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Singapore, country of... well, any ideas?

Wow... been like two weeks or something, yes, it is me and my writing skills. First of all my writing skills are not that good to start with, then you add a random periods of time when I can not write anything, not even an e-mail and the conclusion must be that my dream of ever publishing a book must be remote.
What have I been up to, well, I promised my self never to become a "today I ate cornflakes" kind of blog. But I will give a brief summary of things now... football league has started, I am playing for a team called Jakarta Vikings, pre season went up and down, and we didn't really know where we stood at the beginning of the season. Our first game was against Do it (yeah, that's what I thought as well when I heard it, uncreative Nike rip of!) for you not so much of a footbal fans you will burn in the eternal flames for not liking the divine sport, but as I am chritian and don't judge people (right...) I will allow you to skip this part of the blog, just scroll down untill you see something else.

Do it-Vikings
The game started of well, we put the pressure on them, we had 3 corners and 2 shots in the first 10 minutes, my contribution was crucial at those beginning minutes as I warmed the bench with passion and committment.
Their team consists of middle aged beer drinkers with mood disorders, they kept yelling at each other (and not the "Honey bunny, shake your lovely ass" kind of shouts). But then because they knew they would lose every game of the season the hired 2 super Indonesians... ohhh... well... they aren't professional footballers (in a way yes, since they are paid) but they are just so damn fast that it doesn't matter what they can do with the ball, they just out ran us every time.
Our team on the other hand is a strong team led by a group of Danish guys from the age of 40 to 59 (or 69... I am serious... I remember he has a big birthday next year). They were once brilliant footballers, now they are very good (well, at least better than I am), but the years, Indonesian beer and the lack of excercise due to the privelage of having a prvate driver makes most of them stretch their uniforms a bit.
After 10 minutes we were finished, and 9 of the other guys were finished, the problem was those 2 indonesians, they didn't accept slowing down and playing the wonderfull game of banging
forward some long balls and see if one might get in... (kind of like playing a slots machine), no, they had to continue running like some rabbits in a mating season, it occured to me to go out there and aim a well selected Icelandic tackle to the knee of the faster guy, but decided against it as it would not be in the spirit of our team (and there is a lot of spirit there, whiskey, beer and all kinds of spirit). I came on in the second part of the first half and my performance I would rate as 9, on the scale of 9-20. I was shit! although my official excuse is that when I came on it was already 2-0 for the Nike rip off team. The game ended 2-0 for the two Indonesian guys... they scored both the goals, but we didn't care since we had beers with us, not them, so we could get directly to the more serious matters while they had to drive home first... loosers!

Game two came along...
Vikings-Lions
Those are two old teams in the league, normally warming the lower half of it, historically Vikings have the habit of beating the Lions and we came there full of spirit (no, this time not the one measured in %) only problem was that we had so much spirit that 25 guys showed up for us... ohhh... well... random substitutions and flowing schoolground formation became reality.
The Lions had lost against Do it in a friendly 6-0 and then they had betrayed the spirit of the league and hired 5 african guys. Again, unfair in my opinion to hire people to play in an amateur league... again these guys were so athletic that it didn't matter if they were good or not. I had a good game though, after the horrible performance the week before I stopped trying playing skillful football and turned on the Icelandic fighting spirit, ran like a devil, tackled everything that moved and pushed anyone in close range (yah... advise to you guys, don't push the referee, they don't like it). The game was played at night and even though the floodlights illuminated the pitch it was rather dark and with 5 african guys it was sometimes hard to see them, specially since they kept playing sheeps the whole game, we came close to them and the jumped in the air, started screaming like some C-class porn stars (yes, it did turn me on) and fell to the gras, there they lay, biting grass like some lazy sheeps... I told one of them to stop acting like a C-grade porn star and when he tried to be cool and turned to me, pressing his chest out I cowered out and admitted that ok, he could make it as a B-grade porn star. His poetic abilities were awsome because he replied, "you are going down" oofff... I was so afraid, next time he touched the ball Iwent for his ankle, and ignored the ball, fortunatly the referee didn't see that and awarded us a throw in. He was then substituted and I never got the chance to go down... too bad... but well, the game it self ended 1-4 so, another defeat....

Well, that's football so far, I'll keep you posted on the progress of our dazzling football team as time goes along. The squash league has started as well and I have won all my matches there, unfortunatly there are no african porn stars or Nike rip offs there so not much to report on that.

