3 Leaves, 1 Birthday

I'm on 3 days of leave just so as to coincide with my sissy's leave days and her birthday. Happy Birthday Sissy! We had a girly day out yesterday and went for a pedicure, followed by Prego's, shopping and dessert, in this order. I let her choose my nail colour for me since she was the birthday girl-to-be yesterday. So now I've got blood red toe nails to usher in the new year. Today, to celebrate her birthday, we are going to Ikea to pig out on our favourite fried chicken wings!!!

Sluggish Sunday

It was another dog-filled Sunday with Randolph.... Is this going to be a trend of how I'm going to spend my Sundays from now on? Plus yummy dinner at Crystal Jade after that. Thought I would be sick of chinese food, but Crystal Jade is different! I LOVE Crystal Jade!

U Wanton!

I had fried wanton hor fun for lunch today. As i picked up one wanton and started crunching on it, I thought of my days in SC. During recess, L and I would each know what we were supposed to do. I would get the fish cakes, nuggets, wantons, etc and she would go buy the drinks. I miss the fish cake from the auntie! We would alternate our 'duties' everyday. If we were sick of fish cake that day, then we would have hor fun. Hers with lots of green chilli and mine without. Those were the days when all we worried about was what to have for recess and whether we needed to have a re-听写 (for her! hehe...)

Wanton also reminded me of Shakespeare and our Literature lessons with a certain Mrs N.

"Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?"

- Oberon to Titania, in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Granny

I was having dinner with some friends at a hawker centre last night when a 2 - 3 year old boy came up to our table, looked at me and called me 奶奶! What! Hello! In what way do i resemble his granny? Was totally devastated.... actually I still am being huanted by his cute little voice going 奶奶... 奶奶... 奶奶... Argh!!!

Randolph... again!

As you can probably tell, Randolph is my latest object of affection. Too bad I can't see him everyday as he lives with my sister. Looks like I'm going to drop by her house very often now! Look at Randolph in his different sleeping poses! Don't you just want to go pat him? Aww.....

Randolph.... who?

Everyone must be wondering who's Randolph? Hehe.... Randolph Sng is the new addition to my family! He's a Brittany Spaniel and is about 2 years old now. He's my sister's dog so he's my little dog nephew! Haha! He's so cute and adorable and so obedient! Sorry Coco, I've found someone new!

Home - Work

I touched down on Saturday night and I'm finally back home.

I had a relaxing, happy, dog-filled day with Randolph on Sunday.

Now I'm back at work at Shenton Way.

Bah...

Neigh

I got these from my student. Look at the white horse in the middle. It's smiling! This set is called the 唐三彩 and is from Luoyang (洛阳). I've been pondering about this for some time. Why is this called 唐三彩? These 3 chinese characters literally mean 3 colours of tang. I know it is from the Tang dynasty, but why 3 colours? I look and stare at the horses and no way did the craftsmen only use 3 colours to paint them.

That aside, I'm now wondering if I should bring them back to Singapore. So troublesome. So fragile. So brittle. In all, so 马烦!

How Cold?

You know it's really cold when
1. water that trickles downhill freezes even before it can evaporate
2. water that drips from the aircon forms icicles
3. you can breathe 'smoke', just like some super hero!
4. babies are so tightly wrapped that they can't put their arms down and their arms stick out from the sides of their prams
5. toddlers are wearing so many layers that they can't walk normally but sideways like a crab

On a brighter note, I think I'm starting to like the weather. I especially love stepping out into the cold every morning and feeling the breeze on my face. Ahh.... I'm now able to go out in just 3 layers! A milestone for me!

I only just wish to see the snow one last time before I go home. Snow god, please have mercy!!!

Ka-boom!

Shh.... Don't tell them what I'm going to do....

Ta-da! I end up with BIG hair! Some commented that I look like a 洋娃娃(doll). Others say my hair exploded. I definitely prefer the former.

Slurp!

I've got pear drink from the 阿姨 again! Haha! I'm on the road to recovery! So delicous! I would want to drink it even if I'm not ill!
Temperature: -4 to 3

Fat factor: 6/10 as I've only got my turtleneck sweater on now! With coat, it will be 8/10

Gone With The Whisper

Never thought such a kind person exists in this world. Yesterday, the 服务员 (I call her 阿姨)came to tidy my room and I whispered hello to her. She was shocked that I could not speak and exclaimed "那么严重啊!" I could only smile back at her.

