Bai Tian Gong

Sunday was the 8th Day of CNY, Tian Gong's Birthday. As a tradition, family would pay their respect to Tian Gong at 12am sharp to wish for Tian Gong's protection over the family. It used to be an elaborated affair with 5 types of candies, 5 types of cakes, 5 types of fruits & 5 types of meat as offerings, then the family will have something hot & soupy (mee suang or steamboat) for supper to celebrate Tian Gong's birthday! But with modernization & nucleus family within a household, everything's been very much simplified. Some even just pray in the temple. For my dad, it's still at home at 12am sharp, all dressed up, but with a much simplier set offerings.

Well, SIMPLE is NOT the word to describe the way Dar's folks' way of celebrating Tian Gong's birthday! Besides mee suang, they also had a pair of bamboos, paper dolls for each & everyone pf the family, special pineapple specially for praying to Tian Gong, Dar's dad even play chanting songs on his cassette recorder!!! It was such a colourful & interesting sight!

Our Busy & Unlucky Day

It was a busy day on Sunday, lots to do: return offerings back to Tai Sui Ye @Cai Shen Ye Temple, meet gals for farewell lunch with Sufen @Katong laksa, went Plaza Singapura to return cable box & buy yarn from Spotlight Sale, went Chinatown Point to get crystal water feature, have dinner with my parents, go Bai Tian Gong with Dar's parents, then Bai Tian Gong at my Parents'... Phew! SO glad when it was all over!

Unlucky Star #1: Forgetfulness
When we got onto the car in the morning, Dar realized he left another Manulife i/d card at home. Thought will come back home to collect after Cai Shen Ye Temple. But when we reached the temple, I realized I left another bag of offerings at our dinning table!!! So we went home to take the stuff, then return to the temple before heading towards Katong...

Unlucky Star #2: Traffic Monster
We made a wrong turning, so had to make another round to get around those complicated 1-way roads along Katong. When we reached the coffeeshop, Sufen SMS to ask for a lift from Parkway. At this moment, coz a STUPID FATHER holding the hands of a toddler was walking veyr far out onto the raod, & impatient Dar tried to steer towards the right so as to avoid knocking them down like bowling pins, misgauged & hit the rear mirror of a silver vehicle parked illegally by the road side! There was a loud bang! Fortunately Dar's rear mirror is mobile, so it just shuts inwards when it hit the other rear mirror, so there wasn't any damage... Phew! When we got to the drop off point at Parkway, the gals (as usual) are not there yet. So we had to make 4 rounds around the drive way!

Unlucky Star #4: Loud Bang!
1st loud bang that shocked us was of course the one mentioned in the Traffic Monster. Then while we were having lunch, chit-chatting away at the air-conditioned Katong laksa place, there was a sudden loud explosion & blackout followed! Everyone was shocked. But the most amazing part is how almost immediately after the shock, everyone just laughed & went back to their laksa bowl, as if nothing had happened! We were jokingly asking the engineers & architect among us if this is safe & if we should be running for our lives! haha... Isn't it amazing how Singaporeans (including ourselves of course) are taking security for granted. If this were to happen in other country, think most likely everyone would've fled out of the place! Who knows it might even be some terrorist attack?!?! The other loud bang that shocked us, or rather me, took place when we went to my mum's, we took the other lift that we don't usually use. When we reached our floor, the lift jerked up & down & the door jerked open with a very loud bang! For a moment, I thought the lift cable was gonna give way!

