Look at what's HOGging the headlines...

In the midst of a bear market, the pig has made its move over the weekend. Originating from Mexico, there are now confirmed cases of infection in Canada, with suspected cases as far as France, Israel, and even New Zealand. Are we going to see another flu epidemic, a la the Avian Flu?

The Asian stock markets have already reacted to news of the swine flu, with airline stocks leading the bloodshed.

Is this going to be just a roll in the mud or is the pig here to stay? 

One little black bird sitting on the tree(window)

Woohoo! Thanks YL for the help in setting up my chatbox! ;D

Now my blog looks more complete.

I'm sure birdy agrees...

In case anybody is wondering, this was supposed to be my new pet. Mum got a shock when she walked to the service balcony and saw 'something' there. She turned on the lights to find it perched proudly at the window.

Totally. Motionless.

Even with the lights on. Even with us discussing about it (Is it dead? Or sleeping? Or just resting?) a mere two metres away. Even when I move forward to take this photo, less than a metre away.

Apparently, it was sleeping.

Dad came along. "Shoo! Shoo!"


Birdy woke up. It was feeling groggy, perhaps due to the bright lights, perhaps it was having a hangover. It turned its head to the left. Then to the right. A little shake, then to the left again. And yet another shake.

Dad advanced. It flew away. No more pet for now.

Adding a chatbox

I can't believe how difficult it is to add a chat box to my blog. The instructions are very straightforward and easy to comprehend. The steps are easy to execute too. But why is it not working for me?!?!

According to http://chatter.flooble.com/, "Flooble chatterbox works as a javascript include, which means that there is no additional strain on your server, and that it can be added to a page by simply inserting one block of HTML where you want the chatterbox to appear. We give you the code, you just paste it in. Nothing could be simpler."

Nothing could be simpler indeed... It's mocking me!!

Arghh!!!

HELP!!

RWM outing to HealthZone

We had our last Read-With-Me (RWM) session today. Unlike our usual sessions at Hougang Student Care Services (HG SCS), we had an outing today to HealthZone at the Health Promotion Board (HPB).

Most of the kids were already waiting excitedly at HG SCS when I arrived with Yi Lin around 9:10am. We were late. (Ops!) Thankfully, we were not the last.

We left the centre at around 9:30am, after all who were supposed to be present had arrived. I took charge of Manfred today, as I usually do. He seems rather attached to me and would always come to me if I were around. Hongchuan is the 'spare tire' in my absence. :p (I was to find out from Hongchuan during lunch, that Manfred prefers a male teacher, because he looks to elder males as fatherly figures. His dad had left his family for another woman.)

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At HealthZone, the kids were all so eager to get into action! It was hard to get them to line up and wait for their turn to enter. There would probably be a stampede if the teachers release the students.

The slide was a major attraction. These tykes seem to have no qualms with playing there the whole day! Of course, we did not let them have their wish; or rather, we had to show them that there are other attractions apart from the slide. And indeed there were. After bringing them on a tour of the place, where we saw exhibits ranging from a huge lower jaw with tooth decay for the room on Oral Hygiene, to this food monster below in the room for Healthy Eating.

Then it was up to them to choose the games they wanted to play! They were quick to spread out to different stations, although there seemed to be a general herd mentality involved, as they tended to stay in the same room. Except for Daniel. He was perfectly at ease playing with minimum company or even alone.

Here's Daniel testing his strength...

And at the stationary bike... The poor kids were not able reach the paddles even when the adjustable seats were pushed all the way forward! But Daniel was somehow able to get into a comfortable position, and stayed on the bike to complete the challenge!

And finally, a group photo to end the day. Aloysius on the left was throwing tantrums again. After he was pried off the Step-up Machine to join in the group photo. :D Guess he couldn't bear to leave...


While waiting for the bus, Damien and Manfred discussed the prowess of Ultraman and Ironman. Would the Ultraman on Damien's shirt, beat the Ironman on Manfred's shirt?

Here's Manfred eating the chocolate sandwiches that Angie prepared for the kids. He didn't like those with strawberry jam...

I'm sure the kids enjoyed themselves. I enjoyed my time with time too! Too bad the next semester is in August...

Wizard of Id - 29th March 2009

Source: http://comics.com/wizard_of_id/

Familiar story isn't it? Unfortunately, despite the failings of the top executives of banks, finance firms and auto-makers in the US, their government has no choice but to bail them out due to the disastrous macroeconomic impact that would follow on their collapse. Conversely, the small firms that get innocently embroiled into the economic mayhem are left to their own devices.

The world is unfair. And it will always remain that way.

Non-sequitur

I just read this on the panel of 'Useless Knowledge' on the right side of my blog:

A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass.

Wow... Imagine a bouncing ball of glass... :O

Kids, do not try this at home! Adults, if you intend to try this, do remember that a ball of glass will shatter when dropped on/thrown against most surfaces. A ball of solid steel, meanwhile, is likely to shatter everything else. A ball of rubber can be dropped/thrown quite safely. Do note though, that I shall not be responsible for shattered chandeliers, smashed glasses (drinking glasses, reading glasses, glass balls, etc...), holes in windows, and any other possible damages resulting directly or indirectly from dropping or throwing a rubber ball.

Ok, now you can go ahead and experiment.






Go on!

Chess gang meet-up (Mar 09)

Jia Chuan is back for a two weeks break. As per usual practice, it was the perfect excuse to meet up for lunch and chess! And seeing as Hon's birthday was merely a week ago, we decided to include a belated birthday celebration for him!

Esmirada Orchard was chosen as the venue from an initial shortlist of three. I was quite excited to eat there as I hadn't been there before. It helped that I had read about their lunch promotion with Citibank, which means that we could get a good discount for our meal! :D

The plan was to meet at Orchard MRT at 12 to get Hon's birthday card signed, before he reaches at the 'actual' meeting time of 12:30. Shi Qin was pretty late, and we were initially worried that he would spoil our plans by being later than Hon. Thankfully, our worries were unfounded. Hon was over 10mins late. When queried, he gave a very interesting response:

"I was late because I left my house late."

-.-" Oh. Wow. I resisted an urge to laugh out.

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The metal cover of the menu. I like how the rust gave the restaurant name a nice highlight.

I was quite impressed by the decor at Esmirada Orchard. The instant I stepped in, I was reminded of Hogwarts Castle in the Harry Potter movies. If only they had used chalices instead of glasses.

We were disappointed to learn that the Citibank cards discount only applies to their ala carte items and not for the set lunch. Nonetheless, most of us decided to go for the set lunch. I had a two-course set with a main course of roasted chicken and warm chocolate cake and walnut maple ice-cream for dessert.

The chicken turned out quite burnt, and I had to spend quite a bit of time slicing / chipping off the charred bits. Otherwise the taste was good. I loved the crispiness of the potato wedges, though they were a tad too salty for me.

Unlike the main course, dessert was great! The warm chocolate cake was delightfully sweet, and combined well with the ice-cream, while the walnuts provided a good juxtaposition of textures.

Hon's birthday cake was yet another chocolate cake. It lost out to Esmirada's offering, but was still good. By then, everyone was pretty full, and being the cake-lover that I am, I was glad to have more of it. ;P

Non-sequitur: The three lychees in each glass of Cher's Lychee Martini were pierced with one of these plastic sword. Very interesting!

Lunch was followed by some browsing and shopping at Borders, before we proceeded to Cairnhill CC for our long-awaited chess session!

(I ended my day with more cake during my grandma's birthday celebration at night. No, it was not chocolate cake.)