Misc

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But if there's one thing I remember about Sim by, it's his criticism of the Singaporean mindset.

The No U-Turn Syndrome, or NUTS, was how Sim viewed how Singaporeans always required a rule base to get anything done.

It's referring to how in Singapore, u-turns are not allowed unless there's a sign that allows you to do so, which is different from how other countries do it — you can u-turn unless there's a sign prohibiting you to do so. And to make things even more fun, there are sometimes no u-turn signs, too.

Eventually, the mortician was not pleased with the other bodies sitting around on beds of ice, so a LN Dewar capsule was secured for the remaining three. Another man was already frozen and sealed inside the capsule, so it was opened, and he was removed. Nelson and the mortician then spent the entire night figuring out how to jam four people — who may or may not have suffered thaw damage — into the capsule. The arrangement of bodies in different orientations was described as a “puzzle.” After finding an arrangement that worked, the resealed capsule was lowered into an underground vault at the cemetery. Nelson claimed to have refilled it sporadically for about a year before he stopped receiving money from the relatives. After a while, he let the bodies thaw out inside the capsule and left the whole thing festering in his vault.

I know we said that if we adopted a 3rd cat, we'd skip getting a kid. Oh well.

This year Ila joined us and, as if all stars aligned, it was the perfect set to create baby Jesus' birth. My grandma (bless her) would've been proud... ;)

The cats as the three kings, Joseph and Maria, and of course, the baby.

Every year we have a few cards getting lost (or at least we're not getting a confirmation they made it to their end destination -- many cards head to Europe, USA, Australia, Japan, Singapore, etc. I figure tons of mail must get lost all the time). And those that make it, tend to be damaged or dirty

Mumu (née Mullet) officially joined us in the 2021 card.

While he was alive and well the year before -- we hadn't decided to adopt him yet -- so not officially part of the family just yet.

His mummy and 2 brothers got adopted shortly after Christmas, and we decided to keep him as a nice memory. And what's one more cat?

We figured, it would be him or a kid... We decided on a cat.

Right in the middle of Covid (linking to the Wikipedia article because 20 years from now this will be but a very distant reminder).

With all the lockdowns and travel restrictions, all our travel plans in 2020 (and most of 2021) were cancelled (yes, I book flights sometimes a year in advance). Trips to Paris, Portugal and Stockholm were cancelled, as well as the regular visits to Belgium.

This meant we had to celebrate Christmas in Singapore (and Christmas in Singapore isn't very... Fun -- the vibe is really missing, and it's way too hot). Everything here feels rather fake, and Christmas is truly just to buy shit you don't need. Nonetheless, we did our best with a small (and illegal) assembly, playing board games and enjoying some finger food.