Not enough time with him

I tend to lose track of time when I'm busy and chasing deadlines. So imagine my disappointment yesterday when I realised that I'm due to fly to Berlin for work next week. That means I have only a week with the husband between the last business trip and the next.

And I'm not even looking forward to icy Berlin! :(

Don't take safety for granted

A plastic bag of fruits and vegetables lay limp beside her, just as how she was too on the road. The scene was unusual to me in reality, so perhaps to prevent shock, my eyes and mind trained themselves on the single bright orange that had rolled its way out of the plastic bag.

Unfortunately, my eyes and mind, drawn to bright colours, also fixed themselves upon the pool of blood gathered around her head. Someone had rolled up a piece of clothing and placed it under her head, perhaps to give her some comfort in her wretched state. It was soaked in blood.

A motorcycle lay on its side several meters away.

I finally gave in and looked fully upon her. Oh the poor woman. She was so old and petit, dressed in the typical ah ma attire of a colourful polyester blouse and black slacks. She lay on her side, like she was merely asleep. But that pool of blood gave away the horror of reality.

Oh the poor woman. Will she survive? How will her poor family take it?

How many of us take road safety for granted, foolishly believing that drivers will not dare to knock us down and that we can outrun that oncoming vehicle. Please triple check all directions before you cross the road - you can never be too careful. And always use designated pedestrian crossings.

Do your loved ones a favour and remind them today.

It's here!

My Valentine's Day surprise is finally here - 13 days overdued! But hey, the suspense made the gift even more brilliant. :)

Welcome to the household, Shaun and Timmy!

Shaun shivers when his tail is pulled, while Timmy chatters non-stop when awake and snores when laid down to sleep. Hilarious!

These may seem like gifts more suited for toddlers and kiddos, but, really, the husband knows me best. And he knows I've not had many fancy toys as a child and am catching up like crazy now! :)

But with two new bedfellows, the husband will have to make space and sleep closer to the edge of the bed!

Oh! The sacrifices he makes to put a smile on my face. ♥

Comfort food

I know I am a true-blue Singaporean when after a week of culinary indulgences in Melbourne I crave for this simple dish:

Piping hot melt-in-the-mouth chwee kueh with a generous dallop of oily and savoury cai poh.

Bloody bad for health and the waistline. Bloody good for the senses. Mmmm!

Pace

Note to self: Pace interviews out comfortably at next year's trade show so that I can have time to breathe and walk the grounds and explore new and exciting products.

I'm so exhausted on this trip. :(

That thing called love

Online media sites today churned out truckloads of articles proclaiming the benefits of being in love. One even claims that being in love brings immense health benefits; it lowers risk of alcohol abuse and keeps lovers young, healthy and mentally sane.

Hardly a surprise, as today is Valentine's Day.


For me, being in love drives me completely nuts. I am so in love with the husband that I want so much to swallow him alive so that he will live within me. But I can't, obviously. He's much too big and I would be too full by the time I chow down one of his smooth, lovely arms.

My insanity aside, I remember how mummy used to tell me that daily displays of affection between people in love and among family members are good for health and the relationship. I've taken her advice to heart, and would wake the husband every morning with loud, sucking kisses all over his face until he swats me away. I would also pounce on him with suffocating bear-hugs when he least expects it because, surely, everyone loves surprises, right?

Anyway, the husband's Valentine's Day gift to me is slightly delayed. Erm, by two weeks at least. The gift had to be shipped from the US and there was some sort of problem with the delivery arrangements, so said the good man.

He cannot keep surprises and have been giggling to himself all week whenever he looks at me. "Do you want to know what your gift is?" he would ask me on and off, and I would always scream, "NO! DON'T TELL ME!"

Still, he would involuntarily leak little hints every other day, enough for me to piece something together. By today, I've figured out that the gift is a cuteness-overload Shaun the Sheep soft toy which I can take to bed. Hah!

The husband isn't too happy as a result. But I can't help being so smart!

Although I have nothing from the husband today, I will not end Valentine's Day empty-handed. A friend from the trade whom I interviewed over lunch today presented me a huge bouquet of over 30 red and white roses.

It's absolutely beautiful. And must be so expensive! The husband loved it a lot too, and have found a nice spot in the house for it.

"Thank your friend for me," he chuckled. "He saved me from having to buy you flowers!"

Cheeky! But I'll forgive him because of Shaun the Sheep.

To hell with bad junk food!

