Monday, September 28, 2009
Hello, Class chalet details are comfirmed.
Date is 6 - 9 october.
More details coming up.
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4:08 PM
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
If you ever visit the Bedok Hawker centre at Block 57, Upper Changi Road, you must patronise the Siglap Road Fried Carrot Cake stall for the very scruptious 'chye tao guay'. While there, you might want to appreciate the very stoic Mrs of the stall, a plump elderly lady who stands before her huge frying pan uncomplainingly, dishing out countless orders of white / dark carrot, 'ai hiam, 'mai hiam', 'mai chang', 'mai neng' and so on as the husband yells out to her the individualised orders. Theirs, I've observed, is a very peculiar relationship; no doubt years of familiarity must have bred some contempt between them, for the Mrs does not talk to the husband at all. As she fries the carrot cake, she just listens to the orders he shouts out to her, never once asking that he repeats them, nor showing any kinds of reactions. She stands unflinchingly, a picture of calm composure, with her neatly-dorn apron and solid Crocs. And you know what, in all the years that I've watched her at work, she has never once got an order wrong. So much for 'Going the Extra Mile with a smile' efficiency that we crave to inculcate in our service sector. Her stoic attitude may not win her poster woman status, but hey, the stall is run super-efficient with just a silent-couple team!
The husband is a different plate altogether. He is prone to being riled by impatient customers, the heat in the hawker centre and fussy orders. But with the Mrs, I've seen him
exercising a great deal of courtesy and patience. He repeats long lists of orders to her and does not ask for her acknowledgement. Every now and then he would shout out reminders to her. Still, she would stand at her frying pan doing her stuff, with nary a word, grunt nor mutter. Thus their small business have gone on and on in this manner . . .
I've learnt a thing or two from the 'chye tao guay' Mrs. Being stoic may not be a bad thing; reponses are not called-for always. Silent is the new loud.
10:44 AM
Sunday, August 23, 2009
It's Ramadan and the streets of Geylang Serai are brightly lit and festooned all over with Hari Raya lights and decorations. I am thinking of Lenson, Minghui, Ivan, Stephen, Koon Tat --- that they should all be out with their cameras busy snapping away. Am wondering if JC and Poly life have changed your interest in photography? One of the daughters has been at me again to get her a high-end camera when she does well for her major exam. Maybe I would, considering the fun I detect in you photo buffs when you go about your love.
Meantime, though the Hari Raya pasar malam stalls and 7th month getais are beckoning as needed breaks from school work, I am still struggling with tonnes of marking. The GCE 'O' level Oral Exams are still not over yet, so it's a very relentless part of Term 3 that I am in the midst of! Just to bring back memories of "Bar-bar-ra" that confounded some of you in the 2008 Orals, this year it was "Simon". Hahaaaaaa . . . I leave it to your imagination, the awful mispronunciation!
4:31 PM
Sunday, August 9, 2009
I'm at a silly phase . . . giving myself deserved breaks from marking by indulging in K-dramas and oo-ing and aa-ing over cute Korean guys! Talk about mid-life crisis! Okay, you people can laugh yourself silly! On the other hand, the TV episodes do provide nice bonding sessions for the children (the girls, mainly)and I. It's quite something to swoon together with your almost-half-a-century Mum over your favourite handsome Korean actors, and act petulant together when your idol gets cosy with the female star! We laugh at how it would perhaps make better sense for some actor to best remember to dye his eyebrows as well when he colours his hair; and oh,I nearly got shoved off the sofa when I commented how one of the daughter's eye candy resemble the neighhourhood Beng durian seller, complete with his bean-pole physique and long tress cum fringe. Haha! Generation-gap, my foot! I was just being irritating. I fully empathasise with teenage crushes and muses.
Tomorrow's (oops! It's actually today considering it's now past 1 am) Singapore's
44th birthday! Happy Birthday, my country ! I remain one of your greatest admirer and supporter. Yep, with all your little imperfections, precociousness,uptightness, and some say heavily made-over efficient facade, I love you!! Even the 42.9% non-Singaporeans in our household salute you!
Monday's a school holiday! Hip hip hurray for the long weekend! I wish you an enjoyable break!
12:32 AM
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Hello one and all! It has been a very hectic and busy term 3 for me so far. Hope that you are enjoying a better pace of life than I am, . . . wherever you all are studying at!
Just to share with you. After the paper plane episode, it's been 'mealworm time" for us at our household. Yes, . . . one young one had to observe and study the life cycle of mealworms, and we therefore had to keep them . . . lots of them!! Yesterday, some of these things developed into pupae and that got everyone in the family all excited. I am thankful that his Science teacher had set him off to study these relatively small living things!
Then I had to struggle with the existence of the "tooth fairy" with the same young one whose milk teeth have been dropping like nobody's business. I did not remember having to try so hard with the older ones before him. SIGH! They sure do not make kids like they used to!
On a lighter note, just the other day, a Chinese foreign lady residing near me requested that I loan her my clothesline to hang her bedsheets. I was tickled! Culture assimilation hiccups. Then again, I sure must have looked hell of a friendly. What next? Borrow my Significant Other? Haha!
11:38 PM
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Okay, I, the indomitable Ms Q, am down and out with acute flu . . . no, no, not of the H1N1 variety! But nonetheless lethal enough to knock me off my feet for two days running now! I had a raging fever, sore throat and cough and had to be off school for two days! The 6 had to manage on auto-pilot mode mainly and my guess is I'll have to undo a lot of damages once I'm back on my feet again.
Just to share with you: Do you know that as a patient screened with high fever, I get priority in seeing a flu clinic doctor at the polyclinic? My visit to the clinic took all of only 25 minutes, including the dispensing of medication. Wow! That's uber-fast! And as usual, I met the nicest of people at these medical establishments. Erhem ... this time round, a very nice and polite young man manned the screening station at the clinc entrance, and boy was he super enthusiastic and warm to all and sundry who streamed in! I even overheard him volunteering translation services to the elderly at the pharmacy counter. Bless him! He had ear-piercings and some might say he is a trite effeminate. But in my eyes .... he was simply a very welcomed sight for the sick.
4:55 PM
Monday, July 6, 2009
Remember the old vagabond who walks around in my neighbourhood with his possessions on his shoulders? Well, he 'disappeared' for a while; but is now back. He does not look too good --- gaunt and less spirited by my reckoning. His barang-barang is considerably less; perhaps he just cannot handle the old heavy load anymore. But what troubled me was that he is walking around these days sans footwear! I just cringe when I imagine how his feet must hurt when the relentless sun scorch our metalled road and pavement to unforgiving temperatures!
I finally found time to approach him when I next sighted him to offer him a pair of slippers. My daughter who was beside me was a little worried if the old man might be mentally unsound (as we suspect!)and harm me in retaliation for my nosiness. Our fears were unfounded. The grouchy vagabond brushed aside my offer and grunted that he was better off minus footwear as his feet were swollen and hurting.
So that's that. I feel much better now when I see him walking slowly in the neighbourhood.
10:44 AM