25 Sep 2017 – Local Soap-Opera

Posted this on FB Wed 13 Sep 22.25hrs – was feeling under the weather, jet-lagged and being deprived of a public holiday! This made my day – one of the best I have seen. Hope that she will win. Tkx Yukie for the share. Do like her sense of humour and hats off to anyone who can make Simon blush.

Fri: congratulations and so happy for this very talented sweet young lady, Darci-Lynne who deserves this win. All the best to her and hope that her sweet modest innocence will stay with her as long as possible.

http://www.goodinsideus.com/darci-lynn-takes-crown-got-talent-sweet-reaction-will-melt-heart/?utm_source=SST&utm_medium=exchange

Posting the above link here and hopefully can one day look back again with a smile 🙂 when times are not so smiley!

Sat: for my Norwegian family&friends, this must be good news!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-19/norway-wealth-fund-says-reached-1-trillion-in-value

Tanglin is a SIN local drama produced by Mediacorp started in 2015. The plan was 199episodes, but today running into 500+episodes and possibility up to 800eposides. Decided to do a Tanglin Marathon on-line since I have not seen 1-500, so far only got up to 100episodes. Being back in SIN surroundings, can understand and relate to its popularity.

Because Singaporeans are incredibly cosmopolitan, we steadfastly kept away from stories or characters that would be a copy of anything else out there. Our stories come from a mishmash of personal experiences, the news, everything we’ve seen, heard, experienced in Singapore. We’ve actually received responses from Singaporeans overseas, who tell us how much we remind them of home yet we’ve also got tweets and emails from non-Singaporeans who can relate to the universal themes – managing executive producer Tan Wei-Lyn
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/lifestyle/what-s-the-secret-behind-the-success-of-tanglin-singapore-s-9167586

Sun: welcome back to SIN from Vancouver and Happy Bday to PuiAh. A delightful evening was had by all. Hong, PA&I share fond childhood memories from the 1950s!

Tkx to Hong for dinner@TangYun***Tanglin Club.

Garry, and everyone in that area, take care and be safe – the number of tremors recorded at Bali’s Mt Agung volcano has increased again with warnings it could erupt at any time.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/travel/travel-news/indonesia-raises-bali-volcano-alert-to-highest-level/news-story/ae34df4ac7a770560722e3cac8563d05

Mon: today&tomorrow must be some special very days, count 9months backwards and figure out why??? 🙂 Today Happy Birthdays to Elsie, Emily, Kat Lori. Pauline, Tamagoh; tomorrow – Annette, Randy, Stephanie, Tom, Zarina, and to others who are also celebrating their bdays today. A good week to all.

Busy day with PuiAh – breakfast@Carlton Hotel,

views of our old CHIJ Chapel, Church of St Peter&Paul+CC and Cathedral of Good Shepherd from the 19floor – seems like this hotel is surrounded by churches!!!

Gardens by the Bay,

and both Chinatown&GardensByTheBay are decked colourfully and ready for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Tkx PA for lunch@Michelin star Hawker Chan. Hope that today has tired me out enough to give at least 7hrs of sleep tonight, dreaming! to get back to SIN time after a busy day at the Gardens&Chinatown where Mid-Autumn Festival is definitely in the air and when the real Fall colours have be man-made! Goodnight&sweet dreams to all.

We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep – Shakespeare

21 Sep 2017 – With Tropical Showers

Mon: appreciations to good company and tkx to Carmel for fancy dim-sum lunch@ChopSueyCafe,Dempsey***in an ambiance which brought back fond memories from childhood days in Temenggong Rd!

Celebrations for Carmel&KokSoon’s anniversary, Ivy’s Bday and Carmel’s upcoming Bday next month! But mainly celebrations to family, friendship&life. And for me everyday is a celebration when I can wake up, put my feet on the ground and walk 🙂 Tkx Carmel for the ride to&fro in these very heavy downpours.

Tue: a visit to Richard’s mom (soon 98yrs) known to us younger generation as 大家姐=big older sister (a female with more years of age than one) whom I have not seen since 8yrs ago. Like most in her generation, she remembers me as TinYue’s youngest daughter, AhYuen!

