Saturday, April 16, 2011 (Singapore)

WE'RE NOT BRAGGING OR ANYTHING...: Today was pretty mellow. Finished up laundry from the trip. We went to Cold Storage food market to restock the pantry. And, inspired by our travels, we embarked on a stir-fry adventure in our galley-type kitchen. The result (above) was quite tasty. (Think chicken, mushrooms, rice, chillies, onions, pepper, garlic; NO DONKEY.) And, in the privacy of our home, we broke out the chopsticks we had bought in Beijing. The metal sleeves on the end have an etching of a dragon that curls around the corner (shown here). We have six pair, so we can afford to lose some and/or invite people over.

BEIJING REVISITED: As a follow-up to our tramping through the Forbidden City a week ago, we decided to watch "The Last Emperor" (which lasts about 2 hours and 45 minutes, or could nicely fill the flight from Hanoi to Beijing). It was shot on location in China and was released in 1987. I "rented" it from iTunes, and it only took about 45 minutes to download (once I had deleted enough files to make room for this heavyweight). Sandy had never seen it. We liked it. Here's one memorable exchange:

Pu Yi (15 years old at the time): Is it true, Mr. Johnston, that many people out there have had their heads cut off?
Reginald Fleming Johnston: It is true, your majesty. Many heads have been chopped off. It does stop them thinking.

And then there's a line that I should have used on our drive up to the Great Wall: "Stop. The emperor will walk."
If you don't have time to see it all, here's the trailer:




AN UPDATE ON THE CRANE UPDATE: To those of you looking for investment advice, I have to apologize. I am unable to provide fresh, trending information for the Singapore Crane Index Limited Economic Indicator. Unfortunately, my data has been corrupted. I am working feverishly to rebuild the information matrix and hope to present up-to-date, high-quality material soon. It's amazing what happens in the home office when you go on a vacation. NOTE: You can find the index ONLY here. If you Google the phrase "Singapore Crane Index", the worldwide search takes you ONLY here (see image).