Fabulous 2009!

Goodbye Godpa SC

Learnt many lessons tonight as I celebrate the passing of Godpa SC with his family & friends.

Yes, the word is celebrate. Because as much as it is our earthly loss of Godpa SC, it was much more of Jesus's gain. We believe that Godpa SC is in a better place, right in Jesus's house. A place where every christian longed to be. And he got there first before us.

Hearing the eulogies from various members of the family was enlightening, as they shared about how Godpa SC played pivotal roles in their lives. Memories of Godpa SC came flooded to my mind.

I remember how lovingly he always looks at his wife. Even after a 2hr conversation over dinner. Yes, even if he was silent during the entire dinner, he'll be looking at her with such loving gaze.

I remember his cheeky smile before his cheeky comments.

I remember how gentlemanly he was, at 80yrs old, he'll pamper a young lady like myself by opening the doors, or pulling the chair for me. Usually with a cheeky comment that follows.

He's got eyes that sparkle like a child which totally goes along with that active mind that churns out cheekiness.

He's got a fatherly charm that is hard to resist. One which I wished I had more of, but definitely grateful that I have a share of.

I get to see how many lives he's touched by simply rejoicing in God's love. Its amazing.

How not to love a man like him?

How not to miss a man like him?

Around the neighborhood

We were taking a walk around our neighborhood and found some interesting sightings.

We came across this mini-nursery, racks were filled with numerous potted plants. Almost feel like we are back to the wild, got that jungle feel to this tiny area of our neighborhood.

And guess who has been keeping watch to ensure the "safety" of these plants?


yep, doreamon... hahahaha
CUTE

There was this void deck that was filled with delightfully colored pillars. I cant help but to go around them to check them out. Colors + cute pictures = eye-catching!


Turns out that they are painted by a group of youths that has a club near this void deck!

Definitely a great use of talent & energy!


PLUS, it helps to give gentle reminders to the neighborhood too!

Love it!

Then something more disturbing came to sight. We just changed the railings leading to the central. From the trusty & rusty iron railings (that served us for as long as I can remember), they were changed to lighter, cheaper aluminum ones. They do look more modern and sophisticated. But in less than 1 year, I have seen numerous thief of these railings, causing more replacements = increased cost!


The efforts to remove this piece must have been foiled... I hope the person is caught and sentenced! This is certainly public property! And it is important part of the pedestrian pavement that thousands transcends daily. What if there were elderly folks who were leading on these railings for a rest and with the weaken structure, falls into the drain behind it? It'll be disastrous!

Last but not least, these potted plants has been residence of our neighborhood for a few months. Perhaps due to lack of care or improper maintenance. They never really flourished since day 1. With the regular monsoon rain, they have also became a breeding ground for mossies!


I took this picture over the weekend. I told myself that if by the 1st working day, these pots continue to be flooded, I will go speak to the owner of the shops that seems to be the ones "taking care" of these pots. Thankfully, by late morning on Monday, these pots were cleared away! The shop has also seems to ceased operations. At least they were mindful not to leave a mossie breeding ground behind! Goody!

It's been a fun walk around the neighborhood!

Till the next time!

Our 1000th post!

Wow, its been that long since this blog was started by Ad. Now we're at our 1000th post! Incredible.

This blog has given me a place to narrate some bits of our lives together, a point of venting out some frustrations and most of all, an opportunity to share our joys & tears with some folks whom we do not get to meet up often.

This blog has also became the reference point for our pineapple tart recipe! (soon, it'll be time to dig it out again)

On this big milestone, let us share how our lives had grown outside our home. These amazing greenery has became such a big part of our lives. Each time BabyA (well, not so baby anymore) comes by, he'll remember to smell them on his way to the lift. Its almost like a comforting gesture to complete his tour of Godpa & Godma's house.


We were shocked as we unearthed our vintage money plant. Check out how the roots has coiled itself round and the round the base of the pot....

