Singapore's Version of Cherry Blossom

During the spring season, the 2 rows of trees along Yishun Ave 11 just framing the perimeter of Yishun Park will be ablazed in a sea of pink. It almost gives me the illusion of seeing Cherry Blossoms. If you ignore the flowers and from afar, the trees do resemble the much famed Cherry Blossoms of Japan. Since I have not seen Cherry Blossoms yet, this will be a consolation till I can truly have a picnic under the Sakuras.

One day, I will definitely see the real Cherry Blossoms for myself.

Loh Heis abundance

This is the year where I have the most loh hei - 3 times with my colleagues (different groups) and once with my family. Hopefully, this will help me usher in the good luck and signify a good start to the Tiger Year.

Let us roar to great sucess, health and happiness.

Phooof - End of CNY

Despite having an extended public holiday for Lunar New Year this time, I was still stunned by how time flew past. Before we knew it, it was already end of CNY.

This year, we celebrated end of CNY, ie Chinese Valentine's at Crystal Jade. My mother wanted a good meal to end of the festivities with a bang. We decided on Crystal Jade because I told my mother that my colleagues felt that the yusheng at Crystal Jade was better than Din Tai Fung.

We had not eaten so much for a long time. In the end, we could not finish the food and had to pack home some of the items. I guessed we were too ambitious when we ordered the food especially when we were fully aware that one's appetite would diminish in the hot weather.

It was still heartwarming to celebrate the end of new year with your closest.

Hort Park

Hort Park drew quite alot of publicity when it first opened to Public. However, as it was pretty out of the way, I have not had chance to visit it yet. When a friend suggested going there to have a look, I jumped at the chance to see for myself this park that was always captured with great scenic beauty in photos.

It was a super hot day. My friend and I were in sweat even before we moved out of sight of the Hort Park's gallery. As it was my first time at Hort Park, I was totally clueless on where we should move. we decided to move towards the Kent Ridge Park direction. The parks were connected by a canopy. The trail was slightly fraught with dangers with the loy hanging tree trunks and spider webs. For the less observant, banging into the tree trunks or getting kissed by the spiders could be a likely consequence if you did not open your eyes wide enough.

We spotted some lavender-like flowers near the entrance. We were puzzled if they were real or not as we did not detect any fragrance coming from the flowers.

Being normally very susceptible to mosquito bites, the 2 hour walk of course left me again with rounded and itchy bumps, courtesy of the mosquitoes. Sigh, I could not understand why the mosquitoes could never leave me in peace. They were always attracted to my blood like honey to bees, even when there were more than one person around.

It was a good way to spend a weekend afternoon exploring a different part of Singapore and sweating it out. Don't you agree?

Reunion with my D & D colleagues after 3 Years

This year, I truly make a very conscious effort not to fly them aeroplane again. Nevertheless, I still expect an earful from our leader - Yen, especially about my disappearing act for the past 3 years. I have often missed their invitations to lunch, dinners or any special celebrations, until they were on the brink of giving up on me.

Each of them took turns to chide me for always missing in action. However, they were also forgiving, knowing how wrapped up I could be over my work when skipping lunch time and packing in could be the norm during my peak period.

I was surprised that after 3 years, we could still fall into easy banter and comfortable teasing. The meal was one full of laughter and gossips about our latest developments. Of course, the main objective of the meal was the loh hei to bring in good luck for the entire committee.

Since I did not see them so often, I insisted on taking a group photo at a site that many commented looked picturesque. I should really make an extra effort to get together with them more often.

Visit by Ms Phuah

I already have had an agreement with Ms Phuah before the new year that we would inter-visit. I would visit her on the second day of the Lunar New Year and she would visit me on the seventh day.

My mother has always been a friendly person who until now seems to be able to get on well with all my friends. In fact, to tell you a secret, sometimes I think she gets on better with my friends than me. Hnmm, I am secretly envious of her ease of getting different people to warm up to her.

Being a boring person with no cable TV in my house, I was initially concerned that Ms Phuah would feel dull after a while in my house. I could not serve her anything else except for food and mainstream TV, ie Channel 8, U, 5, Okto or CNA.

Fortunately, she seemed satisfied with just chatting with me and sharing my calories for the new year's goodies. She could not stay long as she had a dinner appointment for the night. Of course, I wish she could visit me more often as now there was a bus that connected the 2 towns that we stayed in. The time of travel was almost the same as my travelling to Cityhall. *Wink*

Ushering Luck - Wearing Auspicious Colour to Work

I am certain many of you would have received this forwarded email just before the Lunar New Year on which zodiacs should wear what colours when you report to work on different days. For the fun of it, I did try to follow the colours recommended last year.