Now, a travel story... Due to a fuck up in my visa situation in Indonesia I only returned from Poland on a tourist visa which only gives me one month, that month finished on sunday, so on tuesday last week I booked a ticket to go to Singapore... the plan was, come here on sunday, apply on monday morning, get back thursday or friday, but... Indonesia and Indonesians are a very special people and on thursday I was informed that my application was not ready and would not be untill late next week, so I had to cancell my return ticket and it is clear that I have to be here at least 10 days... not good!!
Anyways... Sunday morning comes, I had been watching the England-Macedonia with a group of english guys, which meant alot of beer, and yes, I got pick pocketed!!!! arg!!! I had just withdrawn 500.000 rupiahs (sounds more than it is), I paied my bill, 200.000 but then as I went to the next place and was going to pay for my beer there was no money in my pocket... bastards!!! yes, well, sunday morning came and I was really sleepy, I had to ;leave the house around 1 o'clock to arrive to the airport in time but the time flew and it was 12:45 when I got up and started packing which I had not started yet... For a change nothing remarkable happened on my way to the airport or at the airport it self. In the plane to Singapore there was though a bit weird situation, I has an isle seat and the two seats next to me were taken by a couple, they just couldn't stop touching each other and I felt kind of like a third wheel there, like the guy that nobody wants there, just crashing the party.
Singapore airport is simply amazing, the best I have ever been to (and those that know me, know I have spent a considerable time in many different airports), although Gatwick will always be my home airport Singapore airport has to be my favorite one to visit (lets define it as me living in Gatwick, visiting Singapore). There is free internet all around the airport, everything clean and spacious, so many shops and restaurants truly amazing. I had an adress of the place I was going to stay at and in the direction of how to get there there was a subway I had to take, so I found the subway and got a map and everything with explaination as to how to get there.
I went out on the station I was supposed to and lets state that the time was already 11:00 o'clock... I went to the taxi line, I was second, still I had to wait for 15 minutes for a taxi, the taxi driver didn't know the street I was asking for, so I had to exit the taxi and wait for another one, another 10 minutes passed before i got another one. He knew the street but said my address (which I had written down) was incomplete and that I would never find the house or appartment I was looking for. I told him to drive to the street anyway, so he did. I went out in the street and what I had as an address was St. Francis rd. #08-04... I started asking people on that street but they all said I needed a block number or name... they pointed to two apartment buildings and told me to try apartment 08-04 there... in the first building I went to the 8th floor and knocked on the 08-04, no answer, I put my ear on the door and heard some voice so I knocked again (it was 11:30 by this time), I heard footsteps and the door opened. In the door there was a person that didn't look like an AIESECer... naked middle aged Indian guy (he had a towel, small one), I still tried, and asked him if he was Emil, he didn't answer so I excused my self and walked away with him staring after me... interesting thing... the second apartment had no answer and I heard nothing from within so I went to the main road again where I had to wait for almost 20 minutes for a taxi (it is impossible to get a taxi in this country) I asked him to take me wherever there would be an internet access at this time of night, the driver drove off and drove me to a shopping mall, I ponted in and asked if there was internet there, he nodded and told me to go the second floor, there was internet. The shops in the mall were closed but there were 5 or 6 kareokee bars that were open, but no internet. One guy wrote down a name of a plce he said might be open. I walked out and started walking that direction, because again, it is impossible getting a taxi here. after walking for around 20 minutes I found an open internet placem I walked up and they were turnig off the computers, the allowed me to check hostel.com to find a hostel. I picked the hghest rated (by visitors) hostel and asked them if the street that it was on was close. He gave me a map and showed me where it was, only 2 streets away so I went there, but alas... they were closed, only way to get in after 22:30 is with a door code. I had written down another address and asked a guy where that was, he said far far away, very expensive in a taxi... so I continued walking around Singapore, looking for that place I had been told about in the shopping mall. As I thought I was getting close I asked a guy where it was, he laughed and told me it was closed at this time... I cursed my luck and asked where something open with internet was. He directed me to an Indian mall, but alas, the two internet stores there were both closed. I have spent many nights in airports and I have never bought a night in a hotel but this time I gave up, I walked into a fancy hotel, paid an arm and a leg for a room, went upstairs, watched ESPN untill I fell asleep...
This was my first day/night in Singapore... I'll keep you updated on my stay here,
Cheers,
Tomas

posted by Tomas @ Monday, October 09, 2006