Shanghai Mui Goes to London

25 laps

2012-01-24T12:52:00.000Z

One of the best things about Singapore - the public pools. 25 laps is just 20 minutes and under £1 away.

When hiking

2012-01-08T22:04:00.002Z

When hiking, there occasionally comes a meditative point where it is just you and your strides. You march ahead into the sun. Other people fade out, their conversations become a radio in the background. The autumn leaves under your feet rustle to the same brisk tempo. You stride on, into a glide.

Camera-phone series #37.

Winter acorns

2012-01-08T21:37:00.003Z

It has been surprisingly warm this winter. I was going to hang up my hiking shoes till late February but 8ºC and sun yesterday made it possible to hike through the Farnham Heath in Surrey.

Camera-phone series #36.

Eyes at Tate Modern

2011-12-31T22:37:00.000Z

Camera-phone series #35.

Wedding speech

2011-12-23T23:39:00.003Z

I learnt from them that the swish man-bag is called a sporran.

Ted on hot tin roof

2011-11-13T19:33:00.001Z

Ted is an engineer. In pre-arthritic days, he used to dance on the hot tin roof, on the pretext of fixing pipes.　

Poppies

2011-11-11T20:45:00.001Z

Armistice Day this year is 11 am, 11 Nov 2011.

In the two weeks leading up to the Remembrance Day weekend, a good 30-40% of the people in London wear poppies on their lapels. During this time, I particularly like spotting poppies popping up on escalators travelling in opposite direction of mine.

Here is my »previous post on poppies.

Joyeux anniversaire Christine

2011-10-30T19:48:00.000Z

Christine handles her birthday chopsticks with finesse!

Croatian summer

2011-09-03T22:41:00.001+01:00

Two cellos at Rector's Palace

2011-09-01T23:48:00.006+01:00

Anton Arensky’s Quartet No. 2 for violin, viola and two cellos in A minor, Op 35.

This was part of the Julian Rachlin and Friends concert series at Rector's Palace in Dubrovnik, which looked like this in colour:

Elegy

2011-09-01T23:44:00.001+01:00

Elegy for viola and piano in G minor, Op 44. Alexander Glazuov.

Light at Mljet

2011-08-31T23:59:00.000+01:00

Love-hate

2011-08-28T00:06:00.000+01:00

Bathroom effect

2011-08-27T22:55:00.001+01:00

Diocletian's Palace, Split. Roman emperors and a capella choirs all like the sound of their voices there, thanks to the superb acoustics of the tower.

盛夏的果实

2011-07-23T23:38:00.000+01:00

Out of the strong came forth sweetness

2011-07-10T15:15:00.003+01:00

»via the Londonist

At Samson's wedding, he posed a riddle to his thirty Philistine groomsmen:

Out of the eater came forth meat,
Out of the strong came forth sweetness.

I hope he told them that they were supposed to guess a scene, for I could make neither head nor tail of the riddle at first.

The answer is the scene depicted on the tin of Lyle's Golden Syrup. Fascinating. (The rest of the story between Samson and the Philistines is however rather violent and testosterone-filled I am afraid.)

Note: I have seen and prefer a more rhyming phrasing: "Out of the eater came forth meat, out of the strong something sweet". However, the above is what appears in Abram Lyle's bible and the King James' bible.

Dubai old town

2011-07-09T01:10:00.003+01:00

It reminds me of the old Pasir Panjang in Singapore.

Camera-phone series #34.

Suspend belief: Dubai

2011-07-09T00:06:00.002+01:00

Camera-phone series #33.

Until human judgment is infallible

2011-07-06T01:05:00.007+01:00

It has been »widely reported that the current President Nathan stated last year that he can only grant pardon from the death penalty "on" the advice of the Cabinet. That is, a President has no discretion - the Cabinet decides, the President signs.

The operative paragraph is para 22P of the Singapore Constitution which states:

Grant of pardon, etc.
22P. —(1) The President, as occasion shall arise, may, on the advice of the Cabinet —
(a) grant a pardon to any accomplice in any offence who gives information which leads to the conviction of the principal offender or any one of the principal offenders, if more than one;
(b) grant to any offender convicted of any offence in any court in Singapore, a pardon, free or subject to lawful conditions, or any reprieve or respite, either indefinite or for such period as the President may think fit, of the execution of any sentence pronounced on such offender; or
(c) remit the whole or any part of such sentence or of any penalty or forfeiture imposed by law.
(2) Where any offender has been condemned to death by the sentence of any court and in the event of an appeal such sentence has been confirmed by the appellate court, the President shall cause the reports which are made to him by the Judge who tried the case and the Chief Justice or other presiding Judge of the appellate court to be forwarded to the Attorney-General with instructions that, after the Attorney-General has given his opinion thereon, the reports shall be sent, together with the Attorney-General’s opinion, to the Cabinet so that the Cabinet may advise the President on the exercise of the power conferred on him by clause (1).

Per »Siew Kum Hong's analysis, I agree that this has to be read in conjunction with para 21 of the Constitution, a few paragraphs up from para 22P:

21. —(1) Except as provided by this Constitution, the President shall, in the exercise of his functions under this Constitution or any other written law, act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet or of a Minister acting under the general authority of the Cabinet.

(2) The President may act in his discretion in the performance of the following functions:...

However, Siew implicitly argues that para 21 contains an exhaustive listing of all the decisions that the President has discretion to decide.   Since the death sentence pardon in para 22P falls outside of para 21, there is no discretion allowed.

I disagree on this last point, for para 21(1) states "except as provided by this Constitution" not "except as provided by this paragraph".    It is not beyond the shadow of doubt for me that para 21 necessarily precludes discretion of the President in para 22P.

My question is why para 22P uses "on the advice of the Cabinet". Why has para 22P not used "in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet", which would have left no room for doubt? In my mind, one interpretation of "on the advice" could be that the President has to necessarily seek counsel from the Cabinet before granting a pardon and give weight to its advice. But he or she may not necessarily end up acting in accordance to it.

