年前

 但，《年会不能停》的主创团队又让我抱有一丝期待，此前作品口碑不俗的董润年，擅长讲小人物成长和喜剧故事的大鹏，不同路数的喜剧明星白客、王迅、童漠男、“肉食动物”组合等，更有息影多年的欧阳奋强、“叔圈”实力派李乃文加盟，让人不禁好奇，“各路神仙”能擦出怎样的火花？加之，这部电影聚焦职场，宣发期间的视频片段已经让我这个“打工人”生出共鸣，想一探究竟。  

电影讲述了标准件厂钳工胡建林在集团裁员之际阴差阳错被调入集团总部后的故事。这一路上，胡建林与环境格格不入，弄出百般笑话的同时，也折射出一系列引人深思的职场怪象。最终，错调一事背后的复杂真相浮出水面，胡建林与同事马杰、潘妮揭露高管黑幕、反抗不公职场文化的战役也打响了……   

将近120分钟的观影过程，我久违地酣畅淋漓地笑了一场，也无数次由衷地为那些击中“打工人”内心的精准表达拍手叫绝：“对齐一下颗粒度”“问题的关键就是找到关键问题”，包裹在高端行话里的形式主义，有之；看似扁平化管理实则唯上媚上的虚伪，有之；让外包员工干苦活却迟迟不给转正的“画饼”承诺，有之；原本踏实正直，但为了保住工作不得不睁一只眼闭一只眼、顺应

我的家乡一麻坡 (一)

麻坡是位于柔佛州的一个城市。我的老家其实是比较接近麻坡市郊一个叫巴冬的小镇。说起巴冬，最令人津津乐道的应该是其海鲜吧。这里的鱼产特别新鲜，海鲜餐馆总不乏外地人慕名光顾。巴冬著名的美食有亚参鱼，乌达，烧鱼等。
我老家就离巴冬小镇仅一公里馀一个叫巴力港光的小乡村。这村应该只有二十来户人家。村里大部分是巫裔，华裔大概也只有五、六户人家吧。
我家就建在大路旁，屋子离大路只有二十来公尺而已。在南北大道通车之前，屋前的大路是联邦大道通往新山及新加坡必经之路。十多年前这条路的繁忙程度可想而知。到了今时今日，它还是麻坡南下巴株巴辖最佳取道方式。
老家比我还老好几岁，但几个兄弟中偏我不在那出世。理由很简单，爸妈在我出世前刚好搬出去附近的巴力丁雅经营了一间咖啡店做起小本生意来。出世那天恰好是年除夕，我赶在这喜洋洋的节庆呱呱落地。家人也因为忙于迎新年而把报生纸的申请给耽擱到年初六，而我的出生日期竟也糊裡糊塗地被报迟了六天！这事也迟至我上初中时从母亲口中得悉。
我从童年有记忆开始，老家就是父母现在还住着的那一间四十多年祖屋。不知为何，对巴力丁雅那出生地反而没絲毫印象。听说爸妈那间咖啡店做了没多久便顶了给别人。好像那时候开始爸妈便搬回祖屋与祖母，大伯还有三姑妈几家人一起住。
大伯一家人在我年纪很小时便搬离祖屋，到一公里外的巴冬镇上住。虽然如此，记忆中和大伯的五个子女还常有往来。我的两个表哥（姑妈的孩子）就比我们年长许多，所以印象中没有和他们太熟絡。姑妈一家人是在我小学三西年级才搬到马六甲住的。就这样，我们一家人就和祖母同住在祖屋。它就是我们的根，我们三兄弟和爸妈的大部分回忆都在此。
谈起祖母，她在上世纪初在中国出世。和许多华人祖辈一样，祖母是很小便随父母移居南洋。对于外曾祖父母怎样辗转来到麻坡落脚，我所知不多。我比较常听说的是，外曾祖父母来马后，经多年刻苦奋斗也小有成绩。外曾祖父母在麻坡及柔佛一些郊区有上百亩的农地。在那个年代，土地相对便宜，但能有远见地以有限的财富累计无限潜能的土地，外曾祖父显然做得非常出色。题外话，在寸土寸金的今天，如果祖母的弟弟还守着那些地，现在必衣食无忧。但可惜他在继承后，却也陆续卖掉不少地皮。
祖母应该是十多二十岁时嫁给了祖父，婚后育有四男四女。我大伯父早夭，不知是不是禁忌使然，我们从小便把二伯父称为大伯父，排行老三的父亲就变成了老二。 爸是在日治时代出生，经历了逃难，恐慌的年代。或许还小，那些片段在爸记忆中仿佛很模糊。爸比较常提起的，反而是七零年代的Rukun Tetangga时的轮流守夜经验。那Rukun Tetangga 应该是513暴乱之后的产物吧。

