a new hope - before 2008 dawns

Today, a day before the new year 2008, there are signs of new hope, new optimism - if we choose to see them.

In the garden, one of the orchid buds has opened. There it is, among the buds, its petals glowing purplish pink, young and tender as a flower.

A sign of good things to come? We hope so indeed.

The eve before 2008 ...

Groups are partying and counting down to 2008.

In Singapore, the Mediacorp countdown is at Vivocity.

In Orchard Road, the lights still glitter and shine brightly.

~~~~~~~~~

Send this eCard !

a little hut

A little hut,

it stands,

with little windows,

beneath a huge straw-ful of roof,

larger than the hut itself.

From Uganda it comes,

housing a tiny bottle of honey.

And doubles up as tea light holder,

when the honey is consumed.

Uganda honey it is,

it states on the label,

that comes with the cute tagline

"Honey in a Hut for the Honey of my Heart!"

Such a sweet tagline! :)

Looking ahead to 2008

As we look ahead to 2008, let's hope it's not dark and cloudy.
But clear and blue, so that we can see f a r and over a w i d e horizon.


As one looks at scenes like these, it's oft said that one's problems appear miniscule in comparison to the huge mountains and wide open space.

One hopes so indeed.

Looking back, one can be Pollyana-ish and count our blessings with the positive milestones:

*plants that grow (some against all odds), and seeds that take root, paving new paths ...

*and bear fruit :)

*Another milestone is our very own HUFC goalkeeper went to train with Man City! http://home-united.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html Ole, ole, ole, ole!

ice-cream parlour

Tis the time to reminisce, to go down memory lane.

The Capitol, diagonally opposite Raffles City and across from the St Andrew's Cathedral, is a place with memories. Other than a theatre, it used to house one of the few ice-cream parlours then, years, eons ago. Ice-cream choices were simple - the more fancy ones being scoops of vanilla, strawberry and chocolate together with a wafer biscuit.

Today, we have all kinds of flavours - rum and raisin, pistachio, cookies and cream, durian, and the list goes on!

It used to be a treat going to the ice-cream parlour. :P Ice-cream is always a treat!

a celebration of love

A wedding that we attended recently even had a theme - " A Celebration of Love" - and this ran through the backdrop and the little elegant gift tags. It was a tasteful and elegant event, without falling into ostentation, and with none of the tacky antics that one sometimes sees at such events. The emcees (bilingual too) were good, as was the service.


It was also a gathering of the "arrived", the old gentry. One doesn't feel very "arrived" in their company, and don't think one would ever reach that "arrived" state. Well, blessed are we, and we should count our blessings.

~~~~~

Afternote: TNP Sunday (30 Dec) has a feature on how hotel wedding dinner prices have soared. The prices sent us pangs of guilt - oh dear, our ang pows have been too small or just "break even"! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!

Durian, anyone?

We tried the Spike-D cake from Big O (at Wheelock Place) tonight. The chocolate-coated cake with mouth-watering durian inside! Yummy yum! :P

Lights! Camera!

More on the lightup in Orchard Road. Nothing really beats being on the ground (vis-a-vis in a moving vehicle) when it comes to taking photos ...

Photos taken outside Wheelock Place ...

graceful swish no more

Some withstood the move

from habitat to habitat;

Some withstood the changes

as the pond was maintained and cleaned;

Even the one-eyed koi withstood it all.

But succumbed they did,

no match for the mud that surfaced

from the spoiled pump

lying beneath like a timebomb volcano.

Succumbed they all did.

The graceful black koi, with gold glistening through its scales;

The coppery silvery black fairy koi with its long graceful tail;

The long graceful orangy red koi;

The koi with red, silver and orange patterns, with a graceful body;

The copper-coloured koi, grown from its days of a tiny koi;

The silvery white-coloured koi, grown from its early days;

The not-so-pretty koi with black and bright orange patterns,

that reminded one of "cha siew";

The one-eyed jack, the hitherto resilient one,

that survived with just one eye and grew from a tiny koi.

