Contradiction

When I was working at home alone, I wish for the hustle & bustle of office life.
When I am back in the office, I wish to work at home with less distractions.

When I was at home, I'm grateful for the invention of email & MSN.
When I am in the office, I wish that email was never invented.

When I was not working, I yearn to work.
When I started working, I yearn to do the things that I want to do when I'm not working.

When I was not working, I had more time to spend & ended saving less.
When I started working, I had less time to spend & perhaps saved more.

When I was not working, my personal mail box became neater.
When I started working, my office mail box became neater.

When I was not working, I have more things to think about.
When I started working, the things to think about remain the same, just less time to think about.

The common factor - I'm still busy regardless of whether I work or not & my weight still remains pretty much the same.

Comment from hubby:
The bed in the guestroom is 'visible' when I was not working & it has become 'non-visible' when I started work.

Mid Autumn Festival & Children's Day

Yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival, or Lantern Festival where kids will carry their battery operated lanterns or the traditional paper/cellophane lanterns. Well, I always call it the "Mooncake Festival" cos "mooncakes is in the air" & you can't miss it with the month-long pre-publicity before the day.

When I was young, it was 'fire playing' time for me where I would find all sorts of stuff to burn. From lanterns to rice to leaves to wood to er...well, insects. I had my good old neighbour to share such moments with me until later, we had to do it discreetly due to the numerous cases of fire happening during this season. Slowly, it evolved to sparklers & slowly, only just eating mooncakes, yams, pomelos etc.But at least I was celebrating it together with my grandparents & cousins then.

It was a quiet festival for me for this year. There was no celebration, no lanterns, not even praying to the "Goddess living on the moon" nor eating my favourite yam & pomelo. I could have just gone down to my old childhood place just to be in the mood. Yet I didn't. Because I was rather tired after a day's work & I believe my hubby is tired as well. I suppose there are many others like us as well.

I'm happy that this festival is still celebrated albeit it has evolved into something rather commercialised with more exquisite packaging & it has become a time of giving for the business people other than X'mas & Chinese New Year. I wonder how many of us remember the 2 stories behind this festival. Perhaps more people remembered the story of the lady who took the 'longevity pill' & flew to the moon than the story of inserting secret messages in the buns (now known as mooncakes) during war time.

It's a pity that I've had a quiet Mid-Autumn this year but I'll make it a memorable one next year :)

Children's Day
Well, Children's Day is around the corner. It's been years that I last celebrated this day which we would usually receive something from the school (usually given to them by the govt).

There's an interesting upcoming activity this Monday, which happens to be Children's Day.

The world's happiest cartoonist, Peter Draw, is going to draw the world's largest caricarture on 1 Oct at Suntec starting at 8am. So if you happen to pop by Suntec, do give him your support and encouragement & find out who he's gonna draw :)

Click on the poster to find out the details. You can also visit his website http://www.peterdraw.com/ to find out more about this young talented chap & his works.

What to do for next Sat?

If you're thinking of what to do with your kids next week which is 2 days before Children's Day, perhaps you might like to make your way to Tiong Bahru Plaza at around 11am to take part in some interesting activities that will be happening.

There'll be a Family Photo contest & goodie bags will be given to the 1st 300 entries. There's also caricarture drawing by Peter Draw (interesting name right?) Well, he's a Chinese. Just that his surname 'Zhuo' is commonly pronounced as 'draw' & that was how his name is being derived, which coincidentally matches his profession :) He will also be conducting record breaking stint soon. So details are 'akan datang' (coming soon).

& of course, mummies can do some shopping there too, heard it's a place with quite a no. of shoe shops :)

Back to work

Am back to work after a few months' rest. Sigh...still didn't manage to gain weight.

Well, felt kinda recharged & am happy to be involved in some upcoming events. Will provide more details when confirmed.

Anway, happen to see my colleague's wallpaper which is the Happy Tree Friends. Saw this grossly funny clip which made me laugh hilariously. Click on play & select the 3 buttons @ the sides.


Want one? Go to www.geocities.com/testiflash


Oh, as you can see in the comments box, apparently it's the 'preggy' season where 3 of my jie meis are now Mums-to-Be :) Well, I better start to work faster on my curriculum development so that they can be my potential customers haha ;) Good to see more mommies. Hope that the projects that my colleagues & I have done have encouraged positive perceptions towards parenthood :)

A Rude Auntie

I never knew the extreme extent of ungraciousness until I met this 2 fellas whom I believe are Indonesians. I hope they are just tourists & not our PR here as I don't want them to smear our reputation.