Tkx Richard for lunch@The Peranakan. Good to catch up and safe journeys back to Sydney – have lost count of the times introducing local family+friends and overseas visitors this location. Still think that the food is pretty decent but KK thinks otherwise!

Tonight is the last night for the Hungry Ghost Festival 2017. Hope that those who are performing these rituals will clean up after them as we do not want any spirits wandering about after the Gates are closed tonight! Tkx sis Jo for dinner.

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/hungry-ghost-festival-all-you-need-to-know-and-heed-about-the-7th-month-celebrations

Wed: prayers and thoughts are out to those in these areas. Take care and be safe Karin KorKowski&family+friends.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mexico-earthquake-today-city-latest-updates-today-magnitude-damage-a7956251.html

Today 4yrs ago (2013) was Linn&Jeff’s house fire in SC/USA. We were all (including me as I was visiting then) blessed to get out of that unharmed. Can never forget the helplessness and lost of words standing barefooted in our PJs on the driveway fighting back the tears to stay strong for the family.

https://amylamsg.com/2013/10/06/lost-for-words/

Thu: it has been cool and wet the past few days and at times also very heavy downpours. Nice to be indoors doing indoor-things like catching up with reading, altering&mending clothes and getting gifts ready for the Christmas! to be surface-mailed.

Raindrops keep falling on my head
But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turnin’ red
Crying’s not for me
‘Cause I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin’
Because I’m free
Nothing’s worrying me – Hal David and Burt Bacharach 

Edited: clearing up for a dryer afternoon. Welcome back to SIN Leonard and tkx for good lunch company and a nice walk down EC Rd.

Always something new in this area. The Flow (a new block), an appropriate tag-line a PI or optician, but this is a visual design place Darling Visual Communications (pix credits to Leonard),

trendy barber&bakery…

Indigo Hotel with an interesting modern Peranakan twist and colours to fit into the EC Rd Peranakan area

17 Sep 2017 – In The East

Fri: yeah my congee-stall is opened today TGIF, and after bowl of hot congee, took my coffee for a walk. Small world, discovered that our local young talented flautist Rit has a bro who is a good photographer – pix of JoeSchooling+towkay (owner of the coffee stall) taken by Rex, Rit’s bro.

Mesmerized by the sunrise colours and cloud formations@ECPark that I lingered longer than usual to soak up more aura&energy, both seems to be lacking in me lately. The sun was already blazing hot by the time the body was ready for a shower. The song What A Wonderful World pops in the head after such a morning. Yes it’s going to be another wonderful weekend to all.

Have hoped to be back in local time, but not the case! Could hardly keep the eyes open by 1000hrs! a few mins snooze turned to an 60+mins!!

Tried to keep awake at this movie Mother and whatever the writer-director Darren Aronofsky is trying to say did not get thru’ for me except for Mother’s Earth climate change…

http://mashable.com/2017/09/16/jennifer-lawrence-mother-movie-explained/#8AixZ.r8mmq3

Tkx Yoshie for getting these Star-Wars chopsticks – no problems finding and seeing food even if power goes 🙂

In good company and tkx to Calvin for Japanese dining and a great evening at Oceans of Seafood, PasarBella@The Grandstand***

Choose this location as it is away from the F1 which started today. Pix taken from bus48 joining on to ECP from Ophir Rd at about 2300hrs, no races on then!

Sat: Happy Bday dear sis-in-law Ivy and tkx for a night out@MBS. West Side Story***** those in my generation will probably remember the movie version (1961) of this!

This new stage production is excellent and highly recommended. Tkx to Les for surprising us with bubbles during intermission and the luxury in a box which is the 1st time for me!

A wonderful evening with Les&Ivy+Kiera ending with dinner@The Bird***good Southern food (USA), especially the Fried Green Tomatoes. Was told that is a bourbon bar upstairs but did not venture there, next time.

