10 Feb 2010 – HKG Visitor
JohnWT from HKG arrived in SIN the same day when I arrived from the USA. Have been meeting with brokers who are in contact with Sellers for commodities trading. John represents the Buyers from China. Understanding Singlish business is not my forte, especially in a noisy background and still jet-lagging; was kind of lost in these meetings. As it is, still have to concentrate to understand the daily Singlish conversations fully! Explaining about how SIN works and translating Singlish to a Hongkie was a learning experience. Might be a good idea to have sub-titles, like the movie Kisses- the Irish also speak English but English sub-titles were necessary to follow this movie.
Kisses*** is about two foul-mouthed working-class kids escaping from their dreary council estate to even drearier Dublin city centre. Depressing but this depicts the harsh reality of young kids in modern-day Ireland. Over the years, these social issues were conveniently blocked out of my mind. Some of the Irish, Scots and Brits are not easy to understand when you do not listen to them regularly. This movie brought back some perspectives of the illusions created during my student days in Dublin.
JohnWT wanted to see Orchard Central/乌节中央城, one of the new malls on Orchard Rd (Trendy Architecture/17 Dec 2009) Sat evening after the movie. Since we were in the area, I agreed, even though venturing near or into any shopping malls in the weekends is NOT something I choose to do. Good idea to have wall-climbers instead of wall-decorations, unusually creative and putting this high ceiling to useful purposes. The crowd and noise with the heat on the streets gave me such a headache that hopefully it will be a reminder why I do NOT choose to go out on the weekends. Yesterday, he flew back to HKG with a suitcase packed with 10 attractive colourful tins of Bengawan Solo cookies, something different from the regular HKG CNY goodies but perfect gifts for his family & friends.
Never let a FOOL KISS you or a KISS FOOL you 🙂 – Joey Adams