Happy Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone.

I love the Lunar New Year.

Used to hate it but not anymore.

Used to feel that those endless questions like... "when are you getting married?" etc were a nuisance, but now I know that people are just caring about me in their own ways. What else can they ask? It is not as if I'm good at socializing, I find myself asking about them about general stuff too. I have not finished "92 ways to talk about anything" nor have I practised it. Malcolm always asks me when he sees me, "so have you practised talking to the aunties like I've taught you?". You see, Malcolm told me he too was poor at socializing before. Then he started to break the mould by making small talks to the aunties at the hawkers like commenting on small stuff or cracking some jokes. He says it will get easier on a larger scale. Whatever it is, it is just to awkward for me to be an extrovert although I truly like people. Anyway, I've given up trying too hard cos I would rather be true to myself and my fine thoughts for them are worth more than some small talks that I could conjure. Oh ya, now that I'm gonna be a mother, I wonder if I should at least force myself to break the shy-mould. I've watched this wonderful BBC documentary "Child of our time" where they took 25 new borns and studied them from pre-natal to 5 years-old. The study is on-going and they will broadcast the next season after the children turns 10. It is to be a 25-year study! I watched this some 5 years ago and many of the topics interest me so much that I could still remember much of the programme. The children comes from varied social-economic backgrounds, single parenthood, step-parent, wealthy professional parents, middle-income ones and parent-on-the-run (from abusive partners). There was this couple who were painfully shy and they realised their son is also lacking in social skills. So they moved from their foresty haven to a house with more neighbours nearby. The mother joined more community activities and developed new hobbies for herself. After several months (a few short years), she has drastically become well-liked and gets invited to many activities and her son has also become much livelier and socially acceptable. I wonder if I will make the effort or will it come naturally later. There was also one very intersting study from that programme-- they put each baby in a room by himself/herself (when they were about 8 mth-old I think) and the scientist made some noise from behind the wall. The scientist would go :" Hello there! How are you?" or something like that. Being an unfamilar voice, some of the babies would burst into tears while some would be very inquisitive and perk up their heads to find the source of the voice. There are generally just these two reactions from the babies. The interesting thing is that these babies grow to become either shy or adventurous. The traits become more obvious as they grow and it is said that it is what makes some of us go sky-diving and why some of us will never take the plunge. It goes as far to say that this trait is inborn in us but could be moderated with conscious efforts. (eg: extra encouragement is needed for those timid kids to nurture them to be more exploring). Whatever the case, social skills are important and will let you go a long way, and so I think.

I am off tomorrow to the gynea and I'll be off on Friday to the HDB.
Will probably go buy some new tops for myself and send the can of New Moon abolone to Grandpa. Also probably need to do some further spring cleaning at home, not that we expect any visitors but just to get the mood going too. I am grateful for having this small flat as it has given us our own space and growth. I will miss it when I move and so I treasure it while I'm in the moment.

Ok, shall update you next week on all the new year happenings, meantime, Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Good for you!

I was reading an e-booklet and liked a few points that I see.

"Every thought in your mind is a prayer about you, no matter who the subject seems to be."

"Give up all the thoughts of offense, revenge, of being injured, of self-justification, of needing to defend yourself against others' expectations, of the unfairness of life, of others getting some unearned advantage."

"Joy breeds joy and sorrow breeds sorrow. When you hear of someone's good fortune, think :"Good for them! God is blessing and prospering them, and I bless them also!" "

***

I am always happy for people when they meet a good fortune, windfall or something happy & exciting is going their way. I always tell them that I am happy for them or "Good for you!" I would say.

However, I realised that this kind of thinking is not as common as I had thought it was.

Little do I realise that not everyone could genuinely be happy for others.

Why is that so? I wonder. Does other people's blessings make them feel "less blessed"?
Or perhaps they wished they had more?
I don't know.
I think they are probably just sour or not generous.

