CARTOON LAGOON

Singapore Airshow 2012

2012-02-15T17:57:00.000+08:00

Every two years, the airshow comes around in Singapore. I counted and workwise, this is my 7th airshow in attendance. In the earlier days, we had Asian Aerospace (which moved to Hong Kong) and now we have Singapore Airshow.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner (at Singapore Airshow 2012)

Took the above pic while squashed like a sardine on board a bus. The taxi queue was ridiculously snaking so decided it'd be faster to get out of there via the shuttle bus from the airshow site to Changi Airport's Terminal 3. Hah! Instead, got stuck standing on the bus, waiting a good 15 mins or so for the 'dumbass' traffic wardens to let the buses through. It was like they didn't care two hoots about the packed buses and were instead more concerned to let cars through. Finally, the two buses at the front had had enough of waiting and I could see them inching so much forward that the traffic wardens had no choice but to let us through. Smart drivers. So many on board were grumbling at the traffic wardens.

In the past, we had the car label so driving to and parking at the site wasn't an issue but now (with companies going lean), it's either the bus or the taxi. If someone sends you in a private car with no access car label, you can only alight really, really far from the show site. I mean REALLY, REALLY FAR. Don't try it unless you want to walk 30 mins.

The surcharge of SGD8 for normal taxis out from the show site is fair in my opinion. But it's the snaking queue that's a killer. Well, it crawled on the first day but today (2nd day), it was way snaking but moving fairly briskly.

If anyone from the organising committee is keen to hear, it sucked that it took nearly 20 mins to alight at the show site yesterday (first day). Yep, our taxi entered the site carpark at SGD13 and when we finally reached the alighting area, the fare was SGD21. Reason? There was only ONE spot for alighting passengers. Every single taxi had to wait for that alighting spot and it was placed right smacked behind a zebra crossing where a young traffic warden (who looked like a school kid temping) was stopping the taxis from moving from the alighting spot whenever anyone crossed the road. If there were at least 100 taxis waiting to alight their passengers and each taxi took SGD21-SGD13=SGD8 before they could alight their passengers, that was SGD800 wasted in the carpark while I was in that queue! Well, the situation was better today and the taxis didn't have to snake round the barricades ridiculously. The drop off point was extended to a whole stretch (just like in previous airshows). Made more sense.

Aiyoh, why am I talking about the bus and taxi queues. Maybe cos I'm not so excited to be at the airshow anymore. As one angmoh told me, he's been to so many airshows, they all look the same to him. I used to be really excited to bring my kids (especially my son who was an avid airplane model collector) in. But now that my kids are older, my daughter isn't keen and my son, if he's still keen, will just have to find his own way there without Mummy. Mummy's gonna be catching up on zzzzzzzsss this weekend instead.

Oh and by the way, the companies are really going 'lean'. I only managed to pick up a pin and a pen set made of paper. Pathetic. Maybe you'll have more luck on public days.

Getting turned on by kitchenware

2012-01-31T11:07:00.001+08:00

Oh brother. It's getting scary. I like browsing big supermarkets and I get excited buying kitchenware.
Got a new haul of 'old design' Corelle plates / Corningware pots last weekend :

This is the 'Floral Bouquet' range from Corelle. Can you see that of the two plates, one is fainter and the other is brighter? That's cos the fainter plate is from my existing collection of Floral Bouquet Corelle plates and Corningware pots which we've been using for the last 18 years! My mum had bought a huge collection for us when Mike and I first moved out of her place in Seletar Camp into our own Executive Apartment in Pasir Ris. Back then, a single plate cost around $10 so I was really glad that she had helped 'build' my collection. What I am in awe is how lasting they have been.

My former FDW (Foreign Domestic Worker) didn't care much about handling them properly (thank goodness for Corelle!). You could always hear her plonk them down very loudly, be it on the table, into the sink or on top of each other. They'd be knocked around and dropped. Most of them remain in good condition, well, except for two or three plates which suffered minor chipping from the time she dropped them to the floor (yes, they didn't break entirely, only chipped at the ends), and some corningware pots which needed to have their glass covers replaced (breaks courtesy of 'couldn't care less' FDW again). Overall, they meet my needs and I still find the pastel flowers so soothing to look at. I would definitely suggest anyone hiring FDWs who have the 'bochap' (couldn't care less) attitude to use Corelle plates!

I had discovered I was pregnant with Tessa just after renovating our apartment and I recall already using these plates so they should be slightly more than 18 years old. They're so easy to use. Not too heavy so that washing isn't too much of a hassle and they're microwaveable. Remember the ang-moh TV ad with the jingle, 'From the freezer, to the oven, to the table?'. For Asian customers, they didn't discern that back then, we used the stoves to reheat our food more than microwave ovens.

I got so excited seeing this range on sale (as you can tell, so excited that I had to blog about it). I couldn't contain myself and had told the young sales assistant that I was so glad they were selling this range again. She said that the distributor was testing the market to see how receptive people were to this 'old' design. I really hope they start selling this set again although I already have limited space left in kitchen cabinets. When I was queueing up to pay, an older sales assistant stood beside me, took a look at my set and told me these were very good. I readily confessed that I had an entire set at home and they were already so old. She smiled and told me they weren't as old as the previous design which had tiny fruits and I told her, yes, I have those too (from my mum's own collection). She said practically everyone had those back then (I think it was some 'spice' range). Ha ha. Enjoyed my conversation with a complete stranger.

Anyway, thank goodness hubs wasn't beside me when I had decided to buy a set of plates and bowls and a gigantic sized Corningware pot (which I, ahem, already have). He only found me after I had paid for them. He and the boy were happy they'd bought their Cat 6 ethernet cable and I was super duper happy about my haul. He only wondered why I had bought a duplicate sized Corningware pot. I didn't have a good answer. Told him it was a useful size.

Sigh. Yes, kitchenware. Drool. Such a turn on.

Start of a new beginning.......?

2012-01-26T15:30:00.000+08:00

I'm sooooo tired of people and blogshops copying my hand painted shoe designs and passing them off as their own. The cheek of them to state on their blogs that they're 'designers' and that the designs were created by them. Sigh.

This recent case involves a Malaysian blogshop. Yes, all the way across the causeway. Idiots. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. They simply copied the photo of my shoes off my website and photoshopped it so my brand and tags were removed (it was a slipshod photoshopping job anyway) and they also changed the background colour. Then they passed it off as their design on their blog. Yay. Such creativity.

My first reaction is that of being flabberghasted, then disgusted. I've written to the said blogshop but they've yet to respond and they've not taken the stolen photo down from their blog either. I'm giving them a bit more time, given that it's the Chinese New Year period, then I'm going to publish their blogshop site. Don't play play with me, hor?

Happy Chinese New Year 2012

2012-01-19T15:11:00.001+08:00

Sadly, we had to take down our Christmas decor and replace it with our fiery red Chinese New Year ones. Not quite my cup of tea but if we don't, we're like not really getting into the festive groove. But, there's the long weekend to look forward to next week, albeit a tiring one for most of us Chinese.

Let me just say here that I'm not much of a baker. I've never fancied baking. I prefer the smells and colours of cooking. So this is Mike attempting to make pineapple tarts for the Chinese New Year (although at the rate we are devouring the tarts now, I doubt we'll have any left to feed guests):

Running the flour through whatever sieve we could find in the kitchen drawer.

We're like:

'Is this the only sieve we have?

Yep, shall I run to buy another?

No, we'll just use this.

You sure it'll work?

Yah lah, can lah.

(That's how seriously we take our baking).

Heating the margarine - frankly, I feel quite uncomfortable putting margarine on high heat.

I don't think margarine's meant to withstand high heat. It probably turns into plastic or something.

It's a family recipe Mike's following but I think I'll try butter the next time round. Wait, I don't mean 'I'. I mean I'll politely ask him to use butter.

Mike, rolling out the dough

(Wow! 'Rolling out the dough', sounds nice. I could definitely do with winning the 7 million Reunion Toto draw tomorrow. THAT would be rolling in the dough)

Mike patiently and meticulously cutting out the pastry.

What was I doing? Oi! Plenty of washing involved, leh.

I was slaving in the kitchen whilst the baker was at work.

Quite a nice shot of them tart bases all lined up, huh?

I was annoying Mike no end with my photo taking. Hee hee. He actually quipped that I should have been a journalist. My son then said, 'Mummy can cook, can paint, can take pictures, can write. She can do many things.' Wah....haha.. Not sure if he was being sarcastic like his dad but who cares. I'll take all the compliments I can get! Used to them poking fun at me. It's all in good fun. I know at the end of the day that they love me no end. Ha ha.

And TADAH.......!!!!
Pineapple tarts made by hubs.

With that outta the way, I've to see to my next headache; Reunion Dinner at our place.
Oh well, managed to swing Christmas Eve dinner so should be able to do this too. Will just pray for God's love and guidance.

XING NIAN KUAI LE!
WAN SHI RU YU!
GONG XI FA CAI!

Happy Chinese New Year! (23 & 24 Jan 2012)

New Year Resolutions - Not

2011-12-29T18:18:00.001+08:00

First off, A Blessed and Merry Christmas to one and all!

Gigantic Christmas wreath hanging on our wall

Can't believe it's been more than a month since I blogged and that in a few days' time, the year will be over! This year has just zoomed past in a jiffy. Some updates.

Had a family wedding in November.

It was a lovely setting (and oh! look! what a lovely couple! ha ha)

Doesn't look like much but I had actually spent a few nights making purple felt flowers to adorn this old BCBG Maxazria dress. Though it doesn't show up on a computer screen, it's a lovely long-sleeved purple velvet dress. It looked too hot to wear on a nice, Sunny afternoon but it was quite comfy actually. Most importantly, it was a straight cut so it hung ok around my belly and thighs! I didn't want to blow moolah on a new dress I'd hardly wear so I just decided to handmake some flowers (I love cloth flowers!) and sewed them onto the bottom part of the dress and I also made a matching one to adorn my hair. As a T-shirt and jeans person, this is one of those dresses I'd have hanging in my closet forever. Would I have preferred to turn up in T-shirt and jeans? You betcha!

Then we had to run around buying stuff for my son as he was spending nearly a month in Canada with his grandmother and some other relatives.

Sending John off at Changi Airport
(Did you notice the nice, new National Geographic camera bag he's carrying? His advanced Christmas present from us. The boy is an avid photographer and aspires to be a professional photographer. We're more than happy to support this dream of his)

Just before his trip, hubs and I managed to squeeze in a roadtrip up north (as usual). As usual, we had a wonderful time together, just he and I. Then we came back, attended our Godson's Confirmation and then, nothing. Yep, nothingness. Suddenly, the house was quiet. Having only one kid around is very different from having two. There wasn't anything planned for us already. So given how we can hardly sit still doing nothing, we booked a last minute trip to.........

Chatuchak Weekend Market (Dec 2011)

BANGKOK!!! Where else???

Excuse the patheticness of having to snap my own pic in Chatuchak. We'd all split up to go shop on our own. As soon as our plane touched down, we'd headed to the hotel to dump our bags and head out to Chatuchak. No flooding in sight.

Had my fill of Thai fried worms. Unfortunately, hubs so stingy, only bought a few packets for me. I had told him I was ready to pack a whole container of them home. He told me we could always go back to the hawker stall to buy more the next day. Hmmmph! Couldn't find her stall in subsequent nights!

Oh well, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Meanwhile, I've got my cousin's hand delivered Australian biltong to keep me happy (Thanks, Carrie!).

So, it's unlikely I'll be blogging again before the end of this year. So I may as well do my traditional 'summary'. I look back and think what a horrible year it's been for me and yet, what a beautiful and wonderful year it's been too. I've learnt to be strong against humans and weak against God. I've emerged a more empowered woman (no, I don't want you to hear me roar) not in the sense of woman's rights but I've learnt to fight for what I think God wants for me. I've also learnt to relax and be cool about a lot more things. If my being so doesn't make you happy, then I'm sorry. I'm done trying to please everyone.

To the one person who has made my life a living nightmare since you stepped into my life, I hope you sleep well at night. It's not that I haven't known all along what you'd been doing. But I closed my eyes to the annoyances because I love my family and because God says to forgive. I won't let you take them away, no matter how cunning you may think you are. I felt sorry for you, even right up to the very last day. I let you torment me and step all over me with your tantrums, lies, incessant rudeness and gossip. I will not be taken for a ride any more. I pray that you won't stir up trouble for another family. But more importantly, I pray that you will finally be back in your home soil with your own family. Meawhile, keep your hands off my family, they're not yours. Good riddance to bad rubbish. God says to forgive, but it doesn't mean I have to see you or have you in my life anymore so stay away.

God has stood by me through it all. Over and over again. He doesn't let me down. He whispers in my ear and he moves in my heart. My only resolution for 2012 is that I learn to trust God more (I've given up on the losing weight resolution - yep - totally scratched it out). Truly, God has shown me, that with Him, nothing is impossible.

Happy New Year!

It's that time of the year again!

2011-11-18T18:53:00.000+08:00

Can't believe I haven't blogged since October! I've been so busy. Might tell you about it another time. Just another one of my 'projects' I've been working on. Wonder if I'll see it through. Most nights, I get back from work too tired to do anything else.

Well, hear ye, hear ye! If it isn't that time of the year again....where crazy hot Singapore becomes wet and rainy and you start seeing Christmas lights twinkling in the streets and malls! My favourite time of the year! No snow for me brrrr....thank you. This cool weather is just nice! Dig out the pashminas, I say!

Well, I could see dear hubs could hardly contain himself. Deepavali and Hari Raya Haji were barely over before he threw open the storeroom door and dragged out our multitude of Christmas decor. Yep! We're all dolled up and good to go!

Okay, that's a pathetically skinny, synthetic Christmas tree. We'll have to wait a bit longer if we wish to have a fresh tree that can 'make it' through Christmas (we had both last year) so hubs usually puts up the fakey first, followed by the real one closer to Christmas. He'll usually just place the fakey one outside the apartment (which he has also decorated).

And here's half a pic of our newly painted altar (in burnt orange - below). Mike and I did that up over the Hari Raya long weekend. Well, actually, it only took about 2 hours to paint and dry and paint and dry....

and in the bottom corner, is our mini grotto with twinkly blue lights!

Working Mother's Cantonese Minced Pork Chook/Choke (Congee)

2011-10-13T14:53:00.000+08:00

I remember, as a toddler, our very young helper (babysitter) who hailed from Malaysia, feeding me scoops of porridge. Hidden in the bowl of porridge, would be bits and pieces of minced meat. A few drops of soya sauce was all that was needed to make it really tasty. Even then, I recall her having to keep calling my name with a coaxing, 'Aaaaaahhhhmmmmm', trying tiredly to get my attention away from Atom Ant playing on the black and white TV (yes, I'm that ancient).
In the following years, the only other time I ate porridge was when I was sick. Yep. Sick food. Together with Fish Ball Mee Tai Mak. Why? Probably easier on one's tummy when one is down and out.

Anyhow, I've always loved Choke or what others refer to as 'Chook'. Porridge, Congee, Choke, Chook. Whatever. I prefer to call it 'Choke'. It's just rice grains boiled down to a smooth mash. I've never been able to get the consistency right UNTIL I decided to stop second guessing how to do it and just ask the Choke man at the market what type of rice he used. He told me in mandarain, 'ZHEN ZHU MI'. He could not tell me what that meant in English but I understood it to literally mean, Pearl Rice. He also said the secret was in the broth. It wasn't plain water he was boiling the rice grains in.

Not being very efficient in the Chinese language, I went to a Chinese speaking provision store and asked for just that, 'Zhen Zhu Mi' and he asked me if I wanted it BIG or SMALL. I was like, 'Er....hah? Got two sizes? I'm er...cooking porridge' (I thought he meant large or small grain - what an idiot I am sometimes!). He calmly repeated his question. Sheepishly realised he was just asking if I wanted a big pack or small pack. Being the 'kiasu' Singaporean that I am, I did a quick mental calculation and decided to get the big pack as it was more worthwhile (and now, I'm like stuck with a huge pack of short grain rice that doesn't taste very nice when cooked as our usual rice - too mushy for my taste)

Anyway, I soaked the grains overnight in water, then cooked with plenty of pork stock. It was like 3 cups of rice and 10 cups of liquid (or more). It took nearly an hour to boil it down to a smooth consistency over the stove so I wouldn't actually recommend cooking this Choke on a working week night. Too much time slaving over the stove. But the results were worth it. (Tip: Don't keep stirring the porridge whilst cooking, it will burn)

Minced Pork Chook/Choke (Congee) with liver and egg

Trying to be like a professional choke seller, I reboiled individual portions and stirred in an egg with the portion. That way, only when each family member was ready to eat, would the egg be added to that portion. Slightly more work and washing but well worth it. Added some soya sauce, pepper and a small dash of sesame oil (which I LOVE)!

And though it wasn't necessary, I also whipped up fried egg with chinchalok (small dried prawns) and tarng chai (a small pickled veg):

Eggs fried with chinchalok and tarng chai

(Excuse my 'chow tar' / burnt eggs - I can't for the life of me, fry decent eggs)

Also opened a small can of Chilli Pork Cubes (above) and a can of pickled veg (below).

Didn't take pics but I also cut open some Century Eggs. All went well. Even my husband, who doesn't fancy porridge much, said it was delicious. Must have done something right! Ha!

Working Mother's Fried Bee Hoon

2011-10-04T10:05:00.000+08:00

I can't remember if I've blogged about this dish before. Didn't do much cooking the past few weeks because I've returned home so tired from work. Not that work was sooooo exhausting. I don't know why, I've just been feeling more tired than usual.

As we attended our church's 9 day Novena, I didn't cook much. Hubs took over by dishing out simple meals (mixed with dishes bought from the nearby food court's 'chai perng' stalls). Anyway, I realised I had some more food pics not yet loaded (or have I? I can't recall. I feel like have brain-fog or something).

I don't know how to cook small portions. Perhaps the smallest portion of anything I've cooked is plain Maggi Mee. Here's some bee hoon (Fried Vermicelli) I tried frying (to feed an army).

May not look like much, but this blue 'China' plate is huge! I took the pics with the glasses and small bowls around the plate so you could see that it was big. We usually only take it out during parties and though we didn't throw a party on that work week night, I still needed to take it out from hibernation to contain the mountain of bee hoon I had fried. Actually, I find cooking a one-dish meal on a work week night to be more troublesome than cooking several simple Chinese dishes. Can whip up several simple meals faster than it took to prepare the ingredients for this Fried Bee Hoon.

For this bee hoon dish, I prepared and fried all the ingredients separately before throwing them in with the bee hoon. Realised it wasn't easy frying eggs thinly. Takes some practice! My kids complained about the sliced chilli on the bee hoon (and of course the fried shallots too). Sigh. Can't dress up my dishes. The family prefers them plain.

Fried Bee Hoon

Self-rating: Probably 5/10. Family said it tasted nice but I think I've a long way more to go.

Mmmmm.....I love fried bee hoon with red cut chillies and soya sauce. Simple yet divine! Comfort food!

SVDP's Novena 2011 - I Am Who I Am

2011-09-23T10:05:00.000+08:00

Our church's 9 day Novena leading to the Feast Day of St Vincent de Paul started last night. It was a mad rush from work and school for us but because our very own Charismatic Prayer Group was leading the Praise and Worship segment, I wanted to make sure that our family could be there to support them. I haven't been around for their meetings this year and a part of me misses that big time but the other part of me is relishing the time I have for my family. I miss being around my Charismatic 'kakis' and it was so nice to be enveloped in their warms hugs!!! I love them and what they do for others!!! It can be a thankless (from humans) job but yet, it can be the most rewarding (from God) job. As a certain Arnie S. says, "I'll be back" but I just don't know when and how.

The theme for our Novena this year is 'I Am Who I Am'.
Father William Goh spoke about origin and end last night and he hit the nail on the head when he said we should be looking after our own 'backyard'. He sort of said that if we commit too much to doing too much of other stuff (including running around doing plenty of church work) and yet can't look after our own family members, then something is very wrong. I feel that because I had stretched myself helping the Charismatic Prayer Group last year, if I had continued this year, I would not have had the time to look after my family properly. I also wanted to have more time to be with my husband. I feel guilty that I took a step back when I knew that the group was short of manpower but I also knew what I had to do for my family.

Despite the fact that my kids aren't toddlers anymore, they've still got needs and I'd like them to remember their parents as having been there for them in tiny ways. Perhaps just to make them a snack while they are mugging in their room (or pretending to mug), or just making their favourite green jello (for no apparent reason except to get a sugar overload!). I may not be a great cook but I'm certain they'll remember I tried.

God willing, I'm going to try to attend all 9 days. The last time we attended all 9 days, He worked a miracle with my son's PSLE results!!! My daughter is desperately seeking a miracle for her JC1 Promos this year. Ha ha. I'm not saying just the fact that you appear for mass all 9 days, something BIG is going to happen. That's like some occult or superstitious approach. Instead, one has got to really be sincere and call upon the Lord for blessings and to be moved by the Spirit.

Since LISS, I have carried with me, an intrinsic belief that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH THE LORD. I'm not kidding. I know many people (including people in church) wear this sentence on their lips and yet one can tell that they doubt. I do not. I don't delude myself for a second that ALL THINGS MUST GO MY WAY (oh no, I don't) but I definitely believe that with the Lord, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.

It's not easy but it's somewhat like a child's innocent and naive belief in Santa Claus. Nike says, 'Just do it'. I say, 'Just believe it'. Call upon the Lord and He will be there for you, even when you think He isn't. Believe in the Lord and He will work His miracles, even if you don't understand how the cookie crumbles. Are you in trouble? Are you depressed? Are you suicidal? Do you think there is no way out? Do you feel no one loves you? Call upon, Jesus. He will lift you. I guarantee it. Although I have no doubt He can, his methods may not mean ressurrecting your dead relative or lover (because that's what a human hopes for). But He will let the light shine upon you again in a way He thinks is best for you.

Trust me. I've been through so much this year. Things have happened. I've been put to the test in my newfound (since 2009) spiritual journey with the Lord. Yet my spirit is not defeated. In fact, I feel lifted and I rejoice and I weep with joy because the Lord had shown me that He's been there with me ALL THE WAY. He has been speaking to me and I'm so grateful. It's like the new order of the mass says, I'm not worthy to have Him 'under my roof'. Yet He does not forsake me. I cannot escape Him even if I wanted to.

My God is ALMIGHTY and My God loves me. Does your God love you?

PCOS Update - 13 September 2011

2011-09-13T16:45:00.000+08:00

My monthly flow hasn't been giving me any problems since my last check up at KKH. Though not regulated like clockwork, it appears every month. This is very amazing for me as a Catholic. I know now that it wasn't just my gut instinct which told me to stop taking the hospital prescribed birth control pills. It felt so wrong even when a priest had assured me that I should not feel guilty because it was for medical reasons.

I am not advocating that medical intervention be ignored. That would be reckless. The above is pertaining to my case and for this particular issue alone. It must be seen in perspective to my journey with God since LISS (Life in the Spirit Seminar) 2009 and my being baptised in the spirit. I've had wonderful conversations with God and my healing of irregular menses is just one of the small miracles He has brought into my life because I had allowed Him into my life.

I had been praying for healing of my PCOS issues and at one point, I had felt it deep inside of me that God had already healed me of my irregular / absent menses. I felt that if I had continued to take the birth control pills just in case I wasn't healed, I would be doubting God. I knew I had to let go and let Him take control and believe wholeheartedly that He had healed me and He did. I am healed. I haven't missed any since. Alleluia!

