Thursday 31st March 2011 - Day 45

And it's that time again, for me to have a little write up of my day.  Firstly, no cravings whatsoever for cigarettes (thank god!), and another slow day at work, but at least it's over and done with now.

Tomorrow comes the joy of cold moving the ship into dry dock for various reasons, which thankfully will be starting early in the day, and hopefully finishing fairly quickly, before leading into the weekend.  God Bless Weekends!

Not much at all planned today, apart from taking a train into Orchard Road to catch up with Jayse and Nae before the lady of the pair flies home to Aust this weekend.  Perhaps a bite to eat might also be appropriate while I'm there.........and of course a quick look in the shops on payday isn't illegal :)

Well, with that in mind, I'll sign off for today, and hopefully this weekend I'll have something interesting to write! I vow that this Saturday I'm going to remember to head into Clarke Quay and find the Dancing Guy that I've been told about, and get a picture with him........if it's the last thing I ever dooooo!!! <shakes fist at sky>.

Have a great night Friends.

Wednesday 30th March 2011 - Day 44

G'day Friends,

Not much to report today, a comparatively quiet 2 days at work, and a nice relaxed evening planned with a date with my clippers being the most exciting part of the day, and a 2hr nap having been the best part so far......aaahhhhh nap :)

I managed to get through the day yesterday without even thinking about smoking, with the exception of while I was trawling for quit-smoking propoganda, but then only as a concept rather than craving.  Today however, I had the closest thing to a craving that I've had for weeks after I went to pull the mini-van over after work and scraped it along the roadside barrier, causing a bit of scratched paint and a little bit of denting

I've recently discovered the joys of Pastamania, and am currently waiting on the arrival of my second dinner in a row from them.  I really should attempt to try something else apart from their pepperoni pizza, but it's just so tasty!

Well work today was a particular new joy, with all airconditioning failing and it being somewhere between 40 and 50 degrees when Freya and I arrived at work this morning, and it pretty much remained around/above 30 degrees for most of the day, until the guys fixed our spare aircon about half an hour before we left.  Such an unpleasant way to spend a working day, here's to hoping that tomorrow will be a whole lot better.

Well, I haven't managed to do anything else from the list, and I'm still yet to finish the other 9 poems of item #13....perhaps I'll have to devote my attentions to that very soon.  It shouldn't be that hard for me, but I just haven't bothered to think about it for a while.

On a total tangent, I have to ask the question, why do I keep seeing movies with Isla Fischer (sp??) in them.  First it was Confessions of a Shop-a-holic, and now a film which according to one of the boys is called "I don't know".............or perhaps that was his answer to the question about the title of the film.

Ahhhh Google (and one of the boys earlier....I just forgot) tells me that the film is in fact called Definately, Maybe.........and the mysteries of the world fall into place.

AHA! My pizza has just arrived.  Hip Hip Hooraaayyyy! Well friends, it's time I made short work of this fine culinary fare.  Have a great night and enjoy the rest of your week.  :)

Monday 28th March 2011 - Day 42

G'day Friends,

Well, the working week has begun again, and it started off a little out of the ordinary with our work van having been taken for a service, and not returned.  After a vehicle seat re-shuffle, Benny and I got to relax at home until about 9:30, (I watched How To Train Your Dragon), before helping our liaison officer here in Singapore move/re-fuel some cars, and then drive one of them to work.

All in all an 11am start isn't too bad.  The day got even better, when I expected to have to work back to fix problems that were tormenting the ship's company while I was not there, but just as it was normal time to leave work, everything sorted itself out and I got away on time.

You certainly can't complain with a 3hr work day, and I most certainly won't!

A nice quiet afternoon was enjoyed before catching up with Nae who I haven't seen for a few years, and her daughter Abby.  It was great to see her, as I haven't had much of a chance to catch up with her in the last 5 or 6 years, so to have Jayse (her husband and my mate) post onto the ship earlier this year, and then to have her come visit while we're in Singapore was outstanding.

It makes me laugh that last time we were hanging out together regularly, we were going out clubbing all the time, and now, she and Jayse are parents to Abby, and I'm slowly trying to build a property portfolio........oh how people change :)

Well, as always on a working day, I don't have a great deal to tell so I'll sign off, but if anyone has any more suggestions for the list, please feel free to leave a comment, or hit me up, and if the suggestion doesn't scare me too much, I'll add it too the list :)

Have a great night Monday Friends.  It's time for Howie to do another french lesson :)

Sunday 27 March 2011 - List Item #1

This morning started well enough:  waking up at 7, having a nice breakfast of cereal and eggs and cheese on toast.  I know that my choice of toast toppings sounds a little like clogged arteries in the making, but I've reduced my consumption of them to weekends only, so it's not that bad.

At any rate, Macca came into the living room and was still keen for a ride to Sentosa, which seemed a great opportunity to complete item one from the list.

We rode away from the apartment at around 8:30am and after a slightly gruelling 1.5-2hrs arrived at Sentosa.  Not before time, my body told me in no uncertain terms that it was time for a break.  After riding around the beach area for a little while, Macca attempted to ride towards a hill that I can only describe as utterly inappropriate.  I let him know in firm but gentle terms that I wasn't really all that keen to attempt to ride up that hill ("I am NOT riding up THAT!").

We then had a bit of a swim beside Bikini Bar, in the beautiful (and plastic bag infested) waters of Sentosa Island, which was cooling if nothing else.  I can only describe the ground under the water as slimy.....presumably with the natural bottom, as I believe the sand on the island was imported from our own fine shores!

After the swim we had a few soft drinks and a bit of lunch (some quality chips), and then decided it was time to ride back.

