31 Aug 2021 – Portable NeckFan

Thu: this pix was in last week’s STs TheBigPicture. Rock-Solid Marriage Vows, now that is the best  oxymoron example! This was the hike that landed me in the hospital 5yrs ago! And that was also when I knew that I had to slow down with my hikes!!

Grandniece Vanessa is the only one in the family I know of who has done this hike. So far she is also the only one in the PurpleG who will be a medical doctor when she is done with MedSchool in SIN. https://amylamsg.com/2016/08/25/trolltunga/

Fri: discovered Kinex, a mall with a crocodile on the staircase when view from the above, but is a TingKat+AngelWings when seen from another angle. Just wandering around different levels and looking at things in different angles and you will be surprised what you can see if your mind is open! No need AngelDust – hahaha

Livin life from a whole different angle, only see the road through the wings of an angel – Drake

Had coffee, ginger-ale&soufflé@HoshinoCoffee where they charged only for the drinks as they messed up the soufflé and had to make another one. On top of that they forgot Clement’s SouffléPancake and he got a piece of cm-complimentary cake. Of course they got to hear about my frustration, not that I mind that they messed up as we had the time, but the fact that they kept us waiting without letting us know the situation!

Can’t believe how decadent&spoilt I have turned to be during this COVID pandemic. Bought myself this gadget@IUIGA, a portable neckfan S$50. Tested it out with a fully charged battery running on medium speed (3speeds) and it lasted for 7hrs, for real!

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful! ― Mae West

Sat: sharing&recommending some of my favourite local foods (only 1dish~S$5) from outdoor Hawkers/MarketFoodCentre (max 2ppl for now!) in SIN. HaigRoadMarket&FoodCentre – 林玉梅 LinYuMei SarawakLaksa&KoloMee S$4

Appreciations for Sat’s dinner (my usual contribution, FruitCocktailSalad) to CC-Management, staff&friends to welcome the BTS X HELINOX new gadgets – do drop in to check&test them out – 2above pix credits to Helen.

I have 3HelinoxChairs+2tables, they are comfortably-stylish, easy to move around or put away for storage. Like the idea that this bag can be opened up to be a ground or picnic mat.

Sun: perfect wet&cool day for snoozing in front of cheesy movies! Dinner@sis Jo. Tropical EdibleGarden harvest – Kedondong(SpondiasDulcis)沙梨 leafs are delicious, tkx to Albert for the tip! TorchGingerBud/BungaKantan(Etlingera Elatior), Calamansi (Citrus x microcarpa) – just a dash of those can really enhance many of the local dishes, I like them in my salads too. And also here is May’s harvest from her UrbanGarden in Norway

Mon: another wet&cool day but no snoozing, today, app@SGH – all is well and back to normal. 16yrs ago when we hiked the AT Thru’Hike in rains for 3days&nights in Maine/USA with the backlash of HurricaneKatrina, but was not aware that there was a hurricane then! Today 16yrs later HurricaneIda has made landfall in Louisiana/USA again – to all in her path, plx take care&stay safe. Tkx to Sam@CC for this Häagen-Dazs StrawberryIceCream – my dinner for tonight!

https://edition.cnn.com/…/hurricane-ida-sunday/index.html

Tue: enjoy this last 2021AugDay – appreciations to Calvin@CC for the loan of this bike&helmet and blessed to be able to test it out on EC-Pk before the rains this morning. Do I sense a tint of autumn@CyclistPark or am I just missing the Fall colours&weathers?

Nice ride on this neat light-weight Japanese bike, but not a folding one! Too many clouds for the sun to rise above them – not my hammock here, will bring my own on the next ride! Also the portable-neck-fan was effective&useful – very pleased&satisfied with it on this ride.

31Aug2021: WorldOmeter of COVID-19 deaths are as follow:

SIN/pop 5.6+mil in an area of 721SqKm – 55
SC/USA/pop 5+mil in an area of 82, 932SqKm – 10,562
Norway/pop 5.3+mil in an area of 365,268SqKm – 814

25 Aug 2021 – Ancestral Village In Jiangmen/China

Sat: to those going to the belated NDP today, enjoy&be safe – this will be it for the floating platform for now as it will be closed after today for renovations until 2025. Downloaded pix

84 MarineParadeCentral 

XingLongCookedFood SteamedFish (S$5per piece). Actually S$5per piece is considered not so reasonable as one can get 2veggie-varities+1meat with rice all for less than S$5 at these kind of hawker-stalls! But then fish is not that cheap!

