Maybe I really belong to another generation but i dun get it why Singaporeans are forever complaining about Singapore.....

"ERP = Every Road Pays" - Well, in the first place, if you are so damn grouchy abt it, then fucking go take a train like the rest of us....Dun fucking buy a nice car and then fucking complain all the time....it just makes you look nothing but CHEAP

"Singapore SMRT Sucks" - Well, maybe you should open your bloody eyes and travel more often to other countries

"Singapore Govt Sucks" - Well, maybe then you should rise up to the challenge and run for politics...besides, before u ask the govt or the world what they can do for u, ask yourself what you can even contribute to the society or the world at large, other than with your incessant complaining??

"You can say all you want cos U already migrate to Canada ma & U married a WHITE" - ANYONE who cannot see beyond skin color, TO ME, is just plain STUPID.....nothing else...what else can i say to someone who is plain stupid and shallow? Ya, there is something i can say to these people....Go Fuck Yourself....

Daddy's 49th Day

Today (24 June 2009) marks the 49th day of my beloved daddy's passing. It feels sooo surreal and weird that he has already been gone for 49 days. Weird as it sounds, I still feel that he's with us. I do not consider myself a religious or superstitious person so I am not saying that in a spiritual way. I just seem to feel quite light hearted and happy whenever i think of him. Sadness comes only once in a very long while. So it almost feels to me that he is still happily with us.

But no matter what, I trust that my dad has gone on to a better place, where there is no cancer, no diabetes and no pain.

Traditionally, during the 49 days, children & grandchildren of the deceased cannot wear bright colored clothes, cannot attend weddings or auspicious events (e.g, birth of a child), cannot give ang bao (red packet money) & cannot even cut their hair, but this custom is now usually only observed by older generations. For us, the monk told us that only my mom and brother has to restrain from wearing bright colored clothes but as a gesture of our gratefulness to my dad, my sister and I also refrained from wearing bright colored clothing during this 49 days.

Since it was his 49th day today, we hired a monk to recite prayers for my dad. As for us, we had to prepare in advance 6 dishes, 1 soup and 1 rice for the prayers. Also, we bought and burned some paper money for my dad as well.

When the ceremony was over, my brother-in-law (hear this!!!.....it's my brother-in-law and not my brother) drove us all the way to CCK Columbarium to pray to my dad. We bought some fancy miniature food erasers to decorate on my dad's niches ^_^.....have to find more of daddy's favorite foods so that sister can bring there on dad's 100th day^_^

According to the monk, the 100th day will complete the whole event and bring the funeral to a full closure. On the 100th day, it is optional whether we want to hire back the monk to do a final prayer ceremony. Too bad, I will be back in Canada by then. I would have loved to be here praying to Dad on his 100th final day. Well, life doesn't always go the way we want it to but i already consider myself quite lucky to have been back in time to spend a full month of quality time with Dad, be here to do the funeral arrangements, be here to be with mom till surgery.....what more can i ask for?

Thanks Hubby for your understanding!!! I love YOU

Opera In The Park

Following the success of its first outdoor opera performance in 2008, Singapore Lyric Opera returns this year with not one, but two performances – Opera in the Park and Opera at the Race Course.

We went to the one held at Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage in Singapore Botanical Gardens. Since it was a Saturday, we were not surprised at the large turn-out rate. Everyone came with their picnic baskets. Singaporeans, expats, foreign workers...you could see that everyone, irregardless of race and nationality, were having a great time. Whether you appreciate opera or not, it doesn't really matter.

I hope in time to come, more Singaporeans are able to see that even though Singapore is a small country but there are still many things that is wonderful about this island...and the fact that i am now living in Canada doesn't change a bit on how i feel about Singapore. If anything else, i now appreciate a whole lot more on the wonderful aspects of Singapore. All I am saying is that there is never a country, a person, a husband, a father, a boss, a colleague, a friend that is 100% perfect. There are always positive and negative aspects of everything.

