Sunday, April 30, 2006

Counting my blessings.....
I'm annoyed at the boys. They're so unmotivated. They seem to take everything for granted. When I think about it...it makes me mad. So there's a blog that I read every now and then to get some perspective. After all, I know academic performance is not really important. There is so much more to life than that. There is so much more to be grateful for. We have tons of fun together as a family. I have the privelege of being a full-time mother. They will have tons of memories of me as a person. I never really had that with my mother because she was busy pursuing a career. And I think that's a key reason why I continue to do what I do.
Anyway, the blog I read is
http://www.evangabriel.blogspot.com/
It's written by the father of a newborn who lost his mother shortly after birth. Fairly recent. Was asked to help pray for this family as they cope. It's quite heart wrenching to read. I can emphathise with the sense of loss. The struggle to move on. And yet...only time can heal these kinds of things. Although I distinctly remember still experiencing moments of deep grief well into my adult years. Infact, I believe I subconsciously loathed turning 40 yrs old because that was the age my mother passed away. For the longest time, I wanted to be like her in that sense. But then God blessed me with children and now I want to live to a ripe old age so I can spank my great-grandchildren. Hah!
So reading Evan's blog makes me count my blessings. It shakes me out of wallowing self-pity. Life is not fair and by all counts, I've got it pretty good.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Being Ourselves
Here's a funny story I heard today. Don't know if it's true or not. But it made me laugh & think you'll enjoy it.

There was a couple that was excited, anxious & looking forward to marriage & living together. But the guy was fearful he'd be loved a little less & be a real turn-off because he had really stinky feet. So he resolved to always go to bed with his socks on. The gal, it turns out, also had a real chip on her shoulder. She had a seriously bad case of bad breath. So she resolved to always brush her teeth as soon as she woke up...and climb back into bed again smelling good.
This couple got hitched. They got a place of their own. They lived together. This 'keeping up of appearances' went on perfectly well for the first six months. Not a hitch. Everything was swell.
Then...it happened. The guy, for some reason, woke up in the middle of the night. He was absolutely distraught to discover that one of his socks was missing! He started scrambling under the bed covers to look for that missing sock. He was really starting to panic....and the frantic searching stirred his wife awake. She was infuriated at being woken up. She poked her head under the bed covers, looked at her husband in the eye and blurted out, "What in the world are you doing???????"
He replied, in total honesty and dismay, "OH NO!!!! YOU ATE MY SOCK!!!!!!!!"
Toward a Stress Free PSLE
The school organised this talk yesterday. So Luke & I made the trip. The speaker Danny Ng is a psychologist, father of two boys & a friend. Was a 3 part talk. First, to both parents & boys. Second, to parents alone. Third, to the boys. End result. To get the boys to agree to a time table. Where the hours for Rest, Spare, Meals, Subjects are all clearly defined. Where the expectations on either side are spelt out.
Actually Luke has a time-table already. But neither of us have looked at it for the longest time. Breaches on either side have made it obselete. We really need discipline to keep to it. I'm awful at that. Truly awful. Think that's why my boys are equally, if not, more awful. This is the way I rationalise it. I'm an awful parent because I was never supervised when I was growing up. And I loathe breathing down my boys' necks. So every now and then, I get a spurt of energy and try to do that. But it is, at best, haphazard.
From listening to all that jabbering yesterday, I also realized that I hardly ever encourage or praise the boys when they do something right. Have to work on that.
Best take away that I wish to implement:
Reward effort, not results.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Cosmic Human Rebellion
That is what sin is all about.
Think LT made a good point last night when he said that most Christians tend to trivialise sin as personal bad habits....personal problems with ourselves. In his notes, he writes:

It is a cosmic rebellion against God led by the first human pair in desiring to become autonomous.
To have an independent knowledge of good and evil.
As a consequence of this fall, humans are experiencing ruptures at all levels of relationships:
Between themselves and God.
Among themselves.
Between them and nature.
Within nature.
Sin is therefore our missing the moral mark set for us by our Creator because we are all partakers in this rebellion.

