PhotoHunt - Self

This week's theme - A part of myself.

Here it is - my jumbo feet at the beach.

I notice as I age my feet seems to grow larger.

Next

My #1 's feet is bigger than mine. (center foot). And still growing !!!!! And he is only 13 years old.

At The Park Again

Yesterday morning, after breakfast at McDonald's we went to the park again - Pasir Ris Park. There is a nice playground next to the beach. The whole play area is under the foliage of those big trees. We took a bus ride here. The boys like it because they always come here by car. It so happened that H was on duty the night before. He joined us after he had handed over his watch.

The other side of the park. Quiet, isn't it. Come weekends it will be doted with picnickers.

#2 attempting the Space net.

This park is filled with challenging obstacles plus other normal kiddies stuff. I took many pictures of the boys but you know what happened. The camera suddenly had this message -

"Error in card reading. Check card".

The next thing I know all those pictures were gone. What you see here were taken after that incident. The boys were sure disappointed. They had showed off their climbing skills and now there ares no pictures of them. :(

Here is #2 at the top.

Once they got bored with the playground they headed towards the beach.

H reading the papers.

We seek shelter from the sun under a coconut tree.

But of course we had to make sure that the tree is not laden with those bombs ! Don't want any head injuries nearing my trip, do we ? By the way it is just eight days away.

It just happened most of the trees around us happened to be heavy with fruits. Those that are bare did not provide much shelter.

#3 walking on the beach.

The beach was deserted this morning compare to the other evening. The sky is filled with puffy clouds. That did not block any of the sun because it got hotter and hotter as the morning wore on.

Needless to say they did not linger long here.

Washing up. And then it was lunch at an air conditioned place. Ikea ! And their meat balls.

Man !!!!!

This is the latest update after I called up my parents this afternoon.

My Father went for a 2D Echo cardiogram. The heart specialist and the radiologist confirmed that everything is OK. There is no heart enlargement.
Why is there a difference in the Xrays ?
The specialist say Father might had made a slight movement when he got radiated (his words).

That is a big relief.

But I can't help feeling if he is telling us the complete story. He had been known to keep the truth from us. Looks like I have to go asking around.

Father said "It is the will of God if he needs to make an appointment with him. Looks like his appointment is cancelled."

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This is what H and I were discussing last night. Why is it always in the bed and when we are getting ready to sleep ?
We were both watching the 9 am news on TV last night. And we end up discussing about the world events at 12 midnight in bed. That shows how boring our life is, right ?
Anyway we heard that Tiger Airways; a budget airlines is going to charge their passengers for their check in luggage. Carry on is still free of charge.

H said - That is good news.
Me - Why ? ( really puzzled )
H - You can't do any shopping at Cambodia ?
Me - Grrrr........ gave him a punch and .........

Me - We are going on Jetstar. They do not have this extra charges, my Dear.....!

Sickening !!!!!!

News From Ipoh

This is some news from Ipoh.

It happened to one of my parent's friend. They stay just a few house away from them.

This couple stay alone with a maid. One day the old lady was hospitalize. The maid stayed with her during the day. In the evening she will return home with the old man.

Now one night, the old man, Uncle P (80 years old++++) woke up in the middle of the night and went to the bathroom. He noticed that his back door was opened. He thought he must had forgotten to locked it.
He locked the door, went back to bed. But he can't sleep because he kept thinking of the opened door. Because he was sure he had locked it earlier.

So he got out of bed went out of his room and met two man. They threaten him with a knife and beat him up. Uncle P fainted.

When he came round his maid was trying to wake him up. She was tied up. He untied the maid and called the police.

Nothing was stolen from the house. Now the old man is afraid to be alone in the house. His children were surprised that their independent Father is now so timid.

But the family believe that it was the maid who opened the door and entertained those men. They sent her back to the agency. When they cleared her room they found lots of food items in her room plus other things .

Now the maid had never went out on her own. She goes everywhere with the couple. But they notice that at the hospital she was chatting away with lots of men.
The family believes that this was where it all started.

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Next, the metal thieves strike again at our parents house. This time the old metal flower pot stands were their target. All the stands behind the house were removed.

Geng !!!

Mother is not keen in having a dog to guard the house. her reason is because she is afraid of them. Plus who is going to feed the dog when they travel.

