You know Dragon Boat Festival is here when you have to eat rice dumplings for breakfast and lunch! Not that I'm complaining though; they are actually quite nice.
I remember back when I was very young, my aunt used to make rice dumplings for selling, and she would 'recruit' my mother to help remove the non-糯米s from bags of 糯米, and I would help out too, because I found it fun then. Haha. At my aunt's house she would set up big pots outside her house along the corridor to steam the packed dumplings.
Now that my aunt is getting on in years she doesn't sell anything anymore, so our dumplings are all bought from outside, and Dragon Boat Festival becomes yet another normal day.
Kinda sad.
My 大伯公 and 地主公 has a new home! Still in the mood for makeovers, my mother decided that the current altar was old, so she bought a newer and smaller sized one. I like the new one. It has a glass top and the wood looks and feels good.
The only bad point is that because of the smaller size it cannot accommodate as many things as the old one.
With this, what's left now are new curtains, the moving away of the two bulky cupboards from the living room to either the rubbish chute or my father's room, the old fridge, 'new' furniture after my cousin sells off her house in August[they are still newer than those in my house now], and hopefully, my little project to set up a very mini sub standard home theater in my father's room. Hehe.
happy 端午节!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
modern warfare 2
Woohoo can't wait!
As I start to lose interest in gaming these days, the sixth game to the Call of Duty series is one of the few games I still look forward to. So far they have not disappointed me, except for the short length of the single player campaign which many have complained since their first game.
That being said, I wonder if my computer will be able to run it when it comes out. The struggle was already a little obvious in the fifth game. Haha.
As an update, my Indian neighbour appeared today! One Indian man returned to the house, along with a man who painted over the loanshark wordings on the common wall. I still have no idea who the borrower was.
Friday, May 22, 2009
who's my neighbour
We were rather close with our next-door neighbours years ago, until one fine day the wife found out that her husband, in the words of my mother, '养了个小龙女', and subsequently moved out and went their separate ways.
The house then changed owners twice; first a Chinese family which moved out about a year later, then an Indian family, but also moved out a few months later, not too long ago. During their respective stays we did not utter a single word to either of the families.
Nobody had an issue with anything, until today we realised paint was splashed onto the next door, with typical loanshark wordings on the lift landing asking for money to be repaid. On the door too, were some papers, apparently addressed to the Chinese family regarding unpaid utility bills.
We have no idea who the loansharks are after, whether is it the Chinese family or the Indian family, given our zero interaction with them. We don't really care too, but going by recent reports on how loansharks go around harrassing neighbours after the original people whom they lent money to disappeared, I hope they leave us alone. We just repainted our house door!
Interesting how there's a recent campaign to help new immigrants get along with their neighbours.
People were much warmer when I was much younger. When the original neighbours were still living next door, we not only knew the family, but also knew the wife's sister and her family; I recalled talking to the wife's sister's daughter before haha.
My aunt, who lives a couple of blocks from us, visited us rather frequently so the original neighbours knew her too. Vice versa, my aunt's next-door neighbours at her block knew who we were as well, so back then, Chinese New Year visits to my aunt's house would definitely include her neighbour's house as well.
Things have changed.
The house then changed owners twice; first a Chinese family which moved out about a year later, then an Indian family, but also moved out a few months later, not too long ago. During their respective stays we did not utter a single word to either of the families.
Nobody had an issue with anything, until today we realised paint was splashed onto the next door, with typical loanshark wordings on the lift landing asking for money to be repaid. On the door too, were some papers, apparently addressed to the Chinese family regarding unpaid utility bills.
We have no idea who the loansharks are after, whether is it the Chinese family or the Indian family, given our zero interaction with them. We don't really care too, but going by recent reports on how loansharks go around harrassing neighbours after the original people whom they lent money to disappeared, I hope they leave us alone. We just repainted our house door!
Interesting how there's a recent campaign to help new immigrants get along with their neighbours.
People were much warmer when I was much younger. When the original neighbours were still living next door, we not only knew the family, but also knew the wife's sister and her family; I recalled talking to the wife's sister's daughter before haha.
My aunt, who lives a couple of blocks from us, visited us rather frequently so the original neighbours knew her too. Vice versa, my aunt's next-door neighbours at her block knew who we were as well, so back then, Chinese New Year visits to my aunt's house would definitely include her neighbour's house as well.
