Thankful

Indeed i am. When God closes one door, He will never forget to leave another one open. With that, i'm really very thankful and grateful that while x-man chose to venture on his path, He sent some other angels down for me and Shane. I'm very fortunate. I have met many good people in my life, some stay, some move on and i know they are/were in my life for a reason. For those who no longer stay by my side, I do think of them from time to time. I miss them.


Apart from a family that loves me unconditionally, it's a true blessing to be surrounded by good people who care. I am thankful i have a kind boss who looks after me and a bunch of smart, kind and crazy-like-me girls at work whom i enjoy laughing and working with day in, day out. We have fun but we do work hard. I think my work place is one of the rare few where people actually build friendships and are comfortable with each other. So comfortable that i show them my trophy stretchmarks at every chance i could and never forget to remind them constantly that i'm actually the smartest of them all :)


Stretchmarks, that's like the branding of motherhood and i'm immensely proud of them! The markings are a permanent reminder that i'm a fighter, a tough cookie and if you dare trample all over my kid, i'll repay you million times the same.


Which then brought me back to the reason why i chose to stay single. Read http://shanewei.blogspot.com/2008/08/fontok-na.html.


Maybe someday i will meet a really really nice and good man but for now, my only man is Shane.


Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Mark sent me a Chinese text message which i understood half and guessed the other half. I on-sent it to my girls and if you received one from me tonite, consider that a lucky charm and be glad you are on my VIP list!


In another two months or so, i'll be celebrating my birthday. Another year older, oh well, that's not really something to be happy about, or is it? Who wants to grow older? Maybe when i was ten or eleven. But now i wish time will stand still. However, i'm slowly accepting the fact that i'm no longer young. Some very fine lines are starting to appear and i'm slapping on anything that promises younger looking skin.


Ahh.. La Mer, my puppy, come to Mommy!

Fading

My passion for blogging is somewhat fading. Or perhaps i am. I no longer have the urge to tell the world what i did today, ate yesterday or the cutie i'm seeing tomorrow. Age is catching up, and soon i know this place will become a page of the past.


My past.


I wonder.


How often do people reminisce? And when they do, do they have any regrets of things they did or things they hadn't do?


My candle is burning, still going strong i hope and before You blow off the flame, let me live with no regrets.

Do You Pray?

En Kai was laid to rest three days ago, exactly nine days after his birth. I was told of him way before his birth.


I cried the day i heard about him which was the day of the Club 21 sale. Agnes bought two beautiful small blue rompers. I was admiring it and she told me her sister was expecting a pair of twins. I congratulated her but what she said next broke my heart. One of the twins had anencephaly, a congenital birth defect that occurs in approximately one in one thousand pregnancies. En Kai was the younger twin with anencephaly.


I cried the day i knew he left. I saw his picture. He was a very beautiful baby, in fact, the most beautiful i have ever seen. And he was brave, very brave and so full of love, so much so that his grandmother had to gently tell him to let go before he queitly went home to God.


Anencephaly, in laymen definition is "baby developed without a brain". It is a defect in the neural tube that fails to close and develop around 25th days into embryonic development. Most anencephalic babies do not live past a day and it's amazing En Kai live to nine days.


Dear readers, if you do pray, may i request you to say a silent prayer for En Kai and for all babies with this unfortunate condition?

"There is no foot too small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world".

命中注定

你相信命中注定吗？ 我相信。


所有在我们周围发生的点点滴滴和遇见的人，都已在我们出生之前被决定了。


但是有时候我不甘心，也不放弃，为我身边的人努力，加油，要找到属于我自己的天空。


你呢？


Alright, a weak attempt at trying my hand at Chinese. With help from Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0 and http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt, i managed to type that out in slightly less than an hour :)


A while ago, i came across an article about rainbows and someone once asked me what do i want at the end of my rainbow.


Have you ever wonder what is really at the end of your rainbow? I was told, in fairy tales, that there will be a pot of gold at the end of the colorful walk. Is it really so? I don't know, i will never know until i'm there, isn't it? Will the rainbow i created have a pot of gold too?


No, not really a pot of gold. Rather i want it to be something that surpasses all my earthly wants. Or someone.


Yes, someone. I want to find someone at the end of my rainbow. A grown man. A responsible man with the heavy world on his broad shoulder, supporting it with a steady gaze, holding it up with a pair of strong hands. He may be tired from holding it too long but he will never back down, never give up and with his proud face looking up at the world on his shoulder, he will continue. He may tear, for that is human nature, not a sign of weakness. He may get temptations, he may make mistakes but to err is again, just human but he will soon learn the difference between good and evil. He may get discouraged, disheartened, but he will see himself through. He may experience setbacks but setbacks are like slingshots, once he learnt how to use it to his favour, he will overturn the table. He may get badly beaten, badly crushed but he will learn to pick himself up, bearing the scars of his downfall and face the world with even more determination.


Before the last light on my fading rainbow goes out, i want to see a responsible grown up Shane.


That will be my ultimate pot of gold.

What A Waste!

