Old School@Mt Sophia

18 Dec 2011 – And Public Transport Chaos…

Liking to walk is a plus with all the recent MRT breakdowns, bus driver getting lost and the hike of taxi fares. SMRT’s third disruption in four days on Saturday affected more trains and lasted longer than Thursday’s shutdown on the North-South Line, crimping the start of many people’s weekend…

http://www.straitstimes.com/The-Big-Story/The-Big-Story-3/Story/STIStory_746305.html

http://www.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/Story/A1Story20111213-316006.html

Sat: great to catch up with AudreyW for breakfast@the local wet market. There was a Malaya wedding on the void deck and the drums are my favourtie part to these weddings!

 

From Handy Rd there are 136 steps up to The Old School@Mt Sophia. The first time in this area was in the 1950s to visit with the Eu family@Eu Villa, today a Montessori Pre-school. The Old School, previously Methodist Girls School/MGS now a magnet for artsy types and a platform for SIN independent arts scene including Sinema (first time and last time today). This is on top of a hill in one of the most expensive location and the artsy concept unfortunately will have to move as the old building will be demolished Jun 2012 🙁

 

This place has been like a ghost town the few times visited, today included! Appreciations to AudreyM for getting the tickets and for her company to this interesting movie: Red Light Revolution***a Chinese comedy about a cab driver who loses his job and opens an adult shop.

The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable – Lord Chesterfield

Australian Tourist Board

16 Dec 2011 –  Australians have a great sense of humour 🙂

These were posted on an Australian Tourism Website and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a great sense of humour (not to mention a low tolerance threshold for cretins!)
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Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? UK 
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.
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Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? USA 

A: Depends how much you’ve been drinking.

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Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney – can I follow the railroad tracks? Sweden

A: Sure, it’s only three thousand miles, take lots of water

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Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay? UK

A: What did your last slave die of?
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QCan you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia? USA

A: A-Fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the Pacific which does not… Oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Kings Cross. Come naked.
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Q: Which direction is North in Australia? USA 

A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we’ll send the rest of the directions.
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Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia? UK

A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do…
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Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? USA 

AAus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is Oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.
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Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? UK

A: You are a British politician, right?
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Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? Germany

A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.
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Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can dispense rattlesnake serum. USA

A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.
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Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It’s a kind of bear and lives in trees. USA

A: It’s called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.
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Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia? USA 

A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.
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Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia? France

A: Only at Christmas.
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Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go?  USA

A: Yes, but you’ll have to learn it first.

HAVE A FABULOUS & HUMOUROUS WEEKEND… 🙂 🙂

Updated 12Jul2022: many truly has no concept of how huge the continent of Australia is – this map give an idea when compared to some countries. There are 5countires – Russia, Canada, China, USA, Brazil larger than Australia. Tkx to Michelle for this share.

Active Agers

15 Dec 2011 – And HDB Hub…

Wed: three students of Year 4 Communication Studies from Nanyang Technological University/NTU, working on the topic of Active Ageing for their Final Year Project were at the flat to have a chat! The final product will be a multi-part Chinese news feature published on their independent news website.

With SIN ageing population, there is a need to explore how seniors can be effectively engaged to remain active contributors to our society, and to promote the notion that seniors can and ought to live in a meaningful and purposeful manner. Through our Chinese news feature, we hope to address ageing issues and debunk stereotypes of the aged by profiling active seniors who will inspire fellow seniors and younger Singaporeans too.

Let’s hope that what has been communicated here for nearly 6hrs yesterday will be of help, especially for the younger generation to learn enjoying & living life to the fullest. Good luck and appreciations to the 3 charming young ladies, SieYen, KiaHui & ShiYan for their patience with this senior citizen! LOL 🙂

Tkx to nephew Clem for dinner. The new Bedok Bus Interchange is undergoing constructions but the varieties of the food stalls are still worth a visit in spite of the mess! The three above pix are uploaded from various sites.

Today: met with Pat@HDB Hub in Toa Payoh to make some enquiries. Nice lobby with JuMing’s ‘Tai Chin Boxing’ and a mural ‘HDB Storeys’ contributed by 4,800 staff. Two new interesting projects SkyVille@Dawson & Tiong Babru View might be worth to look at.

Living & enjoying a full life for me being with family & friends, tasting all kinds of food & beverages, exploring and discovering what is new either by visiting or surfing online, hiking, swimming, movies, music, reading, etc is what active aging is about! Of course at this stage, will be at a slightly! slower pace 🙂 🙂

More Drooling…

14 Dec 2011 – ABFitch Encounters 🙂

Tue: playing tourist guide for Tommy and the two places he requested to see were SBG and Raffles Hotel.

Started SBG@Cluny Rd entrance where two guys caught my attention. Asked if they were the models from ABFitch and looking at them, one could guess, especially with one of them wearing the red branded sweat pants who is also the same topless guy from Mon’s pix! Another coincident!!

