Cat Stevens and Normal Tea...What The??!!

Well if you are like my good friend Sabrina Gabrielle (thats her confirmation name because as i found out recently..when the Archbishop of Melbourne asked her when he presided over her confirmation why she chose that name, a youthful Sab looked up with her big brown eyes and said 'Becasue i want to be like the angel Gabriel') Mileto then the concept of 'Normal' tea is anything from the Twinings Tea Selection Box. More on this later.

We are back in Singapore once again and after our two weeks in Myanmar which from know on will be known as "The Spiritual Freedom Peace Train Tour 2006" (come on the Peace Train!) its fantastic to be surrounded by such delicacies such as high speed internet, fantastically fresh Indian Food and strawberry Big M's!

We are only here for the one night as tomorrow we are flying to Bangkok where we will spend about three days running around seeing the things that well...we haven't seen yet. I'll update everyone from Bangers tomorrow.

Back to the 'Normal Tea' thing, Sabrina loves her tea...loves it. In fact i think that one of Sab's dream jobs would be to write for a magazine called "Tea Leaf Life" where she could debate the virtues of English Breakfast over Earl Grey. This morning on the way back from Yangon, meals were being served by the staff on Jetstar. I know Jetstar don't serve meals usually but this flight was in conjunction with Myanmar Airways so that explains the poor poor choice of fish or pork to eat.

After the barely edible meal, tea and coffee were served. I chose the coffee and Sab then asked "Do you have any normal tea?" Well i burst into laughter and i mean the whole snorting and shoulder movement thing as the question just astounded me. To Asia in general, Green Tea is 'normal tea' where as black tea would be 'not normal tea' yet this is not how its supposed to be according to Sab and who am i to argue? Shes in striking distance so ill keep my mouth shut.

So from Singers to Bangers we go and i'll update you all from there.

Gees Singapore is brilliant!

Myanmar - Temples, Chickens and Blokes in Skirts

Yes that's me in local costume and that's Teddy outside the biggest temple in Yangon.

Howdy strangers or as we say in Myanmar "Me la la Nook Nook."
That's not Myanmar language by the way, it's just me being a dickhead.

At last Sabrina and i have the opportunity to update our audience of the delights of the past two weeks here in this Socialist country. We are back in Yangon which in Myanmar means "Death to the Enemy" which just screams out 'Welcome to our country' doesn't it? Here are 10 facts about this exciting little Asian country.

1 - There are 227 rules and regulations to follow if you want to be a monk.
2 - Myanmar is roughly the size of Texas.
3 - I think we visited about 50-60 temples these past two weeks.
4 - Myanmar in the local language means "Land of The Quick and Swift"
5 - Myanmar internet access, unlike the country is not quick and swift.
6 - The people here are the freindliest we've seen on our travels.
7 - When your tour guide says "Lets share a beer" you will always pay for it.
8 - There is no such thing as a sex industry in Myanmar according to our guide.
9 - You can eat amazing custard with Banana at the 7 Sisters Restaurant in Kalaw.
10- The local Catholic preist in Kalaw think Sab and i are idiots.

For a more detailed description of where we went check out Sabrinas blog at spaces.msn.com/sabszone30. Just click on the title of this blog.

Amazing you say! Why haven't we packed the kids in the car and traveled here earlier? In hindsight our tour of this place has been pretty good. I wouldn't say it was excellent because as we found out besides Temples and Chinese Restaurants, our tour guide Myo never really took us to anything else. I know we were on a tour and we have agendas to follow but seriously, how many times can you fake interst in seeing a Bhuddist Temple? To be fair on our guide he was flexible in his thinking an adapted the tour to our needs. Instead of seeing a temple we can go and see a floating market. Brilliant we tought.

We floated right past it in our boat.

For two days we were staying on Inlay Lake (which by the way is 22km long and 11 km wide and during the rainy season is 9 meters deep) and when i mean on the lake, we were on the lake! (can i make it anymore clearer?) Now it's a lovely place for romance but no offence to my buddy Sab, it's doesn't exactly suit our needs as the pants off department is strictly taboo. Lord knows i've tried! ...Just Kidding everyone!

