Uppers & Boosters

Nearing lunchtime rain once again. There may have been some overnight, though it had not been enough to wake on this occasion. Three or four consecutive nights previously it had rained, and on a couple of these occasions the pour had been strong enough to wake. A day or two before leaving Singapore someone there had reported the forecast for the remainder of the month had been hot and dry weather. Looking out the hotel window from the other side of the Causeway one could not help chuckling at the daily disproof one day after another. On the streets here this morning mixed messages whether it was indeed the start of the working week, or the weekend still. Day-trippers from the South with their shopping packs were certainly plentiful passing the breakfast table at Muthu. Walking back to the hotel a large crowd at the upper end of Wong Ah Fook near the Servo needed to be investigated. Turned out a great crush at a remittance office, with possibly even a hundred young Indian and Bangla men waiting to send their hard earned back home. The construction and industrial sectors at least were running the conventional Western working week. (A couple of years ago the local Sultan in Johor had instituted the Muslim week of Sunday to Thursday.) Here foreign labour might perhaps receive one day off a week, unlike the more usual month down in Singapore. And rather intriguing the news of the hacking of the Health records down in the Republic, where the PM, a two-time cancer survivor, was particularly targeted it appears. Having been groomed for his post from earliest years, the man was a competent, professional performer, managing all the meet-and-greet and the rest with aplomb, at least judging from newspaper pictures and the occasional sound or vision. What added medications might be involved for stabilizers, uppers and boosters was the question. It could hardly prove a surprise for anyone in such a position. President Trump might be able to devour limelight and ceaseless attention and come back asking for more; others would find the role more of a strain. Whether details would emerge over coming days remained to be seen, and if as suspected state actors were involved, possibly unlikely