There are only two possibilities as to why para 22P does not use "in accordance with": (a) the draughtsman did not give too much thought; (b) it was deliberate. Either is possible, but in all likelihood, (a) is the more probable case. (If you have seen how lawyers work and the kind of time pressure they are under, it will not come as a surprise.)

If the draughtsman didn't give too much thought, the onus then falls upon the judiciary to interpret it in a reasonable way. Sim Kum Hong and the Court did not think that there was room for any other interpretation. »M Ravi thought there was and proposed the very attractive doctrine of legitimate expectations. It was however defeated in court.

It is not an outcome I like. I can accept it if President Nathan did not want to grant the case at hand (Yong Vui Kong, for drug trafficking) a pardon. In fact, I have often explained to people that we cannot run a country if we keep granting ex post exceptions. It is however very dissatisfying to see President Nathan deflect his personal burden of saying no by instead creating a constitutional interpretation that Presidents have no discretion to grant clemency. It further begs the question of whether past pardons are constitutional, if it turns out that past Presidents somehow did not act in accordance with the Cabinet "advice". If I were one of the seven lucky people in Singapore's history who managed to receive a pardon from past Presidents, I would be very worried.

But the law is the law, and the letter of the law has failed the popular expectation of what it is supposed to do. The only thing we can do now is to change it.

My attention turned onto the issue of pardon recently because of the compounded effect of the mandatory death sentence. I have seen those three words many times in the last 20 years, but did not fully grasp its full meaning until a week ago. Mandatory death sentence does not mean "a maximum penalty of death sentence". In the specific case of drug trafficking, it means simply this: if you are in possession of more than x grams of drug y, the public prosecutor is obliged to push for the death sentence and the judge is obliged to sentence the same. There is no gray area, no extenuating circumstances, no judicial discretion in prescribing something other than death sentence.

This is my understanding of how »Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act works. I would love to be told that I am wrong, but it is unlikely.

All these come together to mean the following: if you are caught with more than x grams of drugs, and you are unable to rebut the presumption that you have knowledge of it, the presidential pardon is essentially the only hope. However, we are now faced with the situation that the decision for this pardon lies not with the President, but with the Cabinet who is most unlikely to diverge from the stance of the public prosecutor.

We cannot allow both to exist in our system for the simple reason that the British MP Sydney Silverman has put so elegantly in 1948 -

Until human judgment is infallible, we have no right to inflict irrevocable doom.

Powers of the Singapore President

2011-07-05T22:36:00.002+01:00

With the Singapore Presidential Elections around the corner, I decided to see if the Singapore President is really as powerless as is often believed.

I was pleasantly surprised by what the Constitution contains. If the President wants to make a credible job of earning his keep, he in fact has the constitutional power to do a number of things. It is already well known that he is supposed to safeguard the reserves. What I was not aware is that he also has veto power over the appointments and budgets of statutory boards and Government companies. Even more importantly, he can veto detention or further detentions under »Part XII of the Constitution. This would include detention without trial, a colonial remnant still retained in Singapore and Malaysia laws.

So, there are perfectly good reasons to choose your candidate carefully. Did you also know that the President enjoys immunity from suit for actions arising from his official capacity? This immunity can only trumped by a tribunal convened by the Parliament against him.

For those who enjoy legalese, below is the overview paragraph of the President's functions. The right to grant pardon from the death penalty is not there, because it is in paragraph 22P. I will discuss 22P in a separate post because its language and recent events left me confused as to the exact powers of the President.

»CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE

Discharge and performance of functions of President
21. —(1) Except as provided by this Constitution, the President shall, in the exercise of his functions under this Constitution or any other written law, act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet or of a Minister acting under the general authority of the Cabinet.

(2) The President may act in his discretion in the performance of the following functions:

(a) the appointment of the Prime Minister in accordance with Article 25;

(b) the withholding of consent to a request for a dissolution of Parliament;

(c) the withholding of assent to any Bill under Article *5A, 22E, 22H, 144 (2) or 148A;

*Article 5A was not in operation at the date of this Reprint.

(d) the withholding of concurrence under Article 144 to any guarantee or loan to be given or raised by the Government;

(e) the withholding of concurrence and approval to the appointments and budgets of the statutory boards and Government companies to which Articles 22A and 22C, respectively, apply;

(f) the disapproval of transactions referred to in Article 22B (7), 22D (6) or 148G;

(g) the withholding of concurrence under Article 151 (4) in relation to the detention or further detention of any person under any law or ordinance made or promulgated in pursuance of Part XII;

(h) the exercise of his functions under section 12 of the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (Cap. 167A); and

(i) any other function the performance of which the President is authorised by this Constitution to act in his discretion.

"Where is the Love..."

2011-07-03T23:27:00.004+01:00

Sunset with 63,000 people and the Black Eyed Peas in Hyde Park. Rocked out!

Camera-phone series #32.

Ronsard

2011-07-03T23:07:00.004+01:00

A Cassandre

Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Qui ce matin avoit déclose
Sa robe de pourpre au Soleil,
A point perdu cette vesprée
Les plis de sa robe pourprée,
Et son teint au vôtre pareil.

Las ! voyez comme en peu d'espace,
Mignonne, elle a dessus la place
Las ! las ses beautés laissé choir !
Ô vraiment marâtre Nature,
Puis qu'une telle fleur ne dure
Que du matin jusques au soir !

Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne,
Tandis que votre âge fleuronne
En sa plus verte nouveauté,
Cueillez, cueillez vôtre jeunesse :
Comme à cette fleur la vieillesse
Fera ternir votre beauté.

Ode To Cassandra

Mignonne, come let us see if the rose
Which this morning opened
Her robe of crimson to the sun,
Has not already lost, at evening,
The folds of her crimson robe,
And her complexion, so like your own.

Alas, see how in such short a time,
Mignonne, she has, from above,
Alas, Alas, let her beauty fall!
O Nature, truly cruel,
That such a flower should endure
Only from morning till evening.

