Thursday, June 30, 2005
Dog or Child?

I first got Cookey in Oct 2002. She stood out from the rest of the puppies as she was the most playful...always jumping on top of the other puppies and trying to seek my attention. She had a little skin problem then...some schnauzer pimples here and there but her endearing self won me over.

She is 3 years old now (on 26 June). Time flies. As you can see from the pix, we actually celebrated her birthday!!! Well, this wasn't the first time though....we celebrated her 1st birthday as well....Then it was an actual party with food and cake (for humans and dogs)...Yes, I have invited her doggy friends as well...This time, the cake is not meant for her but for us but I bought a cheese sausage for her (which she gobbled down in mere seconds).

In any case, it sorta got me wondering, will I be more obsessive a parent to Helena next time (for those who dun know, I am naming my daugther Helena)? I mean, I spoil my dog like nuts...I think I'm bound to spoil my kid as well. Oh no...!!!

Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Inconsiderate Singaporeans?

Last week, I went on a 3-day course in Tanjong Pagar. SDF claims really do wonders for the organisation. Not only are my course fees totally covered by SDF claims, my company gets a $15 payment! Wow! Which other country has such benefits for private organisations?

Anyway, for someone who works in Tuas, spending 3 days in the city area is a refreshing break and change from the dreary industrial environment. There are so many choices for food and places to shop if you have a quick lunch! Well, I'm afraid the fun stops there. My journey back home is not as eventful as you can see from my accounts below:

The first day on the MRT: the moment I entered the train and faced the people seating on the bench, I saw 3 persons immediately closing their eyes and pretending to be asleep.

The second day: I stood in front of a group of young malay boys who were not older than 20 years. Despite my my obvious swell, they continued to joke and chat with each other, ignoring me completely...

On both occasions, I had to stand from Tanjong Pagar to Jurong East before I had a seat.....well seriously, not that I wanted a seat that badly, I could still stand, but I just thought that Singaporeans should be more considerate. I mean, the government had to put labels on certain seats to encourage passengers to give up their seat to someone who needs it more...what more can they do? Are Singaporeans so selfish and self-centred? If so, why do we see millions of $ donated to organisations like NKF every other quarter? If not, why do we see more and more old folks in old age homes?

Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Ginger Pudding

Cooking is not my forte...(so is web design as you can see from my blogskin design) after all thats worth, I decided to just use a template instead *sheesshh*

My fren just gave a recipe for "Ginger Pudding" and it is positively idiot proof!

Step 1: Boil 1 cup of fresh milk in a pot (use hi-low fresh milk if you are afraid of being fat)
Step 2: Add 2 tablespoon sugar and stir the milk till it boils
Setp 3: Once boiled, off fire, add 1-2 teaspoon of ginger (squeeze juice out of ginger) to the
mixture and pour it in little pretty cups/containers. Leave it to cool

Wa-la! You have your homemade Ginger Pudding! It's so easy! Try it.

Sunday, June 26, 2005
Blogskins

God! I took so much time just trying to find the right skin...even till now, I am not totally satisfied. Added the feature to comment now. Hope it is better now.

Lending Money

Lending Money

I am currently going through RCIA (a procedure one goes through to become a catholic) at the moment. Every Saturday, we are expected to attend the "Breaking of the Bread" and today's topic is pretty interesting. It talks about ''unselfishness'' and what I have done to provide for another person unselfishly and how the person had reacted or responded to my unselfish act. The topic of "lending money'' came up and I was reminded of my other half's experience.

A few years ago, a good friend borrowed some money from my other half (for what reason, I am not too sure - I got to know of this after the event. Alas guys! why do they always not discuss such matters with their wives first, I wonder?) It was not a big sum of money but it was not a small sum either. Let's just say it is enough to bring a family of three to a comfortable 3 days trip to Bangkok. As I said, it was a good friend....and my other half felt obligated to help him. Afterall, he had known this friend for some time now.....surely it would be ok?!

