Halloween 2010!

It's Halloween again!

Trick or treat!

The haze is back

The haze is back,
Car stains are black,
Cut me some slack,
Good air we lack.

It is here again... the haze... basically, thick smoke from the fires in Sumatra blown here causing poor air quality.

Mother

This is a very touching Japanese drama... it is not the kind that causes you to cry... it takes small pokes at your feelings, wearing it down with small touching scenes until you find yourself weeping away...

What's so special about the drama? It is actually about the love between a mother and child. A mother's love for her child, and the child's love for the mother. Unconditional love... that can be betrayed by an abusive mother. Yet the child continues to bear the abuse because she has no one to turn to... until her teacher takes it upon herself to be her substitute mother (by faking her death and "kidnapping" her).

The touching scenes are all about a child's love for her mother and about a mother's love for her child. About what a mother would do to protect her child, to care for her child. The conflict between caring and disciplining. And a young mother's conflict within herself after the death of her husband... bringing up a child alone has its price... is the young mother willing to pay that price?

The official site
Wikipedia site (in Japanese)

LASIK

Wonder what LASIK is all about? Read about it here at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Shinagawa LASIK Centre, I can now see without glasses.

On trust

We speak our minds when we trust the person we are speaking to. We trust that he or she would take us seriously, we trust that he/she is interested in what we have to say, or what we have to ask.

But we cannot demand trust. We can only earn it. Just as others have to earn our trust, we have to earn the trust of others. It takes time and is never an easy task. But the reward is earning someone whom we can share our thoughts with.

Road hazard!

I nearly got into a car accident today... I almost ran into this:

Just as I was turning into the expressway, this huge water monitor lizard was on the ramp...

Goodbye Mrs Lee

Farewell Mrs Lee. You will always be remembered as the woman who made the man who he is.

Visit to Marina Bay Sands

We visited Marina Bay Sands, mainly to go up to the Skypark... and were not that impressed.

First, the place is big, and very confusing. Carparks were at one part of the building (where the casino is) but the Skypark is located with the hotel in another building. The signs pointing to the hotel were confusing to say the least. Following the signs took up one big round without bringing us anywhere near the hotel. In the end, after asking around a few of the staff, we finally managed to get to the hotel...

Only to have to go down to the ticket counter, and being told that prams/strollers were not allowed, and that I had to make my way up again to deposit mine at the bell desk. The bell desk wasn't that apparent as well... I had to ask around to find it. All that walking, just to get to the Skypark...

The view up there was great, though. The pool is for hotel guest only, so don't count on being able to use the pool just because you paid S$20 to get up there. In the end, unless you love seeing things from high buildings, it probably isn't worth your money to go up there.