiday (it's May Day tomorrow), unless you planned your evening a week before and had time to work your way through an entire restaurant directory.

Cowboy cannot believe it; neither can I. James comes to the rescue on MSN: "Cork", he says, "63279169." Does Cowboy know where Capital Towers is? Why yes, he does. After which he SMSes: "I boarding the plane. You decide."

Meanwhile, I'm calling --- and miracle of miracles, they are open, they have tables available and they are pleased as punch to take Cowboy's reservation. I manage to sneak in a last confirmation SMS to Cowboy and the URL for Chubby Hubby's review of the place before he switches off his phone on the plane.

As far as I know, dinner went all right.

It seems Secretaries' Day has just passed us by, so Cowboy owes me a huge bonus next year. He should buy me dinner at a nice place.

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posted by Tym at 11:50 PM

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