Living in Sing: Chicken Hat

This week I have mostly been re acquainting myself with Singapore and all that is odd in the place. This is because we have just returned from a week long sanity check fact finding mission in Aus. One of the facts I found was that there is actually real live music out there, not the cover band crap we have to put up with here. A pleasant afternoon was spent at Homebake in Sydney catching some fine toons including what was pretty much a Crowded House gig with all the members that hadn’t killed themselves up on stage with the elder Finn and some other Split Enz people. It seemed a million miles away from crap cover bands like “Six in da City” who we had the misfortune to see in Singapore following a comedy session at the 1 night stand.
It was a little difficult to escape Singapore when in Aus due to the country's tenacity when it comes to hanging drug traffickers. As unfortunate as the incident was, that’s the rules and they love rules here, so no surprise there was no negotiation. The incident hardly caused a stir here, in fact the only reason people knew about it was due to the stir the Aus media made. Normally the hangman quietly goes about his business and people get on with their shopping and eating safe in the knowledge that bad people are being dangled from a length of rope. Although a very brave journo did write an article questioning the whole thing in the Government owned Straits Times. I think he is due for execution some time next week.

In sharp contrast to killing people, it appears Singapore was quite busy in our absence developing a preventative cure for Hepatitis A and B; it is the humble Kleenex and they were giving the cure away for free at the lights at Tampines Central. Singporians love free stuff so it was quite a fight to get my pack. They were probably also keen get their hands on a packet as the locals use them to reserve a table at the hawker markets. There is an unwritten law that says if there is a packet on a table then it is reserved. Elliot, the occasional foot drinker has a master plan to run around the hawker markets just before they open and put a packet on every table and sit back and watch the implosion as the locals try to work out whether or not they are brave enough to break the law, even if it is only an unwritten one.
I have been a little slack of late in my efforts to get to work favouring cab over the MRT train ride. So I decided to catch the MRT last Friday to see how my fellow commuters were and if anyone had missed me. Turned out they hadn’t, they were all too busy sleeping standing up and invading your public space to notice my return. But I was intrigued to discover that the MRT is running a competition to find the best station, encouraging commuters to vote in this annual event. I am planning to skew their results by voting for the Buangkok station, I have never been there, but did report earlier the hooha over this station and people dialling 999 to complain about white elephant cut outs on the station fence. As soon as I can find out how to vote on line I will be encouraging people to do the same.