A different Singapore

Hola hola,



Some time ago Gitti, our official traveller in our group of friends, had this idea of visiting an island close to Singapore. You go on a boat and you have high tea on the deck of the boat. A smaller island?. Smaller than Singapore?. GEEZ! However we all said YES, we enjoy these sort of original ideas plus it gives you the opportunity to spend some time with your friends.

Today we went on a boat ride around Singapore and visited KUSU ISLAND. A small island close to Singapore. From 3 to 5.3o PM. We had high tea on the boat (not impressed by the sausage mini hot dogs and the soggy cream puffs, but at least it was something different than what we are doing on Sundays lately: absolutely freaking nothing)

This is one of the coolest pictures I have taken in this year. (Thanks Devrim for the camera)

For more pictures from this afternoon click here

A flashback to 25 years ago...

I am still growing...

30 years old and having to deal with pimples. Not only is that embarrassing but also quite ridiculous and funny at the same time.

- Two days ago I killed Cupid (surprisingly enough MANY people joined me in the dark feeling)
- Yesterday I had a great Chinese Lunch (Gong XI, Gong Xi. I think the lady is still blessing us with their prosperous wishes)
- Today: A PIMPLE. A MAJOR ONE!!! (would this be a curse from CUPID or a consequence of the food? Mistery!)

You know those pimples which strongly push from the inside of your facial flesh. Those ones that feel like your face is gonna explode at any moment, but yet you go to the mirror and you cannot see much, but if you touch: AW! there they are. And you want it to go away as fast as it can be possible: in an hour, or two at MAX. But you know you are stuck with it for a couple of days. (It is like, you know when you go out with friends and some undesired acquaintance joins the group. THAT FEELING! You know you are there already and you are stuck with that person for a couple of hours and there is not much you can do. Impotence!)

Sadistically Growing.
Painfully Mutating.
Expanding on its own epicenter.
Feeding off the stress and the lack of moist due to poor hydration during long working hours and lack of sleep.
A pimple. A disgrace of nature indeed.

10 AM It did not even bother me
11 AM I started noticing the discomfort when I spoke
12 AM It began to literally hurt (yet I had no time to go and check in the mirror)
2 PM After quick lunch I went and checked: THERE IT WAS. Secure and firmly grabbing the inner muscles of my face
4 PM I could not resist and went again to check. The bastard HAD grown to a point that I could even see a little pair of eyes and a sarcastic smile in its face. I thinbk it even developped a personality and all.
5 PM I attempted to explode it with the traditional “two-finger press” NOT A GOOD IDEA AT ALL! Not only did it hurt, but it also became worse
6 PM I decided to just let it be and it will die eventually in three days (hopefully). But I tell you, it is bothering the crap outta me.

Something interesting to try: walk around your office and ask people what’s good to make pimples go away. The wide variety of answers will blow your mind away. The more international the office the more options you will have. Techniques that include tooth paste rubbing, popping them with a needle, applying a hot a knife dipped in lemon juice, and many more.

So I go: Aaaaam how about NOPE?! Since I still intend to use my face for some more years how about we brainstorm a bit more before implementing your technique, ok? (GEEEZ!)

POR QUE!? POR QUE!? Quien me manda a venir a estos lados! Estan todos locos!

(PS: Any other technique that we should know? Let's at least share the different remedies we know of)

I will perspirate prosperity in 2005!

GEEZ! If I am not prosperous this year it will certainly not be because I did not do all I needed to do and more. I have NEVER done so many things in my life to call for prosperity, good health, fortune, good luck, love and more prosperity, and more prosperity. (In fact I have never done anything of the like, despite throwing some 10 cts coins into an empty well in Stirling, Scotland. USELESS, I tell you. Completely USELESS. But it is the naive belief in these things what drives you, right? or the doubt: "Dude, what if it is true!?'

In the name of CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING, and of course having in mind one of my favourite AIESEC values, LIVING DIVERSITY:
- I wore red to a Chinese New Year party
- I have given tangerines to every single married person that crossed my path (some gave me money back and all!)
- My desk looks like a fruit stand, full of mandarin oranges (some getting all moldy: eeeew!)
- I went to see the big fat tall fortune dude monument by the shore of Singapore (I did not collect the golden confetti that he spreads in the air because I DID think that was too much)
- And today, the pinnacle of my "desperate calling for prosperity": a very traditional Singaporean Lo Hei

We had a department lunch: all the HR department of my company went out for a nice team lunch in the seventh day of the lunar calendar. Under Chinese tradition today is EVERYBODYS BIRTHDAY (Thanks God it does not add one more year to the Caucasian year and therefore you are as old as your traditional birthday!) You are supposed to eat this sort of salad with seven ingredients.