Sun: tkx for home-made PrawnMee dinner at Jo’s and also for the Kedondong (Spondias dulcis) 沙梨. The tree in her garden is packed with fruits and was also recently told by Albert that the leaves are slightly sour and can be added to a salad – that I must try.

Mon: ham cheese egg toast lunch@ToastBox/Esplanade S$7.10 where I could also change my bus here, thus still keep within my transfer fares, ie under S$1 when I can be on another bus by 45mins! Follow-up app@SGH and walked to TiongBahruBakery to take away my favourite almond croissant S$5.35.

Took whatever bus that came first back to the EastEnd and bus33 was it – turned out to be quite a joy ride bringing me along KoonSengRd in the JooChiat area.

Arr Bedok Interchange just before 1700hrs where I managed to pick up a lotus-peanuts/rib soup S$4.10 an a big box of YoléYogurt $21 in BedokMall – would not have gone in if there were any crowds or lines!

Tue: grocery shopping day@Giant/Tampines S$127.16 including SenSav3%S$3.93+PowerPac ElectricClipFan&MEG-MultiCooker, both for S$25. Bought the 3rdFan of the same kind, being satisfied with the other 2 which I paid S$20 for both in Nov2020. Pouring cats&dogs when done with shopping, but no worries, did not even have to open the umbrella, shaded all the way from the bus stops. It was rather comforting to hear the rains hitting down on the corrugated bus-stops roofs as it reminded me of nice memorable hiking days in the humble huts&shelters with these kind of roofs.

I remember from childhood days, ie 1950s-60s! how these road always flooded on heavy rainy days and the traffic was just terrible when there were Sunday races at the SwissClubRd area!

https://mothership.sg/2021/08/bukit-timah-flooded/

Wed: sooo excited&thrilled to hear from a long-lost cousin, IreneLAM (sister of the CoconutPostMaster in HI/USA) – no have never met her or him and really hope that we are able to connect&work something for our family’s ancestral village in Jiangmen/Guangdong Province, China so as to be linked to a neighbouring village (1hr away) which is in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. This has always been in my dreams&hopes when I first set foot there in 2009, but kinda given up hope as no one in the family showed any interest when I voiced out my thoughts then!

https://amylamsg.com/2009/05/10/happy-mothers-day/

https://amylamsg.com/2011/02/28/pearl-river/

Edited 5Sep: appreciations to GG-LAM Irene, a cousin from granduncle RG-LAM JeeChiew’s branch (Alfred-Linda Tay is the contact person for this branch) for this interesting link that her father BG-LAM YatYin and bro GG-LAM Michael started. https://lamaviation.com/

Edited 7Sep: hoping&praying that the LAM-Heritage is moving forward in the direction of preservation instead of destruction in the name of progress! As a granddaughter (let’s hope that I can count in this matter) of RG-LAM SongKee, have given the POA to the Cangdong East Culture Heritage Conservation & Development Centre in KaipingCity/China to mange the family’s property&affairs there. http://cangdongproject.org/cangdong-xmgken.asp

20 Aug 2021 – Gastronomical Feasting

Tue: saddened by all the news of many disasters happening around the world – https://disasterphilanthropy.org/our-approach/disasters/

And the consequences of the man-made long history in Afghanistan which brings back memories of

Steve McCurry, one my favourite photographers and where the idiom A picture is worth a thousand words really applies.

I can so relate to the saying The eyes are the windows to the soul here. McCurry’s famous photograph, SharbatGula /Afghan Girl, on the cover of National Geographic Jun 1985. 

https://amylamsg.com/2016/01/23/gillman-barracks/

Wed: at Les’sClinic/FarrerPkMedicalCentre to pick up medications – looks like the clinic girls have green-thumbs and the plants here are thriving at the corner window on the 7floor.