If I'd thought the ride to Sentosa was a bit exhausting, it had absolutely nothing on the return trip.  I think my body tripled in age from that ride.  Every hill felt like I was waging war with the Singapore terrain, and I was not getting the upper hand!

Towards the end of the ride back Macca would have to stop and wait for me on the crest of the hills, as otherwise he'd have been home an hour before me and I'd have been lost in Singapore. :)

I think you can safely say that you've had a good days exercise when you get home and you've sweated so much that you actually have salt on the back of your arms and elbows.

There was one great humourous moment to the return trip and that was riding past a business of some description (presumably a karaoke bar) called "Talk Cock Sing Song"........I don't even want to know what you use a a microphone there!

Well, there is the end of that story, and in the immortal words of an brains trust member of the Navy who didn't understand what was going on in an email discourse that we had, and couldn't answer the questions that I asked, "here ends this discussion" <retract claws>.

Have a great week to come friends......it's time for a post-exercise nap.

:)

                              
                                   Me looking somewhat sloth on the
                                   beach at Sentosa Island

The Merlion as you enter
Sentosa Island

Suffering!!! the end of Item #11

Freya, Keaton and Jaz (or their hands at

least) helping out with the waxing.

OH MY GOD! Why in the name of humanity would anyone choose to have themselves waxed.  I'm considering having myself commited for this little gem of an idea!

Prior to visiting Freya's house for the joys of leg and arm waxing, I'd thought that it couldn't possibly hurt as much as getting my nethers waxed, but it turns out that I was a little mistaken.  Firstly, there was a problem with the wax strips that we initially had, in that they didn't work!  What they did do was cause and agonising amount of pain, without actually completing the job for which they existed.

So with a little hair torn from each arm and each leg, Jaz and I made a trip to Sun Plaza (where I'm sure I looked fantastic), to buy some known and functioning wax strips.  While these did make the whole process easier, I hadn't correctly considered which parts of my legs/arms would hurt the most.

The armpits, which, granted, did in fact hurt, didn't hurt nearly as much as the back and outside of my knees.  Each of which also didn't hurt nearly as much as the back of my thighs!

Surely this whole thing is karmic retribution for some sin I've committed.

On the up side, it was actually quite funny, and while it was painful, not so painful that I couldn't laugh at the whole affair.

After our wax strip hunting trip, I had the pleasure of having not one, not two, but 5 different people take turns at tearing hair out of my legs and arms.  Many thanks to Freya, Touchy, Jasmine, Keaton and Chantelle, who all did their part to help me complete this sobriety list item.  And Kudos to Chantelle (Jaz's sister), who walked up and was greated by the appealing picture of a skinny, balding guy in nothing but white running shorts, with one leg in the laps of two friends (and looking not unlike someone in birthing stirrups)..........and her sister asking her if she wanted a go!.....To her credit, she gave it a go once, but declined the second invitation.  :)

Touchy was a bit worried about her waxing skills, so retreated to facebook after a little while, but while Freya and Jaz appeared to find some humour in my pain, they were by far overshadowed by the glee that Keaton took in inflicting pain on my poor, humble self!  When I foolishly said that the back of my knees hurt more than the rest, a maniacal look came into his eye, and he couldn't wait to wax it again!  Bless his cotton socks!

Well, the end result of this entire event is that there is still a little bit of hair at the top of my legs........after a second trip to buy more strips, I decided that for the sake of a tiny bit of hair (and saving another trip to the shopping centre), I'd just deal with that with 3 minutes, the bathroom and a razor.  I think that for the sake of argument, I have successfully completed Item #11, and at this point, I'm almost completely certain, that short of a frontal labotomy, I won't ever be going through that experience again.

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend Friends.  :)

Midway.......

I should think that having hot wax poured over the very A of your anus is in fact the most invasive experience I have ever endured!  Swiftly seconded by have the waxer wiping down the areas to be waxed, which felt a little like preparations for "happy ending".

Thank you Strip: Ministry of Waxing for providing me with your services for a "boyzilian" and the flip side also.  Let's be honest, I'm not sure I could ever have looked my friend in the eye if she'd had to do those parts!

Meanwhile, while I'm aware that I'm far from the most masculine man in the world, the fellow who turned out to be the unfortunate who was waxing parts of my body that really oughtn't see the light of day, was a gentleman who made me look a little like Sylvester Stallone, and as endearing as his attempts to make conversation were, I really wasn't in the mood to discuss my work while a man was staring at, and quite painfully ripping hair from, my genitals.

I was suprised that the experience wasn't as excruciating as I'd imagined.....painful, without a doubt, but the worst parts of it were what I expected the best parts to be like.  Having said that, I think even worse than the waxing was the part where the gentleman (who'sname may have been Greg.....and if it wasn't before, it is now!) said to me "and now I have to tweezing"........

Tweezing I thought to myself! What could that possibly be?

It would appear that it is where Greg took a pair of razor sharp tweezers to my body, which was super-sensitive after the mild trauma of waxing, and judging by the feel of it proceeded to dig any remaining hair from my body (or, at least, the parts for which I paid him).  I'm guessing that he dealt with a further dozen hairs in this manner, but it felt like I'd entered the sevent circle of hell, and was never to return.

I can only assume the the person who came up with the idea of a brazillian/boyzillian was a direct decendant and heir to the Marquis de Sade.

Next to this mornings experience, I imagine that having my legs and arms done this afternoon by Freya will be a comparative walk in the park...........

Finally, I was a massive fan of some of the advertisements that they had on their walls at Strip: Ministry of Waxing, so much so that I feel the need to share them.  I'm still smiling about the reference to "hoochie and coochie"!

 

    The glorified KFC moist towellettes

    with which I was instructed "You

    clean with!"

