When I was a kid 2 by Boey

I bought this book when I went to Malaysia last month during weekend. The author is a  Malaysian. He drew and told stories of his childhood times, being brought up in Chinese families. So there would be lots of stories that we encountered before during our childhood times and it was even what we currently treated our children with.

A very great example will be shown below.

Robbed

Hahaha... What do you think?

It was quite refreshing and light to read.  You can read it within an hour. Good to share with your children, niece, nephew, etc.

I show another pages as this is similar with what my son does and likes.

It's in our culture - Smile and be friendly :)

Still the same impression :)

My ex-colleague messaged me this afternoon. She only worked here in less than 2 weeks then she left. We usually met during briefing time every morning but we didn't talk much until her last day. 

I didn't expect she would message me just to say that and it reminded me of the blog post I posted almost 3 years ago.  You can click here to read it :)

I am glad that almost every one who works in this company are so friendly. Every time we pass by, we will at least have an eye contact, smile, and say 'hi', even if we don't know each other. If we know each other well, we will surely greet each other and whenever possible, greet the person using his or her name. 

This is one thing that I have learn here in this company since many years back: to greet people by name is to make them feel recognized. If you don't know their name, that will be a good chance for you to know each other, either looking at their name tag (all of us is having name tag as part of our uniform standard), or asking for their name directly (from there you can get more information about them). 

Once you both are close enough, more words will come out when meeting each other, be it in locker, corridor, cafeteria, even outside the working place. 

That's the most positive thing that I have felt all this while and that isn't felt only  by me. Even this lady stayed was due to the staffs' friendliness. It's just that she wasn't suitable with one part of the job that made her leaving us. 

Her replacement came soon after she left. Today I had talked quite a lot with her since she had to be a witness of my stock-taking duty. She also mentioned to me the reason she has been staying on this job was because of most staffs' friendliness despite she was offered a much better pay, nearer location of working place from where she stays, shorter working hour, only after she started working on her first day here. 

Don't you feel like smiling when you look at this??? :)

So, don't you think working environment is one of the very important aspects to make staffs stay with their company? In order to have one, you have to create one and be part of it. So, smile more and be friendly at all time :) 

Excitement for the upcoming trip to Bhutan

Dear families and friends,

My holiday trip to Bhutan gets closer each and every day. I feel very ecstatic with everything that will come and happen :)

Maybe that's why that night I had a dream of taking car ride but felt like taking a very steep roller-coaster. After going to the deep tunnel full of surprises and uncertainty, finally I could see some lights. Although at the end there was no more road that I traveled in, however I managed to land safely to the parking ground, parked nicely, even parked next to Ferrari. I'm not a fans of Ferrari, however it appeared it my dreams.  Hahaha. ... What does it tell me? That I should deserve better?? :) I enjoyed the ride very much though and happy. Hope my dreams and wishes come true :)

After work I directly went for my facial. Instead of felt pain when my face and pimples were pressed by beautician, I could feel my excitement degree was too high until I didn't feel any pain at all! Amazing, wasn't it?? (Those who went to facial before should know how pain it was right??) ;P

At all time I kept thinking and planning on what should I do there, whom to meet, any other better ways to spend my days there to make it worth it and unforgettable, and so on.  I was all smiling imagining those that not happened yet hahaha....

I had a very good sleep last night as I had already known what I wanted to do there. I love it when there is purposes in life, knowing exactly what I want, and to do what I wanted to do.  However, as human being we could only plan. Whether it will come true or not will depend from the above.  That's why I've been praying hard these days and with the help of my dear Mom's pray from afar, I've seen some good signs. I've turned out to be very positive and hope that my positiveness will attract the positive vibes out there.  I hope and pray that I will be safe and be protected during my whole journey there. Amituofo. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu

In fact, I've equipped myself with lots of training (not blowing my trumpet here... hehe...). I have regular exercises nowadays (which used to be done regularly once or twice per year hahaha....), I have been trained with first aid training (of course hopefully nothing bad happens. Until now I'm still thinking to buy insurance or not... Should I?) and I've been trained in most of my travel journey to live and walk the road independently such as: traveling alone, eating alone, spending my time alone, and I found that I could survive and enjoy it.

Actually, not many people can live and enjoy being alone. I survived the trial though. Perhaps it's the nature of the independence horse who loves freedom :)  But of course I will be very much happier when there are other people who can accompany me for the trip and appreciate their kind efforts :) I also need to pray that they are free to bring me around and will be able to meet and accompany me even just for a while :)

I consider those strangers (e.g. bus passengers, spectators, audiences etc. ) would be my accompany too. I could feel different feeling by living alone, with people I know, and with strangers. I want to make whatever exist to the max, enjoy different kind of situation, experience different things to the fullest, with a very clear conscience, of course :)

I have listed out whom I want to meet.  By the way the Bhutanese students who are studying in Koalkata will go back to Bhutan when I'm there, so we will have a chance to meet again.

I also hope (keep my fingers crossed) that I can meet Bhutanese bloggers there. But it won't be able to realized without your presence :) I hope we all have good karma to meet up in Thimphu.

I need to stop here as I have to do my work now. Please help me to pray that everything will go smoothly and as per planned.  Thank you everyone for everything!!! :)

Exciting car ride journey to the Wonderland :)

It was a lovely morning with such a wonderful weather. The sky was blue and the sun was shining brightly. My Bhutanese friend, usually called Acho Tashi, fetched me from the airport. We took a cab together and sat at the back. My feeling was joyous and happy, same with him. I could see his clean and white row of teeth with a wide-thin lips smiling buoyantly.

