The lengths we go through

One of my friend will be holding her wedding reception this coming weekend. One of my ex-colleagues ever said that "it shows how important the friend is to the person by seeing what lengths they go through to prepare for it."

Not that I do not see other weddings as important. I think all of them are and I put equally the same amount of effort in preparation for them. This time though, there would be no make-up artist/ hairstylist but still lots have gone into preparing in any case.

I have gone for a proper hair cut and colour Vs my $10 haircut cum home colouring. I am also sussing out a place to do my nails. Going to do french manicure for the first time in my life. I have sort of grown my nails for it. no actually it is because now that I have quit my previous job, I no longer need to be mindful of having short nails all the time. For now, that is.

I thought I had everything ready: the dress, the shoes, the hair, the nails. I have even been practising and trying out different make-up like the colour of eye-shadows, etc. No problem, right? Wrong.

The dress that looked so befitting and elegant for the occasion was unfit for wearing. I grew more meat on my back and could not zip up for the life of me. Mum told me to go get a nice dress for myself. There are very affordable and yet pretty ones on the market nowadays. Woah! My Mum, my fashion consultant. Ha!

Therefore I happily went out to buy myself one thinking it was the most perfect dress for the occasion. I was sooooo wrong. When Mum saw it, she practically yelled her head off and told me that I had bad taste. She did not stop until I went inside my room. Dad was kinder. He said it looked like uniform and stopped at that. Both were not impressed with my buy. Mum even questioned on why I always bought the same colour and yet looked like nurses' uniforms.

Well, part of the reason is because it IS from the same shop! As for the colour, I guess I just like the teal colour which kinda reminds me of the peacocks. Plus this one's texture was satin, a material I thought very appropriate for the occasion.

I was so upset with Mum that I lost sleep over it. Terrible as I do not want dark eye circles on that day. I am known to be stubborn and adamant about my decisions but I guess, I have always wanted to win the approval of my Mum, which is why I was so upset.

In the end, I decided on several things: Ask Mum to accompany me to buy the dress; exchange the dress for another one that I did try the day before; keep the dress and buy another one.

In the end, Mum met me at Bugis and several shops later, we managed to get one. What can I say? Mum knows best? Well, I guess it is also the secret thrill of having her spend some Mother-daughter time with me. As for the teal coloured dress? It is still sitting at home. I have seven, no six days to decide whether I want to exchange or not.

I really love weddings, special occasions and such. I love dressing up for such occasions even more! Hopefully I will look presentable this weekend!

p/s: The first dress I bought had a French name that has a literal meaning of "life in shades of pink". I happen to like most of the stuff that they sell there. Although having a French name, the clothing are all from Japan.

Lives and deaths

Oh yes, in the midst of finding jobs and cleaning up, something else happened. My very close friend's father passed away. How close were we? We knew each other since kindergarten. That is how close we are.

Despite that though, I seldom got to see her Dad. I only got to see him recently when he gave me a lift home. Gosh! Little did I realise that it would be the last time I would see him alive.

Even though I have only recently gotten back into contact with this friend of mine, but I feel really close to her and her family. Maybe it is because we all speak Cantonese. I went everyday to the wake and accompanied them even, for the "very last journey".

Once again, it hit home that one day, my Dad's turn will come. He was the same age as my friend's Dad and the similarities of their age, just made me that much more sober about the times that I spend with my Dad (and my Mum, of course).

It's like I want to live each day more purposefully and also to be more conscious about interacting with my parents coz when they are six feet under, it would then be too late. Then again, no matter how much we have done, we will always have regrets and I think I also need to prepare myself for that. Sounds serious and more grievous, but it has once again made me realise the fragility and importance of life.

My poor woollen argyle sweater

I find myself quick to anger nowadays. Today, it was over this woollen sweater that I had bought from Uniqlo. It is fine Merino wool and I had told my mum that it is to be hand-washed and I just put it on the back rest of my chair, in my room.

It was my fault. I should have just added, "Please do not wash it. I will do it myself".

It was too late. When I came home, I saw the nice off white with pink and grey argyle patterned sweater on a hanger, drying on a 'bamboo' pole. My heart froze. For one should never hang woollen stuff like that. The water is just going to weigh everything down and the clothing will go out of shape.

