Winning Friends

In this world we need friends. To keep up your friendship we need to understand how people feel. Everyone has his own feeling about every situation. Some people feel very strongly about certain ideas or principles. We should respect his feelings. This is important if we want to remain friends for a long time. Even among siblings or family members this respect for the other person's feeling is important. In his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" Andrew Carnegie stresses " never try to win an argument". In a debate of course we have to try to win the argument as it is a contest. But among friends or colleagues we should follow Andrew Carnegie's advice or else you may lose your friend. Arguments can sometimes end in fights and fights can lead to someone losing his life. This possible especially if the two persons are hot-tempered. This can be avoided if both parties try to keep a cool head. Whether this can be achieved or not depends on how hot-headed they are. Someone advised me that if you are angry turn around walk away in trying to "cool" down. If one party is still angry and aggressive just ignore him. In your mind "treat him as a crazy or ignorant madman". In our anger we may resort to action which may lead to serious repercussions. This will avoid blowing up the situation to enormous proportions.It is definitely better to keep calm and main the peaceful atmosphere. After all the arguments we may realize that we were being rather silly. There are enough troubles already as we struggle to maintain a decent livelihood. Why do we want to create more trouble and end up in an unhappy situation. I have a friend who was unhappy with his immediate superior officer in his work environment and he tried to forget the unpleasant thoughts by starting to smoke and after that became addicted to smoking. I think it is rather silly to do that. My suggestion would be to listen to your favourite songs or music as music will help to calm your nerves and it is not harmful. You can access to various genre of music at the following website: http://homeincomeportal.com/tiatan787/

Losing your Weight

When you surf the net mostly likely you will get a lot of emails promoting weight loss. There are so many companies selling weight loss products that you will find it hard to decide which product is really effective. Two years back I discovered one good product which really worked. I did lose weight but please be warned that you must not over do it- I mean you should maintain a certain weight depending on your built and height. The problem is that just taking the product alone will not help. You need to exercise regularly. The cheapest way to exercise is to walk or jog around the place where you live or at a beach or on a quiet road. If you can afford it do it on a tread-mill ( either manual or motorised). You have to control your diet and food intake also. Some people think that they can just control their diet and food intake without the weight loss supplement. I have heard of cases of young ladies trying to lose weight by starving themselves. They eat too little and do not eat supplements which can the cheaper generic types. There are lots of vitamins and minerals available in the local pharmacies. A few cases of these starving ladies died due to ignorance of the needs of our bodies. You can eat less food that produce much fat or starch like rice and eat a balanced food which includes vegetables of various types and fruits. I was taking the health food which was very effective but because they were rather costly I supplement with generic vitamins and cheaper minerals. I exercise everyday freehand and walk on my manual tread-mill and I find that it helps to keep my weight constant. Keep fit the safe way!

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Your Mindset

If you want to succeed in life you must decide early what you want to do when you finish school. You must have an ambition. This ambition is related to the subject you are interested in. Unfortunately for some students their parents want their children to study the subjects that they (the parents) think is good for them regardless of their children's interests. This could be because the parents think that certain jobs that take up will bring in more money. Of course they think it is good for the child. If the parents are rich and own a business they will want their children to take over when they retire. Parents must give their children but they must also realise that if the child is not interested in the profession or job that the parents select for them it can be hell for the children. This can be serious if the child has a strong ambition to go for a certain job. He will not do well or he may break down due to unbearable stress which the parents do not realise. Every one whether an adult or a child has a mind of his own and you cannot force him to do something he does not like. If the child is still young he may not be fit to make his own decision yet but if he is old enough to think for himself then it will be wiser not to force him for the sake of the child's future. Such parents must change their own mindset and catch up with the times. Technology is changing very fast. Every day we see new inventions and new ways of doing things. What we think in our time may not be relevant any more is our children's time. I have seen this problem happening. The son's interest is in science and the father forced him to go into accounts because the father is in the banking business and wants the son to follow suit. In the end the son broke down mentally and could not do well in the university. I think this is selfishness on the part of the father. Catch up with the times. Surf the net and learn more about what is happening in the world. This is the way to open up your mind and change your mindset.Remember that if you don't keep up with the times you are actually going backwards.

