Beyond your imagination

Hello everybody.

I have not blogged since May last year and since it's the beginning of the dragon year and almost one month into January, I feel obliged to share with you my thoughts.

Back in December last year, my uncle and his family who emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand some six years ago came back to spend their summer vacation.

We had a few gatherings, honest conversations and what really struck me was, they are leading a totally different lifestyle as compared to us living in Singapore. For instance, they will go horse-riding at a ranch during the weekends. But what we usually do in Singapore is to have our eyes glued to our smart phones, our computers, catching the latest episodes of dramas, or meet up with our friends, visit our grandparents. In short, we're living the city life, while they lead a really sub-urban, country life. All I can say is, they are living in a different world.

They may appear to be concerned about what has been happening in Singapore, like how's my grandmother's health. But what can they do? If something happens, will they be in time to come back to help? Or will they prefer not to come back?

What happened recently has made me lose faith in some extended family members. Some people are just plain selfish when it comes to helping out and it frustrates me.

I am not sure if I should share this here. But my grandmother was recently diagnosed with dementia. As time goes by, she may lose all her recent memory, maybe in a few years time, she wouldn't be able to recognise her family members anymore. This is so so so sad if you think about it. So I think as family members we should spend more time with her. What worsens the situation is that she stays alone. Sometimes she forgets to take her medicine, very frequently, she will not remember to have her meals. My mum is so afraid that someday, she may just be one of those missing elderly on facebook. She just started her rehab treatment today and I hope she feels better gradually.

I have no problems with you migrating, I know it is a personal choice. But very often, when we choose to do something, we don't think about how our parents will feel. All parents are the same, even if their children commit a grave mistake, they will still love their children. They always have the sense of guilt towards their children, like, I brought my child to this world, so I have to give him or her the best. However when your kids grow up, get married, have children,begin to move out of the house, start to migrate without you or agree with their spouse more than listening to what you have to say, can you say,' No you can't migrate! ' or 'If you want to, bring me with you'. ?
I don't think you will bear to tell that to your children right?

So in my opinion, at the very least what these children can do is to spend more time with their parents. No matter how busy they are.

But, they went back to NZ on the first of January.

When it was close to Chinese New Year, my grandma bought so much food in her fridge thinking that they will be back for reunion dinner. What she didn't remember was, they went back to their ang moh country already, and we won't know when they will be back again. Who knows? She may have forgotten all about them when the time comes.

On the night of 20th March 2011, the four of us embarked on a journey of return to London, this time around, without our dad.

Frankly speaking, going on this trip was filled with a lot of apprehension as it was a short getaway and I had a lot to catch up on, academically when I return. But, if you read on, you'll realise that my worries were uncalled for.

My mood was instantly lifted when the A380 Jumbo appeared right in front of me. Just had to take a picture of it.

Just take a look at the smile! Felt really excited to visit Europe once again! Have I ever mentioned before that I love taking plane rides? It's like a hobby. XD

The journey on the plane was awesome. Watched The King's Speech and Black Swan. Two starkly different shows I would say, in terms of genre. I was pretty intrigued and disturbed at the same time, especially after watching the intense Black Swan. The rest of the time was spent listening to Bruno Mars, Black Eyed Peas, GLEE, Leehom... before I dozed off and slipped into a.. was it a 7 or 8-hour coma? Not forgetting the occasional meal times and alcohol indulgence. HAHA. The flight to London took about 14 hours.

Immigration clearence at the Heathrow Airport was pretty efficient, since we arrived early Monday Morning at about 6.45am. Made our way to the Tube station, yes, the Underground!

So we purchased our Oysters and I took the Tube for the first time in my entire life. Verdict? Nothing special. Haha. So our destination was Euston Station via the Picadilly Line with a transit via the Victoria Line, where my cousin is staying. Luggages were too heavy so didn't take any pictures haha.

First sight of the London buses!

Our Cuzzie had to go for class at 9am so we had about one hour to make our way to the British Museum and she'll meet us later. So what do you do on Monday mornings when you're bored and hungry? Yes, have a cuppa at Macs!! My sissy got hot choco while I got myself a nice and warm cup of cuppacino. Another person was munching on her McMuffin. The other sister.

Speaking of which, coffee is an essential especially when it's the first week of Spring. It helps to warm up the body. Temperature on that day was a good 3 Degrees. Yeah, Spring at 3 Degrees. Haha. And so we walked, and we walked and we continued walking. By the way, the best way to travel in Central London is definitely by foot. But you have to be prepared to walk A LOT. So meanwhile, we spotted this familiar phone booth and I decided to take a peep.

Hmm, I wonder who I was gonna call....

We finally arrived at the British Museum.

The exterior of the museum looks like any other European museums, but what took my breath away was the interior design!!

A tourist who sounded like an American, was standing nearby, did a huge exclamation, ' Wow, this is magnificent!' So you can imagine the fascination when we first got into the museum.

Other than this grand spectacular entrance, there were alot of cool exhibits around. We visited the Egypt and South-East Asian exhibitions etc. There was a clock exhibit which displayed many of the clocks from the A.D. times to the B.C. times and the clocks that we're using in this 21st century. I got to admit that I'm not an avid museum goer but to be horribly frank, I have to say the National Museum of Singapore is nowhere near what the British Museum has/had to offer.

