I'm no tai-tai, okay?

Not blogging much anymore. Obviously.

2011-11-09T12:35:00.001+08:00

Hello dear blog, ha ha.

Don't have much time to blog these days. And like many erstwhile bloggers, I'm finding FB much faster to use when I'm short of time...

Revising

2011-05-31T17:47:00.007+08:00

For various reasons, I was recently thinking about de-Stalinization, something I've not thought about seriously for more than 20 years.

A drawing by Niyaz Karim

Revisionist thinking is really quite interesting. And a necessary part of life. It is not healthy to just blindly believe in the same old sources, or worse, the same one source. It is healthy to question and look for evidence. For there always is more evidence than you have been told there is.

While I was thinking about de-Stalinization, of course I remembered how I handed in a highly nonsensical essay on the topic. Those were the days when I was almost becoming one of the 'full-time hostelites, part-time students' in my hostel, haha. It was so bad that my tutor, Dr Agnew, got me to re-do it, and very kindly gave me a list of relevant references I could look up. As I emerged from his room feeling stupid and sheepish, and filled with well-intentioned thoughts of doing all my future essays properly, I was greeted with a real hard stare by one of his groupies who was waiting outside. I hard-stared her back and went out into the corridors with my newfound academic enthusiasm.

I just googled and found that Dr Agnew is now at George Washington Uni. I remember his giving me a second chance much better than I remember any of the topics in his course. But that's what education is all about, isn't it? Lessons on life, attitude, treating people as human beings, etc.

Tap it well

2011-05-16T16:37:00.006+08:00

My non-expert two cents' worth on the role of the social media in this election.

First, we are so behind time. Other people, including our neighbours, were already excitingly into social media at least one election ago. I was surprised to hear a (young) candidate refer to it as 'new' media. Hello, this is 2011, not 2001?

Second, social media wouldn't have accounted for a huge number of votes either way. Of course some - or maybe many - may have been influenced but I would think that in general, people wanting to vote for the whites would have made up their minds long ago and those not wanting to vote for the whites would similarly have decided before candidates were even announced. But I think that non-white supporters were more likely to be part of the cyberspace election landscape simply because of the lack of (positive) information about the non-whites in the mainstream media.

Third, I still don't get why some people are still so disdainful of what's on cyberspace. I think it's a good thing that people can get information they want and it's a good thing that people are participating, expressing their views and so on. As in the last election, I really did not find that what was on cyberspace was full of invective and vitriol and what not. I don't know what kind of pages people are looking at online that makes them say this but I found many thoughtful, analytical and down to earth posts and comments, though, no doubt, they were mostly not pro-white. Sure, there were many personal, uncalled-for comments on this person or that but I must say that I saw such comments made about candidates and ideas of both sides. And we all know there are personal, uncalled-for comments made offline, every round, about people anyway.

Next, I think that the whites, while focusing on what must be really pressing tasks ahead, such as beefing up their policies and personnel and finding workable ways of connecting with people, also need to take a hard look at their machinery. I thought they had a huge machinery working the ground but it seemed to have failed in identifying problem areas accurately. I also thought they had a huge machinery set to work on the social media this time round but what I saw looked rather, I'm sorry to say, amateurish.

I was talking with some young people about their ideas about 'connecting with the ground' not too long before May 7. One young lady said it was a mistake to think that you can connect with the young just be being young or that you can engage netizens just by being on social media. Well said, young lady. If this not-yet-voting-age young lady could understand this, I'm surprised that the machinery did not.

Newly-sprung Facebook pages, fake Facebook numbers, non-commentable pages and so on are just not the way to go. On the other hand, many social and political commentators have been online - and connecting with audiences - for years. Some candidates have also been online for years. For example, G Giam has been blogging since 2006 and not, like, just from last month. And N Seah must have been on Facebook and Twitter since she was five. Just kidding.

The point is the machinery needs to use social media in the way it should be used. I don't think they have the option of not using it so they might as well learn from good examples, which can be found on our shores and beyond, such as this very-impressive-machinery-using-social-media-expertly.

To go back to point 2, I highly doubt social media would be a make-or-break thing, unlike things like, ahem, housing policies and so on. For example, GY, I would think, is a successful Facebooker, compared with, say, LTK, whose Facebook page is, I believe, not self-administered. And GY lost and LTK won. And Mr Chiam doesn't even need to be on Facebook (I don't know if he is) to be so well regarded. In any case, if the whites win or lose because of their good or bad social media presence, it would be a terrible thing because they should be winning or losing because of their policies and personnel. But, using the social media is a non-negotiable in this day and age and at this point, unfortunately for the whites, I think the non-whites, together with their supporters, are leading by a mile. The whites need to get their act together here, after settling all the policies and personnel business.

I'm really interested in what we'll see in five years...

Thinking of the hot buttons while cooling off

2011-05-06T11:19:00.003+08:00

Cooling off day... ha...

I was just wondering how some of the hot buttons, the ones who are now citizens, will vote.

There would be the FTs who have been in S'pore for ages, went through our education system, perhaps even went to the army, worked here for years, then became citizens. Then, there are the newer ones who hardly speak English and hardly mix with the born-and-bred people. And then there are those who don't even live here. Are people like Gong Li and Jet Li voting?

Somehow, I can't think of really good reasons why the latter groups would vote against the status quo. Will these people be the ones who make the difference?

Kaypohs in Serangoon

2011-05-03T17:02:00.004+08:00

Shortly after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived at Buckingham Palace, I finished my dinner and went off to Serangoon Stadium. But since it was way past 7pm, this was the best spot we could find.

(That, of course, is not me or anyone I know in the picture. The red t-shirt on that boy said 'Myanmar'. New citizens?)

I think political rallies should be part of National Education, for both students and new citizens. To be fair, they should be brought to rallies of both sides, or maybe even of a few parties. Just to experience the spirit of things.

I really don't mind doing this myself every few years. Only the crowds are getting bigger and bigger each time. And the traffic gets really bad.

'Celebrating'?

2011-05-02T18:05:00.001+08:00

'Celebrating' someone's death is weird...

The young versus who's already there

2011-04-30T11:44:00.002+08:00

I was just thinking that it must be such an experience for all those fresh-faced and earnest 20-somethings and 30-somethings to have to spar with the national bigwigs, even if indirectly. Win or lose, I hope all this will go into making them men and women - citizens - of substance. Yes, sure, we should examine motivations and all that (and I do think that we should examine the motivations of everyone, not just a select few), but I think we should also salute these young people for having the courage and conviction to step up and step forward.

I also note that their 20-something and 30-something counterparts from the white team are not having the privilege of this experience.

Ground feel

2011-04-28T16:51:00.004+08:00

Today, I did my own 'feeling the ground' (= snooping) and talked to a total of -- just one person.

This uncle is a sole breadwinner, taking home less than $1,000 a month. He has four kids who are still studying. Every day, he is concerned about his job and the cost of everything. After all, people who don't earn a lot also buy food, take transport, fall sick, go to school, etc.

I think I don't need to do much more snooping to conclude that life is really tough for many of our fellow countrymen and women. And it's not like he is not trying to do what he can for the family. Would I blame him if he felt bitter about things?

Are the people out there getting this same feel when they go around the ground too?

Classy

2011-04-25T14:59:00.006+08:00

Here I am giving Nicole Seah the place of honour for today's GE post, ha ha.

Nicole Seah's CNN interview

Actually, I was getting really sad thinking about the GRC situation. It is the main, major, mighty reason why I have not voted in past elections. It was only in recent days that I realised how disgruntled I feel about this. To think that I will be a first-time voter (i.e. if things happen as we think they will) only this year. At my age... hmmph...

As we know, there are many people in this 21st century world, who do not have the privilege of voting. Some will still never get a sniff at it, even though this is the 21st century, and some are right now going out to the streets, risking their lives and even losing their lives, to fight for this privilege. To think that here in - ahem - First World S'pore, so many of us have not had this privilege for so many years.

But things are looking up. The colour and feel of this year's GE make me remember the colour and feel of elections ante-GRC.

And I look at the spruced up parties and young people like Nicole Seah, as well as the older ones who have come forward, and I feel that maybe I will no longer have to be so glum and gloomy after all. Because the colour and feel are not completely like the elections ante-GRC; there is a new touch of class to today's colour and feel, at least from some sectors, and I warmly welcome it.

Let's go, fellow countrymen and women!

Spring Has Come!

2011-04-16T19:21:00.005+08:00

My, my, doesn't he look so 'spring fashion trends 2011'?

Like so (Miu Miu!):

And so:

Even the other Spaniards are in rather 'safe' colours. Like so:

And some other people who really, badly need a haircut!

Dudes doing their endorsements

2011-04-11T17:40:00.004+08:00

The start of the clay court season is not as exciting as I thought it was going to be, after all. Djokovic is not playing at Monte Carlo so we'll have to wait till I don't know when to see Djokovic versus Nadal on clay.

To get back into the tennis mood, let's look at what some dudes have been doing off court, while, obviously, also watching their bank accounts grow.

Nadal in Bacardi's don't-drink-and-drive ad.

Ferrer in Bovet's intellectual ad. I don't know why but I find his Bovet pictures slightly amusing. But he doesn't look too bad, does he?

Lu Yen-hsun appeared with Rainie Yang for an Adidas thing.

The 'Adidas is all in' pictures are nice. Andy Murray is there. And, although they aren't dudes, so are Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki.

Some knowledge will do no harm

2011-04-08T10:45:00.008+08:00

And here we are, at another of my favourite topics - voters and all things related!

As in previous elections, I find myself saying to myself 'Oh my word' and 'Aiyoh' a lot these days. There is a lot not happening out there that makes me rather uneasy about what the future will hold.

First, it is worrying that many people are growing up knowing only a GRC system and believing it to be a normal thing. I'm not saying here that it is a good or bad system or whatever, but that people living in the 21st century should really have some basic knowledge about the basics of democracies and such.

Second, and this is very likely the cause of point 1, young people are not caring enough about their lives to know things they should know. There are many people who complain that we only have controlled forms of the media here. Even if they have a valid complaint, the thing is, not enough young people are even bothering to know about things happening around them through these limited media sources. In a small little experiment, I asked about 10+ (i.e. 10+ in number, not age) young people if they watched the CNA political forum (you know, even if you didn't find it all that engaging, at least watch a few minutes of it?) and, what do you know, only one lone guy watched it.

Third, and this is really rather scary, not only are people not getting basic knowledge from the media, but they are also not getting basic knowledge from reading what to me are normal things you would read to know the world around you. In ST's forum, which, we are told, sees a 'good letter' (and I assume a letter that is published is considered 'good'?) as one that 'makes sense, is brief, pertinent and touches on national and community issues' (quoted in today's ST), there was a letter yesterday, entitled 'Single-party state works best for Singapore'. Well, yes, I would say it sure touches on national and community issues but its premises and arguments are really quite shocking. Here are some of its questionable points. I am too lazy to phrase everything nicely, so I shall just list a few questions like how your teacher would write little questions at the side of your essay, ha ha.

a. comparing Singapore with India and China?

b. both India and China have a 'largely homogeneous culture'? (Ahem, just pick up a basic History of India [or China] textbook and flip through, okay?)

c. 'bigger nations with a two-party or multi-party system can afford to falter and recover'?

My, my...

Fourth, I see that an underlying belief behind this letter (but I may be wrong), and of many people I have come across, is the belief that Singapore is rare, or even unique, in being multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious. Obviously, this kind of thinking has implications on people's thinking about the GRC system. But it has implications on their thinking about a whole load of other things, too. Which is why, to me, this belief is rather disturbing. Please, this is the 21st century...

'It is a different era'

2011-04-02T14:33:00.008+08:00

So, here we are at one of my favourite topics - bags!

First bag, the NS backpack. Rather expectedly, ST ran an article linking the maid-NS backpack thing to the daily maid-schoolbag scenario we see all over Singapore. I would like to suggest that the root of it goes a little deeper than just the expectations of many parents and children that their maids should carry their bags. The start of all this, as I see it, is the fact that schoolbags are too heavy (that used to be one of my favourite topics). If the schoolbags were a reasonable weight, nobody would see the need for maids, parents or grandparents to carry them. I will shamelessly declare that I shamelessly carried the boy's bag for him when he was in lower primary. If you compare the weight of the bag with the size (and weight) of the child, it would be the logical thing to do.

