The PETS COMMUNITY @ Serangoon

Yesterday, I received a request from Mr William Tan Secretary of the Pets Community @Serangoon to put a link of their website here.

You can see the link at the left column of our homepage, together with other links.

Their website address is:

http://www.pets-community.com/

I have visited their website to check up on upcoming "pet" events at the SERANGOON. Many events are in the pipeline! Shows and seminars that will please a wide cross-section of our pet loving residents of Kampong Serangoon. You name it...dogs, birds, fish and even reptiles are among those planned for.

So do check up and visit their website for the latest news as well as what's coming up.

unk Dicko

CONGRATULATIONS MRS LIM !

I am sure all Grassroot Leaders of SERANGOON will join me in offering our HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS to our Adviser, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua on her promotion to Minister(PMO).

Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
March 26, 2009
PM renews Cabinet

Mr Teo Chee Hean (far left) will be appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence. Mrs Lim Hwee Hua will be appointed as a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and concurrently appointed as Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport. ST PHOTOS: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK, WONG KWAI CHOW


PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong has reshuffled his Cabinet, making several changes and appointments as part of continuing leadership renewal.
The changes are also to test out younger office holders for broader responsibilities, said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday.

CABINET AND OTHER OFFICE HOLDERS
The changes will take effect from April 1.
Changes in ministerial appointments Mr Teo Chee Hean will be appointed as Deputy Prime Minister. He will be the Acting Prime Minister in the absence of the Prime Minister. He will continue as Minister for Defence.
Professor S Jayakumar will relinquish his appointment as Deputy Prime Minister. He will be appointed as Senior Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and will continue as Co-ordinating Minister for National Security. He will also continue to oversee foreign policy matters which cut across different ministries and take charge of foreign policy issues which involve legal negotiation or international adjudication. He continues to chair the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change.

Mr Gan Kim Yong will be appointed as Minister for Manpower.
Mrs Lim Hwee Hua will be appointed as a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.

She will be concurrently appointed as Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport.
Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State, will relinquish his appointment in Education and will be appointed as Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts.
Dr Lee Boon Yang will relinquish his appointment as Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts and retire from the Government.

Since being appointed a Parliamentary Secretary in 1985, Dr Lee has served in many portfolios including Environment, Trade and Industry, Finance, Home Affairs, National Development, Defence, and Manpower, before becoming Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts in 2003. The Prime Minister thanks Dr Lee for his many years of service and contributions to the Government and the nation.

Changes in appointment of Ministers of State

Mr S Iswaran will be appointed as Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, concurrent with his present appointment of Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Mr Lee Yi Shyan will be appointed as Minister of State in the Ministry of Manpower, concurrent with his present appointment of Minister of State in the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
New appointment of Parliamentary Secretary Mr Sam Tan will be appointed as Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and concurrently in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts.

His appointment takes effect on 1 July 2009.

Other appointments

Mr Zainul Abidin Rasheed will relinquish his appointment of Mayor, North East Community Development Council when his current 3-year term ends on 30 May 2009. He will continue as Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr Teo Ser Luck will be appointed as Mayor, North East Community Development Council with effect from 31 May 2009. This will be concurrent with his appointment as Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and in the Ministry of Transport.

Source: Straits Times Online, Breaking News

The Championship CAT Show...part 4

Photo: Mr Chua Kah Soon of Goodwill Birds is one of the key organisers of this event. He was kind enough to show me around and introduce me to the owners of the participating cats.

This is such a lovely and healthy cat.



This lady must be the President of the Show...Roszanah Packer Mohamed.
She was proudly introducing her exotic cat to me.
And I could not resist carrying such a cute and lovable cat. It has beautiful fur and nice almond eyes.

Mr Chua specially brought me to have a good look at this "must see" cat.

WHOA!

BLIMEY! ( as the British used to inject)

WAH PIANG! ( Ah Beng's expression )

I would not have believed if I hadn't seen this cat with my own eyes.

It has this so, so out of this world look about it.
From head to tail, practically hairless, its unique features must be seen to be believed!

The face of this cat is what I will remember most.

Such a rarity!

They put a vest on the cat as it was air-conditioned in the Hall.

The owners are mighty proud of this beauty.

For more reports and pictures you can go to "The Wise Old Owl" link here.

The Championship CAT Show...part 3.

