Singapore F1

According to Yahoo news today (article replicated below), Toyota's Jano Trulli commented recently that the F1 drivers are a little bit concerned about the safety of Singapore's untested F1 track.

Singapore is set to host an F1 race this month. Due to land scarcity, the F1 track is actually a make shift track from normal road and the race will be held at night. Probably, this is to minimize traffic flow problems caused by road diversion for F1?

Anyway, either Trulli don't know what he is talking about or it is true. If it is true, then my country is doing slipshot work at this upcoming F1 race. The race is going to be held soon and no one had bothered to test the condition of the F1 circuit? *Throw up both arms in disgust*

However, I would urge Mr. Truli not to worry. I counting on it that another news article will appear soon along the lines: "Minister says F1 track is safe". As our ministers are paid to know everything, there is nothing to worry about....NOT! =P

Motor racing-Trulli says Singapore still a worry for F1 drivers
Reuters - Friday, September 5
By Alan Baldwin
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, Sept 4 - Formula One drivers are still fretting about the sport's first night race less than a month before Singapore's new street circuit makes its debut.

"It's a new circuit, we don't know much about it, the schedule, the times of running. we all are a little bit concerned about the night race and the poor weather which might occur there," Toyota's Jarno Trulli told reporters at the Belgian Grand Prix on Thursday.

"It's a big question mark for everyone, we mustn't underestimate the situation."
Singapore will become the second new venue this season after last month's Valencia street race when the southeast Asian island state hosts the 15th round of the championship on Sept. 28 at the tail end of the monsoon season.

Unlike Valencia, which staged a couple of junior formula races on the street circuit a month before the grand prix to iron out any problems, Singapore remains untested.
"In Valencia they did a good job, so I am confident they can do a good job for Singapore," said Trulli. "But the location is different and the climate conditions are different.

"We are all a little bit uncertain because we probably don't have enough data. I haven't seen the circuit layout but that's not the problem. The problem is we don't know if the circuit is good enough, if the surface is good enough, if we have enough run-off areas, if the safety is good enough for a night race in wet conditions.

"There are several question marks and several concerns. I'm not saying that I don't want to race there, but that we might encounter some more problems than in Valencia."

September Update

Wake Me Up When September's Here...

September's here finally.

The month of August saw me doing a lot of travelling and no blogging...
August 6 ~ 10, I was in Istanbul.
August 17 ~ 22, I visited Nice in France and Monte Carlo in Monaco.
August 23 ~ 31, I returned to Singapore for vacation (a week!)

September is going to be my last month of expatriation. I am repatriating to Singapore in the middle of this month.

But more about this later.

I went to Singapore and all I got was a lousy....

...Portable Hard Disk!

I bought it when I visited COMEX 2008.

Is COMEX an abbreviation for Computer Exhibition or Communication Exhibition? I never can tell but it is the largest IT exhibition organized in Singapore annually.

COMEX is therefore a much anticipated affair as Singaporeans are flocking there to look for the latest bargain price on digital cameras, notebooks, printers, mobile equipments and other electronic products.

I hate crowds. If I hadn't wanted portable hard disk, I wouldn't have gone. After going around some of the booths, I shortlisted my choice to 3 brands:

Maxtor
Western Digital
Imation

Their prices were about the same: around SGD125 (USD90) for 250GB. The difference was in the bundling. For instance, Imation comes with a free protective sticker and a pouch.

Long story short, I went for this Western Digital one:



I got it because I thought it was the best looking among the 3. I am such a sucker for product design when it comes to shopping. I bought 2 additionally for Xinyi and her friend KK. I hope they don't regret my decision.

Ramadan and Mid-Autumn Festival

When I returned to Beirut, it is the beginning of Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month. For the Chinese, we are anticipating the Mid-Autumn Festival that falls on the full moon of August in the Lunar year.

The difference from our Muslim brethens is that, we eat.

We eat mooncakes. A lot of them!

It is a sweet cake-like pastry with a very sweet lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk filling.

The mooncakes I bought looks something like those in this picture. The round egg yolk filling resembles the moon.

To be exact, Muslims also eat a lot of during the breaking of fast during Ramadan. Especially the sweet stuff. Come to think of it, we're not so different after all. Everybody eats a lot of sweet things and gain a lot of weight. Only difference is that their practice is just a bit more restrictive in that they have to fast a little during the day.

