Saw today's episode of Life Navigator (从心开始) on Channel 8. Today showcased a story about a man who was addicted to gambling and alcohol, and whom subsequently borrowed more money from loansharks to sustain his habit, and ended up with him leaving the family to fend for themselves while he hide in Indonesia.
Now, he is old and penniless, and without a roof over his head. He sued his kids for maintenance and won the case.
I was quite amazed by the image that he presented. Throughout the programme, he remained defiant and proclaimed that the situation that he is in, is through no fault of his. How incredible.
His argument:
1. He contributed money towards the upkeep of the family during the early stages of the marriage and when the kids were young.
2. He worked and supported the payment for the house.
3. He was neglected by his family, and hence, he sought solace in gambling and alcohol, and in later years, had another family in Indonesia!
Even as the host read out excerpts of what the wife and kids wrote about their experience as they had to bear living through the years where loansharks came knocking on their door, he did not show any remorse. When queried about having another family in Indonesia, he retorted that it was his SG family that didn't want him in the first place. I think he had an additional chip on his shoulder as his kids somehow managed to trick him into signing the ownership of the house away to them. (missed this part, but gathered this info from subsequent stuffs that the counsellor/host said)
One person who called in, shared her experience as the child of a family whose parent also owed money to loansharks and was constantly being harrassed till the loan was paid up. She said, "It doesn't matter if you had won money and treated us to a good meal, as these days will not last longer than a few days, or at most a week. The number of weeks that loansharks kept harrassing us, was unbearable!" She also said that if the parent can acknowledge the fact that he did wrong, and vowed never to gamble again and stick to the good behaviour, then likely the kids will forgive.
When asked if he would like to say anything to his kids, he said he doesn't want to. He expressed that his wish now, is to be able to attain help in terms of lodging and employment. This is understandable because if the basic necessities are not fulfilled, then it is pointless to talk about other things such as relationship etc.
However, it was very evident that the counsellors did hope for something more. More than once, the man was urged to make use of this opportunity to say something to his family, his kids.
This was what he said, "If I have a place to stay, and if you decide to come visit me. I am acceptable to reconcilliation."
As host Quan Yifeng puts it, perhaps it is this 'stubbornness' that will help carry him, through his lonely years ahead... and I think, perhaps so.. perhaps so..
Reality of life. You reap what you sow.
31 May, 2010
fun day~ (aka walk n walk day)
Yesterday was the annual Assisi Hospice Fun Day. As Danny had volunteered there for the past few years and he mentioned it again when we met the other time, I figured it would be nice to check it out. So together with HS, we went in search of this fun day.
There's a free shuttle service plying between Novena and SJI International. So we waited for the bus. Weather was hot, and the interval between was half hourly each. I arrived before 230, and HS slightly after, so we gotta wait for the 3-315pm bus... long wait... so I devoured $2 weekend deal from OCK, which has 1 chicken wing and 1 curry puff! Quite worthed it, hehe!
Finally bus came, so we went to queue. We overheard a guy who just joined the queue, asking a lady behind us and here's roughly how the conversation went:
Guy: "Hmmm.. sorry ah, but this bus goes where?"
Lady: "It goes to Assisi Fun Day."
Guy: "Oh... which CC ah? Sentosa CC?"
Lady ( -_-''' ): "Not CC, Assisi.. charity one."
Haha! Quite funny, 'coz my thought at that moment was that, "Wow, the theory that people will just queue up when they see a queue is true.. even though they don't know what the queue was for! I suppose it would be interesting if the queue turned out to be something like blood donation, something that's not a freebies queue but something that requires people's sweat and blood :P
Finally, the bus arrives at the school! Hurrah! (I was quite thirsty and in need of water!)
yup, this is the right place!
at the entrance, there are Harley Davidson's bikes at the left side and they'll take you for a spin, if you donate $10
Found stalls that sells canned/bottled drinks. One can was going for $1, but at other stalls, you can get one carton of canned drinks for just $3! Isn't that a steal! Next year remember to bring your shopping carts!
walking up towards the school compound
There are stalls manned by Hotels and they're selling pies and some other stuffs for a reasonable price like 3 pies for $10! Whahaha! There are also stalls manned by churches, schools and individuals.
trishaw ride anyone?
we walked from entrance, all the way to the school and down the field
game booths at the field
Tried our hands at some games. This one's at the Korean booth.
simple game like throwing round cardboard pieces onto the mouths of the cartoons
bought this for $3
souvenirs from game stalls
It is effortless from us consumer part because we only spent a small sum (min. $10) and we got to have fun and enjoyed the goods that we bought. But it took lots of planning, hard work and dedication from the part of the volunteers and stall people. Kudos to them!
