I am a barber too!

29 November 2006 (this is backdated)

I am Papa's "official" barber these days. I complained to my cousin Rebecca that it was hard to find a good barber shop near my Ulu Sengkang place. The last visit, he came back with cuts on his head as the barber was careless when using the razor blade. You see, Papa loves to keep his hair real short, which means cutting almost near to "botak" style, hence the barber would usually use a razor blade for the finishing touch. I felt real 心痛 upon seeing the cuts on his head. I am also worried of infection since Papa is frail and with poor immunity system.

I chatted with my cousin Rebecca one day. She suggested that I can cut my Papa hair myself since it should not be too difficult given that Papa maintains a "near botak" hairdo. She then gave me an electric shaver which she bought for her nephew Cyrus some time ago . However, Cyrus hates the sound of the shaver, hence the shaver has been left unused.

Papa is game enough and trust his "head" in my hands.....haha , it proved to be an easy task.....So convenient to do in the comfort of our place and cost saving too , since it usually costs between $20 to $35 to bring dad to the barber (inclusive of cab fare) depending on the location of the barber shop.

Papa and Opera

29 November 2006 (backdated entry)



Papa has taken an interest in watching opera of late. He was not even keen on it in the past. He looks forward to the telecast on TV every friday mornings. I happened to learn about it when I was on leave one day and he requested that I switched over to Channel 8 so that he can watch the 11am telecast.

Unfortunately, the screening stopped sometime in late Nov 2006. To keep his interest alive, I went around sourcing for Hokkien Opera VCDs - which proved to be a great challenge. The fad is on Korean Drama Series these days :( .......I happened to share with my cousin Rebecca one day and she said that our second aunt whose son run several VCD/DVD shops, have those VCDs. Hey! Why didn't I think of that ? It's really 踏破铁鞋无觅处，得来全不费功夫！That marked the end of my search......

That's why they called it Retail Therapy..........

Right after my test tonight (I still think that it is more appropriate to call it exam as it takes up 40% weightage of the module. Dunno why the "cher" - slang for teacher, deemed it as test) , I have decided to reward myself by going .........SHOPPING!!

I have not shopped for quite some time since I started my early childhood course this August. The "supression once unleashed" sure did a lot of damage to my wallet. I bought a skirt, 2 sets of bedsheet and a pair of shoes - within 2 hours at 3 shopping centres in disparate locations! I had to stop shopping cos I needed to pop over to another shopping centre to collect a reserved item, or else the damage would have been much more :)

Anyhow, my mood somehow improved as compare to the the past few days (sank real low after my fall last sunday) after the buying . Yeah!! that's the amazing thing about shopping.......that's why it's aptly termed as Retail Therapy!!

(btw, the bedsheet that I bought, had "Shopping Queen" printed on it.......hee hee)

气 - Qi (energy) or Qi (anger) .....

12 Nov 2006 (this is backdated)

My plans for the coming weeks were thwarted - with a loud thud this morning!!

First , I was looking forward to having high tea with my close friends at Shangri La Hotel this afternoon.

Then, I was supposed to go roller blading a week later, which was to be followed by swimming at another friend's place.

More great plans ensue.........I was already in a holiday mood with the upcoming christmas season.

With my adrenaline pumping, I decided to pack my overspilling cabinet. I was told that decluttering would also do good to promote better flow of "Qi"( 气 - energy) .

I climbed up on a high chair to pack the top layer of my cabinet. I must have been so absorbed in the packing work that I forgot that I was standing on a high chair. I took a step down when I was done with the packing .........THUD!!! I fell backwards, half body sprawing across the toilet, with the right side of my head hitting the toilet bowl. A Louder THUD followed with the slamming of the toilet seat cover on the toilet bowl!

My first reflex was to get up and walk , and thank GOD!, I could!!