No! I'm not at all nervous

hehehe Hoochie!                    Presumably the gorilla

                                              is the before shot! :)

Well, I guess I'd better make my way to the girls' house as it's almost time for my arm/leg waxing date......at least I'll be able to take photos of this and post them :)

Take Care Friends.

Saturday 26 March 2011 - Day 40 and List #11 - Waxing Day

Hmmm now that it's Saturday, and I know that today I have to have hair torn out of almost every part of my body.......I don't mind telling you that I'm a bit nervous about the whole affair.  Not only will it potentially be painful, but I've also got the joys of baring parts of my body, to a complete stranger, that I'm not 100% comfortable in flashing to random Singaporean folk!

Ah well, I suppose the point of this list is (among other things) to get outside of my comfort zone and do things that I wouldn't normally do.  I did re-test the wax strips that Freya and Co are going to use on my arms and legs last night, and the pain of ripping a few little hairs out of my belly didn't bode well for me prospect of me being manly and tough today. :)

Given that I made the choice to put this on my list, I suppose I should just suck it up and get on with it.

Ok, there's my way ahead then, time to go for a run, have breakfast, and make my way into orchard road and and do this........then to Freya's house and do this!.....perhaps doing it in parts is making it seem a little more challenging, and yet it seems a little less destructive to have friends do the majority of the (and non-genetalial) areas!

Right, I'm off for that run.  Have a good day Friends, and stand by for the post-waxing post.

Happy Saturday!

:)

Friday 25 March 2011 - Day 39

Ahhhh Friday, I missed you over the last week!

The end of the working week has arrived, and I couldn't be happier.......and more anxious.  Having just tested a couple of the wax strips that will be used tomorrow on my belly, I've got to say that I'm a little worried about any extended period of subjecting myself to that particular type of pain!  While it doesn't seem to last too long, it is such a sharp pain!  Why have I chosen to do this to myself?

Well, the working week has been mildly satisfying, with a couple of faults at work being sorted out at the last minute today....or at least taken to a stage where they are not quite so traumatic for all concerned, and that's a whole lot better than full faults.

Plans for the weekend are, or course, to get waxed <cringe>, and see where the weekend takes me.  I still have a lot of things on the sobriety list that I could spend my time on, so I guess I'll see where I end up.  Perhaps a weekend of finishing the writing items from the list could be in order???

On a tangent, we're watching a National Geographic documentary called The Gospel Of Judas.  Who even knew that Judas had a Gospel.  It seems to be leaning toward Judas not being the evil character that is portrayed in the 4 Gospels of the new testament.  In fact, they make valid arguments that the earlier the time or writing of the Gospel, the less evil Judas is, even pointing out that in the Gospel of John (I think it was John), Judas is not at all painted as evil, but only as another of the apostles.........Interesting how little things can change your view of ideas that have been fed to you for your entire life.

Combined with the Gospel of Mary Magdelane, it really does change my opinion of the Christian histories.  At any rate, if you're interested in reading up on it, I'm sure google will give you more informative data than I can.

Time to organise the weekend.  Here's to everyone having a great weekend, and stop by for a read tomorrow night or Sunday morning to see how the waxing goes.

Bye Friends

:)

24 March 2011 - Thursday and Day 38

Good Day Good Friends.

You can't argue with the value of Thursday, if for nothing else than it's second to the last day of the working week.  And while work has hardly been difficult for me this week, the weekends are seeming more and more attractive this year.....can't imagine why......maybe it's to do with actually doing things that don't involve writing off most of the weekend to alcohol!

Well, today has been a pretty decent day, apart from a brief hour around 9am, the whole day flew by and suddenly I turned around and it was time to go home (the best time of the day).

I've managed to make it through the day without thinking much about smoking, although I did managed to back-pedal when I decided that I was going to keep Freya company while she went for one.  About 10m from the door, I decided that I didn't want to take the risk of making myself crave, so stuck to safer ground and walked back to our office instead.

After the past week and a half of not a great deal of exercise, I went for a ride with Macca this afternoon, which was more catered to my tastes than the young fellow's.  Nice, relaxed riding that didn't involve mud and the need to get off the bike and walk it up absurd hills......and it was around 20km, so I feel like I'm doing my bit towards fitness.  This was preceded by a trip to the bike shop for some spare tubes, (I have a knack for flat tyres apparently), and proceded by dinner at Yellow Brick Road, which I noticed tonight is actually called Wu Fuan Eating Paradise (or something to that effect).

It turns out that, as suspected, Yellow Brick Road is in fact a made up name, by sailors, because reading the sign and finding out the real name is a little too difficult for us (and the path to the eatery is lined with yellow-ish bricks).........a little like calling someone by their actual name is a little too much effort.....better by far to take the first syllable of their surname, and "o", "ie", "a" or "y".  I've always loved that about the Navy, and our great country in general!

Hmmm, that would appear to be the bulk of what I have to write for the day....I'm starting to feel like I should begin each entry with "Dear Diary" haha.

Ok, have a great evening Friends, and think of me on Saturday, having every hair in my body (below the neck) being torn unceremoniously from my body.......yet again, I'm beginning to regret adding that particular item to my list, but as Casey pointed out to me via email, "It's on the list, and so MUST be done!"

Bye Friends,

:)

23 March 2011 - Wednesday - Day 37

Another day begins to draw to a close.  And a good day it was.  After being a little lazy over the past week and a half with my running routine, so today I decided to fall back on my old faithful......walking.  After failing at grasping all of the content of lesson 4 of Pimsleur's Learn French, a nice hour long walk along a canal was the perfect way to take a break while listening to lessons 2 and 3 again.