永远的小虎队

认识小虎队应是从‘蝴蝶飞呀’这首歌开始。那是80年代末，至今已是25年前的往事了。‘蝴蝶飞呀’的歌词是这样的：

 ( 苏有朋)海风在我耳边倾诉着老船长的梦想 
 ( 陈志朋)白云越过那山岗努力在寻找它的家 
( 吴奇隆)小雨敲醒梦中的睡荷绽开微笑的脸庞
(合)我把青春做个风筝往天上爬
 (苏有朋)贝壳爬上沙滩看一看世界有多么大 
 (陈志朋)毛毛虫期待着明天有一双美丽的翅膀 
(吴奇隆)小河躺在森林的怀抱唱着春天写的歌 
 (合)我把岁月慢慢编织一幅画 梦是蝴蝶的翅膀 年轻是飞翔的天堂 
放开风筝的长线把爱画在岁月的脸上 心是成长的力量就像那蝴蝶的翅膀
迎着风声越大歌声越高亢　 蝴蝶飞呀就像童年在风里跑 感觉年少的彩虹比海更远比天还要高 蝴蝶飞呀飞向未来的城堡 打开梦想的天窗让那成长更快更美好  
(苏有朋)贝壳爬上沙滩看一看世界有多么大
 (陈志朋)毛毛虫期待着明天有一双美丽的翅膀
 (吴奇隆)小河躺在森林的怀抱唱着春天写的歌 
 (合)我把岁月慢慢编织一幅画 梦是蝴蝶的翅膀年轻是飞翔的天堂 
放开风筝的长线把爱画在岁月的脸上 心是成长的力量就像那蝴蝶的翅膀 
迎着风声越大歌声越高亢 蝴蝶飞呀就像童年在风里跑 感觉年少的彩虹比海更远比天还要高
蝴蝶飞呀飞向未来的城堡 打开梦想的天窗让那成长更快更美好 蝴蝶飞呀就像童年在风里跑
感觉年少的彩虹比海更远比天还要高 蝴蝶飞呀飞向未来的城堡 
打开梦想的天窗让那成长更快更美好 蝴蝶飞呀飞向未来的城堡
打开梦想的天窗让那成长更快更美好 
蝴蝶飞 蝴蝶飞 蝴蝶飞

是的，小虎队是一组台湾男子组合，成员有苏有朋、吴奇隆和陈志朋三人。它曾是台湾流行歌坛 最走红的演唱组合，曾创下了 演唱会20多场场场爆满的纪录。 蝴蝶飞呀的歌词朗朗上口，旋律轻快。歌词大意是描述成长的蜕变，以及青春的美好。在当时的青少年圈里，这样的歌曲是非常受落的。
小虎队因为成员要分别上学、服兵役等原因于1995年宣布解散。我还记得当初一个友人还因此而伤心了一阵子。
进入新世纪一直有传闻再复合重现当年的辉煌成就，但是由于他们已经分属不同的公司难以成行。在2010年央视春晚的舞台上，三人重新联袂演唱他们的三首经典歌曲《 爱》、《 蝴蝶飞呀》和《 青苹果乐园》。
如今，三人也各有成就。吴奇隆由台湾转往大陸影剧界发展，好像成绩还不错。2000年之后，苏有朋更多的精力是放到电视剧之中。目前有参演电影及电视剧，也还偶有出专辑。陈志朋曾出演过多部戏剧作品，而于1997年在《还珠格格》中饰演的尔泰、电视剧《名扬花鼓》里扮演的名祖儿最被大众所熟知。
他们不愧是一个年代青春偶像的代表人物。

Beginning a Life in Perth

It has been more than 4 months since we last landed in Perth, Australia. We are pretty much settled with most of the essential things in place and life has now moving from been chaotic into a more "routine" mode. Nothing has come easy for us as we were basically started off everything from scratch, with no relatives and friends here to begin with.  We were very fortunate as we made a few friends here through other friends and relatives in Malaysia and there were two Malaysian couples in particular who had rendered a lot of advice, and tips in helping us to start up here.  They have shared their experience in various aspects ranging from where to buy oriental food, which are the good area to live, to tips in securing a rented property, etc.
A) Temporary Accommodation
To get into the swing of an entirely new life down under, accommodation has certainly become the first priority among all other stuff.  I booked a room in a family home for 8 days to begin with, hoping to get a rented house within two weeks of us setting our feet here. Booking and payment was done through airbnb, which I only got to know much later from the locals that it is a very popular portal for people to rent rooms in a non-conventional way (as it is not hotel room, but a room in a house).
The rate was definitely much cheaper than hotel but still it was a whopping $60 a day for just a room. The positive side of renting a room in this manner was that we have got to live in the desired suburb for us to experience the life before we finally decided on the desired suburb for renting a house for longer term.  To cut a long story short, we rented a room in Leeming, which is only 4 km from Wen Jia's school.

B) Renting a home
Renting a house has not been an easy task here. Due to the influx of migrants and the high demands in suburbs with proximity to good schools, getting a rented home is indeed very challenging.  Imagine we had to compete with so many other home seekers out there to the extend of there are more demands than supplies. Unlike those in Malaysia, house viewing here has to be done at the timeframe stipulated by the property agent and it is usually done only when there are sufficient viewers committed to turn up. The timeframe was usually a short 15 minutes and home viewers were expected to put in an offer based on the limited knowledge they had on the house from the 15 minutes viewing.  It is so competitive that at times there was more than 10 viewers turned up for a single viewing.
We were required to submit an application for rental within 24 hours from the viewing.  There were so much details to be filled in, such as financial details, details of all family members intended to live in the house, details of previous rented property, "why did you leave the previous rented house?", contact details of 2 reference in Perth, etc.  It was a tedious process as we needed to submit a full stack of documents to support our application, let alone the lack of local financial information amid we were new here.
The hassles aside, we ultimately got a 3 bed room, 1 bath room house at a suburb called Parkwood. Though the house is a bit small and the rental is expensive, it nevertheless was a good beginning for us.

