Helpless! Part 2 - 老公 to the rescue

After much sulking at home, I sent an email to my 老公 for help. He got his colleague to call. Ok, got my order, after much exasperation. This is the thing I really hate. You can't do anything without assistance. Makes one feels so ineffective!

Helpless!

What the F***! I am sorry that I have to use the first bad word in my blog but I am utterly pissed off at this very minute. I was trying to place some orders for sausages for this Sat's bbq. The website was in English because it was meant for expats. But when I clicked "send order", a dialouge box came up telling me some rubbish in Russian. What the heck! If I can understand that, then I WILL NOT BE SERVING ON THE ENGLISH SITE. HOW STUPID IS THAT? NOBODY COULD HELP AND I COULDN'T FIND MY KEYBOARD ON MY RUSSIAN TRANSLATION SOFTWARE. PLUS MY DIGITAL DICTIONARY HAD TO FAIL AT A TIME LIKE THIS!!!!!!!! BESTEST, WHEN I CALLED, NOBODY ON THE OTHER LINE COULD SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH!!!!!!!

Being There....

I had quite a disturbing day yesterday. A friend was diagnosed with optic neutritis. Though she said it was nothing serious but I am still worried. It sets me thinking about things my friends had gone through during my 1 year in Moscow. Like what Line said, I really hope this will be a good year for all of us. There were many downs last year and eventhough what goes up must come down, I hope the reverse is also true for this case. See you guys soon!

Asian Pacific Food Fair 07

Many have asked me what do I do to pass time in Moscow. One of the things is to help the embassy with charity fairs like the Asian Pacific Food Fair. I remembered that this was the first fair I attended when I first arrived in Moscow. It is also a fair that many Asians look forward to, particularly for the cuisine.





My day started with the setting up of the Singapore stall. We had pre-packed sauces, 3-in-1 coffee and some cook books to sell. The 3-in-1 coffee packs were the first to clear. I assumed that was because they were good buys for the Russians and the Indonesians. Many came back to ask if we had more. We had more difficulty with the pre-packed sauces as the locals were not familiar with them. Nonetheless, the sauces were popular with Asians and expats. We did well with the sale.



While I was busy at the stall, my pals in Moscow had a good time shopping and eating (see picture :P). First was breakfast at the Malaysian stall. Nasi Lemak, curry puffs etc. Then was the shopping. And more shopping. At the end of the day, many wallets were empty and the fruits were; faberge eggs (quite a few), ear rings, display basket, sauces of course, bracelet, pendant....


Was the day over? Of course...NOT! The party adjourned to Cecilia's house for some drinks, snacks and vitamin D while waiting for me (see picture again). It was a nice day to just chill out and bathe ourselves in the sun, something that you probably would not get for half a year. It was also the best opportunity to decide on a bbq next week. So Akan Datang!

It's The 27th Again :(

Today is 27 May 07. It has been 5 months. My doggie is still out there. She is still not home.

To Judge And Be Judged

When I told Ah Line that I was writing about this, her reaction was, "I am guilty!" Well, I think all of us have our fair share of judging people and being judged. Maybe even started when we were very young. When we were all children, we looked around and "surveyed" who we thought could be our "kaki" before we tried to make friends. When we were in school, our intelligence was determined by our school results. While we were looking for life-time partners, we applied our combination of "no logic" feel with practical rationals to ascertain if that potential man / woman was our ultimate. These are examples of judging and being judged.


While we may have been growing up in this kind of environment, we may not be at ease at all, when faced with a situation where you have to exercise your judgement. We may be even more uncomfortable when we know we are being scrutinised and judged. How so, you may ask? Well, if you are the judge, you have to ensure that your judgement is unbiased (not easy), made with the best understanding of the situation and probably with empathy. Many a times, we are swayed by our own feelings and emotions and hence our judgment may be tinted. However, having said that, I am not implying that one should always sit on the fence and not have any opinion of his own. I think when we pass judgement, we have to do so responsibly and reasonably.

On the other side of the coin, I don't think anyone likes to be judged. It gives a feeling of belittlement sometimes. I guess in order to minimise misjudgement by people around us, we have to increase their understanding of us. How do I expect my friends to know that I like to eat durian if I don't tell them or I don't eat with them? Sometimes, the more we share, we more comfortable we are with one another, the lower the guard for you know these are people who do not look at you with tinted glasses as you did not tint their sight in the first place.

幸福的蛋糕

最近在听Fish Leong 的一张CD. 觉得有一段歌词很有趣.

