my ajumma notes

Ha, I've found someone who is more of a Christmas Eve party pooper than myself. From today's Straits Times: 'I think I've fallen out of love with shopping' Is mindless consumerism all there is to being a Singaporean? I hope not By Tessa Wong 'TIS not the season to be thrifty, and these past few weekends, I have been joining my fellow Singaporeans in the annual ritual of Christmas shopping on Orchard Road. But while most are savouring the headlong plunge into this festive orgy of consumerism, I have been feeling repulsed by its excesses. Worse, I think I have fallen out of love with our national hobby. I am not sure how it happened. After all, I have always been a steadfast sucker for Orchard Road at Christmas, and not just because of the traditional season for great bargains. Something about its bright lights, rain-slicked streets, and tinselled glamour had always entranced me. I had always found the bustle of the crowd romantic and convivial, even while getting...

Back around Christmas. In the meantime, don't forget to support Team Singapore ! Ain't he cute?

So... I've finished watching Surgeon Bong Dal-hee and I'm glad I decided to watch it. Maybe I shouldn't write off 'serious' shows in future. Warning: Spoilers ahead! One strength of some (and I stress: some ) K drama serials is the characterisation. Even the secondary characters in Surgeon have distinct personalities and aren't just wallpaper or stereotypical sidekicks. Of course, good characterisation must come with good acting and on the whole the actors did bring their characters to life well. There were these two 'Chief Doctors' (seniors of the 1st-year residents) for example. This guy Dr Jang (left) looked like he walked straight out of a Taiwanese serial, ha ha. Most of the time, he doesn't really get all that much to do besides acting grovelly with his Director and asking, 'What?!' whenever something shocking happens. Nevertheless, he is quite distinctly different from the others. This other Chief Doctor (right) is Dr Kim Hyun Bin,...

For all my bemoaning of local entertainment standards, I have to admit that there are talented individuals. Maybe the problem is that our market is too small and so cannot give enough impetus to the blossoming of talents here. I watched an episode of S-Pop Hurray on Channel U in which Lee Wei Song and Lee Si Song were guests. I didn't realise that their prolific songwriting has won them so many awards abroad and that their impressive clientele includes even Jacky Cheung. Well done!! On that particular episode, some songs from old drama serials were also featured and now I'm wondering if I should watch that 25th anniversary thing after all...

Speaking of local drama serials, I happened to watch a bit of this one about doctors (seems like every other time I turn to Channel 8 there's a re-run of some old serial!) and I suddenly remembered that when I watched Rude Women , I thought the lead actress resembled Xiang Yun (who was in the doctor serial). Mi Joo, played by Yoo Ho-jeong

Fancy that, 25 years of local Chinese drama. I sent this article to A, who lives in SF, and she commented that she hadn't heard or thought about names like Friday Background or Chen Hanwei for a long time, ha ha. I believe we can still vote for our favourite local dramas. I won't be voting or watching the 25th anniversary show but I must name my favourite shows here. I didn't watch all the shows that are nominated so I'll just choose my top 3: Coffee Shop Tofu Street Good Morning, Sir ( The Awakening is iconic but not top on my list) Bottom 2: Golden Pillow As You Like It (Goodness, how did they get nominated??) Anyway, X-tongfang and I were recently discussing the slow progress in local drama standards. 25 years already, leh, and still like that... Also read that Prince Yul will be one of the presenters at the Star Awards . Does he speak Mandarin? Or English? (picture from here )

Watching Surgeon Bong Dal-he e inadvertently made me reminisce about work. Warning: spoilers ahead! Mentors (the head surgeons) 2 contrasting mentoring styles. Dr Lee (in background) is friendly, kind and understanding, though he did tell the Chief Doctor and Dal-Hee off after the incident when the Chief Doc fell asleep and Dal-Hee carried out the surgery on her own. Dr Ahn (in spectacles ) is the 'suffers no fools' mentor who won't hesitate to call the first years 'moron' or 'stonehead' (that's what it says in the subtitles!) because in his brilliant mind, they are morons and stoneheads for all the mistakes they make. Hence he is both respected and feared. I have known both types of mentors. I never thought about this before but it's actually the latter type who have made more of an impression on me. I have worked under/with a couple of extremely sharp and quick brains (not mine, obviously, ha ha). They were not meanies but they did not hesitate ...