So then, when and how you wean the child off this bag-carrying business is another story altogether. Obviously, if weaning is not done successfully, you will still have maid, parent or grandparent carrying the bag even up to Primary 6 (when the bag is still heavy, mind you) and, apparently, way beyond that. And this is where the ST article provides some pertinent points.

'Once you decide to have a maid, you have to be realistic. It is a different era, and ironing clothes and tidying rooms are things maids do,' a parent was quoted as saying. That sure is telling, isn't it? Now do we see where the maid-dependence attitude comes from? What's so unrealistic about a kid growing up learning to iron clothes and tidy his/her room and carry his/her bag, even if the family has a maid? Good training and a good dose of reality for the child to do all that, I would say.

Next bag, Kate Spade. Here, I would say, it truly is 'a different era'. Twenty-somethings do buy (very) expensive bags these days. It is a fact of life in Singapore, isn't it? I saw this little feature in Her World, where these twenty-somethings owned Loewe and Balenciaga bags, and this other twenty-something said she owned stuff from Pedder Red, which she found to be 'affordable'. So, against this backdrop, cutesy Kate Spade is not a big surprise.

Third bag, Kei Nishikori's Uniqlo bag! I think it's cool that he is sponsored by Uniqlo and his bag is kind of nice but I could not find a picture of it. So I'll just have a picture of him here, in his Uniqlo outfit, because it's also cool that an Asian boy is coming up the ranks, in this new tennis era. Go Asians!

In every moment of life and death...

2011-03-13T18:48:00.006+08:00

Once upon a time, many years ago, I walked about here.

I can still vaguely recall the strong winds and waves that day. Strong they may have been, but about all they did was to scuttle our plans to take a boat out.

Today, the thought of a 7.5m wave lashing along that coast is, really, kind of hard to stomach.

May those who lost their lives rest in peace. And may those who live find the comfort and courage they need for these dark days.

It has been some months since I last sang this, and I'm glad we sang it today:

You know my resting and my rising,

You discern my purpose from afar,

And with love everlasting you besiege me:

In every moment of life and death, you are...

Although your spirit is upon me.

Still I search for shelter from your light.

There is nowhere on earth I can escape you:

Even the darkness is radiant in your light.

Yay, Colin is king!

2011-02-28T14:03:00.004+08:00

Ha. Who would have thought that Mr Darcy

would one day become Mark Darcy

and would one day become King and then king of the academy.

I am real busy and should be busy doing what I am supposed to be doing but I just had to say that.

Gone too soon

2011-02-11T14:17:00.009+08:00

Boo hoo, where has all the rain gone?

On the topic of Bambi, I chanced upon this Bambi video with a Rescuers song.

And this list of 'The 10 Darkest Children's Movies', topped by Bambi.

Somehow, I mostly remember just Thumper and other rabbits. Selective amnesia maybe. Or I didn't pay attention.

Rabbit Year already!

2011-02-02T17:08:00.004+08:00

So cute...

Despite not being able to watch on Starhub

2011-01-28T11:58:00.006+08:00

Sad for Nadal about his heartbreaking match.

But I'm not actually sad about Ferrer playing in the semi. Wouldn't it be lovely if he, in an unlikely scenario, won AO?

Said Nadal:

But if he keep playing like this, hopefully he can have a good chance to be in the final or win the tournament. I would love. Is a fantastic person. Is a close friend of mine. So I wish him all the best.

And, I'm sure no one really minds if Kim wins the AO but wouldn't it be great if Li Na was this year's champion? Of course, they still can't get her name right...

Pictures from AO website

Christmas is here!

2010-12-24T11:29:00.007+08:00

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

Mother Teresa

Caught a short CNA report about how young people in HK become depressed and lonely during 'holidays' like Christmas. Somehow, there is this great need to have a special date with a special person for Christmas.

I bristle at the reference to Christmas as a 'holiday'. And I really do not like how romaticised Christmas has become by people who do not understand what Christmas is really about.

Have been ruminating quite a bit on various things and one of the themes was the 'first Christmas'. Talk about being lonely. It must have been lonely thinking about the appearance of the angel and being told, out of the blue, that you will bear a child. And it sure must have been lonely to know that you have to be responsible for your future wife and child when you don't fully understand what is going on.

(here)

Yet, Mary and Joseph 'kwai-kwai' just listened to the word of God and obeyed. ' Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.' Wordless Joseph must surely have had the same thoughts. Again and again.

(here)

I hope all lonely people find comfort and peace, hopefully through the un-lonely people who have the love in their hearts to find and embrace these lonely people.

Peace to all.

(rumination = the act or process of chewing cud. ha.)

Thanks for these moments, dudes! (2)

2010-12-15T16:24:00.009+08:00

Carrying on with my best tennis moments for the year...

Off tour

Carlos Moya's babe

There is a picture of Nadal carrying this same little girl but I kind of like better this picture of Juan Monaco carrying her.

USO

Ha.

Nice to see people chummy and not sobbing and spoiling other people's moments.

Finals!

Top 8 dudes in London

Ferrer: Eh, how come you all sabo-ed me! I thought you all said grey, what.

All nicely posing with the PM. I think Nadal and Ferrer are the shortest of the lot?

That nice little retirement thing for Moya. And just what is Andy Roddick wearing?

Davis Cup

Oh, Serbia!

I watched and cheered Spain winning it in 2009 and 2010 but Serbia winning this year's was special.

How special it must have been for Victor Troicki, who joins Verdasco and Ferrer as dudes with Davis Cup magic moments. Though every time I hear his name, I cannot help but think of him and Djokovic doing their 'Gypsy' thing...

Year-end entertainment

Roger vs Rafa

Off-court, no matter how intense Nadal looks on court, or how much Federer wants to cry at their matches, it never really looks 'Roger versus Rafa' (watch the video!).

I have absolutely nothing to say here about the ladies, who had an almost forgettable year but I will end with this picture of Kim's little girl at the USO prize ceremony.

Aww...

Thanks for these moments, dudes! (1)

2010-12-13T14:39:00.015+08:00

Tennis 2010 is almost over. Time to assemble some probably-not-front-page-type pictures for my favourite moments of the year.

Australian Open

Hit for Haiti

So funny and so fun...

The Retirement

I saw the retirement 'live' but I didn't realise till recently that Murray looked like he was in tears.

Monte Carlo 2010

Finally...

Nadal breaking his torturous 11-month drought

French Open 2010

Then getting his Roland Garros trophy back.

Ballkids with the dude of the season

Wimbledon 2010

The Championships took place during our hospital days so Wimbledon practically became my staple nightly stoning-in-front-of-the-TV-after-coming-back-from-hospital viewing.

Murray and Nieminen bowing to the Queen. Cool, dudes.

Isner and Mahut after 3 days together.

Nadal: Your plate bigger than my trophy, no? Your hair looks different from on the court, no?

Serena: Just smile at the cameras, dude...

(nice dress!)

Of birds and bees

2010-11-26T18:36:00.008+08:00

No, not those birds and bees but the PSLE birds and bees.

After the Science paper (last paper), the boy happily told me, 'There were no bird beak questions'. I know bird beak questions (beak type - eating habits relationship) are easy for many kids but they are not among the boy's strengths. I also know this kind of 'academic weakness' can be addressed by a good diet of Animal Planet and some amount of drilling. However, for various reasons, we never got round to them. Tsk, tsk, lackadaisical parents.

Is this bird carnivorous, herbivorous or omnivorous?

Then came the news about the 'bees' cloze passage which, understandably I suppose, caused some to be up in arms, but which I just put down to being one of those things in life that you can't do much about.

Don't blame me...

For six years, I have known that our attitude towards academic performance is not quite so conventional but I think we have done what we wanted to do: have the boy go through school as painlessly as possible and without hating school while learning some rather more important things such as being a good person and being positive about learning. I wouldn't say we have been lazy or slack or anything near it. We just never believed in keeping his nose on the grindstone in the way others may have done. There is more to life, to put it very simply and mildly.

So, some people may look at his results and wag their fingers at us and say, 'Well, you reap what you sow'. On the other hand, we have also had many congratulations coming in for him and us for his having achieved what he did, considering all that happened in the last few months. I'd like to think we deserve the pats on our backs. Let's just say he did well enough to go where we think he should go and, well, that should be good enough.

I know there are parents and kids who would be disturbed if they get his results but I'm not sure if they will be more disturbed than I was when I read one of today's ST stories about the top students. The story of the child who worked hard for two years, giving herself only 20-minute breaks for meals because she wanted to top the class and get into her 'dream' school struck me really hard. I truly admire her single-mindedness and congratulate her for her stellar results, and I know there are people in this world who love work, like how others may love, say, badminton or movies, but I hope that sometime in her life, she also learns that there is, really, more to life.

The stories of the boy who worked hard with the thought that he was going to get 'plenty of free time after the PSLE' and the top boy's passion for language were a whole lot more palatable. In fact, I like knowing about young people who have an interest in interesting things in life.

So, here we are, near the doorstep of secondary school life where, I suppose, those other birds and bees might await (though I hope they will not be big issues for us). Ya, I am still not focusing on results or O levels or whatever at this point either because, well, there is just a lot more to life...

Heroine steps out

2010-11-15T14:58:00.004+08:00

One can only imagine the mood in Myanmar. I have lost touch with the few Myanmar nationals I knew in the past so I have no chance to ask them anything.

Check out these BBC pictures. Isn't it interesting that the BBC still calls Yangon 'Rangoon'?

Now watching: unusual idol drama!

2010-11-13T11:29:00.009+08:00

Warning: spoilers ahead

It is not often that I watch non-TVB Chinese drama but I find myself following what I thought was a mainland serial, Infernal Lover. I thought it was weird that an idol drama guy (Mike He) was in a show with a largely mainland Chinese cast. I found out later that the show was by a Taiwanese and planned as an idol drama! Clever idea, I thought, idol drama in a historical setting (Republican period). In what sounds like quite a story in itself, due to problems with the original female lead and other stuff, they had to re-cast the cast, re-do parts of the story and re-film some of the scenes. And so it looks like what it does now. (Doesn't the other male lead look like Sammul Chan?)

As with Royal Embroidery Workshop, I was fascinated by the (female) costumes and sets, and, really, not by the acting. I find mainland acting rather stage-y and staged. Mike He's style is so different. Plus, he had this modern floppy hair look while all the other (forgettable) males had hair suited to the era. I wonder if the actors complained about the injustice, ha ha. He is okay as Feng Yi, but just okay. He is good at looking cool and suave but for deeper stuff, such as internal conflicts and masking the intensity of his (character's) true emotions, which I have seen people like Kang Ji Hwan, Bowie Lam and Wong Hei do really successfully, I'd give him maybe 65%. Though I think he did it better than Joe Cheng in It Started With A Kiss, and they both were miles better than Ryu Jin (similar character to Feng Yi - a 'mole' consorting with the enemy as part of the plan) in Capital Scandal.

His Feng Yi and Hua Er were cute as a couple but I wish they had better chemistry. Also, the second female lead Xiao Xue (second from left in the poster, acted by Wang Li Kun) is much prettier and more natural, I think.

(this is not his death scene but an earlier one where he took a bullet for her)

I am sure Mike He's fans would not agree with my rating of his acting and I am also sure the ending was heartbreaking for them. I checked out what happened in the end and was surprised that Feng Yi dies. When does idol drama ever end in death or injustice? I am not sure what the big idea is but it is kind of crappy that he has to die. Among the revolutionaries, he makes the biggest sacrifices and puts in the greatest effort, and the baddies are all gone by then, so why does he have to die? Plus, although everyone knows that he would do anything for Hua Er, he never quite had the chance to tell her what she waited almost the whole show to hear, what it pained him so much to have to keep hidden in his heart, and finally they have their chance and she is waiting for him at the train station, and he has to die? Well and truly crappy.

I like the soundtrack quite a bit, especially the song 石头的外衣, which is such an apt and sad Feng Yi song. It also reflects the uncertainty and pain of the era and the beautifully romantic scenes that were rather few in number, I suspect because of the re-casting and re-filming.

