my ajumma notes

Not about NKF, lah. So much said about that already anyway, and more to come, I'm sure. BUT... I've lived my whole life believing that Singapore was completely safe from earthquakes and now I'm told we are NOT 100% quake-proof . Now, that is really, really hard to accept and I feel, in a sense, that we've been cheated all this while with the 'wrong' info. And I doubt our buildings have been built with earthquakes or tsunamis or anything in mind. That just completely changes our whole perspective about living in Singapore, doesn't it? Made a rare appearance in Orchard Road yesterday and I noticed quite a few children practising in their workbooks while sitting around waiting !! Math... Chinese... do they really need to do all this work while they are out in town?? Amazing. I know there will have been many children whose tuition lessons continued throughout the holidays. And none of that happened in this house, of course. But for the two days of 'Chinese c

Poignant Christmas memories for Banda Aceh . Life can't 'return to normal' after tragedy, can it? But it can and will go on... Christmas, Shanghai-style , from where we have just returned. And we were just at St Peter's International Catholic Church last Sunday! Indeed, there was great singing there by a largely Filipino choir. More on that some other time. As I said, peace to all. (picture taken from AsiaOne) Oh my word, Edmund Chen Zhicai acted in Turn Left, Turn Right (showing on Channel 62 right now)??? Must get down to watching Mr Takeshi in Perhaps Love sometime...

Back in Singapore. More on the trip some other time but for now, peace to all :-)

Just had the misfortune of meeting a Merc test-driver on the expressway. Now, this lady looked rather overwhelmed by the car and although she had the very bad Merc habit of not signalling when wanting to change lanes (even on the expressway , mind you), and of driving onto the lane marking even when another car (mine) is obviously there , she did not have the very bad Merc habit of speeding like there's no tomorrow. I mean, if you want to cut into people's lanes without signalling, you should at least do it fast and get out of the way, right? Very uncharitably, I refused to let her cut into the lane in front of me, since I was already there , and there was no reason why she couldn't join the lane behind me. The next car was rather far behind me. And she wasn't even trying to speed!! She was driving rather slowly and I noticed that even when we got onto the ordinary roads, she was still not signalling when changing lanes and still driving slowly! Really, people who wan

Aiyoh, I just cannot believe some people's audacity and presumptuousness (presumption? whatever). All over the Edusave Merit Bursary, which is awarded to students in each cohort in each school who fall within the top 25% in terms of academic achievement for that year. Obviously, it being a BURSARY , there is an income ceiling (family income must be <$3000) tagged to it. Now, first came this letter to both the ST and TODAY, arguing that children from better off families should not be denied the Edusave Bursary. The reason: it was no encouragement for children to be told they are within the top 25% but did not qualify for the award because of their higher family income. The letter writer suggested that all be given a 'token' amount. Then came this next letter to TODAY, arguing along the same lines that children from higher income families should not be 'penalised' by being excluded from the Bursary . The reason: going on stage to receive the award and shake the ha

Some brief and perhaps belated thoughts on two issues: 1. GEPers versus others Certainly not a new issue, it recently re-emerged in the news when someone's findings on adjustment issues, etc, of students in the GEP were reported. What I think: a. In every education system, and, in fact, in any given society, there will be the elite. Just as there will be the other end of the scale. And for obvious reasons, as pointed out by some who have commented on the issue, people tend to stick to people who are like themselves. There is nothing surprising about that. b. It is also to be expected that others will always look at the elite as different - either negatively or positively. And people's perceptions will be based on their personal direct interaction with them, what they hear from other people, what they hear from people who heard from other people, what they read in the newspapers, etc. In other words, people's perceptions are very likely accurate only to some extent. Anyway,

Well, I was wrong. There is SEA Games coverage apart from the nightly reports. Or at least there was this evening when I turned the telly on. Watched the young ladies from the gym team taking one gold and one silver. There might have been more medals but that was what I caught. The SEA Games balance beam competition remains very painful to watch. It's like they are liable to fall off the beam with every move they make. I believe only the gold and silver medallists didn't fall off. I would almost suggest that they cancel that apparatus for the SEA Games, but I suppose any gymnast worth her salt must compete in the four apparatus. All in all, though, it was still entertaining, though nothing compared to watching the Olympic gym competition. The coverage from the pool ended rather abruptly when Mr Bean started.