So I bought some mooncakes to be brought back to Beirut. Somehow I got a discount buying mooncakes from Marriot hotel Singapore, which is rather known for their mooncakes.

Anyway, my intention was to bring some mooncakes to my Asian colleagues working in Algeria. Somehow, the moon in Algeria is especially big and them being far away from home during this occasion, so I thought it might be a nice touch.

.... RAMADAM KARIM & HAPPY MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL to ALL!!!

Internet Connection in Beirut

This is the internet connection speed in my office on good days. You should see the connection speed at my apartment, the connection speed test screen won't even load sometimes. I heard most of Lebanon is still on dial-up speed. Sigh...

(reference: http://www.internetfrog.com)

Viva Espana

Spain 1:0 Germany; Torres (33)

Fortunately, the power cuts that plagues Beirut for 6 hours daily did not affect the live broadcasting of Euro Cup matches on TV.

Euro Cup ended yesterday with Spain become crowned as champions, ending a 44 year wait. In my opinion, the Spaniards rightly deserved to win with their stylish play and tight ball passing.

In the words of a colleague: "Good bye Euro '08 .... Welcome Olympics 2008!"

Pictures: A Beyrouth 22 June '08

For once, my flight was on time. I was able to arrive in Beirut in time for 2nd half of the Spain vs Italy match in Euro '08 quarter-finals. To my delight, Spain won.

Algerian boy

Cabin

My seat: Air Algerie flights have many damaged seats in the economy class

Close up

Les Les Orange

cava pas

Saw the breathtaking match between Netherlands and France last evening over a BBQ at my colleague's place. Not only did I get BBQ wings, I also got my wish. Les Bleus got their French butts whipped by the Orange Army!

YEYYYYYY!!!!! =D

So now Netherlands can safely proceed into the next round in Euro 2008 after defeating France 4 goals to 1, an incredible feat that well complements the stunning victory over World Cup champions Italy.

France and Italy are now facing possible elimination this early in the games. Both teams now have to fight hard with each other in their next game to gain points. Both teams might get a chance if Romania doesn't beat the Dutch in their match also on the same day.

I can't wait to watch the two matches to see which is the next team, in the group of death, that will qualify.

victory!

Picture source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Update (21 June):

And the Dutch are out! =(
Their fitness just weren't able to compare to the energetic Russian side in extra time. The Russians won the game 3:1 to go into semi-finals.

Dutch Thwarted World Champions Italy

I didn't catch the full game as I was out for dinner. Managed to catch the game from the last 20 mins including the 80 min third goal by Van Bronckhorst for the Dutch side.

YEY!! =D

(Picture source: http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/matches/match=300686/report=rp.html#slick+dutch+stun+world+champions)
I hope they will beat the French also.

Scuba Divers vs Komodo Dragon

Interesting piece of news about scuba diving that I read today.

Several European divers swept by current 30 kilometres away from their dive site, scrambled onto the small island of Rinca to avoid drifting out into the open water, only to face a hostile Komodo Dragon. They defended themselves against the reptile by pelting debris and won. They were rescued the next day.

I miss diving...

Stranded scuba divers chase off Komodo dragon on remote Indonesian island

By ALI KOTARUMALOS,Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA,
Indonesia - European scuba divers swept away in strong currents survived 12 hours in shark-infested waters and then scrambled onto a remote Indonesian island where they faced yet another threat: a Komodo dragon.

The divers _ three from Britain and one each from France and Sweden _ came face-to face with the giant, carnivorous lizard on Rinca island's palm-fringed beach, and fought it off by pelting it with rocks and pieces of wood, port official Pariman said Sunday.

"Luckily, they were able to chase it away," said Pariman, who, like many Indonesians, goes by only one name.

The beasts have sharp, serrated teeth and often come out when they smell something new, including humans, whom they've been known to kill, Pariman said.

The divers encountered treacherous currents after plunging from their wooden boat off Tatawa island on Thursday afternoon. They drifted 20 miles (30 kilometers) from their dive site before swimming to Rinca, their last chance to avoid being swept into the open ocean.

"We struggled against the current for several hours, but eventually stopped," 31-year-old Laurent Pinel, of France, told The Sunday Times of London. We "tied ourselves together by our diving vests to preserve energy."

