Just.

Hey people, there is a new bag collection in the shop. Do pop by and take a peek!

This was sent to me by an ex colleague Jolene in Facebook. I don’t know the origins of the story and apologize for being unable to credit the author.. It is however, a meaningful wake up call and I would love to share it with my dear friends here.

1,000 MARBLES

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.

I turned the volume up on my radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning talk show. I heard an older sounding chap with a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business himself.

He was talking about “a thousand marbles” to someone named “Tom.” I was intrigued and sat down to listen to what he had to say.

“Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital.”

He continued, “Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.”

And that’s when he began to explain his theory of “a thousand marbles.”

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.”

“Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I’m getting to the important part.”

“It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.”

“So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in my workshop next to the radio. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and have thrown it away.”

“I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”

“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday then God has blessed me with a little extra time to be with my loved ones …”

“It was nice to talk to you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your loved ones, and I hope to meet you again someday. Have a good morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop when he finished. Even the show’s moderator didn’t have anything to say for a few moments. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to do some work that morning, then go to the gym. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.

“C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile.

“Oh, nothing special,” I said. “It has just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”

MAY ALL SATURDAYS BE SPECIAL
AND MAY YOU HAVE MANY HAPPY YEARS
AFTER YOU LOSE ALL YOUR MARBLES.

Someone has been making breakfast for me.. and this morning it is eggs sunny side up, sauteed cheese sausages and a nice hot cuppa coffee. And our friend refused to let me wash up, shooing me to go take a shower and doll up for work.

I is so loved.

I feel so fortunate to have someone who is not a “you must stay home to cook and wash, woman!” MCP. I feel fortunate because I have the choice to work or not to. I am like an unbridled horse and I think I will feel very suffocated if I am told that I can’t work or can’t do this or that.

I feel fortunate that I am doted on and given lots of space and freedom to do whatever I want. Although I feel that I am being spoilt silly – it’s a nice warm fuzzy feeling, I will never take it for granted. I am grateful for what I am blessed with and try to count my blessings whenever I can.

**

The boys have been ribbing him for “spoiling the market”.

Eh, don’t kechow lah! Here, go pick up tips from this chap who seems to have seen the light.

*giggles*

After the walk in Kent Ridge Park on Saturday, we had dinner at Khansama Tandoori Village in Science Hub, which is like, beside our place.

The restaurant has a rich and opulent theme and is almost like an Indian museum of sorts..



Figurines depicting the Indian way of life.

The crockery – double plated with brass.

Rich and vibrant hues

There are a few attentive staff on standby at all times. The level of service is good.

The bar counter

Reshami Tikka (chicken) full portion S$12.00
Very tender and flavourful. 8/10.

Mutton Seekh Kebab half portion S$6.00
Intense tandoori taste, but a tad dry. 6/10

Navrattan Kurma S$7.50 full portion
Garden Vegetables cooked with butter and cream sauce, North Indian style
Savoury and not too heavy. 7.5/10

Butter Chicken full portion S$10.50
Chicken was tender and succulent, and the sauce very flavourful. 8.5/10

Left: Cheese Pratha (soft bread) S$4.50 6.5/10 (good hint of cheese, soft fluffy bread)
Right: Missi Roti (thin bread) S$2.50 4/10 (an acquired taste perhaps, a tad too dry for my liking)

All in all, it was quite a good dinner and at S$50.00 for 2 persons, is quite reasonable priced.

They are located at

87 Science Park Drive

#02-01 The Science Hub

Tel: 6776 0300

This morning, Gean shared with me about a dream she had last night. To cut a long meandering story dream short, the gist was that she was “fighting” with a woman using some pieces of string [I am guessing in a playful manner, from what she described] when I appeared and killed the woman.

She said it very matter of factly and without any tinge of horror that her mother is a murderous fiend in her dream.

The weather was glorious on Saturday and so we took out the DSLR and the Canon Ixus to Kent Ridge Park for a leisurely stroll..

Our place is greenery galore..

Gate leading to Kent Ridge Park

The lamp post is so Narnia right?

Kent Ridge Park is just right beside our place. I love sitting here in front of the pond. Very relaxing and serene.

There is something romantic about walking hand in hand with the one you love down a path like this.

Tsk.

I tell you. It was so beautiful. All that was lacking was a picnic basket.

These two dogs kept following us like we were the owners. Very cute.

Is it me or it looks like the stairs is leading to some place magical? LOL

Walking towards Bukit Chandu and the Canopy Walk

The air was fresh with the smell of greenery and dew. It was perfect. And thankfully no smokers around!

