Pooh Talk

Chanced upon StarWorld one morn and found Kit, my childhood dream car. Remember Knight Rider - "Micheal Knight, the lone crusader..." and that techo sounding music.... makes me laugh now but I really loved the car in the past!! And of course David Hasselhoff with his curly hair.... but I am most impressed with Kit and all the buttons to push for turbo flying boost and auto driving (who thought of that in the 80s?). Missed the cheesy hero-save-the-damsel stories that now amazed me - why did I even watch the thing?!? Well, there are those curls of Tasselhoff's.....

It was harder to breathe than usual. Spring is around the corner...  little warmer but winds still has a touch of snow in them. And everyone is just coughing and sneezing and spewing stuff and germs and spit everywhere. Suddenly I prefer the cold winter when it is too cold to even open your mouth to do anything, much less breathe out. Of course the roads are just eeeky again so I am hopping and skipping on my way.... the only GOOD thing is all winter clothing and boots are on sale now :)

Just when you give up on life here that seems all grey and bitter, you come across a ray of hope. Sound like some TV docudrama? Well, was walking through a crowded subway tunnel when from afar, I saw a kid struggling with a HUGE bag up a flight of stairs while his mum struggled with a trolley of stuff. Many pple just avoided them and streamed through to catch the next train (it was a subway transfer tunnel) but suddenly a man just took over the bag from the kid and strode up the stairs. At first I thought, the man is stealing the bag!! But it turned out that he is helping the kid to carry the bag and the kid was also so shocked. The kid said "Xie Xie Shu Shu!!" and it just made me smile :) The guy even offered to carry the bag to the next subway for the kid but the mum said no. This guy is SOOO precious in BJ! I am amazed.... actually there are some nice pple too: they give up seats for the elderly so readily, they help the elderly up the bus and carry heavy things for them without waiting for others to do it first. Sometimes I think Sporeans WAIT for others to help before doing it themselves. Here, if they want to help, they will just do it. And that is hope for the grey grey heart :)

A friend is leaving BJ to go bk home - 'de-posting' - and we decided to give him a different sort of farewell present "The Top 10 Grossiest Memories of BJ". So no nice Great Wall paranoma, no majestic Forbidden City, but an album of images of people smoking, crowdingand of course, spitting. And you would think it should be so EASY to take these pictures. Well, if I don't want to get beaten up lah... so I sneaked around and REALLY had to find the sickest frozen spit on the ground. My ideal would be to catch one in mid air but everytime I whip out my trusty Canon, it is on the ground and the person far behind me. Darn.... Hence, the biggest and sickest spit on the ground will have to do. And even then, it is not easy at this time since the snow melts and washes it off. Had to scour a few streets to find a 'decent' sized one.... with bubbles!!! Now to find one smoking without getting a black eye..... people here are so suspicious of cameras!!

On monday (2 days ago), it snowed heavily in BJ (see photos in Stuff) and locals tell me it's the heaviest snowfall in 3 years! I am so blessed to be around when it happened :) It is not cold if the winds are not strong so I sauntered around in my Puffy (down jacket) and it was just magically white. Except the roads where the cars dirty the snow till it looks like dirt and grime. Like the city in general and kind of depressing.... Surprisingly, there were many local workers to sweep the snow and clear the roads for smooth traffic. In Hanoi, I don't think I saw that many workers clearing rubbish. People walk around exhaling steam and kids and adults alike were building snowmen :) So fun :)

Glad to announce that my narcassis plant is flowering by now. A popular CNY decoration, I was hoping it will not DIE on me :) Currently I visit the flower markets weekly and I try to buy wierd flowers that will cost a bomb bk home instead of the usual roses and gerberas. They last longer in the cold weather too but they need to stay indoors or risk freezing their roots and soil. This week is tulips and calla lilies (see pics). It's been a hectic CNY as I went to the temple fair, housewarming, karaoke and sat through 5 hours of mahjong!! Watched the entire 2nd season of Scrubs in 5 hours....