My First Audio Book - "Friend Request" by Laura Marshall

Friend Request by Laura Marshall

Well, I found out about this book title from somewhere (I forgot where I saw it before). Had been searching it tremendously from the NLB (National Library Board) Apps - from e-book, audiobook, to the physical book from different libraries across Singapore, and it was ALL unfortunately, unavailable. I even thought of buying it, so that after finished reading it, I could pass it on to someone else. However, it was even not available at the bookstore! It was all sold out!!! Oh my... how could that be???

Sigh... I had no choice but to click the "Reserve" button on the NLB Apps. I had to pay S$1.55 for reservation fee as I could no longer wait and let my mind lingering around, made me feeling really uneasy of not getting it on hand. I didn't know what made me craving for it though until I had to reserve it (which I tried to avoid in any case). Perhaps, I was tired of living my own life and wanted to escape from it and live into someone else world for a little while.

Reading quote (Pic source: Google.com)

One day after I successfully reserved the book online, I clicked the book title under the search area again, just for fun. And guess what??? One audiobook for this title was available!!! 

Oh my!!! But... audiobook??? I was hesitating for a while. I had never tried the audiobook in my life before. I was wondering if I should borrow it.

"There is always a first time, never try, never know!!!" 

That was kind of my principle in life so I decided to borrow and try it once.

"Let me experience how to read the audio book," I said it to myself.

Without waiting any longer, I clicked the "Borrow" button, and download it to the OverDrive Apps on my phone.

Immediately, I put the earpiece on both ears and started listening it.

First Audio Book Experience - Friend Request by Laura Marshall :)

Well, it felt like someone was reading a bedtime story for me. A woman read the content of this book. Sometimes she had to mimic the man's voice or kid's voice to let the reader know who was saying what (conversation by different persons). The reader read according to the punctuation marks the writer put, and with emotions. You could feel it with the different high and low tones, fast and slow speed, and with some pause or breath in between.

The story was started with the Facebook's friend request by Maria Weston - a schoolmate who had been missing over twenty-five years ago - to Louise Williams, who had kept a terrible secret related to her missing. Maria was last seen the night of a school leavers' party and people believed her to be dead. With the school reunion arranged, Louise was forced to discover the truth about what really happened.

Despite the story supposed to be heart-stopping and thrilling, all the reader's efforts to make the story interesting, was kinda fail as I was still easily feeling sleepy when listening to it. Hahahaha... And I fell asleep for many many times!!! Lol!!! Perhaps this would be the best remedy if one day I could not fall asleep! Hahahahaha...... Kidding :P 

Sleepy face zzz... (Pic source: Google.com)

Well, I think that was also because I was having my period. It usually made me exhausted and tired without any reason though. It was in fact, it was good to listen the audiobook in such situation, as what I needed to do was to lie down on bed and to close my eyes. I did not have to hold onto the book, fold my arms, and flip the page. I did not have to tire my eyes from the glare lighting behind me too or from the phone (in case of reading e-book).

Overall, I enjoyed it so much!!! Such a great experience!!! And by the time I had finished reading it, I received an email from NLB stating that the book that I reserved was available for collection :D I had no choice but to go down to the library I chose, paid the money, and collected the book that I had finished reading ^^"

SG50 Golden Jubilee Weekend - ArtScience Museum and Singapore Botanic Garden - Happy 50th Birthday Singapore!!! :)

Keep Calm and Happy SG50 :)

Let me pause from my Bhutan memoir for a while :) It's a time to celebrate SG50 now!!! Yes, it's happening now!! Yesterday it was declared an additional holiday to make this weekend a very long holiday so that everyone would have a chance to celebrate the nation 50th Independence Day!!! Well, this made many others traveling overseas though instead of celebrating it in the country. Nevertheless, I had planned earlier to spend these precious time here, in Singapore, my home for almost 10 years!!! :)

Since this year was a special year to celebrate, there were many promotions offered especially to Singaporeans and Permanent Residents during this Jubilee weekend (7 to 10 September 2015). such as: free entry to various museums (incl ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands), heritage galleries, Science Centre Singapore (SCS), few attractions at Sentosa Island,, free entry to ActiveSG swimming pools and gyms islandwide, and so on. Click here for more details.

