It's October..But snow has arrived..

It was only 3 days ago when I posted the photos of the fall. Today, heavy snow everywhere. Cars were begining to be covered with piles of snow. Here comes winter....

Fall In Moscow

I was out trying to capture some fall colours but was badly disappointed. It could also be that my mood was already lousy before this. I was down at the departmental store looking for a birthday present. The store was having huge sale and it was very crowded. I was queueing for about 45 minutes at the cashier before this shameless russian fat a_ _ cut into the queue. Everybody was totally pissed with her. When asked by another russian lady to move behind, she simply uttered some patronising words and continued to stand in the line, refusing to budge. How shameless can these people be! Anyhow, I managed to spot these shots at the embassy's garden....

Winter is just round the corner. Temperature has dropped tremendously throughout the week. It is now 2 degrees. I wonder if I will see snow tomorrow (I should if the weather report is accurate).

Gen Y Workers

I was reading a rather disturbing article in "The Edge". It is call "Meet The Gen Y Worker". Gen Y, as defined in the article, are chaps born between 1977 and early 1990s. They possess the following working attitude:
a) opinionated, self-assured
b) want early opportunities and expect immediate rewards
c) outspoken, trend-conscious and eager for new experiences
d) pertinent, arrogant and lacking in commitment
e) highly intelligent, confident, interactive and productive
f) "me" generation with parents who will most willingly provide for them at any time

While companies are scrambling to change their HR policies to meet the needs of this generation, I read the article with great concern and sympathy. While I think it is welcoming that GEN Y is opinionated, highly intelligent, confident, interactive, potentially productive and outspoken, I am disappointed that humility is not among the list of attributes. It seems to me that we are cultivating a generation that is full of themselves, over-the-head, "ruthless", totally unreliable and with "great" intellect. And if all else fails, they will have no qualms scrambling back to their parents for financial support. Where is the part on character? Where is the part on interpersonal skills? Where is the part on passion? And where is the part on being self-reliant?

Are we really so proud to have a generation that is of this manner? Do we really think that they can bring the country and the economy to the next level, given the fact that they can, at any time jump ship? I think the experiences that this generation have are fantastic but there are still a great chunk of work / life experiences these youngsters have yet to go through. And to write these off thinking that they already have what it needs to succeed is dangerous.

The Wait....

We are expecting our new house to be ready by the end of the year. It is a much smaller unit. Nonetheless, I reckon that cleaning will be much easier. The greatest challenge now is to ensure enough storage space for our things. Is back to looking for a reliable contractor with some sense of design again. Anybody with good recommendation? I am also cracking my brains for interesting design and I think the greatest problem will be the shoe cabinet. Not sure where will be a good place to put up one. I guess I cannot really tell until I see the actual unit. So exciting!

Testing 2

I could not resist the temptation of showing you the other label that I did. This is the transparent background version. The picture is taken in Vladimir, one of the towns outside of Moscow. I think this is by far, the most beautiful picture I have of Russia's landscape.

Effect Testing

Wanted to test out the effect of my first label. Did a series of it. This is the first. No time to test out the rest because it is about time to prepare dinner :)

My Label

I get a lot of inspirations from CanICan's blog. One of the things I thought was quite cool was CanICan's trademark / signature on all her photos. Maybe I can also create one of my very own? Here it is:

What do you think? The idea of putting in my blog address is not original. It is a copy from CanICan. I hope she doesn't mind. Look out for my very own identity in all future photos. Cheers! Oh ya, in case you are wondering where CanICan's blog is, here it is: http//canican.blogspot.com

The Heating Is On!

I just had a pleasant surprise. The heating is on! Finally! It was freezing in the apartment (good excuse not to get out of bed). But as usual, the one in the diner is not on yet. It is usually the slowest. However, the switching on of the heaters also means that it is time for moisturizer to be applied everyday. The heaters dry the air. Something I dread.

So Boring...............!

Weather is bad. It has been raining for the past 3 days. TV is not working. It can only be repaired on Wednesday (with some luck). No driver as he is on leave. No motivation to go out. No good book to read. No one really to talk to. No latest music. I'm glad I will be going home soon. It is just SOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOORRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGG here!

My Little Red Dot

Being given the opportunity to live overseas, I have learnt that I have always been a Singaporean and I will always be. Maybe the grass is always greener on the other side; many of us fantasize about migrating abroad, enjoying a slower pace of life, having bigger living space, dreaming of spending weekends at the countryside etc. Is it all such a bed of roses? All so simple?

I, for one, enjoy holding my little red passport. It symbolises my country, a place where I am its priority, where I know I will never be treated as second class, where I will never experience discrimination, where I am known as a citizen.

