my ajumma notes

Now, honestly, how many people (who are not foreign workers who have no choice) would actually not mind being ferried in a lorry, even with 'better' seating height restrictions, seating space, canopy and what not (some of which will take three years to install)? picture from here

I thought he would talk about the new immigrant-cum-foreign talent/worker issue... Hmmm... Does that mean we have to wait till next year's speech? Some months ago, I heard on 97.2 this phone-in discussion thingy about the decline in service standards. This man (sounded old) called in and practically ranted about foreigners from a certain country being (practically) single-handedly responsible for today's lousy service standards. It was quite amusing to hear him but of course the issue is not so amusing. Ok, I will not run away from the issue and I will specifically make some comments about people from the land of my ancestors. One, I honestly do not understand how one can be employed in the service sector without being able to speak at least some English. I wish this issue had been part of the discourse on racial harmony. I do not like having to speak Mandarin when I should be free to speak English. Two, I am not comfortable with the idea of giving new citizens time to learn En...

I enjoyed the music segments of this year's parade, namely the interesting montage of old national songs (but it must have been hard for people to sing along because the songs changed every other phrase or so!) and the music through the years section (or whatever it was called). And the classical-style arrangement for the national anthem at the end of the parade was lovely. I also like the Electrico song that some people have a problem with. Today, I found out about Mr Brown's version of the Electrico song. Funny... H a p p y N a t i o n a l D a y , a l l !

I guess this happens when you watch enough K drama (or TVB or Mediacorp or whatever). After a while, everyone one starts popping up in different series and you wonder where you last saw them. Chanced upon Summer Scent which is doing a rerun on KBS World. A supremely melodramatic serial from the 'old' days of K drama that I'm not following. It is just that it comes on immediately after 2 serials I am trying to follow (more on them another day!). BEFORE (the Summer Scent cast in 2003) : AFTER (and all grown up!) : Son Ye Jin in Spotlight - at least she got to do a character with more depth and spunk. Han Ji Hye in Likeable or Not - expressions still look the same but thankfully she doesn't have that blondish hair anymore. Ryu Jin in Capital Scandal - acting still flat, even when he was cast as such an amazing character. I have not seen Song Seong Heon, the male lead, in any other show. Think he was the best actor of the four. He was the only one who could do his...

Is technology taking the sport out of sports? Sounds like a GP essay question, ha ha. Those hi-tech suits Was just remarking to the husband the other day that Roma 2009 (World Swimming Championship) has become a farce. My reasons: First (and not too important), there are too many synchro events. Second, and much more important, the Arena and Jaked swimsuits helped produce records that no one will be able to break for maybe the next 5 years if they go back to using their old swimsuits. I was wrong! There was this Australian coach who said that those records will still be around in the next 40 years. Park Tae-Hwan (Olympic gold medallist), wearing his 'old' swimsuit, didn't even qualify for any finals. Frankly, the idea of taking 45 minutes to squeeze into that long-legged skin-tight suit is quite off-putting. But I guess for medals and records, there are things that people will do. Our Singaporean swimmers, apparently, are also hi-tech suit owners. And the plan is for the...