The husband and I are increasingly in love with our apartment, so much so we rather stay home all weekend than to go out and fight for service with the crowd. That affection for the apartment is even stronger now that we have cable TV and a brand new desktop that allows him to shoot zombies and minions while I manipulate my characters in The Sims.

The only hiccup in our quest to hole ourselves in all day is the need to fill our stomachs. Most times we are too engrossed in our games to take time to make ourselves a meal. While MacDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut offer home delivery, there's only so much lousy junk food we can eat every weekend.

Sure, Spizza brings quality thin-crust pizzas to one's doorstep too, but at quite a price.

As a result, I often get pretty depressed when it was time to decide which junk food to have for lunch and dinner every weekend.

But a discovery this evening will change our weekends forever.

The husband was searching the web for home delivery options when he came across Thai To Go, a Thai food delivery service that offers a very extensive menu at canteen prices.

The menu is conveniently categorised into 12 sections for one's easy reference, and some of the sections carry fun names - Soup for the soul, Currylicious, and Oodles of noodles.

It is no joke trying to select something we wanted. The choice is so extensive that we went quite bonkers. Imagine this: there are 13 salad and starters, seven soups, seven curries, nine varieties of fried rice, eight seafood dishes, and the magnificent list goes on. Every dish is listed with a clear, drool-inducing photo, just in case you aren't quite sure of the dish.

And prices are just so easy on the pocket! A small serving of green papaya salad costs only S$4.95, a small serving of green chicken curry S$5.50, pineapple rice S$5.50, Pad Thai seafood S$6.50, and so on.

Thai To Go delivers anywhere in Singapore, although the minimum order value varies according to the destination. For instance, a delivery to Bishan or Pasir Panjang requires a minimum order of S$25, while a S$10 order suffices for Sembawang. A trifle S$3 delivery charge is added to the final bill.

The husband and I ordered a bento of spicy basil chicken with rice and Pad Thai seafood. We were so tempted to go crazy and have a royal Thai feast, but decided to be prudent. It was our first try and at the back of our minds we were not quite hopeful of quality food from a home delivery service.

Oh! We were SO wrong!

The spicy basil chicken was really fragrant, and so was the Pad Thai seafood. They were restaurant quality stuff, and were as good as the same versions I've had in Bangkok.

Impressed, I searched online for more information on Thai To Go's history.

Thai To Go is headed by a team of Thai chefs and the success of the delivery service had pushed the company to launch a dine-in restaurant recently. Wow wee. The restaurant is located in Sembawang Cottage. No wonder the minimum order requirement was much lower for deliveries to that area!

Three cheers to the discovery of Thai To Go, the team of wonderful Thai chefs and the end of my unwilling dependence on MacDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut!

I can foresee many happy weekends of Thai feasting at home. :)

That face

I finally penned my first editor's note - that page of (sometimes mentally stimulating) rambling by an editor that occupies the first page of most magazines. It is quite unnerving to see myself filling that page - what will my readers think of my note? - but definitely worth celebrating as a milestone in my career.

But - urgh - it came with a not-too-photogenic shot of me. I look oddly puffy, as if I had gone on a water buffet before the shot was taken and as a result was suffering a serious case of water retention in my cheeks.

Ah well. I have the next one month to lose that facial weight and practice posing in the best angle, so that my next editor's note will come with a less painful photo of me.

New guide to parenthood

"If you think childbirth is tough, wait till you try bringing up your child," a friend who has a schooling-age son told me after hearing my repeated whinings about the unavoidable weight gain and stretchmarks during pregnancy.

Hokay. So parenting is tough. But surely life would be a lot easier if would-be parents knew the rules of engagement right from the start, yes?

So, based on my experience in raising my two younger brothers, I've created this five-pointer guide to new-age parenting.

First and foremost, both father and mother must agree on the chosen disciplinary action to avoid confusing the child. So if mummy intends to throw the wretched, screeching child out of the window, daddy must give her full support.

Second, parents must discourage their child's attention-seeking nature. So if the child screams for attention when he ought to be sleeping, mummy and daddy must put him in a corner room, turn off the lights, lock the door and proceed to the living room where they will put on some loud music - I recommend any song by Rage Against The Machine - and have some beer.

Third, parents must encourage their child to learn new things and make new friends. That's why school is so important, although some children may fail to understand that. So if the child thrashs, screams and weeps in the morning, refusing to put on his/her uniform, parents must stand firm. A hard whack on the head would help. When the child is unconscious, bundle him/her inside a rice sack and drop him/her off at the doorstep of the school. The teacher will take over from there.

