Hey you

I told some of you that I am moving my blog somewhere else, and here you are! I am thinking of importing all the entries here, somehow, I can't (or dunno how). I might just copy and paste.

The truth is, I am cutting off some friends from my list. It seems the older we get, the lesser friends we have. But the friends who remain after all the bullshit, are friends who matter. So if you are here because I gave you the address, it means that I love you!

I am in a happy place right now.

The National History Museum

The National Museum all dressed up for the Night Festival... on my birthday no less!

A Very Hot Day

Trippin'

The chance of a short weekend trip next month has become pretty likely and it was suggested by the husband no less. We have been thinking about where we should go, and we can't decide. With the NZ trip a month away from this possible weekender trip, I do not wish to spend too much.

So, where can we go for 3 nights? The usual suspect is Bangkok. Other destinations are Bali, Langkawi, Sri Lanka, and Sabah. For once, I cannot decide where to go.
Sri Lanka has some really gorgeous resorts. The room rate is equally attractive too. The tea plantation resorts are to die for! Goodness, talk about a colonial hangover. Peaceful and quiet, it will be a nice retreat. I do feel that we will need more than 3 nights.

I miss Bali, I have been wanting to go back. The resorts are sooooo nice too! But with an impending Kiwi trip, it is a little too much to spend.

What about Sabah? Husband says the cockroaches are huge over there. That puts me off already, although i doubt that is true.

Langkawi? Tax free, cheap beer, and nothing to do. I think I can short list that.

I suspect that we will end up in Bangkok. We need a little chaos before all the quietness of New Zealand. Plus, it is cheaper than the other places that I mentioned above (not counting the shopping that I may be doing). A lot of decent hotels at decent rates. Plenty to eat, a lot to see and do. It is no wonder we flock to BKK! As terrible as it may sound, but i do put in more effort chosing an accommodation than most people I know. I did a quick google on Bangkok hotels and found some really nice ones at affordable rates. There is Dream Bangkok, The Metropolitan Bangkok - this one is a little pricey, but it is a Como Shambhala hotel! There is one that is named literally, Bangkok Boutique Hotel. What about the Pullman Bangkok? Looks pretty interesting. Singaporeans love to stay at the Pathumwan Princess, must be a good location to all the shopping and makan. Ang Mos seem prefer the faraway places. I wonder why.

Current Read

Who says I do not read chick lit?

Happy Birthday!

Happy 43rd birthday Singapore! To all Singaporeans, happy happy National Day!

I love being Singaporean. (Well, most of the times.) I love the size of our nation. It takes less than an hour to reach most places. There are eating places open 24 hours, heck, even a shopping mall opens 24 hours! Sometimes it can get a little claustrophobic and tough to find those rare pockets of quietness.

I love how "unpure" our chinese dialects are. Borrowing words from Bahasa Melayu, using words like pasat and satboon (pardon the spelling, i meant to say soap in Malay). I love using Singlish. there is an instant intimacy when you use it. You can't possibly order prata or Char Kway Teow in proper english.

"Uncle, can I order a plate of Char Kway Teow, without the cockles and less chilli please?"
" I would like to have a plain prata and another with onion please. Oh, and a milk tea. Thank you. "

So the unnatural lor! As opposed to this....

"Uncle, Char Kway Teow mai hum, hiam jio mai kar zhuay"
"Prata kosong satu, bawang satu, plus teh."

Much better right? Believe me, I tried ordering in proper English, the uncle just went "Har?". We should never feel ashamed about using Singlish. Please lor, the English have their Cockney slang, so why can't we tweak (more polite than using the term bastardize) the English language and give it a little local twist? Quirky, fun and uniquely Singapore! You can't be Singaporean if you can't speak Singlish! Just don't use it at work lah!
Notice how we seem to call everybody auntie and uncle even when they are not anyone we even know? I wonder if the Malaysians practise this as well?

Apart from shopping and buying Toto and 4D, the other national obsession is eating. We are so obsessed with it, that when we meet up with people, the first thing we ask is "Have you eaten?" instead of "How are you today?" We meet up with friends and family to eat, we go on makan road trips, when we travel, we seek out the supposedly best eateries. We have our own favourite chicken rice stalls, wanton mee stalls, briyani stalls, ayam penyet stalls, we even queue for donuts for heavens sake! We have more food blogs than we have political blogs. We not only compare who has the best chicken rice, but also who has the best chilli sauce. All we think about is the next meal. We have lists of must-eat places, we have makan guide books, we even have organised food tours.

