Regular Patron Of The Library

You know you're a bookworm when you're such a regular patron of the library that you exhausted all the books by your favourite author. I'm kinda particular about the books I read. I love detective thrillers that are fast paced. That's why I love James Patterson so much. I read every single available book of his from the library & I don't know what else to read.

I know there're many popular authors but I haven't found another author whose style of writing I enjoy. I love Dan Brown & I own every single book he's ever written. He isn't as prolific a writer as JP becoz of the extensive research that goes into each novel. I love Mary Higgins Clark as well. I shall keep my eyes peeled for her books next.

Under The Dome was already in its 2nd season here. It looked like it had an interesting storyline. But I won't read or watch something that didn't have a beginning available to me. Hence, I didn't watch it when it aired some time back. As I was scouring the library shelves last weekend, I came across the original Under The Dome by Stephen King that the TV series was based on. It's a mammoth of a book well over 800 pages. I wouldn't normally read such thick books coz it usually means that the story is draggy & I tend to get bored. I've lost count of the numerous authors whose books I gave up reading after a hundred pages or so. (Yeah, I'm hard to please when it comes to novels.)

It's been a week & I've only managed 200 over pages (that's just a quarter of the book). That's very slow for me. I can finish JP in a day (his books are usually 400 over pages thick). Just as I expected, the story moves slowly. The only driving me on is my desire to find out if the dome is a supernatural event or a man made 1 as suspected by the town people in the story. But SK is good in that he made me "hate" the nasty character in the story, just as a good actor makes you hate the villain he's playing.

When I was young, I hated reading. It bores me to death. Then I realised that it was the genre of the books that fail to interest me. I picked up R. L. Stein & Christopher Pike in Primary 6 & never looked back. I found my passion. Books that keep me guessing till the end who the killer is. I know I will never be able to appreciate classics or romance or fantasy. Some people will never enjoy reading. Like hubs. Me, I just love a good story.

Strawberries Galore

Mid last week, hubs told me that Nix asked him if we would like to pick strawberries at a strawberry farm on Sat. Of course I said yes. Even if it's for an hour, it's nice to have something to do, be with people I like. Not just the 2 of us staring at each other at home wondering where to go.

Along the way, we marveled at the beautiful sights. As it is considered a rural area, much of it was untouched, undeveloped. I told hubs, "There's a beautiful country side right at our backdoor & we didn't even know it!"

We arrived at the strawberry farm in Bullbrooks at 10.05 am, running 5 minutes late. The location wasn't in the GPS & there were 2 roads with the same name. We did a few U-turns before I saw the road sign. We were on the correct road but if we turn left, the road name remains the same. Usually, once you make a turn, the road name changes you see. So I told hubs, let's try turning left & see where it leads us. That turned out to be where we were supposed to be.

The moment I opened the car door, a sweet scent lingering in the air hit me. It was not the scent of strawberries, just something sweet that I couldn't put a finger on. Nix, Jen & another couple, L & M were already there. We took some pictures & headed in. They were selling an empty tray for $10 or 2 punnets for $5. We bought the tray to share among the us. It didn't take long to fill the tray (no heaping allowed).

At the end of our harvesting 1 hour plus later, I had sand in my shoes, dirt under my nails but I really enjoyed myself. Even after splitting the loot, we still ended up with a huge mixing bowl of strawberries. The strawberries were super sweet & not a single 1 was sour, unlike the store bought ones. They were so good that we ate it as it is, instead of making dessert with them. That concluded our Sat morning.

The Beginning Of Immortality

Just woke up from a dream if that's what I'm gonna call it. It hardly qualifies as a nightmare but yet it brought up a scary notion.

I was playing with a dog that looks frighteningly like Ton Ton. White, Miniature Schnauzer. He behaves exactly like Ton Ton too. The events that follow depict man made immortality. I don't think that is possible but who knows how technology will progress?

I removed a chip that looks like a micro SD card from the back of the dog's neck & the dog stopped animating immediately. I then insert the chip into a wooden skeleton frame of a dog (think 3D wooden jigsaw puzzles sold in push carts in Vivo). The frame continued where I left off with the white dog, behaving like Ton does.