My experience in Moscow makes me cherish things we have back home more. In Moscow, going onto the streets is always a struggle and the inertia for doing so is great. It is not because the streets are unsafe but more because you are likely to encounter something unpleasant which will just ruin your day. Let me give you an example. I was walking home from the supermarket one day and a middle-age man was right in front of me. It was a busy street but he did not bother to ensure if there were people near him before he decided to clear whatever was stuck in his throat onto the floor. His dirty, disgusting load of spit nearly landed on my pants and my shopping bag. Totally disgusted, all I could gave out was a loud "SH_T!" and a hard stare. I couldn't express more of my disgust due to language barrier and the fact that spitting is a way of life here. He wouldn't be bothered to apologise so don't waste your time. How uncivilised he was but you just got to look out for "spitters" when walking on the roads.

Going to restaurants is another way to make your blood boil. Poor service (sometimes you don't know why you need to tip the waiters), loud, rude voice, waitresses who look everywhere except at the customers, smoking and non-smoking areas being only 1 foot away from each other etc. Who says service at Singapore restaurants are not good enough? Try here and you will appreciate what we have back home.

But, it is not all these bad experiences that make me feel proud to be a Singaporean. Rather, I don't think anyone can truly feel like they belong to a place that is not theirs. Just like one will feel most comfortable and at ease in their own house no matter how posh or dilapidated it is. We can adapt to living in another country, we can make our lives as enjoyable and comfortable as we want but we can never blend in as naturally as the natives. Just like we can never speak English like a British and they can never speak Singlish like a Singaporean. Something will always be amiss. And if we try too hard, we forget who we really are.

Little red dot to me symbolises home, natural fit, pride (small but tough country) and ownership.

Exhauserobics!

Two days ago, I finally decided to unwrap the aerobics DVD that I bought from London last Dec. Did a quick screening of the movements and thought to myself, " I think I can do it. I have done these movements before!" So I tried. After half an hour, I was exhausted, barely could lift up my legs and my arms. Then came resistence training with weights. Good thing was, weights were optional and you could do the same actions without them. Could not really complete the whole set and by now, I was just tapping my feet on the ground. Next was crunches. I thought I better worked on my abs if I ever want to wear bikinis (wildest dream). That workout was great, only to realise that the muscles were aching the very next day.

Today, I decided to put on the DVD once again and had another 1.5 hours of workout. It was great to be perspiring and feeling the muscle aches. But I just have to admit that I am not as fit as before. I used to be able to complete the full aerobics routine but not anymore. Sigh, hate to see lesser and lesser muscles and more and more flabs. Nightmare of a middle-age woman....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Handphone Bills :(

Sigh. Got my handphone bill last night. I had been spending too much on my Singapore mobile. For the last 2 months, the bills were at least S$160. Got to find a way to bring down the amount. Maybe because we had been corresponding with our lawyer for the sale of the house using this number. Maybe I should ask Adrian to pay half of it??? (Idea!)

Looking through the service plans of M1, nothing interesting that would allow me to lower my cost :(

You have a message!

Ever sent out an sms and received no reply? Ever sent out smses to a particular person and never get a single reply? Ever consider why such response or no response? I know of some friends who are very back dated with their sms replies. It's like they accumulate a week's supply before they reply. For friends like this, I know I will not be able to count on them in times of emergency. But late replies are better than no reply. No reply may just mean; no time, not important, no in existence anymore, don't care, not interested, cannot be bothered, what a pain.....the list goes on. Is such a person still worthwhile to consider him a friend? Still worthwhile to try and keep in contact (there's no contact to begin with)?

My Muffins :)

Finally got down to make my muffins. I was trying to find the muffin tray for almost 2 weeks and finally I got it! I think it was not a cheap buy but at least the quality was quite good and should be able to last for a long time.

Got the premix from a supermarket (Line said I cheated because I used premixes) :P. The instructions were simple; pour out the premix into a bowl, add 1/2 cup of water, mix everything together and fill the tray with the mixture. Then, just stuff everything into the oven for 20 minutes. Here, freshly made muffins. Tasted good too! Yum yum! But the appearance was not as enchanting as those made by CanICan. I tried to act smart by greasing the tray with butter. That resulted in the skin getting charred. Anyhow, wonderful results for first try...."Chey! Use premix one!"

Mid Autumn Festival

Last Tues, we had a little mid autumn festival party. We did a pot-luck so that the host did not need to worry about dinner. After a sumptuous one, we proceeded to the roof top garden for moon cakes and had some fun with lanterns (specially imported from Singapore). We had a tough time keeping the lanterns lighted as it was quite a breezy night. But lots of fun.

