my ajumma notes

A couple of nights ago, I was stoning in front of the telly since it was the first day of the holidays and also, rain had interrupted the French Open . It was just as well, I suppose, because the last match telecast - and interrupted - was yet another boring Federer match. So, I was channel surfing and chanced upon Rondo and I Have a Date With a Vampire III . Vampire III I watched quite a bit of Vampire I and vaguely heard about a II but, wow, how did they manage to think up another storyline for III ??! Vampire I was so complicated and my brain was really tired following all the switching from past to present to future, living human lives and then reverting to vampires, vampire catchers and other immortal beings (I assume they are immortal because some of these guys have lived for 800 or 1000 years or something) and those mega fights in the skies of Hong Kong. Obviously, the show has quite a following and it must be one of ATV's huge successes. Won't be catching this seri...

Vehicles that irritate the streering wheel off my car In all my driving experience, I've only driven old and/or 'average'-sized cars. I've often wondered what it is about driving a luxury car, taxi or huge vehicle that causes some drivers to behave like they own the road. The other day, due to my momentary indecision on seeing the light change to amber, I slowed down less gradually than I should have. I must stress that I did not stop abruptly, my car did not screech to a halt, I didn't have to slam my brakes, etc. I wasn't going that fast, I just slowed down not so gradually. To my horror, I saw in my mirror the luxury car behind me still going at full speed. The driver had to put some of his special driving skills into use to avoid ramming into the back of my car. He definitely did not look too happy with me and I certainly was not too happy with him. I admit that I should have started slowing down earlier but the thing is I had started slowing down already ...

I read that line some years ago and wondered how many young people actually believed that. Today, during the season of poring over our children's mid-year marks, I still wonder about it. I must admit that it's often hard for me as a parent to think less about grades than I do. We try very hard to keep our 'worries' about grades to ourselves (and our friends) and don't make a big deal about them with the boy. I'm sure we all know in our heart of hearts that each child has his/her own strengths and weaknesses and should therefore be allowed to develop accordingly and that what's more important is his/her overall well-being. However, unfortunately for many Singaporean children (and no doubt children elsewhere in the world too), we are such a grade-obsessed society. The boy has at least 2 friends who get caned for not scoring this or that mark. So sad, huh? In today's 'Which Primary School' supplement, there is this parent who figures she and her hus...

Speaking of 'sway' spurned lovers, the latest one I've come across is in Love Revolution ( only 12 episodes!), a J show I recently watched. Heroine of the story is pretty, 30-ish Smart Doctor, who is dying to fall in love and get married. She meets Aspiring Actor and Broadcast Journalist (right). She falls for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks. It's obvious from the start (to the audience but not to her) that Aspiring Actor is nuts about her. But... she has fallen for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks already. No doubt, Smart Doctor and Broadcast Journalist must be given credit for their love that stands the tests of time, separation and misunderstanding, but the one who loves most in the show is undoubtedly Mr Aspiring Actor. What he does/does not do because of his undying love for Smart Doctor: Y does not pursue her at first because he is still struggling to survive in this small-time drama group and he knows he doesn't have much to offer Y resp...

Now that there's a lull in the K drama scene for me, let me take stock of what I've watched and pass some biased judgement on those shows. Shows watched so far (For most cases, the number of episodes watched roughly tallies with how much I enjoyed the show) Watched fewer than 5 episodes All About Eve (MBC) Winter Sonata (KBS) All In (SBS) Love Story in Harvard (SBS) More than 5, fewer than 10 episodes Memories of Bali (SBS) Dalja's Spring by KBS (liked this but discovered it late in its run) Dae Jang Geum by MBC (interesting but too slow-moving and too long for me) Watched the whole or almost the whole series My Name is Kim Sam-soon (MBC) My Girl (SBS) Full House (KBS) Goong (MBC) Wedding (KBS) Foxy Lady (MBC) The links are to this Korean tourism site which gives synopses along with the filming sites, just in case anyone wants to go on a K drama tour ;-) . My biased conclusions Best network : MBC Most beautiful actress : Choi Ji-woo (from Winter Sonata – peerless, rig...

This is kind of harping on the past, but I thought this article was interesting. In an interview, Hewitt said it was 'a shame' that Kim 'wouldn't have the opportunity to play out her final season'. Exactly what I thought too. "Kim's so well-liked around the world and she's played well in so many tournaments around the world that it would have been nice for her to compete for the rest of the year," said he. Oh well... As an aside, and this has nothing directly to do with Hewitt or Kim, I wonder if Federer and Nadal are getting too stressed with their high rankings and dunno-how-many-matches winning streaks and all. Federer lost his match yesterday, playing uncharacteristically badly (this is not to say his opponent was lousy or anything) and Nadal had to go to the hospital to get his dizziness checked . I also went to the hospital because of dizziness before, and I was told the likely cause was stress... The latest Federer-beater (pic from his c...

The time has finally come. Kim says in the latest entry (6 May) on her website , 'I'll put my rackets in their cupboard'. Here she is in an old picture with Ai Sugiyama, once her doubles partner. (pic from here ) In her entry, she writes about the happy memories she has of her career and, among her Grand Slam and other trophies, what else she treasures: 'The many sportsmanship awards as well, awarded by the players themselves, will keep a special place in my house. They are the nicest one can get as a player.' Yeah, they do say she's one of the nicest players on the tour...

Continuing on the theme of empathy, I'm glad to see the courts practising more of that these days. There was a report earlier in the week about more psychiatric care for 'criminals'. Long overdue but, really, better late than never. If you think about it, people who are in 'normal' situations are less likely to commit crime, so people who commit crime are likely to have had some 'abnormal' or even traumatic life experiences which contributed to their 'criminal' activity. Incidentally, now going back to the homosexuality thing for a bit, I attended a talk many years ago where the speaker cited some stats showing that a significant number of homosexuals had traumatic experiences in their childhood (abuse, neglect, etc). And now coming back to the courts again, the judge's decision in the recent case of the kleptomanic lady seems to me to be a more practical attempt to deal with the 'crime'. However, I read today's Sunday Times article a...

I was appalled that the following sentences in this ST forum letter were allowed to see the light of print: 'Homosexuals lead a promiscuous and hedonistic lifestyle. What else can you expect when you do not have children to live for or be in a loving and committed relationship?' As a Singaporean, I do not like reading or hearing Singaporeans condemning other Singaporeans with broad brush strokes like that. Neither do I like reading or hearing Singaporeans condemning foreigners for what goes on in their societies (read the letter for that part). I'm not part of the pro-gay vanguard, and my views on the issue should be pretty easy to guess, but I still don't like it. Even if one were against homosexuality for whatever reason, one could at least try to regard homosexuals with some empathy, right? How about treating homosexuals as living and breathing fellow-Singaporeans and fellow-human beings? How can we just 'condemn' all homosexuals like that? While there are h...