I tried to steer my dream for the answers. Asked myself what's animating our living body. If it's the soul, have we found a way to store the soul in that chip when our earthly body fails then insert that chip into an artificial 1 so we can carry on our "life" if we can call it that? So is that Ton's soul in that chip & he "lives on" in whatever artificial body I put the chip in? The shocking answer is yes.

Immortality. Humans have finally found a way to live on forever. Ton Ton isn't the only 1 with the chip. I have 1 too.

Being A Singaporean Chinese Asian

I'm gonna start by being off track. I know urine. I've seen so many that are not mine. Concentrated is dark yellow. Orangey is not concentrated. Orangey means it's tainted by red. Usually signifying blood in the urine. So imagine my shock when I saw mine was orangey. The 1st thing I thought of was urinary tract infection. But I had no pain passing urine. Most common cause ruled out, I checked to see if I'm bleeding even though my menses had stopped for a week. Nope, not bleeding. Then I try to recall if it was something I ate. Got a hit. I had a salad with chunks of beetroot in it. Morale of the story? Don't scare thyself.

Back to topic now. For some reason, ang mohs tend to think all asians are the same. Probably the same way I think indians look the same (for some reason, I can't tell most indian men apart). I'm the unofficial Mandarin-English translator in my department. I can speak some Hokkien & Cantonese though I understand way better than I can speak. So we had a Vietnamese patient. I was asked if I speak Vietnamese. Err... sorry, I don't. Then we had an Indonesian patient & I was asked if I speak Bahasa. Yeah, we all have asian skin & black hair. But that's where the similarities end, really.

For the record, I can speak very limited Malay, mostly in words to do with having an eye surgery. Like what's your name? Which eye for surgery? Any allergies? Close eyes, open eyes, look left, look right, look at the light, lie down, wait a while, don't move, deep breaths. That's about it.

I can count numbers in Japanese. I can say thank you, sorry, excuse me, good morning, afternoon, evening, good night, are you ok & some other words. The only sentence I can say in Japanese probably is "I am Jo." Nothing that I can use in my job.

I think we must be a mystery to the ang mohs for them to have the impression that 1 is all. Sorry, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean etc is as different as German is to Italian is to Spanish is to French.

Milestone: 5 Months In My Job

Has it only been 5 months? Feels like I've been in this job a long time. Today, the surgeon (who's from Singapore) asked me how I'm getting along. I told her the truth that I don't feel like I belong in Australia. She told me to give it more time. It wasn't a question I spend a lot of time pondering over but now I think I have my answer. 

Asians (Singaporeans) are generally more reserved. We hardly talk to others & we don't want to be talked to too. We don't really even know our neighbours. I'm even worse as I'm an introvert. If someone talks to me in NTUC, I usually have this query as to whether the person is sane. (Yeah, I'm bad.) Once I've ascertain their sanity, I answer their questions in as few words as I can & move away so I won't be forced into small talks with them. Being here, I feel this pressure to make small talks. Something I don't really like. I will most definitely listen but I feel that I'm expected to respond. Usually, I have none. I don't know what to say. I know in my heart now that this is the reason why I feel like I don't belong.

I've booked tickets to fly back to Sg in late March next year. I'm bringing my parents over to Perth for a week. Only downside is that my mom speaks & understands limited English, my dad none at all. They hardly travel & when they do fly, it's always with family members. So I seriously doubt they'll be able to navigate the airport. Even if they take a cab to the correct terminal, they won't know which counter to go to, how to clear customs, how to get to the correct gate. On arrival, they won't know how to fill in the white card nor how to clear customs. Due to the complexity of the issue, we've decided to fly back, bring them here, send them back & fly back again. Hubs refuses to let me fly on my own so it costs both of us an extra round trip. Even on Scoot, it set me back AUD$2500. That's excluding their tourist visa. 

