11 Apr 2012 – Repairs & Repaint

Aug 1999: bought this HDB 3 room flat for S$170,000 and renovated it. After nearly 13yrs, the kitchen ceiling is spading and needs repair, the floors and walls have hair-line cracks and need a new layer of paint. Have also decided to get the bathroom a new layer of paint on the floor and walls. Considering what people are now willing to pay for this flat, over S$400,000 is really crazy, would not be able to afford to buy it now!

And we are talking about public housing! so imagine the price of private condos in SIN…!!

Tue: went shopping at IKEA for a few things, like a bracket to place the microwave. Of all the days to shop, there were problems with the systems. Had to wait for over half and hour so that the cashiers can reboot their registers. Even with the long lines and wait, the crowd was civilised and chocolate was passed around to humour us 🙂

Have to live with this mess for a few days. There will be workmen doing the job here, unlike in Norway when I had to do most of the painting! So let this be 2012 spring cleaning! Expecting visitors from Bali this weekend, HKG and Goa next week. Then to close and shut down for the summer. Am considering to spend Thanksgiving in the USA this year. Tickets have been booked to fly off 4 May heading to OSL first.

Spring cleaning is all about personal satisfaction. It is the time of year that triggers homeowners to revive their home and renew their lives – Peter Walsh

9 Apr 2012 – New Toy – Acer Aspire S3

Sat: Easter presents to myself, no chocolate or eggs but an ultra slim, 13mm/0.51″ slim and ultra light at less than 1.35kg/3.0lbs are really the ++s! 13.3″/33.8cm LED Screen with the embedded lithium-polymer battery lasting up to 7 hours. Will probably take me forever to figure how to use it! Wonder if there are ultra instant instructions?? But it sure looks elegant and so much lighter to carry 🙂

Tkx to Leonard for helping to choose and for loading up this new toy. Including an external DVD drive and a wireless mouse all for S$1,198. According to Leonard, my high-tech guru, it is time for this new notebook after having the old laptop for nearly 4yrs.

Congratulations and good luck to him for a new job. Refreshing ginger tea and crayfish salad@TCC /Funan***after a whole day of fun shopping… 🙂 🙂

Sun: tkx to Les & Ivy for chicken rice & yummy veggie Easter dinner@Boon Ting Kee/River Valley Rd***

http://www.boontongkee.com.sg/

Yeah my first blog posting on this new toy and quite a novelty with a cordless mouse! Did it, but has taken more time with a smaller screen compared to the previous laptop. Anything new does take some getting use to…

Eventually I found it had been working all along-but didn’t show anything on-screen until it had the first full-page of text. I inserted 30 new lines, and suddenly my toy said ‘hEllO woRlD’. An hour later I understood alphabet shifting rather better – Graham Nelson

6 Apr 2012 – to paper lingerie!!

This trip wraps the KCH trips for this year now that the family property Jalan Reservoir has been sold with the main bulk of the shares distributed and company into liquidation! This 3.39acres/147,688sq ft prime-land has been in our family for the past 4 decades and now it is time to let go.

Saying goodbyes to the trees was not that easy. Fate had its way that it was not meant for us to develop this and who knows when the new owner will start bringing the bull-dozer in? Rumours have it that there are plans for luxurious condos and self-service apartments…

I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues – Dr. Seuss

Grateful to be able to spend some quality time with bro Lawrence. Arrived Mon evening and headed to the Rotary dinner and talk by Mr Soo. Tkx for including me with the fellow Rotarians@Telang Usan Hotel, which is owned by one of the Rotarians. Lawrence had the Nasi Goreng Belacan/Shrimp Fried Rice and I had the Ayam Masak Merah/Chicken in Oyster Sauce, both tasty.

http://www.telangusan.com/

Tue: Thai food lunch with Lawrence & Mabel and Chuan@Absolute Tribal 喜悦***/Hills Shopping Mall by Pullman KCH Hotel. Interesting decor, a pillar of coffee beans and drift wood!

http://lifemixx.com/absolute-tribal-in-hills-shopping-mall-kuching.html

Dinner@the.Dyak****excellent tribal food. Tepus Suring/wild ginger, Petai Gulai Kechala/bitter nuts, Manuk Lulun/chicken cooked in bamboo. Their Tuak/rice wine ice cream is to die for! Yummy organic food with no MSG. Tkx to Kenson for dinner who also is in KCH for a project. Pix with Lawrence & Mabel, Kenson and Vernon, the owner. Seems like both K & I have this place on the top of our list!

http://celestialdelish.blogspot.com/2011/12/thedyak-restaurant-in-kuching-sarawak.html

Wed: a morning drive to view Lawrence’s properties followed by museums. Was fortunate to view different displays in all the 3 different buildings: Fossil Wood, B/W photos of the Baram & Tinjar and the intrigue interior painting in the main building.

A sentimental walk to Jalan Reservoir which is just behind the museum. The trees there were not the kind that would turn to fossil wood even if left untouched. But all trees are beautiful, especially those that can grown strong!

