singapore - generation problem

"singapore is a blessed place. no earthquake, no typhoons, no big floods or big draughts."

"only thing is the houses are getting more and more expansive. even hdb now, a 5 room can cost above $700k.... how are our kids going to afford them when they are big?"

"don't worry. as long as their parents own a house now, there would be no problem."

"why?"

"now, we know our birth rate is less than 2. meaning, one couple have less than 2 kids. and when kids grow up, a boy can inherit the house from his parent, and the gal got married also has a house to live in. our kids are lucky, their parents can still afford the house, or already have owned houses now, so they don't have to worry buying their own. just inherit them from their parents."

"yap. you are right. but if our kids have their own children, ie your grand children, and when your grand children grow up, and you are still around, what will happen?"

"ehh..... that's a problem for our kids to solve...."

sicc(upper thomson) - sweet dreams

the hot day is not normal in this time of the year. the grass has all but died out, even some areas in singapore had 'forest fires'. there were scattered clouds in the sky, the sun was not at its full blast, but the heat, from every where was scorching - another version of global(everywhere) warming.

old upper thomson road, leading to upper pierce reservoir was teeming with monkeys when marathon man bracing the 5pm heat to make his way to the reservoir. they not only clang to the trees, came down to the road, and acted as if they owned it, slowing down traffics.

it was the same old 'old upper thomoson road'. the same old pierce reservoir. people liked the place as you could see families and frens, and lone rangers with dogs and cyclists came here to have a good time. there were kite flying, football game, jogging, running the babies on strollers, fishing in the reservoir, partho-ing, and just sitting pretty.... the sun with its brilliance partially hidden in the clouds did not let up cooking up a global warming scenario in this corner of singapore....























he laid back and relished in the perfect combination of man-made and nature-bestowed surroundings - the openness, the greeneries and the big water ponds, one upper and one lower pierce reservoirs.






















he continued on, till he reached the other end of the dyke, where there's a guard telling him to not trespass into the singapore island country club(sicc) compound.... somehow he convinced the guard to let him in. he climbed up onto the 3rd hole of the new course. the fairway the green, the terrainy, treesome surrounding was as enchanting as before, when he did a couple jogs in this place quite many years ago, when there's no restriction for outsiders to do that. he liked the place now as he liked it then.....
















he reached a small pond, filled with water lilies, most of which bore flower buds. looked like the warm weather had ushered in an early summer.










he passed the half-way house, the swimming pool complex and went into the jungles trail to appeared out from it in venus road, where there were a makeshift football match in the field next to the tree-top walk car-park.




the sun was almost done setting - a crow sounded its ominous calls to tell its companions that day was over - time to blend into the nite and have their blackforest dreams....

serangoon river - hope springs eternal

this morning, watched a movie with his gal fren in the cinema in amk hub. "little soldier, big general" ..... good show with the cast of jacky chan and leehom.

started his jog in punggol rd, turned left into punggol dr, apart from the surrounding hdb project(at least 4),there was a big project on his left , the punggol waterfront project(punggol 21), turned into punggol east. saw a group of gals snapping shots on the swaying long grass with fluffy, snow-white flowers. did a detour, stepping onto an untraveled track that led to a slightly elevated plain with wild shrubs, all the way leading to a river. there was work in progress along the river. he asked an indian worker, "is this the punggol river?" "yes."

there's an uncompleted bridge spanning across the river. on his left side about 500m away, there was a dam, with the flood gates, opening to the sea. he ran heading to the direction of the dam. but did not find a good track to continue from there on, except some very fine-red-dust track which didn't look auspicious. he reversed and headed towards the other direction along the river. he came to an end of the track, he came out to the road, and was lured away by a temple, "tian tze gung" that had just done with some celebration the nite before. he found a track thru some trees and get himself back to the river track, where the surface was newly tarred. after about 300m, the tarred track ended underneath a road-bridge, where a bull dozer was digging to continue building the new track. he side-stepped the newly dug track, and continued forward to another section of tarred track, into sengkang east. along the way, there was a zinc-wall erected to secure the work area along the river. he saw signs on the wall, that clarified to him what the whole project was all about - it's the national park's project of building a linear park along the SERANGOON river, not the punggol river that he mistook it.

