Junk or Art

The next time you wonder what to do with the empty cans & containers... here's an idea.

I spotted this raw yet detailed piece of creation in the most unassuming place - an old hawker centre right at the doorsteps of where I grew up.

While it is nothing in the likes of an award winning piece of installation art, I was still captivated by how it sets itself apart from those run of the mill recycling messages.

Here are more shots for a closer look.

Sightings

Not everyday you see THIS in a supermarket....

and THIS along Orchard Road...

Language Blunders

What does one do while waiting for the lift that always seem to take ages to come? You start scanning through notices decorated around them. This was what I came across sometime back. Not sure if you notice what was wrong with it but I certainly did.

As I was taking the shot, I realised I was definitely not the first who noticed the blooper. I am saying this in my own defence that the cross was not my doing. If you look closer, you will know what I mean.

Should one classify that as public service or vandalism? I am inclined to feel it is the latter. If not, why wouldn't he or she do everyone a bigger favour by replacing it with the correct word instead of just stopping at a cross?

Perhaps he or she wasn't too sure either.

I cannot deny I was tempted to complete the unfinished business but not only did I not have a pen with me... my lift had also arrived... finally :)

By the way, doesn't anyone proof read these RC notices? Maybe it is time they start doing so.

Passwords Nightmares

What if one day you woke up and realised that you have forgotten all your passwords? I mean ALL of them.

Let's see... then you wouldn't be able to... login to your computer, open your files, access the Internet, connect to the VPN, check your emails, update your FB status, chat on MSN, do your Internet banking, withdraw cash from ATM, make payments by NETS, slide your iPhone or even enter your house (yes, I have a friend who uses digital locks). I am sure the list can goes on.

Isn't it a nightmare? Our everyday life is run by passwords!

No, of course that did not happen to me. Not yet.

What DID happen to me was... I am running out of passwords to use for work. I typically re-cycle four of them everytime they expire (ok I know this is not the best practice for security...) so that even if I suddenly cannot remember for some reason, I can just go down the list and hit the right one in no time. Somehow this morning when I was trying to do the same old thing... it failed. I was prompted that I cannot re-use any of the past EIGHT passwords. EIGHT ?!? Since when ?!?

Doctor Who?

I recently went for some routine medical checkup and I had quite an interesting conversation with the female doctor (Doctor A).

Doctor A: So... you had a baby this year. Who was your gynae?

Me: Ya. My Gynae was Doctor B.

Doctor A: Oh...Doctor B is such a charming man!

Me: Oh you know him?

Doctor A: Kind of. He is very experienced in his field. My husband is a gynae too and I once sat at a dinner beside him. So charismatic.

Me: Well, I guess he can be quite humorous sometimes.

Doctor A: He is quite old lah... but still very attractive at his age!

We both chuckled.

Doctor A: So... you also had your LASIK done this year?

Me: Ya but didnt go too well.... blah blah blah

Doctor A: I would never go for LASIK... blah blah blah. So who was your doctor?

Me: Doctor C

Doctor A: Oh... Doctor C!

Me: Huh? You know him too?

Doctor A: Aiya, he always appear on magazines mah

Me: He looks very young hoh?

Doctor A: Looks young only but actually not that young. Don't really like him. So vain. Always unbutton his shirt a little and trying too hard to look good. How much he charges? Where is his clinic?

Me: blah blah blah

Doctor A: Huh? His clinic is there uh. That place good enough for him meh? He so vain... thought he would be here in Paragon. That Doctor B is so much better than him. Older but more charming.

We both chuckled again.

Before this, I never expected Doctors to gossip (or even bitch).
At least not with the patient.
Then again... I guess it is a "woman" thing... regardless of profession :)

Time To Say Goodbye

We got acquainted just not too long ago

And I had never thought of having you sold

It was definitely not my intention

To make you feel so forsaken

Our affair may be brief

but I am already filled with grief

I am sad but it is not shown on my face

Afterall it was a decision I have made

I will always remember how we used to zip around

East to West and sometimes around town

And how I loved your big round speedometer & quirky buttons

And how I enjoyed flicking to change your night light colours

Oh how you suffered these past months

Soaking in rain and baking in sun

Car wash has been a very rare treat

and I did nothing much to keep you happy and clean

From now on you are no longer with me physically

But I promise you will always be part of my memories

So long, Farewell, my dear MINI

Hope you find someone who will take care of you better than me

Forgettable Entertainment

It has been quite some time since I was really entertained by any performance or sorts and the recent three movies/musical did nothing to change that.

