Changed da house,
Changed da look.
BTW, my bathrobe's usually pink
and we don't have a fireplace.
Other than that,
it's pretty accurate...
Psst...click the words above to navigate.
Best viewed, unfortunately, in Internet Explorer.
Friday, November 05, 2004
~ Birds and Blur Brides ~
Sarah called me yesterday, and we had quite a bit of fun nattering about wedding preparations... or rather, the lack thereof.
"Avian influenza has recently been reported in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The World Health Organization has reported a number of human deaths from avian influenza in Vietnam and Thailand as a result of the recent outbreak. People are only at risk of contracting bird flu if they have close contact with infected chickens or other birds. "Australians (especially children) are advised to avoid situations where they may have contact with farms and live birdmarkets in areas that report outbreaks of avian influenza. The virus does not spread easily from chickens to people. There would be a very low risk of contracting the disease from occasional contact with an infected chicken such as when travelling on public transport. "The Department of Health and Ageing advises that all uncooked chicken meat and eggs should be handled hygienically with careful attention to handwashing after handling. Proper cooking will destroy the virus in chicken meat and eggs."
Both of us have come to the emphatic understanding that we've been so busy doing 101 other things of equal importance (yes, equal importance to, say, our WEDDINGS), that we feel very sheepish every time we trundle into any social setting (especially church), get asked by well meaning and very loving people if we've thought about the colour of our eyeshadow yet, for instance, and we look at them all in a rather dazed fashion, and manage to mumble, "Er... wha?"
I had a similar conversation with my mother a few twilights ago, and was telling her about my quandary everytime I get people asking questions. Primarily because I feel like a complete failure when my answer is any of the following:
"Uh... I hadn't thought of that yet. Does it matter?"
"OF COURSE IT DOES!"
"Uh... okay."
"Um... no. Not done that yet."
"Uh... I started, but I haven't been able to finish it off."
"Tony's mother is doing the decor."
"What does it look like?"
"Uh... I don't know."
"You mean... I have to do that?"
It's rather demoralising, especially when you take into account that I used to be an event organiser.
The topic of Honeymoons also came up. I took the mickey out of Sarah when she confided that she was considering the whole Disneyland Wedding, replete with built-in honeymoon. I shall state for the record that I had actually looked at the same wedding package and even considered it for a second, so hey... equally guilty. Mickey Mouse, the wedding celebrant in the Wonderful World of Disney.
She in turn laughed her head off when she realised my options for honeymoon places in Southeast Asia have been halved in some ways, primarily because Tony's Australian. (She had thought about going to Bali, and I had paused and said, "Well, it's not like I have THAT option, now do I!") I guess that's why I have a kindred spirit in Sarah.
My mother has ruled out Koh Samui for both of us, because of Bird Flu. Honestly, I hadn't heard a peep about the spread of bird flu here because neither the Australian media nor Channel News Asia, for that matter, have mentioned bird flu. Its salience is nowhere near what SARS had been. That's not to say that people aren't dropping like flies from it, I suppose... but Tony did some investigation with this government-funded website for travellers called SmartTraveller, and this is what he found out:
So there you have it. On the one hand, we could just stay in Singapore and have our honeymoon on Sentosa because even Malaysia seems to have the bird flu. On the other hand, we could risk it at a 5 star resort, eat pork and beef for about 2 days, and if we happen to come in contact with any chickens, make for the hills and die from the lack of vaccine.
I'm not making light of this, though. This has been something that puzzles Tony and I. We're hoping that the bird situation improves by January next year at least. We're giving the birds 2 months to clean up their act. We checked the rest of the website, and if you think the website tends to underrate such epidemics as bird flu, we want to assure you that this website errs very much on the side of caution.
As we've discussed, Indonesia for Australians, or indeed anyone, is not the optimal place for a peaceful honeymoon. SmartTraveller has rated that country's danger level as extremely high - "Australians in Indonesia," it says, "who are concerned for their safety should consider departing."
By that same token, it says similar things, albeit with less alarm bells, about Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.
Australians in Singapore should exercise a high degree of caution. The risk of terrorist attacks against Western interests in Singapore remains, particularly in commercial and public areas known to be frequented by foreigners such as, but not limited to, hotels, clubs, restaurants, bars, schools, marketplaces, places of worship, outdoor recreation events and tourist areas. Premises and symbols associated with the Singaporean Government are also possible targets.
So yah. If we were to take SmartTraveller at their word, Bird Flu is manageable, Terrorism is Not. Don't take a honeymoon anywhere except perhaps New Zealand because even Sentosa isn't safe, being the mecca of uneducated tourists. It certainly makes things difficult for Tony and I at this juncture. Do we 'throw caution to the wind' and have the holiday we really want in Thailand and just not eat chicken? Do we stay in Malaysia, where there's also reports of bird flu and terrorism? Or does conventional wisdom dictate that really, nowhere's safe... running to Indonesia might be testing God, but the rest, we can get away with?
This is probably one of the rare times in history where being a white man has proven to be greatly disadvantageous.
1 Comments:
Yeah I know... Tony and I were inclined to think that way, but I think my family are very concerned that we
a) do not die by the hand of Muslim terrorists
b) do not die by the wing of an infected chook
I'm really annoyed actually - not so much at their concern, but just the sheer lousy timing. Sickening.
By
Velle, at 11:50 am
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