October 04, 2004
One more weekend mission accomplished
Leijonakaupunki is a small brave nation that has a say in South East Asia. The prime minister has visited Taiwan couple of months ago on a friendly 'non-official' visit and China reacted with a political chill. The prime minister's Lee's inaugural speach was not reported in Chinese media, also some Leijonakaupunkilaiset singers were not allowed to perform in China. Somehow the threat of Chinese-Taiwanese war is much more real here. There's daily accounts on Taiwan testing misiles that could hit Shanhai, buying weapons from the US, etc.
Also the significance of the global political players is completely different from the picture that you have while living in Europe. Australia all of a sudden becomes a bully that is very eager 'to fight terorism' in neighbouring countries (Indonesia, Malaysia), somehow downplaying the overwhelming position of the US. India, Pakistan, Japan, Russia and Iraq, of course, are all the time in the center of attention. There's very very few news from Europe (something about Nokia from Finland, something about French actor murderer from Lithuania. Very interesting...) Basically nothing from Africa. Want it or not, the scope and interest shifts while being here.
Talking about some lighter issues - there's something about women's shoes fashion that I don't get. You see these girls runing around the office, strolling around in the town, doing massive shopping and wearing these impossible shoes: extremely high heels and few straps that form some kind of thing that somehow manages to keep on your feet. The most attractive view is when they try to climb downstairs - horrible sound, both hands holding the stair rail and completely crippled body. I bought one pair of shoes like that. I wear them in job interviews, but usually I change 5min before entering the office. Couldn't bear more of that. Is there something historical, going back to the Chinese tradition of feet binding?
Last weekend was rich in different kinds of events and things happening - it started with me finding a magnificent Arts Museum opening party with food and wine pooring freely, while Kaj was changing his style and exploring new possibilities for social interaction with the 'boys' from work.
It somehow happens that on the weekends we engage into these massive missions of 'doing something'. Last weekend it was Jurong birds park. There were several cages that you could enter freely and the birds were flying (and shitting) around. Apart from scorching sun and about +35C degrees, it was quite bearable. There were even penguins! The junior penguins looked quite ugly - very big and hairy. They're most funny when you see them swimming under water. After this weekend it feels again that we need to rest...
By the way, have you tried the Clusty search engine? Supposed to be clustering the results, but to my opinion it is not very smart yet. I don't think it will ever kill Google...
Posted by gkligyte at October 4, 2004 06:11 PM