难得一听的悬疑小说。。。东野圭吾的解忧杂货店

 

东野圭吾是一位多产的作家。他的著作，有百多本。难能可贵的，不少都是脍炙人口的作品。

他的推理小说，引人入胜，往往不到最后，理不出“凶手”是谁。

想不到他的悬疑长篇小说，解忧杂货店，也令人读（听）得欲罢不能！

小说里的人物，初看没什么关联，但随着故事的演变，人物的环环相扣，令人感叹不已！

小说里时不时谈起要实现人生的目标， 不是件易事。个人会不时受到外来因素的考验；甚至在迷茫的当儿，会难以下决定，寸步难行。旁人的意见，只能作为参考，真正做决定者，还是要靠自己！随着感觉走吧。。。虽败犹荣！（真的是如此吗？我不知道）

挪威的森林。。。有声书

这几天忙着听村上树春的挪威的森林。

这是本畅销全世界的长篇小说，多国翻译了好几个版本，也被搬上电视电影荧幕好几回。

现在听了一半，觉得很沉闷，吃力！这么就有这么多人忽然间（因为忧郁症）自杀，或神经兮兮的过活！

书中有不少对话，谈论起精神病患者与常人的不同-- 前者知道自己有病，但后者却不然。

还不懂接下来的情节会是如何收场？

也许应该听些武侠或推理小说比较好！

读后感：

一口气在四五天内把整本书听完，书里的人物，离的离，死的死，孤独过着生活的还是在过活。正本书讲述了主人公年轻时的经历，及社会朋友们的生活理念，所触及的零零碎碎琐事，在作者的娓娓道来，还蛮有一番滋味。

对于书上所描绘的六十年代日本年轻人对性爱的开放行径，着实令我大跌眼镜！

总觉得整本书太过于沉闷，灰色。

COE Certificat of Entitlement

To limit the number of vehicles running in the island of Singapore, the government came up with the COE scheme where those interested in purchasing cars could bid for a certificate to own a car in 1990.

When I first purchased my pre-owned Toyota Starlet in the 1993, the COE for vehicle <1600cc cost 10-20k.

I subsequently "upgraded" to Toyota Corolla in year 2000 (after I returned from US), then to Camry in 2008, and Toyota Wish in 2015. The COE for Corolla (<1600cc) was around 50-60K, Camry (2000cc) 60K, and Wish (1800cc) 30-40k respectively. But alas, the price of COE for various categories of cars has shot through the roof over the past 6 months.

Just imagine having to cough out $126K for a piece of paper to own a car!

This is absurb!

I think I probably have to "upgrade" to MRT travel when the COE of my current vehicle expired in 2 years time (unless the COE price drops miraculously).

听书

向来只在国家图书馆网站线上聆听有声书。只可惜，该网站脍炙人口的华语有声书籍不多。

上个月，在油管频道发现了不少有声书视频，所包含的书本五花八门，质量蛮不错！在短短的一个月内， 便聆听了白先勇的台湾人，张爱玲的第一香炉，余华的活着，第七天， 及东野圭吾的三部推理小说 （恶意，当祈祷落幕时，无名之盯）。

现在正在聆听村上树春的挪威的森林。

听书，好在不用手握实体书或平面电脑，眼睛跟随着字幕移动。可以在驾车时利用时间欣赏“文学创作”，不亦乐乎。想来，我从没有一气呵成的在短短几个星期读完这么多书。

听书，若讲书者声音不够洪亮清晰，有时会听得很辛苦。不过若发音太过吃耳，也会很难受。

每个作家的文笔不同，说描绘的故事情节，人物性格，都决然不同。

初步体会- 张爱玲的文笔文绉绉的，要细心聆听，才能厘清所描绘的场景；其他作家的描述都蛮简易，直入主题。

东野圭吾的推理小说，往往牵涉到人情世故；亲情，友情，爱情，人与人之间的矛盾/冲突，都一一表列出来，感性十足。

challenging neuro cases

The past 2 weeks have been rather busy.

Suddenly, there were a "deluge" interesting and complicated neurological cases, ranging from an adolescent with Juvenile Myasthenia Gravis, to young child with MOG related encephalitis, not to mention a child with strong family history of exercise induced dyskinesia /febrile illness induced weakness/dysarthria (of unknown cause), and a recent cases of possible immune mediated encephalitis (with concomitant reactive synovitis)...all in the spate of 2 weeks.

Fortunately, all the above patients responded well to treatment!

Yes, these cases were mind boggling and challenging; but they also kept my adrenaline running, and served as a boost to keep myself abreast with recent changes / differential diagnosis of various medical conditions.

Youtube videos of various lectures have helped a lot, even though the information may not be the latest - most of these were lectures given 3 months to 2-3 years back. They served as a foundation to jumpstart my pursue of new information.

Looking back, the COVID pandemic does help in drastically reducing potentially damaging infectious / post-infectious related neurological cases. But as travel restriction is called off, and social distancing / mask wearing are now a thing of the past in most countries, infectious/ post-infectious related, and potentially damaging neurological cases have started to emerge again!

View from my balcony 阳台外景

I stayed in a private condominium. My apartment is located at level 3, with balcony facing Geylang River waterway. Both sides of the waterway are lined by pedestrian walkway/exercise paths.

The view from my balcony can be very soothing. In the early morning and evening, there are never ending stream of people, young and old, jogging or brisk walking, even cycling along the pedestrian exercise paths.

I was told the view from higher floors of my apartment block was "grandeur" - the distant apartment, and perhaps part of East Coast Park could be seen from there. But the "distant" feel makes the view/scenery more detached. Whereas from where I am, I can literary hear the sounds/commotion of the people passing by, and this provides the "down to earth" kind of feeling.

从三楼的阳台往外看，芽笼小河在眼前从西往东流过。河俩岸的行人跑道不时都有人经过，步行，跑步，踩脚车，遛狗，推着婴儿车的都有。

傍晚时分，夕阳斜照，凉风缓缓吹来，欣赏着众人悠闲的从面前走过，着实写意。

只可惜阳台地板因为处于屋外，很快便铺上一层灰尘，脚底踩在上面，往往会呈现乌黑一片，有点扫兴。

住在三楼，虽然接地气，但也容易与蚊虫为伍。若晚上忘记关窗，便很容易受到蚊虫的青睐。结果每晚都得开上空调，即浪费资源，也浪费钱。