Random rambling...
Can't believe tomorrow will be November! Where did the year go? Looking forward to 2006 - got my diary already! The decorations on Orchard Road are up. They're red. I know it's to usher in Hari Raya &Deepavali...then Christmas, New Year....wonder if they'll keep it for CNY too! Remember reading somewhere (must be ST) that they spend an obscene amount of $$$ on that stuff. Before the year end madness begins, must remember to go slow-mo and spend some time reflecting on 2005.

Vamoose!
All this while I have been quietly wiping up bird poop in my kitchen & living room. Even had a visitation by two mynahs at the same time who were flapping around my skylight & shat on the SIDE of the wall - which is like thirty feet off the ground. Tim says I have to climb up there to clean it! (gggrrrrhhh......)
But yesterday they stayed away. I took a black garbage bag, put it on a coat hanger, cut strips on the bottom and hung it outside my kitchen door. It looks ridiculous but it seems to be working....

God's Workshop...
Max Lucado's The Great House of God was un-put-downable, for me anyway. He has great illustrations. This book explains the nuances of the Lord's Prayer by illustrating it with the floor plan of a house. That God's greatest desire is to be our dwelling place - a home for our hearts.
I particularly liked the way he described how creation & all of us in it is God's workshop. If anyone wants evidence of God, just look around.

Behold the sun! Every square yard of the sun is constantly emitting 130,000 horse power, or the equivalent of 450 eight-cylinder automobile engines. And yet our sun, as powerful as it is, is but one minor star in the 100 billion orbs which make up our Milky Way Galaxy....
Consider the earth! Our globe's weight has been estimated at six sextillion tons (a six with twenty-one zeros). Yet it is precisely tilted at twenty-three degrees; any more or less and our seasons would be lost in a melted polar flood. Though our globe revolves at the rate of one-thousand miles per hour or twenty-five million miles per day or nine million miles per year, none of us tumbles into orbit. Our God who "stretches the northern sky out over the empty space and hangs the earth upon nothing" (Job 26:7) also created an invisible band of gravity to hold us secure.

In a earlier blog I had written about how Isaiah also knew (amazingly!) that the earth was round. Both Job & Isaiah lived like......close to 2500 years ago.

Chocolate..
I have to eat some chocolate every day. My fave is Cadbury's Fruit & Nut. Close seconds are M&Ms, Kit Kat. Actually my fave fave is See's Marshmallow but can only get that from US. The current stash I'm working on is some stuff Tim brought back from Italy. Dark choc with strips of orange. It's good & it makes me happy. The day would not feel complete without some chocolate. Lots of stuff has been going on. Been eating more chocolate than usual. I have 3 huge zits to show for it.

%$#@!%^!!!
A little concerned with the language that the boys hear when they play xbox. Very colourful swear words which may be subliminally picked up and unconsciously repeated aloud. I understand we all need to exclaim aloud sometimes. So I ask what their favourite comic book characters say & give these my approval.
From Asterix there's the following assortment: By Toutatis! By Jupiter! By Mercury! Hmmph! Grummmph!
Interestingly, Tintin doesn't ever exclaim. But I'm partial to Captain Haddock's fave: Thundering Typhoons!
OK, sounds weird but way better than 'sh*t' & 'd*mn'.

Yummy....
This morning I ate the yummiest 'chai tow kuay'. It was a black beauty, with the right smattering of chai poh, and even had surprising little bits of crispy parts. Best part. It was in an ultra new & clean building at Commonwealth Crescent. This 'wet market' is now a 'dry market' and there's an escalator whisking you up to where the cooked food is.

Kudos to Ms Philippines....
Yesterday saw an article in Today newspaper. Usually the contestants in beauty pageants mutter something about wanting world peace. Well, this wise lady was lamenting the way Filipinas are typecast as nannies. I quote:
"She is someone who gives more than she takes. She is someone you trust to look after the people most precious to you - your child, the elderly and youself. She is the one who has made a living out of caring for and loving other people."
That's worth some reflection.