I think their house is jinx

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Father will be going to see the heart specialist tomorrow.
He had an Xray done because he is always coughing. His lungs are OK. But the Xray shows that his heart is slightly enlarged.
He told the Dr he don't have any symptoms, such as dizziness, breathing difficulties (except for the cough). His blood pressure is well under control.
After further examination his Dr told him his feet is slightly swollen (some fluid retention ). Made an appointment for him with the heart specialist.

Hope it is nothing serious.

An Evening At The Beach

Last evening after dinner we went to the Pasir Ris beach for a walk. A good time for me to try out the camera's sunset mode. There were quite a crowd at the beach. Not surprisingly since the four weeks school holidays had already started.

As usual the boys will start digging up the beach. That is why the buckets and spades are always in H's car boot.

#3
#1 and #2. The island behind the boys is Pulau Ubin. A small island part of Singapore's. The outward bound school is located there.

The boys trying to dig up the beach. The water you see are from the tide coming in. In the end they made a long trench but it was too dark to snap a picture of it.

The sky turning dark and darker. Here are some shots.

Trying out the night scenery mode. Holding my breath, hands as close to my body and trying to stand as still as possible since I do not have a tripod with me.

Across the beach is a shipyard. (I need more practise with this mode. )
The sky had turned dark and the boys are still at work. Covered with sand !

PhotoHunt - Shoes

This week's PhotoHunt - Shoes.

I can only think of my Mother's shoes. Kept neatly and labeled in their individual boxes.

See how neat and organise her shoe cupboard.

And in most of those boxes they mainly consist of beaded shoes.

Finally a picture of those shoes outside its' box. Can't manage to place all of them on the table. Those are only a few of them.

I can still hear her reminding me to

"....place them in their proper box and in order ! "

A Photo Meme

Barbara task me with a photo-meme. Just what I need because I had been clueless on what to blog about lately.
Thanks, Barbara.

Here are the rules :-

" All you do is to look in your home for the oldest objects that you own. Just your own possessions . Then, take a photo of each object, and( if you like ), do a short description of each . Pass on to 4 friends. "

Most of the old things I have are heirlooms. In fact my whole house is filled with them. :) Yes I am those type that feels comfortable with familiar things around me. Plus it is also another way to remember our ancestors. I am one big sentimental girl.

OK, here are mine :-
A 'sia na' - a three tiered lacquered basket. It used to belong to my Great-grandmother. Handed down from her to my grandmother, then to my Mother and now me.

According to Mother, my Grandmother inherited a couple of those baskets; varying in sizes. But with the frequent moving of houses, some of them were discarded along the way.
They used this basket to carry traditional cakes for most major occasions, such as wedding or the celebration of a new born.
When it was in Mother's hand it retired from transporting cakes to be part of her home deco.
Now that it is in my care, other than it being part of my home deco, I used it as a sewing basket. It is filled with the usual things you would find in any sewing basket - needles threads, buttons, hooks and eyes, scraps of clothes, scissors.

Next, another heirloom from my Great-grandmother. This pair of beaded slippers belongs to her. The ' manik potong ' ( cut glass beads )are used. The beads are very small. Much smaller than the ones I use for my beaded shoes. I don't use those small beads because I don't want to super stress my eyes. As it is my eyesight is not that great. This is the only pair of shoes left because after her death all her belongings were either burnt or thrown away. This shows how much we don't appreciate things around us until it is too late.

This pair of shoe manage to escape that because my aunt had asked her for it before her death. In turn she gave it to me when she knew I was interested in beaded shoes.

Those heirlooms were passed from daughter to daughter. Come to my generation I wonder who will be the next caretaker ?

What follows is a box I made twenty years ago. It was just a plain brown box and I covered it with cloth. I used it to hold my personal things then. I am able to afford better boxes now but I still keep this box. Maybe because it was made by me. It holds many memories. Its' contents had changed many times over the years.

Now it mainly holds memorabilia from my past. A pair of baby mittens and cap knitted by my aunt for me when I was born. In other words it is as old as I am. A rail pass from my trip to UK. My first epaulet and name tag. Plus....

My library card from secondary school. It is also found it my hand-made box.

Last but not least (I have many more old things around but I will spare you from them)

A pencil case I used since Secondary school ! And still in use.