Emo version of the Paul Frank mascot, Julius

Good for pak tor and whispering sweet nothings

The Canopy Walk

Wonder who lives there? Lucky chap..

Our place shot from the Canopy Walk

The Peak, a condominium located beside the Canopy Walk. It’s valued at SGD 6-8 million! If I have that kind of money, I’d rather buy a 1 mil condo and invest the rest… *dreaming*

I know I look like I wanna jump in, but really, was just looking at the turtles

Ah. The simple pleasures in life that we so frequently miss out on.

I wasted some twenty minutes of my life yesterday. I had made the wrong decision of dropping by a toxic “friend’s” blog, which I had not done so for the longest time, reason being that the said blog is mostly updated with constant meaningless whining and negativity. There is a certain limit to the amount of negative energy one can stomach.

To my surprise, her recent few posts are positive to say the least.  But keeping in line with her character, the “positivity” is meant to put others down.

By insisting that no others are as fortunate as you are, and by insisting that others don’t get more love than you have, you not only look sad and desperate for validation – the whole diatribe reeks of narrow mindedness and low self esteem.

In wanting to insult one particular person, you ended insulting everyone you know. What kind of toxic person are you?

One can be very fortunate. One can be very loved. Is there a need to declare that NO ONE is as fortunate as you are and NO ONE is as loved as you are? Stating one’s happiness on the childish insistence of absence in others – ugly and toxic. Says a lot about you as a person.

I pondered for a while on dedicating a whole blog post to point-by-point address the petty accusations thrown forth but in doing so, I would stoop to that kind of low level that I despise so much. The whole post is crass, vulgar and low class – and says pretty much about the writer herself. In fact, there are a few posts dedicated to such venom. And I shall leave it to the readers to see and judge for themselves.

In being ridiculously accused of being envious, I don’t like to be envious or jealous of others, as you have opt confessed to be. I will work towards what I want, unlike the meaningless habit of whining about it. I have the least reason to be envious of you. If the truth be known and at the risk of sounding mean, I have always felt sorry, if not pity, for you. For all your professions of being high class and “atas”, you don’t have what it takes and you won’t work for it. What gives? The result is constant whining and more whining.

For all your professions of being so loved and all, what we all see is still more constant whining and “emo” nonsense and imposing on a hospitalized patient in her room till 5 am in the morning – refusing to let your sick friend rest. Not everything is about you and you still have not learned that.

In everything that I have done for you, you have felt neither appreciation or gratitude. Not that I need these but to be “rewarded” with such venomous ingratitude is not something I would have expected. There are so many other things that you have been toxic about but since we have come to this stage, I see no need to address those issues anymore. You know what you did and I hope you can live with it.

Your problem is that you cannot accept other’s happiness and moving upwards in life. You can’t embrace a friend doing better than you are. Otherwise you will not feel the need to trample so desperately and proclaim yourself top dog. I don’t feel anger. I only feel sadness.

The tone of this post is not positioned in the manner of the “damsel in distress, I am so piteous” angle and neither is it positioned in the aggressive, vulgar and crass manner you are so fond of.

I am matter of factly and very calmly telling you that you are officially out of my life. I will not be dropping by your blog anymore, the msn and gchat have been duly deactivated, I will no longer feel angry or sorry for you and I hope to move forward in my life, just as I hope you will move forward in yours. I feel no malice or grudge towards you in doing so, just that we are two very different people and I no longer wish to keep up appearances.

Perhaps Posh had unknowingly hit the nail on the head when she plurked this earlier on:

“you could have all the love in the world and yet you feel empty inside.”

I am glad that I don’t need to have all the love in the world and I feel very happy and contented with what I have.

The only thing that I am sorry about this whole ugly saga is that I don’t want our mutual friends to feel awkwardness. This is not primary school where I don’t friend her you also cannot friend her kinda nonsense. My friendship with you and your friendship with her are mutually exclusive matters.

Moreover I don’t hate her. I don’t feel anything towards her. I don’t know which is sadder though.

That’s a nice poof of smoke! A good healthy dose of toxic second hand smoke for your child!

Look at how intently the kid is, looking at the mother smoking merrily away.

Starting young, thanks to mama.

I hate it when parents smoke in front or near their children. I hate it even more when mothers do it ala Britney, or worse, smoke when they are pregnant (some “warped” idea that a mother is the caregiver or nurturer and therefore should know better)

My dad was a smoker too, but he will go out of the house or go to the balcony, close the sliding door and smoke. I can’t even imagine my MUM smoking.

I find it strange when people believe that they are being good parents  – spend a bomb on tuition or whatnots BUT treat their kids to second hand smoke.