Clash of The Titans was my first attempt at 3D movies in a local theatre. My worry of a sea-sick like nausea and dizziness was unfounded but the uncomfortable pair of 3D glasses left a sore mark on my nose bridge. I have not watched the original in the 80's so I am not sure if this is a better version but I am sure the cinematography is. Overall, it just felt like a comic strip come to life and nothing more. Of course, the first few moments of 3D did get me excited like a kid and Sam Worthington, who is quite an eye candy, kind of compensated the rest of the dull moments.

I was very much looking forward to Robin Hood that I even had the opening date jotted down in my phone. With a director and cast like this, what can go wrong. If you ask me, the entire cast did pretty well except for Mr Crowe himself. Yes, he has been criticised for his lack of or inconsistent accent in the movie but I think the bigger problem is that there wasn't much emotions displayed throughout and that makes the famous outlaw a bit bland as a main character.

And then there was Chicago The Muscial which we decided to catch at the very last minute. Well, everything turned out to be... nice... with bits here and there which I enjoyed but the entire production did not really WOW me and make me want to jump out of the chair. I might have enjoyed the film version better years back.

So any good recommendations that are not that forgettable?

Junk That Comes In Envelopes

I don't know about you but I am more annoyed by junk mails in the physical rather than digital form.

Afterall, deleting emails require just one click. In fact you can just select all unwanted junk to trash them instantly and they are gone even before you can finish cursing in your head.

As for their counterparts that come in envelopes...

- they not only take up space in your house;

- come in all sizes;

- they somehow accumulate faster than you can clear them

- require repetitive and monotonous action of opening them up one by one;

- sorting them into "overdue bills requiring immediate action", "can wait", "will read when I have time", "total waste of time" and "can't decide what to do with them" can be as time consuming (usually 80% of them fall into the last two categories)

- and after what feels like forever, you still end up with a heap of trash that you then have to drag your feet to dump them in the bin.

- and have I mentioned the occassional papercuts? Ouch! *#@##

Now, here is actually why I wrote this entry...

There are some letters from certain financial institutions that you tend to open up first while sifting through the entire stack. Why? Because you would assume they are important notices or statements.

Or maybe not.

This particular one sent me one big A4 piece of paper with a few liners to inform me that I have sucessfully logged in to their website for the very first time with the OTP on a certain day & time ( for those not initiated, that means one-time password). Why do they bother to do that! The fact that I successfully logged in, of course I would have known that and therefore I see no value whatsoever to send me a confirmation that it has happened.

What is more infuriating is that the next letter I opened came from the same sender telling me that my application of the OTP feature has been approved !(please refer to above what OTP is...if you are suffering from very short term memory loss). Of course it has been approved! How then was I able to log in for the very first time with it and why then would you send me that previous letter!

Total waste of paper and total waste of my time.

I need to outsource mails clearing... any takers?

My First Carnation

As we were strolling down Orchard Road today with Baby Justin, someone ran towards me and handed me a stalk of yellow carnation. "Happy Mothers' Day!!" It was some promotion gimick. Nevertheless, it was cool... they even took a photo of us.

My first Mothers' Day as a Mum...

My first stalk of carnation...

Wierd yet warm...

To all the great mums in this world... Happy Mothers' Day.

Bad Hair Day

I always thought trimming a baby's hair is a piece of cake... oh boy I was wrong. Luckily Baby Justin won't remember this episode when he grows up... no one would be pleased with uneven patches on his head.

I actually did not plan to notify The Man about this disastrous hair cut in the beginning, half of me hoping that he will never discover (how evil) and the other half of me hoping that he does discover but comfort me by saying it is quite a good job (total self-deceit). But me being me... I could not hold it anymore after a whole night without any response from him.

Me: "Eh, did you notice anything different about Baby Justin today?"

The Man:"mmm... no leh. What?"

After a few moments...

The Man: Aiyo! WHY LIKE THAT?!?"

I Miss Having Clear Vision!

Just when I thought deciding or not to go for LASIK is a tough one, I realise deciding on whether enhancement is the right thing to do is even more torturing.

Statistics show that only 1% to 3% of LASIK patients need enhancements due to under or over correction and I am among these unlucky minority.

It has been 2.5 months and my vision is still far from perfect and anything more than an arm's length away is just blur. I even had a pair of specs made for driving at night. Without which, I would probably not be able to make my way home at night.

