Benefits of Being At Home

I think I like to stay at home... Stayed at home on Monday and was so lazy to go out. R introduced me to watch a tv programme on weekdays 11.30am on Channel 5. I tuned in then and I love the programme "Loving Spoonfuls"!

LS is a Canadian cooking programme where the host would visit a grandmother of a different race/country and the grandmother would share her home hand-me-down recipes. Sometimes the grandmother would also share her life experiences. E.g. today, a Hungarian grandmother shared how she know her husband and how her husband passed away from pneumonia when she was 75. It was a moving story... On the programme, she also taught how to make Hungarian cucumber salad, sour cherry soup and wine cream dessert. The other day, a grandmother taught how to make "rollermops"?! It was a beef dish rolled up with pickles, onions and mustard. What a cute name :) It was like how my grandfather taught me baking last weekend! Except that he shared his life baking experiences with me... ;)

If I am at home, I probably won't be able to watch these tv programmes. After a 30-minute LS, its the one-hour "Martha Stewart" show. Although its supposed to be a cooking/home making programme, its also like a variety show. Well if you ask me, I prefer LS ;)

Its really a nice feeling not to be working... watch tv while knitting (yes I am on my new project for myself), do housework, do some 'work' on the computer and some packing I've to do... but I need to be disciplined with my time :) Hopefully I will learn that better :p

Baking Weekend

Grandpa (my 爷爷) stayed at my place over the weekend. Grandpa has had a hard life. When he was younger, he learnt to cook, bake, sew and did carpentry and became (almost) a jack of all trades. He was hardworking and frugal. Every cent that he and my deceased grandma earned, they saved it up.

Since grandpa could bake and I have interest in baking, he decided to pass me his secrets! On Friday, he brought his equipment to my place. Over the weekend, he taught and demonstrated how to make a normal cake, swiss roll, cheesecake (like those from Fiesta) and durian puffs! With various proportions of plain flour, eggs, butter, water and sugar, we can make these different cakes/pastries. The methods vary a bit but it is pretty simple to learn :p


My favourites were the cheesecake and durian puffs. I am not a great fan of durian puffs, but these really tasted really good! With the same method of making choux pastry, we can make cream puffs and chocolate eclairs! :)

Making of durian puffs from fresh durian paste from the fruit itself! No preservatives added!

Am fortunate to have my 94-year-old grandpa to teach me these... he is really a wonderful man! During this time, there has been much communication problems... he speaks Hainanese and me trying to understand at the same time. I can't quite speak much of it but I can understand small bits of it. It really also taught me patience... Because of this communication barrier, I find it so difficult to share Christ with him. Please pray for grandpa to be open to the gospel and for me to be bold and able to communicate with him. He's really getting very old and since grandma passed away 3 months ago, I know he is quite prepared to follow her anytime. Although he really looks okay most times, but when you ask him how he is, he'll say "di liao", which means die already. Thank God that grandpa is still very strong physically and able. I pray that God is keeping him alive so that he learn to accept Christ as personal Lord and Saviour.

K And The Puppy

I'm not a big fan of dogs. In fact, I'm afraid of dogs! In particularly those who come up to me eagerly and wanting to lick me, etc, I will run away and sometimes squeak when they come near me. I like dogs who don't like me enough to come onto me excitedly. Only then I will go up to them to stroke them, touch them.

Maybe when I was young, I didn't have much interaction with dogs, or even animals for that matter. Hee so as compared, I've totally no problems with carrying and dealing with children, infants, even newborns. That's because I was exposed to taking care of babies/kids when I was young. Brother was born when I was 7 years and I had to help mum take care. Mum also used to babysit other infants/kids and I became her handy assistant :p

Was out with J last week. She brought her daughter along. K is growing to be very cute and can interact with adults. Its the most fun age to be with :) For the first time, J allowed K to play with and touch dogs. My my... K was really excited that she wanted to kiss the puppy!

Food for Thought

Neonangel and some friends opened a cafe just under a week ago. J, her daughter and I decided to pop by yesterday afternoon for some snacks and food. But I forgot to take photos :p

FFT's food has no MSG and yet was yummy! Check out the slow roasted pork sandwich :)

FFT has a good cause. See it for yourselves! Its also a great place to chill out with a group of friends!

