Pictures

A cute dog... see its rueful look...
" Please don't scold me "


a beautiful fan

fanciful fruit... really got this type of fruit?

English quiz

Remember, some time ago I did a survey about visitors to this blog. About one third of them are 50 or above, and another one-third are 30 or below. The rest are between 30 and 50. So, many of you had left school for a number of years. Unless you work in the education line, I think you would have forgotten some of your English lessons.

Check yourself with this quiz; it has a little of everything - tenses, verb-subject agreement, infinitives, pronouns, nouns, vocabulary, clauses, idioms. Just pick the correct answer:

1. " Is it really true? " she asked, giving him an ___ look.
(a) incredible (b) incredulous

2. It ___ since last night.
(a) has been raining (b) was raining

3. Which sentence is correct?
(a) The principal who everyone respects has been transferred.
(b) The principal, who everyone respects, has been transferred.

4. Yesterday the teacher made him ___ round the field.
(a) run (b) ran

5. I suspect he has sent us on a wild-goose chase.
'on a wild-goose chase' means...
(a) to catch wild geese (b) on a foolish and fruitless search

6. Neither he nor his brothers ___ in school today.
(a) is (b) are

7. I want two ___ apples.
(a) dozen (b) dozens

8. She gave you $200. He also gave you some money. Did he give you more than ___ ?
(a) her (b) she

Beggars

You read about these people from China becoming beggars in our shore. Some have one limb missing, some on wheelchairs and all trying to look pitiful. I doubt all of them beg in their homeland. Remember, not long ago there were fake monks…

Some people still gave although they were not sure if they were real hardship cases or they belonged to a syndicate. They said it was the right thing to do and it made them feel good.

I think I won’t give. You see, these beggars have to get an air ticket to come here and then have to pay for accommodation and food. And their intention? Not to visit our lovely Island but to prey on the kindness of soft-hearted Singaporeans. I just feel it is not right.

Reincarnation

During the CNY some Chinese go to temples to pray. I think some of them are Taoists while others don't have any religion and they just follow traditions or they go to pray for blessings. Buddhists don't do that.

But both Buddhism and Taoism believe in reincarnation. Before being reincarnated you lose memory of your previous life. A lecturer in Buddhist Studies once remarked that it would be good if we could retain some memory of our past life.

I think it depends what you could remember. If people could remember about their previous families, then it would be a rather surreal situation. Everyone would be going to look for his previous parents or children.

But it would be good if we remember things that would help us, like fire can hurt us, smoking is harmful or remember some language and maths skills. People would be wiser and make less mistakes.

Or wouldn't it be nice if we were allowed to choose what we want to be in our next life or where we want to be born - like whether we want to be black, white or brown or we can choose to be born in Pakistan.

Praises

Just came across a blog post praising our country. So must let you all know also. Here it is:

Monday, February 11, 2008
Singapore

Here are a few pictures I took of Singapore while driving around. Pretty quiet there as you can see, most folks must have been busy visiting relatives at their homes as it was the Chinese New Year festival. I noted that Singapore is really clean, and their roads are mostly very well kept indeed. Greens are abundant there, something I really would like to see more in Kuala Lumpur. Despite Singapore being scarce for land, I am impressed at how much space they allocate for their parks and greens instead of turning it into a huge concrete jungle alone. Very generous planning really, and if you have experienced their public transportation especially the MRT, you will know just how efficient they are. This is why Singapore is where they are now, and other Asian countries except for Japan, are still lagging behind them despite having longer histories. Singapore's orderly planning never ceases to amaze me...

CNY childhood joys

According to reports the average amount in the ang pow youngsters get this year is $10. That was the maximum I got when I was a child and that was from my poor parents. Friends, relatives and neighbours gave much less. Sometimes I also received coins, usually 10-cent and 20-cent, wrapped in red paper. 20 cents was quite a lot of money then. It could buy you a bowl of mee in the school canteen.

I think even up to the early seventies there were still people who wrapped coins in red papers and gave them as ang pows. I don't think the banks gave out ang pow envelopes at that time. You have to buy them. I remember my father once bought those with our Chinese surname on it.

The joys of CNY during my childhood: wearing new clothes and shoes, eating sweets and drinking soft drinks, playing with fire crackers and counting ang pow money.

Discipline

Today's news:
"Never take the risk. Always be around to watch over them" - This is the advice given by the aunt of a 13-year old girl who was almost drowned in a condo swimming pool.

But in this case the girl and her friends sneaked out in the early morning to go swimming in the pool. So how would the adults know and be around to watch them?

Nowadays it is not uncommon to see kids running around and not obeying their parents. I would say parents should discipline their young children. Tell them they cannot go swimming alone and must get permission from their parents or the person taking care of them. If they disobey, punish them.

Junk Bin

Occasionally my emails go to to the Junk Bin instead of the Inbox. My habit is to empty the bin without opening it. Today there was only one in the JB, so I just took a look. It was not junk; it was a poster of a coming opera performance sent by Mr Yeo.

So friends, if you have sent me such information and I still have not put them up, it means your mails have been sent to the JB and I have discarded them. If that happened to your mail, sorry for my carelessness. Please do send them again. Thank You.

CNY Greetings

I copied these greetings from Victor's blog (Taking up the Challenge) to wish you all. Sure got one that suits you. He did not make them up except for the last one. They were published in the Business Times 5 years ago.

1. Wish Happy Be Rich (恭喜发财)

2. Horse Arrive Work Done (马到工成)

3. Step Step High Rise (步步高升)

4. Year Year Got Fish (年年有余)

5. One Road Smooth Wind (一路顺风)

6. Heart Think Work Done (心想事成)

7. Dragon Horse Sperm God (龙马精神)

8. Early Born Expensive Son (早生贵子)

Email from an opera fan

Thanks to all of you who have sent me CNY greetings and very interesting cards.

Share with you an email I received a day ago from Jodie.....

"I wanted to post this mail to your blog but being a computer idiot, I do not know how to do so.

Well, last December, my aunt and I had a short break in Guangzhou. Fortunately, we managed to catch "Hua Yue Ying" there as we had missed this performance in Singapore as both of us were in Vietnam then; this is a good show and we thoroughly enjoyed the stage performance.

Anyway, that is just a side track. The purpose of writing this email is solely to share with you and the fans of Mr Ow Kai Meng, our experience while we were in GZ.

As avid fans, the first thing we did was to find out the dates for the opera performances. Not only we did that, we also went to the extent of visiting the Hong Dou and Guangtong troupe at their respective sites. We chanced upon Mr Ow and his Manager, Mr Su Hua.

We must say that we are indeed impressed by Mr Ow's humble hospitality and well-behaved manners which nevertheless gained our respect - no air at all! We saw two of his performances while we were there - to our surprise, he could pick us up from his crowd of both local and overseas fans - came straight to shake our hands and on the last night, expressed his well wishes to us for a safe journey back.

I am certainly looking forward to watch his performances in Singapore which I understand should be soon....."


Transport woes

Another one.....

Another example (yesterday's papers) that Islamic laws can affect non-Muslims - A Hindu mother cannot claim the insurance money her son left her because her son has converted to Islam. Islamic law says a non-Muslim cannot claim inheritance from a Muslim.

Who will get the money then?
Can Islamic laws override any other law or any agreement you have made?