Retiring an active and fulfilling life

Singapore Minister Lim Boon Heng is the head of The Ministerial Committee on Ageing. Mr Lim said that plans to promote active living among old people includes the Council for Third Age to champion active ageing, other initiatives include ComCare, CPF Life and the 3Ms framework, which will all help the elderly finance their long-term needs.

It aims to enable Singapore elderly to remain active, independent, financially secure and productively engaged with the wider community.

To the individual active agers, able to slowing down and taking time off to smell the roses, doing things like able to help out at the community level and organising regular exercise seesions for the seniors to lead active and fulfilling life.

Free Yoga lessons

Know anything about Yoga. Like to share some information I have gathered.

What can we gain out of this yoga practice ?

Physically, it apparently has proven to be extremely effective for various disorders. Such disorders like : digestive disorders, back pain, Arthritis, anxiety and depression, etc

1) Increasing Flexibility - joga has positions that act upon the various joints of the body including those joints that rarely taken note or exercised on.

2) Increasing lubrication of the joints, ligaments and tendons.

3) Massaging of all organs of the body - this stimulation and massage of the organs in turn benefits us by keeping away disease.

4) Complete detoxification - yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to various parts of the body thereby helps in the flushing out of toxins.

5) Excellent toning of the muscles - flaccid, weak or slothy are stimulated repeated to shed excess flab and flaccidity.

Find this website interesting and informative : http://www.healthandyoga.com/

Have you seen the picture above ? I have extracted it from ST 27 Sep 2009

Yoga lessons with a twist - they're free for everyone. Isn't it interesting. A brief summary for your sharing.

Mr C .V. Jagadish - the chief executive of a chipmaker co. turns yoga instructor twice a week, leading night classes at Pasir Ris Elias Community Club. Each night classes, in the spacious, brightly lit hall, consist of about 60 adults, many of whom are in their 40s and 50s.

"Lift your toes above your head, see if your toes can touch the floor". Speaking into a microphone, he tells his student to perform the stretching exercise carefully.

Lessons are free but participants pay a one-time fee of $5 to 30, which helps to cover the cost of facilities where lessons are held.

Interested, check it out.

Do drop us a comment to share either in your interests, training etc. We welcome your sharing.

A corn pudding recipe to share

Today need to attend a potluck gathering with a group of friends. Each to cook a dish to share. Scratching my head as what to prepare for the group.

So in the end I have prepared this corn pudding.

This is my recipe:

• 100g of Hoon Kueh flour
• 500g of coconut mixed with 4 cups of water to squeeze out 5 cups of milk
• 200g of sugar
• 400g or one can of full whole corn kernels
• one small tsp of salt
• banana leaves for wrapping

1) Combine coconut milk with hoon kueh flour, sugar and salt in a heavy-based saucepan. Bring to boil over low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.

2) Stir in corn kernels and mix thoroughly.

3) Cut the banana leaves to 11 x 15 cm and wash it with hot water.

4) Spoon mixture into the centre of one banana leaf and fold the both ends by revering to the back.

5) Leave to cool and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Fills about 40 small packets.

Give it a try and do let me your what is the opinion. We welcome your sharing here.

What are you Good at ? Holding out for a hero ?

The writer, Neil Humphreys wrote this article " Holding out for a hero" on 10 Oct 09 for ST Life! He wrote these interesting article by starting phrases as below :

" I can't give first aid, change a light bulb or install a phone line but I can write about them".

Just a brief summary, I have extracted from his article, the story goes:

A young woman was taken ill suddenly in his office and he was the guy who waited for the ambulance guys to show and direct them to the patient. He had witnessed the paramedic finished treating his colleague and gently helped to her feet. Quoting from the articles:

" Thanks for everything." I gushed, opening the door. "You were great, just great. Is there anything I can do ?" The paramedic looked me up and down. "No, there 's nothing you can do."

Well, the paramedic was really wrong, and Neil is great. He took the whole incident in such positive stride and wrote the above article. Isn't it great, he is able to find his happiness and worthiness from his job as a columnist.

Bernard Haldane, a pioneer in career counseling, died at the age of 95. One of his core beliefs was that most people who don’t like their career are unhappy because they’re not using their best abilities. I think this is a good example.

Everyone in this world is good at something. All we need to do is to find out that ‘thing’.

Do you have something to share with us ? We welcome your comments here.

Jobs credit scheme to extend or scrap

The scheme was introduced by the Government of Singapore in January to help companies hold on to workers by defraying part of the local workers' wage bill. This is achieved by paying employers 12 per cent of workers' wages for he first 2,500 a month.

• Employers will receive a 12% cash grant on the first $2,500 of each month’s wages for each employee on their CPF payroll.
• The Jobs Credit is for one year, and employers will receive the Jobs Credit in four payments: March, June, September and December 2009.
• For each payment, employers will receive Jobs Credits on the employees that are on their CPF payrolls at the start of the quarter in which the payment is made. The wages paid to these employees in the previous quarter will be the qualifying wages used to calculate the 12% cash credit that employers will receive.

Nine months on, the S$4.5 billion financial stimulus program is put to question whether to be extended beyond December ? Will it be tweaked, phased out or scrapped ?

Straits Times Saturday, 3 October 2009 put up an article on this Job credit scheme and the question of this scheme be extended, tweaked, phased out or srapped, and encourages readers to email, SMS your insights.

If you have anything to share, we welcome your comments here.

World first clown send to Space

US billionaire is first tourist to go twice into space on THURSDAY 26
MARCH 2009
Hungarian-born US billionaire Charles Simonyi has become the first
tourist to go into space twice. The 60-year-old blasted off in a Russian
rocket bound for the International Space Station.

Billionaire Guy Laliberte became Canada's first space tourist - and the world's first space clown - when he blasted off towards the International Space Station in clear blue skies on Wednesday 30 September 2009 morning.

Laliberte, 50, paid $35 million for his ticket to space. He plans to use the publicity to draw attention to the importance of access to clean water on Earth.

An acrobat, fire-breather, philanthropist and a keen gambler, 50-year old Laliberte plans to use his trip to publicize the world's shortage of clean water by holding a global artistic performance organized by his One Drop Foundation. The Quebec-born entrepreneur is worth an estimated $2.5 billion and holds a 95 percent stake in Cirque du Soleil, which he founded 25 years ago.

Laliberte plans to stream out a webcast during his journey, which will be carried live on www.onedrop.org on Oct. 9. He's due back on Earth on Oct. 11.

Google's Street View three-wheeler

Google Street View car spotted in Singapore. Have you read this article from news.cnet.com sometime way back in October 2008 ?
Seen this photo posted then ?
Latest news and photo of a tricycle mounted with a camera on it, is another articles spotted in ST on 20 September 2009.

Somewhere last year on October 13, 2008, I have also followed the news and put a blog about Singapore will go 3-D on Google.

For those who do not know what is Google Street View, I have extracted some information from Wikipedia as follows :

Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides for many streets in the world 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic views from a row of positions along the street (one every approximately 10 or 20 metres), from a height of about 2.5 metres. It was launched on May 25, 2007, and has gradually expanded to include more cities, and in these cities more streets, and also some rural areas.[1] These photographs are currently available for the
United States, several European countries, including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and Japan, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand. Coverage is shown by dragging "pegman" icon from its position, onto a map of any scale.

So on the lookout. If you see the car or the tricycle, put on a big smile.
However, the fear of privacy invasion and other similar concerns have arisen. What is your view on this ? Do share with us here if you have any. We welcome your sharing.