my ajumma notes

It's Children's Day tomorrow and the bad news for primary school kids (and teachers) is they 'miss' a holiday since it's a Saturday. The last couple of days or so have thrown up other rather 'bad' news wrt children. There was that paedophile who molested his neighbours' daughter for years. Then, there was the 13-year-old missing girl who turned out to be not really missing but at her friend's house for 3 days. Hot on the heels of the 8-year-old girl who was also 'missing' for 2 days but actually at her friend's house. Being a parent can really be scary. There is so much that can happen to your child even though you live in 'safe and secure' Singapore. It must be so heartbreaking when these things actually happen to your child. What I want to know is, what were those parents of the friends of the 2 missing girls thinking of? Why didn't they inform the parents or make the girls call home? As parents, didn't they put themsel...

First, I don't know why but the 'date language' for my posts was set at Spanish (Bolivia) . I'm sure it was set at English (United Kingdom) when I started. I've decided to change it to Italian (Italy) just for the fun of it. Second, every other blog I read today (not that many) commented on the article in ST yesterday, 'Porn? No, blogs bug me more'. The journalist says he has come to the conclusion that blogs are worse than Internet porn!! There are people in the local blogging community who believe that the media has an 'agenda' against bloggers... (play scary music here...) ... conspiracy theories... So many people have said so many things about that article, so I'm not going to focus on that for this post, though I was tempted to... Encountered star service at KFC at IMM today. I ordered a shrooms burger and was told I had to wait for 5 minutes or so for it. So I was standing there waiting for the burger and suddenly, the lady at the counte...

Well, well, first it was the racist bloggers, now it's the flaming students. Who next? Teachers?? As can be expected, the blogging community is abuzz with comments on the matter. Read all you want about what they say at Tomorrow.sg . There's quite a lot there and I'm too tired to read all of them. Just trying to put myself into the mind of a teenage blogger blogging about his/her life. School is a huge part of students' lives so I guess it's natural to blog about teachers. Who among us has never complained about teachers? Which teacher has never complained about students? Which principal, vice-principal or head of department has never complained about teachers? etc etc... It is normal to complain and, yes, even to bitch about others, though, of course, 'normal' isn't neccesarily 'right'. Since some of these youngsters obviously do not understand the implications of online comments, someone should do them the favour of explaining the whole works ...

I'm a person who takes the public bus maybe about 10 times or so in a year, so what are the chances of me meeting a bus inspector? Very low, right? And how many would I meet today? Not one, but THREE! After sending the car in for servicing, got on the bus and lo and behold, there were TWO on that bus. After a bit, they got off and at the next bus stop, lo and behold again, there was yet another bus inspector. He didn't get on but he was standing there peering at the upstairs of the bus in this really disgruntled fashion. What was he looking for? They must be taking this fare cheat thing very seriously.

In today's ST: Cancer specialists from some other Asian countries are hoping S'pore will take the lead in pushing for a 'total ban on tobacco'. According to the director of our National Cancer Centre, there are 3 reasons why S'pore is their choice of leader: 1. 'Our ministers emphasise health and disease prevention' (yes, okay)' 2. '... at 13%, S'pore has the lowest incidence of tobacco usage' (as compared to the other countries; okay too) 3. '... we had a total ban on the import and sale of chewing gum ' (??) Err... how is chewing gum like tobacco? Read the CNA article on that story. Sorry, can't link to ST. I refuse to pay for subscription to ST Interactive. It's on page 4 of the 'Prime' section.

Renee Zellweger , who did a fantastic job of the British accent in the two Bridget Jones movies, has filed for annulment of her 4-month-old marriage on the grounds of FRAUD . That accent thing is quite a remarkable talent, by the way, if you just listen to the many Singaporeans who put on unconvincing and horrific American, British, Australian and other cannot-be-identified accents. Remember the radio deejay who said she spoke with an 'accent' because as a deejay, she has to enunciate clearly. And the TCS actress who said she got her 'accent' after hanging out with her UWC friends. Ha ha ha ha ... I also know of this person who went to Australia to study, then got Australian accent, then went to America to study, then got American accent. Wah, what is this, man?? Stay true to your roots, I say (put on British accent here) . Back to RZ, this is the first time I have heard of this FRAUD idea. Is it an American thing? If I'm not wrong, it means that you were deceived...

I am hooked on this 2004 TVB serial. The English title is really too mundane - War and Beauty . Wish they had come up with something more poetic. Chinese title - K um Ji Yuk Yip or Jin Zhi Yu Nie , badly translated as 'golden branch, evil ambitions' or something like that. Apparently the Chinese title is a play on a Chinese phrase, which I have no clue about. The show is a 30-parter about palace intrigue. The Emperor, a rather forgettable character in this story, has got all these beauties in the palace who are filled with ambition and are catfighting their way to the top. By episode 9, we have had concubines forced to die, palace maids forced to die, concubine wannabes sabo-ing each other, getting exiled, going mad , etc etc... War and Beauty beats Jewel in the Palace , the Korean 70-parter, hands down. Jewel in the Palace is also about palace intrigue but my, the pace is just slightly faster than a snail's. And there are also all these herbal concoction scenes (Imperi...

