we got to go to town for a few hours today, since the shops close later on thursdays. ( keep in mind it gets pitch dark at 5.30 in these 'ere parts )

the town is 7 klicks or so from the airport, so you have to call a cab ( from the town's grand fleet of 19 cabs ). the fare meter goes faster than the speedometer, i kid you not. when i get home, i shall take a cab everywhere i go, tip the cabbie 20% and still think it cheap. i have a video of the fare meter going - you won't believe it. thankfully we got one of the two maxicabs, so in the end each person only had to pay 2 bucks. imagine that. 25 dollars for a 10 minute ride.

from what we saw of the city...well it sure ain't hip central. we only had 2.5 hours, so we just hung around in one shopping mall ( not that there is more than one, actually ). about the size of, say, the heeren, but with only one floor. nothing much to see. beer is cheaper than water here. wine is so cheap i'm surprised the water coolers don't spout the stuff instead. a few of us bought a 4 litre pack to share for only 11 bucks. got some beer and junk food and instant soup.

we've got an extra day out this weekend on account of monday being the queen's birthday ( one of those wonderful remnants of colonism ) so we'll go check out peel street, their version of orchard road. then i shall check out that beachwear sale and empty them out ( paying optional ;-p ). if you really want clothes, yan, i suppose i can spare a few dollars...but i'm sure you realise what kind of clothes i'll buy for you... *eg*

i was scheduled to go up in the first wave today but it was cancelled because of an overcast sky. phooey. then just an hour later the weather was CAVOK - clouds and visibility OK. just my luck. well, 80 dollars added, then.

one fellow has already been axed on a TKO - he tapow-ed 3 times in a row. see, on your first sortie they pull some aeros ( aerobatics ) on you to see if you get airsick. if you do, they keep it up on subsequent sorties. so that guy, on his third sortie, got saddled with 2 loops, 4 barrel rolls and endless wingovers. poor sod - who wouldn't be airsick after that?

my instructor has been changed from wong c the beng to pat foo the evangelist - this christian zealot. he doesn't believe in sciene. at lunch one day, somehow the topic of earthquakes came up and it was mentioned that singapore was outside tectonic boundaries and so wouldn't get earthquakes. so pat foo asked how we knew that. someone replied that was what we were taught in school. pat foo goes, "and you believe that's true?". someone answers, "could be." then pat foo kept quiet but he looked too lan. whoopty doo. i'm not scheduled for tmr though, so i won't fly till tuesday, probably.

i hope i don't puke.

big brother uncut coming on soon - hopefully they'll show jo's tits or something at least, not bloody saxon and his pubic hair. jo is hot. mmm. ta.