I tried to salvage it but I think it was too late. The collar looks warped and the whole thing looks out of shape, elongated. I tried to control my anger and wrote a nice note to Mum telling her what I have done (put the sweater on top of clean plastic sheets, on the floor. They do not say "lay flat" or "dry flat" for nothing. I told her that I was not angry and that I hope we would come to a better understanding next time.

It was no use though for after she came back and I explained to her, I had a closer look (for I really did not bear to really look at it) and it just looked..warped and out of shape (sort of). The best part was Mum tried to lighten the whole situation and say, "Aiyah, how much can one sweater cost?"

I suppose when one earns less, one will treasure things a lot more. It felt very painful to me as I had not even started wearing the piece of clothing. She continued to say what's the big deal and that I could always buy it next month.

Helloo!!!! Knock-knock! I bought this for my Amsterdam trip and I am flying off at the end of this month. HOW TO BUY?????? So angry with her flipping remarks. The more she talked about the monetary bit, the angrier I got. The anger was not really there at first. It is after all $49.90. It is probably about 10 meals for a person and enough to feed a whole family.

Well, maybe I am anal too but a warped piece just would not look the same. It just makes me look frumpy and sloppy. Besides, I am not the slimmest or tallest of people. The increase in length and width would simply not flatter my figure (or what is left of it).

It did not help that Dad thought that I was the one to blame. He asked me why did I put it in the laundry basket in the first place, which I did not. Had to explain it all over again to him that it was very clearly put in my room.

After several painful screams in my own room, Mum finally came in to 'apologise'. This could take awhile but writing this is helping me get rid of the anger. Feeling better already and would just have to bear with it and wear it, I suppose. I am trying very hard not to get angry.

Cornflakes Crispies for our Daddies

It had been a good week at work. For those of you who know me, you know what I do. For those of you who don't, you would just have to keep guessing, or you might have already guessed from bits and pieces on my blog.

We made cornflakes crispies two days ago and all of them could not wait to taste it. It was the first time we all made it and we were all anxious and excited at the same time. While we all had fun mixing all the ingredients together, I did most of the scooping of the crispies into the cupcake cups. Oh! I had fun sprinkling the hundreds and thousands too! :)

'Baking' it was a little tricky though for we only had a toaster oven to work with. The first batch got quite burnt and my colleague had to watch the over the oven after that. It was really nice though for after that, we put them into nice little packages to bring them home, to our Daddies!! It's after all going to be Father's Day this weekend! Oh! We made simple cards to go along with it too!

Funny

Such an interesting thing happened: My Dad wants to plan a trip to Hokkaido (free and easy) and was trying to find travel companions. He had waited very long for his friends to come along but none were very interested.

Now, one of his former radio listeners who could speak Japanese would like to go but I rejected it flat out. Why? Because the listener is a "she". Hehehe...you would think that it would be the parents who would be the 'goal keeper' at such things but my immediate reaction was, "No way! Tell her that your daughter does not allow it."

I should trust the old foggies on this but somehow, I am really protective of my mum. Strange thing though was that my mum was OK with it. I guess she is more trusting of my Dad than me!

Anyway, my Dad is trying to get my aunts to go along so that they can share the room with the lady listener. We will see how it goes.

The symphony of frogs

When I was little, my dad, mum and I would take evening walks after dinner. I think those were the times that I treasured most in my childhood. We would stroll round the private estate (as we call it) and would eventually come to a playground where I would go on the swing, the merry-go-round and the see-saw. I think these are stuff that are fast disappearing from the playgrounds of today.

Before we reach our destination (the playground) though, there would be this steep slope and a big drain that we will definitely have to walk by. Dad used to make it really scary but still ask me to look into the deep, deep drain and he would point out frogs to me. Sometimes I see them, sometimes I only see them. Either way, I think they were horrible things and I never understood why my Dad made me see such things. Now of course I do, as it is part of Science and such. There were also sometimes lots of snails on the roads and Dad and Mum would almost always ask me to look.

As I grew up, I moved to places called flats/apartments and I had almost no chance of seeing such sights or hearing such sounds. Tonight though, I heard the symphony of the frogs. It would have grossed me out many years back but I now feel that it is music to my ears.