Source: Google.com

I was looking out through the window. We were passing by gorgeous mountains, in which, there were series of beautiful bluish water fountains on its surface. “Wowww!!! It is so incredibly wonderful!!! By the way, where are we now? Is it India or Bhutan?” I asked Tashi confusedly. I was so stunned with the beautiful view and couldn’t take my eyes off from it.

The cab kept moving. We passed by a huge Greenland with a signage written “Wonderland”. It reminded me of the “Wonderland” in Sydney, Australia, which had been closed back in year 2004. “Ah, so the Wonderland will be built over here?? Wow, amazing!!! How lucky you are!!” exclaimed me, still full of wonderful feeling.

Suddenly the cab entered into the small and narrow tunnel inside the mountain which fitted only a road for a car with little more gaps. It became darker now. “What other excitement is coming soon??” I still let my mind wondering here and there. The cabby driver stopped for a while. From the opposite direction, there were two persons walking up towards our direction. “Eeh… how come they are walking up?? I thought this is supposed to be a motor-road??” I was asking the cabby. He didn’t reply me though and kept concentrating on the road in front of him. I kept my mouth shut and focused on the road in front of us as well.

Source: Google.com

The cabby made a turn to the left and after that I saw a very steep road in front of us, as steep as almost reaching 90 degrees down. “Wowww!!! This road is crazy!!!” I was suddenly shouting and felt like sitting inside a roller-coaster. I was praying hard that the brake would work properly too… “Huaaaaaaa……..!!!!” I made a big shout while the cab was going down the steep road. I saw Tashi was holding the front seat in front of him tightly and his face was so pale!!! We shouted together loudly and non-stop, "Aaaaaaaaaaaa............"

The cab went fast, made a very sharp turn to the left and to the right. We saw the bright light and the cab kept going until there was no exact road anymore and I could feel the whole cab flying out, no brake was stepped, and we just let ourselves flying in the air. However, we landed safely to a car-park and the cab stopped beautifully beside the yellow color Ferrari.

“Wow!!! That was great!!! Where are we, by the way? India or Bhutan?” I asked Tashi who was still not awoken from this terror moment.

Suddenly, “ringggg…………..” - I heard my alarm was ringing. I turned the alarm off and realized that I was just having a dream - a bumpy, most exciting and most dangerous car ride in the “Wonderdreamland”, and I wish such a ride exist in real life. Anyway, I have felt that dream just like a real one already… Hahaha….. Dunno what I thought of until have a dream like that :P

Absolut Canvas Exhibition and Singapore Night Festival 2013

Just like any other morning, while having my bread and a cup of coffee, I would read the online newspaper on my computer. From there, I found out about the event above. I saw it on newspaper too few years back the photo of the National Museum with illuminated light. However, although the event had been started since year 2008, I had never attended it, even once.

I took a glance on what things highlighted from the event. What intrigued me was actually "Absolut Canvas", which was the exhibition featuring beautifully designed Absolut vodka bottles, where artists and designers had used as a channel for their creativity. It was held inside the National Museum, Stamford Gallery. In the Facebook itself, the Absolut vodka page had also posted photos about those bottles displayed in the event.

Absolut Canvas at National Museum of Singapore

I am a big fan of Absolut vodka. I didn't know why and when I started collecting it. Actually it wasn't really hard to get it since we could buy it in the Airport - duty free price, of course - and there were many people flying in and out of Singapore. Sometimes, I would ask my friends and family members who came here, to help me buying it and added my collection. Until now, I have almost a rack full of it. Thank you for your help ya!! I really appreciate it!! Sometimes I would buy extra, especially those with special flavor, then opened it up and drank it with friends and families in a gathering, such as BBQ, or any other celebration. Sometimes I even presented it as a gift for friend's birthday, housewarming gift, etc.

So, after reading the newspaper, first thing that came out of my mind was asking my friend, who was also a fan of Absolut, to visit the place together. However, he had to work until 7pm therefore he might go on other day with his wife. I was asking around my khaki as well, but like usual, their schedules were packed with other activities. No choice, I had to go alone :)

After work, I went to the place by bus. I had charged my handphone fully since I didn't bring my camera. I reached there quite early, so I had a walk in the nearby area before started queuing at the entrance of the exhibition. At 7 plus, we entered the place. I could feel that there were many other Absolut vodka fans too who were purposely coming to that place, so I wasn't alone. Yeah!!! :D

 

Absolut displays

I love it!!! Apart from what I have already had, there were actually many more bottles that I had never seen before. Especially those rare bottles and city collections (you really had to travel a lot to many other countries or at least having friends who stay there to buy it for you). 

 

All looks great!!!

I had never even seen or heard about it before, such as Absolut Butterflies, Absolut Monkey, and Absolut Crystal Black Pinstripe (see photos above). Those two with different shape (Absolut Tune V2) at right below, were also never seen before.

 

Absolut city collection plus other rare bottles

You can see the city collection Absolut plus other rare bottle and special ones. I don't have all those bottles I posted here. So can you imagine how many should you collect if you want to have it all??? Hahaha... I am not that greedy though. For me, it is only for enjoyment, not to feel bad when I didn't have it, which means contentment is still the key. Because you can't have everything that you want in this world. Right?

And one day, after I pass away, I will leave all my collection to my son, either he loves it or not :D

After visiting the exhibition, I went out and looked around. Outside the museum, there were many people waiting for the performance. Since I was very free, I joined them by sitting on the grass facing to the facade of the building. While waiting, I would look up to the sky and find some stars there. I felt so blessed. I love sitting on the grass and looking up to the sky. If I could lie down, I would do so. However, due to space constrain, I would only be able to sit. Hahaha....