C) Schooling
Wen Jia goes to Oberthur Primary School which is situated at a suburb called Bullcreek, some 6km from our rented house in Parkwood. We secured a place for Wen Jia back in October when the school contacted us via email that they accepted Wen Jia's enrollment, much to our relief as the school actually took in students out of its local intake area. This means that we could live outside of the catchment area of the school for at least until Wen Jia reaches her age for Senior High School. The Senior High Schools here on the other hand do not usually take students outside of their catchment areas.
Oberthur Primary School is a medium size school with just over 400 students from Pre-primary to Year 7. Australian Curriculum is somehow different from Malaysia's. One prominent difference is that she does not carry heavy school bag as most of the learning materials are not text book based. She has a workbook that she brings home everyday and that usually contains sheets of exercise or homework. It is learning in a fun way and more well balanced as subjects such as music, swimming, and gymnastic are introduced at various stages in the term besides the conventional language, maths, and science subjects.
Overall, Wen Jia enjoys her schooling here.

More to come.....

电子年代

这是一个电子年代，沟通高度简化的年代。

这是一个电子年代，人们恨不得一秒钟可以再分细的年代。

这是一个电子年代，停下脚步寒暄几句彷彿变得可有可无的年代。

这是一个电子年代，纸和笔已近尘封的年代。

这是一个电子年代，依妹儿代替了書信的年代。

这是一个电子年代，你和我不再认识彼此字迹的年代。

这是一个电子年代，post 不再是投寄长方形信封入信筒的年代。

这是一个电子年代，post 的不再是信，而是FB状态的年代。

这是一个电子年代，纸和笔已近尘封的年代。

这是一个电子年代，邮票已变成回忆的年代。

- 写于10月9日World Post Day 前夕。

国庆快乐

祝马来西亚56周年国庆快乐，国泰民安。
每一年的这一个时刻，爱不爱国这课题总会被高官们热炒一番。对我来说，爱不爱国并不是挂个国旗，国庆月在影院听到国歌时肃不肃立那么的片面。 扪心自问，若某人每年国庆都在屋外或车顶挂国旗，但骨子里却是个种族极端主义者，开口闭口排斥某族群，要他们不爽的话滚回中国或印度，  这算是爱国吗？
试想，若高官们口口声声将爱国挂嘴边，却尽做些刮取民脂民膏的勾当，盗取公款占为己有，那是爱国吗？
五十六年了，我们是否还停留在谁才是“土地的儿女”的区分中？“同化”与否，团结与否，难不成容不下母语教育的百花齐放？政客们的各取所需，季节性地翻炒几个固定的种族、教育课题，是爱国的表现仰或顺应民间”诉求“，大家应该心里有数。不要太认真，在我们这国家，举凡衣食住行，统统都可以和政治扯上边。
少一点 政治，多一点同理心，回归根本，那是我的国庆愿望。

痛快

什么是痛快？痛快可以是高兴 ;畅快，也可指爽快;直截了当。我身边有不少榴莲迷，他们让我深深体会到怎么样才算是痛痛快快地吃榴莲。 每次出去享用”榴莲宴“， 都是一个人十粒八粒往肚里呑。 真怀疑他们怎么食量能大得如此惊人。 但朋友总爱说，要吃嘛， 就该痛痛快快地吃。 吃那么两三粒哪来个痛快？ 家里年终弃旧迎新，大概也得学学怎么个痛快地把旧物”牺牲“掉。旧的不去，新的不来。再说旧物会约堆约多，再多几年恐怕房子会显得小了，再也装不下一堆堆的”杂物“了。因此，大扫除弃旧迎新时真的得痛快些，要不然东西累积下来就会是种累赘。随着年纪渐长，在饮食方面其实还蛮难再像以往般痛快地吃。之前能尽兴吃旁螃蟹或其他海鲜类，现在还是节制点比较好。现在换另一种想法：只要保持好心情，不一定是吃多才算痛快。慢慢品尝，细细回味，也未尝不是人间乐事。

單車

單車

作詞：黃偉文
作曲：柳重言

不要不要假設我知道
一切一切也都是為我而做
為何這麼偉大 如此感覺不到
不說一句的愛有多好？
只有一次記得實在接觸到...
騎著單車的我倆 懷緊貼背的擁抱

難離難捨想抱緊些 茫茫人生好像荒野
如孩兒能伏於爸爸的肩膊 誰要下車
難離難捨總有一些 常情如此不可推卸
任世間再冷酷 想起這單車還有幸福可借
經已給我怎會看不到
雖說演你角色實在有難度
從來虛位以待 何不給個擁抱？
想我怎去相信這一套
多疼惜我卻不便讓我知道
懷念單車給你我 唯一有過的擁抱

