Dog days of summer

It's fascinating how the English language is influenced by astrology and other pagan references but most people are unaware of it. Take the phrase "dog days of summer". I've always known that it refers to the hot weather in summer but why "dog" not "cat" or other animals for that matter.

I did a random Wiki/Google search and unearthed a perfectly satisfying answer - the ancient Greeks labelled summer days as "Dog Days" cos they were days when Sirius (the Dog Star) rises and sets at almost the same time as the sun!

Season 2 - Close

Here's my spontaneous, emotional and utterly irrational reaction to the last episode of Gossip Girl Season 2 (which I've been saving to watch on a dreamy, rainy day like today). It has a fabulously romantic ending which makes me wanna shout "I love Chuck Bass!"

S'pore on foot

We thought that National Day was a nice excuse to explore one of the yet to be explored "hidden gems" of Singapore - Pearl Hill Park. It's unbelievable how hundreds of people mill around Chinatown and SGH but never seem to notice this ancient(creepy) park in the middle. Guess what's in the the centre of the park? This walled-up reservoir and I mean walls the height of fortress walls! Kaypoh me was inclined to scout acound a little more but chickened out when I remembered we were going to catch Orphan at midnight.

I've come to appreciate the mini S'pore flags given out in primary school and which we took for granted and chucked the moment we stepped out of school. Not only did we have a hard time finding one but the specimen we bought from Sheng Shiong was badly made from cheap plastic. Glad it's not that obvious from the pics!

The weather was hot and neither TR (who probably owns thousands of them) nor I (who buys hundreds of it) had with us a rubber band for the hair! Oh well, no one can blame me for not being patriotic :)

44!

I found myself riveted to the screen while NDP 09 played out to a skin-tingling fireworks finale. I found myself singing along to nostalgic national day songs which I never dreamed that I would hear again ("It's The Little Things"). TR turned to me with an incredulous look, "NDP this year is not bad... The music director got it right for once." It's hard not to enjoy a full-blown musical!