Next stop, was to explore Ann Siang Hill! So off we went to Tanjong Pagar (get out from Exit G, as that is nearer...)
Along the way, we passed by:
Chinese Methodist Church
Then don't know turn here, turn there.. reached Ann Siang Hill entrance (at the foot of the hill, I suppose?) that's next to the temple.
entrance
learn the history.. did you know it was formerly known as Scott's Hill, after Charles Scott, who had clove and nutmeg plantations at this site
deserted stairs
HS, the explorer
yeah.. Charles Scott used to own lots of these!
resting area (watch out for vagrants.. we saw at least 3 of them sleeping at various locations at Ann Siang Hill.. )
paying homage to Mr Chia Ann Siang, who started work at age 16 with the British company, and at age 24, he was promoted to Chief Produce Storekeeper. He left the company to start his own timber business and subsequently became a rich landowner and he bought Ann Siang Hill!
We proceeded to the shops enclave, and look what we found:
looks familiar? This was where my this year's birthday cake slice came from!
HS wanted to bring me to K.Ki, but it was closed due to the long holidays. Hence, we settled for coffee at Shots, which was just nearby and it's open!
Took some rather, out of focused shots of our drinks:
HS's milk chocolate
cafe mocha
chocolate sauce?
diluted looking
Interesting that my cafe mocha looked super diluted, but it tasted better than it looked! The coffee was just rightly bitter, and the mocha not too sweet. A thirst quencher. HS's drink was milky but not in an overpowering way. None of that cow's smell in the milk! :P
almost finished!
table decor
tiramisu (sponsored by HS)
close up
Then, HS need to go and pick up some clothes sent for altering, so we went to City Hall. After that, decided to explore Marina Square and its neighbouring Parco Millenia before finding a place for dinner.
Parco Millenia
interesting steel structure
look up and you'll see this
Went around poking our noses at some of the shops, and looked at their restaurants.. and finally, decided to go back to Marina Square for, some good 'ol Kenny Rogers!
But first, I wanted to take some pics of MBS, as seen from the Marina Square walkway...
wanted to take a clearer shot of the 'ship'
MBS
But as soon as I whipped out the camera, a big fat tabby cat, came and rubbed itself at my feet. How to take picture like that...? Hahaha! It's not like I called the cat or anything, it just came. Tsk tsk...
naughty lazy cat!
Kenny Rogers @Marina Square, the orders are now taken by the service staff. Different from olden days where it was self-service!
quarter chicken to share
muffins served per pax
Interesting to know that muffins are served per pax. So if 1 person orders 1 chicken meal, does it mean the rest of the people, say 9 of them get 1 muffin each as well? Cool!
Thanks HS for the meal, and the company! Birthday eats, ends! Haha!
There's a free shuttle service plying between Novena and SJI International. So we waited for the bus. Weather was hot, and the interval between was half hourly each. I arrived before 230, and HS slightly after, so we gotta wait for the 3-315pm bus... long wait... so I devoured $2 weekend deal from OCK, which has 1 chicken wing and 1 curry puff! Quite worthed it, hehe!
Finally bus came, so we went to queue. We overheard a guy who just joined the queue, asking a lady behind us and here's roughly how the conversation went:
Guy: "Hmmm.. sorry ah, but this bus goes where?"
Lady: "It goes to Assisi Fun Day."
Guy: "Oh... which CC ah? Sentosa CC?"
Lady ( -_-''' ): "Not CC, Assisi.. charity one."
Haha! Quite funny, 'coz my thought at that moment was that, "Wow, the theory that people will just queue up when they see a queue is true.. even though they don't know what the queue was for! I suppose it would be interesting if the queue turned out to be something like blood donation, something that's not a freebies queue but something that requires people's sweat and blood :P
Finally, the bus arrives at the school! Hurrah! (I was quite thirsty and in need of water!)
yup, this is the right place!
at the entrance, there are Harley Davidson's bikes at the left side and they'll take you for a spin, if you donate $10
Found stalls that sells canned/bottled drinks. One can was going for $1, but at other stalls, you can get one carton of canned drinks for just $3! Isn't that a steal! Next year remember to bring your shopping carts!
walking up towards the school compound
There are stalls manned by Hotels and they're selling pies and some other stuffs for a reasonable price like 3 pies for $10! Whahaha! There are also stalls manned by churches, schools and individuals.
trishaw ride anyone?
we walked from entrance, all the way to the school and down the field
game booths at the field
Tried our hands at some games. This one's at the Korean booth.
simple game like throwing round cardboard pieces onto the mouths of the cartoons
bought this for $3
souvenirs from game stalls
It is effortless from us consumer part because we only spent a small sum (min. $10) and we got to have fun and enjoyed the goods that we bought. But it took lots of planning, hard work and dedication from the part of the volunteers and stall people. Kudos to them!
