its always fun to stay at the...

i'm supposed to give a talk at the university here in singapore tomorrow and they've booked me for the night in the... YMCA!!! predicatbly, that had me chuckling to myself all morning.

but in spite of what the village people might have you think, its not filled with buff tom-of-finlandesque guys in flamboyant uniforms. so far no handlebar moustasches, no leather vests and the only one sporting tasteless retro shades is (unsurprisingly) me. instead, the clientele consists mostly of middle-aged american women and pious-looking korean spinsters. so i guess they don't insist on the Y and the M when admitting guests anymore. mind you, with me there, the C doesnt seem to be much of a criteria either.

singapore is as per usual - the "air-conditioned republic" (both literally and figuratively) which is hooked on shopping. so now, in between the chinese autumn festival/deepavali/hari raya shopping extravaganza of the other month and the year end sale and chinese new year's shopping festival, we have the christmas shopping wonderland thing going on, with loads of styrofoam snow and plastic christmas trees.

there are two things i severely dislike about christmas, and thats the shopping and the schmalzy christmas songs. unfortunately they tend to go hand in hand...