How did you get to where you are today?

This is such a great question!

I think I always had a plan on where I want to be in the future. But never until today have I really thought about where I am now and how I got here.

At some point last year, I was exactly where I wanted to be and I got there because I knew where I wanted to go and therefore, the decisions I took resulted in me arriving there. Make sense?

Now, having gotten there, I found myself in a 'standstill' because where do you go from that point since you have already arrived?

And the bad thing was being in a 'standstill' disturbed me very much because I was so used to moving.

The worse thing was, I started to blame other people for me being in a 'standstill' - that I couldn't plan for new directions because of them.

With this simple question, I suddenly saw the truth. Really, I was frightened of my new goals (simply just new trouble which I create for myself - I know!) and insead of moving on with it, I chose to sit still and blame everyone else for me not getting off my butt!

So, there! It's time to stop staying where I am.

A rare sight...

The family went to Pulau Ubin yesterday. Trip was very enjoyable and all in all, very relaxing except for my bad choice of bike to rent. I loved the pink 1980's lady raleigh with the basket in front. It was really pretty, really rural, really classic. But, as I found out much later, it also came with non-responsive gears and a loose seat suspension. Ended up having to push my way up those steep grades and bouncing my way down on the springy seat. I have never ever laughed so much while riding a bike. It was just totally ridiculous! The little one meanwhile, sat comfortably on another bike, which was powered by the big one.

Work

I'm crazy. Been working working working... worse, when the boy is parked at my parents as he has been since Tuesday evening, I work. I have about 40 more things to do on my list to finish today and it's already 7:36pm! My ears are ringing from having spoken too long to people whose monther tongue is not English. Mind you, I have full respect for people who speak English well, even though it's not their first language. My Mandarin is not equivalent to their English for sure. And my nervous system is vibrating from the massive earth shaking roadwords that is occuring right where my office building sits. A colleague of mine likens it to sitting on a massage chair, only negatively comfortable. The big one and the small one is due to appear at my office to pick me up anytime. I have to get back to work, one more item off the list is one more item off my mind. Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Losing it!

After feasting from November, all the way through the 5 day cruise holiday with buffet breakfast, lunch, dinner and even supper, and Christmas and the New Year and the Lunar New Year, it's about time I lose it. Call it giving back, oxidising, consuming less (which was one of my resolutions for 2008) or whatever. I probably wouldn't go to the extent of removing dried shrimps from the vege (*wink at mel) or go back to trying the horrible teeth decaying, stiff neck inducing & challenging maple syrup with lime diet but I most certainly will lose it! 500g a week over 6 weeks should be what they call a SMART target. >>> Specific, Measurable, Attainable (???), Realistic & Time-based.


By the way, this is a picture of 4 fat cells, lifted off here. Eh? All fat cells are equal but some fat cells are more fat than others? Hahhahahhaaa!!!

Another weekend...

SAT|Lion Dance|2 new books - Harry and the Bucketfull of Dinosaurs & The Caboose who got Loose|Violin Lesson|Dinner with SW|SUN|Breakfast&Rockclimbing|Lunch@QQ|Dinner@Carl's Junior|Nightwalking at the Beach|Pong-Pong Football|Stones&Ripples

This morning...

Boy: Mummy, you going to work?
Me: Yes. Today is Thursday, so I need to go to work.
Boy:(pulls my hand)
Me: (sensing reluctance) Oh, you need to practice your violin.
Boy: Now?
Me: Yes
Boy: (pushes me away) Mummy, you go to work!


Hahhahaha!!!

Money, Scope or Title?

I normally ask my interviewees to rank these 3 in order of importance. Surprisingly, the answer I get is always the same: (1) Scope (2) Money (3) Title

There's really no right or wrong answer but I get the feeling that was the safe answer?

I asked the big one and of course, his answer was predictably "ALL 3!"

Maybe I should throw in a 4th - "People" and see what comes back.

Or maybe I should gather the satistics from a pool of people and come back with a managers handbook:

How to motivate employees who are "MTS" or "SMT" or "TMS" etc etc

Hmmmm...

Oh, at this stage in my career, I'm a "MST".

Actor

The boy got the tiny cut on his foot from playing with the door. It's really quite a superficial cut, less than 1 cm long but he made a big deal out of it, frustrating the big one who told him if he continued to rub his foot on the bathroom mat, it'd rot and fall off.

I took a look and wasn't sure if there was anything embedded in the cut so we carried him to the living room to have a better look under stronger lighting. That's made him so worried, the tears flowed non-stop.

Cut to this morning: The boy woke up and began walking around. I asked if his foot was ok. He looked at me, looked at his foot, peeled the plaster off and declared that it was too painful to walk on that leg and started crawling instead.

Cut to breakfast: He was dilly-dallying with his breakfast and crawled away from it. The big one told him he's going to wash his breakfast down the sink and he made a run for it. On both feet.

Cut to now: He's whimpering "Ouch... ouch!!"

Can join star search. Sure win one!

The Macabre

Was at my cousin's place last night and got lured into a game of mahjong... played 4 or 5 games before asking the big one to take over. The pace was getting too quick and I hardly breathed, trying to keep up in the game. I don't know half the rules and have only played seriously ( i.e with real money) less than 5 times in my life!

Anyway, after the big one took over, I found my son watching TV - 2 men were being attacked by giant bugs and there was this giant leech mouth stuck to the head of one of them and trying to ingest the fellow. I walked to the little one and scooped him off the bean bag. His eyes were wide and his expression was one of shock.