Earlier in the week we visited Bagan which is home for over 2000 temples built from the 11 to the 13th centuries. It is an amazing sight to see these temples..when you first get there but after a while Sab was completly turned off by seeing another temple. I myself was really getting into it. 'Yeah!' i thought 'This temple is certainly a late period templeswhere as the one before was an early age temple. The difference is in the number of entrances and the detailing of the stucco on the exterior.' I don't know if i was going cuckoo but maybe it was my failed attempt at being an architect that inspired me to enjoy seeing temples over and over and over again.

Bagan also teased us by having a swimming pool at our hotel where i decided to get sunburnt big time and even five days after i got burnt, i'm still red and yes mum i did put sunscreen on!

But what about the local delicacy you say? Well in Myanmar you have the choice of Myanmar food (basically fish and vegetables) or Chinese food and that's it. Sab and i have eaten so much Chinese food and Myanmar food that i can't eat anymore. My heart feels likes its been marinaded in MSG and its slowly cooking itself into a delicious heart attack but seriously we couldn't eat anything else becasue there was nothing else! I did have the fourtune to try bamboo shoots which smell and taste like cow shit. It really does, our guide Myo thought it was hilarious, my tastebuds disagreed with him.

Other highlights included

- Mandaly Hill. Mandaly is the cultural capital of this country and one of the 5 ancient capitals of the country. The view was supurb and was the numerous hand weaving and stone carving galleries we saw in Mandalay.

- Sab and i crossed the worlds longest wooden bridge. It's 1.2 km long and we crossed it twice as we had to get back to the car to go and see the local pottery barn.

- The devotion to religon here is amazing. The people are so devout here that it puts most Catholics to shame. Speaking of Catholics, fact number 10 said that priest thought Sab and i were idiots. In Kalaw, Sab, Myo and i went for a walk around the town where we stumbled across a Catholic church. It wasn't a temple so we decided to have a look. Whilst inside we ran into the local preist who we were invited to sit down and have a chat to. Whilst asking him such questions as "How long have you been here?" , "When did you want to become a priest", "Did you meet Pope John Paul?" eventually the hard hitting questions that we have wanted to ask a man of the cloth came out of our mouths...

"Have you seen the Da Vinci Code?"
"No..what is it?"
"Its a movie" (feeling like right idiots now as we have barely seen any DVD players in this country)

Our conversation turned into a slanging match between the preist and two Aussies wanting to debunk the history of the Catholic Church. Having not seen the film, our arguments to the priest were being taken at face value and judging by the look on the preists face..he thought we were morons.

"Well its in the bible. It's written text. Its been criticised and analised and its still here."
Sab chipped in with a question "but how do you know what was written was the truth"
Gotcha now buddy!
"Well how do you know what Shakespeare wrote plays?"
Me - "Well its in books"
Preist - "So you believe that Shakespeare wrote plays because its in a book so if its the bible must be right because its in a book too right?"
My thought - "Damn it, he snookered us"
Shifty Priest!

Well after our audience with the preist we were satisfied with getting the hard questions off our chest.

I could write so much more but ill leave that to Sab...hehe. Check out her blog for all the adventures we got up to.

Overall Myanmar was great to see and we are both glad we came but we are both looking forward to seeing different aspects of Southeast Asia and experiencing new adventures and observing other cultures.

Tomorrow we are back to Singapore and civilisation.

Speak to you all soon.

It's pronounced "Me-anne-mar"

Hello everyone from the city of Mandalay.

I'm actually quite lucky to get access to Blogger as the internet access in Myanmar is quite well...crap. Nevertheless the whole point of travelling to countries such as the one Sab and i are currently invading is to get away from such dependence on technology that i am using right now.

With what little time i have to write before our tour guide picks us up i have to say that Myanmar is brilliant. We landed in Yangon and were greeted with a sign at the airport with both our names on it just like in the movies. In all honesty i've always wanted to be greeted with a sign at the airport.

Sab and i have done well as it's only the two of us in the tour group so we are getting a personal two week tour of this place. Our guide Myo is a really great guy and loves all things Italian (hehe be careful Sab). We are staying in nice hotels and being driven around everywhere...this is so out of our league.

There's so much more to write but its time to go. i'll try and get a pic up here in teh next couple of days. We've been to so many temples but unlike China, they are all a work of art. So much history and the people...my god they are so friendly. We went to a pottery village yesterday outside of Yangon and the ride took an hour over the bumpiest road we have been on. Both Sabs and my boobs were bouncing all over the back of the jeep. Everything here is hand made and with tools so bare is amazing how they can create such masterpeices of art.

