Friar Pool

I sent this letter to the Franciscan Friars. I feel that as a Catholic we should stop( or i should stop) being sielnt when i see such things happening. I hope that he replies, and can give me an explantion that changes my mind about the disgusting situation they have created.

Father John-Paul Tan,

I read with surprise and sadness the article in the http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,93714,00.html website.

Firstly , I have no issue with building a grand church full of expensive wonders that the common man cannot posses, such as a Koi Pond and other such items as this is for the glorification of the lord. and i believe that no amount is to much to spend in such endeavors be it building or maintaining such a building.

My issue is with the swimming pool. I find it hard to understand the justification in having such a luxury. The issue is not of cost but of the link between the FRANCISCAN FRIARS and the common man. The common man has no such opportunity to posses such items. I would like to understand the rational for such an item being installed in the friary. As i have stated the low cost of the installation does not justify the actual installation. The priest said he could not remember the exact cost of the pool but emphasized that they 'would never think of it if we had to put in pipes and such just to build a pool’. By his statement it would seem that Friar De Cruz is saying that if a car normally cost 100k but it now only cost 80k then we should get it because we are making a large saving? In the first place is it necessary? Does it add to your mission here in Singapore? Does it better the lives of the common people?

Father Tan added that the pool aided in the 'development of the body which is important', and that priests in training at the church can use it.

As the priests live in the friary their whole lives, it was also 'planning for the future', as an amenity that they could use in old age.

By your statement, you justify the use of the pool. No one doubts the usefulness of the pool. What I question is the necessity. Nurturing the body is an important factor in life, but is there not other ways in which to do this? Such as jogging or cycling or using the public pools where people can see by example how you live. Its all well and good to wear robes and sandals and live as a symbol of the poor and express vows of poverty but to just pay lip service to such a vow is disgraceful. "Throughout his life, Francis espoused the virtues of (Christ-like) poverty and humility while promoting a closer and deeper relationship between the Church and the common man." by such a stark separation, you have with one stroke widened the relationship between yourselves and the common man.

I realize that I may be blunt, this is only because of my inability to understand the rational of the situation, maybe you an help by furnishing me with a response.
I am a catholic and a proud one at that, but sometimes these are done in the name of the Church, which makes it hard for me to justify not just to my non catholic friends but to myself, and this frustrates me no end.
I look forward to your response

Edward Simon

Weekend...

Its been awhile since i posted a normal blog, the last post on happiness was pretty good i thought, got so many people involved! And i think it helps to think about the little things in life that bring us joy. This past week was an intresting one for me work wise, we had a successful AGM and a council meeting all in the same week, and i was thinking it would be nice to take my foot off the pedal this week but ooohhh no now i have to plan the mmoncake festival for the 10th of sept, i dunno why weare rushing, i mean we had a whole year to plan and prepare for it but did we Noooooooooooo we waited till the last moment and bam here we go again. sigh.

The weekend was pretty nice, Sherwin,Frodo, Raj and Russel dropped by for "coffee" on sat which i must mention was the day i woke up with the kinda of migrane you wish Hitler had daily good lord the pain ws fantastic. i didnt leave the room till 2pm, the darkness and aircon were a great help. Even the fatty stayed in there with me such an angel she is. she too slept late on saturday night, around 230am and she didnt take a nap all sunday which meant she was dog tired all day and finally nested around 1000 till this morning. My family came for lunch yesterday, the Machados, my mum and Alisons mother in-law. We didnt cook cause TLOML had so much work to do and i cant really do asian food, we didnt want anything western so we bought stuff. Mee goren, murtabak, indian rojak and for desert pinapples and ice cream. delightful. well till the next time adios!

Odds and Ends

Went for dinner and desert with mum and the machado's on friday, father and son both look so serious!

I added two little pics i took over the weekend..one is of a nice little rainbow.

Red,Green..burn

HUNGRY?





