Queuing in Singapore

I spent 2 months working in SGP for a client earlier this year. Singapore is a highly organized society, even the tree on the side of road looks smooth and sophisticated. Perhaps they all went through the military training and travel around the world. My company applied the short-term work VISA for me and I went though the immigration trouble free. The next step is to collect the ID card and I agreed to go to the VISA office at 8:20am for a meeting - thinking I can easily go back to work afterwards and maybe go buy a cup a overly sweet and hot milk tea (I got really addicted to the south east Asia style milk tea, I need one cup every day) before the daily meeting at 9:30. I arrived at the office about 10 minutes late, I was received by a receptionist and given a ticket displaying my appointed meeting time and the time I arrived. I then sat down and wait, thinking it won't take long at all. I was so wrong - I waited for about 45 minutes and nothing happened. I went to the reception and asked why the delay - he checked my ticket and explained because I was 10 minutes late, the VISA office won't delay anyone who's arrived on time to serve me. My case will only be processed if there are anyone missing their appointment hence the wait.

Mealybugs

I have never dreamt that I will be battling with indoor plants' bugs daily. I refuse to use any insecticides hence I was patiently brushing away those little disgusting bugs wrapped in silk on my croton. We first discovered spider mites on Harry (Acreca Lutenscens - I give all house plants names). BTW, the croton is called "no name". I washed Harry's leaves weekly to control the spider mites - they are so tiny invisible to naked eyes but you can see the white dots at the back of the leaves, which are the little silk purse they created to protect their colonies and eggs. That weekly cleaning persisted a few month but spider mites are not getting any less - I eventually gave up. After all, Harry looks reasonably happy. We have to live with the bugs as long as they are not killing the plants. No name is in the corner of the living room initially then I discovered there are loads moldy spots and white silks around its branches and the back of the leaves. Some yellowish skin tone bugs are moving under the mold - um that's our first encounter of mealybugs. Weekly cleaning didn't do any good. I was getting very impatient - spraying soapy water, brushing vinegar, non of those worked. I found a almost empty bottle of mosquito off spray and thought if I diluted it with lots of water, that might drive away the annoying bugs. I did and the leaves and stems of No Name turned black. Really upset, I was really upset and going on and on about it, Jon got really annoyed with me "For God's sake it is only a plant!" so he ran to the kitchen got a pair of scissors chop the blackened stems off No Name. Saying if I said another word about the dying plant he is going to chop off another stem. Auntie Yee advised we should not over water the plants and it is better to keep the plants. We move No Name to kitchen where there are plenty of sunlight and breeze, stopped water it for weeks - a couple months later - no name is growing new leaves! Charlie (another big plant) in the living room where No Name used to be is getting mealybugs - I just discovered. Searching the internet for remedy, this time I was using the robbing alcohol to kill the mealybugs one leave at a time. Hope this is not going to infect Borgi (she is our favorite plant in the balcony).

Escaping worms

The worms were running out of the worm bin because the temperature was too high inside the bin. The composting occurred too rapidly since we blended the kitchen scraps into "worm slush" as advised by some worm farmer in Australia - this is aiming to control fruit flies (so that the worms can get to the food faster than flies laying eggs) and speed up the compositing. But the compost rot too quickly generating heat. Worms were all running to the corners to escape from the heat and some even escape from the tab where the worm tea dripped from. We had to remove the compost into a separate bin and the rotting sweet potato really smells bad. At least the worms are cooled off now.

Reading Instruction

I think it is because I grew up reading comics, I learnt to jump from one picture to another to understand stories. I obviously apply this technique a lot when I read. It works pretty well to read Chinese Novels, I can flip through the pages by scanning words diagonally and pretty much grasp the basic idea for a paragraph. Reading English takes me more time to comprehend - if the article is interesting I might be patient enough to go through it word by word. But a lot of time, I only glance over them. That happened again when reading the instruction of the 3M magic hook installation and removal. I managed to get hold a mosquito net in Taiwan (no one sells them anymore in Hong Kong). The mosquitos manage to wake us up around 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, really do not know how to control them as I refuse to use chemical spray. We need to hang the mosquito net without drilling nails into the wall, the 3M hooks they claim can do the job sounds just right.