For me, I celebrate others' good fortune just like I celebrate mine.
Although occasionally I do get dismayed that they are people who are cynical, I choose to think the better of them and hope that they will soon find in their hearts to be happy for others too.

Well, likes attract the likes, hence I shall just surround myself with like-minded people don't you think?

A Pinch of Salt

To take a statement with 'a grain of salt' or 'a pinch of salt' means to accept it but to maintain a degree of skepticism about its truth.

Origin
The idea comes from the fact that food is more easily swallowed if taken with a small amount of salt. Pliny the Elder translated an ancient antidote for poison with the words 'be taken fasting, plus a grain of salt'.

The suggestion is that injurious effects can be moderated by the taking of a grain of salt.

***
Okay, I need to take a healthy grain of salt for all the negative thoughts that were harbouring in my mind. I should go sit down quietly in a corner and do this cleansing process in my mind to get it over and done with.

This is necessary because; I am expecting a baby!

It ought to be one joyous event but I am saddled with worry that anything that might go wrong, may go wrong.

This erroneous thought has impeded the flow of happiness to my heart and I am now determine to let it go.

Oh how I welcome a new life into my life!

For one, I love life!

I worried about everything, my tummy was not showing. Even at 23 weeks now, nobody knows unless I tell them.

How do I boost my deflated faith?

Every visit to the gynea is fine and progress is great, but still I would worry till the next visit.

How could I allow myself to be like this?

So for now, I will tell you more about my joys.

Baby's kicking and has kung-fu kicks that startled me on 2 occasions.

The tiny thing could kick so hard.

She is so daringly sweet. She responds especially to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra music I play for her each evening.

She doesn't like it when I sleep on my left, on the side, although research says that sleeping on the left gives better space & flow but she doesn't like it. She will kick in quick successions and I would give in to her. (!!!)

I am very fortunate I don't suffer from much adverse effects like a typical expecting mom, I am the same except for being generally fatter and ocassional fatigue. Oh, leg cramps in the wee hours is quite a dreadful thing though. Brendan massages my legs every night before bed, and that helps a lot. Shopping has become quite a feat and I do it in smaller portions now.

Other than that, we are getting a 4-room flat at the east, at Marine Parade, just across the East Coast Park. This is another milestone and I also look forward to it. We hope the HDB could expedite the transaction and let us have the keys to the house soon so that we can do some retrofitting.

So my friends, this is it.

Chinese Project

Tim (my sis' BF) has many design projects and he is the anchor vendor at the Singapore Esplanade.

There are many types of designs he does, from collateral, to prints, to props.

I remember most about his graduation pieces where they were interactive arts, you know, having one person fumbling with some arts pieces from one end and have a reaction at the other end of the prop. Errr, I think I couldn't describe it well but just know that those designers' minds are like very much more advanced or intrigued than an ordinary folk like me.

I've helped out at Tim's office on a few occasions when he needs to do a whole lot of "behind-the-scene" work. You know, cutting, taping, folding of 3-dimensional props are a lot of hard work! We always get arm muscle aches, backaches, eye strain, just to name a few. Not to mention when we are concentrating on the tasks at hand, the hours stretch and we ususally neglect to eat & drink!

Whatever the case, the end results of the projects are mostly stunningly good, which makes the effort worthwhile.

I hope more people could take a moment to take in the visusal pleasure the next time they pass by the Esplanade at least. =)

To Infinity and Beyond!

2009 seems gonna be tough. Our Singapore government has warned of more lay-offs and tougher times but said that it is confident that Singaporeans can pull through it. What else can they say. Retail is poor, tourism revenue is poor and many companies are forcing staff to take paid or un-paid leave. Don't let it become your reality. Just do your best and keep the positive mental attitude on over-run.

I hope everyone will hang in there and let's trust that we will all be abundantly provided for.

For me, 2009 will be an exciting year. I hope to have an ever-fufilling, meaningful and prosperous year ahead!

Happy New Year, everyone!