Singapore

Last night Jeni begged me to join her for dinner with some local friends of her mother's. They are people that her mother either went to college with, or worked with. I can't remember.

She told me that they are really old. They wanted to take her out for Indian food before she left back to the US. She was really stressing about this. She told me that she has met this people two times before for dinner. Each time she invited a friend of her's to join her and each time they stood her up.

She also said that they can be rather boring and like to be in bed by 8 or 9.

Well... I was hungry. But I didn't feel like paying money for dinner. She assured me that they were buying, so I agreed. But on the condition that I could take my car so that I don't get stuck with them in the middle of nowhere.

They arrived on time and we all drove down to the old part of Fremantle to an Indian restaurant in the old fire station. The upstairs was converted to a youth hostel, and the downstairs is this restaurant. They even have the old firepole still up (you can't use it). The food was awesome and Jeni's friends eat there often enough to know a good thing.

Jeni was right. They were old. In their late 70's to some eighties if I had to guess. They were two married couples. But they were certainly not boring. On the contrary, I had an excellent time and was sorry that I had to go home later.

One couple were English, but moved to Perth 20 years ago. His name is Robin and he works as the vice-Dean of the University or Notre Dame here in Fremantle. It is a small private university affiliated with the big ND in Indiana. He also works as the comptroller for a small oil industry firm.

They were fascinating. He was born and raised in British controlled India, which explains his odd accent. He went to college in the US and in the UK. He and his wife used to live in Singapore for before moving to upstate New York to work at Cornell University for a few years. After Cornell they moved to Perth.

They really enjoyed living in New York, except for the winter cold finally drove them away. I don't blame them. After living on the equator in Singapore for years, getting used to the extreme weather in the US can be a shock.

They loved Singapore. They were there before it became the overcrowded metropolis it is now. She claimed that she can not even recognize the island anymore.

Robin had a lot to say about Singapore's history over the last 50 years. We discussed the lack of personal liberty of Singapore, and what it was like when they lived there. They claim that Singapore has opened up a lot in the last 5-10 years. Their friends back there now can say things in public that you could even think about saying in the past.

In the mid 70's after Saigon fell, there was civil war in Malaysia and Indonesia. Communists and non-communist's fought for control of SEA. Indonesia started grabbing neighboring islands by force. Singapore was staunchly conservative and anti-communist. In order to keep it that way they became a tightly controlled police state. Sort of an iron fist in a velvet glove. They tolerated no dissent or leftist sympathy.

He said that in the mid 70's Singapore had signed security treaties with the UK and Australia. Singapore was scared that it was going to be attacked and swallowed up by Indonesia or Malaysia.

That big brother attitude was never really abandoned. That is why Singapore is the way it is today.

Winter is here!

Wow. It got down to 3c last night. That is close to freezing. We had to turn on the heater for the first time all year this morning.

Jenni flys back to the US tonight. I am going to take Jenni and whoever else wants to come along down to Fremantle tonight for fish-n-chips as a good bye dinner.

I get my room and my house back. I am so glad. Dawn is glad too. The upstairs is just a little too small for 3 people. I had given my room to Jeni because she was uncomfortable sleeping on the air mattress in the living room. Plus she was living out of a backpack, so stuff was all over the place.

Things should get back to normal soon. I seems Dawn and I are more into the routne that we know. Things seem so chaotic when there is a 3rd person sharing our space.

Claire is remarried

Claire called me this week. She wanted some advise on how to deal with a property issue.

It is odd. I've been thinking a lot about her lately. I miss her terribly and would love to have her visit to see my new home and life.

She told me that she married Tom back in Feb 2004. She gave in and just married him.

I feel bad for her. She had her chance to make something with her life. To travel. To learn. She is sober, has money, wisdom, and no ties. Now she is tied to a jelous maniac that won't even let her have friends.

It is sad. I feel bad for her. I had really hoped for more for her. I guess it is not to be, unless I showed up at her door and took her away.

I suppose that is within the realm of possibility. It might work. It probablly won't. I know it would just be a matter of time before she starts asking me what I've done for the last 3 years. None of my friends and family would understand or forgive me.

I should just leave well enough alone.

