Odd Chinese New Year Characters Explained

So here we are. One week away from Chinese New Year (CNY) on the 3rd February 2011!

CNY food and decorations are now crazily being sold all over the country.

Two of the decorations are these:









First, why is the character, "福" shown upside down here?
The character actually means good fortune. And upside down in Mandarin sounds like "coming to you".
So, an upside down 福 means "Good fortune will come to you".

The second picture shows a chinese character which is not in the dictionary.
In fact, it's 4 chinese characters joined together to form one gigantic character.
This gigantic character consists of the 4 characters, 招财进宝 in traditional Chinese characters. It means "Wealth comes to you".

Happy CNY to all!

Singapore Identity - Neighbourhood Coffeshop

Everyone I know knows that I'm a coffee lover.
One of my favourite places to have coffee is at the neighbourhood coffeeshop. Or "kopi tiam" as we are calling it in Hokkien. No, it's not called a Food Court as so many have called it. I hate Food Court.






The uncle or coffee boy that serve the coffee will greet you with familiar Singaporean Hokkien accent. He will remember your usual order of kopi.

Now, with everywhere employing Chinese Nationals from China to work in coffeeshop, our normal sounds like "kopi", "kopi o", "kopi siew dai", etc has suddenly become so unfamiliar.

The worst is some coffeeshop is converting to Food Court Style where they don't serve the coffee to you anymore. You have to order it at the counter.

Yes, the Chinese from China are mostly polite and do their stuff well.
But, we are losing our Singapore Identity in this area, as well as my morning coffee enjoyment.

Sad.

Thoughts on Car Accidents in Singapore

So, I was driving as usual to work as one of the many early birds.
Many of us came out early in the hope of avoiding paying the ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) when it starts when rush hour in that area begins.

It would be a usual "free entrance" for me as I would have gone through the ERP gantry before it starts charging.

But alas, it was not as expected today. I drive on 4 expressways every morning to work: PIE -> KPE -> ECP -> CTE

This day, I encountered an accident on PIE, KPE and ECP!
3 car accidents on the same morning at the same time. Obviously I got charged unwillingly at the ERP gantry!


And I wonder why car accidents happen so frequently in the past months. I encountered car accidents like once a week for the past one month or two.

I'm guessing one cause of it is the increase in the number of cars in recent months (before the authority decided to reduce the COE quota).

Let me put it this way:

More cars on the road ->
congestion during peak hours ->
increased ERP charges and lengthened operating hours at the ERP gantries ->
drivers rushing to beat the ERP gantries before they start charging ->
more accident-prone



In my opinion, increasing ERP rates and lengthen the operating time is not killing the root cause for car accidents and congestion. Reducing COE quota is a good one, and I applaud that.

However imagine this:
Reducing COE quota ->
Less people owning cars ->
More congestion on public transport!

My conclusion and opinion:
Ultimately, reducing COE is not a perfect solution. Slow down the increase in population is a good solution. No, I'm not saying reducing the birth rate. Birth rate should still increase. You know what I mean....

My Music Through the Past 3 Decades

So here we are, starting a new decade. The 2010s!
I'm old and lucky enough to have enjoyed through the last 3 decades as "young people".

Technology and music has gone through and changed a lot throughout these 3 decades. Ask someone my age which decade brings the best in terms of music memories and enjoyment. I'm quite certain majority will vote for the 80s or early 90s.

The 80s:
The main media for music is the cassette tapes. No internet, no MP3s, no downloading. All songs are stored in bought in cassette tapes and listened on a cassette player.


Yes, it was clumsy and slow. You couldn't skip to next song in half a second like MP3 could.
Here's the joy:
As the songs don't come easy (as in downloading MP3 in the 2010s), I treasured every single song in the cassette.
I could watch the cassette geared circular hub spinning as the music played. I could watch the numbered countered increasing gracefully as the music played.
I read the lyrics in that was printed on the cassette album cover and sang along with the song.
I took note of who wrote the song melody and who wrote the song lyrics.
As there wasn't any "online" means of transferring music, my classmates and friends get together face to face to discuss, chat and share our music experience.
What a joy that was.

Here's my all-time favourite album of the 80s:



I bought the cassette in 1988 even before he got famous in the East.
Michael Jackson's "Bad" album comes in second.

The 90s:
The CD (stands for Compact Discs, for those who don't know) comes along and become the defacto music format. The cassette format slowly got obsoleted.
I enjoyed the crystal clear music and ease of navigating the songs.
Experience is still as good as the cassette. Only complain was that it's much bulkier to bring out the portable CD player than the cassette Walkman.
Madonna rules for this period.



The 2000s:
Things began to get less personal. Especially the late 2000s where songs become digital. They are no longer "solid".
I don't have physical album cover lyrics to read.
I don't sing along with the song while reading the lyrics.
I don't meet up with friends face to face to discuss and chat music.
Songs are played "digitally" and "silently" in my mobile device. (in this case, my iPhone)
The previous song got played and forgot.
It's quantity but less quality now.
It's a sad situation.