Hello from Singapore again. Today is March Forth !.. the only date in the year that’s also a sentence !

It’s about 12:30 at night and I still haven’t slept. I got to the hotel this morning with just 30 minutes to shower before my all day meeting. We just came back from dinner. I’m so sleepy that my eyes are crossing.. but I still fell like saying ‘hi’.

Here are a few pictures from last night . It was great seeing land after 19 hours in the air.. the place just comes out of no where.

This is a very clean, civilized and cosmopolitan place. It’s often very hard to remember that this is 10,000 miles from home. So many things are similar !

But not everything.. for example fermented tofu for breakfast…

Or these unlucky ducks (I didn’t eat any of them !)

Or a noodle sandwich with the worlds tastiest hot sauces…

Here’s my group meeting.. We had a really good and productive meeting from 8:30 till about 5:00.. at which point all of our eyes started rolling back in our heads from jet lag.. so we quit working.

It was too early to sleep so we grabbed a can and went downtown (about 30 minutes) ..  to the bar on top of the 70 story Swissotel.. There were soem awesome views of the city !

And some really funky thinks to drink.. like these ‘mer-lion’ cocktails (not for me !) . hthe Mer-lion is the mascot of the city.

The view was so nice that I stuck a SamStone up there to guard the city..

We then walked around looking for a place to have dinner.. we encountered some very weird art. !

And hundreds of very orderly bicycle taxis

And some very un-oriental architecture…

We finally found a good Cantonese place.. As always it’s fun to read the translations on the menu.

We asked the restaurant to order for us.. they did a great job selecting dishes for 6 carnivores and the 3of us veggies. Nothing too mysterious.. but all very tasty.

From there we walked to the famous (for what ? ) Raffles Hotel and it’s ‘Long Bar’.. the hoe of the famous ‘Singapore Sling’.. We each ordered one in keeping with tradition. It tasted like Hawaiian Punch.. yech.. I’m just not a mixed drink kinda guy..   I stil lhave my marischino cherry.. anyone want it ?

Now I’m back at the hotel and exhausted..   The room is nice.. it even has a windo in the shower.. pretty strange !

I sat down to blog and got draged into some work stuff… then had a good short call with Diane and Gabe.  It was so good to hear their voices.  Free calling over the internet makes it a whole lot less lonely being over here without them… Max just called me too.. He was looking for an easy way to make lots of sparks for a movie project. I love brainstorming about stuff like that with my kids..

Right now, though, I need to make some ZZzzzzz’s.. goodnight to all of you on the other side of the planet. G’nite Sam.. I feel you here !
-me

Just got to the hotel.. just enough time to showerand get to my meeting. More later !

-me

Greetings from somewhere over Pakistan.. We’re about 14 hours into our 19 hour trip and so far so good . Last night. I’d had a 7 hour layover at Newark and it passed quickly. I hung out mostly on the walkway behind the elevators to the train.. As I said last night, it’s clean, quiet and totally isolated. The only other person I saw up there last night was Jack  who works on that floor. We talked for awhile. Nice guy.. thinking abut going into website design.

The plane boarded right on time at 11PM  I managed to stay awake just long enough to eat…   A good Indian meal, Dahl, a Paneer dish, fresh pratha, raita and chutney.. Yum !

Every meal so far on the plane has had some sort of ball things to eat.. Las nights were so sweet they made your teeth hurt

And even some of Vermont‘s Finest to remind me of home. (We saw it here last time too) 

I also managed to wear about 10 percent of my dinner… I’m quite fragrant now

 
I fell asleep right after dinner  and slept until we were over England. Singapore air coach seats are almost as nice as most other carriers business class.. and I have a free seat next to me. So I’m pretty comfortable. ..  There’s a huge number of videos and music you can watch / hear.. but I’ve basically been reading and listening to my own music.

 I’ve loved the thinking time on the plane. I’ve loved staring at the seatback

 I also finished listening to the Echkardt Toole book called ‘The New Earth’.  I found it very powerful. The central thesis of the book is that all of mankind.. actually all of the cosmos is awakening to it’s own consciousness  as part of its own evolution. We are part of that consciousness   so we’re doing it as well.. in fact, we’re the instruments of it.   He does a really good job of describing that awakening.. it happens gradually… it happens when you start to realize that the voice in your head.. the ego  that drives all your wishes and expectations for the future and your regrets from your past  is not really who you are.. It’s the consciousness below the ego that is you.. Further you can awaken that consciousness to realize that separation.. ie. You are not that voice in your head. That ego is a construction that lives on fictions created to give itself definition. It feeds on expectations of ourselves that we pick up from other society.  It drives wanting, greed,  regretting, pride and always  leads to some sort of suffering.   Once you really get that, you can begin to free yourself form living only for future gain/happiness, health etc.. or from living life by reliving  either good  or painful memories .. When you detach from both the past and the future.. you stay here. In the now.. Right where I am when I write this.. and you are when you read this. Tolle describes this whole transformation through examples from many religious and philosophical traditions  through intense lifelong meditation. .. All major religions recognize the wisdom someone gets from separating from the ego.. He describes how people come to that moment of awakening.. Some slowly after years of disciplined training of the mind.. some suddenly after a great revelation.. or a great personal tragedy.  On that point everything Tolle says resonates so much to me. Sam’s death has fundamentally altered the way that we look at the world. The detachment we have from the past and the future really keeps pushing us back to that awakened moment  in the now.  It’s the only way we can live.. And.. that’s  a very, very cool thing.

Anyway.. If the last paragraph sounds like new age gobbledygook  to you.. I suggest that you might not like the book.  If instead you sort of get what I’m trying to say.. I suggest you get the book and read it soon.

Ah.. where was  I ?   Oh yeah on a plane over Pakistan. Since finishing the book, I’ve dozed on and off several times  ..

and started at the seat back

and stared at the air vents

Which then started staring back at me !

I watched the flight map as the plane took us over Vienna where I used to live

Then on towards Iraq and Iran

Note Sam in the corner

And Afghanistan

You  look down and would never know of the strife and suffering that’s going on down there now. There by the grace of 3 miles go I. It is an interesting perspective to note that from this short distance above them. Whatever they/we are fighting about doesn’t come though.. It doesn’t mean much up here.. How can our perspective on ideas be so warped that we’d be willing to kill or die for them like this ? 

You see.. you can get pretty philosophical when you don’t move or talk for 19 hours.

Did  I mention  my great seat back ?
..

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OK… time for me to try some more sleep.. More from Singapore this evening.   G’nite (or day ?) all.. Good day Sam.

-me

p.s.  Gabe.. guess what it’s going to be the Durian festival when I’m there. Want me to bring some of it back fro you / everyone ask Gabe just how much he lovvvvves durian fruit . (Hint.. it looks like a cactus, has the consistency of custard and tastes like sewage… Really good sewage, though.