They ran into the Komodo dragon on Friday afternoon. The next day, rescuers plying the waters in more than 30 boats spotted them waving frantically on the shore and took them to Flores island for medical treatment.

The area where the diving trip took place is famous for its rich marine diversity, including sharks, manta rays and sea turtles. But it is also known for its treacherous and unpredictable seas.

Recommended only for experienced divers, it is in a place where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, creating currents that converge and separate. Whirlpools and eddies can pull divers downwards.

"We're safe but absolutely exhausted and dehydrated," Charlotte Allin, a 25-year-old British diver, was quoted by The Sunday Times of London as telling her parents from the hospital where the five were taken.

Komodo dragons, which can grow up to 10 feet (3 meters) long and weigh as much as 365 pounds (165 kilograms), are only found in the wild on Rinca and Komodo island. There are believed to be 4,000 left in the world.

Thousands of tourists visit the area in eastern Indonesia each year to see the lizards in their natural habitat. They are normally shown around the arid and rocky island by guides who carry large, forked sticks to ward off the lizards.

Crazy Domestic Help

We just never had any luck with our domestic help for the guesthouses that can provide a peace of mind.

The domestic helper in Algeria has a tendency to do something that drives me up the wall. They do stupid things to my stuff like stealing (food, washing powder!!!), mess up the order of the house, using a single piece of cloth to clean the toilet as well as my dining table!

My favorite story, and this was witnessed by an ex-colleague, the domestic helper was caught using his room-mate's toothbrush to clean the sink! Yew!!!

This current domestic helper at the Palm Beach guesthouse is recently scaling new heights in her stupidity! Just two days ago, she threw away my half pot of soup that was sitting on the stove, lid enclosed. My dinner just went down the drain that evening.

If you think I'm picking on her? I now have pictures to prove it. Today I discovered that she has decided to put my shoes on a side table, near my stove, that is used by me to place food!!! On the bottom left of the picture, you can see that she had place my tea bags together with my shoes!!!

Who puts shoes with food?!?!

The point that this was after moving day with most of the food gone is irrelevant. I have occupied this apartment for more than six month. Since she cleans everyday, I assume she will have a good grasp of the layout and organization. Why she acted upon a sudden whim to reorganize with such scant regard to hygiene and basic common sense is beyond me!

Beach

Sometimes life's a bitch. Or maybe management's the bitch!

As I mentioned previously, just as the beach-going weather sets in, I received instructions to move out of the guesthouse at Palm Beach, Sidi Fredj.

Conditions at Sidi Fredj is very bad but at least there is a beach to spend the summer. The Cheraga guesthouse can provide better comfort but the surrounding area is really boring. Both places cancel each other out in different pluses and minuses so I really can't complain.

The bottom line is that I hate moving!

Moving Day/ Traffic
On moving day yesterday, I could see the road leading to Palm Beach jam packed with beach goers. The queue of cars trying to enter the beach was so long even during the late hours in the afternoon. Probably the late sunset at after 7 pm helped as people could stay at the beach longer.

With heavy traffic everywhere, it was nice to see policemen stationed at almost every junction to direct traffic. I think that this is one of the things Algeria is superior to Morocco. In Morocco, I see a lot of policemen on the road doing nothing about the traffic. They are just there to collect bribes. Yes, the Moroccan police are that disgusting!!!

Isn't it labor intensive and expensive to expend so much manpower to direct traffic, you'll ask? Yes, it is. But judging from the Algerian driving style which disregards most traffic rules, the roads will be impossible to drive with every vehicle trying to meander around each other. Bottlenecks will appear everywhere. So the human "touch" is necessary!

Last Moments At Sidi Fredj?
While the bulk of my things were already transfered, I will continue to stay at Sidi Fredj for the remaining two days of this visit. I leave tomorrow for Beirut.

Trying to maximize my remaining time at Sidi Fredj, I mingled a bit with my fellow tenants, the ICTs. I was invited by the Chinese (3 of them) ICTs to their apartment for dinner for several times. Once I contributed a dish - ABC soup, South-east Asian style.