Seriously, cut the crap about stopping being too hard, withdrawal symptoms (do they last forever?), this ah that ah.  All crap.

There are some things I have zilch tolerance for and one of them would be crappy excuses for crappy things.

If you want to do something, you will find the ways and means to do it. My uncle smoked for thirty freaking years and was the most hardcore smoker I ever knew – he smoked Camel cigarettes with no filter, ok. Guess what? He quit last year.

Just to share – I was smoking for five years – at least one to two big packs a day. When I found out I was preggers with Ger, I stopped smoking pronto cold turkey. No lesser sticks per day, no nicotine patch, no acupuncture lalala, nothing. Just came out from gynae, threw away the cigarette box (still had 17 sticks! I remember!) and that’s it.

Of course it’s tough. I would be lying if I said it was a breeze. Headaches, crankiness, tempers, running nose, cough, sore throats as my body purged the toxins accumulated over five years.

Yeah it’s tough. So?

**

As for Britney, I think she is damn messed up and would be better cleaning up her act. AND PLEASE stop interviews on how great a mother she thinks she is. I know I sound mean but it’s better for her kids (for now) that she lost custody to Federline.  It’s amazing how a mum like that can think she’s a “good mum“. Delusion is a dangerous thing.

I don’t dare to proclaim myself as a good mum, but I try my best and I definitely don’t and can’t pull fantastic stunts like that.

Truly. WTH.

Yes, those moments where you laugh so bad that your stomach doubles up in stitches and your laughter becomes so intense that it is soundless.

And the thing is, it always happens randomly during our random conversations about random topics. Idiotic conversations that leave us (or rather, me) in stitches.

**

Talking about a certain caterer MH who doesn’t provide delivery to our house:

Imaginary conversation #1

Big: We should call numerous times looking for Johnson (totally fictional and random character). Even after they tell us there is no Johnson there, we still keep calling.

And then I will call them saying ”Hello, I am Johnson, anyone looked for me?”

Imaginary conversation #2

Big:  I can’t care. I have spoken to Johnson and Johnson said it’s ok.

Them: But.. but there is no Johnson here.

Big: I don’t care lor. I spoke to Johnson and Johnson said OK.

Them: But I am telling you there is NO Johnson here!

Big: Wait a minute…. Is this JJ Catering? [at this point, my laughter became soundless and my stomach started to cramp]

Them: No, this is MH Catering. *irritated*

Big: Correct lor! Johnson is not with JJ mah! So correct lor! 

**

Totally illogical, idiotic and hazardous to one’s health.

Gean has a bad habit of saying “I got” to mean that she did something. Example:

Me: Did you torture the cockroach before setting Muffin on it?

G: I gotttttttttttttt.

Me: Did you iron all my clothes last night?

G: I gotttttttttttttt.

Anyway. I hate this “I got” business, so I’d always correct her when I hear it – with  “I did“.

Lately she’s gotten much better – only to infuriate me with the introduction of another class phrase – “where got?”

So I told her I have no idea what “where got” means.

That’s when she went,”Oops sorry, mummy. Where did?”

As above. Like, really.

Pardon my slight irritation as I grapple with why I had to reassure about 438 people as to “Am I the fat cow you are talking about?”

If you think you are, you are. I mean, you should question why in the first place you think you might be the fat cow, instead of being concerned if I think you are the fat cow.. Not sure if you know what I mean, but. In the words of Vicky Pollard of Little Britain, yeah but no but yeah.

And please enlighten me as to why I have to protect your fragile little ego because you cannot accept the fact that I exalt the aesthetics of beauty and the process of morphing an ugly duck to a gorgeous swan?

Sometimes I feel that I can say certain things and cannot say certain things because certain people are reading my blog and if I say certain things, they might take it a certain way and to that, I say BOLLOCKS.

This is my freaking blog and short of seditious rubbish that jars with my capitalist lifestyle (the last I heard, prison is not the place for earning any big bucks) – I think it is my right to toot, throw a hissy fit or sprout some bimbotic crap here, just as it is your right to sod off.

In any case, the %^*&#$$* fat cow in question is a private joke between me and naeboo.

So if I just get one more freaking query along the lines of “Am I the fat cow?”, I will throw a freaking cow at you.

That’s how I feel after eating HALF a bowl of rice for dinner

Seriously. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I am talking about serious lethargy here. It’s always after I have had carbs, even though it is a minimal amount.

Reason #34

Gean was telling us about her two friends in school, Megan and Maisie Fan. Now, Megan and Maisie just got another baby sister a while ago and Gean was about to tell us the baby’s name when Big went, “I know, I know! I know what Megan’s baby sister’s name is!”