I absolutely hate it when people tell me that I am lucky to have relocated to overseas cos there is nothing to do in Singapore. To these people, it's not the country that is boring.....IT IS YOU WHO IS BORING!!!

Bammie's 卤面

哈哈！so happy i finally learn how to make Lor Mee(卤面)...and it's actually quite delicious, considering that it's my 1st attempt orrrr......For the benefit of my non-singaporean readers, let me write out what Lor Mee is.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,

Lor mee (Chinese: 卤面) is a Chinese-inspired noodle dish served in a thick starchy gravy and thick flat yellow noodles. The dish is eaten by Hokkiens (Min Nan speakers) in Singapore and Malaysia. The thick gravy is made of corn starch, spices and eggs. The ingredients added into the noodles are usually ngo hiang, fish cake, fish, round and flat meat dumplings (usually pork), half a boiled egg, and other items depending on the stall and the price paid. Vinegar and garlic can be added as an optional item. The dish is also eaten with red chili.

What is worth mentioning is also the fact that Lor Mee is a dish that is highly enjoyed by me and my beloved dad. It's actually one of our favorite dish. That reminds me of the old good times where Dad was still healthy. In the past, Dad would drive us to many different places, all in the search of good yummilicious food...^_^

Anyway, let me not digress and post the recipe here. Instead of pork, I chose to use chicken stock instead. Alternatively, fish stock can be used too.

1) Bring chicken stock with a 卤包(optional) to a boil. Add light soya sauce, dark soya sauce & white pepper to taste.
2) Now, you can use the soup to get ready your other ingredients..for me, I placed 3 peeled hardboiled eggs, prawns, fishcakes & fishballs into the soup and you can take them all out (except the eggs) once they are cooked. I left the hardboiled eggs inside and lower the fire so as to make the soup more tasty, as well as to allow the hardboiled eggs to absorb more soup taste and become darker.
3) When everyone is ready to eat, take out the 卤包& the hardboiled eggs.
4) Now increase the fire for the soup. When it boils, scald the yellow noodles & vegetables (i used 菜心) and distribute them among the respective individual bowls. Distribute all the remaining cooked ingredients & hardboiled eggs among the respective bowls (it is up to you whether you want to slice the hardboiled eggs or not)
5) With the soup still boiling, stir in cornstarch (mix w cold water first) and stir the soup. Once you are happy with the level of starchiness of the soup, drizzle in a beaten egg & stir the soup again.
6) Ladle out the starchy stock over the noodles
7) Garnish with chopped 芫荽(cilantro) & black vinegar & serve it piping hot!!!! ENJOY>...

好奇怪的我哦

昨天报警举报了一位邻居。平时糊里糊涂的我忽然啊，变成非常镇定和口齿伶俐的女生哦！！那位欺善怕恶的邻居(let's call her UglyBitch) 比我高大许多，可是还是被我吓到脸青青。看到我冲向她，她连忙跑回家躲我。真没用！！ 朋友们都非常讶异。因为在很多朋友们的眼中哦，我都是一位出了名的糊涂 Dumb Blonde。时不时还老做出一些滑稽的行为或问一些欠扁的问题。

也只有我的家人和最要好的朋友才知道也不感到讶异。我的家人和最要好的朋友,尤其是Mel 都知道在我非常生气的时候， 我便会讲出一些很尖锐的话来。

我想了好久，才想到其实这应该是在TianCheng工作时,被迫被逼培养出来的性格吧！哈哈！看来我还得好好的感谢TianCheng 哦。

刚踏出来社会工作二十来岁的我，因为需要养家糊口，再加上自己当时是个超没自信心的女生，在没办法的情况下就接下了薪金低又非常吃力的工作。还记得很多时候在TianCheng工作时，都需要在很晚的时候去学生宿舍追讨房租。 而且还得经常跟这些客户吵架。当时的我真的觉得日子过的好委屈。

