Singapore may unban chewing gum. Huh. You know, when we visited last year I was so impressed by how clean and nice the city was, I kinda found myself agreeing with the ban. Of course, I was being a criminal at the time (since I had a pack of Wrigley’s buried in my backpack that I chew on planes to keep my ears from popping). Now I can go back and be a law-abiding visitor. 🙂

The Snook and I tried out another local pub’s trivia contest tonight. It was just the two of us, and we came in second! We lost by one friggin’ point. We should’ve had it too, except I pulled a complete boner and misidentified a Dido song as Sarah McLachlan. But still, a $30 bar tab (between two of us) is nothing to sneeze at!

Hooray! I’m planning a big ol’ American Thanksgiving dinner for a bunch of Aussies – though we have to hold it on the 30th, since it’s obviously not a public holiday here – and I just found a company that delivers American food Down Under! I’ve been trying to figure out how to make a pumpkin pie without the canned mix, and now I don’t have to! They don’t have Cool Whip though, which is a slight disappointment. (Listen to me! Like it’ll be such a hassle to have to use real whipped cream over the fake stuff.) The menu is starting to take shape, and luckily I won’t have to fight my way into the stores weeks in advance here. I can do this! I am not domestically-challenged! This is my new mantra.

Now I just have to pick the brains of all the female members of my family for recipes… 🙂

Whoa. Have you guys seen Sophie Ellis Bextor’s anti-fur ad? (Here‘s the big version.) I admire her principles, but one has to wonder if she wears leather. (I don’t think those boots in the “Murder on the Dancefloor” video are synthetic.) Because really, there’s not a heck of a lot of difference, is there? I mean, we eat the rest of the cow so it’s less of a waste, but you’re still wearing animal bits for fashion. I guess foxes are just cuddlier looking than cows.

Today’s Protest Scorecard: 13 arrested, 1 injured. Three of the people arrested were women who stripped naked in front of the U.S. Embassy. That’s kinda funny. The injured person was a female newspaper reporter who got trampled by some police horses. The Snook took a different route to work and hasn’t seen any hippies down his way yet. It’s still early though…

Update: The Herald‘s got a picture of the naked chicks! Apparently they covered themselves in fake blood and rolled around on an American flag. And hey, one of them was from Newtown! The Snook didn’t witness anything interesting, other than a load of cops and horse poo.

Some evil spamming bastards have been apparently scraping my site’s comments for e-mail addresses. Apologies to everyone involved. I guess I’m going to have to try to figure out a way to spam-proof the site. Until I come up with something, you may want to leave your e-mail addresses off when you comment. (Although at this point, it may be trying to shut the barn door after the horse is already out.)

Last week was the Melbourne Cup, which is Australia’s premier horse racing event. (It’s like their Kentucky Derby.) Everybody in the country bets on who’s going to win this one race. It’s huge. The other thing it’s known for is the hats. All the ladies wear huge flowered and feathery headgear, just like the Ascot scene from My Fair Lady. Even the gentlemen get in on the act. Here the Snook models his own modest chapeau, which he fashioned himself from a bit of newspaper. He didn’t attend the actual race, of course, but I’m told his creation made quite a stir at the local pub where he and his workmates watched it on the telly. 🙂

(Yes, I told him to smile but he never does. He thinks he looks crap in photos, when really – when he smiles – he’s so damn photogenic it makes me jealous. So the seriousness of expression here is deliberate.)

Alcohol causes breast cancer. Great. Friggin’ wonderful. Has anyone been keeping a list? I believe we’re finally at the point where everything fun will kill you. What am I supposed to do, go live in a cave off nothing but mung beans and spring water?

Holy crap. Check out this picture of a dust storm that ripped through the state yesterday. That’s when happens when you have a drought, kids.

The World Trade Organization is meeting in Sydney this Friday and – as you might expect – protests are looming. City cops have just made matters worse by refusing to grant a permit for a peaceful march tomorrow. It’s going to turn into chaos, I just know it. I wonder if I can convince the Snook to stay home.

(Incidentally, check out the list of “essential protesting gear” at the end of that article: helmet, sealed goggles, gas mask, and clothing that seals at the neck and cuffs. I don’t get the last one. What’s that for?)