went to the oldest passenger ship (it was built in 1914, 2 years after Titanic) that is currently docked beside vivo city. it's called the MV doulos, where doulos in Greek means servant. you can sign up for a 2 years stint on board if you want to but you have to serve in all areas (big or small) while you are on board to keep the ship going. there are about 350 passengers VOLUNTEERS on board from 40 over nations around the world. They aim to bring knowledge, help and hope to all the nations they visit through the books that they sell. their bestseller all these years is the Bible and that is one book that changed more lives than any other books in the world! the tour guide who brought us around is from brazil and his name is Junior. He has already spent 1 year on board and he enjoys the experience tremendously! He mentioned that there is no culture on board as everyone is all mixed up! he stays with a japanese, an indian and a mexican in a small cabin. seeing them working and living together really amazes me and makes me yield to sign up for it! :D

anyway, i bought two books from the book fair to beef up my knowlege in parenting:
1. 10 secrets for raising sensible, successful kids
2. raising a modern-day knight (a father's role in guiding his son to authentic manhood)

the ship is open to the public until this sat. they will then set sail to philippines! bon voyage! :D

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what is your view about family?

to some, a family may just be a genetic relationship between a group of people known as the parents, the children and the siblings. some go through life, hating their fathers for not supporting the family or being angry with their parents for dictating their lives, or bitter about the favourtism shown to their siblings and ended up treating them as enemies or coming home to an empty house with family members living together (but not living their lives together), each busy with their own stuff and living in their own private space or some having only a father or a mother as their family member as a result of divorce or some having foster parents who have kids of their own but became their artificial family when their natural parents decided to forsake them.

why do i start with such a negative picture of a family? well, that's how most families in modern society are these days and that is why, all the more, we should not take our families for granted and we should be happy with the normal families that we have!

a supportive and loving family does not come naturally these days. The love required, the sacrifices to be made and the ability to recognise each other's uniquesness and roles in the family are missing these days. Although the natural bond is there, the natural affection that should come along with it is surprisingly lacking among families. perhaps it's the fast-paced lifestyle that have crowded and numbed our feelings, leading to communication breakdown or the variety of entertainment offered on TV or on game consoles or on the Net that stranded us from reality and responsibilities. whatever the case, the easy way out is to look for another group of people who will accept you, make you feel loved and share your interests. friends now take the place of the family (which is forsaken) to provide the intimacy that humans long for. yet, we dont realise that a friend (no matter how close) can never really stand with you through every thick and thin. only your family can... even though this may not be obvious to some until the most crucial moments... never ever give up on your family cos they will never ever give up on you...the blood is always thicker than water...

for me, i am still learning how to establish my own happy family... i have much to learn in being a father... i have much to learn in being a husband... and this learning will never end... :D

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We are designed as social beings. we are created to have relationships and there is a principle on how a relationship is established. if the principle is violated, the consequence is eventually death...be it physical, emotional or spiritual death...

a relationship has 4 stages:
1. introduction
2. acquaintance
3. friendship
4. intimacy

for a relationship to develop fully and enter into maturity, the relationship must go through all 4 stages in that order.

however, people of the opposite sex are beginning to violate this principle so frequently nowsadays. some jump from introduction to intimacy all in a single night. this only leads to regrets and disillusions. if someone is trying to be close to you by skipping step 2 and 3, you better ask the person to back off and take it easy. we need to take things one at a time...

the 4 stages must be experienced if you want to increase the chance of a lasting marriage. divorce rate is reaching an all time high these days b'cos people come in and out of a marriage without first knowing their partner well as an acquaintance and then a friend. they dont try to know the other person well enough and said "i do" easily, only to regret later after another life is born out of that marriage. beware and be careful with relationships... it can make or break a person.

have you ever thought why there is such stringent rules to ensure that a person must pass theory tests before they can take a road test to be given the license to drive but not for marriage? a car can turn into a weapon of mass destruction if it is in the wrong hands but isn't marriage equally, if not, more damaging when a "wrong" pair of couple is in it?