Later that evening at 6.30 pm, I received a telephone call from her. Wondering how I talked on the phone? Heh.... Again I could only whisper, but she understood me. Apparently, after work, she had gone home and brewed a whole flask of pear water for me and she is now back at the hotel! Other than the pear water, she gave me some dumplings which she had made herself! My dinner was settled then! Ah.... She's so nice! I suddenly remembered my chinese teacher, Omega, saying "雪中送炭"

Miraculously, after consuming the whole flask of pear water, my voice came back, but barely though. At least when my mom called me, I could speak and no longer need to whisper.

Dirt Pills

I'm now taking a medicine for my throat called 清音丸. The packaging is so unique that it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get the medicine out. Each pill is individually packed in a tiny box, and when I opened the box, I was greeted with a ping pong ball like thing that is maybe half the size of the real thing. Great, I'm sick and my throat hurts like mad and now I've got to swallow something so huge. But wait, when I held up the ping pong ball, I could hear something rattle inside. Oh, so the pill is actually inside the ball. But how am I supposed to open the ball!!! I realised then that the exterior is some kind of waxy plastic. I used a fruit knife and tried to pry it open. Alas, it hardly budged! Hello, I'm sick and not able to think properly! I need to eat the pill now!

Anyway, I decided that brute force was not the way to go and sat down to analyse the ping pong ball. Ah! There is a very fine line (almost invisible!) along the middle of the ball and so with just an ounce of strength, I squeezed it right there. Pop came my pill! Ulghh! It is a big, soft and smelly THING! I can't even begin to call it a pill!

Which brings me to my next story.....

Remember when I was young, there was this drama about 'Ji Gong', the begger god who always carried with him a torn and tattered straw fan. He had super powers and could heal people with pills that were actually dirt rubbed from his body. He would knead the dirt into tiny balls called 'lao ni wan' and pop them into his patients' mouths.

I feel exactly like I'm eating a 'lao ni wan' now! Help me!!!

Ping pong ball on the left and the THING on the right.....

Peek-a-boo

Boo! Guess who?! Haha! Lovely scarf isn't it? Nice colour, nice texture, plus nice and unconventional knitting stitches. What makes it nicer is it's made by my sissy! Jealous? Adds to the warmth everytime I wear it! Plus I've got a nasty sore throat right now, so this can keep my neck really warm. Can't speak, or when I do speak, it comes out in whispers..... Isn't it funny how when you speak in whispers, the other person would also whisper back to you?! Haha! My class was a sea of silent murmurs and whisper today! I think they can lip read quite well too! What a way to start the new year!

Temperature: -7 to -1 degrees centigrade
Fat factor: From the pic, I would say 6/10 as you can only see my fat face!

Fat Factor

I'm so bored here that I've decided to show you guys how fat I am now in the winter clothes. But the fat factor is also dependent on the weather. The colder it gets, the higher the fat factor. The temperature yesterday was -2 to 5 degress centigrade. So here you see me in my favourite coat. I call it my 宝贝 cause the stitching on it is so delicate that it is coming apart! Everytime after I return home wearing it, I would scrutinise every inch of it to make sure the stitching had not burst. If it had, then I would spend the next half hour mulling over it, trying to fix it and wondering how I can prevent it from deteriorating. And it's definitely not because I'm fat that the stitching had burst ok! It's just poor workmanship and no QC by the manufacturers. Still, this black and white coat is my 宝贝!

Temperature: -2 to 5 degrees centigrade
Fat factor: 7 out of 10 (At least body curves can still be seen.... slightly! Sigh...)

Physics King

Once again, I have to take my hat off to YOU! You will always be the physics king in my eyes! No no, not Mr Lim from JWSS, but 'you know who'. I had problem with a physics question and you must be a godsend! You appeared right before I was supposed to go for class and solved the problem for me! Something that I took almost forever to solve came to you in a matter of seconds! Thank you thank you! Maybe it's just my low-level of physics. *Sigh* Perhaps I need some tuition from you.... hehe....

Hello '07! Goodbye '06!

When it snowed on 30 December, I thought 'What a perfect way to end the year!'. Alas, the snow was only for a little while and by the last day of the year, all the beatiful white snow had melted away. How did I welcome the new year? I was holed up in my room the whole night! A friend called to wish me happy new year and told me to sleep early. I listened and so I slept through the new year! Haha!

I think 2006 had been a good year for me. From Vietnam to Myanmar and finally to China. I think the best part of all these were the relationships and friendships I had forged. Vivian, Belinda, brothers, sisters, countless students...

I am looking forward to 2007 bringing more challenges in my work, more travelling, more new friends and stronger friendships with old ones, better health for myself and my family, wishing that the elusive thing with the capital L finds me and stays with me, and that everyone is happy!

元旦快乐！Happy New Year!