Singapura


I had a very interesting meeting in Singapore a few weeks ago.

 It was a long trip. I flew from São Paulo to Doha, in Qatar, a 14 hours direct flight. I waited there for three hours and then took another plane to Singapore, a 7 ½ hours flight. Of course I had a severe jet lag; local time in Singapore is 11 hours ahead of that of São Paulo. Consequently I was very sleepy in the afternoons, but I had a couple of days to get adjusted, so I was not sleepy on the day of the meeting.   

 This was a Steering Committee meeting, a group of people whose task was to supervise a medical research. There were two people from Holland, one from Switzerland, two from England, one from Russia, two from Singapore. A professor from India could not come but we could hear him and talk to him through a telephone conference. We convened from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, with a brief interval for lunch. 

 We did not know each other; we met at a dinner on the eve of the meeting. As each of us returned to our normal activities we had become friends.

 Singapore is a beautiful city, thriving with activity. Beautiful gardens, beautiful shops, beautiful museums. Interesting traditional places, like the Raffles hotel, the bar of which has special drinks created by old visitors like Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway and many others. 

 And beautiful towers. I particularly enjoyed my dinner at “Sky on 57", a restaurant on the 57th floor of one of the three towers in Marina Bay. The place was wonderful, the food fantastic and I must show you the view. 


My jet lag was even worse when I came back, but gradually subsided. And I am looking forward to see the results of the research that is being carried out in two excellent hospitals in Singapore.

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