After some time, when the finances of this friend seemed better (I mean, we could see that he bought some branded, high techy stuff...he went on tours etc), my other half could not help but remind this friend of his debt. Once, twice...there was always an excuse for not being able to pay. After a couple of years, we not only did not see our money, we did not even see this friend...he moved away and was virtually uncontactable...

Hey, I believe my other half was unselfish to lend this friend the money. But I believe that his friendship was abused. Whatever the difficulty, if it was a true friend, he would have tried to pay back the debt in the shortest time possible. To me, 6 months to 1 year is the longest I would stretch. Even if it was not the full sum, at least he could pay back installments... I am aware of the fact that money lent is money gone but one should not abuse that.

Well, as for that money, I am not sure if we could ever get it back but I guess God has other plans and maybe we would get our returns in other means...

Thursday, June 23, 2005
Pregnancy and how it changes your life

Pregnancy and how it changes your life

I have always pride myself to be modern and contemporary in my thinking.....pregnancy has changed all that.

When I found out that I was pregnant, family and friends came forth to offer advice of all sorts....yes, even a ''Do/Do Not'' List.

Things not to do when I am pregnant:
1. Use a scissors and cut stuff on the bed
2. Move the bed (that includes changing the bedsheets...so sleeping on dirty sheets is good?
3. Nail and hammer stuff into the wall
4. Go to the zoo (cannot the understand the logic in this one)
5. Watch horror movies

Think the one which affected me most is the last...I love horror movies...Vampires, Ghosts, Werewolves, in English, Chinese, Japanese or Korean...you name it, I have probably watched it all. I have missed all of that this year....and why? All because of this fear insilled in me that watching too many scary images might affect how my child would look....*ha ha*

Never thought that I could turn out this way...it's strange how a baby can change a person.

My other half has also declared that we are not to go for tours together for at least 2 years now. One parent must stay behind to be with the kid. Is that how having a child might change your lifestyle, if so, maybe thats why Singapore is facing such low birthrates. I refused to subscribe to that. Even with children, a husband and wife must steal some time alone with each other...only then, there's romance. And this should be done at least once every month...take leave, sneak out to have fun with each other...even if it's not for an overseas trip....that's what I believe in...without such rendevous, a relationship is monotonus and sigh...boring....

Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Introducing Ur Sweet Lullaby

Introducing Ur Sweet Lullaby

My friend had urged me to set up a blog moons ago but I never bothered to. So why now?

I guessed, after watching seasons of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker's character) and her honest opinions on life in "Sex in the City", it sort of inspired me to talk and write about what I see and hear.....to others.....Also, a great excuse to hog the PC which is mostly dominated by my better half....

Recently, my better half had been fairly preoccupied with his new hobby - photography and of course like all aspiring photographers, he sometimes surf local photography sites....it was then I realised that there are so many 'so-called photographers' who are into this hobby not for its art value but for something more explicit. I was curious what these photography members write and talk about...and to my surprise, layman photography in Singapore is no longer so much of an art?? Sexy model shoots (esp those in bikini or in the buff) are always snapped out by 'aspiring photographers' in an instant! There was one posting where a young girl was asking for a photographer to shoot her personal portfolio....comments and replies came but no photographer came forth to take her order...they even gave excuses that she was too younng blah blah blah...that is, till she posted a few of her photos...(I have to admit, a few of the photos were pretty sexy). And guess what? Suddenly, more than a handful of photographers volunteered to shoot her portfolio.

So what's the definition of art? Sad to say, some of the photos posted even reminded me of pictures in some softporn magazine...and with some crude comments from members (eg..."nose-bleed"..."Chio ah" etc), it just goes to put my point in perspective...

My other half told me that if I regularly surf the site, I will be able to know who are the 'chi-ko-peks"....hmm.....sounds pretty shallow to me....why cheapen an art and skill that has been revered for such a long time? Well, I guess there are always black sheep in every occupation.

Oh yes, just to share my joy, I am also 28 weeks pregnant and expecting a little girl...never thought pregnancy would be this hard till now. Constantly having aches all over the place...but well...thats another story to share on another day....