This is not the best of shows but I am watching it because it beats watching Style or 娘家 and it comes on just once a week, which makes for very, very slow progress but it's about all the time I have for any serial.

Where to polish your plate

2010-10-20T09:08:00.007+08:00

I have no known Peranakan ancestry but I am a fan of Peranakan food and other things. So after another hearty meal with the family at Chilli Padi (at Joo Chiat), the favourite joint of the elders, and where the boy was first introduced to the wonders called bakwan kepeting and ayam buah kelauk, we were inspired to look at HungryGoWhere and, based on its info and recommendations, we went to Dulu Kala at Beauty World Centre.

It has been, like, a million years since I last stepped into Beauty World Centre, and, surprise, surprise, those clothes shops are still there! Even the stationery shop at the basement is still there! But now, the place also has a mix of tuition centres and TCM outfits. Never knew that.

So, anyhow, since I have no known Peranakan fibres in me, I am not able to say that the food is just like my grandma's or mum's cooking or whatever. The only simple measure I use is whether the food tastes nice to me, ha ha. And I did enjoy the food. The buah keluak tastes different from the one at Chilli Padi but I still liked it.

Free dessert if you spend more than $30!

My major complaints (and they have nothing to do with the food or restaurant) are that the whole building is rather dingy and the toilets are horrible. But I guess foodies aren't normally put off by eateries being in dumpy places.

And yes, I know my slow-shutter-speed-taking skills need to improve.

Following again

2010-10-18T11:29:00.005+08:00

Of late, we have been reading a blog that we used to follow avidly but had somehow lost track of in the passage of time. Then, we thought that the blog probably had a great many words of import in relation to recent goings-on and successfully re-traced it. So, we are once again following it. True enough, there are a great many words of import. Reading current and re-reading old posts, I cannot help but hark back to the days of innocence, the days before the blog even began.

Also, I cannot help thinking, again, that this blogger is truly smart and well-read. And writes so well...

I don't suppose anyone would really know what I'm talking about if they are reading this but I will not incriminate myself, anyone or anything else, ha ha, so many things are better left unsaid. Though the days of innocence should be worth reminiscing about.

Woo hoo!

2010-09-16T10:16:00.005+08:00

A momentous occasion calls for at least a short post.

Well done, both! (understatement)

Hope to see more of you!

Meanwhile, I am busy, busy, busy...

Time for a new look

2010-09-02T21:56:00.002+08:00

Who are all these kind people who come up with new templates and stuff?

I wouldn't know where/how to start designing my own look.

Moving along...

2010-08-25T10:03:00.007+08:00

Life is now moving along towards the PSLE.

Or no, should I say life is now still moving from day to day (which is a better perspective to have, given the recent circumstances)?

Thankfully, the transitions to 'normalcy' have been manageable and kind to us. Except that, you know, there really isn't such a thing as 'normalcy'...

Another life lesson: there is no 'normal'...

... although the lung function test shows that the boy's lungs are practically back to 'normal',

which I choose to believe is a miracle...

H1N1 Battle Part 4

2010-06-23T16:02:00.004+08:00

Over almost two weeks, I have learnt to better understand words and phrases such as 'very sick', 'pray hard', 'exhausted' and 'bone-tired', which I currently am.

H1N1 Battle Part 3

2010-06-18T16:36:00.006+08:00

Today, not so much about the H1N1 battle but some ranting about hospital etiquette.

My sister reminded me that our dad used to have a separate pair of shoes for hospital check-ups or stays. Now, that is making a lot of sense to us.

People have very short memories. Wasn't it not so many years ago that they didn't want buses to pick up TTSH staff because of fear of infection? Nowadays, I think people no longer fear getting or spreading infections. Just look at the number of people hanging/walking around the hospital and their behaviour.

Many hospitals have common thoroughfares for all and sundry. Like, if you are just going for your eye check-up, you could be walking at the passageway alongside someone who has being going in and out of the ICU (as a visitor). Worse, you could be getting coughed at by that ICU visitor, or you are coughing at him/her. Yet, hardly anyone is using a mask and people in and outside the hospital are coughing and sneezing at, well, all and sundry. (But let's hope that the ICU visitor at least used the mask while in the ICU and washed his/her hands.)

Then, many people in the hospital are there with at least 2 other people. Some are there with, like, a very, very big family group. I cannot say anything about people's preferences but I sure hope that they are all aware that everyone who walks into (or even near) the hospital is open to being infected by something and everyone who walks into (or even near) the hospital is capable of bringing infection in.

Next, there are often groups (meaning 2 or more people together) who are sauntering along passageways like they own them and very, very big family groups walking abreast along corridors at a very, very slow pace. And I'm not talking about elderly, injured or disabled people. Worse, there are some who stop right in the middle of human traffic to engage in extended conversation. People, we need to, like, move faster, so we have less contact with each other and get to where we need to go fast.

Last (for now), I think this happened every day I've been there this past week. Queue-cutting at the taxi stand! Tsk, tsk, how can this happen in Singapore, especially when the taxi stand is quite clearly demarcated. Claps all round for those taxi drivers who made would-be queue-cutters join the queue.

Oh yes, perhaps a word needs to be said about the hospital itself. Do they really need to remind people every 2 days about how high their bill is? Can they just let people focus on getting better?

On the H1N1 front, actually, maybe I should re-name this title because H1N1 is not our biggest problem. Biggest problems are bacteria + asthma. Very likely, H1N1 was downed fairly early and now, the kid is still trying to down the bacteria that went into his system.

H1N1 Battle Part 2

2010-06-16T19:35:00.004+08:00

Still 'bearing with' the effects of Tamiflu. GP said there's a list of the side-effects in the leaflet if you want to scare yourself. If not, just bear with any effects if they are not too severe. Happily, effects are not too severe for me. But am often overcome by bouts of sleepiness (not too uncommon for me anyway).

The boy is making very, very, very, very small steps in the right direction but still battling the bugs.

Another life lesson for us in Singapore: health costs are truly and unimaginably HIGH. In other words, must buy health insurance. Unless you are supremely rich or something.

H1N1 Battle Part 1

2010-06-15T18:06:00.003+08:00

The boy is almost completing Day 4 in PICU. Poor boy, fighting H1N1 + some fearsome bacteria that has gotten into his lungs. It is no joke seeing your kid sedated and intubated.

And here I am stuck at home because I am also down with the flu. Must say that Tamiflu is pretty effective. On me anyway. But I think it's a very strong drug and not something to be taken lightly.

This ordeal is hammering home for me a number of life truths.

For example, there are more important things in life than what he's going to get for the PSLE (a lesson that had already come a-knocking when some other stuff happened earlier this year), or whether we are going to be able to watch Wimbledon on Starhub (I still don't know the answer), one thing being LIFE itself.

Some other things that come to mind now include 'being a good person'. I was very happy to hear recently from his teacher that he thinks the boy is a really good kid and then from my friend who told me that our priest had said a similar thing about him. Then, before I knew it, Father was standing in front of me, having come over to the hospital after finishing some duties in church after having just landed in Singapore! When Father prayed over him, the boy teared. Which brings me to a very important life truth: God is with us.

We have also been overwhelmed by the feeling that everybody is with us, Catholic, Christian or not. And that is just proof of another life truth: people are good by nature.

I realise that I may not be fully coherent in the post, with all that is happening now and under the influence of drugs (Tamiflu and others) but who cares.

Next instalment soon...

Will definitely watch tomorrow

2010-06-03T23:26:00.007+08:00

Must look out for four Asians in a row at tomorrow's men's semi-finals.

And no, I won't be one of them... sigh... So nice for my friend A and her family to be sitting in Court Philippe Chatrier tomorrow. And it almost became a waste of their money as they were hoping/expecting to see Federer and Djokovic, aside from cheering for birthday boy Nadal.

Plus, well done, Stosur

and Schiavone!

Who would have thought...

Time to be glued to the TV again

2010-05-24T13:11:00.003+08:00

Yay, the French Open has started!

Cute picture. The boy on the far left, especially. The boy on the far right somehow looks like Federer, ha ha...

(picture from Nadal's website)

Court work

2010-05-17T10:41:00.007+08:00

Woo hoo!

Nice to see both playing each other again. And nice to see Nadal winning again.

Special mention to unheralded Rezai, who beat Henin, Jankovic and finally Venus Williams in the final, in her gold outfit. Didn't see her play at all but noted all her victories, with surprise.

Moral of the story: hard work does pay (though not always equally)

Remembering

2010-05-14T08:23:00.004+08:00

Remembering my father, one year on...

Fr Remi introduced this poem yesterday during Ascension Day mass. Think it reflects my father's world view in some way.

One Hundred Years from now

(excerpt from 'Within My Power' by Forest Witcraft)

One hundred years from now

It will not matter

what kind of car I drove,

what kind of house I lived in,

how much money was in my bank account

nor what my clothes looked like.

But the world may be a better place because

I was important in the life of a child.

There was a time when I could remember every detail of the four days during which he was unwell and finally passed away. I realised recently that I can no longer remember every detail and that made me really sad. But I think there's a lot more that's important than remembering every minute of those four days and what I certainly hope is that I, as part of his legacy to the world, am making it a better place.

Incidentally, I found out that this Forest Witcraft was a teacher and scout master and the original poem ended with 'because I was important in the life of a boy'.

Chinese Part 6

2010-05-12T15:38:00.009+08:00

Aiyah, why didn't they choose my brainwave?

I found myself agreeing with quite a lot of a letter in yesterday's ST, 'Learning a language: Get priorities right'.

Let me quote the best parts of the letter:

There are three considerations in learning a language.

If a language is to be used as a tool to teach other languages and subjects, that language must be mastered well.

If a language is to be used as a means of communication to enhance business opportunities, a simpler level of teaching and learning it will suffice.

And if the purpose of a language is to connect a person with his culture and roots, then the decision to learn it should be left to the parents, rather than as a matter of compulsory education policy.

I agree!

I also agree with his suggestion that secondary school students take a third language 'to reflect Singapore's multicultural society'. But knowing the fixation with grades and top schools, I doubt this idea will popular.

Finally, I didn't know till I read this letter that (a) children in India learn three languages in school and (b) English is used to teach these 'new' languages to children (i.e. in India). According to the letter writer, 'most of them do well'. Should we not learn from some successful models?

(don't ask me what happened with the spacing in the text)

Chinese Part 5

2010-05-08T11:37:00.009+08:00

I read that reading and writing daily can help keep the brain active and so prevent or delay the onset of dementia. Hopefully, writing one's blog helps there.

Back to the topic of Chinese, I have a brainwave, ha ha. If the weighting for Chinese in the PSLE is to be reduced (which, if it happens, had better be well explained with reasons much more substantial than giving children a better shot at getting into top schools), let it be reduced to whatever-it-will-be and then bonus points (and definitely much more than the measley 2 points currently given for good performance in Higher MT) be given to those who get A and better.

Actually, I also see there is an argument for similarly reducing the weighting for Science but I guess the Minister for Ed probably doesn't want to go there...

So let me keep my thoughts to myself for the moment though I cannot help thinking about it now that the idea of tweaking the PSLE scoring has been broached. After all, there are 'important' subjects that are not even 'counted' in the PSLE. Would anyone argue that PE, moral education (in whatever form) and Social Studies are not important, for example? They don't even have one point in the PSLE score, so why can't we change the scoring for any or all of the four 'important' subjects?

Chinese Part 4

2010-04-23T14:04:00.004+08:00

This Chinese as Mother Tongue business is just sounding so strange now. The reason for 'downgrading' the weighting - so that kids can get a better shot at getting into top schools? How educationally sound is this kind of reasoning?

I didn't know whether I was supposed to laugh when I read the article yesterday about the Sec 1 girl who apparently struggled with Chinese and 'only' got an A and who is now in a 'top girls' school' anyway. Or the letter in the forum complaining of how the grandchild could 'only' get a 240 PSLE score because he/she could not get an A* for Chinese (presumably, he/she got an 'A'). Ok, now, what is wrong with getting A for Chinese or getting 240 for the PSLE?

What about the children who are struggling to pass the subject? What about the children who have problems with any or all of the other subjects?

This obsession with A*s and top schools is at fault, not the fact that Mother Tongue has equal weighting with the other subjects.

