English Class

Just read a brochure promoting an English class for kids in asia. The text in the brochure however, is quite ungrammatical with quite a few illogical sentences... in short, the language was not good at all!

"imporoving performance...enchance vocabulary...stimulating asessments"

I'm not a language snob by any means, but I think its erm.. weird.. when its advertising for an english language centre. Heh. This company actually seems to have had moderate success attracting people. hmmmm..

linli is playing with computer programs

Good folks

There is a room in the animal shelter around here with about 7 cats in a room, roaming freely. As a volunteer, I enter this room to play with the cats (domesticating them for adoption) or to clean up the litter boxes (hold your breath and wash hands thoroughly after!). Today, there was an old lady and her aide, who came to the shelter to interact with cats. The lady was from a nursing home and liked holding cats. So, this is quick snap of her in the room, where a fat cat jumped onto her lap and sat for awhile, purring. The lady was very pleased and so was the cat. (My hubby thinks I might be like this when I'm old...well, pets are affectionate!) Another cat was playing with the 'emergency cord' on the lady's rolling bed/chair, and that had to be stopped an innocent pull set the alarm off.

The aide shared that she was part of a volunteer group that brought the people in the nursing home out once a fortnight or something... either to pet cats or to the mall, just anywhere with people and activity. Very nice. Good for the folks. Good kitty. (yes, the room looks like a regular bedroom, very nice interior)



Wen

Swimming

Swimming pool at hubby's university.. all 25yards of it.
hubby is a 'retired' swimmer, but he did great today. There was one chap in the pool, called Chase... who did the backstroke, or rather back-float, in his freestyle event, at an extremely leisurely pace. hmmmm.

really?

I saw this headline today in a Singapore newspaper

"3 in 10 scholars polled say they're unhappy"
"Unreasonable employers or ungrateful scholars? Lack of dialogue and unrealistic expectations cited as reasons"


I wonder what the number would be if you polled Singaporeans in general. perhaps there needs to be another poll for a mixed group- the control group to tell us if scholars are particularly unhappier than the rest of Singapore.

Singapore thru the eyes of Colin Cabalka

Sheikhs, Divas, and Singapore. from Colin Cabalka on Vimeo.


Who knew Singapore could look so exciting with a bit of hindi music and editing !
Maxwell Food Market is featured in the middle of the video...ahhh good food and local kopi.
The residential estates (not featured here) give off a different vibe, of course ;)

Better than American Idol - Britain's Got Talent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&NR=1

Susan Boyle, singing sensation.

City in mourning

Three police officers were killed in Pittsburgh this week.

Senseless deaths it seems. They were dispatched to a house when a mother called in, asking for help getting her son to leave. The police went to the house to help, not knowing that "son" had a number of guns on hand. legally owned.

So, they entered the house and got shot multiple times. There was no chance to fight back it seems.

The sad part of it is that their deaths could be avoided. The operator who dispatched them was relatively new, and failed to transmit crucial information-- that the 'son' had weapons. Perhaps the policemen would not have entered the house, and perhaps would not have gotten shot. I am sure the operator feels lousy about it... who knew that her one mistake would cost three families their fathers and husbands.

Thousands of people and policemen from all over came to Pittsburgh this week to pay their respects and concern for their brothers in blue. We were surprised at the numbers and places people came from to show their empathy and understanding, and hope that it helped the families and police force find support.

Spring snow

So one day after linli makes her declaration that its spring... it snows the whole day.
Fortunately for the rest of the world, she is not a weather forecaster.

Spring

Spring is in the air and its lovely. While temperatures still range from 0 deg to 15 deg... nothing beats a healthy dose of sunshine!
The air is crisp, the sky is clear blue and while the trees are still bare and brown, its only a matter of weeks before they sprout with verdant green leaves, relishing the new life they possess with each new spring season.
Anticipation is in the air as people start dusting off their BBQ sets (big ones!), kids start practicing those ball moves and the elderly lady that lives opposite us starts sunning herself and her sheets on her deck- for most of the day. Soon we won't be able to see her and vice versa, as the trees in between build up a healthy green shield.

Bored cat