Have spent quite a bit of time in the last 3 months in various hospitals, visiting or accompanying my dad for his appointments. I'm now rather familiar with the different food courts, Polar Cafes, pharmacies, drop-off points, car parks etc. Spending so much time hanging out at hospital food courts and waiting areas, I realise that many young female doctors are really good-looking. On top of that, they are also well-groomed and well-dressed. Some people just have everything, don't they? Brains and looks. Okay, that's not everything but it's quite a lot. And it's much more than I can say for the young male doctors who tend to look either very bookish or old. Back to the young female doctors, how do they manage to look so fresh? Thought they work very long hours. I'm sure I look half dead after 2 or 3 hours there, and I'm neither doctor nor patient. It's really tiring just waiting around here and there. I have also concluded that the doctors with the best b...

This dengue thing is really worrying, what with the number of cases just going up and up, and people falling prey to it while they are just minding their own business. I think many of them were not personally responsible for breeding any Aedes mosquitoes but just happened to get bitten. That is really scary... This brings me to my question about lizards. I always thought that lizards existed to eat up mosquitoes but those pesky things do not seem to make any impact on the Aedes population. EVERY house/building I know of in Singapore has got more than a fair share of lizards and yet, they are not doing their job. They even live and breed out in the open, in vacant houses, etc, where the Aedes do as well, and we apparently still have MORE of those mosquitoes. Why aren't they eating the Aedes mosquito? Do lizards prefer certain breeds of mosquitoes to others? Boy, how I hate them (lizards). I'm one of those 'crazy' people who actually buy lizard traps. Simple contraption...

Lleyton's comment: "I couldn' let a bloke wearing a shirt like that beat me". Ha ha ha... wonder who the next fashion king will be... As for Lleyton, he has become rather bratty of late and doesn't deserve my 'sympathy' support anymore, even if he's going to get creamed by Roger Federer again. Well, I'm sure he gets enough support from his adoring fans and doesn't need mine. He is also especially annoying with his fist pumps and 'Come on!' whenever his opponents lose a point. I notice, though, that he doesn't do it very much when he plays against Federer... hmmm... An especially unsportsmanlike incident was during this year's Australian Open when he got the crowd to clap and cheer when David Nalbandian lost a point .

Here is Thongchai: Old picture. These days he has longer hair and doesn't look so good. Dominik Hrbaty's outfit at the US Open. He seems to be one of the nice guys on the circuit but his shirt is just the worst. Front view: PINK shirt?? Back view: ?????? Now, how good his compatriot Daniela Hantuchova looks most of the time, and in proper tennis outfits too. This is not a US Open picture. She wore some really lovely yellow outfits for that. Some hilarious as well as duh quotes from the US Open here: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articles/2005-09-06/200509061126030174215.html

I'm sure I'm the only person interested in this but I'll write about it anyway. I'm having an excellent time listening to my two new Thongchai McIntyre double CDs. Yes! 77 of his wonderful songs!! Just watched part of the exciting Agassi-Blake match. Turned on the TV at the 3rd set, ate my lunch, read bits of the papers and cleared half a wardrobe of clothes, and they were still at it!! I believe the match ended at 1-something am New York time. Poor Blake, to have nearly won, then to have had to go to 5 sets, and then to lose. I wonder if that's what happened to Coria too. Didn't watch his match. What a pity. I think Coria is a great player but he just can't do it under pressure. Will probably miss Maria Sharapova-Kim Clijsters. That should be quite a match. For Kim's sake, I hope she wins. She has tried so hard all these years. Unfortunately, she also has that not-performing-at-the-crucial-moment streak. This is what Venus Williams said about Kim afte...

Celebrated my mum's 70th birthday last weekend. It was a small and cosy 'party', just us and our families and her siblings and their families. My mum has certainly led a 'full' life these 70 years, been there, done that, etc. She lived through the war and went to school only at 10 when the war was over. She was a nurse, then a teacher but spent most of her adult life as a housewife, saddled with us. She didn't get much of a break from being saddled with kids because by the time the last of us got married, she was already grandmother of 4 (now 6). She used to take the bus daily across the island for months on end to help care for my nephew when he was a baby. When I gave birth, she did that for the first two or three months for me too. She still comes over at least once a week to my place, and the rest of the week, she's just going round to help with the others. There is nothing one can say or do that will adequately thank one's mum for going through rain...

My posts are coming fast and furious, man! Compared to the poor record from April to July. But I just have to record my outrage about 4 pieces of news. Hurricane Katrina I can't believe that this kind of thing is happening in the USA, in this time and age. People are dying, corpses are rotting, there's not enough food and clean water and then there are armed people looting, assaulting others, shooting at police and helicopters bearing relief supplies!! What's with these people?? Anyway, on a slightly related topic, the increase in petrol prices is really no joke. Pumped a 'full tank' yesterday for a whopping $77!! Don't remember ever having paid so much for a full tank. Unleaded 92 some more. The white elephants of Buangkok MRT Station Another unbelievable development. Someone actually complained about those white elephants and now police are investigating!! I hope they don't catch the 'culprit'. People should just lighten up, lah. What was wrong wi...

Read in the papers the other day that a survey on reading habits showed that 6 out of 10 Singaporeans did not read a single book in 2002. I'm sure I must have been one of those 6 who went through a whole year without completing a book. Very much the story of my working life. Thankfully, I am now able to read a lot more, though not as much as I would like to. But I do have a lot of housework and other stuff to do. Moral of the story: Stop work if you want to read more; do less work if you can't stop work so you can read more. Time for another complaint. Most primary schools that I know of have 'Silent Reading' at the start of the school day, before the actual morning (or afternoon) assembly. For this, the son has to be in school, seated and reading a book, by 7.10am. Now, it is not that bad for us because we are less than a 10-minute walk away from the school but imagine what time the kids who take the school or public bus have to get up. Just so that they can have a sil...