Unlucky? Luck?? Star #5: $$$
Went to Spotlight sale & got $113.64 worth of yarn! Happily brought everything up to show my mum, only to realized the cashier had forgotten to give me VIP discount!!! 30%... that's $30 over!!! Called them up to verify & had to go back to Spotlight to void the previous transaction & make a new payment. After discount, it was $33.78 cheaper!!! Luckily we decided to go over to my parents' after Crystal shopping, otherwise, to make a trip down from Sembawang, don't think it's worth the effort at all! Hmm... so probably we should look at it from another perspective... it should've been our lucky $$$ star that day afterall! :)

Happy Birthday to All Mankind

Today is the 7th Day of CNY, ie. Ren Ri. So happy birthday one & all! Met up with mum to pass a baby booties to an Indonesian Knotty Fan. Dad had mahjong session, so we went to Vivo City to meet Dar for dinner. Yes, Vivo City again... Like Dar said, we can apply for membership to Vivo liao! On the way to Vivo, ran into Cindy & Ian who were going to Central. On the train, ran into another fellow MAADsters, young guy, didn't get his name :P It was like a mini MAAD gathering on the train! hehe... After all the tiring shopping around Vivo, Dar called to say maybe we won't have dinner at Vivo! Iyo! So we went to Tiong Bahru Plaza instead, had steamboat at our favourite place! haven't been there for so long! But amazing that the waitress still remembers us! It was a peaceful & satisfying meal. :)

Fatty, Prosperous & Happy Golden Pig Year!

What a busy week! Busy EATING!!! Must've gained at least 5kg! Yah, I know & everyone also noticed that I've put on a lot of weight since end of last year. :P Strangely, I'm not disturbed at all. Feel quite neutral or even happy about it! hehe... don't know why...???

Anyway, been pigging out since last Fri, eve of CNY eve. Was at my mum's to bai ah gong. Had our 1st lou hei this year, also had a sumptious dinner. Look how my aunt is pigging out to welcome Mr Golden Pig this year liao! :D

Then on CNY eve, Sat, Ed & I were home the whole day to do our last minute Spring Cleaning. We have a few new neighbours moving in & were doing lotsa reno for the past few weeks to rush for CNY, so our house is VERY DUSTY since our place has an open concept. It was so dusty, Dar was sneezing non-stop! We cleaned up Oreo's catch too. Oh, check out our Chinese New Year Innovation - the One & Only New Year Tree!!! hehe... It was so funny! We've been wanting to do this since 2 years ago actually... :P Then we went to Ed's parents' place for dinner.

Sometimes Ed's folks can be so strange. Apparently they ate before we reached their place for reunion dinner! Well, we did reach there later than expected due to our Spring Cleaning, we reached there around 7pm, but isn't reunion dinner supposed to be eaten TOGETHER, that's why it's called "Reunion" Dinner right? Anyway, they did join us in eating the dishes & finger food while we eat la. Our families are so different. For my side, usually we will wait for everyone no matter how hungry we are, unless the family member mentions not to wait for him/her for dinner. But for Dar's family, his mum will just place food on the table & then it's "own time, own target". I still prefer my family's way... :)

On the 1st day of CNY, as usual, we met at Marina Mandarin Hotel to see the Annual Lion Dance Performance. We've been doing this as a family for as long as I can remember! It's become part of us. Think Dar & I will carry on this "tradition" with our kids, even after my parents are gone. Somehow this tradition always mark the start of CNY & always adds a lot of festive mood to our CNY. That why even though sometimes, like this year, the Lion Dance may start very early (8.27am this year), we'll still make it a point to wake up early to catch it.

Another "tradition" of our family is to go Neptune for lou hei & dim sum lunch after the lion dance. Unfortunately, Neptune has recently closed down. This is so saddening :( I think I can even feel a little sense of loss in my dad, now that we no longer going to Neptune for our Annual CNY Dim Sum Lunch. He always likes that place. He's even brought my mum there for a date before! then we've been there for our Annual CNY Dim Sum Lunch for as long as I can remember! Now Dar-Dar is determined to use this 1 year to hunt down another nice place where we can have our Annual CNY lunch :)

The rest of the CNY break is just lotsa FOOD, LAUGHTER & of course, GAMBLING, especially MAHJONG for both of us!!! :)