 

Singapore Night Festival 2013 Performances

I watched three performances last night. The first one was Vertical Extraction by Compagnie Retouramont (France). It was a contemporary dance where the dancers would use ropes and cables, positioning themselves with opens perspectives, proposes original points of view. They carried out a triangulation of the space which finds its epicenter in the audience’s eye. There were background of lights and shadow picturing urban view of roads, links between 2 points in space, or even stage.

Second performance was called Pyramid of Void, also performed by Compagnie Retourament. This time, 3 dancers were dancing as if they were suspended in mid-air in a pyramid structure made of and ropes.

And last one was performed by Starlight Alchemy: Redux. It was a performance of eclectic group of fire and LED-light using various fire and LED tools. It was nice!!

To be honest, I am not an arty person. But once in a while, attending and watching such art performances would open and broaden up your mind on how extensive art can be and how creatively human beings are. There were lots of efforts and energies put in order to make it beautiful and successful. I was enjoying all the three performances, all was shown outside the National Museum itself.

If you are interested to watch, you still have a chance. It will be shown again tonight, and next Friday and Saturday. You can find the details here. So, if you have no plan tonight, go down there with bunch of friends or family members to enjoy the show (those efforts done by artists around the world). There were food and beverages too that you could purchase in case you were hungry.

Hope you enjoy your weekend as I was, and have a wonderful day!!! :)

Occupational First Aid Course

I've been working for 4 years and 4 months in this current company. All along I didn't show any interest to join the course above. In fact, I was afraid of taking this course. Last year, all our Senior Management staffs attended this course as they were our appointed leaders in our organizations. Those worked directly with our guests had also attended this training.

"The Occupational First Aid Course is designed to increase awareness of possible accidents, identify accidents with casualties and optimize health and performance at the workplace." 

My work scope is not only doing office work sitting behind the desk, but I am also in charge of more other operational works, such as: receiving goods from supplier, monthly stock-taking in bars/restaurants,and supervising general store's smooth operation. Therefore, any casualty may happen anytime anywhere within my working area that requires someone to act fast in order to render aid at any emergency situation, to prevent injuries from worsening, to maintain the First Aid box located in our office, to keep records on injuries, etc.

Previously, since I had a colleague in my office who joined the course, I thought I didn't have to join this training as he would be able to attend the emergency situation whenever required. However, he resigned and left the company two months ago. Therefore, among 4 of us, none of us was trained with First Aid and CPR. My Boss had already given me a hint that I had to attend this training last year. However, I still hadn't done anything yet.

Until about a month ago, I read "Beyond the Sky and the Earth - A Journey into Bhutan" written by Jamie Zeppa. She was writing about her experience living and teaching in Bhutan. She wrote it many years ago where there were many areas in Bhutan did not have advance access to attend the emergency situation. Well, nowadays the situation may have changed. However, since I have a plan to go there again (including visit more remote area), and I didn't have any knowledge at all about how to apply First Aid in case any emergency and no idea on how to do CPR, how to use AED device, etc, I became so determined that I wanted to attend this course before starting my journey there.

My Boss who attended the course before, told me and my colleague that the course was difficult and not enjoyable. It required participant to work in pair. We had to go for practical, oral and written exam in order to pass and become the approved/licensed First Aider. Listening to her story made me shrunk and even more scared. I really had no knowledge about it before and didn't have confidence at all that I would be able to save someone's life or help them to feel better.

My colleague, who was also interested to attend the training, she had actually wanted to go to this training together with me so that we could practice in pair. However, she couldn't make it since she had to cover another colleague's duty who went on leave during this period, which meant, I had to go to this training alone.

I was glad I found reasons and purposes to attend this training. Even though I had to attend this training alone from my company, I was determined enough that I had a purpose to learn all this. I didn't even bother to think much on what my Boss said. Just made myself believe that if many other colleagues were able to do it and passed the test, why shouldn't I? I embraced this training with positive mindset and all my fear, worry, distress, were all gone :)

First Aiders

It consists of 30 hours or 3.5 days training. I just started yesterday and today was the second day. There were 22 of us with 2 trainers who took turn teaching us. All participants were sent from many different companies in Singapore, consisting of different race, age, gender, and occupation, but all of us were having the same goals and we were all practicing hard, helping hand-in-hand to make sure we did the right thing when applying our skills. We have also shown a great teamwork in the class.

See? You didn't have to arrange a partner yourself from your own working place. In the training place, there were many others who came alone too, and you could work and practicing together with them. Anyway, in real life situation, you would help strangers, someone that you never meet before in your life.

The training is indeed very good. The trainers, although they are quite young, they are passionate about their job. They make the training sessions interesting. I never feel sleepy or get boring at all. Before starting the class, we always do stretching and before going for a break or going back home, we clap loudly and shout our group's name. It is really motivating the way the trainer builds our confidence that we can actually help others when needed.

On day 1, we learned about the responsibilities and duties of first aider. Find the reasons and solutions on why in most cases when anything happens, people tend to be by-standers rather than go and help the victim. We learned about Primary and Secondary Survey - what are the things that we have to do when something happens. How to protect ourselves from getting ourselves contaminated with blood, vomit, etc. What type of incident that we have to attend first if there are many victims around. As first-aider we have to think fast as time is precious in helping someone's lives.

After the break, we were taught on how to do CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation)  and how to use AED (Automated External Defibrillator) device. We practiced CPR using mannequins for many times until my palms pain and many of other participants' knees pain. Hehe...