Queue for SG50 ArtScience Museum

My friend asked me if I wanted to join her and her friends to visit ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands. You know, it's usually expensive to visit such places even for us, Singaporean :D  So, since it's free, why not?? Therefore, yesterday, after my friend queued for almost 3 hours (including under the rain), we finally entered the museum.

Singapore Stories @Artscience Museum - Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

We went up to Level 2 first to visit the Singapore Stories where it exhibited the footage from newspaper many years ago about how Singapore developed to what it was now - stories of its origin, adversity, failure, and triumph.

The Deep @Artscience Museum - Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

We moved to B2 to see the largest collection of over 40 abyssal creatures displayed for the first time in Southeast Asia.

Inside, they exhibited the life under the sea in different depth as per these zones:
- 150m to 600m - The Twilight of the Ocean
- 600m to 1000m - The Appearance of Color
- Beneath 1000m - Dive into the Extreme
- The Abyssal Plain - The Bottom of the Sea

Dreamworks Animation @Artscience Museum - Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

We moved on to the next exhibition - Dreamworks Animation. It offered an insightful look into the processes behind the on-screen art magic, such as; sketching/drawing, voice recording, and so on. It amazed me sometimes how creative human being could be!!!

Shrek posters sold at Artscience Museum Store - Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Those were the three main exhibitions available for the day. We were all happy that we could visit it all - and of course, when it's free :P

Singapore Botanic Garden SG50 Jubilee Weekend - 8 August 2015

Other than that, click here to check What's ON to occupy your long weekend with many activities available. Like today, we went for a picnic at Singapore Botanic Garden where there were few musical performance available at the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage. It was super crowded!!! But it was greatly enjoyable!!! :)

Singapore Lyric Opera @Botanic Garden SG50 Jubilee Weekend 

The first performance after I arrived was performed by Singapore Lyric Opera at 5.25 pm. There were 4 singers who sang beautifully with the musical troop playing at the background. Followed by The Sam Willows live music and live feed performance by Brass Nation Bandstand at 7.45 pm. If you want to know the schedule for tomorrow (9th August 2015) click here.

We had whole lot fun together!!! SG50 Jubilee Weekend @Singapore Botanic Garden :)

My Indonesian friends had planned the picnic ever since before I came back from Bhutan. They prepared some delicious food (even our Indonesian siomay), salad, sandwich, fruits, etc. They even came as early as 3 pm just to chop the place (to get the very best view) of the performance.

Watching live feed performance by Brass Nation @Singapore Botanic Garden

We stayed until the last live feed performance by Brass Nation. We sat or lie down comfortably on our mats, didn't feel like going back home. Home song by Kit Chan was played few times there. No matter how many times it was played, we didn't get bored. The chorus reminded us truly, where our home was...

This is home, truly...

where I know I must be

Where my dreams wait for me, 

where the river always flow...

This is home, surely...

as my senses tell me

This is where I won't be alone,

for this is where I know it's home...

Happy 50th Birthday Singapore!!! 

PS: My personal message ---

"Happy 50th National Day Singapore!!! I am not sure what my future will be but I know your future will be great. Although you are just a small little red dot on the world map, but you have grown gloriously and prosperously! Hope I can get some of your prosperity so that I can help more to those who are in needs, more than myself. Thank you for giving me a chance to become a part of your country! Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!! Not forgetting to thank all my dear friends here who arranged today's picnic and let me having so much fun listening to the musical performance. Thank you gals, not only for the food and fun time, but also for the friendship that you offered to me all this while! Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!! :)" 

Splendid time together - Steamboat, gals night out and TNP Big Walk 2014!!!

Ingredients for Steamboat :)

Whole afternoon our land was blessed with a falling rain. What a perfect time to have a steamboat!!! :) Just nice we had planned to celebrate the upcoming one of my besties' Birthday at her house. We met up in evening time at the nearest supermarket to buy the above ingredients. By the time we reached her house, we were all hungry and therefore, prepared our dinner immediately!!!