This last friday, the staff in the estate where i work had our annual Hungry Ghost session. This is where offerings are made to appease the hungry ghost. Every year it gets more interesting as i learn more about the entire "event"
From the pics you will notice and altar on the floor as well as one on the table.
The one on the floor i am told is the altar for the gods of the eart and the one on the table is for the hungry ghost. It was very interesting as we had Muslims, hindhus, Christians, Taoist and Buddhist all involved .
On the hungry ghost table there were two bits of cresent shaped wood, and these are used to divine the will of the hungry ghost. The two blocks are thrown down on the ground and if they both fall on opposing faces that means your request is granted, be it 4d or if you have burnt enough papper before eating the food.
All prayers or offerings start with the god of eart, so proper respect must be shown to that before you can proceed onto the hungry ghost. The rites and customs seem to have changed or evolved as even between taoist and buddhist there were major differences, as the event was handled by a taoist we followed custom common to them. One of the things that was new to me wwas that the colour of the joss sticks burnt had significance, red for god and green for ghost.
Each item burnt has significance and, some are made to look like clothing while others beer cans, lots of care is given to the selection of items and preparing them for burning. As i said its an experience and while i am sure most of the infomation i have given here will be disputed (as it is in my office the debate rages on about the location of the altars) The even itself was bot fun and relaxing and it was nice to see malays, indians, chinese , eurasians ..people of different races and faith getting involved.

ADOBE FUN

Played with adobe last night and edited some of my pics....

The End to a good week.

In reverse of a good day.





I am posting the pics in reverse today..why..because i can!

Today was the finale of the fireworks festival that has been going on for the past week and a half or so, photo wise the smoke from the fireworks obscured most of the shots which looked good or had to potential to look good, i am post pics taken in the last 60secs or so of wat was said to be a 17min display. The display today was done by the french and they put up a really good show and the finale was really beautiful but to me the singapore team did the best job of the lot, i guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder and damit this is my site so i behold it all!.hehehe. The final min of the display was full of gold clr sparks and it like like gold dust was falling from the sky, really good job those frenchies did, not all bread and cheese eh.

We hiked up sheares bridge and it was a good thing we were early cause the crowd was huge, people were triple stacked on that little foot path and late comers were trying to shove into any nook and cranny they could. Some people found the hike harder then others lol. We had a great spot and i made friends with a couple of young photogs who were most chatty(making contacts in the photog commuinity can only lead to cheap second hand products! yahoo). Our little band was reduced to 4(the doo,moo,sherwin and myself) as most of the boys were occupied with other things and TLOML stayed home to keep and eye on the fatty who is still not at 100%. I had a fun time and all the hours we spent in travelling and getting to our spots early was worth it even if the pics did not turn out great. It was fun.

Spent a couple of hours with my sisters clan in the early part of the day . Followed them to the doggie groomers as peppers brother Zorro needed a bit of a trim. Got some pics of Megan and Michael but no solo shots of Philip aka baba. Rascals all of them, have a look at michaels face, this was when he told me it was his turn to have his pic taken! cheeky fella. Fearless too, really have to keep and eye on him he is a wanderer. Looking at the pics i realise how fast they have grown so big, i cant pick up philip as easily as i used to be able too...time really flies! Its a reminder that we work to support our lives and not live to support our jobs. Take a break, spend time doing what you love, meet old friends for coffee, go out with people that make you happy. DO IT. IT makes a difference.

My last pic is of Pepper in her new t shirt it says ADIDOG! how cute is that!

On this sunday i wish you all a good week! may it be better then the last!

Breakfast at Tiffany's..........for some

BREAKFAST!!!!


Woke up bright and early today but not bright and early enough! We went for breakfast with The Moo, Doo and Cliff and Jas who are down or up rather from australia(how often you think that line has been used?). I was very excited cause i havent seen them in more then a year, i would have gone to the airport but the ministry gave me some bad info(yes.). Anyway it was good to see them and great to see that they are looking so well! Altough its not like they were on the moon or what i mean they do have good tucker in oz.
They had to have the famous kway chap in siglap which from what i understand from fans of the item is the best. I had Nasi Lemak. For those that have not had it for awhile, i have placed a pic ofr ya.
The pic of pepper is of her eating a sows ear. she loves it.
After breakfast we sent the fatty for grooming and she looks alot better now, the guy at the shop also told me not to go back to those fools in st 45. She is still flowing but not as much.
TLOMY bought her a little house, she looks really cute in it!.

