Venus
3rd June 1999

You'd learn something new everyday:
Planets Mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter can also be seen with our naked eye.

Sudden inspirations or cravings:
Cross-stitch (finishing soon...real soon...erm...just not yet..)

A reader actually emailed me to correct me on the "You'd learn something new everyday" fact I had on 310599. He says that Venus is not the only planet that can be seen without help from special optical equipment. Oops. Sorry.

But anyway it wasn't really me who said that. [Yes, blame transfer.] It was Su-Lin who insisted. It was that day when we went for the Arts Festival Village at Fort Canning, with Po Chin. It was a beautiful night, a little humid and warm, but we were happy. Anyway, we were looking up into the sky. I spotted this very bright spot...

ME
Hey, look! That star very bright!

[At which, both of them turned and looked at that star.]

SU-LIN
It's not a star, it's Venus.

ME
[In my mind: I feel stupid.]
How do you know?

SU-LIN
See, it doesn't twinkle. Stars twinkle.

ME
No, not all stars twinkle, right?

PO CHIN
[Pointing at the other not-so-bright stars in the sky.]
See, all those stars twinkle!

ME
[In my mind: Am I really stupid?]
Then how do you know that that is Venus? Could be anything what.

SU-LIN
Because Venus is the only planet we can see. It's called the Evening Star, I think.

ME
[In my mind: I really am stupid.]
Fine. So that is not a very bright star, but Venus. Fine.

I then spent the rest of the night looking for other stars that don't twinkle. But anyway that's how I came up with that fact that I used that turned out to be wrong. Aha, not my fault! hahahaha...

Su-Lin is not even a science student. But I had faith in my friends' intelligence.

You are such a sentimental fool

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