Ten Ways Which Swimming The English Channel changes your life

1. Anytime you see a body of water, you automatically start trying to figure out how long it would take to swim across.

2. Nothing is tastes salty anymore. In fact, you seem to have dropped your salt tastebuds somewhere between England and France.

3. "Cold? Why? The water's twenty degrees!"

4. Women now willing to give you the time of day; still not willing to give you their phone numbers.

5. Less sympathy: "Tired? You don't know what tired means! When I was swimming the Channel..."

6. But also more excuses: "Sorry, I can't help... I'm still hurting from swimming from England to France."

7. Conversations legitimately start with, "So the other day when I was talking to the President..."

8. Before: Typical behaviour in public (skipping down aisles, singing to oneself, laughing for no apparent reason) leads to people averting their eyes and pretending you don't exist.
Now: Typical behaviour in public (skipping down aisles, singing to oneself, laughing for no apparent reason) leads to people coming up to you and saying, "Excuse me, aren't you the man who swam the Channel?"

9. Your friends tell you how they randomly met a Singaporean in their corner of the world and bonded with them by telling them they know you.

10. Singapore seems far, far hotter to you than it ever did before. In fact, it seems like your body's core temperature has permanently been lowered. On the other hand, it may just be global warming.

...and bonus:

11. Size of selected body appendages can now be blamed as massive, permanent shrinkage suffered due to extreme cold in the Channel, engendering sympathy.

I couldn't agree more

"The Best Is Yet To Be."

-- Ministor Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, on Singapore's prospects for the next 40 years.

[For my non-Singaporean readers, that's the Anglo-Chinese School [my alma mater] motto.)

Presidential Summons

I was awoken from my jetlagged induced slumber around 2.30pm by news that I had been invited to the Istana and that I had to be there by 3.45pm.

I sleepily stumbled my way through lunch and drove slowly down to the official residence of our Head of State. By the time I was there I was fully awake. I drove up to the policemen guarding the back entrance, rolled down my window and casually said, "I'm here to see the President."

I've always wanted to do that!

It was pretty fun and President Nathan is a really nice chap. I told him about my swim and my studies, and he happily started telling me about his own childhood, growing up as a Straits-born Indian and confronting his own identity when a Japanese soldier asked him his nationality. Up till then, no one had questioned that they were British subjects, but the Japanese conquest forced them to start thinking about it.

After talking with him, I'm pretty sure I would vote for him if there had been an election. He is a good man, very humble and an excellent host. He was gracious and went out of his way to talk to everyone and make sure they were alright. He's not a politician, so it's not a surprise he's not well-spoken or media-savvy, but I think he epitomises many of the important characteristics we would want to see in our President. He's a good man and I like him.

Primetime Morning

Appeared on Channel News Asia's Primetime Morning show this morning at 8.40am. It was fun, and thankfully I didn't disappear into the background, since I was wearing a blue shirt and the set is blue-screened. I was surprised- the set looks so simple that I thought it was a picture on the back wall. It would be much easier, since as far as I know they've never changed the set.

The hosts were really nice and I enjoyed myself, even if I was really jetlagged and finding a bit hard to focus. They asked me how many laps of a pool the distance across the Channel is and I had a brief moment of terror as I tried to do the multiplication. Luckily I got it right, otherwise I'm sure Mr. Joseph Yeo (my secondary school mathematics teacher) will come and hunt me down!

On the way out, I met Vernetta Lopez, who was there to promote some bridal company or something. She is every bit as cute in person as she is on TV!

Committing oneself to an institution

Another close friend got married today. I attended the wedding, making this the second wedding I've been to this summer (and the third I've been invited to- I couldn't make one because it was in Singapore while I was here).

I was terribly happy for the couple, and was quivering with excitement as they took their places. However, as the registrar recited the boilerplate, a feeling of dread overtook me: "Marriage is a solemn institution not entered into lightly... rest of your lives... thought about this deeply and honestly... commit yourselves to each other..."

It felt like a sentencing. My friends looked so happy; I was scared stiff. Luckily I recovered but I was curious why I felt so fearful at a happy occasion.

Later I shared my sentiments with another friend who had also just returned from a wedding, of her friend in Germany. She thought for a moment and remarked that I probably was imagining myself in the exact situation in front of me. I understood what she meant: Basically, I could not comprehend how the happy couple felt because I hadn't yet reached the stage where I could commit myself to anyone. I hadn't found anyone I was willing to spend the rest of my life with. Until I did, the whole situation would always be strange and foreign and scary.