Oh, I am an incurable shopaholic. Went to Cocoon again, to collect my altered dress, and the whole shop is on a 1-for-1 sale now!! But... I had parked some distance away (what to do, we non-tai-tais, who count ourselves fortunate to have a car, still have to save on parking fees whenever possible and park at URA car parks when we can find them) and had put just one coupon for half an hour. So... I didn't really have time to try anything. And who should I meet but radiant, just-married S , who was picking out clothes to try as I left. Enviously. Sigh... sigh... Well, I suppose it was good that I didn't have enough time to try the clothes. I don't need anymore, do I? The holidays are certainly fun, even for stay@ home mums. No pressing need to get anything ready at a particular hour, or to be at the school gate at a particular time, etc. Anyway, the poor boy is stuck these two days at a Chinese 'camp' (full-day enrichment programme). He proclaims that he dislikes Ch

How irritating. People who are definitely not doing the TV nightly reports for the first time in their lives are still calling the Thais 'thighs'. Anyway, why is there just a half-hour report each day? What happened to live telecasts?

I have just learnt that in China, blogspot.com is filtered, i.e., you can't access blogspot blogs in China. Even if you have a blogspot blog. Wow... Have just finished The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie . Am determined to read the rest of the Colonel Race (do read the link - it's a translated webpage {from French}; if you think those Japanese or Taiwanese translations from English are funny, you will be smiling at this translation - it's really weird) books. First read The Man in the Brown Suit more than 10 years ago and it was still great on re-reading. The other one I want to re-read is They Came to Baghdad .

Congratulations, David Nalbandian, for doing what no one expected. He wasn't even on the original slate for the Shanghai Masters and he ends up with a dream year-end flourish, beating world #1 Roger Federer in the Masters Cup Final. Though it was brought up in both Federer's and Nalbandian's post-match interviews that their matches are always 'close', it is nevertheless a great achievement for Nalbandian, currently ranked #12 and 8th seed in the Shanghai Masters, to beat Federer. I can imagine #2 to #11 are all going green with envy, I believe especially Roddick and Hewitt, who were so unceremoniously routed by Federer in their matches against him in the last year or two. Well, it just goes to show that you never know. And I guess this might be happy news for #2 to #11 too, because it tells them that there is hope yet...

Following my previous 'academic'/historical post , here is a literary one. No, no, nothing I produced, but just my thoughts after finishing The Secret Dreamworld of A Shopaholic (henceforth SDS ) by Sophie Kinsella. I was struck by the striking parallels with Bridget Jones's Diary (BJD) by Helen Fielding, and not having done any PC for nearly 20 years or therabouts, I hereby offer a comparison between the two. First, it appears that BJD is universally acknowledged as the prototype of chick lit . That makes me wonder if SDS was modelled after BJD . Anyway, here goes: Date published BJD: 1996 SDS: 2000 Sequels (is that what books are called too?) BJD: The Edge of Reason SDS: Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Shopaholic and Sister heroine BJD: bumbling Bridget Jones, speaks her mind more than thinks before she speaks, works in publishing house, then becomes broadcast journalist SDS: bumbling Rebecca Bloomwood, speaks her mind more than thinks before sh

Hmmm... the Tennis Masters Cup is turning out to be rather boring. To be fair, it's not because people are not playing properly or anything but more that this is supposed to be the year-end big match-up among the top 8 players in the world but obviously it's not. Only interested in watching Coria , though he is wearing some horrible body-hugging orange tee with shiny black stripes, and Nalbandian . Anyway, Coria is out, having lost 2 matches already, and I'm sure he is going to get creamed by Federer tonight. As I write this, he has lost the first set already. I must, say, though, his wife is beautiful, with her beauty queen looks. Not that that has anything to do with anything... Last night was Gonzalez versus Gaudio and I thought who cares about Gonzalez versus Gaudio, and there was nothing else worth watching so I turned to Channel 55 and guess what, they are showing a re-run of the K serial Jewel in the Palace . As I said before , this is a really slow-moving show. They

