Another Year Older

I don't think I'll ever come to terms that I'm getting older, aging, more white hair, wrinkles on the way and brains fading and failing. But I guess over time, no matter how much I hate, I am getting older. It's a matter of fact, there's nothing that anyone can do to make time stop.

Well, having said that, I've had and am still having a great life and there are many times that i forget to thank God and be grateful for the goodness that He had, has been and will still be bestowing upon me. To a certain extent, life may have been hard on me when I was a kid but God has seen me through and made me a stronger and a better person. I'm learning everyday to put that behind and be thankful for the bountiful blessings that He showers upon me everyday. He has provided me a wonderful husband, parents and sisters, best friends that have become family and wonderful friends that I'm surrounded by in HK. He has blessed me richly in every single aspect and that's the best present that I can ever have.

I want to make a special mention of Babe too. Babe is the best present to me. He's my soulmate, best friend, husband and all rolled into one. There's no one better that I can ask for. He has given me so much that I don't think I need any other presents from him. But he has given me another trip to US for Christmas. This time. we'll be travelling together. He didn't have to do that but I guess he knew that I badly wanted to see my family and friend there so he gave that to me. And yes, I want to shop there too. Thanks Babe for everything. I know I'm a little mad, erratic, crazy and whatever but I grateful that you love me for me. Thanks Babe and I LOVE YOU TOO!

Finally.....

Finally! Yes, after months of searching.....Before and after summer holidays, till yesterday, we were still looking. It got pretty frustrating to the point that at dinner last night, we were about to give up and have a break at apartment hunting till we get back from Christmas hols. Things do work strange or rather God has His hands in things and we're just not aware. I suggested to Babe that we'll stop looking since it's causing a little stress to us and he is getting busy with work and that we'll look when we get back from States after Christmas hols. We agreed that might be the best for us. After that, Babe's phone rang. The apartment that we've given up since it was too expensive and the landlord didn't want to relent, became available at our price. Praise the Lord!!! So happy, over the moon now! Will put pics once we move into our apartment. Will probably move from the 20th of November onwards....So excited!

Pink BBQ

Taken by Derrick http://www.maskofchina.com









Had a wonderful Saturday. And it was a first pink BBQ that I've ever had. I've come to terms that I'm getting old and each birthday that comes by, it's a reminder to me of God's blessings upon me and the wonderful friends that surround me even though I live overseas. Wish I've taken more pics but damn! But thanks to Derrick and Mel for taking pics.

Friends, I want to thank you for making the effort to trek over to Park Island to celebrate my birthday. It's more apparent to me as I live overseas longer that friends truly become a part of your family. And friends that you've not seen for a long time, are still your friends if you want them to be. I met my primary school mate in the lift in my block about 2 weeks ago. She told me that she thought that we went to the same primary school. And I was like, no way. But as we chatted, yup! We know each other after all. And she's Jasmine too. Karine came too. Haven't seen her for ages and she made it. Really glad to have spent a nice afternoon with everyone. And Carmen even brought her mum. It's truly become a little family. Thanks everyone for making Saturday special. And boys, thanks for making the effort to come in pink. Well, have to thank Derrick especially! Can't believe you did it for me!

Bittersweet Weekend

It was a bittersweet weekend. But I must say, overall, I enjoyed it.

Last week, I received an email from a friend that I hadn't seen for close to a year. She wrote to say that she'll be in HK on Saturday and asked if I had time to meet up with her. Sure, I did have time for her. She was my second friend in HK. I mean a true second friend. My first friend Michelle left and last year, this friend left because of a personal issue. When she left, it was hard for me. Really hard because I missed having coffees and dinners with her. She was a shopper like me. But under this beautiful person, her character was even more beautiful. So I met her. Spent a nice afternoon with her catching up. It was hard for her as she had things that she flew back here for. She mentioned that it's a strange feeling coming back to a country which she thought was going to be her home. And the 2 closest persons to her in HK are no longer around. She lost them to various reasons. When she said that, something pulled in my heart. I remember years ago after I graduated from uni, I had that feeling when I went back to Gold Coast. Things felt different. But I guess for this friend, it's a lot deeper. She's been through a lot but she's has grown immensely from it. Learnt a lot and in her own words, she laughed as she said, 'Whatever that does not kill you, only makes you stronger.' Yes, sister. You got it.

