Unusual newspaper ads

Was reading thru' The New Paper yesterday and found some funny ads:

- Illiterate? Write today for help.

- Logical if the shop is just next door -->
Used Cars? Why go elsewhere to be cheated? Come here first!

- Next time you want to buy a pet for your kid, think twice -->
Dogs for sale. Eats anything and is fond of children.

- This 1 sounds like an ad from Taiwan or China:
Dinners special - turkey $2.35; chicken or beef $2.25; children $2

- Toaster: A gift that every member of the family appreciates. Automatically burns toast (duh??)

- Passion for the new job?
Tired of working for $9.75/hr? We offer profit sharing and flexible hours. Starting pay: $7-$9/hr.

- Wrong use of cheap labour in 3rd world countries? -->
We do not tear your clothing with machinery. We do it carefully by hand.

Back to S'pore..

Batam (Indo) has been pretty fun on this trip back, mainly because I'vebeen hanging out with my cousin, bro, & uncles a lot, doin' a mix of differentstuff w/ different people. It's really great to see them again, eventhough this time I've had to spend the whole daytime just loitering ard the hotel. Not that I minded in the 1st 2 days; Spent the morningreading Angels & Demons in the elegant lobby, afternoon having lunch@ various places w/ my bro & cousin, & night time is normally reserved for sports, badminton or swimming. Haven't managed to check out the hotel gym as yet --> Mental note: have to do it on my next trip back.

Beside doing the routines (as above), also managed to squeeze in a fewvisit to meet my youngest cousin. She's still really shy and cries whentoo many peeps crowd ard her. Went there w/ my fam on the 1st nite &amazingly she wasn't intimidated by us! So I pushed a little further &sat at her side. At this point, she started getting a bit edgy and I couldsee the change in her mood already. I only managed to carry her on my 2ndvisit there!

(Totally unrelated just-suddenly-sprang-out-of-my-mind-thought) --> I believe places are memorable only because there are special peoplethat you shared it with. I liked SG because I once spent 5 tough but beautiful years with my loved friends & families here. Now that almost everyonehas gone their own way, SG has sort of lost its lustre to me. No one likescoming back to an empty home, & that's what I feel about it now.

PS: In case anyone wonders how come some words are stuck2gether, it's because I'm using my cousin's PC & hedoesn't have Word in it, so I'm forced to use WordPad (& it comes out like this --> Can'tbe bothered to change it :)

Lessons in life

Note to self: Don't Pass Quick Judgment On Anyone!!

Allow some time to learn to understand and know someone + Assess his/her character before subjecting them to eternal condemnation....

Note to self: Be Contented With What I Have & Treat Them Well

The grass is NOT always greener on the other side...

I'll never learn to care and love if I always think there's someone better out there...

Home sweet home.. (SG update)

Have been here in sg for almost a week now, & all I have done so far is basking in the warmth of a place I have stayed in for almost 5 years, as well as reflecting on my values that are so different from the rest of the people in my extended family.

Grandma was evidently happy when she saw me on tues' nite, & I definitely felt the same way too.I wouldn't go into too many details, but I doubt I'd have survived my secondary school days if itwasn't for her. I used to loath her constant nagging back then, even though I knew she always did it because she cared. True to her nature, she did that again on the 2nd day, this time to my cousinwho failed to tidy up his own room in the morning! I couldn't resist a chuckle when memories from the past flashed past, & I finally helped my cousin to clean up because I was partly responsible for the mess! Cousin kept on complaining, like I did 5 years ago, about how grandma couldn't stop 'chanting' at him, but I believe he'll come to appreciate what grandma has done for him too in the future, when he is alone in a far, far away foreign land.

Spent quite some time with grandma, catching up with the latest news happening in the family. One particular piece of news left me quite dissapointed. I have a young cousin whom I remembered to be very innocent and maybe the last person in our family who isn't sadled with the money politics going around (in the family). He has a very rich dad (my uncle) whom I think leads a pretty sad life because he doesn't have any real friends, despite all his wealth. Problem is, he doesn't feel that he needs any friends at all and he refrains from making new ones or getting closer to anyone because he always has this suspicion that all of them are out to take the money away from him.