Next stop, was to explore Ann Siang Hill! So off we went to Tanjong Pagar (get out from Exit G, as that is nearer...)
Along the way, we passed by:
Chinese Methodist Church
Then don't know turn here, turn there.. reached Ann Siang Hill entrance (at the foot of the hill, I suppose?) that's next to the temple.
entrance
learn the history.. did you know it was formerly known as Scott's Hill, after Charles Scott, who had clove and nutmeg plantations at this site
deserted stairs
HS, the explorer
yeah.. Charles Scott used to own lots of these!
resting area (watch out for vagrants.. we saw at least 3 of them sleeping at various locations at Ann Siang Hill.. )
paying homage to Mr Chia Ann Siang, who started work at age 16 with the British company, and at age 24, he was promoted to Chief Produce Storekeeper. He left the company to start his own timber business and subsequently became a rich landowner and he bought Ann Siang Hill!
We proceeded to the shops enclave, and look what we found:
looks familiar? This was where my this year's birthday cake slice came from!
HS wanted to bring me to K.Ki, but it was closed due to the long holidays. Hence, we settled for coffee at Shots, which was just nearby and it's open!
Took some rather, out of focused shots of our drinks:
HS's milk chocolate
cafe mocha
chocolate sauce?
diluted looking
Interesting that my cafe mocha looked super diluted, but it tasted better than it looked! The coffee was just rightly bitter, and the mocha not too sweet. A thirst quencher. HS's drink was milky but not in an overpowering way. None of that cow's smell in the milk! :P
almost finished!
table decor
tiramisu (sponsored by HS)
close up
Then, HS need to go and pick up some clothes sent for altering, so we went to City Hall. After that, decided to explore Marina Square and its neighbouring Parco Millenia before finding a place for dinner.
Parco Millenia
interesting steel structure
look up and you'll see this
Went around poking our noses at some of the shops, and looked at their restaurants.. and finally, decided to go back to Marina Square for, some good 'ol Kenny Rogers!
But first, I wanted to take some pics of MBS, as seen from the Marina Square walkway...
wanted to take a clearer shot of the 'ship'
MBS
But as soon as I whipped out the camera, a big fat tabby cat, came and rubbed itself at my feet. How to take picture like that...? Hahaha! It's not like I called the cat or anything, it just came. Tsk tsk...
naughty lazy cat!
Kenny Rogers @Marina Square, the orders are now taken by the service staff. Different from olden days where it was self-service!
quarter chicken to share
muffins served per pax
Interesting to know that muffins are served per pax. So if 1 person orders 1 chicken meal, does it mean the rest of the people, say 9 of them get 1 muffin each as well? Cool!
Thanks HS for the meal, and the company! Birthday eats, ends! Haha!
25 May, 2010
an omen
the day my plant wilted and died
It is a sign that something bad was going to happen, and something bad did happen... so, I should remember to look at the signs...
21 May, 2010
catch up session
It's been ages since I last met Danny, my ex-ex-housemate. How long was that? The last time we met was to visit Desmond and his family, which was like a year or 2 ago? Guess everyone's been busy with our own lives. His wife, HL, couldn't join us for dinner as she's in London, doing her MBA.
So off we went to Tampopo for some Jap food. Tried to reserve by phone but was told that it is 'fully booked'. So was advised to try walk-in instead. The queue wasn't that bad. Just 15 mins wait.
Danny hadn't try Tampopo before, so he said, "Just order la". And his only request was no fried stuffs. Ok, so pondered over the menu and the prices of the sushis/sashimis are all on the high side! Imagine sashimi for $65? Hmmm... how to eat? The most expensive sashimi mori that I've ever ordered was a $38++ one from Sun with Moon.
It took us like 15 minutes to decide. More like for me to decide 'coz I was considering the prices...
So we had edamame, teriyaki squid, gyoza and a sushi set.
nice green, served warm and lightly salted
black pig gyoza
gyoza fillings
ika
The most expensive item for the night, ta dah! Sushi 10 pieces for $35++, and that's a cool $3.50 each!
sushi set
negitoro
not sure what fish is this, but Danny had this row of stuffs
tuna
egg roe, bursting with flavors of the sea
fatty tuna, oily and melt in your mouth!
uni!
