Best Part Of New Year

More visiting.

Went over to my ex colleague’s place, and my friend’s place.

Food, food and more good food, I simply love it!

Anyway, I think I am falling sick from eating too many New Year goodies. My throat is falling apart. I have to drink plenty of water.

Disappearing Act

Yesterday, we had a short breather from the many visiting.

My wife and I managed to squeeze out an hour and have some time of our own. We went over to McDonalds at United Square, ate a brownie and drank some fruit juice and chit chatted.

Although it was brief, it was enough to help us rejuvenate. After that, we carried on with our visiting.

CNY Day One

First day of New Year is always hectic.

We’ve got so many places to visit and that we have got so many pairs of hands to shake, those we are familiar with and those that we see them once every New Year.

Just do it anyway.

Survival Of The Fittest

I had reunion dinner yesterday at my parents’ place.

I just had reunion dinner at my grandparents-in-law’s place.

They were a great difference.

I was stuffed at my parents’ place, enjoying the luxury of picking up the last few pieces of meat and vegetables while I didn’t really have a good meal at my in-laws place.

Not that the food at my in-laws’ wasn’t good. In fact, we had great food. We had steamboat and we had many people crowding over one stove. It was pretty difficult to try to grab anything to eat without putting up a fight.

In the end, I decided to move aside and let the rest battle for food.

I learned something from the lesson. If I am to organize a reunion dinner next time, I will not have a steamboat session unless I have plenty of stoves.

Separation

I wanted to ride my motorcycle to my parents’ place and park it there.

I had gotten a parking ticket at 4am this morning and it cost me $25. Although I had avoided parking tickets for more than 2 months, and maybe it is about time to get one, getting this one still makes me feel unhappy.

I decided to park at my parents’ place to prevent getting more tickets. Wait till I buy the season parking coupon, then I will ride it back to my place.

Meanwhile, she will have to be separated from me.

CNY 2006

It’s 3 more days to Chinese New Year.

All ready to receive it although we did not buy any New Year goodies.

Last year was different. We had house warming and new year together. So we did a lot of preparation. This year, we did not buy any New Year goodies as we do not expect any one to come to our house.

We will be doing a lot of visiting to relatives’ and friends’ places. In the end, it will seem like a working day rather than a holiday.

Just that there is no stress.

Bright Light

Someone complained that I did not update my blog…

The reason is because my head is having pulsating pain. Stupid migraine seems to fall in love with my head and refuse to go away.

The doctor said that I should avoid bright light as it will increase the pain. And thus I am staying away from the computer monitor for some days.

Pain Pain

The stupid migraine is killing me…

The reasons as according to the doctor are as follows:

Stress
Lack Of Sleep
Cheese, Chocolate or Some Food That I May Be Allergic To
Withdrawal From Too Much Coffee

I suspect that it may be due to stress and lack of sleep.

So from now on, I am going to sleep early.

Migraine

Migraine.

Never had I expected to have migraine.

Went to see a doctor and took some medicine.

Hope to recover fast.

Headache

I woke up with a headache…

Took Panadol to try to stop the pain.

Attended my family reunion dinner…

By night, the headache was still bad…

Baby Check Up

Today, our baby’s checkup was pretty exciting.

Our baby is 2.5kg, and still growing.

Our doctor advised us not to deliver on Chinese New Year because she was going back to Malaysia to do visiting. We hope we can grant her wish.

Anyway, the baby should be staying in the womb for about 4 more weeks.

By then, I should have him in my arms.

Day Off

A day off is used for running errands and so I did just that.

Paid dog’s license.

Check up on different housing bank loan packages from different banks.

Shopped for baby stuffs.

Attended the last baby preparation lesson.

Home Improvement

Today, I found new hope in my pursuit of having a dream house.

I am very excited about it and I am working towards it. The plan seems super feasible because I have given a lot of buffer for error.

It better work!!!

Clay Improvement

Very tired from pottery class.

Finally, I have completed some pieces.

After 1 failed attempt to make a rounded vase, and 4 to 5 failed attempts to stretch the clay, I have finally completed 1 rounded vase and 3 mugs.

Ready to proceed to the kiln next week.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

(Hopefully the pieces will not explode in the kiln due to the trap air bubbles.)

Never Ending Deadlines

Clearing deadlines I do best.

One after another I’m put to the test.

I press and punch and move my fingers.

I print and print till no more papers.

But as a seasoned procrastinator,

All’s done and given to the trainer.

Banks Make Mistakes Too!

Dealings with banks: Please read carefully before signing on the dotted line. Upon signing on the dotted line, request for a copy of it. And keep it with love and care.

