The other day Ginger was reading a daily prayer book where he read about a lady telling her friends that she was celebrating her two year old's birthday. The birthday bash seemed to be an impressive show and the guest wanted to know where the B'day boy was to wish him. The mother replied that the child was with the grandmother till the show was over as they would not have any kind of party with him around the place. How much like Christmas it sounded.

On that day Christ came down to earth to suffer and die on the cross to pay for our sins to many a Christian that was perfectly O.K. by them and it also meant a week long B'day tamasha. The infant Christ is forgotten and pushed out of our mind like the B'day boy in the prayer book. He would spoil the whole party for them, if they were to listen to him. Just imagine, loving their neighbours as themselves — real love life that should be ignored by all, if there is a thing called justice. Beggars are a pest, so are postmen, garbage collector and delivery boys who work for you through the year and your less fortunate relatives are a total embarrassment to you. That my friends is today's X-mas.

Stomach cancer

They always said that garlic was good for you. In the old days, if our stomach were not working too well, they used to give us garlic. Blood pressure patients used to be given garlic in the villages before modern drugs came into the market. Now they have yet more uses for garlic.

Garlic may be more of a panecia than we thought it to be. Now it is supposed to cut down the danger of getting one of the deadliest diseases going. Eating garlic raw or cooked according to a recent study is supposed to cut the risk of your getting stomach cancer by fifty per cent.

Getting away from it all

Just forty five minutes by ferry from Singapore lies Bintain Island which is actually a part of Indonesia. It is just the spot for you if you want an outdoor holiday away from it all. There are many resorts from where you could enjoy the sun and the beaches.

The main attraction however is the award winning banyan tree resort set in idyllic surroundings where you get over seventy villas located an a wooded hill from where you can see the beach and the sea. There is also a full size golf course but the Cabanas are by no means cheap but its fully worth the money for those who like that type of holiday.