Happiness is...

Having a drum date and purposeful coloring time.

Hair has reorganized the room.
(It's getting to be a dilemma to maintain that nickname when he has chopped off his hair T.T)
Now the room is so much more spacious.

I get amused at yet another discovery.
Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive.
If it was placed side by side with the Coming Messiah Overdrive, I would have taken a picture. Hee.

Binge cooking

A# worked really long hours today.
Marinated five ribs each in different flavors; tomyam, soy sauce and steak sauce.
It took about 6 hours to cook all of that.

~
This morning the gate to the memorial park was locked.
Thankfully a group of older folks came and they knew who to call.
Better still, they found the big gap in the fence and we all climbed over.

There were only two dogs in the park.
Makes one wonder what happened to the female with her pups that I saw last year.

~
I'm restless this week waiting for my own sabo-ed party.
Wondered why I agreed to help out.
Wondered why I swapped so willingly.

Yet I know, it's always been these negative thoughts that keep me from focusing on Him.
The only way is to persevere and He will guide me through this.

A short holiday

I initially had slight envy to people travelling to Europe, Singapore and Myanmar.
For once I thought I wasn't maximizing my holidays well.

But turns out it's been good these five days of holiday.
Some days were even borderline awesome!

Things I manage to do:
Board games on Tuesday night!
Popiah and catch up with Bee on Wednesday!
Sleep, watched tv and eat on Thursday!
Grocery shopped on Friday!
Watched two anime movies on Friday!
Painted my nails on Friday!
Made grilled cheese and ham sandwiches on Friday!
Packed goodies and had lunch with Sonia on Saturday!
Went for GP class on Saturday.
Spent time with Rohingya kids on Saturday at the Georgetown Heritage Celebrations. They were so cute!
Went to watch Nana perform at Occupy Beach Street on Sunday morning!

Attended service on Sunday, though was a bit late rushing from Beach Street.
Lunch and board games in the afternoon!
And last but not least, watched Alice TTLG after dinner!

I'm satisfied that Friday was super productive after the non productive Thursday.

Both coloring my book and my nails made me happy.
I colored some time between Wednesday and Friday;
leaving me with one final page of my first coloring book I got from Occupy Beach Street last year. I can so start on a new one soon.
Nana was awesome as usual and there were dogs everywhere!
Hair's tight sleeved shirt that just screamed look-at-my-arm-muscles in Sunday worship was such a distraction!
And I played five board games in total, winning two and learnt three new ones. Woohoo!
The icing on the cake was definitely watching Alice Through The Looking Glass.
It's been a while since my last visit to the movie theater, and this was such an impromptu decision after board games on Sunday afternoon.

My heart is full, because my days were well spent.
I'm so thankful for the rest and for every single opportunity to enjoy myself that had came up this short holiday. Some of it which I couldn't have done without others doing it together with me.

UK - a month ago.

Can't believe it was a month ago that I was on holiday.
Work has certainly taken a toll on me.

There are so many things I loved about the UK. 
How it was all just so green.
How there was a plane taking off every couple of minutes.
How we would find at least one in the air anytime while in London.
How there were so many chimneys.

How all the buildings were just so prettily aligned.
How there were many eye candy almost everywhere I went.
How the berries, chips and chocolate there were so cheap.

Zip lining in the backyard of the place we stayed in Bath.

Once I got over the fear on the first attempt, it was really addictive to go over and over again!

Bath Abbey was a glorious place to have been in.

In fact, all their churches that we went to, had this old peaceful feel to them.

Even the ones with bodies buried right in the very floor of the churches in ancient days.

Bath was also where I had lovely bubblegum and chocolate gelato after dinner, 

as Nana and I joined a comedy night walk around Bath.

Chatsworth House in Peak District;

which had way too many interesting rooms,

pretty flowers and a stunning ground with maze and water fountains.

There was also acres of land with sheeps and lambs.

Peter Rabbit in Lake District!

The Castlerigg Stone Circle, a smaller version to the Stonehenge.