So the trip to the museum was pretty boring, yet breath-taking at the same time. I would say it is worth going, especially since most of the entrance to the exhibits are free. Entry to the museum is free for the general public! Say YAY to that! :D

After the museum visit with the cousin, it was time for lunch at this recommended Chinese restaurant called Noodle Oodle at Oxford Street. We had pretty good XLBs=xiao long baos, noodles, which I totally forgot to take pictures of, cause I was starving. When our hunger was satisfied, it was time for some shopping. Suspicious word: Some. It's pretty impossible not to shop while you're at Oxford Street because they have all the brands along the street- River Island, New Look, Top Shop, Gap, M&S, H&M, Uniqlo(yes, it has gone Global. In fact, there were at least 2 outlets along Oxford Street)... you name it, they have it! There was even a MUJI near my hotel and yes, the Dominion Theatre, offical West End theatre for WE WILL ROCK YOU was very near my hotel. Didn't manage to catch the musical, but it has a really impressive entrance.

Please ignore that person on the phone. He was probably trying to pose for my camera while I took a quick snap at the theatre across the road.

So the rest of the afternoon was spent in the fitting rooms, shopping, walking, choosing, shopping, walking. There was alot of walking. The entire distance of Oxford Street is almost equivalent to walking from The Cathay to Wheelock Place along Orchard Road? Perhaps even longer than that. But we did had a lot of fun, soaking in the atmosphere, with cool and well dressed people around. No flip-flops, no shorts. haha.

Dinner was a visit to Sainsbury's, a supermarket, which was just across the street from our hotel. And that was the end of Day One for us. The following days were much more interesting. So till next time! : )

I will fill you in! :D

Despite the busy schedule this week, I managed to meet Cel, Jer and TTY for lunch during the middle of the week! We visited Tao's and gosh, the food was pretty awesome!!

Some pictures taken from Cel's camera. It's Desserts-Tea-Soup-Main Entrees-Appetiser. Well of course my pictures are in the wrong order. LOL.

I'm finally back to pen down some of my thoughts.

It has been almost a month since school started. Life really got busy the past week, especially on Thursday when I spent about sixteen hours for lessons in school, only returning at late hours of the night. Despite all these preoccupations with work, school and choir, I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm cherishing these moments of stress that I only get to experience while in school. Fatigue will only start to take a toll on me when assignment deadlines creep in, and challenges me to management my time, either that or die of suffocation.

Now some time through mid week, something I read on fb caused me to be really upset and this feeling of frustration was in a huge magnitude. I felt my mind was tearing apart. It was this perturb feeling that made me ponder how years of friendship can amount to nothing! Well, I'm not referring to anyone in particular here. But I just want to clarify that most of my school activities, work commitments, external activities like choir are held in the morning and late evenings and at night. Most of my afternoons are free, but you guys are not. So what's the big fuss about me not attending meet-ups?? It's ridiculous!! Btw, 157, I'm definitely not talking about you all as you are an understanding bunch of good pals. So on top of that, I still need to spend time with the Fam. So, I really don't know how to react when I read THAT comment on fb. Oh well, whatever. HAHA BLAH

You guys should pay Tao's Restaurant a visit. It's at POMO, near Dhoby Ghaut!

On Monday, cousin Jonathan and his girlfriend of seven years, Xiaojing officially got married. It was a busy day, as they had the traditional Chinese ceremonies in the morning, solemnization in the late afternoon, followed by banquet dinner. I thought it was really efficient of them to plan everything in one day! That makes the 13th Sept 2010 all the more memorable.

I witnessed the traditional Chinese tea ceremony and the wedding dinner. It was really fun and unforgettable because it's my very first cousin who was getting married!! Btw, cousin Jon is eight years my senior. He is mum's elder sister's son.

So here goes... we went to pick up my grandma before we headed to his place in Ang Mo Kio. Everyone seemed really really excited when we got there! I think my mum, dad, uncles and aunts were so anxious to drink that cup of sweet red dates tea. With everyone grinning from ear to ear, cousin Sherrie asked Uncle John, Jon's father, 你开心吗? Which he replied with a Yes!! I mean, why wouldn't he since his first child is getting married?! ( : And with that, the white Mercs bridal car arrived and my Dad shouted,' 快点谁要去开车门？？' Abigail, Sherrie and I really wanted to go cause you know what we'll get when we open the door of the bridal car right? BUT WE'RE GIRLS. So a guy cousin from Jon's paternal side went downstairs. They took quite awhile to alight from the car because I think his cousin didn't agree with the amount that was in the red packet. HAHA.

Yeah, that's Uncle Yew Kong's hand. HELLO! おかえり!!

Beautiful Bride and Groom. That's Xiaojing's younger sister holding on to her long gown.

Yay! She waved to my camera!! Woosh!

Cheers! Screams! Yells! WOoooo!! Now Dad shouted 'Carry her in!!' and so we chanted 'Carry! Carry! Carry!!!'