I have always wanted to protect my young cousin from the negative influence of our family, but there is really little I can do since he doesn't live close to us. Grandma happily told me that he has shown more interest in taking over his dad's business (& he's only ten!) and has told her that he wouldn't share the wealth with his older brother. She has obviously taken a light-hearted view on that, but in my view he's already turned into a $$$-obssessed person, just like the rest of us. I believe this has been through the influence of his dad, & I really worry that he will grow to be like his dad, someone who will never experience the joy of having bosom friends. That, I believe, is worth more to me than challenging Bill Gates for his wealth.

On a more positive note, there has been a new addition to the family: @ just 1 year old, my youngest cousin, affectionately called 'xiao mei' (little sis) because she doesn't have a name yet. I'm so looking forward to go back and meet her in 2 days' time. Grandma talks of her all the time and cautioned that she has a fiery temper. I'm not really worried about that coz I've always been really good around babies. I've a natural talent to calm babies down without even needing to do anything. Time for a career change to become a babysitter??

I'll still be in sg for 2 days before I go back to Indo for a week, & I have to come back again to sg again on the weekends coz my grandparents are going back to indo and they want me to babysit my not-so-young cousin (he's 16!) for 3 days. I kinda want to stay in indo for a while longer coz I haven't met my other badminton-partner-cousin for a while and he wants me to stay there. Will have to do that after I come back from my Penang trip.

Have also been eating non-stop these days. Grandma kept on buying lotsa food and offered them to me, & sometimes she looks kinda dissapointed when I don't eat 'em. haha. So I have to force it down my throat (just kiddin'!) but man they taste really gd! In addition, I regularly scourge for cheap food everywhere and buy them without even thinkin' (coz it's so freakin' CHEAP!). To top it all, my bro came yesterday and we went to the food fair @ Suntec and ate so much there I could barely move! He was still looking for more when he came back and I just stared at him in disbelief. Man i really need some regular exercise to keep my belly from poppin' up again!

aaahhh, memories of the good old days...

21st reflection (Part II)

Next, I present the only ‘sporty sibling’ (lame, but you’ll see later the triple connotation (all thanks to Da Vinci Code) I had in mind :) in the summer gang:

1) Leonard a.k.a. the Kid. First impression of him was that he’s a pai kia (gangster) or at least a wannabe. In our second meeting, he totally shattered the image I had of him when we were playing Risk! I wouldn’t go too much into details but he’s definitely NOT the person his looks suggest. Did I forget to mention that he is also full of Cr** (with a cap. C)? =) Apart from that though, he’s definitely a fun person to be around with and I’ve definitely enjoyed his company, whether it’s the sports sessions (Bball, Badminton, tennis, etc), the Games nights (Risk, Daidee, etc) or the outings (Oz Open, St Kilda, etc). Thanks for all the memories Kiddo, and I’m sure there will be many more outings to come in the future!

2) Cindy a.k.a. the Queen of Lame Jokes (Red Alert!). Also lays claim to the only female member of the original summer gang. Hanging out with her was always so much fun because she’s always been game with whatever the boys suggested and she doesn’t go ‘Eeks!’, like what many girls do. From playing sports, fishing, cookin’ to our little traveling around Melbourne, she’s now the 1st girl (though she prefers to be called young woman now =) that comes to my mind. That period spent with her must have been easily the longest continuous walk I’ve ever done in my whole lazy life, but I’m sure that doesn’t even rank in her top 10 list judging by her extensive travel experience.

So far I’ve said the good things about her and she may have appeared to be the ‘Perfect girl-next-door’, until she starts cracking up her infamous lame jokes =)! I could still remember the 1st time she did that & I didn’t know how to respond because I still didn’t know her that well and I couldn’t bear to tell her that wasn’t funny! Over the time though, she improved and created a few original classics, eg. the one when Leonard commented (in mandarin) on a guy walking with too much ‘air’, & the next line from her was (in Mandarin) ‘No probs, just poke him with a needle and he’ll *Pssssshhhh* fly away!’. To this day, I still remember the exact words she used (& still laugh over & over again!).