Was expecting traffic jams due to F1, surprising hardly any traffic to&fro. And with time to kill at the Mall – hypnotizing sand-art display@LV

Sun: in anticipation of the bad traffic from last night F1, spent the night@L&I in their lovely surroundings with Petrea volubilis (queen’s wreath or sandpaper vine) hanging – tkx to Bian for providing name. Was awake dark and early hoping to make the Orchid Show@Holt Park but ended up snoozing back@my pad that looks like Irma made a call in my space! Used to be able to keep a decent pace, but now, ouch – blame it on age, jet-lagged, etc or both 🙂 

There’s a place for us, 
A time a place for us. 
Hold my hand and we’re halfway there.
Hold my hand and I’ll take you there
Somehow,
Someday,
Somewhere! – West Side Story

14 Sep 2017 – What On Earth Will It Take…

Do watch thru’ this youtube with an open mind. It makes sense and is educational. You will be surprised what you can learn from it eventhough it is an older and a longish video!

Wake up and see the whole pix! Has the head been so long in the sand that the eyes are blinded or maybe the subconscious is also still buried in the sand??

Have forgotten that the Ghost Festival is still on-going and the last day will be 19Sep.  That means that the gate of hell is still opened, allowing the ghosts and spirits to go back to the living world. Since neither of my parents believed nor practiced these rituals, it will not be disrespectful of me to not do anything about it. My sentiments about these rituals have not changed from the below posting from 2011.

https://amylamsg.com/2011/08/22/if-religion-is-a-thing/

Mon: Happy Bdays to bro Steven and MayY

Whats with 11Sep?? 2001 and now 2017 with Irma. So far all FL friends have updated about their safety, but many have lost power. After OSL-3+hrs in the air to IST-2+hrs layover, another 10+hrs in the air, arr safely in SIN after uneventful and nearly full on-time flights. Watched so many movies and have forgotten most of them except The Illusionist****(2006) starring Edward Norton who I am a fan of.

Tue: the duct-taped suitcase survived and will keep doing so to see how long it will last? unpacking, laundry and getting back to SIN mode&time. Above 3pix in this posting are the only ones from my camera, even-though they are not from this month! The rest of the images are downloaded – camera like the owner needs to rest 🙂

Wed: Madam Halimah Yacob was declared SIN President-elect today after her nomination papers were found to be in order.

She will be SIN 1st female President and the first Malay head of state in 47 years – Selected, not elected…

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41237318?

Edited with camera back in action.

Thu: dark&early to the wet market for fresh produce for less than S$20 – watercress, lemongrass, mint, pandan, purple-sweet potatoes, lemon, jicma (豆薯), pumpkin, ginger, bananas, water chestnut, garlic, onion and blueberries. Congee stall closed today, got ChaiTowKway菜头粿=fried carrot cake S$3.50 and kopi-peng=ice coffee S$1.20 to go in my own containers so that I can garnish my food and eat in the comforts of the AC. Welcome back to SIN$ 🙂 Feeling less of a zombie.

Toiletry bags from Qatar&Turkish airlines and the purple one? was when upgraded to BusinessClass on Qatar. Such a waste on me as I usually have my own toiletries, would have prefer to pay less for air-fares! Love this pix of #6 with eye-shades he wanted – compliments from QatarAir! Going to be a good start for today, tkx for making my day, May and pix credits of sleeping child to her.

Both body&mind too tired to do anything, especially thinking. Vegetating, drifting into LaLaLane and keeping the head in the sand for the time being – Aesop’s fable on the Grasshopper and the Ants came to mind…

In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

‘Why not come and chat with me,’ said the Grasshopper, ‘instead of toiling and moiling in that way?’

‘I am helping to lay up food for the winter,’ said the Ant, ‘and recommend you to do the same.’

‘Why bother about winter?’ said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present.’ But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:

It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

10 Sep 2017 – Visitor Bidding Goodbye

Fri: TGIF and elections are on-going with ppl in line to vote. Shopping at the sales@XXL Majorstua. 

Not a good Friday for ppl in the path of Irma or the recent earthquake in Mexico. Take care to those in these areas and thoughts are with all my FL friends and their families.

