First Day Traffic

Ten more minutes before 7am but look at the traffic situation along Tanjong Katong Road. This is just what to expect for the first day of the new school year.

I just dropped both girls off moments ago. It was an amusing sight to spot some girls who still wear that lower primary look. But they must be fairly bright to get into this school.

Pithy Wisdom from Nassim Taleb

See some pithy wisdom from Nassim Taleb at http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/taleb010311.htm

He is mostly misunderstood because appreciating him requires a paradigm shift. Didn't help that powerful people erroneously think they can adapt his ideas to their ends without destroying it. Malcolm Gladwell with his simpler ideas in the. "Tipping Point" suggested how tipping points cannot be predicted to no avail. An industry grew up around how to forecast or create "Tipping Points"

First school day coming up.

The first day of school begins for the girls in about half an hour time. It would be a major change for the younger one as she transition to secondary school. I am hopeful that th experience for her would be a pleasant one. She will make new and better friends there. Primary school wasn't so successful but her experience was much better than her sis.

Friends from Perth visiting

Friends from Perth, Andrew, Joanne and Megan visited us this afternoon. They were our neighbors and have been away for about seven years. They are now Aussies. That is what can easily happen when we send our young people to universities there.

Megan and our younger girl were best friends, but now they hardly know each other. Again, that's what happen when you separate playmates young. The formative years are so critical.

They will be traveling to Kota Kinabalu tomorrow and holiday there for a week. Afterward back in Singapore for a couple of days, they will return to their home in Perth.

May they prosper there.

PSLE Certificate

Just picked up her PSLE certificate from the school because her new school required it as part of the troublesome recommendation. I am reminded again the costly price of a B in Chinese language when 81% of the national cohort achieved at least an A.

Taking down the Xmas Tree

The girls put up the tree and in just over an hour they have also taken it down and packed everything away as it was before.

Most people are excited about putting up the tree but they procrastinate taking it down. There was a year my brother's tree was up for almost a whole year. They were cheeky enough redecorate it for CNY. These days, I think they have pretty much given up having a tree.

Bloomberg

Today I couldn't reach noir.Bloomberg.com from my Desktop. Finally Bloomberg caught up with my installation here and insist that I land at www.Bloomberg.com instead. The Noir site is so much more convenient for my purpose. Now I prefer to use Bloomberg on the iPad and iPod.