A new beginning - Thanksgiving Day 2013

After much pondering, I decided to stop over thinking and just start doing, picking up the pieces and step out again. Not to say I have not been taking many first steps, but to get myself on electronic blueprint again just wasn't really something I would readily jump at, at the least, I do not have time like I used to. 

So I chose Thanksgiving Day as D day to start because really over the past 2 years of promoting to Motherhood, there has been much to be thankful for. In fact, life has given us much to be thankful for. 

Firstly, we are thankful that God answered our prayer and sent us to the States, throwing me totally out of my comfort zone and forced me into a life I never dreamt of having, but never did regret having. Yes, the adventure never really ended when we returned in Oct 2011. Along the way, much surprises came along. 

Firstly, I would like to thank all that make this journey a little easier.  

To my mum, this at the expense of her own life being endangered by my very birth. 
To my dad, for always being that listening ear, that encourager, giving me ample reminder to face life squarely and never give up or give in when things get tough. It is also through him that I come to learn that one's environment is not the only factor that shape one's life, he grew up in a Casino, he never gamble. 
To my husband, who in his very well intended way, clumsily put his boys' lives in danger when they were still in my tummy. First by driving off when one of my leg was still in the car, causing me massive bleeding and thought of miscarriage in our 1st trimester. Then in attempting to make sure that I did not get stretch mark, while adjusting himself to a more comfortable position, unconsciously leaned his entire weight on me with his hands on my tummy at the boys' 5 month, pushing the babies to one size, rushing us back to the gynae the next morning, to ensure the boys were not hurt. Our gynae just couldn't help laughing, though knowing we are worried. And of all the support as a new dad, he has given to me and the family.
To my father in law, for all the ferrying the boys, myself to and fro KKH. 
To my mother in law, for also doing her part in helping us look after the boys.
To my uncles and aunties, for all their help in fetching Yiyi to school and babysitting on weekends when we were burnt out from the boys hospital stay. 
To Nellie who forced her way into our lives to learn how to care for the boys so she can throw us out of the house and support when we need babysitting help at home or in church. 
To all our friends or acquaintances for your lovely comments from time to time giving us the strength to carry on. 

To God - For littering our lives with so much adventure. 

So stay tuned... I promise to be as candid as I can. 

And I thought the adventure was over...

About this time last year, I have returned from States and settled back into worklife, returning to work for the same boss before leaving. It seems like life back home was on pause. I could recall many work stuff, I typed in the year as 2008, the year I left work life and pursued the life of a homemaker.

I thought for most bit, the adventure was over but little did I know more is on its way. We were adapting to life back home, reconnecting with friends, missing the great cool weather... enjoying our hawker fare and not having to work out mentally how much tip to give. We were talking about couplehood, living for the rest of our lives as a couple without kids. We were talking about moving to a smaller apartment, getting a un-family friendly cars... in fact, we won't just talking, we were already looking. I came to like the life we had in the States, small 1 bedroom apartment with min stuff, only necessities and some core interests...min maintenance.

Then I got pregnant...and that wasn't all. We have twins. They are a little more than 3 months now, definitely starting to present their own characters, at least it appears to be in the making. They are a bundle of joy for sure, but they do require work and help. Bye bye to our comfortable couplehood.

And yes, we are looking to move too, just not to a smaller place, but perhaps even a larger place for the boys to have space to run around. Then there is also school which I need to start working on for Yi, because of his special needs. Then there is the part about making sure they both get sufficient attention and love from us, which can get especially hard when one requires more...

Life is truly an adventure and I thank God that though we have no idea how we will do this and what life lies ahead of us and how our actions will impact our boys' lives, I am thankful we have a God we can call upon and rely on. We have come so far. We thank especially our mothers for all that they have put in to make this easy for us. And above all, we thank God for blessing us with our mothers.

To God be the Glory.

Disney World Marathon 2010

This is a clip of a fellow runner Lee Hoedl who also ran the Disney World Marathon 2010 on 10 Jan. The other person who ran, of course is my beloved hubby.

But my hubby didn't have a video cam with him, so this is the best clip to show what a wonderful course he ran. Never see anyone so happy running a marathon especially without all the training he needed, and starting at -5 degree celcius.

Finally, my real Xmas tree

As some of you might remember, I have always wanted a real Xmas tree, but last year we only managed to get a Rosemary plant instead as we couldn't get the stand for the tree, hence couldn't buy one. Cute?

