Little Perk-me-up we can never do without :)

Little perk-me-ups for me on a cold, windy day with a looming assignment deadline after the weekends:

1) Singapore's Bak Kut Teh (from the packet)

2) Barley drink (home made )

3) Favorite coffee from Market Lane

4) Listening to YES 93.3

They certainly are effective in combating the gloom of missing Home :)

And YUM!

A lovely treat and a special moment :)

Today I received a packet of chocolate from a classmate and it brightens me up :) She gave it to me to thank me for helping her to take notes when she was absent from class. It may sound silly but it feels really nice to have a friend, receiving a gift from someone when you feel things are not going too well. God also provided a moment for me and a fellow course mate when I was early for class and happened to meet her outside class as she was early as well. She shared about her day which didn't start too well as she was unable to print out her notes and we both shared about our stress with regards to the assignments. It was really nice to be able to share similar struggles with someone else and encouraging each other on this journey :) She shared that her father is a foreign exile and a terrorist. I was rather surprised by her vulnerability and felt priviledged to be able to share in something personal in her life. I wondered how it would be like to live with a father who is a terrorist and what that will mean to someone. Something about her makes me want to know more about her. I thank God for that moment we shared :) Looking forward to tomorrow's movie "The Rocket" which is part of Melbourne's International Film Festival :)

Practical Wisdom

We watched this video in class today and what was shared about limitations of rules and incentives resonates deep within me as it resembles so much of the working class in Singapore. Everything is about rules and having more SOPs, outcome management etc. We need to cultivate character in school and not textbook answers, we need to cultivate workers with moral skills and will and not people who give politically right answers, we need a nation who will act on what is right by their own sense of moral values and not because it will benefit them by doing so or whether they will be punished for not doing so. There is only so much that rules can achieve and we need more than that in our world. We need to know that at the appropriate time, rules can be bent if for achieving a better outcome, for the better of humanity. By following blindly, we are disregarding our responsibilities to think of the impact of our actions which eventually will make us no better off than a brainless machine.