may all relationships turn out well for you and me :D

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nothing spectacular actually...

have been busy with invigilation for national exams...

invigilation is rather monotonous... imagine looking at a class of strangers for hours without talking at them... making sure that they make no attempt to cheat..
i try to keep myself alert by observing their behaviours while they attempted their exams...i was fortunate to be invigilating a class of private candidates with different characters...

one of them fell asleep while attempting maths paper... woke her up by nudging her elbow... she suddenly springed up and frantically got back to work :P

one of them acts like a punk... tries to be cool while attempting the exam papers by having his collars up and wearing a bandana...

one of them is rather stressed...he started biting his nails when he can't answer...by the end of the paper, he finished doing "nail spa" for both his hands!

one of them is a "professional" candidate... he wears long sleeve shirt, pants and shoes while attempting the papers even though it is hot and humid!

one of them has tatoos all over... he asked to go to the toilet and i had to accompany him... he took a long time... i was thinking if he may attempt to cheat by looking at some materials hidden under his shoes or something... he came out rubbing his stomach, looking rather embarassed that i was waiting all this while and said that he had a bad stomachache... i gave a smile and believed him...

one of them looked like a chinese swordman with his golden hair and long fringe.... he left early during the english comprehension paper... i took a peek at his answer sheet and he only answered a few questions... some of his answers were "can't find out" and "why don't you tell me?" and the most interesting is his final answer for the last question. he wrote "dear teacher, this is my first time taking o levels exams. i don't know anything. i am like a baby. i will be back next year for o levels exams again. see you" :D

i wish him all the best for his attempt next year! :D

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with a little imagination, you can work wonders with your fingers and sand alone:

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ANSWER
GERMAN

How i solved it:

STEPS (START WITH A EMPTY 5 by 5 TABLE)
1. Start with Hint 9.
2. Link this to Hint 14.
3. Neither Green nor White can be the colour of the 1st house since these two coloured houses has to be together (Hint 4).
4. Since the owner of the 1st house is not a Briton (Hint 1), the colour of the 1st house must be yellow (All other colours have been taken).
5. Green house can either be the 3rd or 4th house (based on Hint 4) but since Hint 8 says that the man in the middle (3rd) house drinks milk, Green house cannot be in the middle since the owner of the Green house drinks coffee (Hint 5). Therefore, the Red house has to be in the middle, followed by the Green and White houses.
6. Use Hint 7.
7. Use Hint 11.
8. Looking at Hint 2, only the 4th or 5th house can satisfy the condition since the owners of the 1st and 3rd houses are not Swede and owner of the 2nd house rears horses. Randomly selected the owner of the 5th house to be a Swede.
9. Looking at Hint 3, the owners of the 1st, 3rd and 5th houses does not satisfy the condition since they are not Dane. The owner of the 4th house cannot be a Dane either since he drinks coffee instead of tea (Hint 5,3). Therefore, the owner of the 2nd house must be a Dane.
10. From Hint13, there is only the German left. Therefore, the owner of the 4th house must be a German who eats lamp chops.
11. Looking at Hint 6, The Norwegian and German cannot satisfy the condition since they eat other dishes. The Dane and Swede also cannot satisfy since they rear other pets. Therefore, the one who eats pork chops and rears birds is a Briton.
12. Looking at Hint 12, The Dane, Briton and German cannot satisfy the condition since they drink other beverages. The Norwegian also cannot satisfy the condition since he eats fish & chips. Therefore, the one who eats grilled chicken and drinks beer is the Swede guy.
13. From Hint 10, only the Dane guy can satisfy this condition since he is the only one without any dish. The one who lives next to him and rear cats must be the Norwegian guy since the other neighbour (Briton) rears birds.
14. From here, only the German guy is left without a pet and it must be the fish!
15. Hint 15 can be used to counter check that all the conditions are satisfied.

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