By the way those initials ' W.H.McK. " do not happen to be my mine. But a guy I had a crush on. Just imagine that I still can remember his full name whenever I see those letters. But not his face. If I dig deep enough into my memory bank I might just have a very blurry image of him. Funny I can remember very well he showed me the drift during one of our car rides. Yeah, he was super cool but I still can't remember his face. :)

That's it. Now to tag.......(drum roll)

1. The soon to be grandma - twocrazydogs
2. The soon to be mama - pearly
3. The ever cheerful - angel
4. And a mama with super cute girls - catcat

Have fun. It's OK if you don't want to do this because I know how stressful tags can be at time.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Last Monday it was a public holiday - Wesak Day. A day where Buddhist marks the day Lord Buddha achieved his enlightenment.
We stayed home. H took this opportunity to spring clean his car.
As for me I tried out the camera's 10X optical zoom in the comfort of my room.

Picture of our multi-story car from my bedroom.

H recruited his boys for the job - only #1 and #3 signed up. They stationed themselves at the roof of the car park where there is more light. The car is in the center of the picture, left hand side of the car park (in the shadow of the stairwell) . Can't really see them when I did not zoom in.

This camera of mine ( Lumix DMC-TZ15 ) has this button -E.Zoom. With one press on it, the lens goes 10X.

But after zooming in (first press), here they are.
And after further zooming (2nd press of the button). 16.9X is the max.

I even managed to get a picture of #2, after I had sent him there with drinks for those slogging under the hot morning sun (10am).

He knew I was taking pictures . :)

This was after I trimmed the pictures.

After all the hard work the boys got paid - $1 each.

#3 - " So little !!!! "

Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend

The other day I was out with my friends. Some are married, some still single and we got into a discussion about diamonds.
We were sitting at a coffee joint yakking away (what else and there was this music blasting off at the nearby CD store. One of us suddenly said

"Hey that is quite true, you know."

(Shows she is not really following our conversation or she is multi tasking)

That got all of us to stop yakking.

She (also happen to be the one who can sing quite well ) repeated a verse from the song :-

"Man grow cold as girls grow old
And we all loose our charms in the end
But square cut or pear shape
Those rocks don't loose their shape."

That got us into that discussion.

Check out Beyonce singing for the Emporio Armani commercial :-


Then this friend of ours repeated a few more lines

"Time rolls on and youth is gone
And you can't straighten up when you bend
But stiff back or stiff knees
You stand straight at Tiffany's.
........I don't need rhinestones
But Diamonds are a girl's best friend !"

(She sure got a real good memory)

In the end we all agree
Diamonds don't loose their shape. And we girls do go ga-ga over diamonds. Even though some of us might not spend any of our hard earn money on them.

Agree ???

Me...... is a big YES !!!!!

PhotoHunt - Candy

This week's theme is Candy.

The first thing that comes in to my mind are those sweet sugary stuff. Which are loaded with calories and and not to mention a dentist's nightmare.

With that in mind I was not going to do this post at all. Coz I don't have any candies lying around at the moment. Then while I was sorting out my threads it suddenly hit me.

Check out my candy


Candy coloured threads. For some sugary sweet stitching.

New Seat Belt Law

The National Highway Safety Council has done extensive testing on

A newly designed seat belt.

Results show that accidents can be reduced by as much as 45% !

When the belt is properly installed.

Correct installation is illustrated below.......

(I received this in my email from H. )

Is he giving me a hint ??????

Beatles in Diapers And Updates

I saw this cute little kid on the news the other day. He is a Korean boy who does not speak any English. He picked up the lyrics by just listening and watching the Beatles on video.




Not bad eh ?

Now for other updates. Mainly things that had been going on around my house.

See this little birdy here. It is resting on our a pipe of our air conditioner compressor.

What so special about it ?

Recently we have some uninvited guests in our house. Birds !!!

We use to leave our kitchen windows open most of the time. But one day we hear some noise in the kitchen. Went in to investigate and got a surprise. One of those black bird was in there. Qucikly chased it of. The next time it happened again.

This time there were two of them. I was in my room, no one else was in that day. I heard some fluttering of wings in the hall. True enough there are two of them. We had close the kitchen windows partially instead of being wide open. And still they manage to fly in.

So, now a days we close the windows, leaving only a small gap and only open them once the sky turns dark.

Those three bags here are the filled with junk I had collected in my room. They are only from my room, mine you. Old hand bags, clothes and other what nots that I do not even know I have them at all !!

Lastly, H broke the kitchen window. And it cost us $170 just to replace one glass panel.

And finally it is 24 days to my trip to Angkor !!!!!!!

HAPPY

MOTHER'S DAY !!!

PhotoHunter - Share Any Photo

This week's theme is any photo.

Here is a picture of a Chinese chess board.
It is old and used to belong to my maternal Grandfather.
The chess pieces are new though. My grandfather's chess pieces are not complete.

