Esther and I are back from Vietnam, after 2 weeks of travelling through varied terrains, weather, and sights. Certainly a most enjoyable experience. But it seems like I've caught the flu bug while being on the plane (since I was fine all along in VN), and having seen the doctor today, I've been diagnosed as having the common flu. And this diagnosis would cost me $38 (!!) and all I got was some common medication that I could have bought from Guardian anyway. (well, I guess common flu = common medication?) Still, I felt a bit cheated, since I thought I might have been given antibiotics, or some other drugs whose names I can't even fathom. In any case, I shall be resting at home, as I've done since I've gotten back, till I get better.

Anyway, we were seeing the sights in Hanoi on our last day in Vietnam and we decided to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. We've heard from other travellers that it was a bizarre experience - you have to walk in a single file in the mausoleum, there was to be no talking and you had to be dressed appropriately (no shorts, or sleeveless tops). But nothing beats seeing it for yourself.



Having walked a long way after breakfast, we gain first sight of the Mausoleum from a distance. You could already feel the solemn-ness in the area around the Mausoleum - there were policeman stationed at every junction, and the traffic seemed strangely orderly (i.e. they stopped at traffic lights and didn't horn quite as much as they did elsewhere).



We followed the signs to the entrance of the Mausoelum, although we later found out that we were directed to the entrance for Vietnamese people (since we looked same same Vietnamese!) [and yes, there's a shorter way that foreigners, i.e. ang moh, could take]. Oh well... Anyway, after a long-ish walk and pauses (they made up form up in two rows at appointed locations to maintain order), we finally enter the Mausoleum, where the body of Ho Chi Minh rests. It's sort of eerie in the room - four guards in white stood at attention at the four corners of the glass display. To add to the eerie-ness, the room was kinda cold and dimly lit, with the Vietnamese flag, and the communist symbol of hammer & sickle plastered on the wall.

Changing of guards.

And a photo in front of the Mausoleum.

We then wondered what it would be like if there was to be a similar monument set up in Singapore and what some of the rules and regulations would be. We came up with a short list:

1. You had to be appropriately dressed when entering, and the appropriate attire would be all-white.
2. Nationalistic songs, like "One People, One Nation, One Singapore", "Count on Me, Singapore" will be played on repeat mode.
3. You'd have to recite the pledge is at least 2 languages before you're allowed to enter.
4. No chewing gum

Labels: Musings, Singapore, Travel, Vietnam

I'm currently enjoying the evening to myself, where I get to listen to music and read the papers (although Straits Times online won't seem to load, so I'm blogging instead. ;p) It's a rare break that I've gotten in the past 3 weeks, which have been very busy, which still seems to be an understatement, given that it's supposed to be the sch holidays! (we teachers work hard during the holidays too ok!)

Anyway, the thing that the root cause of all these business (and suffering, and misery, and depression, and resent, and *insert appropriate adjective*), is the NC-D-CC course that i'm attending right now. I've sort of been relegated to becoming an occifer cadet once more, somewhat undignified for someone who has been through 9 months of OCS... (9 months is v long okay! some people have a baby, or two during that time!) And I thought marching from point to point, being in uniforms, and all things associated with regimentation were a thing of the past! At this moment, i can't wait for Thursday, which is the day which we pass out (ORD loh!), and also cos that's the day we get to fill in feedback forms! They're so gonna get a piece of my mind in that feedback form. *evil grinz* They'd better hope I'm not in such a bitchy mood on that day....

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In other (exciting) news, check out my FB profile, and guess who just became my friend! haha...


Sorry that the screenshot is a little small... ;p Anyway, I've started helping out at the MPS session (MPS stands for Meet-The-People, contrary to the "popular" belief, that it's Meet-the-MP session, or Mah-P0wtan Session) near my place. In fact, this seems to be a sort of trend these days, cos Louis was also helping out at MPS, and so was John a while back. Maybe it's a quarter-life crisis kinda thing, you know, like buying a porsche... Anyway, it's quite interesting to listen to the problems that the residents are facing. Many are related to financial issues of course, and you often empathise with the residents, and yet, unable to do too much for them. Just makes me appreciate how lucky I am. :)

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1 more day till Esther's return, 2 more days to ORD, 5 more days to Vietnam!