Alonza, Jan, Jackie, Amanda, Gayle, Peter, Tom&Janice, Terry&Dee, Jim&Angela, Jacqueline, Allison, Cheryl, Mary, Hank, Carol, Shirley, Debbie, Cee, Judy, Kathie, Nancy, Helen, Ramona, Jeff, James, Francisco and apologies to whoever not in FB whom I might have omitted. Be safe and out of harm’s way.

Quick trip into town with M to check out bunad=traditional Norwegian costume and some traditional hand-made Norwegian gifts – expensive shop!

Sat: a visitor (must have scented flowers bought from neighbourhood flower-shop) to bid goodbye to summer 2017 and to the OSL trip this time round.

Enjoyable day@Sporveismusett=Tram-Museum&Library with #6.

A good place to be on a wet rainy day where one can explore and climb into most of these trams – some of them excellently refurbished to get the feeling of the good old days. Well-worth NOK50 S$9

Appreciations to M&B for my favourtie Norwegian lamb dish – får-i-kål=lamb in cabbage, ie lamb&cabbage stew.

Sun: packed, duct-taped the cracked suitcase! and ready to head to the airport. Hope that the suitcase will see us thru’ this trip and that the heaven above will just stop with the rains for a few mins while I get on the bus and then changing to the subway to catch the airport Xpress train. Best of luck to O-home Bday party where he will only be having ppl not from his school!

Congratulations to nephew LAM YinChun&Francesca for being awarded Datuk&Datin by Sultan Muhammad V (KL/Malaysia). Chun is the 1st-born of bro Lawrence&Mabel. For the benefits of my overseas friends – Datuk is a traditional Malay honorific title commonly used in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. Its variant is Dato and its equivalent is Datu Sadja in the Philippines.

No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude – ― Alfred Whitehead

7 Sep 2017 – Calm Before The Storm

Mon: Happy Bday M and good luck to her last year in her 30s! This glass-painting from her godfather is absolutely and beautifully delicate. The question is – where to hang it? M is home with a cough and B with a flu, not a good start for the week and not a good day to have to get things done for a class-party! C’est la vie and things have to be done as life goes on.

Tue: Happy 6Bday to #6, youngest grandchild Olai. How can 6yrs have gone by so quickly?? Seems like yesterday when I carrying him in a baby carrier backpack for walks around Majorstuen! So true for this proverb – Time & Tide wait for none. 

Now the MagniFicent 6 are all in school with #1 driving (pix credits to L) and #5&6 in 1stGrade.

The day started with gifts and a doughnut before school. Tkx to Clem, Sue & Aileen for all the Pokémon stuff and nightlights from me brought over from SIN. Bday or no bday, it is still a school-day today and off to school he must.

Tkx to Kris&Mette for taking time to meet. Always fun to catch up with a cuppa@Bicks.

Mette tells me that they want to close down Feiringklinikken – the hospital where I had my heart ablation, hope not as it is a good hospital.

https://amylamsg.com/2017/02/01/lhl-klinikkene-feiring/

Have signed the petition, hope and pray that it will remain open.

http://www.underskrift.no/vis/6778/

Got all the stuff and set-up into the school before 1700hrs and looks like 20kids from Class1A had a blast. Thank you to all for your well wishes. After organizing, setting up and cleaning his class-party at the school, both parents, including myself are completely wiped out. But all worth it to hear him say – this is the best Bday ever.

Not being used to such a big group of kids, was overwhelmed with them+gifts and a minor incident. Had to take a short stroll around the hood at Damplassen. How did I ever manage to raise 2kids??

Lovely evening and no doubt that Fall is in the air with some of the birches turning yellow. It is a blessing to be able to feel at ease and secure in all these places I have lived and still enjoying them.

Wed: grey wet day, and the forecast will be such for the rest of the week – good days to mend O jeans (2down, 1more to go) and cook. The basil-plants by the kitchen window are perfect for today’s spaghetti-sauce dinner.