Did you all catch 'The Little Nyonya: The Final Chapter' aired earlier at 9.55pm? Really, if that's the best Mediacorp can come out with, i would rather they save it for their own private viewing. It's like adding insult to injury. With the greater audience terribly upset over the ending a week ago, i'm surprise at the pathetic finale. Now, more fuel will be added to the burning forest.


Instead of the 'blockbuster' it originally was, TLN has now officially become a laughingstock! And instead of pacifying the viewers, Mediacorp has just single-handedly flushed the whole show down the toilet. This finale should never have happened.


What an unfortunate waste of the three-minute airtime.

3.5 Days

I've been busy. Thanks to Chris who told me that someone has uploaded all the episodes of The Little Nyonya on Youtube, so i googled for it on New Year's Day. And i found it - http://www.youtube.com/user/Mediacorpfan.


I caught this show when i was channel surfing last Monday and it got me hooked in that two hours. I don't understand how certain things happened but now i do! All in three and a half days. Thank you Mediacorpfan!! Must be hard work for you.


Btw, why was the photo studio named 'Nanyang' when the Chinese words are something else? And in a pic i saw on TLN Facebook Page, the name was 'Sin Chew'. Did someone get confused in Mediacorp?

Anyway i was very glad when the elder evil sister was slapped last week and indeed, like someone who wrote in the papers, i am hoping she receive another big slap again on the last episode come Monday. I will await eagerly with two large buckets of popcorns and an evil smile.

Thank You All!

Thank you everyone for walking through 2008 with us.


Have a prosperous start in 2009! May all of you keep safe and be blessed with good health always!

Sour Grapes

Indeed they are. And these are Dad's pride and joy. The grape vines have been with us for more than twenty years. Previously, Dad planted them at our balcony which sort of restricted their growth. They now occupy our backyard which used to have two huge longan & lychee trees that never did bear any fruit. Instead, we got caterpillars falling off from the trees like snow. Yucks! Caterpillars that were fat, green and some were even hairy! Double Yucks!!


Btw, we also have apple, apricot and persimmon trees in our front yard but i doubt they will bear fruit.


And my dear readers, my home is in super hot, humid Malaysia, so yeah, surprise they can even grow huh? :)


So after three weeks of doing basically nothing, i'm really looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. But now, i have to find that darn blackberry charger. My blackberry has been hibernating for almost two weeks now. Time to wake up!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to All. Happy Holidays!

Over The Last Few Days..

I overate, slept in, watched movies with Shane, went office occassionally (i know i'm supposed to be on leave but my office is like my second home and i do enjoy the company of my girls) and of course, some 'Mommy-Me Time' :)


Went lunch with the gang on Wed at Borgo. No, diet can wait until after Chinese New Year!

Dinner and Drinks with my lovelies on Friday before everyone decides to disappear for the next two weeks:

Had dinner at Restaurant Ember (again!). I chosed it! :)

As always, i had my foie gras and beef tenderloin. Their food presentations were somewhat different from the last.

Next, drinks at The Screening Room.

We had our Round II of 'Truth & Dare'. Have you played that before? I didn't want the boring old style where everyone takes their turn. Rather i made them drew out number cards i prepared beforehand and the dices were rolled to determine the 'victim'.

This was my number - Magic Ten.

The girls were busy scribbling their Truth questions and silly embarassing Dares .

We had an amazing nite just drinking, chatting and acting silly. Try this game at your next Girls' Nite Out. You can check this site http://www.getdare.com/index.php for ideas.


And today, i did something frivolously fun. I blinged stuffs for my sisters, nieces and girlfriends. Yes, bling blings are for girls.



Do you like the sparkling effect on my picture? Sorry if i put one too many. I just learnt how to do this from the web today, so it's rather exciting for me. If you want to know how to create this, here's the tutorial to guide you: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/sparkle/. I had the photoshop program for over two years but never knew how to use it well. I didn't know this effect can be done using photoshop until i saw Eve's pic and i googled for it. I also came across this site that allows download of its stars and sparkles brushes. Here you go, you might like it too - http://www.photoshopbrushes.com/brushes/28.htm.

















Here are what you need to get started:

1) Glue. You'll need special glue that dries up fast, clear and water-proof. Mine is 'Perfect Deco' which cost about S$8.80.

2) Magic Pick S$16.90. This toothpick-like applicator has a rubber end that helps you pick up the rhinestones effortlessly. It works hand in hand with the double side tape found on top of the rectangular pad next to it.

3) Pen S$2.00. Length app 8.5cm.

4) Toothpicks. I use this to dot the glue on the pen bit by bit.

5) Lastly, size 10 Swarovski flatback rhinestones. I used different shades of pink (Fuchsia, Rose & Light Rose) and green (Olivine, Peridot & Erinite) for my two pens as shown in the pics above. Each pack are sold in 144 pieces and cost about S$5.40 per pack. All the materials shown here are from Mix & Match at #02-69 People’s Park Centre.

Now that you know where to get the materials, go try blinging something for someone today. It holds more meaning than getting your good friend that Red Lipstick from Chanel.