Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Sandy and I met for lunch and continued our exploration of food in Singapore, some well-trodden turf. Alvin directed us to a small “shop house” place (among many on North Canal Street). I think it was called Muhammed King's Prata, but I can't remember the names of the dishes. But for $14.60, we had two Coke Lights and a delightful selection of what the store labeled Muslim food. Great lamb; tasty spinach; delightful hot and spicy tofu and some rice. Quite a bit, actually.
When Sandy went back to work, I walked over river along Bridge Street to the Funan Digital Life Mall, in the pursuit of a printer (or at least measuring spoons or plastic wall hooks). One of the upper floors was stunning. There had to be six or eight camera stores and another six or eight computer stores. Total saturation. It wasn’t all that crowded, but I think the mall is a real magnet on weekends. I took note that there’s a KFC and a Pizza Hut in the complex.

A Taxi Driver Gives A Tip: I took a taxi back to Sail. It cost S$4.80 (no tipping). Lugging the printer through the MRT was not appealing, and the taxi really wasn’t that much more. The driver cheerily griped about the Esplanade theater complex, pointing out that it cost S$500 million in “the people’s money”. He didn‘t think the public was getting its money’s worth. I have no opinion on this. But I've heard from residents a couple things about taxi drivers here. (I think there are 20,000 roaming the streets here.) One, they like to complain about the government but will support the government in every election. Two, many are retired police officers, and this gives law enforcement more eyes on the street and gives the officers a nice supplement to their pension. The driver still had money on his mind as we approached the Sail, he said it was the most expensive place to live in Singapore. He might be right. He was nothing if not direct. With a smile.

More Metric Madness: I worked out pretty hard after this, 35 minutes on the bicycle, another 35 minutes on the elliptical. About four others were in the room. I used this as an opportunity to crunch my metric numbers. I think it goes like this:
15-minute mile--6.4 km per hour.
12-minute mile--8.0 km per hour.
11-minute mile--8.8 km per hour.
10-minute mile--9.7 km per hour.
9-minute mile--10.8 km per hour.
8-minute mile--12.0 km per hour (never gonna happen).