.

.

.

“It’s Very Fan (fun)!”

Idiot. I almost killed myself, choking on my tongue laughing. 

We went to Tea Cosy at Eclectic Attic in Plaza Singapura on one of our couply dates (wah, power! at, in , on! ). Not many know about Tea Cosy because it is a cafe of sort nestled in a vintage store. I love the vintage feel of the place!

Miniature Cake Platter – good for greedy people like me who likes to try a little of everything. The cakes taste very good too, warm, soft and fluffy. The raspberry cake tasted a little like the one I last baked. I find the cake stand very irresistable, and was tempted to buy one for our breakfast mornings! Alas, they do not sell it.

I had raspberry mint tea while Big had “Thousand Nights” which had orange pekoe, lemon grass and mint leaves. I totally dig their vintage crockery.

The Decadent Salad (greens, sauteed prawns and pan seared foie gras) It was so good.

Eclectic Attic is located at:

Plaza Singapura
68 Orchard Road #05-10 Singapore 238839
(65) 6836 9736

I was going through my elder dd’s homework yesterday and saw this worksheet marked by her teacher.

It was an assignment where she was supposed to fill in the dialogue by a cat burglar in some pictures.

First Picture
Burglar going into the house

She wrote: Wah! No one in the house sia!! Good, man! 

I, like, wanted to die on the spot.

I asked her, why did you write like that?! Since when do we ever speak like that?!

Her calm reply: He is a cat burglar, mum. Cat burglars talk like that.

I am ALL l “I don’t know what to say”.

Quick! Call the SPCA mata!
Child, 5, made to iron all clothes for mother

Shocking.

See? So poor thing.

Even though she looks very happy doing it. Take the lollipop out and look serious, girl.

Sigh. Cannot make it. Still grinning away. Not News Headlines material

Chocolate Fudge Cake from Secret Recipe. Very nice! I promised the girls to make their birthday cakes the next time (after the Kitchen Aid arrives from US).

With her classmates

Photos taken by Big who brought her cake and the Hello Kitty gifts for her classmates to school

Happy!

With good friends.

Gean -

I love how she is affectionate and will give me random frequent kisses and hugs.

I love how she will share things with her sister without being told to.

I love how she is not grouchy or cranky, and is still the sweet little girl that she is – even when she is not well.

I love how she snuggles up to me like a baby koala just because she likes the feel and smell of her mummy.

I love how she exclaims, “Mummy you are so pretty!” LOL

Ger -

I love how she squeezes out toothpaste for me every morning before she goes to school.

I love how she tries to be good “even though it is so hard”.

I love how she is independent, streetsmart and spunky.

I love how she is good at ferreting out bullshit in people.

I love how she loves animals and have a kind loving nature. 

My girls -

I love how they are good well mannered children, even though I may not be a full time stay home mum and spend 24/7 of my time with them.

I love how they are healthy and seldom fall ill. I’d like to think that it is because I have breastfed them, but really, it is mostly that we are so blessed.

I love how they are happy and well adjusted – through our divorce, accepting Big as another father figure, leaving our old home etc.

Big -

I love how he brings me to different food places to try (and disagrees vehemently that I am fat)

I love how he tries to surprise me with little things like

this Casio watch cum calculator which I had commented that would be useful on my buying trips (calculate currency).

Never mind that he had already installed the same function on my iphone. Another reason was because it goes so well with my rugged wear of snug tee, denim shorts and backpack ensemble when I go to places like BKK and HCM. In any case, I didn’t buy it because I know I will only wear it on some trips, and certainly not to work as it doesn’t channel my style at all. Of course he goes and buy it secretly to spring a surprise on me.

Just because I like teapots. I love bird and leaf motifs!! And this black/ white combo is so pretty and dainty.

I love how he gives me shoulder and foot rubs before bed.

I love how we can connect on an emotional and intellectual level.

I love how he is a good daddy to the children. Just two nights ago, he woke up in the middle of the night to check on Gean (she was running a fever) and to give her Paracetamol. And he coaches Ger in Maths, which I.absolutely.cannot.

I love how he wakes up earlier than me to make scrambled eggs and wheat and raisin toast for me.  

I love how he does the laundry so that I have time to spread my fats on the couch.

I love how he surprised me with this DVD usb player so that I can watch all the shows he downloaded for me in the comfort of said couch. It’s very cool – just plug the usb in it and it plays like a dream.

 

Techtalk and obviously all foreign language to me. Comes with Karaoke function too!

I love how we complement each other.