The salad is ok lah, but the ceremony is very cute. As the pictures show:

1. There is this lady that comes and put all the ingredients in a plate and starts packing them up with condiments, lemmon and stuff. She does not stop wishing good luck, peace, prosperity, love, good health and stuff too the ones around the plate awaiting to eat. (She started in Chinese and then she realized that half of us were giving her the typical look 'HELLO!?-we-have-no-idea-what-the-hell-you-are-saying' and she switched to English. Xie Xie!)

2. When she finishes preparing the Lo Hai it looks like picture 2. Quite a figurative-painting like and, why not, scary too!

3. All the individuals sitting at the table get their chopsticks and start tossing the ingredients of the salad into the air as high as they can. The higher the MORE prosperous your year will be (and the more possible it is for you to get stops of oil or vinegar on your brand new shirt. Oh wait! That is just me)

4. Then you help people serve in their mini plates and eat. Eat. Eat.

Very interesting. I was particularly amazed by the look in the faces of the locals while repeting the good wishes and tossing the salad. It reminded me of the expression on the faces of kids when they see the candy store, Santa Claus or Tom & Jerry (OH Wait again. That is just me) :)

Again, if I am not prosperous this year I will totally lose faith in Chinese Culture. ZERO CREDIBILITY.

For the time being: Gong Xi Fa Cai para todos!.

The end of the Myth

Someone had to do it, OK?!

What is so cute in that creepy baby anyway?. Seriously, what would you do if you saw a winged baby, carrying a knife and an insane smile in his face? You either RUN AWAY of try to stop him, right? (OK you might also try to catch it and exploit the little bastard in a circus as a FREAK, but you might also face some problems with those Child Protecting Organizations, so I would suggest you brainstorm a bit more before doing that, ok?)

So, coming back to our original thought: baby with a knife. If you stay because you think he is cute and you have this moment of weakness, he WILL stab you because he does not know what he is doing. Again HE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING! He does not even know how to wipe his ass, for the great love of God!

Replace the knife for an arrow and a bow, and you will have Cupid (random question: is Cupid a Trade Mark? Does he have Copyrights?) Anyway, what makes you believe he DOES know what he is doing this time. He is the same thing, basically a crazy creepy baby with an insane smile in his face who takes advantage of people in their moment of weakness. (Can we all just say: SICK-O!)

Spend the day with your loved one.
The most romantic day of the year.
The day where two hearts become one.

Blah blah blah. Do people actually believe in this Valentine Day? Who was Valentine to begin with? Was he a cousin of Constantine? How did Valentine die?

What is love, anyway?.
It is defined as an intense emotional attachment, as for a person, pet or treasured object.
(WAH! Interesting lah!)

Who is Cupid?
Well, in Roman Mythology he is the God of Love, the Son of Venus. He is represented as a naked cherubic boy usually having wings and holding a bow and an arrow, used as a symbol of love. (FREAK FREAK FREAK!)

Anyway, Happy Valentine to all of those who have been sort of caught by this lovely flying sick-o. And for those who have not, just have fun today as well. HINT: there are lots of discounts in restaurants and shopping malls if you go with a partner. Just grab the first person you see by your side and go crazy on your Credit Card! At the end of the day, by definition THAT WOULD BE LOVE, TOO!

Love is in the air, everywhere I look around
Love is in the air, everyday and every night

More on line Mythology? Click here

Another year has just passed by... LITERALLY!

WAH! Time flies!
If I do not recall it wrongly I was saying HAPPY NEW YEAR back in DEC 2004. Now, in FEB 2005 I am already saying HAPPY NEW YEAR again! J



I am having a blast with this Chinese New Year thing. Everything is red and golden. Everyone is happy and with this anticipation feeling we, ‘western culture individuals’, feel around December. Changing years, making big plans, enjoying time with the family. It is interesting to see how much more celebration takes place for this day compared to the one in December (although I was in Canada for New Years, drinking and having fun with friends in AIESEC in Canada’s National Conference)

What’s cute? What’s special about this CNY?

