dry means more crispy and less sweet

Last week I noticed some beer on offer at a supermarket. One of them is a Japanese brand and is stated as super DRY. I bought a pack.

If you are a beer enthusiast you may know what dry beer mean.

I don't know. Well, here is something I found ...

"Dry Beer is characterized by unusually high attenuation, which is achieved through a combination of yeast and ingredient choice, long fermentation time, and in some cases special chemical processes designed to break down ordinarily unfermentable sugars into smaller, more fermentable ones.

As a result, dry beer has very little residual sweetness, very little beer flavor, and a slightly higher than average alcohol content. The result is a beer with a crisp bite and little or no aftertaste, said to be good for cutting through greasy or fatty foods and with a more interesting, delicate residual flavor than a typical mass-market American-style pale lager where a light flavor is obtained solely through the use of adjuncts."

Does that explanation make you wiser? If you are a beer connoisseur, perhaps you can distinguish the different levels of sweetness. I cannot. I guess what matters to many people is whether it suits their taste. For myself, it does.


There are many beer blogs. Here is one - http://thebeernut.blogspot.sg/

some photos

Found some black and white photos taken by a Mr Alan Soon in 2008. I think it was at the San Wang Wu Ti street opera at Chinatown.



Long Koon Tin and Cheng Weng Mui

Were you in the audience?

神誕演出

Opera shows to commemorate the birthday of a deity at a temple in Hougang.

This is the small backstage.

Some of the performers .....

廖瑞萍, 袁咏珠

林玉珠

廖瑞萍, 陳豐瀅

張澤明, 伍寶嬋

suspected of/alleged

The following is from a news report about the man who killed 12 people in a movie theatre:

" The man suspected of fatally shooting 12 people in a Colorado movie theatre left a good impression on people he met ...... "

I don't understand why the reporter used suspected of. Readers may think it means the man may not be the killer. I think charged with would be more correct. It is a fact and there are many witnessess. Of course the man can plead not guilty or claim he was mentally ill.



In recent news you read about men alleged to have sex with underaged girls.

Alleged means having done something wrong although it has not been proved.

If the men are charged in court, it means the prosecutions have the proofs or evidence. It is up to the judge to look at these evidence and to see if there are mitigating factors. I doubt any man can get away without a jail sentence.

三战定江山之拜堂 - 梁兆明, 林婷, 郑建平

梁兆明, 林婷



郑建平

踏破铁鞋无觅处 .....

..... 得来全不费功夫。

Have you heard of the above Chinese saying? It says 'walk until your iron shoes are broken and you still can't find what you are looking for and then you get it without any effort'.

I think you must have such experiences before.

One morning I wanted to take a pill from a pack of ten. I pressed the pill against the thin metal foil below it so as to push the pill out. It popped out and dropped down.

Intuitively, I squatted down on the floor to look for it. After searching for about half of the area of the kitchen floor including under the refrigerator, I gave up searching and took another pill from the pack.

Then I picked up a mug of water from the table and ... there it was! The pill had landed behind the mug on the table.

會妻

草莽英風之會妻 - 陸廷偉, 何美珍 (吳川市粵劇團)

吳川市粵劇團生旦

More photos at Facebook, Cantonese Opera



from left 陳詩敏, 何美珍, 陸廷偉, 鄭永健

陸廷偉

鄭永健 and Yam Ah Mee (Director, People's Association)

何美珍, 陳詩敏

陳詩敏, 何美珍

passionate admirers ...

十绣 - 陳詩敏(吳川市粵劇團花旦), 朱幼慈

smart soldiers and pretty maids

One good thing about Chinese opera troupes from China is that they have many trained young artistes to do minor or supporting roles like soldiers and maids, Some may have short speaking or singing parts.

They enhance the overall presentation of the show.

It is a joy to watch a line of 6 or 8 soldiers striding smartly out onto the stage with spears held up in their hands or a bevy of palace maids floating gracefully out in quick short steps.

Here are a few maids (except the first one). Note the expressions on their faces and their roving eyes.

靚旦 Pretty dans

an Enid Blyton book

I am reading an Enid Blyton book; something I have not done for a very long time, ever since I was in Sec 1 or 2. As you know, Enid Blyton's books are meant for children. Of course that doesn't mean adults cannot read them.

You might wonder how come I read her book now. It is like this .....

I was walking home one afternoon and I saw this stall selling sundry goods at the pavement. There were some old books too, so I went to take a look and there was this Enid Blyton book. Out of nostalgia, I bought the book. It cost 50 cents.

Since I bought it I might as well read it, right?

I did not know it when I was a student; but now I find that her books were written in good correct English, whether it be grammar or tenses or even punctuation. And the children in her stories speak impeccable English too, which I think is not realistic. Maybe British students during her time spoke like that.

Here is the first page. Look at the first sentence. There is a semi-colon (;). I think people seldom use the semi-colon nowadays. I remember the semi-colon means a longer pause than a comma but shorter than a full-stop.

拜相

Bye-bye and photo-taking

拜拜

影相

Getting ready ...

One for the album ...


Zhanjiang troupe and members of the KAPTF together with MP Lily Neo ...
Zhanjiang's 4 main huadans are at the front row,

from left - Lum Teng (in green) and Leong Yin Fei

from right - Mok Yin Wun and Mak Mun Kit.
The shengs standing behind are Li Chou Yuen, Leong Siu Meng and Wong Wai Kuan ...

趙子龍 - 黄伟坤

趙子龍 - 黄伟坤

湛江生旦 Some Zhanjiang artistes

More photos at Facebook Cantonese Opera Page
By the way, the huadan doing make-up in the blog header above is 林婷. I think I have mentioned this before.

麥文潔



梁兆明

梁兆明, 谭兰燕

谭兰燕

林婷

林婷

林婷

莫燕雲

吳劍鳴

吳劍鳴

郑建平

無情寶劍 .....

李秋元



梁燕飞

麥文潔

湛江生旦 - 梁兆明, 林婷, 吳劍鳴, 莫燕雲

梁兆明

林婷

吳劍鳴

莫燕雲

狄青 - 梁兆明, 梁燕飞