Instead of spending 1 whole week in Sg, fly them to spend a week here then fly them back & try to book a flight on the same day to come back to Perth, I booked the tickets so that we'll spend 2 days in Sg, 1 week here, then 4 days in Sg before flying back. I'm actually quite excited. I'm thinking of the food I wanna eat in Sg & planning where to bring my parents when they're here. Like me, when on a holiday, they prefer scenery to shopping. So I'm cracking my brain at the moment. I've also got to take into consideration that I have Ton Ton with me so we can only do day trips. Besides, I'm sure they want to spend time with Ton Ton as well. 

With my return visiting trip in place, I have something I feel I need to do. Lose some weight. Urgh. I know, I said that millions of time & gave up millions of time. My only motivating factor is not having people tell me, "You put on weight in Australia!" Oh dear... Let's see how far I can get this time.

Ever The Accident Magnet

This is my solution. Can't prevent accidents but can be a source of evidence if I get into 1. Haven't been blogging coz it was time of the month & I was extra achy & extra tired. So I slept at 8 pm everyday. 

2 Fridays ago, I had another near miss. Imagine a T junction & again, I was going straight. A car had stopped on the dotted give way line on the side road to my right. This time, I was on the right lane. At the last possible minute, the driver decided he (I use he but I don't know if it's a man or woman) wanted to make a dash for it. I actually shouted "Whoa whoa whoa!" while stomping on the brakes & swerving to the left at the same time. I braced myself for impact. But maybe he saw the horror on my face or suddenly realised if he proceeded a crash would be imminent & he stopped. I successfully skirted around the head of his car.

I decided enough is enough. I've had enough of all these close calls. If I hit the car in front of me, surely it'll be ruled against me. Having video recordings will work in my favour in the event that the accident isn't my fault. When I told hubs, even he asked me, "Why is it that you always meet these kind of drivers?" He was all for the idea to get a video recorder. 

Good fortune galore. When we headed to Repco last weekend, this Drive Video Recorder cum rear view mirror was on offer. The original price was $129 & it was now selling for $69. There was 1 model down with only VGA quality recording going for $59. This records HD quality videos for $10 more. Not a difficult choice isn't it? 

A class 10 high speed micro SD card is required for this device & we headed to Midland yesterday for a look. We went to Office Works 1st. They were selling the 16GB for $19.90 & the 8GB for $7.90. The Good Guys was selling the exact same thing for $28.90 & $16.90 for the 8 GB. JB Hi Fi next door was around the same price. The price difference was so huge that we went back to Office Works to make sure we didn't get the price wrong the 1st time round. We bought the 8GB card from Office Works which we were told can hold up to 4 hours of recording in HD. 

Hubs had just given my car a much needed wash & "installed" the recorder for me. It doesn't actually require installation, just attach it to the current rear mirror, plug it in & adjust the settings. We've tested it & it works. So yay! All ready to go!

Sucker For Punishment

I've come to deduce that that's what I am. I was quite affected previously about my poly friends going on in our group chat on Whatsapp but didn't acknowledge me.

1 of them mentioned she ran into our lecturer from NYP today. I wanted to brush off the previous time as a 1 off incident, as me being too sensitive. So I thought I'll reply. Same thing happened. The 2 of them had an ongoing chat while ignoring what I've replied. I don't even know why I bother. I feel like such a fool.

Nothing lasts forever. Neither good things nor bad things (thankfully). Guess this is it. Thank you for the good times we had.

2 Years Wedding Anniversary

Maybe it's just me or maybe it's just the passage of age. I find that the older I get, the less obsessed I am about the passing of time. When I was younger, I kept meticulous tabs on "anniversaries". 1 week, 1 month, so on & so forth. I was even so throughout my 1st marriage. I used to be able to tell you the date we met, the date we officially started dating, the wedding date & year (with my ex). Of course, by now I no longer commit them to memory & neither do I want to.

What surprises me is my lack of memory with hubs (the current 1). Of course, I remember that 29th Nov was when we started dating. (I've always said it's the 28th but he insisted it's the 29th coz it was past midnight & I concur.) 5th Nov is our wedding anniversary aka solemnisation date, a 吉日 based on our 八字. 26th March the following year was our wedding banquet & we flew off to Melbourne for our self drive honeymoon on the 28th.

