I have been trying to upload photos and have failed spectacularly over the last half an hour... and i'm about to SCREEEAMMMM, but here we go, one more time, in small doses this time.
So yesterday, in honour of Peter's last day here, we went to Marine Bay Sands. The new casino in Singapore. It has made Singapore the biggest city for gambling per capita income in the world... and caused a lot of misery. In fact foreign workers are now banned from the place, or about to be banned. And Singaporeans have to pay $100 to get in. It is really Mammon in steel and glass, and here it is in all its glory.
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| Bubble tea |
We started off slowly, in Toa Payoh, looking for new sandals for Ghin. We then stopped and indulged in some bubble tea...
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| But soon we moved to the biiig time... |
Marine Bay Sands caused a lot of heartache and questioning when it was built. I didn't exactly follow all the arguments, but it seemed rather facile when Singapore, which is built on the apex of free market neo liberalism would reject a casino. Or the idea of one. It is one of the most common ways that money is washed in Singapore. And people win and loose millions in one roll of the dice. It's kinda crazy... and this is what it looks like... from the outside.
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| Inside the beast... |
There is a Ferrari shop with a real Ferrari in it. The boys were gobsmacked... as was i.
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| Here we go for all the Ferrari lovers |
There was also a Lambourghini... i think you could win it at some game table.
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| Just to prove i wasn't exaggerating |
Here Jac poses like a supermodel in front of the four storey Chanel department store. Sands also has the largest Louis Vitton outside Paris. Not that it made a difference to my life.
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| More hilarious posing... |
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| Aurelia and Singapore |
I took this for two reasons... one it gave a sense of the Singapore skyline.... and the other was that Aurelia, Singaporean, was in front of it. Next to her is this echo bowl. You speak on one side of it and you can hear the person on the other side. Now that i thought was pretty amazingly clever...
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| It was also really pretty. |
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| That's the Singapore Arts Centre and Raffles City in the background. |
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| The boys, my boys :) |
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| My sister and her boy... the poor child having a mother like her... |
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| Luckily for them, they have me |
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| There you go, that skyline is less than 10 years old. It is really awe inspiring, in a terrifying sorta way |
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| Inside Marina Bay Sands... that is the chandelier above the casino |
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| It must be the world's largest chandelier.... |
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| We had lunch in Imperial Treasures... it was pretty spectacular.... here was the lead up to dinner |
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| Jac and her famile.... |
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| Vegetarian, trying to order a meal |
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| Oisin showing how not to take anything seriously |
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| This he decided to take of me... |
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| Our family! |
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| Ta and Alex. I love this photo... |
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| Here comes the Peking Duck.... |
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| Oisin thought it was ironic that the duck was being served on a duck plate |
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| Children get bored and start exploring the casino |
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| Ah mongo, pudding... yummmy. |
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| Jac enjoys some Singaporean hooomor on the iPhone |
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| A Japenese restaurant named after Ghin |
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| This is as far away as you could possibly get to Harapan... and i prefer Harapan. Honestly. |
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| Dior, Armani and other branded shite. At this stage i was about ready to throw myself off the veranda and impale myself on some Jimmy Choos. |
After that we went shopping for Terence's mom at L'Occitane, a place where you can buy shampoor for $80. Yep that's right. $80 shampoos.
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| I had to take this photo of Terence carrying all the stuff that comes with being married with children |
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| Men, you have been warned |
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| OK this one needs some explaination |
Probably due to fengshui reasons, Singaporean buildings all have water features in them. Marina Bay Sands has an entire canal, which has been put to good use by making it into a gondoliering experience. When i first saw this, i said to myself, who the heck would want to do this... you must be a complete sucker to pay $10 for this bizzare experience. Clearly, there are a few born every minute, including in my family.
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| Here they go... |
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| Look at how happy everyone is, including the gondoliers... |
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| I think they actually call it sampans. Which is a nice local touch. |
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| Just around the Swarovski crystal shop, the sampans make a turning. |
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| And because we hadn't eaten enough, we went to the Coffee Bean, for coffee, of course |
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| Aurelia and i had chocolate cake. |
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| I look delighted because at this stage i wanted to crawl under the table and hide from the noise and the artificial lighting |
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| Ma directs the ordering of drinks |
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| Help! |
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| Save us! |
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| Ok, if you insist |
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| Only if you absolutely insist... Peter ate most of that cake, in my defense :) |
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| I see where he gets it from now... this weird make up shop has a skeleton as part of its marketing ploy. Don't even want to think about the life that poor skeleton had. |
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| In the evening we went to the Home Club... here everyone manages to have pizza for dinner... i just have a glass of wine |
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| Peter looks delighted too doesn't he? |
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| Tin soldiers |
Then we went for an exhibition cum discussion on Singaporean identity. There were some good pieces of art, this was by far the best one. It is called... i dunno what it's called actually, BUT the icon as most Singaporeans will recognise is of the reservist activation. If you are a Singaporean male in active service you can be called up at any stage to report to your camp. This is like a war simulation exercise. In case we are invaded by Indonesia and Malaysia. So, this icon, without the brand logos, will flash up anywhere, on TV in the cinema, on radio, probably on your mobile phone and what seems to be random code names will be give out, like Stone Table, Walking Stick, Rhino Pooing, and dependning on your code name you have to report to your centre.
In this piece, people have turned the symbol into a cultural commentary of what we are really fighting for. Multinationals and consummerism. That is what Singapore is about. It is really really good. And so well done too. Clever.
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| The discussion |
The discussion, i might as well not sugar coat it was a bit of a disappointment. The debate had not moved on for 20 years, if at all it had gone backwards. The topic was What is our Culture? My opnion on this is that one cannot have no culture. Even if you stayed in a small black box with no clothes, you'd have a culture. By being we have culture. By existing. Culture is everything. So it was kinda painful listening to people first try to place culture and finally agonise about what they were doing about their own cultural activities. I feel like i'm being preached at, Serena said. I said, oh, this is awful. Also awful was the organisation which was all over the place. Both Serena and Laurence, and my sister laughed at me, as i attempted to unravel the shambles of the time of the event. In the end there wasn't even a cover charge.
Serena and i quickly lost interest and Laurence never had any. But it was somekinda wonderful seeing Serena and Laurence again. It really did feel so excellent to be alive.
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