我记得有一晚去学生宿舍谈判时，那名年轻女房客甚至叫了4个魁梧的男生来吓唬我。我也记得很清楚我忽然啊，变得很凶。我甚至还很大声的威胁他们。结果，我谈判成功了。我离开宿舍后，眼泪终于忍不住飙了出来。其实，当时我很害怕。不过，我也很清楚知道自己当时不能没有这份工作。至今，我还能记得那时委屈与害怕的感觉。

可能也因为这样，每当我身处在危急或生气的状态，我就会变的非常尖锐。连我老公都非常认同及欣赏哦！

回想一下，我还是蛮感激人生赐予我那么多宝贵的经验。至少，我知道这世界上没什么事或苦难是我不能度过的。 人生中再大，再难过的心情都会随着时间而淡化。

所以说嘛，我觉得我还是个幸运的女人!!! UglyBitch, 想欺负我和家人，甭想！！我会让你死得超难看！！。。。嗨不过，这可能有点难哦。因为她已经是个超难看的老女人！！！！哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈！！！

Feelings...

Times flies....in another 2 days, my dad would have been dead for a full month....It sounds ironic and weird but daddy's demise has caused me to rethink about a lot of things.....and most of them are positive things.....therefore, even tho i do not consider myself as a religious person, i like and chose to think that it's my daddy who has blessed me with all that....

With my husband, i always get upset when i feel that he does not verbalise enough about his feelings for me...but the truth is...my hubby and my dad are the 2 most important men in my life so instead of always pondering and whining about the unspoken love from him, why dun i chose to focus on the actual actions of love from him? Life is very unpredictable & fragile...although i am sad to see my dad leave us, but I have no regrets or any nagging thoughts because I know that as a daughter, i have done the best i could....but I ask myself all the time "Can i say the same for my hubby?".....if something happens to him tomorrow, can i honestly and trufully tell myself that as a wife, I have done the best i could for our marriage.....the answer is "no"....

so, from now on, I wana focus on being a good wife and a good friend to him. He may never be the man to shower me with sweet nothings in my ears and do exactly what i want him to do...but he is understanding, gives me the space to do the things i love, ambitious, career minded, astute, reliable, dependable, honest, trusts me.........all these are the traits i want in my man....so what can i complain about???

I love you hubby!!!!!....altho I cannot promise that i will never be mad at u again, cannot promise i will never do or say silly things again but i am really trying so be tolerant with me ok???? The bottomline is that U R MOST IMPORTANT TO ME!!!

MUACKS

Still Sick....

7 days in Singapore already and I cannot believe that I AM STILL SICK!!!!!....hope i will get better soon cos there are still quite a lot of friends whom I have not meet up with yet...

and besides, with my bad flu and cough, I have been banned from going near my dad, in case I spread my virus to him....

Some updates about Daddy....The first 4 days when i just arrived, he was still in good spirits and was eating well and was always asking us to buy him fried chicken wings....and we chatted quite a bit everyday after breakfast....and we will have coffee together

But from the 5th day onwards, he started getting worse again.....it's forever such a roller coaster feeling for us....cos we never know what to expect...but the last 3 days, he is starting to eat lesser and lesser....his stomach is getting more bloated like a balloon.....i have a strong feeling his time will come soon...and i hope it is not a painful one for him....

A part of me still wants him to survive this round, just like he has survived so many previous rounds in the last 7 years.....because like any other human being, I am greedy.....I want more time with him....I even still yearn that he will live to see me having a baby with hubby.....and yet, another part of me wishes that his time will come soon.....because whatever pain we feel when he suffers, he probably feels 100, 1000, 10000 times worse...and i dun want to see him in so much pain....i want him to go in peace...i want him to go peacefully, with the knowledge that our mom will be well taken care of.....i want him to go peacefully, with the knowledge that he is the best perfect dad i could ever have wished for....

Life is such an irony....sigh...

but this is not the time to feel miserable and sad.....i think it is a good time to be reflective....while the loss of a loved one causes us grief, it also reminds us to stop taking other loved ones for granted...

A quote that I really like....

"No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?"

- Lee Iacocca