Now, if you would believe me, mignonne,
While your young age is in flower
In its verdant freshness,
Pluck, pluck your youth,
Since, as with this flower, old age
Shall tarnish your beauty.

- Pierre de Ronsard, 1524-1585

Witness the sterility of translation:

Cueillez, cueillez vôtre jeunesse :
Comme à cette fleur la vieillesse
Fera ternir votre beauté.

Pluck, pluck your youth,
Since, as with this flower, old age
Shall tarnish your beauty.

Pluck?!

There are translators who attempt to inject some poetry, but it loses the meaning and musicality of cueillez, cueillez completely:

Be merry ere your beauty flit,
For length of days will tarnish it
Like roses that were loveliest.

I don't think liberties of this extent should be allowed, particularly since the last line really does not work .

This one is better but still no cueillez and the insertion of doom seems contrived:

Do take advantage of your youthful bloom:
As it did to this flower, the doom
Of age will blight your beauty.

If I had my way, I would make it mandatory for all translated poems to be published side-by-side with the original.

If Kerouac were in Venezuela

2011-06-05T03:44:00.001+01:00

I am on the road a lot this week. To get to our plant takes 40 minutes on the highway of nothingness from Barquisimeto. I do the journey twice a day, mostly in silence because I can't chat with the driver. Today being the weekend, I decided to see Carora, which meant whizzing through over an hour of tundra land at high speed, also in silence. Every ten kilometres or so, you see stalls selling hammocks and what looked like pots and kitchen sinks (!).

I had my very old point-and-shoot with me just now. All the car windows in Venezuela are tinted black, so shotting through them confused the meter and gave this rather nice effect.

The trouble with danger

2011-06-02T02:26:00.005+01:00

I am in Caracas, consistently rated among the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world. (One does not tell the parents this of course.) It is an city embraced by mountains. You wake up seeing the green mountains nudge the billowing clouds, the way one might half-heartedly push away the bedsheets in the morning. At night, the mountains flicker romantically from the lights of the hundreds of houses stacked on them. It might well have been San Francisco.

Except that many of the houses are crime-ridden shanty towns that even the police avoid patrolling. Except that it is a city where our office has a cash machine (not inside the building, but inside the office - beside Sofia's cubicle).

At lunch yesterday, the other girl and I were lightly chided by a fellow foreigner for bringing our very modest handbags. 'I carry nothing here, only a card and some cash,' declared the American man proudly.

'But you're a man. For me, there's the makeup, the water... And the local girls all carry bags too,' protested the American women.

Out came the ultimate trump card: 'But it only takes one incident.'

It is true of course. There is apparently a woman in the office whose husband has been kidnapped for sixty days. In Caracas, there are still three express kidnappings a day, down from five.

But if we take such a reasoning to its logical end, we would be mobilised into inaction. The trouble with danger is not so much the consequence of the danger (being hurt), but the multitude of possibilities (carrying a handbag, wearing earrings...) that may cause the onset of that danger. Today it is not carrying a handbag, tomorrow is not wearing heels, and the day after is not going out for dinner - because anything can happen.

I am not suggesting foolhardiness. This trip, there is no SLR. Yet at the same time, I really struggle with OTT self-censorship. Beyond a certain point, one has to just leave it to prayers - if you are religious, or hope - if you are not.

Camera-phone series #31. Straight out of the camera.

The TPL phenomenon

2011-05-18T23:19:00.003+01:00

When I was 6, there was once when I had to choose between staying over at my aunt's place or going to Sentosa the next day with my cousin. I still remember that day very clearly. I was babysat by my aunt, very close to her and her family, and did not want to go back to my parents' home that Friday. My mother gave me a choice: stay over, or forfeit the Sentosa trip. She warned me, sternly and a few times, that I could only choose one.

The desire for immediate gratification being urgent and immediate the way they tend to be, I told her I wanted to stay over. I thought that I would be able to convince her the next day to let me go to Sentosa if I begged hard enough.

The next day, I begged, begged and begged. She did not relent. I cried my eyes out. She did not relent. I think I even skipped lunch in profuse tears after I saw my cousin leave the house. She did not relent. The family thought it was rather harsh of my mother, but still my mother dug her heels in.

That day, I learnt that when you choose, you have to live with your choice.

I therefore have some bones to pick with the whole TPL phenomenon. The rules of the elections were very clear - when you vote, you vote in a party of four. It is all or nothing, and there is absolutely no ambiguity about that. You cannot say that you only want one of the four, because it is not the rules of the game. If one were so unhappy with the GRC rules, one should have been more active in lobbying for the change instead of leaving it to others . If one were still that unhappy, then one would simply have to vote against that entire team and/or go on a crusade to convince residents in Marine Parade. There is no two ways about it, and that is the way life is.

For this reason, I did not sign any petition calling for the resignation of TPL (or for the re-election of CST for that matter). I cannot say at all that I have been impressed by TPL, but the people of Marine Parade have chosen for themselves, and consequently for Singapore. To give another analogy, if you knew your boyfriend has a pesky mother, then it is a case of caveat emptor before you marry him. I think it would be unreasonable to ask him to disown his mother after you are married.

In response to my objections, some people have countered that even if TPL has been democratically elected, she should still step down in light of the public displeasure against her. Should she? To be fair, the only two things she has done wrong is to have posted those kawaii photos and silly suggestions about holding down hawker prices down . She has not committed any grave offences, whether civil or criminal. There is doubt in her ability to deliver (in which case you should have taken that into account when you voted), but I am not aware of any tenable reason for her to resign.

What seems to have happened is that a mob has gathered against her. Unfortunately, mobs are not driven by logic but by the adrenaline of the moment. She has, not out of her conscious choosing, become a celebrity like Paris Hilton. Not a celebrity politician, but a celebrity whose existence is to entertain a bored public. It is a difficult starting point to be in, but I hope for our future in the next five years that she overcomes it. At the very least, the TPL phenomenon will clearly remind us that when we choose, we have to live with our choices. Or to put it in more blunt terms: citizens in a democracy deserve the government they have.