May they rest in peace, and may their families, team-mates and friends find closure and healing. (picture from CNA )

Ha! Have you all read this article (ST today)? ' Jump in locals enrolling in international schools here' Here are excerpts: There has been a nearly fivefold increase in the number of Singaporean students in international schools here since 2002. The Ministry of Education (MOE) said 975 Singaporeans are currently enrolled in some of the 40 international schools here, a big jump from the reported figure of 200 five years ago. Their parents pay as much as $2,000 a month. This growing number does not include Singaporeans attending the international arm of three local schools - Anglo-Chinese School (International), Hwa Chong International and St Joseph's Institution (SJI) International. The attraction of the international schools, which cater mainly to children of expatriates, includes smaller class sizes, the broad-based International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, less emphasis on examinations and wider choice of second-language subjects. Some parents whose children have speci...

A letter in today's TODAY: 'A person who is unfamiliar with Singapore's education system and who reads the Weekend Xtra feature by Noelle De Jesus would think that the system is a total failure. The reader might think it is a rigid and autocratic system, and that it is capable of producing only mediocre students. The fact is that the system is held in high regard even by countries such as the United States, which is adopting some of the Singapore syllabuses. The writer should have done her research. She complained about the high 40-to-1 student-teacher ratio — but this is because she has sent her children to popular schools for which places were filled through balloting. My son enjoys a healthy 30-to-1 ratio in his neighbourhood school. The fact that her children cannot cope with the system implies neither that the system is a failure nor that her children are incompetent. She has experienced the system for only two years, while many generations of Singaporeans have gone th...

Parents' minds, naturally, are full of memories of the many milestones our children pass through. I remember a friend telling me that when both her sons were toilet trained, she felt she could finally move on with life. They were already in primary school at the time, but she still remembered. Perhaps some of us more sentimental sorts will even remember the first glimpse of our babies on the ultrasound screen, the first time the kid slept through the night, the first PSLE paper, etc. We have just come to another milestone. Over the weekend, the boy had his First Holy Communion , which, for Catholics, is a major, mega rite of passage. Sometimes, I find it hard to believe that he is already so 'old'. It seems like it wasn't so long ago when he was still drinking from his milk bottle in church. But now, he can share in partaking the Bread of Life. It's kind of hard to explain the full significance of this to 9-year-olds, but they do look rather pleased about the whole ...

Warning: spoilers ahead!! I'm no medical drama or 'human drama' fan as my taste is far more frivolous. Hence, I was never into ER , I've never watched Grey's Anatomy and I don't really like Healing Hands (all 3 installments). So, I've surprised myself by getting hooked on Surgeon Bong Dal-Hee , currently about halfway through on Channel 55. Now, that very... err... 'creative' title provided no attraction whatsoever but it just happened that there was nothing to watch at a particular time and I turned to Channel 55... The serial is far superior to Healing Hands because there are many more hospital scenes and lots more about patients, and the doctors at work. Of course, if you just have the hospital stuff, you might as well produce a 'medical staff training video' or something, so there are the doctors' personal lives as well. I like how this aspect is integrated into the whole hospital theme, unlike how the personal lives take centr...

He did it again! David Nalbandian's performance in the last couple of weeks has really been phenomenal and so he deserves another post. Am I glad I happened to catch most of his recent matches. I've been waiting to see something new in tennis for so long. I'll bet he still can't believe he scalped Nadal 6-0 in the second set of the Paris final . I mean, who can get 6-0 off Nadal? With that, he became the first guy to beat both Federer and Nadal in back to back tournaments ever since the two became world #1 and #2. So, at year end, Nalbandian finishes as world #9, with the top 8 going on to Shanghai for the Masters Cup. His current head-to-head with those 8 guys: Federer (8-8) Nadal (2-0) Djokovic (1-1) Davydenko (6-3) Ferrer (3-6, interestingly...) Roddick (2-3) Gonzalez (5-3) Gasquet (5-0) (Stats from this site ) Very impressive results, indeed...

A heartening letter in yesterday's (30 October) Forum: 'Hopeless case' now manager in top bank I was delighted to read the Saturday special report, 'No dead end' (ST, Oct 27), on the Institute of Technical Education (ITE). When I was an ITE student, I used to curse and swear when I went to school in the awful ITE uniform, ever conscious that I would be seen as a 'hopeless case'. Today, I am a manager in one of the world's top financial institutions. Apart from all that was written in the papers, I would like to share with readers how ITE gave its students many opportunities to develop their leadership skills and confidence, opportunities not available in secondary school or polytechnic. It developed in students academic and soft skills needed in the working world. ITE had workshops on public speaking that gave me the opportunity to speak and built up my confidence. I also had the chance to be the emcee for some award ceremony when I would probably have b...