You see, there are many ways to get home and one of them involves me walking through vast lands of green grass between blocks of flats. It is a piece of land that they use for setting up a stage for the Chinese seventh month or what we popularly call "getai". It had rained again in the late afternoon today, as is so for many late afternoons now. Once this happens, I say "the frogs come out to sing".

I suppose it is a phenomenon and as much as I would encounter a frog face to face, I think the crooning of the frogs gives comfort to a lonely soul walking back home after work at night. It brings back memories and the good old times and sends warm fuzzy feelings tingling all over. It made me want to bring my kids over to experience this whole...phenomenon. They are sure to ask questions and be curious, like I was many years ago.

Have your heard the frogs sing? Have you heard them sing in sync? Find your own patch of froggy land and listen in. It's free and it is beautiful.

Waffling

I was sick and resting at home today until evening time when I had to get to my classes. Serves me right for not going twice before and using up my 20% chance of absenteeism.


Anyway, I think I feel better now except that I still have a 'sexy' voice. Last night, when I came home after the doc's, Dad asked me to take care of myself and not eat rubbish when I am out and about. I told him directly that I cannot help it if I have rhinitis or that my immune system is so bad.

This leads me to the question as to why I should be in this world in the first place. I think my parents made a very selfish decision to give birth to me (I know I would probably get bashed up for saying this but this is really how I feel). Selfish in that they only gave birth to me and then letting me be responsible for them when they grow old. I do not have any other siblings to share the responsibility with. Selfish in that I am alone all the time and contrary to what everyone else is thinking, an only child is not very fun to be.

Selfish because after they have only me, they continue to live life as if they were a couple and I was an outsider looking in at their lives. Well, maybe I exaggerate or I may be overly sensitive. Maybe they just want to give me my space, but they do not realise that my social life is almost zero? Or that I am very bad with making new friends? This leads me to what I am about to say next.

Recently, I have been reading a book about the autistic spectrum disorder and was wondering if I was mildly autistic myself. I was giving myself lots of 'analysis' and excuses as I was a really quiet child at birth and my social skills are not fantastic. I seem to have a slower learning process than others.

I have also been reading up quite a bit about the Indigo Child. Well, maybe all these are terms to coin people who are different from the norm and it made some sense to me as my mum was considered mature when she gave birth to me. Hmm...yes, I like this explanation. Makes me feel a little better about myself. Hahaha!

I am waffling, I know. I am normal. Or at least, I think I am. Whatever it is, I am responsible for my own life now and will stop looking at the past or blaming it. Sounds familiar? Well, it Stephen Covey said something to that extent and we just learned about it in class.

More pasta

Since I am on the subject of food and cooking, thought I should have this posted up too. It was dinner that I cooked some weeks back for my Dad and myself. It was sausage and mushroom linguini tossed in lemon and olive oil. It was topped with lightly browned garlic.

Yes, Linguini is my new favourite pasta since I was doing more tossing sauces and such. I did not need the fusili to hold the gravy :)

The salad seen in the second pic is romaine lettuce topped with the Japanese salad sauce called Kinnogomadare.

Next stop: Stadium

After brunch, I convinced Dad to take the new Circle Line to the stop called "Stadium". I had wanted to alight there when I brought Grandma on the Circle Line trip on the 18th (of this month) but she did not seem too interested and we had alighted at Bras Basah instead.

This time around, I was determined and Dad was agreeable as he did not want to drink the coffee from the coffee shop that we took porridge in (read previous post) and off we went, taking the NEL to Dhoby Gaut and switching to the Circle Line there. Dhoby Gaut is now super busy, it being the interchange of 3 different lines.

When we arrived at Stadium, this was what we saw:

One of the two stations with natural sky light. The other station is Bras Basah.


See the far end of the escalator on the first picture? This is what I can actually see, except that I had to walk nearer in order to get a nicer picture.




We shopped a little at Kallang Leisure Park and had our coffee at Wang Cafe. I ended up buying groceries from the Cold Storage there and as I was about to leave the place, there was an announcement to grab goodie bags as long as we have a minimum spending of $10. I quickly retraced my steps to collect my goodie bag and was happy that I got 2 of them! Reason being that my spending at Cold Storage was over $20. Wow! What a great day it was turning out to be!