Things have changed.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
makeover
Mini makeover of my house is complete!
Took one day to change the windows in the living room, three bedrooms and two toilets, and two days to give all the rooms a new coat of paint.
My parents were initially deciding if there was a need to install windows grilles, given that we had already grown up, but in the end they were talked into installing them, so that there would be 'no need to close the window panes when friends and relatives bring their kids over'.
I wanted to say we don't receive many visitors anyway, but never mind.
My mother opted for horizontal grilles, so that we could hang clothes and stuff on them, but didn't want the squarish grilles [with both horizontal and vertical, which I think is the norm now] because they would be a bitch to clean.
The end result looked a little bit like a prison window, and I think the windows would have looked great without any grilles at all, just the panes. But maybe thats just because I have never seen horizontal grilles before.
On the plus side, the grilles in the living room are made up of six separate pieces, each being one 'window unit', while the original grilles were three pieces of two 'window units' each. Also, the new window panes come fixed on three rails instead of the original two. Simply said, we can now push all the window panes and grilles to both ends, creating a very big open space of four 'window units' in between, enough for four people to jump off the building hand in hand next to each other.
The windows panes in the living room are dark enough to block out plenty of sunlight, which is especially important for my house given that it faces the South-West direction, but the downside is that I can never use the heavily patterned panes to look at solar eclipses anymore.
Instead of pure white, which had been the colour of our walls for the past twenty over years, a slight hint of green was chosen this time. The walls ended up nice; the colour gives a slight sense of comfort, but the green is so pale that the walls look totally white under sunlight and strong lighting.
While still in the mood of makeovers I decided to give my beloved desktop a makeover as well. I took out every single key on my keyboard and washed the plastic board, dismantled my mouse and cleaned the gaps, and wiped every single cable that ran in and out of it. Did some cable management too when I assembled everything back today so it looks neater. Occupational hazard from my vocation in National Service haha. It still looks messy to the untrained eye, but its really neater now. Haha.
I'm more worried about the heat issues. The computer table has its back against a wall, and I have the CPU, external hard disk, modem and monitor giving off heat all at the same time, with the living room fan and Mother Nature as the only sources of wind. Hope they won't break down so early.
Spent the rest of the time cleaning up the entire house from the outrageous amounts of dust and dried paint. Swept, thrown, mopped, wiped, vacuumed, washed. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
There's still plenty of things yet to be thrown away; like an old fridge, an old washing machine, and old curtains. I have a feeling they are going to stay with us at least for the time being.
Looks like they haven't lost their sense of fun!
Took one day to change the windows in the living room, three bedrooms and two toilets, and two days to give all the rooms a new coat of paint.
My parents were initially deciding if there was a need to install windows grilles, given that we had already grown up, but in the end they were talked into installing them, so that there would be 'no need to close the window panes when friends and relatives bring their kids over'.
I wanted to say we don't receive many visitors anyway, but never mind.
My mother opted for horizontal grilles, so that we could hang clothes and stuff on them, but didn't want the squarish grilles [with both horizontal and vertical, which I think is the norm now] because they would be a bitch to clean.
The end result looked a little bit like a prison window, and I think the windows would have looked great without any grilles at all, just the panes. But maybe thats just because I have never seen horizontal grilles before.
On the plus side, the grilles in the living room are made up of six separate pieces, each being one 'window unit', while the original grilles were three pieces of two 'window units' each. Also, the new window panes come fixed on three rails instead of the original two. Simply said, we can now push all the window panes and grilles to both ends, creating a very big open space of four 'window units' in between, enough for four people to jump off the building hand in hand next to each other.
The windows panes in the living room are dark enough to block out plenty of sunlight, which is especially important for my house given that it faces the South-West direction, but the downside is that I can never use the heavily patterned panes to look at solar eclipses anymore.
Instead of pure white, which had been the colour of our walls for the past twenty over years, a slight hint of green was chosen this time. The walls ended up nice; the colour gives a slight sense of comfort, but the green is so pale that the walls look totally white under sunlight and strong lighting.
While still in the mood of makeovers I decided to give my beloved desktop a makeover as well. I took out every single key on my keyboard and washed the plastic board, dismantled my mouse and cleaned the gaps, and wiped every single cable that ran in and out of it. Did some cable management too when I assembled everything back today so it looks neater. Occupational hazard from my vocation in National Service haha. It still looks messy to the untrained eye, but its really neater now. Haha.
