I got a new shirt today

Henry says "YAY I got a new white shirt today!" and Liang says "YAY I ORD in 3 days time!"

The Father's Love

The face which a newborn recognises almost instinctively is that of its mother. This is because when the newborn soils itself, the face of its mother appears in front of it when the mother is clearing away the mess, and when the newborn is hungry, it sees its mother's face while feeding.

If a stranger were to appear in front of the baby, he would naturally feel uncomfortable. This stands to reason as well, as strangers more likely than not will pinch their cheeks and coo and try to play peekaboo.

Thus, for 3 months, the infant lives in absolute security, trusting totally in the face of his mother.

However, after 3 months, there's a change.

One fine day, his mother bundles him up and says "we're going out today!" He's still comfortable, because he still can see his mother's face.

The mother brings him to a guy in a white labcoat - a stranger. The child is beginning to feel uncomfortable; but he still can see his mother's face in the window, and he thinks "no way is mum going to let this stranger do anything to me..."

The man in the white labcoat now takes out this menacing looking thing. The infant stares hard at his mother, willing her to do something to protect him against this stranger. The infant still has confidence that his mother will stop the stranger from harming him, but is increasingly nervous at the sight of the needle.

However, before he knows it, the child is face down, and he feels the cold of the needle before a piercing pain in the buttocks. OUCH! WHY HASN'T MUM PROTECTED ME??

He can still see his mother's face in the window, but his eyes fill with tears. Why has mother left me to be tortured by this stranger??

Mum takes him in her arms and cradles him, whispering soft words of comfort. "Son, let me tell you about diphtheria. It is a upper respiratory tract infection characterised by sore throat, low-grade fever and an adherent membrane (pseudomembrane) on tonsils, nose or pharynx. Diphtheria is a highly contagious disease spread by direct physical contact or breathing the aerosolized secretions of infected individuals. What's happened is that they injected you with the DPT vaccine, which is to cause your adaptive immune system's B cells to develop immunological memory of the Diphtheria antigen so that the next time the antigen enters your body antibodies specific to it will be produced quicker and in larger numbers." (acknowledgement: "Diphtheria", "DPT Vaccine", Wikipedia)

I'm sure that if u were that infant, u'd understand what your mother just said. I didn't understand what it's talking about at first either. I doubt ur mother would have said something like that at all... It'd probably be more like "there there mummy's here" or something.

This is an answer to why "bad things sometimes happen to good people". Would you understand if God explained His plan to you when you weren't ready for it? I know I wouldn't... but HE is STILL THERE! It may sound cliche, but the bad things may turn out for your own good.

God still cares and loves you, just like the mother still loves and cares for her son. And although things may seem bad now, He is actually still there, actually just testing and growing your faith.

Thank God

So all's well... I thank God that He has come through for me, as always.

All the people i met there seemed to be placed there for a reason. They were all lovely Scotsmen... I realise something weird... Scotsmen are friendlier than scotswomen...

There's Dr McCormick, who's a real brick of a guy (haha my language corrupting liao), who allowed me to come a week late, and Dr Duvall, who's an example of real scot courtesy, opening doors and going beyond what he is duty bound to do as my Director of Studies.

God Bless Edinburgh. God Bless Dr McCormick and Dr Duvall too.

My skin's better too... I was real worried that I'd have to spend 6 years with rashes on my axilla and elbows and upper chest and neck... thank God for curing me and sending me to the right doctor...

God Bless the NHS 24 service.

All this makes me want to leave Singapore for greener pastures in the UK or elsewhere. Especially when they just come up with new rules to snook me, but thank God for the magnanimity of the University of Edinburgh!

Call me a quitter. But if what I'm trying to do is banging my head on the wall, then by all means, i AM a quitter.