Steamboat Feast - ET Birthday :)

Dadadada.......

This was how our steamboat looking like!!! Sliced meats, canned meat, sausages, prawn balls, home mixed pork meat balls, cheese tofu, tofu, assorted mushroom and vegetables, with mixture of sesame and scallions dip and chilli sauces. We prepared two different types of soup - chicken stock and Tom Yam flavor. Hmm.... what a hot and delicious food under the perfect weather!!!

Three of us used to work at the same place but two of them were there at different time. I've known PY for more than 10 years now and ET slightly less than that. Even though they had moved to many different companies to work at, we still maintained this friendship and some events made both of them to become closer. I was like a bridge to both of their friendships.

Perhaps, it was fate ba! A beautiful fate that made me feeling so lucky knowing them. With them, I could trust and share my secret (also they could trust me with their secrets). We offered comforts at times when we needed the most - office matters, relationship broke down, and so on. We remained loyal to each other and kept our secrets from leaking out to other party. It was because we respected each other's privacy and preferences in life.

During those longest years, we sometimes fought and kept quiet to each other. However, it didn't take long. Those friendships feeling were just there. We could just get back together as if nothing was ever happened. We indeed forgave and forgot those small little things :)

As we grew up and became more mature, we had become a much more understanding person and treasure our friendships more. Our relationship was not always serious too! We laughed, joked, and teased each other with no tears coming out.

We had shared countless events through our passing life such as: birthdays, Christmas celebration; attended many events like Run For Hope, OCBC Cycling, and today's The NewPaper Big Walk; met up on regular basis for simple things like dinner, lunch, karaoke session, and so on. And the best thing was they always allowed me bringing my dear son to join on our activities so that I could still spend my precious times together with him.

Best Friends Forever - Cheers!!! :)

Thank you my dear friends for the friendship you offered! For your understanding, love, care, concern, help, supports, and many priceless gifts in life! I really enjoyed our time together last night. Dinner, drink session, cutting Birthday cake, etc. As if we were back to teenager's time, PY, me and my son were sleeping over at ET's house and slept together in ET's room. We chit chatted until 2.15am before finally fell asleep.

At 5.10am we had to wake up as we were joining our first The New Paper (TNP) Big Walk together. We reached the starting point by 6.35am at Nicoll Highway MRT and by 7am we started to walk 5 km journey ahead. We had great times together surrounded with many beautiful sceneries and people around us. Below, please enjoy the photos taken during the day!!!

The New Paper Big Walk 2014 - Singapore

Good morning Singapore!!! Superb weather!!! - The New Paper Big Walk 2014

Beautiful Sunday morning over Singapore Flyer - TNP Big Walk 2014

Singapore city center - TNP Big Walk 2014

View over The Float @Marina Bay and Helix Bridge - TNP Big Walk 2014

Another great time together!!! - The New Paper Big Walk 2014

Our reflection from ET shades - The New Paper Big Walk 2014

So, hope all of you have a great weekend too with your loved ones! December is coming very soon! The last month of the year, another busy month full of gatherings and celebrations!!! Live your life to the fullest and be grateful always guys! Make your 2014 memorable as always!!! Have fun!!! :)

Love and Respect; Respect and Love

Every morning after reaching my office, I have a habit of making a nice cup of coffee plus two slices of bread with butter and jam in between - sometimes toasted - sitting down comfortably on my office chair with computer turned on, reading the local newspapers online. It’s a refresher for my brain to keep myself update with things that going on currently within and outside the country. That’s why I always make an effort to reach office early.

McDonald’s Bubbly World Series 2014

You know, things such as the upcoming McDonald’s Bubbly World Series collector’s set that available online since yesterday, suddenly after about 75 minutes, it had to be suspended due to the unexpected overwhelming responses from its fanatical supporter plus those who wanted to make a quick buck from selling it in ebay.sg with a bid as high as the expected of S$160-$200 per set, which was sold at original price of S$80 per set. Phuffff….. With that amount of money, it can save people at the other side of the world who were dying from hunger and thirst. But don’t be surprised huh, there will still people who are willing to pay that price for that stuff.