Breathed a sigh of relief on behalf of Princess Masako at the recent news that the Japanese government was considering legal changes that would allow for girls to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne as Empresses. Then, whoa, there was this piece about Prince Tomohito , a cousin of Emperor Akihito and fifth in line for the throne, pouring cold water on the whole idea. His views were echoed by the Foreign Minister, who happens to be his brother-in-law. It seems Prince Tomohito's views are seen as reflecting that of the imperial family. Well, being conservative is one thing, but he seems to be harking back to the rather distant past because one of his alternatives (to allowing females to ascend the throne) is to bring back the practice of taking concubines ! I suppose that would increase the chances of male heirs being produced, but I wonder what his wife (and mother of is 2 daughters) thinks of that suggestion. Before we slam the man, though, I suppose we should understand that he is bu

I'm surprised to learn from the Channel NewsAsia report on the Christmas light-up that 'last year's light-up attracted close to 1.6 million visitors to Singapore'. I can't believe that those 1.6 million people came to here just to look at the lights. Okay, this is an old issue but a letter in the ST Forum today, 'Christmas and God of Fortune don't mix' , set me thinking about it. Without actually going into the religious significance of Christmas, the letter writer pointed out that the God of Fortune hat was inappropriate for Christmas celebrations. Well, I just feel it is weird that people are being wooed to come to secular Singapore to 'celebrate' Christmas. Why should they? What are they supposed to be celebrating? My mother used to say that Baby Jesus was in all likelihood shivering in the cold (not to mention His Mother having to endure travelling from Nazareth to Bethlehem on a donkey while heavily pregnant, and finding 'no room at the

Wow, it's tough being a shopaholic without a salary. I must say, though, that I have successfully kept shopping largely to supermarkets and such this year. Not many real sprees this year, except for a few, e.g. the one at Blum . Yesterday, my friend CK and I were supposed to meet at a clothes shop called Cocoon and then go to the museum. We ended up spending the whole afternoon in Cocoon. Ha ha, us girls will be girls, huh? Well, nowadays we non-tai-tais must be on the lookout for freebies , and Cocoon might be a good place to start. If you need clothes, i.e. They have this rack of 1-for-1 dresses, many of which cost $85. Yes, for $85, you get two dresses! We just tried and tried and tried dress after dress after dress. Incidentally, just before this little shopping spree, I had finally started on Sophie Kinsella's The Secret Dreamworld of A Shopaholic . I'm quite enjoying it. A cute, entertaining book, though there are too many parallels with Bridget Jones. More on that s

Now, friends, after many years of being overaged for essay competitions, the time has come once again for you to pick up your pens. Young People's Action Party Women (YPW) is organising this competition - 'Writing our future: Singapore 2020' for women aged 17-40. The idea is to 'first get young women to think about the future Singapore they live in (the future Singapore they will live in? the future of the Singapore they live in?) , and then be encouraged to take action as they see more clearly how they can play a role.' The prize: 'an opportunity to have dialogues with prominent leaders and thinkers such as Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan; women Members of Parliament such as Minister of State for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua and YPW Advisor Irene Ng; distinguished diplomat Tommy Koh; and the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Kishore Mahbubani.' Come on, come on, get down to it. Very shortly, some

The field for the Tennis Masters Cup : Federer, Nadal, Agassi, Coria, Gaudio, Nalbandian and newbies Davydenko and Ljubicic. I know of at least one secondary school tennis team that's going to Shanghai for their piece of the action. Lucky kids. Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick have withdrawn because of injury. On Lleyton's website, it says 'Lleyton will not play again until 2006 due to injury and impending fatherhood.' Anyway, what happened to the ladies? I thought there was a women's masters tournament last year.

Went for our flu vaccine shots today. Weird experience. It was a 'group outing' of sorts -- 6 adults, including 3 foreign domestic helpers, and 5 kids. I mention the 3 non-Singaporean ladies because it all depends on where you are in this world, doesn't it? Many, back in their homeland, might be susceptible to infection by the virus(es) when the pandemic comes but can ill afford the necessary vaccination and medication. But here they are, these 3 ladies, who have, for whatever reason, found themselves working here, and they are fortunate enough to have the jab. I wonder how many employers there are who are getting their domestic helpers vaccinated. According to WHO , the world is ill-prepared for the impending flu pandemic . That is really scary. Then, there is the 'unknown' quality of H5N1 (avian flu virus). Will it or will it not / when will it mutate into a virus that spreads from human to human? Will we develop a vaccine quickly enough to deal with this strain?

