Rain Rain Go Away...

Travis turns 5 in June which also means, like any normal kid, he's already in the why-stage.

He's not big on rain because it often comes with booms of thunder these days and this disrupts his afternoon nap. This morning, he asked me in a worried tone, "why is there a rainy season?"

Key Factors That Affect Precipitation Levels
Amount of Water Vapor: Evaporation is how most of the water vapor enters the atmosphere, and air near large bodies of water such as oceans have the highest levels of water vapor. Also, higher temperatures increase evaporation rates. Consequently, air in tropical regions downwind from large sources of water tends to have the highest levels of water vapor, while air in temperate and polar regions in the center of large continents tends to have the driest air. In this example, geography influences amount of water vapor that influences precipitation levels.

NOW I KNOW.

* I must admit actually I've been surfing the internet more aggressively these days!*

Grade 1 Exam

Becks will be having her Grade 1 Piano Examination next Thursday, 5 Mar.
Amazingly, I don't find myself anxious. Ha.

Summarizing my feeling in a typical Singaporean way - can pass can already lah!

:D~~~

These days I see women getting 'excessively generous' with this cosmetic on their lips. I really cannot appreciate it - it looks like they are salivating perpetually. Talking to them is distracting. YUKS!

Debut Parent-Teaching Meeting

The 1st part consisted of briefing parents the new syllabus of teaching Chinese. The session lasted for more than half an hour in Mandarin with Chinese presentation slides. M and I really tried to stay awake. I caught the part where the teaching of this subject will now be split into 2 sections: 核心 and 深广 (what do they mean???). Life does get complicating.

The 2nd part consisted of presentation given by the respective subject teachers. This was easier to get through. Frankly I attended mostly out of curiosity for Becks' classroom, the room where she spends most of her time in now. It being an old school building, it jogged many memories to what I experienced 28 years ago.

What talking you?

"To welcome with mountain, to fondle with wind...."
http://www.pauselandis.com.tw/english/e_about.htm

We welcome the world of bad English. :P

VD

Can't forget that Cupid's arrow strikes tomorrow, can I? 14 Feb - Valentine's Day! After attending Becks' 1st Parent-Teacher Meeting, I will be rushing off to attend Mich's solemnization at Gallery Hotel.

The lil girl grows up!
*now Whitney Houston's long-forgotten song - I'm Every Woman - is creeping into my head*

PTM (MB)

I skipped the entire year-crossing without a single entry on Becks' life-defining *erm....* moment: admission into Primary One.

It will definitely be ingrained in my lifetime, with or without my blogging. Anyway time really flies. I'll be having my first Parent-Teacher Meeting tomorrow, at the school premise. I don't know how it's structured but the letter indicated a 2-hour session! *Pray tell, WHAT will it consist of????*

*cough cough*

It started with shortness of breath in the noon inside the cinema when we were watching Underworld: Rise of the Lycans *yes yes, I obliged*, then by evening, I was wheezing. By the next day, I was a productive phlegm factory, suffering from a massive headache.
I was diagnosed, after 34 years in this life, with bronchitis!

2 days' medical leave which I made use of properly....now back to work!

Singapore...is it true???

Everyone roars apart from me. I can feel Jane looking at me, trying to think of something to say.

“Josh told me you were in Hong Kong,” she says pleasantly.

“That’s right.”“I was in Singapore for 2 years. I really fell in love with Asia. The food, the people, the culture.”

“Not the same thing,” I tell her.

“Excuse me?”

“Not the same thing. Hong Kong and Singapore. It’s the difference between a rainforest and a golf course. Singapore being the golf course.”

“You don’t like Singapore?” she says, her face crumpling.

“Too sanitized,” I say firmly. “Singapore is nothing like Hong Kong. Didn’t somebody once say that Singapore is Disneyland with the death penalty?”

Jane sadly turns her face to the fancy salad before her.

“When were you ever in Singapore, Alfie?” Josh (host of the dinner) demands.

“What?” I say, playing for time.

“I said ..’when were you ever in Singapore?’”. He is not smiling at me anymore. “I don’t recall you ever going to Singapore but suddenly you are the big expert.”

“I’ve never been to Singapore.” I say with an infuriating smugness.

“Then you don’t really know what you’re talking about, do you?” Josh says.

“I know I wouldn’t like it.”

“How do you know that?”

“I wouldn’t like anywhere that they say is like Disneyland with the death penalty.”

“Singapore Sling,” Lily says. We all look at her as if she is mental. “Fine cocktail,” she adds……..then they are all yakking about their favourite cocktails.

- One for My Baby
By Tony Parsons
* Dunno if I should laugh or cry at this one. Just feels weird to be reading about your country in a gwai lo's book*

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust...

"I'm not a big cemetery man. I've never been.....

If you want to remember the dead - or rather if you want to see the dead, if you want to meet them, to see them smile, to reassure yourself that they are at peace now - then you have to look inside yourself. That's when you will find them. That's where the dead lives."

- One for My Baby
By Tony Parsons
*yes, I'm still reading. This guy makes me cry*

The reason why I decided to blog this is because just recently, few days before I read the paragraph in the book, I asked my mom if she still went to Mount Vernon Columbarium to pay respects to gong gong on the first day of Chinese New Year. She said she did and quickly added that after her death and dad's, sis and I should just scatter their ashes into the sea because on top of inconvenience *oops*, it doesn't make sense that the dead is lying in that urn behind the wall and that one's obligation shouldn't be just confined to going to a specific spot on certain days of the year.

This coming from my mom, who doesn't seem to have a care in the world, especially in academic pursuits in the past and who aced mainly in mahjong and Cantonese cooking...I was completely bowled over.

Departure

Shen has finally left after 3 weeks in Singapore. He'll be missed...actually no, the way his presence can bring the 3 (sometimes 4) of us together will be missed.