The board was one of those sales gimmick from Fraser & Neave ( F&N ) promoting Shamrock Stout.

The boys still uses it.

Even though it is old and we can afford to buy a new one, I treasure this board very much. Because every time the boys bring it out it reminds me of my Grandfather.



Next is H teaching #3 the moves. With #2 looking on, giving advises and hints to #3.

Lastly .....

This picture is taken from my parent's garden in Ipoh.

You see the air conditioning compressor below the windows.

Last weekend that was targeted by the thieves. They cut off the connecting pipes and remove the whole compressor.

The 'metal thieves' struck again !

Belated Birthday Card

I have not posted for a while and suddenly I have three post on one day. Geng !!!!

I had to post this last one as I just opend my letter box and received this.
My birthday had long past. But I received this from my Sis today.

My belated birthday card from her. But the thing is it was not suppose to be a belated card. She sent it way before my birthday and should have reach me on time.


The reason for the delay.........
:
:
:
:
:
:
:

It went to Bermuda.
What the........?????
Yes, Bermuda. Maybe it got sucked into the Bermuda Triangle while on it's way here. Cool eh ?
Either that or the US postal service need to pull up their socks.

And yes, Singpore was clearly printed on it by my Sis.

My Vegas Trip

OK I have not been updating, again. I blame it on a week of exams...not mine but the boys. But it sure felt like I went for it.
Anyway checked my Sis blog and she had her Vegas pictures up. That brings me reminiscing my own holiday in Vegas - 1993.

A postcard I bought.

Visited most of the casinos, gave some donation with out any returns as expected.
Took some pictures but most of them did not turn out well, especially those taken in the night. Back then films and developing them were not cheap. Therefore there were no wasting of films. In other words not much unnecessary pictures. But I did manage to take some. Here they are.

Those were the few that turn out well. You can see that the pictures had began to fade. Which reminds me I better do something about them soon. Like scan and store them into the computer.

Most of the pictures were taken at the older part of Vegas. We did go over to Cesar's Palace and the other hotels around there. Oooo....and.....Wow at those spanking new hotels. The most memorable thing was the moving ceiling in Cesar's Palace.

In the day we took a tour of the Grand Canyon which made a stop over at the Hoover Dam.

Me at the dam.

Me again with the dam.

My folks and I at the Grand Canyon. I remember it was windy with the sun shining brightly but nothing as hot as what we have over here now.

Me and the canyon. The sight of the canyon was awesome and it will stay with me forever, even with out pictures. (I say.... I look so slim then. )

How to regain that figure when I am having these for tea ? :)

Come, join me with my homemade cake and cookies.

Have a wonderful weekend.

More Airport Pictures

More pictures of our trip to the airport. The first three are from the Terminal 3.

The Departure Hall , which is spacious, bright and airy. The human crowd were mainly stationed at the Basement 2 where most of the cafes are and the Viewing Mall.

Waiting for the train to to Terminal 1.

The Sky Train.
Terminal 1 , Departure Hall - the first airport after moving here from Paya Lebar.

This terminal is dark and not as spacious as the other two terminals. This terminal holds lots of memories. Came here when it was a newly opened airport....sometime in the 80's. Came here with my parents and it was included in the tour of the city. Flew back from this terminal to KL with my cousin J, when we came down for a visit, also some where in the 80's. Back then my impression of this terminal was Wow !

More recent memories were sending my folks off to China from here. Picking them up with the boys shouting "Pohpoh". And then " Any sweets/ candies, Gonggong ? "

Plus picking and sending my Sis off from here.

Having our tea break at Terminal 1. We can't find a seat at the new Terminal 3. It was packed over there.

Next stop - Terminal 2, again we took the Sky Train.

The Departure Hall in Terminal 2, is also bright and spacious.

The boys want to check themselves in for a ride.

Lastly I will leave you with a picture taken at the new Terminal 3. I am sure by now you are sick of them.

The reflection of the air control tower and the coming new airport hotel . The image of the mass of twisted metal on the right is actually the exterior of the hotel. You can see the reflection of a crane with it's workers putting their finishing touch on the hotel's exterior.

PhotoHunt - Time

This week's PhotoHunt is about Time.

These two here are the clocks I sewed. It sure took me some ' time ' to complete them.

Here is another ' time ' consuming project of mine. Statred on it last year.

A nearly completed pair of beaded shoes. It got kind of boring just filling up the background. Hence the slow progress.

