Month: June 2011

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Holy Holy Holy

12 Jun 2011 – with the descent of the Holy Spirit came the sun!

This is a long weekend, being Pinse/Pentecost or Whitsunday, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection. It is again a public holiday on Mon here in holy Norway. Services will be held in all churches. The pix of Bryn Church is a view from my terrace this morning. Pinse is the great spring holiday when everybody tries to get away from the city, a phenomena of the Norwegians! Kristi Himmelfart/The Feast of the Ascension was just last week, another excuse to get away!

Quite an oxymoron and challenge to live in such a holy country with the heathen trolls and vikings! The rains have been relentless for 6 days and the grounds must be saturated with water by now. To those driving to and from their cabins in the mountains or by the coast, please drive safely and carefully!

An Australian friend, Kim told me that it is also a public holiday in Australia… another benefit of being a part of the British Commonwealth — a day off on Monday in recognition of the Queen’s birthday. Another Australian friend, Denise posted this nice creation dish called Frogs in Pond. A SIN friend, Athena posted this rice and stew dish which I will name Teddy in Stew! Blue Flour Cookies from Irmo/SC. Great ideas to get children to eat their food and who knows, perhaps they will one day learn to appreciate good food 🙂

No matter what is written, someone is either commenting that there are too little words or too many words. Sometimes the words just keep pouring in and other times they are falling out! Oh well, such is life, will just write when the words are there and when they are not, will post more pix. After all the blog is about life’s journey and that means everything & nothing, but mainly as a reminder for the blessings in life!

For everything that lives is holy, life delights in life – William Blake

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Floods in Norway!!

11 Jun 2011 – Words Falling…

Previous posting implied that there is no flood here… ouch, now will have let those words fall or eat them!!! How many times must there be a reminder to NOT talk too soon!

http://www.aftenposten.no/

From Aftenposten: Alerts flood water is rising rapidly in several parts of the country. And the worse it will be, alerts NVE… melting snow combined with the sharp rain over parts of Norway leads the flow of several rivers to have risen to unusually high levels… and the rest of the article is in Norwegian but too lazy to translate more!

Pix and info are downloaded from various Norwegian newspapers. The green areas in the map are where the rains are hitting, the darker the green, the heavier the rain! Some of the readers requested for more pix and fewer words, so this posting is especially for them since the words have either fallen or been shallowed 🙂 🙂 🙂

A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in – Frederick The Great

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The Colour of Money

10 Jun 2011 – Money won is twice as sweet as money earned!

Viva Singapore: Lion City set to trump Las Vegas as the world’s second largest gambling hub. By Charlene Fang: 8 Jun 2011 

In just over a year, Singapore has turned itself a gambling powerhouse. Who would have thought that in a little over a year, Singapore would be set to overtake Sin City in the gambling stakes? According to Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, in a report by The Straits Times, the two integrated resorts — Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands —  posted US$5.1 billion (S$6.3 billion) in gaming revenues in 2010, a figure forecast to rise to US$6.4 billion (S$7.89 billion) this year…

http://www.cnngo.com/singapore/play/singapore-set-trump-las-vegas-second-largest-gambling-hub-still-way-behind-macau-8686?hpt=hp_bn10#ixzz1Oniol2cE

For most of the 60yrs of life, casinos or games using money to bet were of little interest to me. The first 15yrs of life in SIN, casinos did not even exist there. The few forms of gambling (ie where money is involved) to my knowledge were for entertainment like mahjong, horse racing, slot-machines and other card games then. Later in the Dublin years, discovered that some of the students would bet their allowance on grey-hound racing or mahjong till they have no money for their rent or food.

How does one explain the logic of this? Of course there will be times of wins but how often? The word to gamble 賭 錢 in Chinese literally means to pour or throw money away, very befitting! For those who are wealthy, win some and lose some are of no consequences. But for some of the ordinary working people, betting with dreams and illusions to be rich becomes an addiction to these dreams and illusions. Each to their own dreams, illusions or thrills…

What happens when a country legalizes drugs, gambling, prostitution etc? The reality is that even when not legalized, they still go on underground. Only time will show the effects of RWS & MBR and how will SIN deal with not only cards but the social problems which are inevitable where gambling is legalized.