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Discipline your children from young

Discipline is very important if you want yourchildren to grow up to be a responsible person. Some people may say that it is not good psychologically for the child. You can allow him to think creatively but the child's behaviour must be guided from young. There is saying "Spare the rod and spoil the child". This is very true. If you let the child do what he wants and excede to his every demand from young it will be very difficult to teach him good behaviour later. Children are very smart and observant. They watch you all the time . They know your weaknesses. Out of love for the child you may be "telling " him you can do what you like. You can punish him when he does something wrong and teach him what is the right thing to do. Cane him if necessary. But after that shower your love for him to show that you punish him because he had done something wrong but not because you didn't like him. Tell him clearly the reason for the punishment. It is very important that you do not punish him because you were in a bad mood and he came at the wrong time. Many parents do just that.
Nowadays, with the availablity of television children may try to do what they saw on a TV show. A friend told me that when his grandson of about 10 years old was punished and the boy started packing up his clothes in his school bag and walked out of the house. His mother was worried but my friend told his daughter not to worry. He said " Let him go. He will come back in no time." He was imitating a character in the TV show. True enough he went out for a short while and turned back after realising that he will have to face many problems.
If you face the same problem with an older child it would be better to have a face to face talk with him and explain why he should not be doing the wrong that he is doing. But the main problem is that the parents had not spent quality time with their children right from their young age. May parents nowadays are too busy working extra hard to maintain the family and have neglected their children. No matter how busy they are responsible parents will reserve time perhaps a few times a week to spend quality time with their children.
Both the parents and the children will understand each other better and there will be less stress and heart pain in their attempt to guide the children. Think about it !

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Bring up your children well and all will be well!

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I have suggested to you how you can keep yourself active. To-day I will tell you how you can keep yourself up-to-date. Most people I know think that we learn things when we were young at school and when we start working we learn what we need to perform our duties. After the working years they stop learning. Perhaps they read news papers or magazines to find out what is happening around or just for entertainment. This is a waste of our mental capacity. We should continue learning for life. This idea was promoted by our authorities recently and it is a campaign known as "life long learning". Actually, ever since I left school to work I have never stopped learning. Personally, I believe that learning is a life long process. We are learning all the time and many of us do not realize that. Even while I was working I was attending part time courses during my off duty hours. I did this out of interest or to improve myself. I read this quotation when I was in school " An idle mind is the devil's workshop" I cannot remember who wrote this but it is the thinking of a wise man. I observed that when a person's mind is idle he or she may tend to think of devilish ideas-ideas that are not good for people and may create trouble for other people or even for himself. One good example is the busy-body or rumour monger, Such a person wants to know what others are doing and they talk bad about them or even create their own conclusions about them without checking the truth. They may tell everybody about what they know. I am not saying that we should not find out about what others are doing. We need such information for planning sales or to plan how we can help such people. It is how the knowledge was used to help mankind and not create animosity. Technology is moving very fast. New things to help mankind are being invented everyday. If we do not keep learning through courses, talks, reading or surfing the net we are actually going backwards. We are not stationary. I learnt this from another quote from another wise man. I have not been to university. What I say to you is from my lifetime experience and knowledge accumulated in these years. It is up to you whether you want to believe me or not . I am not selling you anything . I am just relating this to you and hope that you can benefit from it. I know that some people especially younger ones will say that what I am saying is out of date and that I am old fashioned. To keep up-to-date I sometimes watch movies or entertainment programmes meant for young people. I have some idea how young people think nowadays.

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To-day I continue to inform you of other dangers that may be lurking around. There are some dishonest people who are looking for ways to cheat you on the internet. You may get an email telling you that you need to update information in your bank account and when you type in your account details they capture the information and later meddle with your account. Best thing to day is to call your bank to confirm whether they sent you any email. Sensitive information like your account information are normally not requested over the internet. Internet banking ia convenient but there is the risk of people trying to steal your money so one has to be very careful. There are others who will tell you pathetic stories to get you to do something illegal like money laundering. Delete such email straight away and send it to your block email folder. And if you see an email with an attractive title or picture do not open it or it will "kill" your computer because the sender might be sending you the email with a virus. I do not understand why people want to send you email to infect your computer with virus and "kill" it. This can be prevented by installing an anti-virus programme or subscribe to anti-virus protection provided by your ISP. Once your computer is infected by virus you may lose all your precious data, pictures, etc. You can still use it after getting a technician to clean it up but you have to spend money and you cannot use your computer for at least a weak because the hard disk may have to be re-formatted. Please do not get too frightened because every activity has its dangers. Use it wisely with care and things will not go wrong. There are lots of books available on the internet teaching you about these problems.

