21 Jan 2011 – Yummy Goodies

Thu: Thank you for lunch@Jo‘s and thanks to Les & Ivy for dinner@Great World City’s Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine**** The CHUAS will be heading back to Canberra/Australia and who knows when we will next meet? Grandniece Kiera & grandnephew Lucas are as delightful as can be. Les & Ivy have this new blade-less fan, looking like a spaceship catching the camera’s attention!

The Chinese New Year/CNY is still 2 weeks away and the stores are fully packed with all the goodies. Being a coward with crowds, was in Chinatown last week to check out the stores and to take some pix. Such a dazzling and colourful adventure where you need to be there to experience and feel the ambiance of a crimson flaming red forest!

Have a few favourite cookies from various different places. Noting that stressed spelt backwards is desserts, so go for the desserts and there will be no stressed 🙂 Pix from Glory on East Coast Rd, except for Sue’s pineapple tarts which are the best of all pineapple tarts. This year will try to get 8 assortments of my most favourite cookies and snacks for May & Bjørn to taste.

Butter cookies from Glory**** Loveletters, Fouram and Almond cookies from Bengawan Solo**** Pineapple tarts from Suri’s***** Bakkwa (Bjørn being a non-pork eater does not have to taste this but he does not know what he will be missing!) from Bee Hock Guan*** dried red melon seeds and Macadamia nuts from where ever they taste fresh and good.

Raffles City, South Bridge Rd, People’s Park and Chinatown.

According to yesterday’s ST, have to be prepared to pay more than S$50 per kg if you intend to pig out on bakkwa this CNY. Retailers said rising ingredient and labour costs are pushing up the cost of this festive treat of sliced barbecued pork. Will only be buying a small amount of the individually vacuum-packed, more for tradition and decoration! Looking at the lines in this bakkwa shop in Chinatown, one would think that it is FOC… dream on!

Cookies are made of butter and love – Norwegian Proverb

19 Jan 2011 – Housing Development Board/HDB

Yesterday Linn announced that she is will be making me a grandmother for the fifth time in Aug and that #5 will be her last!

This posting is for the benefit of May’s friend Bjørn who will be visiting SIN for the first time and will be staying here. The public housing/HDB in the Marine Parade MP/马林百列 area comprises 58 blocks and over 85% of SIN nearly 5mil pop live in HDB including this blogger! If interested for more info: Check posting. Neighbourhood 4 Mar 2010 & HDB 25 Oct 2010.

In many countries, public housing is a not so desirable location to live in but in SIN, it is not the case. Affordable, clean and safe plus public transportation, library, Community Centre and coffee shops/eating places are conveniently located in HDB built-up areas make them quite attractive. Only SIN citizens and PRs are permitted to purchase HDB and there are many regulations attached to them:  http://www.hdb.gov.sg/

Pix to give non-SIN an idea of SIN public housing@Marine Crescent Gardens.

Bamboo plants outside the common area are permitted as long as they are kept clean, tidy and there is NO standing stagnant water anywhere. The fines are quite hefty if stagnant water is discovered outside or in inside the apartment at random check. Quite rightly so as to prevent dengue. Elevators are monitored with surveillance cameras. Post boxes have hinges one can put into action for unwelcoming junk. The mail-person access these boxes by a common locked opening from the back.

The common walkways are all covered to the bus-stop and if you know your way, you can practically walk to the library or the beach under covered walkways all the way (except at minor road crossings) in 5mins.

One of the many playgrounds and this one faces Marine Cres/Terrace.

Multi-storey car-park with a roof-top garden to provide more oxygen in this concrete jungle 🙂

Tao Nan School/TNS, one of SIN prestigious schools is located on Still Rd/MP Rd/Marine Cres which will soon be demolished to make way for bigger and taller buildings!

Across the road from TNS via the covered overhead pass is MPs Community Centre and the neighbourhood library located on MP Rd/Still Rd where you will find me if not in the apartment or by the beach 🙂 🙂

Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest – Lady Bird Johnson

18 Jan 2011 – Happy Bday Grand-niece Isabelle

Brisbane floods: 1.Milton Road with iconic XXXX factory high and dry on the hill. 2.Closed due to flood warnings/Back in 5 meters. 3.Cook Street/Oxley Road. Thanks to Bec & Denise for updates and for sharing. Hopefully everything is getting back to the routine life when the town is cleared and cleaned up. Do understand that many have loss their whole life’s saving and everything they owned. And for some, it will be difficult to start all over again. My thoughts go out to them and my hopes for them is that there will be a silver lining somehow and somewhere. Australians have a more positive outlook and a good sense of humour to life, they will rise above the 5 meters again!

Brazil, Philippines, South Africa and Sri Lanka are also badly hit by the floods. These are poorer countries and how are they going to cope??