Was looking for seats at the Wisma foodcourt last Monday for lunch & we went over to a table with 4 empty seats. An Indian couple went over to take the other 2 vacant seats. As we were deciding what to eat whilst standing at our seats (I remember placing my hand on my seat whilst thinking of what to order). A rude lady came & sat down with her plate of fried hokkien mee without asking. The guy went ahead to put his bag on my seat after the lady spoke to him in Bahasa Indonesia & left to buy food, oblivious to our existence throughout.

We were too shocked by their 'swiftness' & it took some time for us to register that they had snatched our seats. We stared at them & I was hoping to have direct eye contact with the lady. It was a futile attempt as she simply ignored us. We could have just told them that the seats were already taken. But we didn't. We were too shocked to react to be honest. We left looking for another seat but not without me making comments about their rudeness. Geeze, this is utterly rude!

I went back to snap her pic. So if you see her next time, make sure you guard your seats well.

My hubby saw the lady looking at our direction as they left the foodcourt after their meal.

I'm worried about the influx of foreigners as S'p tries to attract more of them especially with the IR coming. No doubt it's good for the economy but there's also a price to pay.

Actually I also realised that we seem to be getting ruder. A couple of times I hold the lift door for some, there wasn't even a simple 'Thank You'. Only some of the older aunties are polite enough to do so. There were 2 occasions where I was told (not asked) to hold the lift door for them for quite some time, yet, no 'Thank You' from a kid who asked me to hold the door for her 'auntie' (which was his maid) & an Indian man who asked me to hold the door for his whole family.

I wonder where our Civics & Moral Education had gone to...

Education is supposed to make us more cultured, knowledgeable & civilised, yet it seems that we see a growing number of rude, ungrateful, disrespectful, selfish, irresponsible 'educated people'.

We are rich in our knowledge, assets etc. yet poor in our values, virtues...it's sad isn't it?

Krabi - Final

Woke up early in the morning as usual for breakfast & went to collect seashells for last round before the tides come back.

Off for last minute shopping & hunting for the papaya salad & pan cake.

There it is! My Papaya salad!! Have been craving it for days...

There's peanuts, cucumber, lime, tomatoes, papaya, scrimps,chilli, long beans...mixed with fish sauce, lime juice, sugar...& you get that for just 30 baht! (S$1.35)

Apparently, there are more roadside hawkers when weekend is near. So what do they do as a living on weekedays? hmm......

My favourite pan cake - with mango filling. Somewhat like our roti prata but is very light. They have all sorts of fillings like pineapple, banana, cheese, egg, tuna etc. Though a small stall, it also sells fruit juices & baguettes.

Look at the generous piece of mango! It's "Umph" especially when drizzled with evaporated milk :) All for only 15 baht! (S$0.67).

Back to the resort to wait for the bus for the city tour before heading back to S'p. Went back to the beach whilst waiting for the transport.

But looks like it's gona rain...so better come back...gee, I look like a Thai 'lian' sia.

City Tour

Regretted following the tour. Would rather go for another round of Thai massage & had a sumptuous lunch & relax @ the beach.

The problem with S'poreans - punctuality. Just don't understand why they can't check out of hotel on time & have to wait till the transport is waiting for them at their doorstep...yet, they are the 1st in Q when it comes to buying condos, Primary 1 registration, Toto or 4D...

Had a very late lunch, or did I read it wrongly on the brochure that it was supposed to be dinner? The lunch sux..I was trying not to puke whilst forcing myself to eat a little as I had my breakfast 8 hours ago...the smell of the soup just put me off...I think any roadside vendors sell tastier food than this.

Struggling with my noodles as my hubby had finished his.

Didn't get to go to Tiger cave due to the rain (not sure if it's because it's the lack of time) & ended up at the 'Giant look-a-like' mega stall instead of Krabi Town. So in the end, didn't manage to buy much local products...so only managed to visit the Aquarium to look @ the fishes.

Our final stop - Tesco aka 'Giant look-a-like' super mart.

An unsatisfied day......

Basically the trip was rather R&R with a bit of hicupps such as the tsunami warning & the uneventful city tour. The rest are quite ok & we unintentionally had a tan :) We were lucky that the rain didn't thwart much of our plans except that we didn't get to swim in the crystal pool during the elephant trek.