Gotta go, so far Myanmar is soooo good.

In late breaking news

Sabrina is having trouble with her phone card she purchased from 7-11 10 minutes ago.

Not only does she have to type in about 30 numbers before the phone rings but she just found out that she has to put coins in the phone first and then she can use the phonecard.

I thought these cards were supposed to make things easier.

That's one strike against you Singapore.

Here's a pic of my PLI class from friday morning. I'm going to miss those kids..except Carlos. He's a little shit that luckily isn't in this picture.

As i finish typing this 10 minutes after i started, Sab still can't get this thing to work.

Life in the Fast Lane!

Speed..Speed..give me what i need!

Yes that's me earlier this afternoon at Sentosa Island racing down the hill on the Sentosa Luge. No it wasn't a race between me and Sab, i was just trying to go as fast as i can and not use the brakes at all. I mean that's the whole point of these things right?

To wind the clock back, just after our last update, Sab and i had a delightful meal of bread, garlic cheese topped with vegemite. Sure it's no Beijing Duck but the combination was surprisingly flavoursome. It was a quiet night as well as we decided to stay in and have a quiet beer (yes...Sab had a James Boags . That's her favourite) and also a quick game of pool out the back as well. The place where we are staying hasa very hostelian vibe that i enjoy. The crowd here seems to be a bit less welcoming to people as in other places though. The two nights that we've been here there have just been clumps of groups around the place. Do we not know something about this place or do Sab and i just smell?

Anyways this morning after half my scrambled eggs fell off my plate at brekky time, we decided to head down to the market. On the way we stopped into 7-11 where i gazed upon something close to liquid gold...Strawberry Big M's! Oh the sweet sweet taste of the Strawb took me back to the Norwood Drive Milk Bar after a hard day at St. Peters Primary School. we havent had one since 2004! At the market it was time for me to purchase a new toiletries bag as my other one was on its last legs.Well i saw this bag that was the right size to squeeze into my backpack...and it was a Superman bag too! So now the Man of Steel is looking after my soap and shaving stuff..lord help him!

Today we ventured on the efficient subway system to Sentosa Island which is Singapores answer to Brisbanes South Bank. Whilst the man made beaches are fantastic and the water blue as the sky above, the greatest thing about this place is that you actually feel like you are out of the city. The people are so relaxed and friendly that leaving this place is getting harder and harder as time passes.

Also on Sentosa we ventured to the Southermost Point of Continental Asia. Sure a rocky outcrop would not appeal to many people (including the person sitting next to me at this internet cafe) but Teddy Richards and Sabrina's Mascot Kimba got their picture togeter on tihs historical well...rock.

So tonight we are taking it easy as we have an early flight to Myanmar tomorrow and depending on internet access ill try to keep this posted as up to date as i can.

Gees Singapore is great.

Singapore just keeps getting better...seriously a lot better.

Right now i feel like i'm on top of the world.

That's me earlier today 150 meters in the air inside Singapores latest observation sensation, the DHL hot air balloon. The day so far has seen us eat Roti (oh my god that stuff is sensational) and make our traditional Singaporean trek down to Suntec City Shopping Centre. Yet after the happy yet tearful farewell at Topkids Kindergarten yesterday afternoon i was wondering wether or not how will we survive outside of Hong Kong.

After saying our goodbyes to Porpoise Spit (sorry i meant Tin Shui Wai) Sab and i are back in the city-state we love the most. The more i come to Singapore the more i fall for this place. It's so different to Hong Kong that it's hard to imagine how we ever survived in Honkers for a tad under two years.

Don't get me wrong, Hong Kong is a great city and i'll have some fantastic memories of my time there but Singapore is more modern, safe, freindly and by a huge margin liveable city to reside in. Sure i may be talking it up now as we have only spent snippets of time here but Sab and i grabbed a copy of the local rag just to have a squiz at the jobs section. We saw a couple and we are going to apply, you never know what could happen.

Yet we are taking the next couple of days to relax. We have been on the go packing, cleaning, going to dinners and getting ready to say goodbye that we need a couple of days here just to recharge the batteries, then again if a job offer came our way it may be a little longer than a couple of days!