The good news is I'm beginning to retain the difference between the French for "and" and "but" (they rhyme!), and I managed to get a bit of exercise, which will hopefully start to deal with the belly that I'm starting to get........let's be honest, a skinny middle-aged man with a pot belly really isn't the most appealing thing to look at!......although I will grant that after being somewhat slim for my entire life, it is a bit funny to watch it jiggle!

Well, I've managed to make it through another day without succumbing to the demon drink and satan smoke, which is something that I don't often think of during the day now, except when posting here.  Perhaps this time I've actually managed to kick the monkey on my back that is nicotine addiction.......but then again, we'll see.  I believe this is about the 5th time I've lasted a month or more without smoking, so perhaps it's best to wait before breaking out the metaphoric champagne.

Well, being that it's almost dinner time, and I think it's time I attended to my ever growing stomach, and perhaps for dessert......Pimleur's lesson 4 again.

Have a good evening Friends.

:)

Day 36 - Afternoon Thoughts

After a day at work and a refreshing 1 1/2 hour afternoon nap, I'm feeling great, and thankfully haven't really been craving cigarettes for a while now.  I still find myself thinking about them, but not in the sense of actually craving one.  I'm quite happy with how this quit campaign is going.

I am, perhaps, not so happy with the choice of viewing on telly this afternoon.  I came back out from my bedroom this afternoon, to catch the end of "One Moment of Glory" or OMG!......oh dear.  It was another Idol/Got Talent style programme, and while the Indian dance troupe were pretty entertaining, the snippet of a Singaporean group singing the Cranberries was a little a little less than awe-inspiring.

Backing this up was the ever-quality Ninja Warrior......a show where contestants go through 4 parts of a course attempting to warrant the right to be called Ninja Warrior.........It reminds me of a slightly more intense version of It's A Knockout, just with contestants battling the course instead of each other, and the compare getting more excited than any other commentator I've ever heard (in Japanese of course!).

I refuse to whine about being in Singapore and complain that I can't wait to get home, but I do look forward to returning to my world where the television is almost never on, and I don't feel like I've had a frontal labotomy every afternoon by having watched hours of mind-numbing programming.

SALVATION!!! the channel was changed and the first Shrek film is on.....and just in time for the "ogres are like onions" conversation.....happy days!

On that note, perhaps I'll stop blogging for the moment and watch it just a little bit.

Have a great night Friends.

:)

Day 36 - 22 March 2011

Good Morning World!

well, there's not a great deal to report this morning.  An amazing thunder-storm last night knocked out the internet where we're living, so posting last night was put on hold.  Not too much has happened in the world of Howie over the past 24hrs.

I filled in for one of the girls who was away yesterday, which meant that I had the pleasure of working for a 12 hour shift, which (although I haven't kept a shift that long for a while) wasn't nearly as painful as I'd thought it might me.  It seemed that I had lunch, turned around, picked a bail of cotton, and suddenly it was nearly 6pm.  They're the days that are best!

The thunder-storm was pretty amazing last night, some of the lightning was striking so close to us, that it was difficult to discern the break between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder, and the cracks were almost deafening!  It was a great to experience.

Ok, I'll close out this post here, as it's almost time to head to the van for the trip into work.  Have a great Tuesday Friends, and let's hope the weekend rolls around quickly (so much to do, so little time! haha).

:)

Day 34 - The Evening

So, after signing off this morning, I had second breakfast, and then Macca and I went for a ride to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which I'm told was a 50km ride.  The gardens were a nice place to visit, but I have to say that they don't really have the same charm as Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens....perhaps I'm a little biased towards my current home though.

Here's a couple of pictures, so you can draw your own conclusions.  I think it's more reminiscent of our parks that of our Botanic Gardens:

So that was the bulk of Sunday for me.  Then we went for a trip into Orchard Road, where we wandered around for a bit, bought some clothes and then had dinner before coming home for some well earned rest.

Well, that's my life for the moment.  Hoping everyone has a great week.

:)

Day 34 - Sunday 20th March 2011 (Now with Eyes)

Well, it's a little after 6am on Sunday morning, and I'm reading what I type with newly re-invigorated eyes.

I managed to wake up yesterday morning, and not open my eyes, stumble my way to the shower, and thankfully we've been staying here long enough, that all my personal hygiene items were easy enough to find in the bathroom and shower recess.

I managed to get through the whole day with only tripping over one thing, which was the dust pan, which the cleaner left on the living room floor while she was doing the bathroom.  Granted that I didn't spend a great deal of time wandering around.

Not speaking was not too difficult either, although I did speak once, and that was to explain my appearance to the cleaner who had said good morning and asked me what I had done to myself.  Given that my response was as short as "Morning! No, no, it's just an experiment", I consider that I still managed to achieve the aims (in general) of not speaking.

Now......what was it like not seeing for the day?  It wasn't as traumatic as I'd been told it could be.  Being that I've been living in this suite for nearly 6 weeks, I knew the layout of it well enough to get around it without too much fumbling.  I'd pre-made some sandwiches to get me through the day, and also stocked up on snacks to keep me occupied, but I still found that I was able to find the ingredients that I needed and with reasonable success make myself some cheese and margarine on toast when I got up (the cheese was pre-sliced).

One thing that I did notice about lacking vision, was that things that I find a little annoying normally, without the distraction of vision, I found even more annoying than usual.  One of the people I live with, who I normally find quite abrasive walked in while I was sitting on the sofa, and without any prompting stated quite abruptly "I'm not going to ask! If you want me to ask, I'm not going to!".

This was the only point during the day that I actually wanted to speak so that I could tell him that whether or not he was aware of, or understood, what I was doing was not my concern, and my experiment was about me, not him.  He also managed to make a few more idiotic comments during the course of the day, which normally I would not have noticed, but with nothing to look at but the back of my eyelids, I heard them, and then couldn't help but think about them.  Interestingly enough, I also heard him asking one of the other boys we live with "What's going on with the prisoner of war"....so despite his assertions that he wasn't going to ask.....it would appear he failed.