It's a good place to go for snorkelling & scuba diving. Or if you're like me who just love beaches, it's good for sun tanning where all you need is about half a day to get burnt :) & after that go for an oil massage to soothe the tanned skin.

The price to pay for that is the red bumps that appear on my face & the freckles that are ever more obvious now hehe, but it's worth it :)

Well, this trip had made me realised that life itself is very fragile & if we continue our irresponsible ways of treating the environment, we may not get to see such beautiful things anymore. So let's try in our little ways to preserve what we treasure before we lose them :)

Krabi - Part 2

It's shopping for Day 1! Actually because of the earthquake the day before, we avoided the sea activities for the time being.

Well, compared to Bangkok, there's nothing to shop really unless you're a T-shirt fan like me :) & the shirts here fits me nicely :)

The Thais are well-known for their good services & hospitality. Did they attend any training? Perhaps. But even the street hawkers provide excellent service. Where did they learn that from? Genuine concern for people I suppose. Some of them still maintain their smiles even though I did not buy anything from them in the end, not the fakey smiles yo. Admired their serving attitude :) When can we reach to that level of service?

I stopped to browse at a roadside stall cos I can't resist anklets :) The owner showed me a couple & as I was about to squat down to browse the items, he fished out a stool for me immediately. Now that's what I call personalised service or rather, thoughtfulness.

From their works, they are really a creative bunch.

The tsunami warning tower in front of our hotel & the signboard showing the evacuation route at another beach.

Went 'resort hopping' & saw this beautiful resort.

Ooh...look at the blue blue sky...we were lucky that it was a full sunny day that day without rain when we did our exploring. The other 2 days were raining during the 2nd half of the day.

The shore is filled with marine life during low tide. & my, the waves are very far off.

A dead sea anemone

Patterns created by the little crabbies

We kept a constant lookout for the sea creactures, particularly the crabbies, in case we stepped on them.

Dinner time!

This was the place we had our dinner. Somewhat like the Tze Char stall in S'p. Their noodle soup is so sedap that I ate it again on my last day :d~ This meal that consist of red snapper, fried veg & 2 big prawns cost us around S$22. Thai food is simply irresistable!!!

Our 1st Elephant Ride

Booked the elephant trek for Day 2. Was a bit nervous as it was kinda high. We were hesitant when we need to step on the elephant before we took the seat. We were told that they have thick & rough skin so it won't hurt the elephant. Elephants can live up to around 80 years old & this elephy we took is 25 yrs old.

It was a bumpy ride & surprisingly, it was less bumpy when it was walking in the stream.

Elephy stopping by for a poo poo time...see the 2 huge green balls flowing down the stream? ;p



Uncle Wee told me that the stick that the trainer was holding is for training the elephy. If it becomes naughty, he will actually poke its ears with it...ouch... ...actually I'm not sure if it's a humane thing to take elephant rides in the first place...but I suppose if S'p zoo does it, should be ok? Pls tell me if this is hurting the elephys.


Actually I wasn't afraid of feeding the elephy, just that its breath from its nose blowing out as it tries to get the banana just 'blew me' off hehe ;p



Lang Rongrian Cave


It was actually a small little cave. Was told that the government did not allow them to dig any further. But it was really dark & the guide had to light up the cave first with candles. Yet, Uncle Wee still knocked his head on his way out...




It was pouring as we left the cave. Oh well, it was lunch time anyway. Look @ the yummy food :d``
& Uncle Wee nursing his bump on his head ;p

After lunch, we headed off to the Crystal Pool. Supposed to swim there but as the uncle & auntie were worried about catching a cold swimming in the rain as we were both not young anymore, we decided to take a picture of it instead. The water is very clear indeed.





After the half day trek, it's off to the Thai massage!
Ooh...it's really shiokadooze & for that 1hr massage, you only pay 200 baht! Not to mention the foc ginger tea & banana after the massage. Cheap cheap!

If you're willing to walk further down the beach & do it outdoor, it can go as low as 150 baht! (plus free pineapple ;p) I also did a face massage & actually fell asleep during the massage! That would never happen to me in S'p cos the lady would be busy trying to sell facial products to me during the session.

Lazing on the bed after the massage...



Back at the same stall for my favourite sen lek noodle soup since it was our last night in Krabi. Was pouring heavily but that didn't stop us from patronizing our fav stall with friendly staff :)