I'm more worried about the heat issues. The computer table has its back against a wall, and I have the CPU, external hard disk, modem and monitor giving off heat all at the same time, with the living room fan and Mother Nature as the only sources of wind. Hope they won't break down so early.
Spent the rest of the time cleaning up the entire house from the outrageous amounts of dust and dried paint. Swept, thrown, mopped, wiped, vacuumed, washed. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
There's still plenty of things yet to be thrown away; like an old fridge, an old washing machine, and old curtains. I have a feeling they are going to stay with us at least for the time being.
Looks like they haven't lost their sense of fun!
Monday, May 11, 2009
no idea what to put as title
The man who caused me to waste one month of my life away had been caught!
So, a person did something wrong. Then someone came along and fixed the wrong thing right again. And the person who did wrong now said that he helped this someone fixed the wrong thing right, and claimed credit for it.
And then, there was also this teen who got arrested after he whacked a door with a chair; reason why the owner of the door and the chair called the police was because she thought the chair could kill somebody.
You know, when I was much younger, I was always very excited whenever 9th August came. Now as I grow older, I'm not so sure anymore.
Lately I have been watching the 9pm drama on Channel 8, since the television and my computer are both in the living room. The theme revolves around our local education system, and watching it reminds me of my school days. I like the way they portray tuition as a commercial business. It makes me wonder whether there are still people out there who teaches because he wants to help, rather than because he wants to earn money.
I guess teaching a friend is considered helping, whereas teaching a stranger is considered tuition.
In one of the scenes in the drama, the mother refused to let her son join the school badminton team, preferring him to study so he could become the doctor or the lawyer she wanted him to be. She said she would rather her son blame her now for not letting him play, then blame her when he grows up for not achieving good results.
Well personally I am regretting not playing more during my school years. Haha. Somehow there aren't many memorable things I can recall of my school years now. I should have played more soccer, and I should not have appealed into triple science haha. I think I had missed out plenty of fun when I was in the converted library while everyone else were in the container classrooms, and later, when I was on the fourth floor and everyone else, the fifth.
Haha I have the cassette! I was very, very young then when my brother bought this set done by Jack Neo and his team. There were two cassettes, one on National Service, another on various Comedy Night characters. In the cassette tapes were plenty of songs with edited lyrics [like the one above], and alot of jokes and dialogs. Not sure whether they can still be played now haha.
Anyway for those unfamiliar:
CMPB: Central Manpower Base
ITD: Infantry Training Depot, last time's Tekong.
CSM: Company Sergeant Major, some high rank.
No.3: Office attire
No.4: Camouflage uniform.
SOC: Standard Obstacle Course
I didn't understand anything back then. Now I find them so funny. And true. Haha.
So, a person did something wrong. Then someone came along and fixed the wrong thing right again. And the person who did wrong now said that he helped this someone fixed the wrong thing right, and claimed credit for it.
And then, there was also this teen who got arrested after he whacked a door with a chair; reason why the owner of the door and the chair called the police was because she thought the chair could kill somebody.
You know, when I was much younger, I was always very excited whenever 9th August came. Now as I grow older, I'm not so sure anymore.
Lately I have been watching the 9pm drama on Channel 8, since the television and my computer are both in the living room. The theme revolves around our local education system, and watching it reminds me of my school days. I like the way they portray tuition as a commercial business. It makes me wonder whether there are still people out there who teaches because he wants to help, rather than because he wants to earn money.
I guess teaching a friend is considered helping, whereas teaching a stranger is considered tuition.
In one of the scenes in the drama, the mother refused to let her son join the school badminton team, preferring him to study so he could become the doctor or the lawyer she wanted him to be. She said she would rather her son blame her now for not letting him play, then blame her when he grows up for not achieving good results.
Well personally I am regretting not playing more during my school years. Haha. Somehow there aren't many memorable things I can recall of my school years now. I should have played more soccer, and I should not have appealed into triple science haha. I think I had missed out plenty of fun when I was in the converted library while everyone else were in the container classrooms, and later, when I was on the fourth floor and everyone else, the fifth.
Haha I have the cassette! I was very, very young then when my brother bought this set done by Jack Neo and his team. There were two cassettes, one on National Service, another on various Comedy Night characters. In the cassette tapes were plenty of songs with edited lyrics [like the one above], and alot of jokes and dialogs. Not sure whether they can still be played now haha.
