ORD Trip 2009 - Italy!!!

Well the countdown's over and done with, and to celebrate, my dear W arranged for us to have a trip to Italy (Rome, Venice and Florence specifically). I have to thank her for the dedication and ultimately love that she put in to ensure that we managed to see this entire trip through. It really didn't help her in having to put up with a grump like me (that's a story for another day) throughout the prep.

So this is a congratulatory note to her for her superb planning abilities.

We were fortunate that the decision to make the trip came early, about 9 months before the departure date. This was because the NATAS travel fair took place shortly after the decision, allowing us to nab some fabulous deals in terms of airfare and train tickets.

Airfare costs: Per pax - S$ 1,000 (all taxes inclusive - Emirates economy class, stopover at Dubai, and then land at the Roma International FCO Airport) Someday, I'm going to afford Business Class, and I will fly to Rome again - Because it was simply too painful and uncomfortable to be cramped in 1m by 1m space for 18 hours. No smoking too - Shittttt....

Land Transfer costs: Per pax - S$ 400 approximately (We didn't pay for a three day ticket - we paid a per trip fee for three trips (Rome - Venice, Venice - Florence, Florence - Rome).

W kicked herself silly for not being able to get Open Jaw tickets, but on hindsight this was a minimal hindrance. We were familiar with the FCO airport and the route back to it using the Italian metro, a critical ability, since the train terminals in our agreed opinion, was rather haphazard and tourist-unfriendly. Notably with the cross-country train rides - There were numerous problems with taking the trains due to different information being published on the information boards in the train stations. While our tickets stated clearly the departure time and the platform numbers, the platform numbers for the trains would switch at the last minute, and so you could never really relax and read a book despite being half an hour ahead of time. We missed our train to Venice and had to switch trains, which was a nightmare for the first time Italy traveler...

But all that said, we made it to our locations fine overall.

Lodging - Hotels are priced moderately in Rome, and insanely expensive in Venice, but most beautifully furnished and priced in Florence. We spent 3 nights in a nice but hole-in-the-wall Relais Des Papi in Rome (240 euros), 2 nights in an even smaller room in Venice (with much better Service though - 240 euros), and 3 glorious nights in Florence (180 Euros). W was careful not to choose locations that were too dangerous or far off from our desired sights, placing such considerations ahead of costs, and the brilliance of her decision-making paid off highly.

Our location in Rome, notably, was near the Vatican and close to great family-run restaurants. Despite the map showing that the key parts of rome are within a 5km by 5km square, it really isn't very walkable, so staying near the Metro (lepanto station) was a great bonus.

Venice was nicely contained within 3km by 3km, and the hotel we stayed in was near the Rialto Bridge - Crucial, because the great stuff is all around that area. You'd want to stay near the Grand Canal because every day without fail, you are likely to take the Vaperetto (Water Bus) which um, costs 6.5 euros for 60 minutes... Pretty ridiculous prices for a Singaporean but it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Our location in venice was also very near the Piazza San Marco, which was to us, the main sight on the Venice tour.

Florence was absolutely beautiful - Judging from the size of it (it was longer East-West than North-South), W chose to locate us near the main train station, which worked out very nicely. The room in the Universo hotel was also by far the best, with high ceilings, comfortable beds and a decent toilet that had a path leading to it (this is as opposed to our hotel rooms in Rome and Venice, where the toilet was located right at the foot of the bed).

What we Did: (ROME)



Rome is chockful of history and culture - No one's going to deny that. However, with a Lonely Planets guidebook and minimal patience in poring through its contents, we weren't getting anywhere in knowing the place better. If you're going to Rome, you have to get the Walking Tours which W liased through TripAdvisor.com - Specifically, the Through Eternity tours of Ancient Rome, the Vatican and the Twilight Tours were awesome. I have said this before and I will say this again - We were extremely impressed with the volumes of information that were spewing out from these knowledgeable tour guides. These weren't simple fellers - Art and History College students bearing US citizenships, they knew every inch of the area they were taking us around in... And while the introduction was a touch too informal for my liking (We got emails telling us to meet at some gate, with a picture provided, and a timing), once the tours began, the guides deftly managed to raise our enthusiasm and interest - Every tour ended with a round of applause for the guide. I would applaud for him again... I'm almost a groupie, I swear.