Anyone who can beat Federer is a hero of sorts. He has lost only 7 matches this year. It was such a change to see him the one scrambling, looking worried, committing forced and unforced errors, etc. Congratulations to Nalbandian on doing a Djokovic , i.e., beating the world numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the same tournament. The poor guy has been on the downward curve for such a long time. About 2 years, if I'm not wrong. And I must admit that I had practically written him off. I can just imagine Roddick and Hewitt now scratching their heads and wondering how these 2 guys managed to beat Federer. Well, hopefully this livens up the party somewhat. Federer, Nadal, Federer, Nadal... that was getting really boring. Anyway, over all these years, I've had the impression that Nalbandian was on the bulky, hulking side. It was only last week that I realised he is actually one of the smaller players. He looked half of Federer's size, which makes him maybe one-third Nadal's size, and he i...

I did something unprecedented last weekend. I watched the Shanghai Formula One race. Like any other kaypoh, I'm intrigued by scandals of all types. The whole year I've been seeing news about Alonso and Hamilton so since I happened to turn the TV on sometime during the live telecast of the race, I decided to see if Hamilton would indeed turn out to be world champion. As it turned out, that was about the time Hamilton and his car ended up in the gravel . So... there's the next race next weekend somewhere in Brazil. Don't know if I'll watch it. Watching Formula One is potentially heart attack-inducing. And anyway, watching fast cars going round 56 laps isn't really my kind of thing. Arguably, though, the biggest news in sports recently must be the Marion Jones business . What can I say? Basically, I'm suspicious of anybody and everybody, athlete or official. Also this week, Andy Murray is the latest guy who talks about tennis match-fixing , plus, a Chinese ch...

Initially, I didn't want to comment on the now infamous PSLE Math paper because I didn't want to be a broken record. However, there is this letter by a P6 student in TODAY, which I think is worth saying a thing or two about. The letter I mean is the second one, which starts in the third column with, 'This year's paper has indeed caused much anguish.' Don't know why they like to merge the letters in the on-line version. This Lee Zhicong, whom I will refer to as a 'he' because the name sounds male (apologies if Lee Zhicong is actually a girl), has written the only 'positive' letter I've seen about the paper. I congratulate him for his optimistic attitude towards challenge. He actually sounds happy that the paper was tough! My guess is that he is a gifted child and has already secured a place in a choice secondary school through DSA. If my guess is wrong, based on his letter, I think we can assume he will do well in all his PSLE papers anyway an...

It's surreal to watch, on one hand, what is going on in Myanmar, and, on the other hand, to read about the dainty tip-toeing of ASEAN with regard to the issue. Hello, the people there need help!! I agree with all the people who have said that ASEAN is the best bet for Myanmar at this point. Could this be ASEAN's biggest challenge in its 40 years of existence? Will it rise to the occasion and do something significant? In the meantime, there is much action on the ground level, with Myanmar nationals and locals taking to the streets in KL , Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila, and even all the way over in Seoul and Canberra. Ah... no need to say which city has been left out... You know, people like to say things like 'If there is an issue people (us) feel passionately about, there are other ways to highlight their cause rather than hitting the streets in protest' . (Full letter here ) So, I'd like to ask now, what exactly are people doing to 'highlight their cause'? ...

I just read this on the Asiaone website, 'Poor eyesight an indication of poor health' . (not sure if the link works after today) The findings, as reported in the article: 'Reflecting a trend in Australia, Britain and the United States, a new study among Chinese in Singapore's Tanjong Pagar district has shown that those with poor vision are about three times more likely to die than those with good eyesight.' Doesn't it sound weird that one group is 'three times more likely to die' than another group? I mean, ALL of us WILL die, right? Ah well... Anyway, I'm interested to know what they actually mean by people with 'poor vision'. Are they referring to short-sighted people? In other words, the majority of Singaporeans? Or do they mean those who are long-sighted? Or those who are both short- and long-sighted? Or are they the ones with cataracts? Or other eye issues? Guess people with good eyesight will now have to pay even more attention to ma...

I must congratulate myself on finishing 4 books in about 2 months. And not all chick lit some more, ha ha. It is quite a record for me, and it was partly due to spending endless hours in bed for 2-3 days due to a strange ailment. For some odd reason, it turned out that 3 of the books happened to feature 'boys'. More about them later. I'll start with the lady. Fat Chance by Deborah Blumenthal (chick lit for sure) Bought this on the recommendation of a fitness magazine. About a newspaper columnist who enjoys a great following because she is anti-thin, i.e. argues against dieting, slimming down, etc. However, she is asked to be a consultant to a handsome actor for his nip-tuck kind of movie and secretly goes on diet + exercises to lose weight before they meet, hence 'betraying' her cause. Predictable storyline. Lovely cover. Regret buying. I did not purposely look for a 'bad' review but I googled the title and this came up. Just In Case by Meg Rosoff About 1...