Lines and Curves

liNEs AND cUrvEs



Damn that was a long walk, skipped out of work at the half way point yesterday, went with TLOML to take the fatty to the vet...her first "red river"..we almost burst into tears when we realized that the river was rollin along. Our baby isnt a little girl anymore....sigh so quick.
Anyhow after the trip to the vet and the trip to the pet store, Sherwin and i took a train to the city and wandered the area between, Westin-the esplanade and marina square. I took 266 shots, suprised myself there cause i thought i wouldnt be doing much in the way of shooting so i didnt bring my tripod. We started off at the Cenotaph and though the lighting wasnt as good as we had hoped the stark clean cut white lines of the cenotaph were mighty impressive. I wonder how long its going to last there all by itself, the land it stands on must be worth a fair bit and i reckon that they will relocate it or build something that encompass it but they sure as hell aint gonna leave it there, this is singapore the land of the blocked facade. Once again i have wondered from the topic at hand. We went roaming the area and finally we ended back at the cenotaph and i took some shots without the use of the tripod so if its abit blur forgive me. My objective for our walk was to get some ideas and plan a good photography walk, in good light and ideal conditions such as not being so tired! but as they say..the best laid plans lead to ruin ..Once i started taking pics, i was looking for something specific in each shot, after the cenotaph i wanted to see if i could take shots with lines and curves in them or at least one of the two and while not every shot i took had these straight lines or curves most of them did. I found that after awhile i wasnt looking at how pretty everything looked but why it looked nice and how it worked in the larger frame of things. This lead me to find the interior of the esplanade where i took most of my 266 shots a beautifully structed and well designed building. While i will be the first to admit the exterior of the building leaves alot too be desired(to me at least) the interior does have many qualities worth noting. Lines and curves seem to be all over the place here even in things which i would not have paid much attention to(such as the railings) any other time i visted the building. For such a modern building it has a very appealing sense of colonial architecture, with the clean lines and uncluttered feel of the place. We met Frodo at the roof terrace of the esplande, its a nice setting very nice for a stroll for those going on a first date, u get the feeling of wealth while not having to pay for it, almost like walking through The Fullerton Hotel. All in all it was a nice evening, we had a little bit to eat at Marina Square, strolled back to the Cenotaph and departed from the Grand Hotel around midnight, good clean cheap healthy fun. what more could a man ask for i say.
The pics i loaded are not really good shots but they maintain the theme throughout and thats why i loaded these instead of some of the others i could have loaded. The shot that looks like something from the billy jean video, only on the ceiling, is from suntec city another place that i think would take a couple of hours walk around over a couple of weeks for us to be satisfied with.










SIDEBAR-PICS ARE CROPPED AND RESIZED(SMALLER) AND IF YOU NOTICE A TYPO GET IN LINE.











MY last shot is of course a HMMM shot and it doesnt fit into the theme but, i am a fool for flowers so tough luck.

FRUIT

Rambutans


no reason or ryhme why fruit should be here other than the joy it brings to my heart.


looks alot like a poster from primary school doesnt it

The Mobile Column

SIDEBAR(you know it, click on pics to enlarge em. and dont mention the typos...tis a touchy subject.




As you know from reading my blog( thats right i know you are) its been a busy couple of days with us running around taking pics of fireworks and trying to take pics of what really is a beautiful cityscape, and enjoying ourselves all through. so yesterday was declared a lazy day, even though it was national day itself. Spent most of the day watching the west wing and playing with pepper. The highlight of the day was meant to be the arrival of the mobile column in tampines and while the coloum was much much smaller this year it was still impressive to see tanks come thundering down the simei tunnel.Sherwin, Aaron, Mark, Gerard, Noel, JJ, my Mum and me stationed ourselves at the halfway point of the tunnel so that we could get the full effect, of sight and sound and we were not disappointed as you can see from the faces of our cheering group. Photographically it wasnt the best of my days lah, however my objective was to have fun and i wasnt really focusing(pardon the pun) on what i was doing!

The troops in the vehilces were very sporting and were shouting and cheering their lungs out, it was nice to see them waving little Singapore flags...we the little country that could.

Anyway the National Day events will close with the final fireworks display on saturday...if we make it there....i have heard rumours of firewrok fatigue, in some members of our clan.