Pig Trotters At 3 AM

I arrived yesterday night in Singapore, took a taxi into town to my hotel (nothing special, but fine) ...and felt hungry. No wonder, since my last proper meal had been a late lunch. Luckily, there was a food court just next to my hotel, and the time of 2.15 am did not seem to be an obstrace. I took a seat at the posh Chinese place in the backyard -- posh because it did not have the usual mensa tables with chairs fixed to the ground, but proper round plastic tables. After studying the menu, I thought "now, or never", and ordered pig trotters(Schweinsfüße, erinnert an Hax'n). When I came back from the counter, and the taxi drivers at the next table, who had just finished their meal, found out about my order, they laughed heartily. There was something to it, because I was served a huge portion. Admittedly very tasty. I don't know how I finished it, but I did -- and slept until 10 am the next morning.

Then I got aware that a couple of hours later, I had to give a talk at the National University of Singapore. That went luckily fine, and I had a very busy question time. Apparently it was a good idea to change the topic of the talk from probabilistic modeling to questions about the role of science in public policy.

After returning into town, I went into the very nice Museum of Asian Civilizations where I got almost locked in when they were closing (at some point the light went off, and not all doors were operating any more...). Had a sit at the Marina Bay, wonderful as always, a delightful Onion Thosai for dinner at Tekka Center, and am now considering whether I should attend a piano recital tomorrow night. Schumann Fantasiestücke, Debussy Images (first book), Chopin b minor sonata (d.h. h-moll) and the incomparable Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat major. We shall see...