Our first tour around ancient Rome saw us at the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. Come see my crap pictures:








And it wasn't cheap - Haha, by now you know that nothing is over there. Each tour lasted for about 2.5 hours, but more often than not overran the time allocated.

However asides from that, I can't say much more about Rome. So suffice to note, it is educational and awesome in terms of history. Food was nothing to shout about because it was terribly expensive in the restaurants (even the small ones), and Roman service isn't the most friendly in the world - at all.

What we did: (Venice)

First off, it is the most beautiful city in the world. all 4 km by 4km of it. You can literally walk throughout Venice, which is what we did. Compared to Rome, the educational aspect was much less (about 10%?) because we felt there were only 3 main noteworthy places to visit - The Doges' Palace, Saint Mark's Basilica and Saint Mark's Square. Ok, effectively 2 places. Well there are bridges like the main Rialto Bridge, and the Bridge of Sighs, but you'd only be mentally occupied for 5 seconds each when you see them.

Asides from that, grab a gondola - if you're travelling with your other half, you HAVE to take the gondola because she WILL want to take a gondola.

To be fair, it is rather nice - The guy makes sure that for ahem, 130 euros, you get to ride through the Grand Canal, see all the bridges and he sings (the girls love that part, I don't know why).

The food is awesome. Due to my limited language ability where it comes to food description, please see the following link: to understand our deep feelings for Venetian food.

We have verified that the guide Chubby Hubby has provided is extremely accurate and up to date. But expect to encounter difficulty in locating the restaurants. Venice is beautiful but has some sort of shit block planning system. It's like the guys who designed Sengkang came from Venice.

Florence:

Only 1 comment - Florence is the sideshow. The main show is Tuscany, the forested regions with castles and winefields located 30 km to the Southeast. We had only shining reviews to give to the Tripadvisor recommended Tuscany Bike Tours, which we took up for 60 euros each.

Review copy - The trip is run by three guys (Irish, Scottish) who are ex-city execs, and this tour was a different experience from our other tours in Italy which were information heavy- and we were glad that it was so! Andy, Keith and Rowen were fantastic and really good fun! This tour was well organised and a great way to see the gorgeous Tuscan landscape. Safety measures were adequate and our guides deserve full compliments for being confident and meticulous in ensuring our safety throughout. We would recommend this tour!

By the way, in order to take tour, you've gotta have a basic level of fitness! But that said, the guides on this tour were very accomadative and encouraging. You can take your time to enjoy the sights without feeling pressured to ride fast at all.

That's all folks...

The Loss of A Friend

He died in his sleep this morning. 11 Nov 08, Time of discovery, 7 am. I knew something was amiss the moment I called out to him. Because usually I didn't have to - I would only have to walk up to the glass door and there he would be, pawing the glass and urging us to open the sliding door to the balcony. Once the heavy darkened glass door slid open, he would slowly saunter out and give us a frazzled stare, urging for his breakfast to be brought to him. Usually, that would be the case.

I hesitated when I called out his name a second time. Something was more than amiss. By the time I slid open the door, I had expected the death. When I peered in, it was confirmed. I saw a limp head, too tired to carry any more life within him, lying against the edge of his bed.

I wonder if he grew too cold in the night, knowing that death was near. I wonder if he sensed that someone, something was calling him out of the house, beyond his physical confines. The problem with having a job you are unable to like anymore is that it is too easy to let the mind wander away and begin considering every possibility around. Twice before lunch, I let an email be sent with a click of my fingers even before my mind had said alright, let it go. I wonder about how it happened, and why it happened. He had fought bronchial asthma for a good two years, fighting with vets and enduring coughing fits and inhalers thrust into his face. I wonder if his lungs had finally failed because of our amateurish attempts at health care. I wonder if he had just gone because he decided that this was a meaningless existence. I wonder if my father killed him in a drunken and misunderstood rage. I wonder if God just wanted us to learn some lesson and decided to use him to teach us.