I ran the little fellow upstairs, away from the TV, thinking he would go but found him half a minute later, squatting on the staircase landing, still watching the TV from his perch.

As much as it horrifies, we watch.

Why?

Shady deals

Taken after dinner on Sunday. The boys examining their 'red' packets.

4th CNY coming up

1st CNY: Most of the red packets were given to me.
2nd CNY: He threw most of them away.
3nd CNY: He kept them in his bag.
4th CNY: I'm guessing he might become interested in the MONEY inside.

We'd see.

Early Reunion Dinners

Had an early reunion dinner on both sides this year so we are all done with the traditional feasting.

Mom's side. She did some fabulous firsts:
- Shark Fin Soup (*****)
- Pork Rib & Stomach with Abalone Soup (*****)
- Vegetable with Mushrooms (****)
- Prawn Rolls (* only because she bought them so not very good)
- Steamed Giant Prawns (**** forgot the wine!)
- Ah-char(***** I even tarpow!)
- Egg Omelette with Crab Meat, Shark Fin and CharSiew (*****)

With the other side. At Mitzi Cantonese Restaurant (Murray Street):
- Yu Sheng (Boy wanted 'corn flakes', his 8-year-old cousin snubbed him for being ignorant!)
- Cold Plate (Abalone + Prawn Rolls)
- Shark Fin Soup (Mom's better!)
- Whole Suckling Pig (*****This one was really very yummy!)
- Drunken Prawns (****)
- Steamed Fish (****)
- Dried Oyster / Mushroom with those hairy stuff
- Fried Crispy Noodles
- "Or-Nee" with Ginko nuts (**** I like it creamy, not sticky!)

Post # 522

Thank the gods for watching over the little one. He was just a hair's breath away from being run over by a car this morning - he ran behind our car onto the road and straight onto the path of an oncoming car.

For the first time in his life, he hears me screaming at him, at the same time his father threatening to beat him up and at the same time, his doting grandmother scolding him in chinese. Must have shook him up proper because he cried buckets. Hope he has learnt his lesson.

"Hobby Career"

I'm close to completing the requirements to turn my hobby into an income stream. I call it "insurance against job volatility ". Am pretty excited by it.

Pivot

Late Sunday evening, the boy was showcasing how acrobatic he can be both on and with the shopping cart, much to our chagrin. At wits end, I look at The Big One and ask, "Shall we all kill each other?" The response came without hesitation, "Yes!"

I have not seen the boy since that evening... no, we have not killed him, we simply deposited him at a safe house run by my folks, his doting grandparents.

It's been quiet.

Way too quiet.

Chain Letters

I get really mad when people I know (note, not friends because once they send me one, they are no longer classified as "my friend" so yes, if you don't want to be my friend, go ahead, send me a chain letter!)

It usually starts off very nicely, with an inspirational story and ends with, if you don't send it to 10 people within the next 10 minutes, you will be cursed!

And because I usually don't send it to 10 people for the simple fact that I don't want these people to be cursed if they don't get to send it to the next 10 people and then the next 100, and then the next 1,000, and...., I simply get cursed for stopping it on its track.

Better still, going by 6 degrees of separation, I am very likely to receive the same thing twice, thrice and so, the curse I'm on gets doubled, tripled and so forth.

I'm already cursed for this lifetime and so is my dog (if i had one).

So, there is really no need to send me another one.

"Persistent Ordinary Person"

The big one is very fond of this description he coined - A "Persistent Ordinary Person" is someone who doesn't learn from other people's experiences. Such a person only learns from his own set of experiences.

On the same line, I think I'm the "Persistent extraordinary human optimist" who learns neither from other people's nor own experiences. For example, I am apt to forget that food from a particular store tastes questionable and that I really shouldn't patronise them again.

...this percularity drives the big one crazy.

The appetite of my 3.4 year old.

Given the opportunity, the little one will chomp his way through the entire plate of chicken rice and still eat all my shrimp dumplings just for lunch!

What he ate yesterday:
Breakfast: 9 ounces of milk, 1 Char Siew Pau, 1 mega-sized Siew Mai & 2 eggs.
Lunch: 9 ounces of milk and half a packet of noodles
Dinner: Almost 1 plate of Ayam Penyek, 2 sticks of mutton satay, 1 goreng jackfruit, a third of a whole coconut & 4 big spoonfuls of Tauhu Telur.
Supper: 9 ounces of milk

What I ate yesterday:
Breakfast: 1 Pau, 1 egg & 1 cup of coffee
Lunch: 1 plate of chicken rice, 1 cup of coffee
Dinner: 2 mouthfuls of his Ayam Penyek, 4 sticks of mutton satay, 2 goreng jackfruit, about 4 spoonfuls of Tauhu Telur and the rest of the coconut.
No Supper.

>>>Why do I still weigh 3.5 times more than him?

Foodscapes by Carl Warner

Amazing pictures created from stuff you find in the kitchen...

Big IS Real

What hits you on a monday morning as you take the train to work? On the back page - mind you, this is one prime spot in media - of a magazine, I couldn't see front page but it could have been Torque. Anyway, so there it was, an ad by NEC with the headline, "BIG IS REAL"

I think they were selling Plasma TV. But all I could think was, WTF??? Big is real?

My life is real but it ain't big at the moment, not especially on a Monday morning on the way to work, with 5 more such days to go before the weekend!