Anyhow, it won't be too bad an idea to re-designate Chinese and the other languages as 'second language' (which it is for some) and give it an appropriate weighting in view of that. I can't say anything for the other languages but definitely, Chinese is really hard if it is not your first language.

And I hope people will spare a thought for the kids who will then be disadvantaged because Chinese (or one of the other languages) is their advantage.

Old shell, new heart

2010-04-13T09:59:00.004+08:00

Today, there was an article 'No sense of history in these buildings?'

I must say that it is no surprise that many people care very little even for gazetted national monuments. If you take a straw poll among Singaporeans today, how many would name a historical landmark as a Singaporean 'icon'? My guess is many people would name places like Singapore Flyer, Changi Airport, or something along Orchard Road. The worst is still to come, of course. Very soon, the IRs will also join that list.

Sad but true.

As an old (ha!) IJ girl, I agree totally that the 'sense of history' is lost when the building houses shops, restaurants and nightspots that have nothing to do with its past. At least SJI got to become SAM. It would have been nice if our building had become a library or something to do with school, girls or history. And I do not mean just having those old-looking signs explaining the history of the place.

9 Rooms

2010-04-08T14:14:00.005+08:00

Chanced upon this article about The Nine Rooms of Happiness in Self (March 2010).

Interesting idea. Imagine your life a house with nine rooms. Different aspects of your life go into each room (e.g. the living room is for stuff related to your friends and other social matters; the office - i.e. a room in the house called 'office', not your workplace - is for career-related stuff etc), where you deal with whatever issues there are for that aspect of your life. I suppose that facilitates one's getting one's house in order, ha ha. So corny.

That's how I understand it anyway.

They have a blog for it: here

Yet another modern-day self-help re-labelling of ideas.

They did not have 'shed'; guess it's not really part of the house...

Spring has come, again!

2010-03-10T10:32:00.013+08:00

Warning: spoilers ahead!

(P.S. I don't know why some of the text got underlined and I have no idea how to get rid of the underlining.)

I am doing more enjoyable re-visiting, watching the 'encore' run of Dalja's Spring on KBS World. While Sam Soon remains the definitive K rom-com moment for me, Dalja's Spring, I think, improved on that genre somewhat, doing many things better than Sam Soon did.

I love the different whimsical cartoons that go with each episode.

Chae Rim is such a natural. She pulls this off so easily and nicely. At times, she is just priceless.

Lee Min Ki pales in comparison. He is not a no-hoper but he had no chance of shining in the midst of the pretty strong cast. He played the sweet kid (27 years old, but, to me, a kid) he was supposed to and he and Chae Rim were a cute couple but he had limited facial expressions and voice inflections. I think he only had a/an (a) talking face (b) smiling face (c) intense face (which was basically his talking face plus a hard stare) and (d) upset face, which was the same for all levels of being upset - angry, sad, broken hearted, jealous, etc - all he did was to pout. I think he was just 'average' but him being one of the male leads, one would expect more from him.

The other female lead was much worse, though. I thought her acting was horrible and she

had very little chemistry with the guy. Now, this guy acted well. He was so funny most of the time and he did his emotional and moody parts convincingly too.

As for this other guy, when I saw him in Wedding, he was boring as bricks and stiff as stones. Here, he is still boring as bricks and stiff as stones. But, all

credit to the script writer, his character was actually interesting and funny at times, and all this could come across without good acting. All he had to do was to lie down with a stoned face and eat up all the chocolates from his ex-wife, read the 'Candy' manga that his secretary provided with a stoned faced, ask his secretary questions with his stoned face, etc. This is what I call creative script writing. So talented, these Koreans... I never really thought about this issue before - that you can actually create a solid character out of someone who cannot express himself sufficiently on screen. Well, since we have so many half-past-six or worse actors, our script writers, directors and producers should go and pick up this skill instead of messing up others' and their lives.

Did I say the show had a 'pretty strong cast'? Yes, despite two of the leads acting poorly and one being just average. The secondary characters were well written and acted. We should learn from that too.

To top it off, some people should also go and learn how to do chirpy theme songs such as Spring Has Come.

No No. 1 and No. 2? No fear...

2010-03-09T12:58:00.003+08:00

Last weekend, life went on quite excitingly without Federer and Nadal (who is no longer No. 2 of course, but I don't know what his rank is now so I'll just refer to him as No. 2).

Among other things:

Spain 4 Switzerland 1

Good...

And Nalbandian is back with Argentina's team.

Good too...

Back with Pip

2010-02-23T16:11:00.004+08:00

I have just finished, and enjoyed, Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones.

It was a book I just happened to chance upon. I'm not really into serious, modern fiction but this book-based-on-a-book had a nice cover (ha) and the blurb drew me to it because it's based on Great Expectations.

There are times when you encounter a book, show, song, etc, and it somehow becomes magic that never leaves you. Great Expectations was one such book for me. I guess I could say that Mr Pip is an 'enchanting' story (at least for about half the book) but I know that when I read and studied GE I was spellbound, just like Matilda (Mr Pip heroine) and her friends. Which is why it was painful to watch the Gwyneth Paltrow-Ethan Hawke version of it. Great literature can't be diluted, modernised and commercialised.

I'm sure it will be a worthwhile experience reading GE again, as an adult. Hopefully I have will time for it ... Anyhow, it was great re-visiting Pip and company.

Till Roland Garros...

2010-02-02T15:37:00.008+08:00

In its final days, this year's AO almost became a non-event for me.

Of course I'm biased, having a picture of the losing finalist. Ha. It was quite telling that poor Andy Murray was not himself (again) playing against Federer in a slam final. When, Andy, when? Sigh...

Many of this year's matches were nightmares. But I shall dwell on the better memories, which are:

Nadal versus Murray: despite how the final score looked, some really outstanding tennis was played there (of course I'm biased).

Zheng Jie and Li Na getting into the semis: Li Na is unrecognisable without her tennis attire and with her new hair.

Best of all, Hit for Haiti!

Serena and Federer: She was funny. And I suppose we have to thank him for coming up with the idea (notice the grudging tone?).

Nadal and Djokovic: Funny and cute

Andy Roddick and Kim: Cute

Djokovic and Kim: Cute too

It was so nice to see everyone, joking, laughing and smiling though I must confess that I thought Nadal seemed rather kiasu about the whole thing. I can't decide if he was putting it on, he looked like that because he had trouble understanding what everyone was saying or he just is kiasu (and hence intense and serious even at a 'fun' event).

No, not the casino... yet...

2010-01-21T09:54:00.003+08:00

I suppose some people would be disappointed to know that no, the casino is not to open next week after all. It's also kind of amusing to see how the reports about the casino are fairly low key and carefully worded.

Anyway, I did wonder why, if Universal Studios is opening next week, there was so little fanfare. And I'd like to know what percentage of the actual Universal Studios park we are getting at Sentosa. Will we suffer from small-scale-ness, like Hong Kong Disneyland? From the reports about the dunno-how-many-trillion-dollar plans for South Korea's park, ours sure sounds small...

So, next to open is this 'Festive Walk', suspiciously sounding like Festival Walk ...

Chinese Part 3

2010-01-13T10:38:00.003+08:00

My next point is: why don't we learn from what other education systems are doing? It is not as though we are the only country in the world that has a 'bilingual' system (contrary to what some people seem to think).

For example, we could look at how Malaysians learn English and/or Mandarin. I know many Malaysians who studied most of their subjects in Bahasa Melayu but are proficient in English and/or Mandarin (in some cases, more so than Singaporeans...).

Or non-English-speaking European countries where people learn English. The Dutch priests in our church speak very good English (definitely much better than many Singaporeans) and, surely, English was not their first language. Perhaps someone can go ask them how they did it. We also have an Indonesian priest who speaks English like it is his first language. I know he studied overseas but I believe that was only in his uni days. How did he do it?

Chinese Part 2

2010-01-12T15:04:00.004+08:00

Clarissa Oon's article yesterday, 'English home, Chinese class', continued the all-important Mother Tongue discussion, surely another discussion which requires a great deal of common sense (among other things).

Some of her main points:

1. '... from my experience, and that of a few friends, the fact that we spoke almost entirely English at home was no obstacle at all to liking Chinese in school and becoming reasonably proficient in it.'

2. '... one should not be overly swayed by statistics showing changing linguistic dynamics at home.'

3. 'Further tweaks to the system could inadvertently lower the bar in Chinese-language proficiency for the average Chinese Singaporean student...'

Like Ms Oon, I learnt to write my Chinese name only when I went to Primary 1. Like her too, I spoke practically nothing but English at home. And also like her, while I did not exactly have an easy time with Mandarin, I came to enjoy and appreciate it in school. As I have said before, this fortuitous development was largely due to my teachers. Unlike her, however, I did not excel in it (though I didn't do badly :-)). Ms Oon wrote that she went to a SAP school and later in life, was the ST correspondent in Beijing.

So the theory that coming from an English-speaking home creates insurmountable barriers to Mandarin-learning does not always hold true.

I am not sure I am reading correctly between the lines, but I seem to see an argument that the 'family background' variable is overplayed. If that is the argument, I agree with her.

Furthermore, may I point out that in our time, if someone came from a 'Chinese-speaking home', the 'Chinese' spoken was very likely dialect and not Mandarin. Coming from a 'Chinese-speaking' home does not necessarily mean you will be good in Mandarin.

Based on this theory of my own devising, and using observations (also of my own devising) of one child's (my own) dialect-Mandarin performance, here are my conclusions. Dialect-speaking fluency does not necessarily translate into having no problems learning Mandarin. There are some who will have no problems with the transfer and so on. Such as my husband, who grew up speaking dialect and reading Chinese newspapers (because there were no English ones to read). He effortlessly scored well in Mandarin (unlike me, who worked hard to get the scores I got).

Unlike him too, the boy very often does not realise that "x" in dialect is "X" in Mandarin, unless you point it out to him. When he first learnt Mandarin, he was not able to 'effortlessly' transfer the dialect sentence or phrase constructions that could be used similarly in Mandarin.

Of course, it could be argued that, strictly speaking, the boy doesn't come from a 'Chinese-speaking' home. Perhaps he can be considered a kid from an English-speaking home who had dialect as his second language and Mandarin as his third. Hence, maybe I need to devise another theory.

Let me think about it...

Meanwhile, since the in thing is 'language spoken at home', let me get back to it and point out that, while more children now are from 'English-speaking' homes, their parents are very likely 'bilingual' because they (we) went through a 'bilingual' education. This is very different from the 'English-speaking' homes of our days, when many of our parents did not know Mandarin.

So, if people are studying the home language issue, I hope they do look at it as it should be looked.

Graffiti = vandalism?

2010-01-11T18:20:00.006+08:00

Some days there are no letters and some days there are no letters worth reading but today, there were two letters in TODAY that 'support' the so-called 'vandalism' of post boxes.

Excerpts (nowadays you have to log in to read TODAY online, so, no link):

Letter 1

1. '... what bothers me is not the issue of "vandalism" or the police's involvement (as it is clearly a miscommunication), but rather Singapore's lack of tolerance for anything radical.'

2. 'And now SingPost has had to apologise for a creative, "out-of-the-box" stunt that, frankly, did no harm.'

Letter 2

1. 'I would like to give SingPost some credit for thinking differently.'

2. 'It is too extreme to think that it may inspire others to vandalism...'

3. 'However, SingPost, on its part, failed in carrying out the campaign properly.'

I have to say that I did not follow the news reports much but did people actually say that graffiti on the postboxes would lead to us becoming vandals??

How were the police involved / not involved? I agree that vandalism needs to be reported but this enthusiasm for calling the police for all sorts of things must be quite annoying to the police force. Imagine nobly signing up to be a part of the Home Team and having to deal with complaints about elephants cut-outs, spray-painted post boxes and such. I guess people think our police officers are very 'free' in this low-crime country. Or maybe there just isn't anyone else to call for these things, which is probably why people are also calling the police to catch, not robbers, but pythons, monkeys (the newspaper photo of a police officer trying to offer a monkey a pack of peanuts at Holland Village is deeply etched in my mind) and I don't know what other animals.

Hope

2009-12-24T17:52:00.003+08:00

Finally and (very) belatedly, I am reading Crossing the Threshold of Hope. Interesting, to say the least. At least from a Catholic point of view. I'm not sure how long I will take with it, though, since my brain processes serious books rather slowly...

