Farewell Drinks & a Rubik's Cube

My last Saturday in Singapore, I met up with some friends at Loof, a roof top bar by City Hall.  My friend Van says it's called "Loof" because that's how Singaporeans say "roof" and I thought that was pretty funny.

The Cube
Aki, as genuine and nice a person as you could hope to meet, decided to curse me by presenting me with a few gifts, one of which was a Rubik's Cube. Once I removed the cube from its' packaging, he grabbed it and promptly began scrambling the colors.

Coincidentally, this is the second Rubik's Cube I have received as a gift in Singapore. The first was during the Secret Santa gift exchange at our dragon boat Team Christmas party.  The theme was gifts you received as children so Kheng contributed a Rubik's Cube, pick up sticks & a toy helicopter all of which I was the recipient. I have not mentioned the cube until now because I put in on a shelf in my bookcase to serve more as a reminder of the party than something with which to play...that, and no one scrambled the colors.

It absolutely kills me to have a scrambled Rubik's cube in my home.  It goes against the very core of my being to have an unsolved puzzle sitting on a shelf.

I never had a Rubik's Cube as a child. Looking back I wish that I had because it would have kept me occupied for hours. Who knows all the mischief and trouble that could have been avoided.

Even though I returned home late from Loof, I couldn't help but start playing with that damn cube.  The solution is a complex mathematical model though how complex I wasn't aware.  I went online and started to read about the cube's history and about the complexity of solutions based on formula.  Then I read about layered versus dimensional approached to solving the puzzle.  It was almost 6 AM and I had had enough reading about the cube and the fact that there appeared to be no easy answer was not very satisfying.

For now, the cube is packed away in a box aboard a ship on its' way to my new home in Tokyo so I am spared additional stress.  I will have to solve it at some point but I hope I don't unpack it for some time as I really need to focus on more important things.

Farewell Drinks
Eam, the Beast, thinks farewell drinks involve getting obliterated.  I am more of the opinion the act of spending time with friends is what is key.  Seriously, what the fair and lovely Jun sees in this Neanderthal is beyond me.
(Actually, Java Man is more appropriate in this particular case as Eam is from Java.  Also, it should be noted that Eam recently won the individual dragon boat time trials within our team.  Though I was not there to challenge him so surely his victory fills him with doubt and creates and emptiness in his soul.)

And so it was that the Beast bought me a flaming shot of absinthe.  I don't drink much but I could have sworn absinthe was banned about 100 years ago because it had significant adverse affects on one's health.*  But succumbing to peer pressure and throwing caution to the wind, I swallowed the firey spirit and immediately had regrets.  It burned like acid and the discomfort stayed with me for the next couple of hours.

As it turns out, Loof is a hang-out for local Singaporean celebrities on some scale.  Across from me in the bar was Fiona Xie, a local Singaporean television personality.  Though I didn't recognize her since I don't see much TV, once they began talking about her I realized she is the spokes model for the Marigold Peel Fresh juices I drink.  The no sugar added varieties: mixed wheat grass, mixed apple/cranberry and mangosteen are all very tasty.

Anyway, if the woman at Loof was really Fiona Xie, the Peel Fresh woman, as my friends said, she is much younger and better looking in person especially without all the make-up though I do dig the Peel Fresh jingle so she should keep that part as a theme song.  And soon enough, another Singaporean tv personality was seated beside me, but Eam couldn't remember her name and it was getting to that hour when Eam might not be able to remember how to get home so we called it a night.

*[Absinthe actually was banned in the USA and most of Europe by 1915 but mostly because of the bohemian association of its' consumers.]