Tiffany forwarded me a great article from The Financial Times today. For a minute, I thought they were talking about IBM … but we’re safe … at least for now.
Accenture finds its next champion of waffle words
Here here for people who want to say what they really mean and use real (simple) language to say it.
Conrad leaves for London on Friday … one more sleep till that happens. Ok Vance, have a fun time but send him to me with money left in his pockets and energy left in his bones!!
Yeah, yeah, yeah … no shoes for this week, I know!
Tonight’s driver was great. As is usual, my entrance was greeted with little more than a grunt. But soon enough I had him cracked open and down-right chatty … and this guy was SMART. A retired trader, he does what many taxi drivers do … drive for a few hours 5 or so days a week for spending money and to keep busy.
We talked about “Jr Bush;” “the NYC mayor who dropped out of the elections;”world politics and economic trends; Singapore’s solution for poverty; showy, wealth-driven singaporeans vs those who take the time to stop, live, laugh, breathe … lots of great stuff!
He also told me that somewhere in Europe they are thinking about creating a marriage “contract” — terms are open for negotiation (5 years, 10 years, etc.) — at the end of which, the couple would need to agree to renew their contract or it would be terminated. Ah! Can you imagine!? Crazy.
… but a great ride home. Moral of the story, never underestimate the brain power of a “simple” taxi driver –I think this guy was more well-read than I was, and he definitely spoke more languages.
Ok, so social networking tools have been surprising me for a couple of years now… The latest “WT…Wow!” was when Linked.In connected me with an exchange student who stayed with me for 6 weeks one summer in High School — we are both now married with different last names … I still have no idea how the algorithm cooked up a possible connection.
But today … well, today, I sucked it up and did what I’ve been trying to avoid for so long and joined Facebook. The best part of this experience though was the comical results of the security pop up … to protect spam, you need to enter 2 randomly generated & paired words on a pop up window for each person before you can send them an invitation email.. you’ve seen these before. But the amazing part was exactly which words were paired with which potential friends. A sample below for your reading pleasure (note: you need to know the people — or yourself — to get the joke. And I will not make explanations, this is an “inside joke” post! — To save the innocent, I’ve ***ed out key letters of surnames, but you’ll know who you are.) Enjoy!
Philip B****r– Men Foliage
Jerusha W**g– Gossip hound
Jennifer V****ry — Aces Mrs
Ethan Mc****y- available yet
Kelly S******k- authorities charity
Sarah G******n – slower conference
Kurt S*****e – but screen
… just heard this whilst sitting in my cube and had to report. Ah, out of the mouths of babes:
Executive: <sneeze>
His employee in cube next door: Gzeundheit
Executive: Thank you
Assistant in other neighboring cube: What does “gzeun,..” mean
Employee: The same thing as “Bless you” — we say it when someone sneezes…
Exec: Do you notice that no one says “God bless you” in Asia when you sneeze?
Assistant: Yes we do!! Well, we say “Bless you,” we don’t say the God part
Employee: Do you know the history of that? It’s from the plague. When someone sneezed, it meant they might have caught the sickness … people were hoping you didn’t die.
Assistant: Ah, that makes sense. <Executive>, maybe that’s why no one says it to you!
We have a big election coming up in the US. Everyone knows that. And while on most days it’s not headline news here in Asia, occasionally, important stats and updates to make the “Turn to page 8″ call out box on the front page.
It’s helpful to have people report on this issues back at home, and so you can understand my joy when today’s help came appeared in the International Herald Times from truth-speaker Dave Barry himself.
Do to the power of the internet, you too could benefit from this sage wisdom: Iowans have corn, Floridians have coconuts.
The countdown to the end is officially on! This week coming up is my last full week on the job here in Singapore. It looks to be a busy week too — the boss has decided to do a huge event in India on 15 Feb, so I need to work with his team to get him ready, plus there are about 5 other new start-of-the-year irons in the fire … isn’t it supposed to ramp *down* when you’re about to leave!?
Simone (new mom I’m filling in for) is due to be back in the office on 4 Feb … help me hope / pray she sticks to that plan!!
Conrad’s booked his flight to … he’s leaving for England this Friday and arrives in Singapore on the 5th or 6th. Then we have a few days here together for Chinese New Year … all signs point to a memorable Valentine’s Day!!! 
No, not me!!! La Traviata, the opera. I went with three friends on Saturday night. I guess I didn’t think an asian cast singing an italian opera would be very great — but it was actually pretty darn good.
The opera is played at the Esplanade, a building along the shore that is designed to look like a durian (tourists think “pineapple,” but think again!).
<– Esplanade | Durian fruit –> 
Followed it up with a quick cocktail at the Fullerton, one of Singapore’s most beautifully restored hotels (previous life was as the central post office). A great night!
Well, we didn’t get as many blog updates in as we wanted to … but then again, we didn’t get as much sight-seeing in as we wanted to either.
As luck would have it, the day after our fantastic brunch (yes, that would be Monday), mom woke up with a shooting pain down her leg — we think pressure on a nerve. Anyway, she was laid out until Wednesday night, when they left! 
On Monday night, Dad and I went across the street to a very nice restaurant for some Vietnamese food. It was lovely, and we brought mom back her requested tuna sandwich. All was good until Tuesday morning, when both pops & I came down with … you guessed, food poisoning. Dad & I were recovered enough by Wednesday, but just hung low with mom who still isn’t back on track.
Oh no! Oh yes. The ‘rents were here for 7 days, 3 of which were spent sight-seeing the inside of my apartment building. They left yesterday night bound for the US — mom hoping to see a doctor soon. (Their insurance doesn’t cover them overseas unless there is “loss of life or limb!!!!!” .. seriously.)
So … think positive thoughts. I know when mom comes back online, she’ll have something lovely to say about their great time here.
Now, I’m looking forward to Conrad’s visit, early in February.
That’s all for now … still smiling in sunny Singapore!
Ironically, the best hotel in town is called “The Carlton.” At least once a week I see at least one of the brothers — the Conrad or the Carlton — smiling down at me from their skyscrapping Singapore towers … and my brain flits to home and the people I love.
Miss you all!!
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