My aunt who was nearby quickly applied medicated oil on the affected areas. My left lower shin , my left arm were all bruised and swollen.............Ouch!! I kept moving away from her when she massaged the affected areas.......... Guess what, the Sinseh whom I consulted later, said that I shouldn't have done the massaging since it would aggravate the swelling. Arrghhhh............ endured the pain without any gain!!

Talking about better flow of Qi (气 - energy) after decluttering - huh!! now I am more "Qi" - 气 (angry!!)

Mama at the hospital - making friends ..........

5th Nov 2006 (this is backdated)

Mama - the sociable one , simply cannot stop chatting with anyone who passes by her bed, be it the doctors, the nurses, the cleaner, the neighbouring patients and their visitors. And guess what, some of the patients' visitors also ended up coming by to visit her whenever they drop by.........

I have the opportunity to witness Mama's " 交游广阔 " at work when I dropped by this afternoon to the hospital to visit her, before going to my company's anniversary dinner. I was chatting happily with her, when she suddenly waved at a stranger who just entered the ward. She ushered the stranger to her bed by calling out to her "来来" (Come, come) . I got a shock!! and then quickly explained to the stranger that Mama could have mistaken her for someone else. To my surprise, the stranger came by and said that she knew Mama and had chatted with her the day before. The stranger is a vistor of the neigbouring patient.


It's a relief that Mama knows how to entertain herself at the hospital, It makes me feel at ease leaving her there, while I am at work. Comments from her newfound friends were -"Your ma very cute, sociable, cheerful, happy etc etc " (Aiya, in my opinion , it would be talkative, ha ha ha :P )

It's a pity that Mama didn't have the chance to receive any formal education when she was young. Otherwise, she might have made it big as a PR officer or salesperson etc.

Back to school again !!

(backdated entry - August 2006)

It has been more than 10 years since i left school ... suddenly, one day, i feel like going back to school again.... . i have decided that I have a long break and settle in my job and sort out my family stuff.. and it is time to upgrade myself, before my brain gets too rusty :)



I have always loved working with young children and the elderly...Hence, it was not that difficult to decide which course to take. The initial choice was doing a course in social work since there is module on working with the the elderly.. and my current work is related to the eldery sector. However,I was told that the module might not be offered as it is not a popular choice of study...Anyhow, due to some other reasons , I changed my mind thereafter and settled on a two-year course on early childhood..... So, here I am , embarking on a part-time course after about a 10-year break from my last course.... come to think of it, it seems like coming to full circle again as my last part-time course was a basic course in child care.....

Mama at the hospital - Scary Moments!

3th Nov 2006 (this is backdated)

Poor Mama - her heart was beating real fast after the MRI scan. It scared the wits out of her. She kept "stroking her chest" to soothe her fear after she was wheeled out of the MRI room. Aiyo, they should have explained the procedure to her beforehand such as showing her a video clip.


6th Nov 2006 (this is backdated)

Poor Mama -she looked real sad (unlike her usual cheerful self) when I visited her at the hospital today. Her right leg is in a cast and she thought the doctor will be amputating her leg later.

Mama baking cakes

17 Oct 2006 (this is backdated)

I didn't believe that Mama can bake yummy "Kueh Neng Ko" (鸡蛋糕 - some chinese sponge cake which is yellow in colour) until I confirmed with my fourth auntie.

Anyhow, this afternoon, I have the rare opportunity to see her "at work" with the cake. Our dear helper, Emely (or what Ma Ma affectionately called her as NG AH LI - Ah Li comes from the last syllable of Emely and "Ng" is Mama's surname) is going back to Philippines tomorrow and Ma Ma is baking the Kueh Neng Ko for her.

Mama seemed like an expert and uses "agaration" to decide on the amount of stuff to be used in her Keuh Neng Ko. She and Emely made a great team as they worked together in the tasks of beating the egg, sifting of flour etc.. The finished product which was completed an hour later tasted quite good!!

Do hope the new helper is as great as Emely and can assist Mama with the cake making activity- which is great in keeping Mama occupied in the boring afternoons.

