Idling at Changi Airport

On a lazy Friday evening, the family decided to venture to the new Changi Airport Terminal Three. Alas it was closed at 5pm. Hmmm.... I still don't know the reason. So we had our dinner at the food court in T1 instead. I discovered this stall selling Char Kway Teow exactly the way I like it. It was a small plate but the kway teow was fried a little moist, not too hard or too dry, not too sweet. The "see hum" were aplenty but I didn't touched a single one. I really have not tasted such nice Char Kway Teow for a long while.

Then we strolled along at the halls, took the Skytrain from T1 to T2 and back (although it was just a 3 minute ride), just for the sake of the kids. Then we did a little grocery shopping at the NTUC Supermarket in T1, snapped a few photos for mementoes for the grandparents and the kids and we quickly got on the car and home.

The Hugging Saint

It has been a habit for me to document down some of my significant dreams so that I won't forget. Last night I dreamt of The Hugging Saint - Amma.

Frankly I only heard of Amma last year from an Indian colleague when she visited Singapore. I have not met her personally. And yet last night, I dreamt of her. I was on top of a plank which was floating precariously along the river with huge currents. My bare hands were desperately trying to stay afloat. Then I reached an old looking house. I entered into a big room which was like a classroom, with chairs and small desks. I saw many familiar buddhist friends finding seats. There was supposed to be someone coming for teachings. So I also took a seat. Then Amma appeared, in her white sari and quite neatly combed bun. She gave a huge smile and proceeded to sit down on a chair in front. Then she kept on smiling, What happened after that I could not remember.

I was mystified because I do not know this Indian lady personally, never met her before, do not know what she does. I do not know anything about her or her work. I only know she is a humanitarian and spiritual saint.

For the past 35 years Amma has dedicated her life to the uplifting of suffering humanity through the simplest of gestures – an embrace. In this intimate manner Amma had blessed and consoled more than 30 million people throughout the world. Amma spends most of her waking hours receiving the distressed and all who come to her for comfort, day after day without a break. Amma sustains a beaming smile while lovingly embracing one after another. She welcomes every person who comes to her, listens to his or her problems, offers advice and guidance, and brings reassurance to a troubled heart. When Amma embraces or kisses someone, it is a process of purification and inner healing. Amma listens to our spoken words and unspoken thoughts, hugs the devotees and whispers a word or two in their ears. With each hug and smile, an obvious spark of her own energy is passed along. The bliss and tranquility of being in the Amma's presence is unique and indescribable.

The greatest miracle that takes place in her presence occurs in the hearts of those who come to her – the gentle, gradual awakening of love, compassion and selflessness, an awakening of one’s own inherent divinity.

"The first step in spiritual life is to have compassion. A person who is kind and loving never needs to go searching for God. God rushes toward any heart that beats with compassion - it is God's favorite place." - Amma.

Gigantic cookies!

Rich Friend is in the baking frenzy mode nowadays, so almost every other night will try her hands on baking muffins, bread, cake, cookies etc... Last night was her first attempt at cookies. She made these gigantic size chocolate chips cookies for me. They were a teeny bit sweet and hard but it was quite buttery and nice. And just that she underestimated the size they balloon up to. I don't mind these Famous Amos substitutes anytime, because they were baked from the heart.... awwww so sweet.

That doggy

Paid the Expo an impromptu visit on Friday evening for a cosmetics sale with Miss Piggy as well as to see one interior designer who is having an exhibition there. After we were done about 10pm, as we were walking around the few restaurants looking for food, Miss Piggy noticed a dog who was sniffing and looking for food among the rubbish bins behind each restaurant. Doggy's movement was slow as one of his legs was injured, and he was limping. Miss Piggy, ever so compassionately, said he must be hungry, then promptly said she wanted to buy food for him. Many of the restaurants were already closing or closed. She ran towards 7 Eleven to get some food, while I was to watch and follow Doggy in case he walked off. I followed closely behind him and whistled to him, each time he would turn around and looked at me. Then I went into an Indian restaurant and asked a waiter if he could spare some leftover rice for the dog. He was kind enough to oblige and went into the kitchen and came out with a plate of plain rice. By then Miss Piggy came back with a pack of honeyed chicken meat. She mixed the chicken with the rice and offered it to Doggy, who promptly ate up everything. Miss Piggy patted him. He was quite tame and has a pair of such kind eyes. We both quite liked him. It's a pity we forgot to take photos of him. I learnt an exemplary and valuable lesson from Miss Piggy today. Our hearts should reach out to those in need, even animals and especially animals, because they are not as fortunate as us humans.

