Friends Forever

So we had another dinner gathering to see Lin off. I was so busy, I didn't have time to shop for something nice for her as a farewell gift. I was hoping to get a nice book for her to write her diary and stories, maybe I'll go look for one sometime and send it to her via airmail one of those days. Time flies so fast. I didn't have time to shop for something nice for Wen either. She's only interested in Tiffany, unfortunately they're so ex, I can't even afford them for myself! *sniff* Still thinking if I should get that pretty charm bracelet, but it's silver, it oxidises. *sniff* I quite like to spend time to go shopping for nice stuffs for my friends, unless you know explicitly what they like, otherwise I have always hoped that things I give my friends are nice surprises, and they're like and treasure them.

So Lin will be flying off to Berlin and staying there for three years. I wonder if I could ever have the time to go visit her there. I remember when she was studying in UK, I told her that I'd like to go visit her, but it never materialise. Now with a hubby and kid, dreams to travel and explore becomes even slimmer.

All my girlfriends are workaholics. Yep. PM was late for two hours, and she sure looked so haggard. She told us some interesting stuffs, and it just reinforces the fact that the world is changing so fast. In the past, when you're angry and frustrated with something, you tell your friends or write in your diary and that's it. Blogging online doesn't help. People will find out who you are. Especially if you're stupid/naive? enough to put some specific names and use strong language. There's no privacy in blogs. Blogs are not diaries. Never will be.

And I wonder what the person is thinking. Or maybe that's what young people do nowadays. When they're unhappy, they'll blog about it all without thinking that other people might read it and it'll get back to them. It sucks, but it's like that. So be really careful what you're writing online. If you want to vent, vent it with a friend, or write, but not post online. Or better still, what happen to the good old days where you make a voodoo doll and stick pins into it? Hmm, I'm watching too much GH. heh heh.

So saying, there's also not much for me to blog about. Maybe I'll write fanfics instead. :)

And come to think of it, I've been writing quite a lot of complainy stuffs in my blog again. haha. I guess it's good to vent, perhaps I should put in more happy stuffs here.

But I'm really not unhappy. There are a lot of things to be happy about!

Tell you next time. :)

Last night ... last week ...

Last night the moon was very beautiful. I had wanted to post this last night, but somehow I did this, and I did that, and time slipped by my fingers again. Last night we stayed over at my parents' place. So that hubby need not travel the length and breadth of the country again. It's getting rather tiring, and I have a bad throat. Last night I came home to iron the clothes, an hour into it and I had to call it a day. Last night I watched my animes again and again, and fell in love with all my animes again.

Last night the moon was really very beautiful. I thought I saw it had a crooked little nose too. The moon that is.

I've lost a friend. Irrevocably. This is the first CNY where I sent out my messages and never got a reply. I guess it really can't be help, but I really felt sad. And I've probably been blocked off at frienster too. It's really sad.

***
CNY this year was pretty hectic. The first day was spent at my in-laws place then at my auntie's place. In-laws' place was very quiet. The happening brother-in-law plus wife plus two kids were missing, and the place was definitely quieter. The rest of us weren't exactly social butterflies. They played cards as usual after the usual lunch, and I got an excuse to stay upstairs in the only air-con room with baby since he fell asleep after lunch. Oh yes, I switched on the air-con to super cold plus fan full blast. I probably wouldn't be able to do that if not for baby. Yeah. That's the way to enjoy! And I sat down, switched on my laptop and found to my utmost horror that the program couldn't run avi files. Xena heard me scream bloody murder all the way to her place. Heh heh. I complained to just about anyone who was free to listen to me. Arrrgh.

Oh, and lunch ... was a disaster. Remind me never to buy sashimi again. I bought >$20 worth of salmon belly sashimi for the yusheng, but hubby and I forgot to bring it along on the eve to go with the yusheng. So we had it the next day, which was the CNY lunch. Dear MIL plonked the whole stub of wasabi into a bowl, poured the packets of soy-sauce into it, and proceeded to stuff all my expensive salmon into that bowl. Then she picked up her chopsticks and vigourously mix and stirred and poked EVERYTHING in the bowl!!! Arrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh! All of us kept our faces as bland as possible. I think I heard my brother-in-law made a choking noise. Hubby protested a little, but MIL seemed to be in a nasty mood, and she was attacking the poor salmon like they'd done her wrong. We still ate the fish, I definitely did, hey, I was really looking forward to enjoying the salmon belly you know. I've never buy them before for myself. The wasabi was a little too much, but it was still ... edible. Until. . .

