My Birthday Treat

I gave myself an early birthday treat on Saturday - I went to watch 'Brideshead Revisited' in Gold Class :) The Vivocity outlet of Golden Village had a special English Tea menu for the sneak preview of the movie so they served finger sandwiches, scones and apple crumble with ice cream and a choice of coffee or tea. It was great fun! I would never have thought of it if Maya hadn't taken me there before. But having gone once, I was instantly attracted when I saw the ad for the sneak preview.

So there I was, reclined in a plush chair with a nice blanket to keep me warm and food and coffee served inside the theatre. Bliss!! If I had not been so full I might have been tempted to try other food from the menu - you can even have a full meal in there. Of course you pay a price for it. My English Tea + Movie experience cost me $48.00. Yup, extravagant of me - 5 people could have watched a movie for that price. I guess it was just one of those impulsive decisions. But I had fun. It felt so decadent - of course it came no where close to the decadence of Sebastian and Charles in the movie - but I really enjoyed snuggling up under the blanket and drinking my coffee :)

And I was amazed that I had been so naive at 20. When I read the novel, I had NO idea that the relationship between Charles and Sebastian had all those gay undertones!!! It all makes sense to me now. Finally I understand why there was all that anguish and drama. I can't believe I was that naive, honestly :) Boy was it a re-visiting for me!! Overall, though I think I loved the setting of the movie more than I was engaged by the characters. Emma Thompson was very good - a regal presence, but the other characters did not impress. The house, on the other hand, sigh.... oh to live in a house like that. I don't blame Charles for being willing to sell himself to be a part of that lifestyle :)

But for the Grace of God

The current financial crisis seems worse than the 1997 crisis and I can't help feeling somewhat uneasy even though I know that being in the civil service, my rice bowl is not in imminent danger. In fact I have been feeling immensely thankful that my financial planner made me take out my funds from a unit trust that I had been talked into investing in and putting the funds into an insurance policy that would mature next year. I was especially moved by the picture in The Straits Times that showed an old woman with tears streaming down her face because her life savings had been wiped out overnight. And I thought to myself, that but for the grace of God that would have been me.

If you have never been pressured by the bank salespeople you would not really appreciate the position these people are in. I remember how the bank salesperson took me aside from the queue I was in and talked me into buying the unit trust. I think the biggest sign of how I had been blindsided was when all I could tell my financial planner about the unit trust I had bought was that I got a free handphone from the deal :) He kept watch on the unit trust and told me when to pull out. I lost about 2k but looking back now it was a small price to pay to learn that lesson. I think many of these sales people were really unethical and I'm really glad that MAS has called on banks to "do the right thing". It is a great maxim - that perhaps more people and policy makers should take to heart.

Movies

D and I went to watch 'Mamma Mia' this evening. It was great fun! The ABBA tunes are very catchy - well, the lyrics are of course totally cheesy - and I can't help humming. If Jand R had been with me they would have been totally embarrassed because I had a mini 'quiet' karaoke session at the movie :) It so helped that the lyrics were flashed across the screen... hahahaha. Well, I guess on the moral barometer it doesn't rank high - 3 men and she doesn't know which one fathered her child (????) - but it was a sunny movie, the sort that made me want to dance. And boy, does Meryl Streep look good! I can't believe she is 62!!! There were obviously no creaking bones on THAT body! Coming as I am from a week of backache, the sheer energy she showed in the dance sequences and the jump on the bed - wow!

Well, it was definitely waaaaay better than the movie we watched last weekend - yes, I know, but hey, it's empty nest, remember? - where was I? Yes the movie we watched last week - 'My Magic'. Boy, if there was ever an overrated movie this must be it. I am aware I am no arty film critic but I am a film-goer and I've watched my fair share of movies and this one was CRAP!!! I have NO idea why the critics are falling over themselves praising this movie. And I find it totally incomprehensible that it should have been raved about at Cannes! It was a sentimental, melodramatic, pointless meandering story with banal dialogue. All my friends know how much I dislike Tamil movies, but I can honestly say that there are tons of Tamil movies that are better than My Magic. In fact, I think the director of the Tamil movie they showed on tv last night - Bheema - should send his film to Cannes with just taking out the song & dance scenes, because the storyline was tighter, the acting was better and the editing so much more consistent. My apologies for ranting, but I really can't stand it when people rave about a book or movie or play and then it becomes a case of the emperor's new clothes because people don't say it is lousy for fear of being thought, what? plebian? That's me, I guess :)

A Funny Cartoon

Pushpa sent me this cartoon :) All the readers of my blog have permission to name me when I exhibit the characteristics seen above. Right now, I am Bloated. Bordering on Psycho....

