What I've Been Up To

Wow It's been a long time since I blogged. And I am disappointed that I have not been missed more! Hey is no one reading my blog anymore????

So since I last moaned about my weight gain, I have not done anything to rectify the situation. I think I am having low-grade depression. Because all I want to do is eat thereally bad stuff - like chocolate, ice-cream and biscuits and drink coffee.

Speaking of coffee, that is what defined my last trip to Melbourne for me - COFFEE! I have officially declared Melbourne the coffee capital of the world. I drank coffee every morning I was there and the best part was I didn't have to look for a particular shop or anything. I could walk into any cafe and the coffee would be gooood! How do they manage that?

Well, anyway, here is a quick update of the months that have passed... R went to the US for 2 weeks in Dec (of what a generous mother she has...) and by all accounts the 2 sisters had a good time - except when they almost froze to death in Times Square because the mother persuaded them to go to the Count-down on New Year's Eve. Then in Feb, R and I went to Melbourne. R has decided to read Behavioural Science & Social Work in Monash. The campus is not as pretty as Melbourne Uni's and had a number of students from India (who without fail asked R "Are you IT?") but I had a good vibe about the Social Work Faculty.

We flew to Sydney over a weekend as D's niece got married. It was a beautiful wedding and the pictures are on Flickr if anyone is interested. I'm quite upset because my Blogger account makes the photos smaller for some reason I have not bee able to figure out - so am not posting them here. Also caught up with my friends Bee Leng & Neena and the newly migrated Pushpa & Ganesh. It's funny how I miss them - after all when they were in KL we only met once or twice a year but now it seems sad.

I've watched a number of movies I quite liked - 2 of them in Melbourne at the exorbitant price of AUD16. I liked Slumdog Millionaire but I feel it is overrated and not really worthy of an Oscar. I think it had the same effect on the West as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon did - people who have never watched an Indian movie before and then go gaga over it when they finally do. There are a number of excellent Hindi movies that deserve an Oscar but never did get one. Also watched He's Just Not That Into You - and you know what, I think there were quite a few truths in there :)

Also watched the musical 'Menopause' with my friends from JI - we had a great time! The musical dragged a bit in the middle - I guess there are only so many laughs you can wring out of hot flushes - but I think the fun was in watching it with a bunch of other women. Funny thing is none of us had any of what the musical was laughing about :) We are going to watch The Winter's Tale next Fri - we are becoming quite the theatre crowd...

Currently reading an extremely consoling book called 'What's So Amazing About Grace'. And not looking forward to going to work tomorrow.....

My Oprah Confession

So I too, like Oprah, have "fallen off the wagon". But THANKFULLY, unlike her 19kg, I only have 3 kgs to rue. And here are the reasons for this...


Meeting up with my 95E students over pizza and KFC..

Celebrating with my CYAN cell

Ice cream at Swensen's with my 95A students...

One too many BOWALA sessions with my kakis from office...

Ben's wedding dinner...

And our office farewell lunch...

And in case Maya thinks she got away from the blame game, here it is too...

Wow. Considering all this, it is a MIRACLE It's only 3 kgs.... Hahahaha...

First Entry for 2009

Just 2 days after my last post I have to admit failure. Already I have 3 makan dates set up - a lunch on Sunday with my CYAN youth leaders, a dinner on Monday with my student who is in town on holiday from Hawaii and a dinner probably on Friday with my mami kakis from JI and dinner with Neen who has not accepted an offer of a hike in lieu. Sigh.... so much for the Battle of the Bulge. It didn't have a chance....

So it was a pretty good New Year celebration for my family. We went to D's brother's place for New Year's Eve. My bil organised an Ox-themed party as 2009 would be the Year of the Ox according to the Chinese calendar. It caused me a lot of grief in terms of finding appropriate wear and in the end D brought a ridiculous looking headwear which was essentially pom-poms mounted on a hair-band which I tried to make into horns and ended up looking the Statue of Liberty. My niece had better success with it by fashioning a pair of horns out of foil. But after all the groans before the event, we had fun as my BIL had put in quite a bit of effort and set up games along the Ox theme with the evening culminating in a 'treasure hunt' that ended in Clarke Quay where we could watch the fireworks.

R and J are in New York for the new year. Apparently it is an unimaginable -14 degrees celsius. They gamely went to Times Square to watch the ball descend largely because their mother was trying to do some vicarious living but then the cold and the crowds got the better of them so they came home to watch it online instead :) I am glad though that they are spending some time together. With both of them away in university in different countries with a 15 hour time difference it has been hard to keep in touch. And I think as they both enter new phases of life - work, study, dating.... - they will have to make time for each other or risk losing chunks of each other's lives. It has been interesting even to me to realise there are now larger and larger parts of their lives that I do not know about. Of course they strenously deny it and claim to tell me EVERYTHING but I know they can't really do that. I guess that's part of our children growing up and becoming adults in their own right.