Does the snake know that he has a passenger? Thanks to Denise again for sharing. Being a cynic, cannot help but think of the story about the Gingerbread Man. For the frog’s sake, he should remember that he can swim, otherwise it will be frog-legs dinner for the snake 🙂

Then the gingerbread man  reached a wide river , but he didn’t know how to swim. A sly and hungry fox  saw the gingerbread man  and said, ‘Jump on my tail and I’ll take you across the river !’

The gingerbread man thought to himself, ‘I’ll be safe on his tail.’ So he jumped on the fox’s tail and they started across the river.

Halfway across the river, the fox barked, ‘You’re too heavy for my tail, jump on my back.’ So the gingerbread man jumped on the fox’s back.

Soon, the fox said, ‘You’re too heavy for my back, jump onto my nose.’ So the gingerbread man  jumped on the fox’s nose. But as soon as they reached the riverbank, the fox flipped the gingerbread man into the air, snapped his mouth shut and ate the gingerbread man.

And that was the end of the gingerbread man

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/stories/folktale/gingerbreadman/story/

17 Jan 2011 – Sentosa Golf Club & Sentosa Cove

Originally Pulau Blakang Mati – in Malay Isle of the Dead – because of its many cemeteries, the island of Sentosa was given an image makeover in the late 1960s/posting Sentosa 9 Jul 2009. Sentosa, which in Malay means tranquillity, was to be the home of tourist attractions and eventually a new golf course opened in 1974. In the early 1990’s, the old Clubhouse was demolished to make way for an updated Clubhouse which today boasts full banqueting and conference facilities. The Club is today home of the US$6 million Barclays Singapore Open and the Open International Final Qualifying (IFQ) Asia.

Golf tourism is spreading rapidly all over the world. Although most people play the sport of golf because of its interaction with nature, most golfers do not realise or consider how environmentally damaging the sport can be. The booming golf trade throughout the world creates a haven for golfers and a nightmare for environmentalists … http://www.blurtit.com/q830894.html

Sun: Thanks to Les & Ivy for a lovely lunch@Sentosa Golf Club***on a beautiful breezy day with grandniece Kiera explaining the menu and playing make-believe take-orders and recommendations from the chef with her. May & Albert are taking a short get-away while Les & Ivy are baby sitting. Lee, Adeline & Isabelle who will be 3 tomorrow joined us. Strange, seems like yesterday when Lee was 3 ( both Lee & Linn will be 37 this year!) and now he has a 3yrs young daughter who also is not too fond of food like her daddy when he was that age 🙂

15 Jan 2011 –  Age is Just a Figure!

Happy Bday to Angie Sosa FOLDS who also shares this day. Thank you to everyone for their thoughtful Bday wishes. What is another year but more figures in everyway! For granddaughter Katy, she is into her last year where she can count her age with just one figure!! When we moved to the USA in 1985, was then joking with L&M that the reason for moving there was so as not to forget the bday since Martin Luther KING was born on the same day and is a public holiday in the USA 🙂

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream – Martin Luther KING

A rainy week with new movies and today@nephew Clement’s newly renovated HDB to catch up with old DVDs. Someone asked if the movies reviewed and rated in this blog have been watched. Yes yes yes is the answer from a movie buff…

The Last Days of Emma Blank/De laatste dagen van Emma Blank*** Dutch flick about Emma who waits for her death in a most dysfunctional country household. Emma is a steely, avaricious dictator whose absurd demands drives everyone into madness. Until the day that they discover that they stand to inherit nothing and they drop off their charade of caring and concern. It is supposed to be a comedy… but fail to see the comic side to this movie!

All Good Things*** New York City in the 1980s- David, the son of a powerful real estate tycoon, marries Katie a beautiful working class student. Together they flee the city for country life in Vermont, only to be lured back by David’s father. About a very distraught David who witnessed the suicide of his mother when he was 7. The consequences, four people murdered with David as the main suspect and the Marks family’s dark secrets pave the way to a disturbing truth.

Burlesque *** Ali is a small-town girl who follows her dreams to LA. The Burlesque Lounge is home to an inspired musical revue where Ali worked as a cocktail waitress. She wins the eye of bartender musician Jack and makes her way from the bar to the stage. Her spectacular voice restores the lounge to its former glory and a charismatic entrepreneur Marcus arrives with an enticing proposal. Do not usually go for musicals but wanted to watch Cher’s acting and man does she look good for her age!

Lover’s Discourse/戀人絮語** bonds together a series of relationships as well as tales of love and lost and various stages of love, betrayal and redemption. Being a HKG flick, it is dubbed from Cantonese to Mandarin and somehow do not like dubbed movies. In future must remember not to watch HKG movies in SIN.