I was happy too soon though for when I tried to top up my ez-link card at the new top-up machine, it failed to do so. I panicked as I did not see any station control except for this counter that looked more like a store room than anything else.

Thank goodness there were instructions to speak via an intercom to the officer. I pressed. Waited for about 12 seconds before there was a response and after briefly describing my plight, was told to wait for an officer to assist me. It was a good two or three minutes before I saw a figure of an officer, half running towards me. I soon got to know why.

The station control was right at the other end of where I was and I tell you, it could have been a 100m dash or maybe even 200m!! No wonder she took so long to reach me! I was breathing a little heavily after I was told to go there to get my card checked. Turns out that mine was not an isolated case. Ha! Systems. Do I know about them! I used to have to explain all the system boo-boos to customers and from that experience, I have learned that I need to give these staff a little trust and let them do their thing.

Apparently, if I used the old General Sales Machine (GSM) to top-up, they would have been able to check and re-fund accordingly (if any). But because this new top-up machine is by NETS, there is no way for immediate action. Forms were being filled out by the CSO (customer service officer) I had to fill in some personal details myself and then I had to wait. For two weeks. I suupose, they need to check with NETS and then ding dong a little before they find out whether money had been deducted from my NETS card.

I emphasise again, that if I did not work in a similar environment before, I would have screamed and shouted things like "I want my money back NOW!" or "How do I know that you are not cheating me of my money" or "Now that you have taken my receipt then what proof would I have that a transaction did take place?", etc, etc. Instead, I just smiled, nodded my head as she explained away and was very cooperative.

After that, I took a pleasant ride back to where I live. Happy and excited, as I was already planning what to cook for dinner.

Lost and found

What a lovely day Saturday can be when one does not have to work. Today was such a day. My parents and I went to Bright Hill Temple to pay our respects to my third uncle who had his ashes there. Then we headed down to Chinatown to have our yummy porridge.

Actually, in between, there were lots of arguments among the three of us as my Dad was being his usual stubborn self and wanted everything to be precisely right. Not forgetting that he had to have the last word to everything.

Luckily this time around, Mum was on my side as she was also on the receiving end. She chided Dad for being difficult and I took the opportunity to tell her gently to sometimes try to see from my point of view and not keep siding Dad.

It was a yummy brunch of pork ball porridge. The last time I went there, I told Dad that that was the only stall closest to the one that we used to eat and like. It was called Ho Kai Kee (Cantonese intonation). That particular porridge stall inside an old coffee shop had to make way for redevelopment as the whole road was closed and converted to be something else.

Dad had already mentioned that the man behind the stove looked very familiar and he thought it might be one of them working at Ho Kai Kee. This time around, he was more determined than ever to find out. First, he got a name card from his wife and surprise, surprise! His surname was (and still is) "Ho"!

You could say that curiosity killed the cat next, when he decided to ask her upfront. Low and behold, he was from that same stall that we used to eat almost every week when I was in Secondary school (I think)! Strange though for I could only remember the other brother who was the main cook back at the old stall. That brother used to have a stall at Bedok after the ended the Chinatown business, but later ended it too. That was during my Uni days I think. You can imagine my excitement and joy when I found out this morning that this was indeed the person from my favourite stall from years back!

This stall is at a corner coffee shop at Keong Saik Road. One can get a good view of The Pinnacle from where one sits at the coffee shop.


I think the Sunday ritual of eating porridge in Chinatown is going to resume very soon. This was what I used to do with my Dad when I was little. We would go to the Chinatown food centre and eat at this stall just behind "Er Gu Tang Shui" (Ee Gu Tong Shui in Cantonese intonation). This stall is called Wen Ji (Mun Kee in Cantonese intonation) and when we went back there to eat last week, the standard of the porridge has dropped greatly. I think, first of all, the old man has passed on, leaving the matriarch and her sons. Only one of her sons man the stall at Chinatown now. The other two have each opened a stall at Bedok Central and another food centre at Bedok South respectively (I think it's BLK 58).