難離難捨想抱緊些 茫茫人生好像荒野
如孩兒能伏於爸爸的肩膊
哪怕遙遙長路多斜
你愛我愛多些 讓我他朝走得堅壯些
你介意來愛護 又靠誰施捨

難離難捨想抱緊些 茫茫人生好像荒野
如孩兒能伏於爸爸的肩膊 誰要下車
難離難捨總有一些 常情如此不可推卸
任世間怨我壞 可知我只得你承受我的狂或野

陈奕迅这首单车是好几年前听过的，是屬于耐听型的歌。听说香港名写词人黄伟文当年写这首歌主要是在歌颂父爱但声讨意味极强烈。自小因父亲对他的爱从不宣之口，孩子幼小的心灵揣摩心理的能力有限。爱他但不肯说出口，就有理由相信父亲是不爱他的。
           故事的背景是wyman 小四那年爸爸骑着单车带他去海滩，两仔爷才有人生的第一次拥抱，唯一一个令彼此都不难为情的拥抱机会。 “如孩兒能伏於爸爸的肩膊 誰要下車”， 那是一个多么难得把头靠在爸爸
肩膊的机会。

爱，或许真要勇于表达，对孩子的爱固然是，对父亲的爱的表达或反馈也得趁早。 

愿 天下父亲们：父亲节快乐！

Ex-GE Colleague pre-CNY gathering

Thanks to Tony Lim for organizing yet another wonderful yearly event of ex-GE colleague gathering that took place at Setia Walk on 24th Jan 2013. I think we have been doing this 3 years in a roll and I am happy that we still managed to maintain a count of 6 ex-colleague attending the gathering. Just like any other yearly gathering, food is not the main subject but rather a place for all of us (and spouse and children) to have a decent place to chit-chat and catch up on what life had been since we last met. Look, we were getting "wiser" and the kids have grown up a lot since last year!

My dear ex-colleague from GE, I surely cherish our friendship and hope we will be having gathering in years to come. Good luck and hope you have a great year ahead.

好心做坏事

（一）放生=慈悲？
根据台湾动物社会研究会、国际人道协会公布的台湾放生现象调查，台湾每年至少750次、平均每天约2.1次的放生活动。共有7个组织会到海外放生，放生地点遍及中国、香港、美国、加拿大、印尼、马来西亚、新加坡、尼泊尔、印度、西藏等。 身体不舒服、婚姻不幸福、求家人平安发财、迅速累积功德以求来世福报，通通都要「放生」。但台湾宗教组织的放生现象，在少数法师刻意扭曲慈悲护生原意，披上「赎罪」、「求功德」等外衣，已成为快速募款，具有「宗教市场区隔」的营利事业。 而且，放生行为背后有一套完整的商业供需。为因应市场需求，无数动物被捕捉、繁殖，动物及环境都饱受苦难。 「慈悲护生」的方式很多，例如积极投入河川保育，多做环保，宣导民众吃素等等，才是真正是不伤害动物生存的「护生」。 为了放生而放生，顺应潮流，却不知道背后肥了业者，也间接害死了无数宝贵的生命。是名符其实的好心做坏事。

（二）富从「乞」中求
从小至今我们被灌输的观念变是，助人乃快乐之本。乞丐是社会制度里不幸的一群，理应受到我们的施舍。但是，事实果真是如此吗？难道大家没察觉现在的乞丐趋向「专业」吗？好象来来去去都是那几种形象：或少了只手，或脚被锯了而伤口呈鲜红色（过了几个月再碰见还是一模一样那种），或手抱小孩暴晒于烈日下，等等等等。 乐善好施绝对是种美德，但施舍之余，是否有反思这是恰当与否？钱是真帮了他，还是受益的另有其人？有想过为什么这些乞丐没接受福利局资助而被迫出来行乞？ 再反思一下，有人抱著半睡不醒之婴儿沿途行乞，大家因一念之仁而施以金钱，这样是否助长那些不法之徒到处偷小孩来作摇钱树？在大马，或少听过，但在外国尤其是第叁世界国家好像时有所闻。 捐钱做慈善，管道多得是。慈济、世界宣明会等团体至少有较透明的管理和让人信服的方针。更重要的是，积沙成丘，它们从各路善士所凝聚的款项，是绝对能更好地造福那些需要帮助的人。

说好的以民为本呢？

政府高官们爱把 "以民为本" 这口号掛在嘴边, 但做出来的却是另外一套。远的不说，单看他们不理民意，坚持要发临时执照给莱纳斯便可见一斑。或许可以这么说，所谓的质询民意什么的，都只是公关秀。其实政府的终极目标便是允许莱纳斯在关丹作业。听起来蛮恼人的，但这是事实。
到底稀土废料是否真如莱纳斯所说的能再循环以制造石膏或道路建材什么的並不重要。我敢说人民不放心的莫过於我国官员们监督的效率及透明度，会否到头来把黑的说成白，高辐射也说成没有辐射，或是什么“比家里的LCD还低”等话来掩盖真相。伤害已经造成，到时就祸害无穷了。
看PTPTN，那简直是当年公共大学企业化的产物。在这之前，公共大学学费廉宜，是大部分人都能负担得起的。一部分小康或贫穷人家，都会申请JPA或各州级奖学全或助学金以减轻生活费负担，但数额不致于对日后还债时形太大负担。
如果当初政府有替人民着想的话，就根本不应该大幅度调涨学费。一个负责任的政府应该提供低负担教育。理由再简单不过，人民有纳税，理应获得纳税人的基本权利。
覆水难收，要废除PTPTN谈何容易？就算民联打包单上台后废除，我还是存有疑虑。
用手投票！不要用脚或用嘴投票。绝对要搞清楚，人民才是老板！为什么政府还反过来要老板感恩呢？

Fun with Beads

I bought a new game for Jia during my trip to Bandung recently.  It is a set of beads with pegboards and templates.  

