28 Mar 2024 – Coffee

Mon&Tue: have not been at my best the past 2days. Do enjoy&like my morning coffee but will try to keep to one cup a day. Interesting article with maps showing every country’s favourite coffee drink in 2024. Looks like the favoourties for SIN/Cappuccino, Ireland/IrishCoffee, Norway/IcedCoffee&IrishCoffee, USA/Espresso – like them all except for Expresso

Fascinating map reveals every country’s favourite coffee drink in 2024, with the UK and Australia mad for macchiato and the U.S especially keen on espresso – but it’s a different blend that takes the overall crown… (msn.com)

Caffeinated Spider Web – Here-There-Everywhere – This-That-Everything (amylamsg.com)

Tkx to Ray for his share for this beautiful morning image from his neighbourhood and according to him its 38°C – definitely too hot to be out. Appreciative&thankful for AC but do dread receiving my power bill.

Tue: Oh no! FrancisScottKeyBridge in Baltimore collapses after S’pore-flagged ship collision; search under way for survivors – pix downloaded. This is going to be another long-drawn-out process to learn the causes&consquences of such a major accident with claims of multi-billions$ involved.  https://cna.asia/43vu7Vr

Ship Lost Control Before Hitting Baltimore Bridge (gcaptain.com)

Wed: @NirvanaMemorialGardens/ChoaChuKang

Paying respects to bro Steven for his 49days after passing and combining with early QingMing清明(Tomb-Sweeping) rituals for sil PohKit.

49 Days After Death (做七) – Purpose of An Ling (安灵) & Jing Ling (祭灵) – Memorial Funeral Specialist

Amazed&speechless with all paper goods you can buy to burn as offerings! Makes me wonder if it is possible&how to make a whole paper universe with all the materialistic values in it, ie a package-deal? As DeniseS so eloquently said –

Our humanness makes us vulnerable and we all seek solace in different ways. I suppose it depends on the devils that haunt one from life’s experiences that determine what manner of solace we choose. https://amylamsg.com/2011/08/22/if-religion-is-a-thing/

It will be interesting to learn&see the consequences about banning this ritual??? Edited with the latest link below – 1Apr but no April Fool.

China city lambasted for banning burning of ‘hell money’ to commemorate ancestors during Ching Ming Festival (msn.com)

In memory of my parents&grandparents – with my asthma+health issues will not be going to the crematorium, for me all my loved ones who have passed on will never be forgotten.

Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them – GeorgeEliot.

Thu: @SGH hopefully Xray will be normal, and this nebulizer dose will help with the breathing&wheezing, had to wait ~30mins for prescribed steroids to reduce inflammations. Caught in the rush hour on the bus and do feel the difference on a crowded bus as compared to the other times.

24 Mar 2024 – By Peggy Tan

Thu: not a good night sleep last night, had to drink many cups of water after the CKT – will be a long while before consuming another S$6 CKT! FB down again for some time in certain areas last night and it was just 2weeks ago they had some issues but was not online when this happened then or now!

Meta is DOWN: Facebook, Instagram and Messenger hit with worldwide outage leaving users unable to access accounts – 2 weeks after platforms were knocked offline by an ‘internal’ issue | Daily Mail Online

~44ha of land will be reclaimed as part of works to expand the WoodlandsCheckpoint. Reclamation is tentatively scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2024 and slated to be completed by 2029. At this rate the reclaimed land is going here we might no longer need the causeway to JB/Malaysia – hahaha!

wild shores of singapore: Planned reclamation at Mandai Mangroves

20 Mar 2024 – For Linn My First Born

Sun: started this St Pat’s Day braving my way to LittleIndia(where I would usually avoid on Sundays) before 10.00hrs and the crowds were just about starting but fortunate to get a table for brunch@TekkaMarket. Have not seen SusanTye since our student days in Dublin/Ireland, half a century ago! and today she&Soon are visiting SIN for a few days.

