Quotable quotes

The grandparents bought a toy fishing set for the daughter and they were all happily playing with it (yes, all 3 of them) when i made the quip to the wifely person:

z: notice that the fishing set only comes with one fishing rod?
w: yes, i wonder why.....
z: because if you give a spare rod, you spoil the child!
w: sometimes i also wonder why i married you......

Singapore's economy

When i first heard the news on the radio this morning, i was a bit concerned because it was reported that the rate of inflation has been revised from 1.5-2% to 2.5-3% (with the increase in COE taking responsibility).

Then saw this article on Asiaone, which made me chuckle when i read the following:

Singapore manages monetary policy by letting the its dollar rise or fall in
a undisclosed band against a secret trade-weighted basket of currencies of its
main trading partners.

Because it had neglected add that said monetary policy was guarded managed by hidden grey ninjas in an anonymous building at an unidentified part of Singapore.

Rainy day randomness

Had to wake up early for a dental appointment at NUH before work today, but it was raining, so traffic was pretty snarled up with trees falling all over the place, car accidents happening at every expressway (one happened right to the side of me on the AYE while in another jam *facepalm*). When i was done, a funny thought occurred to me while driving out of the NUH carpark, flashbacks of driving my fiat out of the same car park with my wife and daughter seated behind, going home for the first time. =) It was a very happy thought. Which led to the next happy thought of remembering that my carpark charges were waived (despite parking overnight) because they were servicing the car park barrier when we were exiting.

We had a visit to the church by a Nuncio...... a what? .......it's ok, that was my reaction as well. He is a papal (as in the Pope, not paypal) emissary, a diplomatic representative of the Pope having ambassadorial status. As he didn't give a homily (palm sunday readings are long enough!), so didn't really have any impression of him, aside from the congregation queueing up to kiss his ring after mass. Being the first sunday of the month, there was also free food and free country music by the Countrymen, so I hope he was entertained sufficiently! =) There was some irony in that it was 1st April, so they could have dressed up anyone in a funny hat and staff, and Singaporeans would still line up to kiss his ring.

Which led to the wife asking after i told her about his visit
wp: "so how do people know what protocol is in such instances, i mean you don't want to be doing the wrong thing right?"
z:"i don't know, usually someone knows, otherwise would that make it a cardinal sin?"

LOL that got me a death-glare from the wifely person (which was funny because nobody else at the dinner table got that).

sometimes....

I can't believe what i say, but it makes me laugh out loud to think about it. A big ups to the wifely person (WP) for putting up with me nonsense. Thanks dear. *mwah*

[shopping for diapers in the supermarket]
wp: Do you see any "L"?
z: it must be Christmas....
wp: eh?
z: because there is Noel.
wp: . . .

[chatting online about driving in Italy]
j: do i need IDP to drive in Italy?
z: they won't check for IDP when you're renting a car. Only the cops will ask for it when they stop you, but dunno what happens if no IDP....maybe they make you eat pasta with no sauce or something.
j: no they make me eat the sauce without pasta
z: LOL, yah special Italian white sauce! *facepalm*

lunchtime loonies

Had lunch with my alleged twin recently, and conversation over the meal was a riot!

[on learning that a mutual friend has a girlfriend]
m: yeah, he met her while teaching her how to play tennis.
z: Wow. That's cool. Wait.......does that mean that the score now is love-all?
m: i have no return to that.
z: no backhanded remark?
m: just plenty of spin.

m: you wanna try the pizza here?
z: maybe not, even though i knead the dough.
m: i'm not even going to dignify that with a response.
z: why? because you're all artichoked up?

[referring to she-who-must-not-be-named who walked into the same restaurant]
m: Come come, we're all adults here. [pause]....well, most of us anyways..... [pause] at least bodily appearance-wise.

Aladdin's folly

We have watched Disney's Aladdin so many times, thanks to my daughter that playback of teh movie stutters sometimes. Worse still, the wifely person and I can now sing the songs from it on cue, and often have them stuck in our heads as earworms.

An interesting observation though, is that obviously none of the characters in the movie have an interest or background in legal work. They were presented with the dilemma of Ali wanting to marry Princess Jasmine but can't because Princess J can only marry a prince. She is also obligated under law to marry before her 18th or 19th birthday.

Now this is towards the end of the show now, and Ali only has 1 more wish from the lamp. As stated earlier, he can't wish for more wishes (amongst other provisos like not being able to kill, make someone fall in love, or raise anyone from the dead). Being the good person that he is, Ali wanted to wish Genie free.