It must be some cruel coincidence that had this piece of news 'Low-IQ robber escapes jail, thanks to teachers' out on the same day (today's ST) as the reports about the review of the penal code. Certainly, it is good news that the robber in question has been spared the jail term and 24 strokes of the cane and, instead, will undergo 'reformative training'. However, the circumstances under which this came about are unsatisfactory. The reported started: 'Convicted robber EM has two of his former teachers to thank for getting him out of a long jail term and 24 lashes of the cane.' What if his teachers hadn't found out about his case? EM has an IQ of 66 (average person's IQ is 90-100) and he was convicted of robbery and hitting a policeman. It stated that the district judge 'had not been aware' of his low IQ. How could that happen? The DPP had pointed out that he was 'no drooling idiot' (a phrase I find pretty offensive), had committed ...

My mum was at my brother's place with my nephew, niece and their Filipino maid earlier this week on one of the days when tremors were felt in Singapore. Aunty X (kept anonymous to protect the innocent) was the first to react. She knew straightaway that her sudden dizziness had something to do with an earthquake. My mum was more interested in looking at how much the table and other stuff would shake and move but Aunty X said 'Must run!' My mum said, 'No need, lah, nothing will happen,' and Aunty X then recounted some horrific tale of how the ground split and people fell in the holes, etc. She grabbed my niece and they all went down the stairs from the 13th floor. My poor terrified niece kept telling my mum to run faster, and my mum kept telling her not to worry and that she would see her downstairs. After all, a grandma surely can't run as fast as the 2 kids and Aunty. Actually, the tremors had already stopped by then and when the all-clear was given later and th...

Belated thoughts on this year's US Open. (Warning: the links are to the US Open website which sometimes takes VERY long to load) EXITS Tim Henman This will be his last Grand Slam. He's supposed to play in the Davis Cup but his wife is also due to deliver (their 3rd child, I think) around that time... He is one guy who probably single-handedly gives many Brits high blood pressure every year at the Wimbeldon because they have such high hopes for him and he never did really well in it. Nevertheless, he is one rare gentleman who still plays the gentleman's game like a gentleman. His wit and self-depracating (also rare) humour will be missed, too. He was asked 'What's the best you ever played?' and said, 'I think the best overall is Paris, the Masters Series, when I won. I think for the consistent level of tennis. You know, Basel I played some I remember one year only dropping my serve once the whole week, making Roger cry in the final. That was pretty special (s...

Continuing with the theme, while translations are often hilarious, sometimes, they are not funny at all. When people who transfer words across cultures lose not just the meanings but also the nuances and other underlying associations of those words, the end result can be horrible. Some examples: I heard this Japanese pop song which went 'Merry Christmas, blah, blah, blah...' and in the background was, distinctly, the tune of 'Abide With Me' , more commonly heard during Lent and at funerals. The show with Joo Ji-hoon, which I mentioned in the last post, is called Mawang , or 'Devil King'. Its other English title is 'Lucifer'. I'm not sure if the people producing the show really understand the implications of the title. Anyhow, his character isn't actually one of those evil to the core types. He's psychologically troubled because he never got over his brother's untimely death and the fact that the killer got away with it because of his con...

Apparently, that 'English as it is broken' book has been topping the charts at our local bookstores. Actually, I'm not too interested in that book but this other one may be worth getting my hands on. The article about it, as published in Saturday's (1 Sept) ST: In the world of international diplomacy, the best-chosen words or phrases can leave an audience laughing, bewildered or simply lost in translation, an insider has revealed. Undiplomatic Activities, a yet-to-be-launched book by Mr Richard Woolcott, who ran Australia's foreign service for four years, points to the pitfalls of translating thoughts into different languages. Take the Australian diplomat in France who tried to tell his audience that as he looked back on his career, it was divided in two parts, with dull postings before life in Paris. 'When I look at my backside, I find it is divided into two parts,' Mr Woolcott quoted the diplomat as telling his highly amused audience. Ex-Australian prime m...

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats Happy Teachers' Day, teachers!

Topic: The Japanese Occupation of Singapore Letter 1 (excerpts): Being half-Japanese and half-Singaporean, my sons are no exceptions (children of Japanese ancestry being apprehensive about participating in National Day celebrations in Singapore schools) . They confessed to me that some pupils had hurled offensive words at them during such events. I feel one of the main reasons for this is a lack of sensitivity among teachers. When my older son was in Primary 5, his Chinese teacher told the class that Japanese were bad and stupid to attack the US during World War II. This teacher later told us that he had made such a remark because he did not realise that he had a half-Japanese pupil in his class. Letter 2 (excerpts): I can understand her frustration and anger in learning that her child was inadvertently discriminated against by the school teacher. However, I believe this was an isolated case. In our multi-ethnic society, whether in school or in the working place, foreigners, includin...