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Surf with care!

Yesterday I spoke about surfing the internet. When you surf the internet or even receiving and sending email there is always danger lurking around and if you are not careful especially when you are new to this activity you may get caught in a situation where you could lose money - how much depending on how careful you are. The wise thing to do is to assess how realistic and how sensible the offer is. Look around first and you will get some idea of how a scam works. A couple of years back when I just started to surf the net I was attracted to a site that offered good money for stuffing envelops. The fees for getting this job which you can do at home was not too high and offered in various categories. In this case you pay $30 to get to stuff I think for 50 documents. This goes up to $150 for the highest number of documents. This charge is the processing fee. You are supposed to be paid for every envelop you stuff the document in. I cannot remember because I hate to think about it. I applied for the smallest number of envelops. After waiting for about 2 months I still did not get any reply nor documents to stuff. I checked with the local embassy and they recommended me to check with an organisation called BBB (Better Business Bureau). I was informed that the company which offered this job do not exist. I was only a drop-shipped address with no office and no staff working. I realised then that I was conned. Fortunately, I was careful enough to try first with only the lowest category. There is a more serious scam which can cause you to lose more money. The scamers send you email informing you that you have won a prize of $500,000 in a lucky draw organised by a well known ISP (Internet Service Provider). The website was so well done that I trusted the site "blindly" and responded . Someone replied that I need to pay a fee for service and delivering the prize. I sent the requested fee. Then they emailed me to say that they ran into problem with the incometax authority of the country and I was to send money for the tax payable. I called the person on the phone and he referred me to another person. I called the other person. When I called this second person I felt strange because the voice had the same accent and tone. I suspected something fishy. These scamers I must say did a very good job at phishing (producing imitation websites). They even sent me an email picture of the country's income tax department letter with the logo and all. I checked with the ISP website and found out that it was a scam by a group of conmen working in a foreign country. I wasted a substantial sum of money and was very angry with myself for being so careless and greedy. I can never forget this incident. These people are still doing it and they still send me such offer but with a different approach. Please do not be afraid to surf the net. If you just surf for knowledge there is not so much danger provided you protect your computer. I will talk about that later. Rest assured that what I recommend here is safe as I have been with them for a couple of years already. Sorry ! if you have been frightened. Just be careful and everything will be well. Happy surfing ! You will enjoy it.

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To-day, I am suggesting some ideas how people who are retiring can keep themselves active. I am sure most of you have a list of things that you want to do to satisfy your own interests. Many people have a passion for painting, creating things, inventing things, writing articles, books or perhaps your biography, playing golf or other games like tennis. After working for so many years now is the time to do your own thing. If you still do not know what to do try surfing the internet. You will find your sitting in front of your computer for hours without realising that time has gone by. There are so many things you can learn about anything you can think of and in so many languages also. You learn about your favourite country without going there. You can learn more about you favourite subject and become an "expert" on it. After I retired I found myself more busy than when I was working. Usually, when you go for one activity related activities follow and you get absorbed in that activity, eg when you travel you decide that you should get a camera or video camera so that when you come back you can view again the places or things you have seen. Then you may decide that you want to learn to print your own pictures or edit your video tapes. And you have added this new activity. Travelling has become more popular these days because travel companies organise tours so that you need not have to plan your itinerary. They find arrange the transport, the place to stay and where to eat on a group basis so that the cost can be minimised. And because so many tour companies are opening up the competition tends to bring the cost down. Some tour companies co-operate with one another to save costs so that people will be attracted to travel with them. Many people, especially the older ones realised that they should enjoy themselves when they are able to. They also realised that when they leave this world they cannot bring their money with them. Enjoy yourself while you can!

