Gustimmo, the Ice Cream Nazis of Singapore...

... and other weird tales of the city.

At Gustimmo di Roma, whether you buy a cone or a cup, you are required to take three flavors.  Not three scoops of the same flavor, not one scoop of lime sorbet and two of yoghurt.  No, you must choose THREE different flavors and your wishes, wants, and cravings as a customer matter not a whit.

I wanted to walk away from such a control-freak sales approach, but I had tasted of their yoghurt and had to have some. I caved.

But I won't go back, no matter how they exhort me to with the customer-friendly closing on their receipts:

Thank you
Hope to see you again.
Thank you
Please come again.

Another odd, "we must do it this way" encounter we had was at the movie theater.*  We asked the cashier to see a paper with a synopsis of the movies because we had no idea what any of them were about.

"We have one," he said, "but we aren't allowed to show it to you."  o.O  

After I incredulously asked him why not and then began to question him intensively about the films, he grudgingly and sneakily pulled it out of his desk and put it on the counter for us to read.

Is this common practice anywhere else?

This isn't really a tale, just an observation about the hotel where we are staying.  The place is very nice, chic in some respects, but when it comes to breakfasts (an all you can eat affair), they drop the ball in my opinion.

The British history of Singapore is a given, so the baked beans and wieners for breakfast are understandable, but pasta and pizza? I wouldn't complain, as it were, if there were a plethora of other choices, but there aren't.  You can have toast--with butter, strawberry jam, and peanut butter--and two types of cereal. Some mornings, you may get a pale, plasticky thing they call quiche (with diced ham) or scrambled eggs (without).  This morning, they actually put out a bowl of canned fruit salad and nice potatoes.  Perhaps there is hope that our fourth and final morning will be something slightly tastier.
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* We went to see Daybreakers.  I will refrain from writing a review of the movie, but my review of the theater is this: The tickets were cheap, very cheap, and when we went into the dinky theater, with the smallish screen perched way up high, I thought I knew why.  It wasn't until the film started at eardrum shattering volume and the other movie-goers began shouting and ripping open their treats with zero respect for others that I began to grasp why they might need to entice viewers with attractive prices.

Out and Under in Singapore

mana_trini  has just headed out into the wilds of Singapore to hunt down skate parks and graffiti. Sadly, I'm feeling under the weather*, something I think I picked up in a hostel in Sydney, and need a day of rest in the hotel. We fly to Thailand tomorrow, and then begins our month-long jaunt across Southeast Asia. That's not a long time to visit four countries (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia), so I need to get my strength back.

So, on my agenda for this afternoon:

- reading (Karen Miller's Empress of Mijak, which I recommend, even though I still have 200 pages to go. I just discovered this writer and I like her writing A LOT thus far. I love the world she has created and how fully her characters are a part of that world.)
- brainstorming for Witherwilds. Brainz, you may be getting a request for feedback from me. We'll see what I can come up with on my own first.
- moving my iPhoto library to an external drive to clear up some space on my Mac. (We have over 9,800 photos)  
- repacking my sack for tomorrow. Only allowed 15kg per person on the flight to Bangkok.

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* Speaking of weather, I talked about it being humid in Sydney, but I had no call to complain.  It's ten times worse here in Singapore, and the rainy season is at an end.