As for my insulin resistance...I haven't had a sugar test done since the last one some months back. My eating patterns haven't changed much and the good news is I haven't put on weight this year yet. Well, I'm still over weight but I have been ding-donging between dropping some and putting on some. So the weight loss and gain kind of balances itself out. I have noticed something though. When I do not eat rice (or too much carbohydrates) for dinner, I feel so much lighter the morning after. But being a 'rice' person, it's really hard not to eat rice for dinner. Especially when there's sambal belachan lying around. Shiok!

Overall, I'm feeling fine. I'm feeling more energetic than ever and just not as lethargic as before. Maybe it's due to the fact that I no longer have a Foreign Domestic Worker and I've to do the housework myself or maybe that I'm super duper elated that I no longer have to face her tai-tai tantrums. Yes. Most likely.

Hair 7 Sept 2011

2011-09-07T16:04:00.000+08:00

So....this is my hair on a good day.

When I tell you I have natural limp waves in my hair, I am not kidding. They make a sort of S shape wave so depending on how the hair stylist cuts it, it becomes nice or worse. I wash my hair every day and it doesn't matter if I blow it dry or not. I wake up every morning, not knowing how it's going to look like.

It wasn't so layered 2 weekends ago before my last disastrous cut. I went in for a trim to my ends but judging from the picture, you can tell that the ends weren't even neatened properly. He did complain that my hair curled a lot. Instead, the idiot of a hairstylist gave me layers which I specifically said I didn't want.

Sigh, actually, the waves in my hair look best when I cut my hair really, really short. Some people would die to have such natural waves. It took me a whole year to grow it out to this length. I might just be crazy enough to cut it all off again.

But wait. Unless I were crazy or rich enough to have a botoxed-till-slim face, I don't think I'd really go for it. Or would I? (I mean the cut, not the botox, silly!)

GOM

2011-09-05T16:44:00.000+08:00

Mike: This is the new way to relax (runs and jumps on our gigantic L-shaped sofa and lies face up).
Me: (laughing) This is the new way to relax (I jump on top of Mike and lie on top of him facing upwards).
Mike: O....M....G!!!
Me: (laughing uncontrollably) L.....O......L!!!
Mike: G.......O.......M!!!
Kids and I: Huh???? What's G.O.M?
Mike: (pushing me off) GET OFF ME!!!

Ha ha ha....kids and I break out into laughter. Some weekend silliness for you.

Hair Cut

2011-09-01T11:33:00.004+08:00

I have a great feeling of dissatisfaction when it comes to hair salons in Singapore. Those I like, have not stood the test of time. Really. All the hair stylists to whom I would have returned, have closed down. Jinx.

Anyhow, hubs doesn't have such a problem. He goes where it is cheapest. He's not bothered because he has to cut and dye his (white) hair every month anyway. Doesn't matter if the dye is 'branded' or not. But for me, if I want to keep my hair long, I'd have to be careful what I put on or do to my hair, isn't it? Besides, I have a natural wave to my hair. It isn't straight. My hair is fine but I have alot of it. You might not believe me, until you actually work with my hair. That's what a few hair stylists have told me. They didn't think I had so much hair until they actually set out to highlight, dye or blow dry it. Then they know, it takes forever.

Well, hubs told me that Snip Avenue was having a promotion on hair dyeing. Although I had such bad experiences with them that I'd told myself I was staying away from their chain of outlets for good, I followed him to make enquiries. Turns out, there isn't any REAL offer at all (for the likes of us). The prices are still the same for normal length hair. To them, short hair is a men's short cut. Medium is a lady's short cut. Long is anywhere after that. Yep. That's their intepretation. I've asked often enough. Even with very short hair, I've been told it was considered under 'long' hair charges.

This is one of the posters they have up on their glass panels facing the public walkway:

This 'ching-chong' chain of outlets believe themselves to be Americans, spelling colour as color. Ok, whatever. Anyway, I scanned the poster for any asterisk * (you know, the usual '* terms and conditions apply' crap that is in so fine a print that no one can notice anything) but couldn't find it. It says, '$7.80 Color + Wash + Blow). It does not say, when you come into the actual Snip Avenue shop, I will then tell you the truth (in mandarin); that it is only for 'very, very short men's hair. Those type where the hair is near the scalp and only for black colour dye'. Pissed, Michael and I walked out. No wait - VERY PISSED, Michael and I walked out. Suckers we may be for a deal, too good to be true - but you're misleading people, Snip Avenue!!! Anyway, thank goodness it didn't work out there cos I saw that the next available hair stylist was the same young Malaysian lady who had burnt my hair rebonding it. It is thanks to her that I had to cut it all off last year. How lucky can one get?

Not counting last Sunday, I had not cut my hair since slightly before Chinese New Year (early February 2011). I know, I was walking around with unkempt hair for 6 months because I was trying to grow out my (chic but short) hair. I knew that if I went for even a 'trim' any time in between, it'd be cut shorter than I really wanted and I'd have to grow it out all over again.

Well, I finally entered a salon last Sunday but only because my daughter had asked for her fringe to be cut. I didn't think the mandarin speaking stylist was very skillful but there I was sitting waiting for her and wondering if I'd have the time to enter a salon again. Although I was starting to like the way my hair was growing out (it was fairytaling beautifully at the ends), it needed a trim. A TRIM. That's what I said. In mandarin - because FIND ME A REASONABLY PRICED HAIRSTYLIST THAT SPEAKS GOOD ENGLISH IN SINGAPORE WHO DOESN'T PUSH THE SALES OF TREATMENTS PLEASE!!! Why must nearly ALL the hair stylists I speak to, hail from Malaysia or China and only speak mandarin???

I said TRIM. TRIM - yes. In mandarin. I KNOW I got it right. I explained clearly that I was trying to grow my hair long again and I only needed him to neaten it with a trim to the ENDS. But no. Oh no. He had to do what he had to do. Which is lop of like 3cm worth of hair. That bloody fool. Did he know how slowly hair grows??? We get like 1cm worth of hair growth in a month if we're lucky.

And you know what? (look, I don't care that one shouldn't start sentences with 'and', I'm in a pissed mood right now). I told him I didn't want it layered. No layers. No 'stepped' look. He asked me why he couldn't cut it short for me. I said I liked my current length because it allowed me to tie it up. I wanted a BOB. A level BOB at the ends. Just trim my ends a little cos they were uneven. But sigh. No. Nope. He couldn't do that. He lopped off my hair then proceeded to use those sickening thinning shears (with the teeth) which I loathe. I always feel that only lazy hairstylists use those thinning shears when they should be weilding their scissors and using their skills to produce the layers.

I had even pointed out ONE PARTICULAR portion of my top hair near my fringer which I had told him specifically to NOT touch because I was trying to grow it out. But of course, he cut if off. Mind you. I was paying a full professional price for this cut and wash. But did he listen? No. Did he wash my hair at the sink? Yes. And, while I thought it strange at that time, he had asked me, whilst washing my hair at the sink, if my scalp itched. I said, 'No'. I only realised that later, he was trying to bug me into buying his 'ampoule' for a discounted price of S$10 ('Ampoule' being the most difficult word in the English dictionary these chinese speaking cutters know). I declined and I think he wasn't too happy about that. He told me it was good for sensitive scalps, like if I felt it was itchy etc (didn't I say mine didn't itch???). Then, after he blow dried my hair, he advised me to add serum to my hair. I told him I didn't like anything on my hair. He then emphasised that my hair was REALLY, REALLY dry. Really? My hair may not be super silky soft because I do bottle colour it myself once every 6 months but it doesn't have split ends or anything like that. It's not wonderful but it's not as terrible as he made it out to be either. Oh and yes, he said he wasn't sure if I could tie up my hair anymore. He sucked big time.

I usually ask the hairstylist for his name and card if his service is good but I didn't bother this time. He told me, in that row of shophouses (in Toa Payoh Central) alone, there were 10 hair salons. I'd say, good luck, bucko. I know, I won't be a returning customer. The sign outside their salon says 'Japanese cut'. What was so Japanese about not listening to the needs of your customer?

Anyhow, one saving grace is my hair is still touching my shoulders. It's actually messier now because his cutting of layers has allowed my waves to go mad. And I do not have wonderful springy curls I see on Malays and Indians. I have limp waves. They are neither here nor there.
There are pockets of 'thinness' I'd rather not have but what's one to do? Hair stylists do not listen. Yes, I'm convinced they do not listen. Maybe it's because just like I don't like people to tell me what to paint and how to paint my shoes, they like to do their own thing when it comes to other people's hair. But wise up. My shoes aren't alive but I am. I'm the customer who has to live with the curls and whirls of my own hair. I know my own hair, therefore when I tell you to do or not to do something with my hair, you jolly well listen. Just as well, I didn't even bother to look at the salon's name.

So there.....I'm not going to another hair salon for another 6 months.

(Afterthought - Mike wasn't too bothered about my hair cut. He knows I'm very fussy about my hair and that joked that he should go take up a hairdressing course to be my hairdresser. He knows I'm never happy with whichever hair salon I go to. I used to have my regular salons to go to. I was willing to travel really far to visit the salon but as I said, they have either closed down or the stylists went away. But if hubs thinks I'm alone, he's wrong. Where I work, there are a whole bunch of ladies who have shared with me their hair woes. We often laugh about it in loo. They too have not found a single satisfactory hair stylist. Ha ha).

No Flea Market participation this SAT 27 Aug 2011

2011-08-26T18:16:00.000+08:00

We won't be participating in any Flea Market this SAT 27 Aug 2011.

It's the Presidential Elections!
REMEMBER!!! YOU ARE VOTING FOR THE HEAD OF STATE!!!
A REPRESENTATION OF OUR NATION!!!
HE MUST SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH AT THE VERY LEAST!!! (You know full well why I say this)

BTW, I do have more food pics but was just so busy this week that I had no time to post them. Will do so next week! C'ya!

Sausages and Mash / Cook a pot of curry

2011-08-22T16:41:00.000+08:00

Saturday, 20 Aug 2011
Kids had no school or tuition last Saturday morning so we had a good rest and slept in. Woke up late morning to start cooking lunch. I was cooking Sausages and Mashed Potatoes and spent a good hour making the sauce from scratch. Had to ditch the first attempt. Wasn't happy with the taste. I was trying to achieve the KFC sauce taste and well both kids eventually told me individually, 'Mmmmm, mum, your sauce is nice!' That's a great achievement! Also realised that to whip up the mashed potatoes to a correct consistency wasn't as easy as one might think it to be.

Sausages and Mashed Potatoes

Mike had bought a small slab of roasted pork so everyone had a bite of that. I also sauteed some baby tomatoes and french beans. My daughter actually asked me why I had to go add those in????!!!! Sheesh, as expected, neither kid touched the veg. Oh yes, fried some commercially packed Ayam Balls but they turned out horrible (from a reputable brand - but so blah in taste).
I also did my black sauce meat and boiled eggs (and whipped up some chilli with plum sauce for sweet chilli to go with) which turned out quite tasty but I'd totally forgotten to take pics of it. Come to think of it, I hadn't even taken pics of my Nasi Lemak. I know, the black sauce pork didn't exactly go with Nasi Lemak but I had already defrosted my pork slabs in the 'lower bin' for a day and didn't want the pork to go bad. Sometimes, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Sunday 21 Aug 2011
I had agreed on Facebook to cook a pot of curry on 21 Aug 2011 but really, after a week of feasting on my Assam Fish Curry, I neither felt like cooking or eating curry on Sunday. Besides, I had slaved a few hours cooking Nasi Lemak for the sake of my son. Here's a taste of the craziness as a mother:

(I'm cooking in the kitchen and son is still zzzzzzzzzzzz)
Hubs: I just went into the room and your boy asked me if 'Mummy was cooking'. I said, 'Yes' and he asked excitedly if it was Nasi Lemak!
Me: Wah! How did he know?

(son comes trotting to the kitchen)
Son: Are you cooking Nasi Lemak? Tell me it's Nasi Lemak!
Me: Yah
Son: Yay!

(we're all sitting at the table eating)
Me: How did you know I was cooking Nasi Lemak?
Son: It's all we ever eat, what!

(Me, fuming........I only cook it because it's ALL he ever eats!)

Very tiredly, after washing up after our Nasi Lemak lunch, I decided to cook a pot of 'unglam' Nonya Chicken Curry. Well, it was a very weak rendition of Nonya Curry but my curry pot was just a symbolic stand. No frills. Just chicken and quartered potatoes.

(my symbolic pot of Nonya Chicken Curry)

We had left over Nasi Lemak for dinner and this pot of curry chicken. I didn't have any commercial Nonya curry paste at home so I tried my best to use normal curry powder and from there, try to achieve the 'lemak' taste. Didn't taste too bad but my guys weren't the least interested in it. They were more interested in the left over Nasi Lemak. Well, at least I did cook my pot of curry!

Working Mother's Left Overs (Ikan Bilis Fried Rice and Assam Fish Curry)

2011-08-19T11:46:00.001+08:00

I ate alone last night, washed up the dishes, walked the dog, switched on the TV to hear the Presidential Election candidates talk and promptly fell asleep on the couch halfway through Dr. Tan Cheng Bock's speech. Woke up hours later when I heard Mike talking to the kids (he had just come home) at the dining table.

So what does a Working Mother cook when she's only cooking for herself and her two kids who have told her they aren't very hungry?

Well. I had left over rice and a medium sized bowl of my Assam Fish Curry.

I decided to chop up my remaining brinjal (huge one) and soak them. Added green chillies and some tomatoe wedges and sauteed them with the brinjals and onions till they turned soft. Then I added in my left over Assam Fish Curry and threw in some sliced cabbage. As there wasn't much gravy left over from the day before, I added some broth.

Left Over Assam Fish Curry (Yikes!)

So this might look disgusting to some (looks like something you'd see in a dustbin, huh?) but it was delicious. It was heavenly sitting at the dinner table all by myself, digging through this pot (was too lazy for presentation so didn't even scoop it out into a bowl) and slurping and fishing out bones (from my mouth). I'm so proud of myself that I didn't choke on any Selar bones! They were scary. Selar fish and their fine, pokey bones are definitely not meant for curry but what the heck, it was fun! This ain't no Michelin star restaurant. It's Working Mother's Kitchen and so, no rules, right? Well, there are rules but none for ME - hey, my home, my rules!

I had also plucked together some ham, green peas & corn, eggs and ikan bilis and made Fried Rice (for later, when the kids might be hungry). To go with some otah (otak) I had bought earlier.

Ikan Bilis Fried Rice

Just in case the kids would eat it, I didn't make it too spicy. I did add alot of pepper and some chilli flakes in oil but just a dash. For my own sake, I had my cut chilli padi in soya sauce. Don't wish to self-rate lah. It was ok. Not fantastic but palatable.

And guess what, because no one really ate much (except myself) last night, they're gonna be eating left over Ikan Bilis Fried Rice with fish otah (otak) tonight because it's a Friday night AND I want to PARTY!!! *laughs wickedly*

Flea Market - Changi Village 20 Aug 2011 (SAT)

2011-08-18T11:27:00.000+08:00

We'll be at the Changi Village Flea Market this Sat 20 Aug 2011
5pm - 11pm

Can't decide to sell old stuff or new stuff....hmmmmm.....

Working Mother's Assam Fish Curry / Pork Rib Corn and Lotus Soup

2011-08-18T11:20:00.001+08:00

Yesterday's dinner took me a tad longer to prepare. Often when Pork Ribs (Bak Kut) is are involved, I have to spend more time boiling it to tenderness.

Bak Kut with Corn and Lotus Roots Soup

Daughter was disappointed that it wasn't Bak Kut Teh that I was boiling but then, although she and her Daddy like Bak Kut Teh, the boy doesn't fancy it. He doesn't like the 'herby' taste. Hubs doesn't understand why I would pay more for Pork Bones when one can eat just the meat but I'm always reminding him that it's the bones which give the soup flavour. So as with chicken, I have to always buy the pork with bones and the pork sans bones. Is there any other cooking mother out there who is going mad like me?

Self-rating: 6/10

Then because I couldn't control my urge to eat Assam Fish Curry, I just had to cook it up. But then, this is a Working Mother's version. No fancy fish. I just dumped 4 Selar in and also a packet of Fish meat chunks. I loooooove brinjals so I cut up 2 whole ones. My big pot was being used to boil the Bak Kut so I had to cook my curry in my pan. It wasn't quite big enough to contain all the brinjals! Once the Bak Kut was cooked, I washed up my big pot and transferred the curry over. Then I dumped in left over Yong Tau Foo pieces (since the pot was big enough to take it all in now).

In the pic below, you see my finished Assam Fish Curry in a Corningware pot which I usually use to serve but not cook in. Although you are able to use Corningware 'from the freezer, to the oven, to the table', I just don't feel it's authentic to be cooking curry in one. Prefer a metal pot.

Assam Fish Curry (with a motherload of brinjals and left over Yong Tau Foo)

So you must be wondering 'What type of Assam Fish Curry is this?'. Well, I used Selar because I HAD Selar in my fridge. Didn't want to go buy any special type of fish. My 4 whole Selar are hidden somewhere below the mountain of Fish chunks, brinjals and left over Yong Tau Foo pieces. Hee hee. This is reality. Who cooks beautifully everyday for the family? This isn't a show. This is a Working Mother who refuses to see food go to waste! We eat left overs all the time. In fact, left overs sometimes taste better.

Oh yes and by the way, I'd gotten all my fish cleaned, veg cut up, curry paste ready and pan heated when I realised I didn't have coconut milk! Sheesh. Spied my can of sweetened creamer and hurriedly improvised - made a mixture out of it (no stomach ache, can you believe it?). The dish tasted a tad sweet but I loved it. It was yummmmmmy!!!! (even if I say so myself!)

Self-rating: 5/10

Gloating moment: Daughter's boyfriend said my dishes tasted good! I told hubs and he laughed (mean old man) and said guy was sucking up to me. I told hubs he's a clever young man then! But I don't believe for a second he was trying to curry favour. From the short time I've known him, I think he doesn't do stuff like that. He's a nice young man. Well, darn! The food must have really tasted good! *pats own back*

Working Mother's Steamed Pork Ribs / Sio Pek Chye

2011-08-17T11:30:00.000+08:00

Was dreaming of eating assam fish curry the whole day at work. Made a mad dash to the supermarket to buy some brinjals (just in case I really wanted to cook the fish curry) and some canned porridge condiments before rushing home to cook dinner yesterday. At lunch, I had walked past a Chinese Medical Hall with packets of food seasoning (what's medical halls and cooking spices got to do with each other???) hanging outside their shop. I purchased Seah's seasoning for Steamed Pork Ribs for S$2 (This is not an ad endorsement. I get paid nothing - but it might give ideas to any working people out there who need to cook food in a hurry like me). Since I had already defrosted some pork ribs overnight thinking to stew or oven bake them, the seasoning would come in handy. I went home and just rubbed the seasoning all over. Put it IN a big but shallow bowl ON a metal rack IN a pot of water OVER the stove and steamed (prepositions for you)! Cut some chilli and served! Voila!

Steamed Pork Ribs

Hubs was initially quite sceptical when I had told him I was steaming this dish. He kept asking me if I shouldn't fry it instead. In the end, he agreed it turned out delicious but because it involved the steaming of pork ribs, it took a tad longer to get dinner ready. Fortunately, both kids had fallen asleep (after returning home from school) and hubs was busy watching TV whilst I was cooking. I could afford to slave over the stove longer than usual. I didn't add anything else to this dish except for the cut chilli. The gravy you see in the pic was formed naturally through the steaming process. Had a nice peppery taste. Not too salty not too sweet. Pretty tasty seasoning.

Hubs agreed it was delicious. The meat was cooked and not tough but hubs felt the meat should have 'fallen off the bones' and it did not. He probably got that idea from eating canned stewed pork ribs. They DO fall off the bones. One wonders how many days THOSE have been stewed and if the stew is ever changed (or just reused, over and over - BAH! Dun wanna think about it. Just eat it! The canned stuff I mean!)
I did agree and think that it would have been nicer if my steamed pork ribs had beens softer but I would have required a much longer steaming time.

I'm glad hubs comments and criticizes my cooking. It's a learning process for me and if he fakes it and tells me everything is wonderful all the time, I might never learn! He did eat plenty of the pork ribs and that's proof of the pudding. However, later that night, as he was dozing off, he told me he was having a stomach ache. I understood what he was trying to say, glared at him for a moment than asked him what he had eaten for lunch. Hah!

Also boiled some Sio Pek Chye (Siau Bai Cai) and made some seasoning with oyster sauce and hot water.

Sio Pek Chye

I got to eat all the Sio Pek Chye by myself. Hubs only took a bite to taste my cooking. He isn't a big fan of most types of veg.

As for kids....sigh. Son wasted my time slaving over the Steamed Pork Ribs. He took one bite and said he didn't like the taste and that he was eating left over corned beef instead. As I predicted, he made instant noodles later that night. I pretty much just left him alone when he said he wasn't eating the ribs. You could say both guys are easy to please, yet the most difficult to please. If father and son could have their way, their menu would be limited to bread and butter, spam, corned beef, fried eggs, otak, sweet and sour pork, chicken rice or nasi lemak everyday of their lives. Daddy repeatedly tells me he is easy to please with just bread and butter but he doesn't eat a multitude of stuff, so to me, he's super fussy. Son likes pasta and japanese but dad dislikes both. What am I supposed to do? Pander to their needs? Son needs to learn that Mummy isn't going to cater to his limited eating repertoire and if he's going to go hungy, he's going to go hungry. (Anyway, he likes it cos he's losing his baby fat). Daddy on the other hand - he has a choice to eat the meaty dishes his wife cooks up, go hungry or take over the cooking.

Daughter wasn't feeling well so I'd made a bowl of instant porridge for her instead. Tried to make it as 'not' bland as possible. She played around with the pickled veg but refused to touch the peanuts.

Instant porridge with pickled veg and sweet peanuts

Tonight! Ah, tonight, I'm gonna cook assam fish curry with loads of brinjals. For the fussy eaters whom I know will not be touching my fish curry, I'll be cooking pork rib soup with corn and....and....I dunno....as usual, will just go with the flow...

Working Mother's Suay Kow - Finally!

2011-08-16T16:26:00.003+08:00

The Saturday before National Day, I woke up feeling like cooking a big breakfast for the family - which I did; sausages, baked beans, french toast and all (forgot to take pics, sorry). Then right after the last person (Saturday mornings are for catching up on sleep) had finished with breakfast and I'd washed up the pots and pans, I realised it was already time to start cooking lunch!

Decided to finally make Suay Kow (Dumplings). I had already pre-seasoned my minced meat (one packet pork, one packet chicken) a couple of days ago and just had to have them wrapped in store-bought skins.
From past experience, I find it much easier to make them and dunk them immediately in a pot of boiling water, as opposed to making a whole stash ready before starting to dunk them.

Here's a plate of dumplings ~~drained~~ with water drained. Hastily cut chilli and parsley garnish was for the benefit of my hubby who had advised me to spice up my food pics!

Meanwhile, for the soup, I had another pot of pork stock boiling. Also rolled up some meat balls and threw them in to cook.

It may look like a small dish but believe you me, a few Suay Kow will go a long way! Add some cut chilli to soya sauce (light or dark) and sluuuuurp!
Self-rating: 7/10 (Yeah, baby!!!)

Unfortunately, in the days that followed this, I totally forgot to take pics of my Chicken Curry and Nasi Lemak dishes! When a working mother's in a rush to cook up meals within half and hour, taking pics is the last thing on her mind! Darn! Am especially pissed with myself about forgetting to take pics of the Nasi Lemak! Well, there's always next time.