I know wonder how people with head injuries put up with wearing bandages round their heads!  I had to remove my bandage 4 or 5 time throughout the day, and re-adjust it about a dozen times to stop it pressing on my ears/itching my face/pressing the back of my head (the list just keeps on going so I'll finish there).

I also had to put a pair of small socks over my eyes (under the bandage) for most of the day, as I noticed that the bandage wasn't blocking all of the light, and I was able to get more of an idea where I was in the room by the way bright light seems to shine red through your eyelids.

One of the things that I couldn't help but think about, was how dependant blind people must be on others, for simple things like grocery shopping and then placing the items in certain places so that the blind person could find them.  Then any time you wanted to do something outside, you'd need a companion to make sure that you didn't fall into gutters/run into anything etc.  The dependency on other people would initially have to make you feel so out of control, and to a certain degree weak.  I now have so much more respect for the struggles and trauma that the vision impaired have to contend with on a daily basis.

Finally, I must have done something good for my eyes by giving them the longest break they've had in 36 years, because when I woke up this morning, they weren't nearly as red as they normally look :)....ahh happy days.

On the not speaking front.  That was an interesting experience.  I'm so used to interacting with the people around me, even in the simplest of ways by saying hello, that it was very strange to me to have to ignore that people where in the room with me.  My main communications with the boys that I'm currently living with were waving to say hello or goodbye, or pointing at my watch to ask the time.  A few times I scrawled as best I could on paper to ask/say specific things, but generally I tried to avoid doing that, so that I could experience the true lack of means of communications.

Generally the guys I live with were pretty good and kept their attempts at conversation to things that I could answer with a thumbs up or thumbs down, but of course the human sandpaper felt the need to ask idiotic questions that were unnecessary, couldn't be answered easily and that he generally would have known the answer too had he listened to the general conversation in our suite over the past week.

The combination of no vision and no speak made me feel a little as though I was in a glass cage, with everyone being able to look in and have an affect on me, but me not being able to get out and have an affect on them.  It wasn't a bad experience, just one that gave a very good insight into the lack of control of self within surroundings.

Well, that's my experience of no sight/speech, and that's two more items off my list complete.  I suppose I should really dedicate some time to adding the remaining 59 items to the list.......at this rate, I'll have finished what I have on the list before I've finished the list.

Have a great week Friends.

:)

Day 32 - Friday 18 March 2011

Good Afternoon (or evening, or morning geography dependant) all.  I've just noticed that i've been putting the wrong month in a couple of posts....apparently I thought it was February instead of March! Well, lucky we can edit previous posts and correct them :)

I'm pretty pleased that another working week and come to close.  Even though the weeks are flying by up here in Singapore, I find myself craving the end of each working day at the moment.  I'm not entirely sure why......perhaps it's due to the lack of stimulus at the moment.  If that is in fact the case, it doesn't bode well for the idea of me getting out of the navy and getting a normal 9 to 5 any time soon!

Well, I'm almost completely ready to strike myself blind and dumb for 24 hrs tomorrow.  I have a bandage ready to wrap around my eyes, keeping me free of vision, and I'm just going to have to use good old will power to not speak.

I have snacks and drinks all ready to go, and will prepare some simple foods (ie sandwiches) tonight, to get me through the day tomorrow.

I'm actually really looking forward to this little experiment.  While it will be strange to not have the use of my eyes, and (I'd imagine) very hard for someone like me not to speak at all for that period of time, I think that it will force me to do a lot of thinking where normally I'd fill quiet time with the wanton, sometimes vapid and often unnecessary sound of my own voice.  I imagine that I will have a much greater understanding of myself by the time I wake up on Sunday morning.

Well, I've set the date of next weekend for the waxing that probably shouldn't happen.  I rode over to Yishun this afternoon and picked up a good number of wax strips, and I'll be commissioning my friend Freya to help inflict this pain on me next weekend.  I'm not sure if she's a good friend for agreeing to do this for me, or a saddist for so quickly agreeing (and leaving me with the distinct impression that she may enjoy it!)

Ok, I think I've prattled on for long enough for one day.  It's time I attempted to add a few items to my sobriety list, and see if I can't make it at least half way to the 100 items I wanted to have there.  Meanwhile, I've just realised that I can link this too Facebook, which I think I'll start doing with each post :) Enjoy!

Have a great weekend everyone :)

17 March 2011 - Day 31 & Navy Appreciation Day

Another sweet working week draws to a close and I can't help but think that whoever it was that said "as you get older the time goes so much quicker" when I was a little kid was amazingly right!  It feels like Tuesday evening rather than Thursday evening.

Well, you'll be pleased to know that there have been no more dreams of smoking.....and the dreams that I do recall probably aren't appropriate for public consumption, so lets move on! I've been wanting a cigarette a little lately, but thankfully not enough for my will to crumble.  I also noticed an old fellow having a beer when I went for dinner tonight, and thought that a drink might be nice, but managed to crush that urge also.

I find myself looking forward to Saturday to see how I go with the no speaking/no sight.  I'm certain that most people will think I've lost my grip on reality for wanting to do this, but I think it will be very interesting, and give me a very good insight into the inside of my own mind.  Perhaps, we spend so much time not thinking about things, that this will be a good chance to think a lot of things through, and actually understand what my stance is on a lot of ideas/concepts.

I have the bandage ready to bind my eyes, and I just have to remember when I wake up on Saturday morning not to speak, and to bind my eyes pretty much straight away.

