Wi fi's a Piece of Cake In Singapore...

OK - fair disclosure - the terrific fruit pie and pot of earl grey in the photo wasn't shot in Singapore. It was in Tokyo - of course. In a terrific patisserie called Qu'il Fait Bien.

The fruits were fresh, juicy and substantial, the custard was light, and the crust...buttery and crisp. One thing though, get there before 3pm or you'll be queuing like mad.

Am in Singapore now. Just finished a tennis game (it was sooooo humid by 8 30am) and now I'm at a cafe at the beach wi-fi-ing and watching the terribly toned roller bladers go by while I'm having an Ok Earl Grey. (oooh, cute french guy with motorcycle helmet just walked by. No, Lauree and Michelle, I didn't have guts to chat him up.)

And of course, this being Saturday, I HAVE to read the NY Times. Even if it's only online. And I thought this little segment from the arts pages might amuse you. (Richard Serra sculptures were one of the first things I saw in Chelsea when I first got to NY.) Well, here it is:

Lost: 76,000-Pound Sculpture
Say, has anyone noticed a homeless 38-ton steel sculpture lately? If so, the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid would like to know about it. The sculpture happens to be the work of the American artist Richard Serra, and the museum paid about $220,000 for it in 1987. Now it seems to be missing, The Associated Press reported. The four stark steel slabs were exhibited and then sent to a warehouse run by a company specializing in large art. The company was dissolved in 1998, the daily newspaper ABC said, and when the museum's director, Ana Martínez de Aguilar, decided a few months ago to display the sculpture again, it could not be found.

Blogging from SQ 11 flying from Narita to Singapore

So - I'm on a plane right now listening to Vengerov play a Beethoven Concerto, connected to the web thanks to Singapore Airlines, Boeing, and er...my Mastercard.

Priceless? Well, actually, $30 for the duration of the flight. Or as long as my Thinkpad T42 battery lasts.

And, the photo on this post isn't airline food - especially not on Econo - although I have to admit, SQ food isn't bad at all. Dinner was soba, rice, veg, chicken, and strawberry ice cream. Oh, and a half decent riesling.

The sashimi was part of dinner on Sunday night with my friend June and her husband. She and I had been talking about hanging out in Kyoto together for years (thank you Pico Iyer) but we've never quite made it - so she did the next best thing and took me to a Kyoto restaurant. )(It's so trad it doesn't have an English name. Really.) Dinner was fab, of course, along with the company and the view.

Tokyo feels like it's on a total revival kick (although nothing like the energy level of Shanghai yet). Construction everywhere, new buildings, ... green tea latte...people lining up to get into the new Chloe store in Aoyama...and actually walking out with shopping bags. I mean...CHLOE? Front page story on the Asian Wall St Journal today: "Mitsubishi UFJ plans to raise its Global Profile" - targetting to be the world's top five on profitability w/in 3-5 years. Yep...it's coming baaaack.

I was in a cab on my way from TCAT to my hotel after my overnight (econo) flight, and I was thinking, after having left NY for two-and-a-half months, I don't feel like I moved home to Singapore as much as I am part of this large, inter-connected place called Asia.

Seems like a pretty cool place to be exploring right now. 

How's The Future?

I received three Asia-related emails and IM's within a space of a few weeks that I found pretty interesting.

"How's the future? I'm back in the past." - a ping from a friend of mine who went back to San Francisco after hanging out in Singapore and Saigon over the Xmas break.

"Taipei has become very posh and reminded me of New York in some ways." - a Taiwanese friend who has lived in the US for more than a decade and was back in Taipei for a visit.

And, finally...this is from one of my favourite bosses ever (even if he DID go to University of Chicago instead of Northwestern). He's lived all over...Singapore, US, Hong Kong, Beijing...and he moved to Shanghai a few years ago.

"Eleven months ago, [my wife] was deciding between Siemens and HaiEr for the choice of washing machine and dryer. Not finding any functional differences between the two brands, she opted for the cheaper and younger brand of HaiEr. A couple of months ago, one of them broke down and KB called their service center which promised to send a technician out the next day by noon.

Half an hour before noon, the service center called KB to ask if the technician called. Apparently he did not. The service center called back shortly that the technician would be in touch with us. He called immediately to apologize because he believed he was close to our house. He called at noon to tell us that he would be at least an hour late because our house turned out to be farther than he thought. The service center and the technician kept us informed of any delay and the reason in the next hour. After it was fixed, the service center called the next day if the machine was OK. Since KB had to ask Ah Yi, they called back again the next day. It is service which is unheard of and unmatched in all the major cities which we have lived in. And it is now happening in China. "

And that...I think, is a snippet from the future. 

Christmas in Saigon




Saigon isn't as much a photo as it is a soundfile. Got here yesterday, Christmas, and careened straight into the cacophony of a gazillion mopeds whizzing around. Oh, and everyone's really liberal with the honking.

There's a lot more movement here than there is in Hanoi. A city in perpetual motion. Six million people who all seem to be on the streets, all in a hurry to go someplace, all at the same time.

The streets kinda look like Singapore in the 60s. Well, except for the mopeds. Storefronts that are a mess of goods, street-vendors balancing baskets of coconut water, fruits and other edibles on their shoulders. Then, suddenly, in between a row of dusty stores, bursts of cool modernity punctuate the street - Decor stores that look like they came right out of Manhattan, chill clubs. It's like NY's Nolita and Chinatown sharing the same street.

Faves so far: Gaya - for really, really urban, very pricey furniture, clothes and decor; Saigon Kitsch - for, well, what it says, Lost Art, for really cool modern furniture with a retro twist.

View from my hotel room at ANA Hotel

Makes it easier to work late when you get to look out on a view like this. It was strangely peaceful looking out into other office buildings late at night, and a freeway of cars still busily zipping around.

The View: Mori Museum of Art


Went to this place called The View when I was in Japan. It was in Roppongi Hills, in the Mori Tower. All new and very shiny.

Went there on the way to the Mori Art Museum. There happened to be a Sugimoto exhibit here. http://www.mori.art.museum/html/eng/

I've seen some of Sugimoto's stuff in NY but this is the first time there's been an exhibit of this scale. (It's on till Jan 9th in Tokyo and then it goes to the US. It's totally worth catching) His images play around with themes of perception of time and space - you might have seen large B&Ws of what looks like empty cinemas. But it's a movie theatre whose audience has come and gone because he's exposed the film for like...two hours. So much for photography capturing one point in time.

He also had images of sculptures that represent mathematical theories and equations. Really clean, sleek...you might have seen it in the NY Times mag a couple of months ago. I actually saw it on my usual train ride from Tarrytown to Grand Central.

Man do I miss that - the NY Times mag. Soch gave me her copy of the New Yorker last week to help me miss NY less. But, what I do miss is that Hudson line train ride with my Sunday NY Times and my iPod.

Harajuku

Was in Tokyo for a meeting Monday and Tuesday, so hung out in super-trendy Harajuku Sunday afternoon.

Teeming with teens - the vast majority of them so stylishly dressed (short skirts, brightly coloured stockings and boots are so in) I felt like some old dowdy aunt.

Lots of boutiques, pseudo-Italian cafes, Zara, and Gap... (Can't escape the Gap).

For a great description of Harajuku, check out Gwen Stefani's single "Harajuku Girls".