Duh...
Thought I should read some lighter material for a change. Picked up two NYT bestsellers - 4 Blondes by Candace Bushnell & The Nanny Diaries by...can't remember their names. That saying - garbage in, garbage out. That will explain why this whole week I have not had anything to share. I've been reading garbage. Those books are so fluffy...there's nothing to remember. Back to CS Lewis next week...

Ranting...
I just want to complain about the price of petrol. My latest Caltex bill is almost $500. Maybe I spend too much time driving. Think the car is very inefficient. Calculated it only gives me something like 6km/litre. That's terrible. Might as well get a better looking gas guzzler like the RX-8. Or switch to diesel engine. Get a new fuel efficient car. But then it's got to be big enough so I can be a road bully....so that I will not be bullied in return. The worst drivers on the roads are:
1. Taxi drivers
2. Bus drivers - esp those extra long ones
3. People who own Mercs but have to drive them when their drivers are off duty
4. Women drivers - if you can't beat them, join them.

The Long Wait...
Most people would agree that a good food stall can be identified by the number of people queueing for it. If it's good, it's worth waiting for right?
Last Friday we took some friends to Geylang to chow down on some Crab Bee Hoon. Been there a couple of times, and it has always lived up to its reputation. Never had to wait 2 1/2 hrs though! Knew we were in for a wait when all the tables in the kopi tiam (no air con) were taken. It took 30 minutes for Danny to even come round and take our order. There was a dance of sorts before that.
Sit at the table. Signal at the lady for service. She looks at you & nods. Wait 5 mins. Nobody comes. OK. Signal the lady again. Yes, she nods again. Still doesn't come. Fine. Get up. Go over there and tell her you want to order...at least drinks. She tells you to go sit down then she'll serve you. Fine. Go sit down. Wait some more. Still no service. Signal again. Sigh...you get the picture...
After about an hour of waiting, the sotong arrives. It's absolutely delicious - very fresh, cooked perfectly. Half hour later, the kailan arrives. Again, tantalisingly delicious - loaded with garlic (yummy) and yet decidedly sweet. We debate about whether the chef put sugar.
Finally, almost 1045pm and the Crab Bee Hoon arrives. All conversation ceases as we dig in. It's great to eat crab with fellow crab lovers. Tend to eat more when everyone is eating with just as much gusto. Great - it really hits the spot.
Here's the funny part. To pay the bill, we have to wait again. The funny part is that we actually wait - very guai. We wait another half hour just to get the bill. It leaves a hole in our wallets but we leave like a bunch of happy pigs. We adjourn to join other friends to celebrate a birthday. We arrive there past midnight (tho the actual birthday) after having made them wait 2 hrs for us.
The things we do for food.

Few days ago I met someone who had recently lost a loved one. This loved one had gone the way of Leslie Cheung. So many things in our lives and what's happening in the world raise questions.....of which we may not know the answers to. Perhaps it is because we are only able to view life from one perspective. It's like looking at a huge tapestry but from the wrong side. It just looks like a chaotic mess of different coloured strings. But I believe that there is a bigger picture than the only one I can see. I also believe that one day I will be able to view this huge tapestry from the correct side and realize that it is actually something beautiful - complex, elaborate, very carefully & lovingly woven. To the One who knows the end from the beginning, I shall cling to you as the Certainty among life's uncertainties.

Confession....
It was not a normal day for me. Today I slept for 3 hours after lunch. What a sloth. To make things worse, I ate roasted pork knuckle for dinner. Oink. I think it was because I didn't feel like studying. You see, if I don't study, neither do the boys.
Had a conversation with my second son, Luke, a perceptive 10 yr old:
L: Mom! How come you slept all afternoon?
M: I know...it was really strange.
L: Well, don't say it was because of us!
The deeper meaning to this conversation is that I, as a parent, am always finding ways to blame them for things.
Yesterday, I was almost an hour late arriving for dinner at a friends' place. I blamed it on the boys. There is a ton of white hair on my head. I blame it on the boys. Our home is always incredibly messy. I blame it on the boys. Nobody closed the sliding windows in the bedroom when we went out for dinner. I blame it on the boys. Nobody fed the fish today. I blame it on the boys. The birds are still coming into my kitchen to do their business. I blame it on the boys. After all, they're so messy they must be leaving microscopic specks of food that keep giving these mynahs hope!
Guess it's human nature to always seek to shift the blame elsewhere. My take on this - think the spouse gets off easy when there are kids to take the blame.

