Therapeutic Garden

It has been a while since I went for a walk in the park. So, I took a detour from my walk route to take a look at the park. On arriving, I noticed part of the park is now fenced off. Looks like there is some major redevelopment going on. Only time will tell what they are doing with the area.

Still, there are other areas of interest. There is a new section called the Therapeutic Garden. This part of the park seems more for the seniors. It is in a quiet section of the park and more shaded.

Some plants of herbal nature, like Spanish Tarragon, Golden Mistletoe Fig, Hibiscus Sabdariffa, Scarlet Spiral Flag, Indian Snakeweed, Silvery Wormwood etc...

There is also a exercise station.

I managed to take a couple of shots of these butterflies. I think I startled them. They did not stay still, nor hang around for long. These are the best I got.

It was a brief visit. Although the park is not very big and despite part of it closed for development, there is still plenty to see, and learn - if you are so inclined.

Kok Sen Restaurant

A friend of mine learned of a restaurant where the food is cheap and good. He suggested that we should give it a try. I agreed. He suggested 6 pm, which was a bit early for me, but I nevertheless, went along with his suggestion.

The restaurant is called Kok Sen Restaurant, and it is in Chinatown. Apparently, it has been around for 37 years, and it is now helmed by the third generation in the family.

When we arrived at about 6 pm, there were a couple of tables occupied, and there were reservation tags on a few others.

On my friend's recommendation, we ordered the Claypot Yong Tau Foo which was the house speciality, Fried fish and a plate of stir fried vegetables. Three dishes for two people are quite the standard meal.

This is Claypot Yong Tau Foo dish. This dish comprised of eggplants, bitter gourd, shiitake mushrooms, okra, and chillies - they are either stuffed with a mixture of ground meat or fish paste, cooked in a claypot.

This is one of the restaurant's signature dish. It was very nice indeed. If you are dining alone, this dish itself with some rice should be sufficient for a meal - unless you have a big appetite.

Fried fish - I can't remember what fish it was. The dish was nice, but nothing special.

A plate of 'Nai Bai', or loosely translated, 'milk white vegetables' stir fried with garlic. I always enjoy a dish of greens, and this is one of my favourite vegetables. The leaves are curled, wrinkled and dark green, and they have short stems. I like them for their leafy and crunchy texture. This vegetable has plenty of water in them.

For tourists going to Kok Sen Restaurant for the first time, do not expect a fancy restaurant. The place is a typical SIngapore coffee-shop style eatery sans air-con. With mismatched tables and stools for seats, this local hole-in-a-wall kind of place, loud, crowded and unrefined. You might find the place a bit tacky.

Reservations are highly encouraged. If not, be prepared to wait anything from 30 minutes to an hour during peak hours.

This was the queue outside the restaurant, after our meal - at about a quarter to seven. My friend then revealed that was why he suggested early dinner. I was glad. I don't really fancy waiting for a table, or for my food, no matter how good they are.

House Specials are written on orange paper, pasted in straight rows across the wall, reminiscent of what the Hong Kong old-school eateries did.

If you don't like their House Specials, you can order from their menu.

Some Thoughts on Life

It’s not enough to have lived. We should strive to live a good life, a life that matters. We might not be capable of big accomplishments, but there are many little things that are within our means to do. A word of encouragement, a smile, a helping hand wherever, whenever possible, a listening ear, a bit more forgiving, a bit of understanding and forbearance... All these little things cost nothing but they can go a long way for those struggling in this difficult and stressful life. They bring hope to the lost, joy to the depressed, and love to the lonely.

Live a good life. If there are Gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are Gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no Gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. - Marcus Aurelius

A meaningful life is not being rich, being popular, being highly educated, or being perfect. It is about being real, being humble, being strong, and being able to share ourselves and touch the lives of others. It is only then that we could have a full, happy and contented life. - Mar Razalan

Always choose to heal, not to hurt, to forgive not to despise, to persevere not to quit, to smile not to frown, and to love not to hate. At the end of life, what really matters is not what we bought, but what we built, not what we got, but what we shared, not our competence but our character, and not our success but our significance. Live a life that matters. Live a life of love. - Unknown

A&W Restaurant

Once upon a time, in the seventies, there were A&W restaurants in Singapore. They were among the earlier American franchises to come to Singapore.

In 2003, A&W closed all five outlets attributing it to corporate instability and poor sales. They are now back with an outlet at the Changi Airport, and there were plans to open a few more outlets on the island.

Founded in 1919, A&W stands for Allen & Wright – the two founders of an iconic American brand. The company became famous in the United States for its "frosty mugs," where the mugs would be kept in the freezer and eventually get filled with A&W Root Beer before they were served to customers.

Evolving into a franchise in 1926, the company today has locations throughout much of the world with each serving a typical fast-food menu of hamburgers, French fries, and hot dogs.

My earliest memories of them were their root beers. Apparently their Root Beer is freshly made in-store daily, and hand-crafted from a secret blend of spices, cane sugar and water, and proudly caffeine free. They still serves its signature root beer in an ice-cold frosty mug.

Recently, while visiting Jewel at Changi Airport, I saw the outlet and thought I would try them again – for old time sake, and to see if I can relive the taste of their food as when I had them back when I was a youngster. The root beer tasted just as I remembered. As for the food, I can’t quite remember what they tasted like back then.

These are international favourites on their menus - A&W Mozza Burger, Coney Dogs, Curly Fries and Waffle Ice Cream.