However, when I saw the same email this year, I started to question its validity as the same colours were proposed for all the days. Shouldn't there be a different set of colours proposed for different years? Hence, this year, I have decided to just wear what I like on the first day I reported to work.

Surprisingly, many of my colleagues were trying to usher in good luck for the new year. Many abided by the recommended colours for their zodiac signs and turned up wearing the same colours as they were of the same signs.

Other than wearing the right colours, I guess the more important thing is to have the right positive attitude. If you are a firm believer of the law of attraction, then positive thoughts will translate to good luck for the whole year.

Quest for Immortality Exhibition

I knew it was a popular exhibition because the last time the National Museum opened house during the New Year's Day, there was a long queue waiting to view the the exhibition. I thought this second free entry would attract less crowd as the more enthusiastic members of the public would have already seen the exhibition in the first open house.

I could not be more wrong.

To play safe in case the fascination among Singaporeans on Ancient Egypt civilisation has not waned, we thought going there early meant that if we needed to endure any queues, it would have been a shorter one. Moreover, we could then finish our visit early for lunch. When we marched into the museum at 1030 am, the end of queue was already just behind the concierge. We were dismayed by the waiting we had to subject ourselves to as the other end of the queue was about 1 floor down.

About half an hour later, we were finally admitted into the exhibition grounds. we were pleasantly surprised that National Museum allowed photo taking for this exhibition. Photography was banned two years ago for the Greek exhibition. Of course, how could we now miss the chance to snap some pictures as momentoes? Unfortunately, I did not bring my digital camera alone, hopefully my phone's camera would not do any injustice to the glory of the exhibits.

The scale of the exhibition was much smaller than that of the Greek exhibits when National Museum temporarily housed part of the Lourve's collection when Lourve underwent major renovation 2 years ago. I was amazed by the carvings of the Ancient Egypt civilisations on the stone slabs especially mindful of the technology and the types of tools available then. When we saw the mummies, we were again taken aback by the length of the mummies, they seemed smaller than what I would have imagined them to be.

Other than the Ancient Egypt exhibition, the rest of the National Musuem was also open to public. Having been to the History gallery before, we thought we would venture into the Living Gallery instead. The exhibits in the Living Gallery were closer to our hearts with themes on photographs, such as photos of families, festivals and customs and food, such as the mortar and pound, the making of satay and laksa and the various spices used commonly in Singapore cuisine.

Overall, it was an interesting visit on a public holiday.

Visiting Ms Phuah

This is the first time I am meeting Ms Phuah's parents face-to-face despite knowing her as a friend for a long time. I am getting nervous. What will they think of me? Will I be deemed a worthy friend of their beloved daughter? Will they be under the wrong impression that I am there for ang paos?

Once I decide to go, then the next question is what to wear?

My normal CNY clothing is more towards comfort which means it will be the ubiqutous jeans or cropped pants with T-shirt. Such attire may not be respectful. Hence, I opt for a more lady-like skirt and pink top. Anything dull-coloured may be taboo especially for the more traditional family.

Sigh! Now, I can fully empathise with those future sons or daughters-in-law who have to visit their other halves' family. The nerves, the apprehension and the haplessness can truly depletes your confidence. Any undesirable impression that I make as a friend does not bring about as severe a consequence as someone going in the capacity of a future son or daughter-in-law.

I hope I will not leave any bad impression to her family or cause her any embarrassment. Good luck to me.

First Day of Chinese New Year

This year, the first day of Chinese New Year coincides with the Western's Valentine's Day. Who takes priority? Your family or your lover?

Happy New Year and Valentine's Day!

Chinese New Year Eve

After the last minute rush for the spring cleaning and the stocking up of new year goodies, I am almost flat out on Chinese New Year Eve. Yet, there is still some way to go in terms of all the preparations. The bedsheets are beckoning to be changed. There are also ingredients to be prepared for the reunion dinner.

Without further ado, I immediately launch into the preparation of the reunion dinner first. Chopping of garlic and chilli is my forte. I am good at chopping the garlic finely. However, I try to avoid doing this because the garlic smell normally stains my fingers for at least a week. I am not exactly a fan of garlic which is my motivation for chopping them as finely as possible so that I can avoid tasting them when they are added as garnish / spices to a dish.

Next up, we have to start putting up the Chinese New Year decorations. Some of the decorations are recycled from last year. As we are contemplating where to put some of the decorations, we also have to grapple with the feasibility of putting up the decorations at the desired locations. As much as possible, we try to avoid doing any permanent damage to the walls. Scotch tapes or any other adhesives that may cause peeling of the paint are big no-nos. Using blue-tack alone may not be a strong enough adhesive. When the decoration keeps falling after numerous trials, we give up.

