My Student Story

Dear Little Bulldog,
Long before you know me, I was a tutor during my vacation from A-Level. I was tutoring two secondary school guys and a girl in Sri Sentosa, along Old Klang Road. Their mom is a kind lady from Sabah, whose husband is in some logging business. Naturally they are very well off, and they seems to have a worry free life. During the that time when email and handphone was non existence, I have lost contact with them.
When you grow older, you started to want to reminisce some good old time, and I started to search for these students of mine. Surprisingly I managed to find them in Facebook, and we started to reconnect back.
The story that follows is something that I do not expect at all. Instead of having a good life, and go on to study in some oversea university, my students family business has collapsed. The sister even has to abandon her study in the US and come back to KL to work. The brother did not even have chance to go to the university and has to go and become a waiter in UK. Good thing is they are all doing well now, abeit having to work harder than they should. Their mom has just opened a Bak Kut Teh stall recently with the younger sister. The former Tai Tai is willing to put down her pride and make a business which must be tough on her.
I salute this family for their positive outlook, never say die attitude. This is surely something I can learn from my students. I have been always so fortunate without having to go through this kind of hardship.
May the Lord shines His face upon this family.

Crab Celebration for Little Bulldog

Dear Little Bulldog,
I found an excuse to celebrate, so we can justify our crab dinner. It is to celebrate the disappearance of your pimple on your ear. I am glad you need not go to Dr. Hsu on this pimple. It save me $50 and this can be used to a have good dinner!
Cold crab is one of my favorite way of eating crab. It is not so saucy and its clean on the finger. I have tried the one in 丽都 and 万兴, this time I want to try the place that is the first to start serving cold crab 星洲 restaurant. It is a foochow restaurant, and I wanted to see if I can find some childhood memory taste here. It is located along Selegie Road, besides a HDB estate. The restaurant has a very old fashion neon light, very similar to the old restaurant that I went during childhood time. The front glass door has a simple Cold Crab sticker, that assure me that I am coming to the right place.
We ordered the cold crab, 红糟鸡汤冬粉，虾卷 and 福州炒面. The crab was good, but no surpise. The best surprise comes from the 红糟鸡汤冬粉. The soup is so thick and it taste really good. We ended up drinking the whole claypot of the soup. The rest of the dish is good, but again no surprise. I will come back next time and drink the soup again. I read the 福州鱼圆is also good, how I wish i am able to find one that taste like what father made. That is the best fish ball I have in my entire life!

Find Something to Celebrate

Dear Little Bulldog,
I was planning to go have crab with YC yesterday. My sis asked, "What occasion for celebration ?" I have no answer, because this is to me a normal eat out occasion. But I thought to myself, "Why not find some excuse to celebrate something, anything." Celebration mood does give a great lift to our ordinary life. Here is a 庆祝 song...

Susan Boyle - I Dreamed a Dream

Dear Little Bulldog,
I come across a very inspiring video recently. It is an audition on Britain's Got Talent. A seemingly unattractive woman has surprised everyone and bring tears to my eye every time I watched this video.
Susan Boyle has had a hard life but so full of talent. Someone in the forum said, "God will give everyone something special.". He has truly given Susan Boyle a long due opportunity for the world to discover her talent. He is indeed fair to everyone of us, just that we are not able to see His grace most of the time.

Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent
Uploaded by dwarthy

Article from Lianhe Zaobao has a very vivid report on her:

英国乡下大妈 天籁歌声一鸣惊人

用歌声扭转人生。英国选秀节目“英国也有大明星”自两年前出现歌剧歌手保罗帕兹后，上周末又一名奇葩爆红，她是外表平凡的英国大妈苏珊波伊尔，47岁，未婚也未接过吻，身材臃肿。

英国47岁的“欧巴桑”苏珊波伊尔（Susan Boyle），上周末参加英国知名选秀节目“英国也有大明星”（Britain's Got Talent）一夕爆红，成为YouTube点选大热门。外表平凡却满怀梦想、才华洋溢的她，很可能复制另一名选秀奇葩保罗帕兹（Paul Potts）的成功路，用歌声扭转人生。

波伊尔来自苏格兰西部农村，目前无业，在教会当义工。本月11日参加选秀节目时，臃肿的身材与老土的打扮，一上台便被尖酸刻薄的评 审赏白眼。她的头发似乎没有梳好，在介绍人口只有5000人的家乡时还口吃起来。当她表示自己从未接过吻，更未结过婚，但梦想做歌星，成为像英国音乐剧天 后伊莲佩姬（Elaine Paige）一样的红星时，台下观众更是窃笑不已。