This year, we finally got our first tree. It is a small tree, (haha, shorter than me) but it is a real tree. And I was wondering how to decorate it without spending much (since US is not exactly our home and don't want to accumulate waste).

So this is what we did.

Some close up

And instead of a star, we have

Yosemite National Park - half dome

My Name is Ram

My love for ads continue. Have been looking for this ad on YouTube for some time now. So glad I have found it.
With such material, I think they are on the right track to getting back some confidence.


Yup, I know they have a long way, but everything comes with one step. Important thing is to stay the course.

Culture Shock

Having been here for almost a month now, I still wonder why I struggled so much to settle down. Afterall, this is not the first time that I am in this country. This should have been the issue last October, not now. But why? Why am I so convinced I don't understand the people of this land and also convinced that they do not understand us. 


I wondered why have all my years of working with Americans, British, Koreans, Japanese, Thai, Indians, Chinese, Australian, New Zealanders, to name the majority nationalities in my line of work, would I be hitting a road block? I mean, it is not as if we have a language barrier here...


The more I think about it, the more upset I am with myself. I wondered whether age has eaten up the openness in me, or having been out of the scene for awhile now, has killed my love for being open and embracing new cultures and new people. If anyone of you wondered what kept me working so hard, for so many long hours, much of the motivation really is in the many cultures I get to cross everyday. That is exciting to me. Sitting at my seat, running through my mind before picking up the phone, "how do I put it across so that they understand, so that a relationship can be forged?" I love every chance of being able to put that to practise. I think the hardest for me was in understanding my scottish staff. But they turned out brilliantly nice to work with, once I come to understand their world of English. 


But being here makes me wonder if I have forgotten to pack that skill in my luggage, amidst all the things I have forgotten to pack, like winter wear or enough tops. I have less than WEP. My goodness. I am really living on bear minimum here. So pardon me if my outfits become a little too familar over the course of time. 


Anyway, back to the main topic, I think I got a eureka today. I think there is such a thing as an international culture, you know a code of behaviors and language, of values and morale that are wired into people involved in international business, and military is also part of this. I think for people who are very involved in the international scene and exposed to vastly different cultures over time have this wired in, conciously or subconciously. Which explains why we have no problem last winter (we are in a military community and also a city with many travelers). 


And it is for me a humbling experience. That I cannot presume to say I understand a culture by just the people I meet at the workplace or any place. I have forgotten that culture really is a complex thing, woven in it are life experiences, traditions, community, economy and nature, all at play to shape the place, meter by meter, mile by mile. 


So let's learn culture, religion, people, race, one person at a time, for there truly is no generic in any of this. I now understand why it drives a friend of mine up the wall by the slightest bit of stereo typing we let ourselves in for. Well, guess his wealth of life has backing for it. 


Share your thoughts, would love to hear your point of view too. 

Motivation...

Hmm, finding the motivation to write....

If you are still convinced, check this out

The following are taken on 29Sept and this is not a special day. It is pretty much any other day - sunset @Coronado Beach

Sunset - moment by moment

Plane landing at sunset 

(moment by moment)

29 Sept - To our fav little island: Coronado

Here is where we lived our last winter and this little island still charms me the same way it did.

I miss it so so much.

Coronado Bay Bridge

San Diego downtown skyline - From Coronado

Little sandal who has lost its way....

Seahawk in the sky

(reminds me of how I used got woken up each morning by the sound of helicopters)

Palm trees and blue skies (Love it)

Rainbow in the sky. Nice!

Cutest accidental photo by WEP!!! Dog on his evening walk.

After all these photos, are you sure you are not convinced that this is the place to stay?

For the laidback, this is the place, slow, nice, warm. but if you are the party sort, then I don't think it is for you.

Guess you know which I am?

Partying days are over. Yes, for those of you who have seen my crazier days, you must be surprised.

And those who happened to manage to get enough drinks down on me, you got a glimpse and count yourselves lucky, doesn't happen often...

And for you who have been trying so hard to get me to that zone, first, you got to get hold of the person who unknowingly got me drinking enough. I don't even think he know he did. Hahaha.

Nope, not WEP.

So, to encourage me to write more, let me know you are reading and letting me know if you are now sold - "Coronado is a beauty?"

29 Sept - Lunch before heading to Coronado

Yup, we are still on the topic of food.

Sashimi from Mitsuwa. Yum yum. We had ramen too, but by then, we are too hungry and the ramen too yummy, we forgot to take photo again. What is new....

SASHIMI!!! And inexpensive too, coz from supermarket.