Road Trip

2011-08-15T18:06:00.000+08:00

Didn't blog for slightly over a week cos hubs and I had taken a road trip.

Sunset along the Malaysian North-South Highway

Set off much later than anticipated and was still on the road at dusk. Beautiful sunset! Hubs agreed that the sunset was picturesque. I was frantically trying to capture the moment and I was so touched that he told me to hold off snapping while he slowed his car for me to take the pics!

Can't blog too long today. It's off to church for Mass later this evening for our Blessed Mother's Day of Assumption!

Flea Market - Changi Village 6 August 2011

2011-08-05T14:05:00.002+08:00

We'll be at the Changi Village Flea Market this Sat, 6 Aug 2011
5-11pm

C'ya!

Working Mother's Comfort Food - Stewed Pork Ribs/ Black Eggs/ Tomato Pork

2011-08-05T13:56:00.002+08:00

Hubby went out yesterday evening. Came home later that night and asked me, 'So, what did you cook for dinner, tonight?'
No need for explanations. I told him, 'Look at the pics in my phone!'
He'd know eventually if he reads my blog. But he does not. He does not read ANY blogs for that matter. Social media is a waste of time to him (and I'm trying to change his mind about this). He knows I've been taking pics of my dishes so he burst out laughing. At least he was interested in the pics to actually look in my phone. Then he held on to it and hogged it the whole night playing some bubble bursting game....sigh.
Side track note: He said I was snoring loudly after he had only 'died' 3 times at the game.

So what DID I cook yesterday evening? Mid-morning yesterday, daughter texted me from school to cook 'that very nice chicken thingy in a can'. First thought was instant curry chicken (but surely it had tasted horrible?). We exchanged some text messages back and forth before I could figure out that she meant Narcissus brand's Stewed Pork Ribs! Alamak, I had to chide her, 'Pork, lah, girl, not chicken!'.

Hubs wasn't eating with us so we had:

Narcissus brand's Stewed Pork Ribs

Totally oily, fatty, unhealthy and so, so yummilicious (Son won't agree though. He doesn't like it at all). Then because only daughter would eat that and son wouldn't, had to think of an alternative meat dish.
Self-rating: Not applicable (It's idiot proof to cook this, unless one doesn't know how to open a can or turn on the stove).

Tomato Sauce Pork

I cut up some pork chunks, potatoes and onions and fried them in tomato sauce. Decided to use ~~Heinz~~ Del Monte tomato sauce (in a plastic bottle that was very shiok to squeeze) instead of tomato paste and felt that it was too salty (or sourish) for my liking. Paste would have tasted better.
Cooked this for the benefit of my son and he tells me he's full cos he made cup noodles just before I had returned home from work! Hmmmph!!! He only poked around his black egg and tried a bit of the tomato pork. Then he reminds me he dislikes anything in tomato sauce (except maybe spaghetti).

Self-rating: 3/10 (Pork was soft and succulent as I had defrosted for a day in my 'lower bin' but the tomato sauce wasn't to my liking.

Also fried what we call Mike's Black Eggs:

'Black' Eggs (Eggs in Dark Sauce)

Mike taught me to fry this when we were first dating (hmmm....that would be eons ago). When my cooking skills were limited to cooking rice, frying eggs and instant maggi mee. It's something my mother-in-law used to cook for him. Eggs beaten with dark sauce, pepper and salt! That single bull's eye in the pic is for moi.

No self-rating lah. Shy even to self-rate frying eggs.

Finished cooking all the above in a jiffy.

The cheek of Hubs. He was going through my pics last night on my phone and ahem, actually reading the last 2 posts on my blog and advising me to add abit of garnishing here and there to my dishes so they look better online. Alamak! It's not called Working Mother's No Frills dishes for no reason. I have to cook fast and furious everyday and then still remember to snap pics with my phone.

Oh yes....take a look at the half-eaten Sago with Gula Melaka I had whipped up. Forgot to take pics until eaten halfway. Hee hee, that's happening alot these days:

Sago with Gula Melaka and coconut milk

I had poured the cooked Sago into small bowls to set overnight in the fridge, then cupped them out onto a plate the next day. Boiled Gula Melaka and poured it and some coconut milk over the sago. Made 4 small bowls but 2 bowls was still too much for the 3 of us (Son refused to even try and gets upset if I 'force' him to - so I didn't. Daughter was flabberghasted at this 'new' dish but tasted it and did eat quite a bit. But she found it too sweet for her liking. She asked for her usual 'Green Jelly' instead. That's jello which I make nearly every week).

Self-rating: 2/10 (Sago too sticky and somewhat uncooked in the centre. Gula Melaka too sweet and the brand of coconut milk I used wasn't my usual brand and it didn't taste very nice. Overall, one would be able to taste what this dessert is supposed to taste like but am not happy with the results).

So there you have it - our comfort food.

Fast to cook, good to eat (wait, isn't that from Maggi Mee's ad from eons ago?)

Working Mother's Hainanese Chicken Rice

2011-08-04T10:40:00.005+08:00

Tuesday evening :
Daughter: 'What are you cooking for dinner tomorrow, Mum? A------- is coming over' (That's her boyfriend).
Working Mother: 'I dunno. What you want to eat? Chicken rice?'
Daughter: 'Yes! OK, chicken rice!'

Late Tuesday night :
Barges into our room. Double confirmation.
Daughter: 'So, chicken rice, ah?'

Both in unison
Husband: 'OK! Chicken rice' / Working Mother: 'Or sui kow?'
Daughter: 'Chicken rice!'

Husband looks at me: 'Just say Chicken Rice, lah. She wants Chicken Rice, just say OK, lor.'
Working Mother: 'Ok, ok....(sigh)'

Wednesday morning triple confirmation.
Texted message from Daughter:
'So what are you cooking tonight for dinner, Mum?'

Working Mother's No Frills Hainanese Chicken Rice

We eat a lot of chicken at home. Fillet for hubs and the kids. Boney chicken for me. So to prepare a chicken dish, I always have to have both types of cuts at home. To sidetrack a bit, I'm finding it harder and harder to find chicken fillet at the supermarkets and when I can find them, they're usually thawed from frozen fillet but charged like fresh chicken fillet. What a rip off.

Anyway, decided to cook two types of chicken. One, cut up fillet into bits, dip in flour and fry. Not exactly Hainanese Chicken Rice but hey, anything to keep my family happy.

Fillet bits seasoned and fried by Hubby

Actually, the first thing I always do is to cook the rice. I would have had enough soup and oily bits from my chicken parts to do the rice from scratch. But when you have hungry teens in the wings waiting, store bought chicken rice sauce goes a long way. Have tried a few brands and ~~Loy~~ Chng Kee's (forgot the brand but I think it has Kee in it) works best for me. Costs more than the packet ones too. Dumped the whole bottle in although I think the instructions said 4 tbsp for 4 container scoops of rice. I was cooking 5 scoops of rice and by the time I had scooped out my 4th tbsp of sauce, I noticed not much left in the bottle - so just dumped all of its contents into the rice pot, added water, a few cloves of garlic (unpeeled) and stirred thoroughly.

While the rice was cooking, I got the chicken boiling. Chucked some breast meat (with bones) and wingsticks (not chicken wings but little drummettes - Alamak, how to spell drummette?) which I always refer to as small drumsticks, into a pot. Brought it to a furious boil for about 10 minutes, then turned off the stove, covered the pot and let it sit for half an hour in the hot soup.

Meanwhile, I had the fillet bits seasoned and deep fried by hubby (yes, he's getting the hang of cooking - in fact, he fries better than me).

The boiled chicken was cooked just nice. Not too hard, not too soft and cooked! No pink flesh! That is a big deal to me, considering I worry alot about undercooking chicken all the time. I drained them and dunked them in cold water. Cut up the breast pieces into half, then drizzled a mix of soya sauce and sesame oil over them. Sliced some lettuce into the soup and served.

Voila!

Self-rating: 6/10
Chicken turned out nice. Not too hard, not too soft but definitely have not reached the level of chicken succulence which I can find at some chicken rice stores!
Rice at bottom of pot turned out a bit burnt. Not sure why. Maybe I hadn't stirred the sauce enough. Fortunately, I had cooked 5 scoops of rice so there was plenty on the top to eat.
Wah piang, plenty of cleaning up after that. Would have been much cheaper and easier to go buy chicken rice. But that would have lacked the love hubs and I put into preparing this dish to feed our family.
(Hubby said above pic of white chicken looks like 'sotong' to him. What the heck!?)

Working Mother's Chicken and Chips

2011-08-03T13:32:00.000+08:00

Tuesday afternoon 2 August 2011.
Called hubby to ask him help me buy wanton skins. Told him I had already seasoned my minced meat and thought of making 'Sui Kow' for dinner that night (those gigantic wantons filled with minced meat and sometimes filled with prawns or veg). He says 'Sui Kow' in soup sounds good.

What does the guy do? Oh, he buys the skins for me alright. But I get home from work and see him frying crinkle cut chips. Slightly irritated, I ask him, 'Chips and 'Sui Kow'? You KNOW I'm cooking Sui Kow!'. He continues frying and says he just felt like eating chips. He munches on some as he fries.
I couldn't make myself pass any sarcastic comments because I myself had had this weird urge to eat chips earlier that afternoon (and had in fact ordered Fish and Chips for lunch)!

So, Working Mother (also known as Mrs Fixit - although I'm too lazy to fix much nowadays) had to do a quick mental assessment of what I had already defrosted and seasoned in what I call my fridge's 'bottom bin' and do a quick menu change. Decided to season chicken fillet in store bought flour/crumbs to match hubby's chips. The result:

Chicken and Chips

Self-rating: 7/10
(Not too bad lah cos the kids and hubs actually made individual effort to come tell me the chicken was delicious and I had managed to not burn the chicken and yet have it turn out a nice crisp brown!)

BTW, that miserable piece of lettuce (which I placed on each individual's plate) was my pathetic attempt at having them take a erm....balanced meal. Most definitely did NOT work. Neither one of them (that is, daughter, son or hubs ate the lettuce). Son actually asked me if I was trying to sneekily slip a piece of veg onto his plate to try to trick him into eating veg. I, their human vacuum cleaner, therefore, ended up dunking all their lettuce in Nando's sauce and eating it all up. I give up.

Flea Market - Saturday 30 July 2011

2011-07-29T10:41:00.005+08:00

We'll be at the Changi Village Flea Market this Sat 30 July 2011.
5-11pm. C'ya.

BTW, how d'ya like this pair of shoes? My kid's pal commissioned me to do up her Vans with one of my existing designs:

I enjoyed doing the shoes because it offered me a larger canvas to paint but wouldn't have touched it with a pole if it hadn't been for a friend of my daughter's because (if you're reading it), it was filthy and STANK big time! (LOL. Had to literally wear a mask those few hours doing it!). Hope you like it, owner!

Working Mother's Mixed Chow - Batang Steak / Sliced Pork / Kangkong

2011-07-29T10:29:00.002+08:00

So after Monday night's Laksa, Tuesday night was a no-go in terms of cooking. Both kids were eating out after staying back late in school and I was too tired from unpacking stuff over at my new office so hubs and I decided to walk over to a nearby Bak Kut Teh restaurant to have what else....Bak Kut Teh (Pork Rib Soup), Ter Kah (Pig's Trotters) and Mei Cai (a salted veg condiment). Deeeelicious!

Got home on Wednesday evening to find that hubs had already fried eggs and corned beef (for his own benefit, I might add).

In addition, I cooked:

Batang Steak with chilli and onions

Batang (fish) steak, pan seared with a motherload of onions and cut chilli and a dash of lemon : )
Mmmmm....yummy, even if I do say so myself. I'd rate it a 7/10 (I know what you are thinking. The gall of this woman, rating her own cooking. FYI, who cares? This is my blog and I'm the one who cooked it and ate it. I'm the one who knows if or not I had food poisoning after the dish. I can rate my own cooking if I wish to, thank you! HAHA)

And......

Pork and sliced potatoes soaked in HP sauce. Tasted pretty good. Self-rating 5/10.

Then, though I knew we already had enough, I took a look at my refridgerator's bunch of wilting Kangkong and knew I had to cook it that night or junk it.

Also, I thought that my daughter might appreciate coming home to a dish of Chilli Kangkong since it's one of her favourites. It looks a bit too watery. I still can't quite get it right (just like zhi-char restaurants) but this time round, the taste was nearly there. Why is it so watery when I cook it at home? I don't even add water. Is it because I actually wash my kangkong and restaurants don't???!!! Of course, I had to make do with whatever bottled chilli I could find at home and well, it's a working mother's no frills Chilli Kangkong. What else does anyone expect? : )

Working Mother's No-Frills Laksa

2011-07-26T18:19:00.002+08:00

I'm not a good cook but you can't fault me for trying. I actually enjoy cooking. Having to work in the day, I usually have to rush home to cook dinner. It's usually a mad rush, giving myself only half an hour from the time I step foot back home, to the time I serve the dinner. I do find it therapeutic though, even if it's usually 10pm before I wipe and place the last dinner plate back onto the kitchen shelves!

Here's Monday night's No-Frills Laksa cooked by yours truly.

No frills because no 'hum' (cockles), no laksa sambal, no laksa leaves, no shelled prawns (used frozen peeled prawns) and didn't even have the time to pluck the bean sprout tails. Ha ha. We're still alive today, no? And NO STOMACH UPSET. ha ha ha ha.....

Just 2 packets of A1 Laksa mix (Prima is better in my humble opinion), some coconut milk, lots of tah-pok, yong-tauhu mix and tah dah. No frills. Finished in half and hour.

I'd rate it a 3/10. Blah. A bit on the diluted side. Ooops.
(You don't see the yong tahu cos this is a 'posed' photo. I'd totally forgotten to take a pic of my actual servings and only thought to do so when I was washing up. By then, I'd already run out of yong tahu so just plonked whatever I had left and took a pic. Not too bad looking, even if I do say so myself. LOL).

Wondering what to cook tonight, though.....sigh.

So tired

2011-07-20T09:39:00.000+08:00

Haven't decided if we should set up stall in Changi this Saturday or not.

I've to attend my daughter's Parents-Teachers session at her JC on Sat and I am feeling physically tired. Wouldn't mind just staying home to watch a senseless movie and cooking up a more elaborate dinner. My day job office is relocating and there are tonnes and tonnes of stuff to pack and throw out. It's not been easy, doing that whilst the business (day job) is still running. The past week especially has been so tiring. I go home ready to drop but have to prepare dinner and deal with the ironing (school uniforms). Can't wait for the National Day break to come......hee hee....will be going off for a short break with my man again. I luuuuurve short breaks! Sorry, nothing to do with not being patriotic. Just about being able to find a few days off in a row to take a break from work and the usual mad schedule of things.

Cooking. Hmmm....that's been on my mind alot lately. I enjoy cooking so it's not a very big deal to do so (but ironing is something else altogether)! I find it fulfilling as a wife and mother to be able to feed my family. As I write this, I'm thinking, I should take pics of the meals I prepare. Given that I've not been cooking 'full-time' very long (does it count if I've been watching cooking shows since my pregnancies umpteen years ago?), what I whip up is dependent on what I buy at the supermarket (yes, no wet markets for me, thank you), what dishes I can think off and largely what the fussy pots will eat.

It's tough when one doesn't eat any chicken with bones, one eats chicken with bones. One likes soup. The other doesn't. One loves kangkong. The other doesn't. One likes eggs seasoned with black sauce. The other fancies bullseyes. One can eat western all year round. The other fancies Chinese. You get the drift. Sigh.

I really should start taking pics of my dishes. Why didn't I think of that before?

Anyway, back to the topic of this Saturday's stall at Changi. If we're there, we're there. If we're not, we're not. Feel free to give us a call to check with us.

Flea Market - Changi Village - Sat 16 July 2011

2011-07-15T16:53:00.001+08:00

We'll be at the Changi Village Flea Market this Saturday 16 July 2011.
5-11pm.

New home decor stock has arrived! C'ya.

Free Delivery

2011-07-11T18:11:00.000+08:00

Mike and I are in a good mood so we're offering FREE DELIVERY for every pair of Cartoon Lagoon hand painted shoes you order.

That's right, S$29 includes FREE DELIVERY to a local address within Singapore Mainland.

Delivery lead times are about 1 to 2 weeks and unit price excludes any embellishments to shoes straps.

Flea Market - 9 July 2011 SAT

2011-07-08T11:41:00.000+08:00

9 July 2011 SAT
We'll be at the Changi Village Flea Market
5.30pm - 11pm

See ya' there!

Flea Market update 29 June 2011

2011-06-29T09:32:00.000+08:00

Just to let you know we will NOT be participating in the Changi Village Flea market this Sat 2 July 2011.

MegaFlea 2011 (Singapore Expo Hall)

2011-06-20T15:51:00.000+08:00

Past few weeks have been hectic for Mike and myself. This weekend, we'll be participating in this:

MEGAFLEA
Where: Singapore Expo Hall 5A
24 June 2011 Fri (12noon - 10pm)
25 June 2011 Sat (10am - 10pm)
26 June 2011 Sun (10am - 10pm)

Cartoon Lagoon's booth is located at E12.

Well, in between, we found time to sneak away for a much needed break, just he and I (yes, such bliss!)

Ooooooh, nice, cool weather! How I miss that now that we're home. Sob! My macho man refused to bring a coat cos he said he had me to hug him if he got cold. But I dumped his jacket in the luggage for him anyway.

Strawberry Farm

Wah seh, nowadays, clever.....no need ground to plant them strawberries! Planted like HDB flats too. All stacked up.

Well, back to work and reality for me now and soon, the school term will begin. Wah, sian just thinking about it.

See you at MegaFlea this weekend!

(BTW, my daughter turns 17 this weekend. Whoosh! How time flies! Happy Birthday, my baby!)

Flea Market - Weekend 11th and 12th June 2011

2011-06-10T15:45:00.001+08:00

We'll be busy, busy at the following FLEA MARKETS:

TOMORROW!!!
SATURDAY MORNING (11 June 2011):
One World International School
696 Upper Changi Road East Singapore 486826
Official opening hours are 10am to about 1.30pm

SATURDAY EVENING (11 June 2011)
Usual spot at Changi V
5pm -11pm (Hard Court area)

SUNDAY MORNING (12 June 2011)
Elias Commmunity Centre - look for MacDonalds near Elias Mall (Pasir Ris)
From 10am till ??? (it's supposed to be till 6pm but if business isn't that good, we'll pack up before that)

What are we selling?
Well, apart from our usual Cartoon Lagoon Hand Painted shoes, we've also been selling our hand painted signs (quite popular!!!) and country house decor. Our booth looks quite pretty even if I do say so myself!

Mike and I just love sourcing for new items to sell. Seriously speaking, our profit margin is just well.....marginal. After all the trouble we take to source, import or make, we don't make very much from the items. If you've seen similar items being sold at other shops, you'd know, that our mark-up is so, so low compared to theirs. Of course, we understand that they may be housed in shops with high rentals / employee salaries / overheads etc. Likewise, we also have our overheads to cover, albeit not as high as theirs and we do not pay ourselves high salaries. It's pathetic. Much of what we make, we plough back into buying new stock or supplies. Sheesh.

Running a flea market stall week after week can be very tiring but I like that I get to spend time with my husband, first sourcing for the items, then getting them ready to be sold. It's cool that our kids are older and this allows us more time to ourselves as a couple. It's also quite fun to meet different people every week, be it customers or fellow stall holders. There's always something new to learn from new people we meet. Like tomorrow's participation at OWIS, it was recommended to us by our customer. Sunday's do at Elias was recommended by a fellow Flea Market stall holder. Then there's the MegaFlea do which we'll be taking part in from 24 - 26 June 2011 at the Expo Hall. It was recommended to us by a fellow flea market stall holder too. Such wonderful people! Such fun! See you around!

All this is made possible only by God, taking care and watching over us, blessing us, day after day! Thank you, Lord!

SVDP's Life in the Spirit Seminar 2011

2011-06-03T10:53:00.000+08:00

Mike, me and the kids are Catholics.
The church we attend, is conducting the Life in the Spirit Seminar soon. Here are the details:

Church of St Vincent de Paul
301 Yio Chu Kang Road

Singapore 805910
Tel: 6482 0959

Church of St Vincent de Paul (SVDP) 2011 Life in the Spirit Seminar (LISS)

It will be held over a period of 7 weeks on the following dates:

Monday, 7.30pm to 10.00pm : 27 Jun, 4 Jul, 11 Jul, 25 Jul, 1 Aug

Saturday, 9.30am to 5.00pm : 16 Jul

Sunday, 2.00pm to 5.00pm : 17 Jul

Monday, 7.30pm to 10.00pm : 18 Jul (Make-up session for those who missed 17 Jul)

Those who wish to sign up for the 2011 LISS may do so by simply providing the following information:

Name:

Age:

Email:

Mobile Tel Number:

Home Tel Number:

------------------
If you like, you may provide the info to me, I'll help you sign up.
The church did not send me to promote this. By listing the above details, I am in no way acting on behalf of the church. I am doing this because I believe in it.

Don't laugh off this idea completely without giving it a chance.
7 sessions was all it took to change my life. It didn't cost me a cent. The course is conducted by volunteers and it took only time and effort on my part to attend the sessions faithfully and my willingness to listen and open my heart to God. Of course, whenever you try to draw nearer to God, the wiley one starts stalking you and obstacles get thrown your way to sidetrack you. But loads of prayers and love from the group and yourself will see you through it if your heart truly desires it.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit changed my whole life, I kid you not.
It has changed the way I see things, how I deal with the good and the bad and more importantly, it has changed the way I am now walking with God.

I wish this for you too.

Messages from God

2011-06-01T18:11:00.000+08:00

God gave me a message 2 months prior to me getting the confirmation from a human being. I just made this discovery whilst checking my calendar for a work related matter. Same date, 2 months prior. How awesome is that? How awesome is God? He knew I was in for some rough times ahead but He took the time to tell me He loved me anyway. I look back and I know now why it took 2 whole months to be 'confirmed' and I thank Him for it.

This can happen to you too, having God's love I mean. He took a sinner like me and gave me love and spiritual gifts. I pray in tongues and I hear Him. He tells me He loves me all the time. What more could I ask for?

All this because I joined the Life in the Spirit Seminar in 2009. All this because I had opened my heart completely to Him. I had invited Him into my life and He did not let me down. The outpouring of the spirit can happen to you too if you really desire it.

I know that the Life in the Spirit Seminar is starting soon again at the Church of St Vincent de Paul (Catholic church) along Yio Chu Kang Road. Please sign up. If you don't know how to, please contact me. I'll help you get in touch with my friends who are organising it. I won't be a facilitator this year because I have too much on my hands. I hope God understands. I think He does. He's been with me throughout some very tough moments in my life. I've had to make choices and He's shown me that He's with me, loving me no matter what.

We all go up shit's creek sometimes in our lives. There's no denying this. But there's a big, big difference when you have God on your side. He makes all the difference. When you have no one else, you will have God. Open your heart to Him and He will never desert you! God Bless!

Flea Market

2011-05-20T16:56:00.001+08:00

We ran our stall at the Changi V Flea Market last week and will be there again this Sat evening. I have some hand painted shoe designs selling for cheaper than our usual online prices. So come on down to take a look.

Sorry, haven't been posting much lately. Been so busy at the office.....! This past week has been particularly 'interesting' at work.