Jokes aside *ahem* (don’t worry Cin-d, we still love you coz we understand it comes in a package..), she’s also a very good listener and always ready to help her friends. She was the 1st person that made the effort to integrate me into the group (or at least I thought so..) and knew me as a person rather than as ‘Derr’s housemate’. Thanks so much for that Cindy, and because of what you did I have found that there is ‘hope’ for me to find what I want. I really look forward to getting to know you much more this year because I’m confident you are of the ‘rare material’ to make great friendship with.

Tech support

Episode 1

&

Episode 2

Enjoy!

I want to believe that I can

Taking a break from packin'. It's such a b**ch! Browsed through my personal writing collections and noticed a few that hasn't been posted up yet. This must have been written when I was feelin' sh*tty:

I want to believe I can, but with each passing experience I start to feel more and more pessimistic.

I want to feel loved, but with each passing second now I’m deleting more & more favourite moments from my mind.

I want to believe in them, but I haven’t received any indications that they actually care when it really matters.

I have so many words to say, but yet I have always not been given the chance to express it.

I show appreciation for other people, & I expect to be appreciated in return.

I have all the money I need (this doesn’t mean I’m a rich spoiled brat!), but I can never satisfy the one thing I have lacked from my childhood.

I am willing to trade my wealth (= the few pennies left in my pocket) to gain a few bosom buddies, but not everyone thinks the same way as I do.

I have too many thoughts, and the number of the negatives always seems to overwhelm the positives.

*New* I still have so many things to pack, & I don't even feel like moving anymore!

plan well executed?

What I have heard today has made me more convinced that I have made the right decision to move on. Used to feel bad about it, but now that I see I don't really need to, it's the time to focus even more time on my new 'interest'. Afterall, 'it' has definitely made me feel much more appreciated now than a year ago..

I love you MOM...

I woke up with tears in my eyes at 6.30 this morning. This is the 1st time this has ever happened to me in my entire life.

I had a dream. It was about the final moments of my mom’s life. I saw myself, my sister and some people in the background that I could not and did not really bother to identify. It was like watching a movie, with the camera constantly zooming in on my expression. Tears were streaming down my face like waterfall and I was shouting my mom’s name every single moment. She wasn’t actually suffering or anything in the dream, always smiling back at me and consoling us so that we wouldn’t be grieving too much over her impending journey. I didn’t see the ending of the whole thing, as I was awakened by my own incontrollable sobbing.

I have no idea why this particular dream occurred at this time of my life. Joon, Derr, Kel, Jel & I were having some discussion about our own death and everyone came up with ideas on how they would die in the future. Jel said she would be killed by cancer, but judging by her dessert consumption, we suggested it was more likely to be diabetes. Kel thought he would be knocked down by a bus, & Joon reckoned he’ll be taken down by some funny diseases. Derr & I did not really want to entertain the thoughts of dying during dinner time.

I believe that God has always looked after me and given me signs when He wants me to change if I didn’t do something His way. I could give examples of so many things in the past that happened because of the Divine Intervention, but I would leave this till next time. The fact that the dream occurred was definitely a reminder for me to cherish my own family even more than what I’m doing now, because I’m not giving them enough credit for my own development right now, especially for my mom. I realize that, after this episode, she’s the single most important woman in my life & I couldn’t thank her enough for what she has done. Yet in these few weeks, I have squabbled more with her because of some difference in opinion, some over my insistence on staying here (she wanted me to go back to Singapore..). I don’t really want to change that decision, but I could have comprehended her feeling better by taking a mother’s point of view, which I failed to do and led to the mini-row.

There are some more things that I want to write about, but I’ve decided to keep this post dedicated solely to my great, selfless mom. I really haven’t said this enough, and I intend to tell her this the next time I call her....

'I LOVE YOU MOM'