Labels: Life, Musings

1. After my last post about Gripes and Grouses about the Traffic System in Singapore, I came across yet ANOTHER incident about the ridiculous system that we had. Weining got a summon for "Parking in the wrong direction." Like srsly, wtf? This happened at/near the parallel parking at Club Street, where he was deemed to have parked against the flow of traffic. Hmm. If you knew of this rule/law, raise your hand pls? Thought so... ;p (yes i see those quizzical looks on your faces). And it's a fine of $50! Next thing you know, we'll have fines for "Not parking perpendicularly to the road" or "Failure to align vehicle to the middle of parking lot."



2. Went to watch (500) Days of Summer! It was brilliant for a few reasons -
a. M1 had a 1-for-1 deal at Cathay on Sundays, so we only paid $10 for 2 tickets!
b. The plot and directing was pretty awesome! (I'm horrible at describing such stuff, and have limited vocabulary, but take it that i think it's really really good!) In fact, there's an article in Life! today that you should read. None of the cheesiness (except the ending line of the movie) of a romantic comedy, and very enjoyable. There was a scene where Joseph Gordon-Levitt breaks into a dance in the middle of the movie, which I just can't help thinking of the uncanny resemblance to a Bollywood movie... And various other quirkiness of the movie, that you can somehow relate to. "Honey, our tap is broken!" / "Penis!"

3. Tis' the exam season! Exams are here! My classes will take their papers tomorrow and Thursday! Judgement day! I hope they all do well, and pass with flying colours! (now, this has got to be the cheesiest line in this post. Looks like something i picked out of a primary school autograph book... hehe. "May you pass your PSLE with flying colours!" Though, sidetracking, that is unlikely to happen for this batch of P6 students, given how hard the Math paper was apparently supposed to be.) I shall be burdened by all the marking from tomorrow onwards... Red pens, check. Answer key, check.

Labels: Singapore, Teaching

Unknowingly, the weekend is just around the corner, again! How nice it is, when the week has gone by so quickly. It's the start of the EOY exams today, and for me, it's a much more relaxed schedule. I have my 4 (+1) hours of teaching, cut to 1.5 hours of invigilation today, so I'm not complaining.

Anyway, I've been wanting to write a post about the Singapore Traffic system for the longest time, but I keep forgetting.

The Singapore Traffic System - Gripes and Grouses (Part I)

1. Not checking blindspots
Nowadays, I seem to be on the road quite a lot, plying the Tampines-Clementi express route. (Esther lives in Clementi. ;p) And quite often, I'm very disgusted (and this would still be an understatement) by how the other drivers are using the roads. For example, on the ECP just before Benjamin Sheares Bridge today, while I was on my way to Bras Basah, a red Honda Civic cut into my lane (I was on lane 3, i.e. 3rd lane from the right), having overtaken me on the right. Seriously, if you overtake someone, you'd expect that the person you overtook is still there right? And the car came dangerously close to me, and by dangerously close, I mean I could kick the car from my bike. And guess what, it was a lady driver.

Ok, before you accuse me of me anti-feminism, let me present to you yet another situation on my way home just now. On the PIE just before the Thomson exit, a white Subaru cut into my lane, without checking the blindspot, and AGAIN, it was a lady driver. Coincidence? Probably, though unlikely. ;p Women are supposed to have better peripheral vision though (source), but in this case, they need to physically turn their heads round to check their blindspots!

2. Roadhogging
Being on a motorbike, I get a better view of the road ahead on the expressway, given my elevated view. On a few occasions, I found that the fastest route, was taking the left-most lane. (and I'm not even trying to cheat by squeezing between lanes). The last time I checked, Singapore had not adopted a left-hand drive system, so how could it be that the leftmost lane is the fastest lane? Well, because there are vehicles hogging the other lanes! Seriously, roadhogging should be a summon-able offence! And sometimes roadhogging causes a tailback of cars, and you think that the traffic is heavy, but only because some idiot is talking on his mobile phone, and hogging the lane!

