Many Photos (Finally a new post)

Sweep!! Sweep!! This blog is covered with dust. Haha!!! Its been a month after my last post.

Here I present to everyone the photos taken during the fireworks 2008. This is the 1st time I attended a "Live" fireworks show. My house's near the stadium so I get to see "free" fireworks display in the comfort of home but this year I get to have a feel of the atmosphere of seeing it actual. The feeling is really different. Back home, the excitement is not there. At the actual ground, everyone's excited to see the display of fireworks. Adults and children are all awed to see the fireworks. Here's part of my photo collection. Too lazy to put up all lah...

Fireworks 2008

Too excited!! Can't hold camera still.

Balloon

Spectacular

Oh too much smoke make the later fireworks pale off among the cloud

Took it at the exact moment

My bro and I had a fun time. Besides the visual feast, we treated ourselves with a feast of food. Weather's cold so we had "ma la fishball" and other hot stuff (though we suffered some heatiness later). Well, its really a wonderful feeling to eat hot stuff in such cold weather.

That day it was raining for quite a while. And luckily the rain stopped sometime before the show otherwise the display's not going to be nice. In actual fact, the display is not really that spectacular because the moist air has made the smoke linger longer than usual and causes the later fireworks to be covered in an air of cloud.

The whole display of fireworks lasted about half an hour. The display is segmented into various themes with different accompanying music. One of the music comes from the Korean drama serial "Da Chang Jin". Pardon my lack of knowledge. Erm... the rest of the songs, I don't know where's it from. The fireworks went on to the beat of the music. Instrumental music is a great match for such display.

Timing's just right on that day. Rain starts again after the display, everyone starts leaving.

Common Scene in Singapore

It is not only in developing and 3rd world countries do one see such scene but it is a common sight in prosperous Singapore too. I had my fair share of such scenes. Where I see it? HDB void decks and in construction sites are a common sight. There's no need to be alarmed about it.

But I heard from a conversation between 2 of my colleagues that they find such sight a cultural shock. One went to India on overseas business trip and saw people just lying on the ground to sleep. Is it really cultural shock or just that the person didn't get to experience such sights which is a common sight in Singapore? Singaporeans are well-educated and some are in a world of prosperity and comfort which explains why there's a cultural shock. People should come of this comfort world to look around and experience. I've seen a little but I must confess that I do need to have more of such experience too. This will broaden and make me realise a lot more things. It is a learning experience.

When one keeps an open mind and gain more exposure, it'll be more of a learning experience than a cultural shock.

Different Emotions

Capturing this thought that suddenly came to my mind.

The same story but the medium of transmission is different. One's a book, the other's a TV program.

The emotions derived from watching the story unfold on TV is entirely different from reading the book. I remember that when I was reading this book, my thoughts were only on moving on to the next page as it was very exciting and addicting. But watching the TV program brings out an entirely different feeling. Its not only exciting but it gives me an undescrible feeling that the book could not give.

The book doesn't provide that much feeling and emotion as compared to the TV program. I guess I'm a more visual person. Or maybe the script writer added different dialogue that creates such emotions. No matter what, in my opinion, its really a nice program to watch.

Two Families

I read an article in the morning about more cases of men leaving families here to set up another family overseas.

It seems there are more and more cases of men disappearing without any trace. Not that they are being kidnapped or anything but the report states that they are setting up another family overseas and thus abandoning the first family here. The men did a disappearing act by "poof" and they are no longer contactable and traceable. Wives have gone through the police, etc to search for their "missing husbands". But apparently to no avail and have taken the drastic action to hire private investigators to find their husbands.

This "disappearing act" has actually caused distraught to wives and children. I don't think I can comprehend the actions of these men. But it might not be difficult to comprehend why some wives have to resort to check on their husbands and requires counseling (an article in the evening chinese newspaper). This action of irresponsibility alone has lead to numerous problems. One of which is that the child is affected. It is really sad to read such an article. A couple of questions popped out. Is the word "responsibility" no longer in the dictionary? Why is there such a selfish act? Whose to blame for this?

But I think, everything boils down to a person's moral convictions. And such convictions seems eroding away. An analogy just came into my mind. Choosing a life partner is not like choosing a handphone. Every few years, there'll be new, more sophisticated, more slick, more beautiful and better handphone models entering the market and a decision to change a handphone can be at a flick of the fingers. There's a high turnover of handphones. It seems that there is a turnover too for partners. I should say the correct phrase should be "life partners". A decision to marry the other party to be wife or husband is actually a decision that is suppose to be made once in a lifetime. There shouldn't be any "turnover" at all.