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Be Active in Retirement

When one has retired it is very important to keep your active otherwise you will age very fast and your whole body and system will detriorate. I have seen this in my father. He was an active man and worked until he was about 65. He did not have any special interests nor hobbies. After he retired his daily routine was - after waking up, eat, read newspapers, watch television (sleeping half way through) eat again and sleep. He did not exercise nor played games. After three months his condition went down. He became weak and eventually fell sick. He ate well and never ate junk food but because of the lack of activity and exercise his condition went down fast. A couple of months later he passed away. From this observation I told myself that I must keep my self active. I liked travelling so I travelled on and off when I retired later. I have been to Europe, US, China, Australia, New Zealand,Tasmania, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia (East & West), Philippines, Canada, Indonesia and Thailand. Travelling is good for us but requires a lot of money and that made me poorer and poorer. As a civil service pensioner I can still survive. But prices of oil and commodities have been rising which affects prices of food, transport and cost of travelling. The threat of terrorists is now causing increase in airfares because we now have get protection from these threats. This security tax is quite sizable and adds to the cost of travelling.Although we have budget airlines charging low fares the security tax is 2 or 3 times the cost of the airfare. So what can we do now . Are we grounded. No, we have to find ways to increase our funds for travelling. We can do so by venturing into internet marketing. It tough but with determination we can make it.
My policy is "never say die!"

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Retirement

I retired from regular work about twenty years ago. When one retires most people will have this big question in their minds. For me I had already thought about it many months before that . The first thing I wanted to do was to start travelling and that I did. As a pensioner in our civil service I did not worry about money which is important to maintain myself and my spouse. We were also entitled to free medical service. We were also required to save some money in our Central Provident Fund. When we retired we could take the savings out for our own investment. At that time a foreign currency was paying a high interest for fixed deposits in that currency. So I invested some of my funds in that currency. In the following years the interest rate and exchange rated went down and our funds shrunk considerably. I and my classmate travelled to many countries and we enjoyed ourselves and at the same time gain knowledge of the geography and culture of these countries. My friend was a very careful man and his funds did not shrink much. I must admit that I was rather "reckless" in my spending and that is bad for me. Some of my class mates were hardworking and they continued teaching as private tutors. But I was quite sick of teaching the naughty or slow learners. I wanted to have nothing more to do with teaching . This was partly because in one of the schools that working my Principal bullied me and harassed me for personal reasons. That made me dislike teaching which I loved when I started my career. Subsequently when the opportunity came I requested to work at the headquarters as work improvement project officers because on my own I had attended courses on work improvement. In the last few years I stopped travelling to work on improving my financial resources. So I have to work hard now at home but it is good because it also keeps me alert physically and mentally. This is important for retirees. Later I will tell write about how to pass the time usefully when one retires. I have seen people deteriorate physically and mentally not long after retirement. For now if you want to make money from home take a look at this site: http://homeincomeportal.com/tiatan787/

Is Your Tongue Sharper Than a Sword ?

When I was in school I came across the saying " The tongue is sharper than a sword"( I cannot remember the name of the wise guy who said this) . And to-day I find that what he said is very true. Our asian elders always gives this advice : you can eat anything you want but do not say anything without thinking whether what you say will hurt someone; and the hurt may not be just mentally but it may even kill him in a worst case scenario. People who talk without thinking are mostly rumour -mongers or busybodies. I have cousin sister who is such a person Fortunately, by nature I am a cool person. I know that it is not worth my time getting bothered by such idol talk. Not only is just saying things thoughtlessly but she would cook up her own story after hearing the first part of what she heard all from her own imagination. This is really bad as it is malicious and may break up a family or causing relationship problems. Many people by nature tend to talk a lot. I hope that such people will just think first for a moment before they say things about people. Unless you are a private investigator you should not talk about other people. Yes, it is good for us to socialise but the conversations should not be about other people's
background or what they have been doing. Every one has a right to his own private activity. Once, she told me about someone's problem and I asked her why she was so interested in the person's activity. She simply said "Oh! I must know what she is doing. " I realised that she is a moron and not worth advising her. I do not understand the psychology behind her thinking. The best think for me was to keep away from her.