Hopefully it will be ready by Mother's Day. I intend to hand this over to Mother

Free Air Conditioning

As promised these are the pictures taken at the Changi Airport's new terminal - Terminal 3.

We drove, parked the car at B2( car park was nearly full ). Entered the airport and was greeted with this :-

Human traffic ++++++

The boys asked, "Are you sure we are in the airport ? "

The Kopitiam food court was packed, every seats in the other cafes were filled up.

Looks like we were not the only ones seeking free air conditioning from the blistering heat outside.


B2 is just like a mini mall with retail outlets and cafes.


The above and next few pictures were taken were taken by the boys, since they had more or less taken over the old camera.

H and I at the Arrival Hall -a super blur picture by #3.

See the new shoe I was wearing ? :)

The boys are the Arrival Hall.

A moving fan.

See the scorching sun outside ?

The two older boys refused to have their pictures taken by #3.

Still hiding their faces.

The spacious Departure Hall.
Another view of the Departure Hall. That green wall of creepers happen to be in the restricted area, where the conveyor belts are, behind a glass partition.

The Viewing Mall also saw lots of human traffic.

The runway from the viewing mall.


The next two are pictures of the transit lounge.

Looks like there is more human traffic in the B2 then in the Transit Lounge.

Next we took the SkyTrain to the next two Terminals. Next post.

Have a great weekend.

Shiok !

Today being Labour Day, I woke up later than usual. Can't tell you how good it was to lay in bed until the sun is up on a weekday. Shiok !

The sun was shining brightly, the weather man predicts a rain free day, temperature at 33 Celsius. And H suggested we drive over to Katong for laksa.

Have you ever look outside and asked yourself - " Do I want to go out in that heat ? "

It is another bloody hot day.

Then H came up with another suggestion - cool off at the new airport's Terminal 3.

OK that is not so bad. By then I was too lazy to cook. It was between starting a fire in the kitchen and sweat or eat out and sweat but get to enjoy some free air conditioning.

I am sure you know which one won.

So, it is to Katong for lunch. We went to this outlet - 328 Katong Laksa, along the East Coast Road.

Wah...there are about three stalls which sells the same thing next to each other. And all three have the ' Katong Laksa ' on their billboard.

Here is the juicy story behind it. (Copied from the 8Days TV guide) :-

"The original laksa joint (previously named Marine Parade Laksa) was founded by two brothers in1963 at 49 East Coast Road. When they took a hiatus in 1998, their stall was taken over by their trusty helper, Nancy Lim. She renamed it ' 328 Katong Laksa '. When the owner of that shop, Mrs Teo saw how much business Nancy stall was generating, she decided to sell Laksa herself and kicked Nancy out of her shop. She named her stall ' Famous 49 Katong Laksa '.

Meanwhile, Nancy relocated to 51 East Coast Road. Opposite at 50 East Coast Road the two brothers set up ' Original Katong Spoon Laksa ' when they resumed work. "

Confused ? Don't worry you are not the only ones.

Now you know why H suggested here for our lunch - because he had read article from the 8Days TV guide. We decided to come here because I prefer their laksa than the others.

The chilli pot with the store's address pasted on it.
The noodles are pre-cut. You can use the spoon to scoop them out together with the laksa's gravy. Extra Oooomph every mouthful.

#3 - SHIOK !
Even my fussy eater, #2 had no complains about it.

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Terminal 3's pictures will be coming up in my next post.

Friendship

I had been talking to an old friend today/yesterday. She called me up out of the blue.

It is kind of strange because

1. We seldom communicate via the phone, mostly via emails.
2. I did not realise how much I miss her chatter.

Of course we do meet up whenever I am back in Ipoh. She is a source of info about what is going on in Ipoh and all our friends. She is my best friend since Primary school.

Back to the reason she called....just to chat. Nothing more.

You know friendship have been funny since I move here and worst since I had the boys. I had lost touch with so many of my ex class mates. The same with the new friends I made since I came here. Some I have been in contact with and some not so much.

When we were younger I thought my best friend and I would be together forever and ever. We tell each other everything. Call each other up nearly everyday. Mother would say I 'cook porridge' whenever we were on the phone. In other words -spent hours on the phone.

Since I moved here I made new friends and have a new best friend. Another strange thing is these two best friends have never met. It is like I have two separate lives.

Anyway during our conversation, I kept thinking it is kind of weird that she is now living in the neighbourhood I spent my childhood. I had always wished she stayed nearer to me.

Weird isn't it ?