A home-made Chinese dinner, easily tastier than Restorante Mudan at Hotel Mecure


Me and Pablo, my Colombian colleague, being the other manager there, were also invited to an evening teaparty organized by the Syrians and Egyptian ICTs. We munched on digestives, sipped beverage and shared our general disdain for most of the commercially prepared Algerian food we can. It was a nice evening that uplifted Pablo's spirit after Colombia's defeat to France in a friendly soccer match that day.

The boo boo-factor at Cheraga is the lack of social activities. Cheraga guesthouse is occupied by senior managers and they aren't a lot of fun. Most of them just want to drink, smoke and sleep.

At The Beach
Yesterday, I visited the beach with Pablo. It wasn't the best but it wasn't that bad. At least there were efforts to keep the beach clean.

The lack of safety consciousness in Algeria showed in few instances at the beach. In particular, young men are especially prone to reckless and dangerous behaviour.

For instance, many riding motorcycles were observed to be dashing across junctions and traffic at breakneck speed along crowded roads. Some were doing willys. None of them wore helmets. Perhaps they think they look cool but they could endanger theirs and others life.

Things were not safer at the beach either. I saw young people riding jetski along and very close to the coastline. These people own the jetski, so they are rich and probably well educated. But yet, they also don't have the consciousness that riding that close to the coast line could endanger the safety of people in the water, especially children.

I'm no stranger to high speed ocean going crafts, so I know how difficult it is to spot a head bobbling in the ocean. And also I wonder in the first place, why are these people jetskiing so near the coastline when the ocean is so big?! If not to draw attention to themselves than what else?

Algerians are sometimes stupidly crazy like this. Everything that can be done, they will do it.

While I was observing the jetskiers, a rider on a horse galloping along the beach came into my view. I know that there is a horse riding school nearby but didn't the rider think about safety also. What if the horse got startled by something, went berserk and started trampling on the sun tanners? Can a rider control the horse 100% of the time? I think not, especially in a place with so much distraction.

It wasn't all bad though. I did get to enjoy a nice sunset and experienced some interesting activities of the local people at the beach.

I thougth they were playing majong (popular Asian domino game)
So in love.... =P


Merry makers at the beach - drum n dance

No Water

This morning, after returning from a jog, I discovered that there was no water in my apartment.

Can you imagine returning all sweaty from exercise to realize that you may not have enough water to take a shower? Plus, I need to go to work for half a day (We work half-day on Thursday in our Algerian company). I got a little desperate and went after the care-taker of the building.

Turns out, summer is coming so they are starting to fill up the swimming pool. The water in the tank was diverted to fill the pool. After he turned off the hose filling water to the swimiming pool, Viola!, I got water again.

Probably once the pool is filled, we won't have water problems anymore. Or else, they are forcing me to take my bath in the swimming pool!!! =P

The Mattress Incident

When on the road, the quality of simple stuffs like clothes, food, accomodations and means of transportation can make a lot of difference to the travel experience.

My trip in Algeria didn't start well. Yesterday, I found out two things:

1) My means of transportation, a Corolla, which I am sharing with 2 other colleagues, now had to be shared also with over 10 ICTs*. That means my freedom of movement is somewhat curbed because I cannot have all time access to the car.

I can stomach this because it takes a little advanced scheduling and everyone can be satisfied. What I couldn't stomach is the following:

2) I discovered that the mattress in my room at Palm Beach had been swapped with one that is inferior. Consequently, I couldn't get my quality sleep last night because of that.

I thought the guesthouse management swapped my mattress because I hadn't been living in the guesthouse for a long time and my mattress was of good imported quality provided by my company. A little investigation this morning told me that I was wrong about them. A Japanese director from my headquarters company in Beirt is now implicated. The investigation continues...

Dear XXX san,

Yesterday I arrived to Palm Beach guesthouse. During bedtime, I discoverd that my mattress, the one I brought from Cheraga guesthouse had been switched.

My mattress had been switched with a very old mattress that caused backaches. I could feel the spine of the bed for the entire night because the mattress was too soft. As a result, I couldn't sleep well because of that.

This morning I checked with the Palm Beach attendant and a ICT, they told me that you exchanged my mattress with Chinese ICT six weeks ago

May I understand if this is true and the reason why my mattress was changed?

Sencha

* ICT: (Inter-company transferees) Employees belonging to our distribution companies in other countries transfered to Algeria to work for a length of time.

Healthy Eating

Did I mention that I've moved into an apartment in Beirut?