he continued on. now he remembered the last time he jogged along the seranggon river was quite sometime ago(may 3 years ago), and he did not jogged until the dam, maybe a couple of mile before that, because there was no track then for that couple of miles. he passed sengkang east into upper serangoon rd. just after tampines expressway, people were fishing. he went down to take a look. and then moved on, but was blocked again by a zinc-wall. he bypassed it from the side, and continued on, all the way until hougang ave 7. he was hopelessly dehydrated and very thirsty by then, he bot a 1.5 L bottled water from the grocery shop of block 6, and finished it as he continued his jogging thru haising scresent where there were some landed houses, into lor low koon, where Holy Innocent's primary was.

there were quite a few obstacles along this partially new route..... he thot he had to turn back a few times, but after surveying around, decided to move ahead, he found the track that lied ahead of him....

just like the saying that goes:

山穷水尽疑无路，柳暗花明又一村
just about giving up hope finding a way out, amongst the folds of the mountains and rivers
a village shows up beyond the shades of the willows and the brilliance of the flowers

which derives from :

《游 山 西 村》 [宋] 陆游

莫笑农家腊酒浑，丰年留客足鸡豚。
山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村。
箫鼓追随春社近，衣冠简朴古风存。
从今若许闲乘月，拄杖无时夜叩门。

which translates to:

a visit to WEST-HILL village

laugh not at the farmer's rustic wine,
a year of bumper harvest provides enough food for the guests
just about giving up hope finding a way out, amongst the folds of the mountains and rivers
a village shows up beyond the shades of the willows and the brilliance of the flowers
blowing flutes and beating drums to celebrate the up-coming spring festival
simple and basic village attire preserves the old tradition
there after, if in the mood to take a moon ride
with a walking stick, you're welcome to knock at his door whenever you feel like

by: LU YU of the Sung Dynasty

fake flowers - bird brain and your brain

"i saw a small purple bird hovering stationarily at the outside of the glass window, pecking at the glass, over a pot of fake flowers at the inside of the window..... obviously it must be puzzling to the bird why it couldn't reach the flowers within sight, and surely it did not come to the senses of the little bird that the flowers were plastic." he felt so inexplicably funny when marathon man's gal fren told that to him.

"really. hmm, must be pretty cool to know that bird brain is so simple and naive, unlike we human beings, so sophisticated......" marathon man said.

"what? a man would have known that they're fake flowers and wouldn't have cared-less to peck at the glass ?"

"well, he would have used a stone to break the glass to get to the fake flowers."

swimming - round and straight

10 laps in a 25m pool was not that exhausting, but good enough exercise for the day for marathon man. his gal fren was learning how to swim, so he had to accompany her to the pool, after 7pm. she would rather swim at nite to avoid any skin damage by the day-time sun.

after the swim, they had a jacuzzi session beside the swimming pool. then they came back to shower together, and had a good time.

woman likes man to be like woman, accompany her shopping, watching movies, go disco, learn social dances, play the guitar, and swim..... she likes him to rub her back, soap her all over, be at her service.... then she would be in the mood for that thing.

for what thing? for that thing lah, you dumb and dumber!

man wants it quick and without all the fuss. says want means want. does not have the patience to bring up the mood. the woman gives in, at times, but she would not do her utmost to get the thing done. she would not be enjoying doing that thing.... if the situation continues on habitually, relationship would be affected.

that's right, when a woman feels right with her man, she would always want to make her day with her man. the only thing the man is left to do is to make her feel right about him.

love after all is not just saying it, but putting it into practice in the daily routines, in taking an interest of what the other party is doing, in cultivating some common interests between them, in making body contact as the ultimate rewards for all the right things they have been working on...

marathon man asks her gal fren, "what woman really wants?"

"happiness."

"how to make you happy?"

"simple, don't upset me."

"how not to upset you?"

"simple, make me happy."

"why like that one? woman, thy name is circular logic which defies man's straight logic."

"right, that's what man really wants, our circular orifice. man, you only are a man when you think straight and your brother acts straight!"