MIL came up with this brillant idea to add the sweet plum sauce from an extra packet of yusheng into said bowl. This time brother-in-law protested, saying (very gently) to take it easy. Then hubby had to go out of the kitchen for a while. Bro-in-law stood up to look for some tissue. One was out, the other had his back turned, MIL quickly and quietly poured all that sweet plum sauce into the bowl. My eyes popped out. She happily mixed the sauce and the fish. The boys came back, sat down, saw what was in the bowl, and kept very quiet. No one said a thing. I observed. She finally took one slice of the fish to eat. Her face made a face. I observed. No one else took anymore fish. Neither did she.

So question is, do you think she'd throw the rest of the fish away? Or do you think she'll actually cook them?

BTW, wasabi do not kill/ or disinfect germs. Some Japanese eat raw fish without wasabi. The idea is you drink sake after that.

I rolled my eyes. Tell me how not to be miserable. Tell me why I put my foot down and not want to live with her. Tell me what I am to do next time?

I know not to laugh or cry.

***
A few days before CNY, father-in-law had an accident, whereby after the incident, he put it very cheerfully to my sister-in-law, that it could have been fatal. Yeah, what a nice way to reassure people. So much for thinking that they are still spring chickens. One would have thought once bitten, twice shy ... but nooo. Misery as misery does. In the end, they spent more money being hospitalised, plus being tramatised plus almost being blinded and losing one's life. I spent that day running errands and driving them around. To get a CT scan, then to their home, then car inspection, then to their home, then clinic, then to their home, then clinic, then hospital, then to their home, then convinced MIL to stay with us overnight. So that she can take care of baby. I'm not that nice. Hubby is the one who will be stressed the next day having to send baby to my parent's place.

So the next day I went to school, and just four hours away and I came home to an extremely messy home. There were lots of food particles on the floor. The carpet was full of crumbs. The ants were already scrambling to harvest the food on the floor. The kichen was in a mess. The dining table was dirty. Arrrrrggggh. Four hours. I immediately got onto my hands and knees and mopped the floor. In my work clothes. Then I wiped everything, washed up, vacumn the carpet and bathed baby, then I sent MIL home. Whew.

Our personalities definitely clash. We'll drive each other crazy yeah?

On a side note: nowadays I never let baby wear nice clothes when he goes over to MIL's place. His nice shirts all come back stained and dirty and I just can't get the stains out. They're usually food stains. I put him in the oldest and dirtiest clothes ever. And probably hand-me-down from ... his father and uncles. hahaha. It makes her happy, I guess, to see baby wearing those clothes.

***
Dinner at my aunt's place on new year was wonderful. Dinner at mom's place on the eve was wonderful. It is times like that that I still retain my sanity. We played some mahjong, and even hubby got into the groove. He's pretty good at it now. :)

The rest of the holidays was work, work and work. It wasn't too bad, I spent my free time catching up on my animes. D Gray Man, Death note, Bleach etc. Yep, it was pretty nice, except that we had less time to spent with baby and the house was still pretty messy.

And it still is. I'm so hooked on Ghost Hunt nowadays that I really don't feel like doing anything else. :P

I guess things could have been better. Sometimes. But I guess things are pretty good already.

I guess everything will be heaven if the next episode of GH will come out fast, and if I could get my hands on the novels. :P

Happy Lunar New Year.

A series of events

Over the past few weeks, there were many birthdays to celebrate and many outings/gatherings to attend. I met up with Min for her birthday, then met up with Min and PM again to celebrate Min's birthday, then met up with Min, PM, YS and Lin to celebrate Min's birthday again plus farewelll party for Lin. Then I met up with Wen for her birthday, and also met up with Xel also for her birthday.

So I'm quite broke. But that didn't stop me from spending money. Haha. I'm hoping to buy a new camera, a small one which I can carry around, not like the one my hubby got, the PowerShot. I wished I had a camera when I went out with all my friends, but no way am I going to lug along a big camera (plus a big baby!)

This is one pic taken when I met up with Min and PM. We had dim sum lunch at this place at the International Building. I like their special har gua very much! Baby loves PM very much too, as she was feeding him quite a lot of dim sum from her plate! tsk tsk. And to think that I've actually fed him before we went out! One big bowl of porriage!

Baby loves pushing his stroller around like using it as a walker, and he sure walks around and around the whole place, chuckling happily everytime. And he sure likes to be photographed by Min! Someone is definitely one big happy baby that day!

