Like many ‘ang mo’ or foreigners, my first experience of Singapore was in transit in Singapore Airport. For me the first time was back in ‘89 and I remember even then thinking ‘these are the cleanest toilets in the world’. You had no sooner done your business than a cleaner came in to make sure everything was spotless and splashless.
Having lived in Singapore for almost a year now that perception hasn’t changed. All of the toilets I have seen have been spotless.
I often laugh when I read the local free daily newspapers and the types of events and occurences that make the news. See Singapore is a pretty safe place and the crime rate is low so what can they write about to fill the papers?
When I first arrived there were ongoing articles about people not standing for elders on the train and then there’s the ‘Ground Zero’ or citizen journalism articles where people write in about some peeping Tom, or someone parking in a no parking bay. One of today’s articles was about people camping on the beach despite there being a no camping sign. Its reassuring to know that everything just works here and there really isn’t that much to complain about. Its actually quite comical reading the paper here.
What made really laugh today though was a half page colour article saying that Singaporeans need to improve their toilet etiquette. Its that bad apparently that the Restroom Association has launched the Lets Observe Ourselves (LOO) campaign.
I love my Mac and whilst I use Vista at work I haven’t had too many problems that so many other users seem to encounter and complain about loudly. I’m sure Vista has its issues.
Anyway Apple have a new funny new ad that makes fun of Microsoft spending more money on advertising than fixing the product - take a look:
I headed down to Holland Village today to do the shopping and open a new bank account; I thought cheque books were for old people, but they’re still used a lot here in Singapore.
Anyway I stopped for a frozen yoghurt and being the kind of guy that I am I was easily amused at the slogans used to promote the yoghurts.
If you’re like me and have an iPhone or check your Gmail using a 3rd party application like Apple’s Mail or Entourage, Thunderbird etc then you’ve probably noticed that by default your labels in Gmail become folders in the application. This is very handy, but it also means your downloading the same mail potentially many times. You’ll also be downloading folders that don’t add much value like your Junk, Trash and some of the Labels that you don’t really need quick access to on your iPhone.
Its really useful in that it lets you choose which labels you enable IMAP for. So no more Junk folder on your iPhone or in Mail. You can also turn off IMAP for ‘All Mail’ which will also free up some download time.
One thing I miss from back home is the Aussie sense of humour, often highlighted in ads from iconic Australian brands like Carlton and United, VB etc. AdRants do a great job of showcasing what’s happening in the world of advertising, usually focusing on what’s comical or the latest advertiser to showcase some hot chick in an ad.
This latest AdRants post shows off a great new ad from Carlton Mid. Certainly made me laugh and take a few seconds to think how much I miss the Aussie sense of humour.
I love Facebook. Its a simple, easy, fun way to keep in touch with friends and waste time when you’re bored.
I also like to upload my photos and share with friends. Tagging photos however when you’ve gone crazy snapping all your friends takes time and is often left for one of those bored afternoons when you have nothing better to do.
Well according to MarketingVox this may soon be a thing of the past. Google’s Picasa Version 3 includes facial recognition software… sounds kind of scary!
Could that type of feature lure people away from Facebook over to Orkut?
Internet Explorer is in for a lot more competition. As if Firefox wasn’t a big enough worry for them Google have just released their own browser, Google Chrome.
I downloaded it at work today to give it a crack and was quite impressed. It has a very simple interface keeping most of the screen free to show what’s most important, the web content. It also has a series of other features and benefits that I didn’t notice straight away. What I did notice was the ease to import all of your settings (bookmarks, passwords etc) from Firefox meaning I was up and running in seconds.
Unfortunately it hasn’t yet launched for the Mac, but you can leave your email address with Google and they’ll keep you up to date.
You can read more about the browser at the Google blog.
I recently went for an afternoon cuppa with some friends here in Singapore to help recover from the Nike Human Race. It was a traditional Singapore coffee shop, not a modern chain like Starbucks of Gloria Jeans.
The latest instalment of what makes me laugh in Singapore was one of the posters on the wall.
I’m a big fan of coffee, and I love my french press at home as well as the Espresso machine, but maybe all these years I should have been using a sock?
The coffee there has been prepared the same way since 1944 - I just hope they’ve changed the sock. Needless to say, I opted for tea…
I had to laugh when seeing the Lonely Planet Six Degrees episode for Singapore where there was a segment about the ‘Restroom Association Singapore‘ and their ‘Happy Toilet Program’. I mean where else but Singapore? If you’re not quite sure how to keep your toilet happy they even have a checklist.