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Asian Food

To-day I will talk about the food that the immigrants created when they came to settle in the Straits Settlements. If you have the opportunity to visit Singapore or
Malaysia you must try the local food created by the Peranakans. The famous dishes are "Buah Kluak masa ayam" and "Babi Pongteh".Buah Kluak is a kind of nut imported from Indonesia. It is cooked with chicken meat in a type of curry. The preparation for this dish is very tedious but the taste is delicious but spicy. Babi (pork) Pongteh is a dish cooked with sauce and sugar cane. These dishes are usually eaten with lots of chillie. Peranakans cannot eat without chillie. Another well known dish is the Hainanese Chicken. Many people from Hainan in China came to work in Malaysia and Singapore prepare this dish in a special way and it is a delicious dish. The famous Hokkien dish is the Fried Hokkien Noodle which can be found in the food courts in Singapore and Malaysia. Hokkien Noodle also come in soup with prawns and pig tail or pork ribs.Satay is also well known to visitors from other countries. The name Satay is derived from the Chinese dialect meaning 3 pieces. Sah is 3 and tay is piece. 3 pieces of thin sliced pork are put on a stick and barbecued over charcoal fire. It is eaten with a special sauce comprising grounded peanut and shalot and spices. In fact if you travel overseas you will find that you can find Chinese food in major countries in the world. Enterprising Chinese go to other countries to earn a living as cooks or craftsman skilled in the craft they are skilled in.

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Peranakans & Eurasions

About a century ago many Chinese people migrated to neighbour countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore etc. Those who migrated to Malaysia settle mainly in Penang, Malacca and Singapore. At that time Malaysia or rather Malaya was under the British Empire and these three places were known as the Straits Settlements. Some of these immigrants married the local people and they use a language which is a mixture of Chinese and Malay words. They are known as Peranakans. Their food, clothing and culture also have a mixture of Chinese and Malay culture. These Peranakans learnt the English language from the schools set up by the British and the English educated citizens worked in British companies. But at home they also speak the Peranakan language. Our early immigrants came here to work as labourers or craftsman or run a business to cater for the immigrants. My paternal and maternal grand parents came from China and they gave my parents an English education. Later more Chinese people came to Singapore and adopted the English language mainly because English is necessary for world trade. However we believe that must known our Chinese language as it is part of our culture. There is another group of people known as Eurasions. These are the children of the Chinese who married Europeans ( British, Dutch, Portugese etc) and they speak English. Their culture is influenced by the father's country.

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To-day I will tell you about the various clans in the Chinese community. Each clan has a family name, eg the Tan clan, the Lim clan, the Lee clan, the Teo clan, the Ng ( or Huang clan; also known as Wee clan), etc. China is a very big country and is divided in many provinces or states and citizens of each state is known by their dialect name eg the citizens from the Fuchien ( or Hokkien Province) are known as Hokkien people. So if a person says he is a Chinese you might want to know which province he comes from. Is he Hokkien or Teochew or Cantonese ? Cantonese people come from Kwang Tung or Kwang Chow. A lot of Cantonese stay in Hong Kong so you find the Hong Kong people speak the Cantonese dialect. Similarly a lot of Hokkien people stay in Taiwan so in Taiwan the Hokkien dialect is commonly used. To simplify communication Mandarin language was introduced as the common language so that all the Chinese citizens can understand each other better. The Chinese characters are the same for all the dialect groups . Before the introduction of Mandarin each dialect group pronounces the characters in their own dialect. A Chinese family may now be living in Singapore or Malaysia or anywhere else but they still relate themselves to the clan or dialect group of their ancestors. In my case I was born in Singapore and is a Singapore citizen but I am also a Chinese(Hokkien). To-morrow I will touch on a small community which is significant in the culture of Asian Chinese. Till then ...
tctan -- http://homeincomeportal.com/tiatan787/

