Glad to find this great Hong Kong pastries at Chinatown Smith Street. Their wife biscuits are really delicious with generous winter melon filling and thin flaky crust. I also like their red bean pastry. Great pastry at $2 only.
Painting this mural in Chinatown was a dream come true. This mural is special for three reasons: Firstly, Chinatown is where I grew up and have fond memories of. Secondly, for 2 years, I pursued the opportunity to paint murals in Chinatown, experiencing many hurdles, but also learnt many lessons and made many friends along the way. Finally, this is the first mural I painted with my two children!
In the olden days, Letter writers played an important role of helping our migrant forefathers write letters to their loved ones back in China. They also doubled as calligraphers for Chinese New Year couplets and ancestral altars. This was a common scene in Chinatown up till the 80s before the big Chinatown cleanup when the street markets, hawkers and traditional traders were resettled inside the mammoth Chinatown Complex (completed in 1983). I missed those scenes!
Actually, painting the Letter Writer is part of a bigger dream to paint 6 murals in Chinatown – Letter Writer, Wooden Clog Maker, Cantonese Opera Stage, Chinatown Wet Market, Paper Mask and Puppet Seller, Lantern Festival. I am so happy to have fulfilled part of my dream. Thanks to everyone who helped me get the approval. I hope to fulfil the rest someday! Thank you!
The mural is located at Singapore Chinatown, 336 Smith Street, on the side wall of New Bridge Centre, just outside the CK department store.
I like this song. As usual an excellent song composed and written by Mayday AShin 阿信.
Took this photo of a bright luminous moon near my workplace this morning at about 6.45 am. Today is the 17th day of Xin Chou month.
I feel for the people who lost their life saving due to the security lapse by OCBC recently. OCBC can't just blame their customers for their loss. There is also the issue with phone automation as banks aim to save money. Sometimes I have to wait more than 20 minutes to reach the bank staff. Anyway I'm quite unhappy with OCBC. They didn't waive my OCBC credit card annual fees so I cancelled the credit card last year and OCBC 360 interest rates are still so low. OCBC is penny-wise but pound-foolish.
You can't blame your customers for clicking the scam link. OCBC did send SMS link to customers when they had saving promotion. They need to revamp the banking process to improve IT security- for example staff needs to call to verify with the customers before they allow transfer of large funds. The recent security lapse is really disconcerting to savers. OCBC must return the saving to their customers and improve their IT system and customer service to gain the trust of their customers.
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