Fourth, parents must remember that forbidden fruits taste the sweetest, so they must give their children free rein to fruits of all kinds. Your child might pick up smoking when he/she reaches teenage years. So lock him/her in a smoking room, preferably one of those stuffy cubicles in an airport, and let him/her decide if smoking is what he/she would like to pick up. Your child might also be into extreme tattoos and body piercings one day. Just in case they sneak around and end up getting a job done in a filthy, unlicensed parlour, parents must be quick and take them to a proper tattoo/piercing shop even before the child asks for it.

Five, teach independence right from the start. Instead of letting the child watch kiddy shows such as Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, put educational and inspiring programmes such as Junior MasterChef on TV. That way, the child would believe that every one his/her age must know how to cook. And he/she can help to prepare (quality) dinner for the parents after homework is done.

Six, don't agree to buy anything the child asks for. Parents must teach the value of money and the importance of earning one's keep. Send the child to a sweatshop and let him/her earn enough money to buy what he/she wants. If there isn't a sweatshop in your country, use your child as a domestic helper and pay him/her 50-cents per hour.

I think my future children would be so blessed to have me as a parent.

Feeding my mind

Possessed by the spirit of a bookworm today, I went on a mini shopping spree at a bookstore and bought several books. Among the purchases was this:

This book was written just for me! :)

I opened the book and was greeted by this page:

Well put, Mason Cooley. At this stage in my life, my dear husband is reading increasingly like an addictive book. And he is one book that smells really, really good. Umm!

I also found a collection of 15 of Roald Dahl's best titles and The Umbrella Man and Other Stories.

I'm terribly excited because he is one of my favourite authors of all times, and I want to share his stories with the husband, who has so far read only George's Marvellous Medicine. In fact, the husband just confessed that he has only read TWO story books so far in his life - George's Marvellous Medicine and The Pearl. And he had completed The Pearl only because it was part of his Literature class.

My excitement must have rubbed off on the husband because now he is absolutely eager to get started on The Umbrella Man and Other Stories. That's a good book to start because it contains Roald Dahl's attempts at horror and bizarre tales.

Once the husband is out of the shower, we will tuck ourselves in bed and start reading! How fun! :)

Sleeping marketers

Sometimes I feel that my team are like fantastic actors in a film that is not publically distributed, and clowns who can hardly act, but whose films are boldly marketed, are starting to gain more popularity than us.

:(

Peek into a possible future

If the husband and I ever wondered how life would be with several children, the photo here would probably offer us a glimpse.

This snapshot, taken with our niece and nephews, looks almost like the perfect family portrait in which everyone is happy. Whether or not the husband and I would remain sane with three young children is anyone's guess.

For someone like me who needs things around me to be in order, I suspect I'd go mad quite fast with three young children in tow.

I would very much love to spend the rest of my life with the husband alone. Without the burden of children, we would be able to go on impromptu holidays whenever, wherever. Without the burden of children, we could design our home in any way we please and not have to worry about sharp edges and restrictive window grills. Without the burden of children, we could forever drive two-door cars.

Without the burden of children, we could sleep peacefully every night, with our limbs entwined, unlike any of these unfortunate positions:

The husband feels the same way too.

We are still so undecided if a junior has a place in our marriage. All the sacrifices we would have to make!

Yet, somehow, that happy photo inspired us to give parenthood a try. At least we would attempt to have one child. And if the child turned out to be a handful, we would put a ribbon around him/her and deliver him/her to our eager parents as a present.

Anyway, we have four months left to decide if we want to set our baby plans in motion. Four months. Yikes. It will come before we know it.

Damn cyclist-haters

I had a media lunch event today where I sat with three people who declared vehemently that they hated cyclists.

Cyclists rode on pedestrian walkways, obstructing people who needed to use the paths, and rode on roads, slowing cars down.

Hate is too harsh a word to use on cyclists. And can one truly blame cyclists? Singapore's drivers are not known to be compassionate towards their peers on two-wheelers, be it bicycles or motorcycles. If drivers had their way on the roads, most would be glad to mow down cyclists and motorcyclists.

The roads are just not safe for cyclists, so many, especially the older folks and mummies with kids with them, prefer to cycle on walkways. Unfortunately, most pedestrians have little patience and see bicycles as dangers that ought to stay on the roads.

Such self-centred idiots.

Rather than hate cyclists, people should hate the authorities who cannot be bothered to designate specific lanes for cyclists. It is worth Singapore's while to create cycling lanes, as that encourages green transportation.