Anyhow, we rarely ate at Wen Ji in recent years but more at Cheng Ji (Cantonese intonation: Seng Kee) at the Maxwell Road Food Centre. As you can see, I am quite a porridge lover.

I owe all this pickiness for porridge to the fact that I am Cantonese and when it comes to food, we are a little like connoisseurs. We can even take our mundane food very seriously and critique it to no end. At least for my family. That said, I know when to shut up and just eat. For one should be grateful that there is food to eat at all.

Reunion dinners

Finished our reunion dinner at about 8pm. The thing about eating out for reunion dinners is that there are many rounds and if you happen to be in the first round, you have to hurry up and eat.

Last night, we had our reunion dinner with my grandparents at Lingzhi as usual. Gramps does not like change much and we love the vegetarian food there and so here we were again. Food was good but by about 3am, I was hungry already.

Tonight, we had the dinner with my two aunts at Soup Restaurant. Food was fantastic but the service superficial. Plus we were the first round and there were two more rounds after us and so they were rather rushy with our food.

We went to the Soup outlet at City Square Mall and this place did not provide any dessert. Therefore, when we passed by Swenson's, we decided to go in to have some...ice cream! I was really delighted to see those old fashioned shell lamps being used, again. It brings back lots of memories when I was brought to the Swenson's at Plaza Singapura.

This year's CNY would be very different without a car. Already, I feel very tired thinking about all that walking and taking of public transport tomorrow.

Anyway, will not think so much now. I'll go watch the countdown variety shows and wrap red packets now!

Family day

Brought Dad and Mum to 313@Somerset and Ion@Orchard today. They were needed to go see these new places and I was getting mouldy from staying at home.

It was a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling, the three of us. It was like a treat for a small child as I have not gone out with both my parents together for a long time now. We ate at Food Republic, shopped at HMV and Dad even bought a t-shirt from Uniqlo!! He was so proud that it was his third shirt from Uniqlo. The first two were bought in Hong Kong quite some time back. I asked him what's the point of telling me all this and what is there to boast about. His reply was that it showed that he was still very young and trendy. Indeed!

Dad had a fun time at Ion too as there were so many different food stalls at the food hall. That is the only thing that really attracts him. Anything else would be too expensive; a luxury that he can do without. Just my Dad. :)

I also brought him to see Prologue, the up-market version of Popular Bookstore. He also received free red packets compliments of Dunkin' Donuts!

After a long afternoon, we decided to get take-away for dinner. I found a Vietnamese stall that sells my Vietnamese sandwich, but it is still not as nice as Baguette, which was at Raffles City but closed down.

It was yet another happy Sunday but then, it will soon be Monday and will be back to work day. Sigh...Why can't we have 3 days of weekend?

Proud of my dad, and some thoughts

I must say that I am proud of my Dad and envious of him too. He has done things that I would never dare dream of doing. He just finished a series of 2 talks with the National Library. One was at Woodlands Library and the other (that just happened yesterday) was at the Bukit Merah Library.

The first talk, which was on Chinese Oldies, saw a turnout of about 50 people. The second, 100 over. This was all thanks to his good network of friends, who themselves are also promoting Chinese Oldies, who helped him to promote his talk as well.

I think it is no mean feat to be standing in front of so many people to do a talk, but I guess it is a subject that he likes and is close to his heart and therefore, he does not have any difficulty in conducting the talk at all.

I find myself so inadequate next to him and it leads me to think back to my own same old question as to why should people be so competitive. Why should they want to outshine other people and step and trample on others while trying to prove their own self-worth? By belittling others, does that make that person a better person?

Well, I suppose such is life and sometimes (even as I sound pessimistic), I feel that I am not of this world; that I may never fit in and am always standing on the outside looking in. People have also never attempted to include me into this world. They have always seen me standing outside and left me there.

Such are my thoughts sometimes. It is a recurring thought and I suppose, I should jump away from this thought in order to shift my paradigm (Stephen Covey) and go for some change (Haha! Cliche!).

Home cooking

I had a lazy day today, but I would say, quite productive in the morning. I walked from home to Pek Kio Hawker Centre with my Dad to have breakfast. After that, I bought some very nice and fresh romaine lettuce and mushrooms to cook for lunch.