OysterHouse/OwenRd – no mussels, but the clams look good for tonight’s dinner.

Chinese Restaurant JiaHeWanShiXing 家和万事兴 which translates to if the family lives in harmony all affairs will prosper – a nice restaurant conveniently located downstairs from Les’s clinic and serves a well-presented varieties of Cantonese cuisine. Tkx to AiHwee for today’s lunch which started with Pan-fried Bacon wrapped with tomato served with SaladCream, an interesting appetizer that combines sweet cherry tomatoes with smoky bacon, CrispyRoastPork, SilverBait+StiredFriedKaiLan done to my taste with a nice crunch and well presented – good idea to serve the baits separately to keep them crusty fresh.

CrispyHorFun with Seafood&EggSauce – first time for this dish and is best enjoyed immediately, while the HorFun is still crispy.

Good StuffedCrab and excellent DoubleBoilSoup of the day. Delicious DurianDeepFriedSesameBall and mini EggTart for dessert.

Appreciations for the 1stMoonCakesX4 (LotusPaste+MacadamiaNuts) of the season – could not resist this pretty insulated bag to keep future take-away foods warm!

Good to see MartinNg whom we have not seen since father passed away –  an afternoon@Les&Ivy’s catching up with his Dublin days&when he returned to SIN in the early 1960s. He left SIN 1953, before Lawrence, returned in the early 1960s and was our family doctor then.

Stayed on@Les&Ivy’s for dinner since already there – home-made clams done to perfection by Les+foods by ImperialTresures/Paragon from Chris – what an amazing gastronomical feasting day and a lovely evening was enjoyed by all. Nice to meet with Caroline&Alex, Michael and ChrisLim. Appreciations to Michael for sharing his ride back to the EastEnd.

Gastronomy is the greatest form of therapy that anyone can be exposed to – Marco Pierre White

Thu: pouring at~0300hrs, got up to close the windows, continued sleeping soundly with the heavy rains pelting down on the AC-compressor outside the bedroom window; stopped by the time I got up at~0700hrs. Tkx Aileen for brunch company at my favourite CCF@MTmarket and for lovely orchids to add to my weekend red bouquet.

Fri: #1 moved to her apartment to start her sophomore year at UofSC/USA. Mon16Aug2021 was 1stSchoolDay for #2(11th), #3(9th), #4(7th) and #5(5th) grades. These 4 looked thrilled when their mother asked to take their pic!!!! tkx to Linn for the pix.

Can’t believe that #4 is now taller than #2. Could not recognize #3’s voice when I spoke to him – last saw them all 2019summer and in just under 2yrs they all seemed to have grown overnight…

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere – Chinese Proverb

TGIF, a good weekend to all, stay safe&dry on this lovely cool&very wet morning here in SIN. Has been a long long while ago when&where I could walk for ~4hrs and only saw 2ppl walking and others 2cycling. The paths were wet and waves were higher than usual this morning, managed to even pick a handful(46)SagaSeeds on the way.

On the way back stopped@KatongShoppingCentre to pick up a banana pie@DonaManis. Also tried a new flavour@TheHumbleScoop – ORH HAW/HawthornBerry, nice&refreshing.

16 Aug 2021: Bucket List Additions

Fri: tkx to sis Jo for dinner – TGIF on this one&only 13Fri for 2021. A good weekend to all and do not let the superstitious, etc affect your life. What happened on Friday the 13th originally? On Friday, October 13, 1307, the French rounded up thousands of Knights Templars and tortured them as heretics. Some believe the date of this massacre sparked our modern-day association of Friday the 13th with bad luck. 

https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/friday-the-13th

Sat: weekend project from this week onwards is to share&recommend my favourite local foods (only 1dish~S$5) from outdoor Hawkers/Market Food Centre (max 2ppl) in SIN. 50A MarineTerrace YongHuatDelight’s ShrimpCheeCheongFun (RiceNoodelRoll) 豬腸粉 S$3 – Bon Appetit https://www.misstamchiak.com/yong-huat-delight/

Sun: continuing to add to my bucket list – NorthCoast&Northern Isles (Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides) in Scotland. Lived over a decade in Ireland, but have not been to Scotland! It has been nearly 2yrs ago since I last used my passport!!