The selection of life partner should be taken seriously and effort required to sustain the relationship.

Role of Man and Woman in a Family

Read an interesting article today on Straits Times titled "Yes, honey it's your turn to look after the kids tonight". The results are really interesting. Taking a half full or half empty concept. It seems that only 1 in 4 working women requires the help of their husbands. That is to say, only 25% requires help, the other 75% can do without the help from their husbands.

Hey, guys, you've got 25% of chances you'll marry a lady who needs you to do housework. Haha... its really wonderful news for guys. Higher chances of pushing the housework to your partners and can have more time for a drink. Will it be better this way?

I'll think not. The society has changed. Looking back, ladies are the ones staying at home and depending on their husbands to bring back the money. They are required then to tend the kids and look after the family.

Moving forward, ladies now are earning their share and advocating "equality status". The society will be or is at this stage now. Looking at the form up of a family. There are two working adults and the standard of living is very high. To maintain a family, it requires the effort of the couple and not rely on one. Looking from another angle, doing housework can also be enjoyable. I believe it is right for husbands to have a fair share of the housework and tend to the children. Having a more or less balanced "work-housework" life will do good for the couple too. Besides doing housework together can help improve the relationship of the couple. It is also good to husbands to set an example for the children and cultivate their sense of responsibility. Being able to see the growth of children is actually a very wonderful process. Don't you think so?

In life, work is not the only thing that one live for. The other part to a person's life is his/her family. Career is only for a period of time but the family will be forever.

Capture a passing thought

Loving your partner should be considered more than loving your parents and siblings.

I believe it is so.

I find it a little incredible if one love his/her partner without first learning to love one's parents and siblings. I doubt the person will be able to love his/her partner well enough. Without being able to give your care and concern to your parents and siblings how can one love his/her partner wholeheartedly.

A simple analogy. If a child is not able to pass primary one, how can he/she go on to primary two. Its the same as loving one's partner. Without first loving one's parents and siblings, how then can one be able to love his/her partner?

Just like there are many different standards in primary schools. There are many different benchmark to this "love" because each individual is different. But moral values and personal feelings are the universal rules to loving those around you.

Its Sunday

Haha... today did some cooking. You must be saying "Again". This time I'm trying out hainanese chicken rice and potato patty.

Potato Patty

Chicken Rice!!!

It took me most of the whole morning to cook these dish. I like the chicken and chilli the most. Its very nice and tasty. Hmm... as for the rice, there's still room for improvement. Chicken taste not that strong. Might have something to do with the gravy. I'll put on my scientist cap and do some experiment next time.

Haha... Giving my own comments might seems "mai hua zhan hua xiang" but its individual thoughts. So how nice smelling the flower is depends on the individual. My aim is to improve my cooking skills and to learn something besides books.

The bottomline to work hard is just to put food on the table. I'm trying to put food on the table now. Haha...

A day of walking

Though I do find shopping a form of relaxation, but yesterday's activity tire me so much that I took a nap when I was on my way home and it is those automatic eye closure one. Haha... maybe its the bus environment that's conducive for napping.

Objective - VCR or VCR/DVD-R combo
Starting point - Pearl Centre
Ending point - Liang Court (Audio House)
Timing - 2hrs

Many will ask "A VCR? Is there anyone still using VCR?" Yes. I'm using one and my aunt too. VCR's actually more reliable than DVD-R. Basically, there's no incompatible player. For DVD-R, after recording, there can be cases of player unable to read. Quite fustrating. Anyway, I've got a lot of tapes too. Maybe a VCR/DVD-R combo can reduce my storage space.

Been looking for the VCR or the combo for quite long but many stores do not sell VCR anymore. Heard that there's a shop selling VCR at Outram so I tried to look for it. Walking from Pearl Centre, to People's Park Complex, to People's Park market, to People's Park Centre and finally to Liang Court. It was quite some walking under the hot sun. Nearly melted.

I should say, these 4 shopping centres are quite wonderful. I discovered that if People's Park market sells a lot of ladies fashion and they are quite nice. The price is quite reasonable too. Ladies, if you wanna shop for clothes, you might want to consider People's Park market. Though it is not airconditioned but there are quite a some nice and fashionable clothes.

When I was at audio house, I found that the staff there are quite unprofessional. Maybe with a low price for sale, they couldn't get better staff and training for them. There's this sales person who told one of the shopper to "come to the back" which I see he meant please move back" to feel the difference in the colour and effect of the different brand. I wanted to laugh when he said this. Oops... me bad. I shouldn't talk bad about people but i just can't help mentioning it. Haha...

It was quite a fruitful walking for me.