Now that's worth chewing on for a while.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Bird sh*t
My friends abused me all Easter weekend about my hair. Figured there may have been some truth to the abuse. So yesterday, I told Carleen (my hairdresser) to give me a new look. Some 3 hrs later....I do look somewhat different I think. My head is considerably lighter & cooler. For the first time in my life, the top part of my head was subject to something called a wave perm - to give it some body. The last time I highlighted my head was 20 yrs ago as a college undergrad....a skunk-like orange tip front and back. This time the colour is all over and red! I'm not so sure about the cut & perm....but surprisingly, I like the colour. And so do the birds. Whilst chatting & walking around Botanics this morning with my friend Lynda.....something dropped on my head. It was bird sh*t. Can you believe that???? It was gross...so gross....

Monday, April 24, 2006


Baobei
This is my babe...my little girl. This is where she hangs out all day long...in my kitchen. If I'm sitting on that chair, she'll be sitting beneath me. This is the counter where she occasionally steals food. Sometimes the boys or I take things out of the fridge and if we don't put it further in, she can reach it. As I suspected, she missed me terribly when I took off to HK for a few days. She refused to eat. Tim had to coax her and feed her piece by piece. She was listless and mopey.
Isn't she the prettiest girl ever? Big brown eyes. Black and tan beauty. Best part is her temperament...super, super 'manja' queen.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

I can't wait....
For exams to be over. Sounds ludicrous I know. But since none of my sons are the least bit anxious (nor even aware of) the impending exams, I feel like I should be. And so I am. It's 14 days to ET's first paper and 17 days to the other two's SA's (Semestral Assessment). That's 25 days countdown to total freedom where we all can put our brains on the shelf again. Yay!
Spent the beginning of the year looking forward to Ophir & HK getaway. Those two trips came and went and lived up to high expectations. Now I guess I'm looking forward to Church Camp in June and at the moment, Taman Negara sidetrip after camp.
I also have to be more intentional about my fitness training. My plan is to celebrate my 41st birthday doing the 8km Terry Fox Run on Sentosa (up -down up- down terrain). But before that in July sometime, my lunatic ultra marathon geriatric doctor friend is coming back from HK. I want to be fit enough to run McRitchie with her.
I also have a sudden craving to play golf. It's been a very, very long time since I whacked a helpless little white ball and chung-kulled the nice fairways. Yes....have to make time for that this week. Who cares about the gezillion other things I need to do?

Saturday, April 22, 2006


The Tan Clan
L to R: Matt Matt, Timmy, Pheng, Lukey, Elliott, Han, Me

Congratulate me. I've figured out how to post pics. Ha! This is a great pic taken by Edward for the CCMC Warmth Booklet. It was tough for him to squeeze all our heads in and he had to change the camera lens a few times. Was taken a few Sundays ago after service. I had to grab the boys and stop them from playing football....and getting all hot & sweaty. Think we all look the same....like ang ku kueh.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Quotables I Like
Came across these in a 'thinking' book I'm currently reading. Want to record them before I forget.

There is an old adage that still speaks:
The world was made for the body, the body was made for the soul, and the soul was made for God.
When that discovery is made and the soul is restored in a disfigured culture, we find the greatest treasure of all - and it is nearer to us than we realize.

"Those who cannot remember the past," said George Santayana, "are condemned to repeat it." (The Life of Reason - Who said what when)

From the year 520 B.C. , some insight from the Prophet Haggai.
"Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it. " - Haggai 1 verse 5,6.

