sad day coming

End April leading up to May has always been a tough time for me every year.   Maybe this year, I might crawl myself out of the hole I am buried in?   Or maybe not?  

How do I change a sad day to a happy day?

Yay, I passed my jap tests, both oral and written and am going on to elementary 2.   Sometimes I wonder if I have taken on more than I could manage, and I have not had time for baking (which is not necessary bad even though I love baking, or everyone in the family will end up putting on weight, especially Vincent as he has to taste everything I bake to show his support!).  I also hardly have time to play with my crafts.   But I do love everything I am learning, and I think it is ingenious of me to combine jap with calligraphy.   I recently bought a synthetic brush from korea and it is really good for writing small characters, unlike the natural wolf hair brush, but it does have its limitation as it is not as easy to control and the flow is not as smooth as the natural wolf hair brush.

I am beginning to love the japanese language even though it is a great pain to learn (especially at my age), all the new enunciation, conjugation, different forms of verbs (the japanese are the most polite people ever, they have polite, respectful as well as humble forms of verbs.   But as Qi always reminds me, look out for the logic and everything will fall into place.   She should know, she has learned so many languages, jap, german, spanish and french.

I am determined to master japanese and hopefully by the time I am done with elementary 2, I can write a short note to Tak-san's wife, I finally know her name, "Jiu mei zi-san"   it is kinda sad, only to know her name after Tak-san's passing, and she sent me a note with her name.   My main purpose of learning jap, other than having a keen interest in Japanese culture and calligraphy, is to be able to communicate with her and maintain contact now that Taksan is no longer around to translate for us.

I have a delightful time in London, it is good to have the entire family around me, laughing, talking and just being together.    As the girls grow up, it becomes increasingly difficult to gather them together, so the 9 days in London is really precious to me.  

We celebrated Vincent's 50th birthday in advance in a quaint little restaurant.   We had grand plan to surprise him, but in the end we just ask him to choose the restaurant as it was too cold to carry out our plan.

As expected Vincent would be in Kuwait on his birthday, leaving on Sunday and back on Friday.   I on the other hand am going to Malacca with my girlfriends.   The six of us have been friends for 30 years and this is the first time we are travelling together!   Violet will be driving Sor Tin's car (as she is the only one with the mpv and Violet is familiar with the route).

I was telling Jer this would be the first time I am travelling with friends, as all my holidays travels are with the family, other than the times I travelled for business when I was working.  Woo-hoo, I am looking forward to a great time, even though it is only a overnight trip.

We will leave in exactly one week for London, I am really not looking forward to the flight (but I sure am looking forward to seeing Qi and Min) and I have to remind myself constantly that I am not fully recovered, so I am not to carry heavy stuff, squad down to pick up things, not to walk too fast, all which i forget all the time.    

On another note, we are going to SH's house for an early Christmas lunch, I ordered a roast beef from SICC.   I hope the beef is still good after all these years :-)   Looking forward to lunch and am really grateful to SH for cooking for us once again, (we are always eating at her house, since we know each other when we were 17, sleeping over at her house after a night of bbq, playing uno under the blankets, having our weekly bible study at Tiong Bahru garden, and later at her hall when she was studying at NUS and when she was living in Sydney, we will all stay with her at different times of the years to save on accommodation - fond memories of our youth!)   SH is always the first person the rest of us turn to when we need help, advice, a roof over our head, anything and everything.   A big hug for you SH - a lady with the big heart!

We are leaving for London on the 27th, hopefully by then the wound will not hurt so much.  It has been exactly 3 weeks since the op and I am still unable to wear any of my jeans now which is such a pity as my entire wardrobe is made up mostly of jeans and t-shirts and dressy tops.   I started wearing my skirts which I have not wore for ages (read : years).


Somethings don't change - Min who is touring France and Holland now (term ended last Friday for LSE) and when we had a good chat on the blackberry this morning and she mentioned that she was doing her homework.   When she went with channel news asia to Beijing/HK  while she was in sec 3, the tv camera caught her doing her homework!   I am so happy she is having a good time (she went to Iceland a couple of weeks ago for glacier climbing) and now France and Holland. 


This is the first year the 5 of us are not spending Christmas together.   Qi came back from St Andrews last Christmas.   We wanted to go up to London to spend Christmas with them but I do want to attend my cousin Yi Shu's wedding dinner on the 26th which is the reason why we are going up on the 27th.   Qi will come to London on the 23rd to spend Christmas with Min, while the 3 of us will have a quiet Christmas in Singapore.   I have not decorated the house at all as I am unable to shop much, plus we are not having a Christmas party with the family as Bee Choo and her two girls are leaving for Hokkaido this Saturday, so I am planning a quiet dinner for the 3 of us.   

I started driving yesterday (not counting the short trip from Suntec to home the day before), and I have enjoyed every mintue of it, driving along AYE to Boon Lay to pick ma, listening to Rod Stewart and just being myself and I like driving along the highway.  I used to drive up and down AYE/ECP/PIE when I was troubled and just wanted to be on my own to sort out my thoughts.    I like how Rod Stewart's songs soothed me and I like the fact that I can go where as and when I want to.  I like driving.