李公言重了

2011-05-10T21:42:00.004+01:00

设使国家无有孤，
不知几人造反，几人亡国。

-- 改自曹操《述志令》

»"A generation that does not remember from whence we came" 读后感。

宰相肚内可乘船

2011-05-03T23:06:00.000+01:00

今天从翁老先生那儿学到了新俗语。

读者有兴趣可以追踪»他的博客。博客主人翁老先生从前算是响当当的人物。听说他八十几岁了，但说话仍一针见血，看了真令我这种晚辈汗颜。

Love nests

2011-05-03T17:21:00.001+01:00

Camera-phone series #30.

Norwegian Wood

2011-05-02T16:50:00.004+01:00

This movie was the third and final chance I gave Murakami. (I read two of his books before.) Honestly, it was twice too many chances. Murakami is like a guy you really want to like –he is nice, polite, well-to-do, kind to his parents... You know, all the wrong reasons. You give both of you many chances, and there are moments when you think: maybe we are getting there... But then, you never do. He is too bleak and name drops too much.

There was one thing I did manage to like in the movie. It was the idea of walking as catharsis. After one of the main character dies, his girlfriend and his best friend met every Sunday to walk together, silently, aimlessly and for hours on end in Tokyo.
I came across this cluster of trees on »last week’s walk in the Chilterns, and it reminded me of Norwegian Wood.

Camera-phone series #29. Macro mode accidentally left on.

Bluebell forests of Ivinghoe

2011-05-02T16:40:00.001+01:00

When you finally come across a forest of them after a good 6 miles, stretched out as far as you can see, ‘magical’ is the word that comes to mind. You half expect Peter Pan to fly out and say hello.

Camera-phone series #28.

被安逸收买了

2011-04-27T00:51:00.000+01:00

在动荡中长大的孩子，义无反顾地追求安逸，只能说是无可厚非。

在安逸中长大的孩子，还只是义无反顾地追求安逸，只能说是被安逸收买了。

蔚蓝的天

2011-04-27T00:40:00.003+01:00

我的小国再过两周就要投选了。身在大国的我近几天看了许多政治评论、许多人物专访、许多国民的心声感言，觉得特别亢奋。原来新加坡人还是有血有肉的。就凭此，我的小国将前途无量！

Camera-phone series #27. This is the Chilterns on a summer day, »somewhere near the Whipsnade lion.

Beachy Head reactions

2011-04-12T01:22:00.004+01:00

Everyone had a reaction when they heard that I went walking in Beachy Head.

Reaction #1 was the brow furrow from my English colleagues. They asked if I knew what it was famous for. "Jumping off," Ms M told me. "Or driving off for that matter," added Ms S helpfully. Oh.

Reaction #2 was an ooohh-and-ahh from an old classmate on Facebook. But hers was a very specific ooohh and ahhh. In particular, looking at the photo I had posted, she was reminded of the old days when her geography tutor (Mr White - an English) showed them pictures of Beachy Head on a *slide projector*. And presumably in her head, the 100 different geographic terms used to describe erosion must have bubbled in honour of Mr White...

Beachy Head

2011-04-10T00:39:00.003+01:00

Credits: »sameer

Lush green, turqouise blue, chalk white.

Finally, an English seaside that can rival continental Europe and Australia - I was impressed!

This was my second hike in the south with Tania and Kieren of the »Trailblazer group. It was the sort of brilliantly sunny spring day that makes you want to order two ice-creams even though you are still hiding behind a jacket. 10 miles of traipsing up and down the hills later, we got to trade strong salty winds and magnificent piles of dung for an ice-cold beer. Paradise.

Aside: Really need a good small camera for walks as I can hardly haul myself up sometimes, let alone the SLR. Let me see if I can salvage my old Powershot.

We like having neighbours – Amsterdam redux

2011-04-05T16:55:00.003+01:00

Keukenhof Park just outside of Amsterdam.

The first time I spotted many nests on one tree was »also in a tulip park – Istanbul's Gülhane Park. Ever since then, I have made it a habit to look out for nests when I am out walking in winter and spring.

The Surprise

2011-03-28T17:10:00.005+01:00

What a surprise to stumble upon it when walking through Chelsea with Ms C a couple of weeks ago. It was tucked in the middle of the posh residential area, and they were surprisingly down-to-earth.

Camera-phone series #26.

McVitie's

2011-03-24T12:53:00.001Z

On that scenic morning with Addison Lee, one of the new places I passed by was the McVitie's head office. I snapped and emailed it to Mr C who is positively mad about McVitie's. Turns out that he was just tucking into a pack of their ginger nut biscuits, live. An ad-worthy moment.

Camera-phone series #25.

Convergence

2011-03-24T02:51:00.010Z

Waking up late a few days ago, I took an Addison Lee to work. The driver somehow decided to take the local roads instead of the zippy A40. The scenic route was taking too long, we were stuck behind a whole herd of police horses on their morning stroll, and I was running late.

Normally I would have expressed some displeasure, but I didn't because it was such a treat to be chauffeured around on a sunny morning, seeing new neighbourhoods with half-sleepy eyes. And then, there was a point when a cyclist squeezed between our cab and the horses in order to overtake us.

In that singular moment, transportation across time converged.

Not immediately obvious

2011-03-13T00:49:00.001Z

Camera-phone series #24.

A spring hike in Sussex

2011-03-12T21:44:00.042Z

I was so impressed that this gadget can even track your elevation in addition to your hiking route. Refreshingly, this was not done with an iphone. It is a serious device called »Garmin eTrex Legend HCx which can hold a GPS signal even if in the depths of the woods.

Deep cold water

2011-03-12T12:41:00.000Z

With the »British penchant for swimming in cold water, cold requires underscoring.

To be read aloud with a very English accent

2011-02-28T23:15:00.000Z

Recalling the past Saturday where I laughed so much, I recalled another laughter-filled weekend last month when Ms K and I went to see Wilde's Ideal Husband at the Vaudeville. The dialogues are just exquisite. This is one of them.

(To be read aloud with a very English accent.)

