We were by the waterline

After a late start (unfortunate misunderstanding) we got to the Singapore River, to see if we could get a Wacky Duck tour. We couldn't figure where to get one, so instead -- after a very filling English-restaurant meal with a waitress who said ``quesadillas'' with a `kw' sound and called us `honey' and `love' -- took a plain old regular river tour.

This let me compare my camera without wide-angle lens to with. I'm not used to how the weight throws off the camera's orientation. The wide-angle lens is a new enough toy I haven't outgrown using the farthest zoom out, so I keep getting the corners cut off, as at the Sir Stamford Raffles landing site.

We did pretty well with Merlion Park. I got a bit silly trying to catch the sun, for example with the central business district from pretty nearby. Then from father away we get the district and Merlion park (in the lower center), again with the good afternoon sun in view. Later we got up to Fort Canning Park, the better to take in the Time Ball.

Today, from 6 am, was the Singapore Marathon, an event we skipped for obvious reasons. There were 21,000 runners this year, up from 14,000 last year; this year, all the roads along the route were closed to traffic. Kenyan Amos Tirop Matui won, in two hours, 15 minutes, 55 seconds; we missed it all. But wandering around we found the stock of giant oversized cheques to be given winners, one blowing away in the wind. We picked up the loose one and put it back, but resisted the urge to take one home. If I'd won a marathon I'd keep the comically oversized cheque; certainly that'd be fun to hang on the wall.

Trivia: The United States recognized about 170 registered trademarks in 1870. Source: A New History of the United States, William Miller.

Currently Reading: Pogo Romances Recaptured, Walt Kelly.