During the last post LASIK checkup, I had residual degree of 75 on one side and 50 on the other and was told that I am a potential candidate for enhancement since my cornea is thick enough for that. The doctor seemed to suggest that I should seek comfort in that (BUT that is not what I signed up for!!!).

Rightfully, many folks with 75 degree (or even up to 100 plus) just live with that and don't bother with specs. So I had a strong feeling that mine is definitely more than that and went for a second checkup elsewhere. Unexpectedly, the results turned out the same. However I am still not convinced and I am considering a third opinion.

Not that I regret going for LASIK in the first place... I miss having clear vision BUT I no doubt do not miss hard lens at all :)

Now I am just torn between leaving my poor eyes as they are and hope for a miracle versus going for an enhancement which probably means thinning my cornea further leaving no more room for future enhancement should my eyesight deteriorate years down the road. Not to mention that my confidence of the doctor or rather such LASIK procedures is now shaken...

Iced Teh Si

Making Iced Teh Si

Step 1 - Make Tea

Step 2 - Add Milk

Step 3 - Stir

Step 4 - Add Ice

So... how on earth did this happen?

Toy On The Wrist

Following my recent entries about toys... here is another addition by courtesy of The Man. By now, you would have realised most if not all of my toys are not bought by myself :P

How is this a toy?? Simply because it is Toy Watch! Name aside, it actually feels so light and plastic that it can totally pass off as a toy :) But hey... they are quite a big hit with famous wrists :)

Now I am even tempted to get the white one. It is such a cool and simple piece of accessory that so effortlessly adds colour and vigor to your outfit, no matter how plain it is.

More Toys!

Just as I wrote about buying the right toys for Baby Justin in my last post, I received a toy car myself today from my dad! Yes, at the age of thirty-four, that was what I got.

My dad just came back from a holiday and I was delighted when he pulled out from his luggage a red MINI. How sweet :)

Anyway, here is adding to my MINI (pun intended) galore ... compliments from my dad, my bro and Mr Liew. There is also an even smaller key chain MINI but is MIA at the moment...

Lyrics Gone Wrong

Since we were on this topic of children songs & nursery rhymes...

Last night, in an attempt to entertain Baby Justin, The Man started belting out a song which was apparently not on his "I-know-the-lyrics" song list (which is by the way not very long and countable with one hand).

"Blah Blah Black Sheep...have you any wool..."

"Halo! Sheeps go Baa Baa! Not Blah Blah!"

"Really?"

I nearly flipped...

Well... unless of course there is a sheep out there which really does blah blah blah blah all day long...like me :p

Birds of A Feather Flock Together

An interesting but disgusting sight. First the crows tore up a garbage bag of waste food. Then the mynahs, pigeons and even the hens & chickens joined in the fun.

Up went the balloons, Down came the tears

I can't remember the last time I cried at a movie, let alone a cartoon. And I mean really cry, the sort that leaves eyes red and swollen, the sort that is uncontrollable like a spoilt tap, the sort that ends up with a heap of tissue papers.

After exposing my junior to transforming robots and magic spells recently, I thought an innocent cartoon like "UP" would be a nice change. I walked into the theatre expecting a good hearty laugh, like the experiences I had with that of "ICE AGE" and "MONSTER INC".

So I couldn't believe it when I ended up crying through the first part of the movie before the real adventure even started... in fact, I had tears flowing whenever that background music was playing, whenever the camera zoomed in on the Adventure Book and whenever Me Frederickson stared blankly at his house or his wife's photos.

As I walked out of the theatre at the end of the movie, I was still tearing. And just when I thought that was the end of a teary evening, my eyes swelled up again on my way home just by the mentioning one of the scenes. The one which Mr Frederick flipped the adventure book for the last time and saw his wife's farewell note to him, thanking him for the extraordinary adventure he had given her all those years and asking him that it was time that he seek his own.

It must be the most touching and beautiful cartoon I have ever watched but then again, it may be just my preggy hormones taking over and playing tricks on me.

Adieus Eden

This post should have been up on the night before the move but we totally over-estimated what we could achieve over the last 2 days before the move.

So the night before the move, we were still struggling with the last batch of laundry, squeezing the last bit of stuff into whatever holes we managed to create in the already bursting boxes and finally sealing them before going to bed exhausted.

Being preggy, I was of no value and could only get in the way during the move so first thing in the morning, I made myself scarce by soaking in a lengthy brekky downstairs, reading every line published on the Straits Times and going for a full hair cut with wash & blow (when what I really needed was just a 5 min trim of my fringe).