We wanted to collect as many photos as possible of our stay in Moscow so that night, we had at least 4 cameras clicking away. If you notice, all of us were focusing on different cameras when these photos were taken. At that instance, you really feel like a superstar swamped by dozens of cameramen.

We did something we never tried that night too. Karaoke! It was great fun to see people letting down their hair and sang to their hearts' content, even though the beats of the music seem slower than original version (so must support 正版). My jaws were aching due to all the laughter. The boys were quite amazing entertainers that night. Did everything......except full monty! Maybe next round, boys!

9th Month

It's the 9th month. I don't know how else to remember her. There are just so much memories of her. I really dread the 27th of every month now. These photos were taken when Pebble was at different ages. She is such a lovely dog. Really miss her :(

Flower Power!

A few days ago, a friend sent me a "flower" via Flower Power: http://www.healthymind.sg/flowerpower/fp.asp?fid=1260

I thought this was a very cool idea (whoever came out with this idea....2 thumbs up for you). This site allows you to send a flower to a friend, a love one, or to any people you like. With this flower, you can also attached your message and the receiver is supposed to go to the flower bed to find their flowers. Help me make this flower bed grow. If you have something that you want to tell someone or something that you want to get off your chest, send a flower. Make this flower bed flourish. Make that particular someone smile :)

My New Toy :)

A couple of years ago, I bought a MP3 player with a memory of 250mb, thinking that it would be enough for my songs. I made a mistake. With this memory size, I could only store about 60 songs the most. A few days ago, while I was chatting with Tracy, she told me that she had 2 new IPOD Nanos. I thought it might be a good idea to buy it from her since I was looking for something that could hold the albums that I like. Here it is, my new toy. Thanks to Tracy too that I bought it for a good price :)

In case you are wondering why I featured my Garfield too. No special reason. Thought it would be too boring if I just took the Nano. By the way, this Garfield always reminds me of my college days. It was given to me as a birthday present from my committee friends. Note what is printed on the T-shirt. Yeah, those were their humors. Something very memorable. Miss you guys! See ya soon!

Jen & Ngiam in Moscow

You must be wondering why I am posting Jen & Ngiam's visit eventhough they were here last Dec. Well, it all started with Tracy introducing me to Photo Flick. I was playing around with it and I thought it was quite cool. So, I decided to upload one of my favourite set of photos as a test. I think it came out quite nicely. The only thing that I was torned now is to whether transfer all my photos into Photo Flick or should I still continue with Flickr or if I should have both. Before I make a decision, you will still see both version on my side bar.

Thanks Tracy!

New Additions....

We have 2 additions to the family in the month of Sep 07. One is the long awaited BB Sophie and the other is nicknamed Remarkable Rachel who cannot resist the beauty of this world and decides to arrive earlier than expected.

BB Sophie has a very garang mother. While she was having contraction, she decided that she should complete the following tasks before going to the hospital:

a) take a bathe (quite normal)

b) eat breakfast (I wonder how come she still had appetite considering the pain)

c) change diaper for the son so that he can sleep longer

d) wake up the husband

e) call her mum to take care of her son

f) wait for the mum to arrive

By then, Sophie was already on her way out to see this world. Here she is, arriving just less than a couple of hours later. What a beauty...BB Rachel, or nicknamed Remarkable Rachel / tough cookie, is a few days older than Sophie. She too is a beautiful one with big eyes and very smiley. Shall insert her photo later. Wah...begining to count the number of red packets I need to prepare for next chinese new year already :)

September babies & one july one too!

Wow, it has been a while since I updated my blog. Decided to start with a badly overdued one. The birthday "bash" which was held in my house. It was a pot luck as well as a birthday celebration for the September babies and for 1 belated birthday girl.

The day started with lots of food and little did these birthday babies knew that it was also a little party for them. After we helped ourselves to all the food, mahjong etc, it was time for dessert; the birthday cake. Yum yum! We rounded up the birthday "babes", got the cake and the birthday songs (a little traditional here).

Next was the presents. See what we got for the birthday girl! We spent some efforts to prevent her from getting the same thing whenever we went to the market with her. Got to do it without her suspicious too and we made it!.

I am wondering at this juncture if I should show you what did the guys got from us......Maybe not. Quite obscene. So let your imagination runs wild here. I mentioned there was also a little belated birthday present for Tracy. All of us remembered her birthday but none of us were able to celebrate it with her for some reasons. So a little something special was dedicated to her as well. All in all, it was great fun and it certainly adds on to the nice memories in this not so nice country.

