Allies and Secret Friend

After receiving an email from Michelle today about some feng shui lady (supposedly famous) making her 2009 predictions, I had an interesting chat with my colleagues on the chinese horoscope fortunes in this challenging year. Apparently, being an "Ox" means I will have lots of hardship and challenges in the Year of the Ox. 犯太岁 or something... Something about 1 lucky star and 6 (!!) bad stars... geez.

As if the financial/economic crisis we are facing isn't enuff.

The conversation soon evolved to this thing about a "trinity of friends" for each horoscope. Supposingly, each 生肖 has 2 other 生肖 as "Allies", and another as a "Secret Friend" (wonder what that means...). There's also an "Opposing" 生肖 - which I suppose means they will be your nemesis of sorts... haha

For those interested to find out more, go to this website:
http://fengshui-import.com/phorum/read.php?3,3

So we excited "compared" 生肖 of one another to find out who our supposed allies and oppositions are. It was really quite funny, the whole episode.

Anyway, as an Ox, my "Allies" are the Snake and the Rooster. And my "Secret Friend" is the Rat. Opposition comes in the form of the "Sheep" (which I gathered refers to the "Goat" in the common texts).

If only friends and enemies are THAT easy to define in real life. hehe. :P

与孩子同入眠

近几个月来，一到晚上九点半左右，我都有同样的一个“任务”-那就是躺在床上陪着孩子入眠。

靖凯的“晚餐”总是在晚上九点正，而通常他需要我们夫妻俩不断地哄着他才肯把这一瓶奶水喝完。有时候这孩子也真是会耍脾气，一瓶210ml的奶水得分成四五次间断喂他才肯喝完。这可把我急性子的太太给气坏了！ 而偏偏喂孩子喝奶（或者是吃其他食物）又是一件急不来的事。有时候太过于勉强孩子，反而会事倍功半，还可能使到他作呕。记得有好几次孩子把刚喝进肚子里的奶水全部都吐在我们的床上，真是叫我们俩不知如何是好。

通常,如果一切顺顺利利的话,九点半左右喂奶的工作就能完成了.接下来就是轮到我守在孩子的身边,陪着他入眠. 靖凯刚刚过了一岁生日,以他现在的年纪,我们绝不敢掉以轻心,把他一个人留在床上,担心他会几个翻身然后不小心跌到床下! 其实这样的"意外"在过去的几个月也曾发生过了好几次. 当我们发现他已跌到床下时,看到他哭得那么惨,我的心也会疼得不得了! 所以这个"睡前守护者"的任务是多么的重要啊.

每晚看着他那可爱的脸庞,那昏昏欲睡的模样,和他那双眯眯着的眼睛,我总会禁不住会心一笑,默默地为孩子祈祷. 虽然我本身并不是基督教徒,也从没有认真地去什么观音庙啦,或佛堂之类的寺殿拜神求福,但我也会希望要是这世上真的有神灵在旁听着的话,他(们)会保佑我们的孩子,让他能健康,快乐的成长. 我想大概世上的父母都会有这样的希望吧?

能够这样每晚陪着孩子入眠,绝对是一种幸福!

天堂

一首我非常喜欢的旧歌（也不算是老歌啦，不过大概也有超过十年了吧？).

-------------------------------------------------
歌名:天堂
附註:
語言:國語, 曲長:0m0s
作曲:鄭華娟, 編曲:
監製:, 填詞:鄭華娟


嘿! 親愛的　不是我不想留在你身旁
我以為天堂總是在遠方
嗨! 親愛的　坦白說我的過去
有幾分很像你　一樣在尋覓

＊只是日日夜夜　歲月過去　走盡千萬里
　我也曾嚮往　也曾徬徨　夢想的路上

哦! 日日夜夜輕輕嘆息　只想告訴你
沒有愛情的地方　沒有天堂＊

（口白）
年輕的日子裡　我走了好長好長的路
只為了想去找屬於我夢想中的天堂
如果真的有那樣的地方
我想應該是一雙渴望你的眼睛
一雙熱情等待你的臂膀　還有一盞溫暖的燈
那就是天堂
（Repeat 2次）

（口白）
沒有你的地方就沒有天堂

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year (CNY) has traditionally been a busy but exciting period to look forward to - especially if you are a kid.