My mother peered in after me - She has a knack for these things. She knows before any of us when something has gone terribly, horribly wrong. She followed my eyes and covered her mouth when she saw him. Somehow, I didn't know - All I knew was that something was amiss and I had to verify, as if I would know better, the death. Slowly I walked to his bed and knelt down, whispering his name again and again. I wasn't terrified, nor was I dreading anything. I was merely curious.

His body was curled up in that familiar form of sleep, on his cushion, his tail tucked neatly at his side. "Get a towel", my mother said to me."Get his towel, the one that you use to bathe him on Sundays." It's funny now how everything seems like a dream. I walked to the toilet, held on to his towel (I call it the technicolor dreamcoat now and then because of the rainbow design), came back and slowly unfurled the length of the towel over him. The family was in the dining room by now, all dressed and ready for the day. From the corner of the window facing the dining room, the first rays of sunlight began to cast their warm glow into the house.

"Well... I think firstly we need to get him to Mount Vernon. Get him cremated." I spoke, with a voice that wasn't mine. "We need a shoebox." My mum said, in a quiet and mellow tone. "No." With a sort of firmness that wasn't me, I replied,"We'll carry him in his bed. It's almost a complete box. It's only fitting that he goes in it." For some reason, a sort of silence came over all of us at the dining table and we looked at the bed. Bathed in a gentle morning yellow glow, his greyish white fur again took the form of gentle, undisturbed sleep. His eyes were shut, his body tilted now to a side, and I half expected him to twitch a whisker in that small but sure sign of a pleasant dream. But there was nothing.

"Mum and I will take care of this." My dad spoke. It was the first line that he had said so far. I looked at my watch, and saw that rush hour was coming - By now traffic would have begun to pull up and crowd the roads leading into town. "Go now. It's ok, it's ok." He tried to brush me off with his hand. I regained my composure and said, "Alright, but you know the way to Mount Pleasant right? Take the PIE and exit via Whitley road." I stopped conversation short and got out to carry the bed out the door. I still have no idea why I did it. Perhaps I thought it would make the work easier for dad and mum later. Perhaps I just wanted to make it look like I had done enough as a friend. I don't know. "We know." said dad. "Go to work now." And in that continued daze of a morning, I left the house.

I carried work out in a daze. There was a meeting to attend at Rendezvous Hotel by 8 that morning, where I had to catch a superior and gather comments on the latest draft of an exhibition plan. There was also subsequently a meeting to attend for drafting of costs and consideration of suppliers for another project. Then there were templates and formats to amend, and fresh papers to draft for activities pending next week. The day continued rolling over me, slowly consuming me and forcing me to put up a false front of strength. Twice I stopped typing at my desk, glancing at nothing, feeling tears well up. The timing for both sessions was 10 am and 3 pm.

10am - My mother messaged me on my handphone. "They say the cremation will cost 128 dollars. That's the common one, where he'll be put together with others." Put together with others? Didn't literature have that as the pauper's grave? I'll have none of that, I thought. The phone's messaging alert went off again, and I checked. It was mum. "The private one will cost 522 dollars. It has two times for private witnessing sessions - 3 pm or 10 am (we missed it)". She wasn't trying to be funny - She was serious. And so was I. I was angry - Angry that I somehow, couldn't afford to live up to my principles. I didn't want him cremated without all of us being there, but yet it was firstly incredibly and unreasonably expensive for him to be cremated in private, and secondly impossible for any of us to be present. At first I rationalised it, and thought that I wanted a private cremation so that we could rest assured that his ashes were separate from others and it could be brought home (That's where my mum messaged me and told me that it was best to just leave it all there. In the furnace.) But more than that, I had heard stories (which arguably I can't verify and could well be another urban legend) that the crematorium staff would chortle and accept your hard earned dollars for cremating him and then once you were out the door, it would be the rubbish disposal doing the cremation for your beloved. You just HAD to be there.