To just be there, touching those rocks older and so ancient, priceless!

It was super cold up there, 

but a dog came to me and sat at my feet for a few seconds giving warmth to my feet!

The scenery was amazing, and despite the cold we were crazy enough to had ice cream!

On one of the hilly roads to Castlerigg,

we stopped to look at why there were a lot of people in the middle of nowhere.

There were howling dogs in the cars, was a hunt or something that we couldn't see way in the distance.

We got showered with tiny hailstones making our way back to our car.

That was awesome as its the first time I ever got hailed on!!!

York, on our way back to London. 

Where there was utterly cute elephant tea tins, that I still think about.

They were sadly too expensive.

By then, we had spend quite a bit on Twinnings and Fortnum & Mason tea.

Which we went to in London before our road trip.

Coming home, it was interesting to find that I have a liking for the stronger bitter Chinese tea.

The truth is we went to St. Pancras station to look for them before our road trip in UK.

But I was so terribly shy to wait and play any of them.

On our last full day in London after the road trip,

I head out on my own about an hour earlier, 

and trolled all 3 pianos at St. Pancras until I was brave enough.

In the end, I played on not one but two, 

an old quaint one that had some ivory chipped off and this above that still had all the keys intact.

I'm just so glad that I went back there again

(or as I told Nana, I will regret having found them there and not played on any).

Catching a real show, based on Matilda by Roald Dahl.

It was quite a show with many brilliant child actors.

And the set! 

It was amazing to watch the platforms sliding in and out of the floor, 

and the different backdrops.

Galvin at Windows; a Michelin star restaurant we just had to try once.

Started off with the beef tartare, ending off with chocolate lava.

Awesome treat by Mookie!!!

And in the last hours in UK, we walked to a cemetery.

Hee.

Morning in Bath

Feet very cold from standing on the porch with nothing more than night wear.
But the view is worth it, and the heart is warm from the sun that's literally coming up right in front our eyes.

Cooking spree...

Was up early to get to the market.
Been a while since I last made pork ribs soup.


And then it was on to the feat of making wantans!
There was so much meat and so much skin, it seemed so overwhelming halfway thru.
But I finished them all!
Made about 135 of them!
Some went into the freezer while others were deep fried with a pot. This was my first time deep frying with a pot.
Still wish that air fryer prices would go down. It would make things so much easier.


Although it took up all morning and half my afternoon, it was nice to be able to do such things.
Especially when I'm between nail polishes and it doesn't seem like I will be chipping into the soup or the wantans.
It was a foody good day.

Hohoho!

Christmas eve lunch rendezvous.
It was crazy to rush all the way to town to see these cuties but so worth it!



Christmas.
Spending a relaxing day eating chicken instead of church!

Melbourne in one post.

The season of Spring is lovely to be in.
I loved going to Fitzroy Gardens and the Conservatory there.
I found so many dandelions on my way back home one day that I just plucked four and
made a wish.
These are all from mars, I actually took some macro flower shots with Blinky but am too lazy to upload them.

One of the days in the city, I made my way to the Art Gallery in order to play this Street Piano.
There was actually two Street Pianos, but the other was in the lobby and there was a lady sitting next to it with her laptop and I was too shy to play there. So I made my way down to the car park and found this one.


The last two days before I turned of age was spent playing board games.
It was nice hanging out with Shawn and Wei Jenn, cousins from afar and of a certain age gap yet able to play together.


The last hours before I turned was actually spent making sure the kids had their dinner and milk, stopping a squabble, clearing up and dozing off waiting for their parents to get home.
We went to 400 Gradi for lunch on the big day.
The world best pizza maker supposedly own this place.
The food was interesting, nothing like fast food pizza places.


This is the utterly awesome cake on fire with 73 candles,
before lighted where candles was demanding for space and after in a sea of wax.


Somehow every time I go over to Melbourne I end up adding to my stash of OPI.


There are so many things to be thankful for.