The thing about having an apartment instead of staying in a hotel is the freedom. When it comes to food, I have now the choice of not eating out everyday.

Although on most days while eating out, I opt for green salads. Sometimes, I would like to have hot food. It is becoming a bother because most of the commercially prepared hot food are pastas, burgers and subs, which are greasy and high on carbs and sodium.

So now I can try to do some of my own cooking. And the Kenwood steamer FS360 comes to the rescue. It comes with:

• Three or two transparent basket layers allow multi food steaming eg fish, poultry, vegetables, fruit, puddings, rice, eggs
• Oval basket design for optimum capacity


• Removable easy clean stock tray retains the nutrients for use in stock, gravy etc


• Inclusive 1.2 litre rice bowl for cooking rice, various marinated food stuffs or deserts within steamer

I like steamed food. It's guilt free eating with all the natural flavours and nutrients preserved and takes less time to prepare.



Steamed chicken breasts with some soy sauce, lettuce and red chili

Algeria's Mobile Phone Numbers Change

Got this piece of information from Harmony in Setif

Starting February 22nd, 2008 there will be an extra number appended to
mobile phone numbers in Algeria. It will be added to the front of the area code.
And it will be a duplicate number. For example, if the mobile number is
072-66-65-99, 072 being the area code, then the new number will be
0772-66-65-99. So you just double the number in between the zero and the first
number in the sequence.

For international callers you will omit the zero and add 213 to the
front. So the new number to dial would be 213-772-66-65-99.

Which means that I need to get a new sim card from IT and update again all the numbers of my Algerian contacts. Anyone coming from Algeria? Bring me a new sim card please?

Back in Beirut/ Apartment Hunt Begins Again...

Somebody pointed out to me that I am blogging ahead of my time (See the post below). Thanks Phaeton.

The weather improved before I left Algiers. It wasn't cold and there was plenty of sunshine. People were coming out to the sidewalk cafes near Palm Beach. I managed to enjoy a late afternoon run at the forest of Bachaoui last Friday weekend. The parking situation there was terrible as hell as there was a huge crowd there.

Clearly, I had chosen a wrong time to return to Beirut. Weather forecasts said it will rain for most of this entire week. Compared to January, the temperature has gone up a bit so it is no longer cold but it is definitely wet. The wet weather makes it difficult to move about in the city.

That is inconvenient considering that I am apartment hunting again. Management told me that this year, I may be staying more in Beirut that last year. I already had a difficult time hunting for apartment in 2005 when I first arrived in Lebanon (read about it here) so I'm not looking forward to this.

Apartments within our budget (Deep-sixed's and I) and criteria are limited in supply. The choice location, Hamra, is within the vicintiy of Lebanese universities, AUB and LAU. Apartments below USD 900 were quickily taken up by students of these universities since the semester had already started.

We are aiming to get a furnished service apartment because we will be travelling frequently and hate having to clean up after returning. It also doesn't make sense to rent one that is too costly and too big because we won't be around much to enjoy it.

Based on past experience, I want an apartment that comes with a kitchen so that I can prepare my own food. Eating those fajitas and sharwarma sandwiches caused me to put on so much weight in the past.

Deep-sixed is concerned about bathroom. They shouldn't look too rundown and old while the water pressure should be decent. Quite a few of the apartments we looked had shabby bathroom.

With so many requirements, will we ever be able to get an apartment we want?

The hunt continues.....

Marrakech Here I Come

Tomorrow is the first day of the Eid holidays in Morocco. I will be visiting Marrakesh for a weekend getaway with Deepsixed. Woohoo.....!

On this day, muslims commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ibrahim to show his devotion to Allah. Instead of sons, muslim households will each sacrifice a sheep on this day. It is also a day for charity as 2/3 of the sheep will be given away to the poor so the meat doesn't go to waste.

About a month or so before this event in Algeria and Morocco, you can see a lot of sheep being traded by people just about anywhere you go. In Morocco, a sheep cost about USD300.

I heard that in Morocco, 1 million sheeps will be sacrificed tomorrow. Geez, that's like 1/3 of Singapore's population!

Sacrificial Lambs in Algiers: taken from a passing Corolla. Where's Little Bo Peep?

At Home On Vacation

In case any of my non-existent reader wonders why I have not blogged for weeks, the reason is because I am on vacation in Singapore. This time I'm staying for 3 weeks and will leave by early December (Already I'm in the second week).

