Friday, May 30, 2008 | Friday, May 30, 2008

My dad's new business!

If you are ever interested in:
(i) learning how to put your photographs/digital photographs and video/camera recordings into a nice little dvd presentation (with all those fancy gimmicks of course); or
(ii) engaging his services and let him do the hard work (if you're too lazy to learn it yourself) :p; or
(iii) restoring your yellowed ageing photographs to their original brightness and storing them forever in digital form.

http://web.singnet.com.sg/~richjenn/

Clicking on the link will bring you to his webpage to view some samples of his work. (The video sample is quite pixellated due to stupid website and upload size but of course the video you'll learn to make or get will be in very clear form).

My dad is a computer whiz cos he learnt everything by himself from books, it's the greatest hobby he's ever taken up, and it's extremely unfortunate that i've inherited none of his computer savvy genes.

Please support (if you're keen on any of the above 3). :)

My very friendly and approachable dad.

Thursday, May 29, 2008 | Thursday, May 29, 2008

Only now do i feel the exuberance truly honestly completely. They want me want me want me!

It is a big deal to me because this means financial independence, well, i guess my parents would still pay for my toothbrush and toothpaste and i never had huge qualms about asking for pocket money while i was schooling. But ever since my dad retired i've felt extra bad about taking money from him (but still too reluctant to tutor kids on top of school for money).

This also means that it's on to my next phase in life, on to planning and budgeting for my london holiday, my wedding etc. I'm sick and tired of school.

And of course being the typical dad that my dad is, he made me see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He pointed out how God always made it possible just barely minimally each time at each important phase of my life to get through to the next; from secondary school to jc, from jc to uni, and now, from uni to my first career.

My chinese O's had C6, just enough to qualify me for jc. I'd dismal prelim results with 20 points, just the bare minimum for jc entry. Meridian opened in 2003 at just the right timing, where i could go to a new and good school with very clean toilets in the east despite my lousy grades and have such an enthusiastic and caring form teacher and geography teacher who inspired me to take up geography at university level.

Even when i had constant Fs in economics throughout jc, I still got a miraculous D for A levels. And it was at that time too that the govt announced they'd lowered e minimum mother tongue grade for university entry and my D7 made it through scot-free without needing to go through a 3 week chinese camp :)

And during my second interview with mindef, the director of the manpower dept asked me, so, what do you read. And all my very intellectual mind could think of at that moment was enid blyton, roald dahl. Of course i'd enough sense to not say those out loud, but my lame 'er, fashion magazines' should have ensured that i'd effectively stabbed myself in the back and kissed the job goodbye.

Maybe it'd turn out that travelling everyday to gombak is tiring and long and blah, maybe my colleagues might not turn out as nice as what they seemed like the other time, maybe things will not be as rosy as how i'm imagining it to be, but you know what. I don't really care right now about that because all God has shown so far is that He has provided me with all that i need inspite of me really not deserving it all. I know i still let Him down every single day in my life, i don't need people to point fingers and judge me. But that's when i know i will need Him even more. I can be financially independent of my dad but never be spiritually independent of my Father. Even as people change, move, grow apart from me, all my God has ever shown me is kindness and mercy, and even if i should find a new church one day i know i'll still find the same God. And all i could ever do is to try reciprocate with the same amount of love and gratitude.

It's sad that it took me so long to find the words to express all i've been thinking, but here it is. Making it public is a way of accountability too i suppose.

And now, to restock my wardrobe with pretty pretty office wear! And a mental note to self to treat family and nathan to a huge meal with my first pay cheque (ok i know it's still too early to plan). I am indebted to nathan as well for getting the job. He filled me in on all the loopholes mindef policies have, having been on the suffering end for 4 years so far, so that i could present to and impress my interviewers with the complainer's perspective. :p

***

My mum: Anna if you cry then you won't be pretty you know.. You want to be pretty right?
pause
Anna: I don't want to be pretty grammaa..

*

Me: Later when my friends come you must say hi to them ok, cos they think you are very cute!
Anna: I don't want to say hello to them.
Me: Why?? If you don't say hello to them, they'll be very sad and miserable you know.. Do you want them to be miserable?
pause
Anna: Yeahhh

I don't know where she gets that dark humour from, really -.-

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 | Tuesday, May 27, 2008

And so today at 0826 in the morning i went to take a photo of my face for my saf ic, and since i've been waking up at noon for the past few weeks, i honestly looked like crap in it. And the officer was quite fierce that i was too cowed to ask for another try :( But another gave me a sweet while i was waiting for my medical test results. I feel so welcomed into the army!

Even if i don't have enough to go on a post grad trip, it's still alright. I still haven't forgotten my scheme to earn lots of money, save up and go back to london in hopefully less than 5 years time. Only, this next time round, i'll have oodles of money to spend on whatever i want, instead of rationing out 90 pounds for 4 days. So here's what i've been doing so far:

one half of a completed bag..(yes, that's nathan's flabby stomach in the background)

that became this!

with pretty pretty lining :)

..made more balloons for anna

visited chek jawa where it was SUPPOSED to be low tide..

spotted a tree right out of the Big Fish movie poster

had one of the most exciting (and expensive) cycle trips in my life at pulau ubin

visited the new ketam bike park (where it wasn't very fun trying to cycle up and down those rocky slopes with toes dangerously exposed)

laughed at esther's weird obsession with fish

laughed at these two clowns' attempts to play hunter-gatherer (where they tried to open coconuts with their bare hands)

baked blueberry muffins

babysit liwei's two babies while he's away in thailand

Holidays are fun!

Monday, May 26, 2008 | Monday, May 26, 2008

It's one hour into my eight hour fast before the medical examination for mindef, and i'm bloody HUNGRY. Strictly no food or even water before it, minimal sip (singular not plural) of water the lady said.

Still, after a psychometric test, two rounds of interviews and a whole lot of waiting, i am very happy i got this far. :)

Friday, May 16, 2008 | Friday, May 16, 2008

I hate being stuck in limbo.

and the perfect song to emo along with..

Dear anna is my funnyman. She's pink queen of the house. Check out what a girly girl she is, with the barbie handbag (there's a barbie wallet inside), bracelet and necklace.

Matching hairstyles were done at her request by her compliant and obedient aunt!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 | Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Nathan's eye for details

Our rather blurry attempt to prove that http://smallpotatoesmakethesteaklookbigger.blogspot.com/

one of the prettier slabs of red meat; this spells refined CARNIVORE

ultimately still my cutest sweetest (and only) niece

ultimately still my cutest sweetest (and only) nephew

and ultimately still the cutest sweetest boyfriend i could ever have. :)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008 | Tuesday, May 06, 2008

#1:
There was a big 'whoops!' and 'arghh!' from the kitchen.
Christine: oh no i dropped the omelette on the floor!
Anna dashes out to the kitchen and groans: My egg! My egg! I cannot eat my egg already!
Christine: it's ok anna, i'll make another one for you..see there's still alot of egg left..
Anna: ..my egg! my egg! i got no more egg!

***

#2:
My mum: ahh anna if you eat fish you'll become clever.. don't you want to become clever?
*long pause
Anna: i don't want to become clever.
Me: then don't you want long hair?
Anna: i want lomg lomg hair!

:) you can see where my dear twogoingonthree year old niece's priorities lie.

***

Mr Bear and Ms Pink Bear: snuggle snuggle

Even though it's 5 and 4 days late, happy 24th to my dearest dory, and a happy 4th year to us. We're getting old(er) and fat(ter) each year!

It's been a bumpy ride but we'll make it through, i know we will. <3 you.