Galloping into the future

"Meaning of year of the Horse...

The new Moon on January 30 at 11:20 pm PST (but listed as January 31 in many calendars) begins the year of the Wood Horse. Chinese New Year is a spring festival that begins on the second new Moon after Winter Solstice, with the Sun and Moon in Aquarius. This new Moon also starts the month of the Fire Tiger making energy very strong and lively as Horse year begins, a clear departure from the slower energy of the previous Water Snake year 2013.

The Wood Horse year is a time of fast victories, unexpected adventure, and surprising romance. It is an excellent year for travel, and the more far away and off the beaten path the better. Energy is high and production is rewarded. Decisive action, not procrastination, brings victory. But you have to act fast in a Horse year. If you are not 100% secure about a decision, then don’t do it. Events move so quickly in a Horse year that you don’t want to gallop off in the wrong direction."

(source unknown as I received this from a colleague)

Autumn is coming?

 

Unrelated PS. Greetings from Cambodia where I went for a quick weekend trip.  

Happy piercings

Yesterday and today mark the celebration of Thaipusam festival especially for the Tamil community in this particular corner of the world. How this celebration shows itself to us outsiders is by parades where the devotees perform a dance as a ceremonial worship of Murugan, the Tamil God of War (I thought it was Kratos). Spectacular part of this festival for the participants is to carry a physical burden or kavadi. Typically this burden is either in a form of carrying a pot of milk or going through pretty gruesome piercing of one's skin with sharp skewers. I'd choose the option with milk any day.

See some examples of kavadi bearers from Kuala Lumpur.

17 999 teenagers and me

My brother urged me to join New Year's celebration in the self proclaimed Asia's largest beach countdown party. Apparently it is not possible everywhere in the world to dance the final night of the previous year away on a sandy beach with warm sea wind caressing your hair. Before I know it, I will be once again freezing my fingers numb trying to lit any fireworks during upcoming New Years Eves in sub zero temperatures.

I felt somewhat awkward to go there by myself, but I am glad I did. Just witnessing the masses of people having fun and sharing positive energy was an experience to enjoy. Furthermore, I feel proud saying that I didn't come home until 3 AM (did not have the stamina to stay until 6 AM, when the party ended, but still pretty good achievement for me).

The thing that keeps on surprising me is how well these people behave. Even drunk teenagers are being polite, picking up their trash and not starting any fights. Seriously, the government must be putting something in the tap water (which by the way is arguably the most purified tap water in the world -- I like the way they say it: it is not claimed to be the cleanest, but just having the most advanced technology to clean it).

Video has been done automagically by Google from video clips and photos I took at the party.
Pretty cool feature, huh?

Finnish Cultural Imperialism - Episode IV (New Hope)

There are something like 6000 to 7000 known languages in the world today. So what are the odds that a random entrepreneur in Singapore decides to start selling mugs with Finnish label texts in her little stall close to my home?

Only available options were in English and Finnish (Thanks to my brother for spotting this global oddity)

Perhaps it is time for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to consider adding 5th national language.

Pedestrian free zone

On a certain previous episode of fun and games of international relocation, I made comparisons with Ireland and Singapore. Last week I returned from a trip to Washington D.C. and while still fresh in my memory I need to document one quick observation of how different things are between South East Asia and the New World.

It is actually amazing that I have lived in Singapore for not much more than a year, yet I was completely stunned by the lack of people. Especially pedestrians. In the nation's capital, which has been awarded as the most pedestrian friendly city in United States. The stretch of land between the iconic landmarks is a park, yet there was only a handful of people seen walking around on a beautiful, yet chilly (everyplace is chilly after SG) Saturday. Furthermore there was really no hotdog stands or anything which would feed the hungry masses of people. Where is everybody?! Granted there were few cars driving around the strikingly wide roads.

Flag on the Capitol building is at half mast due to Nelson Mandela passing away. Not due to Finnish independence day.

PS1. I left on Monday morning, arrived on Monday afternoon. After 24 hours of grueling daytime traveling. On my way back, I left on Sunday morning and was back home only on Tuesday. Crossing the International Date Line can make your head hurt.

PS2. I had a short layover at Japan. Even though Singapore is an island, but they don't really serve as good of a sushi as you get in Japan over here. Unfortunately.

PS3. On the topic of food, I did enjoy much better steaks in US than I have been able to get here.

The Apple Anomaly

Long time no post. This delay is due to vacation trip to Australia, which is just in the neighbourhood in this corner of the world. While down under, I was struck by a realization: apples will get brown after peeling like they do back in Finland. The reason this was such a surprise is that apples in Singapore actually do not get brown.

Now back in the good old sauna that is also called Singapore I had to make a half scientifical experiment and allow me to present the findings below:

Apple does indeed retain it's greenish color up until the moment I just couldn't resist anymore and had to take a bite or two. Testing the taste of the apple reveals also interesting results: apple has kind of a salty (?) outer layer which seems to preserve the juiciness.

Google to the rescue when trying to understand the chemistry behind all of this and solve the puzzle once and for all:

"When an apple is cut (or bruised), oxygen is introduced into the injured plant tissue. When oxygen is present in cells, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzymes in the chloroplasts rapidly oxidize phenolic compounds naturally present in the apple tissues to o-quinones, colorless precursors to brown-colored secondary products. O-quinones then produce the well documented brown color by reacting to form compounds with amino acids or proteins, or they self-assemble to make polymers. [snip]

the level of PPO activity and concentration of substrate--here, the phenolic compounds--can vary between varieties of fruits (say, Granny Smith versus Red Delicious [or Singapore apples vs. rest of the world]). In addition, a tissue's PPO level can vary depending on growing conditions and fruit maturity. One approach the food industry employs to prevent enzymatic browning is to select fruit varieties that are less susceptible to discoloration—either due to lower PPO activity or lower substrate concentration."

 (source: Scientific American (now, is that an oxymoron? :) ))

PS. It might not be too far fetched to speculate that the title of this blog post has been somewhat inspired by the way episodes of Big Bang Theory are titled.