Nostalgic Picnic at the Sea

I remember during those years in Chinese primary school, one of the most typical essay titles spells "A Picnic at the Sea".





Reading through the essays written by a class of students would make one wonder if a majority of the students practice plagiarism or whether most of them are indeed siblings.

Most of the essays would start with "In a sunny morning, my dad was stroke by a sudden idea of bringing the family out for a picnic at the Port Dickson beach", it seems a sunny morning always casts a sudden picnic spell on the dad and it has to be at Port Dickson. That's for the dad and here comes the unbreakable curse for the mum, "my mum spent her time reading a book under the coconut tree because she doesn't know how to swim..", poor mum never seems to be able to pick up swimming. As for the siblings, it always goes like this, "my younger brother and sister built sand castles by the sea". At the end of the essay, there would be a common ending written as "great time passed by fast, we headed home with a feeling of reluctance when the sun starting to set". I really pity the teacher for having to review a pile of essays of similar plot.

In a gathering with my high school schoolmates, I asked a friend who holds a teaching post at primary school whether thing changes for the younger generations when it comes to the same essay title. She uttered out a sigh almost instantly and said "I suspect the very contents of THE picnic is in the DNA!", both of us burst into laughter, long live THE picnic!

Being A Realist

People (especially managers) have been talking and promoting enthusiastically about being optimistic, most if  not all refer to the same archaic example of a glass half filled with water. In that example, optimists would see the glass as half-full whereas pessimists would see it as half-empty. Something is missing in this theory, apparently a group of people fall under the realist category have been left out.

Realists would see the glass as half-full if someone is filling up the glass with water and on the other hand, they would perceive the glass as half-empty if water is being poured out of the glass. In short, realists hold on to the current circumstance, they prepare for the worst and hope for the best. So, if someone tells you that you are being pessimistic for voicing out all the concerns or negative thoughts that you have over a matter, tell them that being realistic is walking a fine line between optimistic and pessimistic!

Being a realist, one needs to feed on both positive and negative thoughts and here is a good piece to stock up the positive energy.

Poppies

Poppies



罂粟花 - 若血的鲜红如生命，却寓意着沉睡平静与死亡

(Source - Wikipedia)

Following the trench warfare of the first World War which took place in the poppy fields of Flanders, red poppies have become a symbol of remembrance of soldiers who have died during wartime.

Poppy flowers have four to six petals, many stamens forming a conspicuous whorl in the center of the flower and an ovary consisting of from two to many fused carpels. The petals are showy, may be of any color and some have markings. The petals are crumpled in the bud and as blooming finishes, the petals often lie flat before falling away. The poppy will become dormant after blooming.

The flowers of most poppy species are attractive and are widely cultivated as annual or perennial plants. This has resulted in a number of commercially important cultivars, such as the Shirley poppy. Poppies are in full bloom late spring to early summer. Most species secrete latex when injured. The pollen of the oriental poppy, Papaver Orientale, is dark blue. The Papaver Somniferum poppy is mainly grown in Eastern and Southern Asia and South Eastern Europe. It is believed that it originated in the Mediterranean region. The pollen of the field poppy or corn poppy is dark green to grey. Bees use poppies as a pollen source.

Poppies have long been used as a symbol of sleep, peace, and death: sleep because of the opium extracted from them, and death because of the common blood-red color of the red poppy in particular. In Greek and Rome myths, poppies were used as offerings to the dead. Poppies used as emblems on tombstones symbolize eternal sleep. This symbolism was evoked in the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in which a magical poppy field threatened to make the protagonists sleep forever. A second interpretation of poppies in classical mythology is that the bright scarlet color signifies a promise of resurrection after dead.

The poppy of wartime remembrance is Papaver rheas, the red-flowered corn poppy. This poppy is a common weed in Europe and is found in many locations, including Flanders, the setting of the famous poem "In Flanders Fields," by the Canadian surgeon and soldier John McCrae. In Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, artificial poppies are worn to commemorate those who died in war. This form of commemoration is associated with Remembrance Day, which falls on November 11. In Canada, Australia and the UK, poppies are often worn from the beginning of November through to the 11th, or Remembrance Sunday if that falls on a later date. In New Zealand and Australia, soldiers are commemorated on ANZAC day, although the poppy is still commonly worn around Remembrance Day. Wearing of poppies has been a custom since 1924 in the United States. Miss Moina Michael of Georgia is credited as the founder of the Memorial Poppy in the United States.