Just found the full version of the cute girl!

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yGp84i8GpQ

I went to the Singapore Fireworks Festival yesterday with some friends and of course took some pictures. Even though directly afterwards I thought that there aren't many good shots, today I saw that some are actually quite nice.

The first few are already up at singapore-in-pictures, more will follow soon.

PS: I want the E-3! badly.... but not that cheap....

A friend made a funny statement about 'older men' who like young girls:

Something along the lines of "Xiao mei mei, ni yao chi tang ma? Uncle gei ni."

Roughly translated: "Greetings and salutations little lady, would you care for some caramelized sweets of various selections? I, the older gentleman, could verily supply and satisfy that craving."

Of course one only understands the joke when you understand the original Chinese, which is more like "Little girl, you want candy? Uncle give you".

Have a look at this cute girl singing a Malay song! Awwwwwwww.....

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1CONYHkk2I

Last Sunday, for the first time since 1960, Singapore won a medal at the Olympic games!

The table tennis women's team lost the finals against China 3-0, but won silver. However, there have been lots of discussion about this victory, as all three team members (Li Jiawei, Feng Tianwei, Wang Yuegu) were born in China and only came to Singapore to compete in the sports events for the country. Tianwei even only became a citizen earlier this year in January.

Many people now feel that this victory is not truely a Singaporean victory, but rather that China 2 lost against China 1 in the finals.

As Singapore is such a small country, it has to attract 'Foreign Talent' in order to be competitive economically. That's why in a few years, there might be more foreigners staying here in Singapore than locals. However, many people feel that this 'We have to be top' mentality should not result in 'importing' foreigners and have them participate for Singapore in sports events. Rather than spending money on these 'Foreign Talents', the country should support local talents who compete with their hearts for their home country.

 I found an interesting short report at Mr Corn's blog about Vietnamese girls who come to Singapore to find a husband. Finding a husband meaning that an agency brings them here and then tries to sell them. I am still speechless because of the behaviour shown in this video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FScBxMqC9cI

The dates for my business trip to Korea are confirmed now. I will fly there on Monday, September 1st, and come back to Singapore on the Saturday two weeks later (13th) (all dates still subject to flight availability, but that shouldn't be a problem).

So yes, I will be in Korea for two whole weeks
I will have one weekend to explore Seoul, and then the Saturday again to do some further sightseeing. In between, there's work of course, lots of it. But of the good kind, I'm really looking forward to it.

And as I will travel a lot more in the months to come, I will also blog about each trip, about each country, and also post some pictures here. So it will definitely be worth coming here frequently!

As written in my previous posting, I had some problems with getting the WHP.

I applied for it (which means sending an email to a specific MoM address) towards the end of June. On the Ministry of Manpower website, it says that the processing time is 21 days and that you will get notified of the outcome by email. Well, 3 weeks later I did not get notified. I waited a few more days, then my company called MoM and was told that the In-Principle Approval Letter, which is required to get the visa, would be send to my address in Singapore.

I never received it.... After a while, my company called MoM again, this time they said that they would send it to my company email address.

I never received it.... I guess you know what happened, my company called again. They would send it to my address in Singapore....

As my tourist visa was about to expire (and as I didn't want to be an illegal overstayer facing a jail term and a few strokes with the cane....or at least a fine), I went to MoM myself on Friday. I went straight to the information counter, quickly told them my story, and a miracle happened! They printed the letter for me, gave me a queue number, and after some waiting time I could leave my passport and application files with them.

Later that afternoon, I went back to MoM and finally received my green card  Interestingly, they gave me my old FIN from 2006. The FIN (foreign identification number) is like a passport or Identity Card number, meaning that I can be identified with it. I had two so far, one in 2006 when I was working for Messe Duesseldorf, and then the one from last year. This time they gave me again the one from 2006. Reason why? My guess is that this old number was never stated in the visa application for my second visa last year, whereas I stated both in the application for this year.

I finally got my visa, the so-called Work Holiday Programme. I'll write more about the problems I encountered until I finally got the visa (yesterday....), but as of now, I'd like to present the small package that was given to me as a welcome gift in a few pictures (following the Wooden table principle, in my case however with the floor...)  (More)