On an absolute tangent, I'm particularly impressed by Adele's cover of The Cure's track "Lovesong".  It's a decent tribute to the original, while still managing to be definitively Adele.  (Guess who's listening to her album "21" right now??)

Well, that being pretty much the end of anything of value that I can write, I ought to sign off for the night.  Enjoy your Thursday night friends.

:)

Hump Day 16 Feb 2011 - Day 30

Today was always going to be a bit of a poor day....I knew that when I woke up after having had a dream about smoking.

I don't remember too much about the dream except that I was riding a bike, and it must have been early in the morning (ie: dark) in dream time, because my logic was, "well I've smoked now, I might as well keep smoking for the rest of the day, and try again tomorrow".

All the while I felt guilty about having smoked at all, and then about my logic in continuing to smoke for the imaginary day.

Granted today wasn't a terrible day, but starting like that, it rolled into a VERY average day at work.  Perhaps it was that Freya has today and the next few days off work, and I didn't have her there to temper and entertain me today.

Meanwhile, I have set myself another little target of detoxing.  I've decided to attempt to give my body a complete break from all drugs, including caffeine.  So my world of consumption consists of food, juice, lemonade and water........I think I want to slap myself!

Timeframe? not too sure yet.  I was thinking a month, but i"m not so sure that will work out all that well, so for the time being, I think I'll make it a fortnight.  I started yesterday, so I'll re-assess on Tuesday 29th March.

Onto the topic of the sobriety list, I think I might tackle items #40 and #41 this weekend, perhaps together.  The idea of duel deprivation (one sensory, the other expressive) inspires just a little bit of curiosity in me.  I love the sound of my own voice, so I'm not sure how I'll go without speaking for 24hrs.  I even talk when I'm at home by myself.....well sing as much as talk (heaven help the neighbours).  It should be an educational experience if nothing else.

Logistically I think I'll need to pre-prepare sandwiches or something of the like, and put them in a specific place in the fridge so that I can find them to sustain me for the day......hopefully I have enough of an idea of the layout of this apartment that I'll be able to feel my way around.

Well for now, I feel it's time I tried to tackle item #13 again.....I've had a bit of a fail so far :)

Ah! I forgot to mention that I've downloaded the Pimsleur Learn French lessons, so I've also begun on item #23 of the sobriety list.....next stop...the City of Light!

Enjoy your evening folks :)

Tuesday 15 February 2011 - Day 29

Another successful day of not drinking or smoking.  It almost feels like a waste of time mentioning this anymore, but given that I initially started this as a testament to quitting, I should mention it often.  I'm still finding

Not too much to report today.  I've not yet written any more poetry towards item #13.....I wonder if I perhaps should have stuck to poet fodder for the concepts, but then again, that would have been a bit too easy perhaps.

Well, I really don't have anything of import to report today, so I'll keep this short.  Enjoy your Tuesday night everyone.

:)

Sobriety list #13 - 10 Poems

Ok, so this is my first attempt at poetry for a long time, so feel free to give me some constructive criticism.......here we go..........

1.  Rapture

Envoloped in Your shining light,
Your warmth, swift, through me flows.
And walking here upon Your path,
sweet joy within me grows.

Your smile bestowed so gently now,
lifts from me all my pains.
And brings to me sweet sanctuary,
the blessed, cleansing rains.

My eyes see only truth and joy,
the peace within complete.
No hate, No fear, No pain.  My soul
enraptured at Your feet.

.....so that's the first of the 10....hopefully I didn't stink it up too much.  I'll attempt the other nine tomorrow afternoon.  Until then, take care all.

:)

Day 28 (Monday 14th March 2011)

After a fantastically relaxed Sunday, during which I didn't leave the apartment, and managed to squeeze in a 1 1/2 hour nap, we (in the royal sense) went back to work today, and while the first two hours seemed to last for about 4 weeks, 5 days, 21 hours, 43 minutes and 12 seconds, the rest of the day flew by, and I almost didn't notice when it was time to leave!

My urges to smoke are getting much weaker as the days go by, although I'm finding myself thinking about smoking a bit more in the past few days, than I had been a week or so ago.  As for not drinking, that is not much of an issue at all.  Occasionally, when I'm with someone else who's drinking, I'll think that it would be nice to have a drink or two, but it's no overwhelming compulsion.......not even when confronted (by two seperate people) with the statement "it's just you and I and I won't tell anyone".  God bless friends.

Moving along.  I'm still struggling to think of more things to add to my sobriety list.  I'm starting to wish I'd decided on a list of 50 items now, but I'm guessing that I'd go through 50 items in a few months, so I'll just keep working away, struggling to think of the empty 59 spots on my list.

Speaking (or typing actually) of the list.  I think that today, I'll start to tackle #13.  I used to write a lot of poetry, so hopefully this should be a fairly simple item.  I think the biggest struggle will be coming up with the themes.....which I'm going to attempt to list here, right now.  My rules for the poems will be that they
a) can't be standard themes (ie love, hate, fear etc), they must be emotions or ideas that are not the standard fodder for poets.
b) each peom will be at least 3 versus long, and each verse at least 4 lines.  To keep from boring everyone with them, I'll try to keep them to that length.
c) the poems must rhyme in some manner

So here we go, the concepts that I'll base my poems on will be:

1.  Rapture
2.  Nervousness
3.  Walking in the Rain
4.  Growth
5.  Wind
6.  Contentment
7.  Stream
8.  Walking
9.  Falling Leaf
10.  Shattered glass

......and here's to finishing this by tomorrow night.

Happy Monday World :)

Sky Park (Item #3)

Well, Macca again agreed to accompany me on a mission to strike off another of my list items.  This time to Sky Park in the Marina Bay Sands tower complex.  It was a budget $20 (SGD), and when you arrived on leve 57 of the tower, the views were amazing.  We then stopped for a drink (Sprite in my case) at the top, and would have had a bite there also, had the restaurant not been completely booked out.