And I got Amaebi!!!!!

There is salmon, tuna and I think hamachi. (was it hamachi?)

And WEP never likes tuna, but he loves this one. Really good.

Dinner at Ten Ren, Irvine - 28Sept

Mine Mine, we are still on 28Sept. I better do some speeding up.

Hahaha, that is what happens when one slowed down from work.

Haven't quite learn to live for myself. Wonder why I am still not recovered from workaholism.

My speed for work and for leisure is too far apart. My ex-colleagues might know what I mean.

Anyway, I was a skeptic of this place. Everything is made with tea as an ingredient, even in my soup. Hmm hmm. Is it really going to taste good?

Well, it did taste really yummy, and very refreshing. Makes the soup base tastes so light and refreshing.

Here is the yummy photo of my dumpling soup

Here are photos of other yummy food some of us are having....

To top it off, bubble milk tea. It is just great!!! Damn, no photo of that. Must improve on this photo taking. But as you can tell, dinner was good. Good to have friends who love eating and know good eating places. Thank you, WY and yes the search engine that assisted - YELP.

Hahaha, our road trip was full of YELPing for food.

P.S: WEP and I are not good at taking photos. We were have our camera with us, and we will totally forget to use it, only to regret it later.

Special Moment at New Port Beach, Orange County California

Isn't this a wonderful sight? Kids being kids at the beach, waiting to get caught by daddy. Actually, only baby girl gets caught by daddy. Guess to daddy, boys must be boys. Jump, fall, get up jump again. Blood is a part of boys' childhood ;)

Arriving in Orange County (28th Sept)

First off, we want to thank our friend WY for picking us up at the LAX airport. It is amazing that how all our luggage (of 3 persons) can fit her car, including all of us. Remember, we were packing for months of life here... so we are talking about too many bags. BTW, the car wasn't a sedan.

This is the moment that I regret for the lack of pictures. How could anyone else imagine what I am talking about here....

After unloading our bags in Brea, we headed to Inspiration Point, for lunch and then New Port beach (I hope I got this right?) for some more sightseeing.

Here are some pictures of the

beach. Isn't it just beautiful? Who would be motivated to get up for work with this a stone thr

ow away. It is hard living here unless you are a beach bummer. Hahaha

For those of you who always complain the lack of people in our photos, here is a backview of WY and me. Haha.

28th Sept - Narita to LAX

Yeah!!! Upgraded to Business Class

Wow - Orange Juice in a glass. Yum Yum

Happy Happy in our Business Class seats

This is the "I slept really well and just awake look"

A truly satisfied customer!

Blue sky from our business class windows. Haha, no difference of course.

For those of you who don't know, I love clouds and blue skies, so everytime I am on a plane, this is a must. So can you imagine how disappointed I was to find out the first leg we were sitting on centre aisle. This is great!

Can you see, the shadow on the plane in the clouds? Beautiful isn't it?

28th Sept - SIN-Narita

What a extremely hot morning I could remember. We were just raining down sweat, making sure we got everything packed, the house is in the order in which we would like it to be. This was 1 am. Pespiring at 1am was just ridiculous.

So we decided, we needed to get to the airport anyway, and since sleeping was not a great idea, in case we overslept, we decided to head for the airport.

Arrived at 2am, checked in and started wandering around, waiting for WEP's parents and our fellow travel partner to arrive.

It was all rather uneventful. We boarded the plane, WEP waiting anxiously to see what we would be getting. We were flying NorthWest this time and he had heard so much of American airlines, that he was all anxious. He thought he saw the big screen TV online, you know where everyone are forced to watch on one screen whatever they were screening. And for people vertically challenged like me, can forget entertainment altogether.

What a delight on his face, to know that we had individual entertainment system (or whatever it is called). Not bad, not bad for a start....

Food was okay. Seats are not too cramped, all good, all good for a start.

Actually, coming to think of it now, if we were travelling SingAir, we were not have been so delighted since it would be expected that we will be getting our own individual entertainment system. Then, we wouldn't have the chance to be thankful.

Sorry, no photo. Too tired by then to take any. And we were sitting in the centre aisle, so nothing to take as well.

Oh oh, almost forgot, we do have another thanksgiving on this flight. The plane was actually very very packed but just on our row, a four seated, there was an empty seat between us and the other lady. The entire section around us were all packed. Isn't that wonderful? We were so thankful.

Without Whom I will not be here

Today and tomorrow (3rd-4th Nov) are one of the most important dates of my life. And how I wish I could be in Singapore at this very moment.