Ahhh ya gotta love your family

The weekend that had just past played centre stage to me meeting my parents in Sngapore. The last time i saw my parents was last october but i didn't have any time to actually sit down with them and actually have a decent chat about life and other things.

For a couple of weeks leading up to the holiday i was a little nervous about meeting my mum and dad. Crazy i know seeing that they are my parents and they have known me since minus nine months old but this was the first time that i had seen them outside of well...East Keilor.

Friday morning i made my way to Hong Kong airport and was counting down the minutes till my flight when all of a sudden a lady from the Hong Kong Airport pulled me aside to participate in a survey. She started this survey about five minutes before my flight and i was so pissed that i ended up at the back of the queue to get onto the plane. Besides that the flight was very nice and before i knew it i was on my way into Singapore.

When i made my way into the Pheonix Hotel my dad greeted me with a great big hug but compared to the rib crusher mum gave me a few minutes later, thre was no contest. Mum was constantly hugging me and was 'just making sure' i was really here. The weekend saw myself participate in a few tours ranging from the fantastic Night Safari to having breakfast with the oragutangs at the Singapore Zoo. Then again it was like having brekky with the extended relatives.

Whilst in Singapore i left my camera at the backpacker hosteland i had to lag my ass across town to pick it up. I also took in Superman Returns which was pretty good i think. Sure it's no 'Superman IV - The Quest for Peace' but it was great to see the man of steel bound place back on the big screen. Though Honh Kong is an exciting city in its own way, Singapore is such a vibrant, green and easy to get around that it is the best city in Asia by far.

Yet the main highlight was spending quality time with Dana and Trevor. It was brilliant to sit down with mum and dad and just talk about anything and everything (well almost everything) Spending a Sunday morning sitting in an outdoor cafe with a severe thunderstorm pelting down around us and watching the World Cup final with my dad was just fantastic.

Thanks for having me guys and i can't wait to see you again in Feburary.

JetStar Asia flight to Singapore now boarding...

The one thing i love about Hong Kong Airport is the free internet access. It's about 20 mins before boarding time.

I'm really looking forward to seeing mum and dad again. We didn't get much of a chance to spend some time together the last time i was home so i am looking forward to having a nice long chat with the both of them. I've missed that.

Anyways i'll try and keep everyone posted on here during the weekend.

Ciao for now!!

Stupid Picture of the Day

Bruce Lee is Hong Kong's idol.

Then two Aussies that look like tools come past and do something stupid like this.

Yeah..we are class all the way.

Another Day, Another iPod

Seems that i am a sucker for punishment.

Some people like whips and chains or watching any sitcom featuring Charlie Sheen but for me, i just had to get another iPod. I purchased my new iPod video yesterday.

This is number 3. Well if you count all the iPods that i got through the Apple Service centre to replace the faulty ones, i think its number 8.

I started off with the white iPod that froze its way through 4 replacement iPods. It would freeze whilst i was testing its engineering limits by undertaking extreme actions such as...walking.

My final white Ipod was stolen from me when i took it into a computer shop in Vietnam where the English guy behind the counter said he could give it back to me good as new the following morning after it shit itself and deleted all my songs.

He never came back the following morning to give it to me. I had to catch a bus that morning to a town three hours away. When i called him to find out what happened he said "Well you come back here and get it." Dirty English Bastard.

Then i purchased an iPod mini. It was a great little number until Christmas time in Thailand when i was walking along the beach and just as i walked past a rock on the water a wave crashed over the top of it and completly drenched me and thus my iPod froze.

Its replacement was another little champion that barely froze or skipped...until it fell out of my pocket on a transfer bus heading towards Kuala Lumpur International Airport. I only realised it was missing when i got home.

Well i'll be keeping an eye on this iPod like its my own baby. They are great little things and its going to be handy listening to some music during our upcoming holiday but i just hope my bad luck with the Apple Computer Company has come to an end.

What have i been doing?

Hi everyone.

Check out the links on the right hand side to find out what have i been up to this past month and a half.

From Melton to Mongkok

A great family friend Mel who I have know as long as I can remember came over a little while ago to visit Hong Kong for a week. She’s such a lovely person and Sab and I really enjoyed having her over here. Not only did I get to spend some time with her but the girls made me sit down and watch “Dirty Dancing” from start to finish.