Just wanted to say, kids, Mike and I had a blast at the 'Thriller Live' show at Marina Bay Sands last Sunday afternoon. Tickets didn't come cheap for a family of 4 but it was well worth the price! This was a little pre-birthday surprise from kids and I to our Michael because he really loves MJ. Not yet his birthday and I'm planning a series of small treats this whole week for my man! *wink*

We'll be running a booth on 11 June 2011 Sat at OWIS from about 7am - 2pm.
One World International School 696 Upper Changi Road East Singapore 486826
I'm not sure if it's restricted to the school kids, staff and family. But we'll be there.

Then from 24th June (Friday) through to 26th June (Sunday), we'll be at the Singapore Expo Hall running a booth at the MegaFlea event. Look in the press for details.

Haven't tried either of the above before and not sure of how the response will be but one thing is for sure, there's never a dull moment when doing these flea markets. See you around!

In Memoriam

2011-05-12T11:51:00.000+08:00

I hold it true, whate'er befall;

I feel it, when I sorrow most;

'Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

~ "In Memoriam" Alfred Lord Tennyson 1850

I love you too

7 May 2011 - POLLING DAY

2011-05-06T15:56:00.000+08:00

No Changi Village flea market on Polling Day 7 May 2011.

The organisers cancelled it as they were worried that there'd be no customers or there'd be fewer stallholders as many would prefer to be glued to their TV sets.

I think this will be my 5th time voting and this has got to be by far, one of the most exciting elections todate. Many more Singaporeans are engaged in heated debates, debunking of truths, debunking of lies, mudslinging, exposes, whatchamicallit. Probably due also to easy access to social media on this tiny island we so proudly call home. I thought I was apathetic but I am not after all. I have thought things through and I have made my stand. You have a right to your choice as much as I have a right to mine. Just remember that when you cast that vote, it is FOR that person or party whom you think is going to make things better for you.

If you are faltering and you think that person or party you intended to vote for is actually crap but you're voting him/them anyway because you do not have a choice, I implore you to think long and hard. Cross the box of the person/ party you truly, truly believe in. Let's not cross that box just because everyone else around us is doing it.

Whatever the outcome, I truly believe that we are a blessed nation. May God continue to watch over our tiny island and may He bless us with the most suitable leaders to take care of our needs.

Roller Coaster Ride with God

2011-05-04T18:12:00.000+08:00

Last week was the worst and best week of my life.
Through it all, God never left my side. He lifted me up and held me to His bosom. I feel so loved by Him. I really do.
I used to love roller coaster rides but I thank God that when I felt like throwing up this whole ride, felt like dying, God just sat there with me, holding my hand.
He set me free with the truth, in His time.
I will never let go of His hand. Ever.

Changi Village Flea Market - SAT 30 April & SUN 1 May 2011

2011-04-29T16:10:00.000+08:00

We'll be at the Changi Village Flea Market this
SATURDAY 30 April - 5pm to 11pm (hard courts near big car park behind block 1)

and a one off Sunday Flea Market:
SUNDAY 1 May - 5pm to 1 am (as Monday is a holiday, off in lieu of Sunday being May Day).
Location wise, I'm not very sure. The organiser said it's going to be at the 'old' place. So should be near the hawker centre or across the road. Changi V isn't that big. Am sure you can find us.

Here's a pic of our stall:

Looks good? Smells good and IS good! Cheap and good. So come on down!

Dying unto yourself

2011-04-28T10:37:00.000+08:00

“We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us ….” (2 Corinthians 1:9)

You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got ~ Purpose Driven Life

Easter 2011 - 24th April

2011-04-28T10:04:00.000+08:00

I was so happy on Easter morning, attending Mass, having lunch and going shopping with my family.
Hope, peace, love and renewed life.

Then along came night and with it, a fresh revelation.
I died.

In His time

2011-04-20T15:34:00.000+08:00

One of the earliest 'modern' Christian songs I learnt was 'In His time'. Lyrics are simple yet relevant. Everything is in His time.

Just one day after I posted about searching for myself. God gives me a wake up call, in the form of a notice of the passing of a friend's husband to illness. This couple is about my age with young kids. They only had 5 months to grapple with the discovery and thereafter, treatment of his disease. This sister-in-Christ was baptised a year ago and in the last 5 months, her husband accepted Christ as his saviour. He managed to get baptised before his passing.

Here I am, tired, physically, emotionally, mentally and so I caved and wallowed in the slush pile of self-pity. Self-soul searching I thought. When I received the text message of this person's passing it was a jolt to my system. So I'm thanking God for my being physically, emotionally and mentally tired because it means I'm still alive. I'm still alive. My family is alive. My kids are alive. My beloved spouse, my life partner is alive. So the going gets tough sometimes and I'm tired but I'm alive. Thank you, Lord!

Holy Week 2011

2011-04-19T17:51:00.002+08:00

Entering Holy Week, I've been feeling the urge to pray and pray. I've been keeping up my praying in tongues on a daily basis. Even if it's just short bursts of it. There are moments in my daily regime where I need it and I do it spontaneously. If I'm not alone, I just do it silently. I've begun to pray in tongues in my thoughts too. Reminds me of my friend from teacher training who was good in the sign language (for the deaf/mute). She started signing in her dreams. So sometimes, I'm praying in tongues silently. My lips are mouthing the sounds but my mind is having a back and forth conversation with God. This is how I hear Him. Unbelievable? Believe it. It's true. He says the darnest things and yet what He says is always apt and correct. He's always answering my questions with questions for me to ponder over. I can have a really long conversation with Him if I'm not interrupted. But my life is such that I don't really have much time to myself. I don't know how to tell you that God is very real. The Holy Spirit is very real. If I could shout it from the roof tops (of HDB blocks?) I would! GOD IS REAL!

In an attempt to improve my spontaneous praying, I've also been talking to God in English. Think that's the only way to improve it. I don't know how else to improve this weakness.

So, after attending the Life in the Spirit Seminar and being baptised in the Holy Spirit in 2009, this is how my life has changed. I am still very human. I sin. I lose my temper. I get angry. I get annoyed. I get upset. I do things I should not be doing. I say things I should not be doing. I acknowledge this. I acknowledge who I am. I acknowledge my sins and I try not to sin again. I do not pretend to be 'Holy Holy'. I try not to do or say things displeasing to God but it's really tough. So, just acknowledge it and try your darnest to improve. We're all on a journey. There is no one perfect except God.

But through it all, I try to retain an awareness that God is real in my life. He may seem intangible and yet, He's very tangible. Get what I mean? I need to see Him in most of everything, if not everything in my life.

Been going through some crap lately on a personal level. But I've been keeping up my conversations with God and that is what's kept me going. Mid-life crisis? Hmm, maybe. I've become wife, mum, daughter, employee and I seem to have totally lost myself. Me. Who am I? Where am I? What am I? I've never in my life, ever felt the need to go on a holiday on my own. But I feel the urge now.

Who Am I?

No, I'm not going on a Eat, Pray, Love crap journey. Nothing wrong with the words Eat, Pray, Love. Beautiful in fact. Never read the book but hated the movie. Usually enjoy Julia Roberts but could hardly sit through the movie. Thought the protagonist was totally self-indulgent. Lousy script writing reliant on heavyweight Julia Roberts' acting as its saving grace. Well, not the only saving grace. The Italian pasta, Punjabi suits and Bali beach was tempting.

Eat? Please, if I eat any more than I should be eating, the only thing I'll gain is more weight! In fact, I need to cut down my carbs to balance the weakening metabolism. But I do need to PRAY more than I am do now and I need to LOVE and be LOVED.

No, no, I'm not running away from home. If anything, I'm going to be running into the arms of another man...........................Jesus!!!
Funny thing, I also have this urge to run, literally. Yes. Run. I don't know why. Have had this urge the past few days. A Forrest Gump thing going on here.

In another lifetime, I may have upped and run away (to Italy? India? Bali?) but after being baptised in the Holy Spirit, I realise, I'm never alone. God is always with me. You are my Lord, Jesus, forever and ever and I rejoice in your Holy name! Amen!

Seriously, no, don't read more into it then you need to. My marriage is NOT in trouble. We love birds love each other too much. If anything, I love Mike more now then anything and I know he feels the same way. I just think it's time for me to slow down and FIND MYSELF. So, maybe I'll find the courage to go on a solo holiday.....some day soon. Meanwhile I have responsibilities to a lot of people around me and God is giving me the strength to carry on. Do YOU have God to carry you?

As you enter Holy Week, please take a moment to think how prayer can change your life and if you're facing difficulties in life, there's always Jesus to turn to. Take care and God Bless!

See you this Sat at the Changi V Flea Market.

5-11pm

St Gabriel's Secondary School Speech Day ~ 2011

2011-04-18T15:33:00.002+08:00

Attended the 58th Speech Day of St Gabriel's Secondary School last Saturday. It's a pity not every student gets invited. You only get invited if you're receiving an award, or if you're a performer, helper or family member of an award recipient. This sort of means that few of your friends are there to cheer you on. Cheh, no fun. Understandably, after a few rounds of incessant clapping, few of the other parents were very interested in clapping for anyone apart from the one/s they were there to support. I couldn't clap for my own son because I was snapping pictures of that moment. Sheesh! Pity. Would have been much more fun to have your buddies cheering you on. It happened with the primary school too and I guess it is due to space constraints.

Sat through a couple of performances and I thought the school band and guitar ensemble rocked (loved the Jurassic Park theme song they played)!

St Gabriel's Secondary School Band

Okay, also impressive was the choir and all the guys in military attire (always had a thing for guys in military garb!).

Guest of Honour was our precious Gabrielite Brother; Brother Emmanuel. His humourous self as usual, he joked that despite his age, he was in no hurry to get to Heaven yet and I pray too that we still have many more good years with this loveable man! Had a chance to chat with him up close and personal when our Charismatic Prayer Group had a praying over session of the Confirmation youths last year at their camp. It's hard not to wrinkle up and grin crazily when talking to him!

So, why was I there? Conversation with the boy in the past month goes like this:

Son: Mum, somewhere in April, you have to come to my school's speech day.
Mum: Okay. Why?
Son: Got some prize, lah.
Mum: For what?
Son: Dunno, I tell you later okay?

Then a few days after, I poke him again for answers.

Mum: You won for what?
Son: 2 subjects lah.
Mum: Oh. You mean you topped your class?
Son: I also don't know! Muuuuuum! I don't know the details!

Received the letter from school. But only mentions he's receiving awards for 2 subjects.

Then again, 2 nights before the event:
Dad: His prizes ~ is for topping the level last year you know. Not class.
Mum: What?! Really?! I thought he only topped his class?
Dad: I had a feeling it was level. YOU said class. See, I believe in him.
Mum: Hmm....I really had no idea. This dark horse.

Rushes to son's room.
Mum: You mean you topped your level?
Son: Hah? What?
Mum: Your prizes. You topped your level or class.
Son: Hmm, yah. Level.
Mum: Wah. Not bad what.
Son: Actually, you don't go also can you know.
Mum: Why?
Son: Aiyah! I'll be very busy that day. I won't even have time to talk to you. I can't sit with you. I'll be on stage like 3 seconds only what! No need to go lah.
Mum: Really?
Son: Yah, really.
Mum: So you don't want us to go?
Son: No lah. I'm also okay with you going or not going.
Mum: Okay, then I'll go. Dad can't make it but I'm going.

(We speak Singlish. So you may find the above conversation abit grammatically incorrect).

Found out he had topped the level last year in English and Art (Art? Art? Noooooooo!!!!! I'm not going through GCE 'O' Level Art with another kid!!! Noooooo!!!!! What a joke! Sigh)
Seriously, we NEVER knew his English was THAT good. Smack me for underestimating him. I deserve it. I mean, I recall at the beginning of the Primary 6, I was trying to explain to him how to embellish an English sentence so that the markers would be impressed with his command of the language. Heh, guess that short talk worked!

Well....it's a sweet bonus for us as parents because we do not push our kids to excel academically. Really thankful to God that despite us being so 'relaxed' with them (except for the occasional outburst / angry nagging sessions at them once in a while when they get really lazy!) they can still do quite well sometimes. Not all the time but at least some times. Sweet.

We were curious and did ask him why he didn't top the level in Science since he's pretty good in that but he said there were others who were really, really good. Okay, can't win 'em all. 2 subjects ain't bad. We looked at the list of recipients from his year and he said none of them were from St Gabriel's Primary School except for him. Hey, we thought John did the primary school proud by being best in English! Beat the other boys from more 'tokong' schools! (tokong as in better grade)

Here's a pic of him that day, in his Infocomm outfit (boy on left in black T and black jeans at the bottom of the stage). He's an avid photographer and loves his role in his Infocomm CCA under the photography department.

and that's the back of Brother Emmanuel seated on the chair in white. I wasn't supposed to be anywhere near that VIP guest area but I just had to sneak near there to get a shot of my boy at work!

Have to mention that I was pretty happy to see the graduating year's Valedictorian. A high achiever, he received other awards that day too. Mike and I first knew him when we went to buy books for John before the beginning of sec 1 last year. We were impressed with his eloquence and maturity. He really made a huge impression on us and I was thinking, You know, sometimes in life, you just meet a person and think he or she's very charismatic or has the X-factor. It's like POW! I was thinking, 'Wow! how nice if my daughter were to know a guy like this?' Then, uncannily, in that short conversation we had over school text books, he asked and found out who our daughter was and revealed that he erm, in fact knew our daughter. He became an older buddy of John's and a good friend of Tessa's. We met him a couple of times. Nice chap. Did really well for his Os. Felt so proud of him. With Mike and John being Gabrielites, can't help but feel proud of other Gabrielites too. I was snapping pics of him too on that day like he was MY son! It was not to be, the 'son' part. Sigh, ok, ok read between the lines. I can't tell you what exactly happened. Now here, I risk my head being snapped off but according to her, it very nearly 'could have been'. I had sensed it too. Guess God has other plans for the both of them. Well, who knows.

Apology accepted / Flea Market

2011-04-14T17:47:00.001+08:00

The blogshop owner I referred to in my last post has apologised. So for us, the matter is closed and we'll move on.

As for the Changi V copycat, well, I'm no longer thinking much about her. God blessed us with pretty good hand painted shoe sales last Saturday DESPITE the rain and DESPITE the copycat's presence. Truly, if we put our faith in the Lord, nothing is impossible with Him.

Hey, Mike's gonna be running his stall at the Changi V Flea Market (actually it's a Pasar Malam more than anything) this Saturday 16 April 2011 (5 to 11 pm).

I can't be there cos I'll be attending the St. Gabriel Secondary School's Speech Day. Well, Mike's supposed to be attending it too but our son actually insisted that neither of us needed to be there. Though he'll be receiving 2 prizes, he'll be too busy to 'entertain' us! Well, it's true, he's up for duties so he'll be running around that day with lots to do. Guess he's right. But I'd feel totally awkward if neither of us turned up. So I'll be there a couple of hours or shorter (My goodness! How long does it take to see boys receive prizes?) then I might scoot down to Changi V after that.

Those of you who may have dropped by the previous weeks at our Changi V stall would have noted that we're actually selling a variety of stuff, not just hand painted shoes. Last week, we had an array of Country Home Decor stuff which sold quite well. Our metal hanging signs, pots and country style flowers went down very well with the crowd and the potpourri sachets. Aaahhh.....lovely smells. People kept asking us where the smell was from : ) Will try to put up pics soon.

We also had some average sized clay water features ~ erm, animals you place in a pond with water spurting out of them? For those who know, these actually cost quite alot but we were selling them for a song. Two beloved seals which Mike really loved got sold. Well, he soon got over his 'sadness' and re-stocked! He'll be selling them again this Saturday together with new creatures. All this stuff is new in condition. They aren't old stuff. Really difficult to cart there and back. I wonder how he's gonna manage on his own, poor chap. Hope he doesn't break any! He's also got a whole range of potted plants for sale. They aren't tiny ones. Pretty average sized ones and they're going for a song too. Mike is always buying plants for our home. So if he says they are cheap, they are cheap. Again, these plants are new. Not second-hand.

Where do we get our stuff from? Well, we're really dependent on Mike's ability to source. I'm sorely lacking in this area. Thank God for great husbands!

So, see you:

Changi Village Flea Market
Saturday 16 April 2011
5pm to 11pm.

Another copycat

2011-04-12T17:07:00.000+08:00

It really saddens me. I think long and hard about my designs and then some smart ass just comes along and copies them.
Apart from the Changi V copy cat, there's another one. This one should have been copying me much earlier. March 2009 in fact.

This is my design 'Daisies' CL712W. Copyrighted 2007.

It's been copied by another 'student' who runs a blogshop which is on a 'study break' right now.
(I'm not putting her URL up yet. Awaiting her response to my email)

Oh, she changed the petal shapes but the colours have been copied exactly, so have the positioning of the stems and the bugs. Most importantly, my signature dashes round the flowers have been copied exactly around her flowers. I've sent this 'student' an email. She had better heed my kind words (I'm too kind - must be age). You know what's sad? She's not a bad artist. She copies Disney and other copyrighted designs pretty well. I mean, I've seen ugly copied designs but she's not too bad. But again here, sorely lacking in integrity. I'm not sure if these fly-by-night sellers know that they are opening themselves up to lawsuits by the big guns. I will NEVER copy Disney designs. I'd rather lose my customers than have my ass sued for a few dollars' profit.

Darn! I really should take a bow. My designs MUST REALLY BE GOOD that others can't help but copy them! I mean, MADE IN SINGAPORE shoe artist. How cool is that? Being copied by them, sorta puts me in the same league as Disney! How cool!
Either that, or the copycats must really suck at drawing and painting to have to stoop so low. Sian is the word (sick and tired / blueh *vomits*).

Look, I'm not Disney, I'm not LV. I don't MAKE A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY on this hobby. I just love painting. I get satisfaction seeing my work sold. So once again, for aspiring copycats, get your blardy inspiration somewhere else.

To all other potential copycats, I reiterate: We are a registered business and our designs are copyrighted.
If you can read this at all, you will have understood that I mean business.

My daughter is 'in a relationship'

2011-04-11T11:57:00.001+08:00

According to my daughter's Facebook account, she's 'in a relationship'. I'm glad I was such a nosey parker mum (or rather 'stalker mum' as my kids call me) that I had asked her the night before the FB posting, if this guy was officially with her. So I can at least claim that as her mum, I knew it before 'FB'. How pathetic is that? LOL. How things have changed. In our parents' time, if you dated, you were expected to marry. Of course it was no longer expected of us in 'our time' to marry the one we dated but I did end up marrying the one I fell in love with.
Mike was sweet. Without any prompting, he'd ask my mum for permission to bring me out before every date. He'd send me home to my doorstep after every date. During his time as an army infantryman, he once got his friend to pass me some flowers on my birthday as he was stuck/confined 'in camp'. Okay, take note that this was all eons ago. Today, after 20 years of wedded bliss and blisters, he's sweet in a different kind of way. But I think if you were still dating, it'd really be nice to be pampered by your partner. Enjoy it while you can. If he or she can't be bothered with you whilst you are still dating, I don't see how it's going to get better with additional years. Okay, wait, I'm not dishing out relationship advice here. I was talking about my kid.

Here's my kid, when she was still A KID:

I'm happy for her. She's 17 this year. She originally wanted to go to Singapore Polytechnic. We sorta forced her to take the Junior College path instead and she got really upset with us (ha! I doubt if she's upset now!). According to her, like her, this guy was also posted to Singapore Polytechnic and in a story parallel to hers, ended up in the same JC as her.

Prom Night 2010

This is the first time she's officially announced being in a relationship with someone. I think 17's a nice age to be in. I had loads of fun at 17 and I'm not about to be a party pooper with her. At the same time, I can't help feeling a wee bit sad for the trail of broken hearts her 'announcement' is going to cause. I know, I know. It's not like an engagement announcement or anything. As her mum, I've watched the watchful eyes of the hopeful guys in the course of her secondary school days. I've held my breath wondering if she would 'be' with one in particular. I've nudged her. I've dropped big hints. But I guess it was not to be. It's crazy with teens. I know something was hanging there for several years but I won't ever know why nothing came out of it. Maybe she was sensible and just wanted to concentrate on her 'O' Level exams. Maybe that particular guy waited too long (hey are YOU reading this?). Maybe she didn't meet the guy's expectations. Maybe he didn't meet hers. What I do know is, you'd have to be very 'cool' for her to finally agree to it and announce it. She doen't take this lightly. We all get hurt in relationships and I just hope this won't be a bumpy ride for her.

I'm not saying in any way this relationship will last or not. It might last a weekend. It might last a lifetime. But hey, lots of couples from my JC ended up marrying each other. It's not impossible either. I just had to write about this. I'm not that old but I'm old enough to say my daughter's in a relationship. That's quite a milestone in my journey as a parent.

Reminder to self

2011-04-08T11:43:00.000+08:00

Hey, if I've not been writing about my journey with God, it's not because I've stopped journeying. I have been keeping up with my praying, singing in Tongues and journalling (hard copy, not online).
I still pray when I'm driving alone or walking my doggies. I also try to do this in the course of each day, whenever I remember that I can't take things into my own hands and that I should let God intervene instead. Ah.....this is the fun part. How I can incorporate God into my everyday life? Really tough and tricky but I try. I fail most times but I'm not giving up.

I was going to make a conscious effort this Lent to not lose my cool and yet so many things have happened which gave rise to my caving in. This is how the dark side works. It waits and it prowls, waiting for an opportune time to make and entrance into my life (again and again).

As for people I think are my 'enemies', I need to remind myself this:
Mother Teresa said, "How can I hate you when God loves you?"
This was in response to someone who 'persecuted' her in the course of her very tough journey in India.

Indeed, when God loves me, how can I afford to hate even those I think are my enemies or those who persecute me?

So with this, I ask the Lord to bless everyone today. Everyone, including those whom I've been angry with.

Also, I have to remind myself that if I seek the Kingdom of God first, everything else will follow.
(But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well ~ Mathew 6:33)
No use worrying too much. God will take care of me if only I let Him.

You know, it's funny. I've been thinking for the longest time to incorporate Christianity into my artwork. Then I thought about the repercussions. From a commercial point of view, the biggest side-effect would be I would lose my non-Christian customers. This artwork copying incident made me laugh at myself because, if I really HAD all Christian designs, I doubt very much if this person/s would have copied my Christian designs in the first place (because they are clearly not). This is food for thought for me. I'm just going to have to pray harder to see what Jesus wants of me. In fact, I have to pray if He wants me to continue selling any artwork at all.

I am so happy to be a follower of Jesus. With Him, everything always falls into place although sometimes, the journey doesn't make sense to my human mind.

Mother Teresa also said that it was 'so easy' (referring to something happening or not according to your plans). If it happens, it is because God wants it to happen and if it doesn't, it is because God doesn't want it to happen'. In her context, she was referring to God's timing.
Therefore, patience really is a virtue, especially in God's books.

See you all tomorow at:
Changi Village Flea Market
5pm - 11pm
9 April (SAT) 2011

Flea Market - This Saturday 9 April 2011

2011-04-05T11:48:00.001+08:00

We'll be participating in the following flea market this Saturday:

When
SATURDAY 9 APRIL
5 pm to 11 pm

Location
CHANGI VILLAGE
If entering via the BIG carpark behind what I think is Block 1, walk to your right.
The stalls are located at the hard court area which is a short distance from the carpark.

BUY GENUINE CARTOON LAGOON DESIGNS, HOR!!! (thank you, I appreciate that!)

How to know it's us?
Chinese humans in our 40s.
Chinese humans in our 40s who are not slim. Ha ha.

