迎新去旧 Welcoming the new and discarding the old

终于等到领取新车的这一天。

New car

下午两点半准时抵达BYD车行，3点左右办好交替手续，才步行去领车。

因为是新车，有不少细节要交代 (入车内的无线操作系统等等)，然后再把零碎的物件从旧车搬到新车去，最终将近4点方能把新车驾走。

因为是新车，驾驶时的小心翼翼。

虽说是买车，倒不如说是贷车；因为十年后，又得无偿报销！就犹如我们这辆Wish旧车，辛苦了9年，到头来还得转手他人。

Old car

想来多残酷！

Finally, we collected our new electric vehicle (EV) today.

Our Toyota Wish has been a loyal "servant" to our family for the past 9 years - it had travelled north up to Genting Highland and Melaka, and possibly ran through almost all corners of Singapore.

It's a pity that we have to part way - making way for a new car.

This time round, we bought an EV - this is truly an entirely new way of driving - need to charge the car periodically. Not that I am environmentally friendly, but this happens to be the cheapest 7 seater car in the market now! It's like buying a 2 - 3 room HDB flat!

仙境 Fairyland

旅游的乐趣，就在于能目睹全新景色，或沉浸于崭新的生活状况与经历。

比如身居热带国度的我，喜欢在秋天时往温带国家赏秋叶，冬天时分穿上层层冬衣，在冰天雪地下步行。住在自然景色贫乏的岛国，更向往看看清澈的湖畔，宽阔的高山平原，以及从天而降的滚滚瀑布。

旅行便成了一种习惯。一旦好几个月没出远门，便觉得很不自在。

上个月到奥地利/意大利旅游，有幸观赏了不少犹如仙境的壮观美景。

The whole purpose of travelling is "experiencing and exploring" new things - wonder of natures, architectures and cultures. Food is of secondary importance to me (even though this is part of cultural experience).

Whether to travel solo or with love ones, it's once personal choice.

面壁 Reflection

年少时翻阅武侠小说，就读过某人因为犯错，被师父严惩，需面壁思过。

后来西方社会也不认同东方社会传统的鞭打的肢体教育方式，认为在教育孩童这方面，软性教育效果更好，不会给成长的孩童留下阴影。面壁思过便是其中一项被推举的方法之一。

不过，偶尔还是觉得藤条效应有时还是蛮有效的。

Spare the rod and spoil the child - that's what most of us were thought when we were young.

The preferred method of educating our young children is "tender-loving-care", through gentle coaching, to gain the young child's understanding.

Somehow, I feel that physical punishment may still be useful at times (provided it is not being done overboard).

Lost in translation 词不达意

那天傍晚，在住家附近闲逛时，捕捉了夕阳下衬托出的绚丽，五彩缤纷的晚霞。

当时就想晚霞的英语词汇是什么 - 用谷歌翻译， 简称为sunset，觉得词不达意，完全不能把当时的意境表达出来。

彩霞又被翻译为pink cloud...还是有点欠佳。 

语文就是那么奥妙！

It is very easy for miss the essence of what we mean in the midst of translation. Language carries with it certain peculiarity and nuances. To be truly well versed in multiple language is an amazing achievement!

Time to say goodbye to our car!

The car that we have is reaching the end of its 10 years cycle (specifically, it has been with us for 9 years).

The escalating cost of COE (certificate of entitlement) to own a car is truly astounding and heart-breaking. The dream of owning a car is becoming literally a dream, beyond the reach of people with average income.

We have own a total of 4 cars (in Singapore) over the past 4 decades - starting with a second-hand Toyota Starlet (had it for about 4 years), then Toyota Corolla (for 8 years), then Camry (for 8 years) and current Toyota Wish (9 years). 

As the saying goes, we never own the car - at the end of 10 years cycle, the cash value of a car is literally 'zero'.

With the government's intention to phase out petrol-run vehicles in the next few years, our family went to BYD branch in Alexander Rd for preliminary exploration end Sept 2024. As fate will have it, I was pleasantly surprised of news that BYD was bringing in a 7 seater MPV in the coming month - we made a $1K booking fees. While we were away on holidays in Austria, I was informed that the car was available for test drive in the 3rd week of November. Test drive the car and made final confirmation of the booking - the car costs a total $180K. My current Toyota Wish had a trade in value of $17K.

And was finally informed that the new BYD M6 car will arrive in 2 weeks time!

Owning a car is a costly affair. We are literally driving a house in the busy road - a house that will deplete in cash value with each passing year! 

Is it going to be the last time I own a car? (now that I am already in early 60s).