Guiding them from there to the St Pat’s Parade which starts 1600hrs@EmpressLawn. Good to be able to cover many places of interest in 5+hrs/15,000steps ~12k walk, even caught a wedding couple crossing the road! ArmenianChurch&CHIJMES pix credits to Soon.

A pleasure to guide visitors who are such good spot, flexible&fun and willing to walk in this heat&humidity tasting all kinds of drinks&food on the way without any complains. SIN-River+TanTenNiahHouse/LittleIndia pix credits to Soon.

Great turn-out despite of the heat – green balloons added a nice touch to the ambience&festivity.

Drummers from St Pat’s School did an excellent job to end the parade@UOB-Plaza.

Appreciations to StanleyQ for appetizers@Hortus to catch up with Bern&Kiat – apologies for not staying for the dinner but had previous family dinner arrangements@Rochalie. Tkx to Stanley’s driver for getting me from here to Rochalie.

May the roof above us never fall in. And may the friends gathered below it never fall out — Irish Blessing

Mon: Happy 50Bday to my beautiful 1st born amongst Leprechauns/Ireland moved on with the Vikings/Norway and now being brave in the BraveNewWorld/USA celebrating half a century with her Fabulous5. And she asked me how it feels like having a daughter half a century??? Words will not be able to justify how blessed my life’s journey has so far been!

The wiser mind mourns less for what age takes away than what it leaves behind – WilliamWordsworth

Tue&Wed: after such a week like the past week, will need another week to recover but no such luck. News from cousin Irene who is in our ancestral village in Tangbianli,Jiangmen,Guangdong province/China.

So far so good with the AncestralHall but looks like we are running into some minor glitches where the AncestralHouses are concerned. Tired&mentally drained to deal with drama where greed&materialism are involved but need to get into a mind frame to handle this for the good of the family’s reputation and the village there – never a boring or dull moment in this life’s journey, lol.

Appreciations to Vince,Daisy,Clement for meeting@ZionRdHawker for one of my favourite CKY-stalls. 6th in line despite being there before 18.00hrs(opening hr), took ~30mins as those in front of me were ordering many take-away-packages, min order now S$6, gone is the S$4portion!

The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for – Will Rogers

16 Mar 2024 – 40+Years Business on Marine Terrace

Wed: appreciations to Gel for taking time to catch up for breakfast@MT-hawkers. Discovered a new store with all kinds of dried bottled,canned,vacume-packed,etc TCM which is complementary to mainstream medicine in SIN and also plays an important role in meeting the healthcare challenges of the ageing population. Will need to learn&read more about it but forget acupuncture, needles for me in this care are no-no.

The Chinese do not draw any distinction between food and medicine – Lin Yutang

TCM can play role in meeting healthcare challenges of ageing population: Gan Kim Yong | The Straits Times

Have been listening to many his talks and he is one of the few who makes sense to me, especially about that health care is up to ourselves to take care of how we live, what we eat, etc to stay healthy.

There are no superfoods… or super drugs for that matter. Without a healthy diet, we are stuck with temporary solutions to symptoms rather than long lasting treatments for the underlying disease – Dr W Li

Food As Medicine – Dr William Li

TEL MRT-Stage4/Exit2 nearest my 4walls(less than 100steps!) will be opened 23Jun2024 – looking forward to not be in traffic or caught in traffic-lights for my future trips to Rochalie. Today’s happening in the hood with video takes by a group of charming-cheerful-young HwaChong Students + some commercial group(just look the contrast of these HiTech-equipment compared to that of the students!) to show case a local business which have been here for the past 4decades! around the new MarineTerraceSta.

These are the 3 that have been here 40+yrs: corner Mamashop in block58, SE-TireCo and  Bengawan Solo/1979.

