Airports and Football

Sitting in Singapore's Changi airport, waiting for a flight back home to KL. The TVs in the gate lounge are playing Germany versus Sweden, and Germany has just scored.

Football seems to be everywhere - you can run but you cannot hide... Not following it sometimes appears to be a crime of almost capital proportions. But it seems like such a pointless boring game. The most interesting part is trying (unsuccessfully) to understand the words the crowd "sing" (maybe "bellow" is more appropriate) while the ball is kicked backwards and forwards. Often more backwards rather than forwards. At least with rugby the ball is generally going in the correct direction?

Watching out the window of the lounge, seeing the planes small and large taking off as the light fades. Some guy sitting a couple of seats along is yelling into his cellphone in a mixture of English and some European language.

Singapore airport is redeveloping it's gate lounges - probably in preparation for the future arrival of their new Airbus planes. New larger gates, more of the bridges out to the airplanes, and so on. Right now the lounge smells of paint and new carpet. Not entirely unpleasant since it means the place is cleaner than usual.

Friends were staying with us last week - good to catch up after 6 months. Their kids are growing fast, reminding us that it's over a year since we saw the nephews and nieces who live in Auckland. I guess they are much larger as well.

Enough rambling. Time to get back to my game of Sudoku. But wait - Germany scores again (yawn). Till next time...

The King's birthday

By interesting coincidence (interesting to some, anyway) yesterday was the King's birthday - a public holiday in KL (for those of you who don't understand, Saturday is normally a working day in Malaysia). This weekend also celebrates the Queen's birthday in New Zealand. Anyway, trivia to start this entry...

Sitting in La Bodega in Bangsar Shopping Centre, having just finished Eggs Benedict. I have to say it wasn't as good as it has been - the Hollandaise sauce was a bit thin this time.

Next to where we are sitting is a big display by Jaguar - the new Jaguar XK is quite nice. Particularly the convertible model. There is a good looking burgundy coloured example, with tan leather seats and roof. Then you look at the price. The normal model is RM 900,000, and the convertible price is even higher. Sigh.

The papers here can be very tedious. Today's edition of the Star is full of two things - football (soccer) and the King's birthday. And many small articles where one or other politician said something that the reporters found interesting. It's funny that the world news is more than two thirds of the way through the paper each time.

Time to go...