Land Ahoy!

The sight of land in the vast expanse of sea. The sound of sea gulls. The beautiful view of green vegetation on a piece of land. The idea of having land under your feet rather than the wood from the ship deck.

This would be the feeling of a ship crew which has been at sea for a while & who has just sighted land.

How is that relevant to me? Cause I just moved into my piece of land here in Singapore!

Yes, I am finally into my apartment (which I mentioned in my earlier post). My shipment from India landed on the weekend, so we have a few days of hectic unpacking to do. Also there is the bit about making the house a home. So we need to get quite a few things to make the place properly habitable for my baby, my wife and myself.

Stake is in the ground.

Willi Wonka, Willi Wonka

You may recall from my last post that my family had landed in Singapore. And I had planned to do a few things so that their forst few days are fun & memorable.

So we went around town, walked around the river, popped into shopping malls, had food at all sorts of places...all of this very nice for my wife. My daughter wouldn't care two shakes of a rat's tail for all that. So we took her to a children's play area, a kids art center, a music teacher & to top it, we took her to the "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory" movie.

That took the cake. Literally.

My daughter was sad when Charlie didn't get the ticked at first, thrilled when he did get it, was laughing & rolling & dancing with the "Alumpalumpa songs" and having a ball.

And when she snuggled next to me in bed, she said that she had a great time & that she loved the place.

Sigh!

I am complete

Yes, I am. My family landed here in Singapore on Friday!

I left office a couple of hours early...mainly because I could not help looking at the weather reports & the Singapore Airlines landing schedule every few minutes. And so I went & bought a "Welcome to Singapore" kind of gift for my daughter & went to the airport to pick them up.

As I reached, I realised from the Arrivals information that their flight had recieved clearance from the Changi ATC to commence landing sequence. Which meant that they would touch down any time now.

And then the Arrivals information changed to show that they had landed.

However, at Changi, having landed is one thing. Finding a parking bay is another. So the aircraft goes around a cool 15 minutes getting to its bay & finally opening the doors.

Knowing which belt their luggage was coming, I went to the exit of the belt. And then I waited...

The luggage from their flight started coming in about 20 minutes after the confirmation of landing. And then another 15 minutes or so later, people started to come to the belt & pick their stuff up. And my eyes started darting around the place to see if I can see my wife & my daughter anywhere.

I kept this up till a point came where the number of people coming to the belt started thinning & the staff at Changi started taking the bags off the belt so that the next airline could use it.

I got so worried. I didn't know why they were so late. Was something wrong? Did they have trouble at Immigration? All sorts of things popped into my paranoid mind.

And a full 10 minutes into my paranoia, I saw my family coming to the belt!

And I waved like a madman at my daughter. And she came rushing to me & hugged me so tight for 5 minutes which made all of that worry go away.

A small reunion later, we were all headed with their luggage to our hotel.

Happy Day Are Here Again! Thumbs Up! Thumbs Up!

Now that's creativity

Before a Brazil - Argentina game, an Argentinian condom company came up with this advert.

Brazil won the match. The Brazilian Football Association responded with this advert. Now, that's a creative slap on the face. What say?

Sand can, and does, hurt

Some of us in office planned a Sunday beach volleyball excusion to the Tanjong Beach on Sentosa island. It looked (at least from the mailing list) that there were around 10 of us in the going.

As I landed up there, the heavens decided to spice things up by pouring down. And when I say pouring down, I mean visibility of a few hundred feet!

So I'm thinking "These guys aren't going to turn up, so I might as well order a few drinks and get drunk in the rain". So I did...order drinks, I mean. The getting drunk part comes later! And I met a couple of folks who were planning to do the same thing. A guy from Finland, one from Sweden and we had a regular UN tribunal happening over Vodka & Cranberry.

And then a few of us showed up. And I thought "This has promise". And then a few more arrived. And the heavens parted as if to say "Let there be light ... & then some". I don't think any of us needed any more invitations to get the party going.

So we limbered up with a bit of frisbee & then a bit of American Football. It's then that I noticed a peculiar phenomenon (and I have a collegue to thank for pointing it out to me).

