What Price Education?

Received a Beijing call. Pleasant surprise as it is from a friend who had relocated to China sometime back. As we chatted, the conversation led to his young son starting Primary 1.
If you do not know, the cost of living in China can be too much to bear sometimes. In a place rife with counterfeit products, fake goods (foodstuff even!) and substandard service, the system punishes people and makes them pay 'premium' rates if they want quality assurance.
Education is one of them.
My friend is sending his son to a British International School in Beijing and he said he is cutting back on his personal expenses to give his son a 'better education'.
I ran a check online and here is one:

Shanghai Singapore International School (SSIS)
288 Jidi Road, Zhudi town, Minhang district, Shanghai 201107
TEL: 62219288
Website: www.ssischool.com
Following the Singapore school system, the Singapore Chinese (second) language syllabus is also taught. Fees range from USD 7,000 for kindergarten to USD 12,000 for upper primary (P4-P6). The school is a 3-storey building which includes an indoor gymnasium, computer labs, a science lab, and drama room. There is also an outdoor playing field and mini basket ball courts.

Very impressive. 7000 USD for kindergarten. And we complain tertiary fees are rocketing. I am SO looking forward to being a parent residing in a developing country.

The New Dilemma of Life

Apparently, slapping on our essential skincare item of the day might lead to bone cancer apart from other complications. Click this for write-up!
Even our National News Paper-The Straits Times featured this disconcerting news on page 3 of their main section today. Yikes!
Obviously, there’s no cause for alarm. We can always have our cake and eat it by slathering on the cream, then popping Vitamin D supplements.
Which make me lament “Gracious! The more we know, the more things we have to do.”
How terribly difficult it is to be a human being in the age and time!
No wonder many males prefer healthy looking bronzed skin babes. Maybe it’s part of their innate programming to help them find a mate who will live longer. Oh bother!

More than it Meets the Eye

Went to the reception area to get the newspapers and overheard a conversation.
“Aiyah! She’s not good looking at all!” Miss A commented.
Mr. TKB agreed and chipped in “He can only go for her body, not face!”

I looked over and saw the photo that prompted this discussion.

Ms. Irene Ng, MP of the Tampines GRC constituency.

I was incredulous. “What do you mean? To me, she is a picture of classy elegance and quiet intelligence!” I retorted. They begged to differ and there was no way I could have convinced them to think otherwise.

How mean. How prejudiced. How shallow!

It doesn’t help that this critical pair doesn’t look that fantastic themselves.
Now, if all I wanted was to focus on the appearance, the male looks like he has just stepped out of a Muppet show.

'Bin' Meanies Like Me!

Why does it have to be all about physical beauty? Why can’t we be a little kinder? Why can’t we look beyond and appreciate people for their finer points? When we judge, do we stop to wonder how we will fare using our own yardstick?

The most beautiful girl I have ever known has the most radiant smile and an angelic heart. She doesn’t look like a model but she touches lives everywhere she goes and it’s impossible to not to fall in love with her.

"Treat others as you do your pictures and place them in their best light."~Jennie Jerome Churchill

When the Big Picture Isn’t Enough

Most of the people in this world are worker bees. We are born into a lifetime of labour. It’s scary, sad but true.
I don’t know if this wave of realization blindsides you on an unsuspecting workday. This is not a pleasant feeling I tell you.

And even if you are the queen bee, I am telling you, life’s not any sweeter even though you feed on royal jelly. You are doomed also to a lifetime of labour. What about the lazy drones, who exist for the purpose of sperm donation? They die upon mating.

And that pretty much sums it all up. The big picture? It ain’t pretty. Not for the insects and definitely not for us, the Homo sapiens.

When Settling for Second Best Is a Dumb Move

You know when people say relationships are complicated? I don’t get it.
Life is complicated enough—work, health, money, family and difficult people galore. And if you are putting yourself in a complicated relationship, you are somewhat of a sadomasochist.

Call me shallow. Call me callous. But in life, there are some things we don’t have a say in. We put up with those things. We grin and bear it.
As for certain things that you can make a choice, it’s wise to go with one that makes you happy.

So, save me your relationship woes. Don’t cry and slit your wrists. Don’t drink some cheap ineffectual household detergent. Stupidity kills but just to be on the safe side, go up the highest building you can find and jump down from there. All species should abide by the laws of natural selection.

Other than the aforementioned group of emotional blackmailers, there is another group of people called the “Inanes”. They do not have a fixed profile but most guys tend to fit into this group at some point of time in their lives.
Why are they inane?

1. They bitch about their non-existent love life and ‘The Ex Files’ to everyone they talk to and puts people to Zzzzz. Even our toes are snoozing.
2. They whine about some girl crush all the time and leave you wondering why they are wasting time talking and taking absolutely no action.
3. They screw things up by choosing the second best option because it’s available due to a case of great timing. But either, start regretting it later OR, when 2nd best is somehow gone, think they actually should target 1st choice now.

To all 3 of the above, it’s actually laughable. Especially the Number 3 dude. Boy, we all know how forms look like. You start with 1st choice then go down the list. You have to be rejected by 1st choice and work your way down. This is life. This is how the world works. You are not living on Planet B612. We don’t do things in reverse order. We don’t put the cart before the horse.

This entry is inspired by fictitious character 'George O’Malley' in Grey’s Anatomy. Why did he get involved with Olivia when he’s clearly into Meredith? If drama depicts reality, I can’t imagine real people like him. It’s just so wrong. And when 2nd choice finds out “You don’t love her enough” it is gonna hurt. Either way, you lose.

