Gone fishing

Yesterday was Prawn Fishing day at Alphabet, with the entire office decamping in a convoy of minibuses (well, three) up the motorway and to the back of beyond. The reason? No real reason ... I think it's coming out of our socials budget.

Happily some bright spark had got some tinnies for the journey, so by the time we arrived at 'Bottle Tree Prawn Fishing' in Sembawang we were nicely lubricated - and the poor prawns never knew what hit them.

The secret to a good haul is to ensure your rod is properly baited - so we came to the pond prepared, with as much freshly diced chicken hearts as any hunter of big game could wish for. Then you need to site yourself, preferably far from the madding crowd, so that you don't have too many rods competing in the same patch of water - though crucially you still need to be close enough to the beer garden in order to ensure you're constantly being topped up with Tiger. Wrestling with prawns turned out to be thirstier work than I'd imagined.

Amos Hong was the first Alphabeter to get off the mark, bagging a little beauty. After that, we collectively got into our stride - and by the end of proceedings, we had seriously dented the prawn population of northeast Singapore. I think special mention should go to Captain and myself for both managing to grab a prawn each with our bare hands. Anyone who pooh-poohs this feat of arms should look closely at the sharp claws on these things - these are seriously hard arse bastards, my friends.

Favouring brains over brawn Dawn, Kelly and Jovita got the most prawns - with Dawn just pipping the others for our top prize. Little had I realised that after the fishing was over, there were more thrills and spills to come.

I had imagined that after we caught the prawns we'd cheerily wish them well, pop them pack into the pond, and they'd swim off to talk about their close escape with their mates. Sadly a rather more gruesome end awaited them: think sharp satay stick, struggling prawn, and King Edward II.

It was grim work, and frankly I've seen enough anguished prawn faces and rectums to last a lifetime. But my squeamishness did pass after we'd barbecued the buggers and dipped them in sweet chilli sauce...

... and naturally, this being Alphabet, we managed to find a bit of time for some drinking games, as evidenced by the last two photos.

You don't have to be thin to work here...

... but it sure as hell helps.

We're bursting at the seams here at Alphabet Towers, with the recuitment of four more girls and boys to the Alphabet family. Aside from strengthening the boy's football team, and supporting the growth of some of our new business units - this means that it is beginning to get a little cramped. I may have to cut down on the doughnuts in order to ensure I can squeeze in behind my desk...

Shut up fatso and tell us who's joining, I hear you ask.

Alice Kok starts with us as a journalist, joining myself, John, Jianggan and Amelia as we prepare for the exciting relaunch of PSTM under its new guise - FutureGov - as well as to help spread the workload in the run-up to the overhaul of our web sites (mid-June, I'm guessing). She cites French existentialist literature and body modification as interests.

Patrick Schulze joins us as our new Marketing Director, having overseen niche high-value marketing campaigns for the finance industry in Europe. As a champion of social media, he fits in nicely with Alphabet's community-driven approach to publishing, training, research and events. And he has a beard, something the company has been lacking up until now.

Ling Oh joins us to work on our training programmes initially, though we plan to migrate her to selling high-value research once that part of the business goes live later this year. I'm pleased as punch that she's an ex-Turtle, as there are way too many alumni from ICPCQCP here these days.

Last but not least we have Amos Hong who joins Dawn and Melissa as our new Conference Producer. This is a key role as we start ramping up for our annual FutureGov Summit, which is being held this year in Bali. Amos has been persuaded to ditch a life in rock and roll to throw in his lot with the cool cats at Alphabet. However he's still available on a freelance basis for children's parties - if you're interested you can contact him here: amos.hong@alphabet-media.com

ABC

No, it's not a quote from the Jackson 5. Well, actually it is, but that's not what this post is referring to ... rather I just wanted to declare that FutureGov magazine is now audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Singapore.

9209 copies of the magazine, distributed in the region (not including to the vendor community). And the great thing is that we're still growing.

So far it's been a great year for the magazine, with the successful relaunch as 'FutureGov', the recuitment of new faces to the editorial, sales and marketing team, and the imminent relaunch of the old PSTM.net online community.

Next in line for a bit of serious loving is Asian Security Review, and then shortly thereafter our new soon-to-be-launched magazine.... so watch this space!