And earlier on,

*the long graceful yellow golden white koi (that reminded one of bananas)

- it passed on without obvious reason;

*the golden koi (think it was a onryx species), stunted in growth;

*a beautiful red-white koi, the most expensive and pedigreed, also went.

Only the sucker fish remained.

A Stroll in the Neighbourhood ... and the sweet smell of bananas

Tis the day after Christmas, and a sunny morning. The Squirrel decided to take a stroll in the neighbourhood.

As Squirrel was scampering along in a leisurely manner, it heard a "scrap, scrap" sound, and smelled the distant whiff of bananas. "Where does the sound come from," it wondered. "What are they doing?"

As it neared the source of the sound, it saw some humans scrapping paint off the backyard wall. Oh, spring-cleaning and painting. Ah so!

The whiff of bananas was getting a mite stronger. Were there ripe bananas nearby? The Squirrel wondered.

It looked up from its thoughts to see a few pairs of human eyes looking at it, smiling and friendly. Hardly a sound they made - guess they were worried about frightening off the Squirrel.

Squirrel turned left and right, made a squirrelly bow, said a silent hello, and then nonchalantly scampered over to the neighbour's wall. Once out of sight, it heaved a sigh of relief and scurried up a tree, jumping from one to another in minor acrobatics.

Ya-h-o-o, it went (in a sound frequency that only squirrels could discern), what fun to be out in the fresh air! Though the shopping bargains in Orchard Road beckoned temptingly in their Boxing Day sales. =_=

Epilogue: A squirrel (not sure if it's the same - didn't ask for its name) did try to get hold of the bananas in the kitchen! It recced, jumped onto the stand outside, then to the window grill, only less than half a metre away from the coveted bananas .... Then it was frightened off by the presence of humans in the kitchen. And our traditional image of squirrels is of them eating nuts.

glitter and buzz at Orchard Road

The moon was beaming above - a full moon, guiding the cars and vehicles as many of them headed towards Orchard Road to see the light-up. Many more people thronged the pedestrian walks of Orchard Road, at some points, packed shoulder to shoulder. Many a shutterbug was out, taking pictures of the sights. We even saw a large lorry-ful of foreign workers, headed towards Tanglin Road, probably to take in the sights too.

Christmas Eve

Send this eCard !

Riding in Style

The limo's here! Now we can ride in grand style - at least, those who are prepared to pay! A limousine, the length of two cars, has been brought in. A Chrysler 300. And the kind used for the grand red-carpet events we see on TV!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I first heard of, and rode in a limo, in the States. We were going off for a one-week attachment to Boston, and I remember my classmate nonchalantly saying that she had booked a few limos to send us to the airport. It was quite fun sitting in one. But of course, it wasn't as grand or as long/big as the one reported in TODAY today. :) Think ours more like a London cab, just that it wasn't so rounded in shape.

X'mas Google

The TV shows tonight over Channel 5 are mostly Christmas-themed. The papers are full of Christmas shopping news, pictures of Christmas light-up. Even the Channel 5 sitcom "The Noose" had a Christmas theme.

Even Google has decorated itself!

related across lands

The peoples of the world are more related than we realise. If experts study the roots and the movement of people, they would probably find that some groups of people across oceans could well have descended from the same ancestors.

When we visited the Formosa Aboriginal Cultural Village, we saw some tribe members with features not unlike those of the Amercian Red Indians. Some others had features not unlike those of Indonesians. When we visited the shop selling aboriginal products (eg honey, lingzhi), the sales lady told us that their tribe spoke Malay, proceeding to speak the language.

Hmm, we're closer than we thought. Well, we're all homo sapiens.

Tsinghua in Hsinchu

When we visited Hsinchu, the Silicon Valley of Taiwan, we saw not only the temples (and the mer-dragon). We passed by the Tsing Hua University. Tsing Hua? We wondered if it was affiliated to the Tsinghua University in Beijing. Well, the history is below, as extracted from the website of the National Tsing Hua University.