Once in a while morning breakfast treat :)

There was a gentle warning on how unhealthy our delicious, one of my favorite, the local Char Kway Teow was, with 745 calories per plate, higher than the 500-calorie meals advocated by the Health Promotion Board. Well, who really cares about it anyway! It wasn’t like we ate it every day. Oh my, my other favorite food, like laksa and prata were on the list too!!! Lolx! For me, as long as we ate it in moderation and not that frequent, it would still acceptable plus some exercise done at least twice a week. Most importantly, that unhealthy food could fill my face full of grin and happiness hehehe… :)

I am not much interested with economy, political and sport news though. I often read it as brief as possible and move on to other area. Oh, by the way, Tian Tian Hainanese chicken rice, the stall that I brought Karma and Tashi, Sithar and Palden to eat long time ago, was chosen as the “Best Hawker” by AsiaOne readers at the AsiaOne People’s Choice Awards 2014. Hmm.. After all, the longtime queue was all worth it! ^^

But there was one thing that intrigued me to write this post today. I would love to post the quote written by the famous Malaysia-born shoemaker, Jimmy Choo. He said, “Knowing how to respect people, that’s what is very important… If you love each other, you will be successful. It may not make a lot of money, but it will make a lot of love, and that’s very important to the world, to society.”

Love and Respect

Respect and love are two interconnected thing that human ought to do. These are two beautiful things that if people do it to each other, it will make the world a better place to live in. We can start by respecting and loving ourselves, such as: our own body and mind.

We give our body a nice bath, wash our face with fragrant facial soap, give our hair a nice and tidy cut, shave our moustache neatly, spread some face cream to fight the harsh and dry weather, do facial once a month, pamper ourselves with full-body massage, insert nutritious food and drink inside our stomach, etc.

We also fill our mind with positivity and get rid the negativity that may appear at any time. Do only good things and be good. Develop love and compassion within ourselves. Give our own self a nice and wide smile every morning once we wake up. Remind ourselves to be grateful for another new day that comes.

Only after we fill ourselves with respect and love, we then can feel the fullness of positive energy within us and it’s the time when we can give and spread it to others. Give them our time, give them our listening ear, give them our friendship, give them our love, compassion, patience, support, and so on.

Respect and Love

Actually, I love my working place’s one of its values that stated: “Respect: We treat people the way how we would like to be treated. We respect and embrace diversity in thoughts, beliefs and culture.” And this was how I always remind my dear son about respecting others, which is “Treat people the way you want to be treated,” and he would then realize how important it is to treat others with respect.

L O V E

And as for love, to be able to be loved, you must love and respect yourself as much as you do others. By understanding the effects of loving yourself will only enhance your ability to love others.

You may then ask, “How do we know if we respect and love other people enough?” This can only be felt by the way they respect and love you :) And if you want to be respected and loved by others, you have to respect and love them too. It is ultimately the key to have a great relationship with families and friends.

“True respect for another comes from self-respect. True love for another comes from self-love. True forgiveness for another comes from self-forgiveness.” – Rhonda Byrne from The Magic.

i Light Marina Bay Festival and Picnic Part 2 - What a wonderful weekend! :)

The Grand Budapest Hotel

It was a lovely Saturday afternoon. I'd planned to watch the above movie together with my colleague. It's been a while since I went to watch a movie in a cinema. The ticket price had been exorbitant high nowadays. On weekend it costed S$12.50 per ticket plus S$1.50 booking fee that we had to pay when we booked the ticket online. Nevertheless, I would still be going as I read in the newspaper that the above movie was worth it to watch. I had no idea what the movie was all about, but I guessed it must be related to the hotel and I was curious about it. My colleague had no idea as well and just followed my judgement on why I chose to watch that movie.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was a movie directed by Wes Anderson and inspired by the writing of Stefan Zweig. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Mathieu Amalric, F.Murray Abraham, Bob Balaban, Lea Seydoux and Saoirse Ronan. You may want to read more about the movie here. But overall, the movie was about the friendship between a concierge (Monsieur Gustave) and his protege (Zero Moustafa) where the hotel was located in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka, a European Alpine State. It was a 100-minute movie and I enjoyed watching their conversation, the old hotel background, the love and hate that was shown on it :)