We talked from 730pm till 8+ at the restaurant, then moved on to Starbucks for coffee and talked somemore till 10+pm. Dinner was on him (thanks Danny!), and coffee on me.
He's still the same person, and doing pretty well in his life. "Be happy." That's his motto. :)
So off we went to Tampopo for some Jap food. Tried to reserve by phone but was told that it is 'fully booked'. So was advised to try walk-in instead. The queue wasn't that bad. Just 15 mins wait.
Danny hadn't try Tampopo before, so he said, "Just order la". And his only request was no fried stuffs. Ok, so pondered over the menu and the prices of the sushis/sashimis are all on the high side! Imagine sashimi for $65? Hmmm... how to eat? The most expensive sashimi mori that I've ever ordered was a $38++ one from Sun with Moon.
It took us like 15 minutes to decide. More like for me to decide 'coz I was considering the prices...
So we had edamame, teriyaki squid, gyoza and a sushi set.
nice green, served warm and lightly salted
black pig gyoza
gyoza fillings
ika
The most expensive item for the night, ta dah! Sushi 10 pieces for $35++, and that's a cool $3.50 each!
sushi set
negitoro
not sure what fish is this, but Danny had this row of stuffs
tuna
egg roe, bursting with flavors of the sea
fatty tuna, oily and melt in your mouth!
uni!
We talked from 730pm till 8+ at the restaurant, then moved on to Starbucks for coffee and talked somemore till 10+pm. Dinner was on him (thanks Danny!), and coffee on me.
He's still the same person, and doing pretty well in his life. "Be happy." That's his motto. :)
20 May, 2010
wtf (what the fish)
Had an interesting lunch yesterday. The guys wanted to eat porridge with steamed fish. Why, you asked. Well, because on previous visits to the same coffeeshop, they saw alot of people eating that steamed fish and hence, it piqued their interest to try. Haha!
So, we girls left it to the guys to decide on the dishes that day. Not very cheemz (challenging) stuffs since it's only like teochew muay (porridge teochew style) with some side dishes... (or so we thought!)
So after ordering the dishes, the guys came back and joked about how the stall people tried to introduce them some expensive 'sounding' fish names. So, they decided to go with one that sounded like "Emperor snapper" or something like that. How much? We asked. The guys replied, "Heh heh, don't know! Didn't ask! But definitely not as expensive as the first few fishes!" Hmmmm.. interesting....
So we waited quite a while for the fish to arrive. Think it took like about half hour or so. But when it came, it looked HUGE! Haha, well... I've never eaten such a big fish before (except on one wedding dinner but that was a seabass and shared by 10 ppl).
The fish was very plump and meaty. Although big in sized, the flesh was soft almost like tofu. According to guess-timation, the weight of the fish could be around 1-1.2kg. The only downside was that the fish could be prepared better by removing all the scales (some parts of the skin still had scales!).
dipping sauces
the rest of our side dishes... dwarfed by the size of the fish!
time to dig in!
20 minutes later...
all that remains... bones and scales...
The bill came up to $90+, as the fish alone costs above $70! Expensive, but nonetheless and experience to remember! ;P
If the fish is really the emperor snapper, here is a link I found elsewhere:
Apparently, emperor snapper is also known as 'Leng Chiam'.
So, we girls left it to the guys to decide on the dishes that day. Not very cheemz (challenging) stuffs since it's only like teochew muay (porridge teochew style) with some side dishes... (or so we thought!)
So after ordering the dishes, the guys came back and joked about how the stall people tried to introduce them some expensive 'sounding' fish names. So, they decided to go with one that sounded like "Emperor snapper" or something like that. How much? We asked. The guys replied, "Heh heh, don't know! Didn't ask! But definitely not as expensive as the first few fishes!" Hmmmm.. interesting....
So we waited quite a while for the fish to arrive. Think it took like about half hour or so. But when it came, it looked HUGE! Haha, well... I've never eaten such a big fish before (except on one wedding dinner but that was a seabass and shared by 10 ppl).
The fish was very plump and meaty. Although big in sized, the flesh was soft almost like tofu. According to guess-timation, the weight of the fish could be around 1-1.2kg. The only downside was that the fish could be prepared better by removing all the scales (some parts of the skin still had scales!).
dipping sauces
the rest of our side dishes... dwarfed by the size of the fish!
time to dig in!
20 minutes later...
all that remains... bones and scales...
The bill came up to $90+, as the fish alone costs above $70! Expensive, but nonetheless and experience to remember! ;P
If the fish is really the emperor snapper, here is a link I found elsewhere:
Apparently, emperor snapper is also known as 'Leng Chiam'.
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