coffee

Here are some instant coffees I have tried.


My top choice is OldTown white coffee 2 in 1.
Second is Gold Kili Expresscino
Third is NESCAFE home cafe

All the three have no sugar added; I add a little sugar myself.

Anyone has other recommendations?

biased

On occasions when I had diarrhoea I would go through the food I had eaten to see what caused it. If I had eaten food like oysters, cockles or half-boiled eggs I would put the blame on them. Were I being unfair to them?

It could have been caused by other food. I read an article which said that the diarrhoea may not come immediately after you ate the dirty food. It may come many hours later.

Actually in many aspects of our lives, we are also biased. For example, if we have several suspects in a crime, many people will think the one with a criminal record is the culprit. Another example, you do not buy products of a certain brand because you think they are not good.


What about fairness? Oftentimes, you hear people say this not fair, that not fair. Take exams for example, the authorities will try to make it as fair as possible. But there are other things beyond their control. Some candidates might have done the same or similar questions days before. If there are no wrongdoings, I think it is ok. It is just they were lucky.

There are many things which are not fair, but I think it is hard to have absolute fairness.

emotional attachment

Did you see these recent headlines ... New hospital to be built, More flats next year, Orchard Road to be raised.

One of the things it means is that we will need a lot of foreign workers. Probably many will be those who are already working here and some new workers will come to replace those who are leaving.

Suppose some unforeseeable thing happened and we could not get foreign workers to come. We should not take things for granted, be it water, sand or foreign workers. I think people will see the effects very soon. Construction and road works will slow down. We will have to wait longer for our buses as there are not enough drivers. There may be floods more often as drains are not cleared regularly and our estates and streets may get dirtier too.

I was thinking who did these jobs in the early history of Singapore.

In the first half of the 20th century Singapore was a colony. There were no Singaporeans, all were British Subjects. Then, the hard dirty jobs were done by locals, many of whom came from China. One such group you could see at construction sites were the Samsui women. After that came Self-government, followed by Merger with Malaysia and finally Independence. Singapore progressed rapidly and as we became richer and more educated, we shun these jobs.


Chun See mentioned there is some psychological reason behind why old folks like to keep old things. While writing this post I thought of another reason why old folks are nostalgic about old times. It is an emotional attachment to a time when life was simpler, Asian values prevailed and foreigners were few.

I wonder what nostalgia our present kids will have when they grow old.

Two Greats

Unlike the sentimental couple I mentioned in the previous post, I did not keep my old textbooks and workbooks. If not I could write a few nostalgic posts about them.

However, I still keep some old newspaper cuttings as they do not take up a lot of space. If you live in a smalll HDB flat, space and storage is an important consideration.

Below are two newspaper cuttings. They are about two Cantonese opera greats who have passed away. Unfortunately, I did not record down the dates they were published.

sentiments for old things

A lot of old folks are very sentimental about old things. Recently I found that a neighbour has a big heavy urn for storing water and another neighbour still uses her very very old set of furniture.


" It is better than a plastic pail, " the man said.

" The wood is very good. These chairs are very sturdy. Now even you have money you cannot buy them, " the woman said.

I was thinking: If the things could not be used anymore, would they still keep them in the house. Most likely no.

I also know a sentimental couple who were teachers. They still keep all their old files, magazines and books. There are a few shelves and cupboards of them, all dusty and I think not touched for years. They are reluctant to throw away any of these things. Besides these, they also have a lot of other very old things in their flat. It makes the place look congested, dusty and dim. I feel that it has an adverse effect on their health and spirits.

Sentiment alone is not a good reason for people to keep old things. Otherwise they would have tonnes of old things in the house. I think it must have significance to them, for example the first watch you owned or your earliest music player although you can't use it anymore. Furthermore, it must not be too big to be kept or too expensive/troublesome to maintain. Then you may want to look at them occasionally.

If not, I think it is best to dispose of them.


