2 Exhbitions

Was at the Singapore Motorshow yesterday. This year's show is a big disappointment. Down from the usual 2 floors to 1 floor. Only Honda, Nissan and Subaru are there. And no exotic cars. Only a few souped up cars. And the so called pretty ladies who were supposed to grace the cars. I think Abigail looks better! Lucky don't have to pay for the tickets otherwise be cursing and swearing.

On the way home, saw this goldfish exhibition at Eastpoint Mall. Goldfish not really my type of fish but still took the opportunity to take some photos.

Exhibition

Hong Lim Park

Look like the scene at the protest corner at Hong Lim is getting hot. 

First off the mark was an protest on the hike in public transport fare, followed by an aborted attempt to politize Tamil wordings in signages and now a plan 'Gay' protest.

Somebody up there in the gahmen must be wondering what did they do wrong. They opened a whole pandora box. I foresee very soon they will shut down the venue if the topic for the protest get more and more controversial. 

Money Not Enough 2

Finally managed to catch the show Money Not Enough 2. It was billed as a comedy but apart from the lame joke about the ERP it was more a weepie. 

One thing about Jack Neo, he really has a knack for producing movie that are relevant. This movie to me is not so much about not having enough money but more about the difficulties a family face when coping with someone who is old and sick in the family and the dilemna they faced as they sought to balance what is best for the mother and for the whole family.

And this is really what most of us will face when our loved ones grow old and has a host of medical problems. The problem will become more and more acute with smaller household and higher medical cost. 

With a mother who is getting on in age, it pains me to think that one day I will have to go through what the 3 leads in the movie has to go through. When the time come, how will we siblings handle this? Who to take care? Home care, old folks home, hospital bills - these are all practical issues that need to be thought through now and be prepared for. But is it possible to ever be prepared for such things?

Clear our own food tray?

The gahmen is trying to encourage people to return their dirty dishes after eating to the tray collection point. Not too sure why they are wasting time on such trivial issues when there are more pressing things to solve but anyway here's my take on it. Strangely I actually support the move but I think it's going to be an exercise in futility.

It's not going to work!

Why not?

1. The type of food we eat is different from those in the West. Our local food normally come with shell (prawns), bones (fish, chicken, pork ribs), skin, (chicken, pork). After eating all these, what can a person do with the unwanted stuff? Spit it back into the bowl of prawn noodle, lump it together with the chicken rice? Surely not - how to eat with all that yucky stuff in the plate - throw it onto the table lah! And so after the meal, the table is a mess - how to clear them? Push them into the tray?

2. Tray? What tray? In many hawker centre, the hawker bring the food to the table and take back the tray. So there is no tray. In food court, it is self serivce and there are trays available. But somehow most tables at these places are too small. Try putting 5 trays on a round table of 5 and you will know there is not enough space for the trays. Some food court have such small table that you can't even fit 2 trays facing each other. So what to do? Remove the tray and hey presto, a cleaner will appear and remove the tray before you can even stand up. So no tray. What to do with the food waste? Dump on the table lah!

3. Finally, has anybody notice the type of tray collecting point in hawker centre and food court? At the hawker centre, if there is one - it is usually a multi-tier rack that can only fit the tray but not the plates and bowls. And most of them are so filthy that a person will probably puke out the food just eaten just by looking at it. Don't believe me - go take a look at Marine Parade Cooked Food Centre - probably the filthiest hawker centre in the East!

What about the collection point in food court? Seen the design? It is just a flat counter with a waste bin underneath like those at the fast food centre. But somebody forget to tell them that in food courts, there are plates and bowls and not all items are disposal items that can be dumped into the trash bin underneath. And has anybody try balancing the tray with crockery in one hand and trying to lift up the flab to the waste bin and then trying to pour the food waste into it? You need to be an octopus to be able to do it!

So my conclusion - don't waste the effort and energy trying to reinvent the tyre. Let it be and give the old ladies and guys doing the clearing now a chance to earn a little bit of money.

Mooncake 2008

Reflecting the not so good economy, the moon cake count this year has dropped compared to last year.

First box was from Pine Court restaurant. The usual stuff. Not fantastically great.
The second box was a box of snow skin moon cakes from Bakerzin called Magic. This was good. Each mooncake, there were 4 different favours were filled with a different type of alcohol like rum, champagne, whiskey. This was followed by a box from Royal China at Raffles Hotel. Again, the usual lotus paste mooncake with egg yoke. Not something I really fancy.This was followed by another box from Raffles Hotel, this time from the Hotel itself and this has got to be the best - a box of snow skin champagne, truffles filling with ganache. This was real good so brought back half for the family to try but they don't really seem to appreciate it!
Here is a very good review with photos.