It has been misty and raining here since Mon. Thank goodness no floods like in SIN, but then rains here are not like the tropical torrential downpours. Not having the proper rainwear has kept the net-surfing busy! Yesterday was Sophie’s 2nd Bday and Linn posted some cute pix. Looking forward to seeing them all + James the new baby due Jul.

Have a wonderful weekend, stay dry and good luck to those who have or are going to place any bets in either the casinos or the lottery 🙂

Someone once asked me why women don’t gamble as much as men do, and I gave the common-sensical reply that we don’t have as much money. That was a true but incomplete answer. In fact, women’s total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage – Gloria Steinem

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Playboy & Blue Jeans vs Vodka…

8 Jun 2011 – Norway and Russia

Hong Kong flagged Nordic Barents leaves Kirkenes in the north of Norway on route to China
Russia and Norway agree deal over oil-rich Barents Sea

The Barents could become a valuable shipping route. Russia and Norway have agreed a deal to divide up their shares of the Barents Sea. The deal follows decades of negotiations between the two sides over how to divide the region.The accord will allow companies to explore for oil and gas in the 68,000 square mile area.

The agreement has been approved by the two countries’ parliaments and will be implemented on 7 July this year. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Norwegian counterpart Jona Gahr Stoere ratified the deal during a ceremony in Oslo on Tuesday. It splits the disputed part of the Barents Sea into two equally sized areas.

The region has become more accessible recently as global warming has caused the ice to melt. Analysts say the melting ice could open up new, shorter, shipping routes between Russia and Norway and Asia…  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13686049

During the 1970s another life ago! living in N Norway was quite an experience. This part of Norway shares the border with Sweden, Finland and Russia. Iittala Glassware, Marimekko and meat were much cheaper in Finland and the drive there to stock up the freezer was worth the while. L&M used to have cute matching Marimekko nightgowns…

http://www.iittala.com/web/Iittalaweb.nsf/en/home     http://www.marimekko.com/

In those days, interesting visits to Lapland where the Sámi, Europe’s northernmost and the Nordic countries’ only officially indigenous people are located. Their nomadic life-style takes them where ever their herds of reindeer may roam. Pix from that time are either in SIN or they might have unfortunately been lost; today’s  pix are all downloaded from various sites…
Strange memories at the Russian border as they were willing to exchange vodka against Playboy magazines and Levi’s blue jeans then and all the bartering was going on in sign-language. Unfortunately did not have a copy Playboy and was not willingly to take off my jeans, not knowing how good the vodka was 🙂 🙂 🙂

Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods – WH Auden

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Chimney Sweepers

6 Jun 2011 – Happy Bdays Dika LAM & Harry CHAN

Sun: took a day off to get some rest for the arms and the body. Hung up 2 set of curtains from IKEA NOK60/S$14. Good thing about these curtains are that one can just cut to adjust the length, ie no need for sewing and enough left over material to braid a loop to gather the curtains aside. May & Bjørn were here for an easy summer salad dinner. Unable to do much with only a small pan as a cooking utensil.

Scrapping off old paint, cleaning and painting is not the most exciting of jobs but has to be done. The dinning, kitchen and terrace need to be worked on. In the meanwhile, will amuse myself with the cheesy FB comments and this blog during the breaks!

This morning the chimney sweepers were here. A distraction and excuse for not painting… LOL, just about anything is a good excuse to not feel like my wrist is broken!  In SIN, chimney sweepers of course will be a totally alien concept but they should have drain sweepers instead, perhaps that could have prevented some of the floods.

Had a chat with the neighbours (we are the few original owners who still own the same house since 1981). One of the neighbours asked if the sweepers have to ever go into the chimney and my comment was that only Santa Claus is allowed in there! Anyway, todays’ chimney are no longer constructed to be entered and by looking at the sweepers, there could not have been much soot in these chimneys.  If all chimney sweepers look like these 2, would get the chimney swept more often 🙂

There’s the whole world at your feet. And who gets to see it but the birds, the stars and the chimney sweeps – From Mary Poppins

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Millions Flooded Away!

5 Jun 2011 – Country with most millionaires next door is…? 

http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/01/where-are-the-most-millionaires-next-door/?hpt=hp_bn1

boykoff
Posted by: 1 Jun 2011  

(CNN) – Pop quiz: Which country hosts the world’s highest concentration of millionaires?