I was reading the comments at Victor's blog and Uncle Dicko has this reason why folks like old things:

" Maybe for some of us, the internal archives in our brain (memory recall) are functioning better with sentimental, old scenes than jazzy, new ones. That's why many of us love old things, collect old things..and still love our old clothes v much!"

some feedback

For the past few years Chor Wan Yook has been partnering Long Koon Tin to put up two full-length opera shows every year. Hope she will continue with it whether with Long or other shengs.

There are very few full-length operas by local groups or troupes. At the moment I could only think of the following: Kong Chow Wui Koon, Chinese Theatre Circle, Echo Opera Troupe, Tanjong Pagar CC Opera Group. Usually they perform one show a year.

I watched Long-Chor shows last week. Besides the few leading artistes, I think most of the other performers are students in Chor Wan Yook's opera classes. I would say they put in commendable effort.

I talked to a few fans during interval and below are some feedback. Some of them might have given the feedback in the feedback form.

1. The stage lighting not bright enough.

2. The light at the orchestra pit too bright. (The rows of seats in this theatre - Lee Foundation Theatre - slope downwards and everyone can see the orchestra members below the stage. Each member has a stand with the music script on it. When the show is on, each stand has a bright light which shines onto the scripts which reflects the light.)

3. It took too long to change scenes. This was only for the first show. Probably they were short of stage helpers and the lead artistes needed time to change costumes.

4. Shi Jiu (Liang Shan Bo's pageboy) doesn't look like a pageboy. He is big-sized and his tummy sticks out.

龍貫天, 楚雲玉

I got these photos at the shows I watched last week.

common sense

Someone said that common sense is not that common.

Why do pedestrians dash across the road?
Why do motorists tailgate?
Why do men have unprotected commercial sex?
.
.
.
and dozens of other examples.

I believe all of us, myself included, ever do things like we have no common sense.

I think it is not just a matter of common sense. Sometimes we forget the risks. And at times our self-discipline is weak and other factors or emotions override our common sense.

not correct

Overcome by emotions, tears streamed down her cheeks.

This is a sentence I made in the previous post. You know what it means but is it correct English?

When I looked at it again, it doesn't sound quite right.

From the Grammar lessons I learned in school, I remember 'overcome by emotions' is an adjective phrase which is meant to describe the noun/pronoun next to it. In the above sentence, the noun is tears. Obviously the adjective phrase doesn't describe tears.

I think this is more correct - Overcome by emotions, she couldn't control her tears.
In this sentence 'overcome by emotions' describes 'she'.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

emotions

This word came to mind while I was reading the news. Emotions were aplenty at Mrs Lee Kuan Yew's funeral.

Emotions was also a favourite word of my Sec 4 English Literature teacher. I think this is natural as Literature deals with human beings and their behaviour, actions and thoughts.

I can still remember a few phrases he taught us - overcome by emotions, a wave of emotions, emotionally-charged.

For example, Overcome by emotions, tears streamed down her cheeks.

However, Literature was not a subject I was good in. I only got a credit for it. I remember my Shakespeare's text was Julius Caesar.

A Gimmicky World

An old Cantonese movie starring ... 胡楓, 林鳳, 麥基, 林丹


A rich man has never seen his cousin before. He did not want to meet her. So, he switched identities with his personal assistant and told him to go and meet his cousin.

His cousin is a beautiful woman but the personal assistant lied to him that she is ugly. In this clip, the man discovers the truth.

Meanwhile, a pair of cheats are trying to use another beautiful woman to befriend the rich man in order to cheat him of his money. (You can see them walking into the cafe somewhere in the middle of the clip.)

blogging

The following are not friendly to your visitors:

A post with one long uninterrupted paragraph. It is difficult to read.

Embedded music/song - Some computers have problems with these sites or it may take a long time time to load the page. And remember the proverb: One man's like is another man's dislike. Embed the player too so that your visitor can stop the music if it wants to read your blog in quietness.

A page too clustered with things - badges, awards, advertisements, boxes and others. You may think it is impressive but others find it distracting and untidy.

Links - I think bloggers should check out the links in their lists once in a while. Dead or outdated links should be removed or updated.

These are just my own views.