While the Championship Cat Show got underway in the morning, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua and many busloads of of Serangoon residents congregated at the Changi Boardwalk starting point for an organised early morning walk. They were joined by many GRLs from the various RCs and NCs and other GROs. She made it back to the Cat Show as Guest of Honour for the event.

Photo:

The 2 invited Foreign judges...

Cheryl Uren ( Australia ) and Kayoko

Koizumi (Japan) with our Guest of Honour.

Photo:

Mrs Lim presenting a prize to this budding artist.

There were many prizes for various categories of judging.

Childrens' Cat colouring and drawing, Best Dress Cats, Best Dress cages...etc...

Photo:

Taking a closer look at these pretty little things. By the way, some of the cats are not little at all. They may be bigger than your little puppies and small dog breeds.

And they come in different shapes and sizes, with unique eyes or fur peculiar to their own breed.

The Serangoon was certainly well-decorated with colourful banners, posters, displays...all on and about CATS.

I did not see a single dog there. They obviously know when to keep away!


Do check out all 300 photos of this spectacular event on the Serangoon Multiply Link ...at left hand column.

unk Dicko

The Championship CAT Show...part 2

You are looking at the cat that was crowned Champion Overall. Yes, the one with the Best of everything in the eye of the judges.

There were 2 highly qualified international cat judges invited from A

Australia and Japan.

Photo:

Unk Dicko with the judge from Japan Ms Kayoko Koizumi and the owner of that thing of beauty.

The Championship CAT Show

On Sunday 22 March 2009, The Serangoon was host to a huge event...the Eagle Pack Championship CAT Show. It was a full day event that stretched from 10 am to over 5 pm.

The event drew a very large crowd of obviously cat lovers and others who wanted to learn more about these lovely feline animals.

Unk Dicko was there in the later part of the afternoon with his digital camera, the Canon Ixus 70 to hopefully capture some pretty shots.

It was more than I bargained for! In honest truth, it turned out to be a revealation for me as this was the 1st time I had seen such a show close-up.

Yes, even touching these lovely cats and chatting with their equally lovely owners about their devoted pets.

I must confess I have never seen such a collection of cats from various parts of the world.

The only cats I know are our "Singapura" local ones and some like the Persian variety.

But those that were there for the competition took my breath away for sheer beauty and uniqueness.

Super-duper is all I can say!

Check my upcoming posts for the details and the pictures.

And also the link to all the other photos taken by William's Passion photographers.

In A Far Away Land...JOHN DENVER sings in Chinese!

I AM A SONG

I LIVE TO BE SUNG

I SING WITH ALL MY HEART

......John Denver......

Read the full and interesting article, with much more info about the song, about John Denver etc... which I posted at my Wise Owl blogsite.

Pertandingan Kompang

The Serangoon was the venue for Pertandingan Kompang (Kompang Competition) held on Mar 14, 2009. Twelve Teams from all over in Singapore, participated in the Competition. Photos taken by Passion Photographers had been uploaded in the website: http://www.theserangoon.multiply.com/

Darma Muneeswaran Temple Bursary Awards 2009, cum Launching of Darma Youth Wing

The Guest-of-Honour, Mrs. Lim Hwee Hua, lightes up the lamp to signal the start of Darma Muneeswaran Temple Bursary Awards and Launch of Darma Youth Wing.

I was impressed with the way the Event was organized.

Photos taken by Passion Photographers had been uploaded in the website (http://www.theserangoon.multiply.com/). Visit the website to view the complete coverage of this special Event.

Aljunied GRC & Hougang SMC Dialogue Session

MPs from the Aljunied GRC together with Mr. Eric Low were at the Aljunied GRC & Hougang SMC Dialogue Session for GRLs held on March 5, 2009. The Presentations together with speeches/comments from MPs and GRLs were enriching. Now we have a better understanding on why the Government did not reduce the GST. Those who did not attend
the Dialogue Session last night had missed something for sure !!!

Photos taken by Passion Photographers at the above event had been uploaded in our website:http://theserangoon.multiply.com/photos/album/17/Aljunied_GRC_Hougang_SMC_Dialogue_Session_Mar_5_09

Presentation on the Resilience Package valued at S$20.5 Billion.

Want to know more ?

Presentation on what the commuters will benefit from the new fare structure.

The savings from transfers from bus-train-bus-train.

