10 Apr 2015 – Does Not Really Matter, I Will Eat Both 🙂

Thu: tank cleaning instructions by Leo  to Nidzam and Yashreen who are on attachment here. These young men are lucky to have Leo, my computer guru as their instructor. When he can teach someone like me to do what I can do online, then he must be a good teacher!

Fri: lovely view from my bedroom window this Fri morning. Fri being Jumu’ah صلاة الجمعة for the Muslims – their prayers seem extra long and loud over the speakers!

The moment I wake up
Before I put on my makeup
I say a little prayer for you… – Bacharach

Simpoh Air, Shrubby Dillenia, common wild jungle plant with large leafs and yellow flowers. The flowers open at 3 am and last only a day. The ripe fruit splits open also the same time into pinkish star-shaped segments. The plant blooms from age 3-4 and can live for 50-100 years! Sends out very deep tap roots to reach underground water sources. The tree is used to detect water as it always grows near water.

The special thing about this useful plant is that the leaves can be used to wrap food and can also be used by tailor birds to make nests. Also used to staunch bleeding wounds and the fruit pulp may be used to wash the hair…

Healthy farm life with lush greenery. Melastoma malabathricum with purple flowers opening in the morning for 1day. The seeds stain the mouth when eaten, and is sweet and slightly astringent. The leaves and roots are used in traditional treatments of diarrhoea and dysentery. Powdered leafs may be sprinkled over wounds, roots used for a mouthwash for toothache. It is even used to treat elephants! The fruits may also be used to obtain a black dye, while the ashes of the plant is used to fix dyes.

Acacia mangium is a species of flowering tree in the pea family. Just love those pods and used to collect them when they were dried. Spray-painted them for jewellery and decorations. First time now encountering a fresh greens pods. So beautiful. Appreciations to Bian for the names of these delightful local wild plants.

Fresh eggs and chicken for our meals. Memories of childhood when we had our own chicken coop. Thank goodness I remembered that the chicken had to be blanched in hot water making the feathers easier to be removed…

One of the chickens was bullied by the others before this coop was ready. Tried to rescue it but the poor thing did not survived. Would have preferred to have her eggs than her meat. Leonard chopped the head off to drain the blood.

Some humour with eggs since I am eating them nearly daily 🙂

8 Apr 2015 – Jalan Keramut Telisai

Mon: met with Lawrence for late breakfast at the airport as his flight to KCH was taking off an hour before mine. Looks like the Easter bunnies are still around at Changi 🙂

SIN-MYY just over 2hrs on AirAsia, with a slight delay for takeoff due to late incoming flight. The few back rows were not too packed and was glad to be placed there where I had 3 seats to myself and could take pix during the descend.

Appreciations to Justin for picking me and putting me at the Tropical Inn smack in the middle of town, a stone-throw from Merryland Cafe with  good Kolo mee. No WiFi at the inn or the cafe, but Starbucks is just around the corner and a perfect location for for morning coffee. There is a mall with Parkson with Meritx Hotel too.

Tue: Central Market at 0700hrs where one can still double, parallel, vertical park at the same time 🙂 Breakfast noodles costing MYR2.50/US .65cents, OK but the one at Merryland Cafe taste better.

YuLan Plaza in the background is one of the few skyscrapers here. A delightful taxi stand and part of the sidewalk all app 5mins walk from the Inn.

Drove by much greenery. After the boarder into Brunei were some controlled burning to prevent wild jungle fires on the way due to the very dry season.

App 90k east of MYY at Jalan Keramut, Telisais, another dirt-road Simpang 44 (app 20k from Tutong) leads you to a Sea-Bass hatchery and nursery belonging to Justin and manage by Leonard. Looks like I will be in for a new adventure and some real fishy business the week ahead 🙂 Will share the info bit by bit as I learn…

Satay dinner at Tutong where the guys decided to have their hair cuts and a shave for S$3 per person. S$ and BN$ are exactly the same exchange rate and the S$ is accepted here.

5 Apr 2015 – Easter Sunday, The Holiest Day For Christians

Good Fri is about betrayal & crucifixion and the most holy week leading up to Easter Sunday for the Christians.

The family in US are having a blast, left in a van and a station wagon with 7people, 1dog, 2tents, 5bicycles, 2kayaks for Edisto Island/SC.

The family in Norway are in Trondheim. Was on skype yesterday and was told that there is still snow. Olai even remembers that I like minions as he was showing me a minion as he now owns one!

Memories of those Easter days when the kids were little in Norway. I had to stock up food for the week as all grocery stores were closed then! Many would have gone to their cabins to catch the last of the snow for skiing season. Pix of Linn’s 1975 and May’s 1979 first winters and 1983 of our last family winter together once upon a time… 🙂

Fri: it is a public holiday here in SIN and tkx to Clem for getting his family together for a delicious Cantonese Good Friday lunch. It must have been a decade ago since my last meal at LeBai****at Sheraton Towers.

