Singapore bling
(Well, it had to be done, didn’t it?)
So, I’m in Singapore. Which is, fact fans: an island, a country and a city. And very rainy. And very hot. The reason I’m here, in case you missed it, is that D, the hotel owner, had told me that I must come and visit him while I was in Asia. And, well, who am I to refuse the generous offer of a millionaire building magnate? Nobody, that’s who.
That said, for a nobody, I’m doing pretty well. I was met at the airport by somebody holding a card with my name on it (a first), and driven to my abode for the night in a Rolls-Royce (not surprisingly, another first).
What strangely didn’t feel like a first, though, was seeing the Singapore city skyline, which is spookily reminiscent of downtown Manhattan:
Though obviously not as big. And with a few more Chinese signs around.
D is very kindly putting me up in his family home, where he lives with his three children, M (18), L (15) and M2 (10). I’m staying in his other daughter’s room - she’s currently a boarder at Rodean - and I feel like I’m in the kind of house kids lived in on Beverly Hills 90210.
(That said, the children are cool. Especially M2, who likes to answer my questions about the country/city like an informed tour guide, chipping in before his father and normally beginning each answer with an affirmative: “Pretty much.”)
But back to this house.
To put it in perspective: when I was first laid up with my cold this week, I didn’t leave my hotel room for 24 hours. And I realised why I was able to do that, and why it didn’t feel odd.
It was because my hotel room is approximately the same size as my entire flat back home.
But, well… something tells me we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
This house is ridiculous. In a good way. It’s a modern, open-plan-yet-rabbit-warren-type of place, all horizontal lines, pale wooden floors and floor-to-ceiling windows. In short, it’s exactly the sort of architect-designed home you’d see on a programme like Grand Designs. Complete with a kitchen the size of one you’d find in a fancy restaurant (I counted three sinks); a pool which I think is ornamental as opposed to made for swimming; a Yamaha drum kit; a Steinway piano; and multiple dining areas - one of which houses a huge round, glass table with the largest Lazy Susan in existence. Probably.
Oh, and an adorable Golden Retriever called Snowy.
We all went out for lunch together, at the Singapore National Museum - which is quite possibly one of the most striking and well-done museum spaces I’ve ever been to (an old colonial building with a modern annex) and even has happy hours in its cool little bar. That’s my kind of learning establishment!
The museum also houses a fascinating, labyrinthine exhibition about the history of Singapore; and these very cool swinging chandeliers, which I think have given me my favourite photo of the trip so far:
After which we went on a tour of Singapore city by car (see the pictures here).
But right now, we’re back at the house. And after dinner with the kids, D and I are going to go down to the quayside and to Raffles Hotel for - you guessed it! - a Singapore Sling.
Well, it has to be done, doesn’t it?
March 16th, 2008 at 7.06pm
you bloated plutocrat!
March 16th, 2008 at 7.07pm
well, skinny plutocrat actually. Enjoy!
March 16th, 2008 at 7.08pm
don’t worry, Pete - I don’t see myself becoming accustomed to this lifestyle.
Waaaaaiter…!
March 17th, 2008 at 1.12am
Indeed Singapore Sling must be done.
I like the ‘midweek indulge’ and am wondering what a ‘beach tanq’ is.
I’m also wondering what a Lazy Susan is, and why Susan?
Did you get Lost in Accommodation?
What’s a plutocrat?
Yours, questioningly.
March 17th, 2008 at 8.23pm
a plutocrat is someone who is very rich and lives on a far away planet/asteroid/planet. Or a rich dog?
March 17th, 2008 at 8.24pm
actually pluto may be neither a planet nor an asteroid but a slowly spinning Lazy Susan. That could be a new planetary category
March 18th, 2008 at 6.57am
Ha, I may not know about statist-communitarianism, but I know a lazy susan when I see one! That’s what reading the lakeland catalogue teaches you…
March 18th, 2008 at 5.01pm
I thought that communitarianism was what Republicans-who-didn’t-want-to-seem-like-Republicans did. And isn’t it similar to Old Skool One Nation Conservatism? Dr Pete?
And I still don’t know what a Lazy Susan is nor what poor old Susan did (or didn’t do) to have her name made the epithet.
March 18th, 2008 at 5.48pm
Well, Dr Rach, I do believe you are basically right about old skool one nationism, but it has a degree of market liberalism thrown in which many old skoolers don’t like, mainly because of its destabilising effect. the difference is that the old skoolers don’t want things to change too much whereas the communitarians know that everything is changing a lot and therefore we need things like concepts of community and nation to hold it all together. Hence Brown’s latest binge about swearing an oath to the queen and putting little union flags in our front gardens.
March 18th, 2008 at 6.19pm
Which apart from its trite superficiality and potential to be ridiculed on every edition of The Now Show from now until eternity, is more likely to sharpen the razor-edged divisions of this ‘country’ made of devolving little countries. And he’s Scottish!
March 18th, 2008 at 6.30pm
But he’s also British! It’s just not very good glue to hold together somethign which is falling apart.
March 18th, 2008 at 8.54pm
What is it like inside a Rolls Royce Andrea?
x
March 18th, 2008 at 10.04pm
you know, that was the most fascinating part, and I was dying to take photos, except it’s rather over-stepping the boundary into someone’s privacy. so I didn’t.
it’s all beige leather (of course) and dull, silver-coloured metal, which might quite possibly be silver but which actually looks like plastic. there are separate little controls for the aircon (ie blowing on either the left or right passenger side); there’s masses of leg-room, with an extra sort of sheepskin (only beige-coloured. so possibly labrador-skin) rug on the floor. oh, and magazines in the back of the seats, like on an aeroplane. not sure you actually get the magazines *with* the Rolls, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they pop a copy of Tatler in there for you.
March 18th, 2008 at 10.39pm
and a copy of the Big Issue for the socially aware Rolls Royce driver
March 19th, 2008 at 5.34am
But no lazy susan in the Rolls? Just a relaxed Andrea?!
March 19th, 2008 at 12.46pm
Indeed!