Thu: have been on a go since my arrival. Need to calm down for a few days before shopping and packing back for SIN. Be safe, especially to those who are in the areas where Hurricane Irma is heading – thoughts are with all my friends in FL. Pix credits CNN: parts of the Caribbean island of St. Martin are left flooded after Irma hit.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/06/us/hurricane-irma-puerto-rico-florida/index.html

Rain, whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains –  Henry Ward Beecher

4 Sep 2017 – Happy Bday May

Fri: Selamat Hari Raya Haji to those celebrating and to all, enjoy the long weekend. TGIF with a feeling like the first day of Fall is here in OSL and safe journeys to Bjørn.

5mins walk to Ullevål Skole – built in 1926, downloaded B/Wpix on the right is from the 1930s. This neighbourhood’s elementary school is where #6 youngest grandchild, a 1stGrader now. Seems like yesterday when I took walks with him in a stroller or a baby-carrier!

A young enthusiastic teacher and a new principle for #6 to start school. Mette told me that the school was green inn colour 60yrs ago and that there were not so many bikes then and they had to take bike-tests. Only kids 12yrs&above who passed their tests were allowed to bike to school. Would not hurt to have those tests back…

Sat: busy day starting with dropping #6 off at AstrupFearnleyMuseum Children’s Art Club RASMUS with their monthly program where they explore different artworks – today is Chinese Summer.

A brief walk around some exhibits and lunched@VingenBar, NOK230 S$40 for duck salad&soda, no joke!

Lovely day to be strolling about AkerBrygge&Tjuvholmen; nice to see ppl taking advantage of the weather and the weekend.

Tjuvtittne The Sneak Peak – lookout tower (54m high) with a glass elevator and on a beautiful day like today, it is worth NOK20 S$3.50pp to have a view of the city, OSL fjord, boats and hills from a whole new angle.

Being part of #6 early bday present, he was as keen as I was to try this glass elevator 🙂

Sun: The American Lutheran Congregation is the largest English-speaking church in OSL. Sunday-school here so that #6 can have a dialog communicating in English as well as getting some American culture in a safe environment.

Despicable Me3***@Colosseum, another early bday present, NOK118 S$20/child and NOK148 S$25/adult+drinks and popcorn! – far from the cost of my senior movie ticket in SIN!! Visited Ellen at Nesøya who will be 93 next month, amazing lady who can still discuss about Ibsen’s plays with me.

Thus ends the visit of MooseEgil with #6 for this weekend and hopefully there will be plenty to tell at school tomorrow! MooseEgil is a 1stGrade class project where it gets to go home with a different student every Fri and the students share their activities with the class on Mon. Good idea and fun way to share.Good Indian-takeout dinner from Diamond Indian Cuisine***NOK485 S$85 for 2adults+1child. O likes mild curry.

Best wishes to an awesome XC season to #s1&2 (705-4), CoachHall and the whole IrmoHigh XC-Team – pix credits to Linn.

Happy Labour Weekend from Norway to all celebrating – fire up the grills, let the games begin (Go Gators), enjoy and be safe. Unusual clouds and sky over the ski-jump.

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor – Victor Hugo

1 Sep 2017 – ByeBye Aug 2017

Mon: took off early to the airport hoping to take a peep in T4, but was told that it was not yet opened to the public! Oh well, another time. At T3, the reflection of the airport CrownPlazaHotel on to the opp building gives an interesting perspective of this image; the colours of SIN National Day displays are still on-going.

After 3airports – SIN, IST with 2+hrs layover, time goes faster admiring the sunrise, exploring the gift-shops and taking shots.

Tue: arr OSL on time after 14+hrs on 2planes, full plane all the way and despite of the delay of baggage arrival (1+hrs), was happy to reunite with family.

Discovered a crack in the suitcase just before checking-in, thus had to be shrink-wrapped in SIN (S$26). This is the suitcase that survived the CAE house-fire 4yrs ago.

https://amylamsg.com/2013/10/06/lost-for-words/

An afternoon at Skøyen gourmet-food shopping@Maschmanns. 