My first day in the city I actually lost my Myki card, and was back tracking 3 different places looking for it. It had the worth of quite a few trips to the city in it so I was upset with myself for being so careless. Was already calling my bro and telling him about it as I was checking out the last place to look for. Lo and behold after hanging up, I asked the sales person at this last place and someone had handed in a Myki card. It really made my day.

It was nice to be around the kids, giving out hugs and kisses in abundance.
When I ask the youngest what he will miss about me going home, he said he will miss playing with me.

It was nice to be together, wishing each other Happy Birthday in the morning.
To have that one moment where even he realizes that the last time we actually celebrated together was when I was in primary school so long ago. And how now we have turned 73.
Then to have the cake on fire (which my older nephew thought was the stupidest idea ever), was just awesome. It took quite a number of huff and puffs to blow it out.
I'm thankful that my sister in law let me have it that way.


The whole idea of the trip was to celebrate together.
To embrace the sharing of birthday, instead of being awkward and wondering why it had to be like this.

To just be the part of me, that belong to this bond of day.
And I'm glad I did it from the pure thought of wanting to.
Not doubting how silly or wasteful of money it is.

The various faces of me.

Delighted myself with these at the interactive museum today.

Sleepover rocks!

Just so thankful for:
A night of manicures and Jane Austen movies.
Brunch, board games (which one of I won!), more manicures and korean dinner!



Lights out for me now.

Renegade

Utterly cute!

If only I can play without the need to feel safe by sinking my survivors into the water,

surrounded by rocks and forest away from the sharks and whales.

It's been a long while...

Knitted stuff

For a little loved Ray Yuen in Queensland.

I'm so glad they made it in time and he hasn't grown too big for the booties Jen and I bought.

 ~

Birthday stuff

And a meal with Jen that can't be describe with pictures.

(Because the pics will just expose what a pig I am when I'm with her. =))

~

Tough stuff

R.I.P. Uncle A.

I miss your bass lines.

It's been 2 months since he passed away.

But I couldn't post about it without posting this....

Because he was so happy for you, Xian!

*teary eyed*

Congratulations Evan & Xian!!!

And I'm thankful that just days before it happened, 

we met up after quite a long time, 

and that week he managed to call Xian as well.

And it's with these little bits and pieces of events, 

fitting in together,

that God has comforted me with.

=)

Day Off

*This blog needs a good dusting*

Oh, the joy a good day off brings!

I admit, I've been so involved at work that I forgot that I was not working today until nearly midnight yesterday. I was even planning out the things I'll get done on Monday.
Which means I have tons to do tomorrow.

And I forgot to removed my production support schedule from a certain calendar, so it wasn't surprising when an agent called me in the morning. Surprisingly, I slept through her first 3 calls and woke up on my own before the 4th call. Manage to politely direct her to my US colleague on call.

 I was somehow unable to go back to snoozing until noon after the phone call.
So my day began early instead.
It was awesome to start my morning out with an hour long drumming while some cleaning went on in church on an otherwise closed Monday. I had a song to work on. Utterly bliss. =))

Followed by a good lunch.

At first after lunch, I was sleepy and thought I would nap upon reaching home. But I got to organizing my papers with files I just bought. And organizing those lead to cleaning up my desk where I found Stephen Gately's Tree of Seasons completely buried under a pile of papers.
I felt bad to not even had missed it.
So once I was content with the state of my desk which was like late afternoon, I got about to reading it.

~

The story revolves around three siblings; Josh, Michael and Beth who started off their summer holidays by investigating strange lights coming out of Merryville Woods. The Tree of Seasons is this gateway to four seasons' kingdoms, holding the balance of seasons in the mortal world. They ended up with a mission to save the world from being decayed from all-year round Autumn lead by a Queen that had witched herself into being their great aunt Graves who owns Merryville Woods after kidnapping her and kept her wrapped in magic. Through the tree they went to all four kingdoms and encountered all sort of magical and extinct creatures on their adventure.


