Thank you

For knowing exactly what you needed to do just when I say “hey dear can you please” (fill in the blanks with activities like pick up your dirty clothes, close the door)

For helping out with the relocation of the Aw family home.

For scoring high points with my parents that way… my Dad praised you!

For taking last minute leave (my fault) and being the very important driver of the car with the red scroll on it… that really touched me…

For enduring the endless teasing and jibes by my two sisters.

For cooking yummy dinners and cleaning up the stove after that.

For your little sacrifices like skipping your own activities to join me in my family activities.

For preparing sandwiches for me to bring to office for breakfast

For clearing out the trash without me asking

For selecting your clothes every night and tippy-toe around the house to avoid waking me up when you get ready for work every morning

For sending me sweet little smses

Most of all, for being you…

Happy 4.5 years darling, we somehow don’t really have time or opportunity to celebrate this, but do know that you are very important to me and your small little gestures say a lot too.

Goodbye

Goodbye Gong-gong.

My earliest memories of you were how you could hold your liquor, and how my parents always bought a bottle of cognac for you from duty free after our overseas trips. Then, we used to always have Chinese New Year dinners prepared by Ah-po complete with hainanese delicacies like mutton soup, chap chye and the deep fried prawn fritters.

When you fell ill more than 10 years ago, all these stopped, no more elaborate dinners and liquor since then. While your mental health declined, you seemed more in the pink of health than ever. And your childlike innocence was actually quite cute.

Sad to say, as I never learnt to speak the hainanese dialect, I was never able to communicate with both you or ah-po except to greet you both happy Chinese New Year. And I think that will be a regret that I will always live with.

To express my last act of filial piety, I hope the intense origami sessions of folding paper ingots in the last few days will help somehow with your journey into the unknown, and may you rest in peace and look after ah-po wherever you are. It was so heart-wrenching seeing her, and old lady of 91, wiping away tears while the Taoist priests were performing the last rites.

Goodbye...

Dilbert

Someone forwarded this to me at work and I agree with most of them!
#17 totally describes my boss. Enjoy!

Here are some of Dilbert's best one liners:
1. I say no to alcohol, it just doesn't listen.
2. Marriage is one of the chief causes of divorce.
3. Work is fine if it doesn't take too much of your time.
4. When everything comes in your way you're in the wrong lane.
5. The light at the end of the tunnel may be an incoming train..
6. Born free, taxed to death.
7. Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.
8. Life is unsure; always eat your dessert first.
9. Smile, it makes people wonder what you are thinking.
10. If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you'll have trouble putting on
your pants.
11. It's not hard to meet expenses, they are everywhere.
12. The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the
other three, he was the genius.
13. The trouble with being punctual is that no one is there to appreciate it.
14. In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?
15. If you cannot change your mind, are you sure you have one?
16. Beat the 5 O'clock rush, leave work at noon!
17. If you can't convince them, confuse them.
18. It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end.
19. I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.
20. Hot glass looks same as cold glass. - Cunino's Law of Burnt Fingers.
21. The cigarette does the smoking you are just the sucker.
22. Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock.
23. To Err is human; to forgive is not a Company policy.
24. The road to success...... Is always under construction.
25. Alcohol doesn't solve any problems, but if you think again, neither does
Milk.
26. In order to get a Loan, you first need to prove that you don't need it .

Vrrooom…

As a lot of you may know, I got my license a very long time ago (1 day after TJ got his!), but sad to say I haven’t been driving since. I blame it on being spoilt since my dates almost always drove, and laziness, though I keep telling people that it’s very 幸福 to have people chauffer you around, and it is…

Over the CNY, TJ and I were lucky to have a car available for us to drive for 2 weeks, and it was a good two weeks with the car even though driving is really not cheap. And I decided to relearn my driving.

It was surprisingly very fun, and before long, I was driving up to like 120km/h. Before you start scolding me, I was traveling along TPE/SLE where there are hardly any cars on the road and people were still zooming past me… Normally I don't go that fast... My parking is still a problem, and I almost got TJ killed once (or so he says), but it wasn’t all that bad I think. Although my friends are all pretty amused that I’m driving again =)

And I must say, I enjoy the feeling of driving, of being in control of where I’m going, and I like also the feeling of being able to send my drunk TJ home while he is sleeping in the car… I think I got potential to become a taitai, and have the use of the car to go market in the morns, go for manicures, go for mahjong and high tea sessions, and also ferry the kids to and from schools… hahaha

Mellowing?

When I first started work I was all ready to go, work hard and everything, and didn’t react well when UM (my boss) subtly put me down, saying I must write papers with logic, must provide him solutions and not just ask him questions, criticizing my vocab and grammar, saying how I could have done things differently… and having no colleague to empathise with me, I honestly believed every single thing he said, and started feeling very bad about myself and my lack of ability

About 1.5 years into the job, I got the hang of things, got better at stuff, started to be aware of when UM is “smoking” me, and can stand my ground when my ideas are being attacked, so much so that UM accepts my suggestions over his own (very grudgingly of course). But I went through a period of being pissed off and indignant…

Now it’s almost 3 years. It’s just interesting with my new colleague fresh from Uni, who gets quite pissed off with UM’s fickle-mindedness and nitpicking even though he (my colleague) looks like the ultimate nice guy. Now when UM goes into his unreasonable phase, I just roll my eyes, and accept it with a shrug “he’s like that one”…

Hmm… Am I mellowing with age or just getting used to how working life is like?