Walking Stupidly

Singaporeans are the worst walkers. Whenever I'm trying to get somewhere there are always at least two strays per five meters. People sort of wander, stop, go to the left, go to the right...it drives me CRAZY! They're also really slow. In New York I used to walk to work everyday. I never even thought about getting where I wanted to go. People stay on the correct sides of the sidewalk, and they walk STRAIGHT and at a regular pace. Here it's a struggle everyday.

I have pondered and pondered, and I had NO idea where it came from. I still don't really know, but I have found one thing that definitely doesn't help. When you're going into or out of the MRT (our subway), you have to go through booths, like in DC, NYC or anywhere else. In New York, you go in through the turnstiles and you go out to the side or maybe through some turnstiles, but specific ones. Here, you go in and out through turnstiles. Let's say there are 15 turnstiles in the station...there will be three going out, then two going in, then four going out, etc. So people are walking all over the place, cutting each other off, making right hand turns from the left lane.

Which came first? The bad walking or the mixed up turnstiles? I have no idea, but I can tell you that it does not help organize people on the way to work.

In other news, the kitty is doing amazingly. She is still at home, which we feel bad about, but she is nearly ready to go out into the world (with her new scar). Hopefully the other cats will see that she is tough and not beat her up, as they used to.

Some notable notes:
She has been playing with gravity - for example, picking up my keys (from the table) in her mouth (while standing on the table) and then dropping them on the floor. Or...standing on the table, picking up a pen with her paw (she is super talented) and pushing it onto the floor.

She has friends in the neighborhood...a lady stopped by to see if we knew where "Snowball" is. She said that the girls who are friends with her are very upset, and they all thought that she got captured. I let her know that she would be able to come out to play with her friends in few days. We are worried, though, that someone will take her (like we did, I guess...). Matt did get her microchipped.

She has amazing soccer moves. Both legs - moving forward, towards the goal, maneuvering around her defenders (chairs, toys, people, lamps). It's amazing.

She likes to sleep on us still. She slept on my legs for 5 hours last night, and then when I moved, she moved so that she was laying over another part of my body. Pretty sweet. Hard to not love that.

The Man Hunt

So this guy was in prison. He went to the bathroom, apparently while waiting for a visit from his family, and he escapes.

Details:
He's the head of Jemaah Islamiya in Singapore
Singapore has some of the best security for their prisons in the world
Singapore is a self contained, SMALL island

WHY THE HELL DID THIS GUY GET AWAY, AND WHY THE HELL CAN'T THEY FIND HIM!?

I just don't understand.
Why did they let such a bad dude go to the bathroom by himself in a place where you can apparently escape?
This country is all looking for him. There are posters everywhere. There were at least 10 pages today in the newspaper devoted to the man hunt, AND, yesterday, all people in Singapore got a text to their hand phone with a picture of him! He's on all of the buses, restaurant windows...everywhere.

So my first day in Singapore I ran into our friend Christian. I'm telling you, this country is really small. There's just no excuse that they haven't found him yet.

White Flowers

So...today was the second birthday party that I was responsible for in the office. Yes - that's me - the lady who gets the cake, sends out the Outlook invitation and then calls everyone to eat cake. It's definitely not as bad as Elaine's office where they're eating cake all the time (you know, sub-prime crisis=budget cuts at Moody's), but we get it about once every month and a half or two months.

Last time I got everyone whose birthdays we were celebrating flowers. It was a cute gesture if I may say so.

Today, I was running a bit late, so I ran down to a different florist, and I got two stems of these white flowers that I could cut up into buds. I was paying for this myself, so I was pretty cheap. I got back to the office, cut up the flowers and was all ready for the birthday party...when...bam!!! My co-worker told me that white flowers symbolize death in Chinese culture, and you CANNOT give them to people. BOOOO!!!! Cultural mistake number 999 for Melanie!!!

They didn't get any flowers, but at least I think that they look pretty on my desk.

Indonesia is Burning

Ambitious, I know, to write two postings in one day, but I'm spending a lot of time at home these days...with the kitty, so the blog is on the mind.

Indonesia is on fire. Okay - not all of it by any means, but there is some part that is clearing their forests right now, and they happen to be upwind from Singapore. Well, this means that we are smoggy. When outside, it looks like my glasses need to be cleaned or that I'm going blind or something else is terribly wrong. Constantly about to storm...

Apparently where the fires are there was only 20 meters visibility. That's not bad when your'e scuba diving, but for real life, it is really bad!

Overjournaled, but so true!!

Okay, I know everyone is writing about it - woman and black man competing for democratic candidacy and then, most likely, most hopefully!! presidency...

I hear about it at least once a day on my NPR Most Emailed Stories podcast. I read about it everyday in the Times...I know - EVERYONE is writing/talking about it, but seriously, I have to say something.

I literally remember sitting in my English class in 12th grade, and it came up that someone thought that my friend Marla would be president of the US. I knew she had great leadership capability, and everyone knows that she's smart, but I honestly thought that we will never have a woman president. I remember dismissing the idea because in my heart I believed it was impossible. It's only 12 years later, and, though I definitely don't think Hillary will win, I think it is possible, and it will be possible in the future.