It was bought with the intention to keep Jia occupied throughout her trip in Bandung as Bandung does not have many fun activities for kids.  At the end, I find it to be an interesting and useful toy for her as it helps to improve motor skill as well as giving the sense of achievement when she got the shapes done by filling in bead by bead onto the pegboard.

Here's what it looks like inside the box.  It consists of a few packs of beads with different colors, a few templates, and two pegboards. 

This is how it looks like after it is harden by ironing under mild heat for around two minutes.  This is the fun part that excites Jia a lot as she gets to hold and feel the end result which is the harden beads that are joined together.  The harden beads can then be used as decoration by sticking onto wall, or just bringing it around.

Missing You

今天听到电台播了"Missing You" 这首巫啓贤N年前的歌，回忆马上一一湧现。

这是我大学时期很喜欢的曲目之一。没有复杂的歌词,只有贴近人心的情感，这就是这首歌特别之处。

人何尝没有思念?哪怕是那么一刹那，某人某景或会不自觉窜进思绪里。

思念真也不必说出口，或许摆在心里也未尝不是件好事。有好多好多的人、事、物，不是因为没有提起便表示是忘了。我想时间是会淡化一些不那么美好的记忆，但所有在生命中遇到的真、善、美，又岂会轻易从思念中抺去呢?

Take a stroll down memory lane - 1st Computer experience

 The passing of Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs has triggered me to dig into the history of Apple and its first computer dated back in 1970s.
It is incredibly impressive to see how computer has evolved over time and how the world has become hooked into the technology so seamlessly.
Today, computer is no longer a computer. With the advancement in technology, it is indeed "devices" that we are talking about. Devices that are no longer confined to a box with CPU, a monitor screen, and a keyboard for input.
My first experience with computer was back in late 80s when I was in secondary school. Back then, computer was synonym to luxury item with not many people could afford, so do I. As an initiative to foster computer literacy among students, my school back then had organized "Kelab Komputer" which students could enjoy usage of computer and some instructor led classes with a nominal fees of RM5 a month. I was fortunate to be able to participate in the club and have had my first ever experience with a computer.
At that time, the lab was equipped with the Commodore 128  - a computer with white color body, a type writer like keyboard, and a mouse.  Obviously the Commodore is no longer in operation now (company went bankrupt in early 2000), but the design and UI of the computer was as good as Apple's Macintosh at that time. Guess what, the computer did not have MS-DOS and as far as I can recall, I have to type in the instruction is BASIC to get the computer to work! Yes, I wrote a couple of programs in BASIC (ranging from hello world to some graphical patterns looping).
I still remember the name of my teacher, Mr Lee Foo San. He was a very knowledgeable person in computer and I considered that to be scarce at that time as many did not know what computer was let alone using it.
Quite an interesting memory to me comes to think about it.

Artistic Works

Wen Jia has developed her art skills substantially over the last few weeks.
She used to have the fear of picking up a pencil and start drawing something, most probably due to lack of the concept of shapes and dimensions. But who cares? We didn't even bother to send her for a "training" just for that. No, I don't think she need that. And i know what she needs. She just need more time from both her parents to encourage and nurture her as she gets along.
We observed and noticed that she felt excited when seeing her cousins did painting work with water color. There she goes, we bought a box of Buncho water color for her and did her first ever drawing and painting with her. I was proud to see her producing her first painting with very minimum help from us.

Besides, her coloring skill has improved so much and she has indeed exhibited a fair bit of creativity when comes to choosing her own color. Below coloring work with color pencils has seen her using colors of her choice without even following the pictures on the upper side which are pre-printed as a guide.

She has also started some paper art as part of her class work in Purity Learning session that she joins twice monthly.
This one is a paper art of a dinosaur that was created in recent class.

Overall, art works train her patience and concentration which is the key to learning.

天天好天

上星期日和妻小去看了“天天好天”。对的，又是一部本地制作贺岁片。这部电影的宣传可说是排山倒海的。自己也是因my fm 的广告之故而去捧场的。宣传归宣传，但自己观看后还算觉得还蛮不错的。 
论题材，它不算是传统贺岁片，反倒是环境写实片多一点。重点是，故事平实不取巧; 煽情得来又不娇情。
故事中的人物，分分钟会有一两个能让我们及身边的人对号入座。
像林风娇这个人物，是典型城市职业女性的写照。每天为生活而忙，抽时间给孩子变成一件奢侈的事。女儿连写对联都得kakak 教。是不是讽刺中又似乎极贴切?
老人家对孙女的隔代情，似乎是对于自己女儿父女情的一种折射。
还有那最引人深思的"一年见父母一次＂的现代都市人生活惯例，几乎是贴切中带有点讽刺。
我们是不是也该反思，电影中的一些情节是不是特别触动自己心灵某一部位?