An overview of the GRLs at the Dialogue Session held in the Multi-Purpose Hall in The Serangoon

MPs from Aljunied GRC together with Mr Eric Low were at the Dialogue Session held at The Serangoon on Mar. 5, 2009, for GRLs in the Aljunied GRC. We were treated to 2 presentations on the "Resilience Package" and "All Communters will Benefit...." plus speeches/comments actively participated by MPs and GRLs. Indeed, it was an enriching Dialogue Session. Now we have a better understanding why the GST should not be cut! If you were not present, you had missed something !

Click on the link below to view photos taken by Passion Photographers at the Dialogue Session :http://theserangoon.multiply.com/photos/album/17/Aljunied_GRC_Hougang_SMC_Dialogue_Session_Mar_5_09

The Church of Nativity and CHIJ Punggol

This is the page for the month of December of the ATC Heritage Calendar 2009. It shows 2 photos of the oldest Catholic Church for the Teochews in S'pore's North-East region and the old CHIJ Punggol.
Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Chinese: 圣母圣诞堂) is a Catholic church in Singapore. It is located at Upper Serangoon Road in the Hougang Planning Area, within Singapore's North-East Region.
The church was constructed in 1901, and is the oldest Catholic church for the Teochew community in Serangoon.
History
The origins of this Catholic church can be traced to an attap (thatched roof) chapel that was built in 1853 on Upper Serangoon Road, its congregation comprising mainly Teochew farmers living in Serangoon and Punggol. Subsequently, a brick chapel was built in the area and named St Mary's Church. Father Jean Casimir Saleilles, parish priest from 1881 to 1911, was responsible for building the present church in 1901.
Father Saleilles also helped to spread the Catholic faith to Johore. He founded the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes (Johor), later renamed the Church of the Immaculate Conception and subsequently designated a cathedral. His good relationship with Sultan Ibrahim of Johor let the Sultan to present the Church in Johor, as well as the Church of the Nativity in Singapore, each a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church of the Nativity's statue still stands in front of the church building.
The Church of the Nativity founded many educational institutions in the region, including the Holy Innocents' High School, Hai Seng Girls' High School (now Hai Sing Catholic School), Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Punggol (now CHIJ Our Lady of the Nativity), and Montfort School (now Montfort Junior School and Montfort Secondary School).
The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was gazetted as a national monument on 14 January 2005.

Important Advice about SPAM !

GOOD ADVICE FROM SNOPES PLEASE READ.

By now, I suspect everyone is familiar with WWW.snopes.Com and/or WWW.truthorfiction.Com for determining whether information received via email is just that: true/false or fact/fiction. Both are excellent sites. I received the advice below from one of my correspondents today.


Advice from Snopes.com MEMORIZE THIS!
1) Any time you see an E-Mail that says forward this on to '10' of your friends, sign this petition, or you'll get bad luck, good luck, or whatever, it almost always has an E-Mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and E-Mails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of 'active' E-Mails addresses to use in SPAM E-Mails, or sell to other spammers.

2) Almost all E-Mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of E-Mail is, is a way to get names and 'cookie' tracking information for telemarketers and spammers - - to validate active E-Mail accounts for their own profitable purposes.

You can do your friends and family members a GREAT favor by sending this information to them; you will be providing a service to your friends, and will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam E-Mails in the future!

If you have been sending out (FORWARDING) the above kinds of E-Mail, now you know why you get so much SPAM!

Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listings regardless how inviting they might sound!
You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT in the long run..
Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later!
Plus, we are helping the spammers get rich!
Let's don't make it easy for them!

Also: E-Mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other organization. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address of the person signing the petition.

Read the full story here: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.asp

PS: Adding your name to a list of names on an e-mail you receive, doesn't work, because you add your name and send it to 10 people creates 10 more petitions!!!, and they just keep multiplying!! Delete them!!!

Do inform all others about this.



unk Dicko

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St Paul's Church...Upper Serangoon Road

This is the page from the November month of the ATC Heritage Calendar 2009.

The photo shows the Church of St Paul which was built before WW2. In the past, the Social Welfare Department had used this place as a distribution centre for feeding the poor and underprivileged...many of whom were affected by the war.
Church members helped in the distribution of food.

Today, St Paul remains a clear landmark along the main Upper Serangoon Road opposite to Hougang Street 21 junction.