Just a few days ago, I was struggling to remember which anniversary it is. Is it the 1st or the 2nd? (Answer is 2nd.) How many years have we been a couple? I have no idea. I think it's 5. (I confirmed with hubs. It was 2009 so it's 5 years.) He wasn't insulted that I couldn't remember. Well, he always forgets his age & confuses me all the time. 彼此彼此吧。

How is it that something that used to be so important is now longer held in the highest esteem anymore? I don't think it's age. I see friends on FB wishing their partner happy monthisaries (yeah, they celebrate anniversary by the month) & they're of the same age. Only difference is that these people are in their 1st serious relationship (by serious I mean dating to marry). Perhaps it's the loss of romanticism & naivety in me.

The years are of no importance. If someone wants out, they can do it at anytime, regardless if you've been together for a year, 10 years or more. For me, it's the realisation  that marriage is more than the monthly or yearly celebrations of anniversaries. I'm sure some will disagree when I say that marriage is actually quite mundane. It's true. But there is a beauty in the mundane that can't be replaced.

In 1 of my 1st few posts in this blog, I asked myself what makes a marriage work. I'm sure we can all give model answers. It's living these model answers that makes it work. But there will be lapses. It's inevitable, hard as we try. It's alright. There're no guarantees but we'll just try our hardest.

Anyway, hubs made nasi lemak for our anniversary "feast". Just a normal day, just our usual routine. Just the way I like it.

Melbourne Cup

I didn't know why all the hype about Melbourne Cup. I initially thought it's a sports event which turns out to be an international horse racing event held in Melbourne every year. The opening race is always on the 1st Tuesday of November. 1 of my colleague told me that it has a nick that I can't seem to remember. I think it might be drop everything race or something to that effect. Everyone drops everything, people who are working stops work for that few minutes just to watch it. So along with my colleagues, we watched the opening race.

I never was interested in horse racing. I was neutral, neither disliking or liking it. But it was later when I heard the terrible news that changed my views about it in a southward direction. It's just a senseless, egoistic revenue for the rich to flaunt their wealth. 1 of the horses was a favourite, deemed to place highly in the race. He came in last. So it was going to be brought back to the stall for a vet to examine him. But he collapsed & dropped dead before he could be sent to the stall. All I could think of was how uncomfortable & sick he felt. Yet, he couldn't voice it out & was forced to race, finally paying with his life.

The next news was worse. 1 of the horses sustained a fracture in his leg after the race & was euthanize. EUTHANIZE. Shouldn't euthanasia be reserved for the terminally ill & be used as a last resort so as to shorten the suffering? The owners of the horses are very rich people I'm sure. It isn't cheap to raise a race horse, train it & hire a jockey to race it. So why did the owner make the call to euthanize the horse just becoz he had a broken leg? Surely the owner has enough money to treat the horse. Becoz even if his leg was treated, he'll never race again. This is what society has become. Anything or anyone that is of no use to you, just get rid of them.

Their lives are so cheap. Their lives meant nothing. It makes me so sad & so mad. But what can I do? I can't change the world & the way it runs. Humanity will run itself to ruin.

不知不觉已过了半年

On this day 6 months ago, we landed in Perth. While there's nothing much going on today, I felt this milestone deserves a post. For several weeks, I felt lost. I didn't even have the mood to do what it is I love most - baking. I read still, but only becoz I didn't have anything else to do to pass time.

I felt better from the social interaction at P & J's pot luck. But I still felt like something is missing. Today's the 1st Sunday of the month, hence, there's a commemorative meeting at Soka Centre. The bring home message today is to keep pushing ahead. We fluctuate between the 10 worlds & if we find ourselves in the lower paths, instead of falling into despair,  we should remain firm in faith, take 1 step at a time till we emerge victorious.

I regained the urge to bake once again & I've been baking non stop over the weekend. A tiny progress but 1 nonetheless. I'm making a roast pork belly (recipe by Jamie Oliver) & the smell wafting through the house is just heavenly. A mini feast for hitting our 6 months milestone.