{"id":63128,"date":"2026-06-23T16:39:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63128"},"modified":"2026-06-23T16:39:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T08:39:03","slug":"touch-grass-sm-lee-on-week-long-leave-posts-photo-of-magic-cup-leaving-netizens-amused-singapore-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=63128","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Touch grass&#8217;: SM Lee on week-long leave, posts photo of &#8216;magic cup&#8217; leaving netizens amused, Singapore News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong is taking time off work to &#8220;touch grass&#8221;, as the internet slang goes.<\/p>\n<p>Leaning fully into the social media game, he announced his week-long leave with a photograph of the legendary &#8216;magic cup&#8217;, perched on a rock with lush greenery forming the backdrop.<\/p>\n<p>The phrase &#8220;touch grass&#8221; is used to tell someone to log off from the online world, and instead spend time on physical activities and reconnect with reality.<\/p>\n<p>And that is what SM Lee will be doing until June 28, he quipped in a Facebook post on Monday (June 22).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do share your own photos of time well spent outdoors,&#8221; he requested. &#8220;Logging off for now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While he might have wished for pictures of the world&#8217;s landscapes in the comments section, netizens zeroed in on the appearance of the &#8216;magic cup&#8217; with apparent glee.<\/p>\n<p>For those unaware, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiaone.com\/singapore\/remember-sm-lees-language-changing-magic-cup-its-back\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blue porcelain tea cup went viral<\/a> during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 for its supposed &#8220;language-changing&#8221; abilities \u2014 Lee, who was then prime minister, had spoken a different language each time he drank from it during a televised speech about the circuit breaker.<\/p>\n<p>Six years on, the cup is evidently still grabbing attention online.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The magic cup!&#8221; several netizens exclaimed in separate comments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Good one, sir,&#8221; a user on Instagram approved.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Can I borrow the magic cup while you are away on leave? I promise to return it and not run away with the newfound magical power,&#8221; said a Facebook user in jest.<\/p>\n<p>Another added: &#8220;This cup is so magical so please don&#8217;t drop it or break it!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"697\" width=\"500\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fleehsienloong%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0GDSd2C6hfoq24w7GoebQFgZpjG5fEsvCT9hU5wZh6zjerRYUwotUd1H5BD1gN3Y1l&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\">\u00a0<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>[[nid:734085]]<\/p>\n<p>lim.kewei@asiaone.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.asiaone.com\/singapore\/lee-hsien-loong-on-leave-magic-cup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong is taking time off work to &#8220;touch grass&#8221;, as the internet slang goes. Leaning fully into the social media game,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}