It all began with this tree, felled during a mighty pre-dawn storm: When I saw it, I thought to myself: 'Wah, Singapore the wind so strong one, ah?' People were giving me weird 'Never seen uprooted trees before or what?' kind of looks as I snapped pictures of the poor tree. I also noticed these trees across the road were looking rather autumn-ish. Since I was taking these tree pictures, I decided to take other pictures of trees around these parts. And I also remembered this poem, which I learnt as a song in primary school. TREES by Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the sweet earth's flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree. Since the summer, winter a

The bus driver and conductor evacuated the bus and the driver picked up the suspicious-looking bag and flung it away from the bus. He was seriously wounded. But he saved the lives of the passengers. As reported in The Independent . A man picked up a suspicious-looking bag from a pavement and when he saw wires sticking out of it, fled towards a park to get rid of it. He was blown up before he made it to the park. But he saved the lives of many in the crowded marketplace. As reported in today's ST . These guys picked up suspicious-looking articles with their bare hands and saved lives . What would we Singaporeans have done?

Let me do a pseudo intellectual post for a change. I was inspired to read up a bit when I read the report some 3 weeks ago about the sentencing of the 2 men arrested for their online comments. I quote from the ST article (words in green) : Using the 1964 race riots to make a point, he [the judge] said: "Young Singaporeans, like the accused persons before this Court, may have short memories that race and religion are sensitive issues. "They must realise that callous and reckless remarks on racial or religious subjects have the potential to cause social disorder, in whatever medium or forum they are expressed." I am not that young but I don't have much memory of learning/reading about the 1964 race riots, so I decided to look the topic up in the books in my own 'collection' (hee hee, yes, I actually own these books). First, I realise I have lost my copy of Mary Turnbull's History of Singapore ... grrr... where is it? Anyway, I found my Cambridge History o

Just something from the Feb 2005 copy of Reader's Digest before I return it to the library. There is this small section entitled 'Exercise Without Realising' (feel odd about this title - thought one has to realise something ). Here's what it says. We need to take 10,000 steps per day to maintain fitness and some things we normally do are equivalent to a certain number of steps. Examples: (15 minutes of action for each particular activity) standing while watering lawn = 600 steps clearing and washing dishes = 900 steps standing while cooking = 950 steps shopping with trolley / general house cleaning = 1,400 steps spreading soil with shovel = 1,950 Just for comparison: playing frisbee = 1,200 steps playing table tennis = 1,600 steps Guess most of us won't have much a chance to water the lawn or spread soil with shovel, but maybe we can wash our dishes with more gusto to increase the number of 'steps' we are chalking up! (Reader's Digest took this from &#

Single in Singapore You don't know what you're in for Just pray that some day You'll find who you're looking for Who wrote this? Answer: Dick Lee These lyrics are from 'Single in Singapore' from Beauty World . Never in my life would I have thought that one day I would be defending Dick Lee, though I wouldn't really call myself a 'fan' of his. I should think many, many Singaporeans know who he is. I'm one who has had the privilege of watching the man himself perform. That was way back in the mid 80s when my friend pulled me along to a 'lunchtime concert' at NUS. I stood throughout the performance in the crowded LT 13(?) and I was enthralled. He was so talented as a songwriter and, as a performer, so unassuming and boy-next-door, so Singaporean . It was just him and the piano, nothing else, and it was such an entertaining lunch time. Years later, I watched Beauty World (the one with the original cast, including a friend of ours and the hus

Every now and then, we see one of the media companies blowing, and sometimes blasting, its own trumpet about being the best this or best that. Which is all rather silly because we all know that there isn't much, or sometimes any, competition here. Well, today was TODAY's turn to do it in an article 'What keeps this newspaper ticking?' At least they had the 'humility' not to put this on the front page and to give the article a fairly innocuous title. We are told that according to a Nielson Media Research survey (July 2004-June 2005), 1. TODAY is 'the only English daily to gain readership'. The stats: TODAY gained 13,000 'new readers' TNP lost 59,000 readers ST lost 26,000 readers It wasn't written in this article, but somehow, I don't see people 'defecting' in large numbers from ST to TODAY. Well, maybe some people did but some of the 13,000 'new readers' could be people who read BOTH papers, no? Also, TODAY is free ; you

Just found out that the UN celebrates its 60th anniversary today. I've read so many articles about the faults and weaknesses of the UN, and also some about the work it has done. I'm sure these are all over the Net, and elsewhere, for those who are interested. So all I'm going to say is at least some work is being done and no one can deny that the UN has some significant achievements . Anyway, caught this news not in the ST, not on CNA, but on a China (English Language) channel, CCTV International . This channel has excellent programming and documentaries on a whole range of topics. I also hear that even the equipment used by this channel is superior to what is used here... hmmm...