Chat for a few minutes and was glad to hear that they are enjoying themselves. Good to see them jogging in the gardens and they sounded as nice as their looks! Jim (in shorts) is from Hollywood/USA and Harry from London/UK. How pleasant to have Harry crossing my path on Mon & Tue! Wishing them the best. Made my day! ABFitch has chosen well 🙂 🙂

The new branch Food for Though is located@the Cluny Rd side and what a good idea with the cement tables with an opening for a potted plant or flowers. Good luck to David for this new location. Looking forward to try the food. The range of Heliconia is quite fantastic in the gardens.

The old bandstand has been there as far as back as memories can recall, must dig up pix from the 1950s at that location! The National Orchid Garden within SBG is well worth a visit, S$1 for SIN seniors and S$5 for tourists. Au Jardin the 5* restaurant, not my price range, just pix to show the lovely ambience!

Botanic Gardens new MRT is app 20mins walk from the Evans Rd gate. The rests of the pix are from the airport/T3. Safe journeys Tommy and thanks for lunch. Appreciations to Tommy, Harry and Jim for crossing my life’s journey 🙂 🙂 🙂

Free self-portrait taken at the airport by the Angry Birds at a catapult stand and per request got it sent to my email… amazing!

Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation or whatever. It was amazing to me that words had this power – Amy Tan

Drool Drool Drool!

13 Dec 2011 – Topless Young Men…

Mon: Helen (yet another of Harry’s friend!), good of her to meet up for an early lunch@Paragon’s Soup Kitchen***and was pleasantly surprise with a group of jazz singers singing one of my favourites, What a Wonderful World…

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do…

Abercrombie & Fitch men, what a feast for the eyes… what more can I say 🙂

Appreciations to Les&Ivy for delicious dinner@Great World City’s Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine****as always, the wine from Les cellar need no words! Tasted an interesting new dish looking like shark fin at first sight but knowing L&I that would not be the case. Hairy crab roe with egg white custard, very good with a dash of black vinegar.

Great to catch up with Kitty BROSNAN & family, last time we met was in Spain last year. Another Irish guest, Tommy DRUMM who is passing thru’ on his way to Perth/Australia. He is an Irish retired sportsperson, played Gaelic football and captained Dublin to the All-Ireland title in 1983.

Congratulations to Kitty’s grandson who recently won the World Championship for Kickboxing: GOLD Brian Brosnan Full Contact -71Kg

I’m not going to sit on the porch of the old anchorman’s home with a drool cup – Tom Brokaw

Scenes from SBG

12 Dec 2011 – Singapore Botanic Gardens/SBG

Sun: visited auntie Pearl at Glenealges Hospital who is now 83yrs, in ICU and unconscious but kept alive with all kinds of tubes. Memories of her from 1960s when she was such an elegant and well-dressed woman. Tried to talk to her but the only responses were movements from one of her foot and the slight turning of her head. A sad sight!

Picnic concert@SBG with Ting, CH & Geno. Got to taste Ting’s home-made Shepard’s pies and carrot cake, yummy. Tks Ting for delicious food & wine and to Geno for egg-plant dip and cider. The turn-out was not the usual packed full due to earlier rains. The temps were comfortable, a pleasant afternoon and evening passed by quickly.

Fun with people watching – a bunch of international kids running barefoot, quite a contrast with local kids who were probably not allowed to get their feet muddy from the wet grass! Mainland Chinese people eating with disposable gloves!! A cute puppy, break-dancers, jazz  & marching bands on stage.

United Nations of trees: Australia, Mexico, Norway & UK.

Coincident

11 Dec 2011 – or just meant to be…

Sat: met up for the first time with Henrietta & Francis from HKG who are friends of Harry (HKG hiking buddy). H&F are in SIN to visit a sick auntie. As we were chatting over dinner, they were telling how serious their auntie’s condition is and that the relatives (ie their cousins) live opposite the Botanic Gardens with the hospital just a few blocks within their home.

The mind suddenly flashed back to a recent dinner with CHIJ classmates! Irene then told me that Gerald & Greta’s (friends from the 1960s) mother is in serious condition. Immediate thought was should I call or visit but was told then that Auntie Pearl would not know or remember me in her condition.

During dinner with H&F last night, called Greta and asked if I could visit her mother and she said that it is OK. How coincident is this when SIN has 5mil people and HKG 7mil and we meet! Spasiba/Russian(11th day Advent calendar of thank yous) to H&F for dinner and seems like they are meant to cross my path. Safe journeys to them.

Fri: met with AudreyM for a cuppa and early exchange of Christmas gift. Audrey worked with me at the first job in SIN in 1999.

