Interloper View

The following are the balance of the photos:

One of the benefits of staying in a multi-cultural country is getting to see and enjoy different festivals. It has been several years since I went to see the Thaipusam possession but I managed to do that this year. Here are some of the pictures I took (I split into two entries to ensure the performance):

This is a story I heard from a good friend of mine. A man had just put up a sign "Puppies for Sale" when a little boy appeared with great excitement in his eyes. He was waiting patiently as the man finish putting up the sign and asked, "Uncle, how much does it cost for a puppy?" The man said, "About 40 to 50 dollars?" On hearing this, the boy face suddenly became sad for a second. He was about to go but suddenly turned around and asked, "Can I see the puppies?" The man said, "Sure!" and whistled. Just then the door open and a lady came out followed by several puppies. The boy's eye lit up as he saw them. One by one the puppies came out. While he was playing with the puppies, one last puppy came out with a slight limp. Apparently, the puppy was born without one hip bone. The boy saw the last puppy and immediately asked the man, "How much for that puppy?" The man said, "You don't want that one, he is cripple

It is an annual custom to turn on all the lights in Kek Lok Si for the fifteen days of CNY. The following are some of the pictures to show how awesome the sight is:

All this while I thought Hibiscus comes in red, then I found the various colors it comes in:

Welcome the year of the Brown Earth Ox. The end of the Earth Rat brought a lot of chaos worldwide. With the strength of the Ox and its ability to work the earth, here is hoping to a more productive and prosperous 2009. The following are some photos of a lion dance and dragon dance I took with my hand phone. Unfortunately, the phone was not able to take the action sequence clearly. The dragon: The Lions: Anyway, my daughter enjoyed the whole thing even though it was very noisy. She has grown since her first encounter (she was terrified then).

Received this in the email today: 1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day... And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant. 2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. 3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep. 4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to __________ today.' 5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy. 6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008. 7. Make time to practice meditation, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives. 8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6. 9. Dream more while you are awake. 10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants. 11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts. 12. Try to make at least three people smile each day. 13. Clear clutter from your house, you

Christmas is celebrated by christians world over on Dec 25. It is a time of great rejoicing to remember to coming of Jesus Christ and to celebrate good will among all people. As a Chinese descend, we celebrate Christmas twice. A few days prior to the Dec 25 - around Dec 21, we also celebrate Chinese Christmas (also known as Winter Solstice ). To celebrate this festival, we typically will make Tangyuan . However, it has been several years since we actually made it ourselves. The preparation is very tedious since we have to grind the rice etc. Nowadays we will buy the dough from the market, we just make it into circle and cook it in sugar syrup. In Hockien language, we call it Ee (or circle - literal translation). It usually comes in multicolor. This year, we bought ones with crushed peanuts and sugar in them. My children call them " Ta Bah Kuih " which is another type of pastry that they are used to eat.