PAL Official Seal

Like Mompoet - Word From The Burbs, I made myself an official emblem, but for my Passionate About Life P.A.L blog site.

I now place it permanently to the right of my blog.

An interesting and fun way to create your official seal, you may want to try out and create yourself your own site emblem. This site is also good to make seals for certificates for my son's school extra-curricular projects.

Try it if you have not. Click PAL seal or this link.

My Man, Hady!

Its official, as of 9:00pm tonight, Hady Mirza was declared the Singapore Idol 2006!

He takes over the crown champion of last year's, Taufik Batisa.

After repeated pounding of the Redial button on my phone, my son has chalked-up over S$40.00 worth of phone bill calling the voting number 1900-1121902 for Hady.

A small investment for a talented young man who will do Singapore proud. Not to mention the Malay community as a whole, the second time around!

He always chooses the most difficult songs, but did them outstandingly. I was amazed at his high range when he sang "Through The Fire" by Chaka Khan. Not just anybody, but Chaka Khan! Awesome vocal power with a wide range showed he was the man!

He deserves every support he got as he was the only competitor that was consistent in his perfect delivery every week, yet pushing himself higher thus raising the bar to a higher level every week for the competition as a whole.

Jonathan Leong was good and charismatic. He definitely has the X-factor, engaging, but lacks the powerful vocals and range. He does subdued songs, cool songs that suit his vocal range, which sometimes in one tone always, I felt.

Nonetheless, Jonathan has mass appeal, especially for the young ladies in this region with his bad-boy, rocker look, yet cool and collect appearance.

He will go far commercially as Dick Lee and Ken Lim - the Singapore Idol judges have mentioned. He will have staying power in the music business as Florence puts it, while Jacintha thinks he is already a Singapore Idol.

All the best to both Idols!

Hady, your fan here will support you all the way... right down to the wire, even through the fire! Fire? Well I have to think about that one. Congratulations Hady Mirza!

Faith In Me

As the call of Maghrib prayer was heard, preciously at 7:01pm, my son and I broke our fast for the first day of fasting in the month of Ramadan.

We made it special by having our dinner at Habib Seafood open-air restaurant at Street 81. Wify was not able to complete the family dinner because there was good business at her shop when I called her to meet up.

Chicken Rice was my son's favourite, so I had the same, but with side dishes of Butter Prawns, Kailan in Oyster Sauce and Tom Yam Seafood Soup to go with it.

Quite a helpful of dishes for just two people, but it tasted great when you have been fasting for the whole day since dawn till dusk... abstaining from food and water intake the whole period.

Ice-Milo and Ja-Ja Liang Tea were drinks gulped and finished half-way through dinner. We decided to order a large cup... well it really looked like a jar, of Longan Drink. It really did the job the quench our thirst.

Wify is the most strong-willed person I have ever known. Personally, she can be so energetic doing house chores, tallying previous day's sales and then attend to customers in her shop from 1:00 till 10:00pm daily.

This wife of mine amazes me daily. Love her conviction, love her dearly.

I guess my son gets his strong will to fast since he was still in kindergarten. Wanting to fast just like us, for half the day at first, a few days in the month.

He became strong-willed just like my wife, when he was still in Primary One. Quite hard at times, but a good nap takes away some time and he was all good right through break fast time at dusk.

He has since been completing the whole month of fasting every year and seemed so natural to him abstaining from food and water. I remember that I was terrible at fasting. I was even dragging myself back home from school and "collapse" into my bed spent when I reached home. That was when I was in Secondary School.

My son amazes me too, with his ease of fasting.

So this will carry on for the length of the month of Ramadan. After which we will celebrate triumph if self-control... abstaining from bad habits, gossips, ill-feelings towards another person, lots of prayers to cleanse ourselves and be nearer to The Almighty.

I am grateful to The Almighty that I have two wonderful people to share the joys in my life.

A Family Visit

I had quite a rude awakening from my sleep by the loud motor sound coming from my bedroom window.

It was the Poi Ching school janitor who was fogging the school compound as a mosquito breeding prevention routine. He started early at about 7:00am on a Saturday morning.

Well, I guess I should tolerate as this is for the good of the children as well as the surrounding area near my home. The fogging made a misty cloud with a faint kerosene smell.

It made the place look like a scene from the movie, The Fog. At one point the fog floated across the school compound and into our courtyard garden.


My son soon woke up too, but Wify was out flat. She was still fast asleep, tired from yesterday's hard work she put in at the shop.

As soon as the fog subsided, and the loud motor sound became faint, the morning birds started to come by to visit the courtyard, with its pleasent calls.

This morning, was a special one as I witnessed a family of five Black-naped Oriole came perching in the tree tops right in front of my Gym Room window, as I was seated in front of my PC.

The three birds made such loud fluty notes with ascending and decending calls. The five stayed perched in the tree for quite a long while. I just had observe the family and snap pictures of the five as I have never seen so many in one group before.

Pity though, I did not have enough zoom in my camera to take better picture.


I have noticed for quite a while now that there were two of these birds at first, routinely came by the courtyard and sang their songs. And now, the couple came back again as if to show everyone their large family.

What a wonderful sight!

Can never compare to Anne's and Geo's fantastic collection of wild life photos from Sister Celtic blog, but it was a pleasant sight to start my Saturday morning.