There were couples who had come there in their wedding ensemble to get their pictures taken. And these were pictures with them walking into the sunset (on a murky rainy day? That picture needs to be digitally touched up pronto), the holding hands pose, the "You may kiss the Bride" pose, and many more. And I had to say, "Wow, these people have some real patience in life to do this on a Sunday evening".

After quite a few jugs of alcohol, we decided to brave it to the volleyball pitch. And that was a lot of fun, trying to play a game that is really really difficult on sand & especially so when one is not used to it. And after I tried to dive at the ball a couple of times, I realised that sand really hurts.

Then back to the jug of alcohol (replenishment, you see) and then getting wet a bit. By this time, the DJ had decided to wake up & shake the rain water out of his plugs. Audio system plugs, clarification for all you perverted thinkers. And so we danced.

All in all, taking into account the rain & everything, it was a great evening. A lot of fun, a lot of play & a lot of alcohol being shared by quite a few people.

Only problem is, I woke up to cuts & scratches, thanks to the sand. And my lower torso hurts like hell!

What's common between Harry Potter & The Da Vinci Code?

Apart from the fact that Jesus Christ gets mentioned a lot in the Harry Potter series & Harry gets mentioned by Robert Langdon's editor in The Da Vinci Code, there is a name that is common to both the books.

Do you know which one?

No?

Want me to tell you?

Sure?

It's Nicholas Flamel.

Now if you scream "Who's that?", I would very strongly suggest you read the first installment of Harry Potter (The Philosopher's Stone). As per Ms. Rowling, Nicholas Flamel has in his possession the only known Philosopher's Stone. And if you think she made that up, I would have to say "You're wrong"!

Nicholas Flamel was a highly accomplished French Alchemist. It is claimed that he was able to create the Philosopher's Stone which, apart from turning lead into gold, also created the Elixer of Life which, as you might have guessed, makes you immortal. Along with Aqua Regia, both of these were the goals alchemists were trying to achieve back then. While the rest of them managed to create Aqua Regia, which could dissolve gold, Flamel is rumoured to have had success with the other two goals of Alchemy.

Now what does this have to do with The Da Vinci Code, you say?

Nicholas Flamel is mentioned as one of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion!

Cool, huh? How modern authors are using actual historical figures to make their stories sound more plausible.

Not sure how many of you caught that while reading the books.

Or maybe you are the type who does not like the Harry Potter series. Or The Da Vinci Code. Or both.

i Passed out, dude...

That should be the Apple iPod service station motto. Cause that's what customers go thro when they call the service station. I almost passed out myself!

I recently bought a 20gig colour iPod and after a couple of days, the left earbud of the headphones started to crackle, as if something has come loose inside & that is hitting the membrane.

So I went to the Apple site & registered a complaint requesting for a replacement of the headset. I got a Case Number & everything. And I was told to wait for a couple of days.

When I checked my case, it showed up as "Closed" and no other information.

So I called Apple and asked them for an explanation. The service rep said that that system is not valid for Singapore (THEN WHY HAVE IT THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?). The rep also suggested that I take the pod to a service center.

When I did, the service center told me that Apple does not allow it's service centers to stock replacements & that they would have to send my headphones to Apple for "problem analysis" and to "ascertain if it has to be replaced" and that it will take, get this, a minimum of 10 days!

Now for a device that I bought a few days ago to listen to music & which broke down to no fault of mine, I think 10 days is unacceptable. So I decided not to give my headphones to them & tried calling Apple instead.

This time around, the conversation lasted for less than two minutes...with me being on hold for more than fifteen minutes.

Now I have been told that the replacement headphones for my pod will be shipped to me and should reach me "within the next two weeks". It "might be sooner", but there is no guarantee on the time it will take. And they "dont know whether the delivery is international or local".

All of this for a pair of earphones.

It would have been easier to just go out & buy another set. But then, I would be helping Apple sell a piece (which is bad & something that they should pay for) and another piece since the first didn't work OK.

There's a principle involved here. If you can find it, tho, let me know.