Dinner with friends

Most of you won't be surprised that DY has found out about the 'happy hour' pizza deal at the Hilton hotel. As long as you order by 7pm, pizzas are half price (and they're good). You can even pretend that you can afford the Hilton, and use their pool and / or gym if you're really cheeky!

So we've turned it into a semi regular gig with a couple of newbie friends, Jason and Kelly from the US and Sara (also from the US), a beautiful soul whose husband Leo has been traveling through Thailand for the last month. Jason and Kelly started their respective careers with Peace Corps, a volunteer program based in the US that supplements staff at development agencies world wide. Their first gig was in Uzbekistan which they don't consider to be a hardship posting - think again guys - I reckon eating nothing but carrots, onions and potatoes for 6 months counts as hardship! (and the rest). Sara has been with US Red Cross for years and is a Tracing Guru. Tracing is the service for those who have moved (forcibly or not) due to war, famine, natural disasters, etc etc and are trying to track down family members. What a rewarding job! She's now over here setting up a similar (much needed) service with Sri Lankan Red Cross - good luck.

Conversation invariably turns to the difficulties of saving the world (particularly in SL) and it's nice for us to be able to 'let off steam' with others who are experiencing similar troubles on a daily basis. To give you a purely logistical example, DY arrived last night, frazzled after a 2 hr meeting which was meant to start at 5pm, the first attendee turned up at 5.35, the critical attendee at 5.45 and when DY announced that he was leaving at 6pm there ensued a 45 minute discussion about that .....

Last night everyone wanted to hear about our trip to Singapore. They all looked quizzical when I said it had been GREAT, and I hadn't realized how much I was missing the little things. 'Like what' they asked? Clean streets, a truly multi cultural society, decent bookshops, public transport that isn't life threatening, varied food offerings, cinema, women wearing skirts that show their legs (!), good service in restaurants, happy hour that starts at 6pm not 10pm, prices in shops that are the 'real' price, no starving animals on the streets ...... and I could go on.

As the list got longer, the heads around the table started nodding as we looked whimsically at each other. A moment's silence and then someone broke the reverie .... no point lusting after the unattainable. But it was a great reality check.