As far as we know, they only got lost a couple of times. The first was while exploring the Botanical Gardens. After exploring the gardens, they couldn’t find their way back to the entrance and somehow managed to end up on the grounds of a local university. Luckily, they found a friendly security guard, who in addition to helping them catch a cab, suggested they visit India where he owns a tour guide business currently operated by his brother. Maybe that will be their next vacation. The other navigational panic was towards the end of their stay when they wanted to return to a store they had visited earlier. Unfortunately, the taxi dropped them on the wrong side of the street and they wandered off in the wrong direction. Their problems worsened when they called Greg at the office and he attempted to guide them. The rest of the office must have been very amused to see Greg trying to find where they were on the map, figure out how to get to a shop he hadn’t been to and explain all of this clearly over the phone before Vincent’s dime ran out. It took several tries and phone calls.

In addition to exploring geographically, Rose and Vincent also proved very willing to sample some of the many exotic foods here in Singapore. Of course, we didn’t really give them much choice; but they didn’t put up a fight. We forced them to eat lots of Chinese food (chicken rice: thumbs up; bean curd: thumbs down), Malay food (satay, mee goreng), Indian (including curry served on banana leaves) and even Japanese sushi pulled off a conveyor belt (not a big hit but now they can say they’ve tried it). All of this was consumed with no complaints, very few grimaces and a great deal of good sportsmanship. All in all, they appeared to have enjoyed their visit quite a bit and we enjoyed having them out here.

In the middle of Rose and Vincent’s trip they squeezed in a quick 4-day side-trip to Sydney, Australia. They loved it and while they were away, Greg and Veronica did a bit of travelling of their own. Greg was scheduled to travel to both K.L. and Bangkok for a couple of very large "product launches"/press conferences to announce an important new marketing initiative; his trip to Malaysia (and the event) was postponed because of an unexpected public holiday to celebrate Malaysia’s impressive showing in the 1998 Commonwealth Games. In addition to serving as host, Malaysia ended up 4^th overall in the medal tally. Veronica’s trip to Malaysia that week was NOT called off even though the arrest of the former Deputy Prime Minister had sparked a fair bit of rioting. She survived the trip and avoided any contact with chaos and political unrest. Greg’s trip to Bangkok didn’t include any need for emergency medical attention, so we consider it a success also.

Just prior to the arrival of our houseguests, Greg spent a week in Tokyo meeting with consultants from some of the other SAS Institute offices in Asia. Tokyo was very nice (although hot and humid). The SAS Institute office is located right along a very scenic stretch of the river and only a short walk away from the hotel. So, Greg started and ended each workday with a very nice stroll along the riverbanks. Greg also got to eat a lot of good Japanese food including a very (very) large meal of sushi and sashimi. The hotel and office are right next to Tokyo’s major fish market so the sushi was very fresh and delicious. Greg got to explore Tokyo a bit in the evenings and actually recognized things and places from his 6-week stay in Japan 10 years ago. Just think, if that trip had gone as planned, Greg would have stayed, taught English, never taken a job with SAS Institute and you wouldn’t be reading this (assuming you are still reading).

Greg was also able to spend some time exploring the strange world of Japanese TV and radio. The room came equipped with a satellite radio system that carried 440 channels. These included music from every possible corner of the globe; language lessons and a variety of other helpful offerings (including NPR a number of other US radio stations). Greg’s favorites were: the Alibi Channel (the sound of traffic, 24 hours a day, to make you claim of being stuck in traffic believable), the Mother's Heartbeat (self-explanatory) and Counting Sheep (unfortunately, this was in Japanese and very effective, so Greg wasn’t able to see how high they counted).

Since Veronica’s folks have left, Veronica has stayed very busy with a project here in Singapore and Greg has continued his travelling. The first half of October has found him in Kuala Lumpur twice, Bangkok once, and Singapore on the weekends, with another set of trips to both planned for the rest of the month. While we had complained about never being more than 15 feet apart since we got here, working in different countries seems a bit extreme.