After meeting her, I thought about a couple of things. When she left HK last year, I really didn't know when will I ever see her again and more importantly, will she ever heal from what she was going through then. This time seeing her made me feel lots better. She managed to heal and is still healing and it'll take her a while. And I know that I'll always see her again someday. Our goodbyes are not really goodbyes because somewhere down the road, we'll meet again. Actually, probably in less than a month!

After meeting my friend, Babe, Mel and I went to watch Beauty and the Beast because our friend, Kim was performing in it. It was a nice performance. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It was also nice to see that finally Babe is able to hang out with my friends. As most of you know, he's not very good at it.

The other highlight of the weekend......We book our tickets to LA for Christmas! Can't wait! A bonus to be going to the States twice in a year! A huge bonus! Get to see my cousins and Eve again!

Ocean Park

On Saturday we went to Ocean Park. After being here for more than 2 years, we have never been to Ocean Park and since they have a Halloween special, we thought, why not. Well, it's not as if we had lots of things to do. Look at the crowd. This is at 5.30 in the evening. Seriously, I almost wanted to turn around to go home because of the crowd.

Pumpkins....and more pumpkins. Not that crowded after all. I can deal with it. Oh...so I thought.. Oh yes, if you noticed, I chopped my hair. Had enough of the long hair and the heat was making me mad! Plus, my hair was getting yucky and damaged.

Ohhh....scary monster.....Very scary.
A view from the cable car. I have to admit that I'm not very good with heights. Don't forget for the longest time, I lived on the first and second floor. Didn't have to take the lift for a long time. This cable car ride was actually more scary than all the scary rides that I've taken in my life. It was long and close to the cliff and there were jerks too. Didn't want to say it out to Babe that I was actually petrified that the cable car might drop and crash!
My cutie Babe. It's really nice having him home during the weekends. Nice that we can do stuff together.
Don't really know where we were in Ocean Park but boy, was it crowded. There was a Chinese band playing. Didn't know what they were singing or screaming. Everyone was queuing and the queue was like an hour long too!
I love these orange scary pumpkins!
By this time, I just wanted to go home. And we were there for just 2 hrs or more. I had enough. The crowd, the heat and I could almost feel the migraine developing.
Another scary monster on the way out.
The exit. Overall, I feel that Ocean Park was one of the worst theme parks I've ever been to. It's just too big, lots of walking, rides were too spaced out. And the real walkable space is too little. It's built on a cliff or some rocky area. Plus for the fact that it was Halloween, there were hired scary people that were chasing scared people. Didn't the management think of the safety issues. Stupid people were pushing others out of their way because they were scared. There weren't very nice food for us to eat too.

Maybe we went on a crowded day or I'm just bias and I love Disney too much. But it can be hard for a theme park not to tie up with another media company. It was a theme park without much of a theme. If you know what I mean. Oh well, it was a good day out after all....Maybe this weekend we might hit Disney....

Delighting in the Misery of Others?

So the global markets yesterday were dealt with another blow. Stock markets everywhere around the world fell and fell badly. When I got home last night after class, all I got from news on Channelnewsasia was grim news. Babe transferred some money from HK to Singapore yesterday and he told me that the exchange rate was in the range of 5.3. I was happy. The worst we had was 5.7. For the amount of money we transferred across, we had a savings of like SIN500. Well, to us, poor souls, it's quite a tidy sum.

As the financial markets take a beating, the US dollar has been rising against the SIN dollar. To us, it's a bonus. We're happy that we're getting more out of our salary now. At this rate that things are going, we might even be able to buy our apartment earlier than expected. In all honesty, we're not really affected by the financial turmoil. Oh, maybe I might, I may get a slight nip in my living allowance, worst case scenario. But I hardly think so at this point of time. As for Babe, I don't think he's really affected. With work, he'll probably be able to get more value for money in the business environment.

But I wonder as people are having difficult times, is it wrong for us to wish things might turn even worse so that we can get that apartment that we want at a lower rental? We can get more SIN dollars from our HK dollars? And we maybe able to get our apartment in Singapore earlier? Babe and I do not have any shares or money in the financial, stock or share markets. Number 1, we do not have excess money to invest or rather gamble and number 2, I'm too chicken and dumb to do it and number 3, if I truly wanted to gamble, I'd rather catch a ferry to Macau to play the slot machines.

