Coffeeshop Talk - The Simple Things in Life

Today at my local coffeeshop, I saw the aunty preparing empty condensed milk cans for customers to take-away coffee or tea in. This was popular in the old days in Singapore up till the late 70s. After that, coffee stalls prefer to use plastic bags or polystyrene foam cups. The prepared cans certainly look quaint and nostalgic and so I took some photos of them. The aunty was surprised and remarked that only rich people can be fascinated by things like that.

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"Why is that so?" I asked.

"It is only when you are rich, stomach full and have nothing to worry about that you appreciate such simple things," she replied.

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"But one does not need to be rich to appreciate the simple things in life," I said.

"Yes, but people are not like that nowadays," she retorted.

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Then, she told me that her neighbours' children on their first salary (of mere SGD3,000/month) went off to buy a car, spend all their salary away every month, then ask their parents for money. How times have changed! In my time, with whatever little we have, we still give monthly allowance to our parents. Then, these neighbour's children gone on to have extravagant weddings in 5-star hotels, expensive photo shoots, honeymoon, luxury apartment, and got divorced after their second kid. Isn't it akin to running on treadmills?

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One doesn't need to be rich to appreciate the little simple things in life. Just looking at the tin cans reminded me of my childhood and the lifestyle of that time. It is a beautiful feeling, and hence the photos. Besides, I am not anywhere as rich as they think I am. So one can be financially poor to appreciate the simple things in life!

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Perhaps parents in Singapore are too busy working and making money instead of imparting values to their children. As a result, children grow up adoring money and material wealth. After some time, they think that material wealth is all that matters. It is said in jest that when a man is poor, he longs to find a wife and when he becomes rich, he divorces his wife!

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I told the coffeeshop aunty that my nieces and nephews are lucky as their mother stayed at home to bring them up and so they are inculcated with moral values from young. They love the family and gravitate towards home to be with everyone. If home is where love is, kids will gravitate towards it to find their serenity. Such serenity secures them and cushions them against the onslaught of the daily harsh materialism we commonly find in our societies.

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Then just before I left the coffeeshop, she marveled that I am well educated and therefore need not take into buying 4D (the weekly lottery). I couldn't believe what I heard at that instance, so I merely shook my head in reflection and left.

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The Power of Numbers - The Secret Letter Box

Straits Times article 7 September 2010.

A peddlar of illegal contraband (un-taxed and smuggled) cigarettes was caught hiding his merchandise in a public housing (HDB) flat letter box. Notice that the letter box number is "10-5111".

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According to numerology...

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10-51-11 breaks down to:

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1 = Lone initiative

51= Obstacle alone (meaning he gets through his obstacle alone).

11= Alone alone (meaning that it is a lone operation).

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10-51-11 adds to

1-62

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62 = "money talks", well why else would he be up to no-good?

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1-62 further adds to

1-8

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8= Stress

1-8= Alone Stressed!

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1-8 finally adds to

9 = Business

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In summary, this is a lone operation where he had an obstacle of hiding his merchandise for the sake of making money. This stressed him and he runs it as a business.

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Mere coincidence?

Coffeeshop Talk

Today at the coffeeshop, I asked the auntie why she is glum and she retorted that she didn't strike 4D (lottery) and therefore there is no cause to smile. I asked if she had noticed if the people queuing up at 4D shops smile, but she didn't reply.

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It is common to see people looking glum in Singapore because they have not struck lottery. Compulsive gamblers become perpetually glum.

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I have two lady friends who have divorced their husband because of the latter's addiction to gambling. And these are educated men in respectable professions, one a teacher and the other a policeman, both fallen to the devil of greed.

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Recently, there is a rich man who lost 26 million dollars within 3 days in a casino in Singapore. It must have been a great pain and suffering for his family and him. It hurts me just thinking of it. More so in this case, as he is someone I know and went to the same kindergarten class in our early years.