I was amazed at the pool, which from our side looked like it went to the side of the building and might well have drained over onto the city below.  Another thing that blew my mind was that from that height, Singapore looked like Waterloo (suburb of Sydney) gone out of control........high density housing, what??

....Hmmm Sadly blogger.com doesn't appear to want to let me upload the photos, and seeing as it's almost 2am here, perhaps I'll leave it until the morning and then add the pics, and relate the story of the rest of the evening :)

<insert 7hrs of sleep>

Well, let us see if blogger will let us upload photos again........

    View 1                                              View 2 (Metal Breasts in Earth)

 
     View 3 (Construction)                      View 4 (Ferris Wheel/Restaurant apparently)

    View 5 (Soccor Field)                      View 6 (Giant thing)

    View 7                                              View 8 (Singapore City, Boat Quay etc)

    View 9 (High Density Singapore)     View 10 (Singapore Inner City)

    Sky Park Observation Deck              Observation Deck

    Howie + elderly gentleman               Howie + side of Macca's head

   Macca above the Obs. Deck              Observation Deck

    Marina Bay Sands Sky Park Pool

Hmmm, at some stage, I should get a picture of the building itself and post it here, to give an idea of how high it was above the ground.

Meanwhile, from Sky Park, we decided to head to Clark Quay for dinner at the ever-fantastic Senor Santos.  God bless the carnivorous virtues of Brazilian BBQ.  Then during an attempt to find Mama's Carribean Bar in Clark Quay, we realised that it had been changed into a bar called "Se7enInches" with the caption of "In Music We Thrust".

With a quality name (and moto) like that, how could you choose not to have a few drinks there??? So there we stayed for an hour or so, before tiring of it, and deciding to head to a bar called Ying Yang in Chinatown that Macca had come across previously.

Although this sounds like it should have been a simple process, while we were waiting in line for a taxi to our chosen destination, a local Singaporean man came up to us and asked us where we were going.  When we told him, he directed us over to a number of rickshaws that were near the taxi rank.  After a few minutes of attempting to get them to name the price before we got into their swift and strong chariots of joy (and failing...only receiving the response "good price"), my friend was in his pedal-powered vehicle of wonder, and so I duly sat down in mine.

Now while I'll grant that a rickshaw ride anywhere (even in one that is playing Britney Spears music from a speaker hidden somewhere underneath your posterior) is entertaining, I was somewhat disgusted by the drivers attempts to extort $50 each out of us for a ride that would have cost us something in the order of $6 in a taxi.  After a little bit of argument, we walked away having paid $50 for both, and utterly disheartened with the honesty of the Singaporean people.

In closing on that issue, if you're in Clark Quay, just take a normal taxi, not a bicyle powered rickshaw.  I'm pretty sure they see white skin and their eyeballs turn into dollar signs while making the "cha-ching" sound!......Downright highway robery my dear grandmother would have called it!

At any rate, Ying Yang was awesome.  After walking in, getting a couple of drinks (of course non-alcoholic for me......darn red bull!), and then scoring seats (unbelievable I know!), it really was as though every single Aussie/American/Euro person in Singapore had decided to come to this bar.  It was great, simply done with a nice blend of funky but chilled house music.  (who'd have thought I'd ever be entertained by any music with the words "Funky House" in the description!), and it had a great outdoor area that wrapped around most of the building.

Sadly, without being alcohol fuelled, with all the extra energy that implies, I had to drag young Macca home at a little after midnight.....even after half a dozen red bulls during the course of the night, my aging body decided that the carriage was about to turn back into a pumpkin and we had to go.

All in all a VERY productive and great Saturday, in which I managed to complete 4 items from the list, and have a nice relaxed night out with a mate :)

Now in closing, and off the subject of me for a moment, all sympathy goes to those that have been affected or lost loved one to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant incidents in Japan.  Let's hope that the tolls are low, and the recovery for the Japanese people is swift.

Day 26......Saturday, and the first three items :)

Well, It's been a fine Saturday in Singapore (well, at least it hasn't rained on us yet).  My mate Macca and I went for a wander around Chinatown today, which involved us having a look in three religious buildings, and Macca getting his chest waxed.  Watching that has made me question the virtues of item #11 on the list

Incidentally I spectacularly failed at speaking with the holy men of each house.....for various reasons, including:  the Muslim mosque being a little intimidating in its seriousness, the Buddhist temple being in the middle of what appeared to be a service/prayer, and the Hindu temple not seeming to have any holy persons that I noticed.

Sobriety List Item #8

First was a Muslim mosque on the corner of Mosque street (strangely enough), and while it felt a little too rude to take pictures inside the mosque, it was quite interesting to wander around and read the articles that they had posted on the walls (clearly aimed at non-Muslim visitors to the Mosque).

The inside of the mosque was quite simple and far less adorned than the houses of worship of most other religions that I've visited, which I suppose would be a good thing if you wanted your focus in the house of your god to be on humble praise and prayer, rather than on opulance and astheticism, although it still had a simple beauty to it.  The focus of that building was clearly on praise and learning, with several grown men sitting, each with a half dozen or so young boys, in what appeared to be "Sunday School" type groups.