There was a funny moment where Sab and Mel were both singing the words from one of the songs and I was on the floor just watching them watching the screen singing. I understood that this was a huge chick flick but I didn’t understand how big until I saw the reaction on their faces when Patrick Swayze says “No-one leaves Baby in the corner.” It was like they were watching it for the first time. It was a good flick but give me Predator any day of the week. I called my dad just before I watched it and he wished me well. I wish the same for any guy who has to watch that film.

We also checked out the market districts in Mong Kok and I went with Mel to Victoria Peak plus Ocean Park and Sab went with Mel to Disneyland. The biggest adventure I had with her was at the local electronics store where she purchased a surround sound system. For a couple hours she wasn’t too sure what she wanted but when she finally decided on the LG system, just getting this bastard of a box home was comedy in itself. We had this pissy little nonno trolley and the box just kept falling over and over. Before we knew it her time was up and she was on her way back home to Melton.

It was great seeing you again Mel and I’ll see you soon :)

The 13th Graduation Ceremony

This is how sadistic our lives have become. Sabrina and I have agreed that whoever dies first that the other will have to play the Rocky Horror Picture Shows “Time Warp” at the the funeral. Since mid March Sab, myself and another teacher Fiona have been practicing the “Time Warp” with a mix of students from each of our classes.

Now the Time Warp is a pretty easy dance. Jump to the left, step to the right, hands on your hips, knees in tight. Pretty simple stuff...how wrong we were. Sab and I are convinced that western kids would be able to nail the dance at a quicker speed then our kids. For two months they killed us every morning and afternoon by jumping too early or turning the wrong way. Now the sympathizers our there would say “well they are only in kindergarten” but wait, a visit by a former Brazilian soccer player recently confirmed our theory when he clearly stated in the local paper that Hong Kong kids have no co-ordination at a young age as they are only concerned about school and don’t practice enough sports.

So every morning and afternoon we jumped to the left and stepped to the right. There were about 30 kids in this dance and as the days to graduation grew closer our confidence in the kids ability was growing steadily and the three of us were looking forward to graduation. Then about 6 weeks ago our lizard of a boss Anna said that the theme of the graduation ceremony was “International.” She tells us this after we picked our song and dance and now its international? What bloody country does the Time Warp?

The first country that popped into our heads was … India.

Yes I know, the land of Roti and fanatical cricket fans has nothing to do with transsexual goth movies but hey…you gotta give us credit for not picking a country like Thailand where the boys could dress up like ladyboys and wear makeup. Actually that happens anyway in these ceremonies. The boys look like hores.

The past month the kids had hit their peak and the dance wasn’t going to get any better. So with that the school decided that they would make the costumes. When we put forward our idea of while linen pants and long white linen shirts it was casually put aside and in stepped these disgusting bright “gay Aladdin” pants and green sequined tops...that was for the boys. The girls were all dressed in gold so they looked gorgeous.

Sab, Fiona and myself decided to get into the act and join the kids on stage decked out in fully authentic Indian gear thanks to one of our kids parents. So the big day came last Wednesday and well the kids were fantastic, they barely put a foot wrong and they genuinely enjoyed being on stage. The energy from the crowd helped, especially when the three teachers came out. I don’t think the parents had seen anything like it before. We love our kids and we all had a great time jumping to the left and stepping to the right. One of my kids (his name is Long Long but he’s really short short) had a “wardrobe malfunction” and his Aladdin pants fell down a bit on stage.

All in all the audience loved it and while I was getting changed back into my shirt and tie (I was co-hosting again) I could hear the audience applause for the other acts from the Chinese kindergarten…needless to say we shit it in!

School Stuff

Outside the logistical nightmare that is the pointless graduation ceremony, school has been fine. The kids in my class are great and I am really going to miss most of them. Some fell through the cracks of my interest a long time ago but in general, the kids really have come into their own from the start of the year. I have been teaching take away recently (thank god its not algebra...just kidding…that comes when they are 6) and getting kids to use their fingers is a nightmare as the Chinese have their own system for using fingers for numbers. Example – when I ask for the number six most kids give me a hand that looks like something from the archives of “Ridgey Didge.” For the non – Australians in the crowd, its like a “cowabunga” finger gesture. Are you lost yet?

These subtle differences make teaching a nightmare sometimes but I balance it our by teaching the kids the words to the Kingsmen’s hit “Louie Louie.”