What happened in the show was that he did set Genie free with his last wish, and the Sultan (Jasmine's father) promptly changed the law so that the Princess could marry whoever she wished. This is just silly, since he could have changed the law that requires her to marry before her birthday, then the happy couple will not be under any pressure to get together. LOL

This convinient changing of the law is actually quite inconvinient legally since it sets a dangerous precedent and hence, people in the legal profession are usually loath (unless it is flawed) to changes in the law. Instead, the simple workaround is for Ali to wish he was a Prince, marry Jasmine, hand the lamp to her (as a wedding present?) and get her to wish Genie free (after 2 free wishes, might as well not waste it afterall Birkin bags are hard to come by). Problem solved!

music and more...

Having played with quite a few musicians to date, I find that playing regularly in a band can give you insights into how your fellow band members think in real life. Bands that play good music tend to have people who think in synch with each other. Now this does not mean that they all think alike, as much like music, there is always room for discussion. It means there is healthy respect for each other to begin with and like a good conversation, you see past any petty differences to look at the overall shape, colour and content of things.

I think there is a distinct generation gap and of all the various types, i find Gen Z the most self-conceited me-first people, so playing in a band with them presents its challenges. An insight into this can be found by asking the question: "So whose responsibility is it to keep time in a band?"

Their answers tend to gravitate along the not-me line of answer and i'm pretty sure the usual answer would be "the drummer", which is flawed, because it is in fact everyone's responsibility (not my words but that of bassist extrodinaire Victor Wooten), and everyone brings a bit to the song in various ways, not just the tradition beats, bass, rhythm and melody. I had a chance to listen to one of the songs one of my bands once, the same band where we are pretty good friends (even travelling overseas together), and hearing us play, i can hear/feel us taking turns to share the limelight. The changes in melody (and sometimes rhythm) can be heard being played by various instruments throughout the song.

Another example is when a guitarist of this generation asked me: "Can you teach me to play the keyboards/piano? I can know the chords" and while i watched, he showed me what he knew. So by noticing that he only played chords in the root position, i suggested that he practice arpeggios. He asked how many chords and how many octaves? When i replied that all of the chords and about 3-4 octaves should be sufficient, he made a face and looked like he wasn't going to carry on with his quest to learn keyboards. He persisted that I could just "teach him what he needs to play, just the basics, pointers really" but i told him it is not possible. He should learn that just like knowing all the notes and chords on the guitar's fretboard (doubt he knows), this also applies to keyboards. Which is the main reason why i haven't learned guitar because as much as i enjoy music, i know i cannot devote the time required to learning the guitar properly and i respect all my fellow guitar friends too much to want to embarrass them with bad guitar playing. There is no instant solution or "pointers only" quick fix, learning a music instrument takes commitment, time and hard work.

No real purpose to this post, aside from ranting about the younger generation and their attitude towards music.

ps as an epilogue to my post, at mass i saw a score with the words "slightly slower than 4/4 rock" scribbled on by someone and I started chuckling immediately. While it may mean something to the person, the only thing it tells me is that the person is seriously confused, mixing up the style of the beat with the tempo. Afterall, there is such a thing as slow rock, and rock 'n roll, which are two different versions of rock with vastly different tempo. And how slightly slow are we talking about anyways? LOL

Book review: Snuff

Chanced upon this latest Terry Pratchett novel while shopping at Kino, and the wifely-person kindly bought it for me for Christmas. =) I know its not Christmas yet and i've finished reading my present, one of the benefits of being an adult i suppose. Hahahaha.

As usual, it is an enjoyable read, although I thought the title was a bit disingenuous and contrived, since only Vimes appears to regularly take snuff, which is an old-fashioned stimulant to be kept in elegant boxes and snorted gracefully in society, and does not add to the main plot. The downtrodden masses in this book (and main plot) concerns the goblins, who start off in the book classified as non-sentient beings until Vimes comes across them on his holidays, and is convinced to take up their cause after hearing them communicate via the universal language . With enough villians thrown in (at some points, it felt like the entire countryside was filled with them), Vimes managed to bluster through aristocrats and workmen alike using, tact and guile (not necessarily at the same time) that is characteristic of him.

The book also expounds on two characters merely touched upon in the past: Wilikins (Vime's butler) and AE Pessimal (sent by the Patrician and co-opted into the Watch), and fills them with such colour, that I wished such people existed in real life, just so you could shake their hand. Such is the detail and interest that Pratchett weaves and invokes.