First Day of Work

Today is the first day of work. I am already begining to feel the russian style of working. You need patience. I was calling some car leasing company to find out about the rates of car lease here but I was not able to obtain the information with just 1 phone call. I got to log in a case, waited to be transferred to the correct sales person who then took another history of my requirement and then I have to wait for a few more days to talk to another person who will be attending to my case. Great! Time to sit back and drink coffee.

Currently, the office is still very bare. Waiting for stationery to be ordered. Hope to get it done asap because there are more teething things to get going. Ok, enough of break, time for me to get back to what I was doing.

I think it is not easy to work on your own as you have to constantly look for new things to keep yourself busy. It is so easy to say, I can do it another day (especially when there is no boss to look over your shoulder).

8th Month....

Pebble is a very smart dog. She is able to understand many commands. She can respond if you call her name and even her nickname; Ah Be. Ah Be, can you still remember that is your name? Can you still remember how we used to play ball, go for walks and play hide and seek? It has been 8 months....

Out Of Action....

Lessons started from today. Will be quite out of action this entire month. Busy mugging Russian language. Tough! Hope I will survive :P

Home Alone....

Adrian is off to Vladivostok, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladivostok which is situated just above North Korea, and I will be home alone till Sunday. It's a 9hr flight from Moscow and the time difference is 8 hours (I think). Feel kind of strange that he is actually still within Russia. For many who are bazaared with the sheer size of Russia, well, it is a country with 11-12 (not qute certain) time zones. Coming from the little red dot, sometimes, it is difficult to comprehend the size of this enormous country. There is a part of Russia that is so near to Europe and there is the other part that is so near Asia.

It has been a while since Adrian is off for business trip. Used to having Pebble around with me while he was away. Is times like this that make you miss her more. Am quite grateful that there are still a bunch of friends who will keep me occupied when he is away. Just that when everything is over, you still come back to an empty bed, missing her snuggles (Pebble loved to sleep close to my back).

7th Month

Pebble, 7 months today. Where are you? Will mummy see you again? Miss you.

Who Deserve Happiness?

Was watching news just now. Came across the one about Iraq's win in the semi-finals of the Asian football game (something like that) against South Korea. There were lots of celebrations on the streets of Iraq for the win. The Iraqis being interviewed expressed that they had not seen such happiness from their folks for a long time. Suddenly they felt united, they felt patriotic, they temporary forgot about what they were going through. Unfortunately, not long after that, bombs went off, killing some people, again. Some lamented how short-lived their happiness were. Who deserve happiness? Don't they do too? I guess we are the more fortunate ones as Happiness seems to be kinder to us.

We Are A Miracle!

I was watching tv a couple of days ago. I came across this little snippet about how our existence is a miracle. It went something like this.......

"For us to exist, the Sun needs to be of the correct size. Too big, we will be burnt to death, too small, we freeze. Earth has to be of the correct distance away from the Sun. Too near to it, like Mercury and Venus, you get nothing. Too far from it, you don't find any either. For Life to exist, you need water. Earth is of just the correct distance from the Sun to harbour this essence of Life.

For us to exist, we need the occurence of the dinosaurs. We need the asteriods to hit the Earth to get rid of the dinosaurs. We need fishes to start having legs to walk instead of to swim. We need apes to evolve to what we are today.

For us to exist, we need 2 people among the 6 billion people to meet. We need that 2 people who met to procreate. Against all these odds, shouldn't our existence be a miracle?"

My Clay Works :P

Finally got my hands dirty on the Korean clay that Ngiam introduced me to. Wow, once again, I concluded that I do not have any artistic genes. Here's why.......see the non-similarity?

BB Da Ren :)

Liang emailed yesterday updating me about BB Darren and BB Sophie. She said that Darren is doing very well at childcare particularly at meal times as he is not a fussy eater. He eats everything. Liang attributed this to his first encounter with tasty foods that contained seasonings.

It is a joy to see how these young ones have grown. I was looking through some of my photos the other day and found a series of Darren's photos that I took when he was taking his bath :P. SO CUTE but due to them being R-rated, I will not show them here....or maybe....just a little teaser :)

Little Angels? Devils?

I was watching a TV programme last night called,"little angels". It was about how to manage children with behavioural problems. The episode last night featured a boy aged 5 who displayed rebellious behaviour since age 3 and 3 brothers who never seem to get along.

The show focused on how this clinical psychologist helped the parents of the above children adopt positive parenting skills. It was very interesting to see how the parents used skills such as time out, praises, positive behaviour charts, behaviour boundaries, once friendly twice firm etc, to change their children's behavioural problems.