苏珊波伊尔目前晋级第一轮，未来美梦能否成真，还是未知数。

臃肿老土，从选秀红到全球

然而当她演唱音乐剧《悲惨世界》的名曲“I dreamed a dream”时，才刚唱出第一句，全场就听得目瞪口呆，继而爆以热烈掌声，有的站立鼓掌，有的疯狂呼喊。三名评审一致给满分，一名评审说，这是节目播出三 年来“最大的惊喜”，她的梦幻般的声音和感染力无人能比。就连以“毒舌”对待参赛者而出名的柯维尔也称赞说：“你可以昂首阔步回家乡。”

波伊尔的精彩表演被人上传至影音分享网站YouTube，截至16日晚为止，全球已有1700万人点击了，就连美国知名影星狄美摩亚与艾什顿库奇夫妇也在Twitter留言说感动得热泪盈眶。

波伊尔目前已是“英国也有大明星”的冠军大热门，也是Google的热门搜寻字，而评审之一（同时也是知名音乐制作人）赛蒙柯威尔（Simon）亦有意与她签唱片约。

脑损无业，“冒一次险”

波伊尔在家乡受访时说，她出生时因缺氧导致脑部受损，因此产生学习障碍，加上其貌不扬，从小常遭同学欺负与嘲弄。多年前母亲生病，歌星梦更无可能实现，只有全心照顾母亲。

波伊尔的歌唱经历是在教堂圣歌队活动，全部只到12岁为止，她说参加选秀节目是母亲过世两年来首次献唱，也算是完成母亲的遗愿。“母亲在两年前去世时嘱咐她‘冒一次险’。人们通常只看外表后，过早地评判一个人，我想告诉人们，有时事实并非如此。”

一夕爆红 波伊尔感觉很愉快

苏珊波伊尔回到家乡小镇，有关参加电视台节目的邀请不断，并且很多出版社、唱片公司建议她出书、出唱片。

波伊尔目前和一只10岁的猫“小石头”共同生活。对于一夕爆红，她说：“感觉很愉快。现在走在街上，小孩会拦下我跟我道贺。”家乡教会牧师则透露，波伊尔“从未炫耀自己的声音”，这是她第一次受外界肯定。

波伊尔的走红之所以感动这么多人，无非是表现远超过观众与评审预期，一如当初默默无名的保罗帕兹。目前波伊尔晋级第一轮，未来美梦能否成真？能否和帕兹一样出唱片，到世界各地巡回演唱？能否再次印证小人物只要有才华，亦能走出自己一片天？就靠实力、人气与运气了。

(联合早报）

Think of the good things in life...and stop whinning !

Dear Little Bulldog,
I am proud to say I survive another dreaded US travel. Spending 20 over hours on the plane is not something normal person should strive to do all the times. But the worst thing is not the travel but the jet lag. But I have learn to stop whining about the unpleasant thing, but look to the nicer thing that happen in life.
First good thing is that I have visited Detroit for the first time in transit. The famous Motown where Lionel Richie and Stevie Wonder, and of course MJ comes from. The airport has shops selling GM and Ford merchandise, two of the biggest car companies in the world.
Second good thing...I was hungry in the airport and I managed to find some kebab to eat. It was not fantastic, but it is always a blessing to have food when you are hungry.
Third good thing...I transit in Narita, and had a nice bowl of Char Siew Ramen. It was the best food I had in my entire trip. I just love ramen !

Fastest Train in the world

Dear Little Bulldog,
Recently you have been very energetic, running around the house. I am glad with your fat body, you can still run so fast..
I was traveling from Shanghai to Pudong Airport taking this MagLev 磁浮。It is one of the fastest train in the world, nwith the top speed up to 430km/hr. That is 4 times the speed that a car runs on the highway.
This is one of the few things i like about Shanghai, or rather the only thing...

My First 2009 Entry

Dear Little Bulldog,
I am sorry for not telling you more stories, and this is my first 2009 post.
I have been traveling quite a bit for this quarter, Korea, China and the dreaded US.
Seoul has been cold, and it really helps to have a hot soup. I had this Beef Bone Soup in Inchon Airport restaurant. It comes with the usual Korean side dishes (kimchi, anchovies), and of course the soup. A small plate of salt is provided, so you can taste the soup as you like. Not exactly very delicious, but I like soup, so it is ok. What can you expect from an airport restaurant. Had kimchi on every meal, so get really turn off.