Sunday, October 30, 2005

Singapore - It's Halloween - Merry Christmas

In what has become a tasteless but predictable ritual in Singapore, the Christmas decorations are up before Halloween. I wandered into a department store on Saturday and was assaulted by Jingle Bells blaring from the muzak system.

One suffers a fair degree of cognitive dissonance when hearing "dashing through the snow" while it is 32 degrees Celsius and the humidity is at 92%, but this is magnified by the sheer bad taste of the decorations.

I bet you didn't know that Christmas is brought to you by a major Japanese consumer goods manufacturer. Well it is in Singapore - there are signs every 25 feet trumpeting the fact.

With all the sensitivity to race and religion here, it is amazing that a religious holiday can be so thoroughly hi-jacked by commercial interests without a peep from the supposed adherents.


Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Another Week, Another Lake


Sitting by a lake again, this time Lac Geneve, or Lac Leman if you are from Lausanne. My client has their head office in Nyon, and it is time to present to the powers that be.

I flew to Amsterdam as usual, then a quick hop up to Geneva, and another 30 minutes by car to the hotel. The weather is beautiful, there are swans on the lake, and I am flooded with memories. I went to school for one year in Lausanne, just another 40 kilometers along the shore. Truly a beautiful place.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Sitting by the dock of the bay...


Actually sitting on the terrace overlooking Lake Como in Italy.

It occurs to me that I have been to far too many places without actually seeing them, in a life time of business travel. I have seen the conference rooms of a large number of really nice hotels, and more airports than I can remember.

And of course, the fact that I am connected to the Internet with a Wi-Fi connection in one of the world's great tourist spots is just a special kind of sickness. I can only plead that I AM here on business. Otherwise, I would check myself in for therapy...

BTW, the Lake is beautiful, the hotel is old and full of character, and the food is great. The need to work on PowerPoint presentations is somewhat mitigated by the scenery.