Singapore slings like a pendulum do

Julian is definitely starting to feel the pressure of six weeks on the road.  This blog is woefully late in appearing simply because he won't get the laptop out and I can't reach the plug to do it myself.  If he thinks this is tough, just try growing a woolly coat every year.

Anyway, Singapore is a fascinating city/state.  Its legendary neatness, good order and low crime rate notwithstanding, it is the truly cosmopolitan nature of the place which always stands out.  I know I'm going to get it in the withers for saying this is probably the most cosmopolitan place in the world (especially from the Hong Kongers where we travel later in the week), but it is certainly up there in the internationalist stakes and will take some beating.

It has also grown tremendously since Julian was last here.  Where ten years ago barges were dumping landfill into the sea, now there looms the most expensive hotel/casino in the world (to build, that is - there are probably one hundred cramped hotels in Manhattan who charge more to stay!) which is probably familiar to anyone who has watched the Singapore Grand Prix on TV.  It looks remarkably like the W.A.S.P. headquarters from Stingray!

The best asset Singapore has, however, is undoubtedly Duncan Edwards, our host, organiser and adviser who set up a highly enjoyable evening at a cool bar in the imposing One Raffles Quay complex - similarly a new addition to the Singapore skyline.  As we've come to expect, the event was marked by purposeful and pertinent questioning from the attendees who ranged from a Singapore Airlines captain to a super-spook from Control Risks.

(As a byline, what is it about Aber that creates these world experts in security and risk management?  I've met them in three continents now.  At Aber, the biggest security risk is that one leaves one's wallet in the back of a cab or that one falls into the sea after having one over the eight!)

Duncan had festooned the walls of the private room with A3 photos of Aber, both now and way back when he was a student (I won't embarrass him by saying when - I'll just say that the Austin A40 vans looked very quaint).  Seeing the Arts Centre just after it was built was certainly an eye-opener.  As usual, the event over-ran and it was only with difficulty that we extracted ourselves for long enough to grab a few hours of sleep before the early departure for Kuala Lumpur.