A fruitful year for Wen Jia

This year marks the 3rd year since Wen Jia was born. She has been doing wonderfully in terms of physical and intelligence growth.
Physically she is a healthy, tall girl with improved physical strength - a natural process of growth.  Like most of the grown up kids, she doesn't like to eat vege.  We often mixed meat or fish with finely cut vege so that she could  get a better combination of nutrients as much as possible.
She likes most types of food especially oranges, and grapes.  Her taste on fruits has changed a lot. Her old time favourites such as banana, papaya, and apple have now become part of the list of food that she will avoid.  Well, I forgot to mention that she likes pineapple - the one cooked together with pork rib, or even in pineapple fried rice. 
In terms of learning and games, she has started to pick up interest in puzzle. We started with some simple puzzles (the 12 pieces one) and slowly moved to 18 pieces and 24 pieces.  She still need some guidance when come to the more complex one but overall it was a good start.  My friend in Singapore was right, always start with some character that she likes the most and she will slowly build interest in whichever games associate to those characters.  In Wen Jia's case, she likes the Mickey & Minnie, and also the Disney Princess puzzles the most.
On flash card learning, it has been reduced significantly. I have started to show more on the computer than the hand-made ones.  Also, she has started to explore more online learning such as the ones in sesame street, Nick Jr, etc.  The important part is, I selected the games for her to suit her age and development. 
She started rhythmic gymnastics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythmic_gymnastics) class early this year.  Possibly due to her yong age, the results have not been significant. Anyway, as our objective wasn't for her to be a gymnast or the sort, it is fine for her to play and have fun in the class once a week. 
She joined a mandarin word card lesson under a "Teacher Yap's" program.  It has been very good that she managed to pick up 20 over charcters over a period of 1 month but she has lost interest in the class soon after her 3rd month.  Our observation (having personally sit in the centre to wait for Wen Jia to finish her class) was that the teaching quality has deteriorated so much so until her actual time spent in the lesson was merely 20 minutes out of 1.5 hours in the centre.  We stopped the lesson for a while and would decide in next year if she should continue. 
I started Hooked on Phonics program with her since early this year after been introduced to this material by a friend in Singapore.  She has just completed Pre-K Level 1.  A bit slow but I think it was partly my fault for not been able to spend more time more frequently with her on the lesson.  Overall it was a fun program to follow, and I took it as an oppotunity to foster bonding with my girl.
Wen Jia will be in Pre-Kindy when the school opens next year.  Seriously we will have to observe more on her progress and most importantly to understand more about what is going on in the kindergarten.  It is really not about how good she can cope with her homework but it is very much on how well she enjoys a new learning milestone.

台湾自游 9/15- 9/25 （后记）

这是我们此次台湾行的一点观察：
一，说台湾美食多，还蛮见仁见智的。可能是囗味方面不一样，我还是觉得美食还真不容易找的。
二，到台湾不懂华语华文真还不容易行走。其一，告示牌基本上以中文书写。其二，广大民众对英语的掌握其实非常有限。
三，台湾尤其是台北的人文素养堪称很不错。比方说，地铁及巴士人潮总会规规矩矩排队上车。像在KL般插队的现象几乎不可能在那里发生。还有，地铁里的博爱座是不会被年轻人霸占的。就算是在人多没位子坐的时候，那些博爱座绝对会是空着的。
四，夜市见不到垃圾。这是自己留意很久的事。不只是此行，在前几次因洽公而偷闲逛过夜市，情况和这一次一样。街上有好多食档供外带，奇的是街道上却是完全找不到垃圾的踪影。更怪的是，几乎所有夜市都不提供垃圾桶。垃圾到底去了哪? 我怀疑人们都不将垃圾当场丢弃，而是把它们带在身上，待回家时才丢。遇到此景，我这个游客想随处丢垃圾都深感惭愧。
五，台湾的餐馆，小吃店极不环保！到处都是用即用即弃筷子及杯子。想必是比较讲究卫生以及清洁工成本考量，现在要在台湾找一间没用即丢型餐具恐怕很难。

My Trip to Taiwan 15-25/9 2010

This is a long anticipated trip which had been planned for six month.
We booked the Eva  Air ticket in March with a pretty good price. All-in returned fare costs only RM 791 per person.

Since it is a DIY tour, we have made it a ten days trip to have more time to enjoy the places of attraction of Taiwan.
Yes, this is a family trip with Siew Wei and my princess Jia with us.
September 15 afternoon, we took the EVA Air flight to Taipei. Arrived at Taipei at around 9:30pm. Checked in into Hope Hotel. It is a fairly good hotel with proximity to the Taipei Main Station.

September 16 trip is as follows:

10:00 am - 12:00 pm National Palace Museum
12:30 pm - 4:30 pm Sing Yi Rd - Coconut Grove spa cuisine restaurant
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm Tamsui Old Street, Fisherman's Wharf.
It is worth mentioning that the Coconut Grove Japanese spa food package comes with a 45 minutes private spa, kind of a new experience for us.  It costs us TWD1980 for the entire package.
 
The hot spring water is piped into the room, with a separately run cold water from mountain spring water. It means better regulation of hot and cold water only by adjusting the water lever.

 

The night view of  the Fisherman's Wharf.

