Dedaland

I am still alive... and almost wonder. I should call
Singapore... Toyland!
Those stores our nice singaporean frens suggested... woaaah!!! I was
dead and in heaven... needless to say I left like 200 SGD in the
store hahahaha I am crazy.
anyways I discovered that there is a local Singaporean Publisher...
called chuang yi, they have very nice edition, slightly more compact
than the American ones but about the same height, they have flap
covers, nice paper and the translations is reaaally not bad...
although slightly S'inglish at time (which makes me love it too... I
was laughing my ass off when I found the word brinjal in it...
referring to the eggplant. I hadn't heard that word in years since
of course my best friend used it!).
So I was led into temptation got Absolute Boyfriend and Love for
Venus here. See I was supposed to get these two titles in Italian
but I don't like very much the publisher for Absolute Boyfriend and
despise the one who acquired Love for venus so I was pretty happy...
not to mention... they cost 7.9 SGD wich makes it maybe around 5
USD.. with those covers and that paper? hell yeah!

But let's switch back to Singapore's wonders... They a load of
vegetarian food, there's a restaurant next to the temple of the
goddes of mercy in bugis... soooo good! I have Durian icecream on
bread... woah I hadn't had icecream on bread in ages, it's a
sicilian thingy... actually a lot of the tastes, flavors, smells and
the environment remind me of Sicily... of course Singapore is much
greener... wwgweee gweee I want to import a rain tree! T_T

Next I'll eat a durian. Everytime I pass in front of the store and I
see durian, rambutan, longans... I'm like... mhhhhh me wannnaaaa!
Now Durian really smells you know, one may think that somebody left
the stove open and the gas is spreading... actually there's a second
smell to it that's rather sour and then a third smell that's very
fruity and yummie... so if you learn to isolate the first stingy
smell... you really crave for the other two! O_O

On orchard road there's a huge takamiya mall with the biggest
Kinokuniya I've ever seen. Huge Japanese and Chinese selection of
manga and they also have the american ones not to mention their own
local publishing... with a warning on the back that says "not to be
sold outside of singapore" so you won't find this stuff online.

of course the best part, yesterday I saw the Esplanade (finally) and
my beloved merlion. I was in love with these two monuments ever
since I did the advertising campaign for Singapore (could not find
my posters here though I wonder what they used them for)... and I
had to draw them. I actually expected the explanade to be slightly
bigger... not too much but maybe a 10% longer on the side....
the Merlion was exactly what I thought it would be (only I figured
out that the waves at its bottom are made of glass so at night they
light up and I was thrilled to see that). I actually was surprised
to see how far he manages to spit the water of the Singapore
River...

I also finally saw the skyline by night but let me tell you... the
weather here is something incredible. I am used to hot, summer in
italy is 103 F... 45 Celsius in the shade with 80% of humidity and I
also lived in central florida for one year...
but there's something about perpendicular sun. I am not joking, I
have never bee this close to the equator and the difference is quite
noticeable... my limbs were swelling... especially my heels and
toes... also I am not getting sunburned or anything but my frekles
are spreading like crazy and I got like a brown stain on my forhead
(a few frekles joined forces dammit). The light is white and light
yellow while in San Francisco is ochre and purplish towards dusk...
I think all the green bouncing back the light is what makes it look
so glaring.

Sometimes during the day I feel my blood is boiling so I have to
stop and drink. I drink a lot, but it's not because I get thirsty...
for some reason I never do and I don't really sweat a lot.... but I
have to drink to cool down cuz my body temperature goes up... like a
car radiator without cooling fluids.

isnt' that weird? O_O