The pampering and comfortable life in Singapore provides a temporary repreive from the low standards of living in North Africa.

Take the example of water, tap water is safe to drink here. The quality of the water doesn't cause skin and scalp issues.

Or the water-heater. At home I get warm water for shower on demand 24 x 7.

At our guesthouse in Cheraga, the water-heaters had been conspiring to breakdown just when winter is coming. Freezing showers was becoming the norm because the hot water tends to get cut off halfway during the shower.

Before I left, I sent for the plumber who had no idea how to fix the problem. Meanwhile, the company deemed it cost ineffective to replace the unit. It just told us to share whichever heater is still working. They must think we are already very fortunate because the Algerians do not even get water everyday!

Interesting isn't it? A country that is steep in the Islamic faith and God seems to be turning his back.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Cest La Vie
Anyway, I've been busy, very busy. There are so many personal errants to run.

Personal financial planning issues requires some attention especially after being away for months. Islamic countries frown upon insurance and interest so the money never grows and life is cheap. Lebanon is an exception but interest rates there cannot beat inflation and insurance cost like hell.

I've also been exercising regularly to reduce a little weight. Back in Algeria, the environment was not conducive enough. There is no place to jog without being harassed by the jobless bumps hanging along the streets day and night.

Partly, I'm at fault for not keeping a healthy dietary regime and the weight has been piling up. My intention is to kickstart a healthy habit of regular exercise and dieting while on vacation and bring it back after vacation.

Vacation is about meeting up friends and doing enjoyable things together. After being a third world recluse for months, I have no intention of excessive partying and binge drinking. Probably because I find no lack of alcohol in my guesthouse inventory anyway.

I still enjoy feasting and dining with friends. I believe that a little management on the ordering side will not be detrimental to my weight reduction plan. Nothing beats sitting down for food and drinks with likeminded friends while we reminisce the good old days, speculate the future or sometimes just resort to plain o'bitching about things under the sun.

But the best of all, family time! It's nice to come home and play with my nephews. All three are growing up fast and full of life's energizing zest!

It's heaven to laze around the house and be in the midst of family and relatives and the world of free food and clean laundry on demand. =D

Life is good...

Back To The Middle Ages

Sometimes I feel that coming back to Algeria is like being back to the Middle Ages.

When I return to my apartment in Cheraga, I discovered these:

1) Heater for apartment and water spoilt and dismantled. The apartment is getting cold (20 degrees celcius interior)and I have to shower at co-workers apartment everyday. I felt very inconvenienced.

2) Wireless internet down. Router missing.

3) Cable TV down

It's back to basic living...

4) Housekeeping lady ate my pork Bah Kua!
I found few pieces of my vacuum packed bah kua missing. Only the housekeeping lady has been in the apartment since I'm gone and she has been known to eat our food and take our things.

Is it a sin if a Muslim ate pork, even though unkowningly? Well she deserves it for taking food without asking anyway.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd Freshmen Training Camp Begins!

So the 2nd company 'freshies' training camp has begun in Algeria from Oct 21 until Nov 15. Company has decided, following a successful season in Morocco last year, to increase the intake from 40 to 120!

The big intake was to provide a pool of TW-trained inductees to cater for our Algerian distributor's human resource problems. This is also the first year our regional training academy begins to train associates for our distributors/dealer in other countries like Egypt, Syria, China, Japan, Morocco and Sudan, which explains the huge intake as well.

I pity the 'freshies' who are used to creature comforts like me. Upon arrival, they were sent to El Bahir hotel, an enclosed compound that is pretty away from civilization (at the 'attractive price of USD21/night!), and immediately began facing water and food problems. The showers weren't working and food catering wasn't sufficient.

Nothing to shout about in the interior decorations area too. The furniture and room design is circa 60s.

I began to feel that my apartment in Cheraga is a paradise.

"Grand Opening Night"

So yesterday was the opening party of the freshmen camp on site at El Bahir hotel. I was invited.

As usual dinner started late so I took a look around at the facilities. The hotel features a swimming pool albeit it was drained during autumn and winter.

The design of the swimming pool is certainly one of a kind. A rectangle pool that is length-wise olympic standard, albeit narrower in breadth. Right at one end of the pool are two cylindrical pillars with each a tree growing in the middle.

