She was a fish-monger, and sure t'was no wonder...

Well, unfortunately, the live music (listed online as going Tuesday to Friday) was not around this evening at Molly Malone's, but I did have a nice Kilkenny lager, and a surprisingly good steak sandwich. Here's Molly, outside the pub. The pub was originally built in Ireland, and was then taken apart and transported to Singapore. (Given the number of "originally built in Ireland" pubs around the world, one might be surprised there are pubs still left in Ireland, but then again, they started with quite a few.)

One thing I don't understand, though. A person who takes something from a store without paying for it -- everyone, including the person who does it, recognizes that that person is a criminal. But the person who creates elaborate tax dodges by keeping money in off-shore accounts, and who manages to secure passports from multiple countries by circumventing those nations' rules -- that person thinks of himself as clever, rather than as a criminal. What prompts

this observation? A conversation I couldn't help but listen to, since the two gentlemen (one American, one British) were speaking loudly next to me. They were so self-satisfied with their various schemes to keep what seemed to be large sums of money out of the hands of their respective governments. Both men recognized that, if they were caught, there would be "hell to pay", so they knew what they were doing is illegal. But they were also quite confident that they had managed to set up schemes that would not be uncovered. I mean, I believe in taking every deduction to which one is entitled -- pay what you owe, but no more. But I don't believe in creating a false identity as a Filipino woman living in Hong Kong so that you can divert hundreds of thousands of dollars there to avoid paying taxes.

But enough of that. After having dinner, I went and sat on Boat Quay for a while, on the Singapore River. It was really active and lively -- a TON of restaurants and bars, and then just some open places to sit and relax. There are boats -- water buses, essentially -- that you can take to get over to Clark Quay, and you can see a couple of them here. It was really nice to sit out in the evening, though when I saw a river rat running on the steps, I did draw my feet in a little closer to me.

To get to Boat Quay, and to a lot of other places here, I've been taking the subway, or MRT. It is very efficient, and clean, and easy to use. The minimum fare for a trip is S$2, but you get S$1 back when you return your ticket card, so functionally it is only S$1, which is about 68 cents US. You can get just about anywhere you need to go on the MRT, and I much prefer the independence of going on my own to having to rely on a taxicab.

I stopped in at the Plaza Singapura on the way back to the hotel, and had myself a little ice cream. It was nice to cool off a bit -- it is pretty humid here. I had cleaned up a bit before going out, and still very quickly found myself to be a bit pungent from the heat and humidity, so a little air conditioning and a little ice cream was quite welcomed. And then I came back to the room, and turned on the television. There are not all that many English-language stations here at the hotel, and at the moment, two stations are showing a "save the elephant" show, one is doing "save the turtles", and one is "save the rhinos" -- all narrated by John Hannah (from "Four Weddings and a Funeral", among other things. I've seen each of these shows on at least half a dozen different times already this trip. So... please... don't eat turtle meat, and don't purchase rhino horn or ivory. John Hannah will be happier, and it's the right thing to do.