Meeting My MP

I met my MP today to seek his assistance in getting Chris to blog again. After a 5-minute chat with him, he promised to write a letter for me to the Blog Revival Authority of Singapore (BRAS) to obtain a court order for Chris to be active in blogosphere once again. (Didn't I say in my last post that I will try all ways and tap all resources to bring Chris back to life again?)

Of course, if you believed what I wrote in the preceding paragraph, then you must be either still living in the virtual world or in the movie world. I recall that in Jack Neo's movie "I Do, I Do", someone sought help from his MP to solve a "girlfriend problem" as he claimed that "it is the responsibility of the government to help him woo a girlfriend" since rising singlehood rate and declining birth rate are national concerns. So even if what I said in the last paragraph was true, I am not exactly being frivolous, am I?

It is true that I did meet my MP today. I just joined a queue at a food stall in my neighbourhood food centre when I heard someone said "Hello" behind me. At first, I thought it was because I had inadvertently jumped queue. I turned around and saw Mr Zainal Abidin Rasheed, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mayor of the North East Community Development Council and Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC (Eunos). (My, his title is even longer than the queue I was in!)

He was doing a Sunday walkabout. He shook my hand and chatted with me for a while. Then he went around the tables and did the same to the people there. I think it was very nice of him to approach the residents, shake their hands and chat with them to get to know them better. He definitely deserved a pay rise for all the hard work he put in for our constituency and country. While he went around doing this, I took a few photos of him:







Later, one of the grassroot leaders pointed to me, probably saying to the MP that I had taken photos of him. Mr Rasheed strode over to me again.

Mr Rasheed: "Oh you have a camera."

Me *sheepishly*: "Er... yes. If cannot take photos then I will delete them now."

Mr Rasheed: "No no, I also have a camera and I would like to have a photo with you."

Me *much relieved*: "Oh sure. It's my honour and pleasure."



So now I have a photo with an influential political figure to show off to other people. However, to be consistent with the anonymous status of this blog, I have masked out my upper face, leaving only my dimples visible.

Aiyah in my excitement, I forgot to ask Mr Rasheed for help about Chris.

Is Cavalry Dead?

The cavalryman came to be 2 years ago
Horsing around was his motto
And horse around he did
Sometimes I was badly hit

I didn't take it lying down
When I was made the clown
Hit back for sure I did
At times extremely wicked

However it was all for the fun
Thought shine forever will the sun
But no it was not to be
Suddenly no more was the glee

First removed post abruptly
Then closed down blog completely
What's he up to?
I've got no idea too

He who introduced me to blogging
Now says he's quitting
What's going through his mind?
That is very unkind

He who taught me poems need not rhyme
A non-rhyming one is no crime
It only needs to have flow
But how to do I still don't know

So how could I accept your early demise
When I am still far from being wise?
Please will you teach me again?
This time I promise to be a saint

This for you is my blog obituary
In case you really are going to the mortuary
If new friend Kopi Soh can write one for you
It shames a good friend not to do same too

Yes what I write may be crap
But all ways and resources I'll tap
To bring you back to life
However keep the photo of your wife

Now I've tried
And I've cried
Just don't tell me that cavalry is dead
Don't wish that statement was ever said

The Thinking Blogs

I feel so honoured to have been awarded a feel-good Thinking Blog Award by Firehorse aka Fatty Poh or Overseas Mom-wife. (Gee, if not for programmable html links, this unthinking blogger will never figure out a way to get to her blog. Hehe, can't help making that dig - it's my sarcasm at work.)

In my opinion, every blogger is a thinking blogger. How can anyone write anything that is comprehensible if he does not think before he writes? Even my 10-year-old son needs to think (and very hard too) before he writes a composition. So I guess I should be writing about blogs that make me think instead.

This award was started here. You have to award five others whose blog you think deserve this award. Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
   
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
   
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote

Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all — blogs that really get you thinking!

Now for the my own list of deserving Thinking Blog Award winners, in no particular order of merit:

1. Mr Wang Says So

Mr Wang is a very popular blogger who writes about Singapore's social, political and economic issues. His posts are often based on newspaper articles on some controversial issues, a recent one being about our ministers' pay. Mr Wang, who is a lawyer by training, would also add his own insightful views on the issues. Each of his posts typically generates more than a hundred comments from readers who offer a variety of opinions.

2. Sleepless In Singapore

This is another blogger who is similar to Mr Wang in terms of what he writes. In his own words, his blog is "one middle-aged Singaporean's commentaries on some of the unpleasant things we read in the news and Singapore society in general". As to why he chooses to focus on writing about the unpleasant things, I have no idea. Perhaps he is a pessimist by nature. His nick gives me the impression that he's sleepless either because he's worried about the "bad news on the doorstep" or he writes his posts when he can't sleep. He does not write very often (his last post is dated 7 Apr 2007) which could be a good sign because it may mean that he is getting more sleep nowadays.

3. Don To Earth

The owner of this blog is the very senior Donald Crowdis. His blog's tagline is "A Nonagenarian (90+) Ponders Life, the Universe, and Aging". He has done work related to museums, libraries, heritage, and radio and television broadcasting. Some investigative browsing through his blog will reveal that he was born on 24 Dec 1913. (Gosh, he has the same birthday as my elder son but their years of birth are 78 years apart!) That makes Don 93-going-on-94 this year - definitely old enough to be a museum exhibit himself, kekeke. He is obviously one of the oldest bloggers around, possibly the 3rd oldest in the world. Don writes extremely well. He is proof that not every elderly person suffers from diminished mental faculty. His posts are short, sweet, thought-provoking and to the point. He even has a great sense of humour to boot - his last post on 8 Mar 2007 with title "I'm Not Dead" assures readers that he is still alive, kicking and writing. In his own words:

"Family concerns are currently preventing me from posting to 'Don To Earth', and from responding to the numerous e-mails that I have received and continue to receive."

It has been almost 2 months since that post. I do hope that he will resume writing soon.


4. Good Morning Yesterday

In his blog, Mr Lam Chun See reminisces about life in Singapore during olden times. Reading his articles never fails to make me think... about my own personal experiences as a child. I can relate to his stories because he is only 4 years older than me, biologically that is. Intellectually, there is no comparison; it is obvious that he is much, much older.


5. Life As I See It

Many of Chris' articles are thought-provoking and insightful. Like mine, there are some mindless ones of course but these are few and far between. He likes to horse around with me and whenever he does, I have to think very hard of how to "monkey around" back at him. It saddens me that I might not have this chance ever again.


I am not tagging anyone for this meme because firstly, thinkers are not known to be doers and secondly, at the rate that blogs are being shut down nowadays, soon there will be no bloggers left to tag. Sad but true. So one day, if you visit my blog and find that I have not written for some time, it could be one or more of the following reasons:

a. I am too busy to blog and have taken a hiatus;

b. I have moved my blog to a new private one or a good old-fashioned diary;

c. I am dead (possibly from deep vein thrombosis because of successive 8-hour blogging sessions);

d. I have quietly shut down my blog as well because it no longer provides the challenge to me.


Yes Elaine, it is proven that the blog flu can be as infectious as the bird one.