水自流 » Melic

Meet your new mommy – Oct 12, 2008

水自流 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:07:14 +0000

鼻血，又见鼻血。

有两个家庭，都处于美国中产阶级水平，不过似乎一个在下端一个在上端，称上端的那个为A家庭。A家有一个男孩两个小一点的女孩，他们的一天从早晨5点开始都排满了各种各样的体育活动和其它进修课程；而B家有一个男孩和一个女孩，他俩的父亲是抱着由他们自由发展的态度，因此这两个小孩很悠闲，打打游戏、发呆很舒服。这两个家庭的母亲对换到对方那里体验生活。很快A家的母亲就对B家的父亲所抱有的教育放任态度开火，认为不应该让孩子们失去主动性和活力（get up and go, motivation)，而对他们说她自家的孩子在读贵族学校，很多活动云云。不过，我想，贵族学校不是B家能够负担的起的，在下集预告中，B家的男孩留下眼泪，为没有机会，还是怪父亲没有好好培养他？不得而知。而B家母亲在这一集中没有怎么对A家的教育态度攻击，但是却细心的体会到A家男孩所处的巨大压力，为了达到他父亲对他完美的要求，最后A家男孩也是眼泪连连。

无意中看到这个真人电视剧，名叫”Trading spouses: Meet your new mommy“。看到的这两个家庭很有意思，可以说代表了两种不同的教育方式，或者说代表了两个不同的阶级。

要做廉价航空公司虎航的飞机，需要去Budget Terminal乘坐，下了地铁沿着指示牌坐上bus很快就可以找到目的地。Melic开始了他在越南的短暂生活，希望能够找到如意的工作，至少对我来说可以去越南看他，也可以好好的看看越南是什么样子的啊。这次有四个越南朋友一块跟他回去，有他们照顾不成问题，问题就是工作了。

李显龙说经济会放缓到3%左右，Nanda说要注意了，很多人会失去工作，他说他在2002年就看到过这种情况。

很久没有在周末起的那么早了，不过也就9a.m.而已。他们说早起的鸟儿有虫吃，没有吃过虫，但是可以来看看Songbird是什么样的：

Oasis – Songbird

回家倒计时：100天

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New category of ‘the Bahá’í Faith’ – Apr 15, 2008

水自流 — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:38:04 +0000

I will learn the Book One of the lessons of the Bahai Faith with David under the introduction by Teck Cheng and Ming Hwee tomorrow evening. And this is the right time to begin a new category especially for ‘the Bahá’í Faith’, following are the posts in my website since I knew this religion:

狮城日志：大年初二 – Feb 08, 2008
it was the first time

Melic – Feb 23, 2008
How I know Melic

狮城日志：混沌 – Feb 24, 2008
the bahai faith friends

狮城日志：parties – Mar 04, 2008
Melic and Lalitha, parties

Origin of the Human Race – Mar 12, 2008
the new page for the Bahai Faith

First Youth For Peace Interfaith Symposium – Mar 16, 2008
one unity, one dream, one world, one human being

Naw Rúz – Mar 20, 2008
the Bahai Faith new year

狮城日志：这些天 – Mar 23, 2008
Melic, parties

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Naw Rúz – Mar 20, 2008

水自流 — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 09:42:37 +0000

Naw Rúz，新年的意思，根据巴哈伊历法，每年的3月21日是新年的第一天，也就是从冬天转到春天的第一天，这一天也是The Bahá’í Fast（March 2 to 20）的最后一天。今年新加坡的Bahai New Year dinner是在Meritus Mandarin Hotel举行，偷偷的说一句，根据环境判断，这个dinner是俺有生以来参加过的“最高级别”的一个dinner。我是作为Melic和Lalitha的客人坐在第10号餐桌，这个位置几乎是最好的了，就在舞台前侧边，总共有48桌。据说有许多人要票都没有，估计明年会扩大规模，每张票大概65新币左右吧，我的是Melic请客。印象比较深刻的是其中由Roger Jenkins说的三个故事，第一个是在森林中几个动物的故事，引申出巴哈伊教的一个关于one humanity的教义；第二个是从一张纸两面涂有不同颜色引发出要尝试着从他人的角度看问题，而不是一开始就争吵；第三个故事是从“渔夫与金鱼”框架中换成现代的场景，一个人的开心与否是内心决定而不是身外物。

Naw Rúz 2008 progamme

7:15pm Arrival of Guests
7:35pm Fasting – The Experience of a Bahá’í Youth

7:45pm Arrival of Guest-of-Honour, Minister for Defence, Mr. Teo Chee Hean
Devotionals
Welcome address

8:05pm Dinner commences

Fusion Unplugged
on instrumental performance blending the East and the West

8:45pm Wings
a play on transformation by the Bahá’í children

Where is the Love
a dance by the Bahá’í Youth

花之语 – Language of Flowers

Sting O Carmel
The Little Light of Mine
songs by a group of friends

Stories of Harmony & Unity
a performance by Roger Jenkins

10pm Finale
Sounds of One Heart Beat

10:15pm End of main programme, the celebration continues….

Devotional

Wings

“Sting O Carmel” & “The Little Light of Mine”

讲故事

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English language – Mar 10, 2008

水自流 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:45:48 +0000

昨天跟Melic说我在这里对方向感一点都没有是因为在客家话里面一般去市区都是“上”的方向词在前面，而现在我住的地方去乌节路其实在地图上是往下走，因此就弄混了，另外一个这里道路方向在左跟国内相反也是一个因素。刚才收到他的一封邮件，就在下面。另外前天还有一封主题是storytime的邮件，我还没有开始看呢：http://www.fln.vcu.edu/struwwel/bubeng.html。之所以这么快将这个内容贴出来是因为可以在my dame room上网了，不过不知道是不是临时的，刚才只是check了一下，竟然有一个可以连上（update: 事实证明，只高兴了一会，正奸商）。OK，废话不说先，请enjoy：

An interesting piece on the English language!