Picnic outside The Shoppes :)

Once finished, both of us went down to buy takeaway food. We passed by the Burger King outlet and found out their new burger, called BK Charcoal Black. We were quite curious with the taste and decided to buy one set meal, the Tendercrisp Chicken. We also bought a packet of Nasi Lemak, a local Malay dish, rice cooked using coconut milk and pandan leaf, added with delicious fried chicken wing, fried peanut and ikan bilis, fried egg, and spicy sambal. Hmmm..... nyummy! To ensure we would have enough energy to walk for tonight, we bought a medium size Kkul dak (Korean honey fried chicken plus some Korean rice cake and hash brown topped with mustard and cheese powder). Slurrrppp..... (Are you drooling now?? Hehehe...) We took MRT to Bayfront station and walked to outside The Shoppes again, right where I had my picnic just a week ago. It was still quite early, around 6.30 pm when we reached. The sky was still shining bright but it wasn't hot. We sat down and started diggin' into our takeaway food. Bon Appetit!!! :)

PasarBella and Friends Go To Town @Marina Bay Sands

There was PasarBella and Friends Go To Town" (a farmer's market - originally located at 200 Turf Club Road in Bukit Timath) outside The Shoppes. At the Bukit Timah, it was a permanent market that opened daily from 9.30 am to 7 pm (some stalls opens until 10pm). You could dine in a family, lifestyle restaurants back in the rustic interiors. There you could also experience a multi-sensory grocery shopping at the Grandstand. The quaint stalls, exotic aromas and festivities could also be found outside The Shoppes this weekend. There was a magician and live band music that beautified the had-already-been beautiful places with a perfect weather. In fact, it had been there too last week. But it was too crowded until I didn't notice its existence. Hahaha...

Beautiful Sunset in Singapore city :)

We ate until very full and decided to have a walk. Just nice, the sun started to set and I managed to capture the above image, seconds before it was really gone behind those skyscrapers. We walked to Garden by the Bay this time through the bridge that linked The Shoppes to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, and all the way up to the garden itself.

Supertree Grove at Garden by the Bay, Singapore

This place had been there for few years but it was my first time to step into the area. There were two conservatory areas that visitors could visit - Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. You needed to pay to enter to these two places. The above picture was the Supertree Grove, which iconized the garden. It was 16-storey high. When we reached the area, it was at 7.45 pm. Just nice! The OCBC Garden Rhapsody (or the Rainforest Orchestra - Asia) was just about to start. I was lying down on the green grass and watched the light and music performance above me peacefully and joyously. Few stars were sparkling above me. Again, I felt blessed!!!

Lightings from the OCBC Garden Rhapsody

The above picture were few of the lighting played during the Rhapsody. It was perfectly beautiful, wasn't it?? There were 2 session every day - 7.45 pm and 8.45 pm. It was free of charge. Once the show was over, we walked back to the Shoppes and walked outside the building. This time, we browsed the other part of the i Light Marina Bay Festival (B sections) - last week I browsed only at the A sections.

Captivating Singapore city from afar

It was very crowded. The i Light Marina Bay Festival would soon be over in one more week's time. Many tourists were spotted along the way creating a hustle and bustle environment, that made Singapore a lively city, a city that never slept. My colleague and I enjoyed our walk yesterday night. I salute the efforts made by the government to keep the city alive by providing non-stop entertainment to its visitors. Below please find some of the pictures captured from the i Light Marina Bay Festival - Section B. Hope all of you had a great enjoyable weekend as I did! :)

Light Rain by Troika

Digital Wattle by Out of the Dark

3D Tic-Tac-Toe by Angela Cheng and  Sonny Windstrup

My favorite:) - Giant Dandelions by Olivia d'Aboville

First time featured in newspapers :D

Cute and colorful Hongbao :)

I read in mypaper.sg regarding "$780 and counting as kids bag fat Hongbao" beginning of this week.