The son's first ever exams will be upon him starting tomorrow. Apart from the 4 days of PSLE marking, we also had the weekend and, because, of all things, the poor boy had a >38 degree fever for about 2 days, we had today as another 'revision day'. Maybe I shouldn't say 'poor boy'. He was not the least bit bothered about the fever or the exams. He would much rather be doing this: (drawing aeroplanes) or this: (listening to my Dick Lee CD!) Even watching birds hopping in the drizzle was better than this: Too bad, boy, you have those exams coming up...

The one that takes the cake today is 'Making a spectacle of yourself' by Sumiko Tan, or, as 'advertised' on the front page of today's Sunday Times , 'Why I don't like to wear glasses'. Did that make you rush to read what she had to say about her glasses? Summary of article: 1. She had 'recurring styes' (always wondered how the plural was spelt) in her eye and had to stop wearing her contact lenses for a bit. 2. She is 'shy about being seen' in spectacles. Some reasons: thick lenses (800 degree myopia), makes her feel like an 'awkward school girl', loves wearing sunglasses of which she has many pairs, glasses are 'a bother when you exercise', vanity, influence of 'pop culture' (e.g. people with glasses usually not portrayed at all or portrayed somewhat negatively in movies etc). 3. Sunglasses 'give me attitude' and are cool. 4. She just made a pair of prescription sunglasses. This is a feature article writte

Today's news article for the day is 'Mothers are born, not maid' by Neil Humphreys. His is the latest reaction to a letter in TODAY from a young(?) mum who complained about how some restaurants didn't have baby chairs or booster seats and she and her husband had to take turns carrying the kid (or kids, I can't remember) since they had no maid. This cause them enough inconvenience while dining out for her to write to the press to complain. I remember a couple of other letters in response to this. This guy wrote that Singaporeans were too spoilt and were always expecting too much. Then this lady wrote to say that she also faced the same problems but get real, her message was, just don't go to these outlets if you find them a problem. Humphreys noted the part about them having no maid to carry the kid and therefore, not being able to enjoy their meals out, and wrote about how his sister takes care of her 3 young children on her own. First, I must confess that I did

Yesterday was Hospital Day again. So there we were, expecting to see my dad's usual doctor but we were told he was held up in surgery and, what do you know, there's this young female doctor standing in for him. Said young female doctor was very attractive and also very professional and thorough. Beauty with brains and good clinic manners too. Then, while hanging out at the hospital food court, I saw this rather amusing incident. Young male doctor goes up to dustbin with newspaper in hand. Folds newspaper into four (roughly A4 size) and tries to throw into dustbin. Misses. Aiyoh, throw newspaper also can miss one ! Newspapers (ST) are quite big, right? Even when you fold them into four, right? And dustbins are also quite big, right? Anyway, I wasn't the only who noticed. This rather elderly cleaner came up to the said dustbin with a smirk on her face and with a tap of the fingers propelled the said newspaper into the bin. Okay, okay, I shouldn't be so mean to the doctor

Since some of us were discussing the Beckhams not so long ago. Mr & Mrs David Beckham are back in the spotlight again. They have sued a Brit tabloid News of the World for an article that appeared last year. The article, entitled 'Posh and Becks on Rocks' insituated that they weren't really the happy couple they would have us believe they are and, to quote, that they 'cynically and hypocritically' gave the impression that they were happily married 'in order to protect their commercial interests'. So the couple will now have to go to court to prove that they are indeed one happy couple and they are not just putting up a 'cynical' and 'hypocritical' show to 'protect their commercial interests'. My first reaction was: Wah, this type of court case also got ah? Now, let me state that no one but the Beckhams themselves know what kind of marriage they have so I'm not going to comment on that. But I just wonder how any couple is expec

