Issue #17

From the Ridiculous to the Divine
14 April 2012

 A couple of weekends ago I went downtown to Funan DigitaLife Mall, billed as "Asia's leading IT shopping mall", for the first time. I had to pick something up at John 3:16 Photo Supplies. Yes, that is the actual name of the shop but more about that later. The store was crammed with people so I decided to go have a cup of coffee and wait for the crowd to subside. I ended up in Cawaii Koohii Maid Cafe. For those of my readers who do not know Japanese, cawaii means cute and koohii is coffee. The waitstaff are all young women dressed in little french maid costumes. Photography is not allowed but it is possible to pay to have a picture taken with the 'maids'. I have attached a photo from their website.

When I finished my coffee, I went back to John 3:16 Photo Supplies. It was still packed with people but there was an available chair against the wall next to someone else who looked like she was waiting. For those of my readers unfamiliar with the New Testament of the Bible, chapter 3, verse 16 of the Gospel of John is, according to Wikipedia "one of the most widely quoted verses from the Christian Bible and has been called the most famous Bible verse." Mixing business with religion has not hurt this enterprise one bit. In fact, the photography shop across the aisle from John 3:16 was empty. When I commented to Samuel Gan that they must be doing something right, he just smiled and said "Praise the lord!" www.john316photo.com

Issue #16

Chinese New Year 2012

18 February 2012

 

If I had a car, I would get a bumper sticker which read, "My readers are the best!" One third of the people to whom I send my newsletter responded as I requested in The AFB - Issue #15 and the vast majority of them wrote very supportive comments. Thank you, muchas gracias, arrigato gosaimasu!

This issue is about interesting cultural activities that I attended last Saturday and the Saturday before. On February 4th, Monica and I went to Sam's house and after dinner we went across the street to the small park. A stage had been erected and the performers were preparing in the area behind the stage. Sam pointed out to me that the structure was made in the the traditional way with bamboo lashed together. An aluminum step ladder was lashed to the front of the stage and throughout the opera stagehands would walk out on stage and climb down the ladder. This activity did not disturb the actors; according to Sam it is part of the show. The performance was an opera performed in Hokkien. Like many spoken languages in Singapore, Hokkien is influenced by other languages and it has borrowed many words from Malay and English including the name for this type of performance. Wayang, according to The Coxford Singlish Dictionary, was "originally a Malay word meaning 'theatre performance', it now means an act of pretence."

"Eh, we all saw you take his wallet. Don't come and wayang, okay?"http://www.talkingcock.com/html/lexec.php?op=LexLink&lexicon=lexicon&keyword=WAYANG

On February 11th we went to a Lunar New Year celebration at Kampong Ubi Community Centre. Now an industrial estate within our neighbourhood, Kampong (village in Malay) Ubi (tapioca in Malay) used to be a rural area. Tickets for the dinner were $2 SGD (that is not a typo) and included lots of yummy food from the different cultures that live in our area. We also got gifts of hats, pens and cup covers and I won a $10 voucher from the FairPrice supermarket. The highlight of the evening was the museum. Items that were used in the kampong homes were displayed and there were old photographs which captured images of life in the 'good old days'.

Last night was Sam's birthday party and one of his guests asked me when he was going to get his autographed copy of Memoirs of a Cat Named Dog. Steve has been waiting patiently for a year. I told him he was at the top of the list as soon as it is published. That was when he suggested that I should get the names of all of the people who want to buy my book to assist in convincing an agent to represent me. Monica suggested that I should offer a sample to the people on the list. Please write to me if you would like a sample of Memoirs of a Cat Named Dog and you will buy a copy when it is published.