you're fired!

Did you hear? Pluto is no longer a planet – at least that’s what the international astronomical union (IAU) decided today. The planet has always been a misfit in the solar system because it’s too puny, and travels a deviant path (unlike its eight more obedient sister planets). But it was officially fired from the system this week, based on the IAU’s new “guidelines” (and I’m just paraphrasing). I don’t know about the rest of you, but after believing all my life that Pluto is a planet, and that the solar system has nine planets circling round the sun, it’s hard to shift a paradigm of such, um, cosmic proportion.



sorry hon, you're out

Travelling

At dinner last night I was asked how many places I have visited. So, I dusted the list that I had complied some time ago and found I have been to 38 countries and around 92 places/cities etc, give or take 5 or 10. I always thought I have been to more places than that. Take my travel schedule this past 6 months. I went to Estonia (Tallin), Slovenia (Ljubljana), Russia (St Petersburg), India (Bangalore, stopover in Paris), Singapore (3 times), Indonesia (Bintan) and US (New York, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Katmai, stopover in Chicago). I think some of the Singapore nutz may have done even more travelling. Is there world really becoming smaller? Maybe it is because we are tired of the same places? I did more travelling just to be away from London. I wonder if New York will tie me down...

Apartment hunting

So, London chapter is back in the Big Apple! In an (probably futile) attempt to stop my Company from moving me away from my fav city in the world, decided to take the plunge and buy an apartment here. It's just shocking the real estate prices, the taxes and maintenance charges etc. Still, I found a place last week, made an offer and may perhaps become a proud home-owner by mid September. Albeit a very poor, debt-ridden home-owner. Invitation should go out shortly to all NY nutz for a house-warming party and non NY nutz are welcome to visit and crash any time.

any one travelling?

um.. i am. nice.

i'm sure everyone's heard by now. there are new "don'ts" now in place at u.s. airports because of a thwarted terror plot in Britain. bottomline - don't try to bring any liquids onto the plane, don't even think about it. i'm getting thirsty just trying to imagine this. no drinks, no toothpaste, no perfume, no shampoo, no hair gel, no suntan lotion and similar. so forget about staying hydrated, smelling good and looking sharp while travelling, at least for the next three days.

aloft hotels

Superst*r blogged about this in Sep 05. Well they're quite far along in their plans now. I just got back from checking out their model showroom in upstate New York that they created for testing and development purposes. They've got some really awesome ideas that'll change the way hotels are run in that price market. http://www.alofthotels.com

New York Chapter Recruitment

Hello, anyone from the NY chapter interested to fill the post of webmaster?

Responsibilities
----------------
Please check with Superst*r what needs to be done....

the club, a (very) short history

the kacang puteh club is almost one year old!!

the club was founded in august 2005 in the hallowed town (city? whatever) of princeton, nj, at a diner following a series of photo-taking sessions by the girl kacangs (mostly for match-making purposes - the photos i mean). existing singaporean clubs in new york were too straight-laced, and not filled enough with funk nor fun. so seven singaporeans that day decided to take matters into their own hands and formed what is now known as the kacang puteh club. in keeping with the name of the club, members are all kind of nutty, and come in a variety of shapes, sizes and flavors, thrown together in no particular way. benefits of the club include this forum for airing grievances, sharing joys, and talking about nothing in particular, and some other privileges we have yet to identify. the club currently has three chapters - new york (headquarters), singapore, and boston. london chapter, as mentioned in a previous post is closed due to undesirable characteristics of the city and lack of members. space is still available for more taos (see post below). no joining criteria, only that you accept one of the ridiculous tao names.

the founding members are:
tao huay (elmo), ex -ceo, relinquished position following decision to leave HQ
tao gay (superstar), also abandoned HQ for singapore
tao pok (funnybacon), ditto (they say it's for business but i suspect it's really for the char kway teow)
tao ni (springlily), most ideal candidate for now for the still-empty ceo position
tao see (travelnutz), recently relocated to ny HQ from london, responsibilities to be defined
tao hu (zambonisam), logistics and (five-star!) lodging coordinator
tao suan (quierotango), no particular duty except to promote interaction on this blog
tao ki (natto), tommy, not singaporean but admitted by virtue of much time spent with singaporeans, knows some singlish

new recruit(the only one since formation of the club):
tao you (ah nut?), in boston

ps: by the way, happy birthday tao pok!

london chapter closed for now...

the london tao is back in new york, after "two years and two months!" in london. it was good to have her back, and i'm sure she feels good to be back, judging from the awareness of her time (and how it crawled) in london. a bunch of us were at the underbar last night, hiding in the darkness and cool, and talking insignificant stuff and laughing a lot. it was a very nice break from the usual routine, although now i'm quite spaced out from not enough sleep.

welcome back!

Lights out

chrysler building last night.....

new york city has turned out the lights! the blistering heat wave that‘s seized the Northeast of the U.S. is straining the already frail power grid, prompting the city to turn down the lights of several buildings, including the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. In my years here, I don’t remember there ever being no lights at either building, except for the big bad blackout of August 2003, when the northeast of the U.S. and eastern Canada were plunged into total darkness. Lights that illuminate New York’s many bridges are dimmed as well. It feels strange to look out of my window and see a different New York skyline, so this is pretty serious.