September 17, 2005
Hor weekend already, liao!
This is the Changi beach and it is on the other side of the country from where we live. Not far from where I work. Sometimes it seems weird that we may go for a walk, lunch or dinner somewhere on the oposite side of the country. In reality, the whole island is some 60 km wide, so its not such a big deal to go from one side to the other for dinner.. :) My colleagues drive to Malaysia for lunch! Well that is already slightly weird, I think...
I wouldn't swim here (look at all the oil tankers that are passing by).. I'm sure its perfectly fine and safe, but I think that the sandy shore is artificial (can't be sure, but it looks so from the shape of it in the map)
However, Changi beach is a very relaxed place (compared to other places where one could spend a Saturday afternoon in Leijonakaupunki, e.g. Orchard rd. or some shopping mall). It was nice to see people fishing, just hanging out, putting up tents, etc. Sometimes its difficult to imagine that just a few decades ago Leijonakaupunki was a sleepy island full of kampongs (Malay for a village) in the jungle where tigers were roaming free.. :) From time to time you get a glimpse of what it must have been like (nice!), but mostly its covered - in asphalt, glass and steel. Here's a link to video archive of cleaning up of the Leijonakaupunki river. Very interesting if you've seen what it looks now with all the bars, clubs, restaurants and expensive hotels around... And here's William Gibsons's impressions of the place when he visited it in 1993 (yes yes, the same guy who wrote "Neuromancer")...
We went to Changi Village for a beer/dinner with Giuliano, Jo & Luca last weekend. Luca is already 1 month old and you can see that his parents are very liberal - making him used to spending time in bars already.. :) Charlie's Corner is a definite "place of interest" here - it imports beers from all around the world (you can find even Lapin Kulta, although they're not enlightened to import Shvyturys yet. Btw, I heard that you can find it in Alko these days.. If you haven't tried yet, go for it! Shvyturio Extra is the best!!! It is the most popular Lithuanian beer and Kaj can confirm with his whole heart that it is very good!!!) It is kind of funny, when you think about it - Giuliano (he's my remote colleague :) emailed me after he found this blog. And this wouldn't have happened anymore now, after I have put it under password... So I wouldn't even know him or Jo and Luca... Life would definitely be worse.. :)
Last week we also had mooncake screening with my colleagues, watching British comedies "Little Britain" and "The Office". The semester is over, the marking is done and we're getting much more relaxed finally! If you've been following my blog from the beginning, there's something about mooncakes from last year already. Last time (ha ha.. wait for explanation of "last time") I associated mooncakes with the Hungry Ghost festival, I think. But now I think that there's no connection. Mooncakes are related to Mid-autumn festival (is there anything else, but mooncakes about this festival?) and they're very elaborated pieces of pastry stuffed with lotus paste. Often they have a full salted duck egg yolk (perfectly round and intact baked inside, don't ask me how they put it in there!). Salim our ex-manager (in yellow shirt) will be leaving our school in couple of weeks.. :(
Now the explanation for "last time". "Last time" may mean anything related to the past in local English. It could stand for - "it used to", "earlier", "before", could mean just one or many occassions, when that particular thing happened (e.g. "last time when I was in university, I used to be very slim..", "last time I told him a week ago...", etc) I adopted it fully & it may embarrasing sometimes.. :)
All my attempts to speak some Singlish fail quite badly (although my English grammar is deteriorating fast.. Kaj is complaining already :).. I especially humble down when i read the Rockson Tan's blog. Waah.. Sounds just like some of my students. He's my new favorite, sorry Molly Meek! :) Some sample text for you:"I also never go and say this Airframe guy blog no good, why he come here and disturb me? He is lucky I am now not like last time is a young punk, small small thing also want to fight. Now I am more self control because I got blog to write my feeling."Posted by gkligyte at September 17, 2005 06:34 PM