Missed you last week. Did have time to post from the road, but got into brain dead vacation mode.
Couple of follow-ups from recent posts. First, last few entries have seen some discussion about women taking over and how I am all for it, but am not sure if all the ladies got the point. I envision women taking over some/much of the power positions from the fellas, but doing it with more compassion than we typically show once we get there. I am not signing off on you taking over and being just like the men. The YouTube mass shooter is not a positive step.
Secondly, did some research with a Brit friend of mine about their use of the word Twat. As I suspected, they don't use it to describe female dicks, but more for useless men. He also threw out the word knob as a fun invective...not for the girls, but just in general. Am gonna back off using the T-word and will continue my quest to find the right term for women gone bad. I described the YouTube shooter as a Nutty Broad and like that one quite a bit.
Next, have been railing for at least a year on the explosion of Poke eateries around the globe. I still watch the Simpsons religiously and just caught episode 13 from season 29 and the family visited their old neighborhood from the time before kids. The neighborhood was run down then but is now gentrified hipster and on their old block now were 6 different Poke places. 29 years into it and The Simpsons can still nail cultural satire like no other.
Finally for follow-up Friday, my phone is still on Greyscale. I had to change back to color for something the other day and it made me uncomfortable and almost nauseous. Not sure if Big Technology or Digital Karma is mad at me for doing so, but have had a miserable string of tech fighting back at me. The computer I use to run the TV had been acting up...wanting to "update" almost every day...and it finally blacked out and died. Then, the fancy printer that scans photos, sends to email and such stopped liking my profile and refuses to send me anything anymore, which is why there is no archive photo this week. And then the fan on my main laptop decided to crap out last week. With no other alternative, dug out the Boy's school computer that is 6 years old and is what I am using today. Amazed that it still works, and shouldn't complain, but it is missing a few keys and just having to learn a new unit is frustrating for a 50-soomething. Tomorrow, I am going down to the Gunaghua Digital Plaza in hopes of finding a vendor that can fix it that also speaks enough English to help a technology challenged old white guy from the Valley
Moving on. Whenever I see an article about cleaning/organizing, I cannot help but to click on it immediately. I try them out so you don't have to and only pass along ones that I think are useful. Can't find it now, but looked at tips on how to do laundry better and two things jumped out and am here to tell you that you need to try them yourself.
First, I am a believer in using Bounce as a fabric softener in the dryer, but this article said that while the dryer sheets are good, not to use them when drying towels as they add a layer that prevents the towel from being as absorbent as they can be. As absorbency is job one for a good bath towel, I stopped using the Bounce immediately and have noticed an improvement. The tip went on to say that if you prefer a fluffy towel, and who doesn't, then chuck in a couple of tennis balls into the dryer and they will help with that. A little more noise as they rattle around, but it is a revelation.
Second one kinda threw me for a loop. It was about whites and using bleach. The science is that chlorine bleach can actually make yellowing pit stains and such even more set in and that one should use oxygenated bleach, which is know chemically as sodium percarbonate. I knew of eco-freindly detergents but not that they were superior for whites. What the article said was even better was to use a cup of white vinegar in place of bleach instead. Am a few loads into the switch to white vinegar and am not sure if my whites look whiter yet, but they don't look less whiter, and they smell a lot better. Worth a look.
Finally for this week, must report on our Spring break trip from last week. We wanted an easy one as Betty was keen on chilling out. Can't say as I blame her cause her travel for work schedule is ruthless. She has been home maybe a total of 3 days in the last two months. I get grumpy when I have to go on vacation for a week and cannot comprehend how she does it. I have some thoughts, but wisely keep them to myself.
The itinerary was three nights in Singapore and then four nights at a resort at an Indonesian island called Bintam, which is an hour ferry away from Singapore. I document all our trips here and they are usually super fantastic. I will even downplay them sometimes as it feels like bragging. This trip was not our finest.
Singapore is a great city, but kinda soul-less. Their adherence to order is legendary, even admirable, but gives the town a feel that leaves me cold, which is surprising since it is so close to the equator and the temperature reaches 100 degrees every gaw-damned-day. The mutli-ethnicity of the place should also be a source of vibrancy, but the vibe never seems to show itself to me.
