On The Move…

Just to let you know, this will be my new and hopefully permanent mobile phone number in Singapore:  (+65) 9107 0720.

Given how my last number very mysteriously vanished from the system (Starhub literally could find no trace of the line in any of their records despite the physical evidence of the SIM card), I have slightly higher hopes for the reliability of this new line.

I’m back.  And it all seems a bit of an anti-climax.  The eighteen hour flight seemed really brief, probably because I spent most of it asleep after 40 hours of being awake, driving about 600 miles and finally sprinting through the airport with too-much hand luggage (this last situation wasn’t even really my fault).

The weather in Singapore doesn’t seem significantly warmer or more humid than the summer weather I left on the Cape.

Everything seems a little too familiar, like I never actually left.

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But it doesn’t necessarily make it easier.

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On the final to-and-fro trips around the Cape I felt a surreal missing limb syndrome with noone else in the minivan.  I kept looking around expecting to see my father in the passenger seat or to hear my mother and sisters in the rear.

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I start work on Monday.  Tomorrow I will get a mobile phone number and also move into my summer housing.

We’ve been staying at a lovely house in Hyannis this past week, spending the kind of relaxing but constant-activity vacation that results from being the only designated driver in the family.  We’ve been to Salem and the MFA, to Martha’s Vineyard and the beach, and tomorrow enroute to JFK we’ll be making a last shopping-stop at the ever-incredible Woodbury Common.  We’ve had good food and taken fun pictures, and I’ve said various unwilling personal goodbyes to places and memories and habits and people.

I leave on Saturday night on the direct EWR-SIN flight.

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PS: Pictures to come, perhaps when I regain internet and computer access next week.
PPS: Jo and XY, I’ve been meaning to respond to your messages, but have been really tied up and infrequently online…  so sorry!  I’ll be back in Singapore in just 48 hours.

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Just because it should be recorded – senior move out was pretty much as bad, if not worse than The Great Move-Out Disaster of 2006, if that’s possible.  The hallways and courtyards of Quincy (and probably every other House) bore an eerie resemblance to the set of a disaster movie or urban refugee camp setting…  furniture, clothes, documents, food and luggage were strewn, abandoned and forlorn, as far as the eye could see.  Theft and looting felt rampant.  It wasn’t a happy place to be at all.

I realise that these will have been covered in the Singapore media, but hey, I’m pretty diconnected from that media.

Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey 07/08

Walking Speed 

I need more sleep.

My schedule is ever more packed, although I’m not really complaining because it’s all free dinners, cool day trips and meetings with friends.

Naptime.

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Wow, it’s been a busy couple of days.  But mostly fun-busy, I think.  But perhaps that’s just selective memory.

I threw another party tonight, mostly in honor of pre-frosh weekend, although I think I eventually only met a handful of prefrosh (the rest of the time I spent running about searching for refills, cleaning up and greeting people I know).  The party was pretty successful on the whole, and it did end at about the time I’d been planning.  I’m proud that I kept fairly close to budget, despite the fine selection of finger food and cocktails served.  My favorites were the English cheddar with carmelized onions and the seafood paté on melba toast.  More pictures and so on will have to wait.

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In a couple of hours I will drive Ming, Nathan, Justin and myself down to NYC for Singapore Day.  And then at about 3am on Sunday morning I will drive Rika, Justin and myself back.  The next 36 hours are going to have to be about many naps…

The most arresting article I’ve read anywhere recently is this feature on Imelda Marcos from this month’s W magazine. 

Imelda was of course the first lady of the Philippines for quite a while (1965-1986) while her husband, Ferdinand, was President.  Outside of the Philippines she’s famous mainly for her staggering shoe collection, the cost of which is probably some small fraction of the huge sums of money the Marcos’ are accused of embezzling from the national coffers (allegedly around five billion dollars).  But the article is fascinating mainly for the richness of Imelda’s story, the people she knew (Saddam, Doris Duke and the Pope all make cameos) and the vividness of her personality. 

Much more interesting than anything that could be written about Anna Nicole.  Go read and see for yourself.

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I dreamt last night of my time in the Army, for the first time within memory.  It was a little unexpected, and nice in a way to see those familiar faces again.  I wonder what everyone is up to?  Maybe this dream was triggered by my fast-approaching return to my lieu de naissance 🙂

Sometimes research returns unexpected results; an example would be these choice passages from a 2003 journal article titled “Drug Abuse: Iran’s Thorniest Problem”:

“Iran has executed over 10,000 narcotics traffickers in the last decade, usually by hanging, and some 800 people are on death row for narcotics offenses.  Sometimes the penalties are carried out in public to serve as a deterrent. By 1999 it was obvious that harsh penalties were not having the desired effect.  Capital punishment for smugglers continues, but drug abusers are treated less harshly now.” (290)

And also:

“The law-and-order approach, of course, has its advocates. The police chief called last year for ‘more effective law enforcement.’ The head of the Judiciary said, ‘Drug traffickers and sellers must no longer benefit from any amnesty—on the contrary they must be severely repressed.’ And a Deputy Interior Minister complained in June 2001 about the number of executions: ‘Some 15,869 drug traffickers deserved death, but only 1,735 were meted capital punishment. The death sentence against 400 convicts was upheld, but finally only 233 were sent to the gallows.'” (292)

Sammi, William A., “Drug Abuse: Iran’s Thorniest Problem”, The Brown Journal of World Affairs 9, no. 2 (Winter/Spring 2003): 283-99

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And today I learnt another new thing: the differences in form and usage between the em-dash, the en-dash, the hyphen and the minus sign.  Who knew?

Dash.

God bless the people of Sumatra.  What awful news.

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It’s also sobering to hear that even my mother felt the tremors at home.

Oh, scrappy day.

I was distracted enough to miss my 1pm.  And that’s the least of it.

I’m going back to bed.  Wake me in the morning.

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I want to see a full, high-quality video of the Viktor & Rolf show.  Pretty unbelievable – I want to see these clothes on some covers and editorials (like that Dolce and Gabbana dress that’s everywhere right now).