Wishing everyone a joyful Christmas.

Ways to get out of longkangs

2009-12-07T19:55:00.007+08:00

So, no surprise that Spain won Davis Cup.

Like the commentators, I too was happy to see Nadal retrieving, hitting into corners SO much more than in the last half year. Perhaps his bagel for Berdych will get him out of the longkang he has been in all these months. I'm sorry for Berdych that he had to be at the receiving end. Surely, he must have thought he had a bit of a chance during the 7-5 first set. Then from set 2, he must have been wondering, 'Why me?'

Meanwhile, from Switzerland to Scotland to Serbia and Sweden, surely there must have been a collective groan, 'Oh man, is that beast back for good?'

On Facebook, Nadal says:

Please allow me to be very happy for this win. I know most of you are not Spanish but this is the win of my team and I am very happy for the win.

Actually, I was even happier to see Handsome Mr Ferrer (whom almost no one really cares about) climb out of his 1-6, 2-6 hole to turn his match around. Sorry to Stepanek, of course. Hopefully, this gets Ferrer out of his longkang.

Said he (Ferrer): I believe this one was one of the most tense matches I've ever played... I had wishes to cry after the first two sets and now is the same because I'm so happy. I have to also thank the crowd for their support.

There seems to be something about playing for Spain that energises these guys, like Verdasco in and after last year's final.

London finals

2009-11-29T15:27:00.002+08:00

I say, who would have thought - Del Potro versus Davydenko in the final, and I am missing all the action.

But I'll be back on time for Davis Cup's Spain versus Czech Republic...

Chinese

2009-11-20T22:13:00.004+08:00

I am sure every victim-cum-beneficiary of the bilingual policy has something to say about learning Chinese. Here are some thoughts after reading the recent articles on the subject.

1. I didn't know that we were expected to master both languages 'equally well'. I thought Mandarin was supposed to be our 'second language' and treated it as such. Perhaps things changed when it was no longer called 'second language' but 'mother tongue'.

2. What is this about Chinese being too hard in the 70s? Sure, it was hard as anything but it is much worse now, I think. The kind of vocabulary the kids are expected to know is incredible.

3. Yes, there is something in the argument that listening and speaking should come first but ultimately, the kids still need to read and write and, tedious as it may be, you can't run away from practising writing. Like how you just have to memorise the times tables over and over again.

4. All credit going to my Chinese teachers, learning the language was tough but the ride was interesting and enriching. It is sad to read of people who had such a bad time that they ended up with an 'indelible dislike' for it.

There are probably a million other things I could add but I am rather sleepy (hence today's lousy title) so I will just end by saying that it is not just Chinese teaching that needs to be 'fun' but all subjects should be made fun and meaningful.

Fancy bumping into her at ION?

2009-10-28T16:40:00.002+08:00

Oooh... Ana Ivanovic is in Singapore...

Just making a random guess about where to spot her...

'High' rise?

2009-10-25T18:36:00.008+08:00

We were told in yesterday's ST that HDB resale prices are at a high. I guess there are some people who expect a resounding round of cheers whenever such news is reported.

I wonder if they remember that there are many of us for whom such developments are of little comfort. Like when this 'high' means that your flat now costs $120, 000 less (as compared to $150,000 less) than the price you paid for it.

I wonder if they realise that highlighting the current $3,000 - $12,000 range for the 'cash over valuation' is a joke when you paid, like, more than five times that amount.

After so many years, I am still absolutely sore about having had to cough up what felt like a million dollars in cash.

(not where I live; sorry, forgot where I got this picture from)

I'm afraid I never quite believed that we paid for 'cheap', 'affordable' housing. Just cheaper, more affordable housing.

Deep purple... yeah...

2009-09-24T11:37:00.005+08:00

There was a girl
There was a boy

If they had met

they might have found a world of joy...

I was looking in my mum's kitchen cabinet and I found my Donny and Marie Aladdin flask!

Ha, does anyone still have their Aladdin flasks from the 70s or 80s?

I was so pleased my dad got this for me to bring home stuff from my Home Econs lessons. It is now sitting in my kitchen cabinet.

Go back in time here... Donny and Marie singing a medley of their songs...

They sure look different and Donny is like twice his old size, I think. He looked like he could hardly move on stage.

I found out that Morning Side of the Mountain was a 50s song by Tommy Edwards. Listen to him here and enjoy the corny pictures that go with the lyrics...

Some variety at last?

2009-09-17T16:07:00.005+08:00

I have recovered from being temporarily at a loss for words.

(Wonder who they were rooting for)

So, who would have thought that it would be someone other than Federer winning the USO?

Come to think of it, who would have thought:
1. it would be someone other than Federer winning the AO?
2. it would be someone other than Nadal winning the FO?
3. Andy Roddick would put up such a worthy challenge at the Wimbledon final?
4. Andy Murray would make it to none of this year's Slam finals?
5. Kuznetsova would win the FO?
6. Kim would come back?
7. Kim would win the USO?

and so on...

Well, although I wish that some of this year's results were not what they were, it's nice to have some unpredictability after years of highly predictable and boring results. Good to have healthy competition in the mix.

Maybe there will be more surprises post-USO. After all, the year end stuff in the past did throw up unexpected matches like Nalbandian beating the top three, Gilles Simon beating Federer, etc. Among others on the trail of possibly interesting pre-Shanghai tournaments, there are the Davis Cup matches, and there's the Thailand Open (starting next weekend!), where Nadal is going to play!

What?!

2009-09-15T14:16:00.001+08:00

Gasp... the big joke happened in the men's side, too.

And, of course, there is no need for Federer to cry anymore.

Successful re-entry into the working world

2009-09-14T17:06:00.004+08:00

Well done, Kim Clijsters! Here's one for all working mums, ha ha!

A very, very big hand for Caroline Wozniacki, too. I'm glad she did not wither in the spotlight or against a Big Name.

Either way, I would have been happy for the winner. This year had quite a few outbursts and meltdowns and these two distinguished themselves by remaining cool to the end. And they both look happy most of the time, too, which was really quite welcome, after the many frowning and stressed faces on both the men's and ladies' sides.

Worth staying up to watch?

2009-09-12T11:53:00.012+08:00

Well, well, the women's draw proved itself to be what everyone was saying it was - down in a very deep dump.But never mind, it has thrown up some teens who may be the ones to look at in years to come.

And Kim is back!!

But it will be a very big joke if any of these ladies wins the tournament.

On the men's side, if Federer beats Djokovic in their semi (likely, no?), it will be all too boring if the other person in the final is anyone other than Nadal. Though the prospects of Federer-Nadal being a very exciting match are not that great, with one pai kah and rusty and the other on the roll... Sigh...

No unexpected teens there. Only Cilic, 20 years old.

All pics from the USO site.

Risk your life and limbs

2009-08-28T09:28:00.005+08:00

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

Regarding language

2009-08-19T10:50:00.005+08:00

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 English. I feel they should at least make the effort to learn the language before even applying for citizenship. There are new citizens who do not bother to learn English because they can get on with life without it. And that is quite a scary prospect for Singapore.

After all, knowing the language is just part of the whole story. There was this article around National Day which reported that an appalling number of Singaporeans couldn't recite the pledge. I remember a new citizen was quoted as saying something like the pledge was hard to learn because of its many big words. Well, that is one thing but the pledge is beyond the big words - does he actually understand the spirit of the pledge?

Then there was an article this week about foreign doctors making up for the shortfall of local doctors which reminded me of the good experience I had with one such doctor when my dad was in hospital. She wasn't the best of doctors or whatever but she certainly fulfilled her role as well as any other doctor, keeping me posted regularly, discussing the pertinent issues, giving attentive care (beyond just medical care) to my dad and so on. I want to point out that another doctor - local (and my family has had many very good experiences with local young doctors especially), Malaysian, Indian, Burmese, etc - may/would have done the same thing. My main point is she was able to render this 'good service' partly (largely?) because she could speak English. (Obviously, she wouldn't even be working as a doctor here without being competent in English.)

Do I sound resentful? I don't know...

Maybe I am resentful but I sure do not like how this bodes for the future of my country. And I do not like how this, in its own way, is going to wear out our 'social fabric'. When non-English-educated aunties and uncles need to communicate inter-racially, they can do so in Malay and smatterings of English. In the future, what language are people going to speak?

Patriotic pieces

2009-08-10T17:55:00.006+08:00

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...

Happy National Day, all!

Seeing double

2009-08-06T11:51:00.014+08:00

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 emotional scenes convincingly.

More doubles:

Strange but there is so much physical likeness between couples.

Son Ye Jin looked so much like Jang Nara in Wedding and she and Ryu Jin looked like Jang Nara and Ryu Shi Won in Wedding (below).

Son Ye Jin and Song Seong Heon looked like Han Ji Min and Kang Ji Hwan in Capital Scandal (below).

Country scenes:

About the only really enjoyable parts of Summer Scent are the flowers and lovely countryside and mountain scenery. Which featured quite strongly in shows like Wedding (see above) and The Man From the Vineyard (below). I really like the out-of-Seoul sites. Something you don't get in TVB drama.

Technology, money or sports?

2009-08-01T11:35:00.009+08:00

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 them to use them at the SEA Games. Hmm, guaranteed to make us even less loved by our sporting neighbours, no?

Hawkeye
Hawkeye is old news by now, of course, but I just read this article about it. As an armchair tennis watcher, I have to say that I do like the use of Hawkeye because it reduces a lot of trouble linked to contentious calls. However, all players as well as armchair watchers know that Hawkeye is fallible since it is still based on human judgment. And anyway, it has been proven, occasionally, to be wrong. But overall, I guess it has helped.

Helmets and other stuff
Lastly, we now know for sure that Felipe Massa's helmet made sure he will be able to leave the hospital alive, and still speaking 3 languages.

However, all the safety precautions of race cars and outfits aside, the circuit is another place where the fight is, partly, between the technological haves and have-nots. Of course that translates into a big fat advantage for richer teams.

---------

From the looks of it, we will not be going back to the days when swimming races were swum in plain old swimming trunks.

Lost art

2009-07-21T14:20:00.008+08:00

With uncharacteristic perseverance, and a grand departure from chick lit, I have just finished Noah Charney's The Art Thief. (Last book read was Shoe Addicts Anonymous. Pretty successful variation on the chick lit theme, I thought. Surprising.)

The Art Thief is a very clever book. It is so clever that I think I have to read it again another day to see the full picture, ha ha. There was this reviewer who said that he had to keep writing down what happened to which piece of painting to keep up with the story. For me, there were just one too many of these: forgeries, thefts and double-crossings. As another reviewer put it, the book is 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma'. In other words, too smart for my slow brain.

Nevertheless, it is an intriguing read (Rome-Paris-London plotline) and highly educational if one is interested in art history. I don't know much art history and it was wonderful for me that a lot of the 'educational' parts came from a funny lecturer in the book. It is also fast-paced (good!) and I have to say that it was quite a page-turner even when I was having to think twice or three times about some of the events. Interesting characters too.

The writer is a real art crime person (i.e. an expert in the area, not a criminal; teaches a course 'Trafficers, Thieves and Forgers') and so the art in the story is all real, I think.

The stolen pieces:

Caravaggio's Annunciation (source)

and Malevich's White On White (source)

Yeah, I wouldn't know how to appreciate this. How does one tell if it's fake or real? As the Scotland Yard inspector in the book puts it, it's just white!

Have a go at this lost-art puzzle.

Aww... Andy...

2009-07-06T18:08:00.007+08:00

Despite the final result, today's accolades and picture must go to Andy Roddick. He played so well this year. His last three matches were like a trip to the past and better because he has improved so much. Many people thought last year's final was the greatest Wimbledon final, but I'd say this year's was even closer, no?

It just showed how far Roddick has pulled himself this year and was testimony to his the-match-is-not-over-till-the-last-point-is-played fighting spirit. After so many disastrous outings with Federer, to have pushed him so far yesterday was amazing. Of course I wish he (Roddick, of course) had won. He deserved to.

I just read his post-match interview where he was asked about losing the second set. His answer, “You know, at that point, like everything else, there's two options: you lay down or you keep going. The second option sounded better to me." Well said.

