9 Apr 2009 – Opening of the Wu Guanzhong at SAM

Wu Guanzhong (吴冠中; August 29, 1919–) is one of the best known contemporary painters of Chinese origin. His donation of 113 works to the Singapore Art Museum is the highest valued donation presented to a public museum in Singapore. The exhibition represents five decades of the artist’s works and is co-organised by Singapore Art Museum, Shanghai Art Museum and National Art Museum of China. A key significance of his art is the crossing and synthesising of the two art forms of ink and oil which represent art historical and aesthetic contexts of traditional Chinese and western art.

RADM (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, acting Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts was the Guest of Honour for yesterday’s opening. The Singapore Shawl has printed some of Wu Guanzhong’s beautiful works on their silk shawls and cards for sale. It is Uniquely Singapore to have a piece of Wu Guanzhong to cover over your shoulders.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up – Pablo Picasso

7 Apr 2009 – SS by SS

The Singapore Shawl by Shelley Siu…  what a tongue twister!

My feet are killing me. Was standing for at least 6 hrs daily for 6 days as one of the staff was on leave and I was helping with the SS sales counter at the Centrepoint’s Robinsons. What a learning experience, and I sympathise with my fellow salesperson. It is quite amazing that there are 6 floors at this Orchard Road’s Robinsons department store and the staff’s locker room is so small that it is claustrophobic when last shift takes leave.

In addition, was told curtly that even when there are no customers, I was not allowed to take pictures of my own display nor was not allowed to chat with the other salesperson or sit, even for 1 min!  If this is what it is like working in a SIN department store, it is no wonder that courteous and compassion campaigns are needed. Observations for 8 years showed that they are not effective on this rat-race island state & country.

Does Robinsons train supervisors to be without common sense? As you can see, my blog picture is of my display and I enjoyed myself with the other salesperson when there were no customers. Started working all my summer holidays during university days and have not stopped since, but do not ever recall being treated this way. Would you want to shop at a store where staff are treated like such?

The object of a salesperson is not to make sales, but to make customers – unknown

4 Apr 2009 – Punch line to the Punks

Received this just as I started with my tax… put a 🙂 on my face and that is a good way to start with my tax! Have a good weekend and hope that most of you have completed your tax…

I took my dad to a fair the other day to enjoy the beautiful weather. We decided to grab a bite at a food stall. I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him. The teenager had spiked hair in all different colours: green, yellow, orange and blue.

My dad kept staring at her. The teenager would look and find him staring every time. When the teenager had enough, she sarcastically asked:

‘What’s the matter old man, never done anything wild in your life?’

Knowing my dad, I quickly swallowed my food so that I would not choke on his response, knowing he would have a good one. And in classic style he did not bat an eye in his response.

‘Got drunk once and had sex with a peacock. I was just wondering if you were my daughter.’

But in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes – Benjamin Franklin

1 Apr 2009 – All Fool’s Day

Many theories have been put forward about how the tradition began. Unfortunately, none of them are very compelling. So the origin of the custom of making April Fools remains as much a mystery to us as it was back in 1708. April Fool’s Day has all the characteristics of a renewal festival. For one day forms of behavior that are normally not allowed (lying, deception, playing pranks) become acceptable, and yet the disorder is bounded within a strict time-frame. Traditionally, no pranks are supposed to be played after 12 o’clock noon of the first, depending on which time zone!

Cyber security experts are warning that a new variation of Conficker, a fast-spreading computer worm also known as Downadup, could attack millions of computers on today. Experts say it’s unknown whether the worm will cause havoc or merely turn out to be an April’s Fool prank. But people can protect their computers by using security software.

The question of the day… are Apple computers more prone to worms??  Even if you do not have an Apple, please make sure that your security system is updated.

Foolproof systems do not take into account the ingenuity of fools – Gene Brown