Full moon

Last night was the 15th of the lunar month. Snapped this full moon while I was on the way to meet friends for midnight supper. This is the sentimental me. Nothing beats snapping nice pixs of stuff I like wherever I go and MMS to those people I wanted to share it with. I would have almost written a poem about the full moon if I wasn't too busy sipping my milk tea and savouring my supper. Heh!

Rae Angel

My god, I was so shocked when my 8 year old niece wanted to create her own blog. She pestered me to help her. Maybe due to peer pressure, but nonetheless, I am absolutely in favour of this, even if this is gonna be just a passing fad. She does like to write diary, so here it is. I am so proud of her. Hmm... what was I doing when I was 8 years old?

Barang barang build up

Went to Barang Barang warehouse sale in Woodlands over the weekend. We bought this big dark teak wood coffee table for my new house. Gosh we have not even collected the keys to my new house and we have started looking for new furniture. Almost bought a 8 seater dining table. Hmmm.. we better hold our horses before we run out of storage space for these few months.

Chopsticks blah

Had a quick lunch at Chopsticks - a noodle outlet from the Asian Kitchen chain. It was one expensive experience with awful tasting food. Ordered the dry crayfish noodle which came with this soup without any ingredients. Also ordered the dumplings. The noodle has no other ingredients except the crayfish and the portion of the noodle was abnormally small. The soup stock was the most tasty. The dumplings were soggy and the skin limpy, about the worst dumpling I have tasted. And for a quickie lunch, the total bill was about $24. I could have had a feast elsewhere or a buffet with this kind of price.

Goodbye to Lati Rinpoche

His Eminence Kyabje Lati Rinpoche left Singapore and flew back to India, to prepare for His Holiness Dalai Lama's visit to Gaden Shartse monastery end of this month. Rinpoche is the spiritual advisor of His Holiness for the longest time. I went to the airport to send Rinpoche off. It is always a delight to get so close and personal to a holy living being, a living Buddha. Many people went to see him off as well as his entourage of lamas. Rinpoche is already 86 years old and it is heart breaking to see him fly all the way here to give us teachings, initiations and to heal us. May Rinpoche continue to live a long and healthy life. I always feel I am so fortunate to be able to receive blessings from Rinpoche personally. He is one of the most learned and highest lama in India today.

Such a feeling coming over me...

Today my K2 nephew finally graduated from kindergarten. We attended his graduation ceremony cum concert. He was chosen to give the thank you speech in mandarin. I think he did quite well and I am so proud of him. And all the kids' performance were so commendable, they were sporting and fun. I liked one of their performance which was "Top of the world". One thing though.... I was wondering why the teachers dolled all the kids up in such thick make up, even the boys..... a bit like wayang leh....

Vivo Sky Garden

In Vivocity on a public holiday, I didnt like it because of the crowd which was horrendous, everywhere was crowded. Was thankful we managed to find something to occupy the kids while the parents shopped. Brought them to Pet Safari, the huge pet shop on the top floor, which also had many small puppies for sale. So cute yet so poor things, some of them.

Then there was the Sky Garden at the roof top which was really quite breathtaking with a view facing Sentosa Island. The garden was with interesting monuments and a huge meandering puddle pool for kids to have a quick dip and play with water. We could also see the cable cars, the ships docked ashore and the people who sat on the grass chatting, picnic, and just having a relaxing time.

Eaten in a different light

The family was in Vivocity last week and went to Central HK cafe for a drink just to rest our tired legs. Had to have their almond milk tea, mom tried the prune lime juice which was marvelous and dad tried their yuan yang. The kids tried the almond milk. Then we tried the sticks of different snacks like cuttlefish, beancurd skin wrap, meatballs, fishballs, mushroom, broccoli. They were steamed in hot water or chilli sauce. But the special secret part of this is the sauce, the 5 different sauces which you dip with each piece. Mmmmm...