Thanks Cheryl!
I have a tagboard now and I just need to express my deep appreciation to Cheryl for putting it there for me. It would have taken me hours of meddling and I would probably still have pasted it in the wrong place - like the last time!

Thought for the day...
How we define success is important in shaping our lives. So, how should we define success? Success is defined in terms of achievement, fame, recognition, material possessions, and wealth. In a word: outcome.
Significance, on the other hand, while less tangible, concerns the process.
Significance is importance, meaning, essense, relevance, and value. Success drives us by a desire for tangible things; significance guides us by a desire for something greater than just what is tangible.

taken from a book written by some fellow by the name of Larry Julian.....

Snakes....yuck
There's an absolutely disgusting picture of a humongous snake in the newspaper today. It freaked me out but I confess I was rivetted to it for a quite some time. It showed the thick trunk of a 4m long burmese python in the Everglades that 'bit off more than it could chew'. There was a 1.8m alligator with its tail sticking out. Looked like the snake's body just broke in the middle....maybe cos the alligator was wiggling too much.
Awful. Awful. Awful.
I'm so glad the papers were on the table and I was standing whilst reading it. Had I been sitting down and holding it close to my face, with my specs off, it would've been mortifying.
The thing that gets my heart pounding besides vigorous exercise is close encounters of the reptilian kind.....even in picture form. There have been many an occasion where I simply throw the National Geographic on the floor when I turn the page and discover a snake. I usually don't bother to pick up the magazine after that. It's convenient to have children to do these menial tasks when I'm immobilised.
I've also had a few memorable snake encounters in person.
There was the snake that Tina and I thought was dead, wrapped up in a plastic bag and at the bottom of the garbage bin outside her house. To our horror, it came out 'standing' tall and promptly headed for the nearest drain. I've mentioned before how circumstances merely reveal the person. Well, Tina ran after the snake while I ran away from it. It took great persuasion on her side to get me to come help her pin it down.
Then there was the time the snake fell out of the tree and landed merely a metre away from Elliott's pram. I was wondering why this 'green leaf' had the ability to slide away toward the drain. Snakes always seem know which direction the drains are. I'm so grateful I did not walk that split second faster. I always wonder what I would have done if the snake had landed inside the pram. Would my maternal instincts have quenched my fear and gut instinct to run away?
Actually I have a lot more snake stories to share, but think this is enough for one day!

Birds......
I have a problem with birds and I'm open to any of your suggestions. My kitchen and my dining room attract black minor birds to visit. Baobei hangs out in the kitchen but she's quite useless and they come in anyway. She just looks at them and doesn't do anything. In frustration I ask Tim why they keep coming in, and he says it's because our house is a bird sanctuary. Unfortunately, the correct description should be bird toilet.
They come in, walk around a bit like they're checking my place out....do their business, sometimes several times (to my utter dismay) and then leave. There are some stupid ones that proceed to check out my living room and fly around trying to exit via the skylight but find they can't. All this brings about a degree of nervous anxiety in them, and this brings on even more unwanted deposits. Often these are yellow, but sometimes red.........I suppose it depends on what they've been eating. All the food in my kitchen is put away so there is nothing exposed on the countertops.....things like bananas, bread etc........nothing for them to come in for.
I have invested in waterguns and catapults to tackle this issue. However, after a few stakeouts and some bad aiming, the problem still prevails. Now I resort to closing the kitchen backdoor, kitchen window & dining room sliding door.....sitting there with no fresh air coming in, just so I can minimise picking up bird poop for a change.

Trivia....truth nonetheless
Here's an example of a very subtle truth that is revealed in the Bible that I like.

Isaiah was a prophet who lived in Jerusalem about 600 years before Christ was born. At about this time, the ancient Greeks were only just starting to sail around the Meditteranean and map out their islands. It wasn't until 200 BC that a Greek mathematician calculated what he thought was the circumference of the earth.
But in a description of God's majesty, it is recorded in Isaiah 40:22a:
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
If not for divine inspiration, I seriously doubt he would have known the earth was round. To think that there was a time when some people even thought the earth was actually flat.

