Chinese Lunar New Year is coming and I managed to get hold of one of the malls' decorations for the upcoming festive season during one of my working trips arond the island. Any intelligent guesses where all these beautiful lanterns are being hung at?
This was my yesterday's lunch at an undisclosed hospital cafeteria. Readers of my blog who were wondering how come I didn't blog yesterday - My dad landed himself in the hospital after spraining his back and I had to rush to and fro the hospital to get his admission administration and stuff done. That took up my entire Saturday. He's better now but my poor old man is still stuck there without his television and guitar.Blog Modifications and Updates:
It's been quite a while since I touched up on the features of my humble blog so there are the following changes made:
1) I have decided to tuck away my IMEEM player for now so that readers will not get too sick listening to the same songs being played again and again.
2) I have decided to change some of the songs on my main blog's music playlist. The new songs are as follows:
12. 蔡淳佳 - 庆幸有你爱我
18. 曹格 - SUPERSUNSHINE
27. 光良 - 烟火
28. S.H.E - 最近还好吗
29. 范玮琪 - 是非题
30. 刘若英 - 我很好
36. 张韶涵, Angela - 不想懂得
43. 周杰伦, Jay - 彩虹
46. 蔡健雅, Tanya - 达尔文
47. 林宥嘉 - 背影
48. 罗志祥, Show - 一支独秀
3) I have updated the slideshow for Teresa so that two of her recent public events photographs are included inside. Hopefully, by this weekend, I will have even more beautiful shots of her on the slideshow.
4) I understand that some of the songs on the main playlist are not working. Repairing them takes some time so do be patient. I will work on them as soon as I can.
Jungle Trekking Taboos:
One of my students is going to the Outward Bound School for some enrichment camp and I was telling her about some of the jungle trekking taboos that I was taught during my training days. Apparently, she just laughed them off and even though I am not that kind of superstitious person, I believe these long-established taboos must be there for a reason. Out of sheer knowledge, regardless if you believe in them or not, I decided to put them up here for fun. Read and see if you have actually heard of such taboos whenever one is to trek through jungles.
1) Do not comment on strange whiffs of fragrances or smells whilst in the jungle. It is said that sometimes "dirty things" will put on such smells to attract the unwary and those who speak of these on the trail will be followed. The most common encounters of strange smells are frangipani and pungent decay.
2) Do not shine torchlight onto the treetops above. It is said that those belong to the domains of the night creatures as well as "dirty things". There have been unexplained cases of mania and frenzy when a few shone their torchlights to the treetops (It happened during one of my jungle training trips when some chosed to challenge this taboo knowingly). These people are said to revealed they saw "dirty things" hanging onto the treetops.
3) Do not suddenly turn around if someone taps on your shoulder while you are on the trail. It is said that each human being has three "lamps", which are supposed to be protective lights against "dirty things". A sudden turning around will extinguish at least two of those "lamps", leaving the person extremely vulnerable to unimaginable horrors standing behind. Should one be tapped, one should keep moving and requests his/her name be announced loudly. If the person/thing refused to answer, continue walking until the whole group is informed and proceeds to a safe place out of the trail.
4) Always remember to say "excuse me" if you need to urgently answer the call of nature. It is said to be necessary in case one relieves oneself atop of the resting place of "dirty things". It doesn't really matter the "excuse me" is uttered in what language, as long as the deferential tone is there. It is said that those who broke this taboo would have "dirty things" following them around until an apology was made.
Okay. That's about all I know of. I choose to follow them whenever I need to enter jungles because these are small things which usually do not interfere with the major flow of programmes. Whatever one's religion or culture is, I suppose the people who taught me these taboos had their rationale:
"Better respect such ettiquette in the jungle. After all, our safety is more important than being obstinate and we are just guests in the jungle, which plays host. We should give this minimum respect."
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