As for Federer, (grudging) congratulations again.

I don' t care who thinks he's the greatest of all time but I completely disagree, my reasons being:

1. A hero, role model, great champion, whatever, should have humility, not an ego, the size of a Swiss mountain.

2. Whether he was #1 or #2, very often in major tournaments he had the easier draw than his closest rivals.

3. He also often has his major stumbling blocks removed without even lifting a finger (Think Djokovic, Murray, Nadal, at this year's Slams). I thought he was practically handed this year's French Open on a silver platter. (He must have thought he would get Wimbledon on a golden platter. Bet he didn't expect that hard a battle with Roddick.)

4. He doesn't put in all those long training hours that everyone else does, does he?

5. He still has a glaringly poor losing record against Nadal and Murray, and is only 6-4 (I think) up against Djokovic.

How can he be the greatest?

To me, he is the 'player with the most Slams'.

Old boys' club: the spirit of champions

2009-06-29T16:24:00.007+08:00

I noticed that after Federer won the French Open, they started showing that Spirit of A Champion show about him again. Must have been because he won and they had nothing else about him to show or something. What struck me most about the show was how different he and his wife looked then and now.

And what has struck me about this year's Wimbledon last 16 is how many old warriors and old champions are still in the draw.

I must say I really admire the spirit of the ex-champions and older players. To soldier on during and after the rise of Federer and all the young pretenders is really something. I don't particularly like their on-court bratty behaviour and have no comments on their off-court lives (except that Hewitt's little girl is so cute now; too early to say for the boy) but when you see Roddick and Hewitt play these days, you can still see their passion and competitiveness. I used to routinely feel sorry for them in the days when they were routinely playing Federer in finals and semis. But I realise that they don't need anyone to feel sorry for them. They were fighters then and are still fighters now. Look at Juan Carlos Ferrero, at 29, after injury and poor rankings and all, he is also still in the draw.

So perhaps one should still see them as champions and not ex-champions.

Also in the 'old boys' group, Stepanek and Haas, both 31 and definitely fighters too. ('Old' being relative, of course; they are all a lot younger than I am, ha ha.)

Let's see how the young pretenders fare from this point on.

Farewell, Gloved One

2009-06-27T16:10:00.005+08:00

Am/was not a fan but of course I will acknowledge talent when I see and hear it.

Michael Jackson was indeed a superbly talented singer (and dancer) and his contribution to the world of music is unparalleled.

I like this clip of him singing Ben, with various people like Beyonce talking about him.

And perhaps his most meaningful song (just my opinion), Man in the Mirror.

May he rest in peace.

Third is not last

2009-06-26T22:40:00.005+08:00

Rather amusing how people rushed to write letters praising and 'defending' Changi Airport when the news came out that it was ranked -*gasp* - third by Skytrax. Even CAAS got into the act.

Aiyoh, third, so third, lah! It's not like we were ranked last or something. Beauty, airport rankings and many other things lie in the eyes of the beholder, so why be so uptight?

For some reason, I have almost zero recollection of Incheon but the husband and the boy are very sure that it is a great airport. And we all agree that Chek Lap Kok is good.

But with things lying in the eyes of beholders, in all likelihood, there may also be people who hate Incheon, Chek Lap Kok and Changi.

Like Kansai Airport is #1 for me but I don't know if it was ever ranked #1 by Skytrax. And I liked Sukarno Hatta Airport (except that its length can be quite a problem - I practically had to run when I realised how far away my gate was) but nobody talks about it, do they?

So, just be gracious and humble and learn (especially from #1 and #2). People have written (not that many letters have been published, though) about what's better in other airports so I will not go into that.

Speaking of which, today's ST Forum had someone writing about how Hong Kong has sanitisers in shops and lift buttons covered with plastic that is sanitised regularly. If I may add, Hong Kong TV runs regular ads reminding kids and families to be hygienic and socially responsible in these times. Hong Kong and China have had sensor-type taps and even soap dispensers and no-need-to-touch flush activators (that work - some such flush activators in S'pore either don't work well or activate an inadequate trickle of water) in many public toilets for some time. How many such toilets can you think of in Singapore?

If we can't stand not being #1 (like, we don't want to have the biggest number of H1N1 cases, right?), why don't we learn from others AND do better?

BORING!

2009-06-23T16:41:00.009+08:00

I am suffering from Nadal-withdrawal-symptoms. So are the commentators, I think. They were all going on about Nadal said this, did that, Nadal should have been playing this match, etc. Well, let's see if they talk about him less as we move on from Wimbledon Day 1.

But, it's so BORING and bland just thinking about the draw without him. I really, really hope some people (not named Federer) liven things up.

And, of course, there is nothing much to say for the women's side, which has been boring, boring, boring since Justine left. Except that Serena has got a nice trench coat (again; but could only find pictures of last year's on the net, so for today I'll just have this picture of last year's Nadal). Wouldn't mind a coat like that if I were going for a cool holiday.

Oh, and I wouldn't want to be in poor Safina's shoes. Everyone keeps harping on 'never won a slam before', 'always losing in the final'. Just like for pre-French Federer - 'never won the French Open', 'always losing to Nadal'. Poor girl. Maybe she should go have a chat with Federer.

Came across this article about last year's final. Captain Cardie versus Muscleman with the secret crochet hook - SO funny! Good thing Captain Cardie has dropped his bygone-era cardie but I can't say I like his new jacket either. I still prefer Serena's trench coat...

History making

2009-06-15T20:22:00.009+08:00

Perhaps the time has finally come for Andy Murray, who yesterday became the first British winner since 1938 at Queen's Club. Good. Hope this bodes well for his Wimbledon campaign.

Young Andy Murray (from here)

It was certainly a more engaging final than that other history-making final that took place last week. Historic as it was, I can't say I 'enjoyed' watching it. Thought Soderling didn't play with enough of the urgency that was required by the occasion. Boring. It was topped only by the washout of a women's final (glad Kuznetsova won) the day before. Nevertheless, I will (grudgingly) say good job, Federer. Not everyone can win 14 Slams. Still, I must point out that he won it not beating Nadal or Djokovic...

As for Nadal, I wonder if he should seriously consider quitting tennis altogether. I'm sure he wants nothing more than to play for another 10 years or so but if he has the knees of an old man (so we are told), he should take better care of himself. Just some pragmatic (me as a Singaporean) and motherly (me as myself) advice. Imagine the rheumatic pains he will have in his knees in his old age. Or maybe he is already feeling them now, since he has the knees of an old man...

Young Nadal (from here)

But if he does quit or even drops off the tour for a bit, with things having turned out as they have over these few weeks, Federer may just claw his way back to number 1. Ugh. What an unappealing prospect.

So I really hope Murray's time has come. Or maybe this other young man, of whom I am not exactly fond, will pull off something? Thought that I'd be watching him play Nadal in the French final, actually... Oh well... Anyway, he was so cute as a kid...

Young Djokovic (from here)

The Growing Years

2009-05-29T11:03:00.007+08:00

So much hoo-ha about sexuality education in school these few weeks. I was surprised to read the following:

1. Parents said they did not receive information about what their children would be taught and did not know that they could opt out of the programme.

Thought it is obligatory for schools to send out info and to give parents the opt-out form. We definitely got those handouts. The school listed the topics that would be covered, with a few sub-points about what would be discussed for each topic.

I suspect that the school also tweaked the timing of the Science lessons to fall in line with the sexuality ed programme. Many schools did the topic of 'Reproduction' for P5 Science in Term 1 this year. However, the boy will only do it in Term 3, after the Growing Years lessons (i.e. the sexuality ed programme) have been completed.

So, get them thinking about the social and moral perspectives first before learning about the scientific mechanics. Good idea, no?

2. A teacher said she(?) was made to teach the programme after one day's training.

For many people, this kind of topic is not easy to 'teach' or even 'facilitate'. You know, like if the teacher is, say, a geography teacher, she probably studied geog for 3 or more years in uni, and also at A and O levels, so she has quite a lot of preparation for teaching geography. So how can we expect teachers to deliver effectively, with only one day's training, a very important values-linked programme?

3. A teacher was reportedly so embarrassed that she(?) cut her lesson short.

Now, if a teacher is not suitable (by nature or whatever it may be), is not comfortable and so on, can't he/she be let off? This is not like teaching Pythagoras' Theorem or something, where there is nothing to be embarrassed about (not that I can think of anyway) and where your personal values don't come in (not in a major way anyway).

If any principals or heads of department think this is not an issue, they should go into those classes and try teaching the sexuality ed lessons themselves first.

4. Parents complained about both the presence and absence of values in sexuality education.

I read comments ranging from 'why teach them how to use condoms?' to 'why didn't they teach about condoms and forms of contraception?' to 'I won't stop my children from having pre-marital sex if they want to'. Obviously, a nation of a few millions will have people with quite diverse views and values. And obviously, a programme in mainstream schools will very likely be conservative and also practical. So if you have views and values that are different, you just have to discuss them with your children.

In addition, if your child attends a mission school, wouldn't you expect there to be a certain slant in sexuality education there? So if you have different views and values, just tell your kid lah. Similarly, if you are of a certain religion with certain views and values about it, and your child is in a non-religiously-linked school, then you have to teach your kid the views and values of your religion lah.

5. Some parents said that sexuality education is no big deal and do not see why there is a hue and cry about values.

I don't know what to say, man...

Finally, I wonder if many parents realise that it is not just in sexuality ed that they have to step in and guide their children. There are numerous areas/topics in school where the values of the home may be different from that of the school, such as gender roles, family values, a lot of stuff in National Education, what makes a good friend and attitudes towards competition, just to state a few.

Happy parenting, everyone...

(picture source)

Dad

2009-05-16T23:28:00.010+08:00

As I sat in the cab to the hospital in the wee hours of the morning of the day my father breathed his last, this song was playing on the radio.

There are several interpretations of the meaning of the song but I thought that some of the lyrics were quite apt (although his name is not Danny).

Oh Danny Boy the pipes, the pipes are calling

from glen to glen and down the mountain side

The summer's gone and all the roses dying

'tis you 'tis you must go and I must bide

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow

or when the valley's hushed and white with snow

'Tis I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow

Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy I love you so

And when ye come and all the flowers are dying

If I am dead, as dead I well may be

You'll come and find the place where I am lying

And kneel and say an Ave there for me

And I shall hear tho' soft you tread above me

And all my grave will warmer sweeter be

If you will bend and tell me that you love me

Then I shall sleep in peace until you come to me

Bye, Dad...

picture source

Anyone watching?

2009-05-09T22:23:00.006+08:00

The boy and I quite enjoy the current 9pm serial.

Which Singaporean wouldn't be able to identify with themes such as school, homework, grades, tuition, Tiong Bahru market and dengue fever?

Actually, I think 'My School Daze' is a rather lame version of the title. They could have used 'School Is Killing Me!', or 'My School Bag Is Killing Me' (milder) or 'My Back-breaking School Bag' (even milder) or something.

I'm impressed by the acting of the kids (teens included) in the show. They are, on the whole, much more natural than some of the 'veteran' actors and actresses alongside them.

Anyway, it is strange to see Ann Kok and Cynthia Koh acting as parents. I must have missed many years of local TV because the last time I saw them, they were doing 'sweet young thing' roles and now, they have suddenly become 'aunties'.

Now, now, girls...

2009-04-24T15:18:00.003+08:00

I think the ladies over at AWARE, both old and new, are doing themselves and women a disservice by dragging this business on and on. It sure doesn't do any favours for women when they are seen to be conniving, mean, vengeful, quarrelsome, and whatever else people must be thinking about them now.

So, ladies, just stop it.

Don't spoil the memories

2009-04-07T21:36:00.010+08:00

I guess many a tennis-fan blogger must have said a thing or two about the now-infamous racket-smashing by Federer by now.

I am by no measure a fan of his. I will admit that I am pleased that the world order has changed and will continue to change. In fact, I am quite looking forward to the year-end rankings which, if things go as expected, may see him slide to something like #4.

He has been a tennis god and role model for so long for so many and although he wasn't/isn't so for me, I don't want racket-smashing and such to be the final images I see of him. Hence, I would like to put here this cute picture of a very young Federer.

