Snowies in HK

Start:	Nov 29, '07
End:	Dec 4, '07
Location:	Hong Kong

Finally, snowybeagle and snowylady can resume their travels which had been put on hold since snowylass was born. And the little girl is old enough to perceive something's up despite us not telling her anything, and could tell from signs like making a passport and Grandma's inadvertent slip-of-tongue that she's going to do something most of her friends in childcare already did.

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Nonfiction
Author:	Kuroyanagi Tetsuko (黒柳徹子)

Snowylady had this book for a long time, but it was only recently when the kids saw her reading it, they picked it up and pretend to read too, and I just had to volunteer to read them a chapter or so.

It was pure dynamite!!! What was more fantastic was the era it took place in ...

Certainly reminds me to be more thoughtful where my own children are concerned.

I'm still in the process of reading it, but I'm taking it slow, trying to digest and internalise all the thoughts along, instead of greedily swallowing everything as quickly as possible.

And I do wonder what the other children who went to Tomoe Gakuen did with their lives afterwards.

One thing I do wonder though, that if this book is so widely read in Japan and around the world, why aren't there more Tomoe Gakuen today?

A typical respond from Ministry of Education would probably be they don't have the funds for such an approach, nor the expertise. And it wouldn't meet Singapore's needs.

Actually though, looking at how things are falling apart in society and in the world, the question should be, can we afford NOT to do it?

I probably won't agree with everything Tomoe Gakuen did or stood for, but I admire and believe they got the right spirit and the right idea.

As the author wrote in the afterword, how many kids today are excited to go to school and want to remain after school ... for the right reasons ...

How many kids feel alienated in school 'cos they can't fit in ...?
How many kids feel that their time and their activities in school are actually for their own benefit and growth?
How many kids go to school because they *want* to, 100% of the time...?

Joe Dassin - Les Champs Elysees

It all started with lounging at Cofee Bean & Tea Leaves Holland Village while having breakfast with Snowylass one morning ...

The tricky retailers compiled a selection of songs which they played and sold in CDs.

All it took was a couple of "hooks" like Joe Dassin's Les Champs-Elysees and Los Trio Panchos' Quizás, Quizás, Quizás and I ended up buying the CD.

I got the lyrics and translations from http://www.paroleslyrics.net/index.php?title=Les_Champs-Elys%C3%A9es_-_Joe_Dassin
and the video from youtube.

Interesting chap, Joe Dassin, a reverse refugee from the Land of the Free.

Corrections or improvements to translations welcomed.

Je m'baladais sur l'avenue le cœur ouvert à l'inconnu
J'avais envie de dire bonjour à n'importe qui
N'importe qui et ce fut toi, je t'ai dit n'importe quoi
Il suffisait de te parler, pour t'apprivoiser

Aux Champs-Elysées, aux Champs-Elysées
Au soleil, sous la pluie, à midi ou à minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées

Tu m'as dit "J'ai rendez-vous dans un sous-sol avec des fous
Qui vivent la guitare à la main, du soir au matin"
Alors je t'ai accompagnée, on a chanté, on a dansé
Et l'on n'a même pas pensé à s'embrasser

Aux Champs-Elysées, aux Champs-Elysées
Au soleil, sous la pluie, à midi ou à minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées

Hier soir deux inconnus et ce matin sur l'avenue
Deux amoureux tout étourdis par la longue nuit
Et de l'Étoile à la Concorde, un orchestre à mille cordes
Tous les oiseaux du point du jour chantent l'amour

Aux Champs-Elysées, aux Champs-Elysées
Au soleil, sous la pluie, à midi ou à minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées

I strolled on the avenue, open to everything
I wanted to say hello to anyone
No matter who - and it was you, I said anything to you
It was enough to speak to you, to calm down.

On the Champs-Elysées, on the Champs-Elysées
With the sun, under rain, at midday or midnight
There is everything you want on the Champs-Elysées

You told me "I’ve got an appointment in a basement with the nutjobs"
Who live with guitar in hand, from evening to morning
Then I accompanied you, we sang, we danced
And we didn’t think of kissing

On the Champs-Elysées, on the Champs-Elysées
With the sun, under rain, at midday or midnight
There is everything you want on the Champs-Elysées

Yesterday night, two strangers and this morning we’re on the avenue
Two lovers dazed by the long night
And the star at the place de Concorde, an orchestra of a thousand chords
All the morning birds sing the love

On the Champs-Elysées, on the Champs-Elysées
With the sun, under rain, at midday or midnight
There is everything you want on the Champs-Elysées

Mariannet Amper ... a name to remember

Mariannet Amper, 12 year old Filipino, hung herself because her family was too poor, too poor for her to attend school properly, too poor to travel to attend Mass, so poor that even other poor children won't play with her ... just too poor.

I want to think that the Philippine Daily Inquirer which reported this exaggerated some details.

But the stark truth is the poor are always with us.

It is one thing to be numbed by reports of poor children starving and malnourished.

It is quite another to read of one who takes her own life due to despair of a bleak future.

The report claimed the final straw was the 100 peso (S$3) needed for a school project which her parents couldn't readily afford.

Just S$3 ... if any guilt will stop me from indulging myself, this is it.

Maybe guilt is not the best way to start a resolution, but rationalising it is not an excuse to stop.

Perils of an old building - falling concrete spallings

Just over 20 years old, a building shouldn't be considered old, but it is in Singapore.

Despite regular maintenance, it is very difficult to avoid water seepage in the long term.  Sometime this morning, some bits of concrete spallings fell from the ceiling of our bedroom.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Unfortunately, it means draggy work, some dirt and what nots.

*sigh* life goes on.  Can't engineers design something so that ceilings don't crack due to water seepage from the unit above?