Equatorial Musings

I recently bought 2 pots of hydrangeas from Sinflora , which is located near Sengkang , and which is easily accessible from where I stay. I've always wanted to have hydrangeas in the house for as long as I remember. I had considered other plants to brighten up my new place, but nothing caught my fancy as much as hydrangeas. For those who've never seen this wonderful plant with ball-like flowers, you don't know what you're missing ; ) Take a look at what I've got to the left and I guarantee that you'd be tempted to go get a pot or 2. For one, they're unique in that they can yield different colour flowers depending on the acidity of the soil. The more acidic the soil, the bluer the flowers. If you add alkaline to the soil, you'll get pink ones. And who can forget the ball-like blooms that reward you for watering the plants frequently and having them well-fertilised. They're happy flowers and add colour to even the most dull environment, not to mentio...

As we enter the Tiger Year, I can't help thinking of all the Tiger ladies I've met in the course of my life. [I'm not being sexiest here, but I don't have many Tiger male friends, so I can't really comment on them.] Although I'm not into Chinese horoscope, and the Chinese believe that people born in the year of the 12 zodiac animals have some of their traits, most of the Tiger ladies I've come across do exhibit certain feline characteristics. They're strong and smart, but also highly competitive and territorial. In fact, woebegone to anyone who crosses their path. They're fiercely loyal but can nurse grudges, so you need to be on your toes if you work with them. If they're your friends, then you probably enjoy some latitude. But even then, you shouldn't take things for granted because as the Chinese also say, "one mountain cannot have 2 tigers". What I admire most about my Tiger lady acquaintances, colleagues and friends is the fact...

I recently moved house after imposing on my brother and my sister-in-law for slightly more than a year. I put off buying a new place initially because I had read about how the property market usually lagged the stock market, and it was supposed to tank in the later part of 2009. But I forgot that economic conditions are dynamic and every recession is different. The one that we just came out of, which threatened to be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s, elicited unprecedented responses from governments around the world. Over here in our island state, the government introduced the Jobs Credit System, which subsidised companies so that they need not retrench as many workers. This also meant that people can continue to service their housing loans and even buy more properties. So instead of tanking, the market actually went up in tandem with the recovery of the stock market. So I had to decide in Sep 09 whether I should use some of my savings to buy a new place. This was tricky b...