I hope people will remember him for his tennis and what he has done for the game. Let's leave the racket-hitting and -throwing and yelling to Safin, Roddick, Gonzalez, et al.

Got the picture from here.

All because of exams...

2009-04-03T17:16:00.004+08:00

It is nice to see young people take a social interest in life around them. Hence, I enjoy reading letters in the Forum by students, such as this young man (? - think the writer is male), although I do not always agree with their logic.

As it is, I do not agree with several things he wrote about but let me not go into that. In fact, I think he should be applauded for having a mind of his own and the guts to write to the national press, not to mention his enthusiastic learning attitude.

What I want to say is that I couldn't help feeling sad that he his love for the Chinese language is so entwined with his consciousness that he is learning the language for exam purposes. He wrote of reading more Chinese books, but for the purpose of writing better compositions for the exam. Also, for someone who, as he says, reads 'voraciously', I am surprised that his teachers did/do not encourage him to develop his own voice and style in writing. Surely he has the language competence to do so instead of just memorising 'good phrases' and learning how other people write.

He also wrote of Higher Mother Tongue as 'beneficial' in that it gives students 'exposure to various writing forms'. Again, isn't that for exam purposes?

Perhaps he has reasons for focusing on exams in his letter and I'm just assuming that, despite his love for language, he is too focused on exams. But, you know, when I read 'I adore both English and Chinese... a language opens up a whole new world', I expected that the letter would be about MUCH more than just exams.

Oh well.

The other very sad thing in the papers recently about school is the report about the Mother Tongue teacher who said she altered her students' PSLE scripts because of the pressure she was under to produce good results. Again, I am assuming that a teacher wouldn't normally alter his/her students' scripts, even if they were presented to him/her on a silver platter. Based on this assumption, this teacher must have been under A LOT of pressure to have done what she did. Very sad...

Shy? Please, lah...

2009-04-01T11:31:00.006+08:00

There's an article today in TODAY, 'Are we ungracious, or just shy?'

Couldn't help but laugh...

I'm sure there are many shy people in Singapore. I'm sure there are many gracious people in Singapore. And I'm sure there are many ungracious people in Singapore as well.

However, does being shy make one behave in an ungracious way?

I do not think the example of 'shy' people not giving up seats is a particularly enlightening one. Sure, there is the possibility of being rebuffed and 'made to look stupid'. But it's all in the mind, isn't it? Why should you feel 'stupid' if someone refuses the seat you offered? And if you are rebuffed, just sit back down, lah. If you have the 'courage' to publicly offer your seat, you must have enough thick-skinnedness to ignore the rebuff.

But I do agree with the sociologist who said that "If you don't want it (the seat offered to you), say 'Thank you, but I don't need it.'"

Who cares if chick flicks have a bad name?

2009-03-27T15:10:00.006+08:00

Confessions of A Shopaholic was fun. And it's always nice to have a young man with a British accent in the show, ha ha.

During my habitual pondering on trivial matters, it struck me that chick flicks have a lot in common with the kind of K drama I watch. So it finally dawned on me that these K shows are just chick flicks in another language and culture. Ha ha, am I profound or what...

Some people thought Sam Soon was like a Korean Bridget Jones. I don't really agree but of course there are a few similarities in their characters. I recently watched Spotlight and there you have Woo-jin, the broadcast journalist, which was what Bridget Jones was too. And then there is Kim Sun-ah (Sam Soon) in When It's Night, acting as a Sam Soon-like character but in a museum-national treasures setting... So everything seems to be related to everything...

There is also that top-of-the-building scene, you know, when the guy or girl goes to the rooftop to reflect on something (usually bad) that has happened. Like in Surgeon Bong Dal-hee and Spotlight, where the rooftop was a very popular retreat spot. When I saw Rebecca Bloomwood on the rooftop, I was, like, hey, what is happening here? This rooftop thing is really quite a global practice! It is also in They Kiss Again and many TVB shows.

I followed Spotlight (left) from about two-thirds of the series because I kind of liked the TV news setting and I found it fascinating that they can produce without trouble a show which highlighted government corruption, government-conglomerate secret deals and such. But I don't know why that Woo-jin character and the male lead were frowning for at about 90% of the time.

Am watching When It's Night because of the museum-national treasures theme even though it's not that great a show and Kim Sun-ah's character is too much like Sam Soon. Was disappointed to learn that she didn't end up with that charming policeman (widower) with the rather un-cute daughter. No fight, what (policeman on the right, the other guy on the left in both pictures) .

I want to watch Cantonese shows in Cantonese

2009-03-20T13:22:00.004+08:00

Ho ho, I wonder if people are having a nice discussion about dialects in language class. I can more or less imagine what they are saying.

Anyway, I do not agree with the various 'theories' that have been spoken of.

I am not going to bother going into the theories that will be taught in the language class but I shall just list some anecdotal 'evidence' of my own.

I found Mandarin hard and it was not because of dialects because I am hardly a dialect user. Neither did I dislike Mandarin because it was hard. In fact, I had very good teachers in primary school so I appreciated it although it was hard for me.

The husband was and still is a prolific dialect user. He had no problems with Mandarin. In fact, As in Mandarin were practically a way of life for him.

The boy was a prolific dialect user (rare for his age) in his early years. He did very well in Mandarin in lower primary. Today, he is a much less prolific dialect user (but still a dialect user and still rare for his age) and he is doing much less well in Mandarin.

So... what should we conclude about dialects and Mandarin?

I think Bear Hug will remind me not to be so politically incorrect. I can't help it lah. I really really prefer watching Cantonese shows in Cantonese.

Weak title

2009-03-09T10:32:00.004+08:00

The title of the article was 'A link between gaming and violence?'

The article showed that the link between gaming and violence is tenuous in many cases.

TNP? Tabloid? No, our very own Sunday Times. Tsk, tsk...

Instead of wasting their time and effort trying to come up with a 'thought provoking' title, the newspaper would serve us better with more insightful and meaningful reporting. I really thought that this article was just cashing in on recent unfortunate events, and bordered on the sensational. It started with 'Three gamers were in the news last week for the wrong reasons'. From what we have been publicly told, however, only one of the three actually did something 'violent'... Why don't they go and find out if the Singaporean lady who hired killers to shoot someone in Phuket is a gamer?!

So...

Can we have more helpful research into the social impact of gaming (and not just the 'violence' link... or non-link...)? And more insights into issues such as why people like to prey on the young via the Internet? What about the link between stress and depression, between depression and suicidal and homicidal tendencies, etc? The three 'gamers' happened to be 'gamers' but I believe their other issues were a lot weightier than the fact that they were 'gamers'.

At the very least, can we just have better headlines and titles?

Stop! Elderly crossing!

2009-02-09T08:56:00.003+08:00

I don't know if it's just me but there seem to be more articles in the papers these days reporting people stating the obvious. Nothing else to report or what?

In yesterday's Sunday Times, there was this article entitled 'Make roads safer for the elderly, say experts'. Ground-breaking, isn't it? The paper interviewed the elderly and experts on the issue of elderly pedestrians and their road-crossing habits and came to this intelligent conclusion:

"Most felt that pedestrian crossing lights should stay green longer, and that there should be more traffic light crossings instead of overhead bridges."

Duh.

The problem of the elderly jaywalking is nothing new. The fact that older people take longer to cross the road is nothing new. The fact that older people prefer road crossings to overhead bridges is nothing new (Wah, don't say older people. I also avoid overhead bridges.)

This guy from the National Safety Council so kindly said that "many elderly pedestrians are vulnerable because they do not take the trouble to look out, cannot make the crossing in time or are carrying heavy loads... Often, elderly people such as karung guni men pull big bags or trolleys. And I've heard of elderly women who jaywalk and expect traffic to stop for them by holding up their hands."

What kind of attitude is that? Never heard of empathy ah? Think it's easy to be old, have trouble walking fast (or have trouble walking) and have to carry big bags or loads across the road ah?

Anyway, I thought it should have been obvious that something needed to be done for elderly road users long before we got worried about our ageing population. I remember some twenty years ago, my driving instructor already made it a point to remind me to look out for the elderly on the roads. They don't know the highway code, he used to say.

May I also add that they also need to look into the issue of more older drivers on the road, building lifts in multi-storey car parks and such.

It's okay

2009-02-03T11:37:00.006+08:00

Today, I want to say 'It's okay' to two groups of people.

First, the parents who were interviewed about the possibility of there being no exams for primary 1 and 2 kids (Sunday Times article). A significant number actually want exams for their children.

I think it is really okay for young children not to have exams. It's okay if they don't take exams seriously at first. It's okay if they only have four years (i.e. minus primary 1 and 2) of 'exam practice'. I mean, does 'practising' taking exams for another two years actually help you do better at the PSLE? It's okay to have mini topical 'tests' (in place of semestral exams) IF they are designed with the children in mind. I'd rather they were 'assessments' of different types. You don't need a pen-and-paper test to see what/how much/how well a kid has learnt something.

But I do agree with the person who said that if nothing changes for the remaining four years of primary school, it would be weird to have two years of 'fun' learning and then four years of torture.

I also want to say that it's okay if Roger Federer doesn't hit that magic 14th Grand Slam title. Goodness, he shouldn't break his heart over it lah. He has already achieved so much and he is considered by many to be one of the, if not the, greatest.

And maybe everyone else should just stop harping on it so that he wouldn't feel so much pressure.

Perhaps we can all learn something from Nadal, answering a question about how he thinks he'll do compared with Sampras and Federer:

Well, I have six right now, no? Happy with my six. Well, for sure I gonna continuing my best try every day for improve my tennis and for try to continuing win matches and titles.

But I know is very difficult, everything, no? Every title, I know how tough is win every one. I don't know if I gonna win more, but for sure I gonna continuing try. But, you know, when I won my first one I didn't know if I gonna be win more.

You never know when that stop. So you have to be always with precaution and you have to be humble for continuing work like all my life, no?

(From the AO website)

As for the AO, like many (and unlike some vocal ones), I thought the AO crown was Andy Murray's. Alas, it was not to be and probably we have to wait till the US Open to see if Murray is going to get his first crown. I have to confess that I didn't think Nadal would win it. Didn't count on his having improved so much.

I must also confess that, like many, I used to think that Nadal was just good for a string of French Open victories but look how he has blossomed into a champion on grass as well as hard court. And a true champion (at least in public) he is. It was so nice to see him climb over the net to hug Verdasco after their match, put his arm around Federer the other day and to be respectably muted in his celebrations whenever he beat Federer.

Anyhow, it will be a long, boring wait till the next Grand Slam.

High time

2009-01-30T12:22:00.004+08:00

My, it took some people a mightily long time to decide that (among other things): primary school should be less exam-oriented, primary school kids should have more PE, art and music lessons, fun activities for singles need not be confined to people of a certain age group or academic qualification, etc.

The changes can't come a moment too soon, especially the ones for the primary school kids. However, they will be much too late for the boy, who will probably have left primary school by the time things change. How sad.

Well, I have concluded, in Week 4 of Term 1, 2009, that Primary 5 is really quite jia lat. And who was it who said that the new Chinese syllabus was easy?! Aiyoh...

The serious aspects of life aside, my million dollar questions today are: Is Ana still in Melbourne? Will she turn up to watch today's semi-final?

Ha ha, tune in to Spain versus Spain, leftie versus leftie.

Money

2009-01-24T14:16:00.004+08:00

So much hoo-ha over a rich man spending his money. I didn't read the article that offended so many people so I only have 2 things to say about it, which are: (a) if I had the chance I also want to learn a thing or two from Le Cordon Bleu, and (b) that is where Sam Soon trained to be a patissiere in the show.

Anyway, there are so many articles today about how much people will save with the new budget and all. Good for everyone.

And then there's the Merrill Lynch guy who, in a TT-like move, spent US$1, 400 on a waste paper basket and US$5,852 on a coffee table, among other things. That is quite amazing. But what is also amazing is that such a waste paper basket can actually be bought.

Then there's Mr Thaksin who is using up his non-frozen assets staying in a five-star Dubai hotel and wondering how he is going to continue staying at such a place. Well...

Finally, I was amused to read about Serena Williams, who has earned US$22 million in tennis money in her career, 'cutting back' and carrying a US$12 bag at this year's AO.