I am proud being a Singaporean. I am born here, raised here and I would raise my children here. There is nowhere that I would rather be. My friends and family are here, I will in a heartbeat, defend my country when I have too. Life has been great here, I have been well taken care of, giving back is the right thing to do. No doubt that I do not agree on some policies and how certain things are being run, but nowhere is perfect. I do not think I can find a place where I can totally be happy with every single thing.

I find it a little sad when Singaporeans just quit and scoot off somewhere else and not come back just because you don't agree with everything or think that the grass is greener on the other side.I was at the Kranji War Museum last Sunday. There lay all the men that fought for this nation, to make it a better place, to give freedom to us, they believe in what they were fighting for, so shouldn't we do the same? By walking away, giving up, these people would have died for nothing. In his inaugural address, JFK said "ask not what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

After that spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games just the day before, I wonder who would tune in to the National Day parade today?

A Raging Fire

The fire at Sungei Kadut, the fire was huge, and from the news, we learnt that it brought down a couple of factories or warehouses. We were at the Kranji War Memorial, and I thought it was a 7th month incense offering went wrong.

Bookwormy kinda sale

Kinokuniya is having a 20 percent discount for members! I have a whole list of books I want to buy! I can spend hours just browsing the fiction shelves.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I have been meaning to read Oscar Wilde, so I might just get The Picture Dorian Gray this time.
Perhaps a book of WH Auden's poems?

The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux - Essential traveller's read! Plus I adore train rides, the most romantic way to travel. Not talking about your local subway trains!

I would love to own Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland that comes with the great illustrations and a handsome looking hard cover.

I have been always thinking of getting the complete set of Calvin and Hobbes comics!

I read Remains of the Day and like it enough to read another Kazuo Ishiguro book. The next book might be Never Let Me Go.

Disgrace by J.M Coetzee

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Love in the Time of Cholera and A Hundred Years in Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marques.

I really have to start to seriously think about my shelf space for my books. I might have to get shelves for the living room soon just for books and magazines. I have given a lot away already!

My Greastest Fear

Is turning into an auntie.

I know how totally shallow and silly this may sound, but I will really really detest myself should that day come! I am no fashionista, and I dress down most time, wearing plenty of shorts and tees. PLENTY! BUT I will make sure it is a nice proper tee with proper shorts, all properly ironed. Heck, I even blow my hair. I will never skip my skin care routine. Okay, so I get lazy and skip the moisturising every now and then, but I will make sure my face is always clean before hitting the sack. Hey, I have some auntie traits too! I just don't need to look like one.

Can you imagine going out with messy hair, with tired looking skin, and out of shape tees? WHAT ABOUT MUMMY JEANS????????????? So frightening! I will hate to be caught wearing those hideous things! Every now and then, when I see a mother who is about my age, looking so bad and unkempt, I will always turn to my husband and tell him never ever to let me out of the house looking like that.

Have you seen mothers smelling their babies' asses in public? What is that about? It is totally gross and in-dignified, why can't they just peek into the diapers instead? Does smelling the poop convince mothers more than actually seeing a soiled bottom? What if it was just a fart, has that ever occur to them?

I hate it when mothers think they have the right of way everywhere they go just because they have a baby in a stroller. They have their strollers everywhere, barging around in the supermarkets, in PC shows with their screaming running siblings in toll. I cannot remember how many times I have been shoved and pushed with a supermarket trolley with a baby sitting inside, in supermakets. A lot of these people do not apologise. They feel and behave like it their god damn right. Hateful people! Now that I have warmed up talking about ill behaviours, I have since stopped going to the wet market near my place. Aunties push away, disregard you and dirty you by brushing their marketing baskets or plastics bags against you. I think being the "new bird" and being slightly young puts you at a disadvantage. The grocers too, generally ignores you I got cheated once by the butcher too! I hate it. I never had so much problem in other markets except the one near my place.

I do realise how tough motherhood is, maybe it is tougher than I can imagine. Sometimes I don't think I can be as selfless as a mother should be. A baby will take up most of a mother's time, how could a mother have time do look after herself, even if she has, she might rather spend it catching up on rest. In a way, it is really very easy for me to say that I will never let myself go like that. I may never know until I become a mother myself. I do believe that taking care of yourself means the best for the baby and the family. You look good, you feel good. I do think one's appearance does affect one's esteem and confidence. In order for me to take care of another person, I need to be able to take care of myself first. A child may be your world, but some mothers forget that they are individuals too.