Mandarin Oranges (tangerines)


You are supposed to give mandarin oranges as a way of wishing prosperity for the upcoming year. The sign for MANDARIN ORANGE sounds similar to the word GOLD (the experts say) and therefore it is a Chinese way to wish a great year.
Now, here’s the best part: WHO SAID BEING SINGLE IS BAD! No no no, not in Asia by this time of the year. Bridget Jones would be RICH here!
If you are single or a kid (or both, for that matter) and you give these oranges to married couples and elders you will get a red pocket in return with some money inside. YES! As you read it, and IT WORKS! (Secret: I have already bought a box of 5kg at the supermarket close to my apartment. See picture below. It was insane, people fighting over the bigger tangerines, because they mean more posperity)
Friday I will distribute oranges to all married Chinese people in my office, and if they do not want to have the CRAPPIEST year of their lives, they will have to “give me some cash”) You GOTTA love this!


Ying has made an interesting posting about this tradition (Thanks parrot!)

Pineapple Tarts


They are these little pieces of grainy dough with a delicious topping of a spoonful of pineapple jam with pieces of coconut. They look like the ones in the picture above.
My record is eating 15 of them in one go with green tea. Next day I was revolving and twisting in pain in the coach at home. They are not the lightest to digest.
They are soooo GOOD!

Salutations
When we greet someone in DEC we usually say HAPPY NEW YEAR (OK, in Argentina we say it in Spanish: ‘Feliz Ano Nuevo’) In Chinese culture there are many salutations you can use to wish a great year. Most of them are related to prosperity, money, and health.
How do they look like? How do they sound like? Take a look at them, click here.

Chinese New Year spirit
It’s everywhere, and the e-Nomads are also celebrating:
* Teresa’s comments about Chinese New Year
* Pilli’s comments about Chinese New Year
* Ying’s comments about Chinese New Year
* Melissa's comments about Chinese New Year
* A bit of Chinese Horoscope if you are interested
* More juicy stuff and predictions for the Year of the Rooster (for EACH animal of the Chinese Horoscope)

Happy Chinese New Year for everyone!!

Chinese New Year Wishes!

I invite you to have an embarrassing moment!

There must be many other ways of having an embarrassing moment.
Let’s share at the end of today what you did and how embarrassing that was. Deal?
I am sure we will have fun!

Good Luck!

Sunday Pankaces - A whole Menu!

Another Sunday Morning.
Another nice waking up to the sound of some random Kiwi band or singer Teresa plays in the living room.
A morning shower at 11.30 (unlike any other day at 7.15AM... GREAT!)
Heading to the kitchen and NOPE, I will NOT open the fridge today. I will go straight to the top counter to get our box of flour and some other ingredients and I will prepare the traditional and world famous SUNDAY PANCAKES. Yeah!

Pancakes. They are simple to make and quite filling for a hangover morning. They are quite customizable to the taste of each user and cost effective. Great combination.

However, we have to acknowledge there are different types of pancakes depending on the shape and toping. Since I am a very visual person I decided to put together a sort of catalog with the different types of pancakes we ate today at home. Should you feel interested in any of them, please drop us a comment and we will try to ship you over some of those (You all know what they say: No One Knows Asia Pacific Like we do. Now, if you are in Europe or America we will see how we make them available for you)

If you are keen on seeing some special pancake next Sunday, please drop us a comment and we will try to make them for you next week.

Have a nice Sunday! Buen Domingo para Todos!

As alluring as a mermaid singing!

A new realization.
A Saturday afternoon realization.

Urban human beings XXI century have another addiction, apart from the SEND/RECEIVE button compulsive clicking so called HEO (Heavy Email Obsession). It is the Purposeless Fridge Opening Action (PFOA).

There you are at home, usually doing not much, probably sitting in the sofa, pretending to be entertained watching TV or listening to music, or something. You watch around and everything is unstably OK. Terrifyingly quiet. It can't be that normal. There must be something happening. And there, RIGHT there, you feel it. You need it. You cannot stop it: an unbelievable urge to stand up and head to the fridge, which has been secretly calling since that last coffee you drank 5 minutes ago where you open it to take the milk out and pour some drops in the cup.

You open it with a sudden move as if you were trying to surprise the tomatoes talking to each other, or the eggs dancing disco music in the door. But NOPE! Nothing, it is all the same. And you cannot help it but to feel a little sad. However, you take a last look to see if in this treasure cooling box you find anything that tempts you. Of course you do not find it, and you come back to the sofa.