Appreciations to Daisy who works at Disney for a new adventure at the Sandcrawler building recently opened in Fusionopolis.

In 2012, WaltDisneyCompany acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion and announced that it would produce three new films, with the first film, StarWars: ForceAwakens, planned for release in 2015. How exciting for Disney and Star War to join forces. May the force be with them.

The StarVista located within one-north, SIN biomedical, infocomm technology and media hub is a stone-throw from the BuonaVistaMRT station.

An urban mall with more eateries than shops. Supposedly naturally cooled mall but it was way too hot for me and felt dizzy. A 5,000-seater performing arts centre is located here.

Dinner at Les&Ivy as Lawrence is in SIN on transit to KCH

Sat: thank you Gel for gift from Iceland. Cannot have enough of these BlueLagoon mineral moisturizing cream. Glad to hear that you enjoyed Iceland.

Pity that Campers’Corner did not have my size for the Chaco sandals’ sales. This is a very good sale. Tkx to Calvin, I now own a pair of ‘city Chaco’, a lighter version than the usual ones. Will test them out!

Wishing them at CC a profitable sales and Happy Easter with devilled eggs, roast chicken, salad, cheese, banana bread and mocha swiss-roll. Freddie has promised to make me a cup out of this pink Moscate bottle. Looking forward to it when I return from the US

Sun: woke up to this, but did not have time to stay. Felt like the whole MP police force was gathered here! Very safe in my neighbourhood this Easter Sunday. Marine Parade Neighbourhood Police Centre Rollout of Community Policing System and installing U-Locks to bicycles!

Appreciations to Les&Ivy with Lawrence and Jo for brunch at OldTiong Bahru Buk Kut Teh****the family’s favourite ‘Buk Kut Teh’ joint 肉骨茶=meat bone tea consists of meaty pork ribs simmered for hours in a complex broth of herbs and spices, including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, fennel seeds and garlic!

A must to WuHuAquarium just across the road to those rearing fish, but of course not for eating 🙂

Lawrence has not been to the NationalMuseum since it was renovated! Took him for the LKY exhibition and there is also a good exhibition on Singapura 700 Years. Must return to have a more detail look before it is packed up by 10Aug

Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life – Janine di Giovanni

2 Apr 2015 – Goodbye March

Tue: met up with Jennifer in the heart of CBD at Raffles Place. In the 1950s it was a car-park then. When green parks were there, I was no longer in SIN. Today skyscrapers surround the green area.

While sitting by the swings, thoughts of the places in the 1950s with Change Alley, John Little, Robinsons etc, and where I went to look at Christmas decorations in Robinsons. Left SIN years before the Robinsons fire in 1972.

Great to catch up with Jennifer. We were class mates in Alex-Dublin days and it has been a while ago since we had some time together. Would see her at the Irish functions now and then, but then those functions are not really a time to chat and catch up.

Wed: All Fools’ Day – many trace the origins of April Fools’ Day back to 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII adopted the Gregorian Calendar, effectively moving New Year’s Day from the end of Mar to 1Jan.

Though the change was widely publicized, some people didn’t get the memo, while others simply didn’t want to transition to the new calendar, so they continued to ring in the New Year at the end of Mar. Those who didn’t make the change were mocked for their folly and called ‘April Fools.’

Tkx Henry for dinner company and for helping me to eat up some of the food. No more space in the fridge or freezer

Thu: need to run errands, taking care of travel insurances with Traveller Shield Promotions 50% off with MSIG. Deadline is today, so let’s see if this will be for me…

RafflesPlace pix downloaded except for the one with Jennifer and the 2 before her.

Apr birthdays:

2 Apr – Happy Bday Marianne HUSTAD

4 Apr – Happy Bday Richard YUNG

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

22 Apr – Happy Bday Ike LAM-BOROWSKY

29 Apr – Happy Bday Stanely LAM

30 Apr – Happy Bday JohnWT CHENG

Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself
– The Gospel According To Zen

31 Mar 2015 – Onward SIN – Life Goes On

Will now try to follow the news with one of LKY grandsons, Li Shengwu, age 24 who has learned to speak and debate like his grandfather. So let’s hope he too is able to walk the talk like his grandfather…

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/mr-lee-kuan-yew-loved-being-doting-grandfather-says-gran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVcKkPflmT8&app=desktop

Here is a good interview with Charlie Munger/U of MI. Worth watching where Charlie tells the audience to ‘study the life and works of LKY and you’re going to be flabbergasted’

Have neglected acknowledgements and other happenings for a week and now to pick up from the previous week.

