Sleepless in Singapore

my dad's back and its great to see him again. Yes and incidentally he's also awake now. As for me, its all thanks to the female mosquitoes infesting the whole place. My brother hogged the fan.

Inspired by those really draggy 211 readings I asked my dad to repeat some of the stories of my ancestral lineage. So it goes one of my grandfather's great great grandfathers was some Qin official. He's not sure if the post was bought or studied though. Home town is an area just off Guangzhou, in Guandong province. "He nan" is the name of this district. Quite fascinating.

Seems like my grandfather's father came here to be in the tobacco business. But the Great Depression came and he returned to being a sinseh. My grandfather and his brothers were goldsmiths. And all the rest of the bragging rights. Well, my grandfather is an old man now. My grandmother's already left this world several years now.

I wonder, when people say old folks experience second childhood its kind of like in more ways than one. It's like the smaller things in life begin to really matter. And the world gets simpler, and you just see how pointless being obsessed with small things really doesn't matter anymore. And all the pursuits and habits that supposedly developed out of necessity for survival weren't really that crucial.

Of course I'm not saying all old folks are like that. Some go all the way to their graves with a lot of haughty pride, the feeling that the world owes them something growing stronger by the day.

Others continue on in their self-righteousness that they nurtured through the years, till they reach the level where the only reason why people forgive their utterly ridiculous behaviour is because they're already so old.

Some start to behave weirdly because they can't figure out what to do when they no longer have to work.

With recent calls to raise the retirement age and so on, I just feel like we're being treated like mere machines. All in the name of productive efficiency.

But all things will come to pass, indeed, and to be able to live to a ripe old age is surely a blessing, though remaining in this world as long as possible is not a priority. I'd rather be home.

Carpark and RC Members

Went with parents for dinner at Swenson's. The whole of Parkway was really crowded. But such is life in an overcrowded city. Queue in cars. Queue outside the restaurant. And so on. But the Salmon and Mushroom Baked rice was great. Enquired more about some Indo-China history from dad. Then he starts on some of his US power theories acting out in Cambodia, but with a little bit of logical analysis from 216, 225 and my brother's arguing skills I manage to break down the topic somewhat. Oh well, my dad is still quite ego really. Not nice to be corrected by his junior. So I try to work out a less jarring circumvent.

As we left the good ol' HDB multi-story carpark next to the new NTUC, there was some silly jam in the entire carpark caused by someone blocked at the exit barrier. You can tell its been happening for quite long when the queue spans several stories and drivers are getting out of their vehicles walking about staring at the perpetrator. As the waiting dragged on very irate people in front of me were like reversing about and driving off to the other exit on the other deck.

I parked near the exit so squeezing into the queue was not a problem and was busy speculating that perhaps some chap had a cashcard with insufficient value so my mom decided to walk to the barrier to offer a spare cashcard. Its a good thing that the new cashcard systems are card independent and depend directly on the IU number.

Lo and behold the barrier opens and all is well. Turns out the woman driver was an RC member and was busy trying to get her 'RC member's free parking disc' to work but the barrier refused to acknowledge it. Then it came to mind how a year ago it was commented that RC members parked in HDB places indiscriminately in loading bays and such and parking attendants didn't fine them but fined non-RC members instead.

Seems like special privileges have gone hi-tech too. And some people never worry about being fined because they as RC members easily appeal against their parking tickets. My mom heard this from her colleauge who's an RC member herself.

Who knows, maybe RC members perform some special functions that is so vital to national security that they have parking rights close to police cars?

It just sounds like a snob club for people with connections that makes a mockery of the law.

are you an RC member? Do clarify with us if any of this is untrue. But don't just speak for yourself. Be honest about your fellow RC members too. At least we'll applaud you for refusing to abuse your 'privileges'.

As for the woman who was responsible for causing the jam that stretched a few stories high, well, the face that launched a thousand ships was female too :)

How MCP.