From Garry13Aug:

Trip around the block #29. Next stop was Kalbarri, a pleasant seaside fishing and holiday town where the streets were, sometime ago, paved with shells, literally. Ravaged by a cyclone in April this year, the mess has been cleared but the damage very visible. Dramatic red stone coastal cliffs and the impressive sky walks in the National Park were highlights.

The extremely saline water here provides a perfect environment for these minute clams that have no preditors. Everything is covered in them. The solidified shells are quarried for building blocks.

Seafood platter for one. Delicious. Great dinner with Greg Shortis and Anne. These beauties, stromatalites, were the first oxygen producing organisms about 600 million years ago (roughly), thus allowing god to create oxygen using humans at a later date. Very few exist. This is a World Heritage Area.

Cyclone damage.

Dramatic coast.

One of the two skywalks in Kalbarri NP.

Everything is green – young wheat or yellow – canola. Pink Lake. Not my pic obviously but the light was pathetic when I came by. 

Wonderful memorial to HMAS Sydney. Waiting wife statue. This was put in place about 6 yrs before the remains of the Sydney were found. By coincidence, she is looking to almost the exact area it was found.

Some lovely old homes in Geraldton. $9 million raised to restore this Catholic cathedral. The pinnacles and one human which reminded me some vague memories of a trip there many moons ago! Will have to search for old pix (not digitized yet) as to when I was there!

Mon16Aug:

Trip around the block #30. Still heading south through small coastal towns / villages /hamlets of Dongara, Leeman, and Julian Bay to Cervantes. 

The prevailing wind from the west!. I missed this tree as I had a road train up my butt and good not stop. Came across this pic later. Pulled in Dongara where this alpaca asked to be in the pjc.

Every house has a boat but serious boat cred⁹ only comes with a tractor in the front yard as well!. No comment on the house! Houses and land around here do target the elderly boasting ‘big enough for a caravan AND a boat!’

This is the turquoise coast and lobster heaven! Ended up in Perth!

12 Aug 2021: And A Season For Every Activity – National Day 2021

Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were ― Marcel Proust

Fri: working on my emotions so as not to allow them to overwhelm me.

Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them ― Leo Tolstoy

Sat: made a big pot of seafood (crabmeat, prawns, squids) creamy cheese, mushroom herbal sauce for this weekend Sat dinner&tomorrow’s lunch. Tkx for this Oximeter, have to now figure out how to use it!

Sun: nice to have Helen&Calvin’s company over Sunday’s pasta lunch. Appreciations for drinks, durians, strawberries and lovely sunflowers to cheer me.

Seafood pasta+salad were appreciated with good appetite and durians are always welcome, thank you. Pix credits to Helen.

Mon: Majulah Singapura – this year’s NationalDay will be a quiet day to gather some energy for a busy week ahead. Managed to find my flags to get them out in time for SIN 56Bday with left-overs strawberry breakfast. The pre-school kids downstairs have also done a good job with their creations!

SIN was blessed with a perfect morning in this beautiful clear blue sky to have a parade – pix credits to EmeritusSeniorMinister Goh ChokTong and ST.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/watch-live-ndp-ceremonial-parade-marina-bay-float-2097226

Tue: followed-up app@SGH, all is well, next app in Oct/Nov. Today is also when dinning out is possible again, Vietnamese dinner@GreatWorldCity FoodJunction – could hardly recognize the shops, etc in this revamped mall where I took ‘dinning out’ literally and it was a lovely evening outside the enclosed AC-area to ourselves. Clement did not quite like the alfresco idea, but being an obliging nephew as he is, accompanied me for dessert outside!

This place brings me back memories of the old TheGreatWorldAmusementPark (closed 1964) with the GhostTrain rides! 1978 it became GreatWorldCity, a mall with residential&office and now soon with a new GreatWorldMRT station, targeted for completion in 2022. Pix downloaded.

Wed: appreciations to Theresa&ChengJun for yummy steak dinner.