Fyi, 'Hongbao' is Chinese wording, translated as 'red packets'. As I mentioned in earlier blog post, red is believed to be an auspicious color, meant to bring an abundance of luck. So by giving red packets means giving good luck (well wishing) to the receiver :)

During Chinese New Year (first two-week of lunar calendar), those married individuals distribute Hongbao to single unmarried individuals, which filled with crisp new notes inside. The amount will vary from person to person, depending on the relation between the giver and the receiver. The closer the relationship, the more generous amount usually given or received.

Also, the amount will be in even numbers, e.g. $2, $6, $8, $10, $20, and so on as Chinese believes that even numbers represent that things will be well rounded. $4 is the exception and avoided as it brings similarity to the word 'death' in many dialects. In Singapore, it is common to receive Hongbao with a minimum amount of $6 and as high as $20 among relatives. Again, it may differ as people's financial situation differs from one to another.

In Indonesia, grandparents are usually the ones who will give the most, followed by parents. Close relatives will give quite a lot too. Again, this may differ according to the financial capabilities.

Spend or save Hongbao? - thesundaytimes - sundaylife! Feb 9, 2014

On the same day I read about the article, that afternoon my colleague called and asked me if I was willing to be interviewed by the Straits Times (our local newspaper) or not. Since I was free and the topic seemed general, so why not? I was informed that there would be a photo-taking session too. Hehehe.... I accepted the offer almost immediately Lolx!

So my colleague sent the information to the reporter and the reporter interviewed my son and I through telephone. She wanted to know what did I do with my son's Hongbao money after being collected each year. The answer was simple: I put all the amount inside his bank account.

She was wondering though, if my son ever asked any amount from the Hongbao from me so that he could use that money to buy things that he likes. I said, so far, no. He never demanded that all along until now, when he reached 11 years old. When asked what would I do with the money, I said it's for safekeeping or maybe one day he might need it for future use, e.g. education, etc.

He didn't ask for the money because he also got things that he wanted during his Birthday or Christmas. In fact, he was quite concerned and protected his money of being used when we jokingly asked him to treat us dinner or buy gift using his saving. He would immediately answer "no". Lolx!

Then few days ago the photographer came to our house to take our photos. She took lots of shots but only one was posted. Big enough for us to be seen hehehehe... :P

And this morning I bought the newspaper and had a cup of coffee, sitting relaxedly at the coffee shop with my hubby. I know, it's not like we achieved something or did anything heroically so that we were featured there. However, it was our first time to appear in the newspaper, with our photo there, somewhere in the middle of the Sunday Life session. It was fun for me. After living and staying in Singapore for more than 12 years, finally I had a chance to appear Hahaha... Good experience :)

Thank you SB for the opportunity given :) Thank you, thank you, and thank you! ^^

Feng Shui

Source: mypaper.sg 28 January 2014

Pardon me for the blurred scanned file above. It was extracted from today’s local newspaper, Mypaper.sg. I printed and scanned the article above as I found it interesting.

First, it’s my first time hearing the Feng Shui Master was so successful and rich just because he was advising the Feng Shui things to others. I mean, yeah, they could be rich, but not as what mentioned in the article above. It seemed that he was damn rich!!! “Four-bedroom apartment in the heart of Marina Bay, zips around in a chauffeur-driven BMW 7 series sedan, and jade pendants carry eye-popping price tags as high as S$13,688,633 spotted at his upscale Feng Shui galleries in Sin Ming Road”. Wow, I didn’t even know that there was such a valuable jade pendants existing in this world with such a high price!!! Well, maybe it’s different fate for Feng Shui master. They supposed to know what is good and what can be done to change the luck and fate.

As for fortune teller, they might hold different job description. They usually count people’s luck based on the birth date and time. Some might be able to change people’s luck with prayers to Gods, and some would ask them to purchase pendant or other things to alleviate the bad luck and turn it around to the better one. Those came with high price too though!

