picture postcards from LA!

And New York and California too! Mmmm how I do like receiving things in the mail. Such an exciting feeling it is. Thanks Shireene! May you go to many more places and send me plenty of postcards! Hurry on back, so we can all partake of Ribena together!



By the by, thought this pic would be highly appropriate, given the occasion. It was taken in the dugout at Stamford Bridge in 2003, long before the Special One came along. It was still the era of the Tinkerer, and even before Roman came along with his billions and his dreams of world domination. Pop quiz: who was the only Premiership manager to be fined for not speaking to the press after a game? It was, you guessed it, Fergie at, where else, Stamford Bridge.



I do hope Jose returns to English footy, and sharpish. No matter what you may think of him, there's no doubting his entertainment value. Just consider what he said to an English journalist the day after he left the club: "In football, I have always been a man of war, but in life I am a man of peace."

I daresay United will take Chelski to the cleaners tonight. And in a year's time, Roman will look back and realise that it was the biggest mistake he ever made. Poor old Avram will be out on his rear, and maybe someone like Fabio Capello or Frank Rijkaard will be in the frame.

show me the money

Non-Constituency MP Sylvia Lim of the Workers' Party comments in Parliament today on the CPF reforms.

"The minimum sum to be left in CPF at 55 years has gone up progressively over a short time. Apart from this, we're also required to leave a medisave required amount in the CPF. This means Singaporeans will soon need a total of 145,000 dollars kept locked in the CPF when they reach 55. On top of this, it also takes longer to accumulate savings due to reductions in CPF employer contribution. Besides all the above, the rule allowing CPF members to withdraw half of their savings is being phased out starting from January 2009. It seems to many that a member's CPF money is becoming a bit of a mirage, a virtual pool of water that seems just ahead but as one approaches is in fact much further away."

Is there anyone who can think of a better analogy? Just another 28 more years before I can get my damn money. Or rather, what little of it they let me touch.

Good on you, Sylvia. Now we just need another 30 of you in Parliament.

watch this space. watch paint dry.

Another weekend burned in the newsroom and another slow news day. Leading the news this hour: Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee has called on youths to play their part in crime prevention.

Be still, my beating heart.

And here's another travel memory for the day. This picture was taken outside the Reichstag (German parliament) in Berlin in March this year. I don't know where the performers are from, but I found it pretty cool. I know the kids in the crowd loved the whole thing too. No, they weren't making some political statement about how the legislative is merely a puppet of the executive. That would be far more appropriate in, oh, I'm sure you can figure out where. I should probably take more recent photos to upload though.



Beginning to feel the overseas call again. So many options, so little money. North America, Central Asia, the Middle East...just when will I make it there? Now all I need to do is win the Golden Point Award. Still another 3 more months before I find out. Lord, let me win!!!

I'm finding out again just how hard it is to let go of things. How long can you carry the burdens of the past? After all this time, the oldest hurts remain. This verse spoke to me yesterday. It's probably rather cliched, but its the verse for the season right now, I think.

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" ~ Isaiah 43: 18 - 19

pages pages pages for words

"The only difference between a saint and a sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future" ~ Oscar Wilde

Isn't it ironic how much truth the irreligious often speak about God? The way I've always seen it, objective truth resides only in God. You cannot live or exist apart from God and hope to have some sort of anchor or meaning in your life. So why do the non-believers speak so much wisdom then? Maybe a lifetime of searching in the dark is especially enlightening. Particularly when the light begins to shine through.
To quote Stephen Colbert, atheism is the religion devoted to the worship of one's one smug sense of superiority! =P

In the words of Madonna, so where do we go from here? More and more, I begin to think of the future and my place in it. If there is anything the Word teaches us, it's constantly to look forward, and not to stay still or stagnate. People all around me seem to be moving on, especially at work. And I know I can't stay still either. I know the talents that have been granted to me by God, and I want my words to matter. Words are my vocation and my passion, and I want to have a voice in this world. I want to speak and I want to write, and I want to be heard.

But enough of all these serious matters: time for another picture of picturesque Europe! A more recent one this time, in case anybody thinks I'm living in the past. This one was taken just in March on a (so-called) mountaintop in Vienna. This was when I went with Mumsy and Dadsy to Germany to visit Big Brother, and we all took a trip to Vienna for family time. You may find it interesting that last light was coming just as this pic was taken, and wolves started howling shortly after! We got off the mountain quickly after that...

Europe

What is it about Europe that never fails to draw me?

Is it the museums, the chuches, the castles, the palaces, the football, the history or the beautiful women? Probably all of the above =) I've got all the credentials to prove my Europhone status, too. European Studies major, 3 years of French study, six months in France, boring people to tears with my constant recitation of European history facts. Been to France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, England, Germany, Austria and Italy. And still so many more countries to go.





Here's another picture from the student exchange archive, circa 2003-2004. It's of the Jet d'Eau at Lake Geneva. Jet d'Eau literally means jet of water, and true to form, the Jet d'Eau is quite literally a, you guessed it, jet of water. Two jets of water, actually. If you had turned the camera round the other way, you would have seen the other jet of water. Trivia fact for the boh liao: it once featured on an episode of Amazing Race. I'd tell you which season, but I'm not geeky enough. Unfortunately, I've lost that jumper I'm wearing in the picture. Left it on a bus about two years back *weep*

Switzerland's a lovely place, really. It's not hard to see why the gahmen's so obsessed with emulating them. Geneva was only like, a 2 hour train ride from Grenoble. It's nice and (largely) clean, the people are friendly, and they speak SUCH clear French without swallowing their consonants, as the French are so fond of doing. The Belgians speak so clearly too. Hopefully, I'll be back in la Suisse next year, but that's still a long way to go....

Here's another picture of Geneva before I go. It's a huge structure just outside of the United Nations. It's meant to symbolise the landmine victims of the world. Personally, I like to call it, "How effective the UN is"