That's where my mum is really psychic, cause just as I was about to take the plunge and sell my possessions to cremate him in private and heck with the cost of it all or the element of private reassurance that he was being given dignity in death - she messaged again. "His ashes will be placed at the well outside the pet hospital."

I broke down. I broke down and wept when i saw that message because for the first time, his death hit home. I felt the cold deep canyon that his absence left behind, and at a time where I so needed him, he was gone.

"Let it go." - End of message. It was good advice. I messaged back that we would have to take the 'cheaper' option (I still hate myself and cannot understand my own logic), and be forced to accept that we would have to go to that well near the hospital and imagine, praying that there has been honesty and integrity in dealing with the dead, so that we drop off flowers with the safe but false knowledge that a new happiness has been reached.

It is still day 1 of his death. It is a day that I cannot accept and find it difficult to accept. Like I said before, it was a false front that I put up at the workplace. It continues to be a false front that I am unable to get over and am finding incredibly difficult to maintain.

I am thus sitting here, in front of a computer at 2130hrs, writing a letter that will never by understood by my cat, who died today, and will never get to read. I will write it because I have to get it out of me. I have to say it, before age and loss of mind cloud my memory of the day I lost a friend.

So hear goes:

Dear P,

You left us today, after six short years in our care. I will probably never know what led to you leaving - Was it that your body finally gave up the fight and you had endured enough? Was it that you lacked love?

I love you.

I loved you the first day you stepped into my life, a precocious kitten, curiously batting about the air and chasing imaginary friends. I knew I loved you the day you coughed and fell into a fit, and we rushed to send you to the veterinarian. I believe that you're the only one that I have loved till the end.

I am sorry.

I am sorry for having taken you for granted. For not being there for you when no one was at home and you spent endless hours in the balcony - trapped. It kills me to know that your last hours were spent in the same, unbearable place.

I would not want to leave this world being alone. Ironically, you were with us but yet so away from us. Was it terrifying walking away, into a new place, unfamiliar territory?

I would be terrified. And knowing that I would be terrified makes me hate myself for allowing you to have walked away like that.

I will miss you - I miss you already and I hate the feeling. It is difficult to get along in this world. It felt better with you around - Because you were innocent. You bore no grudge, no intent against me. You looked to me for sustenance and me to you for companionship. You are viewed with such insignficance by all, even by me. And I regret having done so.

I wish I could have been better to you.

I wish I had bought you fresh fish every day - made it a daily and weekly routine to see that you ate a different meal every day, had a fresh coat of fur from a warm bath. I wonder if that would have made a difference.

I love you, and I will miss you.

Debunking ZeitGeist

A good friend of mine introduced me to a movie recently that was slated to be quite the 'eye-opener'. Claiming that it awoke him to many things in the world that had been going on, he quickly shifted from a state of 'you should watch it' to 'you must watch it'. Eventually, his excitement broiled over and soon I received the specific website details on my handphone.

Since puberty, I'd always been a tad wary of half-fuck animations and videos claiming to offer salvation to the weak-minded and spinning off conspiracy theories. More so those that claim to reveal a particular truth.

ZeitGeist however, offered a fresh perspective. I had to admit that this wasn't your usual doomsday cult offering you salvation in the form of life with the stars or meeting willy wonka in his choco butthole factory. This was pretty good shit.

Good shit - Still shit.

While normally I'd embed videos within my blogs, I figured that it would be best that you understand my experience, as well as hundreds of thousands of others' experiences by heading for the actual website featuring the video. (http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com)

OK, if you aren't comfortable with watching 2 hours odd of 7 inch size video, I'll run you through what happened.