3. Of law-abiding policemen and unlawful citizens
We all know that in Singapore, everything is law-by-law. However, it's quite often the case that lawful citizens get summoned (on the roads), and the unlawful ones go scot-free. Why do I say so? A month back, a regulation came into place that said that if there were passengers sitting at the back of a truck/lorry, they cannot be sitting at a height above 1.2m or something. And then some 100+ drivers were summoned at various industrial areas, for flouting the regulations. I mean seriously, these drivers have been doing that for years, and you cannot implement the law, and expect everyone to abide right away. Plus, by preying on these drivers in these industrial areas, it's sort of like going for the "free-frags", preying on the weak. And while that is happening, drivers are still driving recklessly on the roads.

I also had a brush with the Traffic Police in May. On 1 May (Labour Day of all days), I was stopped by the traffic police, because my front 'P' plate had fallen off - the TP had overtaken me from behind, saw that I didn't have the P plate in front and stopped me. When I explained to him that I had replaced it on 2 occasions, at the cost of $7 each time, and they had both fallen off, and there was no place in Tampines selling sticker P plates (which won't fall off), he said he had to issue the summon, but advised me to submit an appeal for it. When I asked the officer when I could get sticker P plates, even he didn't know, and gave a generic, "Why don't you try Mustafa?" answer. How helpful. So I received the summon, and wrote in letters of appeal, 3 in total (you're allowed up to 3 appeals, if your 1st and 2nd one fails). All 3 times, they rejected the appeal, on the grounds that "The summon had been issued correctly." Like huh? Exactly why I'm appealing against it right? So anyway, I ended forking up $120 for the fine, which was the same amount if I had not put BOTH P plates, and if I had not put BOTH P plates, I'd probably not have been stopped by the TP, since he would have just overtaken me. How ironic.

Well, that's it for part I. Stay tuned (i'm not sure when) for the next edition, on Counter-Intuitive Traffic Lights, and ERP-not parking.

Labels: Singapore

Last night, for the first time in many years, I went to catch a "getai" at Lorong Lew Lian (even the location sounds so heartland-ish). Anyway, since I've watched 881 2-3 years back, I've been wanting to go catch one, but given that it's a "seasonal" entertainment, if you miss it one year, you'd have to wait another 12 months to catch one. If you're wondering what a getai, I'd suggest you check out the wiki description of a Getai. It's something which I think is Uniquely Singapore - and given the recent saga of food copyrights with Malaysia, I think we should lay stake and apply for copyright protection for the getai scene. ;p

So anyway, last night's getai was amusing to me, cos it was a Getai with a message, which I guess you could liken to product placements in a movie. The getai was sponsored (partly i think) by NCPG, which stands for National Council of Problem Gambling. The name itself sounds like a movie rating though (NC16 + PG?), so a number of the audience members were fanning themselves with a NCPG paper fan (printed in patriotic red and white), and the hosts on stage were hawking the messages from NCPG, somewhat different to what a normal getai would be.

If you're looking to find out where and when the next Getai would be, I bet you didn't know that you could find it on the Stomp website. Amusingly (again), it was my uncle who told me about it. Check it out at Getai A-go-go and click on Getai schedule.....

Labels: Getai, Singapore

I was at the Cathay Picturehouse yesterday for the first time, to catch "A Matter of Size", as part of the Israeli Film Festival. And I was duly impressed that for one of the few times ever, the movie started punctually! (the movie was supposed to start at 9:20pm, and when I looked at my watch when it started - not the trailers mind you, it was 9:20.52pm...) Impressive. In fact, when the movie started, the (small) cinema was only about half-full (or half-empty... ;p), since I think most other patrons were still mingling outside. (Too bad!)


