my ajumma notes

I am amazed that this is 2007 and ONJ will be staging her first ever concert in Singapore! We used to listen to her records at my grandma's house when we were kids. Ok, let me see, who else from days of yore has yet to hold their first ever concert in Singapore? Have Billy Joel and Elton John ever performed here? I only remember attending two English language pop/rock concerts. One was the Osmonds' and the other, believe it or not - and much later in life - Paula Abdul's! As someone who grew up watching Donny and Marie show, I thought the Osmond concert was great. I remember reluctantly leaving National Stadium while they were singing 'I Believe' because my dad said we had better leave so that we wouldn't get caught in the human crush at the very end of the show. Anyway, I found out recently that Donny Osmond is still performing ! Incidentally, I used to have this Donny and Marie plastic thermos flask. Some of you will know the kind I'm talking about. They...

Read last week in the ST about Japanese mums outdoing themselves and each other creating interesting bento (lunch box). Checked out the website mentioned in the article. You all go and take a look. The stuff is SO CUTE... and done with carrots, egg, etc, i.e., all edible. Good thing no one expects this kind of creativity from me.

Recently, we were given the stats for the boy’s latest round of tests – the highest score, lowest score stuff. For English, out of 60, the highest score in the class was in the 50s and the lowest was single-digit. First, I imagined how horribly the one(s) with the single-digit mark(s) and parents must have felt. Then, I felt really sorry for the teacher who has work with this bunch of 40 kids with such a range of abilities. And that’s just in one subject. More recently, I was reminded by this article in TODAY about how that’s just one of many things the teacher needs to worry about. Following that article about the system’s expectations of teachers, there were these two letters , one suggesting that teachers should be appraised by students! I really don’t know about this. Imagine the 40 kids rating their teacher. Even if they were 10 years older and more mature, I’m not sure if their ratings should be used. Everyone just expects such different things from school and teachers. If you g...

I read this article in Monday’s ST: ‘Time to stop trying to silence safe sex advice’. The main point was that ‘advice on safe sex should be taught concurrently with the message of abstinence’ . I do agree that young people must know about safe sex, but I don’t agree with how such knowledge is seen as the answer to the teenage sex ‘problem’. Some excerpts from the article and my two cents’ worth. The journalist says: Preaching safe sex to youth does not equal giving them the go-ahead to indulge in wanton romps in the bedroom. Arming someone with the knowledge of how to conduct himself responsibly in one area of his life is simply an act of empowerment. There is no subliminal message advocating premarital sex - unless you choose to interpret it that way. After all, telling someone how to drive safely doesn't mean you're encouraging them to speed recklessly. Wow. Preaching safe sex does not prevent young people from indulging in wanton romps either. In fact, it tells them that the...

As has happened before, the announcement of Budget-related goodies led to some bemoaning the fact that housewives have been 'left out' once again. Then there was this letter in TODAY which saw the homemaker's choice as a 'self-centred' one and therefore not deserving of benefits similar to that for, say, NSmen, and itself led to more letters about how much homemakers contribute. I think the 'offending' letter does have a point, which is that the homemaker's decision to stay at home is largely made with the individual's family in mind and therefore is 'self-centred'. I doubt that there are many stay-home parents who decided to stay home for the good of the state, to nurture their children into exemplary citizens, though of course that might be the indirect result of one's staying home to take care of the children. Certainly, in comparison, NS duty is overtly state-centred. However, the letter sounds too dismissive of the role of homemakers...

I mean love of the celluloid kind. Read that the director or producer or writer or whatever of Sam Soon was here, checking out possible shoot locations. That seemed like a what’s-the-big-deal non-news kind of news item. After all, K drama has featured Indonesia, Thailand, China, Japan, and even places like Prague and Paris . Ah, but it could be a learning opportunity our local industry. I’m not sure how well Mediacorp’s attempt at romantic comedy, the Cowherd-Weaving Maiden show, did in its ratings. I watched a bit of it to see what it was about. I think the idea of the Cowherd being a milk salesperson and the Weaving Maiden a fashion person is cute. For Mediacorp’s sake, I hope that is an original idea. Bolstered by a couple of reliable veterans and the guy playing that effeminate, muscular character, the show has a lot of potential. However, I still had the feeling that it was rather ‘raw’. Nevertheless, it’s a definite step up – or maybe many steps up – from that (yawn) shipyard ...

Just read in the ST that we will start enforcing limits on liquids and gels on board planes only later in the year. It seems we are 'in no rush' to put this in place although the International Civil Aviation Organisation recommended last year that it be done by 1 March, i.e. today, and Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are doing it today, and Australia and NZ by the end of this month. There are issues such as 'confusion and inconvenience' and 'degradation of service standards' . The ST article says that 'one area of concern is duty-free shopping' . According to the article, 'there is still much confusion over which duty-free items travellers can take with them. The confusion has hit duty-free sales at several airports.' Well, well, I thought that terror threats were to be taken very seriously and all. Surely they supersede concerns about duty free profits? Anyway, I also thought there are already solutions to that problem, as shown here. That is, i...