There were many words that I never knew or heard before such as: VF (Ventricular Fibrillation), which means a condition in which there is uncoordinated contraction of the cardiac muscle of the ventricles in the heart, making them quiver rather than contract properly (from wikipedia), where AED is required; Asystole or flatline, which means is a state of no cardiac electrical activity, where CPR is required, etc.

In the event a person experiences from sudden cardiac arrest, the only effective way of getting survived is by doing the early defibrillation, using the AED device. It has been been found that with every minute that passes without defibrillation, survival rate reduces drastically by 7-10%. In Singapore, from so many cardiac arrest case, due to the late rescue, only 2.7% of the victims managed to survive. Therefore, if you are able to learn this skill, it will be very useful if you can practice it in real life situation.

We also learn methods of lifting the victim (such as: body support, drag method, double-craddle carry), how to do recovery position (in case if victim is unconscious but still breathing), how to handle victim suspected of having spinal injury - move using log roll method,etc.

On day 2, we learned about different type of animal bites, such as: venomous/non-venomous snake, jelly fish, bee's stung, and how to handle the situation. We learned how to handle minor and major injuries, learn how to bandage the wound, how to handle amputation, impaled objects pierced or stabbed into body parts, what to do in case of crush injury, how to cover the chest and abdominal wound, how to do scalp bandage, eye bandage, elevated sling, how to do bandage for fractures and dislocations on many different parts of the bodies (head and jaw, upper and lower arm, upper and lower legs, rib cage, hands or finger,etc.)

We learned the treatment of sprains and strains, different degrees of burn and how to treat it and bandage it, how to face situation where a person is electrocuted, different kind of occupational eye injuries and how to do the eye examination, how to bandage the eye, etc.

Below was the photo taken today during our bandage session :)

We all were having fun!!!

There were lots of videos shown on the slides. Great musics were played too while practicing. The trainers also know how to motivate us. 

There is one and half more days to finish up the training. I am really glad that I had the opportunity to learn all this knowledge and skill because we never know that one day we may need to apply this in real life situation. I am also glad that this training is provided in Singapore where government has given a subsidy too to make it more accessible for others to learn. 

This is what I feel now :)

So, if you have a chance to join this training (even better if your company is able to pay this training course for you), do not hesitate to join. It is a very great chance for you to learn and to save someone's life. That someone's life can be anyone, including our loved ones at home.

For those who are interested to learn and stay in Singapore, you can register the training here.

There is another course provided too to face with Emergency Crisis Management, called "My True Hero". It is a one-day experiential course for first responders and emergency response teams to equip themselves with practical tactics that will better manage real life crisis and emergency under extremely stressful situations. During this hands-on course, participants will undergo back-to-back activities that will give them the tools and skills to manage emergency crisis. Find the details here. 

So, go and find your purpose and equip yourself with the knowledge and skills, It may benefit others :)

A year after last trip in Bhutan

First trip to Bhutan 16-21 Aug 2012

It's exactly a year after last night in Paro, Bhutan, where we gathered and sang 'Tharingsa' near the hotel's staff's cafeteria. Wow!!! It felt just like yesterday. Can you believe it??? A year just passes by like that.

After coming back from Bhutan and Nepal trip, I needed some time to re-adjust my life. I was still amazed on how simple life in Bhutan, how friendly my Bhutanese friends, and how beautiful the culture was preserved. I am glad that I still keep in touch with our tour guide and drivers through Facebook even until now.

It was just few days ago, one of the drivers told me that he missed our group because he never met a group like us, who loved to sing all the time in the bus. Hehe.. If you don't know what he meant, you can click here to see us singing together :)

I still remembered almost 3 weeks after coming back to Singapore, that night, I was sitting in front of my computer. I was finally back to the fact that I was in Singapore and no more in Bhutan or Nepal. I was back to the life in city and no more staying between mountains and river. I was back to metropolitan city where most of people here was looking for material wealth by working very hard, enjoying their life by shopping branded stuffs, eating at restaurants, and traveling abroad few times a year, living in mostly high rise building, etc.

Between that time and now, in just a year, many things have happened in my life, related to Bhutan. I became knowing many Bhutanese, mainly through blog and Facebook. I even met one of them on Kolkata trip during Chinese New Year and Bhutanese Losar this year, which led me to know more Bhutanese students who were studying there. Some of my friends said I must be born in Bhutan in my previous life, that's why I had so deep feeling with the country and the Bhutanese people there hehe... Who knows? :D

Through this blog too, I even had more Bhutanese followers than from other countries. Hehe.. Thank you for following my blog guys! I really appreciate it! Hope to see you in real life soon :)

Holding hands together :)

Smile would always appeared on my face whenever I saw a pair of mum with her toddler walking together with hand connected together. It always reminded me of my dear Baobei's younger time.

I tried to find such photo above of me and my Baobei but I couldn't find. Most of the time what I could see from the photo was me carrying him since he was too small and too cute, also still very light hehe...

I would never find myself boring to look at my dear Baobei photos all over again and again. He was so cute and innocent, the traits that could only be found in children. He used to love taking picture.  He would open his mouth wide and said "Cheese...."

How time flies! He had grown up now and he will turn to eleven years old this December.

In order not to lose the holding hands memories, I asked my hubby to take our photo together haha... Because in few more years to come he might be too shy to hold my hand. Therefore, whenever we go out together, I will hold his hands while I still can :)

Mummy loves you my dear Baobei.... Muach... 

人生短短几十年 – Life is short. Live your life to the fullest

My Mom messaged me two days ago. She was asking me how my health was. Had I gone for my regular check-up? She was recommended me to drink some herbal thing from US, which was said able to make me fully recover from SLE.

I told her I was doing great. My doctor’s appointment was still in months’ time. Nothing to worry so far and I asked her not to buy me that thing since I believed that there was no cure for this disease. It could only be suppressed. That’s all!

