angel girl - take 3

CONFIDENCE
angel girl was early for catechism class on saturday. she entered the room and saw 2 boys playing. she picked up a basket of blocks and settled down opposite them. every other block she laid, she'd peek over to check out the boys, never once saying anything to them but always giving them the opportunity to make eye contact.

after class i asked her why she didn't talk to her friends. she said , "i was a little sure that THEY were a little shy to talk to ME"

ROYAL FAMILY
yet again, i saw monkey boy sauntering around the house, nose upturned, wearing a "diamond" necklace. i'm very open minded but Princess Monkey Boy is just not going to cut it!

so i went up to her royal mastermind and firmly said," you want another sister is it? why on earth do you keep dressing the boy as a girl ... yadah yadah yadah ..." i think everything flew right past her coz when i was done with my verbal lashing, all she said was "yes, i want another sister"

HEAVENLY HAIR DO
last week, my grandma visited us every day (for a week). one evening, while saying good-bye to monkey boy at the gate, he called her back to ask why she has so much white hair. my grandma said it's because she is old. he opened the gate and motioned for her to come back in. he led her to the alter and together they prayed for heaven's intervention for better tresses : )

*he sooooo knows how to score points with the older chicks!*

I think my wife is becoming more Indian

The wife had a dream. One almost worthy of Gaimen himself (only the start I mean)...

It started at a fair cum amusement park where she was working with horses. Staff were wearing military uniforms. they saluted each other and marched from point to point, but she was working with horses and it was amazing. There were other animals as well and rides, like the ones you see in amusement parts. The carousel had real horse etc. In the brilliant blue sky, there were floating cities on clouds. The clouds drifted carrying these cities which were really tall and breathtaking. And people were floating around holding onto balloons (yes the small ones) and the atmosphere was one of fantasy and amazement. She said it seemed just like how it was in Mirror Mask...(the Gaimen movie)

then while she was sitting and admiring the city in the clouds, some guy sat beside here and put an arm around

then the scene changed..

Some village kid ran to her and pulled at her arm to follow him. She could not understand what he was saying..but she followed. The kid brought her to another man..

Then the scene changed…

She was somewhere else, dressed in traditional Chinese wedding clothes, and became shy and demure. She was in a tribal village of sorts (and not understanding a word being said) and was led to a room where a man was waiting..sensing the obvious..she took off her ‘Qua’ (change clothes) she ran away..

Then the scene changed…

She was in shopping centre now..running and running..escaping from the villagers when she saw her brother, who had just came back from an overseas trip and carrying a lot of gifts. Seeing him, she screamed at him for help. Then the people came from all directions chasing them..and so they ran and ran..dropping presents along the way.. I guess they eventually reached a place of sanctuary..with only one present left..

Now please tell me, which part of this does not sound like a Bollywood flick?? Ok the floating cities you will never see, coz Bollywood don’t have much imagination..but the rest.. its so bloody Indian drama right.

Beautiful scenery, everything was nice and rosy (1st type of clothing). Then the matchmaking, (change clothes) but kenna wrong guy trying to be ‘funny’..(changed clothes) then run away and being chased by the village in shopping mall..meet the hero with whom they both escape.. I bet there were some ‘dushoom’ dushoom’ involved as well which she missed tell me..

My wife is becoming more Indian i tell you.. only thing is...dunno if I should be worried or not..hmmmm..

faith

i brought angel-girl to catechism class today and managed to get some alone time in church while she was learning abt the holy spirit. anyway, her take home message from class today was "the holy spirit is watching over us, day and night". sceptically, she reasoned with me,"how can the holy spirit watch over us when IT has no eyes!" it's called faith, i told her. believing that an omnipresent greater power is protecting and guiding over us. she remains unconvinced as i fail to explain the tangibility of what the holy spirit really is.

lately, i've been having a lot of problems with my faith. i'm not religious neither am i sacrilegious, but i do push my boundaries. isn't that the difference between christians and catholics. christians are faith abiding and publically live by the rules of the bible. (or at least they try very hard to) they are also very public with their faith. catholics believe in their personal jesus. the made-to-order kind where you make up your own rules as you go along. my friend and i were musing abt this the other day. she said that it's funny how it has turned out this way because it's actually catholism that preaches the public faith.

i wish i had half the faith my christian friends have. they praise god constantly and proudly. their belief is strong. a christian friend prayed over me the other day. i didn't ask for it but he did it with good intent. he pressed his eyes shut and prayed loudly for jesus to take my ezcema away saying that by HIS stripes i am healed. i wanted so much to believe in his conviction and prayer. instead i stood there silently mocking his fervent effort, feeling uncomfortable, waiting for him to wrap it up. i prayed for him to stop. my prayers were answered, his wasn't. and i feel it's because i lacked the faith.

today in church, while i sat in the corner alone (the way most catholics do), i listened to anonymous petitions offered to mother mary. some were in honour and praise others were cries for help. all faith is not lost, i thought to myself. today i prayed for faith. to have renewed faith in faith.

sweet nothings

it was night and monkey boy asked if he could have a go at the sachet of gummies. we didn't want him to load up on sugar so late and start bouncing off the walls. the hubs said NO SUGAR AT NIGHT to which he said I DON'T WANT SUGAR, I ONLY WANT SWEETS

: )

angel girl says - 2 much

bread talk
my hair has recently become very dry and brittle. concerned i surfed the net for a natural remedy. i found that massaging a dollop of mayonnaise and letting it set in, for abt 15 mins, works wonders.

angel girl watched as i did this then asked what i was doing. i told her i was putting mayo on my hair so that it will be nice. then she said,"that's a good idea because mayo on bread also makes sandwiches nice"

sharing politics
a couple of nights ago, we were watching CNA's magazine abt Dr M and his relationship with the new PM. angel girl asked why the older one was so angry with his "friend". So i explained that they used to be best friends who used to share toys. then Dr M became too old to play with the toys so he gave them to his friend. However, his friend did not play with his toys the way HE used to play with it. This has made him angry. she completely related and understood what i said! seems toyland is never free of the dreaded power stuggle, regardless of age.

