Greenery

 Pots of greenery in our balcony, courtesy of my wife.

 

Common corridor joining two block towers.

Glitter of Deepavali

Drove pass Little India few weeks ago, and was rather fascinated by the light decors in conjunction with the coming Deepavali celebration. 

Had to make a trip at night to see new patients admitted to Gleneagles Hospital last week. Decided to make a trip to take some photos of the light decors in Little India.

Parked my car at the basement car park of Tekka Market @ "KK Market".  A lot of empty parking lots available (it's already over 10pm).

Got ready my camera, and walked to take some snap shots of the light decors.

And some of the shops still opened for business at night.

Colourful light decors, in striking pink, purple, yellow and orange. Quite eye catching!

The crowd had already dwindled by that time.

But alas, my camera malfunctioned after that ...the camera button stopped working, nothing could be turned on... Sigh! 

 

East and West

East and West are pole apart.

The East prides itself on holistic approach to life. Naturalistic, herbal, "qi" approach to healthy living.

The West astounds its scientific, evidence based approach to tackle the nuisances of life.

East is cold, Zen-like whilst West is hard-core, inflexible. 

The true probably lies somewhere in between. We need the good balance of East/West akin to that of Yin/Yang of Taichi, to achieve optimum healthy/bliss in life. 

Nara's temple

Walkway to "Heaven"

What has History taught me?

Listening to audiobooks focusing on Chinese history recently.

The adage that "history often repeats itself" is unmistakable.

In over 2000 years of ancient Chinese history, dynasty after dynasty emerged, expanded and then collapsed in cycle. Even after the collapse of Imperial Qing Dynasty in 1911, they were never ending in fighting among the various factions among the Nationalistic / Communist factions. Eventually, the communist party took control of the country from 1945 till now.

Without fail, the ultimate reason for the downfall of every dynasty was the disconnect between those in power and the general public. Corruptions in the higher up, coupled with extreme poverty among the lay people, inevitably led to disenchantment of the public. This eventual boiled over to revolt against the authorities. 

And of course, same cycles of rise/fall of empire also occurred in Western countries. And the catalyst for the uprising of commoners  and downfall of the empire was similar regardless of cultures.

The Golden Era of a dynastic was very much dependent on the presence of a capable leader with vision, who knew how to dedicate tasks to capable subordinates, to keep the economy going and the public contented (simply put without suffering from extreme poverty and hunger). Similar principle holds true to date. 

How to re-invent ourselve in the midst of keen competition from various quarters, to keep the economy going and yet not overwhelm the working public (to the point of despair/distress) is a million dollar question!

Paddle on...

Twist and turn...

Idle for too long!

Frustrations

Why does a person feel frustrated at times?

This occurs when expectations are not met, wishes not fulfilled, perceived inferiority when compared to others.

On the other hand, without setting expectations in life, we may never improve. Without failure, there will not be success. If we are contented with what we have now, there will never be progress.

The wise one said ... it's all in your mind!

Work hard to achieve your dreams, but don't be disheartened if you fail in your endeavour. Be happy with what you have now, as long as you can still make ends meet.

Life is so confusing sometimes!

Something soothing for your mind,,,

Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节 2020

Mid-autumn Festival falls right in the midst of COVID pandemic.

The festivity is kind of muted during this period. Nevertheless, the light decorations still go on as per normal.

The light decorations in the previous years had been dogged with controversies - with derogatroy comments of "moon fairy being musculine", box shaped laterns resembling that of paper decors for the dead in funeral wakes etc.

This year, the moon fairy was felt to be too "rounded" (as if she was pregnant). And the Chinese captions extolling the festivity was kind of "strange". 

Went there at around 9.30pm (on Sunday). The crowd had dwindled somewhat. The many stalls that lined the street in previous years were no more / shuttled closed, no thanks to the COVID pandemic.

 Strolled around the streets of Chinatown, taking some snapshots. 

Family gathering during Mid-autumn festival

The "rounded" moon-fairy

Personally, I am not particularly disturbed - I feel it is just the way how the cartoon characters were designed.

The light decors in the main street. Nothing to shout about... just the usual decors.

Some of the words used in depicting the festivity were felt to be out of place... The more controversial phrases have been removed. Some of the remaining captions still sounded strange though.

The vibrant colours of the lantern figurine caught my attention as I strolled the streets of Chinatown.

Replica of facade of shop houses in the old days

Exercising during COVID partial lock down

Many countries were and are still afflicted with COVID pandemic, and Singapore is not spared.

As a matter of fact, all hell broke lose when it was announced that thousands of foreign workers housed in various dormitories had been infected in March 2020, leading to introduction of total lock down (Circuit Breaker CB in local context). Over the next few months, it seemed that only dormitory workers were affected mostly, sparing widespread community involvement... gradually, the lock down was loosened and school resumed (students going back to school) and people were now allowed to venture outdoor (in group of 5 with social distancing and masks) by June/July.

With COVID pandemic, my clinic workload has dropped significantly. Most obvious is the total absence of foreign patients (with travel restrictions imposed by various countries), and the significant drop in children with flu/cough symptoms (face mask, social distancing and no school attendance have worked remarkably well in bring down upper respiratory tract infections amongh children). 

As such, I knocked off work from my clinic earlier over the past few months, and had more time to engage in leisure exercises in the afternoon/evening. 

I have been doing brisk walking diligently almost daily (or at least 4-5 days per week) over the past 3 months, covering a distance of 6-9km per trip. My pace is ~11-12 min / km. Somehow, I can't go beyond 10 min/km. Nevertheless, I have managed to "trim" my body fat somewhat over the months.

I listened to audio book +/- music (via Xiami app) when brisk walking. I have read over 7 audiobooks (mostly fiction) over the past 3 months. I have never read so many non-work related books over the years.

Things seem to be looking up over the past few weeks.... patients are trickling in gradually, albeit not back to normal yet. Hopefully, I will still have time to do my regular walking exercises when things improve in the near future.

                   

              Cought in the rain in one of the walking routines....

                                                            My exercise trail...