4 PSLE marking days starting tomorrow. Poor primary school teachers. First, they have to mark hordes of PSLE scripts, then they get back to school to mark their internal exam papers. That means the boy will be home all day the next four days. He is mightily pleased about not having to go to school for 4 days and does not appear to feel one bit of 'exam stress' although I have reminded him several times that he will be doing 'exam practice' over these four days. His school is on the SEED (Strategies for Effective and Engaging Development) programme for P1 and if you just look at the pictures here (from another school) you will see why the children might still be living in the playground in their mind (or a real one, if they get their way) although the exams are round the corner. One parent I met recently commented that their classroom looks like a kindergarten classroom. I have no quarrel with that, actually, as I don't see anything wrong with making the classroom l

My vote for Ms ELEGANT Asia would go to Maggie Cheung, who happens to be on the cover of the November issue of the Singapore Women's Weekly. Always wondered why issues come out some half a month before the actual month it's supposed to be for. Anyway, have bought a copy of it as am suffering from serious withdrawal symptoms after subscriptions to Elle (Singapore) and Shape (Singapore), started when still working, ran out earlier this year. Life is definitely not the same without the usual heavy dose of ' trash ', as some of us call it. Trash is an excellent stress buster for working women. I suppose I don't need it so much now. Other favourites (non-Singapore issues) which I have stopped buying: InStyle , Shape , Elle and Marie Claire . Happily, they are not only available online but also in some NLB branches. On the theme of ORIGINALITY , I am still wondering, as I did with my last post, how original one's 'work' is if it's based in some way on s

Currently trying to read: The book is Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro . I thought of VB because she said she's never read a book before but she enjoys fashion mags, so this might be a good first novel for her. Actually, I can't believe that as a Brit she never read any Enid Blyton or Barbara Cartland, etc. I must confess that I chose this book because of its cover. Very Audrey Hepburn-ish. The protagonist is Louise, an American actress wannabe who works in a theatre box office. At the start of the tale, she's married to a Brit actor. Later, they split, it turns out he is, in his heart of hearts, a gay, she moves in with her gay colleague and this fashionable lady, meets a couple of other guys, etc etc... All the usual suspects. What's different about this book is the form, or whatever it's called in the literary world. The story revolves around another book, Elegance, an A-Z of Style by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux . In the story, Louise picks this book up from a seco

More fascinating stuff, as reported in TODAY . The Merc driver who had parked illegally at Empress Place to join in the rush for the free (no admission charge) last 24 hours of the Vatican exhibition at the ACM, and caused a tailback of some 30 or so vehicles that could not move till he came back to his car, had this to say about himself: 1. 'I certainly wouldn't mind a heavier punishment ($70 fine)...' 2. 'Never did I imagine a big bus... would pass by. (Excuse me, big bus or no big bus, illegal parking is illegal parking) In that hour or so, I had no hint at all of the trouble I'd caused by parking the car there. There was also no announcement over the public announcement system.' (I see, park illegally till you hear announcement, 'Will the owner of...') 3. 'You know, I hate inconveniencing people, I hate causing others trouble.' 4. 'I do hope that the authorities can consider drawing a zig-zag yellow line or make special marking at that

Fascinating forum letter today, 'Why didn't the authorities detect racist remarks?' This is a reaction to the sentencing of the two 'racist bloggers'. 'Racist bloggers' in inverted commas because, as has been pointed out by many a blogger, only ONE put his comments in a blog; the other had them in an online forum. The sub-heading for letters on the subject still says 'racist bloggers'. Fascinating point 1: Woman who reported racist bloggers is a 'brave, concerned citizen. We need more people like her.' Yes, sure, she is brave and concerned but I'm not sure if we want to encourage people to report on each other. Sounds like a spying-on-your-neighbour, reporting-your-brothers-and-sisters kind of idea. Fascinating point 2: 3 paras of the letter were about the dog in the taxi. The writer made the points that the 'whole outrageous saga' began because of the dog in the taxi and since pets aren't allowed on public transport, 'w

After hearing (and reading in Urban ) quite a bit about the standard of service at the LV shop at Takashimaya, we decided to conduct our own experiment. So in we went, with son in tow, togged in our 'normal' clothes -- not too dressed up, not too dressed down. As it was a Sunday, the shop was actually rather crowded -- there were more shoppers than sales personnel. So of course no one came up to us and we had the freedom to roam around looking at the stuff. We then decided to ask for some service since none was forthcoming, what with all the people crowding round the counters looking at catalogues. We found someone who was finally free and asked if they had spectacle cases. Actually, we had no idea if they made spectacle cases but we just wanted to ask something. Well, they did have one in the shop. It turned out to be not so exciting looking, a pouch, without a cover, flap or anything, for you to slip your spectacles in. And it cost nearly $300!! How nice it must be to have $3