Checking out Sigdal, the kitchen designer specialist, have always been a fan of Scandinavian designs. Unusual chairs at some lobby to an office building@Keranslyst Allé 26, tkx to Ulrik for the exact location, he used to work there!

Wed: an absolutely beautiful day, one of those days feeling that I can walk the whole day. The garden’s blooms with flowers&fruits are such a delight.

Healthy and yummy shrimp salad@BakerHansen at UllevaalStadion. Walking pass Eventyrveien=Fairytale Rd, another favourtie road name besides Sorgenfrigata=Free of Sorrow Rd near M&B previous home. Like that they live near roads with these names. Should have a road name LaLaLane for me –  lol 🙂

Sogn hagekoloni is a garden colony (a British concept) just down the road. It has 204 cabins of different standard.

The size of the cabins varies, but the maximum size is 30m²+storage space of 2m². The size of the land is on average 300m² and are rented by the municipality of OSL, while the cabins are owned by the individual colonist. How charming, even a stabbur (building on Norwegian farm for storing food) birdhouse.

First time walking here and it is like walking into a secret garden – made my day. Passed by it a couple of times since M&B moved to this area; first time walking into the colony and was excited to see these tiny cabins with such amazing gardens. There is a block of students’ apt next to this colony and it will be a reason to go back to school here if I can get to live in one of those apts 🙂 

Ppl ask why I prefer to be Off the Beaten Path – this link is the answer. Have been to some of these touristy places in the 1960&70s and they were already crowded enough for me then, not to say now!! Above 2pix downloaded from below link.

http://www.architecturendesign.net/travel-expectations-vs-reality/

Sir David Tang, a larger-than-life Hong Kong-born entrepreneur, style guru and bon viveur, has died at the age of 63. Article written in 2016, he told Telegraph Travel his tips for travelling with style and grace. Interesting read and agree with him fully.

Condolences to his family&friends and may he RIP.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/advice/sir-david-tang-tips-on-travel-etiquette/

Thu: safe journeys to May on this grey and wet day&evening. Appreciations to Ingrid&HansK for a delicious dinner@their lovely home, so good to catch up with them. She is such a wonderful cook and her apple cake topped with meringue served with ice-cream is out of this world.

4 Sep – Happy Bdays MayH & Vince

5 Sep – Happy 5th Bday Olai

8 Sep – Happy 70th Alfred

11 Sep – Happy Bdays Steven & MayY

15 Sep – Happy Bday Ting Ting

16 Sep – Happy Bdays Ivy & Edith

20 Sep – Happy Bday AmyR

21 Sep – Happy Bday Greg

23 Sep – Happy Bdays Joyce & Klaus

24 Sep – Happy Bday Yun

25 Sep – HappyBday Kat

30 Sep Happy Bday Mabel, DaisyL & Valerie

28 Aug 2017 – Lion Dancing

Sat: this is what I stumbled upon while trying to do some last minute shopping@Parkway before travelling. The opening of a new Harvey Norman Superstore – always excited to see Lion Dance, but those drums can be deafening, especially in a small enclosed area! Good to have them as such for once, getting my best shots of Lion Dancing, so far 🙂

Was planning for a dinner at the riverboat but as it turned out, the lovely breeze was a touch bit stronger and even though how pleasant, wanted to make sure that the dinner stayed in the stomach! First time@MarinaSouthPier MRT station, impressive with not a speck of dust, dirt, garbage, etc to be seen. An 80sqm mural SIN Tapestry by Prvachi celebrates life in SIN with its diversity, colours, and united in aspiration.

TanjongPagarCentre, also known as GuocoTower, a S$3.2 billion mixed-use development located in TanjongPagar. Tonight’s outdoor weather was just like being in 7thHeaven, no crowds and the beautiful breeze added to a perfect evening outside the JapaneseRailCafe (must try) with some some background live-music from some pubs+entertainment for the younger generation with Pokémon hunt!

Good dinner@IndoChili***tasty Indonesian cuisine but the staff could do with better service and training!

