Thursday, June 19, 2008 Rama: Of missed deadlines and a foreign city By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
I’VE missed deadlines before but not like this; never twice in a row. And I am truly sorry.
The first was because preparations for my trip with the wife, we left Wednesday last week, took the better part of the previous day–eating up time I normally allot for scribble work.
The second deadline–Sunday last week for Monday this week–came and went because the free Wi-Fi zones SingTel’s *186 service indicated did not cover the house the wife and I were staying in.
SingTel is one of Singapore’s largest communications providers. Their services include both fixed and mobile communications and both broadband and wireless Internet.
Their tower was one of the stops in the day tour the wife and I joined as part of our five-day break in the Lion City. SingTel’s booth was also one of the largest at this year’s PC Show, held at the Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre along posh Raffles Boulevard.
GETAWAY. It was the wife who dragged me into going on what she’d called a Singaporean adventure.
She and three of her cousins helped organize the trip, although the idea came from an aunt who’d just retired after decades of service at a private school. Two other aunts, an uncle and a family friend tagged along.
I had apprehensions about going. There had been horror stories about Cebu Pacific and its promo flights on the local news.
Moreover, Singapore’s gun laws are a full degree above draconian. There are absolutely no gun shops, good or otherwise, to check out–totally unappealing to a gun nut such as I.
Members of the Singaporean Police still carry Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolvers–they load it with six rounds and don’t appear to carry extra ammo–so even going to the police headquarters and checking out their gun range would be a waste of time.
Moreover, at P33-something to a Singaporean dollar, five days at this fine country–the government collects fines for everything except a bad hair day–isn’t going to be cheap.
Still, as I have long ago learned, resistance to the wife is futile. Thus I found myself packing, Tuesday, when I should have been writing.
And trading taxicab rides for the MRT and the ubiquitous bus, as well as restaurants for traditional Chinese, Indian and Malaysian cooking in the cheaper “hawker centers”, which turned out to be a treat of and in intself, we somehow managed to come home with our bank accounts still in tact.
UNIQUELY THEIRS. Singapore has much to offer. It is truly an international city. There isn’t even a generally accepted local dialect. There appears to be no need for one.
People converse in at least four languages–Chinese, Malay, Hindi and English, albeit with a uniquely Singaporean flavor like reading Quay as Kee, enunciating the “ui” in circuit, and ending all sentences with “lah”.
It is undeniably progressive. Buildings are being constructed on a daily basis and, by 2009, Singapore will unveil, in tiny Sentosa, the most modern casino complex in this part of the hemisphere.
On the surface, it also appears very peaceful.
But, then again, the media there is gagged and it is hard to put a finger on things. Last week’s news, for example, was about a Singaporean Army cadet dying during training. The news centered on the suspension of army training as a result of the death. There was nothing on the papers about how the cadet actually died.
BACK TO WORK. But that is that and I, with two full deadlines missed, am back to work.
Upcoming businesses include the basic firearm class that United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) Grand Master Rey Abad will hold on the 21st of June.
Slots are available, I believe, and reservations may be made at his office, where the gorgeous Elle, awaits at 2538412.
Then there is the seven-stage Gen. Ike Inserto Cup, which the AFP Central Command and the Kamagong Gun Club Inc. is holding on July 5. More on that next time; promise.
