Happy belated 59th birthday to Singapore!
This is a surprising year where I read that Singapore has a change of political leadership, to a DINKie 1st-couple no less! [DINKie is an old slang for "Double income no kids" lifestyle.] Never in my life would I think that Singapore's dominant political party would choose a DINKie or Single person as its leader, given the historically very conservative sociopolitical mindset of the party's leadership. Well, I guess the world is changing, and Singapore is too.
If there is any truth to the rumors that the previous leader gave up his love of Mathematics to fit into the rails of a political life (custom-built by his father), I sincerely hope that the exiting leader gets to lives his finals years (maybe decades?) on his own terms, away from the shadow cast by his late-father. Speaking from observations of my birth family, having a toxic controlling (possibly also narcissistic) parent would hurt even the Golden Child(ren).
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Early 60th Birthday Greetings to Singapore!
I remember reading that preparations for Singapore's National Day celebrations start the year before or even earlier. Since next year is Singapore's milestone year of turning 60 【花甲之年】，below are a couplet 对联 created by me with best wishes in both Cantonese and Mandarin. Note: Cantonese is my real "mother tongue"; I learned Mandarin and English starting from Kindergarten.
賀國花甲 招福星，
加慶彩雲 飛上坡。
[Cantonese: Wishing the nation on its 60th year to be blessed by the lucky stars,
with added celebratory cloud iridescence flying up the slope.]
贺国花甲 萬事新，
加庆彩云 飞上坡。
[Mandarin: Wishing the nation on its 60th year to be fully refreshed/rejuvenated,
with added celebratory cloud iridescence flying up the slope.]
[For an example of the auspicious cloud iridescence, check out Wikipedia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_iridescence.]