Consecration Puja & Blessing from 1000 Buddhas

Today is Deepavali, and public holiday. Today is Lati Rinpoche's public event in Suntec, which will go on till Sunday. The huge event hall was transformed into a grand holy environment with big thangkas of all the buddhas and many offerings, lights, on the stage. Mrs Goh Chok Tong was the VIP guest in the opening ceremony. The first puja was the Grand Consecration and Statue blessing Puja, whereby Rinpoche and the 25 lamas from Gaden Shartse Monastery invokes the blessings of a Thousand Buddhas.

Only a fully-qualified Master can only perform the consecration ceremony, which is based on the unbroken century-old Gelug tradition. The consecration ceremony first purifies an image in order to make it suitable for habitation by the Buddha. Then it imbues the statue with the power and presence of the Buddha. Buddha’s supreme wisdom and compassion (Dharmakaya) is invited into the statue through the power of meditation, the potency of the ritual, as well as the faith and devotion of the participants. After being invited, a Buddha is drawn into the statue to be consecrated, and its presence is sealed by the procedures of the ritual.

Whenever a statue is made, it should be consecrated to infuse it with the spiritual presence of the deity or Buddha it portrays. Otherwise a statue is not considered suitable for use in religious practices. Buddha himself declares that consecrated images of him will serve as his true representative in future, thereby having the same benefit as seeing Buddha in real perfect body. Buddha says that even seeing consecrated Buddha’s image out of anger will lay down a karmic potency that can lead you to the liberation from cyclic existence.

This grand consecration ceremony that the Lamas performed not only imbued the sacred images with the divine presence, but also invoke the blessings of all Buddhas to the entire environment in which the consecration ritual is being held.

Many people brought their Buddha statues, paintings and images for the ceremony. I brought my miniature statues of Amitabha Buddha, Green Tara, Chenrezig and White Umbrella Goddess to be consecrated, and got myself blessed by 1000 buddhas as well!

Banana leaf everything

Tried this fried kway teow stall which uses everything in banana leaf. The fried kway teow is just nice with nice dark hues of black sauce just the way I liked it. The fried oyster is very shiok, the combination of fried egg and flour is fragrant and soft and with generous helpings or big oysters. This stall is in Maxwell Market.

Peanut Ice Kacang

I like this dessert from Tanjong Pagar market. It's Annie's Peanut Ice Kacang. It's slightly different from the more common version of Ice Kacang. It's a ball of finely shaved ice, with bits of jelly, corn, and dripping with colourful syrup and gula melaka, the ice ball is drenched with smashed red bean all over it and splattered generously with peanut powder on top. The ice is so smooth that it melts in your mouth and it is a very refreshing and cooling dessert in Singapore's hot weather!

在我的眼里你的爱就像一首诗

Finally her blog. She posted a poem by Bruce Lee, titled "Parting"

Who knows what parting shall ever be.
It might be for years.
It might be forever.

Let us then take a lump of clay
Wet it, pat it
And make an image of you
And an image of me
Then smash them, crush them,
And with a little water
Knead them together.

And out of the clay we will remake
An image of you and an image of me
Thus in my clay, there is an image of you
And in your clay, there is an image of me
And nothing will ever set us apart

Living we'll be forever in each other's heart
And dead, we'll be buried together.

"Like a moth to a flame"

Yesterday when I came home in the afternoon there was a big white moth resting near my window pane, very near to my desk where the photos of all my gurus were. It rested there till late at night even when I came back after puja. Then it flew away. Then I recalled it was there since the previous night as I heard the fluttering of its wings a couple of times.

I have had some experience with moths and butterflies, especially when there was a passing away of family or friends. Two weeks ago, the day when I heard about Baby Andrew, when I came home, a black moth flew very fast from the Buddha's altar towards me and quickly out of the window. When I went into my bedroom, another moth quickly flew out too. Last year when my close friend's grandmother passed away, at the wake, a huge butterfly was following the monk when he chanted the last rites. Last month, when my aunt's father in law passed away, I also saw a black moth fluttering around the altar table before flying off. When one of my aunt's niece passed away many years ago, a huge white butterfly was seen flying around in her room. Many years ago, when my grandmother passed away, there were 3 big black moths that were lying dead outside my house door. So I can't help but wonder what is it this time??????