Last Hours

I read an article taken from The Guardian in The Sunday Times today and it disturbed me a great deal. It was a son's account of his mother's last days after she had set a date and time for her own assisted death as she had been diagnosed with cancer. In the Netherlands, it is legal to request for euthanasia if one is terminally ill and this lady had chosen to end her life on her own terms.

While the issue of euthanasia itself is debatable, I was most saddened not by so much by her decision to end her life but by the way she spent her last hours. To know when you are going to die, yet to spend the time worrying about your obituary, the coffin, the flowers and the cleanliness of your home.... I am filled with an inexplicable sadness. What filled this woman's life that she could not spend her last days meaningfully, making peace with her husband and sons, making peace with her Maker, and herself? To spend her last day on earth cleaning the house, clearing the garden, making her family wash the toilets? I feel so so sad for the people she has left behind.

All I can do is say a prayer for this family - for a time of healing, forgiveness and love. And a relationship with God who created us to live lives that are far more meaningful than a clean house.

Happy Teachers' Day!

I love Teachers' Day. Yes, I know that technically I am a Curriculum Specialist now, but after 5 years at MOE I know with a sense of certainty that nothing I have done in the past 5 years has given me the soul satisfaction I had in the 25 years before that. I will be the first to admit there were days when I hated getting up in the morning, days when I dreamed of jobs that seemed more glamorous, more rewarding, more exciting. But having now tried my hand at something else, I am praying for an opportunity to start teaching again.

And I think there must be something special about this job if it is the only one of two with a holiday declared to recognise it, right? We don't hear of a Lawyers' Day or a Doctors' Day or a Bankers' Day. Of all the professions, there we have it - Teachers' Day and Nurses' Day. That's it. Yay!!

So today I celebrated it as I have for many of the past years - with a time of reflection and a nice massage :) I'm also happy to have done some teaching - in the form of a mini-workshop I ran for the young teachers in my church on Saturday afternoon. The turnout was small - there were 6 people, but I have learnt over these years that all things happen to fulfil God's purposes. So though I would have liked 20, I know God met the needs of the 6 who came. It was nice that we had space to talk and though I had to rush a bit towards the end (as always, because I always over-prepare!), I think we talked about what mattered.

I also had a lovely surprise this morning. Dot (& Chit & Lily) sms-ed me to say I had a tribute in the Straits Times today!!! And Haslinda of 94A if you ever read this blog, know that you made my day today! The best Teachers' Day present you could have given me - is to bother to remember me 14 years after I taught you and to go the extra mile of writing to the papers. Thanks dearie! Wow! In this age of sms-es, your tribute touched me because it required an effort and I appreciate it. I wish I knew how to contact you so I could say thanks. And I am also humbled by the thought that so many children come to us day after day trusting us to teach them. It is an awesome responsibility and the impact we make on them lasts so long! I can only pray that I did more good than harm. I used to tell my kids that I was born to be their nightmare :) I think to some I was. But I do hope that to some I was a blessing.

My Burnished Locks

Today I got highlights in my hair :) But it was a conservative attempt and I can hardly see the highlights myself! My hairdresser Sam has been egging me on for a few months now to "do something different". I think I curb his creative spirit. I used to have the same effect on my previous hairdresser, Alison, who would try to do different things like blowing my curls out straight and once she persuaded me to try what she called "a relaxant treatment" but she never had much success with my stubborn curls :)

Sam never even tried the route of making my curly hair straight. But after a year of cutting my hair, early this year he started his gentle persuasion - first to try a different hair colour, then to cut my hair even shorter and recently after R got her hair done, to put highlights in. But he hasn't had any success with me because I was terrified I would look really strange. I mean there are only so many things you can do when you are 50, you know ....

Today, he tried a more subtle psychological tack. He talked about how nice R's hair was, then he talked about how we had the same type of hair, then he praised me for being such a kind mother to encourage my girls to do their hair and then casually suggested maybe I should try it too and how he would only do a little bit, only at 10 places on my head and lo and behold, I was soon making agreeing noises... Sam is gooood :) Luckily, none of the other men in my life know how to do this.

So, the end of the story is, yes I got highlights, yes, I like it and no, I don't think anyone would notice. Hahahaha... Sam's parting words were -"So nice... Next time we will increase a leeeeetle bit, ok?"

A Passage that Spoke to me

"Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness.