This year's CNY is also very special to the Gals, since this is the 1st time the 7 of us get to get together after a long long time! It's really something worth celebrating! We've been close friends Since Sec1! Wow! We've actually known each other for more than 16years already!!! I'm sure we'll be friends for a long, long time... & I hope our kids can also be friends in future :)

Mum's Birthday

This year since I'm not working, I went out with mum to celebrate her birthday. Bought her an Aquamarine pendant reccomended by Ayako, which she loves the colour. I also gave her an ang bao to thank her for all her help to make Knotty Bicsie possible. We met up at Central where we had Japanese food. I used my sub-card from Dar to pay for our lunch. So Dar, Lunch on you! hehe....

Then we went shopping for bags. I bought a cute little basket bag for CNY & bought a basket shopping bag for mum. After shopping, we went home to wait for Dad before we go for steamboat dinner at Liang Seah St. Poor Dar had to work OT till 9+, so ended up eating at the coffeeshop below my mum's flat, late that night.

Another Happy Thing Today!!!

Haha... I know it's strange posting 3 publishes in a row, but thoughts keep coming & things keep happening one after another! :P

Dar-Dar just got home... with my Valentine's Day gift!!! Somehow, during one of my looong MRT journey, my gut feeling told me that he's getting it for me :P The funny thing is that the moment I saw the packaging, I knew it was the same gift Tom had given Ayako for V Day! Haha...!!! Coz it's the exact same packaging that Tom had asked me to secretly keep for him at MAAD the last time! hehe... & I LOVE the gift! It's a VERY BEAUTIFUL silver kaleidoscope pendant! I've always love kaleidoscope :) It's really beautiful, BEAUTIFUL, VERY BEAUTIFUL!!! :D

Thank you, Dar-Dar!

The BIG Reveal!

Haha! Dar-Dar FINALLY read the mail! Well, he's touched, of course (he better be!) :P He was actually speechless for a long time, quietly reading through many of my publishes... In fact, he's even left me & all of you guys visiting this blog a comment under the publish entitled "Happy Valentine's Day!". The following is his message to you all:

"for all those ppls who have been and even left message on the blog... thank you for all your blessing and wish you a very happy valentine's day. And Please visit the blog again.... we will defintely like to share all our happy moments with all of you."

Feel very loved & blessed. Many happy things are happening... just today alone!

1) Elaine brought me ot her friends' shop at Arab Street area, custome-made 2 blouses which I designed myself, so very "ME", sweet sweet but weird weird one. hehe... Very nice experience, very exciting!

2) Sufen & Yanlin are back!!! Called them both & had a SHORT chat with them. Both of them sound chirpy & excited to be back. Yay...!!! Can't wait for next Tuesday's gathering at the Fans!

3) Went to look for the Jap/Korean shop at The Edge. Found MANY nice clothes that I like! & that lady at the shop, Apple, is also very nice to talk with... I spent a good whole hour at the shop! Bought 2 tops. hehe... Apparently she also likes to do simple detailed modification to the clothes she gets from Japan & Korea. We exchange namecards. Hmm... am sure she'll fall in love with my Knotty Shoes! Maybe can place some at her shop next time to sell! :D

4) Ran into Auntie Doris, had a quick chat, updated her abt what I'm doing now & told her my plans to order labels for Knotty Shoes in future...

Just read Dar-Dar's comment & re-read everyone's comment... I'm SOOO.... OVERWHELMED with bliss & happiness! I really feel that Love is All Around! Like what Siew Huey said, Valentine's Day this year, even though no special activity, is extremely special... I feel we are all celbrating it together! We really should celebrate all our love for each other! Thanx for being such wonderful people in my life!

Dar, we will grow old together, with a stronger bond each day, with countless beautiful memories to look back on when we flip through our albums & journals with our grandchildren...