We always keep one of our favourite activities to the last, that is helping my mother to put money into ang paos. We have to be careful in order to ensure equity. New notes tend to stick together. If you are too quick, you may end up putting more notes than necessary. It may create embarrassment if the different value ang paos are given to the children of the same family.

After doing the necessary, the last step before the new year is certainly to sweep up and floor and mop. No sweeping can be done on the first day of the Chinese New Year. This can only be done with all tasks are completed because if you have not completed the tasks, you may end up creating more dust.

What a hectic Chinese New Year Eve? Maybe next year I should seriously consider going on overseas vacation during Chinese New Year to avoid these tasks. When you are in town, it is hard to ignore traditions. However, when you are overseas, then it is easier to close an eye to the preparation.

Special Time-Off. Hurray!

Our company has done well for the past quarter. In recognition of the hard work we have put in, a company-wide half day off to all employees except for those who need to stay back due to exigencies of service. This is indeed a much needed break as I can catch-up on last minute CNY preparation.

Spring Cleaning

I used to find spring cleaning therapeutic, but this year I somehow kept procrastinating the annual spring cleaning. Firstly, I skipped my Dec leave as I was covering for my colleague, so I thought of using the temporary lull period in end Dec to catch-up on work.

So finally, I could not put it off any longer. This was THE final weekend before Chinese New Year. I must not break tradition. Even if I do not sleep, I promise myself I must also complete the spring cleaning in time.

Over the 2 days, I have cleaned my room, cleaned the living room, wiped the sofa and the skirtings of the whole house. Although I had done one round of cleaning just half a year ago, the amount of dust accumulated was as if I had not done any cleaning for a year. Was I too unthorough previously or dust accumulated a faster pace than I knew?

At the end of the day, I felt like my whole body was aching so badly that the bones started creaking. Blisters also started appearing on my palms. Did I exert too much force? When I complained my exhaustion to my mother, she jokingly mentioned that perhaps to prevent such tedium in future, I could do a spring cleaning once a month or bimonthly so that the work was spread out. On no, am I digging my own grave?

Lessening Festivities

Chinese New Year is just around the corner, but somehow I have yet to feel the festivities. When I walk along the streets, there is not hustling and bustling normally associated with the frenzy to get all the new year goodies.

Some of the shopping belts are relatively quiet. In the supermarkets, most people seem to go about with their routine groceries instead of engaging in new year goodies replenishment.

When I ask around, most colleagues also seem to be cutting down on their stocking up of new year goodies as year in year out, there is always wastage.

Most people are planning short regional trips due to the extended holidays. Those who are planning for the vacation seem not to skip the Chinese New Year tradition totally.

Is Chinese New Year fast becoming a dying tradition?

Similarities

I recently met a friend who seemed to share so many similiarities with me especially in terms of food habits.

We both dislike eating vegetables with stronger smell, eg celery, spring onions, parsley. As such ingredients were normally used as garnishes in main dishes, we both had no qualms of picking out these from a bowl of porridge. I could sense your disapproval at this juncture of our picky food habits. In terms of food that we liked, we also tend to favour more Asian cuisines than Western. However, my friend was more adventurous when it came to trying different food. When I was introduced to Heng Hua cuisine, I thought some of the dishes required an acquired taste. On Indian cuisine, I have yet to sample them other than the more common roti prata.

The similarities do not stop at food. There were instances when we seemed to be able to speak each other's thoughts. When we were talking about movies and the need to sometimes watched it again, we both understood the rationale as we would have concentrated on the pictures and missed the dialogues. This was especially so for action-packed movies.

I thought I was pretty fastidious when it came to quality checks on goods before making a purchase. Well, I have finally met an equivalent. My friend could even spot damages that I might have missed. We were having fun having a competition on who could spot more defects on the items. Finally, we were both satisfied the good were in tip-top condition before we made the purchases.

Some of my closer group of friends have more than once complained about my retarded responses to SMSes and even an aversion to talking on mobile phones. My aversion to talking on mobile phones without sounding too stifled has only abated somewhat after working in the telco industry. Well, now I can proudly tell my friends I am not the only one who seems to be living in a dinosaur age. This new friend of mine shares the same aversion to mobile phones. In fact, my friend's aversion to mobile phones may be more severe and slowness in SMS responses make my response feel like my response travels in light years.

Sometimes, I wonder whether to find so many similarities with another friend is a blessing in disguise or something to avoid. It is a blessing as I am certain you can imagine the connection and the ease of companionship with someone who shares similar thoughts. On the other hand, for those of you who are more familiar with management concepts, you will have heard "Group think" which essentially advocates against similar thinking in a group as there will be many blind spots. Maybe I should not think so much and just enjoy the friendship while it lasts.