Pratchett also introduces a new series of children's books (remember Where's my Cow?), which deals alot with poo. It somehow points to young Sam growing up an alchemist or researcher as the book goes on, although honestly, i'd rather just focus on Mr Vimes himself. LOL

Under table(-tennis) Corruption

I think there is something seriously wrong. When we were young, we were always told, "don't do illegal things, otherwise you get caught, sent to jail and will have to work as a road sweeper or toilet cleaner for the rest of your life". I always felt that we had a rather unforgiving society that did not give second chances, and that we should take and cherish all the opportunities presented to us.

Then I read today about a former Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) president who was charged with corruption. What stunned me was the final sentence, that this former president was a former MP for Jalan Besar GRC who served a two-week sentence in 1999 for issuing false invoices to help a family friend cheat a finance company. If they had known about this, why did they still hire him?

By Hannah TeohAsiaOneThursday, Dec 08, 2011
Two former employees of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA), including the former president, have been charged for corruption and criminal breach of trust.
The first man, Mr Choo Wee Khiang, 57, was the president of STTA at the time of the alleged offences. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a statement that it received several anonymous complaints against Choo, alleging
that he had charged his personal airfares, expenses, and phone bills to the Association. Choo had also received gifts from Chinese coaches and players. In 2005, Choo received $1,500 from a former assistant coach of STTA, Mr Luo Jie, on behalf of Mr Liu Zhongze, who was a national team player at that time. The money was given to Choo in exchange for giving Liu more opportunities to represent STTA in table tennis tournaments.
Between 2003 and 2004, Choo also received US$600 (S$768.95) on two occasions from Mr Shi Mei Sheng, a former STTA coach, as a reward for approving the use of training facilities in China.
The second accused, Ms Koh Li Ping, 43, was the High Performance Manager of STTA at the time of the alleged offence. Between 2002 and 2003, Mr Luo Jie provided table tennis training to students for a local secondary school although his work pass only permitted him to work for STTA. Choo and Koh then allegedly arranged with the principal of the school to engage STTA in a new training arrangement with the intention to use the proceeds received to pay Luo
Jie. Subsequently, after STTA received the payment from the school, Koh
obtained approval from Choo to authorise a payment of $8,400 to Luo Jie,
even though the latter did not provide any training services under the
new arrangement.
Choo resigned from the STTA in July 2008. He had been with the Association for 20 years. Choo will be charged for three counts of corruptly accepting gratification and one count of criminal breach of trust. Koh will be charged for one count of engaging with Choo Wee Khiang in a conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust.The maximum punishment for corruption is a $100,000 fine and five years' jail on each charge.
In 1999, Choo, a former MP for Jalan Besar GRC served a two-week sentence for issuing false invoices to help a family friend cheat a finance company.

Quick link (politics)

Came across an interesting article on politics in Singapore, particularly after the 2011 General Elections. I think this curious desynch gap between what is written online and what actually happens on the ground is closing. The online rhetoric is toning down with more intelligent comments and suggestions being put forth, while voters are more willing to exercise their choice of what they want in their leader. As the voter population evolves: more people being able to vote, past achievements will not be forgotten, but will have less emphasis than what the promised future will be. It is not that they are ungrateful or pro-opposition?

In an ideal world, we would also do away with the GRC system and have all single seat constiuencies. This would remove a chunk of the resentment that this rather cumbersome system has generated, and allow voters to feel represented. The only issue with this system is the level of uncertainty, and aside from causing sleepless nights for all involved (less so for voters, but still) this might cause some foreigners to lose business confidence.

Stun gun (not) fun

Was reading the news online when this article caught my eye thanks to its eyecatching *groan* headline: Police fire stun gun at naked foreigner in Geylang

Reading the article itself, i couldn't help but notice that there was no mention of the guy's clothing (or lack thereof), nor any mention about where he was hit. Would be interesting to combine these two facts and assume he was hit with a Taser in the unmentionables. LOL

Even if we give him the benefit of doubt, and say that maybe due to a communication breakdown, he thought $8 secures him the room for the day (and night?) but how unlikely is that? Who charges $8 for a room these days anyways? He must have been very tired and just wanted a half an hour powernap.....at 8am in the morning. *facepalm*

This is also the first time i've seen the use of the stun gun in Singapore reported in the media. =)