Dear Friends, you are & always will be part of our laughters & joy! Let's have a very loving & happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is in fact "just another day". However, it is up to us to make it a special day. We can either be cynical & stereo-type all gestures of love to be blind-followers/victims of commercialisation; or we can take this as an opportunity to remind ourselves to show & celebrate our love for each other! This is very important because very often, admit it or not, we tend to take each other for granted in our daily rat race. I must say doing this blog has been a wonderful experience & I have not felt this strong emotional attachment to any of my creations for the past 2 years, since my last exhibition. Now, I hope Knotty Shoes will kick off well & I will soon re-merge as a confident artist I used to be... :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Let's celebrate our LOVE...!!!

Love is in the Air...

Time flies...

Ayako flew to NZ last night.

Valentine's Day is 2 days away...

Finally, the time has come to reveal this secret love blog to Dar-Dar! Will be sending an email to him to wish him Happy Valentine's Day & get him to click on the link where he'll get his "e-card", which is this blog lo. How else right? I know it's boring... but this blog IS the SURPRISE by itself mah! :P

Been very busy with the City Carnival at SMU. Very disappointing experience. Luckily was there with friends & cousin, at least it's a good get together. So really can't finish knitiing the shirt for Dar wor :( only completed 75%, haven't done the collar & sleeves... iyo, all the knitting & crochet I've been doing for Knotty Bicsie is equivalent to many shirts liao, yet can't finish a shirt for Dar-Dar for 8months! Sorry, Dar! It was meant to be your birthday present last yr, but couldn't finish, busy in Dec as well, so X'mas also not in time... Now this year also been quite busy, so... sorry! But will surely finish your shirt by this year. I promise! :)


Ian learnt knitting from me last Sat. He's a fast learner! Let him do a small project - hp pouch. he started around 10+ in the morning & was knittng & knitting the whole time... & by 4/5pm, e's completed the pouch! Found out this pouch was for Cindy! O... it's so sweet of him! Look at the power of LOVE! :D Well done, Ian! We are proud of you!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO...

Mom & Dad,

Jiahui & Pearlin,

Adrian & Micheal,

Mr & Mrs Fan,

Mr & Mrs Mok,

Amit & Yuying,

Lazius & Huiyang,

Howard & Siew Huey,

Tom & Ayako,

Ian & Cindy,

Mr & Mrs Byun,

Gorazd & Moja,

Sufen, Yanlin, Elaine, Chenyee, & all lovable people out there!

Of course, Happy Vantine's Day to Dar-Dar & me too!!! :)

Almost a Blunder!

Just a quickie...

Phew! That was so close! I actually asked Ayako to go read my blog where I've copied one of Tom's funny SMSes in front of Edward! But I really wonder why his reaction was so mild...??? Was he too tired to register that? Or did he already find out about this blog?!?! (I've been using his laptop actually :P) Iyo, I sure hope it's the former!

Just finished packing for SMU. Oh man! It's already 3.35am! & I need to wake up in 3hrs' time! Tmr surely panda liao... @.@

*YAWN*

Heart Attack on Ayako's Birthday!!!

Woken up by Tom's SMS telling us that Ayako insisted on have Korean food & nothing else for her birthday. So informed the rest while Tom finds out the restaurant name & address. Tried asking Tom to make sure that she doesn't decide to go shopping in orchard 1st & end up waiting at the restaurant earlier than us. Well, we all know this is almost IMPOSSIBLE! True enough, after everything's been arranged, Tom gave me another heart attack with this SMS: "Oi...that woman...she having lunch at e Korean place...now she says we can go to Buckaroo...u can strangle her later. Guess back 2 original plan..." WABIANG!!! I really felt like doing just that at that moment! Had to text the rest again, change meeting place & timing again, call up the Korean restaurant to cancel our reservation... Iyo! Planning a surprise has never been so tough! Hehe... LOVE the way Tom refers to Ayako as "that woman"... it's SOOO... hilarious! hahaha... :D

I remember the 1st BIG surprise I've ever planned was for my sis's 21st birthday. Being her blur self, it wasn't that tough actually :P I've wrapped up 21 presents & placed them all around our house, at places where she "frequent". I planted them all around over a period of 2 weeks before her birthday, without her even noticing! & yes, they are all wrapped up nicely in fancy wrapping paper! On the actual day, she had a fun time treasure hunting & of course, unwrapping all 21 presents! Some are actually "nonsense" like cotton buds, sanitary pad, cotton wool, tissue packs... heehee...