East Meets West 2011***Millenniums ago, eight quarreling heavenly gods fall to earth because they could not live harmoniously together. Millenniums later, they meet in Guangzhou as contemporary personas, not knowing they used to be gods. A struggle of love & good over hate & evil is the message but not my cup of tea.

This East did not meet West for me or perhaps being away from the East from such a young age and for nearly 40yrs, could not relate the title to this movie!

New Year’s Eve***Usual Hollywood flick and a feel good movie. No struggles but reflections here and a nice way to pass rainy afternoons with all these well-known casts whose characters’ lives are intertwined over the course of the final day of the year!

Que sera sera… whatever will be will be, the future is not ours to say! From movie The Man who Knew too Much

Time for a Chuckle

10 Dec 2011 – Father…

Little boy got on the bus, sat next to a man reading a book, and noticed he had his collar on backwards.

The little boy asked why he wore his collar backwards.

The man, who was a priest, said, ‘I am a Father..’

The little boy replied, ‘My Daddy doesn’t wear his collar like that.’

The priest looked up from his book and answered, ”I am the Father of many..’

The boy said, ‘My Dad has 4 boys, 4 girls and two grandchildren and he doesn’t wear his collar that way!’

The priest, getting impatient, said. ‘I am the Father of hundreds’, and went back to reading his book.

The little boy sat quietly thinking for a while, then leaned over and said, ‘Maybe you should wear a condom, and put your pants on backwards instead of your collar.’

Tkx to Richard YUNG for sharing the above hahaha 🙂

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_743071.html

Ladies, time to do your Christmas shopping! Will head there Mon morning, not even this will get me to brave the weekend crowds 🙂 🙂

A WONDERFUL WEEKEND TO ALL & STAY SAFE!

Kuantan/KUA

8 Dec 2011 – Away from the Maddening crowd…

Sun: the immigration on the Malaysian side is brand new to me and the formality of filling up of paper forms is now redundant, just finger prints. Quite sensible and eco-friendly, ie no wasting of paper! Trips to KUA (in the state of Pahang/Malaysia) are usually about eating and this time round is no exception, except this is the first time taking the bus there (app 7hrs with stops). One way fare SIN-KUA S$29. KUA-SIN 29MYR/S$12. Total S$42.

Mon: appreciations to auntie Mo-Kit for dinner, accommodations for a night and driving me to return (borrowed on previous trip) the family records to father’s cousin (paternal grandfather LAM Song Kee’s half brother’s son) who lives in KUA. The energy does not stretch out to this branch, so hopefully someone in this branch will be interested to take the interest to fill in their data and we can joint the branches!

https://amylamsg.com/2010/04/11/a-savory-journey/

Tue: walked around near Mega Mall and the mall where there are Christmas decorations of balloons and Angry Birds cupcakes in the Deli!

Wed: sunrise walk by Hyatt Hotel, Grateful to LayWah for driving us around.

Wed: Tkx to Pat Chee for sharing her piece of paradise@KUA Tembeling resort, a peaceful rest by the sea.

Thu: back to the concrete jungle and the maddening crowd but do look forward to meeting Harry’s friends who will be visiting from HKG.

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp – John Berr

Rain Rain Rain

3 Dec 2011 – Perfect movie & [(--)]ZZzzz weather

Third day of Advent, dank je wel=Dutch thank you for 3 movies, pix of some Christmas lights taken, Christmas mail for snail mail done and on their way and a nice nasi lemak picnic breakfast/brunch this morning (no rain then) at the Botanic Gardens with auntie Winnie from HI. Tomorrow off to Kuantan/Malaysia until next weekend. No phone, online or internet access, so no blog postings until back in SIN!

50/50***a 27-year-old  radio program writer, Adam is diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer. With the help of his best friend, his mother, and a young therapist at the cancer centre, Adam learns what and who the most important things in his life are.

Restless***about young love and mortality. A terminally ill teenage girl who falls in love with a boy who likes to attend funerals and also their encounters with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from World War II. Who do you live for is the question…

Two movies about cancer back to back were slightly on the heavy side. Good acting and also lessons with mortality at this stage of life are noted with reflections!

Nasi Lemak 2.0***entertaining example of Malaysia comedy about the journey of a young man who grew up in Chinese surroundings. At the start, he refuses to touch any food other than Chinese food, which he believed was far superior. After experiencing and learning the Noya, Malaya and India food cultures, he learns that art of fusion cooking.

Again a movie aimed for the locals. At present there are rumours that the movie might be banned in Malaysia!! And the main actor Namewee was detained without water. Somehow I fail to see why this low-budget comedy can provoke such havoc! Maybe was lost in translation or selective viewing and can only see the humourous side of it 🙂

By law I am Malay, by ancestry I am a mixed Malay-Arab, by choice I am a Malaysian but in the heart I belong to the Human Race – Anas Zubedy