Two minutes after, you still cannot believe that nothing tempted you. That nothing caught your attention. Therefore you stand up and quickly go back to the XXI century coffer and you open it again. Tomatoes are not talking, eggs are not dancing, and surprisingly enough the leftover food from last night is still in its Tupperware, WITH the lid on (but it does not tempt you at all).

And again the same deja vu: looking for something that tempts you to amuse a little bit the unbearable normality that is attacking your afternoon. The difference is that this time you knee to look into the vegetable compartment, there might be some piece of chocolate that slipped from the top shelf into the green section. NOPE, there is not.

Close the door. Go back to the couch. Finish your coffee and stop thinking of the fridge. There is nothing in there good enough for you. That is until you see one of your flat mates passing by while eating that really cool piece of cake they have saved at the back of the second shelf. And you blame yourself for not going a third time and checking the back of the shelves. And you swear that you will do it next time, to find that hidden treasure that will brighten up a little your quiet afternoon.

And that is why we keep going to the fridge. And as pirates could not avoid the alluring signing of the mermaids, we, urban beings cannot avoid the mysterious calling of the fridge.

How well do you think you know Nacho?

Not that is a need or a question by which you should be constantly tortured.
'How well do I know Nacho?'
'OH MY GOD, I cannot sleep because I am quite not sure how well I know him'
'No thanks, mom. I cannot eat. I do not know Nacho well enough'
'That's it! This year I will plan to know Nacho a bit more!'

No no no, I do not expect those sort of reactions, please (although some love is always appreciated, ok?) But since it is Saturday afternoon and I have nothing better to do than to go to the pool and relax for a while, I thought I would put a couple of questions in a test to see if you know some of my deepest secrets in life. Wanna give it a try? Come on, it's fast, fun and free (qualities that not many things have in life nowadays) Click here

Good Luck, chiquitos!

Obsession, addiction, paranoia or simply XXI century professional habit?

I am sitting at my desk, doing some tasks that do not require internet or the computer at all. I am in fact labeling some folders I need for some projects this month. (Oh my god, if I took the test Michal suggested yesterday I might qualify as GEEK test yourself click here, but at least a professional geek, this is work related ok. It is not like I label stuff at home or anything like that)
(Teresa: Shut up!)

Anyway, I have been labeling and working with the mini printer for 10 minutes now and while doing it I clicked the SEND/RECEIVE button around 10 times already. It got me. Is this a new obsession we all office-slaves have? How do you know that email has become an obsession?

Some say it is when you are willing to stop whatever you are doing just to see if you got email or that you have just received one. Sometimes while we are watching TV we hear the “email tone” alerting us that one has just arrived and we have to immediately check it. We cannot hold it. It is stronger that us. Ironically if our phone were to ring we would say to ourselves: ‘We are watching TV we will call them back’.

Another way to see if you have email obsession is by counting how many times we hit the “Send/Receive” button on our Outlook. Sometimes we will hit it 10 times and wonder why no one has sent us an email. What is the matter? Not even a spam has sneaked by our SPAM filter??!!. No AIESEC.net community email? Is anyone out there? Did my connection break down? Have our email server crashed? Are all our friends revolting against us? .We should know at this point we are into deep shit: HEO - Heavy Email Obsession.

Me? I have to admit that I have checked my email three more times since I started this posting and I am starting to wonder how come I haven’t gotten any email replies to the email I sent out at 1:00 pm this afternoon. What do we do now?. Is there an anti-email-obsession pill? Is it related to the industry I work for? Or is it we are all crazy and we have not figured it out yet?

By the way: how many times have YOU clicked on your SEND/RECEIVE button lately?

Sorry, I gotta go. Got an email!

The haircut. Tricky experience the haircut.

There are as many haircut experiences as people on Earth. Some only allows one person to do their hair (Picky-Haircutters). Others do it by themselves (Self-Haircutters). Others do it once every 4 months (What-the Hell-Haircutters) and so on. This is a shared haircut experience with my flat mate Teresa. We decided to leave the office on FRI at a relatively normal time and go for a haircut experience together. We randomly picked a saloon in Plaza Singapura (FREAKING BIG shopping mall in Singaland) and we went for it. Here are the sequence and the details:


Yes! We took a camera into a saloon and we shot pictures at each other, so what!?