After that, suddenly she told me about my Aunt’s niece.

Five years ago she was detected of having Lupus. Not sure what she had, she believed that she had recovered from it and led her to go through a normal life. She is 22 years old now, got married and was 5-month pregnant.

Suddenly, thing happened to her. It attacked her blood vessel in her brain and also attacked her liver.

When my Mom messaged me, she was hospitalized and in coma. The doctor was trying to save her by injecting the stronger medicine, with a consequence that her baby might be gone.

I was taken aback with the news. What was supposed to be good news had in turn changed to sad one. That’s why whenever people asked me, when I would give birth to another baby since I was still so young, I simply told them, “Perhaps in my next life…” I didn’t want to risk another life being just because of my own desire. I was not afraid of me having complications while pregnant, but I didn’t have confidence that I wouldn’t risk another’s being life inside me.

Yesterday night, I told my hubby on how exciting I was with my upcoming trip. I was working on the itinerary on where to go, whom to meet, etc. At first, he was reluctant to let me go that long (3-week holiday). Usually I would only take 2 weeks the longest. More over I would stay with someone who I knew not long time ago.

But I convinced him, “人生短短几十年，不要给自己留下了什么遗憾，想笑就笑，想哭就哭，该爱的时候就去 爱，无谓压抑自己, which means - Life is short. Make sure we live a life with no regret. Want to laugh, laugh heartily. Want to cry, cry your heart out. When it’s time to love, love the person fully. Don’t stress yourself.”

Then I mentioned to him the case above. Since I had SLE, I would never know when it’d come to attack me, where to attack. While I was still alive and in good health, I’d better do whatever I wanted and dreamed of.

He was nodding his head sadly and tried his best to smile to cheer me up, even supported me to live my life happily while I can. Thank you Laogong!!!

This morning, my Mom messaged us saying that last night my Aunt’s niece had passed away.

Made by the late's cousin

I was deeply sorry to hear about the sad news and felt very sad. Life is so fragile. Such a young woman with a 5-month baby inside her stomach, had to go together viciously out from this world. Hope she and her baby would be born in a better and happier world than this one.

Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukhitatta – Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu and remember人生短短几十年 – Life is short. Live your life to the fullest.

In the Darkness

With an awful feeling

 I cycled alone in a lonely night   

The road led me to sudden darkness 

Only the crescent moonlight 

And opposite lights dimly bright   

The wind blew scattering my untied hair 

It was quiet, 

and dark.   

I bewildered   

Panic stricken me 

Was I the only soul here?   

I turned my head left and right 

Only darkness and trees’ shadow 

With a small dim light in front of my bike   

All at once, 

my mind marveled, 

“Were there other souls waiting in front of me and trying to hurt me?” 

Reminded me of the old uncle found murdered and robbed not long time ago 

I took that thinking swiftly out from my mind   

Be positive… be positive… 

I uttered to myself   

In a while, 

my mind alerted me again… 

It’s seventh month, 

a ghost month… 

I recalled the article I read about massacre in 1942 

Happened nearby the area   

Suddenly 

I felt chill and creepy 

It was wind sound and silent 

Cold sweat ran down my head   

I cycled faster 

Trying hard to ignore my fear 

I put the earpiece back to my ears 

Listening to the beautiful Buddhist’s chant 

Om… mani padme hum… 

Om... mani padme hum...

As I cycled further 

I looked up into the sky 

Trailed the moonlight once again 

Where I found my peace and serenity back 

I started smiling again, 

and let bygones be bygones. 

祝你七夕节快乐!!! Happy Chinese Valentine's Day!!!

Google.com 13th August 2013

When you typed www.google.com today, did your page come out as per above screen shoot? That's what appeared in my mobile.

My Chinese colleague told me that today is their so-called Valentine's Day in China. In Lunar calendar today is the seventh day of seventh month (7月7日) or Double Seventh . There was a legend behind it that you can find in this link.

Here we don't celebrate it as Valentine's Day.  We follow the Western's Valentine's Day which falls on 14th February. But my colleague teased this Chinese guy colleague to buy us chocolates, which he really did!!! Hahaha.... Alamak... Paiseh sia..... :P

I asked him if tonight I go to Chinatown area, do you think I will meet girls with flowers? He said, yes, why not??? Hmm... Maybe I should go and take a look since Chinatown is only one station away from my working place. Anyway, no one dates me tonight though :) Like usual, I feel just like single in this married life, a single with a son Hahaha.... Lolx!!!

Below is our chocolates (for 3 of us) ;) Thank you MS!!!

Valentine's Day present :)

Long lost friend

Yesterday night before sleeping I grabbed my phone and browsed on Facebook. I went to see friend request area. There were couple of friends requests that people requested me to add as his or her friend. Usually when people requested it, if I knew them, I would immediately add them as friend but if the name sounds stranger and no photo to be recognized, I would press 'later'. Then their names would appear in this place. I don't have a habit to just add anyone to be my friend in Facebook. Not necessarily I met the person before but at least I know who they were.

While looking at the list, I deleted those that I didn't know at all. Some was company that tried to promote their product and services. Then I saw another stranger's name. Hmmm... Did I know her?? How did she know me?? Next, I took a look if there were any photos and there were. Eh, familiar la this face... Then I browsed more photos and realized that I knew her!!! I added her immediately.

After a while I thought of writing a message to her asking how she has been. Unexpectedly, she was online. I wrote her a message and we chatted for a while.

