post-its

sometimes, it just takes a little email to remind ourselves of how much love really does surrounds us. i really do enjoy receiving emails, i like to read them over and over again to make sure i don’t miss out on anything. i’ve been getting nice little emails from people i thought i’d never really see again (due to geographical constraints)! so it’s nice to know that relationships can extend beyond the convenient-zone. arguably, emails are still well within the convenient zone. all the same, i hope they enjoy receiving my emails just as much as i look forward to theirs.

singapore has been quite cooperative. it is still homey enough to not make me feel like a foreigner, but sufficiently different to keep me entertained.

it’s nice to stretch my limbs, lie down and enjoy the humid air and the constant sound of the dogs’ paws tapping the ground as they run around the house. it’s been almost a year since i’ve been back and though some things never change, some do. george has grown up to be a huge crazy boxer, there’s a baby around and the neighbourhood has changed quite a bit. i see some people more and some much less. but as much as i miss those times, i’m glad i am here now and not then. i’m just grateful to be right here, enjoying the humidity.

i think i need a sunrise

i’ve been so busy with the mountains of odd things that find their way to the top of my to-do list that i haven’t really had the chance to sit down and complete my thoughts. and when my mind is blank food creeps in..

i saw this entry on simply recipes which reminded me of nanna and her version of sloppy joes which is made with a sandwich maker and with normal bread instead of the buns the recipe uses. also the recipe itself is quite different from the one on simply recipes. nanna put a hint of curry powder in her beef mince which gave them nice kick and probably didn’t use as many ingredients as they do. i don’t remember nanna putting tomato sauce in or red wine vinegar or celery. actually on hindsight, i doubt the recipe even vaguely resembles nanna’s recipe. oh well.

back to nanna and her recipe (and my tummy). i used to slip in some cheese just before nanna closed the lid to let it toast which would always get her cross because the cheese had a tendency of oozing out of the bread and getting messy. but the result was always fantastic with gooey melty cheese on top of a brilliant beef mince in a perfect sandwich triangle. it made getting nanna cross very worth it.

how wonderful it is that sometimes though a recipe differs so much from how we know it to be, they still bring back memories and a good chuckle.

hmm, now i feel like going out and getting one myself.. along with a cake mixer..

okay, i m done! have a good weekend!! (for the lucky few with three day weeks or who just don’t feel like going to uni)

a few leaps back.

my nai nai
everyday after school gilly would get dropped off at her nai nai’s house whether she liked it or not. sometimes she would skip up the slope into nai nai’s warm welcoming arms but sometimes she would have to be yanked out the car, up the hill and onto the veranda. regardless, nai nai would be waiting to greet gilly with a kiss, a big bear hug and a hot lunch. after guzzling down the hot lunch, grandma and grandchild would have their forty winks and not a minute more. nai nai would always wake first because gilly would never get up without force. nai nai would always have to pull gilly’s toes and entice her with a cup of milo and a piece of toast to wake her grandchild from her slumber . “Wake up! the lizards are going to eat your tea!“

nai nai and gilly would spend the afternoon sitting in the kitchen having tea and talking about the things they did, what nai nai read in the newspaper and every once in a while gossip about the people they know. occasionally gilly would take a sheet of paper from nai nai’s scrap paper pile and attempt to draw. then gilly would present her art to nai nai who would always proudly display it on the fridge or microwave oven. when conversation between them stopped gilly would lay her heavy head on her grandma’s lap and let nai nai stroke her curls. when the evening arrived bringing her mummy and daddy with it, gilly would go back home and get ready for the next day of school and nai nai.

gilly likes tea time. gilly likes afternoon naps and hot lunches. but most of all gilly loves her nai nai.

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

please DON’T toughen up.

my aunt joanna and i had a lovely chat…

click to enlarge

i like the part where my dentist/aunty said, “actually it doesn’t hurt, you’ll get local first”

i am completely aware that i am a big big wuss. but i like my braces-free lifestyle. i don’t intend on changing it in the near and distant future. (look how nice my smile is right now)

MUMMY: i know having THE perfect smile is wonderful and i am acting like a total idiot/dumbox BUT I DON’T WANT TO PUT SCREWS IN MY MOUTH.

dissolute.

brilliant how cleanly cut this was. everything fell together perfectly all because somebody planned. i don’t really know whether to buy a nice bottle of moet or to eat a tub of gelato. either way, i hope i don’t land myself anywhere within a 2 kilometre radius of this well orchestrated illusion ever again.

Today was my last day of work and it was thoroughly delightful.

i like how estee lauder is. i like how we have one million company lunches, department lunches, farewell lunches, chinese new year lunches, welcome lunches and vendor lunches! i put on a hefty bit of a tummy there!

i now understand why pantries along with the business times and borrowed magazines are ideal for people who don’t have anybody to eat lunch with . i realise not all of us got along like blazing cottages, hence the need for pantries! on hindsight, it wasn’t completely awful or ridiculously traumatising. (i can so hear the people who i have whined to laugh in my face and tell me i am a complete and utter baby but nevermind, i don’t care!)

Actually i’ve only eaten in the pantry once and i wasn’t alone and the only reason why i ate in the pantry was because my superior was too stressed to eat (with me). but nonetheless Thank God for Pantries!

and i am rather fond of my superior. she is pregnant and we laugh at how much we eat. the guy from the other side asked me to come back (to polish his shoes). the big boss was too busy to say anything to the awkward temp. but the full-timer came to wish the hard-of-hearing nineteen year old well so all was not at a loss!

even though this job probably devowered the last bits of my holiday, i’m extraordinarily glad i sucked it up.