I did something similar for Edward's 28th Birthday (his 1st birthday we celebrated together). It was on the eve of our departure to Chiangmai together. Can see that he was having lotsa fun. He was amazed by how oblivious he was to the things in his room! Yes, I managed to blend in 27 presents in his room without him noticing! the 28th was given to him on the actual day when we were in Chiangmai. I know he's touched. He told me he's never recieved so many presents before, & everything he always wanted. Remember the last time I mention I've been helping Dar add on to his toy collection? Yup, bought him lotsa toys, plus some other useful stuff like clothes, tie, watch, camera... la.

I've always like surprises. I mean, who doesn't? It's quite hard to imagine why anyone would dislike surprises. Surprises add colours, smiles, laughters, joy, love... & many wonderful things to our lives. As we plan the surprise, we do it with love for the receiver & when we receive it, I'm sure we feel very loved. Then when it's the BIG "SURPRISE!!!", everyone laugh... sometimes there might even be tears of joy... & the best of all, when we all look back many years later, flipping through our photo albums, we remmeber how much we love each other, how much we mean to each other...

Back to Ayako's birthday.... the worst was yet to come... just when I was all changed & getting ready to leave the house, I suddenly remembered my keys were in Edward's car!!! So I'm locked in!!! What a NIGHTMARE!!!! I called Ed, Cindy & Elaine... I could really feel my heart sank... It felt like I've given up liao... haven't felt like this for a long long time... told them to go ahead as planned without me... Suddenly, I remembered we must've kept an extra set of spare keys in the kitchen drawer like my mum always does. Went to dig into the drawers & TA DA!! There it was, a set of spare keys!!!! So hurried out to our meeting place.

Cindy, Ian & Elaine were late... made me even more "gan jiong", especially when Tom SMS me that he's already picked up Ayako from Orchard! When we finally got there, we were, or at least I was, so "gan jiong" that I think the boss of Buckaroo also felt the tension! hehe... when everything's set, we went to our hiding place & wait... & wait... & wait... actually we were having fun waiting la. Elaine even went to the road to take photo of the place! Ian laughed at her,\saying it would be so embarrassing if their taxi were to arrive then & Ayako actually saw her taking photo on the road! haha.... by the way, Elaine was our BIG trump card if everything else failed, since she was supposed to be at the hospital mah! hehe.... am sure she'll get some nagging from her mom when she gets home since she was discharged only in the afternoon & there she was with us, fooling around at Buckaroo!!! hahaha..... :D

I hope Ayako likes the surprise. She looks very happy. I'm very happy too. Elaine was exceptionally happy since she kept saying, "the mashed potato is very nice.... the chicken is very nice... x3, x4, ...." hahaha.... the food must've felt like from heaven after suffering a week plus of hospital food! Dar & I had to sit far apart coz he join us later & I was sitting all the way inside the far end... :(

I also remember the BIG surprise party Dar oganized for my last year. He woke up much earlier than me to wash the toilet, mop the floor & made me mee suar. Puzzled about his cleaning of the house, but thought he was just killing time while waiting for mw to wake up (he usually watch TV to wait for me). He brought me out for movie & afternoon tea. Everything was quiet & peaceful, just the way I usually like to spend time with him. But towards the late afternoon, I noticed he had lotsa SMS & he was reluctant to leave the Botanic Garden tea place... hmm... something's fishy, but I wasn't suspecting anything. Then finally we decided to go home. When I opened the door! I was surprised to see my house decorated with confetti & balloons & a banner saying "Happy Birthday"! Then my parents & sis appeared with a cake, singing happy birthday, then all other friends appeared from their hiding spots to sing me birthday song! It was really very sweet & heart-warming. I feel so loved! Even thinking back now puts a smile on my face... :D Thank you, Dar!