Bride's response, ' errr, I'm waiting...' Groom's all prepared to take the lead!

Everybody screamed and clapped!!! WOohoooo!!!!!

Did you see that? She liked my camera! I just knew it! HAHA

Wokay, so after that was the tea ceremony which I didn't take any pictures as we were busy soaking ourselves in the blissful atmosphere. Aha. But took a few pictures of their house during lunch!

Grandma's suppose to be in the picture? Yes/No? Not really sure about that. >.<

That's the walk-in wardrobe at the back! Mum, I want that in our house!!!

Alright, I've limited pictures. HA.

Now for the sumptuous banquet at Mandarin Oriental Ballroom...

It started at 8.20pm when we were told to be seated by 7.30pm. Lesson learnt: Never be early for wedding dinners!

There was a video of what happened during the day and thereafter, the newly weds started walking down the red carpet.

And so, we were too preoccupied with the food served, thus couldn't take pictures but my sis just had to snap pictures of this dessert of the day- Chocolate Molten Lava Cake with Vanilla sauce and a dash of Strawberry jam! I would give it Hyakuten!!!! 100 marks!!! Best dessert I've ever had at any wedding dinners!! : D

I'm chocolate biased. teeheeee.

So we were all eager to go home as it was a weekday night and people have got work the next day. When I shook Jon's hands, our conversation went like...

XH to Jon: Hey! Have a happy marriage!!
Jon to XH: Next one is your turn already ar!!
XH to Jon: -_-"|

Marriage is something I'm not even thinking about at this stage of my life. ( : But all the best to you, cousin-in-law and all the love birds in the world! (^______^)

Hmm, is it going to rain??

It's snowing!! ( :

This is what happens when you're living in your own world.

Now you see, I did this post while listening to David Choi at the Esplanade Chill Out Stage yesterday. It was type-written in my phone. And I can't wait to share my encounters with you all!
So here goes...

It all started with Japanese class when we had the conversation section of the course, which was really interesting and hilarious. We learnt how to change appointments in Japanese. For instance you and the person beside you had to pretend to be colleagues/friends/teacher-student/Beauty Salon Receptionist-Customer. So my partner and I were appointed to be friends. Therefore we had to speak casually instead of being formal with each other. And the issue was to postpone our gathering to next week and we had to state the reason for the request. Now the laughter started when my 'friend' ended the conversation by saying 'arigatou gozaimasu' and I replied with 'douitashimashite'. Now Sensei corrected us saying that it's wrong to use both statements because we're in an extremely informal setting. HAHA. So instead of saying Thank You and You're Welcomed, the Japanese will usually say 'arigatou' and I have to reply 'iiyo! daijyoubu!' which means it's fine, no worries. Now that's something that I've known for quite some time. However, I guess we do have the mentality that we can use either casual or informal language when it comes to communicating with our friends. It's somehow etched in our local culture that there's no formal or polite or even PROPER way of speaking English, thus resulting in the proliferation of Singlish, is this probably why many S'poreans are kinda weak verbally? Now, it's a hindrance and bad habit to be corrected when speaking in Japanese.

After which, I met my friend at Bugis, it was too boring, so we decided to head to Raffles City. Now that was when the fun began! We tried the Mango Meringue Pie at Cedele for the first time, and Emma Yong(Theatre actress) was at the next table eavesdropping on us and she decided to follow suit! Which was to try the Pie! HA, she had to take-away the Pie cause we think she had to go back for rehearsals. She had this really huge patch of red and black make-up which seemed like eye shadow, was wearing a white and black floral print dress. We reckoned she was probably on a break from her full dress rehearsal for the Fried Rice Paradise. Now THAT PIE was awesome! Because it was AWESOMELY SWEET, if there is such a word. No more desserts for me for the coming week! It was absolute sugar rush but had a refreshing taste, never tried anything like that before! ( : Then we headed to Esplanade and saw Lim Yu Beng(Theatre actor) on the escalator and he had a Malay accent when he said 'La' which sounded really Peranakanish. And so, we found seats near the Chill Out Stage and settled down. After which, to my utter shock, saw Mr Kwei walk past us at the Esplanade!! He didn't see us, and he was walking too quickly, so we didn't manage to greet him! Also, we didn't manage to see David Choi too clearly since it was so freaking crowded! There were probably 500 people occupying that small concourse area at Esplanade?! However, we were sitting in a comfortable position listening to him and of course, random outburst of screams by obsessed female AND MALE fans. I think his popularity in Singapore is equivalent to that of an American Artist, yeah, and by the way, he IS American, ABK (American Born Korean) to be exact.

The ultimate joke of the day was to see a teenage girl dancing Disco moves along to Choi's acoustic music. My goodness, what was she trying to do?! Attract attention??

And there goes my amazing encounters yesterday, amazing because you don't get to see so many brilliant artists within a day! And end up watching a girl dancing disco to acoustic music.

By the way, just in case you don't know who David Choi is, he is an American Youtube sensation with 2 albums under his name. His music resembles Jason Mraz's. You can check him out at www.davidchoimusic.com .

Till next time!