Sat 22 Mar: belated Bday dinner for Sue. ‘Gravlaks’, salad and mushroom wile-rice pilaf since both of us are cutting down with the food!!

Sun 22 Mar: the sky opened up on my way to Les&Ivy. Thank you to Jessie&Frank for the 28+ingredients, the King of YuiSang/鱼生=raw fish which I miss out on in 2014. Somehow, this year’s pix are not good. The pic from 2013 are still the better ones

https://amylamsg.com/2013/03/03/28-ingredients/

Details continue to emerge about the final moments of Germanwings Flight 9525. To kill oneself is suicide but to kill others is murder.

Sat 28 Mar: appreciations to Sue, Pat&David for Jo’s Bday lunch at Chui Huay Teochew Cuisine****my favourite place for their suckling piglet! Was first introduced to this venue a year ago by May&Albert. Thanks to Les&Ivy for good wines.

Forgot all about Earth Hour this year 🙁

Sun 29 Mar: tkx to Clem for having me over to view LKY’s State Funeral procession on his TV. Dinner at IKEA.

Non-personal pix are borrowed from different sites.

30 Mar 2015 – Parliament House – U Cultural Centre

Sun: the Sky above shed tears onto a nation in tears as we bid Mr Lee a final farewell. Safe journey to your final destination. You will be missed.

The Funeral Service for the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew was held at the University Cultural Centre (UCC), National University of Singapore on 29 Mar 2015, Sunday, from 2pm to 5.15pm. It was preceded by the State Funeral Procession from Parliament House to UCC.

The Procession covered a distance of 15.4km and pass significant landmarks, such as Old Parliament House, City Hall, the Padang, NTUC Centre and Singapore Conference Hall; as well as heartland areas.

Happy is the baby that the sun shines on and peaceful is the corpse that the rain falls on’ – thank you to Garry Rogers grandmother for that quote.

List of the foreign dignitaries.

Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings, op.11 and JS Bach’s Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major were performed by SSO with Lan Shui conducting.

The Master of Ceremony will be Peter Ong, Head of Civil Service.

10eulogies delivered, in the following order:
◾Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
◾President Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam
◾Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong
◾Former Cabinet Minister Ong Pang Boon
◾Former Cabinet Minister S. Dhanabalan
◾Former Senior Minister of State Sidek Bin Saniff
◾Trade unionist G. Muthukumarasamy
◾Tanjong Pagar community leader Leong Chun Loong
◾Former journalist Cassandra Chew
◾The late Mr Lee’s second son Lee Hsien Yang

SCDF Public Warning System siren sounded twice island wide to signal the start and end of a minute of silence for the late Mr Lee.

On the conclusion of the Funeral Service, the late Mr Lee made his final journey to Mandai Crematorium. The cremation service was private.

Dear Mr Lee, farewell and THANK YOU. Words are not enough and cannot justify what you have done to give our tiny island state world recognition. May you now forever rest in peace and not have to – ‘Even from my sick bed, if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up’ – LKY

Those of us who were not standing out in the torrential downpours were probably glued to the TV. Thanks to nephew Clem for his TV screen and for living on Bukit Merah Rd where the procession passed by. The 2 above pix are by Clem and me and the rest in the posting are downloaded from various sites.

I also noticed something in the air. The rain was over. The air was fresh. One era has ended. A new one has begun. Majulah Singapura – Bertha Henson

https://berthahenson.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/an-era-is-over/

Many have written and shared about Mr Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015), his wife Kwa Geok Choo (1920-2010) and their 3 children, Lee Hsien Loong, Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang. Google and you will not be short of info and pix of this ‘orang besar’ (big man) and one of the world’s great leaders.

Credits to all the borrowed pix and info for the late Mr Lee.

Edited Monday 30Mar: a letter published in the New Paper today from my bro Leslie showing the more human side of LKY

28 Mar 2015 – Salute To Mr Lee Kuan Yew

Thu: decided to check into this backpackers’ place 5footway.inn Project Boat Quay***by SIN River and directly across from the Parliament House. Figured that it was the only way I am able pay my last respect to Mr Lee and attend my last Chinese class in Chinatown the next day!

That way, could follow the updates by popping over across the river to check out the situation or just do so from the 3rd floor. It was well worth S$40 (bunk-bed w another female) + breakfast!

At the lines 1600hrs and then was told  7-8hrs wait. Decided to head into Chinatown to pick up dinner.

Pleasant stroll by the river and ate my take-out dinner by the riverbanks at UOB. By 2200hrs, there was still no change in the waiting time, so went to sleep and had the alarm set for 0300hrs.

Fri: was at the lines by 0345hrs to discover that it was not the priority line. Must have looked rather distraught, tired and helpless!! A kind young non-uniformed man accompanied me straight to the security line bypassing all kind of lines. 0350hrs thru’ security checks and after that was app 20mins line to get into the Parliament House. Paid my respects 0415hrs and was out by 0418hrs.