Taiwanese lunch@Xian Ding Wei Restaurant***鲜定味/Spring Mall with all the Easter setups! These colourful pix were taken with all my grandchildren in mind.

https://foursquare.com/v/xian-ding-wei-鲜定味/4d0c6758be6d6ea8c00dffb4

Midin & seafood dinner…

Thu: morning walk by the river, Carpenter St, Main Bazaar with the contrast from the White Raja times to the shop houses. No disrespect to the dead and Ching Ming month is ongoing. Nowadays, not only can one can get laptops, credit cards etc, even umbrellas and lingerie all made of paper to be burnt to the underworld.  What next…

Delicious local kolo mee breakfast@Sin Min Joo***with Lawrence and his lawyer. According to the locals, the half hour long line is worth waiting! Lunch with Chuan and tkx for the drive to the airport. Wishing him and his lovely family the very best of luck for their futures.

Appreciations to my KCH family, Chuan, Kenson and the others who crossed this path for all their hospitality and company.

Happy Easter to all who are celebrating.

1 Apr 2012 – with a new addition to the purple generation!

Sat: belated bday celebrations for niece Pat and grandniece Elizabeth/Beth, 2 weeks young and the new additional to the purple generation born on the same day as her mother on St Patrick’s Day. Beth is # 22nd from the purple generation (LAM Tin Yue’s branch) and one more due in Jun this year for this generation… to my knowledge just one more for 2012 🙂

Happy 75th Bday to sister Jo.

The Yeows must have the smallest pet aquarium with mini shrimps and fish, app half and inch/1.2cm in size! David being a good photographer has filled a wall in their apartment with lovely pix.

Appreciations for including me in their celebrations with yummy dinner. Denise in Brisbane/Aus, do not freak out, the fish-head Assam curry is delicious, same goes for yam-ring and the rest of the food. Two sinful bday cakes, chocolate and strawberry.

Have a wonderful Sunday and a great week ahead if I do not have the chance to blog for next week!

No Apr Fool… getting ready to ride the Tiger again (for the 3rd time this year) bound for KCH tomorrow 🙂

Apr Special Dates

2 Apr – Happy Bday Marianne HUSTAD

4 Apr – Happy Bday Richard YUNG

6 Apr – Good Friday. Happy Easter

8 Apr – Happy Bday Torill WISTNER

12 Apr – Happy Bday Peggy TAN

15 Apr – Happy Bday Lynne ONG/MICHEALS & Aileen KOH

17 Apr – Happy Bdays Anne STENSETH, Sharon KOH & Sara LAM

21 Apr – Happy Bday Gilbert CHAN

22 Apr – Happy Bday Ike BOROWSKY

29 Apr – Happy Bday Stanley LAM

30 Apr – Happy Bday JohnWT CHENG

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me – Chinese Proverb

29 Mar 2012 – Walk with Dignity!

It doesn’t matter how your day has gone – always go home with your head held high.

Plucked, pounded, mistreated, overworked but still with dignity.

Attitude is everything….

Tkx Denise for sharing. Hang on this roller-coaster ride and have no regrets! Remember that today will pass and tomorrow will be a new day 🙂

Tue: lovely company of grandniece Kiera who is visiting from NYC. After a morning movie with her, spent a nice afternoon together with mother & daughter catching up. How is it possible that I baby-sat niece May/Patricia in early 1970s in Dublin and now her daughter is 8 going on 9yrs… 🙂 🙂

The Lorax****an animated adaptation of the Dr. Seuss 1971’s children’s book, follows the story of Ted trying to win the girl of his dreams by finding her a real tree. He then stumbles upon the Lorax who tells him that his home, the Truffula Forest, is in danger due to the machinations of O’Hare, the mayor and greedy proprietor of a bottled oxygen Co.

Anyone who is fortunate to have the company of elementary school kids, do go watch this with them!

Wed: A Dangerous Method*** about Sigmund Freud, mentor to the fledgling psychiatrist and Carl Jung. Set on the eve of World War I, the film follows the turbulent relationships between the duo and Sabina Spielrein, the disturbed but beautiful woman who comes between them. Heavy and slow but worth seeing.

Appreciations to Peggy & Pat Tham for their company to lunch and the movie.

Salmon Fishing In The Yemen***when Britain’s leading fisheries expert is approached by a consultant to help realize a sheik’s vision of bringing fly-fishing to the desert, he immediately thinks the project is absurd. However, when the Prime Minister’s press secretary latches on to it as a good will story, a team will have to put it all on the line and embark on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible, possible…

This BBC production is entertaining and encouraging way to pass an afternoon.

Analysis does not set out to make pathological reactions impossible, but to give the patient’s ego freedom to decide one way or another – Sigmund Freud

26 Mar 2012 – Play It Back

The Queen Elizabeth Walk/伊丽莎白女皇道 is a promenade located along the Esplanade and bordering the Esplanade Park. Built in 1943, the Esplanade Park is one of the oldest in Singapore.

