Nature Photography Outing - Panti Forest

Panti forest is in Johor and about 20 km from Kota Tinggi and about 60km from Singapore. It is a secondary forest and many Singaporean birders like to spend a day there for bird watching and photography. Other than birds, you could also find many macro subjects, particularly butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies.

(Macro shooters at a stream in Panti forest)

(A small hut near the visitor centre)

妈妈，我爱你！

很想在今天的母亲节跟妈妈说些心里话，但还是没有勇气和有点不好意。只好在这里默默的写 "妈妈，谢谢你这些多年来的照顾，你是我最好的妈妈，母亲节快乐，我爱你！"

Family Outing - Kelong @ Pengerang, JB (15 Mar 08)

Only stupid people call people stupid!

I have seen parents scolding their children stupid in public! I have seen superiors calling their workers stupid. I have heard and read about people calling other people stupid. When you call a person "stupid", it is a serious insulting remarks. The victims are likely to feel hurt, unhappy, angry, sad, etc. Even if the victims did not openly react negatively to you, you lose their respect regardless of whether you are the parents, bosses, head of state, ministers, etc. The extreme may happen especially when it involves racism.

Last Friday, thousands of workers at a shipyard in Indonesia torched more than 20 cars as part of a violent protest against a foreign manager who allegedly insulted local workers. It was reported that the workers were angry because they were repeatedly called "stupid" by an Indian manager.

Two weeks ago, a malay auntie M (in her forty) accidentally stepped on a chinese auntie C (in her fifty) in a bakery shop at Ang Mo Kio Central. M said "sorry" to C. C angrily called M "stupid". M was unhappy and raised her voice "I already said sorry to you, why do you have to call me stupid?!" C started the fight and she grabbed a chair nearby and hit hard on M. C even asked the bakery shop assistant whether they have a knief. M called 2 of her friends and 3 of them attacked C . Police was called in to resolve the dispute.

Glucosamine

Our body is able to produce Glucosamine which is needed to make and repair joint cartilage.  However, the production of glucosamine slows down when we age.  A lot of my friends and my wife have already started taking it as a nutritional supplement.

Since taking up distance running for the past 2 years, William & KP Tan (my running mates) have encouraged me to take glucosamine as our chances of damaging our joints are higher.  I didn't heal their advice as I thought it to be unnecessary.  Recently, I feel some pains near both of my knees whenever I run more than 5 km, so I started taking 3 tablets of Glucosamine a day with effect from today.  It costs about $30 for a box of 30 tablets which means that I have to invest $3 a day for healthier joints.

Exploring Pulau Ubin

Pulau Ubin is a small island but despite being there 3 times for the past 5 years, I am still not familar of this place.

Lau, William & I went to explore Pulau Ubin this morning. After having breakfast at Changi Village Hawker Centre, we took the bumboat at 9.30 am. It is about 15 mins ride and it costs $2.50 per person. Usually, the bumboat would leave when it has 12 passengers. Otherwise, one would have to wait a little while until enough people turn up. Alternative, you can pay $30 and go straight away.

I think cycling is the best way to explore Ubin, so we rented 3 bicycles at $6 each (normal rental charges is $2/hr) where we can use it for the whole day.

To be continued ....

54 Lorong Mutu

Does this sound like a luxury private residential property? Certainly yes! It belonged to my grandparents.

It was a huge piece of land, easily the size of 10 football fields. There were 2 living rooms, 3 kitchens with spacious dinning areas, 8 bedrooms, 2 tiolets and a bathroom that was located more than 100m away. My grandparents owned more than 30 rambutan trees, 20+ durian trees, 10+ "ba-long-long" trees, a few lime & guava trees, hundreds of papaya trees, many pineapples & bananas, a handful of pomelos, soursop, mangos, jackfruits, starfruits, and a plantation of sweet potatos, tapiocas, various vegetables, etc. There was also a big playround in front of our house.

Behind the house was a quarry, we called it "swayteng" where we used to go there to fly kites. Next to the bathroom was a fish pond which belonged to our neighbour. We treated it as a swiming pool where my neightbours, cousins and I picked up some basic swimming skills there.

It was truely a wonderful place to live in and I am glad that I had spent 17 years of my childhood days there. It was unfortunate that my grandparents had to sell this piece of land to the government for redevelopment purposes, sometime in 1983. It was sold at a small amount of less than $50,000!