At first it was hard to read this; I seriously couldn't imagine SG as a writer.
The acknowledgements, foreword and afterword was written by those close to him as the book was only published after he died.
The writing was stiff to me at the beginning, like it was still a rough version.
Or maybe it has this stiff British or Irish style to it that I'm not used to.
But once the magic started, it turned out to be a 3.5 hours page turner with a satisfying ending.


It turned out to be whimsical, enchanting and lovely altogether.
Bits and pieces of rhyming poetry as spells especially captivated me.
It was also endearing to read how protective and responsible Josh was of his younger siblings, even as he faced trouble with a school bully.

It's one thing to be a fan of SG's voice and utter cuteness in my days.

This book was like seeing a depth to his actual personality.
And at the end of it, it reminded me of that warm place in my heart for those days gone by. =))

~~
Since this review took some time to write, I managed to manicure my nails as well.
Doing all the things I love in one day. And a clean desk to boot. =))

The not so short summary of away time

Day 1
Rode down to Commonwealth with Aunt Mae on MRT.
Dropped bag at Commonwealth.
Went to SBGardens for lunch at Food for Thought (bacon! finally!!) and a walk around.
Poor old Little Hearts couldn't take it anymore and broke apart.
Walked half barefoot to Tanglin Mall; took ages to finally decide on my Graceful Rose.
Couldn't bear to part with Little Hearts yet, so brought along to Orchard.
Went into Wheelock for a peek, since Rose was a necessity and I still wanted to find a pair that was just calling my name. Nothing came up.
Bought some stuff at M&S and had Skinny Pizza.
Took cab from Commonwealth to Woodleigh.

Day 2
Boiled an egg using a cup for a savoury breakfast.
Went to Dhoby Ghaut.
The initial plan was just to get a bag belt at Daiso.
Plan failed, ended up having lunch and shopping for hours there.
Finally made my way to the Gardens.
Breathtaking man-made waterfall in Cloud Forest made Flower Dome a let down after it.
Dinner at MBS. Trouble was, I fell in love with a pair of Tiermotiv calling my name right before eating.
Ended up getting it after dinner and a shared scoop of dark chocolate ice cream.
Walked over to the Esplanade to watch and listen to some jazz going on. Lovely stuff.
Made own way back to Woodleigh by City Hall.

Day 3,4,5,6 belongs to Bali.



About half of those days were spent under food poisoning conditions.
But before that happened....








There was this door I pushed open that lead me to the organic garden in Tegal Sari.
To my utmost delight, the gardener there let me walked away from the hotel area, and waited below while I climbed up this outpost.

Then there was this snake obstructing my way back to our room.
I was waiting for it to gobble up the frogs and be on its way.
But it just raised its head and stayed that way.
I went back to the entrance I came in and informed the staff there.
When we went back to the place where I've seen the snake, it had disappeared.
The staff accompanied me half way to our room, and I thought it was the end of it.
Some minutes later there was a knock, and the staff was there to show the snake that's been caught.

I would have preferred it dead, but the staff was going to release it elsewhere as part of their custom/religion.












I don't know what it is about the people there.
Because they really didn't have to accompany me all the way out to the paddy fields or catch the snake after it had disappeared from view and informed us that it's been caught.
I was touched with that level of hospitality to their guest.

Day 7
Packed.
Had a little moment before sending Little Hearts into rubbish chute.
The only comforting thought was that Little Hearts 'went back' in the land Little Hearts have came from.
Went to Food for Thought at Queens Street, where the waitress gave me a random uplifting note.
Browsed the Catholic store opposite before going into the Catholic Church.
Left before 5.30pm mass started. Ended up in Paper Market at Raffles City.
Dinner at Sushi Tei in Raffles City before walking to the Esplanade again for some piano works.
Watched the MBS light and fountain display on the roof garden as well.

Day 8
The toilet business strikes again.
Took a cab to Changi instead of the MRT as planned.
Did GST refund on my Tiermotiv Dog pair.
Found Giotto for colleagues.
Had Texas Chicken in defiant to the stomach.
Head home.

I left both places feeling lighter than when I arrived.

