An untold story

Past two weeks, i finally had some time to fulfill a promised made to myself a while back. This round i did not go anywhere. Waking up every morning at 630am, went for a brisk walk with both my parents. Came back an hour later and we had breakfast together. We would talk about all the stuff in life...about our views on things happening around us; watching tv together. When i got tired, i would sneak up to my room and take a short nap. Waking up to lunch or sometimes tea. Life for the past two weeks have been a life which i have not lived for a long while. It felt really good.

Grandma came to stay with us for a few days, in those few days...i spent alot of time with her. She would sometimes fall asleep in the chair while watching tv in our living room. The weather was cooling for those few days she was with us. Before i went home this round, i bought some paper facial masks from Face Shop, wanting to try them on my grandma...my colleagues laughed and teased saying i'm using her as my 'lab rat', i was just thinking it would be cool to let her try it for once. On a quiet afternoon when everyone else was out, my grandma sat in the living room watching her afternoon drama, i managed to persuade her to try on one. She has never done this in her entire life, and was reluctant intially, but gave in to my persuasion eventually. 20mins later, she looked into her mirror...gently patted her face few times, she asked me how much was the mask :) it seems better than her face cream she said. She wanted me to get her a few more packs when i get back next. I can't help but laugh. I took a picture of her sitting at the chair with the mask on. Showing it quietly behind her back to the rest of my aunts/uncles/parents, they were surprised i managed to convinced her into putting that on.

Aunt came over and fetched us out for breakfast almost every morning. Everyday we will try different places and sometimes we would go for a walk at a nearby mall only coming back in the noon, I've never felt so at home for such a long time.
One morning when we were having breakfast together...grandma suddenly mentioned about her past...she said her sister once asked her when they first came to the city, if they were 'sua-ku' and couldn't catch up with the town-culture; married to my grand uncle and my grandfather; they were from a poor fishing village about an hour drive from the town my grandfather lives, and so happens that my grandfather and my grand uncle were cousins. So both the sisters married into the same family. Life was tough for her back then, having born into a family of 6, being the third daughter she never had a chance to study. She never met my grandfather before the wedding, just like most couples were back then. My grandfather was considered quite well to do back then, having his own sundries shop...business was pretty good. And when my grandma married into the family, she of course would have to help out around the shop...as well as taking care of my great grandmother. My grandma said life begins very early but she was used to the hours having grown up in a fishing village where most people will have to be at sea way before dawn. Back home, she would carry a bucket and a small shovel...and she would follow people to the beach and start digging for shellfish or clams. When she got married and moved to the town, life is alot different. Even the clothes the town people wear are so much different compared to hers. Having no close relatives nearby(my grand aunt stays some distance away), all she has was an unfamiliar guy she has to call husband. These stories she has told me plenty of times, but one thing she never mentioned until that morning...whenever my grandfather wasn't in a good mood or feeling agitated...he would tell my grandma '620 ringgit, we bought you back to do work!'. When she told me this that morning, i can see tears welling up in her eyes. I can almost felt her ache. I never would have thought my grandfather would say such thing...but i guess i will never understand how life and how people view lives back then. Even so, they have been married for 50 over years. When my grandfather died 7 years ago, she still pretended to be strong and tried so hard not to cry in front of us. Whether there have been any love or not, when you've spent so much of your lifetime together, no matter how much the pain has wrought your heart, how little the joy it has been...it will always be a memory that will never been taken away till you hit the grave.

Two weeks went by in a glimpse, I'm already back to my own life. But i will return again, very soon...i want to hear all of the other untold stories.

The Dual View

Sometimes getting a lil incentive for yourself might just perk up some of your days. In my case, i have been struggling to decide if i should get a replacement for my failing laptop. After about a month, i finally decided it's not just quite the time yet...so today at COMEX, i went to get myself a different incentive instead...an LED 23" monitor...perhaps the joy wont be as much as getting a replacement for my lappy...but the sharp display its doing for my WOW and movies from now on...is well worth my drool for now. i'm dualing it up...so i can chat/surf on 1 monitor...while i wow or watch movie on the other one...nice! =D

it hath come!