Last week Sab and i gave our kids vegemite on toast as the theme was "Healthy Food." Most of the kids liked it which was surprising and we did get some pictures but i have to get them from the school.

School has been great this week as the previously mentioned lizard of a boss Anna hasn’t been at school this week. When she isn’t there the place is great. Teachers feel relaxed and don’t have to look over their shoulders for her. Anna just has no idea how to communicate to the western teachers so she scolds the Chinese teachers instead. Three kids in my class are going to another school next year and the main reason is the parents just don’t like her.

As a parting gift I’m going to give her a parting gift of one of my books. The book is about the Fish guys at Pikes Place Market in Seattle. I’m sure most have you have heard about them. She’s on a power trip and you can’t get a straight answer out of her. One of my kids parents asked me out for dinner a couple of weeks ago so I went with my co-teacher. Sometime between the waiter taking away the poor excuse of a steak and waiting for the insipid cheesecake I thought to myself “Funny…now im the teacher instead of the student asking my teacher over for dinner.” Yes parents I still have vivid memories of roast lamb, Richard Clayderman playing on the stereo, chocolate mousse and seeing the teacher the next day. A surreal moment.

Tin Shui Wai - The Place to Be

The walls that are the apartment buildings are starting to feel like they are closing in on me. I can’t distinguish anymore downtown from Tin Shui Wai. I really need a different headspace. As nice as it is out here I can’t kick a footy as there is no space to do it. Actually the only place you can do it is the soccer pitch on the athletics track but you have to pay 150 HK dollars for an hour. I don’t swim at the pool anymore as everytime I look out the window of my room all I can see is bodies in the pool. That’s from 7.30am to 10pm, just bodies floating in the pool and most Asians look like whales when they swim. I’m no Ian Thorpe but at least I can go in a straight line.

A couple of weeks ago some of the Chinese teachers and the Western teachers went out for a seafood dinner in the neighboring village on the water. Over the other side of the pond is Shenzhen which these days has its own Eiffel Tower! I could make out the shape of it across the bay. There is a bridge that will be opening soon from Tin Shui Wai to Shenzhen and its a shame it didn’t open earlier, I would like to have seen the recently completed Shenzhen Eiffel Tower.

Also late last month was the long awaited opening of the Wetlands Park just up the road from our place. I have been waiting for this place to open since we first got here and the main reason was that they may actually have some decent food there. How wrong I was. Sab and I spent 63 minutes walking around a place that looked like any part of Melbourne before its subdivided for residential usage. Supposidly there are migrations of birds to this part of Hong Kong but we only saw 2 birds for the whole day. Add to the fact it was raining and the place was packed and well I thought it would have more then just a few little streams of fish (which was nice). Plus there was no coffee at the café!

The best thing was it took us 10 minutes to get home which included waiting for the ice cream from the Mr Softee van outside the park.

Michael Flatley plays the Flute!!

A couple of Friday nights ago Sab and I made our way down to the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre to see world renowned Irish dancer and love making machine (if you believe the stories) Michael Flatley and his new blockbuster show “Celtic Tiger.”

Having seen the shugga-dugging (my term for Irish dancing as in the sound the shoes make on the stage) only on TV I was excited to see it live. Sure it isn’t the extravaganza of “Riverdance” but the Flats man was “Lord of the Dance” in his heyday and all Sab and I wanted to see 2 hours of shugga-duggin with the Flats man going around in a Pat Cash inspired headband front and centre.

The venue was rubbish for starters. It felt as if you were watching a performance in a big shed and being the economic powerhouses that Sab and I are, we sat in the second last row. Thank God we had a big screen though it wasn’t needed as even from as far back as we were, Mickey boy was sucking the gut in and to me was definelty in his “fat Elvis” period of the career.

Here’s an interesting stat. Michael Flatley nearly spent 33 percent of his stage time (all in all about 20-25 mins out of 120) playing the flute. Now this is not what shugga-dugging is supposed to be. I didn’t spend my cash to see him play the flute! Here he was fluting away like he was playing something off an old K-Tel record where all we wanted to see was dancing. Granted there were parts of the show were the dancing was brilliant by the cast and the part where all the female dancers were wearing skimpy costumes made me lament not paying 800 bucks to get a closer view but all in all the show made no sence.