Thu: introducing KK to my favourite CheeCheongFun@MarineTerrace – glad that he too liked it.

https://www.misstamchiak.com/yong-huat-delight/

Looking forward to viewing the completion of this painting by Yip Yew Chong. The amazing details of daily life from the 60s-80s in Chinatown give an idea of a bygone era.

But I guess every bygone era takes on a shade of myth — Karen Thompson Walker

Now, you can see the people are actually watching an Opera show set up in the middle of the street. As I haven’t painted the actors and actresses on the stage yet, the crowd seemed like they are in an anticipatory mood Some mobile food vendors have also gathered. There is a bird nest drink stall, an ice-cream stall, a roasted chestnut stall and a Kacang Putih stall. All are real except for the bird nest, which is made of jelly!

In this inaugural section, I’ve painted a cross-section interior of a three-storey shophouse in Chinatown. The ground floor shows a coffee shop. The second and third floor are residential, where multiple families or coolie tenants 苦力房 lived. Usually, an anchor tenant would rent a whole floor from the landlord, and then partitioned and sub-tenanted the cubicles to smaller families and singles. You can see how people lived. That was how my family lived; that’s why I am able to paint the scene from memory and imagination. 

7 Aug 2021 – Celebrations To A Well-Lived Life

Appreciations&grateful to all for your kind&thoughtful condolences, prayers&words. Was hoping for the best, yet preparing for the worst when we knew of Lawrence’s condition since Jun. Will have to let grief take its course – sad for not being able to say goodbye under these COVID-19 circumstances, KL/Malaysia is under a total lockdown. Trying to find pix&words (not easy as the emotions are still too fresh) for an eulogy&tribute to a dearest beloved brother Lawrence.

LAM KwokFou/Lawrence, the eldest born (4Feb1934-5Aug2021) of 7 to a banker family (KwongLeeBank/KLB), LAM TinYue (father) who was also the eldest born for his father LAM SongKee (grandfather), the founder of KLB. From 1934 until early 1950s, only he knew what really happened, but understanding that era and the timeframe, it must not have been easy growing up in such a large family (1grandfather, 3grandmothers, 2parents, 14surviving immediate&half aunties&uncles, 3siblings in 1939, 6 in 1950), living together and going thru’ WWII.

I was born in 1950 after the war and blessed with a father and a brother like Lawrence (16yrs my senior) who pampered&spoilt me thoroughly, making me adoring these 2men and have put them on a pedestal throughout my childhood.

Lawrence left SIN for his further studies&work in the UK&Ireland 1955-56 and did not return until 1964. Remembered so vividly the day we saw him off by ship from Gate9 then, today HabourFront – mother&I were bawing our eyes out, she had to even used sun-shades to covered her tears-stained eyes. In those years, we looked so much forward to receiving those old big reels to hear his voice on the tape-recorder. And being the responsible and filial son as he always was, those tapes arrived regularly, in addition to all the letters&postcards he sent.

When he returned in 1964, mother was diagnosed with LungCancer/Stage4. He got married in May1965, mother passed away Jun1965 and I was sent off to Dublin/Ireland Jul1965. 1964-1967 was a traumatic time which is probably buried deep within with the keys never to be found again. Between 1967-1999, the seldom-short-visits back to this part of the world were somewhere in the clouds as the 2feet had to be on the grounds to raise my 2girls between Norway&USA.

1999 when I decided to stay on to work after a visit, was the time for me to get to know my roots+my siblings&their families better. Took many trips between then till 2019 to visit with Lawrence in KCH, Sarawak/Malaysia and he too took many trips to visit with us in SIN. Am glad to have gotten to know him, this time not from an innocent child’s eyes, but the eyes of someone who still loves him from the heart as the little sister who so adored him, thank you for being such a wonderful big brother – he will be missed.

Lawrence’s 80Bday from KCH, Sarawak/Malaysia in 2014: from left to right – Michael, Larry, Justin, Ivy, Leslie, Lawrence. Mabel, John, Sabina, Francesca, Joyce, me.

