Last weekend we took a trip to the Kuala Lumpur area, and happened to be in the heart of the city during Earth Hour, when everyone is supposed to turn off unnecessary lights between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. Kuala Lumpur participated, and as the hour drew to an end we took pictures of the famous […]
I think I mentioned before that this is a great walk – 13-15 kilometers of water, plants, a few animals, and a bit of peace and quiet. Of course we last did this hike during Chinese New Year, and there were some guys having a “Good New Year Yell:” they took turns standing at one […]
We had visitors last month and took them around the city. The moon was full, and we managed to get a few interesting shots of it, using my lovely FujiFilm Finepix25. Click on a picture to enlarge it. This is at the main gate to Chinese Gardens. This one is with the Singapore […]
This guy was posing for us in Chinese Gardens a few weeks back. There were lots of them near and in the lake just at dusk. Major water-monitor time! Click on these pictures to enlarge this bad boy…..
My colleague explained yesterday the precise mechanism of getting cars off the road in Singapore: you buy your car for about $100k, drive it for ten years, each year paying plenty in parking fees, ERP fees (they charge you to drive downtown during peak hours), and registration fees, as well as maintenance, insurance and gas. […]
OK, so we know that Singapore is not America. There are advantages to this; believe me, I can see them. On the other hand, yesterday’s Straits Times newspaper featured a half-page article, the upshot of which is that if a Singaporean uses an English name it’s a sign of insecurity – a symptom of post-colonial […]
NIE, Singapore’s National Institute of Education, will host the Youth Olympic Games arts and cultural events in the evenings during the games. So for the two weeks of the Games proper, plus a week on either end – in fact, the whole of August – NIE will be non-functional. But that doesn’t mean its employees […]
This August, the world’s first-ever Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will be held in Singapore. Moreover, they will be held at the university campus where I live and work. First, inquiring minds want to know, what do they mean by Youth Olympics? When regular Olympic women gymnasts are routinely 14 years old, will Singapore be hosting […]
I haven’t had dental insurance until recently, so I had to pay out of pocket to get my teeth cleaned. I made an appointment with the local dentist (a very small office in the shopping center adjacent to the train station), and two days later got my teeth checked and cleaned with an ultrasound machine. […]
Since it’s of interest to anyone watching the U.S. healthcare death struggle, I thought I’d tell you a few prices. We have health insurance through the university, where my spouse is a professor. He upgraded coverage for our family of three, to the maximum best-possible coverage, and for this we pay $700 (Singapore currency) a […]