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Bowing.] Every one is dying to know the brilliant Mrs. Cheveley. Our attachés at Vienna write to us about nothing else.

MRS. CHEVELEY. Thank you, Sir Robert. An acquaintance that begins with a compliment is sure to develop into a real friendship. It starts in the right manner. And I find that I know Lady Chiltern already.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Really?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Yes. She has just reminded me that we were at school together. I remember it perfectly now. She always got the good conduct prize. I have a distinct recollection of Lady Chiltern always getting the good conduct prize!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Smiling.] And what prizes did you get, Mrs. Cheveley?

MRS. CHEVELEY. My prizes came a little later on in life. I don't think any of them were for good conduct. I forget!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I am sure they were for something charming!

MRS. CHEVELEY. I don't know that women are always rewarded for being charming. I think they are usually punished for it! Certainly, more women grow old nowadays through the faithfulness of their admirers than through anything else! At least that is the only way I can account for the terribly haggard look of most of your pretty women in London!

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. What an appalling philosophy that sounds! To attempt to classify you, Mrs. Cheveley, would be an impertinence. But may I ask, at heart, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Those seem to be the only two fashionable religions left to us nowadays.

MRS. CHEVELEY. Oh, I'm neither. Optimism begins in a broad grin, and Pessimism ends with blue spectacles. Besides, they are both of them merely poses.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. You prefer to be natural?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Sometimes. But it is such a very difficult pose to keep up.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. What would those modern psychological novelists, of whom we hear so much, say to such a theory as that?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Ah! the strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analysed, women . . . merely adored.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. You think science cannot grapple with the problem of women?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Science can never grapple with the irrational. That is why it has no future before it, in this world.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. And women represent the irrational.

MRS. CHEVELEY. Well-dressed women do.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [With a polite bow.] I fear I could hardly agree with you there. But do sit down. And now tell me, what makes you leave your brilliant Vienna for our gloomy London - or perhaps the question is indiscreet?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Well, at any rate, may I know if it is politics or pleasure?

MRS. CHEVELEY. Politics are my only pleasure. You see nowadays it is not fashionable to flirt till one is forty, or to be romantic till one is forty-five, so we poor women who are under thirty, or say we are, have nothing open to us but politics or philanthropy. And philanthropy seems to me to have become simply the refuge of people who wish to annoy their fellow-creatures. I prefer politics. I think they are more . . . becoming!

»Full screenplay

For Yi Zhang (1935 - 2009)

2011-02-28T22:33:00.003Z

I like the concept of lighting up so much. The dimly pulsating red, the curls of smoke.

How much does a shadow weigh? I wondered as a child.

It turns out that a shadow of smoke weighs a wisp, but a shadow on a lung – a ton.

- A slightly different version of this picture is a contributing piece in the "Light" exhibition. Goodenough College, 6 March 2011, 2 pm. On hindsight, revealing the beer mug suited 姨丈 more: he was the man who gave me my first taste of beer - at age 5!

Sunning the keropok

2011-02-21T21:58:00.000Z

This is why I prefer HDBs to bland condos.

I can eat a whole basket of these btw. Move over, English crisps!

Camera-phone series #23.

Edgeware Road at 11 pm

2011-02-21T21:16:00.000Z

Positively pyschedelic. The kebab shop is heaving, the shisha shops are full, and the pharmacies and grocers open well past 11 pm. Imagine summer.

Camera-phone series #22.

On the other hand

2011-02-21T20:38:00.001Z

Yesterday, a friend recounted an old love. He said they eventually broke up because it was long-distance and the love was not strong enough.

Then he remarked, "On the other hand, love wears slower."

Bellissimo.

The name of this toad

2011-02-01T02:03:00.001Z

Walking past the foyer of Hyatt Hotel, the mother complained, "TSK. Why is this car so noisy? Like a toad croaking."

Me: "Mother, the name of this toad is Ferrari..."

(And so it is true that a Ferrari is only nice if you are the one in it!)

Google logos

2011-02-01T01:55:00.002Z

»Google Logos

I stumbled upon the »repository of Google logos which is great fun to browse. I learnt that apart from celebrating holidays, artists (in the wide sense of the word), heroes (dads and mums included*) and codes (bar, braille, Morse, Unix), Google also likes elections and games (Olympics, Tetris, Pacman).

Outside of the established Western world, Japan and Turkey got their customised logos quite early on, followed by Thailand, China and even Singapore (2009 - after they set up their office here). You also see that as the official logo got more established over the years, they took more artistic liberty to venture away from the confines of its shape.

Above is the customisation for Australia Day on 26 Jan 2011.

* It is a bit annoying that mums always get just a flower, but dads get to lie in a hammock while the lawn gets mowed by the kids.

Survived the postal journey from France

2011-01-22T22:35:00.001Z

This one was not, but about half were in perfect shape, miraculously.

On the bathroom mirror

2011-01-09T23:08:00.000Z

Thank you to those of you who participated in the project!

Good old Goodenough days

2011-01-09T22:26:00.001Z

Last days with my first love in London. Sep 2010.

Lilies are harmful to cats if eaten

2011-01-04T23:33:00.005Z

Two of my favourite things are incompatible!

Every tree has had its day

2011-01-03T22:15:00.001Z

Tomorrow is the first garbage collection day of 2011.

Another lingering poem

2010-12-30T00:15:00.003Z

We did not choose vs we chose not to.

If a boy must wonder

2010-12-29T23:53:00.004Z

It took my breath away when I first read it on the tube. More so, after seeing the Chinese name. Cantonese British, I had thought.

I finally hunted it down today, and found out to my very pleasant surprise and pride that Leon Yuchin Lau is a teenager from Singapore. He is one of the »Foyle Young Poets of the Year in 2009. More of his works »here.

As I have said from time to time here: it is entirely possible for someone with black hair to write well in English. Well done, Leon.

Red blue yellow

2010-12-22T00:50:00.001Z

Darling, look into the camera

2010-12-22T00:12:00.002Z

Jerry of »Giffard House at Winchester, and a dad too frozen to venture out.