Mike sports a funky hair cut with highlights mixed with silverish white hair and me....I'm trying to grow out my short layered hair so it's looking a mess now. Was contemplating to get a trim sometime this week but you know how it is with some hair stylists. There is no such thing as a trim. It's always a cut gone wrong, well for me that is and I don't want to waste another 6 months trying to grow it back to it's present short length! So I sorta tie it up in a broomish looking pony tail.

C'ya!

Copying my artwork

2011-04-04T14:26:00.003+08:00

This is every artist's nightmare. Your artwork gets copied. Worse still, it's being copied and sold at a fraction of your selling price.

I've been watching this couple at Changi Village Flea Market selling hand painted shoes for some time. People have also alerted me that my designs were being copied and sold by them.

This is my design for 'Mars Balls':

When I saw that my 'Mars Balls' had been copied (including those dashes which are a distinct trait of my artstyle) and altered so that it was painted in a monotone (black) sans mouth, I was livid. If I had a ball in hand, I would have very much wanted to throw it at her head and squeeze the balls out of her partner.

Last Saturday evening, after I had calmed myself down by praying in tongues to control my anger, I introduced myself as being from Cartoon Lagoon to the female. Evidently, she recognised the name instantly. I didn't have to say anything else. The guilt was written all over her face. She knew that she had been found out. She had the cheek to express her immense admiration for my artwork and stated emphatically that she is a regular visitor to my website (*roll eyes*). Oh wait, let's see, I post all my artwork pics online, now why wouldn't she be a regular visitor? Is it to admire or to download? Is it to purchase or to copy and sell it off as hers? As the fake artist was jabbering non-stop about her excitement at finally meeting me, I was only half-interested in what the moron had to say. My eyes were on a pair that had been slightly altered from the above 'Mars Balls'.

Suffice to say, I showed a pic of the above shoes and told her she should know very well why I was there (at her stall). This dimwit could only keep saying, 'OK, I know'. 'OK, I know'. No sorry, nothing, nada.
Oh yes, one more thing. She said she really couldn't help copying my designs because they really insprired her. Gimme a break. You know what? I was so patient asking her to stop copying my designs. I praise God for not letting me lose my cool.

Here's a letter to you, Ms. Fake Artist/ Copycat:

Dear Ms. Ida or Aida or more aptly, NADA (as in NIL, ZILCH, KOSONG),
You know what kills me? I spend hours designing and deciding the best positioning of my designs on the shoes and here you come, just happily downloading and copying my designs, then selling them for a fraction of my price so that you look really good in terms of pricing. Hey, I don't really care much about how much you wish to price your shoes. Why don't you go lower? But when you start following my style and conveniently modifying a tiny stroke here and another stroke there so that you think it's NOW YOUR DESIGNS, I think it's time to remind you that OUR DESIGNS ARE COPYRIGHTED. If you persist in copying Cartoon Lagoon's designs, we, as a registered business, will sue the crap out of you and your very last baju. In addition, you had better remove all designs 'inspired' by Cartoon Lagoon's designs.

Integrity. None of it, that is, can be found in you or her partner. I've watched so many other hand painted shoe artists and many of them are students doing this on a part-time basis and THEY HAVE THE INTEGRITY to come up with their own style and designs! Very malu for you!

You are also copying from other artists (I've been in this business long enough to know). Look, you want to know the truth? You really do a poor imitation of my designs (but I can still recognise my own style, no?) and your hands aren't steady when you paint (see, I notice such things). You largely use BLACK or limit yourself to two colours. Your designs are also drawn BIG across the shoes. Why? It's mathematics. Due to your low selling price, you cannot invest in the expensive art resources required to broaden your scope of painting. Large designs make for simpler painting on your part.

I know, I know, your customers do not care crap about integrity. They care about the bottom line. But you know what, I treasure my customers who have taken the time to tell me that they really appreciate MY ORIGINAL DESIGNS. That they love my designs. It is ART and it's a labour of love for us but I can't say the same for you. You are a fake wanting to make a quick buck. All the best to you, just do it without taking 'inspiration' from my designs, thank you.

Cartoon Lagoon Telephone Number

2011-04-03T01:54:00.001+08:00

After 2 days' worth of complaining, it looks like the telephone number 6385 6255
has been reinstated as ours again.
Singtel apologised for mistakenly allocating me a new number. Apology
accepted. Just please, try not to pull a stunt like that again, Singtel!

So you can reach us at 63856255.

Sent from Fiona Chia Yeo's iPhone

Singtel Mio screwed up my telephone line

2011-04-01T09:14:00.000+08:00

I just learnt by accident last night that our telephone number 6385 6255 is DOWN. Wait, not even down, it doesn't exist!

Meanwhile, best to contact me via email:
fiona@cartoonlagoon.com.sg

or

the 'old' telephone number 6484 5226.

My regular customers will know that 6385 6255 is our 'new' telephone number and I've been paying for a call forwarding service from my 'old' telephone number 6484 5226 all this time. So people who had called the old number, were still able reach us.

Spoke to the SingTel customer 'care' officer and she said 6385 6255 has probably been replaced by SingTel Mio with another telephone number. She said I should be aware of this and I should call 'sales' to check this out.

Hey, I'm NOT even a SingTel Mio subscriber. They only talked me into giving me a FREE line, FREE installation of socket in exchange for me to have a freaking FREE trial. I had all this prior to my house move and nothing has changed. Both my old and new telephone numbers worked fine then. Why release it now?

Now, they've gone and FREED my telephone number 6385 6255 without even telling me. When I moved to my new place, they had checked and said something to the effect that they could see I had TWO telephone numbers. They would just install the FREE trial with 6385 6255.

Now, when you dial 6385 6255, all you will hear is:
"This is a SingTel announcement service. The number you just called is not in use. Thank you."

I foresee that this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as issues with the Mio crap are concerned. This IS the reason why I have not caved and signed any Mio package, even if it saves me some moolah. This is not funny at all. SingTel Mio, Fido, Kiddo, whatever, you had better re-instate back my telephone number ASAP and by the way, I'm not in the mood for you to pass the buck from one department to another.

New Hand Painted Shoes

2011-03-30T10:12:00.000+08:00

I've uploaded the pictures of our new hand painted shoes. Do view them at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/cartoonlagoon

or you can always click the link which is always placed to the right of this page.

Remember, we'll be participating in the following flea market this Saturday:

When

SATURDAY 2 APRIL
5 pm to 11 pm
Rain or shine

Location
CHANGI VILLAGE
If entering via the BIG carpark behind what I think is Block 1, walk to your right.
The stalls are located at the hard court area which is a short distance from the carpark.

By the way, we're selling these GREAT SMELLING POTPOURRI packs.
I'm not kidding. It's a small pack but it packs a big punch! We've used it ourselves and the smell can last up to 2 months. You can hang it in the car, in the bathroom, in your clothes closet, in your office.....
I know potpourri can be found everywhere but come on down and smell them for yourselves.
I was quite surprised that our tiny packs of great smelling potpourri can OUTSMELL and OUTLAST another brand, which was a gigantic pack.

Each is packed in a nice pastel organza pouch, adorned with a tiny ribbon.
Potpourri packs come in different smells. Okay, that sounded weird. I should say 'flavours'.
4 for S$10.

At the last Flea Market, our stall smelt the best! Not kidding! Everyone who came by couldn't help but sniff in the free lovely smells! In fact, these potpourri packs outsold our shoes. We even made grown men weak in their knees. Hmmm.........

See ya there this Saturday evening!

Fiona & Mike

New design - Matryoshka inspired

2011-03-29T11:36:00.001+08:00

I've come up with several new designs for our hand painted shoes.
Here's one I'm so excited about. It's Matryoshka (I know, a mouthful, that word) inspired. Russian dolls!

Like it?

Matryoshka Inspired

This pair, I will call "Russian Dolls"

Sorry, I had to put that big awful red watermark over my picture.
Sad but some people think nothing of ripping my artwork off.

By the way, we've booked a stall at the Changi Village Flea Market this Saturday, 2 April 2011.
Starts at 5pm till 11pm.
I'm praying for good weather. Why we eventually gave up running a stall there was because it was exposed to the elements. We have to pay the rent, rain or shine.

It's no longer held at the old place which you used to find us at.
It's now located in the hard court area near the big carpark.

And no, we're not the 'other couple' there selling their hand painted shoes for a quick buck. If I see any more Cartoon Lagoon inspired designs being sold by others, I will tear their hair out before I tear mine!

I am sorry, there is a value to art. There is value to the pride we take in our work.
I cannot reduce my prices unless they are pairs I am putting on sale. It's already tough trying to maintain this business selling them for S$29 a pair. In the U.S, you'd probably have to pay USD75 a pair and sometimes, it's to only cover the artwork on YOUR own shoes.

Several hours go into the designing, drawing and painting and I AM SO GRATEFUL to my returning customers. Muacks! I love you all!!! Thanks so much for your constant support!

Matryoshka Inspired

"Russian Dolls"

See y'all at the Changi Village Flea Market this Saturday! Unless it's pouring, we'll be selling our hand painted stools as well!!! (will put up pics soon)

Bitten by the painting bug.....again!

2011-03-25T11:53:00.001+08:00

Thank God! I've been bitten by the painting bug....again.
For awhile there, I literally drew a blank canvas. I think initially, I was pre-occupied with my son's PSLE then when he was done with that, I picked up my brushes again and completed some fairy paintings but then we decided to move house and thus my brushes went into storage again. Then I became pre-occupied with my daughter's O Level exams and now that she's done with that, what other excuse have I got? (wait, did I tell you that after nearly 2 decades with our foreign domestic worker, we're living life without her and we've decided to grow up and do by ourselves, what we were meant to do by ourselves in the first place)

We've settled into our new place comfortably. I really like the layout of our new apartment. Location wise, not quite as convenient for the kids where availability of public buses is concerned (as compared to our previous place) but because it's not right next to a main road, it's definitely much more peaceful. Can't complain about the proximity of a heartland shopping complex with the convenience of a NTUC hypermart either. If I'm in a mood to save a few cents, I can even walk to Ang Mo Supermarket a few blocks away.

So, I've gotten off my ass and re-organised the way you can access the online pictures of our hand painted shoes. Taking part in the recent Flea Market at Seletar Country Club was also good for me because I started to paint new designs again. I really enjoy painting. It helps me to de-stress. I enjoy coming up with new paint designs. It's me, myself and I. I'm in a world of my own when I imagine and draw. I get my inspiration from everyday stuff which I see. I know this sounds weird and horrid but I've sat in my very ancient office loo (day job) staring at the scratchy wall tiles and gotten some very good design ideas before! I mean, I stare at the scratches and I see possibilities of creatures and landscapes. Ha ha. Mad artist! Well, better than sitting in the loo checking updates in Facebook!

As most of you regular readers are aware, I have a full-time day job where it's all about attending to other people's problems. I think there's nothing creative about working in my industry. It's all about the bottom line. You can even say, everything is mechanical or technical. But I've learnt so much about running a business and dealing with people from all walks of life. From brilliant people to people who have nothing in their heads who think they have something in their heads!

What I meant is, most nights, when all (the housework for the day) has been said and done (without a foreign domestic worker's help), I find myself way too tired after a day's work and household chores to even lift a finger, much less a paint brush. My brains are flooded with ideas but where do I find the time to do this? All I want to do is hit the sack and zzzzzz. I digress but why does time crawl at the office but zip past once you're home?

The problem with having all these ideas in the head, I've got to find the time to put them down literally. Otherwise, they will just remain ideas.
I'll still be painting shoes but I really (and I really mean really this time!) have to start building a bigger art print collection for sale. So that's what I'm going to be doing starting TONIGHT!!! Oh no, wait...I've got some shoe orders to complete by tonight...Okay, I'll start TOMORROW!!!

By the way, I do have pictures of my new hand painted shoes to post. Hope to get them up by next week!

Flea Market - 19 MARCH 2011

2011-03-11T16:07:00.000+08:00

It's the March School Holidays and we'll be participating in a Flea Market!!!
You'll be able to order your Cartoon Lagoon Hand Painted Shoes from our booth....we're promising new designs which we'll also post online. You'll be able to view them at our new photo link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/cartoonlagoon

FLEA MARKET DETAILS

When:
19 March (Saturday) 2011.
2 pm to 7 pm.

Location:
Seletar Country Club

101 Seletar Club Road
Singapore 798273
Tel: 6481 4812 / Fax: 6481 3000

How to get there:
There are 2 ways to get there. One is via Yishun and the other is via Jalan Kayu.
For details, kindly refer to their website where you can find a map under 'location'.
http://www.seletarclub.com.sg/membership_location.php

See you there!

New Photo Link - Hand Painted Shoes

2011-03-07T16:29:00.000+08:00

Here's the new link to the pics of our hand painted shoes:

https://picasaweb.google.com/cartoonlagoon

If at anytime you do face any problems accessing my hand painted shoe pics, do let me know!

Copycat, copycat, kiss the rat! (Copying our shoe designs)

2011-02-14T17:37:00.002+08:00

We used to chant this all the time in primary school when our classmates copied our work:
"Copycat, copycat, kiss the rat!"
(Addendum: my son said must add, "Go home let your mother slap" or else no effect)

Well, people say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. I should be flattered that people are copying Cartoon Lagoon's Dare-to-wear hand painted shoe designs and passing it off as their own! But I'm not. I think it's darn shitty that supposed shoe artists need to copy other people's designs and then boldly declare themselves artists!

So THE COUPLE AT CHANGI VILLAGE FLEA MARKET, SELLING HAND-PAINTED SHOES WHICH LOOK VERY MUCH LIKE MY DESIGNS - you know who you are!!!

It's silly, you trying to change it a little bit here and there. I took one look at the shoes and knew straight away that you had copied my designs. Why? Because I'm the one who came up with those designs.

But I'm totally comforted that your drawing and painting skills suck. Even though your designs looked similar to mine, they are pathetically drawn and painted. Wait, they're not even painted. I saw you (yes, you, the lady) using some cheap markers to draw! Erm, do your colours run in the rain?

Hmmmm.... so you think maintaining a hand-painted shoe business is as simple as copying other people's designs, slapping on some paint and then passing them as your own, then you're very wrong. There's so much more involved. Good luck, then. Only time will tell.

By the way, was surprised to see fake stuff being sold so blatantly at some of the stalls!

Tiger Parents... Not

2011-01-24T17:00:00.001+08:00

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I have two regular teenage kids in school. One's in secondary 2 and the other has just left secondary 4. They aren't phenomenal in their school grades nor are they flunking (let's not count Mother Tongue Chinese because that's another story altogether!). Sometimes, they manage to bring home their 'A' grades.

They're two healthy school going kids who love school activities and their schoolmates. This is more than what I can hope for as their mother. Education is so much more than just surviving exams. For me, my kids get to learn from every day stuff and every day experiences and the point is, they SHOULD be learning from every day stuff and experiences. If they're not learning, then I have failed as a parent. You fall, you pick yourself up. You walk down the wrong path, just get yourself back ontrack. You cross little milestones, pat yourself on your back. The aunty next door doesn't have to agree with the way I bring up my kids but hey, my kids should learn from an early start that you don't always have to conform to herd mentality.

I've nothing against parents who want only the best schools and the best courses for their kids. Which parent doesn't want the best for their kid? But I don't condone being a Kiasu parent (Kiasu = person who must win and doesn't like failing). Likewise, anyone else who thinks I don't push my kids enough or that I aim too low for my kids should just get a life.

I'm so blessed that I have a husband who shares the same beliefs as I where it comes to parenting. We're always available for our kids to talk to. We're always approachable. We talk about ANYTHING UNDER THE SUN with our kids. Yes, even sex. Why not? We don't want to be in-your-face. We just want them to know that we're always there for them. Anytime. No terms and conditions.

So how are my kids doing? They're doing pretty well. They know alot about many things. They know too little about other things (like normal human beings). They get along with each other. They are generally well-mannered (although I wouldn't want them to turn out too sterile, if you know what I mean). They're amicable. They have friends. Like all teens, they can get rowdy or irritable sometimes. They get their fair share of scolding / nagging etc. Of course we scold them. What did you think? We do tell them to get off their butts and we do give them wake up calls. But we never, ever scold them because they don't perform according to our expectations. We expect them to set their own expectations and for the right reasons.

We don't really impose any curfews but they still always ask our permission. We know where they are all the time because they keep us informed. We do not impose computer usage / internet controls (not even during their exam periods) but they still manage to get their school work done.

Perhaps, if we had been aggressive in the pursuit of their academic excellence from the start, they might be in super duper schools right now. But hey, what's wrong with the schools they are in if they're loving it?

My daughter has shown me through her performance in the recent GCE 'O' Levels that she is now able to set targets for herself and achieve them by herself. Not that I used to breathe down her neck at all but I no longer have to push her because she's pushing herself. I feel that in this aspect, it's one point for me as a mum! *pats own back*

She gets her posting results this Wednesday. Whatever the outcome, my job is just to make sure that she enjoys the new journey she is about to embark on.

What can I continue to do as a parent? SHUT MY EARS TO OTHER NARROW-MINDED PARENTS WHO THINK THEIR WAY IS THE ONLY WAY and pray and hope that our style of parenting allows them to become all-rounded human beings who know how to feel, love, think and pray.

GCE 'O' Level Art and Mother Tongue

2011-01-17T15:15:00.001+08:00

GCE 'O' Level Art back in the 80s, is very different from GCE 'O' Level Art now. In my case, I was given a list of topics to pick and I just had to turn up on that very day and paint. Well, I wasn't very artistically inclined according to establishment and I scored really badly. I was a little surprised but not very disappointed because I didn't need to 'count' Art in my total points into Junior College.

My daughter on the other hand, isn't what I'd call UN-Artistically inclined. She's been able to draw freehand quite easily whatever you ask of her since she was a young kid. She used to write her own short stories (Enid Blyton style) and decorate her books with her own pictures. This is a sample of her freehand drawing on MS Paint. No fancy art programmes. Just MS Paint with a mouse.

Do you think she's a Grade C6 standard? Bloody Cambridge seems to think so. As a parent, I just want to smack the smart ass marker/markers who has/have no eye for talent. She's going to need lifetime therapy to recover from this shocker.

She'd spent a whole year on the art subject, only to score a C6. No, no, the final piece is not the above dragon piece. The dragon was just something she drew in a jiffy for fun.

GCE 'O' Level art requires a whole process of researching and developing storyboards. Given, my kid's not A1 standard but I thought they could tell from her drawings that she COULD draw. I could only tell her that the markers did not understand her intepretation of the topic. Her topic? "Segmented". She said, her friends who had chosen a more straightforward topic and painted straightforward intepretations, scored higher than she did. She thinks she 'thought' too deeply into the subject. Wow.

I can only tell her that C6 isn't an indication of her talent. I can't recall but I think I fared worse than her at O Level Art. Yet today, no one has told me I can't draw. Still, I'd strongly advice anyone taking GCE 'O' Level Art to DROP the subject in favour of less subjective subject. Don't waste your time unless you're very confident of the grade you're going to get.

The silver lining of this cloud is that Tessa's grades in her other subjects rescued her. Otherwise, the resulting outcome would have really been devastating. Shit. It's exactly what I had warned her before. It's so much easier to score in Science subjects than in Arts subjects.

Oh by the way, she passed her Mother Tongue B paper. That's the minimum requirement for entry to Junior College. If you've been following my blog, you'd know that I'm a parent trying to cope with my kids' less than stellar performance in Mother Tongue Chinese. If you're in my shoes, then know that IT CAN BE DONE. You can beat establishment if you give the necessary support to your kids. You need to dare to be different from the other parents. You need to give your kid other options. But believe that it can be done.

2010 GCE 'O' Level results

2011-01-11T18:30:00.000+08:00

I literally cried tears of joy yesterday when I heard my daughter's GCE 'O' Level results. Realised that Tessa had achieved a pretty nice single digit score to meet the minimum entry into any course of her choice at the local Polytechnic (not to say she will get in, but she meets the min. requirements). Let's just say that some of the more popular Poly courses are having cut-off points of 9 and she more than meets that requirement : ) I shall not divulge more or I risk getting an admonishment from a 16 going on 17 yr old daughter.

Aiyah, I think I am entitled to brag and boast just a little. This is me, 'maverick parent' speaking. This is the little girl who barely scrapped through her PSLE because Neopets was more intriguing and Chinese less beckoning. This is the little girl who juggled both band and student council Co-Curricular Activities through her secondary school life (she scored an A1 for it by the way = which means 2 bonus points if you understand this confusing local exam jargon), returning home at 6 pm every other day really tired out.
This is the girl who pulled up her socks just a few months before her Os. Yep, my little girl who scored a couple of As. Off to either Poly or JC (she still can't decide). She likes the idea of wearing a JC uniform but hates the idea of still studying Chinese. Bio Medical Science at Poly sounds good to her too but she might regret not going to CJC!!! Hah! The issues the young face!

You go, girl!

The New Year (2011)

2011-01-07T11:58:00.000+08:00

I started off the New Year by zzzzzzzz......yep. First time in our lives probably that we crossed over from 2010 to 2011 in bed, asleep. Well, trying to get some sleep. It was a working day on New Year's Eve and by the time the dust of our family chores had settled, it was already 10pm, which meant we had 2 hours to sleep before midnite and another 2 hours before we had to go pick up my mum from the airport (back from her month long holiday). This would give us at least 4 hours of pretend sleep. Aiyah, we were trying to get some zzzzz cos hubs and I were driving off to Malaysia at 5 am (which we did, on time, by the way)! We learnt from mistakes of the past. We used to stay up the whole night packing and getting ready for our road trips up North that we wouldn't have enough sleep and would feel so tired upon reaching our destination!

This New Year's Eve in bed, didn't really miss the partying, makan or bubbly with friends and acquaintances which usually accompanied our crossing over to the new year. Felt really good to have peace and quiet and some rest instead. Teen daughter was staying over at her pal's place, teen son was going to stay up all night on his computer. So before I turned off our room lights, I set my alarm clockS (yes, there're 3 of them) for 2 am. Then tiredly told my son to come wish us at midnight so I'd know it was the New Year (hee hee). Poor chap. When he came in excitedly at midnight, we were so groggy, I shushed him up cos his dad was busy snoring.

We had a great start to the New Year, the Mr and myself on that road trip. We have to take another one again this weekend but unfortunately for a more sombre reason; a funeral.

New Year Resolutions

2010-12-29T14:09:00.001+08:00

Here we go again. How time flies! It's that time of the year again where I pause to evaluate my life in the past year and think how best to live it in the next!

Next year, my kids won't be in any 'crucial exam year'. How pathetic that I need to see my life in that perspective but it's true. My girl's done with her 'O' level exams and my boy will be in sec. 2. Yes, I may have to poke him every now and then cos it's streaming year (2011 will define if he goes to the Arts or Science stream in 2012). But still, I think there's room for what I aim to do.

I aim to do more short trips here and there with hubby. Every time I am on leave on a working day and I see couples (usually retirees) enjoying breakfast together, I wonder if Mike and I will live to see the day.
Morbid as it seems, I look around and see people here today and gone tomorrow. I cannot wait too long to seize the day with him. It had better be now. I know married couples usually wait till they've retired before travelling by themselves (without kids in tow) but I don't want to wait till it's too late. In the context of an average income earner in Singapore, I don't see myself retiring any time soon unless I strike the big one during the Chinese New Year Toto Hong Bao draw in 2011! Therefore, I am going to lead a more relaxed life while I can.

I may not have achieved all I set out to do in 2010 but God willing, there's always 2011.