Rare moments with PAPA!!

Papa is a man of few words. So whenever he opens his mouth to chit chat with me, I will give him my FULLEST attention.

This afternoon, I sat beside him to cut his finger nails while he was watching the TV programme. I commented on how hard his nails are ( very hard one hor, and dun need to use nail hardener to protect, save $$ , keke). He surprisedly said that it was because he led a hard life when young. He started sharing about how he had to help fetch water to earn some money (5 cents per pail of water) when he was 16 years old....etc etc. then he moved on to how he met my Ma Ma and later how he helped match-make my uncle to my auntie....

It was wonderful to hear him say so much :)

Mama, the QUEEN of the house

7 Nov 2006 (this is backdated)

My Mama, the QUEEN of the house, fractured her right foot last Wednesday morning (1 Nov 06) and that marked the start of a hectic period for me and my 2-week old helper, Noime a.ka. Ah Heng ( see entry on "What's in a name" ) .

So how did that happen? Mama as usual was "supervising" my helper, Noime in her housework when she felt giddy. She could not hold her balance, fell and landed on her buttocks. Poor Mama could not get up on her own subsequently. She refused to let Noime to help her up as she strongly believe that she should get up on her own - 自己跌倒自己爬. Noime had to "SOS" me from the office. My colleague, Linling kindly gave me a lift back home and thereafter sent us to the hospital. She really 帮人帮到底，送佛送到西! (i.e. helping all the way to the end).

The A&E did an X-ray on her hips and found no fracture. She was then discharged within the same day. Unfortunately, her right foot swell and turned "blue black" subsequently. She was again re-admitted after two days (i.e. Friday). The hospital staff did an X-ray on her right foot and found that there was a slight fracture. However, Mama was not informed of the fracture until 2 days later, on Monday. They then put her right leg in a cast. I was pretty concerned by the late notice as Mama had been swinging her feet occassionally over the last days. She was confined to the hospital bed and thought that she should do more exercise to quicken her recovery. Not sure, more harm had been done instead. aiyoyo!!

So, what's in a name.......

19 Oct 2006 (this is backdated)

I finally brought my new helper, Noime home today, with a "thumping" heart. I was worried that Mama would not like her, as she was not keen in having a helper around the house, despite her fraility.

To my delight, Mama smiled and reached out her hands to receive Noime. As expected, Mama who speaks only Hokkien, is unable to pronounce her name. Noime requested Mama to give her a name - which is a smart move on her part to "score points" on her first day. Mama excitedly said,"eh eh, we shall call you Ah Heng -which means luck. I hope the name brings you and my family luck." So, that marked the beginning of Noime a.ka. Ah Heng's life with us.........

2 days later, Mama suddenly called out to me while she was watching a Taiwanese soap opera on Channel 8. I went to her and she excitedly pointed to a festive couplet that appeared on the TV screen. "That chinese character on the couplet - Hock (actually it's 福 in Mandarin, which generally means happiness , good fortune or prosperity) is Ho!! (this is the Hokkien equivalent of 好which means good), shall we rename Ah Heng to Ah Hock instead?" I was tickled by her suggestion but had to turn it down. Reason being that we should just stick to the original name and not confuse Noime with another new name. Besides, I did not want Mama to form a habit of renaming Noime based on a "suka suka" basis.


So, what's in a name? Shakespeare said, "That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

my first attempt after one year of procrastination!!

8 Nov 2006

The days pass so fast and I have always wanted to find time to pen something down on some of the happenings of my life. Bought a diary 2 months back but still didn't get round to writing anything on it. I recently recalled that I had created a blog account late last year and decided to use it instead. First, got to retrieve my password as I have forgotten it. The kind soul at blogger support sent me an email this morning in response to my request and here I am embarking on my virgin attempt to blog...... kinda suaku!! ha ha


29 Nov 2006

2 weeks had gone by and I am finally back to this blog.... to click "publish". Hmm....talking of procrastination..... :P