Counting down to Valentine's Day liao... Still haven't thought of how to "present" this blog to Dar??? He's working on V Day, this Sunday will be at SMU the whole day... how??? hmm... still cracking my brain.... Worst of all, the shirt I've been knitting for Dar (suppose to be for his bday last Dec, then postpone to X'mas, then now V Day) is not done yet... iyo... maybe gotta wait till next bday ar??? o dear... :P

Wa, almost 1pm already?!?! Better go get ready.... Meeting Ayako, Elaine & Cindy to have our aura photos taken. Will bring Cindy to golden dragon to shop for her yarn later. She's planning to knit a scarf for a childhood friend studying in Melborne. So sweet...

A Shocking News on Monday

A huge wall mural my students painted last year was very brainlessly painted over without even consulting the other Art Teacher in school! It disgusts me how these HIGHLY PAID SENIOR OFFICERS of MOE display their stupidity, vanity, selfishness so publicly by such insensitive, inappropriate foolish act!

The mural was gone over the weekend, leaving everyone in school feeling sad, angry, puzzled, pissed on Monday. The Art Teacher tried finding out what & how it happened, none of the decision-maker even bothered to explain themselves! There were cursing & swearing, crying, condolocence...

I was so pissed, I wrote the following email to the whole school last night. But till now, nothing from them still... I'm really angry with them! When did schools become a nest for such BIG FAT HYPOCRITS?!?!


Email to School...
====================================================================
Dear All,

Hope this email finds everyone well...

This afternoon I received a shocking SMS from a student. I am very disturbed by what I learnt from the student & hence hope to find out from the school what exactly happened.

I understand that the school is going through R&R in preparation for the official opening. However, to just paint over a barely 6-month old mural seems rather irrationale & inconsiderate towards our students' feelings, isn't it? When I asked how they feel, their response is "now see the wall sians lo... spend so much time put in so much effort for wat?..."

I still recall how many of the Art Council members were initially reluctant to pay extra $12 for the workshop, some even feel that since they can't bring home their work, the school should pay as the mural is part of the school anyway. Joey & I had to convince them by saying that we are part of the school & the beauty of it all is that when they are in Sec 3/4, they can proudly show their junior that the mural was their GIFT FOR THE SCHOOL. Many were then motivated. In fact, they even came back extra Saturdays to complete the mural. When it's all done, they feel so proud that they even wanted PHAC's CCA booth to be in front of the mural at all functions & not forgetting the assembly program they did to announce their achievement to the school!

I am shocked not by the school's action in painting over the wall; I'm shocked by the school's sudden decision to do so, seemingly without even any consideration for the students' feelings! I was invited by an ex-student to view her exhibition at Serangoon JC. The school compound is full of colourful wall murals, all painted by students without any teacher nor service vendor's help. Some look really bad in fact. I even teased my student that some of her friends' work are quite embarrassing, but her response (& her friends' too) was, "But it's OUR work! This is OUR school what. & our Principal is very proud of us! Our Principal rocks!" I'm currently conducting an enrichment workshop in Northbrooks Secondary. 1st impression when one steps into the schoolis that it is a very vibrant school with display of students' work everywhere. When you take a closer look, these 'N' Level work is not even so-call "good". They are very average, but definitely students' effort. Think about the message the school is sending out to the kids. Now think about a mother who keeps all her kid's drawings & cards, no matter how ugly they may be. This is Mum's way of telling her kids how she'll always be proud of her kid as long as her kid tries & puts in effort.

