I do hope my 2009 will be FREE OF dark patches, dark periods, no men in black (meaning no unscrupulous/cunning/petty people or backstabbers), no Monday blues and no Black Fridays.
End of the year tomorrow. 2008 has been a year of change for me. Let me recall the changes ....
Don't be mistaken. These are not skies before rainfall. These are actually taken in broad daylight, when the sun is shining brightly during noon time. The angles shot (against the sunlight) made them looked dark only. Normally I do not go cloud chasing consciencely, but when I see them, I just clicked. 
For his birthday bash, sis, mom and I bought him a box of pressies; a black messenger bag, a black-grey knit hat, and a black leather belt from Zara, as well as a 4-individual ear-studs. Hope he likes his pressies. And hope he enjoys his new adulthood. Happy Birthday, Dino! 
Was in this beautiful toilet at a shopping mall. It's a mock up of Holland's fields, complete with blue skies, green fields, windmills, wooden clogs, tulips and sunflowers! So colourful and inspiring. We need toilets like this so that we can go about doing our business happily. Right? So I could'nt help but snapped a pix or two, and did "a Karen Cheng"! 
In Tibetan Buddhism, Chenrezig is renowned as the embodiment of the compassion of all the Buddhas, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. He is the earthly manifestation of Buddha Amitabha 南無阿彌陀佛. He guards this world in the interval between the historical Shakyamuni Buddha, and the next Future Buddha - Maitreya.
Chenrezig made a vow that he would not rest until he had liberated all sentient beings in all the realms of suffering. After working diligently at this task for a very long time, he looked out and realized the immense number of sentient beings yet to be saved. Seeing this, he became despondent and his head split into thousands of pieces. Amitabha Buddha put the pieces back together as a body with very many arms and many heads, so that Chenrezig could work with myriad beings all at the same time. Sometimes Chenrezig is visualized with eleven heads, and a thousand arms fanned out around him. The Dalai Lamas and Karmapas, who are considered living Buddhas, are emanations of Chenrezig.
Whenever we are compassionate, or feel love for anyone, or for an animal or some part of the natural world, we experience a taste of our own natural connection with Chenrezig. Although we may not be as consistently compassionate as some of the great meditation masters, it is believed that we all share, in our basic nature, unconditional compassion and wisdom that is no different from what we see in Chenrezig and in these lamas.
We might have trouble believing that we are no different than Chenrezig - but learning about the nature of compassion, and learning about Chenrezig, repeating his mantra Om Mani Padme Hum and imagining that we would like to be like Chenrezig, pretending that we really are just like Chenrezig, we actually can become aware of increasing compassion in our lives, and ultimately, awaken as completely wise and compassionate buddhas.
To avoid the crowd, I was lunching with a friend at a Bugis Village cafe. I thought I had try something different instead of rice dish sets. So I ordered a mushroom soup and half slab of Roasted Pork Knuckles. The choice was horrendous.
Instead, the Pontian Noodles I tried at Marine Parade yesterday, was so much more fun. I did not know there is this chain of outlets in hawker centres selling black sauce wanton noodles (aka Malaysia style). It was black sauce alright instead of our ketchupy reddish local wanton mee. The char siew (roasted meat) was crunchy and the fried wanton good. The steamed wanton went into the soup which was better than the fried ones. I ordered an extra portion of fried wanton to share, with mayonnaise and chilli sauce. Such a simple fulfilling meal.
There comes a point in your life when you realize
Bought my niece a nice sweet floral dress and her very first 2 pairs of ear rings (one pair is pink flowers and the other is a pair of butterflies). Just timely as Chinese New Year is next month. Bought my nephew a Bakugan Tshirt, and Bakugan mini toys. This is the latest fad for boys. Everything Bakugan. *roll eyes* Hope your Christmas was fun.
P.S. The kids love the pressies. The vain little girl loved her shiny ear rings and the boy was grinning at his Bakugan. These happy, innocent and appreciative expressions are what made me happy. No matter how small or big a pressie, no matter how cheap or expensive a pressie, the most important thing is, it is being appreciated by the recipient.
“A friend is one that knows you as you are,
understands where you have been,
accepts what you have become,
and still,
gently allows you to grow.”
This is one of my favourite Christmas songs and hearing it always reminds me that Christmas is here and made me think of the past Christmases as well, especially those many many years ago.
We may not be having the wars of the old times, but the economy is fighting a war of its own right now, and everyone is fighting a different "war" of their own. May the christmas spirit cheers us all.
To everyone I love, merry christmas.
So this is christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young a very merry christmas
And a happy new year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear and so this is christmas
Went to the Wild Wild Wet adventure. Got myself sun-burnt but it was fun. I have not looked so tanned for a long time.Then we got on to the Shiok River, which was pretty shiok I must say. It was 335 metres long around the park, meandering through with a float, the waters will carry one away and we could just watch as the world drifted by...
Next it was the SkyRider. It was a monorail that meanders through the park with an aerial view of the pools and rides 5 metres below. You needed to cycled on the track on a two-person carriage.
Another pretty fun ride was in the Tsunami pool. Tsunami combined the best of swimming pools and the sea to give you the feeling of the surf under controlled conditions. I felt the choppy currents, soaking up the waves as we floated along. The currents might wash you back to shore or push you further out to "sea".
And there was also a Foam Pool opened at different timings, which attracted most kids. You just had to stand there and let the jet shoot out the foamy stuff all over your body.