I wonder very often what the Algerians are thinking?!?!

Lifeguard: "Swimmer in Lane 5, WATCH OUT for that tree!!!!"

The dinner portion of the event was in reality very short. The freshies were already starving because breakfast and lunch was light. When the late dinner started, everyone rushed to the food.



The picture did not do justice to reality. I had never seen a buffet spread suffered a more savage and brutal multi-pronged attack other than yesterday evening.

Algerian and Moroccan forces forced a decisive armored pincer push on poulet. Egyptian and Syrian troops launched an airborne blitz assault on poisson. Chinese and Sudan special forces struck at the rear on viande.

It took tops 15 mins for the dinner guests to clear out 3 large table spread of food! Even the dessert table was mopped up simultaneously. Indeed, the adage "Leave No Eclair Behind" was proudly upheld by the freshies last evening.

Highlights of Last Evening's Dinner?

1) Visited by the Japanese ambassador to Algeria at the dinner. He was invited by the chief executive of the local distributor since they are friends. Our core business is Japanese cars so maybe it was a good PR move on the CE part.

2) My first taste of Mattake (matsutake or pine tree mushroom). A luxury product in Japan it is reputed to fetch a high price of USD 1,000/1 kg. In Algeria, they told me that it is growing in abundance. It tastes quite good when barbequed with soya sauce which complement the fresh pine aroma very well.

Name

Sometimes I cannot recognize my own name.

In the overseas Chinese context, family name (surname) is placed before name. But following the islamic convention, people in Algeria, Lebanon and the entire Arab world go by their first name and their father's name. So names are constructed differently.

In official papers, they do not only ask for family name and first names, but also for my father's name too. So officially my name will be constructed this way: (family name)(name)(father's name)

Suppose my name is Tan Ah Kow and my dad's name is Ah Niao. My name will be Tan Ah Kow Ah Niao.

So no blame can be put on me when I failed to acknowledge to an Arabic twist of Ah Kow Ah Niao, announced over the bank or government office counter.

Singapore National Day

HAPPY 42nd BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE !

This is my second time I spend National Holiday overseas.

Does it matter?

Yes, it very much matters to ME to be away from my homeland, my country, Singapore on National Day, thank you very much!

Why, because of the simple fact that it is a public holiday back in Singapore but I have to work today!

I was telling deepsix that life is so boring here (work, work, work and work) that I'm actually excited about watching the web livecast of the National Day Parade (NDP) at Marina Bay in the office in about few hours time (It's GMT+1 here). Hopefully, my colleagues of other nationalities will cut me some slack, but hey, it's a day for Singaporeans right?

That's if the connection to the web livecast is successful. From my last year's experience, it was difficult to connect to the web livecast in Algeria because of the low technological infrastructure of the IT department in my office here.

In situations like this, it really puts one's patriotism to the test - how much effort do I wish to expand in order to watch the NDP live and express my fervor as a Singaporean. Based on last year's experience, I discovered that I'm not even close.

But I do hope that this year, the connection will be better. There seems to be a lot of hype put in to this year's NDP. For the first time, the parade will be held away from the traditional site, the National Stadium, as it has been closed for a few years of renovation. This year, Marina Bay is the location of the NDP. A floating platform, offering 27,000 seating capacity, was build along the waterfront for people to watch the parade.

To further "engage and entertain Singaporeans, from the young to the young at heart", claims the official website, the emphasis has been shifted from National Day Parade to National Day Festival, signifying that the celebrations will move beyond a single day.

If you are in Singapore, you can find the list of the activities tied to the National Day Festival here. If you have excellent internet connection, you can catch the live webcast from the official site (http://www.ndp.org.sg/)

As for me, I just hope that I'm able to catch some fireworks online this time round.

The following are some pictures from the rehearsal, gleaned from the official site.

F-16s performing a Flypast over the floating parade


Best military unit of the year - Commandoes performing Guard of Honour duty. That's what you get for being the best: burnt weekends rehearsing at the parade grounds.


The lightning strikes everywhere: Nowhere to run...

Like I said, life is so boring here, I have nothing better to do...

UPDATE (11/08/07):
The internet connection between first world and third world was really lousy, therefore, I wasn't able to watch the NDP live webcast successfully.