Food for Thought is at the ground level of North Bridge Centre.

Heavy Rainstorm

Was awoken this morning by my mum to ask me to send her to work and send my dad to the mrt station. It was raining so heavily that my parents found it difficult to go to work... so I dragged myself out of bed and went to fetch the car. Oh my! The rain was so heavy, that the roads in my flat's vicinity were flooded!! I have not encountered this heavy rain for a long time!

I snapped a few pictures with my camera phone...

The multi purpose hall beside multi storey carpark. Drains were flooded that the overflow went into the hall. Note that dry patch? That's the center of the hall, waiting to be submerged by water.

Lobby of neighbouring flat. Waters creeping into the inside of the building.

The flooded roads, drains and grass. That was certainly more than ankle high if I were to stand on the road.

My crocs made it much easier for me to walk through the murky waters ;)

40 minutes later, the roads were cleared as the rain lightens! Singapore's water drainage system is good eh?

When I was driving back, the waters were as high as the road humps. I decided to park my car on the 2nd storey of the carpark, in case the waters slowly creep into the carpark. What a morning! And now I'm sleepy....

Its All Getting Closer...

2 more weeks and I will be leaving Singapore... for good? Well at least to settle down in another foreign land down under.

I wonder how life will be like? Just received the letter of my approved visa which allows me to stay there for 9 months. In fact, in 4 months' time I will be able to apply for another visa which will allow me to be there for a much much longer term. Yesterday I also got around to send off more than 50kg worth of personal items which will arrive there in 5-7 weeks' time. Between yesterday and today, I collected my wedding gown and evening dress. My one big suitcase is out in the living room, awaiting to be filled up. My wardrobe is almost emptied out but filled up slowly by my sister's clothing. My desk is getting less and less crowded....

Mixed feelings of wanting to leave at the soonest and yet also want to stay behind, feelings of excitement for a new life and yet sad to leave behind the life and culture that I am used to and comfortable with. 2 weeks.. this time will swing by like lightning, but there's much for me to do...

Baking Song

As I was baking today, my mind drifted off to think about many other things... don't know why the tune of this song came to mind. So I just kept singing the song as I bake....

Packing Woes

Spent most of my day packing up a lot of my clothings and belongings, doing various housework (wash clothes, hang clothes, fold clothes, bake, clean up, vacuum the floor) and had tea with DS who came to my house to spend some time together to catch up. We have not met for years and soon, she will be leaving for 10-14 years of missionary work and me leaving to Brisbane for good (hopefully).

I felt like a tai tai/housewife at home, sorting out things at home, housework, having friend over for tea with muffins that I baked and crackers with egg mayo dip that I made. It was a good time to catch up on the things that happened to us in the past years that we have not met. Its humbling to realise how God has brought us to different stages in our lives, challenged us in various ways through various situations and also broke us and taught us precious lessons in life....

As I write now, there's still so much emotions and thoughts that I need to figure out... I had many flashbacks of bits of my life while I was packing today. It makes me sad... and it makes me more sad to realise that there are many people who love me and I'm leaving them. Maybe I'm easily moved... but as I see emails flying around to organise farewell gatherings for me, 1-2-1 time I had to catch up with a couple of my close girl friends and thinking that such girly gatherings would be a thing of the past, friends around me who support me fully and so ever ready to help me for my upcoming wedding (many are on 'standby mode', just waiting to be asked), I find no words to say... only tears flowed...

I had thought that it would be easy for me to leave... and no one would bother much about my absence. After all, no one is indispensable and I am just another person who moved on in life and leave church. But as time draws nearer, I do feel sad amidst the excitement to start a new life in a new place with new friends. Yes I still do look forward to the new life with new people.... but I must admit that some bits of fear is sinking in. I was told that such stress/fear is the norm - fear of finding friends, ability to settle down, coping with married life, starting all over again. Having spoken to 2 other girls who had also married off to another country and hearing their struggles, it does makes me a bit scared. But what encourages me is that they have come through it, although the process would require much prayers, tears, difficulties in adjusting, faith in God and the molding of our character. Even though, this would take time... some people take a longer time, some people take a shorter time. The husband of one is more understanding than the other... actually both the husbands also learn to cope and to be there for their wives.

