one father and duck eggs

A conversation, in Chinese, between a young man and a young woman who wanted to know more about each other.

Woman: Your home got what other people?

Man: Only got one father.

Woman: Only one father?

Man: Only one. You got how many fathers?


A man asked his Cantonese friend ...

'Long time no see your father, how is he?'

'He gone to sell salted duck eggs already.'

'Good profit or not?'

'Hee hee, you want to sell salted duck eggs also?'

no GST for basics?

Some people say remove GST for essential or basic items to help the poor. I suppose basic items are things like rice, oil, sauces, bread, vegetable, fruits. However, even things like rice and oranges, there are cheap ones and expensive ones.

For example, the superior grade of a brand of soya sauce costs about 2.5 times more than the standard grade.There could be more expensive ones which I don't know of.

Then, healthy salt (contains some minerals but less sodium) costs about 10 times that of ordinary salt.

Poor people buy the cheap ones while people with high income, which includes foreign talents, buy the expensive ones. If you buy the expensive ones, then you cannot be considered poor.

No doubt the poor will pay a little less. However, a lot of tax would be not be collected from the rich.

So I prefer to collect this tax money from the rich to help the poor in other ways.

bananas and money

I bought a bunch of small bananas when they were still green. After about five days, only the bananas at the top turned yellow while the bottom ones were still green.


After another five days .... the remainder were still green. Quite unusual, right?



Last week I got unexpected money. First I received a cheque from MDA - a refund of TV licence fees. Also I got a cheque from INCOME - a bonus or incentive for being a loyal customer. Lastly I got some money from STC - winning from a 4D number.

Not much, but somehow unexpected money like that makes you happy.

慈善点唱 (3) - 楚云玉

粵剧义演在人民剧场 - 点唱节目


慈善点唱 (3) - 楚云玉

慈善点唱 (2) - 戚超群

粵剧义演在人民剧场 - 点唱节目


慈善点唱 (2) - 戚超群

慈善点唱 (1) - 卢眉华

粵剧义演在人民剧场 - 粵曲点唱节目


With donations from pupils and supporters, there were songs by Wu Wai Fong, Aw Yeong Peng Mun, Chik Chew Kuarn, Ngai Wai Ying, Lou Mee Wah, Chor Wun Yook, Pang Chee Kuen, Ng Yim Hong and Wun Kok Wai. I recorded three of them. Here is the first one:

慈善点唱 (1) - 卢眉华

經典筹款粵曲

粵剧义演在人民剧场 - 14 April 2011


經典筹款粵曲

A classic Cantonese song often used at charity events to raise funds ... You can see some artistes, like Lou Mee Wah, going round to collect donations.

they are ....

Answers to who are they?

The first pair are Leong Sau Fong and Gary Kong Yew Cheong (梁秀芳, 龔耀祥). Here is a clearer picture.


The huadan is Chung Lai Yong (鐘麗容). Here she is in opera costume.


The sheng is Choy Mei Wun (蔡美雲). Another picture ...


And here she is in plain clothes ...

schooldays nostalgia

When I was in Pre-U, male students wear PAP-style uniform - white shirt and white long pants. I couldn't remember what shoes we wore. In sec 4, I was in a boys' school which allowed only prefects to wear long pants. All others, no matter how tall you were or whether you had hairy legs, wore white shorts.

The principal of my secondary school was very strict. Sometimes we saw him walking along the corridor holding a cane in his hand and we wondered if someone had been caned or someone was going to be caned. Or maybe he was looking for a victim, hoping to catch a boy misbehaving in class.

And in those days, what mattered was not what you liked or what subjects you were good in. It was what the school had to offer. In upper secondary, besides the compulsory subjects, my class studied two science subjects, two technical subjects and two maths subjects - 8 subjects.

Actually I was not interested in the Woodwork (a technical subject) and Chemistry. I was interested in the Maths subjects and Physics.

In Pre-U, my class had GP, Pure Maths, Applied Maths, Physics and Chemistry. Again we had no choice. Otherwise, I would like to take Economics or Statistics instead of Chemistry.

I especially liked Applied Maths. It deals with practical things like forces, momentum, velocity, etc. I find it difficult to memorize facts in Chemistry.

who are they ?

This is a quiz for Singapore Cantonese Opera fans. I think it is not hard. Answers will be given in the second post after this.

I was looking through some photos I took at opera shows. A few are not clear (for example, the first photo below) but the blurriness makes them suitable for quizzes. I don't think I have posted these photos before. All are Singapore artistes.

Who are these two?


Who is this huadan?


Who is the sheng?

fan luck

The car in the previous post is a Fiat 850 Coupe.


A few days ago, I dismantled a 16-inch table fan in order to wash the casings and the blade. I found that there were cracks on two fins. So I took the blade and went to the electrical shop on the ground floor intending to buy a new blade.

'Don't have the right one' the lady boss said. 'Not one type fits all, you know. The screw rod must be able to go into the hole'

You see, there is a rod with screw thread at the power block and this must be able to go through the opening in the centre of the blade.

'Thanks, I try another shop' I said.

'Buy a new fan better.' she said. 'The blade is not cheap.'

'Never mind' I said. 'I try another shop first.'

Then, yesterday as I walked down the stairs of my block , I saw a discarded fan at the corner of a common corridor. It looked like a 16-inch. So I removed the blade and took it home.