AsiaOneMonday, Nov 14, 2011
Police yesterday used a Taser stun gun on a Caucasian man who charged at an officer in Geylang.
Staff of a Geylang lodging house had requested for assistance after the 34-year-old man, believed to be Russian, overstayed in a room.
The New Paper reported that he had checked in at 8am with a woman and paid $8 to stay for half an hour. The police were called at about 9.30am after the man insisted on staying on even after staff informed him that his time was up. When the police arrived, the man became violent and charged at one of them.
According to The Straits Times, a police spokesperson said the man intended to cause hurt and continued to use violence and attempted to hit the officer despite police advice.
A Taser gun was then discharged at the man to ensure the safety of the officer and the public. He was later arrested for use of criminal force against a public servant. The man was also taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital in a conscious state. He was discharged at 12.30pm and driven to a police station.
According to The Straits Times, the Singapore Police Force first bought Taser X26 stun guns in 2005. The weapon uses electrical currents to immobilise a person by shooting two barbed darts that hook onto a suspect's skin or clothes. The barbs then send a 50,000-volt electric current through the body for five seconds, temporarily incapacitating the person by inducing involuntary muscle contractions.

dancing at work

Was on the way from the bathroom when i encountered someone in the hallway and for a brief awkward moment, we did the awkward hallway shuffle.

This happens when engineers walking in opposite directions meet in a corridor or doorway, one would move to his (yes, engineer = male, i'm not sexist, i'm just stereotyping, it's faster) left and the other would move to his right, ends up both shuffling in a common direction, then change direction at the same time, which leads them to share a common direction again. In the meantime, the gap between us is closing quickly and there is a brief moment of shared panic on our faces when we realise imminent collision is close when at the last moment, one of us stops moving altogether, and we continue on our seperate non-colliding paths. I think next time, i'll just fake a move one direction then quickly dive to the other way, into a forward roll, then stand up and raise my arms up. Tah-dah!

In other random bits, the following bit of conversation i had with an old friend:
J: i always related our friendship to be like wine.... gets better with age
z: some wines can be corked you know hahahahaha
J: YES.... faintz haha!!
z: damn corks screw everything up

Education in Music

We love music, as evident from our combined CD collection (which is more than 2000 CDs and counting). More importantly, I (we) love playing music and this is evident from the number of musical instruments at home: 1 piano (ubiquitous in Singaporean homes), 1 portable Korg keyboard, 1 venerable Yamaha EL-90 electone and 1 ukelele. We also have musical instrument apps on our ipads/iphones, including drum sets, modern synthesizers, classic pianos, guzhen, and the ocarina. Wibblewamble prefers to sing, hence we make a great pair, but i digress.

A question was posed to me during lunch as we were talking about learning music. When i mentioned that i do play the piano (or actually keyboards), I was asked: "So what grade are you?"
This is facinating from so many points of view (when i say facinating, i mean it is a bugbear of mine lol).

• It reflects our Singaporean attitude of measuring one's success using a formal qualification system.


• It shows our kiasu competitive streak in wanting to compare against others.


• It demonstrates plain ignorance in trying to apply an exact science to an inexact art (the engineer in me gave up trying to define one's level of musicness).

There is no leveling up for music and there is no direct comparison. Much like college drop-out Steve Jobs (may he rest in peace), even if you have grade 8 in Piano, does not mean you can play better than someone who has a lower grade. It just means you passed the examinations and you managed to play 3 examination pieces well. Whoopdeedo.

Because of this need for paper qualifications by local parents, some piano teachers do teach songs to their charges for the sole purpose of taking examinations, changing songs only when one examination is passed, often to the next set of examination pieces. Is this any way to learn and appreciate music? When i was younger (but old enough to discern) I once told my piano teacher, "if you teach me only examination pieces, i quit now." Of course she did not, and she even embraced music other than the classical pieces she was great at and we even shared pointers (i came in with experience on this) on playing pop or jazz or even rock pieces (Joplin FTW!).

Coming a close second as facinating question of the day is "what brand if your ukelele" Once again, this obsession to compare! Especially if the next question is "how much did you buy it for" *facepalm* Sometimes we have to learn that not everything has a dollar or extrinsic value.