We then walked to City Square Mall (again!) to get some bacon and some stuff from Popular Bookstore before taking the free shuttle home. Technically speaking, we did not spend a cent on transportation.

The dish I cooked up was, in my opinion, was yummy! I just thought it off my head but I suppose, there was a little inspiration from watching "Jamie at home". He was cooking romaine lettuce the other day and I felt I had to get me some to cook too!

I fried the garlic first with olive oil and mixed it with Aminos (the equivalent of soy sauce in my household). Then I mixed all the linguini into the sauce. My inspiration came from those balsamic vinegar salad dressings that I so often see the chefs make on Discovery and Living Channel.

Next, I fried the bacon bits that I have chopped up earlier from the streaky bacon that I bought. Sweat it out a bit before finally putting in the romaine lettuce. Gave it a good stir and then put it on top of the linguini. Yum!

Last week, I cooked hairy gourd with dried scallops. Thought it was very good for a first-time experiment, except Dad did not like the fact that I did not have vermicelli. He said, that would have made more a Cantonese dish. I told him that this was an updated (and my own) version of the take on the "auntie marries off her daughter" (the name of the dish. We usually use dried shrimps and vermicelli to fry with the hairy gourd. Except that I did not particularly want to eat or cook vermicelli that day. Felt it was something that was not easy to handle/cook.

I find that as I get older, I am more prone to experimenting with food and this cooking thing is growing on me. I have not gotten the oven yet but when the time is right, when I am ready to do more baking, I think I would invest in one OK one. Then there are the mixers and such...the list goes on. Must focus on Amsterdam trip!

Out of the house

I almost did not get out of the house today. I was almost going to turn mouldy in an empty house. Dad and Mum had gone to Bukit Merah Library where Dad was going to give his final series of talks. He is just so amazing, but that is another story which I might blog about later.

I was contemplating whether to go to City Square Mall to cut my hair. The last time I was there, I was given a pamphlet by this hair salon and it kinda looked good. There was a free shuttle from the town centre so that was not really a problem. The real problem was walking from home to town centre, especially now that I do not own a car anymore.

I finally made it out of the house but I was in-between times: the previous free shuttle bus had left and the next one will only come in about 15 minutes. Decided to walk to Old Chang Kee to get some munchies. After all, it is going to be 3pm and I haven't had my lunch.

Going up the shuttle was already a long queue (and I almost could not make it) and then when I reached the mall, there was another beeline for the ATM. Lunch became tunch and it was quite late when I decided to go check out the price from Creme hairdressing. I had wanted to cut and do treatment.

There was no usual frustration as I slowly explained what I wanted (even though I did not really know what I want except that I had wanted bangs). I was also very assertive as to what I wanted and did not want. She was trying to push for me to do another scalp treatment and I told her (more than once) that I would just try out the present one that she has on offer before trying the other treatment next time.

All in all, I am very satisfied with the cut and treatment today. It is almost like Reds, my previous, previous hair salon but more expensive than the one at Toa Payoh Lorong one. This one might be it for me.

Oh yes, forgot to mention that while I was having lunch on the fourth floor food court, I had a nice and full view of the the Thaipusam parade. There was also the Haiti Relief Fund-raising and I did my part but did not stay back to see the performances though. I saw Babe Conde trying out the piano but felt that it would be too late for me if I stayed back to wait for the concert to start at 8pm.

Did I just "all in all"? Well that was for the hairy issues. In general though, I enjoyed my day and am glad to have made it out of the house :)

My Tuesday

Nothing much happened today but I thought I might just back track a little and tell everyone that I just confirmed after my first 3 months with the company and that I got a little pay raise. This to me, is a bonus. Words like 'bonus', 'variable bonus' and such sounds strange to my ears and seem like from another life but it is back. Even though I am not sure whether I would be getting any, but at least this company does have such a thing as bonus.

My love life is still as empty as... . Well, I guess I just have to thank God that I am still alive and well. I should really channel my energies into looking at the things and the people I have around me and not the have-nots.