Personally, I kinda like indie films, without the Hollywood glitz. Plus I also like movies which are filmed in exotic places, like in Israel, and not your usual US-based, or Europe-based movies. The movie is about a (fat) man, named Herzl, who was part of a diet club, whom despite his "best efforts", was still putting on weight week after week. Whilst working at a Japanese restaurant (as a dish washer), he comes to know of Sumo, and decides to start his own Sumo club. And guess where he recruits his group members? From the diet club of course. Well, the story goes on to tell how they started a sumo competition, and how Herzl finds love in Ramle, and so on, but I guess in the end, this movie just reminds us that being skinny is simply just a sort of social phenomenon, and there were numerous hilarious moments in the film. It's a pity that there will/are only 3 screenings of the film during this festival (the last show is at 7.15pm tonight, but it's sold out...)

If you know of other upcoming film festivals, do let me know! :)

Labels: Movies

I've been so busy with work lately that I hardly found time to connect with my "spiritual self" - and by spiritual, I don't suppose I mean a kind of God-ly spiritual, but just connecting with my "soul". In fact, I've stopped doing things I used to do for leisure, like watching movies (the last movie I watched was District 9 two days ago, and UP about a month ago prior to that), watching anime (gosh, i can't believe I missed all of those episodes!), listening to music (and the radio), etc...

But anyway, last night I couldn't fall asleep - stupid me decided to drink Teh Halia Ais at 10.30pm, and I was looking through the stuff that I left behind in Cambridge, and only just got shipped back this year, together with Allan's stuff. In the box of forgotten treasures, I found Paulo Coelho's (author of "The Alchemist") "Like the Flowing River", which is a series short stories of his thoughts and reflections. It really good food for the soul btw, cos it gets you thinking about the things around you.

Here's a bit of a Japanese story that he quoted from the chapter "The Importance of the Cat in Meditation".

A great Zen master, in charge of the monastery of Mayu Kagi, owned a cat, who was the real love of his life. During meditation classes, he always kept the cat by his side, in order to enjoy its company as much as possible.

One morning, the master, who was already quite old, was found dead. The oldest disciple took his place.

"What shall we do with the cat?" asked the other monks.

In homage to the memory of his former teacher, the new master decided to allow the cat to continue attending the classes on Zen Buddhism.

Some disciples from neighbouring monasteries, who travelled widely in the region, discovered that, in one of the most famous temples in the area, a cat took part in the meditations. The story began to spread.

Many years passed. The cat died, but the students at the monastery were so used to its presence that they acquired another cat. Meanwhile, other temples began introducing cats into their meditation classes; they believed that the cat was the one actually responsible for Mayu Kagi's fame, and for the quality of its teaching, forgetting what an excellent teacher the former master had been.

A generation passed, and technical treatises on the importance of the cat in Zen meditation began to be published. A university professor developed a thesis, accepted by the academic community, that the cat had the ability to increase human concentration and to eliminate negative energy.

And thus, for a century, the cat was considered an essential part of the study of Zen Buddhism in that region.

Then a master arrived who was allergic to cat hair, and he decided to remove the cat from his daily practices with the students.

Everyone protested, but the master insisted. Since he was a gifted teacher, the students continued to make progress, despite the cat's absence.

Gradually, monasteries - always in search of new ideas, and weary of having to feed so many cats - began to remove cats from the classroom. Over the next twenty years, revolutionary new theses were written, bearing persuasive titles like "The Importance of Meditation Without a Cat" or "Balancing the Zen Universe by the Power of One's Mind Alone and Without the AId of Animals".

Another century passed, and the cat vanished completely from the Zen meditation ritual in that region. But it took two hundred years for everything to return to normal, and all because, during that time, no one thought to ask why the cat was there.

I guess this is somewhat true in the society of today - we simply follow what others have done, and we're simply a society of copycats. :) Of course, if you remember my post some time back, you'd remember what I mentioned about the herd mentality.

For now though, I will read some more chapters of the book. :)

Labels: Life