Recently I have been receiving letters which reached me very late because they were mis-sent to another country. So I thought that I should touch on this problem in this blog. Hopefully it will guide non-Asian citizen an idea where Singapore is. It is a fact that Singapore is just a dot on the world map and many people in US or other Europeon countries. A brief idea of our location will be helpful especially for internet marketeers. Actually, if they follow the address given exactly there will not be this problem. I suspect someone in the despatch department was trying to be too smart thinking they know the Geography well. I get mail that change my address to XXX, Thailand or XXX Malaysia or XXX China. Singapore is a Republic city situated at the Southern tip of Malaysia but it is an independent city and not under any country. We are known as Republic of Singapore. It far from Thailand or China. They probably think that all Chinese must be in China. I have always given my address as XXX, Singapore. Another confusion is the way we write our names. Westerners' names start with "first name, middle name and last name". The last name is the surname or father's name or family name. Chinese names star t with last name (surname) followed by the person's name (usually two words) eg. Tan (surname) followed by Ah Teck ( person's name). However, the English educated usually add a Western name or Christian name ( if they are Christians) and this is usually written in front of the surname, in the above eg it could be John Tan Ah Teck. Knowing the Western way of naming I usually give my own name first with my surname at the end. It can be quite confusing to a non-Chinese because Chinese people know what names are surnames. These are actually clan family names , ie the Tan family, the Wong family or the Lim family, and so on. I hope this will help Western people understand the Asians better.

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Money Money Money

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Filial Piety

My last blog talks about tomb sweeping day. This is related to our parents' teaching or guidance to bring us up as filial children of the family - the concept of filial piety. Filial piety is important in Chinese families. It is part of our moral education. In the Chinese family whether you are born in China, Malaysia or Singapore the son or sons of the family is expected to take care of the parents when they are to old to work to maintain the family. This differs from the western family where the children grow up and take care of themselves. Their children are not expected to take care of them. My teachers explained this to me when I was in school. English education has helped us make tremendous progress in our lives but in the process of getting this education the concept of filial piety has eroded in some cases. Every now and then we hear of the father or the mother being abandoned by the son and all because the son wants to keep the monetary savings for themselves - greed takes over. This happens more often to mothers who are not educated in either Chinese or English. The son would persuade or if force the mother to sell their house or flat and lock the mother out of the house. The parents who love their children too much may end up in such a situation because when their children were young they pamper them and give them whatever they want all for the sake of their love for them. This is a big mistake for such parents. Be strict with them when they are young or you may change them in greedy monsters. Filial piety was taught to us by our great sage Confucious.

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Remembering Our Loved Ones

During this month (Chinese Lunar calendar months - end of 2nd month) it is customary for us to visit the graves of our loved ones. The actual day falls on 4th April this year and is known as "Cheng Beng"locally referred to as "tomb sweeping day". As some of us (ie those who are not Christians) are busy working they can visit the graves any day between 10 days before or after the actual day. Usually they will do so on weekends or on their "off" day. When they visit the graves they usually weed the grass on the tombs and sweep away the dead leaves from trees nearby. If there were farmers living near by they would help them clean the graves before they came to visit, for a one time fee of course. The graves could be maintained through out the year at a higher annual fee. As the economy got better these tomb cleaners became rare because the service charge is not attractive any more. I used to visit my grandma's grave in my younger days and I had to clear the weeds which were overgrown. The burial ground was not maintained by any one and before my last visit there someone chopped down a tree which fell over my grandma's grave.The tree trunk was quite big and and I could not do anything about it. So I had to abandon it. I have not visited the place again as I was getting old and going up the hilly slope is a task. I do not know what has happened to the place. When my grand father died later we cremated his body and kept the remains in an urn which is placed in the crematorium. This custom has changed during the last two decades. My grandma was buried before that on a hill side allocated by the government as burial ground. There were many lots used as burial ground but as time goes on availablity of vacant land became scarce and a few of the burial grounds were converted to housing estates. The graves were exhumed and the remains cremated. Chinese religious authorities in Singapore encourage and promote the cremation of the dead. Crematoriums were built both by the government and the religious bodies. The remains were kept in urns which are kept in public crematoriums, temples or churches.
To-day I visited my grand father's resting place. To save space the temple re-built the crematorium and kept the urns in "blocks of flats" (13 storeys high).They look like letter boxes and the blocks look like our flats. All these new ideas save a lot of land.Two days ago it was reported that in some countries the rich are having electronic devices built at the tomb so that they can watch the loved ones' video messages which were probably pre-recorded. The main thing I feel is that this is the time when we remember our dear departed ones and what they have done for us. It doesn't matter how we remember them -it is the thought that counts.
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View of Bangkok from Bayoke Tower

