Observation: Sidewalks in Singapore appear to be built without any awareness of the buildings on either side. I am not just referring to aesthetic differences either. Walking down a street often entailed the constant stepping up, stepping down, or stepping over ledges or open gutters between sidewalks of different buildings.

Thought: This approach to urban development seem to indicate compartmentalised thinking. The designers and planners of a new …

This was painting on hoardings around a shop under renovations in Singapore. It took a second to process - the first character is “cow” in Chinese. But the sign uses the sound of that character in combination with the second word to communicate the message.

Cow in Mandarin is pronounced “neu”.

Clever huh?!

I have been travelling around China for the past 10 days or so with friends. Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjing – the three largest cities in China.

Today is the first opportunity I had to be by myself for a few hours. Not walking around looking at things, not engaging with my friends or the locals, not seeing something amazing, or eating great food.

I realised that it has been a …

[Written on 8 April]

I am writing this from the top deck of Singapore Airline’s A380 on my way from Sydney to Singapore. It has been an extremely busy few weeks since Easter, hence the sporadic blog posts. I shall attempt to catch up over the next four weeks.

My plan is to spend some time in Singapore talking business with associates and friends. Plus a couple of weeks getting …