1 Nov 2009 – November’s Dates

A weekend to Malacca/Malaysia was about 3hrs by bus from SIN. It was 5 years ago since our last trip there. Jo LAM, Steven LAM and I left on Friday. Jo‘s passport was expired and instead of taking the 12noon bus, we took the 1545hrs bus. A one-time permit application was a learning experience at the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority/ICA. Thank you to June CHONG for her kind hospitality and for driving us around.

Some new developments but the old Malacca town has not changed much. The river cruise is new and they are trying to clean up the surroundings by the river to attract tourist. Have always enjoyed visiting as this is one of the few places in SE Asia with history from the Jrivijayan, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and English. The Seri Negeri, State Administrative and Development Centre which houses the Chief Minister’s Office, State Secretary’s Office and Legislative Assembly Hall are now listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage site.

13th Happy Bday LEUNG Yee Fun

15th Happy Deepavali to my Indian friends

19th Happy Bday Yulis ADAM TEO

26th Happy Thanksgiving

27th Happy Bday Daisy CHIA and Selemat Hari Raya Hagi to my Muslim friends

29th Happy 3rd Bday to my only grandson John Whitham HALL

30th Happy Bday LAM Kwok Chai

We can learn from history how past generations thought and acted, how they responded to the demands of their time and how they solved their problems. We can learn by analogy, not by example, for our circumstances will always be different than theirs were. The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events – Gerda Lerner