I don't want to give myself more stress than life is already dishing out to me.
So in 2011, I hope to:
1) draw & paint
2) go on short trips with my hubby

Yep, no fancy big goals. Just simple ones!

Hope you all have a Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010

2010-12-24T10:15:00.000+08:00

I wish for all my family, friends and customers, that they will truly experience the joy and love that the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ brings. Joy to the world!

May you all have a Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Back from Bangkok (again)

2010-12-08T16:12:00.001+08:00

Seems like time passes really slowly when you're waiting to go embark on your holiday but speeds right by you when you're having the actual holiday! We're back from Bangkok (yes, again)! Didn't shop much this time round. Booked day trips to Siam City Park (an amusement cum water park) and also another day trip to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market (again), the Samphrant Elephant Park and Rose Garden. I can only say that if you follow a tour, you see nothing but what the tour guide allows you to see. If you want to spend more time enjoying the place, then pay a bit more and go on your own. It does cost more to go on your own but ultimately, you get more out of the place. We were pretty disappointed that at the Rose Garden, we were only given enough time to run in to watch the Thai cultural show and run back out to head back home.
How dumb! Who wants to travel a half day just to watch a 20 minute show and not be allowed to explore the beautiful grounds? We did go to the Dusit Zoo on our own. Tried to enjoy the animals but as a Singaporean, you can't help but keep comparing it to our own blardy 'nicer' zoo (which WE CANNOT AFFORD TO VISIT!!!)

I didn't really shop much this trip. Let my kids spend most of the moolah. Daughter's headed to a new phase in her life now that her 'Os' are over. So figured I'd let her do the shopping instead. Couldn't resist 2 handbags for a steal though (S$9 each!) and had to get my replacement stash of dull, black, office skirts (S$12-15)!

Like I said in my previous post, I'd cut my hair real short just before the trip! Hate to use hair styling products on my hair but with short hair, I really have no choice but to. Hubby likes the funky look. Me? I like that I use very little time to wash and dry short hair and the cool wind blowing down my neck but I do miss my own hair blowing in the wind. Sigh. But really, decided to cut it short cos long hair seems to weigh a person down the older they get. Unless you have a lot of time to blow dry and style it every day.

Think I've lost a bit of weight in Bangkok from eating less meat and rice! I should live there!

Cleaning up

2010-11-29T10:56:00.001+08:00

My hubby is a considerably private person. He's never seen the necessity to splash personal details on the virtual world. As I grow older, I do see his point. I'm trying to be more conservative when it comes to posting online. I'm going to use this blog for it's original purpose, to showcase my art hobby but I'll of course talk about anything else under the sun if I'm in the mood for it : )

I've cut my hair REAL SHORT! Here's to the new ME!!!

What do we worry about?

2010-11-09T11:40:00.000+08:00

My worry the past few weeks, was to take or not to take THE PILL. What pill? The birth control pill, lah. Read my previous posts if you haven't already.

My son, John's worry last night, was if his parents would or wouldn't let him go to Pulau Ubin with his friends today. I was reluctant...... *blush* my 'baby' is only 13 what!? Can't a mother worry? He was going cycling with his friends. But his dad advised me it would be advisable in this case to 'let go'....and so I did. We gave him some makan money, told him to pack a lightweight S$2 Daiso raincoat and prayed over him, asking for him and his group of friends to be covered with Jesus' precious blood. That's all we can do as parents sometimes.

Then when I woke up this morning to the drizzling rain, my worry became compounded. What if the sea is choppy? What if the bumboat......? What if the ground they are cycling on is slippery?

My daughter, Tessa's worry every other day the past few weeks, has been over the topics surfacing in her GCE 'O' Level examination papers! Did she manage to 'spot' this topic prior? Did she not? It seems exams have always been about hits and misses since my time! Some things never change.

My hubby does not worry easily. He is a very happy-go-lucky, carefree sort of character. He doesn't like to let on that he has worries (although I know he does!), macho man and all. Still, I know for a fact that he worries over whether his wife can or cannot wake up on time for work in the mornings! He worries if his wife is punctual for appointments. Hee hee....and he worries if his plants are thriving!

We all have worries. We worry when we are young. We worry when we are old. It never seems to end. Those of us chasing faith enlightenment seem to worry less and take life's problems in our stride. Those of us who hold on to possessions and must haves, those of us who have more to lose, worry more.

I got thinking about this when I heard some bad news about someone this morning. One minute, her worry was about finding a better work environment. The next, she's worrying about being able to stay alive. Would she have preferred to turn back the clock to be in her previous situation where she was oblivious to her bad health but working at an unsatisfactory job? Who wants to be in a situation where a death sentence is hanging over you? In comparison to the lemons being thrown at her now, life back then wasn't so hard after all, was it?

I think this hits home for many of us. We're unhappy with the problems and issues we're experiencing today. We're unhappy with our work environments. We're unhappy with our family situations. We're unhappy with our financial situations. We're unhappy with our spouses. We're unhappy with friends. We're unhappy with ourselves. We're unhappy, period. It's as the old saying goes, "I was unhappy with my shoes until I met someone with no feet".

I thank the Lord for today's worries then, bad weather and all.

PCOS Update - 8 Oct 2010

2010-11-08T11:27:00.000+08:00

(Warning: Womanly stuff. Leave if you're squirmish)

Because I had stopped taking the pills after a few days, my period had arrived again and boy was it heavy. I had a few days to re-think my decision to stop and then I suddenly decided to give it another shot. When my cycle was clearing up, I went back on the pill for a few days and the uncomfortable symptoms came back. I felt that I really didn't need this sh*t. I mean, for the longest time, I did not need these pills and I may have had irregular menses, a great inconvenience I can tell you but I didn't have to put up with the aches and pains I was having.

In the end, I went for confession about my having to take Birth Control Pills for medical reasons. Felt I got a load off my chest. It was ding-donging in my head for weeks. The general idea is that I am taking this on medical grounds and thus, I should not be feeling guilty about it. But I decided to stop it anyway for a second time. I know, I sound like an indecisive person but I'm usually not.

This is all so simple for my man. I know he doesn't have ANY issues with me taking or not taking. Sigh. Is it a MAN thing then? He does not have any issues, period. Huh! He does not have any period! You feel comfortable taking? You take. If you don't want to take, don't take. It's THAT simple for him. I suppose, others would call it being supportive! Ok, I've stopped. Darn, will I be expecting my period again???!!!

Life with PCOS - update 2 Nov 2010

2010-11-02T18:30:00.000+08:00

(Don't read on if you're a prude or if you're squeamish about menstrual cycles)

I really didn't know what else to put as a title. Most times when I blog, I'm rushing to type in the info between doing something else. I'm a person who's always rushing here and there. Who has the time to blog and think of clever titles? Not me apparently. So what the heck, there you have it, so concise and to the point, "Life with PCOS - update 2 Nov 2010". Ha ha.

So I stopped taking my birth control pill on the 6th day. As one is supposed to take it at the same time every day, once I missed my morning schedule, my body recognised the absence of the hormones immediately. I felt better actually. No ache in the boobies. I felt lighter. But my womb showed symptoms of an impending period. So it did arrive and I have a few days to decide again if I should start on the pills again or not.

I decided I'm going to stop playing the 'feeling guilty' game with myself. I have irregular or absent menstrual cycles because of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. No, I don't think there's a cure and no, you can't catch it from someone else. But there are drugs to treat some symptoms. Most times, people face fertility problems but I've been blessed to have given birth to two kids in their teens now before I even knew I had PCOS. I only knew back then that my womb was retroverted and that it took me 3 years to conceive my first child naturally. After the birth of my second child, now 13, my cycles became more and more irregular till I was having them only about 4 to 5 times a year. Great savings on sanitary napkins but I had to put up with thick womb walls. Very uncomfortable I tell you.

Fast forward to November 2010. I am in a dilemma. The doc has put me on birth control pills and I am Catholic. I shan't go into details but I think you already know. A Catholic shall be faithful to the Church and we don't condone Birth Control Pills as a form of Birth Control. A birth control pill in itself isn't bad. For example when used to regulate one's menstrual cycle or I'm not sure but perhaps to control really bad acne.
Oi! Stop rolling your eyeballs. Don't judge. This is my faith and I strive to be faithful to my Church.
My dilemma is the hospital has issued it to me to regulate my cycle and I am obviously married AND with a healthy sex life. So by default, I am going to be using it AS a form of birth control. Given the state of my menstrual cycles, if I have to use a natural family planning method, I think I'd have to be celibate. Gulp.

I decided, I'll face God when the time comes. He may reveal to me that I should have remained celibate if I had no more intention of having kids. I don't know. Who knows? Who ever knows what He's going to say to us when we finally meet our maker?

Meanwhile, I'll stop feeling guilty. I'll just have to decide if I'm going to continue taking the pill to regulate my cycle or not. If I take it, I take it. I'm not going to feel guilty. Yah. It's such a simple deal for others to just take the pill but I'm a complicated person and I like to think things over. Apparently, this topic is taking a longer time to resolve than others.

Medical check up again

2010-10-28T16:21:00.001+08:00

Anyone reading my blog might think I'm a pretty sick person. I mean literally sick as in diseased. I've in the past year, had to go to 3 different hospitals to check on my knee, my colon and my ovaries! But in all, I'm not as sick as I sound. I actually look normal and feel normal!

My knee is I would say about 80% recovered. On days I wear the 'wrong' pair of shoes or walk in a way which might twist my ankles, my knee starts to act up. I'd say I'm done with physiotherapy. This may apply to my case only but I pretty much stopped going for my physio sessions and my knee actually felt less painful! It's not fully recovered. Let's just say, squat loos are no longer on my list of favourites (even if I think they are cleaner than soiled toilet seats)!

My colon has been given a clean bill of health. No apparent cysts even though I had several bleeding episodes that scared the sh*t out of me. I have internal piles and despite having them ligated, the colon doctor advised me this morning that they would likely return. Suddenly, I'm thinking of Arnie's "I'll be back!".
Ok, only internal piles. I can live with that. So my backside is still in pretty good shape, considering.

Ah, my ovaries. My womb. You're as irregular as it gets. I DID get started on the birth control pills and I'm on my 5th day. Side effects?

Day One - Sudden pain/twitch in heart area. Came and went. Sudden cramp in left ovary area. Came and went.

Day Two - Boobs hurt. Limbs hurt. Knee hurting more obviously today. Other joints seem to hurt too when walking. What the heck is going on? Notice dark clouds and perhaps it's not the pills but the weather after all.

Day Three - Boobs still hurt. Arms ache. Legs ache. Is my back aching? Is it my mattress? My sleeping position? Or is it the darn pills? Sudden pain/twitch in heart area again. Came and went.

Day Four - Boobs ache. Knee hurts.

Day Five - Knee hurts. Joints seem to still be aching.

General observations:
- Don't feel the cold / heat like I did with Norethisterone.
- Do feel like coughing immediately after taking pill, just like with Norethisterone.
- Boobs don't seem to have grown any bigger. Ha ha.

I had a medical check up this morning with the doc over my recent colonoscopy and I had continued taking the pill the past few days because I didn't want a period to arrive now if I had stopped it suddenly. Speaking of which, when one is on the 21 day pill, did you know that the bleeding you get during the 7 day break isn't a real menstrual flow at all? Simplistically put, what happens is you're not ovulating at all. No eggs are released because the hormones in the pills are making sure they don't. (I have something to add to this later*). If one continues taking the pill without a break, you wouldn't even see a monthly flow. The 7 day break is to allow you to bleed so that you will psychologically feel that you are having your menses.
So for me, if I was having irregular menses, this doesn't make sense at all. At least in the past, I was having REAL menstrual periods on my own. Ok, I'm not a doctor, nothing of the above I've said is medically justifiable. I'm just rambling on and on in my own thoughts.

*Now, what I wanted to say about the eggs. If you're on a birth control pill and your ovaries DO get released and a sperm DOES meet the egg to fertilize it, the hormones in the pill will try its best to ensure that your womb lining is undesirable enough so that the fertilized egg can't implant itself on the wall. It just gets flushed out.
It's not my job to tell you what that means. You may not even know that it has happened. But now..... you know, that it CAN happen.

Sheesh. I didn't tell you that so I could judge you. I wrote that so that I could go ponder it myself.
Now that I don't have a check up lined up anytime soon, I should be able to stop taking the pill. Or should I? I asked God and I received His answer but I'm being stubborn. Life is complicated sometimes. Or is it us who complicate life?

Update 29/10/10 : Stopped taking the pill today. Decided to let my body be free from drugs for a while and to heck with irregular cycles.

PCOS Update

2010-10-25T10:46:00.000+08:00

My newly issued Birth Control Pills

I just had my second transabdominal scan and invasive scan a week or more ago. The doc said the results showed everything to be fine (Praise the Lord!) but that did not mean I did not have PCOS. I still had it. I was puzzled and asked wide-eyed if they had seen any cysts and she looked again at the scan report and said, no, I was all clear! She said, the thing about PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) is sometimes, the scans show up fine and sometimes, they don't. But, I still had PCOS.

I've been on Norethisterone for some time now. I told the doc that I didn't like it because cold felt really cold and hot felt really hot. I would perspire like crazy just from walking abit and then if I entered an air-conditioned room, I'd feel so cold. This doc agreed that this was a side effect of Norethisterone. She said one could only be on Norethisterone for a limited period of time only. Not for too long. I was glad to be off it. I had prior to the visit, contemplated stopping it altogether and to heck with irregular periods.

The doc decided to put me on a 3 month trial with a birth control pill. I should have started taking it a week ago but I was hesitating. I was praying about it. I was asking God what to do? What does one do in such a situation?

I know there are medical consequences if I don't try to regulate my menstrual cycle. As a Catholic, it is difficult to come to terms with this. On the one hand, as a mother of two teenagers (and even if I think 3 is a nice number of kids to have) I don't think that in my 40s and at this stage in my life, I'm prepared to have a new child. But I'm learning that everything is up to the Lord and in His time. So I ask the Lord to please bless instead, others who want to have a baby so much. Meanwhile, will God understand that I am taking the pill for medical reasons? Natural family planning was never a bother when I was trying for kids. But after 2 C-sections, even though I loved the idea of having a third child, I didn't really fancy getting cut up a third time. For my husband, a daughter and a son were enough and we never considered having another one. When my cycle became super irregular, natural family planning became totally unnatural for me. Thus, I had this 'battle' inside of me for a long time. Pill or no pill? This is a tough one for me. I've given myself a bit of time. As soon as I see side effects, I'm coming off it. This is just one of those things I have to face when my time is up and God flashes the big screen before me. Sigh.

Gone too soon

2010-10-06T11:14:00.000+08:00

Just at the end of our 9 day Novena, we lost someone from Mike's side of the family. In the prime of her life but snuffed out tragically too soon over. Never did we think that the theme from our Novena, 'Is God Dead?', would hit so close to home.

I am not the parent of that young life taken so suddenly but I am a parent and I share their pain. It rips deep in the recesses of my heart because I know that it's a fine line to walk when trying to be a good parent. We try to do all we can and be all we can for the kid but sometimes, it's just not enough. What else could a parent have done to stop her from taking her own life? What else?

I am not the parent and though I share their pain, I am not the one going through this tragedy so I am not questioning my faith. I still love God and I still believe in the goodness of God. But I know that if the tragedy had been mine, my faith might not pass the test. Do not misunderstand me. I don't doubt God. But what I am saying is whoever is in the shoes of those parents who have lost their child too early and too tragically, might just as easily start to doubt his or her faith and start questioning all that God has promised. So, would you?

I admit wholeheartedly, I don't know how I would react. Would I be forgiving? Would I accept the outcome gracefully? Would I be resigned to the fact that God has bigger plans for us? Would I think the departed is in a better place? Would I be able to go to church without being angry? Or would I be crying bitterly and asking God why He has forsaken me?

Before you yell at me and tell me that I shouldn't even be thinking this way because it shows my lack of faith, let me first tell you that talk is easy. How sure are you that you would still be standing tall with your heart and soul in awe of God, while the world around you crumbles to a million pieces? When you lose everyone you love or everything you posses?

Right now, I still cannot be sure. I cannot because I love my husband and children too much to be sure. I cannot bear to lose them. I would rather die than be left alone without them. I am weak and selfish. I should be saying I love God MORE than my husband and children. But as I've reiterated many times, I am only human. God can promise the future. God IS certainty. But I cannot be certain.

Right here, right now, I can only take one day at a time, loving and praising God as I go along because what I am sure of at this point in life is I want to be able to overcome this weakness and one day be able to say that indeed, God is above all, including my loved ones. Right now, I will continue to build His throne. I will continue.

Ligation of Internal Piles

2010-09-24T10:24:00.003+08:00

http://www.pictureofpiles.com/

What in the world is that? No, it's not some spaceship exploring an unknown planet. It's the colorectal surgeon using a 'ligator' to rubberband internal piles! Hemorrhoids (US spelling), Haemorrhoids (British spelling). It's something I think only 'old' people get. Well apparently, it seems, I've grown 'old' enough to get it!

I know it seems gross to be writing this but if this info. will help someone else, then hey, why not?

I first felt something was not right down there about a year ago. Yes, down there refers to my A**.

Because I can sit for long periods of time in front of the computer or whilst painting, I started to feel a bit of pain only at random times.

But things got a bit scary when I started to turn the toilet bowl a bright red with blood. It happened a few times and Mike advised me to go see a doc. My GP thought that from my description, that it was likely piles causing the bleeding but advised me to have it checked out by the hospital anyway. The specialist confirmed that I had internal piles. It was a bit nerve wrecking prior to the appointment. I mean, piles I can live with but what if the diagnosis meant something else?

Anyway, after a few checks, I was scheduled for a colonoscopy which took place last week. What the heck do they do at a colonoscopy? Well, I too wanted to find out and freaked myself out watching some YouTube videos. I was petrified that some colorectal doc with shaky hands would perforate my intestines! I was advised that IF the colonoscopy showed up nothing unusual (that's a nice way of saying if they don't find any growths / cysts), they would then proceed to ligate my internal piles. I just heard from people that ligating meant rubberbanding. I kept wondering how they'd be skillful enough to rubberband a swollen blood vessel in that very sensitive area!

Anyhow, I had to prep myself the day before the 'surgery'. I was told by a nurse:

NO milk

NO butter

NO veg

NO meat

NO fruits

NO cereals

I stared at her blankly and asked her, 'Then what can I eat?'

She answered very cooly,

Teh 'O' (tea without milk)

Kopi 'O' (coffee without milk)

White bread & Jam for breakfast

Fish Porridge for lunch

Bee Hoon or Mee Suah for dinner

Wow! Talk about dieting!

On top of that, I was given two packets of concoction I was to mix and gulp down with 2 litres of water. Little did I know that this concoction would be the WORST part of this whole procedure! Yucks! I wanna throw up just thinking about it. I mean, my tolerance for bitter tasting stuff (a.k.a Chinese herbal drinks / soups) is pretty good, having been admonished since young by my mother that, 'This is soooooo expensive, you better drink it all up!'

Day before the procedure, I dilligently rushed to NTUC (a 24 hr one) before work and bought myself a loaf of white bread and a bottle of Marmalade Jam (I was wondering how come I was allowed jam when they said no fruit? But who cared, they said jam, so jam it was!) Ate my breakfast at work. Jam didn't taste too bad after all.

Lunch time, I sat staring at the delicious condiments of the porridge stall and ordered myself a bowl of plain porridge (without sauce) and a single steamed fish. No chilli. No bean sauce. It really didn't taste too bad but I couldn't help but feel like an 'ah mm' (old woman) or 'ah pek' (old man) eating that.

Dinner, I told Mike to not keep dinner for me, instead, I'd drive to Kopitiam to have a bowl of fish soup. In my haste to tell the woman, 'No veg, no sauce, no fried onions, no parsley, no nothing!', I forgot to use my Kopitiam card (for the 3rd time this month) at that stall and paid the lady cash instead!!! For the learned local, that means I lost my 10% discount. Felt like kicking myself since that was a $6 bowl of sliced fish soup with nothing! When I remembered it, the lady told me it was too late. Sigh.

So I sat there, forcing myself to eat my 'healthy' dinner. Surprisingly, sliced fish soup with nothing else made me quite full!

Went home and my belly was already half bursting with the soup. But oh guess what, I had to go mix my first sachet of powder with 1 litre of water. Sat at our new dining table (just moved house remember?) for an hour drinking the world's most horrible concoction. I didn't think I'd actually sit by the table that whole hour. But there was nothing else I could do if I wanted to finish it within an hour. By the second hour and with the second bottle however, I had left the table and started visiting the loo. Drink, loo. Drink, loo. Drink loo. It was like that the whole next hour. Had a couple of tablets to swallow too. It went on like that until my last half of the second bottle and I threw up. I literally threw up. It was THAT BAD. I told myself that was it and gulped down a couple of cups of plain water. Plain water never tasted so good!

Next morning, Mike dropped me off at the new Khoo Teck Puat hospital and went his way. The nurses gave me that sad look when they realised I had arrived for the procedure 'alone'. Aiyah, we just being practical mah. Whatever do I want my hubby to hang around and wait for me for? The nurses took very good care of me and I didn't feel lonely or frightened at all. It wasn't until I was changed and lying in the 'ward' that I realised some of the other patients had their partners with them and they were 'comforting' them. I was just glad to be able to have quiet time to lie in bed and read old 'Her World' mags which a nurse had so kindly provided. Ha! Things a busy mom with a hectic schedule actually appreciates! The last thing I need is for my hubby to be hanging around being bored by my side! I had to wait nearly an hour.

When they finally came for me, it was 'swoosh'. Everything happened so quickly. They wheeled me into the operating theatre, checked that I was the correct patient going for the correct procedure and then injected me with drugs. I was supposed to be so drowsy that I'd not know much. At least 3 nurses told me that prior. But guess what? It didn't work. I was so alert, I heard and felt everything. I can't say I saw anything because my specs were removed. But I felt the pumps of air they had to blow into my intestines (to open up the passageways for the camera to go through) and that hurt quite a bit. I was going, 'Ouch!' 'Ouch!' every now and then. Then I heard 'Clip, clip, clip' and I thought that'd be the part they ligated my internal piles. Was wheeled out of the operating theatre in a jiffy.

Then another nurse came and advised me to rest for the next 2 hours as I'd be drowsy from the drugs. Drowsy??? I wasn't drowsy at all, in fact I was HUNGRY! I did try to pretend to be drowsy but it didn't work. I was up in a while and they brought me a sandwhich and milo (which I gobbled down greedily!). Then I asked to call for my hubby to pick me up. After I did that, I decided to go to sleep! Ha ha. I figured, if I were paying for the day ward charges, I might as well catch up on my sleep, seeing as I haven't been sleeping much since being so busy and tired from our house move. Besides, the aircon and quietness was pretty nice!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........it was Mike who nudged me gently to wake me up.

He hung around awhile as I got up to change and wait for the doc's report to be out. The nurse then told me that my colonoscopy had shown an all clear (Praise the Lord!) and I had 3 internal piles ligated. She advised me to take soft foods for the day so that I wouldn't be passing motion too quickly and risk tearing the ligation. When I was discharged, I told Mike to take me to MAKAN!!! What soft food? I was ravenous from the previous day's 'diet' and 'detox' and I was going to eat whatever my heart desired! Hee hee.

The hospital called up the next day to advise me that it'd take up to 2 weeks for the dried up piles to drop out. A little bleeding was expected but I was to report back to the hospital if I had excessive bleeding.

