Ohm.........

Meditation is good!

Mind control will be mine!



It's been a while since my last post. That doesn't mean that nothing is going on or that I've abandoned the blog. Quite the contrary its been very busy here. Work is a bit crazy with VIP visitors coming from the US, another Philippines meeting and upcoming trips to Melbourne and Tokyo. Its now a nice hot (like every day) Sunday and we have no big plans until tonight so I can do an update!

Since returning from the states after my visit to Milwaukee and my meeting in Miami, but for a quick overnight trip to my home away from home away from home, Manila, I've been here in Singapore. Working on some projects at the office and being social after hours and on weekend.

Last weekend we went to a party/fundraiser at the home of a guy I met through Rich Marcus in DC. The charity they are supporting is called Village Focus International (http://www.villagefocus.org/). They do some great work in Cambodia and Laos. Well worth looking into and helping out if you can. After that party we rushed over to help our new friend Ruchira celebrate her birthday. They were dining at the Breeze restaurant at the Scarlett Hotel. We'd never been there and found it to be a very cool, hip W-like place near Chinatown (http://www.thescarlethotel.com/). Breeze is a rooftop restaurant with a nice view of part of the city. We were in time for some champagne and desert and then a few more drinks in the hotel bar off the lobby. We stayed out way past our bedtime.

We hosted a small dinner party on Friday night with 6 of us dining. Myrna did a great job with the food - great fried Chinese appetizers, whole Philippine Style Red Snapper, lamb Masala and Chicken with Curry Leaves for mains and superb fresh banana/ mango "egg rolls" with chocolate sauce for desert. That plus some nice wine made for another nice (and late) night.

Sophia mentioned that our social life is starting to seem as if we were in "the season" in a Victorian novel.

Last night Sophia and I started private lessons in meditation with Vikas Malkani. We are meeting at the place where Sophia goes for yoga. (http://www.gaiayoga.com.sg/made_simple.html)(http://www.vikasmalkani.com/vikas.htm). In 4 sessions Vikas is teaching us to control our minds. I made need a few extra sessions as my mind is hard to control. But with a guarantee of happiness no stress free living how can we go wrong? Actually I was very happy with the first session. The simple take away so far is that stress, happiness, love, fear, anxiety and all of the emotions are created in one's mind. The external environment may be a trigger but it isn't the cause. Each person has the ability to control the mind and train it in a way that stress, fear and other bad emotions can be eliminated or at least minimized. We learned a few simple things in the first session and I have to say it looks promising. We will see how it goes. In a few weeks I may have total mind control. Maybe even as much as the guy with the show Mindfreak who can have someone write their initials on a quarter and then pull that same quarter out through the skin of his own arm!

So this coming week I'm off to Melbourne. I will try to take some pictures and report on my trip next weekend. This will be my 4th trip there and I always enjoy it. Very much like Chicago meets Toronto with populated by people living in the 1950 - but more on that then.

Be happy

Star Studded Street

The bar scene - cleaned and washed after a wild night

A warmup for the more risque shots they will take later.....

Breaking news - "Tourist caned for dropping candy wrapper"

Famous star, as far as you know.....

Singapore is a nice modern city. Very little old stuff survives for too long. An historical site today is a shopping mall tomorrow. A 10 year old office building is torn down or totally remodeled. One of the few old areas that survives is Emerald Hill, our street. (http://www.landseer.com.sg/conservation/images.html)

Consequently its a hot spot for locals, tourists, expats and photo shoots. Locals like to walk the street and some of the old timers talk about how Emerald Hill used to be. The shop houses were homes to either wealthy families or more commonly several families all living in one place. Our place was said to have housed over 30 people at one point. Hard for me to believe as it is hard enough now with 3 people and only 2 bathrooms and I am sure then there was only one bathroom then. We get wedding couples, model shoots, celebrity (it's all relative) shoots and many painters and photographers. There is always something happening on Emerald Hill Road .

http://www.can.com.sg/neocan/en/streetwise/spotlight/emerald_hill__concrete.html

An Old Story - a New Post

A lonely pushcart
Jakarta - modern buildings, mosques and shantys
Nice veggies !
Myrna bargains for prawns
"What else should we get?"

Singapore - 1/04/2007 - Back from a nice holiday visit to the US. I hope you all had a good break as well. We were happy to see some of you and hope to see the others either next trip or here in Singapore. Sophia is still in LA and is coming back next Saturday.

It was really nice to be in a cool place with great Mexican food, real pizza and burgers that taste like burgers. I think we both put on a few pounds filling up on those things we can't get here in Asia. It was also fun to drive a car for the first time in 8 months. It took a little while to get comfortable behind the wheel after the layoff but soon I was cutting people off, honking my horn and running red lights like a normal American. It took me a little while to start looking left instead of right when crossing the street and of course the first day back here I looked the wrong way and almost got hit by a bus.

We missed a lot of the rainy season here in Singapore. They apparently had an 8 inch deluge one 24 hour period while we were gone. The only consolation of the rainy season is that it isn't quite as hot as it is in the sunny season. It tops off at about 88 with 90% humidity instead of 91 and 85% humidity. A crisis occurred at our house while we were gone as there was a leak in the roof causing water to drip on the third floor. Our always frugal and short-sighted landlord was on the case. Her contractor showed up a few days later and painted over where the water leaked in. I'm sure that fix will really keep the water out next time it really pours.