September 17's trip is as follows:
9:00 am - Check-out
9:30 am - 11:30 am Taipei 101 Mall
12:00 pm - 3:30 pm Hsimenting district
5:40 pm - 7:46 pm take train to Hualien 
8:30 pm Checkin -Qian Hao Home Stay
9:00 pm - 11:00 pm Night Market

This is the famous Ah Zhong noodle in Hsimenting . I think it tastes well, but my wife was not so impressed.

Have you seen white colour bitter gourd before? The species can be found everywhere in Taipei.

On 18 September we hired a taxi driver for the Taroko Gorge tour. Program is as follows:

Taroko arches - Visitor Center - Shakadang - Changchun Shrine - Swallow - Tunnel of Nine Turns - Mother Bridge - Yuewang Ting - green water Trail - Intertek - Liufang Bridge - Seven Star Lake -back to hotel
Taroko Gorge is a must visit for Hualian.

As our visit coincide with the Fanapi typhoon attack to Taiwan, the entrance to Liufang Bridge, and Changchun Shrine was closed.

Jia showed her smiling face! The background is Qixingtan. The name Qixingtan suggests that it is composed of seven lakes. The original Qixingtan or Seven Star Lake has been occupied by Japanese soldiers, and now the Air Force base. The place where I stand now, is a seaside near the Pacific Ocean and it is named  Qixingtan after the request by the original Qixingtan  residents
The tour guide told us the ancient story of the cross-island highway. This road was built some 50 years ago and can be considered as the first of its kind in Taiwan. The road cut across mountains, and it was a time-consuming construction which required huge man power. There were a lot of unsung heroes who sacrificed for the constuction of the road.

One of the attractions of the Eternal Spring Shrine is a place to commemorate those who were killed during the construction of the road.

The picture above shows TianXiang, is a rest stop with accommodation, service stations, and traffic check and interpretation services. We climbed up from here for the Cheung Tak Temple, of which the world's tallest golden statue of "Di Zhang" Buddha (36 feet high) is located.

Also in this photo - Xiao Gu, our taxi driver and guide for the day.

Hualien famous dishes are fried oysters, Bian Shi (dumplings), potatoes and so on.
As the Fanapi typhoon will hit Taiwan tomorrow, and Hualien is exactly the point where the typhoon landed. In order to not to get stucked Hualien for a few days, we then changed our plan and travelled back to Taipei as Taipei is believed to be of less impact compared to Hualien.

9 / 19, Typhoon day.
It was declared Public Holiday for Taipei.  Most of the shopping malls are closed for business. We went to Shilin night market at night though.

9 / 20 schedule is as follows:

11:30 - 2:30 pm Yehliu
2:30 pm - 5:00 pm Juifen town
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm Din Tai Fung and ZhongXiao FuXing.
Yehliu is a geological park in Taipei with the well-known lion head formation.

The famous lion head. Photo taken by a middle-age security guard, who volunteered to shoot for us. 

Juifen sterrt.  Used to be settlement for the gold miners during the old days.

9 / 21 schedule as follows:

8:45 am - 9:40 am Taipei to Taichung (Kuo Kuang Bus)
11:35 - 1:20 pm hired a private car to Sun Moon Lake
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Sun Moon Lake Cruises

Sun Moon Lake attractions:

Shueishe Visitor Center - Asagiri Pier - Man Mo Temple - Peacock Garden - Centre -" 達邵依"- XuanZhuang Shi- XuanGuang Shi- One Tunnel - Tou She- Water Club Pier - Water Club Dam - Water Agency Visitor Center

4:55 pm - 6:22 pm back to Taichung.
8:30 pm - 10:00 pm Feng Chia Night Market

Sun Moon Lake is Taiwan's largest alpine lake.
I personally think that this place is not that interesting.



9 / 22 and 9 / 23 two-day tour to Alishan

We joined a local tour from Jiayi to Alishan which happened to cover accomodation in Alishan with meals, entrance to the Alishan National Park, and transportation.
9 / 22 mainly travel Alishan Forest Recreation Area.
9 / 23 viewing of sunrise in the morning, and FenQiHu in the afternoon.

Shenmu railway station

It is a must do in Alishan - sunrise in the early morning. Fortunately, we managed to catch a good view of sunrise due to good weather.

Zhu Shan Railway Station. We took this train up to the mountain for sighting of sunrise.

9 / 23:

4:25 pm-6pm train from Chiayi to Tainan

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm ChiKan
8:30 pm - 9:00 pm - Garden Night Market
 
 

It is worth mentioning is that managed to enjoy the best food in Taiwan at Tainan Garden night Market. Among the food are fried oyster, hot plate noodle, bean curd, etc.



9 / 24 Heritage Tour of Tainan
10:30 am - 12:30 pm Anping Fort & De Ji tree house
4:46pm - 8:20 pm train back to Taipei

Anping Fort

Anping Fort

The Tree House

9/25 Good bye Taiwan.  Back to home sweet home.