The movie Zeitgeist

199 Days Left

Batman - The Dark Knight

I know this comes a little late (to be exact, 4 months late), but this has got to be the best scene ever:



Ok, you've watched the show, you know that this isn't your usual blockbuster action movie. Having opened a little after Iron Man, it not only beat Iron Man pants down at the box office, but it also set a new standard for the action hero industry. Ten stars minimum for the Dark Knight for me mates.

I said that then, and I will continue saying that for a long long time. But realising now that it's been almost four months past it, I am beginning to rethink exactly why the movie to me was such a great show. I know I sound crazy, perhaps a little too crazy, but really - this scene and the rest of the movie, it just spoke to me.

I like the deviation from the suual juxtaposition of good versus evil, light versus dark etc etc... But really I don't think anything has quite achieved this comparison of one extreme of insanity vs another... You can't disagree with the joker - that maniacal, anarchist mode of thinking that civilised man is just a farce. You can't quite agree with him either - But let's assume that he's right. Indeed, what on earth makes the Batman any better than him? Both possess hideous means of violence at getting what they want - just that the meat of their prey have a different taste in the mouth.

Let's present the moral argument for the Batman's existence - I think thus far it is quite certain that he believes he has this obligation to remove the criminals of Gotham by force because no one else can achieve it - He does so because of a traumatic childhood experience, watching his parents mugged and shot at a corner in Gotham after the theatre.

So because his parents were killed by people who never knew them, were probably hungry and desperate, turning to violence as a means of last resort, he takes it upon himself to go through years of absolutely mental training, spending millions through Wayne enterprises to create weapons and vehicles that inflict a speedy and terribly traumatic end to those he perceives as evil.

No need for a fair trial, no need for the public to have a say in what's wrong or what's right - Or even determine what's a fair retributive sentence to be passed down. Swoop in, in the middle of the night, viciously punch out the living daylights from the drug dealers, robbers, muggers, money launderers, and then ignore whether they live to be able to talk - Just get them. Inflict enough pain to scare them from even venturing out of their homes at night.

Let's turn the argument now to the Joker - We don't know what kind of trauma he went through. He's insane, clearly, by our standards, but he chooses to believe and manipulate, unfortunately, people's perceptions to see that it is state control that causes evil - He is merely liberating the modern human mind to accept anarchy.

Which is why - "Why, so serious?"

Man is a laughable species, one moment propounding his opinion of what is fair and just, and the next moment shredding the one next to him. Don't bring justice to the people - Because you can't. Bring their minds towards you, shape their minds, change the way they think , and before you know it, you're in control - Aha, until the Joker comes into the scene to liberate and free people from their illusory safety zones in society.

Who's the nutcase now? Or can't you tell?



Notice how the Joker keeps trying to bring man (both Batman and eventually sizeable chunks of Gotham city residents) into the classic human dilemma of choice - Choosing who decides to live - Laughing at how the insane decision of who deserves more to live is made. His argument is sound. You can't choose- You aren't qualified to choose. You live by self imagined morals and various arguments...that are agreed upon by a majority and hence make up what is legitimate for society at the point in time.

That leaves us with the biggest victim of the entire argument - The only human being who lives within his abilities and doesn't try to exceed what society demands of him.

Harvey Dent.

I love the name. I've loved the character of Two Face since young, I don't know why, or rather I didn't know why. I loved pitying him - The one who has this angry streak inside who doesn't know how to control it, and has no choice but to leave it to simmer and grow because for all of society's devices, there is just nothing to satisfy the thirst of the human spirit in Harvey. It is growing, it is expanding and it is waiting to blow. It blew eventually - I think Harvey Dent broke when he threatened the manipulated guard-of-honour who shot Commissioner Gordon (or we thought he did) with his life.

We are all like Harvey Dent. We're ticking time bombs, waiting for that vicious darkness to blow up and consume us until we can't tell what we look like. Unless and until we all come to a consensus, reach within us and admit that we would rather accept the lot of our own life and avoid trying to MAKE lots for others' lives... We will become Two Face eventually.

And then really, Why So Serious?

You can't control it anyway.

Just live life your own way.

