Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Crisis, Black Presidents and Christmas

Hello everybody, we hope this finds you all well and with your money safely stashed under the bed – where else should you put it??!

Just like the rest of the world Singapore’s been dominated by the economic crisis, and whilst they announced a technical recession shortly after NZ, we haven’t really seen it hit, till this week. DBS Bank (the one most locals use for family savings etc) has announced big job losses, with no discussion around wage cuts, or similar alternatives offered at other time of crisis. Other financial institutes who are based here (and there are many!!) are expected to follow suit, and pinkies at the end of their contract are not being asked to renew. The new casino being built on the waterfront almost went belly up this week too. Miles behind time and struggling to pay it’s creditors, the Americans in charge of the project actually asked the government for a bail out. Silly boys! They don’t bail out private institutes here – as pointed out to them, “this is a commercial venture that receives our blessing, but get the money elsewhere and get the job finished”. They have, in the spate of a week, managed to secure more funding at the expense of another job in Malaysia, but who knows if it will be enough. The work carries on much to relief of the foreign workers who are on site everyday.
So, sorry times for everyone really. However, if you walked around the shopping malls here you’d never know anything was amiss. The youf are out in force for as long as the shops stay open. They fill the cinemas every weekend, and the food centers still brim with the sight of people eating out, and the smell of magi mee being tossed in a wok! It’s all water off a ducks back to them as they go about their business confident of getting a new job, and if not well, they’ll just take that overseas trip they’ve been wanting for a while anyway. The elders do worry so……

On the fun side of life, before the recession bit and we could still hear Rick Astley playing in the shops, G and I got the chance to go to Antwerp for a conference. Anyone whose ever been on a conference/business networking event knows that it’s just a big piss up really, and what a better place to have one? Belgium, not so much your ABC’s, but you BCD’s Beer, Chocolate and Diamonds in that order! It goes without saying we had a fabulous time, and were the star attraction as most guests were European, so being the Asian Contingent who’d come all that way meant we were given the best of hospitality and friendships. We all stayed in the Hilton Hotel overlooking the historic square and Town Hall, where the group had a fantastic meal on the last evening. Highlight was a beer tasting session held in one of the old monk’s cellars down a little ally way. All done by candlelight in the cellars with a beer expert giving us the run down of each beer as it came out. Very similar to wine tasting, only you get more and it goes down very quickly. “Get it down ya neck” as they in most parts!! Along with visiting the diamond museum, fashion museum and generally eating and drinking ourselves stupid, we had a great time and vowed to attend the next one in 2 years time. They announced that it will be held in Brazil – how could we not go to that one????
We squeezed in 2 days in Bruges coz we couldn’t get to the UK to see the folks before heading home in time for me to start my new job. Will fill you in another time, but basically it’s going really well. People like our ideas, we’ve had no problems getting in to meet with potential clients and have our first training course starting on December 2nd. Wish me luck!!

What’s Hot
Christmas. Yes, good old Santa must be dusting his boots as we speak because the festive season has arrived in Singapore with no escape!! I saw my first Christmas tree on 28th OCTOBER. By the 1st November Christmas trees had shot up all over the city and we now get “It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas” over the supermarket speakers. It just doesn’t seem right – Christmas songs, tins of biscuits with snow scenes on them, candy bars and selection boxes, meanwhile its 35 degrees outside!! The songs are so awful I have to wear my walkman to the shops just to get round without punching someone.

What’s Luke Warm
Our pub quiz team. We’ve been to two now, same venue, but a change in some team members. And overall we’re not too shabby, but not great either. Our first attempt we came second, much to ours and everyone else’s surprise! This time round, not as good, but there were more teams, and we were only 1.5 points off 3rd – if we’d remembered that it was Kelly Marie who sang “It Feels Like I’m In Love” all those years ago we’d have been in with a shout. Never mind, all good fun and there’s always next time.

What’s Neither
Greedy grandparents and black prime ministers are not hot right now. Since history was made in the USA a few weeks ago, the talk now is whether Singapore should consider such a dramatic change to it’s leaders or even- shock horror, god forbid – a woman Prime Minister!! This was very quickly swept under the carpet as total garbage, and whilst they applauded America’s decision, and will give Obama all the support they can, it’s basically a “not in our backyard” sentiment.
Euthanasia is also on the table over here. Now they’ve solved the problem of teenagers getting hitched and couples having kids, it’s time to look at the oldies and their quality of life – yes that old chestnut!! Although they don’t use the word Euthanasia, they are looking at the criteria for switching off life support machines, drip feeds etc.. and this includes; long-term illness, suffering, quality of life, and the biggie….. are they becoming an economic burden to their families? You can just imagine it can’t you – “look mother I won’t tell you again. If you keep eating all the chocolate biscuits I’m going to have to have you put down”.

So, we hope that none of you have to make such serious decisions as where to invest your next million without losing it, should a black man be running your country, or should you get granny put down now and save on the turkey! Whatever’s going on, we hope you are all well and will try to get one more blog in before Christmas. We’ve got one last trip planned this year to Sarawak to see the Orangutans, so will give you an update on how that went.
Check out the new photos on the slide show – I’ve been experimenting with black and white – very Andy Warhol!!

Send us your news, what’s everyone doing for the holidays?????

Cheers then G & J