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Gambling is a social ill. For one to win, many have to lose. Stay away from it.

High Spirits

When I came home a few days ago, a bottle of freshly harvested papaya wine exploded, splattering the wine and shattered glass all over the place. After cleaning them up, I opened the other bottles to release the pressure to avert another explosion and the first bottle popped like a high pressure jet splashing its contents all over my face, shooting up to the ceiling and messing the place all over again!

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Then as I thought the worst was over, a bottle slipped off the fridge and smashed itself into bits, as I was trying to make space there. What a mess!

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What went 'wrong' was that I had followed the recipe without understanding the reasons behind each step properly. Stirring the ferment every morning is to allow the resulting carbon dioxide to escape and not form pressure in the fluid. What I didn't understand was that besides tasting the fermenting wine, I should also be checking the effervescence in the fluid, to judge if they are ready to be bottled. And so, I had foolishly loaded the fluid together with the residual sugar waiting to convert to alcohol and carbon-dioxide that was to blow up its vessel.

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The second lesson I learned from the incident is that no matter what, I should not to be stressed up. If I had been more relaxed and mindful, I wouldn't have let the bottle slipped from the fridge and smashed up on the floor. If I had been cool about it, I could have even taken some pixs for this blog post before cleaning the mess up. It was quite a scene and would have made fascinating photographic material. :)

Side notes:

Brewing wine is fun! Witnessing, tasting and understanding the fermentation process first hand is fun!

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Like human beings, different types of fruits have different nature and therefore behaves differently though put through the same process. Some become explosive faster while others have gentler ways of dissipating pressure.

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In other words, be mindful and know what you are brewing everyday and remember to stay cool so that you can enjoy the fruits of your harvest. It applies not only to making wine!

Technology - The Straggling Bus and a Non-stop Express Train

Innovative proposals from China...
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No time is wasted. The bullet train is moving all the time.

If there are 30 stations between Beijing and Guangzhou, just stopping and accelerating again at each station

will waste both energy and time.A mere 5 min stop per station (elderly passengers cannot be hurried) will result in a total loss of 5 min x 30 stations or 2.5 hours of train journey time!

The Chinese are innovative enough to come up with a non-stopping train concept. When the train arrives at a station, it will not stop at all.

The passenger at a station embarked onto to a connector cabin way before the train even arrive at the station.

When the train arrives, it will not stop at all. It just slows down to pick up the connector cabin which will move with the train on the roof of the train.

While the train is still travelling away from the station, those passengers will board the train from the connector cabin mounted on the train's roof.

After fully unloading all its passengers, the cabin connector cabin will be moved to the back of the train so that the next batch of outgoing passengers who want to alight at the next station will board the connector cabin at the rear of the train roof.

When the train arrives at the next station, it simply drops the whole connector cabin at the station itself and leaves it behind at the station.

The outgoing passengers can take their own time to disembark at the station while the train had already left.

At the same time, the train will pick up the incoming embarking passengers on another connector cabin in the front part of the train's roof.

So the train will always drop one connector cabin at the rear of its roof and pick up a new connector cabin in the front part of the train's roof at each station.

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Read also PRT

The Thinking Chore

Haiz. All these dishes to clean. Isn't thinking about it more painful than the doing? Suffering comes from the thinking.

A Happy Party

I was invited to a party last Saturday.

Everyone there was so happy and smiling. They even lined up to greet me. What a lovely reception!

Some may have disappeared into the background, but still smiling and always maintaining eye contact. Not a moment were they busy on the phone or sending smses.

There are some cute little baby ones like this...

... or famous ones like Elmo.

Minnie Mouse was also there. She was searching for Mickey...

Mickey had the cheek to show us how much he ate...

... but not as much as Winnie... he helped himself thoroughly.

There is also a sexy one lurking by the couch...

... watching me...

... hmmmm...

... and finally, the birthday cake! A labour of love!

Yum!

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