Reason: Banks may give a wrong or outdated form to fill up. When you discover the mistake and that they bill wrongly, the filed copy will then be a timely piece of evidence for self protection. May bring up to C.A.S.E. and file as a case of misrepresentation and ask for compensation against the bank.

Unity Beats Solitary

It is important to stay united among siblings.

As the old saying goes… well, I don’t know what is the old saying actually…

But I have heard of the story of a single chopstick that can easily be broken while a bunch of chopsticks will not.

In short, a family is actually like a company. If a company cannot function as a unit, they will not be competitive and eventually have to be dissolved. Same for a family. If the family is not united, there can be many selfish disputes over trivial matters. And eventually the family will split.

However, the opposite is true. If a company has employees that are totally united and work for the benefit of the company, the company, through selfless contributions, will eventually prosper and so does the bonuses of individuals.

As for a family, if the family members stay united and work together to keep the family close knitted, then the relationship will blossom and everyone will be emotionally accomplished. If the family works together, through synergy and selfless contributions, the family will prosper much faster than a family of solo effort.

Do the math and one can see easily that unity beats solitary.

Beware Of Some Banks

If you have a debt of $2000/- and you write a cheque of $2000/- together with a letter of notice to clear all your debt, do you expect the bank to take your $2000/- to open a new account while continue charging you high interest for the debt owed?

Confused?

Debt : $2000 owed
Cheque : $2000 to clear debt
Letter of Notice to clear debt stapled together with cheque.
Bank takes the $2000 to open a new account for you without your notice.
Bank currently carries on charging you interest for the $2000 owed because you did not repay your debt.

What’s going on???

Beware of some banks… better check all letters sent to you from them and also the monthly statements.

Never Use Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered.

I will NEVER have any dealings with them.

Reliable bank? No comments. Reliable 24 Hrs customer hotline? No comments. Reliable billings of credit card? No comments. Lost my Standard Chartered credit card and expect to be able to seek help from them? No comments.

In Love

FF, my friend, seemed to have a crush on our pottery teacher.

She always giggles whenever he speaks and apparently, she is the only one laughing at his jokes.

Yes, I agree that he is good looking and very charming, however, we should focus on the lesson, isn’t it?

Anyway, it is none of my concern and I should mind my own business.

Pottery Is An Art

Pottery is an art.

The feeling of caressing the soft moist clay in the palm of one’s hand makes one feel sensuous.

The molding of the elastic clay is ever so fragile that requires one’s delicate touch to bring out its fullest form but yet understanding the subtle weakness.

Frankly speaking, no words can describe the experience. Just simply try pottery. (Have to have very short nails but it’s worth it.)

On Diet

Poor Almond and Berry.

Almond and Berry, my 2 dogs, currently forcefully adopted by my dad, were overweight. Right now, they are on diet.

My dad used to feed both of them 1.5 cups of food twice a day. Now, he feeds them 1 cup of food twice a day.

This morning, my dad discovered that part of his rattan chair had been chewed off. It wasn’t for fun. It was for food. Almond had gotten so hungry that he decided to have rattan for appetizer.

Currently, the rattan chair has only 3.5 legs.

Ah Lam, What Happened?

I am worn out today.

I had driven more than 100km today traveling around the island from my house to my wife’s office to my work place and from my work place to my parent’s place to my wife’s office and then to her boss’ place and then and then and then…

I waited for my wife who loved her work so dearly that I had to wait till 9pm with an empty stomach. I then had to fetch her boss home. (Actually it was on the way to our dinner place.) I was going to faint.

When we finally reached our destination, Ah Lam Abalone Soup coffee shop, it was not open for the day. We were utterly disappointed. We were totally lost. We were famished.

In the end, we simply went to the nearest available place and grab something to eat. Or we may have starved to death.

Allergy

It has been raining for the whole day.

The weather was cooling but it was a chore to leave home running errands. I had to carry the umbrella whenever I leave a sheltered area. My sandals would then be soaking wet from the accidental steps in to the puddles of water on the irregular ground. The feeling was yucky.

The feeling was worse when I returned home with rashes. I never had body rashes but today, nightmare began in the day. I had no clue of how I got them as I believed that I was allergic to nothing. I thought it might be the rain, THE ACID RAIN. But it sounded rather crappy to me.

Anyway, I quickly went to take a bath upon reaching home. After the bath, the rash disappeared. My wife suspected that it could be the food I ate yesterday that caused the rash. We couldn’t figure exactly what food it was, until I ate a pork bun, 大肉包, which I bought yesterday. I started developing the rash again.