13 Jan 2011 – The Island Syndrome

12 Jan 2011 – Havoc Weathers

DownUnder in Australia, Brisbane 27S/153E, area 5,901 sqKm/2,279 sqMi, pop of slightly over 2mil. Workers evacuated after the Brisbane River burst its banks. Evacuation centers in Brisbane are filling up as Queensland’s capital braces for floods which have turned the state into a disaster zone. Ten people died in flooding Tuesday. To Denise, Kim, cousin ChoonLong and everyone in that area, please stay safe. Pix and info downloaded from BBC, CNN & ST

On the other side of the globe, snowfall in USA,Columbia, SC 34N/81W, area 346 sqKm/133 sqMi, pop 129,333 is also not a usual sight. Pictures credits to Linn and more credits to her for making the best of the situation. Enjoy the moment, but stay warm and safe.

Near the Arctic Norway, Oslo 59N/10E, area 454 sqKm/175 sqMi, pop 596,923, the winter is also colder than normal but they are used to the snow. May stay warm and safe, you will soon be in SIN to celebrate the CNY and to de-freeze! Pix: 2008 Norway trip/posting 31 Oct 2008-Winter Wonderland. The house belongs to Ellen HALD, L&M‘s paternal grandmother and is located on Nesøya/suburb of Oslo, where we lived from 1974-76.

By the equator here in SIN 1N/103E, area 710 sqKm/274 sqMi, pop nearly 5mil!!! it is comfortable without the air-conditioning in the apartment. Used to be a 3-room HDB, ie 2 bedrooms+1 hall, now converted into a studio apartment. The windows have been opened the past week and that also is not usual here! Enjoying the books, uploading pix and lazing around. Pix were taken as requested by John LIM as he has moved to a new place and liked the interior enough to ask for permission to decorate his living area similarly. Thank you to this talented architect for his compliment. Always a pleasure to be able to help.

Denise mentioned that she was not aware that SIN’s area is so limited to accommodate a pop of 5mil. Sharing some stats to try to understand how the pop and the weather can affect people’s behaviour and moods!

Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody –
Benjamin Franklin

11 Jan 2011 – 11-01-11!

Received a request from second daughter May got me out taking pix for an article about SIN’s transport system to be published in Norway in a small Norwegian magazine called Samferdsel.

MRT & stations (AngMoKio/AMK-MRT Station & BusInterchange; MRT to Eunos Station/with the protective glass doors stations), Light rail (sorry May, no pix), Bus (no13 from SimsAve to MarineCres), People in transit, People at bus stop (EunosBusStop with shade to MRT station), Taxis (will not take one if can avoid),  Cars on the road (SimsAve & MarineParadeRd).

May wanted anything that makes SIN look super advanced and ahead of the rest… not sure these pix will justify SIN public transport looking super advanced!!! Mostly satisfied with the public transport here except for rude taxi drivers. Traveling as a senior citizen is affordable on the buses and MRT as long as one can avoid the rush hours and weekends. Pix taken during a busy weekend, got her message Fri and deadline was yesterday, would not have ventured in those MRT stations in the weekends if not for her request!

The system is advance enough for finding out when the next bus is arriving at your bus stop to avoid unnecessary wait at the bus stops. There is even a number to dial on the mobile to get an SMS info for people like me who does not own an iPhone…  http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/iris/nextbus.aspx

This will certainly justify the advance system – no driver, all controlled from an Operations Room costing US$4.6B. Thanks Mica for the info… http://www.safeshare.tv/v/I6uwOiYzmMU

When no bus or MRT after midnight, walking is till the preference if not too hot! That is where HKG has a better system with certain bus routes running 24hrs.

There’s all these ways to instantly communicate – cars, computers, telephone and transportation – and even with all that, it’s so hard to find people and have an honest communication with them – Jason Schwartzman

9 Jan 2011 – Happy Bdays to Judy LAM & Lee Wang AMEEN

Sat: Appreciations to Garry for stopping by on transit to Bali. Safe onwards journey! Goods laughs and chats solving world’s problems in 6hrs over cocktails, dinner with wine and dessert with champagne. Thank you for the Veuve Clicquot. We seemed to have shared a bottle 6 months ago at his Bali house. Let’s hope that the next bottle will be consumed before the earth’s pole shift 🙂

Yulis Adam TEO, a beautiful charming young lady crossed life’s journey’s path 10yrs ago when we were working in H&H@Marine House. She was not even 21 then! Yesterday was her wedding ceremony with CHIEW and was celebrated@Fort Canning with a delicious Malay lunch. Tonight’s dinner@La Villa*** with Italian food and yummy home-made pineapples tarts from the mother of the bride and butter cake for the groom’s mother. Thank you Yulis & Chiew for including me on their most special day. Congratulations and the very best wishes to this lovely couple for their life ahead…

Of Marriage: You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow –
Kahlil Gibran