Well, I still feel a bit weird in the A**. Like there's something there. But otherwise, I'm fine. So, there, rubberbanding my internal piles. : )

P.S - I lost a couple of kilos from the housemoving weeks and this 'detox' exercise!

Hair Extensions (again!)

2010-09-07T13:56:00.000+08:00

In the midst of the madness of house moving, despite having little time to sleep and breathe properly, I actually found time to have my hair extended. Ha ha.

Ha ha, how crazy is that?

Door Art (again!)

2010-08-19T17:07:00.000+08:00

Remember this?

Yep, I'd painted the front door of our current apartment (the one we are moving from). That was the first thing I did PRIOR to our renovations. Ha ha. I knew that if I didn't get off my a** to do it, I'd never get down to doing it.

Well, we're all pretty sad to leave it. My son, sentimental fellow that he is, asked me several times if I could remove it and have it installed at the new place. Well, I'm too lazy to check if this door will actually fit our new apartment's and I think the new owners are pretty art loving people too. I decided to just consider having SOLD my piece of door art!

Anyhow, I'm definitely going to paint the new apartment door BUT I have these unsightly protruding rectangular wooden trims to contend with. They come with the existing fire-rated door. Have been thinking how to work with these rectangular trims and I've come up with a draft! I can't quite recall if the door has 4 or 5 rectangles but I'll work something out now that I've got a draft!

So, here it is.....TADAH!!!!

Yep, inspired by Noah's Ark! Don't be too shocked by the 'ugliness' of it. I'm only sketching an outline and the final piece may or may not end up looking like this. In fact, I've definitely gotta find space for a red apple with two worms popping outta them!

We're moooooving!!!

2010-08-18T16:37:00.000+08:00

I haven't been writing as much as I would like to in this blog the past couple of months cos I've been busy house hunting (or rather apartment hunting). We're moving to bigger premises. There's just so much to coordinate! Thank goodness that the 'end' of this hectic period is approaching and we should be moving to our new premises in early Sept. Mike and I can't wait to settle in. For me, finally to have more space to indulge in my painting and for Mike, to have a balcony for his plants!
I'll put up the new address as soon as I take delivery of the place. Right now, it still doesn't officially belong to us....yet!

The above pic, although hastily drawn by me with MS Paint (and although some may think as ugly!), STILL remains the copyright of Fiona of Cartoon Lagoon 2010!!!

Garage Sales over - phew!

2010-08-12T15:47:00.000+08:00

Phew! Garage Sale over! Pretty tiring! Prior to both weekends, we had prepared and distributed flyers into our neighbours' letterboxes and we had to arrange our stuff (like in a retail store) and price them. People started streaming in even before we officially opened. The same people came again the next day cos they wanted to see if we had new stuff to offer. They were grabbing like crazy!

All sorts of people popped by. We had those who didn't say a word. They just whipped out their money and paid without bargaining. My favourite sort of people! Then we had people who bargained so ridiculously, you would have thought they were expecting you to give it to them free.

We had to label some furniture as 'SOLD' cos the people had paid for them but had arranged for a pick up at a later date. So when others came, they'd go 'Oh!' 'Ah!' 'What a waste! Sold!' 'How much did you sell it for?' 'So cheap?!' 'Aiyah!'
They lamented the stuff already sold. But when we pointed out other furniture not yet sold, they just shook their heads with nary a glance. That told me one thing. If THOSE items hadn't yet been sold, they wouldn't have bought them anyway. They were just trying to tell us, they would have bought them but they were too late.

We had a couple. I don't know why I am saying this but they were PRs. The most classic case of being 'kniao' / cheapskate. They were one of those who had Oooed and Aaaahed at the 'SOLD' items. But when I showed them other pieces of furniture not yet sold, they just kept shaking their heads. They were touching and opening everything.
Finally, something caught the wife's eye. Item A was priced at S$5 (a hideous, bright pink vase - a gift from someone). The couple offered S$2. I counter offered $4 and if they agreed to buy it, I'd throw in a wooden kitchen roll stand priced at $1.
They begged me to let me have the vase at S$3 AND to throw in the kitchen roll stand for free. I relented (because a garage sale is to get rid of stuff, especially hideous stuff, no?)
Then another item caught their eye. A plaque with a runaway horse (another hideous gift from someone). I told them S$2.
Their eyes widened incredulously. They said, 'This so cheap?'
Would you believe it? Not the fact that they wanted that hideous item but the fact that the guy then chased me all over the sitting room trying to convince me that all he had to do return me the free kitchen roll stand priced at S$1 which I had agreed to throw in for free. I refused. Fed up, I walked away.
He was practically pulling my arm as I walked away from him, "You see mam, it's the SAME thing."
He ran after me, "This is worth S$1 and you gave it to me. I just return you this item and I pay you S$1 for this".
I just turned around and gave him a steely glare. Very firmly, I said, 'It's NOT the same thing' and walked away.
Well they couldn't pass up the good offer and they paid for the hideous horse plaque but not before they went snooping round the whole place opening every little box or container. Fortunately, the rest of the people weren't like this tiresome couple. We met some lovely people too. All in, I'm glad we only have Garage Sales when we're moving house. I really hope this isn't going to happen again anytime soon!

GARAGE SALE (final weekend)!!! 7/8 & 8/8

2010-08-02T15:13:00.001+08:00

GARAGE SALE (final weekend)!!!

7/8 (SAT) and 8/8 (SUN) 10am to 4pm
(address has been removed after Garage Sale)

Our Garage Sale over the weekend of 31/7 & 1/8 went really well! I'd published an ad in the papers, posted it on this blog and yes, spammed (guilty!) my neighbourhood mailboxes with small home made flyers! Well, from the feedback gathered from our visitors, the flyers were the most effective. Flyers.....hmmm.....it's also how one is fed info that some topnotch real estate agent managed to sell your neighbour's house at an unbelievable skyhigh price or how your neighbourhood tuition agency can guarantee your kid's success!
But since HDB apartments owners have the option to lock their mailboxes from the inside to prevent unwanted mail from reaching them, my poor husband suffered painful knuckles from shoving them into locked letterboxes. Too bad for those home owners, they lost out on some really good deals and good fun!

We prayed that God would bless us with good weather and send the people and He did! We cleared so much furniture on Saturday and made some new friends with our neighbours from our neighbourhood. Really, it's interesting that we also experienced this when we had a Garage Sale in Seletar Camp some years back. We met so many nice people and made some new friends only when it was time to say goodbye! Pity!

After the brisk sales on Saturday, we had expected Sunday to be quieter. But God proved us wrong! When Mike and I woke up at 6am on Sunday to attend 7am Mass, it was pouring! No, we don't usually attend 7am Mass but really, if we'd left attending Mass to the evening, something might've crop up at the Garage Sale or we'd be too tired to attend it, so I suggested going for 7am Mass. (As a sidenote, do you see, how weak I am? I wasn't motivated to say, attend 7am because God should be the topmost priority, early in the morning on a Sunday instead, I suggest 7am Mass to be on the safe side so we wouldn't miss Mass!).

I reminded Mike, that the 'formula' was so simple....instead of worrying if anyone would turn up, our first focus should be on God and the success of the Garage Sale would follow. It was such an epiphany for me even as I said that to Mike. Life's formula was so simple and was right in front of everyone's eyes but it was the hardest thing for anyone to see or follow.

I was dying to receive Holy Communion and I was feeling so excited on Saturday night just before I fell asleep! How strange for me (not because it's a strange thing for anyone else but it is for me)! I just felt a joy in my heart that I'd be receiving Christ's Body in a few hours! I had a feeling that it would rain on Sunday. But I told God it'd be OK cos we really made some good moolah already on Saturday...hee hee.

When we woke up to thunder and heavy rain on Sunday, it would have been so much easier to just snuggle under the covers than to pull our acheing bodies (after the previous day's physical moving of furniture and stuff!) up for church. But I reminded myself that this was exactly what the evil one wanted me to think and feel and so dragged myself up. Felt really ashamed when I turned up to find so many others at 7am who probably didn't even think twice about turning up despite the downpour. It turned out to be such a beautiful Mass and I was all choked up with every song they sang. Just moved me and I was so emotional. Felt all charged up and ready for a second day of sales!

When it rained on Sunday, I didn't panic. Just concentrated on God and His ability to do anything....and He did! He sent the first customers at 9am! In fact, they had turned up an hour earlier, mistaking the start of the Garage Sale to be 8 instead of 9am! We thought we'd made brisk sales at our previous Garage Sale at Seletar Camp but these two days turned out to be even more successful! In fact, even after we'd helped my mum clear her place (for a week of normalcy before next weekend's chaos again), some people turned up that evening after we'd closed her door!

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, we're still having our GARAGE SALE this coming weekend and for every day of the sale, we try to put up other 'new' stuff.

GARAGE SALE (final weekend)!!!
7/8 (SAT) and 8/8 (SUN) 10am to 4pm
(Address has been removed afte Garage Sale).

GARAGE SALE!!! This weekend and next!

2010-07-26T16:41:00.001+08:00

My mum and I are having a combined GARAGE SALE this weekend (and next)!
I'm moooooving into a bigger apartment soon and have some stuff to let go......

GARAGE SALE!!!

This weekend:
SATURDAY 31 July 2010 & SUNDAY 1 August 2010

and Next weekend:
SATURDAY 7 August 2010 & SUNDAY 8 August 2010

Where:
(Address has been removed after Garage Sale)

Time:
10 am to 4 pm

Contact:
9146 6906

What:
TEAK Furniture, coffee tables, fridge, pictures, TV racks, teak bench, books, writing table, bar stools, cane stool, foldable chairs, plastic cupboard, shoes, single beds, foldable mattress, curtain rods, loose cushions with covers, ladies golf set, brand new ladies golf bag with rollers, handbags, travel overnight bags, clothes, clothes hangers, fish pond, decor, knick knacks, kitchen stuff, potted plants, candles, candlestick holders, costume jewellery, rollerblades

(and maybe my bowling ball, shoes and bag.....still hemming and hawing about those and my under-used golf set....my mum's letting go of hers but I'm still holding on to mine.....still thinking about IF....PERHAPS....SOMEDAY.....I don't even think I fancy the game that much. Sigh).

Yes, yes, I'll be clearing some of my sample Dare-to-wear hand painted shoes at cheap-cheap prices........need to make room for new designs.

So, see you!!!

Rojak life

2010-06-16T11:03:00.001+08:00

Some customers wonder if I paint shoes for a living. Yah sure, I wish! In Singapore? To survive on painting shoes, I'd have to be painting 24/7. I do in fact have a full-time job. Have been in the same job in an Aviation related trading company for slightly over a decade. Prior to that, I was a MOE school teacher; or what they nicely call, an Education Officer.

I'm such a Rojak pot! (Rojak-->Interesting Asian salad).
All business-like Manager in the day, crazy closet painter by night / weekend and wannabe writer (still dreaming). If only I could like mash them all together. In MY perfect world, I'd be writing and illustrating my own books and then making use of my business experience to sell them! Ha!

I love literature. I love art. Yes, I should have stayed a teacher. My dream was to profess the literary word to students. But alas, back then, I felt my personal time with my family was being compromised by the teaching workload. I've never looked back. When I first left the teaching profession, I took a drastic pay cut. I was willing to learn from scratch in an entirely new line and it's worked out great.

Many people have asked me how I did it (not that I'm THAT successful), finding this job and making it work since I was 'only a teacher'. But it's all a matter of your heart. Know what makes you tick. I just used all the skills I had learnt during my teaching days and put them to good use. I never said the teaching profession was bad. It's fantastic! I've never forgotten that it was MOE who forced us to use our holiday time to sit through all those computer lessons! Ah! Those were the days of 'Aiyoh! Where did my cursor go?' For that, I am forever grateful. It was the teaching job which allows me to stand before a crowd to speak today. It was all those typing classes in the Computer Lab which taught me to type with all my fingers (hee hee)! It was IE (now known as NIE) which taught me how to project my voice across a room without a mike (oops, I mean mic, wait or issit mike? Alamak!). Indeed, my teaching days imbued many characteristics in me which have never left.

I do miss teaching sometimes. But, we can't live in the past. So I adapt. I have learnt ALOT in my current job. From teaching to this. It's like having been a frog in a well, with your view on the world, seen only at the bottom of the well.

I got thrown into world of how do you say it? Cat eat dog? Dog eat cat? Whatever. You get my drift. In this industry, which is predominantly dominated by men, it's tough being a woman. I learnt this. The more mature men do not feel threatened at all by a woman speaking as their equal. They treat me with respect and they appreciate my input. You can tell by the manner in which they speak to you.

However, the eager-to-climb the corporate ladder types, they almost always assume I'm the receptionist or secretary just tagging along for the meeting. The guy/s I come with? Why, they must be the engineers or managers then. When they realise it isn't so, they give you that 'I don't think much about you' stance. I don't know why and I don't care. It's not going to change in the near future and I don't give a hoot. If I cared, I would not have made it through all those hurtful and caustic comments made by some MCPs. I put it down to them being insecure. Pity their girlfriends or wives. (Hubby, I love you!!! I know that's random but dealing with some other men makes me sooooo appreciate my hubs!). Do I get crap from females. Yes, sometimes but I've not come across mean ones. Are they more secure then? That's a thought!

One more thing I have to add. People actually care about the designation on your name card. It makes all the difference to how they treat you. How intelligent is that? That's what you are worth. Your job designation.

Let's see, what else have I learnt? That some people get nasty when things go wrong. Their true personalities shine through. They have no ability to think calmly and they just drown in the junk. Me? I'm a pretty panicky person too lah. But at the same time, I will think the whole process through in my mind and think of the best way to move forward. Thus, I would say, to summarize what I have to do at work, I'd say, troubleshoot problems and issues and how best to resolve them.

I never ever forget that I could lose this job tomorrow and I'd be starting from scratch or crawling back to MOE as an adjunct teacher again. In fact, I was just thinking that it'd be nice to be back teaching now that my kids don't really need me to spoonfeed them anymore. But that's just a thought. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my 'real' 5 day work week and the fact that I can paint at night (without worrying about work) and on weekends!

As for my painting and writing......God knows that deep in my heart, I wish to paint and write but He probably also knows, me and another 10 million wannabes in the world. For now, I have bills to pay and responsibilities to fulfill so everything else stays part-time. My pay is adequate to meet my needs so I just wake up everyday and go to work, like everyone else and thank God that I even have a day job. I could say my dreams will have to wait. But I look at my husband, my kids and my home and I know, I'm already living them. I'll just have to say, my 'other' dreams will have to wait.

Sorry for delays with your orders

2010-06-03T17:01:00.000+08:00

We have to apologise to our customers for the delays in fulfilling orders for our Dare-to-wear Hand Painted Shoes in recent weeks.
Will be contacting you soon for the deliveries. Thanks for your patience!

Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (Diabetes?)

2010-05-26T17:30:00.000+08:00

As my regular readers would know, I've been going to KKH Hospital for review of my PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). They had taken me off the mini pill last year and my cycle was ok for a while then it went haywire again after a few months. I had side effects coming off the mini pill and didn't fancy going back on it. I figured I already have 2 kids and so an irregular cycle, I could probably live with.
But they just put me back on it again yesterday because according to the gynaecologist, a thick womb lining wall isn't good at all. If the womb lining builds up, it can lead to other diseases and complications. She said I shouldn't allow that to happen, especially 'at my age'.

You know, it's great that I have access to healthcare at subsidised rates in Singapore (via Polyclinic referral to hospital route) but it sucks that a different doc sees me everytime. I mean, I speaka Englisha and so I am able to tell the doc my past records and what the heck I'm there for THAT day. But really, what if I were illiterate? I've experienced this too when I had to go to the hospital for review of my knee injury and physio sessions. I realised, some docs don't read (or perhaps don't understand what they are reading!) and I can discern from what they say THAT day that they are clueless to why I'm there THAT day. There is sometimes no continuation of past visits with the present one and the doc of the day dispenses advice and prescriptions according to his or her school of thought.

Ok, for example, one gynae will say I need the mini pill. Another gynae will say I don't since I'm 'menopausing' soon (Yes, she actually said that). You get the drift. I thank God though, for a very sharp and hard working gynae whom I had consulted at KKH in Feb this year. He caught the fact that my weight had been ballooning albeit slowly over the last few years. He discussed the possibility that due to my PCOS, I had insulin issues and advise me to go for a blood test for diabetes. I am ever so grateful for this doc and I will explain why later.

Let me first say I saw another gynae yesterday. Apart from discussing my monthly cycle, I asked her to prescribe me something for my lingering cough and she said, 'No problem' and asked me a few questions about my symptoms.

When I finally got my medication at the hospital pharmacy, it turns out she hadn't prescribed anything at all for the cough. The pharmacist couldn't reach the gynae via the phone so I had to buy something which I prescribed myself (!!!) at unsubsidised rates.

She also told me she'd see me in 3 months' time and I told her that I had just undergone the oral glucose tolerance test per the advice of the previous gynae. I wondered if I had to wait 3 months to know the results of that morning's test and she said if the results showed up anything abnormal, they would call. If not, she'd see me in 3 months. Hmmph! It won't even be HER I'll be seeing in 3 months.
If YOU had to test for diabetes, would you wait 3 months for the results?

Anyhow, turns out KKH did call that very same afternoon. It sounded like a death sentence. First, let me tell you what I'd done. I'd fasted the night before through to the next morning. The nurse had drawn a vial of my blood then I was given this yucky sugary drink and told to wait another 2 hours before they drew another vial of blood. In between, I had time to see the gynae and also visit the pharmacy.

The nurse called at about 4.30pm after I'd gone home and told me to come down ASAP back to their dept to collect a referral letter for the polyclinic to provide follow-up treatment. She said my blood results had come back and it was not good. She said it was not normal. I asked immediately if I had diabetes. Yes. I asked it a few times when I was there. Yes.

'But I don't even take that much sugar!' I protested.
I told her, anyone who had drunk that motherload of sugar water would have a high result but she said, 'No, a normal person can process it in 2 hours but you could not'.

So, I was so 'kan-cheong' (Cantonese for anxious) that I went to the Polyclinic today. It was interesting. First, I saw him for my cough and he said I have wheezing and sound a bit asthmatic! Wow, that was a surprise.

Next, he reviewed the blood test results and said, 'You're not diabetic. You have glucose intolerance. You need to go room 61 to 64 for counselling'.

Huh? Diabetic? Not diabetic? Aiyoh! Yes, or no???

I go to room 61 to 64.
The nurse counsellor asks me a lot of questions. It turns out, I don't even eat half of what she's persuading me to NOT EAT. Correction, I don't even eat 3/4 of what is bad for me. She concedes, 'Okay, it's organ failure we're talking about here. Doesn't mean you don't eat, you don't get'.

She says my test results show that I AM on the way to getting diabetes (if I don't take things under control). It shows that my body cannot handle a large amount of sugar. My pancreas isn't functioning as it should and there is no repair. The only thing I can do is maintain it so that I don't get a higher reading than this.

She runs through what I should do and surprise, surprise, what else could it be? I have to lose weight!

Now isn't that grand? It's because I couldn't lose weight that I went for all these tests and now after this test, they tell me I have to lose weight! What a joke!

But the counselling was informative. I didn't know that my body may not have the ability to process the sugar from fruits immediately after a meal. I'm not supposed to finish the whole (measley) portion of 'mee pok' (dried noodles) from the foodcourt and apparently, that 'healthy' muesli bar I eat for breakfast every morning, is doing me damage. I know I've got to make big, big sacrifices here. The biggest being Nasi Briyani and Prata!!! Crap! I really love that stuff.

Ok, it's serious business now. I've known all along that I feel lethargic after a heavy carbo meal but this explains it all. I'm the type of person who needs to make sense of stuff (well, except recently about God stuff - THAT I don't need to make sense of).

This is why I'm so thankful to that gynae at KKH whom I saw in Feb this year. If he hadn't been sharp enough to think of the possibility that I was diabetic, I would not have known that I was 'on the way' to having diabetes at all. (Shoot, I don't even recall his name. That's the whole problem with seeing a doc at a subsidised insituition. They keep changing and there's no relationship).

So, no diabetes and no medication. Thank God for that. I just need to lose weight. How simple. Sigh.

Shoo, bug! Shoo!

2010-05-20T16:24:00.000+08:00

I've been AWOL from this blog for a couple of weeks, first with an uncooperative digestive system then followed by the flu bug. I'm totally distracted by this bout of malaise so I'm not writing about anything else except about it. Hee.

Why I'd be so lucky to first come down with food poisoning (it WAS the mee rebus for sure) followed soon after with a cold, I have no idea. Can only guess that my body was already very weak from all that throwing up and exiting of bodily matter. I recovered enough to start eating normally for a few days before I started feeling funny again. You know how the Chinese say one is 'heaty'? I usually feel REALLY heaty just before I'm coming down with a cold. It's just like the insides are burning but you don't actually have a fever that can be recognised by a thermometer. That's when I'll overdose on Vitamin C and barley water and hope for the best. But this time round, I just couldn't ward it off. I really hate it when I get a cold or a cough. My throat will get really itchy-scratchy from all the post-nasal drip and I can't control the horrible hacking cough. I noticed that not all my friends or relatives get this when they get a cough. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I had asthmatic bronchitis as a child? I don't know. Weak lah.

You'd think that after a week (or two) of loose stools followed by a week (or two) of coughin' and wheezin' that I'd have lost some weight. Evidently not. Permanently that is. The scale did shift in my favour just a wee bit and then as soon as my tummy grew stronger, the hunger (and greediness) just over compensated and re-balanced itself. For a few days there, I actually saw a flat tummy again. Sigh.

I'm sorry some of you haven't yet received your shoe orders. Will be in touch with you soon. Very soon....

Hen here or teh wei?

2010-05-06T09:30:00.000+08:00

Worried about the demise of the Chinese language here? I think we have more to worry about:

Overheard in a fast food outlet at Compass Point (Sengkang):

Foreign worker counter staff: "Hen here or teh wei?"

Customer: ???

------------------------------

Yes, of course the counter staff meant to say "Having here or take away?"
It's bad enough that at some fast food restaurants, we have Singaporean counter staff asking the customer questions in a robotic and speeding bullet manner but when the foreign help start modifying their sentences...... I shudder to think what will happen to the English standard here.

So, my advice to the Singapore leaders. We should be more concerned about the standard of English on this tiny island.

My awesome kids!!!

2010-05-04T14:41:00.000+08:00

As a mother, I don't know if I should laugh or cry when I find out that (instead of studying) both my kids are in my son's room fooling around like clowns in front of his laptop camera (during Mid-yr exam time)!!!

Apparently, they even went on a world tour without my knowledge.

So, that's them in France

(I know my daughter's gonna 'kill' me for posting this ah lianish pic of her doing the Kawaii pose!)

And where's this exotic place? (another hamster cheek / ah lianish pose here)

Narnia exotica

Oh great! The boy's wardrobe's turned into Fantasy Island.

(you can see his exam time-table pasted on the wardrobe door)

I wanna laugh cos I think it's fun to see my kids having fun

and I wanna cry cos it's so heartwarming to see them having fun

T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R.

(Hey, to my Kids : be sporting and don't delete this post!)

I don't friend you

2010-04-30T09:19:00.000+08:00

I don't know how young children say it now but I know that when I was a kid in primary school and if we ever fell out with anyone (trust me, this happened on a daily basis), we'd say to that person, "I don't friend you anymore". We'd say it for events like when your friend borrowed your pencil or eraser and forgot to return it to you. Or if you heard from a friend of a friend's that a friend had said something about you.

