my ajumma notes

I won't be caring about serials and the like for a while because tomorrow, the Davis Cup final starts and so does the action in Doha . Will be offline for a couple of weeks or so. Should be back on the blog around Christmas. Meanwhile, don't forget to support Team Singapore ! Oh, and don't forget also, the National Museum of Singapore opens this weekend!

Looks like we didn't have to wait long for another one to add to the list of reasons why Singaporeans aren't having more children. This letter appeared on Monday in TODAY. A short excerpt: I am wondering if the higher GST will discourage people from producing babies? ... Could the Government consider waiving the GST for products and services that are related to babies? Whatever next? (By the way, I've nothing to say about the other letter that somehow got merged with this GST one.)

Recently finished watching (started watching only from somewhere in the later half of the stories) two clever stories with unlikely endings. Clever story #1: Goong/Princess Hours Clever interplay of a fictitious present-day Korean royal family and high school romance. I think the modern royal family idea is a novel one. I don't recall any TVB, Japanese or TCS drama using this idea. I really like the palace setting. What also worked well was the pairing of the Snow Prince (the Snow Queen-like Crown Prince) and the cute girl, both roles played by newbies in the acting scene. Unlikely ending: The Crown Prince and cute girl marry for the second time (why did they have to when they didn't even divorce?) in a Catholic church (in all likelihood, though I don't remember any mention of religion, the couple wasn't Catholic)! Also, the unfortunate cousin-prince became so 'poor thing' when he lost everything that could have been his and his mother 'conveniently' h

I guess you would have read 'Littering is no big deal, say many' in today's ST by now. The simple word 'disgusting' describes some people's attitudes. Check these out: U 'Somtimes, I accidentally throw litter on the ground.' (Got such thing as 'accidentally litter' meh?) U 'If I leave small things like tissue on the table, I don't consider it littering because cleaners will clear it anyway.' U 'I am more likely to litter when people are not looking at me.' U '... others blamed the lack of rubbish bins.' (as a reason for littering) Then, there is that toilet story which I will not repeat here. Are these people living on a different planet or what?? One thing that is clear is that it's not the fault of schools. I'm sure all schools frown upon littering and expect people to clear canteen tables, etc. And if it's not the fault of schools, guess whose fault it is... (clue: not the government's either) S

No need to pay 50 cents or go to any void deck, just click here to vote for the new 7 wonders of the world. Actually, when I looked at the list of candidates, it seemed to me like it was a case of (some) giants versus (some) dwarfs. Anyhow, just 'play your part in making history' if you are interested. Wonder why Borobudur didn't make it to the list.

Of all the reasons put forward to explain why Singaporeans are not having more children, I don't think I've come across one that beats this . The letter writer feels that HDB and private apartments are too small for people to have more children. Although the argument does concede that '... the size of an apartment is not the main reason for couples not having more children, but I am quite sure it plays a part', the point of the letter is that the apartments are too small and therefore they restrict the size of the family. I know that HDB flats today are smaller than those built, say, 20 years ago. As pointed out in the letter, people do decide to sell their smaller, newer flats and buy older, bigger ones. I'm sure it's a big hassle doing so, and then there are also financial and other considerations, but those aside, what's wrong with staying in an older but bigger flat? And as for the argument that siblings who share bedrooms get on each other's nerves

When you hear children asking to play with the computer at a house warming party, you know for sure that the sands of time have really left life-as-we-knew-it-in-our-childhood-days awash. Even if there had been computer games in those days, I don't think most of us would have dared to open our mouths to ask! I suppose the older you get, the more acutely you are aware of the sands and hands of time. I don't think I've ever wished for them to slow down (futile anyway!) but there have been many times in my life when I wished that I had used time better. I wonder what I would be wishing when I look back at today in, say, 5 or 10 years' time. Would I wish that I hadn't left the working world? Would I wish that I had chosen instead to work towards promotions and take on higher appointments? I hope not. Just last week, I bumped into 2 people from my past. First, I ran into a former colleague and she said, 'You look just like how you did before you got married!' Lat

Guess some of you would have read the article in yesterday's ST: '24 strokes: Unusual but not surprising', about this 16-year-old boy who was sentenced to 5 years' jail and 24 strokes of the cane for armed (knife) robbery. The boy has a litany of crimes to his name and has been running afoul of the law since he was 10 or so. According to the article, he was deemed 'unsuitable for reformative training' (i.e. sentenced to RTC, which his partners in crime were) and the judge had 'no choice but to give him at least the minimum sentence' (5 years + 12 strokes). How was it concluded that he was 'unsuitable' for RTC. A report by the prison psychiatrist said he was '"intellectually dull" and therefore unlikely to be able to follow the programme'. Why? Is the programme so complicated? Can't it be modified to cater to people of different intellectual abilities? Interestingly, the psychiatrist said the boy 'was capable of distingui

I'm looking forward to A Good Year . Read the book sometime last year, I think, and enjoyed it very much, though A Year in Provence remains the best of Peter Mayle . If you like this kind of Englishman-in-idyllic-French-countryside kind of tale, gastronomic-adventures-in-the-south-of-France, etc, read his books! I haven't read all of them but the Provence ones are good, including A Dog's Life , which is the Provence story from his dog's point of view. Russell Crowe should be interesting as Max. I read that this is his first humorous role. Well, I wouldn't know. I hardly watch movies and I don't follow Crowe's career. So, I really hope I will be able to catch the film, with the exams out of the way and term coming to an end. There must be some time somewhere to watch this!! I think the last time I was at the cinema was for Pooh's Heffalump Movie. I'm trying very hard to recall what I've watched since then but I can't remember anything except

A report in today's ST entitled 'Guess who has the most sex?' reports the findings of the 'first comprehensive global (59 countries) study of sexual behaviour.' The 'surprise findings': 1. 'Married people have most sex.' 2. 'People aren't losing their virginity at ever younger ages. Mid- to late teens is when both sees become sexually active.' 3. 'No firm link between promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases.' I will not bother to say much about findings #1 and #2 except that, depending on how you look at them , you might or might not be surprised. However, I do find the reasoning for #3 - no firm link between promiscuity and STDs - rather weird. This Professor who was involved in the study said that: 'they had expected to find the most promiscuous behaviour in regions like Africa with the highest rates of STDs. That was not the case, as multiple partners were more commonly reported in industrialised countries where t