For the record, it may seem like sour grapes that i didn't pass my ABRSM grade 8. But also for the record, I only took ABRSM grade 3 and grade 7, about 3 years from starting the formal piano lessons (when i was 12). And aside from piano, I was under a scholarship from Yamaha for Electone (completed grade 5 (w fundamentals), teacher's grade, if you must know), and also doing drums as well (grade 6). So paper qualifications-wise, i do have some, although one ability that i'm thankful for is that my ability to replicate a song (or at least play a version of it) after hearing it. More importantly, i feel, is that i enjoy myself playing music and do try to spread this joy to the people who listen. One day, i hope to pass on this joy and this love to our offspring, in the hope that she'd view music the same way we do, and i'm sure she'd do better not to cringe when someone asks her "so what grade are you?"

This is why....

this guy and I get along like a house on fire....

I sent this link to him to an NZ Herald article on Ireland's victory over Australia at the 2011 Rugby World Cup "Rugby World Cup: Kidney has big stake in Ireland stunner"

z: Not just found in corduroy pillows…..
m: I’d have worked in the use of “pie” in that headline…
z: “Steak and Kidney 3.142” just doesn’t square up.....
m: It should. Don’t you know pie are square?
z: Not just that, but according to Pirate folklore if you go once around it adds up, to pie Arrrr.
m: Now you’re just leeding me round in circles, peg leg notwithstanding.

FYI 19 Sep (the date of this conversation) was International Talk like a Pirate Day. =)

Also, this is why workmate and I do not really talk:
Because of the Subway one-for-one offer, the following conversation ensued with workmate(wm)

wm: ok so you buying subway?
me: yes, what do you want?
wm: chicken i guess.
me: on what bread?
wm: the long one.
me: eh? what type is that? Like Italian, Honey Oat, etc. Check out the Subway website.
wm: ok. I'll have the vinaigrette.
me: *facepalm*

Smurfs.....

So there is now a remake of Smurfs (and a revival) with the upcoming Smurfs movie (in 3D!), and lots of people are reliving their childhood and/or introducing the joy of little blue men (not to be confused with the wee free men of the Discworld) to their offspring or the nearest kid they can find. =)

My own memories of the smurfs are similarly childhoodish, and can recall setting the VCR to record these shows so that i could watch it, and then rewatch it over and over again. In fact, it was through the Smurfs that i discovered the joys of remixes. One of my first tapes was the Smurfs Christmas Party, which you can listen to sample tracks here. I marvelled at how funky the remade Christmas carols sounded and wanted to experiment for myself, as up to that point in time, I had been playing music strictly to score (score is king!). Like a Terry Pratchett novel, it opened my eyes to the possibility of existing stuff done or viewed in a new way, and how to share this exciting variant mutant hybrid with other people. So began my musical journey into expressing myself, although it can be viewed as starting steps into the world of jazz. LOL

Men behaving badly

Interesting reading this asiaone post(from stomp) about a Caucasian male who was allegedly drunk and took a cab then refused to pay. When called to the scene, the police allegedly said they could not do anything except advise him to make a report at the police station. I actually have a personal experience to relate about the effectiveness of our police and criminal justice system, in that although I was put in a position of fearing for my life as I was in my car with some random guy kicking in the door and window from the outside (thank goodness they were made sturdy) and a) after calling the police, they arrived half an hour later after (we had all cleared out as the big bad wolf ran out of puff and stormed off); b) a police report was made but after investigating, the officer told me that i'd have to pursue this as a civil matter. Wonderful waste of time. Sometimes i wonder what would have happened if my window had given way or i had come out of the car to stop the guy. Hmmmm.

Anyways, I digress from talking about a more recent incident that happened to us as well while we were at the airport on the way back home, involving a Caucasian. For once, we were fairly early and the check in counters had just opened. So there were, heading towards the counter, me pushing the trolley full of bags, and the wibblewamble carrying our offspring. We were very happy to see no queues for checking in and headed straight for the nearest available counter. As we were proceeding there, we saw a Caucasian male with a suitcase and a golfbag on his trolley come from the business class side of the queue around the barrier to the counters.

What happened next shocked me. He moved very quickly to cut off wibblewamble who (i say again) was carrying our baby in her arms, and pushed his passport energetically at the counterstaff. To do that, he nearly ran down wibblewamble with his baggage trolley and arrived so close to her that the girl behind the counter thought they were together! A diagram of the incident (hyperbole and a half style):







After ww glared at him as i was catching up several steps behind (and picking up my jaw from the floor), we went to the next available counter with nary a word from him to us, let alone an apology. Just for good measure, we went to an available counter 3 counters away.