In Singlish, that's like a child's interpretation of "I'm not your friend anymore" or an adult's interpretation of "Go fly a kite". If we were to make up later (and trust me again, that too happened on a daily basis!), we'd show our pinkies and twine them round each other to show that the bond of friendship was glued back again. How simple life was back then.

I was at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital recently and overheard this conversation a lady (looked to be in her 30s) was having on the phone with her friend (in diction which made my hair stand).

Lady on pink Lollipop phone, "You trell him.....If you donch trell me who give you my number, then we not going to make friend" (wow, I've not heard that in a looooong time!). Her friend must have said she wouldn't do that because this lady dench (oops, I mean then) said, "You geeeve me heese number now, I crall him for you!!! Yah! Geeve me now, quick!!!"

This lady's husband then comes out of the clinic and stands by listening to his wife. He shakes his head and tells (I mean trells) her that she must be so free she wants to mind other people's business. He walks off and she follows.

Sorry, I had nothing bretter to do thanch to listen to this lady. There were hardly any patients at the Rehabilitation centre where I was waiting to see the physiotherapist (for my knee), the number on the board refused to jump forth.

By the way, the new Khoo Teck Puat hospital in Yishun looks more like a resort than a hospital. You might want to pop by to check it out (I know, 'choy! choy!). Aiyah, donch say I wished it upon chew (I meant you), just telling you how nice and serene it is!

In that instant

2010-04-23T11:29:00.000+08:00

My friend said that in that instant when she thought, 'This is it!', all hope was gone, she realised what really mattered after all. In the face of danger, it was her neighbours and strangers who helped her. In this difficult time of recovery, it is her family and friends who rally round her protectively. She's realised how much she's loved.

Ashamedly, I myself never told her I loved her until yesterday.... I'm Singaporean after all; no expression, dull face, reserved. How do I go around telling my close friends I love them? Yikes. I'm not that old but my generation and before don't really indulge in such expressive exchanges (even if we hug all the time). I know the younger ones do. They say it all the time (online!). Really, it wasn't until I realised how close I came to losing her that I realised what her friendship meant to me. I used to see my girlfriends as makan buddies (because we only meet over makan) but I realise they're like 'sisters' and I'd feel lost without them.

It's true, many of us walk around trying to make logical sense of what should and shouldn't matter in our lives. Most often, it is our jobs, our positions, our salaries, our cars, houses, which schools our kids are in, how our kids fare in school.... really, in that instant just before you get zapped out of existence, what really matters after all?

Friends

2010-04-20T15:04:00.000+08:00

My son, who reads my blog, reminded me that I've not updated it in a while. It's true. I've been busy with my art and stuff.

Yesterday, I learnt from my son that something had happened to his friend and his family. He was visibly upset. John had been friends with this boy since they were toddlers. They went to the same kindergarten, primary school and now secondary school. They are in the same CCA and they are tight. They've known each other since his mum and I plonked our toddlers at each other's faces.

That boy's mum and I were primary and secondary school classmates. We belong to a small group of former schoolmates who meet up once in a while to catch up over makan. Although we don't meet as often as we'd like to because of our busy work schedules and family commitments, when we do, it's like we've never been apart. Just one of those friendships, I'm sure you know what I mean.

They are in hospital and we've not been able to visit them. I've been feeling all choked up since learning this news. Feeling so helpless. Been praying and praying. Passing the message, asking more people to pray. Nothing else I can do. We'll have to rally around her and her family once they get discharged.

I heard my son's school has been praying for them. Those Gabrielite boys are a real special bunch. When things like this happen, it reminds me of what is most important. Don't wait till it's too late.

Temporary Being

2010-04-06T10:10:00.001+08:00

I know most times, the barrage of stories circulating online cannot be verified but heck, sometimes, these stories just bring a lump to your throat, don't they? If they make you reflect and change you for the better, then my guess is no harm done. Every once in a while, I will come across phrases which I find strike a chord. This is one of them (sorry, I don't know the author of this one - but I like it alot):

WE ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS
GOING THROUGH A TEMPORARY
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.

WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS
GOING THROUGH A TEMPORARY
HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

Doing strange things for God

2010-04-05T15:56:00.000+08:00

Here's an inspiring story. Author unknown. I cannot verify the truth of this story but it's inspiring nevertheless. Though I didn't get to feed a crying child and I do not understand the purpose of what I had done, I totally understand how 'foolish', 'strange' and yet 'awesome' that young man had felt.

"A young man had been to Wednesday night Bible Study. The Pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice.

The young man couldn't help but wonder, "Does God still speak to people?"
After service he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they discussed the message.

Several different ones talked about how God had led them in different ways. It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, "God. . . If you still speak to people, speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey."

As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought, stop and buy a gallon of milk.

He shook his head and said out loud, "God is that you?"
He didn't get a reply and started on toward home. But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk.
The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn't recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli.

"Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk."
It didn't seem like too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the milk.

He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home. As he passed Seventh street, he again felt the urge, "Turn down that street."

This is crazy he thought and drove on past the intersection. Again, he felt that he should turn down seventh street. At the next intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh.

Half jokingly, he said out loud, "Okay, God, I will."
He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop. He pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in a semi-commercial area of town.

It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst of neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed.
Again, he sensed something, "Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street."

The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were
already asleep. He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat. "Lord, this is insane.

Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid."
Again, he felt like he should go and give the milk.
Finally, he opened the door, "Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door and I will give them the milk.
If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient.
I guess that will count for something but if they don't answer right away, I am out of here."

He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise inside. A man's voice yelled out, "Who is it? What do you want?"
Then the door opened before the young man could get away. The man was standing there in his jeans and t-shirt. He looked like he just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn't seem
too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep. "What is it?"

The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, "Here, I brought this to you."
The man took the milk and rushed down a hall way speaking loudly in Spanish. Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face. The man began speaking and half crying,

"We were just praying. We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money.
We didn't have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk."

His wife in the kitchen yelled out, "I ask him to send an Angel with some...Are you an Angel?"
The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had on him
and put in the man's hand. He turned and walked back toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face. He knew that God still answers prayers and that God still speaks to His people."

One Wish

2010-04-01T16:39:00.000+08:00

This being Holy Week, I'm in a contemplative mood.
You know how some of us gripe and groan about this and that in our lives?
We wish this, we wish that? If only this, if only that?
More money? Better job prospects? New Car? New House? A better spouse? Better neighbours?

I thought I knew what I really needed and wanted. But I've come to the realisation it isn't true at all.

Think about this carefully.
If you could have only ONE wish granted by God, what would it be? (asking for 'more wishes' disallowed, lah).

Led by the Spirit

2010-03-29T10:24:00.004+08:00

In my family of 4 (I mean including hubs and kids), I declare myself, Chief Organiser. That means, my stress level hovers at high all the time because as Chief Organiser, I need to be logical, prompt, quick, calculative, demanding, forceful, - you get the drift. After a hard day's work at the office (where other people are Chief), I come home and feel the need to push them off their butts with my motherly comments and instructions. While I may be somewhat maverick in my parenting ways, I'm by no means nuts and I'm still completely Singaporean! That means, you won't be finding me running down the street in my birthday suit anytime soon. It also means that I may go to church and pray for God's guidance but do I really understand what it's like to be guided by Him at all? Well, I'm learning all the time that there's a first time for everything.

First off, let me tell you that if you'd told me a year ago that YOU could hear God, I'd have thought you were crazy and a fanatic, no less. So it's quite alright if you think the same of me now. However, I'd recommend anyone to start having quiet time to just listen to what God has to say to you. You'll be surprised.

In my previous post, I wrote that I'd been spending alone time with God, trying my best to listen to what He has to say to me. I do ask Him questions too and He does answer them and sometimes, I'm completely taken aback by His answers. I could never have come up with such answers myself so if you're thinking I imagined them, you're incorrect.

One day last week before the Blessed Sacrament in our church's Adoration Room I was having one of my 'conversations' with God (We don't speak audibly. Conversations are transmitted in what I would call a telepathic manner. I hear Him and I know that He hears me). Tapering to the end, He asked me if I would do Him a favour. I was nervous but I said, 'Yes'. He passed me a message for a certain household. I sensed 2 digits but I was confounded and wondered how I was supposed to go look for a house with just those 2 digits as a clue! Over the next few days in Adoration Room, I gathered another 2 digits. So I had 4 digits (apparently an HDB apartment) to go on in the whole of Singapore island. In the course of the week, whenever I happened to be driving around, I'd be on the lookout for these 4 digits but would come up with nothing.

Last weekend, Mike and I had to visit an apartment in an estate near ours. I reached the block of flats and got a shock of my life as the ground floor unit in front of me carried those 4 digits! The door was closed although I could see a curtain through the opened corridor window. I hovered outside that apartment wondering if I should 'do it' but we were late for our appointment so I left.

When we came down the block again, I went to the ground floor unit again and this time, the door was open. I peeked in the very dark flat and noticed a man sitting in front of his TV, holding what seemed like a bottle of hard liquor to his mouth. I walked away and headed back to our car with Mike, all the time wondering, should I or should I not? But I couldn't walk very far from that unit because my head was pounding and my heart was beating very fast. I recognised my usual symptoms of God's prompting. So I told Mike I had something to do and I'd meet him at the car later. Mike went to the car to wait for me.

I walked back to that unit and peeked in again. He was still drinking. Maybe he had plain water in that bottle, I don't know! But I called out to him through his apartment gate. He got up immediately and put his bottle on a side cabinet. He came to the gate. He looked to be in his late 20s or early 30s. Relatively good looking.

Seriously, I've never done this to a stranger before. Prior to this, I DID use my logic to reason that there would be no harm in the contents of the message. In fact, it would do that person good (I should add that it is in line with scripture) and that's why I was open to the idea of passing a message to a complete stranger. I looked the guy in the eye and just explained that I was Catholic and God had a message which I was supposed to pass to this particular house address. He just nodded his head. So I told him the message. His eyes grew wide and for an instant, I thought I saw a softening and sadness in his eyes, like he was about to tear. He still hadn't spoken a word. I asked him if he were a Christian and he said he wasn't. So apologetically, I told him I was sorry for having disturbed him but it was just that God had wanted me to pass him that message. His only answer to me? 'Ok'.

I walked away feeling like a goon but the pounding in my head had stopped. I got back into the car and Mike just asked, 'So? What did Jesus ask you to say? I couldn't help but burst out laughing. My hubby knows me so well! Later that evening, I sat in Adoration Room asking Jesus if I'd passed the message to the right person. It clearly was.

I had asked God to lead and guide me, to open up my heart to Him and if making a fool out of myself is what it entails, then as scary as it may seem or as illogical to me as it seems, I'll do it. My logic in this matter? God has His reasons which I may not always understand but He totally understands us so I'll just have to learn to place my faith in Him.

Draw Me Close To You

2010-03-25T16:30:00.005+08:00

'Draw Me Close To You' is one of my favourite worship songs.

Draw me close to you,
never let me go.
I lay it all down again,
to hear you say that I’m your friend.
You are my desire,
no one else will do.
No one else can take your place,
to feel the warmth of your embrace.
Help me find the way,
bring me back to you.
You’re all I want.
You’re all I’ve ever needed.
You’re all I want.
Help me know you are near.

Copyright 1994 Mercy/Vineyard Publishing.
(Sorry, I'm not sure who the composer is but I think it is Kelly Carpenter)

The past few weeks, I have been having a greater desire to spend alone time with the Blessed Sacrament in the Adoration Room. I just sit there in silent worship and let Him speak to me. No verbal exchange required. It's like having telepathy communication with Jesus. I cannot explain it but I know what He says and He knows what I say. I think I'm holding on to Him for dear life because I nearly totally lost this form of communication for good. I'd let my human doubts get in the way and I didn't believe that I was actually hearing Him. It was only when I had totally stopped hearing Him that I realised it hadn't been my imagination after all.

At the Healing Rally by Bob Canton, I really opened my heart to the Lord and asked for His forgiveness for even doubting Him. I asked if He would please bless me again so that I could hear Him again and He did not let me down. I feel so blessed that I'll do whatever it takes to never let this Gift go. I know, I sound like one of those ku-ku crazies but you know what, when you are so in love with Jesus, you shouldn't even worry what others will think about you, you should worry about what Jesus thinks about you. So heck. I've always been different anyway so I might as well turn it into a gift from God to glorify Him in whatever way I can!

If you want to read about the start of my faith journey, you can read it over at my other blog:

http://cartoonlagoonjoy.blogspot.com/

I started off with a separate blog for my faith journey but realised I can't separate my faith from my 'other' life because my life SHOULD be about my faith. As such, my faith journey will be documented here at this blog as well.

May 2007 - Straits Times article

2010-03-08T16:33:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday evening, I attended the 1st Birthday of my nephew and we got talking about a number of things like primary school registration for the Birthday boy and my son's 'awkward' PSLE performance. It was then that my aunt reminded me of the newspaper article (back in 2007) she had read about us Yeos some years back. She said when she read it, she thought it was so typical of me *grin*. It's true, can't deny it; I've always been a maverick parent of sorts. I'm quite glad to stick to my guns actually.

I can't recall if I'd ever posted this online but I dug up the old newspaper article (which I'd left in my office drawer for safekeeping!). Here's the puffy eyed boy on his rollerblade and my thunderous thighs on 'his' bike (yes, a relatively kiddy height two-wheeler!). We're not sure why he was so puffy-eyed that morning of the photoshoot but we had to get up real early to prepare for the shoot and the boy was soooooo tense that the Straits Times photographer had a tough time getting him to relax whilst posing at the same time. The number of shots and awkward poses reminded me of my wedding studio shoot.

The above shot was selected after so many poses and it was a pity that none of the family pics (of all 4 of us) taken in our small garden was chosen for publication (Sorry Mike, sorry Taz). Here's the second half of the page (sorry my scanner won't take it all in and I'm too lazy to do computer magic today).

And here's a close up of the write up:

In short (yes, yes, I know I'm short), I am described as being an ATYPICAL parent who prefers my kids to have fun in school and come home all flushed and sweaty. Yep, that's me. They wrote about why I had chosen St. Gabriel's Primary School for my son. Well, I've not looked back. It was the right choice and I definitely have no regrets. They have very caring teachers there by the way. The best person to judge if the teachers are caring would be your child. Get THAT feedback from your kid, not yourself.

Grades are essential but life is not all about grades. What, of your childhood do you remember and treasure the most? The time studying? Or the time laughing and playing with your friends?

On an island full of 'kiasu' parents (parents who are frightened to lose out), I know I do not walk alone. I read in the papers recently, of a parent who was going to take his daughter, Robyn out for a year's travel right after the kid finishes her PSLE. Way to go, Robyn's Daddy! Yes! We need more parents like you!

For some time now, I've been telling my kids the very same thing. Only difference is I would need to get a windfall to fund it. Sigh. (Robyn's Daddy, would you like to fund some travelling companions?). Or perhaps there is any kind soul Gazillionaire (Mr. Gates? Mr. Gates?) out there reading this? How about funding me, Radical Mum, who would like to give my kids, my hubby and myself a year long tutorial on the subject of Life by really seeing and discovering the world? I would really like us to learn to take the road less travelled....

My kids have been hearing this for some time now and they like to joke with me by asking if I'd really do it if I were to strike the Big One in our local lottery. In fact, my son was poking fun at me about my 'near' miss for the recent Chinese New Year S$10 million Toto draw. Matching 4 out of 6 numbers gets me $30. Poles apart from S$10 miliion.

Of course I'd do it! What is it to put on hold for a year my 16 yr old daughter's GCE 'O' Levels? She might come back a better person and do much better. Or she might want to stay put in some remote village and do some charitable work instead : P

As we say in Teochew, 'tarng goo-goo'. (Wait long long). Well, it really depends on the good Lord isn't it? He might let us tour the world sooner than we think. Who knows. He never ceases to amaze me. Never say never. Meanwhile, I should stay positive, start packing my bags and think of a way to ease this piece of news gently to my lonely dogs.

New Artwork

2010-03-04T12:06:00.001+08:00

Here's a sampling of what I've been so busy and excited about!

I drew inspiration for my painting from a quote by British novelist and journalist, G.K Chesterton:

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten."

My family has been very supportive of my 'alone' worktime and so far, I seem to be able to get a couple of hours to myself to paint on weeknights. It pays to have kids young. Well, not that young (I was 26) but it's kinda nice to have teen kids at this stage in my life.

My intention is to sell prints of my artwork and so I am busy compiling my work. Someone out there might appreciate the wacky, whimsical art that I fancy! I'm using the moniker FYEONA for my paintings. I've always felt weird taking on my hubby's surname and losing my own or sticking to my own and not taking on hubby's. Have you ever felt that? You want to share the same family name as your kids and all but you don't quite want to lose your identity either. So to make it simple, I'm signing off as FYEONA, a combination of Fiona and hubs' family name, Yeo!

(Please do not download a copy of my artwork without my prior permission. I'm in the process of setting up my store but meanwhile, if you REALLY, REALLY *roll eyes* must have a copy of this artwork than contact me. Thanks, heaps!)

So excited!

2010-03-03T11:37:00.000+08:00

I'm so excited and it's definitely not about my physiotherapy session (for my knee injury - do you recall I wrote about that?) or the MRI scan, all of which I'm having later this afteroon. You can read about it in my other blog:
http://cartoonlagoonjoy.blogspot.com/2010/03/hospital-appointment.html

I've been a busy bee at night, drawing and painting. Not on shoes but on paper. In January, I gave myself several deadlines to meet to bring my art dabbling in Cartoon Lagoon to a different 'level'. I seem to be on target.

I'm still taking orders for Cartoon Lagoon's Dare-to-wear Hand Painted Shoes by the way but I'm also going into art prints.

Last night, in between looking after my 16 yr old daughter who seems to have caught a bug and placating my 13 yr old son (who wanted to doze off already but not before he'd heard the 'promised' fairy tale reading from Mother!!!), I managed to draw and paint a couple of pics. I don't want to spoil the fun until all's set and done and since it's early days yet, I'm just going to show you a sample (soon). Probably tomorrow if I can. Am waiting for them to be completely dry. But I'm sooooo excited I can't contain myself!

Meanwhile, I'm mulling over the idea of combining the blog posts from my other blog Cartoon Lagoon Joy with this one. Although I said before that I did not want to offend anyone with my personal religious views, it gets harder and harder to separate my faith from my daily life. Without my faith, I am nothing.

I feel it's alright to combine them and the time is right for me to do so. It's reality after all. I'll try to do that without offending anyone. I may lose some readers. I may lose some customers but hey, that's the way the (chocolate) cookie crumbles.

I'm not sharing my views or concerns because I need you to see what I see or need you to believe what I believe in. I'm just sharing my online diary so that someone else may feel a connection, learn from it or just feel better about themselves, the same way I do when I read others' blogs. Why else would I be posting pics of my uterus online?

PCOS update (Mar 2010)

2010-03-02T18:22:00.002+08:00

If you recall, I'd written before about having been diagnosed with having PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). Don't worry, it's nothing you can catch from me. To put it simply, I have ovaries with multiple cysts. No medical person has told me to remove them yet. I'm told to just leave them alone if they aren't causing me any discomfort. Discomfort in what sense actually? I think the biggest discomfort is in seeing my waist expand. I've always been the proud owner of a 23" or 24" waist, even when my hips and thighs were thunderous. But alas, that's gone with the wind now.

You can read more about it from my previous posts under the label 'PCOS'
http://cartoonlagoon.blogspot.com/search/label/PCOS

Anyway, at my recent visit to KKH, the doctor (the VERY young and handsome one I may add) told me (after waiting nearly 2 hours past my appointment time) that I may be having sugar control problems. Not everyone with PCOS will face the same problems or have the same symptoms. For example, I have no hair loss or hair overgrowth. I am not depressed. I don't have any 'real' problems except for my growing midriff. I'm set to take more tests in the upcoming months so meanwhile, I'm trying to do what I can to make this problem better.

I'm no doctor but I figured, if I'm having sugar control issues, then I must be facing insulin resistance. So if I can get around this insulin resistance, I'd be home free and my waist will go right down to 24" again. Right? (say yes, please).

Simplistically put, my pancreas (what? what's dat?) isn't producing as much insulin (what? what's dat again?) as I need to bring the glorious food (carbos, sugar) I put into my body to the correct body cells. If I had enough insulin, then the makan (colloquial term for food) would have been transported by the insulin to those cells (fat, liver, muscle cells) to be converted into energy. Roughly, I think it goes like this. Well, read this with a pinch of salt. I was never a good science student.

It's so UNFAIR!!! I don't even snack (much)! Truly! I eat a decent muesli bar and drink plain water for breakfast. Yes, plain water. I went from Coffee to Tea to Green Tea to Orange Juice to Plain Water. That took some years but yes, I'm down to plain water now.
For lunch, whatever I can lay my hands on at the food court (during office lunch hour) and for dinner, whatever my domestic helper cooks (which is delicious for the most part and NOT unhealthy).

Do I eat second helpings? Hardly, usually only during festivities where I feel it's being a total wet blanket to not eat MORE! Ok, ok, also when there's plenty of rice, belachan (shrimp paste chilli) or spicy chicken going around. Overall, I'm a pretty decent eater. Yet, I'm overweight.

So, to get back to the sugar control issue. I need to watch my diet seriously, especially my carbo intake. I don't want to faint so I'm not dieting drastically. Nor am I watching my diet just to be slim. I want to watch my diet because I don't want to be any sicker than my hormones are already making me. I don't want to feel bloated all the time.

Wikipedia says that the following are symptoms of Insulin Resistance (note it's Insulin Resistance I'm talking here, not PCOS symptoms):

Fatigue (yep - definitely happening to me).

Brain fogginess and inability to focus. Sometimes the fatigue is physical, but often it is mental (yep - seems to be getting worse).

High blood sugar (I won't know yet the results of more comprehensive tests I'm to take soon but my basic polyclinic test showed up ok).

Intestinal bloating. Most intestinal gas is produced from carbohydrates in the diet. Insulin resistance sufferers who eat carbohydrates sometimes suffer from gas (definitely a yes - I feel very bloated after a meal with rice and my kids will tell you to run a hundred miles away from Mother when THAT happens).

Sleepiness. Many people with insulin resistance get sleepy immediately after eating a meal containing more than 20% or 30% carbohydrates (well, not really, except on lazy Sunday afternoons).

Weight gain, fat storage, difficulty losing weight. For most people, too much weight is too much fat. The fat in IR (wat's dat???Integrated Resorts issit?) is generally stored in and around abdominal organs in both males and females. It is currently suspected that hormonal effects from such fat are a precipitating cause of insulin resistance (need I say more?).

Increased blood triglyceride levels (waaaat???).

Increased blood pressure. Many people with hypertension are either diabetic or pre-diabetic and have elevated insulin levels due to insulin resistance. One of insulin's effects is on arterial walls throughout the body (it went up for a short period but it's in the normal range for now...I think).

Depression. Because of the deranged metabolism resulting from insulin resistance, psychological effects are not uncommon. Depression is said to be the prevalent psychological symptom (not really but there are down days and which woman with hormones hasn't yet had this?).

Acanthosis nigricans (huh??? you speaka englisha?).

My next visit to the hospital will require me to take a more thorough blood test to see if I have diabetes. I don't have it running in my family but that does not mean I can't get it. I'm doing what I can to cut down on sugars and carbos. I can live without sugary drinks but I can't live without rice so that's a real punishment considering. But if I want to slim down this midriff tire, I'll have to do what it takes.

Meanwhile, I have to live with friends and relatives asking me why I have put on so much weight. How do I explain all the above without sounding rude? Ok, how about 'because I like to'?