Tsinghua University, Beijing, PRC

National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, ROC

At the same year as the Republic of China was established in 1911, Tsing Hua Academy was instituted at Tsing Hua Garden in Peking. The Academy was renamed National Tsing Hua University in 1928. To invigorate the students, the University has incorporated "Self-Discipline and Social Commitment: Development of self in accordance with the celestial principle of consistency; Cultivation of amplitude in emulation of the earth's benevolent support of man and nature." as the school motto. During World-War II, the University moved to Kunming in southwest China where it became, jointly with the National Peking University and the National Nankai University, the National Southwestern University. The University moved back to Peking in 1946 after the war.

After the Republic of China moved to Taiwan in 1949, the University was re-installed in 1956 in Hsinchu. The first academic program re-established was the graduate institute of nuclear science, and undergraduate programs were later restored in 1964.

In early Tsing Hua history, the University has used the foundation established by the United States government, which used the payment they secured from the Boxer Rebellion War, to send students to the United States for advanced study. Over one thousand students had the opportunity to learn and bring back to China the western science and technology. This effort had tremendous impact to the modernization of the Republic of China. The University has also a long history of high academic achievement. This is particularly exemplified by having its alumni that two of them are Nobel laureates in Physics, one Nobel laureate in Chemistry and one Wolff prize winner.

The University has always emphasized the importance of research and development in addition to outstanding teaching. When it was reinstalled in Hsinchu, nuclear science and technology were the major accentuation. It soon expanded the programs to include sciences and engineering, and added the life sciences recently. In 1984, the University established the College of Humanities and Social Sciences that made it a delicately balanced institution。

symbols and hopes

When a tour stop ends at a fengshui shop, most times they will show how to "stroke" a tianlu ( 天禄) so that one could get some luck monetary-wise. Then there would be persuasion, graduating to pressure, to get one tianlu or more.

What does a tianlu do? Some writeup about it from a fengshui website, as extracted below:

In the olden days, Pi Xiu (貔貅) was devoted as guardian of the palaces (镇中土) and homes of high officials because of its ability to drive away evil and bring good luck. It was also used as a symbol to boost the morale and fighting spirits of the soldiers during the warring states. It is very loyal and obedient in nature that is known to protect its master with their lives.

The Usefulness of a Pi Xiu (貔貅):
Once you own a Pi Xiu (貔貅), it will protect you with its life because you are his owner. It is a very powerful fortune and wealth enhancer because it can summon fortune and find helpful person for their master.
It generates good Feng Shui and can guard your house and family members from evil spirits or catastrophe and also ensures good health to everyone in the house.
It will also ward off evil and wicked people who intend to harm you or your family. It also helps you through obstacles and hard times in life.
It is a symbol of authority and power, thus you will enjoy the same status and influence when you place it at an auspicious position on your office desk.
It does not have an anus, so whatever good fortune that it absorbs in will be trapped in the stomach for your use. None of the good fortune will be lost once it is into its stomach.
It not only please the Grand Duke of Jupiter/Tai Sui (太岁) but also help you to ward off those Sha Qi moving around in the yearly Flying Star Chart – 九官飞星

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's another creature that is seen sometimes. The qi lin ( 麒麟). Two of them stand in the Forbidden City before the Emperor's court.

Here are some info:

**Gods from Chinese Mythology...
QI-LIN
Also known as CHI-LIN, KI-LIN, KY-LIN, CH'I-LIN
QI-LIN: The Chinese Unicorn. It's a splendid mythological beast with the body of a deer, the hooves of a horse, and a long elegant horn. Or is it? Despite what you might see in New Age stores, many QI-LINs have two or three horns, and sometimes even more. Not to mention scaly skin and hefty manes of hair. In fact most of them look more like dragons than unicorns. And far from being pearly white like traditional Western unicorns, they are available in a range of colors including black, red and green. So let's just drop the unicorn idea and call them QI-LINs, okay?As one of the Four Fabulous Beasts of Chinese Mythology (SI-LING), the QI-LINs represent all mammals and furry creatures, as well as the compass direction West. They symbolise purity, innocence, truth and justice, and if one of these rare beasts appears this is regarded as a very good omen. Many traditional stories are told about the QI-LIN, and they are particularly good at sparing the innocent and spearing the guilty in courtroom dramas. See GAO-YAO.