Basically, this gives me hope that other things can change quickly. There are so many things in the world that we could do without, and there is hope that they will not exist in 12 years (or exist less). That's pretty exciting.

In Singapore, when you talk to anyone over 35, they all talk about how different Singapore is now - young successful people making lots of money, liberal people, (some) thinking people...Even in my Spanish class last night the kids (19 year olds!) were talking about how now movies like Juno and some French movie that I didn't know get full audiences, while before they either wouldn't even be in Singapore or no one would be interested. They were saying that there are so many changes even in the last five years.

I certainly don't think that all progress in this direction is good - since it does mean losing national/cultural identities and ideals that have been important for generations, and I am a sentimental woman, but it does give me hope.

I'm not sure if this makes perfect sense, but I have to run to put the kitty in her inner sanctum before I leave for work. Poor baby.

Marla for president in 2012 (we'll give her one more term to get some experience in politics...)!!!!!

Cat Mess

Oh my goodness.

Friday night we had to keep the kitty inside and make sure that she didn't eat or drink after 10 pm. Usually we let her out in the early morning to have fun with her friends. She was up at 7 and literally climbing the walls. We have a "gate" that runs with our sliding doors in the living room, and she literally climbed it to the ceiling. All she wanted was to go outside. I felt terrible.

Finally it was time to take her to the vet. Matt took her in (I stayed home to get our air cons cleaned), and it turns out that not only were they going to perform a hysterectomy, but they were also going to give her an abortion.

Our little 8 month old kitty was preggers as a little whore. She had three fetuses.

Well - skip forward to the afternoon when we went to pick her up. She was totally drugged and acting weird as hell, but they also returned her to us with a lampshade on her neck. I think those things are just abusive. She didn't even know what to do with herself - she just wanted to get away from it, but it was attached. It made for a very sad looking cat.

We took her over to our friend, Lisa's house, since we were playing Settlers and Risk with her and some other friends all afternoon/night, and Lisa lives right by the vet. Our little kitty freaked out that she wasn't at home or anywhere familiar (afterthought - we DEFINITELY should have just brought her home and stayed with her all night). She went back into the farthest corner of Lisa's house.

Well - at the same time, Lisa's cat, who is super shy, had been out on the balcony, and must have seen/heard/smelled our cat, and SHE flipped out. This was a bit delayed, however, because we didn't know where she was or where she went. We actually looked for her every half hour or so for about three or four hours. Finally, Lisa heard her cat meowing, but it was from way above her balcony, and she couldn't see her. When she went down to ground level, she could actually see the cat - and she was hiding behind the air con on the balcony of the apartment ABOVE hers.

I went up to that apartment and knocked on the door. A nice European (we disagree whether he was French or German) came to the door. I told him that my friend's cat was on his balcony, and he profusely apologized for not opening the door the whole way since he was only in his underwear (boxers at least - not too European...). Well, this didn't bother Lisa. She came running up the stairs, and RAN past the guy and INTO his apartment! He didn't even seem that affected and kept apologizing to me that he was in his underwear. Lisa came out and said "I'm going to have to move your washing machine..." That's when I told him he could leave me and go attend to his house which had a woman he had never met in it.

Finally, they got the cat, and all was fine. It was hilarious.

When our little kitty got home, she was really fine. She ate, drank, peed in her new litter box, and she sort of slept through the night.

This morning was a different story. She just wants to go outside SO badly, and we can't let her out, since someone will for sure take off her lampshade...Matt called the vet, and they said that there are some cat t shirts that she can wear instead, so hopefully she'll be happier.

Oy ya yoy.

Stolen Organs

You know those rumors that spread around saying that people wake up in some random place in a bathtub of ice water, and when they go to get up they realize that they have been surged and then they find a note that says something like "We have taken your kidney. You have ten hours to live unless you rush yourself to the hospital." ???

Well, apparently this happens around the world - people are drugged, they are surged, their organs are taken out, then they are returned to themselves.

I kind of feel like this is what we're doing to our kitty. This morning Matt will be taking her to the vet to get her womanhood removed (I have to stay home and wait for the air con guy to clean our air cons that we don't use but have to service because it's in our lease...).

Little schmitty kitty is going to wake up after the surgery and be so sore and not know what happened, because she was totally fine when she went in. She has never ventured outside of Casafina (our condo complex) except for the two other times we have taken her to the vet - so she will wake up in a strange place with strange people, and she will hurt. :( I feel terrible for her.

We had to make sure she fasted last night and this morning, so we did not sleep. Usually we let her out around 5 or 6 and then we can get back to sleep. This morning, though, we couldn't let her out, so we went out with her to pee, but had to bring her back. She wanted to get out and explore so badly that she literally climbed the "gate" inside of our sliding door to the CEILING to try to get outside. Poor baby.

I will let you know how the surgery goes. If you want to say a mi shebeyrach for her, her hebrew name is "kittele bat miryam" (it's actually yiddish).