Today (3rd Nov) is my daddy's 70th birthday.

Tomorrow (4th Nov) is my mummy's 60th birthday.

To my beloved parents, thank you for always caring and loving

us. For sharing with us your life's experience.

Thank you daddy for always being encouraging.

Thank you mummy for showing that it is never too late to start exercising.

Although it is not grandma's birthday too, but I also want to thank grandma for showing that it is never too late to pick up a language - she picked up English in her sixties and with that we all lose our hainanese language, at least I did.

Miss you from here.

I am always proud of this. Look at my daddy's hair. They are his, all his, no dye involved, at 70.

This is taken 2 days before we flew off - 26 Sept 2009

He only started having white hair in his 60s. I wonder why I didn't get those genes. But he would say this, it is all about staying healthy, exercising and eating right...

If he sees me now, he would be totally dismayed...

Happy Birthday, daddy and mummy!!!

Just for insurance

This is just I have watched on News moments ago:

A Winconsin man enlisted himself in order to get insurance coverage so that his wife can continue to get her chemo done to fight the 3rd recurrence of her cancer.

One true act of the meaning of marriage...

Flying North...

Yup, we have been here for 4 days now. Currently in Coronado (San Diego) to get our car, get some maintenance done, get the stuff we left behind in our last trip and lastly for WEP to get some work done :( in his vacation time.

But what I am here to talk about is not our days in SD (altho it has been quite wonderful). In preparation of this trip, we had sacrificed quite a bit of sleep. For sunday itelf (our flight is 28 Sept 5.40am), we did not sleep at all and left for the airport at 2am. So we are dead tired and flying NWA.

So what a delight it was for both of us to discover that we were upgraded to business class on our Tokyo to LA leg of the journey (10 hours of better seats)... We did absolutely nothing for this, we didn't attempt to ask for any upgrade, we were just happy with what we had, our individual TV screen in economy class, having meals thrown onto our flip up table. Just happy to have an empty seat next to us (we were on the center aisle) where the rest of the section we were seating was fully packed. Actually, I was already feeling delighted and very blessed at that point. EP too was extremely delighted with the TV screen for himself.

But what a great gift to receive so much more and we know this could only be the work of One.

If that was not good enough, when we reached Coronado and checked into the Inn, we got a room with a kitchenette, paying the same amount as another friend, we got a bigger room.

Praise the Lord, our God for all that He provides. Yes, it is true that perhaps flying a better airline would have been a delight, but it will not compare to things provided without expectation or want. Such delight is really of a different world, nothing compared to the reward one gets from working for it. No, I am not saying that things just keep dropping off the sky and everything is a breeze and easy...Life is hardly like that for anyone I believe. I am just glad, just glad.

Cooking Experience

Now that my contract work has come to an end and I think I have rested more than enough, I decided I should experiment cooking with some new combination of ingredients. So on Aug 30, I decided I had some apples that had been sitting in the fridge for ages, maybe I could try cooking them with the chicken thigh bones that had been in the fridge for awhile too.

So I with the apples washed and chopped, chicken thigh bones de-frozen, a pot, some water and a dash of salt, I started slow cooking my new soup. It tastes strange at first, then became a little better, but nothing close to a soup taste. So with more preservance, I just let it cook longer at slow heat....After an hour of slow cooking, the taste did not improve but got really sour.

Lesson learnt, apples cannot be cooked with chicken. Hahaha, WEP would have thought that that would be the end of the apple soup idea, but he would be surprised that he is wrong. I am not giving up the apple soup idea, just the apples with chicken idea. Poor thing, I doubt he know that.

Just glad that those were some old apples (not spoiled, I checked) and thigh bones. If not, I will surely get hung by my mum for wasting food. But then again, how would I know it won't work if I didn't try, right?

How do I know my home is clean?

I am not too sure if we are the only household that experience this on a regular basis. 

Every time I clean the house, I always know when it is indeed clean. Because I have visitors when the house is clean. 

Bugs always fly in once I am almost done with cleaning and always at exactly the same time. When I am seconds of being done with cleaning. 

And I am not a great lover of bugs, so my satisfaction of a clean home is always affected by these visitor bugs. 

But I have trying to think of it positively. Trying to tell myself that they are my judge. So who knows, one day I will get upset if they don't appear when I am done cleaning the house. 

Funny thing is I tried this experience of just cleaning one room and as expected, they only visit that one room. Hahaha.