**Extracted from another website:

Traditionalists refer to this creature as the Chinese Unicorn. Having emerged from the river, it carried on its back the great symbol of Taoism. Placed in front of the main door facing outwards, it is believed by many Chinese to be the ultimate form of protection. It is said to act as a deterrent against anyone intending you harm. Wandering evil spirits are also said to be frightened away by the powerful figures of the Traditional Kei Loons guarding your home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

冬至

It's dong ji (冬至) today, a day for family to be together, eat together. There's sumptious food and the delicious tang yuan ( 汤圆 ).

Winter Solstice-Origin and Activities
The term Dong Zhi is a Chinese expression for the winter solstice. It falls on December 22 in the Gregorian calendar. After the winter solstice the days become longer and the nights are shorter, and it is time for families to store their harvests, and cease their farming work, for a period of joyful relaxation.
During this winter holiday, people perform folk performances to thank gods for bringing them rich harvests over the year, and pray for safety and prosperity in the coming year.
As depicted in a poem written by Mr. Xu Shr Hong, of the Ching Dynasty, ancient celebrations for the Dong Festival were no less grand and numerous than those for the lunar New Year Holiday, and children would kneel and bow to show respect for their parents at the festival.
In ancient times, Dong Zhi was also a time for family reunions, and was therefore called A Little New Year's Day. In ancient agricultural society, those who traveled or worked far from home would return home around the Don Zhi Festival for a family gathering, and to express their filial piety to their parents. People of south China usually eat Tang Yuan, or balls of glutinous rice, at the festival, while those in the north usually have Hun Dun, or stuffed dumplings. According to the Chinese custom, eating Tang Yuan of Hun Dun, symbolizes that a person is 1 year older.
Ancient Chinese observe the practice of rewarding livestock and daily used utensils at the Dong Zhi Festival, for their contributions over the year. Such a humane custom has been passed on to the present. People now tend to reward livestock by cleaning and patching up the livestock ranges, and reward daily used utensils by giving them a thorough cleaning or maintenance.
Dong Zhi features the longest night of the year. After Dong Zhi, nights are increasingly shorter, and the days increasingly longer, symbolizing growing brightness and hope to farmers. The weather is getting chilly, but people feel warm and hopeful when observing the Dong Zhi Festival.

~ ~ ~

a weighing machine

A stroll (or push, depending on the crowds) down the night markets of Taiwan brought back memories of our own night markets or pasar malam of the past. A trip to the pasar malam used to be a treat for kids back then, in those days when few families have TV (and even then, black-and-white TV), when there were no Gameboys or computer games. So the outings to pasar malam, to supper, were fun activities.

Somehow, the hor fun supper, freshly prepared from the hot wok, tasted extra good at night. It was in the same spirit, that we tried out the seafood rice porridge in the Kaoshiung night market recently. Freshly prepared, piping hot, it tasted good, after an albeit short flight over. (Sorry, no photos - forgot to take any.)

Then there were little knick-knacks, totally non-functional and impractical, just cute and cute. To save them from being thrown out as thrash half a year later, we didn't stock up on them. But we found this interesting weighing machine from the past (actually a sharpener) ...

Christmas cheer - next to Botanic Gardens

Along Cluny Road, as one navigates from Holland/Tanglin Road over to Bukit Timah Road (at the NUS Bukit Timah campus), there is one house that always has a Christmas lightup. Most years that we've seen, it's a cheery Santa Claus on the pillars of the boundary walls and some lights. But this year, it's much more - reindeer and sleigh on the roof of the car porch, lights all round, and even a Nativity scene! No wonder cars slow down to take in the sights! It really lifts the spirits as one passes by. :)

It has caught the attention of the media - ZB and today ST have written about the decorations.