I highly recommend this beautifully-restored B&B btw. Talk to me about it.

Strikeout

2010-12-21T00:28:00.002Z

Summer afternoon in Munich (hic)

2010-12-21T00:23:00.000Z

Pearls and lavender

2010-12-21T00:20:00.000Z

Patina at Dachau

2010-12-20T23:34:00.002Z

Dachau was a very difficult place for me. (Which may explain why I have put off sorting out the photos for such a long time.) It is not comfortable to come face to face with mankind's capacity for cruelty. It is equally not comfortable to realise that it is not just "them", but it could very well be us who are complicit in such cruelty.

»This is Dachau.

South Kensington station, -2°C

2010-12-20T17:30:00.002Z

Camera-phone series #21.

The hood and the flat

2010-12-03T00:27:00.000Z

Camera-phone series #20.

(Good old Sony Ericsson alongside the BB Bold)

Frosty Oxford Street

2010-12-02T23:51:00.001Z

11 am last Saturday. New haircut, scrambled eggs from Flat White, carols on a quiet Oxford Street... Heaven.

(1.30 pm. Heaving. Can't wait to escape.)

Camera-phone series #19.

Earlier than me

2010-12-02T23:25:00.000Z

7.46 am, 0°C. Someone was out earlier than me.

Camera-phone series #18.

Cambodia hospitality

2010-11-02T23:25:00.003Z

[»slideshow embedded]

When I mentioned that I was going to Siem Reap to attend a conference, an ex-colleague related the story of how he was personally thanked by the Cambodian trade minister as a junior customs officer many years ago. He and his mate had gone to conduct something like a 3-day capacity building course for the Cambodian Customs. Almost at the end of the training, their counterpart came over to whisper to them that their minister would like to meet the both of them to thank them personally. So there they were, in a big ministerial office, face to face with Mr Cham Prasit.

Mr Cham Prasit is of course now the Deputy Prime Minister. But humility, like hospitality, is seldom forgotten.

A motorbike holding the hand of a bicycle

2010-11-02T23:11:00.000Z

Together we glide.

Khmer woman. Siem Reap

2010-11-02T22:56:00.000Z

Girly talk at Boat Quay

2010-09-23T18:36:00.001+01:00

Singaporeans I met today

2010-09-23T18:21:00.001+01:00

A nurse at the hospital, who proudly told me that her son is studying in London too. "Imperial College," she beams.

A blind man selling tissue, who probably has been standing for hours. He greeted me cheerfully and just before I left, said: "It's raining you know. You have umbrella?"

A Malay taxi driver, who told about his family history as we crawled through a jammed CTE. "My grandfather was Chinese also. Guangdong Province, he was a Muslim from Guangdong Province."

Our lives, our history, our dreams.

Sculpture at Raffles Place

2010-09-23T17:50:00.001+01:00

I'm fascinated by veins and sinews. My favourite ones are »here.

《马说》

2010-09-19T18:53:00.000+01:00

世有伯乐然后有千里马。千里马常有，而伯乐不常有；故虽有名马，只辱于奴隶人之手，骈死于槽枥之间，不以千里称也。

马之千里者，一食或尽粟一石。食马者，不知其能千里而食也；是马也，虽有千里之能，食不饱，力不足，才美不外见，且欲与常马等，不可得，安求其能千里也！

策之不以其道，食之不能尽其材，鸣之而不能通其意，执策而临之曰：“天下无马。”呜呼！其真无马邪？其真不知马也！

A deadly observation

2010-09-19T18:32:00.000+01:00

The man who said "I'd rather be lucky than good" saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck, it goes forward, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose.

- Match Point (2005)

London according to talljoanne

2010-09-07T16:30:00.007+01:00

Prompted by Mr T and Ms C. Here we go:

Walking, eating and doing

Borough Market (Thursdays through Saturdays) - Try Monmouth coffee there and you might even have Steven Lim (David in Growing Up series) as your barrista!
Camden market - for grunge, tattoos and crazy hair. Oh, and the Aldo outlet.
Shoreditch / Old Street - Indie in the very hip east end. Combine with Brick Lane on a Sunday. At Brick Lane, go have a beef baigel at the oldest Jewish bakery. You can also go to Song Que at the edge of Hackney for good Vietnamese pho then walk into the Shoreditch area. (BTW, the no. 1 pho place - courtesy of Ms L - is in Canada Water, too much of a trek for tourists.)
Of course there's also Portobello market but I find it too institutionalised now.
Covent Garden - Be sure to explore not just the main street (Long Acre) and the market area, but also the Seven Dial part for cool indie stores (walk down Neal's Street) . Not everything is affordable (esp now that summer sale is over), but it's what makes London London.
Get away from the cookie-cutter madness called Oxford Street and wander into Marylebone High Street and old Marylebone Lane for fancy indie stores. Wallace Collection (in the area) is a gorgeous place to get away for some culture and lunch under skylight. Alternatively, La Fromagerie and Providores.
Saville Row - To reignite materialistic desires. Look at the flagship stores, take a polaroid photo with the hunks at Abercrombie & Fitch. Go into Burlington Arcade.
Soho - A walk is in order. Get a bite at Princi (I like the savouries) or Flat White (uber rich scrambled eggs and coffee) or Hummingbird Bakery (cupcakes). I like Berwick Street.
Afternoon tea - Bea's of Bloomsbury. Fun and local. I like their cupcakes best, and I'm not even a cupcake person. Must reserve in advance.
Theatre tickets: Leicester Square. TKTS seems to offer the best price for the more expensive seats. If you don't care about sitting in the circles, try any of the dozen half-price shops nearby whose queues are usually shorter. War Horse is outstanding and seems to be a London-only performance. The open-air Shakespeare Globe is a very nice alternative to West End, but it's more of a summer thing: you'd probably be frozen in winter.
Pre-theatre dinners: Quo Vadis for the crispy pork thing and O Sheeky Oyster Bar for oysters and nibbles.
Museums: Free entry. Yes, free entry (save for special exhibitions). So no need to be greedy. Just choose a section, spend 2 hours, have a coffee and off you go. British Museum and Tate Modern are my favourite. If you go to Tate Modern, get out at St Paul's tube and walk over the Millenium Bridge to arrive in style.