Condolences to his wife ONG Mabel+his family in KL/Malaysia – LAM YinChun/John& Francesca+Justin (not in the pix here), Sabina and LAM YinBong/Larry&Ruth. The last trip we (Lawrence, Leslie&Ivy+me, John&Francesca) were together was in Penang/Malaysia Jun-Jul2019.

Edited 8Aug2021: goodbye dearest brother, gone but never will be forgotten.

5 Aug 2021 – Singaporean-Irish-Norwegian-American Connections

Sun: welcome Aug2021 and delighted that the Chihuly exhibition will be extended until 3-Oct2021. Looking much forward to catching some night lights in Sep. The only night lights pix I have so far is the one not in the gardens, but outside by CliffordPier. Ethereal White Persians/in the gardens pix credits to niece May/Patricia.

https://amylamsg.com/2021/05/12/gardens-by-the-bay-2/

Appreciations to PatLynn&family+Lee for lunch (food from Lionel), yummy homemade dessert, KuehSalat by PatLynn. Tkx to Lee for the rides to&back from Pat’s.

Lovely gardens from PatLynn’s and Carmel’s – had the chance to pop by to say hi to Carmel, KokSoon&Cian who is back for the summer from his medical school in London/UK. Somehow seeing Cian now in his 20s and remembering when I first met him 20yrs ago does really make me feel how time has past by so quickly ie how fast I am aging, hahaha!

Mon: Happy Bday Claire! How can that be that she is 57today?? Seems like just yesterday that I was teaching her (1978) and she was baby-sitting Linn&May travelling with us to SIN (1979). 1989pix of her visiting us in FL/USA – the last time we caught up was in Tromsø/Norway Aug 2019.

https://amylamsg.com/2019/08/24/then-nordnorsk-musikkonservatorium/

Blessed with friends like Claire (Irish/Norwegian) going back to the 1970s when she was my student&baby-sitter. With Carmel (Irish/SIN) to 2000s when we were both IGAS-committee members (she still is today). Seems like my Singaporean-Irish-Norwegian-cultures have brought us together and hopefully will stay in contact for as long as I am kicking!

Tue: somehow have managed to strain&sprain some muscles around the neck/collar-bone&R-shoulder. Have not taken any pain-killers since after being discharged from SGH, but last night, it was necessary to take it so that I can get some hours of sleep. This too shall pass – today will use a heatpad on this grey-wet morning. Nice to chat with cousin Yun in Toronto/Canada and childhood friend Peggy in Perth/Australia.

Yeah to Norway – pix downloaded. Karsten Warholm became the first man to run under 46 seconds with a time of 45.94 breaking the world record to win gold in men’s 400m hurdles – amazing race! https://sg.news.yahoo.com/news/tokyo-olympics-2021-karsten-warholm-smashes-his-own-world-record-goes-viral-for-reaction-050445419.html

Wed: another day with a heatpad and starting on foods in the freezer on this grey-wet morning.

Thu: tkx for the below interesting video from Kitty, one of my former music teachers from Dublin/Ireland days. Last meetings with her was in 2011&14 and with her mother&daughter, Yasmin who I used to baby-sit in the late 1960s now lives in NY/USA. https://amylamsg.com/2014/01/21/first-2014-lo-hei撈起/

Dr Kitty Fadlu-Deen in conversation with Dr Caroline van Niekerk – congratulations with her 2books+other publications and wishing her all the best to the building of the BallantaMusicAcademy of SierraLeona.  https://youtu.be/xEL9W3LozuQ

GG1LAM KwokFou/Lawrence(1934-2021) took his last breath today at 13.40hrs in KL/Malaysia.

May he now RIP. Condolences to his wife GG1-ONG Mabel+his family in KL/Malaysia – OG1LAM YinChon/John&family and OG2LAM YinBong/Larry&family.

1Aug – Happy Bday  TOH ChengHong
2Aug– Happy Bday LAM ChengEn
9Aug – 56th SIN National Day
10Aug – Happy Bday LAM JenWee&Alvin NG
21Aug – Happy Bday LIM SiewChin
26Aug – Happy Bday Cindy LAM
29Aug – Happy Bday Sean KENNEDY
30Aug – Happy Bday Michelle ANG