[Meeting Residents and 7th Moon Dinners]
I visited residents at Blks 509 and 510 Hougang Ave 10 on Thursday evening, followed by a dialogue session at the void deck of Blk 511 for those living in the vicinity. Told everyone that the lift upgrading work will begin in November. There is bound to be some inconvenience but having the lift landing on every floor is becoming more urgent as the population ages.





One resident complained about dog poo being thrown which I gently requested the residents a floor above to avoid doing. Another complained about foreign professionals next door making too much notice which I also put across in the gentlest possible way. Best to keep small problems small.

But on the whole, there were few complaints. During the dialogue session, one Primary 5 kid (Jeremy) came up to me to ask if he could be my friend on Facebook. I said, of course. When I opened my account back home, his request had already come in. That really cheered me up.

After the dialogue, I went across to Blk 522 for the 7th Moon dinner. As I had quite a big dinner before the walkabout, I refrained from gorging further. Instead I went around toasting the guests with a glass of Carlsberg. I had given a bottle of Russian ginseng liquor which was auctioned off for a thousand bucks. It was an official gift to me which I had bought over some months ago.

7th Moon dinners are part of our tradition in Singapore. When my father was a storekeeper along the Singapore River, the coolies there had their 7th Moon dinners too. I remembered my father bringing back quantities of pork, duck, fish and fruits. Meats were scarce then. I am always impressed by the eloquence of the 7th Moon auctioneer.

Do also read my posts on Beyond SG