Felt a bit tired today (I wonder why?). After checking my email and a stroll around the downtown area had lunch at a local Indian restaurant, S$5 for mutton sambal, saffron rice and chappaties.

Back at the hotel the Straits Times was lying outside my door--it's growing day by day! Singapore's infamous rogue trader, Nick Leeson (see picture at end), is still in the news. Front-page prominence was given to newscaster Linette Tye (below), who's giving up her job. Isn't she cute?

Towards evening headed for the nearby CHIJMES centre, a former monastery (Church of the Holy Infant Jesus--hence the acronym). Now it has been transformed in a collection of shops, restaurants and bars. Brannigan's (there's a chain of these in the US) is a trendy-looking bar with live jazz.

Directly below it the Irish pub, Father Flanagan's, is about what one would expect of an Irish Pub abroad. It's loud, brash and full of happy-looking drinkers. A pint of Heineken cost S$13. It opens onto a large courtyard crammed with tables which is shared with a restaurant and another bar. Right next door a very loud nightclub blasted out a mixture of oldies and rap. An attractive-looking set, many British or Irish males with local partners, drifted between the venues.

The pub, owned by a Dublin-man, is obviously named after one of the priests who was stationed here--his name appears on a plate at the entrance to the church.