She was my junior, 2 years below me during Senior High School's time, who was also my classmate's younger sister. But we got close not because of that.  We went to same temple, listening to Buddha Dhamma almost every Sunday. What made us closer was that we were in the same group of choir there and performed together in few occasions.

Because of this choir activity I managed to know so many friends and we got close easily as we attended other activities together. We practised singing almost every week. Only since I left to Beijing I had to separate with them including her. That was the last time I saw her ba!

Occasionally I would meet other choir friend and she would update me some news. From this friend I found out that she was writing and publishing a story book. She used other name as the author's name so only close people would know that she was the real writer. I had and read her book as given by my friend.

Her book :)

Recently I heard bad news happened to her. I was so sorry and sad to hear the news but at that time I didn't have her contact. That's why yesterday I was so happy and exciting to see her again on Facebook.

Despite what happened, I was pretty sure she would be strong enough to face the impermanence and sudden loss of her loved one. From her sound last night, from her photos and her posts in Facebook, I could tell that she has accepted of what happened and diverted her attention to more other useful things like spreading Dhamma that she has learned. Keep it up, Ok?

In our conversation, she said that just a night ago or that morning she was thinking about me. I said, how come?? Seemed like there were electric current, a sign that both of us would encounter each other. She said, she suddenly remembered that both of us were taking train from Jakarta to Bandung to go for the Vipassana Graha temple's opening. Just two of us. We were so brave at that time. We sat at the staircase where not many people sitting there so we thought we were at exclusive seating area Hahaha....

I was like... thinking hard and asked her back, 'Did we?? How come I couldn't remember that?? Did you remember how we went back?' She replied, 'Yes, we did. But I couldn't remember how we went back.' Hahaha... Then we laughed together.

It's good to hear her laughing. She also said that she just went to Singapore in June. Too bad we were too late to find each other.

We stopped our conversation as it's late and I needed to sleep but agreed to chat more next time.

Wow!!! It's a wonderful feeling being able to find my long lost friend. I hope we would have good karma to meet in person one day.

It's raining and cool morning. It soothes my gloomy mood again. Time to work now. Have a great day everyone!! Remember life is short, live your life to the fullest, always!!!

"If you get there before I do" -Collin Raye

After worked I went out for a while to post a mail to my friend. As I passed by the bridge I heard a familiar song on my ears.  I decided to stand and hear more....

I tried to recall the song but I couldn't. I also tried to recall the lyrics even asked my colleague if she knew by humming the melodies for her to hear. She ended up laughing at me. Hehe...

I didn't give up and finally found the lyrics below:

I read a note my grandma wrote back in 1923

Grandpa kept it in his coat and he showed it once to me

He said, "Boy, you might not understand but a long, long time ago

Grandma’s daddy didn’t like me none but I loved your grandma so"

We had this crazy plan to meet 

and run away together

Get married in the first town we came to and live forever

But nailed to the tree where we were supposed to meet instead

I found this letter 

and this is what it said

If you get there before I do, 

don't give up on me

I’ll meet you when my chores are through

I don’t know how long I’ll be 

but I’m not gonna let you down

Darling, wait and see

And between now and then ‘til I see you again

I'll be loving you, love, me

I read those words just hours before my grandma passed away

In the doorway of a church 

where me and grandpa stopped to pray

I know I’d never seen him cry in all my 15 years

But as he said these words to her, 

his eyes filled up with tears

If you get there before I do, 

don't give up on me

I’ll meet you when my chores are through

I don’t know how long I’ll be 

but I’m not gonna let you down

Darling, wait and see

And between now and then ‘til I see you again

I’ll be loving you, love, me

Between now and then ‘til I see you again

I’ll be loving you, love, me

I wished I would have plenty of time that evening to keep standing there and listening to his songs. The music suited my gloomy moods and nice weather, some wind and not much of sunlight.

I walked out after this song. But next time if I saw him again, I would drop a few dollar note and let him sing more. I had already planned to stand behind the walls where he sang and listened to his songs quietly or otherwise I would sit next to the river and let my mind wander....

Punggol Point Park discovery :)

View of Sunset Bridge in a beautiful evening sky :)

This evening, my dear son and I went out cycling. He had been pestering and reminding me to cycle since morning. His father had fixed his bicycle so there was no more other reason not to cycle.

At 5.30 pm we went out from the house. The weather was cooling and the sun seemed to hide above the clouds, nowhere to be seen. We went to the sunrise bridge direction. Instead of take a U-turn and go to the sunset bridge direction right away, I chose to change our itinerary. We turned left and followed the road that was not built on asphalt yet. The pavement was still on red soil with small stones.

I went through that direction many months ago during night time. It was too dark and too risky as I didn't know where it led me to. Therefore, I returned back. This time, since the sky was still so bright and many people went there, I finally decided to continue cycling into that direction. Lucky there was no rain today so it was still manageable for us to cycle across it. Otherwise the red soil would be too wet and inconvenient to pass by.

Trees were on left side and man-made river was on the right side. The opposite of the river was a small island called Pulau Serangoon. The view was just wonderful. We followed the pavement all the way until I saw a familiar view. Felt like I'd been there before. True enough. It led us to Punggol Point Park, where Punggol Jetty was located. I just realized that we were actually went to north direction (see the map in previous blog post - Get myself lost!!!). Hahaha... I finally found the way!!! :D

View from Punggol Jetty

From here we could hear the sea waves sound. There were people playing with the sand and the stone. The sand area wasn't so big but it was good enough. Now I don't have to go all the way to East Coast, Pasir Ris, or Sentosa Island just to listen to the sea waves or feel the sands on my feet. I could just cycle here in evening and soak myself into the beauty of the natures :)

We stopped there for a while. After that, we continued cycling to the other direction. We didn't go back to where we were from. We just continued our way. Not far from the jetty, we passed by a serene and peaceful area. It was so quiet, no more sea waves sound, and yet beautiful. I saw few people fishing there. Next time I know where to go when I want to have my 'own' time, to think and daydream. It was really a great place!!!