Today was John Lennon's birthday. Gold 90.5 has been paying tribute to Lennon today, and there is also Neil Humphreys' article in TODAY. Am not really a Beatles or Lennon fan but I do like some of the songs. I remember my piano teacher said that pop music was like what the Beatles wrote and sang -- repetitive catchy tunes and repetitive and not necessarily meaningful words, like 'She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!' Nothing like what Beethoven or Haydn would have written was what she meant, that it took considerably less musical skill to write pop music. Ah well, different musical eras, different audiences, different perspectives , I think. A couple of my Lennon favourites: Woman , which has pretty cheesey lyrics but I still like it. Woman, I know you understand The little child inside the man... And, of course, Imagine , which puts Lennon right up there as one of the greats of the 20th century. Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A broth

This day 10 years ago, this flower decoration (ignore Snoopy on right side of picture), one of several made by my friend WY for the occasion, hung on the pew of Blessed Sacrament Church for our wedding. 10 years on, it still sits in our bookshelf. Congratulations to us on our 10th wedding anniversary... hee hee... 7 things we didn't think of then but have happened over these 10 years: 1. I'm using the husband's wedding band, and he obviously can't fit into either of ours. Waistlines have also expanded all round . 2. We have become so sleep deprived. 3. We would 'celebrate' our 10th anniversary (at The Line) with the son tagging along. 4. Our child does not go to school at either of our alma maters. 5. The son is actually thinking rather seriously about marriage. He has changed his mind a few times about whether he wants to get married. Think he looks upon some of his classmates rather differently now after he asked, 'How do you get a wife or husband?' a

This is becoming an annual affair. Last year it was the Science paper, I believe. TODAY reported that the some students couldn't finish the Math paper, some questions were unclear, and there were non-standard questions. However, a Math teacher who invigilated the exam felt that the paper was alright, though it did contain some non-standard questions, and she didn't see anyone crying at the end of the paper. Some questions I have: 1. Is it the norm these days to include some non-standard questions in the papers? 2. If it is the norm, are schools given adequate information, e.g. if it is indeed the intention of the setters to include some of such questions, the nature of these questions (e.g. application-type, 'IQ-type', as the teacher quoted called them, etc), what percentage of the paper would be given to such questions, etc? 3. If schools do indeed have this information, do they adequately prepare the children for a paper like that? 4. Are parents (and private tutors)

Oh my word, just saw on the news that Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise are expecting a baby... Okay, now the Queen's Baton Relay . Was privileged to witness, from a not-so-great angle, the Queen's Baton passing through Singapore on its way to the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games . Just checked the official site and they haven't uploaded the Singapore pictures yet, so these are early pictures. The Baton arrives. Here it goes. And off it goes from ACS(I) to UWC. It has been said that the Games are but a regular reminder to all in the Commonwealth of their not-entirely-rosy colonial past and that we still haven't shaken off the shackles of subservience. Oh well...

Usually walk the son to school but this morning was one morning when I decided that it was better to be late than wet. (Late because although we are about a minute's drive from the school, the minute sometimes becomes 15-20 in the mornings) If one were to just stand near a school in the morning and watch, one would see all manner of bad driving habits and manners. Rainy days just mean slower traffic, more cars, and more instances of bad driving habits and manners. Drivers who refuse to give way to others, even to public buses moving out of the bus bay, drivers who unreasonably 'insist' on being given way to, drivers who use the bus bay and/or yellow box to overtake other cars, drivers u-turning where they shouldn't, drivers who drop their children off before the designated drop-off points and hold up traffic, drivers who have blatant disregard for the traffic wardens (very dangerous 'voluntary service', I must say -- you are in danger of being mowed down by some

Some of today's headlines: Suicide bombers likely behind Bali blasts: Susilo ( The Jakarta Post ) Bali bombed again ( The New Straits Times ) A chronology of recent bomb attacks in Indonesia (Agence France-Presse report in The Inquirer ) Explosions rock on Indonesia's Bali island ( People's Daily ) Bali bombs 'were suicide attacks' ( BBC News ) Why, oh why?