Elena flew home

Elena flew home to Las Vegas last night. I was sad to see her go. I really liked having her here. I hope she enjoyed her stay. I know that I drive her nuts sometimes, but I hope the good outweighs the bad.

A Korean Easter 2004

Today is Easter Sunday. I had promised to take Elena to Easter service at a church. She was raised Pentacostle, so I tried to find a Pentacostle church with an Easter service.

I can't believe how difficult it is to find the right kind of church. The phone book doesn't list churches by demoninations. There where no churches with the word "Pentacostle" in their names.

So I turned to the Internet. I found a web site for the Australian Pentacostle Church. It turns out that there are various "flavors" of this church, some very different than others. The bottom line was that the only two Perth area churches listed in their directory were way, way far away to the north of town.

I finally though I found nearby in Fremantle. I called the number and the pastor answered. He told me that I was welcome to come the Easter service, but we would have to stand outside. It turns out his church is very small, about 7 people, and that there is no room to stand or sit. I guess his church must be the garden shed or something.

Finally after more digging I found a larger, established church that would do in South Perth. They had a 9am service.

This morning we woke up late. Elena was simply not ready in time. It was partly my fault. I did not wake he up early enough. She was very upset and started crying. She really was looking forward to getting dressed up and going to Easter service.

So I had to scramble to find an alternate. I found one in Victoria Park that had a service at 11am. I called them up and got a recording verifying the time. Aweseome! I told Elena that we are going to another church and she was happy.

We found it, and got there in time. However, there was one little problem. It was a Korean church. The service was conducted in Korean. We were the only white people and non-Koreans in there.

The service was just starting when we arrived. Elena and I decided to stick it out. She said that she recognized many of the hymns and other things from her Russian Pentacostle church she grew up in, so we could get by.

The congragation was shocked to see us in there. They kept stealing glances at us. A woman was assinged to us as a translator. She was very nice and would tell us in English part of what the priests were saying.

The service was very lound and very intense. Even though I could not understand a word that was said or written, I got the gist of it.

After the service many of the older congragation gathered around us to ask us questions. Where were we from? Why were we there? They insisted that we join them for a Korean lunch in the church's hall.

Elena was not comfortable with the idea, but decided to go along and eat a couple of bites.

When we got in there, Elena ran in to a problem. Elena had dressed up very nice and looked awesome. But being a beautiful blond model, with a nice summer dress and large breasts, she attracted a lot of attention. We stood out like sore thumbs.

The teenage son of one the congregation couldn't control himself. He was perhaps 19 or so, and you could tell that he wasn't quite all there mentally. I think he was mildly retarded. He was mesmorized by Elena. He kept staring at us during the service, I thought because he was upset that we had invaded "his" church. It turns out not to be be so. He just wanted to look at Elena and didn't have the brains to be discrete about it.

So he comes running over and presses himself against Elena. He starts to run his fingers through her hair and staring at her eyes. I saw this and came over to run interference. I wedged myself between him and Elena and placed Elena near the wall so he could not run around to the other side.

He was not happy about that. Is was obious he was determined to have her. I didn't dare look down at pants. I'd probablly get upset at what I would find going on.

His mother noticed his behaviour and came over to scold him in Korean. He paid her no attention, his eyes fixed on Elena like a wolf. He tried to make some small talk with me.

He asked me where I was from. I told him California. This seemed to deeply impress him for a minute, and be backed off.

I looked over at Elena. I could tell she was nervous and did not like all the attention. The older men were shooting lusty glances at her, and women were huddled in groups wispering to each other and shooting dagger with eyes towards Elena. I could tell that they were not happy with the attention their men were paying to Elena.

So I made up a lie. I told our hosts that Elena and I had a reservation at 1pm for Easter Lunch with some friends at a restaurant down the street. I told them that I didn't realize that it was so late and that we had to get going. Elena picked up on the lie and ran with it. We hustled out of there with the pastor and the translator streaming after us into the parking lot.

The begged us to reconsider and stay. The asked us to return for future services. "Yea. Yea. Will will do that". Anything to get going.

So we went to one of our favorite restaurants and have a awesome lunch. This will be an Easter that Elena will never forget. I'm sure the same can be said of some of the congregation.