Hong Kong
I'm back. Trip was a blast. It could also have been a real blast because some hikers found a bomb just 300m from where we were staying - HK Parkview. Nuts.
Food
The food was excellent from the moment we landed. I ran all over the airport for some char siew pau because I was starving. We also ate deep fried gau-tou yu (nine stomach fish) in Wanchai at Hee Kee Crab Expert. The kind that melts in the mouth. Like butter. Spicy Thai Chinese seafood in Shek O. Well deserved after a really long hike. Coffee & dessert at a sidewalk cafe people watching (a really 'duh' waiter) in Stanley. Lamb chops at Red at IFC in 15 degree celsius sitting outdoors surrounded by skyscrapers. Daily ABFs with a very attentive & efficient waiter in Parkview.....crispy bacon and all. Yam-cha at Fu Hsing on Lockhart Road. Ate so much dim sum I thought I was going to burst. A visit to a home restaurant called Stella's Hideaway. An oasis of an apartment in a real hole in the wall place. My faves were the tofu coated with salted egg and the chicken in some sort of vinegar sauce. It was a banquet - we had a dozen dishes. Mocha at Starbucks. Pei dan & siu ngor (roast goose) at Yung Kee in Central. Smooth milk drink. Forgotten what it's called in Cantonese but it was nice & sweet. High tea at the Peninsula. And all the time in between some lovely packets of M & Ms, Snicker bars & Maltesers.
Exercise
The 10km Dragon Back's trail in Shek O on a cloudy day perfect for hiking. 5km run on the treadmill in Parkview gym. 50 sit ups to deal with the flabby abdomen. 3 hrs of Badminton with Sifu Pat.
Best part
The company. A few old friends that went to the same school twenty-five years ago. Same sick sense of humour. As one of them put it...like visiting family, only without the stress.
Looking forward to next year's trip already.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Easter getaway.....
It's going to be a gals weekend in Hong Kong. Leaving my husband & boys for some R&R with fellow 41 yr olds. Had this planned since January. Now it's here. It'll be a blast. Bought 1kg of Gourmet Bak Kua for my pal so she can feed her zits. It looks positively deadly - streaky bacon bak kua strips. I know it's supposed to be vacuum sealed but then I don't want to risk having my clothes smell like bak kua. Also lazy to hand carry so this is my mind-boggling dilemma for the moment. I'm procrastinating now. Actually there's a sky high pile of laundry on my bed waiting to be folded. I'm so beat I think there's a possibility I might fall asleep amongst the pile. I'm going to miss my dog but she's going to miss me even more. She'll be absolutely delirious when I get back on Sunday night. So delirious she might even bite me! Well, I better go. Maybe I should just push the laundry pile to one side of the bed so there's enough space to sleep. Deal with it tomorrow. Ha!

Monday, April 10, 2006

In Gratitude
Last week was incredibly busy for me. It was the convergence of academic, personal, ministry, social, household matters all at the same time. Had committments and thus was out every single night. I remember looking at my diary at the start of the week and thinking......oh gosh, I feel tired already. But, I anticipated this and asked my bsf ladies to pray for me. That I would be able to juggle the multiple balls and not drop any. That I would remain energetic and joyful despite the busy-ness. That there would be a proper balance with solitude.
I look back on it and am grateful for answered prayers.

Going off tangent here.

There is an interesting place called Union Square at Amara Hotel. It's like 'the' place to do salsa. It was completely packed last Saturday. Live salsa band. So good I didn't realize the music was actually live. More fun to watch the guys dancing than the gals. Especially since they are Chinese. Ever watch Chinese men do salsa. Not bad really. Almost makes me want to go learn salsa too. Ha! There's also a guy by the name of Archie that has an incredible vocal range and fronts the band inside the wine bar. He sings like a woman. Power packed.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

A very different weekend....
Finally got round to visiting City Harvest yesterday. It turned out to be a a healing service as well by Rev Dr Richard Roberts. That was an experience in itself. Going to process the whole thing in my head a bit more. I may not blog about it though. But I'm glad I got to check it out.
This morning I visited Church of Our Saviour. Saw a few familiar faces. Enjoyed the service, sermon & the two testimonies. Some funny things that TG Tay shared:
When people in church ask him if he is working part-time, he tells them that he works overtime. But more importantly, the work he does is lifetime!
When people outside of church ask him what business he is in, he tells them he is in his Father's business. When they inquire what business his father is in, he tells them that his Father is a fisherman!

This afternoon, in continuation of the Ophir trailblazing, a bunch of us had a pleasant walk off the Rifle Range Road to the Tree Tops Trail. It was about a 5.2km walk there & back which took less than 2 hours. We got back to the car seconds before the afternoon storm hit. Then we spent the next 2 hours yakking away over Kopi-cino & Roti Prata at Al-Ameen.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Scrub, wipe, mop, vacuum....
The good thing about inviting people over is the necessity to clean. I was cleaning the house furiously yesterday. And so it looked presentable. That's good. Really want to try and keep it that way all the time.....not only when we have guests.
I found this ditty somewhere and printed a few copies out, laminated them and stuck them around the house so the boys will get the drift.
If it's on, turn it off.
If it's open, close it.
It it's out, put it away.
If it's messy, clean it up.
If it's broken, fix it.
If you can't, then report it.
Do more than what is expected.