Through it all, what reminds me also, is that I need to hang onto Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. He is my Lord and God. There is no other greater than Him. I must 'bring God' along with me wherever I go, not forsaking Him and forgetting Him (yes God is omnipresent. It is just an illustration). In Christ alone I trust. There is no other like Him. Be thankful for everything He has given to me and everyone that He has put in my life. Cherish the people/relationships that I have. Everything else is fleeting and cannot bring with me to heaven. Be contented with the lot that God has given me. In all circumstances and situations, remember that God loves me and that there's nothing that's happening to me that is out of His control. Amen!

The 7th Year MEET

One of my longest trip away from home, was 4 weeks away in Macau. Nope I didn't go there to gamble... I went there for a mission trip with 8 other people in a team.

M.E.E.T. - Missions Education and Exposure Training
The 9-month programme aims to educate tertiary students about God's work in cross-cultural missions and at the end of the trip, to be exposed to a 3-4 week trip to a country (mostly) in Asia. For me, I was assigned to Macau!

Those of us who met last night... (Pregger L was not in the photo)

A and J who were not with us last night. This was taken at HL's wedding like 3-4 years ago!

It was 7 years since I last went for the trip. Last evening, majority of our team (together with 3 out of 4 of our team supervisors) met up for dinner. Yes it was 7 years since the entire team met. During the 7 years, 2 out of 9 of us were married (now there are 3.5 kids amongst the 2... i.e. 1 is pregnant with 2nd kid), 3 of us will be married soon (by 2008). Of the 13 (9 team members + 4 supervisors), 2 of us are leaving the country for long time - 1 to overseas mission to far away country, the other 1 migrating to another country (that's me :p).

It was really nice to catch up with each other and find out where each of us are in our lives. Our conclusion? Most (if not all) of us did not quite change at all! Some change slightly in our physical appearances. Most of our personalities did not change... or perhaps the meeting was too short to be able to tell.

To me, I think the most important thing (and my prayer) that all of us would continue to abide by God, to walk faithfully in trust and obedience to Him in our lives, wherever in the world and whatever stage of life we will be in. Macows, let us keep in touch and keep each other in prayer okay? :)

Here are some old photos of which I actually have the soft copies in my computer! (In those days, we took film photos) These were taken 7 years ago...

The team being sent off at the airport

A day's outing at St Paul's ruins with pastor's family and church staff

In the church kitchen with the kids and ... (I think his name is KS)

Experimental Fun

I came from a school which teaches us how to be kim gek. Kim is the hokkien word for gold and Gek the hokkien word for jade. In chinese word, it is "金玉", meaning a young chinese girl being brought up and educated in the best manner.

Anyway, in my memories of my secondary school days, someone from somewhere did come and teach us flora arrangement. It could be part of home economics session. Anyhow, as part of the kim gek education, we were taught flora arrangement, cooking, baking, sewing, social etiquette, speech and drama and the like... as one of my friends says, my school teaches us how to be a tai tai (. Well yes I would like to be a tai tai but NOT one of those rich and wealthy tai tais, who only play majong, shop, etc. I would like to be the Proverbs 31 tai tai :p

Was wanting to meet up with someone from the florist to discuss about flowers that I require on wedding day... but the appointment could only be made on Friday. Anyhow, I drove past the Thomson Road stretch of nurseries and decided to stop by to check out the wholesale materials they have there and what options I can have if I were to do DIY decor. I found out that so much materials and flowers are so cheap... I wish I am more artistic and creative and I can do up my own bridal bouquet, table arrangement, church decor, car decor, etc... Nevertheless I thought I could buy some raw materials back to try and see how I can or cannot make it!

The raw materials that I began with...

Ended up coming up with something that resembles a... corsage? Can you tell? :p Was thinking that otherwise I can use it to decorate the church pews. Well at least I have given (whatever I had) my creative brain a try...

What happened the rest of the roses? Well I tried to do a table arrangement but was too ugly to be shown :p

[Postscript] I actually found a website that teaches people how to make wedding flowers and wedding decor tips! :)