And guess what? It eventually grew OUT of the pot!

Amazing eh?

Never underestimate the power of non-moving living things. They'll always find a way to amaze you.

After seeing our vintage plant, let me show you the latest member to our "garden", its our lemon balm, courtesy of our dear fren J. I think I stole a stock back home some time last year. And today, it has taken over our mint (killing it eventually). Initially we thought that the mint was a run away plant, while this lemon balm was a "indoor" plant, so can share pot. But it grew and grew and grew.... till the point where I had to place some supporting structure for it to keep growing up wards. Can you spot it?



Last but not least, actually, now that the vintage money plant is gone. This pot would be the oldest surviving member of the garden. Our Rosemary! We bought it in a tiny pot from a farm near Sembawang about 2 years ago (or was it 3? hmm... cant remember). And today, its pretty strong on its own, often providing our herb when we prepare meat! Yummy!



Did you notice that its not really growing INside? ha ha ha...

That's how wrap our plants are. Pretty much like our lives too at times, you can wake up feeling great and you are greeted by a chain of sad news. Or when you are feeling displaced and shitty, you get pleasantly surprised! Very unpredictable.

Life's short, enjoy it!

Home Sweet Home

Being away from home this time was phenomenally different from our previous long trips. We got to stay in a house with cooking facilities and that really helped us to overcome all our home-sickness. Shows the huge impact FOOD has in our lives!

Which means to say... we din miss home that much! ha ha ha

But definitely miss the family & friends here!

Its great to be back! No more living out of the suitcase. No more expensive & salty food. No more ching-ching of the credit card like crazy (due to shopping...)

Never thought I'll feel overdose of shopping at the outlets, but 3 different outlets in 3 consecutive days really gets to you. Especially when you find better buys, more vouchers as the day goes by. It can get tiring with carrying so many great buys too.

Someone please remind me of my OD if I were to mention shopping again for the rest of the year. haha

Fun with Shoes!

Peak Hour Train traffic

On this evening, we thought that we'll have a better chance of reaching Changi Airport via train. We had to do a transfer towards the East-West line at City Hall and guess what?



The train at the station was already jammed packed with passengers while there's a massive crowd waiting to board the next train. The crowd seems to be used to this situation as most were armed with either newspapers or a book or music player or some game machine. No one was pushing, no one was mumbling about the wait.

Interestingly, even though the next train was scheduled within the next min, the current train was stuck in the station for more than 5mins! ha ha ha....

We watched the clock nervously, sensing that the train is not going anywhere, we left the station to grab a cab towards the airport instead.

Gosh, I wont wanna be stuck like this on a daily basis. Hope that was a rare situation that we happen to meet!

Some videos r lost forever!

Not sure when the settings were changed... but we've lost some precious videos dating from Dec 08... boo hoo hoo...

Yummies!

Ad did it again!

He served up Boon Tong Kee standard chicken rice after 2.5hrs of intensive preparation & cooking.

Together with "ling-lok" (lemon coke in cantonese), its just yummy beyond words!

Our 1st Fishing trip!

Its been super long time since i took the boat out to the sea. I remember my sis used to bring me along for her company's leisure activities which also involved fishing on a bumboat. Those were fun days when we planned our logistics, food, drinks, lunch, fishing line, bait etc. Waking up at 5am in the morning to catch the early bus to the Boon Lay interchange to wait for the other fishing members... Gosh, I think 2 decades has past us by!

Here's our short fishing tale on a newer, much well-loved Sea Bird!


High tech fishing reel now, gone are the hand reels where you have to reel your fish in manually!











My first and ONLY catch for the day! Thankfully it came quite early at the start of the day, hee hee.

Fabulous 2008!

2008 was a fabulous year despite all the economic turmoil, we still found alot of joy, laughter, fun and most of all LOVE.

Thank you to all of you who has made our 2008 so memorable!

Here's something to remember 2008 with....