Thank you Mr Lee for taking care of me even as you lie peacefully in the Parliament House!

Back to the room to continue with my sleep. Nice views at breakfast on the 3rd floor.

Last Chinese lesson for this time round. Appreciations to two excellent teachers, YONG WaiSeng (left) & LIM YuenTee (right) who managed to keep me interested in this class and willingly want to return for more!

26 Mar 2015 – Last Trip

Wed: oh no no no, not another one! Condolences to family and friends and RIP to those who lost their life.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32046250

As the carriage comes to a stop at the Istana Plaza, a bag piper from the SIN Gurkha Contingent played Auld Lang Syne before the carriage passes through the Istana guard house and gate. Gathering in thousands by the road side to pay their respects to Mr Lee Kuan Yew as his coffin was transported on a gun carriage from the Istana to to Parliament House for public viewing.

Wed 25 Mar 0900hrs – Mr Lee’s last trip from the Istana to Parliament House on Orchard, Bras Basah and North Bridge Rd. Passing by the site of his old school – former RI, now Raffles City opposite to my old school – former CHIJ, now CHIJMES on North Bridge Rd.

Public viewing started 1000hrs today and due to the overwhelming crowds, you can now pay your respects around the clock from Wed, Thu and Fri for 24hrs and Sat until 2000hrs. The MRT will run for 24hrs today according to CNA & ST

Above panorama pix credits to Zhang Licong.

Even before the lunch break, the queue was already snaking for up to 2k (1.2 miles) as SIN awaited their turn to enter the viewing hall. Many umbrellas to shield from the scorching sun, with temperatures in the humid tropical island hitting 33C (91F) at midday.

Acts of kindness with serving water and drinks to the public in line:  Fullerton Hotel, UOB, National Taxi Association, New Shah Alam Restaurant, Japanese eatery Takumen at Circular Road. Raffles Place MRT station florist gave out free flowers for people.

Hope that Mr Lee is now proud of his people…

All pix downloaded from various sites.

23 Mar 2015 – Singapore’s First Prime Minister

Mon: saddened by the news that Mr LEE Kuan Yew (1923-2015) passed away 03:18hrs 23Mar 2015. He was the first PM of SIN, governing for three decades. He is recognised as the founding father of modern SIN, and the only leader known to bring an entire country from third-world to first-world status in a single generation. Without him, SIN would not have been what it is today.

Condolences and prayers to his family and may he now RIP.

Having lived and experienced SIN before and after LKY days, I humbly lift my hat off to him with admiration and respect for making SIN a place which I enjoy returning for my visits and stay.

The only politician I admire and respect. Thank you for what he has done to make me proud to be a Singaporean. Even when he is physically no longer with us, he will always be in many of our hearts.

Said my farewells at my first and only and probably my last NDP/2014. Wanted to attend to salute and pay my respects to LKY then, and am glad that I did. Usually not in SIN during NDP. Last pix I took of him alive and the last time I saw him alive.

What is there to write about LKY that is not already written? Just check the media, websites, etc. Also the books, especially his own memoirs.

What touched me most is his devotion to his wife KWA Geok Choo, in life and now for eternity. Not only a good leader but a real MAN and those are rare to find, one in a billion!

For reasons of sentiment, I would like part of my ashes to be mixed up with Mama’s, and both her ashes and mine put side by side in the columbarium. We were joined in life and I would like our ashes to be joined after this life – LKY

http://www.allsingaporestuff.com/article/lkys-daughter-love-does-indeed-spring-eternal

They say the man who dies in the wee hours of the morning leaves all three meals for his family. It is the mark of the true Chinese gentleman – overheard

Thank you Mr Lee for everything you have done for SIN and for being a true gentleman in every way. May he now rest in peace together with his beloved wife. He will be greatly missed.

Edited Tue 24 Mar: paid respect early this morning outside the Istana Gate by signing a note of condolence to the family. Quite overwhelming with all those cameras and media people just sitting, waiting for VIPs. Was there early to avoid crowds. Took me longer to write the note than standing in line! Fighting the emotions and feeling so lost for words…

NParks has named a new orchid in honour of Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Transforming SIN into a Garden City was an enduring passion of Mr Lee.

The Aranda Lee Kuan Yew orchid hybrid (left) was chosen by NParks officers who staffed my father when he visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and knew what he liked. This hybrid is vigorous and robust. It also matches an earlier hybrid – in colour, form, stature and lineage – that was named after my mother, Vanda Kwa Geok Choo (right) – LHL

All pix on this posting are downloaded except the bigger size NDP of LKY and the ones outside the Istana Gate which are by me.