But what sickens me is the unscrupulous people who chose to cheat poor victims who do not understand financial jargon into investing risky funds and them losing heaps of money. These are poor people who saved penny by penny and then waking up and realising that they are holding on to fixed deposits that have lost more than half of their values. And look at AIG. After being bailed out by the US government with tax payers' money, the top execs splurge at an exclusive resort in California. Lehman Bros was the same. Top execs had real fat bonuses last year and then this year, declares bankrupt. And in true reality, it is the poor victims are who illiterate in financial terms that are suffering. Top execs had their fair share of fun, frivolous spending ways and their expensive toys but poor victims out are the ones that are really having a hard time.

I guess at the end of this rambling post, I'm just trying to say, in every situation there are winners and losers. The financial and banking execs may think that they are the losers because they can't afford the Porsches or BMWs now but spare a thought for the poor victims who are really misled by their financial advisers. And the trusting American taxpayers who paid for the exclusive retreat for the AIG execs. Sad, huh. Still delighting in the misery of others. As for me, all I hope is for the HK dollar to be at 5 is to 1 for SIN dollar, a cheaper rental for the apartment that we're looking at and lastly, hopefully by next summer, we'll be able to buy our dream apartment. Not too much to ask for is it?

Foreign Workers vs Serangoon Gardens

Foreign workers and Serangoon Gardens both have special places in my heart. Both are special and it's hard for me to see what's happening there.

I spent a large part of childhood, teenhoon and my early adulthood in Serangoon Garden. As toddler or as far back as my memory can bring me back. I used to cycle on my little tricycle in Grandpa's backyard while he was fixing millworms to be fed to be birds. Sometimes Joanne would be sitting in the back of my tricycle. I even remember grandma pulling peas off the plants to cook for dinner. And then from one house in Serangoon, Grandpa and Grandma moved to another house just a couple metres down the road. In this house, I have more memories. Every Sunday, we'll piled into Daddy's car and we'll head to have dinner in Grandpa and Grandma's house. We'll play like wild kids. But it was also this house that I remember saying my last goodbye to Grandpa without realising that it was my finally goodbye. Grandma's house was always filled with plants and catus. Mum would bring her catus to Grandma and she'll fixed them. The neighbours that grandma had were very nice people. And then towards my early adulthood, Grandma moved to Ayi's house as the house was being pulled down to be rebuilt. Grandma moved again. This time to another part of Serangoon Gardens. I love Serangoon Gardens. And if someday we have enough money, we'll get a place in Serangoon Gardens.

When I was growing up, i spent quite a bit of time in Dad's office and factory. He had foreign workers working for him. He had Thai, Bangladashis and can't even remember where else they were from. There were times that Dad even invited them over to our place for dinner. We were always taught to respect them. Even with the maids that we grew up with. Everyone of them we love and had respect for. Except for maybe a couple....That's besides the point. Foreign workers helped Dad to complete his jobs, put bacon, ham, bread, char siew and whatever else on the table. Even as Dad's business was crumbling, the foreign workers were paid first before Dad. This impressed upon me very much. Dad taught us that all humans have value. It doesn't matter where they are from or what they do for a living. There's nothing like we are more superior than the foreign workers.

I remember Mah Bow Tan saying this,'We were all foreign immigrants at one point of time. Our forefathers came to seek a better future and they stayed.' Yes, precisely. And it makes me sad to see and look at Serangoon Gardens looking at foreign workers at disdain. How many of them have seen how they lived in their tiny cramped dorms with creepy crawlies everywhere? Have they seen these poor workers sitting at the back of trucks in the pouring rain going to jobsites? Do they have hearts to feel for them? Yes, I'm not in Singapore and not, I'm not in Serangoon Gardens now, but these poor souls have a right to somewhere to live. And its sad to hear, that people will say they can live anywhere except in my neighbourhood.

After living in Australia and now in Hong Kong, people have asked me, have you come across racism? I always tell them, I take everything with a pinch of salt. And now, racism is becoming glaring in Singapore. Babe works closely with foreign workers now and they are nice people. Geninue and willing to help. They are just here to earn a living. There are more times that they are cheated than they actually commit crimes. Why can people learn to love and understand that we are all people, it really doesn't matter.

Babe is Back

Babe is back today. He has already touched down when I called him. He's getting his luggage and he should be back in an hour so. Pretty happy about that. It's nice to see him after about 2 weeks of him being away. Well, I don't even know how long is he going to stay in HK and when will he be away again. That doesn't matter. As long as I've my Babe with me for the next couple of days, I'll be happy!

And hopefully the weather will not turn bad this weekend. Would love to go out and hang out with Babe. So please Mr Sun, hang around and leave only when Monday comes!