I really don't understand how shameless and brainless this idiot is. I wouldn't make much of the colour of his skin, but he really had the "white man superior" syndrome. Amazing thing was, because he had to push his golfbag on his trolley to the seperate oversized baggage check-in, i saw that nearly ran over another guy with his trolley again with nary an apology.

I hope his golf scores are always in the triple digits, but from his character, I wouldn't be surprised if he cheats at his golf scores as well. What a douchebag.

Book Review: The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

Just read this book as we are trying to complete our collection of books by Terry Pratchett and my overall impression of it is this book is a deserving winner of the Carnegie Medal (in 2001).

The obvious twist on the Pier Piper story aside, the book has some witty dialogue and a particularly memorable 'torture' scene, when the boy and girl team need information from a couple of ratcatchers. Of course, the concept of a downtrodden group/race/club is nothing new, and the only drawback is the rather convinient happy ending. Still, this is an enjoyable book which I'd happily read again, if anything, just to see everything from a cat's perspective ("I ask my food to say something before i eat it ok?" LOL)

In other news, we caught part 1 of Hogfather on cable, thanks to the National Day offer (almost all channels available), which stuck fairly closely to the book version.

weekend...

It is weird feeling to head to work on a Monday that sits astride a weekend and a public holiday. Naturally, quite a few co-workers are on leave to make it an extra long weekend, so any work requiring interaction of any sort will have to wait. LOL

Speaking of the weekend just past, managed to catch up with my old secondary school mates over dinner and drinks, so that was a nice way to kick start the weekend (although the morning after wasn't so great lol). Did some shopping at Taka as well, and when i say some, i mean alot, because Kino was having 20% off and the wife had a list of books to buy. What a combination. LOL

Sunday was interesting because we had a Countrymen set in the morning that was absolutely rocking. There are times when i look at the guys i play with and am just amazed and blown away by their singing and playing. Great fun playing with them and entertaining everyone in the canteen. There were times when it felt as if the keyboard was on fire with playing that i wanted to douse it with gasoline and light it up, just to be able to bring it up a notch. LOL

Had to cover for evening mass as well, which was interesting since i got to impart some musical knowledge. I think a good musician should be able to inspire others to do better and to ignite that passion in them. Not something i made up, but something i observed from watching and interacting with great musicians.

conversation conundrums

We've been having some issues with our ceiling, as the paint has cracked and a stain has appeared. Possible leak from the outside? We don't know.

So i was chatting with ww on gmail and asking her whether the guy has arrived....
ww: He came
z: He saw,
z: He concurred?

Which reminds me of the famous phrase in Jingo: Veni Vidi Vetinari
Although also in the book is the phrase: Veni, Vermini, Vomini LOL!

Which was what i wanted to do after i managed to pwn myself. First the wife sends me the link for cute diapers, and my first thought (understandably, since i'm a guy) was "Ha! All these silly parents! Paying good money for design over functionality". But then my second and third thoughts kicked in, which were "I wonder how was my offspring look in that", followed by "OMG, i've so got to get me a pack of those, just to see how cute she looks in it". I'm so ashamed of myself, but i'm still amused (and i might still buy them!) LOL

wonderful weekend

As usual, our weekends are just packed. But there is a certain level of satisfaction and this weekend just past was special. We started out saturday well and after a scrumptious lunch by my mother-in-law, went to visit ww's grandma. Boistrous noisy play was the game of the day as the various kids (including ours) tried to outdo each other in enthusiasm and playfulness. LOL. Good fun.

Got to play soccer with my friends at East Coast, and prove that although age has prevented us from running too much or too fast, we still have the skillz to put on a classy act (including a memorable trap and volley on the turn). A young 'un even remarked "woah, how did you do that? magic?" after a particularly silky pass went around him. Capped off the day with a soy bean miso hot pot at home with our friends, good fun all round with great food and even better company. What more could we ask for?

Then came Sunday, went for champagne brunch to celebrate my mum's birthday. Excellent spread of food and bubbly drinks, and we were very entertained by the live 3 piece jazz band (singer, guitarist and bassist). Stuffed my face silly and didn't feel the need to eat anything til quite late that night. Even managed to squeeze in a visit to Jeanie, and she's looking well, still ever the bright-eyed border collie. Our daughter was also doing her best to entertain everyone with her antics, including trying to play table tennis, go for a swim (fully clothed) and breaking into dance at various times when she hears music. =) To cap off my Sunday, she said "Deh-di". *melted*