One way to increase personal wealth: List your company

Ms. Cheung Yan, founder and chairwoman of top Chinese paper packager Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd.

A woman has topped a list of China's richest people for the first time, elbowing past two-time leader Huang Guangyu of GOME Electrical Appliances and a coterie of CEOs at old-economy government enterprises.

Cheung Yan's company listed shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in March, becoming one of scores of companies based on the mainland that have been enriched by international investors' fervor for Chinese assets. The company recently saw its share price surge after reporting that its fiscal 2006 net profit more than quadrupled to 1.375 billion yuan, or $174 million.

Newly minted billionaire Cheung Yan (Zhang Yan) -- the 49 year-old founder and chairwoman of top Chinese paper packager Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd. -- saw her fortune balloon nine-fold to US$3.4 billion boosted by her firm's March initial public offering.

The entrepreneur, who controlled 72 percent of Nine Dragons as of August 31, has lapped up a 165 percent rally in the company's stock, according to an annual survey compiled by Rupert Hoogewerf, who pioneered a list for Forbes. She is the first businesswoman to top this annual list.

Cheung's stellar ascent is rare in a country whose largest corporations is state-owned or run by well-connected male executives.

Her personal wealth leapt from US$375 million last year, when she was logged as number 36 in the survey, surpassing appliances king Huang Guanyu's US$2.5 billion, according to the report.

Huang, chairman of GOME -- the country's top retailer of household electronics -- had topped the list in 2005 for the second consecutive year, with a fortune of US$1.7 billion.
The man who started his career with $500 and a Beijing roadside stall hawking radios and gadgets built GOME into a multi-billion dollar empire spanning nearly 100 cities across the country.

The number of Chinese billionaires on increased from 3 in 2003 to 7 in 2005 then climbed to 13 as of 2006.

On a personal note:

I am getting increasingly irritated by our local media’s tendency to cover feature stories of local men and husbands attraction to foreign women, namely China ladies. We read about it on the STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print) website and the Sunday Times. We watch talkshows discussing this topic on television. Bloody beaten to death topic. Not only is it stale, it’s totally unenlightening. China has the world’s largest population. It will not be surprising if the number of intelligent, sophisticated, independent and well-to-do ladies far exceeds Singapore’s population. So, quit it! Enough of unsavoury peidu mamas, money grubbing China brides and husband snatching mistresses…

I don’t game because...

Aileen and I tried to play this simple game involving clicking your mouse below a tennis
ball to bounce it in the air. The more number of times you can keep the ball in the air without letting it hit the ground, the more points you get. 1 point for each time the ball stays airborne.

Our respective scores:

Aileen's Score


My Pathetic Score: A grand total of 8 points!

Aileen managed to obtain the score above after a mere 3 attempts. I feel so dejected! I managed to achieve this score after half an hour of pure grit and concentration. I am sure that had she tried as hard as I did, she would hit a hundred points or more. This fateful day documents a new low in the self esteem index. Haha! Nope, I am not such an extremist. But it definitely didn’t feel good, alright. Why am I such a gaming klutz???

I still remembered sometime in the distant past, I had this Nintendo console and we love playing Super Mario on it.
I think the mission was for Super Mario to save the princess trapped in a castle. And you know what? I never ever got to ‘see’ the princess. I think my personal best was to ‘step foot’ on the Fifth World—and this is because I went through a time warped port-hole. Don't laugh! ='(

Aileen roared in laughter and typed me the following MSN message:

Aileen: will not make you good at !!!!

Ivy:

To play the aforementioned game, google The Optus Tennis Challenge.

Chivalry Is Dead

Definition:
Chivalrous behavior: considerate and courteous behavior, especially shown by a man towards women.

I was at a neighbourhood supermarket and was in the queue to pay for my grocery shopping. Although I was next in line, the customer before me was redeeming some crockery and the cashier was tallying his coupons meticulously. Mildly embarrassed that he was holding up the queue, the helpful guy noticed that a staff on duty had opened up another checkout counter and kindly suggested that I make my payment at the next counter. The guy standing behind me overheard the ‘news’ and just as I turned around to ‘change lanes’ he sprinted ahead and dumped his basket onto the adjacent counter. I was rather taken aback by his swift maneuver and widened my eyes in mock astonishment. The bigger surprise came when that the fella had the effrontery to grin triumphantly at me from across the counter and say, “我比你快!”

If looks could kill, he would have died there and then. I gave him my iciest glare, pursed my lips in disapproval, twitched my nose in contempt, narrowed my eyes and turned my face away with disdain. “没风度!” I simmered silently.


Perhaps my reaction was rather sexist. If an auntie had done it, I would have grinned back at her and retorted, “我老了，反应也慢了。” But, no, this was an able-bodied male, thirty years of age, displaying such crass behaviour. ARGH!

A quick survey of a cabin on the MRT will reveal more telling signs that chivalry is dead. I see guys rushing to take any available seat, oblivious to needs of the elderly, the pregnant and the children. The worse scene to witness is to see a sympathetic female give up her seat while the 4 guys from the similar row warm their butts happily and drift off to slumber land. Fair enough, everyone’s tired from a hard day of work. But the elderly shouldn’t dangle precariously in front of you and all womenfolk—pregnant or not deserve the seat more than any guy. Why? It all boils down to physiology, my dear. Varicose veins. Women suffer from those ugly, bulging purplish green veins on the back of their calves as a result of prolonged periods of standing. And, any self respecting gentleman, or worshipper of the female form should never allow that deformity to take shape.

"The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back."~Abigail Van Buren