The psychologist analysed that the common error parents get into when their children throw tantrums is to fuss over them. She demonstrated that when the kids are in a tantrum, is best to leave them alone, not talk to them such that they realise when they display this behaviour, they will not get any attention from the parents. It is also important to consciously and continuously verbalise praises for good behaviour to encourage the children to display more of such mannerism. Interesting programme. Quite thought provoking too cos the children featured in the show can really make you pull your hair.

It's 6 Years!

Yesterday was my 6th wedding anniversary. Thinking back, it didn't feel that long that we were married. I always wonder what my life will be if I am still single and this is always my conclusion. I think it is a blessed decision that I have made for I have someone whom I know will take care of me and love me for the rest of our lives together. Happy Anniversary 老公!

Ok, got to stop here. Not too comfortable with being mushy :P

An Abandoned Friend Reappears!

For some who are wondering where the Abandoned Friend is, well....I was in Singapore for a month. Yes, the third visit since I moved to Moscow in April last year. One will never have enough of their own country. Simply because the people you love are there.

Things seem to change every time I go back. New buildings, new landmarks etc. Am I imagining things or what? I seem to feel that things are getting more and more expensive in Singapore. Nonetheless, the prices are still low compared to what you will pay in Moscow.

One of my objectives of going back this time was to complete the paperwork for the sale of my Floravale house. Yes, we got it sold. Had mixed feelings when we decided to sell the house. Felt sad because it was our first house, a house with our own memories and memories of our beloved Pebble. Also happy as we got it sold with minimised loss. Looking forward to the new house.

I also got a chance to bring my godson to the beach this time. It was an impromptu arrangement but we had a good time. Shan't write too much cos his mother has a blog on it too. Here's the link: http://ilove-ralph.blogspot.com/2007/07/evening-out-to-east-coast-park-with.html .

When I left in Mar this year, I had yet to see the tummies of the 2 pregnant mothers. Finally managed to feel the 2 piglets. It is exciting to think that the next time I go back, it will be my first meeting with them. Really looking forward to it. 加油妈妈们:)


Managed also to squeeze in a trip to Bintan too :) Poor Adrian. We dragged him to Bintan on the day he landed in Singapore. He didn't even have a chance to catch a breather. We pampered ourselves with a spa (even though the place we did it looked sleazy), nice dinners, ATV rides, swim etc. The only thing we didn't quite enjoy was playing Monopoly with Jenny. For those who know who we are, remember, NEVER attempt to play this game with Jenny. She simply has too much luck in the game. We couldn't even beat her when we combined efforts.

Rest of the time was spent shopping, eating, catching up with friends, signing papers for the sale of the house, etc. Looking forward to my next trip back. See ya soon my friends :)

It Has Been 6 Months....

Tomorrow is the 27th again. It has been a habit for me to dedicate this day of the month to Pebble. Yes, is already 6 months. But it still feels like she just went missing yesterday. I always wonder how she is, who has taken her and will she still recognise me if we meet one day. I pray that she is safe and happy everyday.

Mummy misses you so much. Kisses....

The Sun Is Out!

Finally the sun is out and the heat wave is gone. Now the temperature hovers around 20 to 28 degrees. Nice cool with some breeze. My friends decided that it was the perfect time for a BBQ. Something we had been thinking of doing since winter. So we got ourselves organised and last Sat, we held our first BBQ in Moscow.

Some arrived earlier to help the host with the preparation e.g organised the food, laid the table and did lawning. We were very fortunate to have satay and otah from Singapore. Thanks to our friends who just returned from Singapore that very morning.

We ate, we talked, we had fun and soon, we decided that it was about TIME!. Not to leave but to start our mahjong session. We brought along our mahjong table (yeah, we were that hardcore). We had 2 tables. We started teaching those friends who were unfamiliar with the game. Then all the "pong", "gang" and "hu" started. Mahjong is one game that the moment you start, you forget about the time. As it only gets dark at about 10pm nowadays, we lose track of time. Finally, the day ended at about 1am. Reluctantly, we stopped the game, packed up and headed home, only to find ourselves waking up at about 11am the next day.

Feels Like Home

After reading CanIcan's blog about mobtv, I decided to try. A few days later, I got an email to register for the free trial for Global Mobtv. I guess watched the last episode of Phua Chu Kang a couple of hours ago. Great! I remembered I missed that episode as I was on the way back to Moscow. I am now downloading some dramas. Just wondering what will the charges be like once the trial period is over. In the meantime, I should just enjoy this free service. Just one thing though. Takes patience to download programmes, I realised.