On the internet the possible butterfly and moth symbolism by Ron Gagliardi in his thesis on butterfly and moths : Omen of Good Luck
Butterflies apparently have a great deal to do with luck, both good and bad. In Louisiana it is thought that good luck will follow shortly after a white butterfly flies into your house and flies around you. Soul Butterflies are souls of the dead waiting to Pass through Purgatory.

Reincarnated Being
In the Solomon Islands, a "dying man has a choice as to what he will become at death and often chooses a butterfly." Among the Nagas of Assam the dead are believed to go through a series of transformations in the underworld and are finally reborn as butterflies. When the butterfly dies, that is the end of the soul forever. The Maya looked upon butterflies also as the spirits of dead warriors in disguise descending to earth.

As Uncaring as a Butterfly
The usual, Western, view is that the butterfly is a carefree creature. His Holiness the Dalai Lama explains that, rather than carefree, it is uncaring: 

"The butterfly never meets its mother. It must survive independently and remains a stranger to affection. An animal nurtured by mother's milk, however, is dependent on another for its basic survival. A child who grows up in a cold and detached home environment is similar to the butterfly, in that kindness is sparing. Once an adult, it will be very difficult for that person to show compassion."

Lee Young Ae

I have not posted about one of my fav actress for a long time. This is one of her latest ads. For someone reaching 40, she sure looks good.

Drophenling's 5th anniversary

Today is the 5th anniversary of Drophenling, there was a Guru Puja and Tsog offering. I finally get to see His Eminence Lati Rinpoche! His energy is overpowering. When he entered the prayer hall, I quickly kneeled down in deep respect. I was quite honoured to sit right in front of him together with the lamas and being able to snap nice clear pictures of him. Although the aircon was blasting and I was feeling cool before the puja. When the Living Buddha came in and throughout the whole puja, my body was like burning in flames, felt very hot. And the hot feeling was different from that when I was in anger. But the puja somehow calmed me a bit. All the 25 lamas were there, the offerings were overflowing, and it was a special day. Lati Rinpoche is one of the principal Masters in the Gelug lineage and serves as His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Spiritual Advisor faithfully till today. Rinpoche is already 86 years of age, hence overseas Dharma programs as such is unlikely in future. It is indeed a huge blessing for us to be able to attend the teachings, pujas and initiations conferred specially by Rinpoche in the coming week.

Appreciating others

This evening ,thanks to Miss Piggy, I forced myself to go for prayers. Tonight is the Leng Chag Torma Puja, for debt clearing for our past lives. Been feeling pretty frustrated lately so I desperately needed to do something, to clear any obstacles that I may be facing right now. Whenever I need a close friend to talk to at a time like this, why is it he/she is always not available, or otherwise preocupied with their own stuff?

Read this short para from Master Lynn's weekly thought:

"Everyday we go through our life just working, attending meetings, having lunch meetings or dinner meetings etc but do we spare some time away to pay attention to the 'auntie' who comes to give you that cup of coffee or the auntie who cleans your office toilet ? Did you smile to her and say 'thank you'? Or when you go to a restaurant to have your dinner and did you 'smile' to the manager who brings you to your table or say 'thank you' to the waitress who comes and pour some tea for you ? "

"I can bet you – not many people know 'how to smile' or even to 'say thank you' to these people ? Isn’t it sad ? But why should we do it ? We should DO it because it is about LEARNING how to 'appreciate the people around you' – every second of the day. Once you have learnt this 'art of appreciating', then your GOOD FORTUNE will come…… it also means that you have also learnt how to be 'compassionate' to others around you, and do REMEMBER - These are the people sent to you by the UNIVERSE up there to tell you something about you or to let you know something. So learn to listen to all the VOICES around you.

Yes I should learn to appreciate others more, instead of finding faults. Yes I should remember how I appreciated others before. Now, do those that I care about, ever appreciated me too?