Coffee@MarmaladePantry (Oasia Hotel Downtown). This piece of meringue lemon cake looks interesting&tempting, but if I had it, it would be hell and not 7thHeaven; as it is at present, seems like the whole body is unhappy with me 🙁

Sun: a lovely evening walk with Clem (the only one of nieces and nephew who will walk these long walks) from EC Pk-Sports Hub, app 10k. Needed this walk before getting stuck in airplanes and airports. Cute kiddie’s mini circus tent by the sea! The sun was gone by the time we were nearer to Garden by the Bay (East). Wanted to check out this eatery when I was walking by the last time.

Tkx to Clem for dinner@Kontiki***decent grilled chicken salad Caesar Salad&Blooming Onion. He had the Fish&Chips.

Has been over a decade ago since I last crossed the TanjongRhu suspension pedestrian bridge! Do not usually take this route. By the time we got to the stadium, it was peaceful and quiet and that this how I like my walks. Crossing the overhead bridge to get the bus and got just before midnight.

Mon: a suitcase filled with gifts for May&#6 who will be celebrating their Bdays next week when I am there. Now that the packing is done, can start looking forward, safe journeys to me and all travelling. Watching the news to learn that those in China are celebrating Valentine’s Day today – Happy Valentine’s Day, Qixi Festival七夕節 celebrates the annual meeting of the cowherd and weaver girl in Chinese mythology, pix downloaded.

Appreciations to Gel for dropping by to return a book. Tkx for good lunch company.

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps – Confucius

25 Aug 2017 – Stay Healthy And Live Smart

Thu: to whoever who has passed on, RIP. The wake downstairs has been going on longer than normal. When the set-up was first noticed, a few days ago, thought it was a wedding judging from the table-clothes with glitters; on-going chanting got me to think otherwise. The lion-dance drumming got me to take these pix, wondering who the deceased was as this certainly is not the usual wakes I have witnessed!

Start right, stay healthy and live smart is SIN PM’s ND2017 Rally Speech. Strangely enough, have download this (Fri 28Jul STpix for KIV) and the other pix from lunch@The Peranakan, both befitting to his speech.

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/pm-lees-national-day-rally-speech-all-you-need-to-know-in-3-minutes

Appreciations to Calvin&staff@CC for hosting this interesting talk and slide show by QX on the El Capitan via The Nose climb at Yosemite National Park. USA. Not one who will ever scale the mts, not my cup of tea, but just fascinated and enjoying to hear about Qing Xin&Kelly’s (the awesome mt scaling couple) adventures.

A photo sharing session and personal account of the climb on The Nose on El Capitan. Arguably the most famous big wall route in the world which took Warren Harding 47days to put up over months. 6 years after Kelly and I climbed it, we have a 3rd Singaporean ascent on El Capitan via The Nose.  

Lien is my superior back in the Commando days and well known to a duper fit guy. Every man who served under him, raced with him or climbed with him would know he is larger than life. After summiting K2 and Everest, he found himself a new challenge in the vertical world, big wall climbing. 

Since in the area, took a short tour of the Night Festival (10thAnniversary).

Must have been out of my mind to think that I could be here over the weekend. Bad enough with the crowds and heat on a Thu night, so forget even being near here over the last weekend of this fest! Viewing the rest on the screen 🙂

http://www.asiaone.com/multimedia/gallery/what-see-singapore-night-festival-2017

Took refuge into the Vanguard Building (with AC) – the former MPH building on Stamford Road, now a location where the walls and floor are for scribbling ideas.

Off the beaten path of the Night Festival to capture some memories of first Fri masses during schooldays in the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd and CHIJ Chapel.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart – Mahatma Gandhi.

Fri: TGIF and lots of prayers for today – a day to sort out things for the Norway trip.  Need to do some shopping (which is one of my least favourite things, thus procrastinating!). Packing (the other least favourite thing!!); am dreading all with a vengeance. Ughhh – thoughts of flying and airports (besides SIN airport) 🙁 Tomorrow is another day 🙂

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays – Søren Kierkegaard.