It's the weekend and I started it by getting to work for Fabulous Tan, an indoor sun taning salon started by an old friend of Mun Loong's. Everytime I work for Fab Tan, I think I'm working for a genious or a mad man. This is Singapore, the land of excess sunshine, our Chinese population is around 76% of the total population and as everyone knows, the Chinese or at least the women are obsessed with getting whiter not more tan!
Having said that, Fabulous Tan has been a rip roaring success - within a year of establishment, the company now has two branches (in prime locations - Bugis and Orchard) and expanded into the oxygen and teeth whitening business. And every success for Fabulous Tan has to add to ones credentials - a case of - if you can sell a sun tan studio in a country with more than enough sun ...you can sell anything.
Anyway, the project was about cleaning up the coast on International Coastal Clean Up Day. Quite tiring trying to run around through a park and getting sound bites for the cameras but rewarding enough to see one of my former journalism students covering the story for her school newspaper and pleasing on the eye in as much as Mr Tan decided to bring along his FHM Best Smile Chick and a long legged babe from the show "Deal or No Deal,' sponsored by Terry O' Connor's Courts. Long Legged Babes - ah, always good for pleasing the eye and stiring the lust .... but this being Singapore, attractive bodies have an unfortunate habit ..... they feel obliged to speak and thus ruining ones fantasies.
Since I've lived in Singapore, I'm comming to the conclusion that certain cultures should stick to certain things. Mainland Chinese and Vietnamese women easily have the best grooming in Singapore. You'd be surprised by the fact that we're talking about people from nominally communist countries here. I remember Angela from Crush would deliberately dress down and dowdy and would still look better than all the rest of the wanna be girls dressing for the kill. Han Li manages to look presentable even if she shops cheap at City Plaza and avoids expensive brand names.
When it comes to conversation, the Filipinos and Indians come-up trumps. Indian women are exceptionally articulate and very sharp. As for the Filipinos, they have this amazing ability to enjoy life and music. It's like you can give a Filipino a guitar and he or she will somehow be able to string a decent tune together just like that. You give a Singaporean a musical instrument and they'll have to check with the PAP Central Comittee about getting a schoolarship to a top class music academy on a government funds before they condecend to pretend to whistle along with you.
As for gentleness, I'm with the Thais and Indonesians. I think it has something to do with the culture but people from this part of Asia seem so content and happy with life. I remember going to Thailand when I was with the army. Hated the excercise but came back to Singapore feeling very empty. When you hit the Thai countryside, you know you are in the third world. You know why every Thai girl selling her body is doing what she's doing. And yet, and yet, you can't help feeling that these people who have so much less than we do have something very important that we lost along time ago.
This was kind of a funnish week. Went in for National Service Duty but discharged on medical grounds. Attended the Saudi National Day Celebration where I managed to touch base with HE and the team at the Embassy and Saudi Aramco. Went through September 11 without a political thought in my mind and somehow managed to get a few interviews for clients set-up. Insh Allah, GECF project will finally get to see some results next week and I can get the ball rolling into other things - Alcon trugs along as usual, Asiamedic could continue to feed me and 3M has its usual projects - all of which will feed and God Willing put me in profit this year.
Life is seemingly improving as the Seventh Month draws to a close and Ramadan gets underway. Can't go out on the daily chomping sessions with Muslim friends so I guess its a case of either concentrating on slimming down or finding non-Muslims to hang out with. This being Singapore - we all get fat regardless of race, language or religion. Anyway, the Muslim Holy Month should help improve things - I guess having a few people say prayers on your behalf should be exceedingly helpful for the Karmic Game.
Or perhaps I was just too obsessed with the wrong things in the Seventh Month. A friend of mine reminds me that I was very focused on cheque collection from GECF rather than on the work process and doing the work that I love to do. Somehow, I got poked in the wrong places by Murphy - the world's favourite Jink Meister.
Proceeds seems to be a national obsession. Everyone becomes so focused on the end results they usually end up making themselves unhappy. I like Warren Buffet, one of the world's richest men who says, " I'm more interested in processes than proceeds, though I've leant to be happy with them too." Being broke is no fun but I'm realising that what I dislike about being broke is that I tend to focus on the cash instead of the job on hand. May be this month, I'll be able to focus on the right things and life and go to better places.
No comments
Post a Comment