As usual, we do not like crowds so to watch a YOG event is never a priority in our list until........my dear child was given a ticket to go and watch an event at the eleventh hour.   It seemed that the teacher realised that there was no representative from her class and that was how she got the ticket....  I struggled a little initially as the venue of the event was not stated in the letter of consent.   I was not sure how crowded the place would be and being a tiny person at her age, I was afraid of stampede .....sounded like 杞人 

I read 2 articles in the Chinese newspaper yesterday about languages. One about doctors who can't speak/read Chinese competently and the other commented on the inconvenience caused to some passengers, especially the elderly as directional signages and station announcements in MRT are only in English.

In the first article, the author (doctor working in a hospital) was from a SAP school and he felt sad that a Chinese national TCM doctor in the hospital expressed surprised when the author could read Chinese newspaper. Although many of us could advance in our career without much in-depth knowledge of Chinese, we could become a laughing stalk when foreigners see us Chinese can't even read/speak or understand Chinese very well.

The second article mentioned that announcements and signages in Switzerland are in the 4 official languages.

I was at the pantry on Monday and ran into a colleague.  She was busy preparing her bread spread when I spotted this japanese label on the bottle that she was holding.  What's that, I asked her.  She told me it is black seasame paste spread.  Then she went on to spread that black thingy onto her bread.

For a long time, I had heard the goodness of black seasame to dark shiny hair. In my heart, I was already thinking, how on earth she found this interesting stuff.  My hubby has been so sick of the magarine each morning and I had been searching for ages for a better alternative.

Yes, kiasu parents have made front page in Sunday Times today.  Apparently, an annual fee of $9.6K is a "jaw-dropping" amount that parents are willing to spend on full-day programmes in pre-schools for their kids today.  This as compared with the annual $1.6K that "normal" parents spend on half-day programmes in PAP Community Foundation (PCF) Kindergartens.

The story is centred around a heartland family who is spending over 20% of their monthly income on sending their son to Pat's Schoolhouse for full-day childcare and kindergarten.

You can never be too careful.  This highlights the importance of keeping an eye on "external help" you get to look after your children when you are busy at work.  Imagine what will happen to the poor kid if the abuse is prolonged.

Click on the youtube links below to watch all 6 parts of the videos...