It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power - it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk. When you know you are sick, you will listen to the doctor. When you have realized that our position is nearly desperate you will begin to understand what the Christians are talking about. They offer an explanation of how we got into our present state of both hating goodness and loving it. They offer an explanation of how God can be this impersonal mind at the back of the Moral Law and yet also a Person. They tell you how the demands of this law, which you and I cannot meet, have been met on our behalf, how God Himself becomes a man to save man from the disapproval of God....

I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth - only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair."

~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1943)

Family Time

Well, it is significant that my blog hit a hiatus on 27 Jun - the reason is both my girls were back, one on the 27th and the other on the 29th. Then began 2 weeks of activities with R trying to squeeze as much as she could into the 2 weeks she had here before going back to Melbourne.

We went for a family holiday to Port Dickson and KL the first week and as expected R had a packed social calendar the next week, trying to meet up with as many friends as she could. It was a nice relaxing time but I don't think I will go back to PD again. It really was a dead town! I had booked us into The Legend Water Chalets and all I can say is - it was an Experience! First we had a really hard time finding the place because their signage was so bad. In fact we even began to doubt whether the hotel still existed and I actually called the travel agent in Singapore to ask!

The room was another Experience for us... You opened the door and walked into the bath area! Yup, that's right! It was some kind of an open concept bath area which meant that when someone was bathing the rest of us had to stay on the bed or on the balcony :) It was weird. I thought perhaps we had been given a honeymoon room by mistake but J pointed out to me that the chalet slept 4, so.....???!!! The first thing we did was to call the reception and ask for another room which had a closed bathroom :) Turned out there was one available but only on the next day so we had an awkward one day in that room before transporting all our things to the room next door the next day!

It was a nice design concept, it had a glass pane on the floor so you could see the sea at your feet but beyond that the hotel was nothing to shout about.

There was no beach and the only entertainment was a Scrabble board we hired, the pool and the children's playground where we spent most of the time. Hahaha...

Our next stop was Mines Resort near KL which was better in terms of entertainment options, had nice rooms too but was really far from KL city. We got lost a couple of times this trip, but generally had a good time.

Back in Singapore R had a packed social calendar and a trail of meetings with friends that stretched till the departure lounge at Terminal 3. I actually sent J to hover around R and her friends to make sure she came back and did not miss her flight :) Didn't make me a popular mum I'm afraid. Didn't do much good for J's image either.

Well, it was really good to have both J & R at home. The last time we had all been together was in Nov last year during my birthday. Now with R away these times will be harder to arrange. Soon J will be going back too. Sigh.

One thing I am glad about is that we went to have a family photo taken at a studio. I'm really happy we managed to do that. If I get digital copies I will post them on my blog :)

A New Kind of Holiday

I went to Ho Chi Minh City with 2 of my office colleagues at the end of May. We left by an early morning Jetstar flight on Thurs 29th and came back on Sunday. It was fun. A new experience for me - travelling with friends instead of family. Ever since the children were born, we have always had family holidays, not counting the couple of times when D and I drove up to KL to attend a wedding or something. So this trip seemed like a milestone marking a new state of independence for me :)

It was especially unique for me not having to plan anything! I did the online booking of the tickets but Chit and Dot did the rest. Like a true civil servant Chit looked for hotels and presented us with 3 quotes to choose :) We stayed at Metropole Hotel on someone's recommendation. It was a nice enough hotel - they even surprised Chit with a birthday song, card and a voucher for coffee, and the staff was really nice - but it was not near the shopping areas and we had to take a cab to get to eating places and to the shopping belt. And boy did the girls shop! Me - I had very few things I really wanted to buy and was content to walk around with them. Dot had planned the itinerary (see, I really had nothing to do) and we went on 2 day trips out of Ho Chi Minh City. The day trip I enjoyed was the trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Holy See of the Cao Dai sect. I'm writing up a separate blog on my trip to Ho Chi Minh so details and photos will be there soon!

I'm glad I went. It was nice to hang out with friends from the office. And we came back still speaking to each other! Hahaha. I wish my whole BOWALA gang could have gone. That would have been really something but this was a good start. I felt as if another phase of my life was starting - when I didn't have to keep thinking of others but travel as equals, each doing what they liked. I especially liked how cool it was that the other 2 went off shopping on Sunday while I went off to the spa. I liked that - because usually I have had to think about what the others would do while I was at the spa :) So yeah, it was nice.

Would I do it again? Yes. Maybe not go back to Ho Chi Minh, but I would like to travel somewhere else with friends. God willing, Dot and I are planning to go to the Holy Land end 2009, to make use of our leave before we go back to the schools. But I'm hoping I don't have to wait as long as that.