Signs

There were two signs I noticed as my taxi rolled away from the hotel. The first was a battered oblong of metal by a car park, proclaiming in big red letters that 'THIS LAND IS NOT FOR SALE'. Was that a political statement about how a country cannot be bought and sold? Was it a warning to gangs of roving Malaysian estate agents? Have there been so many people turning up with a car and finding the parking so convenient that they wanted a permanent space? I would have got out and asked, but I can't miss my flight back to Singapore.

Terrible advertising

Last night I saw something so strange on the way back from the airport that it's taken almost 24 hours for me to process it: advertising for the International Gemological Institute.

It's not just because the word "Gemological" seems like it was probably made up yesterday. It was more the contents of the adverts.

Truth in Advertising

As I walked up Ice House Street this evening, I saw an advert for a hotel in Macau, and like a stale madeleine, it flung me back to a memory I could easily have forgotten.

It's a good looking hotel from the advert, gleaming in a brilliant light, looking down over a verdant landscape, fountains and everything just lovely. Having stayed there, I know that it's on the main road, facing a roundabout, and looks like the outside hasn't been cleaned for a good few years. Fountains and landscaped gardens, there are none.

Suitable bra nomenclature

There's a bra shop on Lyndhurst Terrace called Bubies. When I first saw the sign I didn't read it properly, and thought it was pronounced Bubb-ease, not Boobies. But if that wasn't genius enough, the window display is a 8 by 3 array of bras, all with their own name.

Confronting prejudice, via a sheep on Lyndhurst Terrace

I went for a walk at lunchtime today, to get a break from the infernal ennui provoked by database management systems, and as I strolled along Lydnhurst Terrace I walked past a woman bellowing into her phone. And a sheep.

I carried on, then had to stop and walk back to verify this. Yes, I really had seen a sheep.