Dinner with Wen was at this Jap place next to the Crazy Horse. Never even heard of the Crazy Horse, and suddenly everyone starts talking about it! I always go by that place, but never knew the existance. I guess even adverse promotion is good promotion. Anyway dinner was at Kura no Naka. The food was excellent. We shared a set of three types of appetisers, a tofu mentai, one hamachi kama, one yasai tempura and each of us had an onigiri, Wen had ume and I had mentai. There was raw squid in the appeitisers and after one mouth, Wen admitted defeat, so I had them all to myself. Haha. If you don't mind slimy stuffs, they're actually quite nice. The place is pretty dark, and you get authentic Japanese ladies serving you. It has a nice clubby feeling, and is probably a pub later on at night, in line with the Clarke Quay atmosphere. Not bad, can go again. Too bad no photos.

That day I dropped baby dearest with my parents. They were at the family place (Tampopo) in the next building. We always go there almost every weekend. I picked Wen up from her place, and baby was with me in the car. He cried all the way to our destination. After dinner, I collected baby from my parents, and sent Wen back. Dearest cry-baby cried all the way back too. Even with Wen carrying him, he cried and cried and tried climbing on my lap. There was even a period of time that he sat on my lap with his head on my chest while I drove. And he was so happy and quiet and hiccupped a bit. TOo dangerous though, I was seriously sweating, and had to return him to Wen and he screamed even louder after that. All the way back to Wen's place. *sigh* I think he needs spanking.

In other news, baby was kissed by the little girl next door. Awww. He looked a bit stunned after that. Heh heh. He also got a bit braver, and is able to stand by himself now. He is also able to take a few steps by himself, just that he's still to scared to do so, and he'll always end up squatting when he wants to start moving. Otherwise, most of the time he uses just about anything as his walker.

Baby now climbs up the stairs very fast and without supervision. However he still dares not go down the stairs himself. He'll look at me from the railings and whine and whine and whine until I go up to get him. Otherwise when I'm upstairs and he's downstairs, he'll make his way quickly up to look for me. We have gotten a gate but it's not fixed yet. :P

*****
Yesterday I was able to get off work earlier, and I rushed home to do housework. It just never ends, you know. All those clothes and dust. I even managed to cook a nice dinner for hubby and myself, since baby was still at his granny's place.

Yep, dinner was pork-ribs cooked in my own creation. I looked through some of my cookbooks, and whipped up something myself. Why pork-ribs? They were sitting in my freezer since dunno when. Usually I made pork-ribs with soup, but hubby doesn't really like them that way. So this time, I cooked it with salted black beans, and baked them in the oven. The oranges were just an inspiration, because there were lots of oranges in my frige (and some of them might be already rotten, don't ask, I haven't really looked), so I thought to put in a couple, for taste and for appearance. I know the picture doesn't look that pretty, by the time dinner was ready, I was too hungry to re-arrange everything and take nice photos. But it tasted pretty good! yay! :)

It's nice to be young

Sometimes I wish I'm ten years younger.

Heh.

I wonder if there are any people my age who goes completely gaga about animes. Definitely not any of my galfriends. They're all serious hardworking types who earn lots of money! And they work long hours, have a masters degree and are pretty highflying super achievers. Damn, make me sound like an under-acheiver. Yikes.

Anyway, I was so crazed over Ghost Hunt, I bought all the manga. Some in Jap, no less. I feel like buying the complete set (the earlier ones) in Jap, but I shall wait till there's a discount. Read: I'm definitely going to get the Jap version. Perhaps it might be better to get the Chinese version, but have to pre-order, and I figured that since my Chinese isn't top-notch either, might as well get them original and start learning Jap again. Heh.

That was one of the reasons why I haven't been blogging. Been visiting forumns and reading all about GH. *sigh* ... am still waiting for the next episode. Can die man. Will I be able to watch it tonight?

:(

**
In between anime watching, working and busy with domestic life, some days I suddenly find myself very tired. Tired of everything. Makes me want to do things. The heart and head is willing, but the body is not. I must go and attend yoga classes again, start playing the piano and learn the violin. Especially now that I have some time to spare. The latest anime Nodame Cantabile has been pretty motivating. You hear the sweet sound of Beethoven's Violin Sonata 'Spring', and you immediately put on the CD to play repeat x 100 times, and you search for the score and run through the piece with it, and you wish you could play just a little of it.

It's really uplifting.

But it's just too damn difficult to play. I tried running a few notes on Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu, and I realised that I have to start from ground 0 once again. *sigh* The piano in school have many keys missing, otherwise it was kinda showy (I guess) to drum up some Mozart and fool the kids just a little. Hahahah. Oh yeah, I was bored.

**
I got a swollen eye right now, it feels like someone punched me there. *mutter*

Sometimes how I wish time would just stop and let me do just what I want.

One more day before the weekend!