For starters its called “Celtic Tiger.” I know there were no tigers in Ireland so Sab and I thought it was a nickname for the exodus of Irish to America over the years. Nope, Flats thought that naming a new stage show after a boom in the Irish economy in the 90’s was a great idea.

Then there was the show itself. The first half of the show was basically a history is Ireland. It had great moments such as when the English came to town and burned the place up and there were moments where the girls were dressed like butterflies for whatever god forsaken reason. The second half of the show was the biggest propaganda machine I’ve seen since “Triumph of the Will” It was so American that it has no continuity from the first half of the show. There were big American flags, a stewardess stripping and ending up in an American bikini (once again...I lament) and it felt wrong. Sitting there reminded me of the time Sab and I saw the Harlem Globetrotters and thinking “I can’t wait for this to be over so we can go.”

Finally there was Flats himself. As I said he’s in his Fat Elvis period and he was barely on stage and yeah he’s got a few moves left below the hips but he just looked like an overweight boxer the way he moved around the stage. He was a real disappointment and it only made me want to go out and see “Riverdance” some time soon.

World Cup Fever!!

I’ve had too many Chicken parmas and beers this month but hey it’s the World Cup and the Aussie Pub in Wanchai has been my second home some nights. I was there for the Brazil game and the tragedy that was the Italy game. The place was packed both times and I was pumped and excited to see our boys fight it out on the world stage. One night included staying out till 6am in Wanchai watching the Italians and Americans try to kill each other.

Luckily I have been able to watch games on the internet through a program that picks up ESPN America . So some nights I’ve stayed up way way too late to watch games and hear American commentate soccer like its gridiron. When I watch soccer I want my commentators to be a little boring, not jumping around like they just got some the night before. It’s a small price to pay when you are watching games illegally online.
Hong Kong has been going nuts this past month and its great to see all the nationalities represented by the locals especially the countries of Beckham and Ronaldihno. As for all the Italians who think they are deserving of that win and the penalty kick was there, well i think that's really pathetic stuff.

In General Business

With 2 weeks to go the search continues for a new job. The Myanmar Governemt screwed Sab around a bit when it came to getting visas for us but all was settled last Friday so we are good to go to Myanmar. Taiwan is stil our best bet but Malaysia and Singapore are still on the radar but all things being equal, Taiwan will be our home for the next year. After September 07, I am going to go to Europe no matter what. I have to get there. I just need one year of saving as much as I can to so that.

Generally I’m well. The weather here is so humid that the airconditioning is on inside and its shocking outside so I’ve had the flu for about a month now.

The Dees are playing beautiful beautiful football and I’m not there to see it. Bastard!

I’ve donated some of my books to the local library and started throwing out clothes and things that I don’t need. My god has it nearly been 2 years already? Don’t worry Norwood Drive, there will be some books coming your way soon 

I’m catching up with mum and dad in Singapore this week and I cannot wait to see them again. I didn’t have a chance to sit down and have a chat with them last time I was home so I’m looking forward to this weekend having a really good chat with them. It’s been way way too long.

My brother is getting married in mid feb next year which is perfect timing as the Chinese New Year starts the day of his wedding so if we are going to Taiwan ‘ll be home for Chinese New Year next year. If not working in Taiwan, then I’ll be home at that time anyway for the pre season competition… oh yeah and the wedding as well!

Yes ladies…I’m still single.

Hey now hey now, Goodbye old Mac

I finally bit the bullet a month ago and just a few days before my warranty ran out, I was the proud owner of a new Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop. I finally got rid of my fantastic in software but pointless in hardware iBook and came back to the PC world. Everything was going great for the first two days. Then my enter key fell off my keyboard. It fell right off and onto the floor. I was in shock to say the least.

Less than 48 hours old and the bloody key fell off. I couldn’t believe my luck. Why does this happen to me? Am I not supposed to have electronics in my life? So after calling Dell they told me that if I couldn’t find the missing key then I would have to pay for a new one! I have never been so angry on the phone in my life and I couldn’t believe what they were saying. Needless to say a few words that sound like “truck” were said to the representative on the phone.

A couple of days later a tech from Dell came out to Tin Shui Wai (rather than me jumping on the bus for an hour and a half to Causeway Bay) and replaced the entire keyboard in 5 minutes. Now that’s service. Since then I have had no problems then again I didn’t have any troubles with the iBook for the first 6 months. We’ll just wait and see.