Beautiful sky near Marina Country Club

The road led us to Marina Country Club. We had to cross the road before it took us to the Sunset Bridge. My son and I went there. That was almost the sunset time, but no visible sun was seen. We were standing there on the bridge, looking around and spotted beautiful skies above us showing different patches, shapes and shadows of the clouds. It was mesmerizing. Even my son enjoyed it. He was loving it!!! (I took the very first picture above to share with you on how wonderful the sky was!)

Sunset view with no sun to be found :)

Before leaving I took the below picture. Again, I felt so lucky to stay nearby this area. At least I was still so near with the natures that used to be so faraway to reach. I was glad of today's discovery. Now I'd been through the way that the Park Connector created from middle to South and from middle to North. In the future, I won't get myself get lost and I can choose where to go depending on my mood and time availability :)

Thank you, thank you, and thank you SB for this beautiful encounter. I feel very blessed and grateful with everything!!!

View of Punggol Waterway Park

A big round journey to satisfy my curiosity

Today after work I rushed myself back home. I had the appetite to conquer and see where the road connected to after the view of petrol kiosk. Hahaha... I was curious wanting to find out.

Same like yesterday. Once reached home I changed my gears, washed my face, had a quick dinner and took my bicycle out.

This time I felt better, more familiar with the place but only up to the junction. After that, I couldn't find the Buangkok Park Connector. The road that I followed was pedestrian road along the main road. I used my intuition to find the direction. So, beside me were buses, cars, motorcycles, bus stop, people walking by, and so on.

I think they haven't built the PC yet. Or maybe they had, but I couldn't find??? But I really couldn't see the connection between Buangkok and Punggol Park.

I chose the road heading to Hougang, a place where I used to stay. I was quite familiar with the area, only that I didn't really know how to get to Punggol Park from there.

I remembered my friend suggesting me to use the GPS and so I did. (Actually yesterday I wanted to use the GPS from my handphone but I couldn't find it. Haha... The hp was bought not long ago so I still hadn't gotten my self familiar with the function - I knew well how to browse Internet, use Facebook, chat in Facebook and using Skype though :P)

View after sunset :)

Anyway, I finally found my way back to Punggol Park. From there I made one big round over the pond and went back to Punggol Waterway and headed back home.  It took me almost 1.5 hours for this trip. Such a good exercise!!! I'm loving it!!!

Taken from today's paper

Now I know why exercise is always recommended by the doctor. It's good for our physic and mental. The above article supported my opinion. Luckily many Singaporean concerns about their health, although not all.  I could see more young people doing exercise in the evening time. Keep it up Singapore!!! :)

To be honest, before moving to this new house last year, I seldom did the exercise.  I only exercised when I joined the yearly event of OCBC cycling, Run For Hope, and that's all! Twice a year! Hahaha... Other than that, I usually lazed around after dinner, watching TV on my bed before getting sleep, or otherwise I would sit in front of computer for hours.

Only since I moved house, I started cycling. Amazingly this bike had been my good companion and made me happy over and over again. I said 'I love you' to my bike and also 'thank you' to my friend who sold her bike to me each time I was riding it.  She sold it to me because she wanted to buy a much better folding bike. Thank you ET!!!

While cycling my mind was wondering here and there. That was the best part of the exercising. Anything could just appear on my mind. Be it daydreaming of something that I wish to happen, recalled old bitter and sweet memories, thinking of present time's challenge, and many more. All what happened on daytime has long gone.  Hehe... So refreshing!!!

Hope I can always do this regularly. Yeah, I know my legs are getting bigger and bigger (betis tukang becak :P), but I'm happy the way I am la. It's not good-looking but there were many stories behind it hehe... :D

Btw just a reminder, tomorrow will be the starting day of Ghost month. If you are in Singapore, you will see Chinese people will burn the candles, joystick and death notes at pedestrian road to please the flying souls or Ghosts that were believed being freed during this Ghost month. People are advised to go home early too this month to prevent the unlucky things happened. Pregnant ladies, especially, better don't go out at night unless necessary. This is what Chinese believe.

The day after tomorrow we will be having long weekend here in Singapore. Yeahhhhh!!!! On 8th Aug, Muslim will celebrate Hari Raya Puasa. After one month fasting, no water, no food from morning until evening time, they finally celebrate it.

On 9th August, it's Singapore 48th National Day.  Usually every year at this time I would fly out of Singapore. But this year I am planning for a long holiday some where next month and other than I don't have any more leave balance, I also have to save money for my trip. Hehe...

Oklah, good night to all of you and have a sweet dream!!! :)

Get myself lost!!!

I thought after cycling for some time, I knew the road better. Hahaha.... I was wrong!!!

This morning my period came. I had a terrible stomach cramp in the afternoon during the meeting and had a headache afterwards. Since I came back home early where the sky was all still bright, I decided to find a way to forget all my pain and do the thing I love, which was cycling.  

Reaching home, I had a quick dinner and then took my bicycle out. It was cloudy and the sun was no where to be seen. The sunset time had over too. But I didn't care. I just wanted to loosen myself. Hope that my headache would have gone after cycling. 

View from the Sunset Bridge

I chose the same route as yesterday, which was to the Sunset bridge. As expected, no sun was found. It had been swallowed up by the sea again. When riding down from the bridge, I noticed that there was a road that leading to somewhere, somewhere I'd never been before. I saw few people heading into that direction. 