"如果一个人一辈子只能分到一块叫做幸福的蛋糕

宁愿一小口很小口品尝味道

不想过瘾的一口吃掉"

如果你有一块这样的蛋糕, 你会怎么做? 如果是被一个不常享受到幸福的人吃到了, 他会一小口一小口的品尝. 让自己牢牢握住那种感觉吗? 是不是他就会比较珍惜那得来不易的幸福呢?还是一个会为自己找出生活里藏有的小幸福的人才是最会烘出这幸福小蛋糕的人呢? 我想它并不是必然的, 它是必须找寻, 珍惜和不断创造的.

How Much Is Enough?

I met some friends for lunch today and the topic of "how much is enough came up". My friends, a nice young couple about my age, were telling us that for them to live comfortably in Singapore, they would need a monthly income of about $7500. That amount includes car, house, daily expenses and gym membership. The question was thrown to Adrian and I. Honestly, I have not made any serious calculations. But I reckon it should be around that amount. That set me thinking. We have no kids and our monthly expenses were already as such when we were in Singapore. What happens when we have (readers, don't let your imagination runs wild)? How much is enough then? Some of my friends may argue that when children arrive, you basically change some of your spending patterns e.g overseas trips to insurance, entertainment expenses to paediatric spending etc, such that your monthly requirements are kept to about the same as before.

Pondering further, I think the crux of the issue lies in what kind of standard of living are we after? There are families who can survive happily and decently with half of our monthly income. 所为知足尝乐嘛 :) 你的幸福款项是多少呢?

BB Meimei

I remembered about 6 months ago, my god daughter was borned. It was quite an experience watching her arrive at this world. I remembered it was a Friday morning when I received an sms from her mum saying that she felt contraction and was on the way to the hospital. I was put on stand-by mode. I jumped out from my bed after reading the sms and had a quick shower. Minutes later, I was trying to get a cab to Mt E. Because it was just after peak hours, taking a cab from Woodlands was a nightmare. No cab in sight. Waited for about half an hour before I finally got one. In the cab, I was busy passing on the message to the rest of the girls, "...contraction...Meimei's coming!..." Everyone was so excited and the smses came non-stop.

Then, at the clinic, the doctor confirmed that it was contraction but Meimei was not expected to arrive yet so we were told to "take a walk". We ended up window shopping at Paragon, giving Meimei a last minute crash course of branded goods. We happily went for lunch thereafter with Liang. When we returned to the clinic after that, Meimei decided that it was about time she seriously pushed herself out. So mummy had more severe contraction resulting having to walk at 0.05km per hour. When we finally reached the clinic, the nurses were going out for lunch and we had the option to wait elsewhere or go directly to the delivery ward. Mummy decided that she could still wait cos she wanted to see the gynae before going for delivery. The wait, eventhough was only 30 minutes, really scared the wits out of me. Many scenarios were going through my mind, "what if she cannot walk? what if her water bag burst? what if...."

Nurses came back from lunch and were ready to do a last check before mummy was wheeled to the delivery ward. At the delivery ward, which was quite comfy, you see experienced nurses walking in and out. I was lucky to be able to have a stint in there though not for long (was told that normally they don't allow people besides husband in it). The nurse "tricked" me into going out as they had to do the injection and said that I could go back after it was done. I never did.

A few hours later, Meimei arrived naturally! All of us were so excited and the dian gu of forming teams to see the bb came from here. I think the first to reach hospital to see her was Line and Ngiam (if I didn't remember wrongly). All those memories were just six months ago.

Now, she can crawl, sit up and even stand! Think she is as atheletic as her parents. As what her mummy said, "she is going places on her own!". I wonder what she can do by the time I get back in June :)

Yes/No?

I always have this rebellious feeling when people "boss" me to do things that I didn't like or didn't volunteer for. Either I take my own sweet time to complete the tasks or simply ignore them. I don't think it is a good behaviour, however, unless I master the skills to say "No" firmly and confidently, I will continue to take this cowardly approach. It feels strange not knowing how to say "No" when I used to teach teenagers how to say "No" to smoking. Maybe is not so much of not knowing how to say it but rather feeling obligated to say "Yes" and regret thereafter.

Exasperation!

Ever read a book that is so captivating but have a disappointing ending? You just feel like burning it at the end of your reading and really cursing the author right? I was tenaciously plouging through a book yesterday, trying to reach the ending so that I can piece everything together (is one of those conspiracy theory, cover-ups kind of thriller). And....the ENDING....just left me with more questions than answers. The feeling is worse than reading a book with a lousy ending. When I was reading the acknowledgement thereafter (trying to find some clues to a possible ending), I was kind of upset to realise that the ending was suggested by the author's 24-year old son. I am now hesistant to start another one by him though I enjoyed the author's wits and humor. Torn!