First bloom in 2022
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Flowers, flowers, everywhere
But this is my one and only
bloom this new year!
First bloom in 2022
Evening walk: Raining flowers
Evening walk: Raining flowers
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Spiralling rain of
Tecoma flowers from trees
purplish carpet formed.
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This Haiku tells of the pleasant experience during an evening walk. It is walking through the rain of spiraling Tecoma flowers. They form a bed of flowers on the ground.
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Mesmerizing Saturday- it’s hard to imagine a blue sunset!
Mesmerizing Saturday- it’s hard to imagine a blue sunset!
Toh HL explains why sunsets and sunrises are red and not blue!
So round, spectacular, and mesmerizing
sometimes, shy, bashful behind the clouds
often ordinary, the reddish blaze disappearing
as if in a hurry for another appointment?
Rayleigh scattering is the phenomenon
for during sunsets or sunrises,
sunlight has to penetrate a thicker layer
of dust and water vapour in the atmosphere.
The red end of the colour spectrum
is scattered less compared to the blue end
Hence, red reaches our eyes easily
as it has a shorter wavelength than blue
It's hard to imagine a blue sunset!
by Toh HL, co-author and photographer, 21 May 2021
‘God gives and God takes…’
‘God gives and God takes…’
I did a few surveys with cancer patients many years ago, about life with cancer… patients from private as well as public hospitals.
I remember this philosophical view from a Muslim woman with breast cancer.
“Doctor told me I came in late for treatment. He gave me the most,… two years. But I believe that God is the one who gives us life, God only will decide when to take me…”
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Pressure rising, a wake-up call and my three angels
Pressure rising, a wake-up call and my three angels
If there is a post I MUST write in this life-time for many managers out there, this is the one.
My secretary held her phone away from her ear. Manager X was screaming at her. I went to his department to talk to him. He had a history of hypertension on medications. The consequences could have been worse than what happened to a young me as I narrated it to him.
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Three timid-looking students came to me.
“Can we practice taking vital signs on you?”
“Yes, of course!”
Just then, another two students stood in front
to report that they were not ready to present a role-play
which was assigned the day before.
I felt my face getting warmer, and
my pressure rising…
“When I come up to class, you shall present!
They ran up to prepare. (The whole night, they couldn’t think of
how to do the skit. Ironically, in 30 minutes they could!)
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“Alright, come, girls!”
I rolled up my sleeve for the girls in waiting.
The first girl took my blood pressure twice.
She whispered to her colleagues.
The other two took turns to take my blood pressure.
“It’s 190/120mmHg!”
“Are you sure? My normal readings are around 110/60mmHg!”
I took over the stethoscope, “OK, pump!”
Looking worried now… they were right.
(Both my mother and my maternal grandmother
had hypertension and a stroke!)
It was a wake-up call for me. A turning point!
A few months later, a colleague lecturer commented,
“I notice nowadays you are very calm. I seldom see you getting angry!
You are like a 360-degree change!”
Three decades on, my blood pressure is still within a normal range.
Thanks to those three angels!
Whenever I meet someone losing his or her ‘cool’,
I will tell him that the one (s) he is angry at,
will not come to change his pampers or feed him
if he collapses with a stroke or heart attack!
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Quote;
A lot of people in my family have high blood pressure. Dre told me I better start hitting the gym…so I took his advice. – Warren G.
Reaction about pressure: The harder one throws a ball, the harder it will bounce back.’. – Chen S.P.
Fascinating Saturday in the village
Fascinating Saturday in the village (a senyru)
Urban kids saw fowls
Fascinating excitement!
‘Mum, chicken, chicken’!
They ran after them
sending furious wings flappings
in all directions
For kids who grow up in the cities and high-rise buildings, this is a sight to behold! Not at the birds, but the excited kids!
Motherly Monday
Motherly Monday
The baby clings to dear life
… till it swings away!
Quote:
The child seeks independence by means of work, independence of body and mind – Maria Montessori
The water I touch…
The water I touch…
The water I touched
earlier had gone downstream
This water… is new.
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every second,
every moment is new.
No turning the clock!
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Imagination: the sky is the limit!
Imagination: the sky is the limit!
Knowledge is handed
to one through books and teacher.
That much one has gained.
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Imagination is
what one’s mind explores and creates;
where the sky is the limit!
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Whose special mind would stop this pandemic? A genius who is like Alexander Fleming (1881–1955): Discoverer of penicillin? Penicillin has saved millions of lives. Fleming won the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine.
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Quote:
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.- Albert Einstein
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A POET IN THREE PICTURES
At first he views the world…
Then empathy draws him in…
Till the weight of the world rests on his shoulders.
Photo Credit: Gotten online!
#El_Magnifico™
Chen Song Ping 