I installed the hook, never tried to remove them. Hence I was just reading the removal instruction hastily when we need to re-position the hook (yeah, we put the first hook on the wall without thinking too much). "Ok, Jon, pull the tape handle, no, no, not 45 degree outward but straight down" "Like this?" "Yeah, you are doing good" The tape between the hook and the wall extended from 4cm to roughly 20cm long and the hook was still on the wall. "Um, Jon it says it will extend to 20cm and ..." "Ouch!" The hook was suddenly released from the wall because the sticky tape has thinned out so much, it was dragged down by the elastic band and hit Jon's thumb. That really hurt - I hasn't been able to finished the last bit of instruction - please hold the hook on the wall with the other hand while pulling the tape down.

KANO the movie

The only interesting bit of this movie is to understand life in Taiwan under Japanese rule. The rest is like comic. Anyone who had experience with Japanese Manga that's sports related will be able to understand what I meant. A group of hot-blooded youngsters vowed to win the championship - and they worked on it and they always did it. Everyone was in tears whether they made it or not. I am very confused what this movie is trying to say. The passion for baseball? The director wants to blend in the history of Taiwan, the soil, the land, the people into the story but concoction is just not as splendid. It is also a 3 hour long movie, coming out of the theater, I only felt tired and it is very hard to echo the compassion and energy - the story is simply too thin and the acting... As I described before, I think it is really like reading a comic. Correction - Kano is a remake from a comic, that's why it is so unreal. But I still don't like it.

Sesame noodles

After going to grand dad's tomb in the morning, we had lunch in Jon's favorite restaurant in Taipei in the afternoon after returning from the cold rainy mountain, starved. Jon has demonstrated his sesame noodle eating talent, he ate 3 bowls in a row. The interesting difference between Taiwan and Hong Kong restaurant is that, in Hong Kong, the waitresses are all too eager to collect plates and clean up the table. They even intrude our conversation, reach out to take the bowl/plate the moment I put them on the table. Not a word, not feeling apologetic. In the noodle shop, the cleaning lady came over with a bucket (again so not possible in Hong Kong). It is close to 3pm their break and she is of course eager to clean up the table. She looked at us smiling and asked "are you having enough?" as if we are her kids (um, that's really how I feel). We said yes and she started to clean the table. Another amazing difference is that we asked the waiter who delivered the noodles to us if we can eat the chicken we bought from other shop, he was like "of course, please go ahead, every one does that". Wow - hard to believe any restaurant in Hong Kong will let you do that.

Sausage roll

We were traveling around NZ last X'mas - staying in the holiday park - brought our own sleeping bags and use the communal toilet, shower and kitchen, etc. Great way to travel.

Camping and Hiking

Camping with Mum's TaiChi group then go for a 1000 meter climb from 1800 meter elevation the next day. Mum is totally a city person, she dislikes plants, animals and anything that smells, dirt/sand decorated, or alive. Her only contact with nature is those animal corpses and produces in the wet market. I was completely taken aback when she told me that she is into camping now. We drove to meet Mum and planed to camp with the Taichi group. Their camp ground is sheltered! There is water and electricity, uncles and aunties took almost the whole kitchen with them. There is no even a mosquito. Jon said to Mum that he thinks he eats better when camping with Mum than home. We ended up building our tent inside a room to keep mosquito away. It is a holiday park Taiwanese version. Mum cooked lots of foods - that's reason everyone likes to take mum with them when traveling. When it is time to sleep, I went to check Mum's tent. She brought with her a small suitcase, it has her blanket and pillow she uses at home. Her friends have got the mattress ready - all she needs to do is to lay down and hide under the duvet. That is actually very cute because Mum looks so tiny. During dinner, Master Xiu explained us what is TaiChi - it is something that cannot be described or explained. The moment you tried to do it, you are wrong already. (Funny thing is after we returned home, they had a Saturday morning lesson obviously it is about how to be soft, Master Xiu taught them how to be pushed and not moved. Mum came home and said to me, you try to push me, Ok, I can really not move her at all. Few hours later, we ran into Mum's TaiChi friend in the festival, she also said, you try to push me now!)