Gel told me that these monkeys have been spotted@EC-Pk and she has reported to ACRES – pix credits to her. Not going to walk there without a walking stick, traumatic memories with monkey attacks from the 1950sdays when they were in the BotanicGardens/SBG. Favourite amusing monkey video – FlirtingWithDeath.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVn9qT8hRZc

Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town – George Carlin

Thu: Happy 19thBday #2EllieBelly. How can it be that it’s her last teen year?
Don’t you think 19’s too young to be messed with — Taylor Swift(Dear John).

Thinking when I first got married at 19 with no regrets, otherwise this beautiful princess+the rest of my wonderful flock would not have been in the world – love&miss them all.

Appreciations with thanks to the Embassy of Ireland for StPat’s Reception@FullertonBayHotel. This location was the former Clifford Pier/紅燈碼頭 = red lamp harbour referring to the red oil lamp beacon which shone over the pier at night as a warning to ship. Good memories from the bygone childhood days when we used to take ferries or bumpboats to the outer islands from here.

Johnston’s and Clifford Pier (roots.gov.sg)

Nice to catch up with StanleyQ but how does he manage to look like time has stood still since our 1960s-70s student days in Dublin??? Hello to a new face, LouAnn Seet with FlightAware.

Tasteful spread with this FiveFarms Irish-Cream-Liqueur which is certainly a very comforting night cap, tkx to DerrickQ for bringing these in.

Fri&Sat: body&mind is telling me to rest after Thu night’s indulgence! SIN-Garden-Festival/SGF 新加坡花園節 gets a hype this weekend@Takashimaya before the 3-11Aug2024Show. Unlikely to have that kind of energy to want to handle the crowds&noise but will just enjoy living vicariously thru’ my flower,garden&orchid fans – pix credits to Neo TuanHong.

S’pore Garden Festival returns in August; global congress to be held in S-E Asia for first time | The Straits Times

Have been helping out the Orchid Society/OSSEA with their MOR publication from 1999-2009 and setting up with their 2003 1st show The Singapore Orchid Festival@SBG, now the first and only tropical botanic garden on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Am content with fond memories of the best SIN-orchid-show for me!

After combining to be SGF from 2004 onwards, the show has not been the same and has lost some of it’s personal charm, despite the crowds. Appreciations to Peggy, Shelly and Calvin for these wonderful experiences and memories – 2006/OSSEA, 2008/OSSEA&SIN Shawl, 2010/IR, 2012/NA, 2014/CC and 2016/OSSEA.

Show Info (nparks.gov.sg)

Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts ― Sigmund Freud

12 Mar 2024 – With Some Beneficial Health Values

Sat: a weekend to heal with just constructive&postive actions, foods, memories, thoughts, words, etc.

Lemongrass,Cymbopogon,香茅; PandanLeaf,PandanusAmaryllifoliusRoxb,Screwpine,班蘭葉 /七葉蘭; Tamarind,TamarindusIndica,塔梅林德. These are the 3local ingredients used regularly for cooking&tea in my4walls – all supposedly have some beneficial health values, but more important, like the taste. Also make good teas – would usually make a pot with any of these+honey, bottled&refrigerate to last for a few days. Pandan can be used for flower arrangements and when not so fresh looking cooked for tea, also the aroma of all 3 make my 4walls smell with natural pleasant fragrance.

Sun: still feeling some discomfort around certain areas in the gum, and this set of false teeth is not feeling welcome in the mouth yet but will have to use it for aesthetic reason! Strange to feel a gap like when missing my 2 front teeth during childhood, hahaha!

Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us ― Jane Austen

Soft foods&soups can be comforting&tasty when made with fresh herbs,ingredients&spices. Top comfort local food for me is Cantonese-style-congee made with rice&home-made broth, garnish with green-onions,cilantro,ginger with a touch of sesame-oil. Time consuming to make but best tasting when made from scratch and none of my children or grandchildren like it!

One of my favourite cream-soups is home-made carrot+pumpkin with a touch of fresh-cream,ginger,sherry, not too difficult to prepare.

Mon: to those living in Daylight-Saving-Time-Zones do remember to move your clock forward – makes it easier for me with 12hrs ahead of SC/USA than the 13hrs!