A&W Mozza Burger

Coney Dogs

Curly Fries

They are still around a hundred years later

I was so intent on the food, I forgot to take a picture of the root beer float

All Puns Intended

Some humour are straight forward. You see, or hear them and you burst out laughing. Some humour are more subtle. You need a second or two, to see the humour in them.

Puns are such examples. A pun is a joke or type of wordplay in which similar senses or sounds of two words or phrases, or different senses of the same word, are deliberately confused.

A man in Thailand was arrested with more than 10,000 pairs of stolen underwear. Legal experts are expecting a brief trial. - Jimmy Fallon

I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest. - Unknown

The guy that fell into the glass making machine made a spectacle of himself. - Unknown

A new type of broom came out, it is sweeping the nation. - Unknown

Divorce is the price people pay for playing with matches. - Evan Esar

Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn’t control her pupils? - Unknown

If you take a laptop computer for a run, you could jog your memory. - Unknown

The past is always tense, the future perfect. - Zadie Smith

A bicycle can’t stand alone. It’s two tired. - Unknown

Does the little mermaid wear an algebra? - Unknown

The phone call interrupted my nap, and I never did get the rest. - Unknown

I used to be addicted to soap, but I’m clean now. - Unknown

Fú (福)

The character Fú (福) meaning "fortune" or "good luck" is represented both as a Chinese ideograph, but also at times pictorially, in one of its homophonous forms. - Wikipedia

It is a traditional custom to display the Chinese character during the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival. Mounted Fu can be seen on the entrances of many Chinese homes worldwide. The inscription was meant to bring about luck and blessings and to subdue evil. The bigger, the more displays, the more luck, or that's the hope anyway.

This display of the Fú (福) character was at the entrance to the Flower Dome during the recent Chinese New Year.

This is the flip side of the display with the Fú (福) written in many styles, and you find the Fú (福) in the center upside down.

When displayed as a Chinese ideograph, Fú is often displayed upside-down on diagonal red squares. The reasoning is based on a wordplay: in nearly all varieties of Chinese: the words for "upside-down", ( 倒, Pinyin: dào ) and "to arrive" ( 到, Pinyin: dào ) are homophonous. Therefore, the phrase an "upside-down Fú" sounds nearly identical to the phrase "Good luck arrives". Pasting the character upside-down on a door or door post thus translates into a wish for prosperity to descend upon a dwelling. - Wikipedia

Fú (福) is generally printed on a square piece of paper or stitched in fabric. Usage of the character Fú (福) in various forms of calligraphy and seal characters as papercuts or posters represents the desire that one's good luck will be expansive and come in many forms. The practice is universal among Chinese people regardless of socioeconomic status.

Here are a few more examples of Fú (福)

This is a plain Fú (福) - black ink on red paper. Not all can afford the more creative and expensive works of Fú (福). Still, the significance of it is not lost. As long as the word is mounted in the household, one version is as good as the other.

An upside down Fú (福)

This is a very intricate paper cutting of the character.

You will also find Fú (福) carved, etched, or printed on decorative items and souvenirs.

Life's Little Lessons

Life lessons are learned through experiences, and mistakes. Some of the mistakes are costly and/or painful, and took us a lot of time to recover from them, while some lessons took a long time to learn. Unfortunately, time is something we do not have plenty of. We do not have enough time to learn all the Life’s lessons by ourselves.

However, we may be able to get a head's start in life, if we from the experiences and mistakes of others, and by paying attention to the words of wisdom, and advices of the wise people before us, – the sages, the philosophers, the gurus... – and also those who are still with us who have been through the hardships in life.

These are valuable Life lessons not learned in school. Armed with these lessons, we will be able to avoid the potholes of life. We will have an idea of what to expect of Life, and how to live our lives. There will be times when you find that these are exactly the advise you are seeking, or they are the answers to your questions.

A person does not have to be behind bars to be a prisoner. People can be prisoners or ‘slaves’ of their own concepts and ideas. - Unknown

Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body, but knowledge acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. - Aristotle

We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also. - An Wang

You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go. - Jeannette Rankin

One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been. - Sophocles

A person hears only what he understands. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Discoveries are often made by not following instructions, by going off the main road, by trying the untried. - Unknown

Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep the fire out of the one, and the frost out of the other. - Joseph Addison

Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. - Rachael Naomi Remen

We need not all agree, but if we disagree, let us not be disagreeable in our disagreements. - Martin R. DeHaan

It takes a lot of thought and effort and downright determination to be agreeable. - Unknown

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardour, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision. - Aldous Huxley

A Wander in Funan Center

Funan Center was a IT mall specializing in computers, and IT related products and gadgets. It underwent redevelopment in 2016. In 2019, the revamped mall opened, but rebranded itself as a lifestyle mall - an integrated development centred on lifestyle, technology, and the arts.

The new six-storey Funan mall utilise video analytics to study shopper traffic and crowd density, which will help the mall’s owner to adjust tenant mix and placement. It will be Singapore's first "online and offline mall", powered by an ecosystem of sensors, data analytics and facial recognition tools to better understand consumer shopping habits and preferences. The mall assured that the facial recognition function of these directories does not capture or store personal data.

Funan Center wants to project itself as a hip and happening place, and boasts colourful, cool design and layout. The mall hosts a cineplex, an indoor rock climbing wall, a plethora of F&B outlets catering to every palate and pocket.

Funan Center offers visitors more 'out of the box' options; it is a cool and fun place to hang out on a hot, humid day, or on a rainy day, where one can check out the latest mobile phones, try rock climbing and other activities held at the mall, satisfy one's hunger pangs, chat over drinks at one of the many cafes, or watch a movie before heading home.

Check out the roof garden for city view.