“Humour, especially British humour, does not work well … The Chinese, Indians and Malays do have a sense of humour but it tends to be more of the slapstick variety.”
Thus says my book on Singaporean customs and etiquette.
Today I was looking at a flat with a Chinese property agent named Jeff. There was a no smoking sign hung prominently from one of the walls in the kitchen. The owner of the flat promptly walked through the room smoking a cigarette. Once he had left I commented to Jeff that it was funny that he would bother to put up a no smoking sign in his own flat when he smokes in there anyway.
Jeff looked at me blankly, then said “yes, there is no smoking here.”
“But he’s smoking. And he put up the sign,” I replied, feeling myself floundering a little.
Jeff thought about this for a few seconds. “Oh, HAHAHAHA,” he said in an unnatural semi-shouty sort of tone, before stopping abruptly and walking away. I felt violated.
Yesterday the fat bird who was serving me in McDonalds dropped my chips on the floor and everyone pissed themselves.
Book 1, Brill 0.
About Me
- DB
- David Brill is a science and medical journalist, currently working as a reporter for Medical Tribune in Singapore. He holds a Science Communication Masters from Imperial College London, and a BSc Neuroscience from the University of Bristol. When he's not writing he enjoys travelling, diving, dragon boating, wakeboarding, football, poker and climbing the occasional mountain.
5 comments:
Was that carthartic for you Dave? I hope so... xxx
Nikki and I actually wet ourselves reading that. But the post below about not having any friends really wasn't as fun. If you're going to be miserable I may not bother reading.
BTW can you let me know whether you're going to bottle it before July, we're buying festival tickets and I need to know whether to hedge my bets on you coming back.
Glad its going well big guy
just found the beauty that is your blog. funniest thing ever, it's like reading a dave gorman book, you definitely could publish these. I love that you're being bullied for being ginger. I still can't stop laughing about that. please write more, I need distraction from the fact that the housing market is crashing and i'm trying to buy a house xx
David, you are humorous. More so in written form than in person.
What does it say about my sense of humour if I find the chips funnier than the smoking sign?
Keep writing, I'm enjoying reading!
xx
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