Showcasing of students' work is our way of recognizing students' effort & also to boost their self-esteem (especially in neighbourhood schools) becasue it's our way of saying, "We are proud of you!", isn't it? Even if they are so-call "not up to standard", may I ask, not up to whose standard? If even a JC can accept student's mediocre work splashing on huge wall all over the school, who are we, with only Sec 1/2 (last year) kids, with no special Art training, to dismiss our kids' effort just like this? The point here is that the kids have put in A LOT OF EFFORT & they TOOK PRIDE IN WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!! Who are we to say that they do not deserve to be there becasue it's "not up to standard"?!?!

The rationale of displaying students' work have been totally mutated. Many schools are now employing professionals to so-call conduct workshops for students, but ended up getting their professional artists to finish up the work. Do you think these very beautiful end products mean anything to the kids, except the acceptance that they are not good afterall? It disgusts me that schools are using so-call "students' work" to show off, seem like all for vanity & materialism.

In a nutshell, I think this sense of PRIDE & belonging for anything/anywhere is like a chicken & egg issue. I mean, are we proud to be part of Pei Hwa family because Pei Hwa is good; or are we gonna make Pei Hwa good because we are proud to be part of Pei Hwa family?

Just my really sincere & truthful opinion

===========================================================================
Just as expected, there's no respond from the school to my email. In fact, nobody in school even dare comment & respond to it! Of course the management is not worried at all. Like Dar said, who am I??? Only a tiny little ex-school-teacher what! I knew this would be the result - NOTHING. But still, I need to voice this out for my kids. They have to know that people CARE, I care & we care! I know that are furious too. Think they gonna write in to the school as a group to ask why the school did what they did. I hope they go through proper channel & force the school to respond the right way...

Ba Guah

Yay...! Dar told me he got me Ba Guah from Mei Zhen Xiang liao! Thank you Dar-Dar! :D

A Tiring & Rather Disappointing Weekend

MAAD started last weekend. It's been so long since our last MAAD, so think we lost our stamina a little. Suppose to end at 8pm, but for both days, Ayako, Cindy & I packed by 6.30pm :P Shannon complained on Sat, but later never say anything on Sun. Well, actually there's no point staying till 8pm, since the crowd dies off by dinner time, especially on Sun.

Saturday. VERY BAD biz.... so disappointing.... planned to go Chinatown for dinner, but the traffic was so horrible! Jam & no parking :( Suddenly, Ian complained about being car sick & he really looks pale! Must be his lack of sleep the night before, pls oily food at MAAD, PLUS Edward's jerky driving at jams! iyo... poor Ian. So Ian & Cindy got off our car & walk... So romantic... hehe... :P

Ended up changing location. Met at Central, where Ian & Cindy almost got lost. When they finally found us, Ayako got a cramp attack so cannot join us for dinner in the end! So Ian, Cindy, Ed & I just walked into the 1st restaurant we came across (Manhattan Fish...) to settle our dinner. Saturday seemed bnot our day at all! Everythung went wrong!

Sunday. Lotsa Korean tourists in the morning. They are VERY fascinated by my products, took many pictures... Ran into Karen, Sec3/4 classmate. Had a nice chat, she bought a pair of booties from me. Biz also bad... Total sales for the 2 days only around S$100... this is the worst ever for Knotty Bicsie... So sad... :(

Got Ayako a hand-made teddy for V Day & Bon Voyage.

Went to Maxwell Hawker Centre to have Tom's favourite chicken rice. Dar's appetitie was sooo GOOD! He had Char Quay Teow after his chicken rice! He seems a little different after having his Intuitive Drawing with Ayako. I hope this is a good thing. I hope it's not him trying too hard now & his cheerfulness won't last for too long, as usual... :(

Dar, even though I NEED you to be happy in order to be truely happy myself, I do not wish that you pretend to be happy so that I won't be worried about you. You know you can't hide your feelings from me, so I will sense it. I just need you to for once be selfish & think about what you really want/need to make you happy again. There's still lotsa frustration & dissatisfaction within you. You really need to sit down quietly & ask yourself deeply. I miss EDWARD. Pls come back soon...