Found!
Ha! Found my key. That was only two days missing. Must be getting better with age. It was in my pants pocket. Good thing I checked before throwing it in the washing machine. Otherwise, it would be a very clean key after that. The image of discovering Elliott's handphone in his pants pocket after washing is still crystal clear in my mind. That was only a few months ago. Yes, it was a very clean phone, no doubt, but had to be laid to rest after meeting its watery death.

Frustration....
I can't find my house key. These things happen to me every now and then and it is very frustrating. The last time it went missing, I eventually found it in the boys' basket of school socks. Don't ask, I have no idea. Then there was the time my watch went missing. For days I was wandering around timeless. Then I discovered it had fallen into the tissue box in my car. I also do this with the multiple books I'm reading. I bring them into and out of the car, into the various rooms at home, sometimes to my in-laws place where I can read a few pages while waiting.............then I forget where I brought them........and the suspense is killing me because what I read is still fresh in my mind, but I don't know where I put the book.

Safe in a Crazy World........
This is a wonderful album from Corinne May. She writes her own stuff (excellent lyrics with great melodies), plays the piano & has the kind of mellow voice that I really, really like. At the risk of sounding biased, she also doesn't sound local at all. The title song of the same name is my favourite track at the moment. I can listen to it over and over and over again........it just connects with my soul.
The lyrics in the chorus go:
You keep me flying
You keep me smiling
You keep me safe in a crazy world
You understand me
Embrace my fragility
You keep me safe in a crazy world

The headlines in the newpapers the last week really point to the fact that we live in a crazy world. That picture of the artic ice having melted so much already was a real eye opener for me. The damage is already done....we'll definitely face the consequences. Then that dreadful warning about how a worldwide flu pandemic is very, very real. The statistics are staggering - about 150 million people can be wiped out. There's no way to imagine that number of people........unless I think about the grains of sand on the beach.
I felt really sh*tty when I saw the headlines yesterday about Bali. Terrible...terrible news. What is wrong with these people? This is the crazy world we live in. In so many ways, it's all gone wrong. All the more, I need to believe that in the end......as in all movies, there is a happy ending. The good guys win, the bad guys lose. Good always, always triumphs over evil.
In another of Corinne May's songs, she writes:
There are a thousand reasons
Why I should give up
But I'm stubborn in the things I believe

I am 'Forever Grateful' (another good song but by Mark Altrogge) for the things I believe in. It is after all....the truth.

Exam Fever.....
It's that time of the year again. In my family, the level of exam anxiety between parent & child/student is directly proportional. The less anxious the student = The more anxious the parent. Well, my boys are as carefree as wild birds. So I suspect I ought to be busy sprouting plenty of white hairs. One of them is very diligent about studying......every day he gets on the internet, searches a variety of websites, painstakingly studies pages & pages of cheat sheets.......of his favourite computer games.
So I decided I have to sit down with this fella & study also. Life Science is like gobbledygook to me but Geog was fun - especially checking out the atlas. It's a challenge really - much of it still boils down to test taking ability. Just need to strive to maintain the love of learning in there somewhere.
Interesting article in the latest Readers' Digest titled 'I Won't Let Our Boy Go to University'. This father in UK has concluded that "universities more closely resemble job training centres and remedial catch-up courses than they do centres of learning for learning's sake". There's also the factor of high costs and then graduating with a huge debt, and too many graduates chasing too few jobs. Bold move..........perhaps he's right.
I've given this area a little bit of thought and joked around with friends. I would be ok if they didn't go the academic route. They'd be just fine if I have an auto mechanic, an electrician & a plumber at my disposal. Do you know it'll cost me $120 for a technician to come down and take a look at my sliding gate? Look only.......parts & fixing additional. Then there's the cars....every time they go in, it's always a couple of hundred dollars.......and every so often, just add another zero in there. I enjoy watching these Mr Fixit guys do their thing..........and invariably find that I'm muttering to myself that I could've done it. Tim's very wary of me, of course, he thinks I know just enough to be dangerous. He's probably right.