So many ways to manage money...

AO - boring fashion

2009-01-22T15:28:00.004+08:00

With Sharapova not in attendance, there is hardly a pretty day or night tennis dress to be seen. Boring...

So far, my favourite outfits are Nadal's speckled shorts (day and night) and Djokovic's olive green (that's how it looks to me) theme.

Too lazy to search for the photos online.

So, it is Federer versus Safin tomorrow. Watched the 2005 AO footage (was it last week?) and was reminded of how brilliant Safin was. I guess the important word here is 'was'. Then again, a lot of what can be said about Federer probably has to be said in the past tense too...

Moody swings

2009-01-15T14:49:00.003+08:00

So, the psychological war has begun...

What's with Federer and his bipolar-like comments on Andy Murray? One minute he is complimenting him and then he is making these disgruntled comments about Murray being a favourite for the Australian Open (which should not be a surprise, what). He should just concentrate on swinging his racket properly and keep his mouth shut. It might save him some embarrassment should he lose to Murray (again), Nadal (again), Djokovic (again), some unknown, or anyone else for that matter.

Or just keep to complimentary or neutral comments. Like how Nadal cleverly sidesteps trouble and controversy by saying very bland (though realistic) things such as everyone starts the year with zero.

Or say nothing, like Djokovic. Well, maybe he is saying stuff but no one seems to be reporting anything coming from his mouth so it's almost like he is saying nothing.

Anyhow, it is great that we are just a few days away from the start of the AO. Was watching footage from past AOs on TV. Everyone looked so youthful just 3 or 4 years ago.

Not a fan

2009-01-13T22:05:00.003+08:00

I must confess that I wasn't one of the dunno how many million who were glued to the TV for the finale of The Little Nonya. I don't think I watched more than 10 minutes of the serial though I was initially curious about how the show would turn out. Well, as things turned out, I did not get the feel of jolly Bibiks and Dondang Sayang and such. Instead, it felt very much like a TCS melodrama...

I liked the beautiful sets and costumes, though. Lovely.

Oh well, I guess my not liking the show makes no difference because there were the dunno how many million who beat all records by tuning in to it.

Actually, I'm not really one for epics. I did not survive either Oshin or Jewel of the Palace, with which Nonya has been compared. Not that they weren't interesting. Jewel was interesting but too long and slow-moving for me. Oshin was alright, I guess, but there was too much suffering. I mean, the poor girl just had so many unfortunate incidents happen to her that it became too difficult to continue watching.

Hope 2009 will see higher standards all round.

A fresh start, for some...

2009-01-03T15:18:00.005+08:00

What a pleasant surprise it was to find that there was 'live' tennis on TV from New Year's Day. People are playing at the Capitala tournament in Abu Dhabi and the Hopman Cup in Perth. Everyone looks kind of rejuvenated (which is much more than I can say for myself) though I'm sure Federer would have hoped for a better start to the year. But what an excellent start for Murray.

Enter Nadal in his new look (which I cannot find a picture of online). I have to say the look reminds me of Bjorn Borg. Plus, the shirt with sleeves looks too tight for him. And the shorts look a little too tight as well. Actually, I think anything with sleeves would somehow look too small for him, ha ha.

Anyway, our computer, after several spurts of normal behaviour, has finally gone. Won't be getting our new one just yet so will be surviving on this other one (not actually ours) every now and then.

Time to cheer up

2008-12-26T14:04:00.003+08:00

Since we finally had a bit of time to pursue trivial pursuits, we dropped in at KBox and now I have a new karaoke favourite. Jay Chou's 'Chrysanthemum Flower Bed' has usurped 'Moonlight in the City' (Mavis Hee), ha ha.

I read in Mind Your Body sometime back about a study on different genres of music. It turned out that people were happiest listening to country music. I don't doubt that I myself would prefer country to, say, heavy metal but I don't particularly like county. I was trying very hard to think of country songs and realised that I don't know any modern ones. I could only think of stuff like 'Take Me Home, Country Road', ha ha.

Anyway, I think it was in another issue of Mind Your Body that I read that songs make people happy or something like that. I'm sure that must be true. Music of various sorts has certainly helped me in many ways, many times.

I'll just end here with something suitable for the time of the year, The Priests singing O Holy Night.

Grim times

2008-11-30T10:52:00.003+08:00

Oh.My.Word.

All this is quite sick and horrible.

May Ms Lo Hwei Yen rest in peace. And condolences to her family and friends.

I am glad, though, that Fr Anthony reminded us to pray for perpetrators of violence too. I had almost forgotten them. After all, they are probably the ones most in need of prayers and healing.

Come to think of it, there are also the hundreds of other victims. And hundreds and hundreds others, if you think beyond Mumbai... such as in Kashmir, as mentioned by the gunmen... and the many, many broken lives and spirits out there...

Aiyoh...

This weekend's Gospel reading (Mark 13:33-37) is timely, I guess:
Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore -- for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning -- lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.

Young guns on the rampage

2008-11-17T13:46:00.007+08:00

Well, well, so Djokovic finally finds himself back on top of things after an amazing slump. And it's amazing that he still has enough points to threaten Federer's No.2 spot. In fact, he will probably become No. 2 sometime next year. But that's where the plot will thicken. Because I think Murray is likely to eclipse him and even Nadal. If Djokovic had done better this year, he might have a brief taste of being No. 1 but seeing how fast and well Murray is improving, I doubt he will get the chance.

I'd have preferred to see Murray win the Masters Cup, of course, but never mind, lah. He has already done so well this year and people like Djokovic and Davydenko need the morale booster that they got from playing in the Masters final. I was glad, though, that Murray cut his hair recently (left). I cannot imagine him gunning for the No. 1 spot with his old hairstyle (right). Yes, yes, hair is a trivial matter when you are going for No. 1 but still...

It was good also to see Gilles Simon and young Del Potro coming into the mix too. I really like Simon's backhand. I have nothing against the older players but things are becoming more exciting with these new guys around.

So, there's just the Davis Cup final left now. It should still be interesting without Nadal. Ferrer will be there what, ha ha. I wonder if Nadal will go over to support Spain. Or if Ana will go over to support Verdasco, heh heh.

And I wonder where on the ladder Federer will find himself this time next year...

1% possible

2008-11-12T12:38:00.013+08:00

It's time once again to write about trivial topics, ha ha.

I mentioned this K drama, 1% of Anything, sometime back. The title is grammatically odd but it is what the show is about - that even if there is a 1% possibility of something working out, there is that possibility of things turning out well in the end. I kind of like that storyline. It is a 2003 production, making it a contemporary of Stairway to Heaven and All In. Rom-coms weren't quite in yet at that time so it must have been quite a change from the usual fare then.

This show will appeal to die-hard romantics and anyone interested in watching the precursors for many later rom-com scenes. I recognised so many scenes here that were copied in shows like My Girl, Goong, etc. (For all I know, maybe this show copied those ideas from elsewhere.) The show also has practically all the elements you would expect in K drama - rich family versus poorer family, blind dates and match making, best friends, one girl and two suitors, love contracts, younger brother, grandfather... It even has some TVB ideas - cruel stepfather and kidnap!

Nevertheless, I did find it entertaining (though 26 episodes is way too long) because it had some quirky takes on those stock ideas. Like there is often a scene where the guy is pestered by another girl and the girlfriend happens to come by and overhears only part of the conversation and thus misunderstands everything, right? Well, here, the girlfriend happens to come by at the right time and thus sees and hears everything and so there is no misunderstanding. Then there is the time when the girl's dad spings a dating contract on the guy. Funny.

Also, it was nice for a change to have a guy who makes up his mind about the girl very fast, unlike many heroes who take about half the series or more to decide/realise that they like the girl.

And there was a nice soundtrack. I can still hear the song in my head. The last time that happened was when I watched Love Revolution. And I can still hear Ken Hirai...

The main girl, Kim Jung Hwa, is beautiful. The guy, Kang Dong Won, should have had a better haircut but his character was rather endearing.

Han Hye Jin, of Be Strong, Geum Soon and Jumong fame, is here as a secondary character, the best friend. These must have been her early days and I can see why she became a top choice for later dramas. Her acting overshadowed that of all the main characters.

My friend A says she has gone off K drama because she is tired of how everything is fake and made up. I do agree with her on this. Apart from Han Hye Jin, I would say the other people acted fairly competently in a textbook sort of way - they delivered their lines and played their characters in the most 'correct' way they could. Hence the 'fakeness'. And, of course, the cast is, as usual, telegenic and you suspect everyone has had some work done on their faces, teeth, etc.

So I was really glad when Ariel and Joe came back on TV in They Kiss Again. More on that another time!

Pictures from here

From kids to coffee prices

2008-11-09T16:03:00.008+08:00

So after the so-called monk, I went back to chick lit and finished Rowan Coleman's The Accidental Mother pretty fast.

Nowadays, I'm not all that hopeful about chick lit but this book, about Sophie who ended up having to take care of her late best friend's young daughters, turned out to be quite a good departure from the usual formula. Except for the ending. But what to do, it's chick lit what. At least the plot was interesting and there were some strongly emotional and meaningful 'scenes' between Sophie and the girls. I was surprised to find such depth in chick lit.

And so now, I am reading Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist. Not my usual type of book but I was attracted by its cover and blurb, ha ha. This is a really good book. I am enjoying every page of it, which is much more than I can say for the Lim Chong Yah and another purple textbook (or was it orange?) we had for econs in the days of yore. With all due respect to Mr Lim and the purple textbook author and all other econs textbook writers, Tim Harford's book is engaging and funny, which are not the usual adjectives you would attach to econs books but being engaging and funny is certainly a way to make the subject interesting.

So if you've never smiled to yourself while reading about demand and supply, marginal cost, perfect competition and such, you may want to try this one. I'm not progressing too fast through the book, though. The subject matter is a bit hard for my currently slow-moving brain. This book may be engaging and funny but it still does require some thinking...

Life and death

2008-11-06T11:50:00.006+08:00

Added on 7 Nov:
I realise that it wasn't the Archbishop but the media that made the church's stand public.
----------------------------------------------------------------

So, our Archbishop has made public our stand on euthanasia. No doubt, this will open us up to some battering by other people's opinions. But never mind, lah, we are used to it.

I wonder if we will see some day soon another historic day in parliament when the party whip is lifted and MPs can vote according to their conscience (as they did in 1969? for the Abortion Bill)...

Don't say no one warned us about the slippery slope from abortion to euthanasia...

It's a debate on the same continuum (or slope), isn't it?

Break...

2008-10-30T09:49:00.002+08:00

Have been on an unplanned extended break from this blog because (a) am rather busy and (b) the computer is dying, I think. On bad days, it takes, like, half an hour to start and everything responds very slowly, so I don't really have the patience to do anything more on it than what is absolutely necessary. On worse days, we can't even get on the Internet. So...

Until we find out what is wrong / fix it / buy a new one (yay!), I guess I won't be doing much or any blogging.

Made in Heaven

2008-10-13T11:33:00.002+08:00

While speaking about the weekend's Gospel reading (Matthew 22:1-14), Father Remi said something about marriage:
Long before you were born, God intended this (the fullness of married life) for you.

That was quite an awesome thought...

Ancient wisdom in modern book

2008-10-07T11:07:00.006+08:00

Finally, after, like, 3 months or thereabouts, I have finished Robin Sharma's The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.

I guess the book would be classified as 'new age' and 'self help'. There's a lot of practical 'wisdom' but I didn't find it all that engaging.

Much of the 'wisdom' is ancient wisdom, which my friend, a Sai Baba follower, told me about some 20 years or so ago. Ha, she could have written a book like that. No doubt, in this book, the 'wisdom' was learnt from 'sages' but I just found it so weird that the guy had never heard of all this. Plus, I'm really not into re-hashing 'old' wisdom into new form, a la 'seek first to understand, then to be understood' from 7 Habits fame, which, as far as I know, came from St Francis of Assisi.

And what about the re-telling of Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant as part of the sage's wisdom? (Of course it is possible that Wilde got inspiration from some ancient tale. I don't know...)

But the book is good for collecting quotes. One I like is, 'She (one of the sages) told me the best time to plant a tree was forty years ago. The second best time is today.'

You can check out the 'wisdom' in summarised form here.