Well, here's to a new year - of possibilities, promise and potential. Despite the gloomy economic prognosis for 2009, I am looking forward to it. I read somewhere that when you hit middle age you begin thinking of time as "time left" instead of "time ahead" and I realised that was true of myself. So I am choosing to continue to think of "time ahead" and I have been surprised at the change in attitude this simple re-framing has resulted in. So yes, I am looking forward to 2009. May it be a blessed year for you too. "The Lord is God and he has made his light shine upon us." (Psalm 118:27)

The Battle Begins Tomorrow

AAAAGH!!!! I have put on 3 kgs!!!!! Aaaaaagh!!! This is the result of birthday dinners + trips to KL + Christmas + Ben & Jerry since R came home. I just caught sight of my paunch in a Christmas photo of me. The horror! The horror!

Hear ye! Hear ye! on 1 Jan 2009, the diet begins. The exercise begins! The 3 kgs will be conquered! I have made this public declaration to make myself get started and to warn - no, beg - all my friends not to tempt me with all manner of chocolates, ice creams, cakes and cookies. And anyone who wants to meet me will have to make an exercise date with me. No more coffee dates, no more dinner dates and no more dessert sessions until those 3 kgs are wiped out, vanquished! Neen - we have to walk around Botanic Garden when you come or climb Bt Timah ok :) Aaaaaaagh!!!!! :)

Talk

Wow much has happened since my last blog. Can't believe it's been 3 weeks! Got my first bout of the flu bug for this year sometime after I last blogged so I guess that's why I haven't been updating. I also went up to KL for a weekend after that as my niece M had come down from London. It was a real pleasure to be able to spend time with her again. It was an interesting weekend as we were also on a mad shopping spree in preparation for my niece V's wedding next year. I also spent a day with a very dear friend of mine and it was nice to just chill out and talk. I wish I could make a career out of this like Oprah - you know, sit with different people and ask them stuff and listen and tell your own stories and make memories...

Strange, I didn't use to be like this. I used to really dread meeting new people and I used to keep a lot of my thoughts and feelings close to myself. I don't really remember when I started telling people about me. Hmmm... come to think of it, even blogging is quite unlike me :) But I think I like this new me more. The old me was darker I think :) And last night I had a really great conversation at a wedding dinner I attended. One of my colleagues got married and I went because my old gang at the office were all leaving and I thought the dinner would be a good time for us all to meet and chat but the place turned out to be quite noisy and we were all seated at different tables, so what with one thing and another, I ended up making conversation with the couple seated next to me and wow, was it some conversation! I had never met such an interesting man before! He was a doctor who had moved to Singapore from Canada because his wife was a little homesick for Asia. And he had really great stories to tell of the times he had spent in Sabah, Hong Kong, Manila and Ottawa. It was honestly the first wedding dinner I had attended where I didn't realise how late it was! I do hope our paths cross again. I learnt so much!

Coming back to conversations - the long and short of it is - I love them. I like meeting friends and talking over coffee, I like walking with my daughters and talking, I like lying in bed with my daughters and my niece and talking, I like sitting in the youth room with my CYAN kids and talking, I like meeeting my ex-students for dinner and talking, I especially love sitting on the beach and talking. Oh, how much there is to hear! Everybody has a story. I just wish more people would tell them. Especially to me :)

Globe-trotting Plans

OK, I have decided to suspend my looking backwards and decided to look forwards. As of now, 2009 looks set to be a year of much travelling! I can't believe how much of travelling I'm going to be doing! Here are my travel plans for next year -

• Feb 2009 - I'm going to Melbourne to settle R in and then to Sydney to attend D's niece's wedding. Yay!
• May 2009 - D and I are going to the US to attend J's graduation. Another Yay! I am also planning to visit my niece in Florida and my brother in Wisconsin. Also hoping to see New York and Washington.
• June 2009 - weekend trip to Bangkok to use up my credit card rewards before they expire in Aug!
• July 2009 - 2 weeks in London to celebrate my sister Su's 60th birthday + my niece Vid is getting married! I get to see Maya and Rohan again too!
• Aug 2009 - a short trip to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat if J's friend is visiting :)
• Sept 2009 - Hong Kong during the Hari Raya weekend with my BOWALA gang to visit our dear Carol with the express purpose of crashing at her pad to drive her nuts :)
• Oct 2009 - to KL for Vid's Indian wedding ceremony.
• Nov 2009 - my long awaited, much hoped for tour of Israel. My friend Dot and I have put our names on the tour list and we are waiting for the pastor organising it to confirm the tour.

