The puddle

I must tell you about this.

This morning, after a nice weekend of rest (real rest without work), I stepped into the office to find a puddle of brown fluid splattered on my stack of notes. It looks eerily like milk coffee and I thought "who is the brave one who dared to sneakily intrude into my space over the weekend and vandalise my notes with stupid coffee?". And then I look up and on the open shelf a few inches above my head, I saw another big brown puddle of the same fluid. And I thought "Ok, this person, whoever he/she is, has got a tall build, to be able to also spill coffee at such a height. I MUST catch him/her.". But then... the 2 puddles seemed to give out some weird smell, not like aromatic coffee at all.. it smelled like some leftover, mildly decomposing fruit...

And with that, my eyeballs widened and I searched in horror for my dear old pumpkin - a birthday gift, from a year ago, from my 2 beloved volunteer buddies, onto which was scribbled lovely words of well-wishes... There it was, dear old pumpkin, soft at the base, the bottom crumpled up and soaked in a puddle of the same brown fluid, the top looking forlonly intact... Little mr pumplin has withered after putting up a resistance over 9 mths. It has rotted from within, despite the ice-pole-cool temperatures of the office. It had given up being strong, and decided to drown in its own juices. And it had also decided to go in fashion, spreading its vile juice onto the shelf and onto the notes. It had made its statement.

Dear elf and wolf, gone may the pumpkin be, but I will remember always the time when it had bravely and proudly stood, and remember always the kind words of love you've marked on it. Friendship shall never rot (or so I hope!).

Soon to come

Well well, the weekend's just a whisker away (or maybe two whiskers). Yeah, it's time to meet up with the contractor once more, this time to thrash out the cabinet design, wiring and storage. Last week, I chose my tiles for the kitchen and living room - a soothing mix of beige, brown and grey. Nice! Or at least I like it. =)

Must say that I am indeed excited about doing up and moving into the new house. It would be a tidy and cosy place, a warm refuge for battered souls, a quiet sanctuary to reflect and grow. And when it all becomes too slow and mundane, there is always the german pub with pork knuckles and dark lager to hop down to.

I can barely wait.

The Little Ones

Someone was sending this around. Quite a sweet piece! Maybe you'd wanna do something after reading it... =)
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Dedicated to all parents & soon to be parents!! :)

The Price of Children : Unknown

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.

But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down.

It translates into:

* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:

* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs, and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:

* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watching Saturday morning cartoons,
* going to Disney movies, and
* wishing on stars.
* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.

You get to be a hero just for:

* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to history to witness the:

* first step,
* first word,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits.

So . . one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

That is quite a deal for the price!!

Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren and all the little ones in your life!!

V for...

Yesterday was swell. Whole day went beautifully. Started off with a nice burger breakfast at quiet, breezy canteen followed by an enlightening, hands-on workshop where live specimens complimented serious pedagogical content. The pampered nose behaved throughout, with nary a drip. Evening was spent at the hairstylist's, getting a comfortable head massage plus cool short cut. Dinner was yummilicious sushi, topped off with this very nice movie - Vendetta! Go catch it if you can, it's not one bit as trashy as it seems. It's pretty good really, with nice twists. Intelligent, humorous, dramatic, idealistic, dark, sentimental all at the same time. Just my type of movie!

Yesterday was good. Today it's back to work desk, and very soon, bonding time with contractors... Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

And it is gone...

before I can even say 'Hello'.

I cannot believe it, the one week march break is into its final moments... saying its last goodbyes when I haven't even had the chance to look at it in the eye.

What have I done during this 'much-looked-forward-to-break'? Hmmmm... Day 1 and 2 were spent back at cold ole office, putting the final touches to some formal report. Day 3 was spent at home, marking mountains and sending out work messages. Day 4 (which is today) was spent at some content-based course, listening to an eloquent man speak about some general, common-sensical concepts as the nose misbehaved. Big bad sneezy day again, I am pretty sure it will fall off soon, that huge ugly nose. And tomorrow is content-based course part II. May there be enlightenment then. No more vague, distracted discussions please... Please do not squander this precious break.