Which kid doesnt enjoy feasting on tonnes of bak-kua, chocolates, sweets, cakes, soft drinks, etc.. the list is endless. And of course, who can forget about the ang pows (red packets)!

I remember, as a kid, I used to keep my ang pows under my pillow and will "sleep" on them over the entire 15 days period of CNY. My parents also reminded us (me and my brother) not to open these red packets until the 15 day period was up. So as a result, we would mostly be guessing how much our "takings" will be, and rubbing our hands in anticipation of the toy(s)/goodies we could buy with the windfall.
(my family is not in the habit of gambling during the CNY, so there's no chance we'd squander our ang pow money. Of course, neither could we double it! :P )

As an adult, CNY poses some new challenges. Just ask most folks who - in the opinion of their aunties/uncles - are at the age deemed suitable for marriage or starting a family (ie. having babies). Or worse, folks who are deemed (by the same cohort of people mentioned earlier) PAST the age deemed suitable for marriage or startiing a family (ie babies!).

The AGE at which this normally start occuring really depends on a lot of factors. But 1 of the key factor is obviously your GENDER. For guys, this can start happening when you hit your big 30. For gals...well. Let's just say, it can start as early as 25 or so. Ironically when gals hit the 30 milestone, they get let-off during CNY. For obvious reasons.

Typical conversations during CNY gatherings may go like this:

Elder (auntie/uncle. mostly aunties, i think): So how?

PF (poor fella): huh?

Elder: Got gal/boy friend oredi or not?

PF: err.. no lah.

Elder: How come???? Hey, you are not that young anymore leh

PF: ya lah... hahahah (forced laughter)

Elder: You should look at your brother/sister/cousin/so-n-so's son/daughter. So young oredi got 2 kids. So happy! Why you wait so long? Aiyah... dont make all of us wait so long mah.

PF: ......

Sounds familiar? hahaha..

Well, if it's any comfort, even married couples don't get let off easy. The EXACT same conversation can still take place. Just replace the "gal/boy friend" with "baby" and the amazingly, the whole things still works!

This year, Ping and I have our "insurance"! hahah. In fact, we intend to enjoy all the new year foodie, while the elders fawn over the little one!

Cheers!

A walk on the 1st day of 2009

We took Jing Kai out for a walk on Januaray 1st 2009 =)

Started the walk at the Alexandra Hort Park - which turned out to be quite scenic, actually - even though it was it was located next to some commercial buildings (i suspect those must've been the HP building or the BP one...)


Kai looking a little pensive in the park


He's getting warmed up now. "Daaaahhh!!" (don't ask me what it means though..)




A view of the Alexandra Arch bridge and the Tree top Walk



We headed towards the Henderson Waves

Halfway through the Tree top walk, we had to stop twice to feed the little guy as it was his milk time. It was quite a challenge for EP as there wasn't any place to sit down really, and she had to virtual squat/kneel beside his stroller to feed him. And my "job" was to provide distraction (so that he'd open his mouth to drink!). Talk about being naughty!

After the feeding was completed (well, sort of lah), we continued up the tree top walk and it was mostly upslope :P Finally, we reached the Henderson Waves.


EP trying to look relaxed... (but actually she's already short of breath at this point. haha)



The Henderson Waves looked even more impressive than the Alexandra Arch!




This is the last photo I took on the trip.

Why? Because after the Henderson waves, it was (more or less) all upslope again :(
But the worst was yet to come, as we found out.

The last section of walk before we could reach our destination (Harbour Front MRT/Vivo City) was this forest pathway called Marang Trail. As it turns out, the trail was just a series a steps and mudpaths heading downhill. And that meant we had to carry Kai (EP did that), and lift the stroller separately (yah, that would be my job). It turned out to be the most siong part of the whole walk :P

Fortunately, the "reward" was waiting for us at the end....

Ahhhhhhhhh... sweet air con (Harbour Front)....

All in all (including the time we stopped to feed Kai - roughly 15 minutes), we took slightly more than 1hr 30min.

*makes me wonder how fast Julia & family must've ran, since she convinced me that it was "really short", and that it took her like 40-45 minutes to complete this walk!