The Foreign Issue (240 days left)

Singaporeans are a funny bunch.



Scouted the following from Wikipedia:

The Foreign Sports Talent Scheme is a scheme used by sports officials and organisations in Singapore to scout, identity and facilitate the migration of non-Singaporeans deemed to possess sports talent to play in Singapore colours in sporting events. Introduced in 1993[1] by the Singapore Table Tennis Association,[2] it also aimed to boost local sporting standards by importing sporting expertise. A similar scheme, the Singapore Foreign Talent Scheme, was introduced in 2000 but was limited to scouting talent for the Singapore national football team.[3]


In March 2008, it was announced in the Parliament of Singapore that 54 athletes had benefited from the programme and received Singapore citizenship, of which 37 were still in active training.



This incident has sparked the following debate, very tightly summed up in the following:


The achievement of Singapore's women's table tennis team in winning a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the country's first Olympic medal since 1960, reignited debate over the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme. Some critics said that the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) has relied too much on it, as the team comprised three China-born players, Feng Tianwei, Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu. On 19 August 2008, a correspondent to The Straits Times wrote that he was not proud of the way Singapore had won its medal through a team of imported foreign-born players, one of whom was granted Singapore citizenship at the beginning of 2008. He continued:


When I think of Wang Yuegu, Li Jiawei and Feng Tianwei, I can think of only foreigners brought in by Singapore to win medals and are paid handsomely for it – Singapore's pragmatic way of problem solving. My challenge to the Singapore Table Tennis Association and other national sports associations: Do you have the plan and – more importantly, courage – to send an all-native Singaporean team, for the London Olympics in 2012?[4]


A day earlier, STTA president Lee Bee Wah had said: "It doesn't mean that we should look at them [foreign-born table tennis players] differently because they're not born and brought up in Singapore. The important thing is that they have embraced Singapore and want to be a part of it. And they wanted so badly to win a medal for our country. We should not be harping on where they are born. I hope mindsets change."[5]



In addition, during his Mandarin National Day Rally speech on 17 August, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said:


In the Olympics contingent, there are 25 members, half of whom are new Singaporeans. Why do we need them? Make a single calculation. The Chinese have 1.3 billion people. Singapore has a population of four million ... If we want to win glory for Singapore and do well not only in sports but in many other areas, we cannot merely depend on the local-born. We need to attract talent from all over ... Look at the Beijing Olympics. Tao Li, the swimmer, she's done very well. The women's table-tennis team ... they have won an Olympic medal. We welcome foreigners so they can strengthen our team, and we can reduce our constraints. So let us welcome and let us encourage them.[6]


There's something scary in the way that line reads - That 'if we want to win glory' we 'cannot rely on the local born'.

I was brought up to believe that there is something about my blood that transcends all sense of ethnicity and race - That as a Singaporean, my grandparents paid the price for their citizenship through their nation founding efforts to build Singapore into the modern city-state it is today. I honestly regard highly the fact that we have an all-conscript military capable of launching integrated air-land strike operations, a finance sector that is strong enough and RICH enough to constantly dirty-float the currency market to maintain the strength of the Singapore dollar.

China believes in our model of governance and economic management - India has occasionally glanced at us and winced. The United States sees us as a firm foundation for conducting its SEA foreign policy, I think...

So what's this talk about us not being good enough... if we are local born?

My PSLE/O Levels/A Levels aren't good enough? I didn't make it into some new talent scheme that checks the genes for suitability for high and mighty civil positions? Probably. Oh yeah, maybe I'm Catholic too - and that's why there's this slight government aversion towards me... ISD got their hands messy in the heyday of '89... wouldn't want to mess up that bit again.

Wait a second, no one's listening.

Hey that's odd - You know, after this entire debate on foreign talent beating us at ping pong and thus bringing glory to our WIN-obssessed city-state, there's this whole new debate on making sure the classy Serangoon Gardens district doesn't get infected with foreign workers descending in a swarm next to the elite.

A Timely Update