Thalia's baptism

Today, Sunday 21 May 2006, Thalia was baptised into the Christian Orthodox Church. The Holy Resurrection Orthodox Christian Church of Singapore is housed in a shophouse in River Valley Road ...



and is presided over by Archimandrite Daniel ...



Thalia with Steve and her uncle Simon







The priest pours some of the holy olive oil crosswise three times on the water in the font in order to render the consecration of the water complete ...




Thalia, held above the font, is just beginning to realize something's up ... and the Church reader cleans the floor after Thalia expresses her displeasure!



But it's too late for her to escape and she's quickly immersed three times in the font





After the service, we met for lunch at Ricciotti in Robertson Walk.



Thalia opening our gift to her, an engraved silver toothbox.

Sri's birthday

Celebrating Sri's birthday with drinks at Wala Wala, dinner at Kinara Indian restaurant and more drinks at Eski Bar, Singapore's sub zero bar which is basically an industrial freezer with a fully stocked bar in it. From the left: Joyce, Phil, Claudia, Andy, Sandy and Sri.

globally endangered bird

A pair of straw-headed bulbuls has started to visit Jalan Hang Jebat. These large bulbuls face global extintion due to poaching (for the caged songbird trade) and habitat destruction and are very rare in Singapore. About 30+ pairs were recorded in Pulau Ubin recently but the birds are not spotted in Singapore island very often.

Photo taken from Wild Singapore:

Pulau Ubin

Ubin, the 2,500-acre island lying to the northeast of Singapore, is a twenty-minute bumboat ride away ...





no shortage of bikes to rent ...



it's like being back in 1960s Singapore ... or present day Malaysia!



open space! what a thrill ...

rich tart

Sandy's killer chocolate tart ...

shopaholics

Who needs to see Wat Phra Kaew, the Grand Palace, Jim Thompson's House or Wat Pho when there are shopping malls to visit? Obviously not the girls on their recent shopping trip to Bangkok! Wake up, eat, shop, massage, eat, shop, eat, massage, sleep. Repeat for 3 days. Sandy, Ngae, Gillian and Hueh Hueh shopping for sunglasses in Chatuchak ...



sticking chopsticks up prawns' bottoms ...



and pigging out on great Thai food (and with prices in bhat you can really pig out).

The adventures of George contd...

George doing an impression of a dead cow ...



and drying his trendy new purple rinse!

bloody lizards!

"They're sooo cute, they eat mosquitos and bring good luck" ... get real! I've never seen a cicak / gecko / jinjok do anything as useful as eat a mosquito, they seem to prefer ants and flies. They crap everywhere. They fall off the ceiling into the ceiling fan and splatter round the walls. They commit suicide in our washing machine, toaster, microwave, chicken curry and window and doorframes. And now in my HP laser printer! OK, this time it's a case of reptilicide not suicide. I saw the lizard jumping into the machine via the paper-out slot and everything in my body told me to turn off the machine but I just couldn't stop myself from pressing "PRINT"! Uh oh, I think we now have a two-legged, two-dimensional lizard. And I can't get it out. I might have to take the printer to HP and ask them if this model is supposed to come with a lizard in it.



UPDATE: How embarrassing ... I had to take the printer to HP Service Centre after two days 'cos I couldn't get the lizard out and it was beginning to smell! I called HP to warn them I was bringing the lizard in and all the service centre girls screamed and ran off when they saw me. Well, I'm quite used to that. At least I managed to meet Sri for a coffee at HP, where he works as an IT Solutions Architect.

Dictionary of Occupational Titles

School-leavers still undecided about their career options should check out the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) from the US Dept. of Labor, which I happened upon earlier today. And I thought being a dodgy-book publisher was exciting! Just check out the following:

EAR-MUFF ASSEMBLER 784.687-022
SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPH EDITOR 976.687-010
EGG SMELLER 521.687-042
ENCHILADA MAKER 520.687-046
SPACECRAFT EXPERIMENTAL MECHANIC 621.261-022
FAN-MAIL CLERK 209.362-034
FAGOTING-MACHINE OPERATOR 786.682-278
FAST-BRIM POUNCER 585.685-010
TENNIS BALL FELTER 795.687-026

Philip Tatham, Egg Smeller