Thursday, April 28, 2011

being a tourist

i'm not dead yet.

i've been busy being a tourist first in Singapore, then now in Malaysia, and soon to be in Singapore again.

things have been interesting so far, first with discovering a rooftop garden on Orchard Central:


then discovering that Malacca can be really pretty at night:


while Kuala Lumpur less charming:


so much to say about Malaysia, but will do that another time. Suffice to blog here that having 'rediscovered' Malacca - from when I was last there more than 15 years ago - and having finally been to KL, my curiosity is satiated and I won't be going across the Causeway for a long time to come.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Ode to Boobies

There’s yet another Breast Cancer Awareness campaign:

The normal boobs ( . )( . ), the silicone boobs ( + )( + ), the perfect boobs (o)(o). Some boobs are cold (^)(^), and some boobs belong to grandmothers \./\./ And let’s not forget the very large boobs (o Y o), and very small boobs (.)(.),the skeeter bite boobs . . and lastly the asymmetrical boobs (•)(.). We love them all!. Post this message on your wall and say ┌П┐(◉_◉)┌П┐ to breast cancer. Save the boobies!

Far more interesting than the previous ones, but again does nothing to aid the cause. It would be more useful to teach women how to prevent breast cancer or at least detect it early through self-examinations and so on.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

GE 2011

And so it has been announced that the elections will be held on 7th May.

There was minor excitement at the office today when we discovered that Parliament had been dissolved. Shortly after, Mr. Brown incorrectly said that polling day will be on 6th May; a minor commotion occurred among a group of us (6th May = Friday = off day!) but quickly ceased when we were puzzled as to why BBC carried the news before ST and CNA did – and we checked the date the article (2006). And then the actual announcement was made – 7th May it is, and since it’s a Saturday we get no off in lieu for having to head to the polls. Boo.

I suppose it was a good thing that all this occurred when our email servers were down. Most of us were affected, which meant we could neither send nor receive any emails the entire afternoon. What do to? For the first time in a long time I actually could go home on time because I couldn’t work.

* * *

Anyway, a colleague mentioned that there was an article on the TOC which said that TPL may have contravened the elections rule. I’m surprised this hasn’t been picked up and spread all over the internet – imagine the impact if her appeal for votes at the end of the video could actually be considered an infringement of the Parliamentary Elections Act.

I’m pretty sure there’re grounds for taking this to court – the phrasing of the Act and the definition of “election activity” are such that any lawyer can make a case for it. At any rate, it’s an addition to the list of things regarding TPL that people can roll their eyes at*. That senior politicians keep stepping up to defend her just makes it all the more irksome – if she’s really that strong one wouldn’t need to keep harping on it; if she’s really that good why isn’t the populace convinced?

It just seems like they’re trying too hard to justify their choice. Since it’s not possible for them to admit that they might have miscalculated (or misjudged) in fielding TPL as candidate and in expecting her to appeal the youths (who are in fact her very critics on the Internet), it’s probably best they just say nothing or risk pissing off people once again – and for real this time.

Seriously. One more article defending TPL and I swear I will scream.

* * *

Ever since walkabouts intensified about a month ago, I’ve been looking forward to finally seeking my MPs when they do their house visits. Then things heated up; still no sign of MPs. And now with election day looming, when will I get a visit from my MPs?

Apparently, MPs are meant to visit their residents at least 3 times during their term. They are supposed to go from door to door; if residents are not at home, a card or letter would be placed under the door or at the grille informing residents of their visit.

I’ve lived in the same house for all my 25 years and never have MPs ever visited us once nor left a note informing us of a missed visit.

I am happy and satisfied with the quality of life in my estate, but I now will have words for my MPs when they arrive – assuming they even appear.

 

*: Personally, I think the final paragraph of her CV is also haha-worthy. I can’t imagine writing this on my CV if I were job-hunting, because it would come off as frivolous – the exact impression that people are getting of her. 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Silk Road + Genghis Khan @ Art Science Museum

Some snapshots of the exhibits that have recently ended their runs at the Art Science Museum – the exhibits are really attractive and well curated, so it’s worth your money to go see if there’re special exhibitions on that you’re interested in.

Silk Road

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I liked the lights which told us our ‘location’ along the Silk Road (left); check out the embroidery along the perimeter of the display of silk work cocoons (right)

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An ancient weaving loom (above); it was quite fun playing with the settings on my camera to capture the lights (below)

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Attractive and life-like displays of food always catch my eye (above); there were interactive elements like embossed stamps visitors could collect as they ‘travelled’ along the Silk Road (below)

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A scene from Baghdad below – love the cloth!

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Genghis Khan

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The simple but attractive entrance area

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Above left: I’ve never seen an imperial passport in the flesh!

Below: What a wonderfully efficient weapon to disembowel one’s enemies!