And that's all from my office. Terrible but good for my waist line:)

Back home, there was a box from Inter-Continental Hotel courtesy of M's client which we are still struggling to finish even now!
Then little sis had to come and make it worse by giving Mum a box of yam paste mooncake from Peony Jade Restaurant which hasn't been touched yet. Sorry Sis if you reading this - next time don't buy for her. Of course, sis didn't buy it for me but for Mum who actually wanted the traditional type which M got from Thye Moh in Geylang and which is also my favourite although I prefer those from Mui Lee.And finally there is this cute little one from M's colleague:All pictures taken using camera phone so not too appetising!

Dinner

I am so impressed and touched. This is the first meal my little gal cooked for her old man!
How did it taste like? All of us finished everything on the plate and nothing was throw away and that say how good it was!

Not in my backyard.

Reading the media reports about the Serangoon Garden's petition against the proposed worker dormitory in their neighbour, it makes me wonder where our residents expect the government to locate all these 'undesirable' facilities to? Sister Island?, Pulau Ubin?

It make me feel so disgusted the way they talked about the foreign workers and the evil things that the will 'so call' do once they are in their neighbourhood. I don't deny that there are black sheep among these workers and I myself don't like they way they hang around in group and drink and sleep on the floor but most time I pity them. They have to leave their family behind to come here and make a honest living. Without them, we won't have all these nice buildings to stay in.

The government should consider building self contained quarters with facilities for the worker to eat, relax and play and not just build sleeping quarters. I believe most crimes are committed by the illegal immigrants so having proper housing for them will help to reduce the opportunity for the legal workers to go out into the neighbourhood to loiter.

And people of Singapore, give these workers a chance!

Teachers

This is going to be a long post - going back 30+ years.

Teacher – probably the most important person in the world. Yes more important than politicians and parents. How many times have we parents repeat instructions to the kids… “don’t do this, don’t do that” and yet they don’t listen and than one day, they come back from school and pronounced that teacher said this or that blah blah blah and followed it to a t. Of course, this applies mainly to the younger children but the words that a teacher used – say it right and it boost a child no end, say it wrong and it would possibly scar a child forever.

This is my bit on teachers, good and bad that have molded me into what I am today, for good or for bad.

Way back in primary school, there was Miss Jamilah. I think she was a relief teacher cos she taught us only for a short while but she was such a nice teacher. I think we were in Pri 5 than and she invited us to her house during Hari Raya. Actually that’s all I can remember about her – that she was nice. Another nice teacher was also another relief teacher – Ms Irene Tan. In Pri 6, she brought one whole bunch of us out for a movie – her treat; Snow White at the Odeon. It was my first movie ever! And she was so encouraging and always praising us! The only other teacher I can remember from Pri school was Mrs Ho, form teacher and math teacher. She had this perpetual look on her face that says us kids are a nuisance and wasting her time. That was the message I got from her too when she hauled me up for failing my math over and over again. You know, if looks could kill, I could have died a thousand deaths then!

The trend of evil math teacher continued into secondary school with Ms June Yong. She will rattle off “A+B+C+…. Get it?” and when we shake our head, she will go “You stupid people”. But her teaching was really atrocious and with my weak foundation in Pri school, I naturally flunked the subjects throughout my four years. My classmates were more fortunate. A few of them teamed up to get a tutor (something unheard of in those days) and managed to clear their math. Another memorable teacher was Mr Ngian who loves to pinch us and pull our ears whenever we do something wrong or get the answer wrong! Those were the days when teachers were allowed to punish children! But he was a good teacher and under him, almost all of us passed the LCCI examination in Accounts (an exam meant for working adults) at Sec 3! Then there was the Chinese language teacher (in those days, we don’t call them mother tongue”) who will make us read passage after passage and than go ‘懂 不懂! Of course, that became her nickname but sadly for me, I really 不懂 and flunked all my Chinese exam including the ‘O’s The worst character of all was the new principal who came when I was in Sec 4. I had the distinct honor of being the 1st student in the whole school to be ticked off by him on his first day at the school when he droved into the carpark! My crime? Wearing a pair of red colour Panther track shoe -which was actually allowed in school at that time!

Not all teachers in secondary school were bad. There was Babs Heng (yeah, she asked us to call her by name) who was probably the “bestest” teacher a student can have. But the most important thing that she did was to introduce one whole bunch of us to Christ! Her partner in crime (oops I mean Christ) was William Chai, now a lawyer. Together, these 2 teachers made secondary school the best time I ever had.

Moving on to JC, 2 teachers stood out. Miss Jebamoney, a teacher that everybody dislike cos she was so fierce but as our Civic tutor, she was a really really nice lady and counseled me when I was flunking all my papers in year 2 and never gave up on me even though I had changed for the worst and became almost incorrigible. Then there was Miss Loo. Again this was one fierce teacher but she had a soft side to her fierce demeanor and even though I was always the subject of her wrath, she also did not give up on me and took time to counsel me.

Anyway, to all these teachers, good or bad, still teaching or not and to all my teacher friends and relatives and all teachers out there, I hope you enjoy your day of rest and take thing easy. I know nowadays us parents don’t make things easy for you guys but keep pressing on. The kids will thank you for it one day!