Everyone Must Take Good Care of Ourselves

Life is so unpredictable. Elaine, someone always so cheerful, sporty & healthy, yet fall so sick suddenly. Everyone's shocked. Everyone's worried. Really hope everything will be fine & we can see more beautiful Saltplay creations at MAAD soon...

Wednesday. As usual, a long day. Went to have lesson with the Taiwanese couple, ended up telling them about Singapore Education System, explaining PSLE & the process of choosing a secondary school for their daugther. Felt very bad so told them it should not be considered a lesson, but they are so very nice, as usual, & said that they would also like to learn more about Singapore from me, hence we were having a lesson too. How understanding & sweet. :)

Went to visit Elaine. She was sleeping when I arrived. Thought will just leave her a note & not wake her, but she woke up while I was digging into my bag for paper :P She looked better, but she complains of being VERY tired all the time. She's been sleeping a lot, & still very bloated & no appetite. At least she's joking a little, that's a good sign...

Walked over to Ikea after that, had lunch, bought "materials" for some gifts, redeemed an Eng Wah movie ticket with my points. Then went for my Art class at Kovan. Grace & Xinyi bought 2 pairs of booties from me to put their hp. Finally changed our payment mode to once every 4 lessons. Anyway, most of them back-pay me liao, so managed to collect some $$$.

Met up with Elaine, Tin Lin & Chay Lee for dinner at Heartland Mall, Sakae Sushi. Really glad to me able to meet up with old colleagues who has become friends along the way. They are all very supportive & still buy lotsa stuff from Knotty Bicsie. Thank you, ladies! :D If only Joey could join us. Joey, you must take good care of yourself wor. You've been falling sick quite often since last year. Take care!

Our conversation somehow still revolves around school. Mixed feelings. Kinda miss those times I have with the students, yet feel relief that I do not have ot handle all these anymore, also felt a little sorry for them (my colleagues)... I tried a few time to "change the topic" by introducing new topics, but somehow, after a few exchanges, they "automatically" revert back to school... & I know, if I were still with MOE, our conversation would have been 100% abt school, & worse still, I might not even be there with them for I would've been so tired by that time of the day & should be at home, stoning, by then!

Dar picked me up after tuition. He hasn't had dinner! Seems like it's happening again. He looked tired & disturbed. I know it's tough on him, but it's also very frustrating & draining to go in circles like this. Always seem to see some improvement, only to realize that we were in denial & we are back to square 1 again. What should we do???

Thursday. Rushing to complete a pair of shoes so that I can send in to uncle today for him to complete by tmr, so I can have at least 3 pairs of shoes on sale at MAAD. So a LITTLE stressed & frustrated (actually I think it's PMS). Then Mum is always trying to be helpful, yet VERY DEPENDENT. Hence, very often end up giving me more work, adding to my burden...

I know I shouldn't be feeling this way, but I can't help it when I sometimes end up having to run a few more errands! I mean, she wants to help me, I KNOW. However, why is it that she doesn't realize that by expecting me to pick her up from her place ALL THE TIME is NOT helping me at all?! I don't drive & we don't stay near each other, & I got other jobs besides Knotty Bicsie! She say's she's got housework to do so she's not doing this full-time really, but I got housework too! I just don't understand why Mum's seems so pampered nowadays. I mean I'm truly grateful to help & really, Knotty Bicsie could not have been possible without her, but I just need her to learn to be a little more independent sometimes.

Frankly, having to juggle with Mum & Dar's expectations/dependence can be very stressful. Mum always create tension verbally (unknowingly); Dar always give me emotional blackmail (unknowingly as well)... Why can't they try to see that I'm trying too? *sigh* Why is it that we always people around us for granted?