Periodically, I would sms The Man to monitor the progress, anxious to know if everything went smoothly. Then came an unexpected hiccup... somehow, our humongous sofa could not pass through the main door (even though it has been dismantled into 2 separate pieces)! So, the movers had no choice but to leave it outside at the corridor.

My father-in-law wouldn't give up as he adored the piece and has even gotten rid of his old sofa so as to welcome this giant.

Ingeniously, he sawed the wooden legs apart... pushed it through into the house with the help of The Man... and then fixed the legs back again perfectly once it was in the house. This activity alone took up the entire afternoon as it was no easy feat at all!

Then, last night came another hiccup, less dramatic by comparison though. After discarding yet another round of my clothes in the afternoon (already discarded one round before the move), I finally managed to squeeze all my working clothes into the new wardrobe, satisfied with my achievement for the day. Just before retiring to bed after another back-breaking day, the hanging bar in the new wardrobe decided to give way! Too much clothes... overloaded... my father-in-law diagnosed. I could only curse.

Other than that, everything else seemed to work out... so far so good!

Next thing would be to get all those bulky items that don't fit into this house into storage and of course... continue with the never ending unpacking by the next few days! This will be our little nest for the next 3 years so no effort shall be spared to make it nice & comfortable :)

Last LaLaLa Lesson

I just had my last vocal lesson before I go pop my junior.  Why call it LaLaLa?  At least that is what I saved as my weekly appointment in my hand phone's calendar.  

It all happened one fine day early this year when The Man came home with a piece of paper and shoved it into my face.

"Look! I have signed you up for vocal lessons :)"

"You what?  Hey, doesn't mean that you are having your mid-life crisis and start learning piano, I also need to go learn something mah..."

"Trust me, you will like it"

And he was right.   

Although it is only an hour weekly, it falls on a weekday and back then, I was worried that I may end up skipping more lessons than attend them due to the hectic and unexpected work schedule. However, the thing is I found out I was pregnant just before the lessons commenced... all the better... since I started my LOA by then and had all the time in the world.

Then came another worry... can pregnant women do vocal trainings?

Innocently, I posted the question to my Gynae.

For a moment, he looked stunned and then chuckled.

"You know what... in all my years of being a gynae, this is the first time I am asked this question!  I get lots of questions like can I do yoga... can I travel etc but not this!"

He paused for another moment in deep thoughts.

"Well, it is mostly about breathing techniques right?"

I nodded.

"And you do enjoy it right?"

I nodded again.

"Well... guess there shouldn't be any problem then!  Maybe you can be my first patient who sings during delivery :)"

I took that as a joke of course.

That was moons ago... and thinking back, I enjoyed the lessons and did it make me a better singer?  Well... perhaps not but it did expose me to different ways to treating a song, sight reading and also understand my own range and tone better.

To sum it up, I will do this over karaoke anytime :)

"Lelong Lelong"

The past weeks saw my first attempt at selling on ebay.  I have always wanted to try doing so just for the fun of it but never felt so compelled to do so until now due to the move.

There are just items around the house which somehow fall into the category of "To Be Sold":

• Items which we adore but are too huge and irrelevant for the next 3 years (hope the new owners will treat them with TLC like we did)
• Items which are just not suitable or have no value-add for the Salvation Army
• Items which are in perfect working condition but we have duplicates or newer versions (I still can't believe we found 3 extra keyboards in the house other than those already connected to the 2 machines we have)

Turned out that it can be a lot of work putting up these items for sale and to follow through (unless you do a really sloppy job) but it was pretty fun and it sure opened my eyes to some ebay buying behaviours:

• Some interested buyers love engaging in lengthy and detailed Q&A (i.e. very kiasi mentality)
• Some interested buyers are really shrewd at bargaining (must learn from them)
• Some interested buyers really don't mind going through a lot of trouble just to get what they want (eg travelling cross country just to view or buy a small item)
• In general, most people are just nice folks...

So far, I have my fair share of successes and failures in this little venture and I was casually updating The Man about it:

Me: So far, we have gotten $XXX for the items but we still have a lot of items to get rid of leh.  Shall I collect all the earnings first and then deposit them back in the joint account?

(Ehem... I approached this venture in a very democratic manner)

The Man: AIya, no need lah... just keep all the $$ from whatever you manage to sell.

Me: Really uh? You mean like doing this for my own pocket money since I am income-less for the moment?

The Man: Ya ya ya... 

Suddenly, it seemed like a lot more items around the house should make their appearances on ebay... hahaha... so much for democracy!