Sometimes, You Just Gotta Have Nuts

Bus shelter advertisement outside my place. I can't tell if they're being cheeky or if they just didn't know. Either way, it's perfect.

Singlish Word of the Day: Lah. They use it all the time here. It's actually become one of my favorite things. I really want to be able to use it correctly by the time I leave but because they say it all the time, it's hard to pick up the right and wrong usage. Maybe I'll just finish every sentence with it. It's a hard word to explain. When I looked it up, I came across someone else trying to do the same and I'm stealing their example, b/c this literally is how Singlish is. If I had to explain it, it would mean something like 'ok' or 'right'. Except not as a question. Almost rhetorical. And this isn't a misspelling, they spelled it phonetically.

Usage: "I can repair, but motor old oready. No stock lah."

Translation: "I can repair it, but this motor has already been discontinued. I suggest you buy a new one"

Amazing Advertising Learning: It's really interesting to be on the other side of Global calls. Talking to McCann NY about new TV concepting they are doing about it being appropriate for the Australia and APAC markets is funny given I've been on the other side of those phone calls. It's nice to know everyone has these cultural issues.

Dumb American Moment: Went to a Japanese restaurant last weekend. I do NOT know how to use chopsticks. I am an idiot.

But back to nuts. After seeing the Snickers ad on Friday, some coworkers and I went to a Martini bar where they throw peanuts on the floor. It was just like Logan's except with Martinis and a much different crowd. The martinis were quite good and were 2-for-1, er rather they were 1-for-1.

I did the martini bar on Friday and then geared up for my dance club bonanza on Saturday. It's no joke. It really is nz, nz, nz like (I'm trying to phonetically make that Euro-Jersey Shore dance club house music noise...you know what I mean). And we did it up right. There were 6 of us: Kris, his gf Viktoria, his 2 Canadian friends Chien and Rob and my friend Barbara (see Indian dinner night entry). So we decided the most cost efficient thing to do would be to buy a bottle of vodka and split it. It really was cost efficient, but I was drinking vodka cranberry allll night (thanks Ashlyn for introducing me to it). The bottom floor was more R & B like so we stayed down there for a while. And then the rest of the crew left so Barbara and I decided to go up to the nz, nz, nz part. The walls on the stairs up are covered in black fur, no joke. I have some pics of the club though it doesn't turn out well with the lights swirling around and the blackness but you get the idea.

I had made it my night's mission to meet some nice Australian gentlemen. And with Barbara and Viktoria's help, there was success. I spent a good part of the night laughing at their accents (and they laughed at mine) and how everyone dances in the clubs. It's just funny. How does the rest of the world love this? Clearly, I'm going to have to live in Ireland or something b/c I am definitely a pub gal. Once again, no pics of actual people. I PROMISE I will try and remember this weekend.

Finally Barbara and I decided to call it a night. I took a nasty spill and have a stellar bruise to prove it. I had to wear longer sleeves to work this week to hide it. I'm paying the price for my debauchery with heat exhaustion. It was definitely time to go home.

Somehow in my shenanigans at home that night, I flicked the hot water button off...it's right next to the bathroom light button...I never knew what it did, I just always left it how it was when I moved in. (see the pic below, it's easy to make the mistake!) Needless to say, I took cold showers for 2 days until I finally called the front desk to see what was up and she asked me if the button was on. That's not a dumb American moment, that's just a dumb moment. Ohhhhhh. Cursed myself for not figuring that out earlier and realizing I paid the price with 2 cold showers.

I spent most of Sunday recovering (and taking a cold shower) and going to 3 different bookstores to try and find the next book in the True Blood series since I'm flying through books here. Addendum to escalator footprints entry - ran into an escalator that had footprints on every step and on the left and right. There was NO WAY of avoiding them.

On my trek around town for the book, I came across an Asian hoedown going on outside my apartment! They were getting down to Achy Breaky Heart. I put a picture and also some video evidence. It. Was. Awesome.

It rained a LOT here on Monday. And something I've started noticing is that they don't really observe the 'open umbrellas inside is bad luck' thing. They are everywhere, particularly in the office...next to cubicles, in the bathroom, etc. One of them was right behind me and I could feel the bad ju-ju flowing towards me.

The bad ju-ju is probably why I've found myself sick here. I'm sure that will come as no surprise to anyone, but it's still a bummer. I went to the doc today and she gave me like 7,000 prescriptions. All these and the visit cost me a total of $57 USD...without insurance. I'm moving to Singapore forever.

The next 3 things I couldn't figure out how to work them into the blog in a storytelling fashion, so I'm just going to straight up bullet it old-school style:

1. This is what I see on my walk to and from work in the morning and evening. I just think it's really pretty. The Youth Olympic Games will be going on here in August and I'm guessing it ties into that somehow.

2. In our kitchen at work, there's a TV on the left that plays a reel of top creative around the world on a continuous reel but it's updated every now and then. I was in there the other day and what came on? DUREX BALLOONS ANIMALS!! We did that! Fitzco is famous in Singapore.

3. This came on my TV last night right as they were deciding the verdict in Flash of Genius. What the hell? You think the cartoon character makes it any better?!

Ok, I've got to go now. One of the medicines I took that makes you drowsy is kicking in. Otherwise, this post is going to get reeeeal strange, real fast.

Warmest Regards,
Robin