Sleep, politics and the weekend

I am currently suffering from lack of good sleep. My eyes are heavy and dark, and a feeling of lethargy has stolen over my limbs. It is of course ridiculous that this should be happening to me - especially when the cause of the tiredness is that I can't sleep well as my wife is not in Amsterdam. To explain, Kanga has been here for the last three weeks, and my night-time routine has inevitably adapted to having her around. The house and the slaapkamer seem empty, and sleeping alone has become difficult. I no longer have the lullaby of her snores to escort me to the sandmans realm, and I wake at the slightest noise. Of course, I will get used to this again in the next few weeks - but by the time I have adapted once more, Kanga shoul dbe moving here again. This time with the Finn and Belle monsters.

Perhaps re-starting my exercise regime will help - it stopped due to my hernia, but this appears to have calmed down for a while and so maybe light exercise (such as walking, cycling or even a mild jog) will be ok.....

I did mention that politics was on the cards today, and indeed it is. A new colleague of mine, Julian, stood as the labour candidate for his local constituency in the last general election, and lost (he lives in true blue Essex - which only has three labour MPs out of 17 constituency MPs). Anyway, seeing as he has a deep interest in politics, we started discussing Singapore. These were the questions I was fielded:

1) Is Singapore a Democracy?
2) Does Singapore have Corporal punishment?
3) Does Singapore have Capital punishment?

I must admit to being more than a wee tad surprised that a potential MP would ask these questions. Lets face it, Singapore, although small, is a strong regional player in some areas, and has globally highly ranked economic pointers in:

1) Ranked first in the World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005
2) Ranked seventh in the Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005
3) Ranked second by the IMF for economic freedom
4) Ranked first for Exports - Commercial services by IMF

Now, the current economy may have been somewhat moribund for the last three-four years, but that is hardly unique to the little red dot. Apart from China, this has been consistent throughout south east asia, with recovery only recently beginning to show in Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Japan to name but a few are still in the doldrums.

It makes me concerned that a potential MP could have such gaps in their international knowledge. I know that I can give a high level overview of many Asian, African, South American, North American and European economic states, justice systems, and current political states. Thats what reading the paper daily, watching BBC World, CNN and other current affairs/news programmes does. I have no burning political ambitions (although I am sure I could do a better job than many politicos) but at least I bother to find out what is happening around the world, and what is happening in major countries globally.

Anyway - enough whining. tomorrow kicks off the weekend and I am going photographing on Saturday. I am thinking that a trip with a borrowed tripod to an insect zoo or butterfly house could be fruitful, with teh macro lens. Or possibly a cycle ride out to a nature reserve and try to get the local wildlife captured "on film". Whichever I do I will upload to Flickr on sunday night - so be prepared to pass Judgement!