There were two truly interesting things that I read in the Islamic information posters on the walls. The first was the "5 Pillars of Islam":
1.  Testimony - To testify that there is no diety except God, and that Mohammad (peace be unto him, as Muslims say) is the messanger of God
2.  Prayer - To establish ritual prayer
3.  Charity - To give charity (to the needy)
4.  Pilgrimage - To perform the pilgimage to the house (of worship in Mecca)
5.  Fasting - To fast during the month of Ramadam

It really doesn't sound that dis-similar to Christianity, and until today, I was unaware of the links between Islam (who recognise Christ as a holy man within their faith) and Christianity.  In fact Islamic faith holds that Abraham, Moses and Jesus were also prophets and holy men.  So it would appear that the Christian and Islamic Gods are in fact the same God, just worshipped by slightly different means, in different buildings.  My apologies to those of you who already knew this.....I find this quite stunning, because none of our stereotypes about Islam tell us that they worship the same God as the vast majority of the western world!

The other great quote I found within the mosque was supposed to have been spoken by the prophet Mohammed:
"He who hurts a non-Muslim citizen of a Muslim state - I am his adversary, and I shall be his adversary on the day of judgement".

It tends to undermine the stereotypal red-neck opinion that all Muslims are extremists and trying to destroy every other faith on the planet, which seems to be the idea that our very own western society extremist groups would have us believe.  Although I'll grant that it has the small print of "of a Muslim state", but I think we can agree that the intent and meaning is one of tolerance.....not unlike that preached within most sections of Christianity.

Sobriety List Item #20

Next, we walked the epic 25 metres to the Hindu Temple (bizarrely located on the corner of "Temple" street).  I haven't had time to google the Hindu faith yet, so my recording of that visit will be pictorial......as follows:

The front of the temple had such busy and complex art to its beauty

Then the main entry was quite stunning to look at, and was just a taste test of all the other beautiful art within/without the temple.

and the ceilings were awe inspiring.

The detail that they put into the roofs of their architecture is outstanding....although the lady in the purple robes does appear to be somewhat surprised at having her picture taken, and might easily be saying "don't, don't, don't you be taking that picture young Sir!".

Another amazing example of Hindu ceiling art.

This was also a good example of ceiling art.....and then I realised that the picture shows the god's doodle, so couldn't help but put it in for purile humour purposes!

Sobriety List Item #7

And finally we walked down the (same) street, and found ourselves at a stunningly beautiful Buddhist temple.  It was a fantastic example of everything that I love about Chinese architecture, and the aesthetically stunning inside of the temple have me some insight into how much beauty Buddhists find in their chosen way of life.

We arrived at the temple in time for what appeared to be the Buddhist equivelant of mass, and the interior of the temple was beautiful in a way that only the Chinese could master, with red and gold combining beautifully to set the scene.

I was previously un-aware that there were actual deities/gods within the Buddhist faith, but there were idols to various gods, which the information cards beside told me were tied to the Chinese zodiacal signs.  I hadn't considered that there were actual gods within the Buddhist faith, and had always just assumed that the whole religion was based around the spiritual perfection of Buddha (but as a man, not a god).

Below are some of the pictures from the temple.

Ok, so this was one of two statues standing guard at the front of the temple.

This one was just a nice angle of beautiful architecture.

This was the nice view into the temple from the front entry.

This was one of the goddess idols in the back of the temple.

As vulgar as it felt taking this, it is a picture of the Buddhist folk at prayer.

More stunning Chinese architecture.

And a picture of the side of the temple.

Within the temple, I found a great quote in the temple, which read:

"However, even if we have a particular personal deity, we have to actively work on purifying our negative tnedancies and increase our store of merit and wisdom".

And finally, After finishing up in the Buddhist temple, we went to grab some lunch from a burger house, which unfortunately didn't open for a while, so we stopped by a cafe of sorts called 'Spennelli Coffee Company San Francisco', of which Macca asked...."Is this an Australian company?"......far and away my favourite question of the day :)

So that is the first three of my 100 list items finished.  And tonight......off to Sky Park at Marina Bay Sands, to check out the view and check off item #3 from the list.

Day 25 and Friday Afternoon

Thankfully another working week has come to an end, and this weekend I think I'll start on the (incomplete) 100 list.  I saw a Buddhist temple in Chinatown last weekend, and a Mosque in Little India, so I think those two items will be my mission for tomorrow.

Regarding the smoking/drinking game, I'm still holding up well, and having not indulged in either this week I'm feeling pretty good about the whole affair (even thinking that I might like to head out into Clark Quay again this weekend and see if my resolve holds strong in a club or two.....will have to see how the weekend pans out on that front, however).

AHA! Google has just informed me that there is a Hindu temple in Chinatown also, so I can knock over 3 items tomorrow.  There was also some discussion this afternoon about the waxing item, but I think that one can wait for a little while......pain being no-ones friend!

The down side to not drinking at the moment, is that it's Friday night, and I feel as though I should be doing something already.  Normally I would have been enjoying a few drinks with friends, or at least getting ready to do something for my night.  It feels a bit like being lost in a strange city!!

Ah well, in the intervening time between now and my religious indulgence tomorrow, I suppose I can always watch a few movies.....a quiet Friday night in is always good.

Meanwhile, god bless the auto save option.....I thought I'd lost this post, but just found it in drafts.......thank you blogspot, you've saved me having to re-type 5 paragraphs.

Now, if anyone has any good recommendations for my list, please leave a comment, and if I think it's something that I'd be able to do, I'll add it to my list.

Cheers..

Day 24......and Thursday......

Another day leans toward an end and while I've managed not so smoke, and drinking is the farthest thing from my mind, I am struggling to come up with 100 things to do over the course of the next 11 months.

At this stage I have 29 items on my list.  Perhaps I'll start with that, and as I have more suggestions or come up with other ideas, I'll add them to the list. 

I want my list to be:

a) Things that I don't normally do,
b) Things that are interesting,
c) Things that I can blog about and post pictures of,
d) Things that are reasonable and worthy of my time,
e) Things that are achievable.

So on that note, I'll start the list..........