Marble Temple -Bangkok

Our Wedding Anniversary

My wife and I were married 50 years ago at the end of February. We were pleasantly surprised when our four daughters told us they would give us a special treat - a trip to Bangkok instead of the usual dinner at a restaurant. My daughters were all married and have children; and they left their husbands and children at home to bring us for a short holiday. It was a good trip and they enjoyed themselves especially shopping in Bangkok. Bangkok is the place to go if you love shopping because there are so many shopping malls where you can find clothing of the latest designs and prices are cheaper than in Singapore or other countries. Although I have been to Bangkok many times this trip is quite different as I did not have to think of what to eat and where to go. My daughters arranged everything and decided everything from booking flight tickets and hotel rooms to the daily itinerary. I simply follow them. Although shopping is not my cup of tea I took the opportunity to take a good rest and on one occasion I went to the bookshop in the same shopping centre to get Thai books ( I am currently learning Thai in Singapore) and the computer centre to buy a Thai keyboard to use with my computer. And of course we also enjoyed the spicy Thai food there. The traffic jam is still there everyday but we found it easier to move around by taking the train ( they call it BTS). To help shoppers move around safely they have built many overhead bridges which are linked from one shopping centre to another. The good part of this shopping trip is that we were indirectly going a lot of exercise by walking. I noticed that every day we walk at least a few kilometers and that is good for old people like us. I have been doing my daily routine exercise as home on my treadmill otherwise I would not have been able to follow them. A little advice from an old guy - keep fit by eating proper nutritious food with a lot of vegetable and fruits and exercise everyday to keep fit. If you want to travel and see places you must keep fit.

posted by tctan --- http://homeincomeportal.com/tiatan787/ (where you can shop online - no
need to travel to Bangkok to shop)

Is there such a thing called "LUCK"?

To-day is a gloomy day for me. Last weekend my laptop suddenly "died". I went to the technical support unit of the supplier to have it checked and to my surprise I was told that the mother board is not working. The support staff checked the cost of the mother board which needs to be re-placed. Another shock for me --- The mother board costs s$600 and the service charge is $120. This works out to about half the cost the product. It seems that the mother board cannot be serviced here. They can only get a new mother board and simply replace it and just replacing it and most likely testing it costs $100. The product was assembled in a neighbour country and the parts are from another country. It is a well known brand and it didn't occur to me that such a situation would arise. I have friends and relatives who use laptops but I have never heard of the mother board breaking down after about 2 years. The support staff told me it happens. To me it is just bad luck. Some people think that there is no such thing as bad luck. I really do not know what to believe? I just hope that my luck will change for the better because I have done many things and things seem to go wrong. If any reader is thinking of buying a laptop or desktop computer I would like to advise that he or she should check where the product is made. In case of breakdown can the affected part be repaired locally? Will the supplier try to help the customer fix the problem at minimum cost? What is the service charge ? I know of a popular brand printer which does not cost much but the cost of the ink cartidge will "kill" you. And I also know of a company selling popular brand Tv sets, printers, computers and other electronic equipment providing good service. They will try to help customers solve their technical problems as much as they can. So beware of these problems or you may be ribbed off.
- posted by tctan at http://universalwebserver.com/tiatan787/.

My First Blog

Welcome to my first blog. I have retired from the education service about fifteen years. Time really flies. This year I suddenly realised that fifteen years have gone by; and what have I done?

I have not achieved anything significant yet although I have tried to do many things which I had planned to do before I retired. Life has been tough for me but I must say that I have learnt a lot from life during my travels. I have in fact travelled quite a lot and also spent a lot of money. Luckily, I worked in the civil service and that saved me a lot especially in medical fees, etc. I get a sizable amount of pension money enough for me to survive until now. I have been to China, Europe, US and Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Philipines, Britain, Scotland, Tasmania, New Zealand, Borneo, Sarawak and Sumatra. Besides travelling I got my involved in the running of the estate that I live in ie Laguna Park. Many people asked me how I pass my time during retirement. I said simply, get yourself involved. There are many smart alacks who think I am very stupid to get involve in other people's problems. It has been proven that it kept me busy and the important thing is that it keeps my brain working. If one does not keep the brain working every day the grey cells will wither and the person will end up walking around like a zombie. So it is very important to keep oneself busy and active. If you have any comments feel free to give me your comments. Every one is entitled to his opinion and I will respect your opinion. I am interested to hear what other people think.