I often heard that it wasn’t good to hold a job as fortune teller as you acted as God to change people’s fate and destiny, which was usually written down by God before you were born (that’s what people believed). So, sometimes they had to be held responsible for what they did for revealing someone else’s destiny. Therefore, usually, people who know how to calculate and read people’s fate and destiny would reluctantly reveal what others’ have on their hands, especially if the person’s life predicted not to have a good one. If the related person was unable to take it, it would bring depression for him/her and he/she would lead a life full of sorrow and unhappiness as he/she would keep thinking of his/her future’s fate. Many chose to give up and decided to end their life. Whereas in Buddhist teaching, we were taught that our fate and destiny still can be changed depending on our current course of life, on how we act and react towards others. The choice is in our hands.

Second, it was said in the article above about the parents who came to see him and asked him for a good date for their child to be born by Caesarean. Master Yun Long Zi said, he would usually give them three choices of dates, where the child’s personality would depend on which date was picked. “So, do the parents want the child to be learned? Wealthy? Powerful? Kind? In Singapore, 90 percent of my clients chose wealth. In Indonesia, they chose power.”

With the advance technology, pregnant woman is given a choice on how to give birth – natural give birth or Caesarian. Lots of people, especially rich ones, would choose Caesarian because first, it won’t as painful as natural giving birth. We often heard devastating story of the pregnant woman waiting for the hole to open and how painful it was to let the baby coming out from their stomach.  Second, the after-birth pain would be better for Caesarian too rather than the natural give birth one. At least the woman who went through Caesarian giving birth would be able to pee comfortably and with no pain compared with the one who underwent the natural giving birth.

But most importantly, people can choose the date on when they want their baby to be born – for Caesarian, unlike the prompt feeling and urge to give birth at any time for those who chose natural giving birth.

Obviously, all parents want the best thing for their children. That was when they consulted the Feng Shui Master for the date and time for their child to born (As I said previously, that someone’s fate and destiny is usually counted using their birth date and timing). And as Master Yun Long Zi said, he offered three choices of dates to parents on what kind of life that their children would have. It became the destiny lies in the parents’ hands now instead of God. To be wealth? To be powerful? To be kind. Three difficult choices to choose. As difficult as if you were asked by the Genie in the bottle on what kind of request you wanted to have if you were only given one choice. Touch your heart and ask yourself, which one would you prefer? It’s difficult choice though among those three.

We heard many stories of kind-hearted people. They wanted to do so much to help others, but they didn’t have enough resources and power to do so. They had to work hard, ask around, and put in lots of efforts in order to reach their goals. They wished themselves to be rich, so that they could give more to those who needed it. They wished themselves to have more power, so that they could do and contribute more to the society.

There were stories too that the kindhearted men were not allowed to marry the girl they loved or being asked to divorce their wives, only because they were not rich nor powerful. Although they were kindhearted person, the parents of the girl wouldn’t want their daughter to suffer or lead the unhappy life due to the lack of money and resources that the man had.

I asked few of my colleagues around. They all told me, they would want their children to be kind. No use they get rich or powerful when they grow up but when you grow older they may as well send you to ‘Lao Ren Yuan’ or Old Folk’s home in English.

When I asked myself which one to choose, I chose ‘to be kind’ as the answer too. But why as per Master Yun Long Zi said, 90% of Singaporean parents chose wealth while in Indonesia, they chose power??? Because we are not them. Those who consulted him would mostly come from elite, super-rich, powerful people, who wanted their family to keep being rich, elite and powerful, to continue their family’s wealth from one generation to another. That’s why they chose those two and not many chose ‘kind’, like us.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? Sometimes this thing will bring us into dilemma. However, just be positive with everything and leave things to the nature. That’s all! Because sometimes, when you don’t know much thing, you will feel better. Just believe that everything that happens, it happens for a reason. We may go up one day but we may go down and fall too. Only with failure we are then able to learn from it and avoid the same mistakes to happen again. Most important is our attitude towards life. Because one day, we all will die and nothing lasts forever in this life. Things change all the time. Nothing is permanent.

So, maintain your kind-attitude, be positive and responsible nature. The rest will follow accordingly and eventually bring happiness into your life. I’m sure all of you can do it! Never give up to obstacles in life as it is not permanent. There will be solution for each problem. Just focus on the next important step, not the problem itself. Wish you all the best for your life journey everyone!