After sunset - love the reddish sky :)

Since I had no plan, I followed that road. The road was well built with lights turned on at the side. Only that the road level was too low so there were many areas where the water was flowing down to River. When I passed the area, the water would splashed on my legs and back part of my clothes. 

The road led me to Sengkang Riverside, as the direction's name was painted on top of the road. It was quite a long road. But it seemed that many people know the road well.  I noticed that on this road, more young people did the exercise, mainly running and to tell you, they were really running!!! Unlike in the morning time, I saw more older people running (more walking actually)  and exercising. Hehehe... So that was one of the differences between young and older people :D

Sengkang Stadium

I kept following the road and let myself getting lost.  I had no idea where I was. I passed through the stadium but I'd never seen it before until the road was cut at the junction where I could see the petrol kiosk nearby. Oh... I was lost! So I decided to turn back and followed the road back from where I came from. 

I only knew that I was riding along the river. At the other side of the river I could see many houses (landed property), that only riches could afford to buy in Singapore. While riding it slowly, I took a look and imagined how it felt like to stay in there. Hahaha... I mean, this type of houses are common in Malaysia and Indonesia.  But to stay at the house where the river is at the back of your house, that what made me wondered how nice it would be.  Hehe... 

It was great experience. It took me an hour plus for the whole journey. Once reached home, I took a bath and made my self fresh again. Too bad the headache was still around but I could de-stress for a while. There were lots of birds flying around and more small flies flying around too. I had to keep my mouth shut while riding to ensure I didn't eat any of it haha.... 

Sunset route: Punggol Waterway Park - Sengkang Riverside Park - Junction of Buangkok PC
Sunrise route: Punggol Waterway Park - Lorong Halus Wetland - Punggol Park

Next time I will go there again and perhaps exploring the other areas as well. Just found the map in Internet and it connected many places. Wow!!! One day I should try to go one whole round but hope will find a company so I won't get lost alone :P

Beautiful Sunset at Punggol Waterway :)

 "The sun goes down, the stars come out,
and all that counts is here and now,
my universe will never be the same,
I'm glad you came."

This weekend I spent most of my day at home. I finally finished reading the trilogy of Fifty Shades. Each book contains about 500+ pages but the story was actually not that complicated, but full of details. Hehehe... What kind of details??? Read and find it out yourself!!! :D I did some housework too.

Cute picture under the bridge

This evening, I finally went for cycling again!! I haven't recovered fully despite having enough sleep but I hope I can get well soon. I supposed to cycle with my son, but there was problem with his bicycle. Therefore, I went alone.

Punggol Waterway

Same place, Punggol Waterway. But this time I went to see sunset. While waiting, I took some pictures in different area then back to the bridge where I could enjoy the whole sunset process. I was enjoying it, looking at the sun swallowed slowly by the sea. Oh, so wonderful feeling!!! I hope I can see it over and over again!!!

Sunset @Punggol Waterway

I enjoyed cycling too!!! Oh my... I realized that I love it so much! I felt like flying. My heavy head was slowly becoming lighter. All the content was slowly released, gone with the wind. The feeling was so good and I felt so much joy and full of freedom. I hope tomorrow's weather is good so I can cycle again!!! Meanwhile, I posted some photos here. Hope you enjoy!!! :) 

In the mood of TGIF :)

OH, what a day to start with!!! In the middle of the night, after having a deep sweet sleep (helped by a glass of red wine :D), I was awaken by the sound of the rain. It wasn’t a heavy rain, but quite a pour.

The weather was so cooling. I went for a little break in the toilet while listening to the hum of the rain through the small toilet’s window. Oh, I loved it so much! After that, I tried to get back to my dreamland, and only 1.5 hours later I managed to sleep. Hehe…

Since last month, almost every morning the soil has been wet by the juice from the sky. I was unable to go for my ritual cycling session, rest alone to wake up early at 5am. Hahaha…. The laziness has come over me now. But I could feel the benefit of exercising for an hour every morning. I was having a great health during that period.

Only lately (it’s been two weeks now), that I still haven’t recovered fully. Started with sore throat, then flu, and now cough. It came one by one, at least one at a time. I’ve been drinking honey 3 cups a day since that day I bought and it’s almost finished now. It did great help for my sore throat, but not completely healed my cough.

I’d stopped taking coffee for a week and just now I was craving to get one. After so long, it tasted so good!!! Hehehe… I love our canteen’s coffee. It’s brewed by the coffee machine, and using a good quality of coffee bean :D Added little bit of milk and sugar, and voila!!!

To add my happiness, there were 2 persons calling me '美女' - read: mei nu - in English means 'beautiful lady' this morning. Hahahahaha.... Usually someone uses this words to greet a beautiful lady when they didn't know what your name was.

One of them was greeted by our contractor's staff. At first he heard from other staff that I'm married with two kids. When he was confirmed with me if it's true, I told him, 'No lah.. Who was the fellow who spoiled my market ah??' Hahahaha... Then he immediately said, 'I also thought it wasn't true. You really look like a single woman.' After that I didn't confirm his own statement so he really thought I was single.  Hahaha... Peace!! :D But after a while he got to know I was married with one son and still he called me 美女 every time he saw me and it made my day, really!!! :D

It’s Friday again! I feel over the moon when Friday comes. Why not every day is Friday??? Hehe… But it wasn’t only me who is happy that today is Friday! I could see lots of other friends were exciting too and posted their excitement through their FB posts.

To represent my feeling, listen to the song below or click the following link

Have a great Friday everyone!!! Enjoy your weekend with your loved ones everywhere around the world!!! :)