I made my first trip to Indonesia last week. Jakarta is only about an hour and a half flight from here but I hadn't made the trip so far. We had a little work issue there so I figured it was time to head over and get the lay of the land. The city of 13 million people was different then I expected. I figured it would be primitive, dirty and poverty stricken. While there is plenty of poverty and a good amount of dirt it really was much nicer and more modern then I expected. It was also relatively clean for such a huge city. It is really sprawling and the traffic is a nightmare but there are plenty of brand new nice buildings both commercial and residential and even the slum like shanty towns there seem nice compared to places like India and the Philippines. It might be because even the poor areas have these nice red tile roofs, which from the outside look ok - of course they probably have no plumbing or cooling and have dirt floors so I am not ready to move in in the near future. The airport is nice and reminds me of the one in Maui. Far better then LAX which has gives Mumbai a run for its money in grime and thridworldliness. Lots of palm trees and mangroves lining the highways.

Tonight I am actually going to go out on the town with some guys from the office. Sophia and I have seen a great deal of life in Singapore but very little of it after about 10PM. At our house we often times get the joy of hearing revellers heading up our street at 2 or 3 AM after a night drinking at the bars down the street beeping their car alarms and having a good time. Tonight I will take my revenge although come to think of it if I do I will only annoy my own neighbours and they probably have the same problem we do. If only I had the addresses of those over zealous, light weight drunken merrymakers!

I went to the wet market with Myrna to get a few things for snacks for the guys before we hit the streets. Had my favourite mutton murtabak and butter prata breakfast washed down with a mango lassi. Can't get that in LA! I also took a few shots of the market. Its fun to browse the stinky meat and fish stalls and look at the huge variety of fruits and vegetables available here. Myrna is a great shopper sliding into Singlish as she negotiates with the stall owners "Last week prawns 21 per kg Auntie! Cannot pay 22 lah!" "Uncle, if those mangos not sweetest I bring back to you! My boss he like sweet ones!"

A Cold Trip Home

All the Gimbel Boys in one place!

People in Singapore pay big money to see snow

The Great Gus in action

A better butter burger then Solly's cannot be found


The boys and their Mom looking fine!

It was a balmy 86 degrees when Singapore Airlines flight 23 left for Newark on the 1st of March. I was wearing a long sleave shirt for the first time in 10 months on a non working day. I even had a sweatshirt that I had dug out from deep in my Singapore closet. The service in the air was great - nice, attentive flight crew members, hot towels and a flat sleeper seat. 19 hours, two movies (Babel and Flushed Away), many hours of iPod listening, a few video games, two big meals and a few hours of sleep later we arrived on US soil.

I had gotten a second shot at Thursday as it was still the 1st. By the time I got my bags, re-checked them to Chicago and made my way to the United Airlines gate I suddenly remembered what a different world air travel was in the US. It was about 6:30PM and the 4:30PM United flight had not yet left. The 6:30 had not arrived and the 8PM (which I was scheduled on) was on no radar screen anywhere. I put myself on the wait list for the earlier flights. The 4:30 finally left at 7:30 without me on it. I checked with the lady at the gate for the 6:30 and asked her my chances. "Not so good", she said. I asked if my Star Alliance Gold or Singapore Airlines PPS Club would move me up the list. She entered the information and 15 minutes later called my name. The 6:30 left at 8:30, took off at 9:30 and landed in Chicago at 11:00PM. It was like a sardine can and the service was like one would expect - non existent. I got to the hotel at midnight and rested. It was cold, snowy and windy but I didn't mind.

The next morning I took the train to Milwaukee. It was nice to see the snowy corn fields and the dirty salty cars on the roads. I had almost forgotten that it was still winter.

The weekend was terrific as all the family was there. Dad an Anne were great hosts at their new place on the river. It's really nice and roomy. Noah came in from Georgetown with wild hair and a shabby beard but he still looked good. The college boy popping in on his way to Spring Break in Jamaica. Elijah and Lena each grew about a foot taller since I last saw them. Josh and Julia were looking very nice and even Mom was there for a timely visit.

A visit to GRGB (http://www.grgblaw.com/)reminded me of how much I don't miss practicing law but it was great to see everyone still schlaggering out the work. Most of the crew was there so it was a real treat for me. I was sad to learn that my good friend Kim is going to have surgery soon but I think her great attitude is going to get her through and she will be added to the list, with my Dad, of cancer survivors. (http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/). Next was a quick workout and steam at the MAC
(http://www.macwi.org/), a few pops and then a family dinner at a new pizza place in the 3rd Ward. The pizza was far better then the pizza in Singapore.... shocking!

Saturday was a trip back to the GRGB offices where Gus the Great stopped in for haircuts. It was my first Gus cut in about 10 years and as expected he "brought me back" with a nice "tune up". Josh had a "consultation" and Noah also had a few pounds of hair removed. Gus looks about the same as he did when I started getting haircuts from him over 28 years ago.

After the haircuts Dad and Noah and I went to Solly's for burgers
(http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=615). There are three food groups that will never be as good in Asia as they are in the US - the pizza group, the burger group and the Latin food group. After the pizza, Solly helped me get the second one taken care of. I managed to get the third in Miami with a Versailles Cuban sandwich. Saturday night we went to the Vince Lombardi Foundation black tie dinner. The Gimbel table also featured the lovely Nancy Chandler and Cathy Reilly along with their not quite as lovely husbands Tim and Stevie.

On Sunday it was off to the airport. I was lucky to get a bonus visit with Rachel and Benjie as their flight from Las Vegas got in about an hour before my flight to Miami left. It was sad to leave Milwaukee but great to see everyone in the family after such a long time!