The business news site used a picture of the Singapore River/Merlion Park area and CBD skyline to depict Jakarta, Indonesia's capital.
http://news.insing.com/tabloid/forbes-mistakes-singapore-for-jakarta/id-0f723f00
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Tray Return Station... taking it literally!
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Good to know a cold from a flu... it's like getting hit by a bus (for the flu)!
Um, I guess you have to survive being hit by a bus first, right?
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You'll get hit by the smell of durians on this bus...
As for the second item, I think I've told a certain joke before, but no harm rehashing it:
Johnny came home with daddy and told mummy about their bus ride.
"Mummy, daddy made me get up so a pretty woman could sit down."
"Why, that's very good. Daddy's teaching you good manners," mummy replied.
"But, mummy, I was sitting on daddy's lap."
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Of punters and of punters
There's nothing wrong with the headline above. But it reminded me of an incident in Christchurch, New Zealand, so many years ago when we could not afford "free and independent travel" and had to join Singapore-organised budget tours.
Our coach made a stop by the Avon River and the guide announced, not so loudly, that punting was available riverside. We were keen to give it a try and clambered down. We had a nice ride, and enjoyed the banter with the university student at the oar. He was happy to earn some money as it was his summer semester break.
As the boat headed back to the pier, we saw a long line of fellow Singaporeans waiting for their turn. The student oarsman (he was the only punter that day) groaned even though he would earn more that day. He never ever had so many customers and he would be a very tired young man later.
But, more telling was what a fellow Singaporean told me later: "We saw you so eager to get down and asked again what was going on. Punting, we were told. So we wanted to buy their local 4-D lottery, lor. But, alamak, they call this river ride punting. Since we are already here, might as well line up."
And that was why one young New Zealander became very tired -- or so fit he later easily made it to the national rowing team.
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Tanglish? Why not Tamglish?
This excerpt is from an ST Opinion piece on how a revival of the teaching of the Tamil language should be encouraged in Singapore schools.
But why is a mix of Tamil and English called Tanglish -- and not Tamglish -- when a blending of English and Hindi referred to as Hinglish?
Still, the only exception seems to be Japlish. The rest follow the "nglish" pattern: Singlish, Chinglish, Konglish, Manglish, etc.
By the way, note the dalit hymn above!
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Frenemies
Finally, I took the opportunity to use this use this portmanteau word in a headline I wrote:
For the record, though, I did not coin "frenemies" -- Wikipedia says the word "frenemy" has been in circulation since 1953!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenemy
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