The ST story and photos (thanks to ST):

The glow of Xmas at home for $25k
By Tiffany Ong

MR JULIUS Louis' instructions were to make his boss' home glow as brightly as the Christmas light up on Orchard Road. Money was no object.
He turned to the contractor responsible for the Orchard Road light-up, but he could not do the job before the middle of this month. So the 40-year-old concierge for businessman Leonard Francis decided he would do the job himself.
He said: 'We have been decorating the house every Christmas, but my boss decided to make it exceptionally unique this year. He wanted to do it on a bigger scale, so he gave me a budget of $25,000 and told me to go ahead with it.'
The busy contractor suggested Mr Louis take a look in his warehouse for ideas. There Mr Louis found 70 boxes of icicle lights, and others shaped as bells and trees.
For the nativity scene, Mr Francis ordered statues from Italy through his church, which cost $7,800.
An electrician was engaged to put up the lights. But everything else, from the nativity scene to the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh on the roof, Mr Louis installed himself.
He said his employer's grandfather used to string Christmas lights and beautiful decorations around the house and garden. Always having treasured those moments as a child, Mr Francis has continued the family tradition for his own children no matter where their home may be, added Mr Louis.
When The Straits Times visited yesterday, a minor traffic jam formed on the narrow road, as cars slowed down to have a second look.
It is such interest in the message of Christmas that his boss, a Catholic, wants to generate, said Mr Louis, adding: 'He wants the public to know that Christmas doesn't have to be spent with big crowds in Orchard Road. It can be spent at home, with one's family.'

down the memory lane that wasn't

It was a trip down memory lane. Yet not quite.

For the trip back to the alma mater is to its "new" location, not the site where we studied back then. Though only next door to its original site, the buildings we studied in, the familiar landmarks have been torn down. The bench that we used to sit at, the lecture hall we spent many an hour in, with the school dog for company, the assembly area where we stood every morning, the labs where we carried out dissections and experiments ... they were no more. In their place, stands another school. Even the teachers are no longer there. Only the roll of honour looked familiar - names of our seniors that we used to stare at in the school hall - now with many other names added after us. Well, it has been so many years after all.

The Arch of Greenery

One of my favourite canopies ...

The shrubs, the trees;

small ones, big majestic ones,

all residents for many years,

some even decades,

having grown up with the estate

more than 30 years ago.

Many a resident they have seen

come and go;

Many a young resident they have seen

grown up and formed their own families.

These trees

- they offer greenery relief to tired city eyes;

shade to pedestrians and joggers.

Indeed,

a restful beautiful picture

of mature trees and plants

networked to offer shade and relief.

among the foliage

I saw it there, among the foliage. Yes, really. I saw the toad. Its eyes gleamed at me, from underneath the foliage, its skin blended in well with its surrounding. Yes, the toad lives there.

clouds @ home

The clouds at home - also white, also looking soft and fluffy. Just no mountains to flit in between.

An inspiration

This is an inspiration - and a reminder - to those of us who are too afraid and too conscious of our own (relatively low) positions to speak up for our professional beliefs. Or for our staff who slogged to get things done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(with thanks to ST, Dec 17, 2007) UPFRONT
Dragon Lady and other passionate teachers
By Ho Ai Li

IT WAS the town's first secondary school, but Ang Mo Kio Secondary faced the prospect of having to move in 1996.
Set up in 1979, it was due for an upgrade, and its new location was to be in Hougang.

It still stands in Ang Mo Kio, thanks to Ms Paramita Bandara, who was principal at the time.
She recalled with mock exasperation what she was told initially when she protested against the move: 'River Valley goes to West Coast; Dunman goes to Tampines. You are nobody, you are only Ang Mo Kio.'
The message: Better-known schools had moved, so why was she making a fuss?

