27 Feb 2017 – To Wander and Wonder Is To Be Alive!
Fri: TGIF@Bugis Junction Food Junction to lunch with Simplicius & Pat. Sim who is visiting from Sydney also only wants local food. Popiah&Rojak were so-so; the ChowKueyTeow stall is no longer, in-spite of this stall claiming to be selling Local Singapore Delights, but nothing on their menu was SIN food! Nasi Padang – their AssamFish&MeeGoreng were nothing to write home about.
Chose this area to lunch as we were going to look for some music notes@Bras Basah Complex – not much business there! Thought that the Music Book Room was located on the 5floor but found them on the ground floor (2above pix downloaded). Selection very limited, but bought a Ukulee Chord Finder (S$12.60) which will hopefully be useful to me. Dropped by H&H to say hi.
Happy Birthday Bjørn & Calvin – appreciations to all who contributed to this celebrations@CC. Even though it was not quite a surprise, the thoughts and good intentions are what eventually count! If life permits, same time&place for 2018 🙂
Sat: after such a crazy week, need some space and down time this weekend to read, rest, reflect (3other important Rs for me besides recreation!) and get some work done in my living quarters!
Sun: a late morning call from Clem with updates that Steven has been admitted into NUH. First time in that location for a short visit – he had another seizure attack and they found another bleed in his brains – his blood-pressure is on the high side but it is being controlled with meds.
Mon: thank you for a very delightful and interesting talk by Dr John van Wyhe in the Ngee Ann Auditorium@ACM.
Wanderlust: The amazing Ida Pfeiffer (1797-1858), was the most remarkable female traveller who ever lived. She was the first woman to circle the globe alone, and then to do so twice. Tkx to CH for the shared info about this talk.
Edited.
http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/pfeiffer.html
The word ‘travel’ comes from the Old French word ‘travail or travailler’, which means to work, to labor; a suffering or painful effort, an arduous journey, a tormenting experience. Travel, thus, is a painful and laborious journey. Whereas ‘to wander’ comes from the West Germanic word ‘wandran’, which simply means to roam about. There is no labor or torment in wandering. There is only roaming. Wandering is the activity of the child, the passion of the genius; it is the discovery of the self, the discovery of the outside world, and the learning of how the self is both at one with and separate from the outside world. These discoveries are as fundamental to the soul as learning to survive is fundamental to the body. These discoveries are essential to realizing what it means to be human. To wander is to be alive ― Roman Payne, The Wanderess
Mon: Welcome Richard from Sydney and tkx for dropping by for NasiLemak. Appreciate the wine from HongSze. Forgot to take pix this time round – B/W from 1950s, first reunion 2010 and 2015 where there is not much differences from then with the guys but many different shades of grey for me now 🙂
Appreciations to Yip Yew Chong for an educational & interesting evening@National Library. He mentioned that TiongBahru is his favourite work. Will look forward for him to publishing a book on all his mural paintings.
Being surrounded by 4 different roads, CHIJ must be the only school which could actually have 4 different addresses then – Victoria St, Bras Basah Rd, N Bridge Rd and Stamford Rd.
IST-SIN: full flight and did not get much rest. Back in SIN on time and in time to be welcomed by Lion Dancers – CNY dinner hosted by MT Walk. Did have the chance to wish Mr Goh a Happy New Year! Good to hear and see that ppl were merry making. Living in HBD estates have their advantages, everything was cleaned and quiet by 2230hrs.
Sun: good of 
Mon: tkx Mette for meeting up for a cuppa. It is so convenient with Bicks (also know as Smart Environment Neighbourhood Cafe), just next door. Toril Syverstad, the owner welcomes everyone with her friendly smile. Just hope that she and her business partner Carl Steensen will manage to sustain this location.
Have been feeling rather in the dumps the past week – could the weather and or the consequences of the heart procedure be the culprits?? SAD – Seasonal affective disorder, also known as winter depression. SAD was formally described and named in 1984 by Norman Rosenthal and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health.
Being in Norway now, need to share the link below – makes you think twice about travelling or visiting the US. Do give yourself longer connection times, if you are travelling there and have connections to make. And that too is of course in my mind! Pix credits to Getty Images.
Sat: the weather here is quite erratic, blow 0 one day and above 0 the next. Still prefer below 0 as everything seems brighter and cleaner. One has no choice but to accept and make the best of what Mother Nature provides! The Norwegian is a person of few words, but not 
Tue: finally changed to senior pricing – here in Norway, 67 is when you are able to be considered a pensioner qualifying for pension and half-fares on public transport.
Tkx Ingrid for the lovely tulips and for driving us to Norges musikkhøgskole for a Mozart concert. Been awhile since my last concert@a music academy. Pleasant 1+hr with Ingerine Dahl (violin), a Norwegian Master student at the school with an rather unusual name – accompanied by Serbian pianist Milan Rabrenovic who finished his Master and Postgraduate studies at the U of Stavanger.
Thu: 
Eidsvoll, where the Norwegian Constitution was written in 1814; pop of 23,811 in 456,5 km². Was at the train station dropping off two other patients while the taxi continued driving me to 
Welcomed by the inviting aromas of a delicious yummy home-made chicken dinner and fresh bread just out of the oven. Tkx 
Congratulations to the Men’s Norwegian Team who won Silver at the 2017 IHF World Men’s Handball Championship in France. Way to go, Rasmus Aarflot – Marketing Chief for Norway’s Handball Federation. Am impressed with the Norwegian Handball teams, the Women won Gold in Dec 2016.
Mon: have make sure that I can take it easy so as not to cause any bleeding where the needles were inserted in the groin area. Have been taking extra care cleaning and putting fresh bandage on regularly. Looks terrible (pix to remind myself!) and still a bit sore, but what I will not do to feel and hear my heart beating regularly again!!
Silly me, forgot to hand in the clinic hotel key upon dep, and now have to take a trip by bus (would have prefer to walk) to the post office. The overnight rain turned most of the white to grey wet slush, not ideal conditions to be out walking. Anyway the body and energy level is not up to normal yet! Outdoor temp is now 7°C.