Happy Birthday Singapore

Last week, I had bought my food and was waiting for a seat to be made available at the fully packed Mos Burger. A group of school boys saw me waiting from a distance away and beckoned me over. They then ready themselves to leave and said "you can have the seat. Bye, have a nice day!" It was such a small gesture but quite heartwarming for some reason. Perhaps it's the way they said the greetings that's so different from the usual aloof or rather muted Singaporean.

The day passed and come day end, my friend realised that he had lost his wallet. We tried to look around to no avail - it was not at Mos Burger either. We parted ways but it didn't look optimistic.

However, the next day, I heard that he found the wallet with all money intact - the wallet was somewhere on the side of of the pavement, in some kind of a corner. Not sure if it was sheer good luck or Singaporeans practise 路不拾遗 （not pick up something that doesn't belong to you). 

Coincidentally, for some strange reason, I had left my bag of books in the taxi the same night !( I haven't dropped my stuff in a long while). I called back the taxi uncle the next day. He tried to pass me back that night but I missed his call so we missed the chance. Then after two more calls, we managed to meet up the next day evening. 

I wanted to give him a tip as goodwill for going out of the way to pass it back to me. He saw me pulling out my wallet and he started to refuse. When he saw that I was still insisting , he drove off in a hurry. What a kind driver! I was so thankful and promptly wrote him a compliment - made my day and warmed my heart! How nice to live in Singapore when we actually have a chance to getting our lost things found! Anyway his name is Mr Yap and
Plate number is SHC6382Y. Hope he gets good business all year round! 

Over the last few days, we had gone for 1 of the SG50 celebration sites at Esplanade. When Cayen's balloon suddenly burst, this young man/ usher promptly came back to comfort him and came back with another replacement balloon. The same man explained and translated the English materials patiently to a Chinese speaking elderly couple. 

At another station, I overheard this young boy , perhaps 16-18 years old, explaining to this Brit couple about Singapore and its heritage. 

With all these encounters, I can't help but  feel very fortunate to be staying in Singapore and experiencing all these kindness. And coming from all these positive encounters with these youths, I feel encouraged that we are able to build a bright future ahead! 

Yes, we are an extremely young nation and the next fifty years is a big question mark. However, from these youths that I have encountered recently and the patriotism that I have seen during LKY's passing , the SEA games and the SG50 celebration , I'm convinced we have a real shot to bring Singapore to even greater heights. Majulah Singapura!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nurturing creativity

Image
We went for curriculum updates last week for Cayson and the week before for Cayen. Bumped into the English teacher who told me that Cayen eats his lunch very well including vegetables (doesn't sound like him at all). She also mentioned that Cayen likes to test boundary. Recent case in point , teacher would ask the children to not talk in the toilet as it could be noisy for the children in the adjacent classroom. As he wasn't allowed to talk, he purposely started singing instead. Then our discussion was cut short and I wondered how the teacher responded to his singing eventually.  Nonetheless , this is one of the many instances where Cayen would not do things the conventional way. In Cantonese, I might even call him "Seng Mok" (savvy). For instance , previously , he was spotted sipping lime cordial juice on a plate -he has helped himself at the dispenser without my knowledge . One would have usually told him off but I decided to ask him why he did that. He said that he
Read more

Feedback from teachers

Image
As part of the regular meet the parent session, I joined Cayson to make ice cream. Think I must be the only one who managed to tear two plastics bags in a row due to vigorous shaking. It’s good fun as Cayson tried his hand at making ice cream from Meiji strawberry milk.  Teacher’s feedback on him is still good as usual as he’s still quite an obedient and easy going kid though she did remark that he’s picky with some food like vegetables now. And whilst he’s 99% agreeable in the past, he’s been more prone to his own opinion (I read it as trying to get his way). And sometimes he followed his classmates’ action of scribbling away randomly during colouring when he used to colour carefully within the lines. Observations were quite in line with what we see at home. Recently he would cry when he doesn’t get his way. For instance, we were playing snakes and ladders and he started crying when I made him slide down when he hit a snake. He kept screaming “I want to win”. Later on, he proceeded to
Read more

Top 12 Tips during Confinement - revised edition (2017)

Image
This is dedicated to my dear friends who are expecting their bundle of joy very soon. Being a hassle-free type of mother who needs to go back to work after maternity leave, and also one who likes a good bargain, these are the things I personally find very useful, practical & cost saving. 1. A good breastfeeding pillow  - my Brestfriend  For some strange reason, I didn't see the need to invest in this initially. But this has to be the top 1 or 2 items I cannot live without during the first few months. No matter how I positioned the normal pillows, I just couldn't get the right positioning without straining my shoulders/ back. So yes, this is first on the list. Anyway, if your milk production is low, try papaya with fish soup and remember to drink lots of water. If all else fails, you still can try to take some herbal medicine before resorting to Formula Milk. This herbal supplement improved production by 30-50%. I only took it when baby was having gro
Read more