Tomorrow, I am going to treat myself well. After the course, I hope to go get a therapeutic haircut, do a spot of shopping, polish off a great dinner, exchange my Bausch & Lomb lens solution, and round it all off with a good solid cuppa hot choc. I know, that's a lot to pack into an evening that'd start about 5pm. But heck, I'm going to try hang on hard to the last golden rays while I can, before the mad race commence again in less than 72 hours time.

Time and tide waits for no man indeed. It's a sprint. And my muscles feels like they are on their way to Cramp Camp.

How are YOU doing at your race?

My SSO experience

Yesterday, a dear pal treated me to my first classical music concert - "Lorin Maazel & the SSO", a gala perfomance featuring a premier Asian orchestra, a world-celebrated Maestro and a beautiful, gifted young violinst from St Petersburg. The classical repertoire included Peter Ilyich Tchiakovsky's "Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture", "Violin Concerto in D, Op.35" and Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition".

If the last 3 lines which you've just read stumped you, perhaps it comforts you to know that it stumped me too. When my gal pal first dropped that "I'm going to treat you to a classical music concert", my jaws dropped 5 inches. Me?? Classical music?? SSO?? I've always thought I'm the Sun Yan Zi, cheena pop song kind. Symphonies, concertos, overtures... they sound like foreign tongue from another world. My first instinct was to run and hide, and if she managed to catch/find me, she'd have to drag me screaming and kicking into the concert hall. Aiyoh, what if I fall asleep in there and start to drool and snore!?!

Thankfully, it all ended well. The concert wasn't so bad afterall, although there were some incomprehensible moments where the audience/orchestra/conductor did funny stuff e.g. conductor walked on and off and on and off and on the stage as audience kept clapping... I liked the dramatic parts when the whole orchestra strutted their stuff mightily and in harmony, very "zhuang(4) guan(1)", like a king beast full of life, so in control.

So am I a classical music convert now? Hmmmm, guess I'm someone who love to have many different senses engaged at the same time. I like performances that tackle visuals + audios simultaneously, that's why I love musicals and performances like STOMP. I think... Sun Yan Zi may still make it in the near future. =)

Thanks my dear, for sharing your love with moi. One day, when I do become a true convert, it'd be my turn to treat!

What comes round may NOT go round

Sometimes it really doesn't pay to be kind/accomodating. People take advantage of that perceived weakness and try to twist your arm, elbowing their way through to get to their own destination. They put their goals above yours, and deem you a lesser being whose time is less precious than theirs. For some, it's plain arrogance. Outright inconsideration. I wouldn't call that "being blinded by passion" for I know what is passion too. If I've not been driven by it, I probably wouldn't have lasted till now, so don't give me shit.

I'm sometimes just too soft, sympathizing all the time and trying to accomodate all your needs. But when my requests turn to pleas and the pleas go unheeded, I think it time to bloody draw a line. Heck, we are working towards a common final goal, are you all too myopic to see?!

That Lim guy

I really haven't written an alphabet in here for eons... Man. This kinda of life, one cannot live it for too long. Sometime in the days ahead, I'd set up my own little stall and sell my own little cookies/kopi/accessories.. own time own target, as long as the accounts are not in the red, I don't need to earn tons from it. I am a simple woman.. Muahahahahahaha.

Ok, enough of nonsensical self-talk. Btw, have you read that Richard Lim article in Life! today? About how he and his "regular-saturday-dinner & dvd-mate" split up because she wanted him to "reinvent" his writing style and he wouldn't..? Hmmmm, actually I pity this Richard guy quite a bit... from the pieces he write, I think he is actually a very knowledgable and opinionated guy, but introverted, stubborn and sentimental at the same time, someone who knows what he wants/likes but is afraid and/or tired to actively approach/fight for his own happiness, perhaps due to his past unpleasant experiences... He's an old uncle now, still single. Sorry to hear that this most recent encounter has to end this way.

Perhaps I have a thing for melancholic souls. Those strong, silent types who achieve and perform on the work/sports front, but who have some mysterious cloistered shield where they occasionally retreat into... Hmmmm. =P

Anyways, time to zonk off. Tomorrow's a new work week. Ganbatte!

March hols is on its way, I couldn't ask for more. =)