(1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

(2) The farm was used to produce produce.

(3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

(4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

(5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

(6) The soldier decided to desert his desert in the desert.

(7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

(8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

(9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

(10) I did not object to the object.

(11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

(12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

(13) They were too close to the door to close it.

(14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

(15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

(16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

(17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

(18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

(19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

(20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers taught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is “UP.”

It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so………. it is time to shut UP …..!

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狮城日志：parties – Mar 04, 2008

水自流 — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:22:40 +0000

Last Thursday and Friday I joined two parties at the local friend’s house. That were all large house. On Thursday, there was a birthday party, the husband is from India and the wife is from Malaysia, and the house is near Sambarwang. There was a ‘giving day for the children’ on Friday. The couple, Mehrdad and Mojgan, is from Australia, they were very nice, the house is near C.K.Tang building, Orchard Road. At the end of the party, their youngest daughter had sang two songs with playing her guitar (Hey Jude and Imagine), and then a guest played the Hotel California with guitar too.

Melic and Lalitha brought me to those parties and I have a very good time with them. Thanks a lot. Although I still need time to improve my speaking English, Melic help me a lot by taking me to his friend’s parties. I can meet a lot of people from different countries and they’re all very nice.

Hey Jude – The Beatles

Imagine – The Beatles

Hotel Carlifornia – Eagles

Meet the Spartans

I went to the movie theater with Liu Jie last night, we just chosed one funny movie which we don’t need to waited a long time. And that is Meet the Spartans, it’s a parody of the 300. Although there was a Chinese subtitle, I didn’t know some of the plots of laugh because I’m not a native speaker. In my opinion, Steven Chow is still the best mo lei tau director. Well, Melic is welcome Liu Jie to join the meeting with the friends, and then I hope this will help her to feel better. Yeah!

Leonidas, Queen Margo and Carptain

Xerxes, Persian King

© 水自流 for 水自流, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Funny, Meet the Spartans, Melic, Movie, Party, Steven Chow

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Melic – Feb 23, 2008

水自流 — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 03:51:58 +0000

British Council有资格颁发面向成人的英语教师资格证书，为了评定申请人的能力，就开设了一些免费的课程，为期三个月（分为Elementary和Foundation水平，每个星期两节课，每节课两个小时），让一定程度水平的学生自主报名，但是要先交S$150的押金，大概参与率在80%以上就可以拿回那押金。Melic就是我在Foundation班级的教师之一，一共有四个老师，是唯一的男老师，也是年纪最大的。他现在转到Elementary班，大概是一半课程是Foundation另一半是Elementary的。

Melic有一半的印度血统，之前我还以为他是纯正的中国血统，不过稍微注意一下外表还是有点差别。他跟他妻子育有两个女儿一个儿子，年纪都在20到30之间吧，大女儿在新加坡的一家外资银行工作，儿子应该是在巴黎学习导演专业，小女儿在美国读大学，好像是管理类专业。Melic曾做了26年的警察，之后去以色列巴哈伊总部做了5年的义工，职务是警卫工作。现在他申请成人英语教师资格以便在今年夏天的时候去厦门定居时找份英语教师的工作，选择厦门我想一部分原因是因为他妻子会说闽南话。

上个星期我们在BC旁边的Food Court谈了一个晚上，没有主题，只是锻炼一下口语而已，以至于离开的时候我开玩笑说这个星期的口语训练任务已经完成。期间他给我看了一本类似与月历一样的中文剪辑版巴哈伊历史简介，是他女儿的，Melic自己看不懂中文字。上面的内容在网站上也曾看到。我说了一些我为什么不相信上帝的一些理由，但是他没有怎么去强加巴哈伊信仰，只是说可以带我去他朋友的家里看看，借这机会你可以去了解真正的新加坡人，也可以锻炼一下英语。

Melic的家离BC不远，所以他的交通工具是自行车，他说那单车是从一个商城外面弄来的，当然经过保安的同意，自己回去充满气然后加点润滑油，就是一辆蛮好的二手车了。在没有过来新加坡之前，俺就想着在这里弄辆自行车去逛逛，这里的自行车店的二手车都要一百多新币，只好作罢。知道Melic的方式后不免又燃起小宇宙，起来保护世界的念头。他说Tangling Mall（上面说的Food Court就在里面的负一层，有BC的学生卡可以打点折）外面就有几辆长时间无人认领的单车，他也已经问了保安，说可以拿走，因为本来他想再“进购”一辆的，既然我有兴趣就看看能不能够将锁弄开。两天后，他就带着需要的工具将其中一辆还可以的自行车转移到了Tommy的名下，因此在Melic的大力帮助下，我也有了自己的自行车了。当然到现在为止我只骑了一次，一方面是车链的放置时间太久了会跟着后轮的齿轮发生粘滞现象，另一方面是一直都起晚了，天气太热。不管怎么样，梦想有多远我就能走多远还是很令人兴奋的。

这段时间除了担心这个星期的考试外（现在发现那个考试有点儿戏，我也顺利通过），还有就在考虑我是否在“利用”Melic去让他带我到处转转以便对新加坡有更多的了解，毕竟我不能说服自己去相信有个更强大的存在会抽风似的关注我们这个世界。

Thanks a lot, Melic.

“我首要的训言是这样的：你要有纯洁仁慈而光明的心，这样，才能成为亘古不变的，不灭的，永恒的。” – - 隐言经

除了车链的地方有毛病外，其它都还满好的

© 水自流 for 水自流, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Friend, Melic, Singapore, The Bahá'í Faith, 巴哈伊

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