台湾自游-9/15 - 9/25 （一）

这是一个计划了整半年的一次旅行。
既然是自游，便为自己安排了较长的十天行程，以便能更有时间好好欣赏台湾各个景点。
随行的有秀慧还有小宝贝嘉嘉。
9月15日搭長榮航空下午的班机往台北。到台北已是夜晚九点多了。入住一家叫全家欢的饭店。饭店还算不错，优点是靠近台北车站。
9月16日的行程如下：
10:00 am – 12:00 pm 國立故宮博物院
12:30pm – 4:30pm 行義路溫泉- 椰林溫泉美食餐廳
5:00pm – 8:00pm 淡水老街 +　渔人码头。
值得一提的是，在椰林温泉美食点了日式套餐，还算很丰富。花了TWD1980还附送45分钟的私人温泉，也算是不错的体验。

温泉水是由水管导入室内，冷水则是山泉水。冷热可自由调控。
淡水该数渔人码头的夜景最漂亮．

9月17日的行程如下：


9:00am – 退房
9:30am - 11:30am台北101 购物中心
12:00pm - 3:30pm 西门町商圈
5:40pm – 7:46pm 乘搭自强号火车往花莲
8:30pm 入住『阡豪行腳之家』
9:00pm – 11:00pm 南滨夜市


这就是在西门町出名的阿宗面线。我觉得味道还好，老婆就不是那么喜欢。

 有见过白色苦瓜吗？在台北这品种到处都是。

花莲的南滨夜市不算热闹， 但蚝煎还蛮好吃的。

9月18日雇用了花莲一位叫小古的，游太魯閣。 行程如下：
阡豪之家早上9:00出發--太魯閣牌樓--遊客中心--砂卡礑--長春祠--燕子口--九曲洞--慈母橋--岳王亭--綠水步道--天祥--流芳橋--七星潭--市區或民宿 

太魯閣是来花莲必游景点。
由于恰逢台湾有台风警报，有一两个景点是局部封闭的。像流芳桥，長春祠就是只在外面看看而已。

看女儿笑得多开心！背景是七星潭。 要提一提，七星潭顾名思义是由七个湖组成。原本的七星潭已被日本兵占用了，现为空军基地。按居民要求把七星潭临近太平洋我站着的这个地方也叫七星潭。

导游小古说了一段东西横贯公路的故事。这一条路在50年前能建成也算是创举。此路横跨山脉，以当时的技术而言是费时费力的。当时也有好多幕后英雄因此而牺牲了。
景点之一的長春祠是一處為紀念開鑿中橫公路時，殉職於東段最驚險的合流段之141名員工，而建立的祠堂。

上图是天祥， 其实是个中途食宿休息站，並設有服務站，提供遊憩諮詢，路況查詢及解說服務等。我们由这爬上祥德寺， 庙外便是全世界最高的地藏王菩薩金佛像（高36尺） 的所在地。

和导游小古的合照。



花莲著名的美食有蚝煎，扁食（其实是水饺来的），土豆等。
由于明天凡娜比台风将袭台，而花莲就刚好是台风眼着陆地，灾情该会是严重的。我们没办法，为了不要困在花莲几天，便临时改行程回台北。

9/19 台风过境台湾岛。是13级大台风！不知是幸运或不幸，台湾今年以来第一次台风竟被我们遇上了。
9/19 那都不能去。连大如Sogo的商场都放假不做生意了。晚上还是去了一趟士林夜市，但好多商家都休业。

9/20 的行程如下：
11:30 – 2:30pm 野柳風景區
2:30 pm – 5:00pm 瑞芳鎮 , 九份
7:00pm – 9:30pm 鼎泰丰 复兴店 及忠孝复兴商圈。
今天算是坐巴士最多的一天。野柳及九份都是乘巴士前往。
野柳就是台北的一个地质公园（geopark）。 我想最有名的莫过于那个狮子头咯。
 

 

 
九份老街以前是淘金的地方。
 

 
9/21 的行程如下：
 
8:45am – 9:40am (国光巴士）
11:35 – 1:20pm  坐车去南投日月潭
3:00 pm – 4:00pm 日月潭游船
日月潭景点：
水社遊客中心 - 朝霧碼頭 –文武廟 – 孔雀園 – 活動中心 – 達邵依 – 玄奘寺 – 玄光寺 – 一號隧道 – 頭社 – 水社碼頭 – 水社壩 – 水社遊客中心
自行車租借處：德化社、日月潭青年活動中心、涵碧樓
4:55pm – 6:22pm 回台中. 

8:30pm – 10:00pm 逢甲夜市

日月潭是台湾最大的高山湖泊。好像是用来发电的。
我觉得这地方也没有太多特点。也许是我们没租脚踏车环湖的关系，总觉得司机大哥带去的地方也不过这样。

9/22 及 9/23 阿里山两日游
参加了达庆旅行社的团去阿里山。
9/22 主要是游 阿里山森林遊樂區。 9/23 重点是日出及奋起湖。

神木火车站。

上阿里山一定得看日出喔！好幸运今早能见度好好。

祝山火车站。 我们就是搭这列火车上山观日出的。

9/23： 4:25pm –6pm 乘火车从嘉义往台南
6:00pm – 8:00pm 赤嵌楼
8:30pm – 9:00pm -花园夜市

赤嵌楼

值得一提的是，我们在花园夜市吃到了我们认为台湾最好吃的美食。有蚝煎，铁板面，豆腐花等。

9/24 台南古迹之旅

10:30am – 12:30pm 安平古堡 & 德记洋行，树屋
4:46 – 8:20pm 坐火车回台北

安平古堡

安平古堡

德记洋行，树屋

9/25 回家