Anyway for those unfamiliar:
CMPB: Central Manpower Base
ITD: Infantry Training Depot, last time's Tekong.
CSM: Company Sergeant Major, some high rank.
No.3: Office attire
No.4: Camouflage uniform.
SOC: Standard Obstacle Course
I didn't understand anything back then. Now I find them so funny. And true. Haha.
Attended a birthday party where I saw a huge close-knitted family. How nice to see a extended family where there's so much noise, so much laughter, so much warmth.
My extended family, on the other hand, was about how a cousin's wife called another cousin's children stupid, which ended up with demands for apologies and tea serving ceremonies, or fighting over the use of television, the use of maids, among others.
I think I have terrible handwriting. Capable of screwing up otherwise beautiful looking things. Ha.
Starting tomorrow my house will be having a mini makeover! Besides the kitchen windows which we changed years ago, the rest of the windows in the house are still the original ones from twenty years back. So they will all be changed to new ones. After that the entire house will also be given a new coat of paint, and some old stuff will be thrown away.
Reason my parents gave was that if we were to sell our house next time we will have to do some makeover anyway, so might as well do it now. Whatever.
In order to keep the dust and the paint out, we kept plenty of things into boxes, or covered them in newspapers. That will include my modem. Unless I'm not lazy to take it out of the box, I will be back three days later.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
sit down and shut up!
My initial opinion about the recent events was that in other parts of the world, people are avoiding crowded places to reduce the spread of the H1N1 flu [cannot use the term 'swine flu' because its not found in pigs. Using the term 'swine flu' will affect the entire pig industry.], while in our lovely island of Singapore, we are squeezing ourselves as much as possible into a tiny room fighting over the running of some organisation.
Then again, after following the entire incident closely today, I have decided that it was not a childish act after all; we have shown everyone that we are neither oppressed nor politically apathetic people. We don't keep quiet when something goes wrong; we do fight back when we need to.
Hurray!
The power of new media was also felt today. Traditional media like television news channels and photographers were not allowed into the meeting today, but those outside were kept updated by Twitter feeds from those inside. The foreigners unaware [pun unintended] of what was happening were wondering why the topic was, all of a sudden, more popular than the flu pandemic and the Wolverine movie.
02 x Hurray!
As for myself, all I want to say is, one, Singapore is a secular society, two, homosexuality is a personal choice, and three, one cannot turn into a homosexual or a lesbian simply by attending sexuality programmes.
***********
I recently finished this book about mathematics: Letters to a young mathematician by Ian Stewart. Its a general book that talks about mathematics, not one that teaches. The book itself isn't that bad, but occasionally I find the English a little too complicated for me to understand; other times the book, especially in the early chapters, was pointing out rather obvious facts. Like why and how we should study maths. Hmm.
In an attempt to reach a wide audience some chapters were irrelevant to me. Like how as a graduate student one should not get too close to his advisor, or how one should teach Maths as a PhD lecturer in a university. =S
***********
So many people are going overseas. What a great difference.
Then again, after following the entire incident closely today, I have decided that it was not a childish act after all; we have shown everyone that we are neither oppressed nor politically apathetic people. We don't keep quiet when something goes wrong; we do fight back when we need to.
Hurray!
The power of new media was also felt today. Traditional media like television news channels and photographers were not allowed into the meeting today, but those outside were kept updated by Twitter feeds from those inside. The foreigners unaware [pun unintended] of what was happening were wondering why the topic was, all of a sudden, more popular than the flu pandemic and the Wolverine movie.
02 x Hurray!
As for myself, all I want to say is, one, Singapore is a secular society, two, homosexuality is a personal choice, and three, one cannot turn into a homosexual or a lesbian simply by attending sexuality programmes.
***********
I recently finished this book about mathematics: Letters to a young mathematician by Ian Stewart. Its a general book that talks about mathematics, not one that teaches. The book itself isn't that bad, but occasionally I find the English a little too complicated for me to understand; other times the book, especially in the early chapters, was pointing out rather obvious facts. Like why and how we should study maths. Hmm.
In an attempt to reach a wide audience some chapters were irrelevant to me. Like how as a graduate student one should not get too close to his advisor, or how one should teach Maths as a PhD lecturer in a university. =S
***********
So many people are going overseas. What a great difference.
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