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Beautiful and intricate etchings on a Mongolian sword (above);

words embroidered using gold thread (below)

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The two artefacts above seem very Korean to me; below is a child’s yurt – we entered it and the furniture creaked when we sat down :S

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The following are some things that have originated from the Mongolians which you’d never have known

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Some items from the gift shop above :)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

China consumer goods: Left on the shelf (FT, 5 Apr 2011)

Some interesting snippets from the above article, see here for full article.

“A cursory glance around any supermarket is enough to show China is shaping up to be the world’s biggest grocery market within just three years. The choice, even by western standards, is staggering. At a hangar-proportioned Carrefour outlet in suburban Shanghai, there are enough soft drink varieties to allow a customer to try something new every day for a year – and still not have exhausted the different herbal teas, flavoured milks, fruit and vegetable concoctions or slimming beverages on the shelves.

….

PepsiCo’s Chinese farms supply roughly 40 per cent of the potatoes used in its Lay’s crisps. Nestlé counts 25,000 dairy farmers among its suppliers – all of whom the Swiss group deals with directly – and Associated British Foods’ Chinese operations are so focused on procuring sugar beet that Tony Cheung, managing director for the British Sugar unit, says he regards the farmer as his top priority. Poaching of suppliers is rampant as farmers jump ship for a bigger cheque.

….

“Third- and fourth-tier cities are twice as big as the first- and second-tier ones in terms of population, and the growth rate [is] twice as fast. So that’s where the big opportunity is,” says Nielsen’s Mr Barns. “China is going to add more megacities in the central and western parts of the country and urbanise 200m more people.”

Saturday, April 9, 2011

random thoughts

i learned the other day how to say 斯文败类 in Hokkien. Some of my colleagues have rather powerful Hokkien, and they’re not that old – in their mid-thirties only.

*  *  *

Another colleague is quite hilarious. She’s this lady who’s older than my parents and been around forever. She dispenses interesting advice, like:

“I don’t know about you young people, but I don’t get excited when a new boss comes and he’s handsome. All I care about is whether he knows how to do work or not".”

“I don’t ever like to stand behind women with long hair. I hate it when their hair flies into my face, especially when some of them don’t wash their hair.”

*  *  *

Buses are nice. I snoozed on one all the way from Yio Chu Kang to Tampines just now – something you’d never get on the MRT which is always and forever crowded.

*  *  *

I read a passage today which said if one wanted to become a successful businessman, one should always sell things which one is neither fond of nor interested in. Only then will one be able to be objective and operate based on good business sense, rather than be guided by personal preferences. Going by that logic, the passage highlighted why jewellers are usually men who have absolutely no interest in jewellery whatsoever.

Friday, April 8, 2011

nothing much at all

it’s been a boring kinda week – was on a course for 2 days, which means too much food (2 tea breaks and lunch) cos it’s provided and catered for, and too much coffee cos i tend to drink loads when it’s provided.

have 3 days of courses next week, which means more of the same. boo. unfortunately, being on courses also means extended working hours as emails have to be checked and replied after the course ends, so i havent done much at all this week.

the above, plus i’ve been following the feeds of various newspapers on twitter, means lots of time reading random news articles all week too. however, i of course can’t remember offhand a thing of what i’ve read, save for this recent piece on Japanese cartography.

HSK exam tomorrow – wish me full marks!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

中文

目前在为下周的‘汉语水平考试’而准备。真不知道当年是怎么学习华文的,还得到不错的成绩。以前学过的那些字,现在却觉得非常陌生。抄写的时候,感觉很不顺手。因为读写了四年的日语,所以觉得有些简体字看起来很奇怪, 比如“车”vs 車”。

有些字的差别也不大。比如:

黒 歩く 目標 製造 vs 黑 步 目标 制造

自从学习日语之后,写的都是日式字。不小心的话,说不定也会在考试中写错字。

少小不努力,老大徒伤悲。

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Super cute pandas and Oji Zoo, Kobe

I’ll never forget the time when the boy and I went to Oji Zoo to see pandas, only to get a glimpse of a dirty panda rump and nothing much more. The rest of the zoo wasn’t too bad by Japanese standards*, but this was not:

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the above offered a sharp contrast to evidence no-longer-existent long queues of panda-lovers hoping to get a glimpse of the furry animals:

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anyway, I finally got to see some really cute panda action, though unfortunately not in person, thanks to this video on the Telegraph. the two pandas are sooo adorable.

Actually, I’m quite sure I’d posted photos from Oji Zoo somewhere. However I can’t find them on my previous blog, but well. Here’re some highlights (as usual they’re the boy’s pictures, not mine):

We saw this huge Saint Bernard just outside the zoo:

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A look of such longing in his eyes.

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*: I take that back – actually I think some of the animals were under stress, especially the really depressed-looking elephant :(

 
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