(#258) A super duper big thank-you goes to.....

Two snoraumatic people.

Thanks for putting up with me.

Snores.

Klutziness.

Turtle pace.

Thanks for looking after me.

Having me stay over.

Meals.

Toilet business.

And all that in between.
I'm thankful I have you both.

(#259) For clean pathways when I had to walk half barefoot.

(#260) The showers of rain that was momentary and not like all out spoiling my holiday.

(#261) For Cub's MP3 player, songs that kept me occupied on the MRT and comfort me when I was in bed from food poisoning.
(#262) The moments of alone-ness, that I needed so badly to reflect and stuff.
(#263) Great food!

(#264)Acts of kindness.

Especially the random note that says 

'SMILE!  There are always flowers for those who want to see! '

Last weekend at BBW!!!!

Would have blogged earlier, except I was out cold with a sore throat and flu all week. 

I should be fine by new year!!!!

Lunch at 1U.

Christmas decos!

3 million books to choose from....

IKEA SWEDISH MEATBALL FOR OUR LAST MEAL!

I didn't even know that SG wrote a book before he RIP!
Was just uber melting at BBW over this.
Total damage was 19 books at RM154!

*Heart* Nana for having me along!

Peace lies in simplicity

If only I can stay in this state of mind,

Being content and at rest.

all through this season of hard work.

Been enjoying my off days this week.

Sleep. 

Eat.

Chat.

Read.

Play.
Mani.

It's comforting to stay in darkness.

It's comforting to be weird too.

More than that, it's comforting to be accepted.

Just like that.

It's a constant reminder;
One that I'm thankful of everyday.

(#237) Soaking in music on Monday and Wednesday helped kept the blues away.
Courtesy of Cub's player, now that Odie's radio is driving me nuts.

(#238) Nana's reminder that we should not bother to be cookie cutter Christians.
I needed it. =)

Looking forward to the weekend.
Hopefully I'll get to see some serious drumming!

Best-est highlight of the weekend

The absolute best-est highlight of the weekend had to be...

Lying on a beach chair... 

Watching the stars...

Listening to the waves...

Enjoying a bottle of beer held in one hand...

While the other hand pets one of the many beach dogs...
Feeling oh such bliss from being slightly drunk...
Yet doing so many of my favorite things at the same time.

Second place goes to...

Riding in the welded sidecar of a Thai motorbike...

Giggling and squealing all the way down a bumpy slope...

Heart pounding hard from this dangerous thrill ride...
All by myself in the sidecar.

Third place goes to...

Watching the sun set after walking a long way to reach Sunset Beach.
The ball of fire striking a ray of light onto the sea,
as it sinks into the horizon.
Those couple of minutes was amazing.

Post fun update.

Every blessings You pour out I'll turn back to praise.
And when the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say...

These words would never be the same again.
Not after seeing some classic disco pointing up and down moves involved in it.
*burst into uncontrollable laughter*

~
Holidays have been fun, fun, fun.

I got browned and had 2 teething marks on my right hand, yet I'm still in love with PanPan.
Wonder when I'll see it again.

The troubled waters I got myself into on Sunday night, is all under the bridge now.
My aunts and dad did a final cross examination and comparison of timeline after dinner tonight.
The defense counsel was definitely losing in a 1 vs 4 setting.
She's super relieved she isn't grounded or some corporal punishment was sentenced.

Thankfuls;
#194 I was not alone. Not as long as I chose the right battles to fight for.

#195 It's always a blessing to have Jen as my partner in crime for unmentionable things. Lol.
Monday night was totally totally awesome!!!!! Let's do it again in a couple of months time. =)

#196 Showers. Of rain, laughter and joy.

#193 God made all my plans possible.

*Warning! Long post ahead*

Definitely deserving a #192 on my list....

Thursday night was such a blessing to catch up with Vi.

I had SK with her. Hahaha!
The mini Mars bars were like icing on the cake.
I was just telling my dad last week that I no longer get chocolates from Singapore in defiant to him complaining to my aunt that I have a big chocolate stash. Which I don't, not really.
The look on his face was really something when I showed him the Mars bars. Lol.

