Preparing for Macau trip

Forbes Travel Guide (National Library 915.12504)


For backpackers who want to plan their walking routes, the best of course is getting information from travellers who've been there, and get their maps.. If not, remember to get one strategically placed at the Macau airport on the way out. That should be a good indication of where the exit is. The airport is so small we missed the exit and almost got 'out' by queueing at another immigration counter!

Language Play - Punning

From Language Play by David Crystal:





A pun's the lowest form of wit;


it does not tax the brain a bit;


one merely takes a word that's plain


and picks one out that sounds the same.

7 Deadly Sins - Gluttony

Funny how even my Saggitarian mind still marvels at my capricious emotions... A whimsical trip to my Blackboard out of boredom from surfing Faceboooook profiles turned into intense anticipation as the announcement screamed out of the screen "Results ...now available". Those were not exact words of course since my brain had effectively blanked out everything else as I fumbled to get to the right site for my Semester 1 results...

And after the umpteenth try....tada...

Discourse Studies A-
Teaching Written Discourse A-
Corpora Linguistics B- !!!

The last was a God-send (I did stop in my tracks to wonder why I suddenly recognised a higher being up there when I hasn't been for the greater part of my existence, sans the desperate moments). After sacrificing the last subject, a technology-scourged one where I spent most of the lessons struggling to keep pace with the technology, for the other two, it was truly a Zen-like bliss to see I had successfully negotiated out of the pithole of getting a C - which probably was more proportional to the effort I had put in.....

(to be continued....)

Goh Keng Swee

With solemn demeanours and still more sober posture haunched over ceremonial swords, the guards kept the veil of sadness looming in the vast column of emptiness above Goh Keng Swee's casket. While waiting in lines of 5 or 6

What I want for my funeral (many years down the road)

This is nothing morbid, just triggered when I attended my uncle's funeral on Good Friday, and by one of those pesky MSN pop-ups writing about Jeanette Aw's views about her new show on funeral directors or whatever..

Anyway, this is what I want for mine (long live Shirley Tham!):

1) A Buddhist funeral.

I was impressed by how quietly dignified the Buddhist funeral is, as opposed to the Taoist ones I attended for my great/grandfathers/mothers'. Although they all died before I turned 12, my enduring and non-too-endearing impressions of the funerals were: NOISY! The cymbals and what-nots gave me a real headache, in addition to ear trauma.

I can only tolerate such loud noise for lion dance.

2) Lion dance (Southern lions)

Strange? But it's a very interesting aspect of Chinese culture, isn't it? And after being claimed by the Bataks in Sumatra and Dayaks in Sarawak, I would like to pronounce to the world once and for all that I'm 100% Chinese-Cantonese (as far as I know).

And the southern lions are especially cute - them with the expressive, flirtatious eyes. They'll be a feast for the eyes for bored visitors. At least I'm not asking for dragon dances - they would be really over-the-top.

3) Music

The prerequisite 'Nam mo o me tuo fo' is a must, of course, and I quite like the song, really. It's the definitive Buddhist chant and only one I know, actually. But I think playing it 24/7 ad nauseum will literally induce nausea, so I'd like it interspersed with
* Mozart's divertimentoes, Chopin's etudes, Tchaikovsky's less 'emo' pieces like Nutcracker suite, Liszt's one-and-only-hit-whose-title-I-can't-remember
* William So Yong Kang's sentimental hits, all the songs from David Tao's eponymous album (his first and best), Sandy Lam, Karen Mok and
... I'll add on this list...
(No Beethoven though - so loud and dramatic people will wonder if I'll rise from the coffin.)

4) Miscellaneous music

I thought the updated 'Nam o' chant played during my uncle's send-off was really pleasant with the bird songs incorporated before the repetitive chant began (btw, no funeral march for me, no wailing or calling my name, and 2 nights at the void deck is more than enough, thank you.) The remix is a welcome change from the traditional version. That reminds me - bird songs from my 'Singapore birds' CD will do well as a balm for grieving souls - from the elusive straw-headed bulbuls, ioras, the much-heard-but-unseen gerygones....

That's all for the time being for a morbid topic... let me scooter off to touch some wood....

Mughal Exhibition, Ancient Civilisation Museum in Singapore

Jewels on the swords, jewels on the dainty miniature cups, the archery rings and ... fly whisks! Seems that the great Mughal emperors' royal hands are fit only for dabbing with rubies/emerald/jade/gold.

For me the swords were a joy to behold - how did they ever want to use it in battle? Exquisitely outlaid with rubies against a clear white jade background, the rubies look too attractive to want to subject them to the violent rigours of war. If I were in the battlefield, I'd be too busy scanning the ground for dropped jewels! Or maybe the kundan technique is really the best in business for affixing jewels....

Another highlight for me were the cups and one that particularly stood out was the multiple hibiscus-motifed (no guesses for which precious stone they used) cup with saucer. The hibicus with one petal unfolding lends an added elegance to the majestic red stones and the skilled craftsmanship, which flourished under Mughal ruler's penchant for the aesthetics, showcased how a hard stone can be made to look ethereally soft and flowy. Look out too for Jahangir's royal spinel inscribed with Arabic writings (the rulers were Muslims), so tiny you'll need microscopic vision.

Oh, and bring your camera along too! There's definitely lots to photograph. If the jewels do not attract you, there's this "try the turban" photoshoot opportunity with Shah Jahan (he's apparently a connoiseur of the precious stones and a jeweller too! No wonder Taj Mahal is the classic it is) and stamping/colouring exercises for the kids (and kids-at-heart like me), an irresistible distraction with the cutely drawn Mughal prince and princess.

This exhibition is a travelling collection from the al-Sabah collection from Kuwait which first started with the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, so it's a pity if you miss this exquisite collection which showcase the opulent lifestyle that can only be afforded by the strength and splendour of the empire. Hindi movie buffs will no doubt be interested to read more about Akbar, the ruler who was depicted in the blockbuster 'Jodhaa Akbar' starring Hritik Roshan in the titular role and everlastingly lovely Aishwarya Rai as the Rajput princess he married.

(By the way, opt for the 1 1/2-hour museum tour for the other sections, free-of-charge. The tour docent we had, Benedict, was extremely knowledgeable and certainly brought a lot of fresh insights to the exhibits, especially the development of the artistic representations of the Buddha and why it evolved the way it did.)

My Birdwatching Tower

Due to my work commitments on weekends, I could hardly get to somewhere rustic in Singapore for my birdwatching walks. Somehow that has opened my eyes wider to those around me in the HDB blocks, like the starlings, crows and Eurasian-tree sparrows. All common birds, but