It seemed ridiculous that I get an allergy from the pork bun as I had eaten it so many times before. In the end, we concluded that the pork bun was contaminated. With what? I prefer not to know.

Movie Marathon

Today, we had movie marathon at night.

We watched:
Joseph, King of Dreams, by DreamWorks,
Shall We Dance?, acted by Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon, and
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, acted by Harrison Ford.

We didn’t quite complete the third movie as our eye lids were becoming heavy.

In the end, we watched for an hour of Indiana Jones and went to sleep.

Hair Cut

For days, my wife and friends had been harping about my hair. They had been asking me to cut my hair as my hair was growing messy.

As I have a goal of not spending much on my hair per year, I have to keep my hair to the longest bearable length before visiting the barber. And every time I visits the barber, I would ask for the crew cut.

I calculated that if I were to spent $9 per trip to the barber, and 4 trips a year, I would only spend $36 as compared to some of my friends who visit the saloon once a month at $30 per trip. I felt that it would be much better to visit the barber than going to a saloon and have a hairdo that could last only for a month before the next touch up is required.

I also save on the amount of shampoo used. Cost effective totally... (Anyway, I had my hair cut today. Next trip to the barber would be around April or May period.)

Food!!!

My sisters took the opportunity of the absence of my parents to play mahjong. (They went Genting to make money again.)

And they ordered pizza… something I had not have for a long time.

I am really envious of them…

Not the mahjong but the gluttony. I AM GOING TO HAVE PIZZA, DRUMLETS, FRIES, OTAH, LUCKY PLATE THIS WEEKEND!!! (In my dreams…)

Pottery

Pottery is something I had never thought of learning. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, I am having pottery lessons. And it is really interesting.

Hasan, my instructor, looked like my friend Lik Wuk. The mannerism, the speech, even the looks resembled each other. Both are artist, one is a potter, while the other is a violinist. Anyway, I thought Hasan was pretty handsome and charming.

Half way through the course, however, he started being sarcastic to other learners and during the break, there was a private outburst of disapproval of him. The learners felt that he was arrogant and disliked his actions.

I couldn’t say he is arrogant. I would say that he is proud of his profession. I would say that he has an artistic air in his gestures and he really knows his stuff. In fact, I admire him for being able to be do what he is passionate about, enjoying pottery and teaching at the same time.

Not everyone gets to do what they love for a living.

Lisa Victoria Koh

My friend Lisa Victoria Koh did the stupidest thing today.

She wanted to reserve the usage of a computer so she went over to the booking counter and tried to reserve one. This was her first time booking a computer.

She slid her identification card across the card reader. The screen changed to show a map of computers for her to select. She touched the screen to select the computer she wanted to reserve. There was no reaction from the computer screen. She then tried touching the computer screen again. There was again no reaction. Not giving up easily, she tried again and still there was no reaction.

Finally, she noticed that there was a mouse just beside the booking counter.

Start Work

Started work today…

Sigh…

After a long break, I had difficulty restarting my engine.

Well… what needs to be done has to be done… so here I am…

Mattress And Cot

My wife’s boss gave us a baby mattress and a cot recently. As the mattress was pretty old, we decided to throw it away and buy a new one.

We measured the dimensions of the mattress before throwing it away and we happily set off to purchase the replacement yesterday. After arriving home, my wife took the mattress and placed it into the cot. To her surprise, the mattress did not fit.

Why in the world did her boss give us a mattress that did not fit the cot? Anyway, we found it comical and went to take the actual measurement of the cot. Then we took the mattress and exchanged for one of the right size today.

Welcome 2006!!!

Happy New Year 2006!!!

Today is the first day of 2006. Plenty of excitement ahead.

My wife and I wanted to try the breakfast at Sloane Court Hotel. Upon arriving, it was already 11.30am. At the main entrance, we were greeted with an Old English styled cottage. It was pretty inviting on the outside. However, when we stepped into the hotel, it was REALLY OLD. And a bit dirty too. It felt more like going to someone’s place rather than a hotel.

We walked into the hotel’s restaurant and were told that there would be no ala carte today and only set lunch would be served as it was a holiday. What kind of a hotel is this? But we were fine with the arrangement and placed our order.

After having our meal, when we were about to leave, we found out that 2 groups of people were having ala carte. We were told that there would be no ala carte today, then why were these people having ala carte?

Although we felt puzzled and a little bit of injustice, we decided not to spoil our day with petty matters. Just that we wouldn’t return for long while.

The rest of the day was pretty hectic. We did household chores and bought stuff for our baby boy. Really tired now.