"missing" the point
monkey boy has been creeping into my bed the last few nights. last night i told him that he cannot do that and needs to sleep on his own bed. he asked why. i said because i miss dada (who has been decanted to the bunk). he looked up at me, with his big brown eyes and said,"but i miss YOU mummy" ... guess where he slept?!

sigh ... wish i had more time to engage with the kids. i'm there physically but not as a mother.

What Matters

Nat, I know I cannot truly understand the sacrifices you and bro go thru until I go thru them myself, but I hope at least my prayers for your family gets answered everyday.

A long time back when I first started working at a young age, I saw something that I will never forget in my life. The sacrifices parents make so that their children are well taken care off. I saw parents skipping lunch (or eating rice with water), wearing torn clothing (hardly buy any new clothing), taking on any overtime that comes their way for extra income (even though they have been working overtime the whole week!!), and then go back home tired as hell but with a smile on their faces to mask whatever hardship they go thru in their lives.

I will never forget that and have a deep and profound respect for parents and for you guys. Not all of us are blessed with wealth, but I know you guys are blessed with something far more beautiful and important.

Love.

There was no greater joy than when u guys asked me to be Godfather to Kay! Suddenly I became a part of a child's live and it warmed me and helped me get rid of alot of unneccessary baggage I was carrying around at that time.. a turning point for me..

All their little actions and things they say, remind me of simple beauties we often miss seeing in our lives or take for granted..

Your children are amazing and I thank God that they have such wonderful parents! I only talk with pride about you guys and I have been blessed to have all of you in my life!! Thank you for sharing your life and struggles, it truly inspires me!

in a nutshell

next week, i am registering angel girl for primary one ed. time sure flies! this is a huge step for me. 2007 is going to be madness. baby is learning how to walk now, he is 8 months old. my boys have all been fast walkers but slow talkers. not that it matters.

all have not been well lately as the flu bug made it's rounds. princess had a slight asthma attack which scared us all. she was like a fish out of water ... gasping. that same day, monkey boy was also coughing up a storm. took both to the peadiatric dr and had to nebulise them as the cough got wicked. even the adults were not spared. the hubs was tethering in limbo world (like he always is but even more so now) due to late night soccer round-robin with work - vicious cycle. i have been hit with a nasty bout of eczema. so i've reduced my coffee intake to only one cup (from 5) and popping evening primrose. (although there has not been any scientific support that it works) maybe it's psychological.

just this month, we spent close to 1K on medical bills. totally wiped out what little savings i had. kids are so expensive coz you always want the best for them. but it was money well spent as it did not take long before they were themselves again. but still .... the pocket hurts.

IVan returns

Well it’s been a while since my last time I wrote here. Many things have happened. Been involved with a lot of activities outside of work and finally these days, I am getting some rest. Well what can I talk about.. lets start with the World Cup..

World Cup

I seriously think the players are overpaid and have lost the driving passion for the game. If you saw the match between Ghana and Brazil, you could tell who was playing with their hearts. Its been generally a boring World Cup for me unlike the ones I remember of past years and so I am not going to talk about the games here.

I just want to mention SCV’s bloody coverage (or getting it from the source wherever or whatever they call it..)Where the bloody hell are the pundits.. Come on. Half time must have some fellows talking about the game. Its tradition! Just cannot take that away?? Damn I am so bloody offended!! Further, they claim that they got more channels that show top view, tunnel view, player view and normal view , LC view. Now come on, how much time do you want to spend watching a player..(unless you are mindless teen hoping to watch football becoz some guy is cute or a football coach studying a player) Most of the time you want to watch the actual match. If it’s a repeat, then maybe you might want to switch between the other channels.. but when ‘live’.. u don’t want to miss anything.. and there is only 1 channel needed for that. The traditional “tele-cam”. (The one you are familiar with) Some more the SCV say, got interview with coaches and players what? Normal channels never show all these.... Nabae.. those buggers talking Spanish, French, German etc.. think we understand is it? Some more no sub title also.. just look at their mouth and guess?? LC!!! I feel cheated paying extra money for the PPV channels.. and the worst insult to that injury is watching bloody teams at 3 am playing impassionedly like it’s a friendly!! Give up I tell you! Well..that’s the world cup for me. I hope yours is better if you are watching it..

Mr Brown distorting the truth?

Have you caught the Mr Brown issue which is buzzing over the net? (or local blog circles) Well you can go to his site to read about his article, which he wrote in the Today paper and the reaction from the gahmen coz of it.

"Letter from MICA: Distorting the truth, mr brown?"

Needless to say.. I don’t think I’ve seen over 300 comments for an article (unless you are that MIA Rockson) on his page. So there is overwhelming response in support him and his article. What’s your take? Think the accusations made are justifiable?

And his following podcast is a moving pledge taken by him, a pledge that says whats on every Singaporean mind (or least I think it is, well mine at least). Must check it out ok!

well I will be writing more.. soon..