My favourite at the end of the day got to be the Jacuzzi. It was an open small pool where fluid jets rub your tired muscles plus a bubbly massage that soothes your aches. I like sitting under the man-made waterfall and had the waters pound down hard on my shoulders, it was stronger than a massage from a human!
The only ride we did not try was the Slide Up, which was supposedly plunging down a four-storey ramp, accelerating until you hit the deck and skimming across to soar on the opposite side.... a few times. I do not think my heart could take that. Haha!
These are some of the paintings and artwork done by my artistic niece when she was younger - she is so full of sunshine and sweet little girl. She is always drawing this and that, without us prompting. She can draw using crayons, colour pencils, markers, pencils, water colours, or made from cutting materials and pasting all over the place.
“You can shed tears that she is gone,
During her last few years, Grandmother had problem walking and became senile. We had a maid to look after her. Once, my Mom was bathing her and although she was in her senile state, she suddenly turned and grabbed my Mom's hand tightly and said in Hokkien "你...好, 你...好" ("you... good, you... good ). My Mom was a little taken aback but it was my Grandmother's way of saying thanks to her all these years. After that my Grandmother became bedridden and had to be monitored in the hospital. During her last few weeks, I would visit her every other day or once a week. In her subconscious state, she kept muttering my name throughout. I was having my preliminary O Levels examinations when she passed away, I did not get to see her in her final moments.
I guess in life, sometimes, no matter how much we dislike someone, or could not get along with someone, but if we spent so much time together, a kind of rapport or love or respect would still developed. And this is what I call 亲情 heartwarming family love.
Had a lazy Saturday with the family. We went out for lunch then came home to laze some more. I did my personal expenses, and went downstairs nearby AXS machine to pay my bills. Then bought a few packs of frozen 汤圆 Tang Yuan (rice ball dumplings) from the supermarket.
My niece finally had her ears pierced today. As she is growing up fast, this was one of the to-dos for little girls, I guess. We brought her to a jewellery shop to have it done. First she chose the ear rings (a pair of silver ear studs with crystal). Then the lady positioned the hole with a pen, and let us see if it was balanced on both sides. Then she applied the sterilising lotion onto the ears. Next she took out the "gun" and before we knew it, she just "shoot". Niece was not frightened, maybe just a little. I think the anticipation before that was worse than the actual. In a split second, it was done. And she barely felt any pain at all. Soon she was as happy as a lark, she is looking forward to wearing ear studs with heart shapes, shiny crystals, flowers etc... all the girly stuff. To me, it was some sort like a rite of passage, another stage of her little life, another stage of growing up. 
This was my Grandma's house in Hougang. This was the house where my Mom and all her siblings lived in for most of their adult lives till they got married. The house has been demolished many years back when my Grandma moved to a HDB flat. This house has many childhood memories for me and my sis.
I remember in the older days whenever we go to the cinema, there is always the kacang putih man lurking somewhere nearby selling his roasted peanuts on a bicycle. He is usually an Indian man wearing a turban. There are a few common peanuts (or kacang) we have in those days, and different types of nuts are placed in big tins or containers. We will choose the type we want, and the kacang putih man will wrap the nuts in a conical shape paper (usually they are recycled from newspapers or used magazines). 
Recently while packing, I chanced upon these drawings again.
One day I had to do a little some grocery shopping. So I brought niece and nephew to the newly renovated Kallang Leisure Park, or "KLP" to the kids. This is one place which I would recommend if you do not like crowds. I think only the folks living nearby, like those in Tanjong Rhu condos or Old Airport Road area, would walk across the bridge near the Indoor Stadium to do their shopping or hang out there. And there are plenty of car park lots. There is a cinema, an indoor ice skating ring, as well as bowling. There are a few restaurants as well as a foodcourt on the 2nd floor (BTW, the hokkien prawn mee in foodcourt is nice) and there is Cold Storage at the basement. Besides all the other smaller shops, British India just opened, there is also a mini Korean supermart which sells all the Korean food stuff and stationery. 
My Mom and Father were teenage sweethearts. They dated since secondary school. Both stayed in their kampongs in Hougang area. My Mom stayed in Hougang 6.5th mile, while my Father stayed in Hougang 4th mile. My Mom told me when they decided to get married in their mid 20s, my mom's father (my grandfather) was quite reluctant. He was not sure whether my Father could give my Mom, what they called "a good life".
Talking about babies, these are my parents when they were babies. The photo on the left is my Father and right is my Mom. My Father as a baby looks skinny and has a bewildered look while my Mom as a baby was bubbly with round cheeks with full of hair. I look more like my Mom than Father, especially I inherited her mouth and nose and hair and ears. I think I got my Father's eyes and chin.
I found these 3 precious photos from my family's stacks of old albums and quickly scanned them. This is Cecil Street in the 1960s and 1970s. I used to live in one of these shophouses (photo at top left) when I was born. It was also facing the Market Street Carpark (photo at top right) where Lau Pa Sat (bottom right photo I found from the internet) is. And that was my Father (bottom left) as a young man at the 2nd floor of the shop house, looking down at the street below at the junction of Cecil St and Church St and Market St. Both Market Street Carpark and Lau Pa Sat are still around today. My shophouse was torn down and made way for the Prudential Tower of today.
Took this quiz and the answer is ....... I am a WOLF!
Today early in the morning I got up at 7am! I had the chance to explore Hort Park again, in broad day light this time. It was a cool morning, so the walk was just refreshing. We only managed to complete the Forest Walk, took about an hour and a half to and fro. I snapped many interesting plants and flowers along the way. The man made elevated meandering bridge made of steel was impressive and sturdy enough to last a few generations.