~
Had my day off on Friday.

Made a surprise magic act of appearing where the security bar should have blocked me off.
There was people doing maintenance on the security bar hence the ability to drive straight through. Hee!
It was like, the first thing I was thankful about and just felt that things were going to go well from there onward.

Even with a detour to Crystal Point in the morning, back to back movies at 1st Ave was still possible.
Three Stooges was pure slapstick comedy and made me laugh til my voice was hoarse.
It would be the one show I'd watch again.
It was so funny I'm thankful there was only like 4 of us in the whole cinema, so it wasn't so embarrassing that I was laughing away like I own the place.
Yeah, with no control volume button. Just imagine.
I was still having giggle spasms even after I've gotten out of the cinema area. It was that enjoyable.

Total Recall made me cringed and squealed quite a bit with the fast-paced action scenes.
And because I had such an empty cinema for Three Stooges, I kinda forgot about the other audiences when I first sat down for this second movie.
Had to remind myself a couple of times to keep the reaction to the screen down.
The gravity changing scenes was quite a mind-boggle to me.
Something to do with passing the core of the earth, or near the core of the earth.
The synthetic police reminded me of the white baddies in Star Wars which made them not so scary after that.

Killed an hour or so by trampling over to Komtar and crossed like the craziest intersection ever....with me squealing away because no cars was stopping to let us walk across.
And all that just so to check out a music shop opposite Gama.
Then was back and over to Prangin to check out if there was any new skeleton anklets which I'm crazy about right now.

Then it was FINALLY time for Nana's musical!!!
Bought her an emo bar. Lol.
The musical was awesome!!!
Or maybe I'm biased because I've never been to a local one.
(And everything Nana does is awesome anyway after she created Max....Lol)
Thankful of the early passes so I can choose where I wanna sit.
My spot was just right because I could watch the musical, the band and the choir on the other end without twisting my neck much. And if I turned all the way behind, I see Nana's serious face on as a bonus!
I got all teary when the mum grieves over the lost son. It was THAT moving.
And the band was *swoon* worthy!
Are they that cute all the time? When can I audition for the music team, Nana? Lol.

Since the musical ended around 10ish, we could make our way up to Rasa Sayang to watch Sound of Lights play.
An out of the blue spur of the moment drive based only because its been weeks since we last saw them.
Unfortunately, they had ended the session earlier for that particular night although their time slot was suppose to be until 11.15pm every night.
Was kinda disappointed having driven all the way up there to come back down again.
And without dinner at that point. My tummy was more or less influencing my mood by then.

So instead we had take-out food (ending the reign of Glass meals) and ate at the promenade.
Had my sundae ice cream in the car, and was in a better mood by the time we got there.
It never fails to amaze me when another of God's creation would let me spoon feed them.

Lost track of time eating, watching the gentle ripples of waves, having random conversation topics and just being intoxicatedly calm in the peace between fireworks, dog barking from a boat at sea and other noises.
After a long day that I went through so many different emotions, it was just right to end my day there.
I wouldn't have mind just dying on the spot there.
Got home way way late and was super glad to find my dad asleep.

I can't even begin to list down all the thankfuls about Friday because there was just sooo many details to be thankful about. So there's my title as a roundup to that.

Delights

A team is only as strong as its' weakest link.

Today's thankfuls

169 Accepting dad who read through the agreement without negativity.

170 Sweet, sweet sound of violin returned.

171 Not eating steamboat all by myself last night.

*had written a longer explanatory post for each of the above but Mozilla swallowed them. T_T *

172 Had company walking the whole stretch of promenade last night.
Been meaning to do it for such a long, long time.
It was peaceful watching the gentle ripples of the sea in the dark.

173 Three Cantonese words that are way better than the word [cougar] I have in mind.

174 One of the Silencerts talks and answers back now.
Huge improvement! One more to go now, yay!!!!