So there you go, my long list of to-dos in 2009. I'm so excited just thinking about these plans. The BIG question is, where oh where am I going to find the money???? Anyone interested in contributing to the kitty??? :)

A Mood Piece

Is it just me or do other people get melancholic towards the end of a year too? Well, melancholic, reflective, you know the kind of feeling that leaves you feeling a little sad, but not weepy or bawl-your-eyes out kind of sad. I have had my mid-life crisis so I know it's not that :) But the weather also turns wet and grey at this time of the year and then I begin to mentally tote up the year into my pluses and my minuses and me being me of course my minuses seem to outweigh my pluses... It's at times like this that I wish God would give me a peek into the next year :) But even as I write this I am reminded of someone who told me a few months ago that she did not think there was anything for her to look forward to. She only saw for herself an escalation of problems with little end in sight. I felt sad then and I feel sad now thinking of what she said. But melancholic though I am now I have a quiet peace inside me that my tomorrows are in God's hands. I may chafe now, I am restless, wanting I know not what. But I also know that despite all the ways I have messed up my life, despite all the wrong choices I have made and all the times I have failed to live up to His expecatations, God has forgiven me, God loves me and even if every friend I depend on leaves me, He will not let me go.

Older and Rounder...

Well, the birthday did seem a little tame at first after all the excitement of last year.... But I definitely ate more this birthday than last, thanks to all those who took me out for birthday meals. And it seemed like I was celebrating my birthday over a few days as the celebrations started on the Wed before my birthday and ended on the Tues after my birthday! Here is a pictorial journey through all the meals eaten and cake indulged in....

The first was dinner with my young adults cell group from church on Wednesday, 2 days before my birthday. We went to Crystal Jade in Holland Village to eat hand-made noodles and the first of many cakes. It was a lovely chocolate cake.

And then on Thurs I had a lovely surprise - these lovely roses J and R sent me.... thank you darlings. :) Did you know they are my favourite flowers?

Then on my birthday, WY sent me this indulgent picnic hamper and flowers. I especially liked getting a delivery at the office.... of course everyone just assumed it was D who sent it. Hahaha.

Dot, Flo and Angie took me out to lunch at Rocky Master, and drat I forgot to take a photo. Chocolate cake again :) In the evening, it was dinner with Durai at Amici in Holland Village. His sister and bro-in-law joined us for dinner - Italian food with yummy tiramisu for dessert.

The next day, Saturday, it was a Mexican lunch at Cha Cha Cha with Sham and Mini, with a sinful Kahlua chocolate mousse for dessert.... mmmm...



In the evening, we went over to D's sister's place for dinner and the in-laws had a cake for me too... more chocolate. Sadly, sadly, by this time I was really beginning to have enough of chocolate. I really MUST be getting old :)

Sunday was a quiet day and on Monday we had a birthday celebration at the office after all the PW people came back from their external work. Tiramisu!!!

In the evening, it was dinner at Swenson's with friends who have to remain mysteriously anonymous as it is crucial that their identity be protected :) No cake this time but ice-cream!!!

And then stuffed with all that food and cake, the festivities finally came to an end on Tuesday with Thai food with Johnson and Yvonne!



Looking at all these photos I swear I can just see myself growing fatter and fatter from the pic taken on my birthday to the pic at Thai Express!!! Yikes!!! Time to hit the gym and that 4-letter word!!!!

A Song

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to meeeee
Happy birthday to me! :)

How is My Hand?

Attended a talk on 'Ecclesiastes' on Sunday and the speaker gave an illustration that made me think. He said we need to go through life with open palms and not clenched fists. We usually think of clenched fists as being stronger, because you think of boxing, the force of hitting something with a clenched fist. An open palm, on the other hand, is a sign of surrender and weakness. But, he went on to say, it is the open palm that is stronger - for you cannot carry anything with clenched fists. It is open palms that can carry, lift a heavy box, for example.

To me, a clenched fist also suggests closed-ness, a refusal to admit vulnerability, hoarding, a refusal to let go. Made me think - what hands do I have? Am I going through life with clenched fists? Refusing to let go, hoarding, refusing to be vulnerable? Or do I have open palms? Have I given, have I admitted my weaknesses, have I surrendered? I don't know.