A) The United States
B) Switzerland
C) Singapore
D) Qatar…

For those who are not aware, the Merlion is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish used as a mascot of SIN which was damaged by lightning in 2009. It was designed by Fraser Brunner, a member of the Souvenir Committee for the SIN Tourism Board/STB logo from 1964 to 1997. Although the STB changed their logo in 1997, the STB Act continues to protect the Merlion symbol. Approval must be received from STB before it can be used. The Merlion appears frequently on STB-approved souvenirs.

The Merlion is now weary and going into retirement. Perhaps Godzilla or SIN Nessy will replace it! SIN 15.5% millionaires have been too much of a rat-race for this non-aggressive Merlion 🙂

Just received news and pix via FB Temasek Review/Balakrishnan Matchap with much flooding again in SIN. It was only a year ago when another major flooding

https://amylamsg.com/2010/06/25/the-full-monty/

Did I not hear SIN’s Prime Minister apologising about the short-sightedness of the 2010 flood and have they still not done anything to the drainage? What are they waiting for, the MRT underpass to become an underground swimming pool or is Noah’s Ark in sight?? These pix are a reminder again to look into the drainage before more rains. SIN is fortunate enough to be spared by earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes etc but fire & floods are of different sort. Do hope that the business etc affected have insurances.

Nobody’s strong enough to stand up under a flood of weak material – Alan Ladd

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An Unforgettable Night with Peter Grimes

3 Jun 2011 – Man invented morals but tide have none…

As the sky turns, the world for us to change?
But if the horoscope’ s bewildering
Like a flashing turmoil of a shoal of herring,
Who can turn skies back and begin again? – from Peter Grimes by Britten

Apologies for no postings during the past few days but the words were just not coherent in thoughts or mind. Yesterday was Kristi Himmelfart/The Feast of the Ascension is one of the great feasts in the Christian liturgical calendar and commemorates the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. Ascension Day is traditionally celebrated on a Thu, the 40th day from Easter day. It was a public holiday here in holy Norway!

Tue: raining the whole day and the mood was not much different from the weather :'( Did some painting and work on the house but the mind was far far away. Wed was a beautiful day, thanks to Kris for a ride to Sandvika and coffee at her office@Bærum kommunegården. A walk in Sandvika by the river with Nils Aasland’s Memory of a Strong Woman, A Strong Woman and Strong Woman Missing was good for the soul.

App another 30mins walk to IKEA from Sandvika helped the body too. Had roast beef salad and a drink, NOK 90/S$20 for lunch. Shopping more stuff and met with Ingrid who helped to drive the stuff to the house. Wonder how comparable the IKEA prices here are to SIN? Bought the cheapest set of cutlery BONUS (4 of 4 things) costing NOK29/S$7.

Wed: a night at the new opera house with Britten’s Peter Grimes was the first experience to a performance in this interesting building. The production and the voices were impressive even though Britten’s music is not my favourtie! Spent the night Ingrid’s after the opera and yesterday was when summer started. Helped her clear and clean up their pool area in anticipation that summer is really here to stay for the season! Thanks to Ingrid and Hans K for having me over to their beautiful house and to Ingrid for all her help with driving and for including me at the opera. Appreciations to May & Bjørn for dropping by just in time to pick me up from the bus-stop.

Jun’s special dates:

1 Jun – Happy Bday Morten HALD

2 Jun – Happy Bday Kenson KWOK

4 Jun – Happy Bday Erik KORKOWSKI

6 Jun – Happy Bdays Dika LAM & Harry CHAN

9 Jun – Happy Bday Sophie HALL

14 Jun – Happy Bday Anne WONG-HOLLOWAY

15 Jun – Happy Bdays to my father LAM Tin Yue and my children’s grandfather John HALD Sr (both not with us any longer but the two men I have most respect and admiration for). Happy Bday Amy JENSEN

19 Jun – Happy Father’s Day

25 Jun – Happy Bdays John LAM, Clement LAM & HUANG

28 Jun – Happy Bdays Jeff HALL, John WILSON & Adriane HENSON

30 Jun – Happy Bdays LAM JenMun &  Annie KOH-LAM