But she sure made a fuss. She went to see the area's Member of Parliament Lee Hsien Loong, then Deputy Prime Minister.
He told her the school had to move as its facilities were
substandard, and the site had been earmarked for the headquarters of the National Cadet Corps (NCC).
She looked at him and said: 'Sir, I am sorry I can't agree.'
He asked her why.
'Because I happen to be chairman of the NCC building committee, and nowhere was it mentioned that Ang Mo Kio was the likely site.'
Ms Bandara, now 65, recalled that they shared a good laugh, as well as a conversation on education. The school got to stay in Ang Mo Kio.

Mr Lee remembered her so well that he agreed to appear in a video tribute to her when she retired in 2000.
Ms Bandara is one of the educators featured in a new Ministry of Education book titled Many Pathways, One Mission to mark its 50th anniversary.
....
Whatever the changes over the past half century, one constant in education has been the presence of passionate educators such as Ms Bandara who, in Mr Lee's words, 'moved heaven and earth' for causes she believed in.
...
She started as a teacher at Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), and went on to become principal of Tanjong Katong Girls' School and Pasir Ris Secondary School.
In 1994, she was offered a position as a school inspector and the chance to head a well-known girls' school, but chose instead to go to Ang Mo Kio Secondary School.
'I feel that everybody has given a lot to the top 10 per cent, but we also need a strong base at the bottom of the pyramid,' she said.
...

Home sweet home

It's so great to be home. Our familiar airport with its facilities, the efficiency of going through it, the familiar roads, even the weather! :-D

Building on 5 "screws" 伍角船板

It is an unusual restaurant building, with fascinating ambience. By an unusual lady from Tainan. View of the Taipei Eye and Carrefour from the highest floor of the restaurant.

The building ( 伍角船板 ) is made of driftwood and conceptualised by the lady 谢丽香. She started out in Tainan, collecting unwanted driftwood and creating unusual buildings from them. Later she moved on to Taipei and created this building.

The interior of the building ...

In the morning, we saw the changing of the guards at the Martyr's Shrine.

View of the building housing the President's office.

Tea stop

We sat down to a talk on tea at the 九户茶语, especially oolong tea, with sweet snacks. This was after a good meal of exquisite xiao long bao at 点水楼 which has been frequented by Louis Cha or 金庸 , the writer of wuxia novels, the source of many an exciting drama serial that launched many an actress or actor.

But they were obviously disappointed we didn't zoom down like vultures to buy. Disappointed the rest were too - the fengshui place where the talk was also interesting though to be taken with pinch of salt. At the pearl "research centre", we had to sit through a lecture and later aggressive hard sell of pearl powder. The first one selling lingzhi and honey was at least humorous. Buy, buy, buy. They coax and push, sliding into pressure all too often, frightening off the prey. Disappointed too the tour guide, as his commission came to nought.

Taipei Metro, Night Markets and hair salons

The Taipei metro or jie yun ( 捷运 ) or public transit system. View from our service apartment - Chinatrust Executive Suite at Peitou, opposite the 北投 metro station.

Taipei, like other cities, is home to names like MacDonald's, KFC, Watsons. Even Mister Donut and NY Bagels were seen in the shopping malls.

It has its night markets, like Shi Lin ( 士林 ) night market (next to the 剑潭 metro station), where there is a food centre surrounded by shops and streets of night market merchandise. On a Sat night, it was packed like sardines. Wonder how anyone could shop like that!

Then there's a place where they sell wholesale stuff - some nice jackets at a good price.

And there's Ximending - a few streets of shops and open-air shopping, rather "hip" fashion shops. A place full of the young on a Sat afternoon.

A small pastry shop Vigor ( 维格 ) sells delicious pineapple cakes.

We also saw a few hair salons with this name ;)


乱剪。 Wonder what's the price like? More importantly, the outcome? Any takers? ;)