Greens

Best thing about London as a city. Hampstead Heath is by far my favourite (Richmond Park comes a close second), but it is slightly far out for tourists. On the other side of Hampstead is Highgate Cemetery where you can see Marx's grave.
I haven't been to Kew Gardens yet, but it's supposed to be nice.
At the very least, sit in one of the many city gardens or squares and talk about the weather with the chappie beside you.

Tours, guidebooks, addresses

Sandesman free walking tour - works on a tips basis
Timeout and Londonist for addresses and latest updates. I prefer Londonist, but Timeout is handy as a directory.
Superfuture guide (thanks cousin N!) - Haven't seen it but looks promising
Luxe guide - Enough said.

Day trips

Greenwich - go by the public ferry from Westminster. You can use your oyster. There seems to be tourist ferries too but they would be more expensive. Ask, it should only cost around £5 or £6.
Bath - by train. www.thetrainline.com is a good train site. If you can, stay overnight and do a day tour of the Cotswolds for a taste of posh English countryside.

I've deliberately left out hyperlinks. Google is king. Just type the keywords.

[Version Sep 2010]

Probably the first tattoo design I'm enamoured by

2010-09-04T19:59:00.001+01:00

Credits: »Wellcome Collection

Let's see if I change my mind five years down the road. (My problem with getting a tattoo!)

The »Skin exhibition at the Wellcome Collection is very good by the way. It's not necessarily pretty though, so go with a strong stomach. It is, as the Collection bills itself, a 'destination for the incurably curious'. Thanks Ms K!

Not talking

2010-09-01T23:41:00.000+01:00

Hidden Salzburg

2010-09-01T23:06:00.003+01:00

After you are done with the heaving poshness of the Salzburg Festival, go seek out these two hidden gems. Don't forget to share tables with locals at the lovely »Zum Fidelen Affen.

A.E.I.O.U. by Walter Smerling

2010-09-01T22:42:00.000+01:00

For another layer of meaning to A.E.I.O.U., see »here. (No prizes for guessing where this installation was found.)

Sunday in Munich

2010-09-01T00:54:00.000+01:00

Good old fun. No malls required.

The Kruetzer Quartet

2010-09-01T00:47:00.002+01:00

Playing Charles Ives' Piano Trio (1911): Moderato - TSIAJ (This Scherzo is a Joke) - Moderato con moto.

Everyone goes banging mad after a while in the TSIAJ. I like!

More Wilton's

2010-09-01T00:23:00.001+01:00

The »Kruetzer Quartet is the focus of their attention.

Crazy about this music hall

2010-09-01T00:15:00.001+01:00

Been there twice this month.

»Wilton’s is the oldest surviving Grand Music Hall in the world. It belongs to the first generation of public house music halls that appeared in London during the 1850s and which, only fifty years later, had all but disappeared. Now owned by the Wilton's Music Hall Trust and run by a very small and dedicated team of people, it is once again becoming a centre for innovation and excellence, both locally and internationally. Originally 5 terraced houses, John Wilton opened Wilton's Music Hall in 1858. Since then it has been home to the missionaries, survived two world wars, been a rag warehouse and unfortunately become derelict.

Determination

2010-08-31T01:51:00.000+01:00

Also part of the procession, Slowly but surely, they got there.

At the Sargent by the Sea exhibition today, Mr C and I saw another moving case of determination. This old lady had a large-print booklet of the explanations on little plaques beside the paintings. She read the large print with a magnifying glass. To see the paintings, she put on a pair of special glasses around her neck. The glasses had two sets of lenses stacked, about 5 cm apart. She alternated between these two methods of seeing, for each painting.

It occurred to me that she must be almost blind, probably seeing just swatches of colours.

I was heartened by the fact that the the Royal Academy of Arts was thoughtful enough to provide aids and facilities for the less able. Mr C said that the more heartening bit is her determination, because it takes much more for a person to decide to get out of the house and make use of these aids.

He is right of course.

Freedom to assemble

2010-08-31T01:11:00.004+01:00

This rowdy procession of children passed by my window sometime in early July. (The guy at the back of the procession - in a highlighter yellow vest - is a policeman.)

In London, they learn about their rights from a young age. Rightly so, before political apathy sets in.

Greenwich meridian line

2010-08-31T00:50:00.000+01:00

Mr Tiwari

2010-08-01T16:37:00.006+01:00

On 26 July 2010, Mr Tiwari passed away. I want to say 'suddenly', but I suppose there is no such things as 'sudden' when it comes to death. Regardless, it left me in great shock the rest of that day and lingering sadness for the rest of my Munich-Salzburg trip.

Mr Tiwari was the »Principal Senior State Counsel of Singapore and helmed many of our international negotiations. He was the king of UNCLOS (UN Convention on Law of the Sea) and the man for bilateral issues with our immediate neighbours. He was recently a WTO panellist for the US-China intellectual property rights dispute and was re-invited by Pascal Lamy to be a panellist for the US-Mexico tuna dispute. I had the good fortune to work under his tutelage on several investment guarantee agreements in my career.

He was one of those old-school bosses - all for the nation, serious about work, and fatherly outside it. He was very senior in the government, but did not think himself too senior to commute by MRT or invite us junior staff to his house for Deepavali. He cut a familiar figure in the ASEAN circuit with his Gandhi-like stature, round glasses and signature black backpack.

When I came back from Shanghai, he organised lunch among a couple of us. After lunch, he and I walked side by side. The rest were behind. He wanted to hear what I thought about China. As I talked, he listened on humbly and intently, and we exchanged views as equals. Such rare humility, I remember thinking. I did not even know at that time that he was the one who drafted the agreement that established our diplomatic relations with China.