1950s: my parents would take me here on the cooler evenings. Enjoying our satay and bobochacha (a popular local dessert make of coconut milk together with sweet potatoes, yam/taro and tapioca cubes) with an unobstructed sea view. Running around the fountain playing with the water and climbing the steps to The Cenotaph, thinking they must be the tallest steps… 🙂

Sun: today the unobstructed sea view is obstructed, but the memories linger and the documentary on the history of the Esplanade Park and a slide show (tkx to National Archives) do help to refresh those memories.

Satay, Eurasian food, drinks including Coke floats for sale to the audience.

Ethnic dances by Era Dance Theatre and Apsaras Arts & SIFAS Choral Group. The sky opened and poured buckets for a short time in between these dancers. Good time to take shelter under the bridge to view the slides. Cleared to a lovely cool evening.

The SIN Police Force Band (formally the 2nd Straits Settlement Band formed in 1925), in full ceremonial costume. Men in uniform is such a handsome sight! A little boy marching a chair to his parents is probably the favourite sight 🙂

Story telling time in Malay/Mokther, English/Kamini and Mdm LEE (amazing 70yrs lady) who told The Story of ChangE and the Origin for Mooncake Festival in Cantonese, translated by CHAN Wei Hun. Mdm LEE learnt from the famous Cantonese story-teller LEE Dai Soh. Chinese Theatre Circle with a Cantonese Chinese Opera/Wayang

PsalmiDeo Chorale, Jeremy Monteiro Big Band and young jitterbug/swing dancers to end the entertainment for this first Play It Back. Glad I had the chance to be part of it as who knows if there will be another and if so where life’s journey’s path may lead…

I hate to mention age, but I come from an era when we weren’t consumed by technology and television – Jimmy Buffett

25 Mar 2012 – From an Indian Wedding to the Forest!

Fri: A beautiful wedding invitation to Kiri & Falguni’s wedding@Holiday Inn/Orchard. The sari and accessories in Indian weddings are exquisite. Vegetarian dinner was yummy, especially the cilantro chutney. Must learn how to make that! Entertainment with songs and dances performed by the bride and groom and their families.

 Appreciations to Les for including me as part of his family to this function, ie the father of the groom is his patient!

Sat: have been wanting to do this since I heard about it from CH. Today, a charming and delightful group from the SMU Exchange students and gracious Grace joined me. Tommy (met on the place to KCH in Jan), Ryan, Ashley, Natasha are from the USA, Jean-Baptiste from France and Magnus from Norway (managed to surprise him by speaking Norwegian to him!)

S$40 is well worth this adventure. This is really fun and the group (ages 18-22) who did the entire course. Having fasted on water for a week, was too low on energy, thus decided to skip Site 4 letting Magnus ahead of me as he was held back by a group who by-passed the black diamond route/Site 2 (tough section which took much energy and focus).

A group of I-rated local middle-aged females thought he was jumping the line and started to complain with unpleasant raised voice and seemed to refuse to hear my explanation. Had no time to deal with such, so left it for the well-trained staff to handle it. Perhaps that explains the preference to the company of the younger generation! As the saying goes, against ignorance and stupidity, even God fights in vain…

 http://www.forestadventure.com.sg/

Introduced some real local food to them@Bedok. So nice to see lovely young people who are adventurous and willing to experience and enjoy life away from their homes. Having studied, lived, worked away from my roots and integrated to all the places I have lived for nearly 40yrs have taught me so much. Tkx but no tkx to the young people for the invitation to Zouk, appreciate the gesture. The zouking days are now past life’s adventure 🙂

I am living out my adolescent dream of travel and adventure – Tim Cahill

23 Mar 2012 – via Blog Readers

This is quite amazing. First I received words from a relative of sis-in-law, Mabel about their great-grandfather and another relative buried@Bukit Brown and now appreciations to more words from another friend and blogger, Lucy (http://singaporegirl.wordpress.com) that she has a friend, Linda in Sydney who wrote this:

While reading your updates today, I managed to read about Amy Lam’s blog and then to learn that Mrs Molly Ong passed away earlier this year in Feb. And then she posted photos amongst which I spotted my 2 cousins Wong Hong Sze and Richard Lee also related to Jolie Svasti and Ricca Liu! She talked about her family and I then realised she is the first cousin of Lam Kah Yun who was my classmate in 1958 before she left for MGS and I caught up with her in Toronto in 2001. Also amongst the many photos was Amy’s childhood house at 5 Temenggong Rd which the Lams bought from one of our Wong relatives!

Linda not only is related to my childhood friends but also classmate with my cousin Yun. Richard, if you are reading this, are you in contact with Linda who is only crossing my path for the first time by name! Such a small world!! Pix from 1950s taken from Temenggong Rd with the view of the Gate 8 habour/today VivoCity, and with paternal grandmother CHAN Swee Ngor, sisters Jo & Joyce and cousin Yun.

Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close****a story of 9-year-old Oskar  who lives in NYC with his parents. He spends a lot of his time with his father, playing a game called Reconnaissance Mission. But his world comes crashing down when he loses his father in the terrorist attacks on 11 Sep 2001. He finds a key and goes on a journey across NYC to find where it might fit thinking that his father had meant for him to find. Good story line and acting from Tom Hanks, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock.

Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected – Willian Plomer