In my case I go quite often, I would say go almost once a month; I do not have a preference in terms of styles as long as it is clean cut-looking and neat (do not come with innovative ideas of spiky fringes and/or colorful highlights. I promised I was not going to fall into the alluring words of those tricky stylists ANYMORE!)

For the record, the joke 'It is called a HAIRcut, so what do they cut in your case?' is old by now so save it for somebody else, ok?! You think you’re funny, eh?

Oddly enough I like trying hairdressers in different countries (Global-Haircutter) and I can recall I have gone to have my hair cut in almost in every country I visited:
- Switzerland: too short. You tell them 'trim it' and they understand 'pluck it all and leave my head as a bowling ball'. Plus they only use scissors
- Canada: crew cut this, crew cut that. Many styles but in the end they all look the same. Crew cut
- Brazil: they do not know use scissors. They prefer the little electrical machines. Very good in terms of timing, not very good result-wise
- SouthAfrica: I did not dare to go for the experience. It felt like a task you have to pass in one of the episodes of Fear Factor
- Argentina: they tend to do everything to please you, and in the end you end up being a victim of your own disaster. Question: is ONE the hairdresser. NOPE!
- Singapore: Where should I start?. I think they have some challenges in handling male Caucasian hair therefore the results are quite funny… for the ones looking at you, of course.

I have discovered some tricks stylists use to confuse you and distract you from their jobs. I will share three of them:

Talking lots
About everything and anything. Then you end up in front of the mirror at home listening yourself swearing like there is no manana (sometimes even in otger languages)
* Solution: NO TALKING to the dude (or duddette) and pretend you have just received an injection of BOTOX in your forehead and show NO FACIAL EXPRESSION. That will do!

Putting Gel and styling last
So they cover the fuck ups of their lousy job. Sneaky, sneaky dudes!
* Solution: style it yourself at the end, the same way you would do it at home, very early in the morning, half asleep and half cranky. That is REALITY!

Getting the rest of the crew of the saloon to compliment you
You believe those words and you leave the place with the self esteem up high. As you walk along the street you perceive people looking at you with a 'What the hell' look in their faces, by the time you get home you will have forgotten about those compliments and all you hear is that little voice in your head trying to explain to you why people looked at you that way if the SPECIALITS liked it so much!
'You look nice!', 'It looks different', 'So much better, much younger'. Accomplices to crimes!!!! That’s what they are!! That’s a CRIME! They should be put in jail for doing that!!
* Solution: Go with a buddy and while they do their job, get your buddy to CLOSELY supervise the job

However, and as Christina Aguilera (well respected in the world of fashion as we all know) says: “You are beautiful, no matter what they say. Words can bring you down”. See?! In the end people will love you for who you are and not for how you look!

(Yeah! Right! Like we believe that crap, eh? Tell that to Armani, YSL, Gucci, Lancome and all those. They surely made a fortune based on people's desires to be pretty in their interior. Why can't we be both, like REVERSIBLE GOOD LOOKING?)

Where BEING A NERD is SOCIALLY ACCEPTED!

“The brainiest kids” ever since that little one who knew all the Gods and Goddesses of Mount Olympus. (But that one was boring, ha d afunny fringe and did not have any friends. At least I have ONE other “brainy” friend – see picture below.)



This weekend I found a place where you can meet other NERDS and you would sooooooo blend in. This place is packed with these sort of people. 100% Star Wars lovers, stamps collectors, chess masters and I am sure when they were kids they had the whole collection of the Dino-Puzzles. People with a High IQ and a slow-functioning ‘social gland’, which causes their main challenge in life: running low in that hormone that regulates the social interaction with other mortals (and that’s why they become IT engineers, lawyers and accountants)

This paradise, this dark place, where NERD is COOL and thick glasses are SOCIALLY ACCEPTED is called: IMAX!!!

An amazing experience to watch The Polar Express in that huge screen. Although, the nerd inside my brain or that little voice we all have in our heads was all the time whispering to me how cool it would have been seeing Princess Leia Organa or Obi Wan Kenobi fighting against the forces or evil.

Anyway. First time at the IMAX. GREAT experience. I have to be honest and I have to say I am scared to go to the one in Singapore now. What would I find in there!!?? Ay Ay Ay, Dios Mio!!

(Disclaimer: This intended to be a funny posting. I hold no bad feelings or harmful thoughts against IT engineers, lawyers and/or accountants. Although, sometimes we gotta admit they are pretty weird, aren’t they! Plus, HEY! I live with a lawyer - love’ ya!)