Go raibh maith agat to Ambassador of Ireland H.E. SarahMcGrath for a reception to welcome the Irish Minister of State HildegardeNaughton T.D. Let the St Patrick’s Day celebrations week start with thoughts of all my Irish friends around the world and fond memories of Bro Joseph McNally.

Singapore – A Sense of Ireland 2024 – The Ireland Funds, Progress through Philanthropy

Tue: wishing all Muslims a blessed month of Ramadan which starts today in SIN – pix downloaded. If you want to know the religion of a man, do not look at how much he prays and fasts, rather, look at how he treats people – Ja’far al-Sadiq.

Muslims in Singapore to mark start of Ramadan on Mar 12 – CNA (channelnewsasia.com)

Places of interest here in SIN during the Ramadan – GeylangSerai&KampongGelam

Check Out These 14 Ramadan Bazaars in Singapore This 2024 (theasianparent.com)

Brunch&shopping@IKEA/AlexandraBranch using up the gift voucher. FOC-ShuttleBus gets too crowded and seats not always available from Bedok-TampinesBranch. Hair-cut@Ecoin using S$10CDC-vouchers@MarineP.

8 Mar 2024 – International Women’s Day

Tue: SeniorSaveSS-Tue grocery shopping done by 06.00hrs with a saving of S$5.14incl of Promo+SS, paid S$35.56+S$5FreshProduce@WetMarket.

Yeah! will be back in time from USA to experience the new Stage4-TEL-MRT-stations. Passengers can use them for free as part of a preview on 21Jun, might even be brave enough to go for a free ride!

TEL Stage 4 from Tanjong Rhu to Bayshore to open for passenger service on June 23 | The Straits Times

Wed: seems like FB is having some issues – not only did they remove some of my recent postings, now this! Let’s hope that all these problems will soon be resolved – pix uploaded.

Facebook outage causes incorrect password errors – ThatsNonsense.com

Facebook is down; outage also spreads to Instagram and Threads (bgr.com)

At NDC where one broken tooth had to be extracted from part of a bridge and being on blood-thinner, needed a stitch so as not to bleed too much – appreciations to pain killers after the local anesthesia worn off. Young dentist DrYang/28! did a good job – dentists are artists of the oral realm, the maestros of mastication!

May your troubles be as few and as far apart as my grandmother’s teeth – Irish quote.

Mr. Herriton, don’t – please, Mr. Herriton – a dentist. His father’s a dentist.
Philip gave a cry of personal disgust and pain. He shuddered all over and edged away from his companion. A dentist! A dentist at Monteriano. A dentist in fairyland! False teeth and laughing gas and the tilting chair at a place which knew the Etruscan League, and the Pax Romana, and Alaric himself, and the Countess Matilda, and the Middle Ages, all fighting and holiness, and the Renaissance, all fighting and beauty! He thought of Lilia no longer. He was anxious for himself: he feared that Romance might die ― EM Forster 

Where Angels Fear to Tread

For there was never yet a philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently – Shakespeare

Thu: with the slight taste of blood in my mouth all yesterday afternoon, last night and this morning makes it a perfect timing to fast. This too shall pass and then will have to learn to adjust to false teeth with soft foods to start the transition – counting my blessings that I still have many real teeth! Has it really been 7yrs ago since the premier of Disney’s Beauty&TheBeast? Appreciating my books again these few days after this major dental work – fasting and easing into soft foods the next few days.

Welcome Sweden to NATO – Sweden officially joins NATO, becoming alliance’s 32nd member | CNN

Fri: Happy International Women’s Day/IWD – in Chinese characters:

IWD has always been about gender inequality and discrimination. Gender equity is still not a reality in the world, so IWD is a day to raise awareness and demand equity for all people regardless of gender, and I would like to include race,religion,etc…

Restrictions on Afghan women? and why not restrictions on Afghan men??

UN envoy calls again for removal of restrictions on Afghan women | UN News