We got in Saturday afternoon and as with any trip I take, once the flight is booked, my next move is to see if there is any live music playing. Fortunately, Tinariwen were playing the day we arrived. Was turned onto them by a record store guy in the hippie town of Esouria, Morocco a few years ago and have listened to them a bunch since. Toureg musicians from the Sahara desert in Mali, always found their music hypnotic and groovy. They played at a lovely venue called the Theatre at Esplanade (rich wood made for warm acoustics), but was in a shopping mall. Absolutely fantastic show. Betty and I rarely agree on music sung in English, but we do see eye to eye on international stuff.
Great musicianship...three dudes traded off on two guitars while the third would trip dance about. Recommend them when they come to your town and makes for a perfect date night.
Walked around shopping on Sunday and it was obviously "helper" day off as the Filipina ladies were out en masse. A common Sunday sight in places like Singapore, HK and Taiwan. One thing that struck me this time was that one of the ethnicities, pretty sure it was the Malay types, have noses that are bulbous in the middle, but are turned up so that you can see right up their nostrils almost into their brain. Noses always fascinate me for some reason and would love to know the evolutionary process for this type. Also, as a bastion of the Brits, and with a heavy Dutch presence due to Indonesia being so near, you see a ton of westerners strewn about. None of them look comfortable...they are always sweaty at best, and their skin looks blotchy.
The real draw for Singapore for me is with the wide variety of peoples there, the food selection is deep. We had a very good (but super expensive) pepper crab one night.
We also had a hankering for Thai food and after some research, found a place on the outskirts of the city popular with the locals. We threw down some great food that cost 1/5th of the price as the pepper crab meal from the night before, and was by far superior. Eating Thai food on the sidewalk is just how I like it.
I have to call out the breakfast buffets both here and at the hotel in Bintan. The selection of foods was good, but the highlight for me at these places is when they have baked beans. Very British, and not the BBQ baked beans, which are so much better, but still. And they both had peanut butter. I can't keep it a home cause I will eat it constantly till it's gone, but had a delicious peanut butter and toast for dessert at breakfast every glorious day.
Our 4 night stay on the island was fine. The hotel was lovely, rooms were well appointed, was right on the water, and the staff were so nice. They did that thing where they put their palms together in front of their heart as a greeting, which is the world's greatest salutation. It was built onto a steep hill and while you could walk to the pool or restaurants, it was inconvenient to do so. What you would do would be to call for a golf cart to whisk you around. Food at the place was good too, but too expensive. Our Thai food jones was still strong and we liked the place they had there so much, we went two nights in a row. The place was one where they go around and take a picture of your table and then give you a copy as a gift. They came to ours the first night and the lady asked to take our photo. I immediately and sternly said "No", which took my girls by surprise and really seemed to shock this lady. "What's wrong with you?" asked Babydoll and then turned it into a gag, said loudly enough for the other tables to overhear where I was in the Witness Protection Program and was wanted on three continents. Good fun. The girls got massages and we chilled out hard, but I would never return to this place or island for a simple fact that should have been the first thing someone told us before going that we did not hear nor could I find post trip on any site, including my beloved TripAdvisor.
It seems that the islands location is near a high traffic shipping lane, and during the monsoon months, which we gathered were almost all of them, the winds come from the north and they deposit what they call 'tar balls' in the water and on the beaches. The first day, went for a walk along what looked like a typically lovely scallop shaped tropical beach and while I heard about these 'balls', didn't see anything to cause concern. Get back to the stairs up to the pool area and my feet are not only black, but have a thick coating of tar on them. The place has this oil and rags to use that removes it, but fucking-a...
We made the best of it, my girls both work hard and decompressing for a few days is something their souls need. My life is pretty mellow already so I prefer a more intellectually engaging vacation as a general rule. I did read a great book...Rick James autobiography called Glow. A lot of crack pipe talk, but that guy had some pretty amazing experiences. His discovery of wonders of eating pussy made me laugh out loud.
Managed to get the flu at some point and am still feeling its effects so apologize for this week's incoherence. One interesting note about that though was that on the flight home was when I was feeling my illest. As we are walking towards Customs, go by the station with the infrared camera that captures your aura. Never have given it much thought, but this time the ladies step out and stop me. Without asking, they stick a thermometer in my ear and it reads 37.6 degrees (had to look it up later and that is 99.7 Fahrenheit...37 equals 98.6). That must be under whatever temperature you need to have for them to throw you into quarantine as all I got from them was to "drink a lot of water". I did end up with more respect for the health department however.
OK...talk soon.
Hi there to all, how is the whole thing, I think every one is getting more from this website, and your views are nice for new people.
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