Ok, its 230 in the morning and i should really get to bed...there's still work to be done, despite the new iphone is already busy restoring itself from the old image...i have yet to shower and tons of ideas that i would want to get them done now...but life sucks when its still a weekday. I guess I'm just gonna hold it down for now and talk about this some other time...

The things that may come

With all the ruskus at work today on the iphone4 launching, i barely have enough time to gather myself for the bigger things to come. After all i did spent an entire hour refreshing the page on singtel trying to get my booking in place for tomorrow...guilty; i know...one of these days i'm gonna have to pay back the price in a much bigger way...i can almost smell it from the air right now.

Today, I got assigned to help out on a much bigger project, one that has grown out of proportion that my colleague alone couldn't handle. I suppose it's time for me to pickup my pace now. Though honeymoon has been over many months ago, somehow...i have not been fully stirred from my slumber yet. I am just hoping for a much calmer weather after the wake up call...for tomorrow; things may start to get a little bumpy.

It is coming...

It could have been just another quiet nite, after coming home from my french class, feeling much more tired than usual...and spending some quiet time chatting with bbfren over msn...just right past midnite, a voucher came in...

10 minutes later, another email came in...which got my heart rate up by some...

Damnnn im so gonna glue myself on my seat tomorrow by 1:50pm!

A new cover for an old book

After having a blast on the volunteer event last weekend, i got this piercing pain in my back when i woke up on wednesday. From that day onwards, everytime i sat for longer than 10mins...when i stood up, i get this numbing pain at my lower back which sometimes require me to wait for a good 10secs or so before i can start walking again. So much for being able to blend into with the 20something last weekend...and barely even a week after, my old bones are already singing the tunes of the opposite.

Though i was feeling rather out of place for the first half of the first night, the volunteers were mostly uni students or old aunties or those that just started working and still doing their probation with their first job. Towards the second half of the night and thereafter...the feeling was no longer there, and in its place i felt a new thrill...something which felt good. I was pretty much reassured later, when they awarded me one of their  'best volunteer' title, yah! they actually had that award...i didnt even know till the end of 2nd night when they gave out a small token of appreciation to those they thought had did a great job ushering the crowd, giving out fans and booklets and giving out friendly information etc. This felt almost as good as a promotion at work :P I know....this may sound a lil lame, but still...it was a good feeling.

Today, though if given a choice, i would have stayed home and try to get some rest that was suppose to be long due...i had to drag myself out of the house again at 10 in the morning. The weather was fine, despite the warning from the met department saying they predict thunderstorms over the weekend (not that i ever listen to them, but just i suppose these people are just paranoid now after the recent floods). I went out to fulfill a commitment i made 2 weeks ago; my rock climbing certification. After enduring 6 gruesome hours of classroom and practical lessons, AND a soon-to-turn blue-black index finger...AND an even more painful back...AND having a pair of hands which does not feel to be mine anymore....i got another plastic card!

Cultivated Culture

The sky's rather gloom this morning, with the drizzling rain this morning...i'm praying for a much more finer weather tonite. This is the night of the festival, an event which i have volunteered for many moons ago. I'm recovering from my cough, hopefully by the time i finish these antibiotics(tomorrow) things would look and feel much better. For tonight and tomorrow, I will have to endure another 7 hours of work from 7pm-2am. Having seen some event previews last night, something within me felt secured...i was still feeling uncertain while waiting at the hall before the briefing last night. As the crowd of volunteers began to gather for the briefing, i noticed a pattern...a pattern that made me feel as if i might have made the wrong decision volunteering for such event. A slight fear. I can count the number of working professionals among the crowd. Most of them are students, teens and some retirees. Though towards a much later time, a few did arrive after work...at least i dont feel that much of an outcast anymore. Perhaps i might feel alot better tonight, since i'm in casual today...and hopefully like bbfren says, i would be able to blend in.

Singapore Night Festival 2010