When I later wanted him to write my recommendation letter for London, I went through a boss to ask him as I was worried that he might feel bad about saying no. When I formally dropped him a note, he replied,

"Dear Joanne

Will work on this. Not sure why you thought about my saying "no". I will surely help as far as I can .

regards

S Tiwari"

When I explained that he had worked with so many officers over the years and might not remember me enough to write a reference letter, he returned a feisty and touching reply:

"Surely the girl in Shanghai must have made an impression for me to organise a welcoming lunch!"

This, is the Mr Tiwari I remember.

Post-script: Ms L wrote a lovely tribute of him - read it »here.

在树梢间起舞

2010-07-16T18:32:00.001+01:00

»St Paul's Church, Covent Garden.

Where are you from, darling?

2010-07-14T22:51:00.000+01:00

"Where are you from, darling?"

"Singapore!"

"Singapore... Malaya? You know Malaya?"

"Yes of course."

"I was there from '52 to '54. Youngest soldier. I was 16 when I was recruited."

"Oh my, 16."

"Oh, Malaya was a wonderful place. It was very humid, but the people are so friendly. I had a wonderful time, when I was not on duty. There was a General Hospital in Kuala Lumpur. You know Kuala Lumpur? There were many pretty nurses there. My mate had to stay there for a while and he really enjoyed it."

"Lucky him!" Laughter.

"Did you go out with them?" Cheeky look.

A pause.

"No. But I used to go out with this girl from Malaya. She was Chinese, like you. We went out for a long time. Almost the whole two years. And when I had to come back to England, I asked her to come with me. She said no. Her family - her mother, her sister - they were all in Malaya. She didn't come back with me."

"Ohh. Oh dear."

"Many years later, I got married, to a very lovely lady and we moved out here to London. Not far from where we are now, you know. (Inaudible street name) We lived in an apartment building. Not long after I moved in, this young lady stopped me outside my house and said, 'I know you. I have seen you somewhere.' I said, 'I beg your pardon. I don't think we have met before.'"

"Was it one of the nurses?"

"No it wasn't. A couple of weeks later, I was walking my youngest daughter, heading back home, when I bumped into the young lady again. She stopped me, and she said, 'I know you. My mother knows you. You are Patrick.' And then she pulls up this photo of me and her mother together."

"It was the Malayan girl I used to go out with."

"Oh my god. Was her mother in London too?"

"No, she stayed on in Malaya."

"Did she ever visit after? Did you write to her?"

"No, I don't think she ever came to London. Just her daughter came."

"And you know... We are both married. My wife is the most wonderful lady in the world, and we have children. Oh, she is such a darling, my wife."

"No yes, I am sure she is very wonderful."

A pause. I continued:

"It's ironical that she didn't want to come to London, but the daughter came instead."

"Yes..."

"But that's life, you know."

"Yes... I was going to say that too. Life's lament."

One smile. And then two.

Life's lament, fond thoughts.

(Singing in the Rain music in the background)

Just so we're absolutely clear, city folks...

2010-07-14T02:04:00.002+01:00

WE are the ducklings (from Lake Windemere).

Not sure what goslings look like. We don't go near them as they have an annoying habit of pecking at butts.

Bonjour! Je suis un jeune cygne

2010-07-14T01:41:00.002+01:00

cyg·net (sĭg'nĭt)
n. A young swan.
Middle English cignet , from Anglo-Norman, diminutive of Old French cygne , swan , from Latin cygnus , from Greek kuknos.

Air is now cleared for the previous post! I'd have failed both of those questions had they asked me in science class.

Which animal am I the young of?

2010-07-13T23:51:00.004+01:00

Bonus question: What am I called?

British summers

2010-07-08T22:00:00.003+01:00

Flashy bikes, sunnies and flirty skirts.

Southwold.

Sisters

2010-07-08T19:45:00.001+01:00

A very humble salesgirl salary of the elder sister supports both, and even brings them to London.

This is not a question of economics. It is a question of generosity and love.

Mirror mirror on the wall

2010-07-07T00:12:00.001+01:00

Assembly Rooms, Bath.

赤脚大仙

2010-07-07T00:01:00.002+01:00

夏天咯！

蒲公英

2010-07-04T01:12:00.000+01:00

羡煞朋友在郊外找到完整的蒲公英，我最近去 Cotswold 时也抓了一颗来拍拍。

《蒲公英》也是»王安忆早期的创作之一。我外婆好像和她父亲或舅舅是远亲。

The infinite violet-rose of the artichoke heart

2010-07-02T19:37:00.001+01:00

This cronopio's wild-artichoke clock is a wood artichoke of the larger species, fastened by its stem to a hole in the wall. Its innumerable leaves indicate what hour it is, all the hours in fact, in such a way that the cronopio has only to pluck a leaf to know what time it is. So he continues plucking them from left to right, always the leaf corresponding to that particular hour, and every day, the cronopio begins pulling off a new layer of leaves. When he reaches the centre, time cannot be measured, and in the infinite violet-rose of the artichoke heart, the cronopio finds great contentment. Then he eats it with oil, vinegar and puts another clock in the hole.

- "Cronopios and Famas", Julio Cortázar

Return of the ladybirds

2010-07-02T12:14:00.000+01:00

白米粥

2010-06-16T23:04:00.005+01:00

小时候家境虽然过得去，但不算特别好。中午时候一般吃白米粥配菜心、江鱼仔。偶尔换换口味，会吃番薯粥，或配配腐乳、肉松、罐头花生。妈妈比较喜欢我吃江鱼仔，说比较有营养，头脑会厉害些。

这回芬妈妈过来伦敦，特地炸了江鱼仔，还带了菜心、肉松、面筋、橄榄菜。就连麻油、蚝油和安培娜香米也分成小瓶小袋给我带来了。（我是泰国香米的忠实支持者，去到美国中国英国都不变。）

夏天，有碗白米粥吃真幸福！

十点才天黑的感觉

2010-06-16T22:38:00.002+01:00

2010:06:16 22:00:35

许多年前在美国找到后，我就一直惦记着。

十点才天黑的感觉，终于，又与你重逢了。