And it fits and it works !! Time and money saved !



Haha, now I will be looking out for a discarded computer monitor.

first

The first car that I drove after getting my driving licence was a Volvo, a big powerful car compared to the Morris Minor I used in my driving lessons. The first car that I had was of the make and model of the car in the picture below. Do you know what car this is.


This is the first expensive pen I bought with my salary after I have started working. Do you know what pen this is?

tin pei ling

She might be a candidate in my ward in the coming parliamentary elections. She is young but this doesn't mean she cannot be a good MP. It takes a lot of courage to do what she did. Three cheers for Pei Ling ! Vote for her !

random thoughts

I was watching the Chinese Classic, Journey to the West (JTW). It reminded me of a book I read when I was in school.

There is a book called The Pilgrims' Progress. I think it is Christian Literature. No, I did not read this. I read another one with the same moral values but a simpler one which is meant for kids. It is called The Land Far Beyond by Enid Blyton. I could remember little of the story. I think it is about a group of youngsters reaching their destination land after going through a lot of obstacles.

I also remember watching the film The Ten Commandments.

Back to JTW, the Monk was telling his 3 disciples that they should not kill demons and spirits because they have a life too. Compassion! A basic ingredient of Buddhist philosophy.

Buddhism doesn't have commandments or laws but it has some precepts which followers are encouraged to observe. One of them is refrain from killing. But I think Buddhists can eat meat. You also cannot ask another person to kill. For example you go to a market, buy a live chicken and ask the stall owner to kill it for you.

If you don't observe any precept, it doesn't mean you are a bad man but you will bring sufferings to yourself.

Then I thought of leadership. If a person is too compassionate, too kind or too nice, he would not be an effective leader. He would not get things done. People would take advantage of him. That is human nature.

shows

If you are woondering whether I collected the free gifts, I did - 20 sachets of these instant coffee .....



I was looking at coming shows at SISTIC and saw these opera shows. They are in Mandarin but there is no information about what genre of opera they are or who the performers are. It is here. Anyone knows?

the seduction of free gifts

I was passing a Video shop. There were stick-ups on the walls blaring special offers and big discounts. I went in to take a look. I decided to buy a DVD set of a Chinese drama. It cost $24.90 before discount of 20%. Why not a round figure $25, I thought, then it would be $20 after discount.

At the counter the cashier said, '$19.90 after discount. 10 cents more and you can get our free gift. Why not choose one more show? We give a free pack of instant coffee for $20 purchase.'

I said, 'Never mind, you can charge me $20.'

She shook her head, 'Cannot. We have many shows from $1 to $8 each. Why not take a look?'

So I took another look and picked a single-movie DVD.

After I had paid, the cashier said, 'You can collect your gift at this shop, it is at .....'

I said, 'How come just now you didn't tell me must go to another shop for the gift?'

She said, 'Oh, it is not far, you go down to the centre and then walk along this road right to the end and ... bra, bra, bra ......... must go today, OK ?'.

When I left the shop it was raining, just like it had been been raining in the past few afternoons.

stretch your dollar

Last week I bought this antiseptic cream from Watsons. It cost $6. Then I went to a FAIRPRICE supermarket. This one is quite big and there is a pharmacy inside too. I found this cream selling for $4.80 only. So if you want to buy this cream, better go to a pharmacy at FAIRPRICE.



At the FAIRPRICE supermarket there were mangoes at special offer - three for $1.99. If you just buy 3 mangoes and nothing else, you pay $1.95 because prices are rounded down to the nearest 5 cents.

There was a crowd at the mangoes which looked appealing. If you see a lot of housewives buying something, usually it is a good bargain - for food and household items, not bonds and shares. Later when I came back to look at the mangoes, quite a lot were sold already. I also bought three.

Here are two of them, two because because I have eaten one soon after I came home. It was sweet.

Don't they look tempting? A mellow golden yellow covered with tantalizing nectar that has seeped out.



How to stretch your dollar

劉惠鳴

劉惠鳴 在新加坡 万山福德祠土地诞演出 2011


The hua dan at the end part of the video is Ko Lai.

opposition

I think the opposition parties, especially the stronger ones, should contest as many seats as they could, no need to worry about 3-corner fights.

Then each party will know how much support it has. The better parties will likely to attract more capable people. I think this is one way for a strong opposition to emerge. It is also better for whatever talents they could get to be in one party rather than spread out in ten parties.

The opposition seems to think that people who want to vote for the opposition will support any opposition party. If this were so, doesn't it means all the opposition parties have similar ideology and manifesto. Then they may as well come together to form one party.

Assuming 60% want to vote for the opposition. Of this 60%, maybe only 30% will vote for any Tong, Yacob or Kumar. The others have their own mind what oppositions they want.

For example, you support FLOP (Frannxis' Love Opera Party) but it is not contesting in your ward. Since you do not like the other opposition party, you might vote for the ruling party or you may spoil your vote.

V is for ...

I have been watching some old sword-fighting movies. They have a lot of violence. It is not uncommon to see a knife sticking in a body, blood gushing out or an arm being chopped off. I guess some of these scenes were censored when the movies were shown in the cinemas back in those years.


Another common thing is the hero fighting dozens after dozens of men and killing all of them and finally facing his chief opponent for a duel.