I spent the evening having dinner with Dad and his friend at Botak Jones next to SPH. That place is a quaint little place with international food fare. There is your local tzi cha, Indian briyani, wanton noodles, Italian pizza and pasta, and of course, Botak Jones. Nice little nook. Yummy dinner (especially their cheezy potato!) and good company. A perfect round up for a very tiring day at work. Except, I should be hanging with people more my age! Hahahaha! No lah, of course, the old fogies are fine exept if I want to find a partner of my own, I should start hanging out with a different set! Kekekekeke.....

Walk through the 'hood

It's the weekend. I was supposed to have spent a nice day walking at Macritchie. Instead, I walked to Balestier Road to eat not-so-nice mee pok and took a bus to Pek Kio Hawker Centre for coffee and marketing after that.

Why? Because I overslept. But I am not really complaining coz I spent the morning with Dad. I also realised that I started the new year's blog on a depressing note, but I could not help it. I was. With God's grace though, I am learning to regulate and cope with everything on my plate.

I seem to be disliked and shunned at most places but at least work wise, I got a confirmation and a slight pay rise, which is cause for celebration.

What's more? I am planning a trip to Amsterdam to visit my friend and to the A-Ha! farewell concert! How exciting can that be?? Very exciting. Only thing I have to straighten out now is my practicum for my course as I am not sure whether it will end the same time my course date ends or it will commence after my end of course date. No one, until now, can give me a straight answer. Anyhows, I will keep my fingers crossed and plan with caution first.

As the Lunar year is coming to an end, I hope all the bad stuff will go off soon and the good stuff will come soon.

It's set! I am going to Guangzhou!

This trip had been two or three years in the planning. When I was working as a Librarian, I always tried to give priority to my colleagues who had family. They had children and had to take leave during the school holiday period. The bad part? I could never go on tour with my Dad and two aunts, one of whom is a teacher.

Even last year, I did not dare to take leave as I have developed this phobia for it. I was afraid that I would get "No" for an answer. Now that I am in my new work place though, I plucked up the courage and went to ask my boss. She was really nice and even though I am not confirmed till November, she agreed to the dates that I asked for as there was no one taking it yet.

I feel very blessed to be working in this new environment. With good guidance and fairly good colleagues, I think for once, I can safely say that I can live longer. I thank the good Lord for that.

Thus it is so, that I will be spending my Christmas in the land of my forefathers.

Watching Getai

I used to think that going to getais (those temporary stages put up to allow the ghosts and humans to enjoy) were tacky. There will be singers singing ah lien songs, wearing ah lien clothes and patronised by lots of old ah bengs.

I am not sure whether it is an age thing or whether my perception has totally changed but I was actually looking forward to going to a getai and to embrace whatever that comes with it. It has finally dawned on me that it is something that is quite unique to these parts of the world.

I came home to echo-y loud music and walked towards that all too familiar stage with live singers belting out oldies and old Japanese style sort of songs. It was as if I was mesmerised. There was a lot of talking before the singing and when the singer did sing, it was obvious that age had caught up with her and her voice was not as loud and clear. I went up stairs to put my stuff down and was met with Dad.

Both of us came down again and watched the last hour of the live show before retiring back to our humble abode. There was an ang-moh sitting down to watch the show as well.

Before, I used to get creeped out by the fact that the front few rows of chairs were always left empty for the ghosts. Now though, I guess it is part of our culture and I just accept it.

Tacky as it may all seem to be, I quite enjoyed the whole experience.

Belly dance my way to slim-ness

The community club (cc) is just a stone's throw away from my house now. Used to scone at the activities and courses that they offer until my Dad became a course provider there himself.

I had previously picked up some brochures for belly dancing classes and aerobics classes at the cc. I finally decided on belly dancing as it held on Thursdays. Aerobics classes were on Fridays and I still wanted to reserve that evening for fun and friends.

After dinner (please see previous posting) and sending my aunts home, we came home (obviously). Dad and I had to pass the cc after we have parked our car at the multi-story car park. I didn't want to procrastinate anymore and decided to just sign up!

Quite excited actually as I had been wanting to learn this for quite some time. Other than learning something that I am interested in, I can get a decent workout! How wonderful! I'm excited (as you can see from all the exclamation marks).