The Bull Run 2005

During lunch hour, some accountants spotted a Starbucks employee dispensing coffee from a metal canister that looked unappetisingly like the container of insecticide that the ubiquitous NEA guys had been totting about the island this dengue season. But our hardy accountants, being practical and not at all adverse to free items, went through several cups of the stuff.

Payback came after markets closed and they realised that their tummies though trained on long late nights and endless cups of caffeine could not cope with the non-airconditioned environment of the Padang where we gathered for this year's Bull Run, the corporate charity fun run in office wear organised by the lovely people at SGX (the Singapore Exchange).

So they took handfuls of antacids and ruminated about the accountability of spending by charities.

Good fun was also to be had at the expense of the corporate governance people who, similarly unused to the heat, were wearing thick T-shirts of dubious breathability. They were promptly (and gleefully) accused of not being transparent.

The following photographs are similarly of dubious quality due to the heat, the battle with mozzies and the excessive build up of lactic acid (and not, I stress, not the free Veuve Clicquot):

Chris Flagnagen (Credit Suisse)

What the desk-bound really wear under the table:

Genuine cubicle dwellers:

Traders clearing adrenaline from their system:

Tall, pale, thin, wearing shorts and cap with shirt, tie and jacket...must be an experienced accountant...:

Tanned, decent-sized, running with a flag...must be the new recruits:

If you've always been too busy to get to know your colleague:

Remember the evil-looking-bull-with-ridiculously-coloured-toupee? These guys were carrying his head in a bedsheet!

Naturally, the Big Bosses get their own lane:

Then on with the party on the Padang!

Boastful fire-eaters, gaudy stilt-walkers and eager clowns mingled with the crowds. But those city kids are difficult to please:

Cute Chaoyang kids dancing:

Free Milo:

free gourmet coffee:

and free Tiger beers and cartons of Veuve Clicquot champagne:

Games of chance:

The management relay with briefcases as batons:

While Merrill's red devils red bulls collected their Best Dressed contest prize:

KPMG cleared out and disappeared back to the office to do more work:

Massively great fun for all and S$2.3 million was raised for various charities. But people wondered if all the money paid out for use of the venue and for publicity and general entertainment (and the goodie bags and the rest of the free stuff) could not have been better spent by giving it to the named charities instead.

How much better stewards of money would Christians be even if we were organising fund-raising for "church" purposes? And how much more cheerful givers of money would we be without having to be distracted by "fun" events while someone attempts to pry the dough from our cold dead hands?