Overheard...

A colleague lambasting another:

Why ? Why you have to wear your sunglasses like that? Is your future so bright? Shall I dim it for you?

... Classic!

Your son

My mother: " Your son said HE GOT LOST?"
Er... yes.... Er... How did you know?
He told me!
How come?
I asked him whether he got lost and he told me he did... and that he cried.
Yep, he did cry. And apparently he cried as loud as you can possibly imagine it. (So the father, who found him 40 metres away and sobbing in the arms of a Disneysea guide, tells me)

And we are back...

...from Tokyo, from Disneyland, from Disneysea, from clean toilets and most importantly, from exorbitant prices.

Some notes:
- Go only if you are at least 102cm tall ... otherwise you won't meet the minimum height requirement for most rides. The shows at Disneysea are all very good! I enjoyed them all. Some 3 or 4 rides had a minimum 117cm height requirement.
- Collect as many fastpass as you can - I think the limit is 1 fastpass issued per 2 hour block but it's worth the walk. Otherwise, the wait per ride easily goes past 100 mins each - quite horrible when a 5 year old relentlessly entertains himself during those long waits by doing all sorts of crazy stuns on the railings.
- Water fountains aplenty.. thanks goodness for that but be prepared to spend around $10-18/head/meal and by meal, it's just some quick bites from the food kiosks i.e a burger and 1 standard drink.
- Impossible to do it all in a single day so don't make yourself miserable when you fail to do so.

Virtual

Virtual meetings...

VIRTUAL:
definitions from www.dictionary.com

1. Existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in actual fact, form, or name: the virtual extinction of the buffalo.
2. Existing in the mind, especially as a product of the imagination. Used in literary criticism of a text.
3. Computer Science Created, simulated, or carried on by means of a computer or computer network: virtual conversations in a chatroom

So a virtual meeting is not real although in essence it exists and it might also only just be a figment of our imagination.

Hilarious!

Long weekend - Changi Boardwalk

Long weekend. I don't know what we did, except we spent an awful lot of time going out for meals. Most interesting was our quest for Saturday's dinner.

We left the house at around 4pm. Not exactly sure where we'd go, we ended up driving to Changi and stumbled upon the coastal walk. We started from Changi point (P18 on the map), walked all the way to Changi village for dinner and then back again. I think it's about 1.5-2km each way. Spent some time along the beach. It was low tide and we found quite a few hermit crabs, some baby crabs and a sea snail without much effort. Other creatures we spotted - a pair of 'common kingfishers' , one macaque and lots and lots of bats! Arh red ants too - and yep, the boy got bitten yet again. He was running his hands along the fencing ropes and one of them got on to him and bit him. Very few homo sapiens though. We think they must have all migrated to neighbouring lands for the long weekend.

Interested? Download the URA guide here.

He passed!!!

SMSout: Hi teacher xyz, for weeks, I told him he can't go for the holiday if he doesn't pass the piece today so he's been practicing. Although it can be better please help me by passing the piece at the end of the lesson. Otherwise, I really have to mean what I say and not bring him for the holiday. Thanks!

SMSin: Haha! "Parkat" with the teacher. Don't worry. He's quite a good boy.

SMSout: Thanks. See you in a couple of minutes.

... and so we 'finished' Book 1.

...and unofficially too, I scored the Rolex and now have to tune myself for a Franck Muller movement.

When is the best time to go to the dentist?

2:30

... go figure!

The personal experience of Tina Su

Here is a personal report by Tina Su , a professional writer, on her recent trip to the Ashram in India.

http://thinksimplenow.com/clarity/living-enlightenment-report

(The author is based in the US, has her own website with over 15,000 readers and has been featured in many US magazines)

Read the bit about the no-poop zone beneath the mystical Banyan tree. I am very intrigued by that, more so when I learn that it's a huge tree with many birds and animals living on it, including a family of monkeys!

I had never seen him run so fast in his life!

We were at the park - the boy was barefoot and had to pee. The nearest toilet is some 300 metres away and so he took a leak near a tall palm tree. Later, he told me that he had aimed at the army of red ants. Anyway, one of them took revenge by biting him just below his left knee and when he realized that he had been bitten, he bolted!

I heard him scream, "HELP!" as he turned away from the tree and ran towards us. We were some 40 metres away from him. I can still see it in my head - his running gait was so amazingly graceful as he flew down the slope in supersonic speed and his focus on us was so intense, nothing in his path could have stopped him from reaching us.

Btw, we couldn't find the ant. He ran so darn fast, the ant sure had trouble hanging on.

I couldn't help but tell him he has to remember this - so that in future, when he has track & field, he can use this memory to help him win the race.

Hilarious!

Violin update

1 more lesson, I more piece to go.

What is it?

I've been thinking. What is it about work that keeps billions of people around the world busy and worried each day? Better still, what keeps these billions of people around the world going back to work every Monday morning?

24-herb tea

I have on my desk, a bottle of "Tea of twenty-four herbs". Walked past a Chinese medical hall earlier and decided to buy some 'cooling' tea to douse away the headache I have. The nice lady told me, this is the best! Turns out the best is the most bitter tasting tea I've ever had in my life!

Apparently, it's the mother of all bitter teas and is "the ideal tea to drink during the flu season, enrich vital energy, clean away internal heat, eliminate dampness and heat, strengthen the body and improves general resistance".

Also "soothes cold and cough, fever, headache ( yay!), eruptive diseases ( what could these be? chicken pox?) tiredness, infantile summer fever ( infant or infantile?), pathogenic dryness and heat in combination, and constipation, promote the production of body fluid to quench thirst ( hahhahaha!) , halitosis ( found out this means bad breath) , anorexia, abdominal dissension, fidget ( another big laugh!), lack of physical strength, dizziness, pimples & acne. "

Well, if you are wondering about the efficacy, I've finished half the bottle and the headache seems to have subsided.

Answers

* I'd meet you at the corner
* No hair - bald
* Outside

Riddles taught by Ah Gong

They boy asks:

What did the wall say to the floor?

How do you jump into the pool and not get your hair wet?

Which part of the leopard has the most spots?

( answers in the next post)

There's a reason why I came to work today.

A Singaporean London based colleague brought these Italian chocolates to the office: 'Fine dark chocolate ptralines with whole cherry and liquer'

They are soooooooo yummyliciously good!!!!! Anyone visiting Italy? Please bring back two dozen cartons of these for me. Tks!