Fast Forward

"I would have my own family in 10 years time."

Lunch time at 40 hands with the Australian team today. So nice of them to give us a treat. The cafe was packed when we arrived at about 1pm. I ordered a dish called Big Bang which includes sausage, bread, scrambled eggs.. couldn't decide on what to get so fast. Had latte too. I guess due to the number of customers in store, our food took really long to be served. And we sat at the non air conditioned area, which made me so sweaty. 

I was abit surprised when my food came. It is only a pork hot dog with bun topped with mincemeat, 1 bacon and 2/3 pieces of scrambled eggs. This plate cost $15! Very expensive and not filling at all. Taste not bad though. The table is too small for 5 people to eat in comfort too haha. 

Gordon asked us this question "What do you see yourself doing in 10 years?". I gave the above answer without much thinking. Boring, he said. Jamie's answer is to open a cafe while Geena's answer is to travel around the world. He further asked me how many children do I want, and I said initially I wanted 4. Children are expensive. Haha yes, that's why it's reduced to 2 now.

I don't think my vision is boring, it is my goal. 10 years later, I would already be 33, and that's not very young anymore. Starting a business has never came to me because I don't know what I want yet. But I will support my love through his dream. As for traveling, I am the least traveled one among the girls. Didn't go to many places with my family and have only started to travel recently. It's nice, and I will try to travel once a year. Not alone, but with the ones I love. Snow, I will see you soon.

What do you see yourself doing in 10 years time?

Children

People say that they don't like children because no children like them.

This is referenced from a post on Xiaxue's dayre. I agree with her. There is a difference in children's behavior depending on whether you are in the inner circle, outer circle or stranger category. 

My mum took care of my two younger cousins since they were young, so the daily interactions put me inside their inner circle. I had no problems bonding with them, making them laugh, carrying them and etc.

On the other hand, it took hard work to gain the trust and bond with my nieces. They see me only once in awhile and I guess to them, I was basically a stranger. I felt that they disliked me. When I was around, they tend to misbehave more. They cry because their parents want them to greet me. They refuse to let me carry them. They refuse to smile for a photo with me. Things like that make me think that I am bad with children, which I am la. Haha.

The situation got better when I started going over weekly to tutor them [K1, K2 only, but you know foundation is very important]. The occasional gifts from overseas also helped with our relationship. Haha, bribery works. As there are more interactions, they may feel closer to me. I started out tutoring Chloe, who is the older sister.

At that point of time, her younger sister, Cheryl, still kept a distance from me. When she eventually agreed to let me teach her, the bond just got stronger. She would initiate conversations and greet me with some enthusiasm. Recently, she even agreed to go out with me alone [which she had refused for very long because she is afraid since her mummy won't be there].

I have brought Chloe home for a stayover and a day outing before. She was perfectly well behaved until the moment my bf appeared. Despite the fact that I have kept reminding her that my bf would be joining us for dinner, she cried when she saw him, even though I did not force her to greet him. Then, she wanted her mummy. So I called my sister, and she had to use some bribery skills again to make her mood be better. It's not that she dislikes my bf [because he didn't do anything], nor is she a naughty or spoiled kid. She just feels scared because he is a stranger to her.

The two girls also have a baby brother. At first, baby Caden was okay with me carrying him and all. As he grows, he began to recognize his inner circle. He is now only willing to be carried by people whom he sees often. And my once a week visit is too little for him. He would cry if I force carry him T.T. 

All my effort will be gone to waste soon. Tuition has stopped because I have started working. I cannot visit often because my work ends at 7pm and it would be so late when I reach admiralty. I am going to revert back to being a stranger soon.

P.s. Children exhaust me. Somehow I felt so tired when I brought the kids out. And this definitely makes me appreciate my freedom now.

Port of Lost Wonder

 3 October 2014-

Children's club by the beach! Sounds so fun. Adults can't go in freely you know, so I have to thank the two little ones :D.

Breakfast at Macs Vivocity before our adventure begins. When we arrived at level 3 monorail area, I was stunned by the number of people, foreigners and Singaporeans. It is no wonder since it was a school holiday (Children's day), I guess :(. There were two queues to even board the monorail, one for ezlink card payment and one for cash payment (to get another form of card). Waited for about 10 minutes before we reached the tap in area. 

Alighted at Beach station and walked towards the tram and bus interchange. One of the tram near the end goes towards Palawan beach and POLW. You can take that and alight after one stop or walk towards Palawan beach, it is very near!

What I Want

I am taking reference from this post on "7 Things Women Really Really Want in a Relationship". It's written from a woman's point of view and I think the points are so true. They reflect what I want.

1) Time

This is no surprise. Every girl wants attention and time from her other half. Honeymoon period? We didn't have any. That sucks, but I have moved on. The amount of time couples get together is really dependent on their lifestyle and preference. What is more important is the understanding from each party to accommodate to each others schedule. And if the time you spend with each other is already so limited, please keep away your phone and pay 100% attention to your girl when she is in front of you. Some couples talk on the phone regularly too, but we can never pass this thing.

2) Spontaneity and Surprises

This might be lacking in our near 6 years relationship. We have been to almost all the attractions in Singapore, and I know it's pretty hard to plan some date day because we don't know where to go. But I really don't like hearing "Singapore is too small". Our meetings are so routinized nowadays. Routine is actually a good thing [Running Man every week is fun], but it gets boring. I am not saying there is no spontaneity or surprises in the relationship, but more should come, in a more regular stream. One can't keep harping on the past old surprises that happened.

"Surprise her with an impromptu getaway for the weekend; hide sweet little notes in her bag; turn up with flowers when there isn’t any special occasion to do so; tell her to get dressed immediately because you have just booked a table at her favourite restaurant."

Baby, I realized you haven't given me anything related to what you are good at. Relating to computers, you can compile songs, pictures or create a mini game. Or animation kind of thing? 3D figures. Build something for me which lights up [I am thinking about your electrical board]. And now you can video yourself too haha. Or a maths theme puzzle? If you can't draw, you can write me a story. But you know, your lobster drawing is the cutest lobster I have ever seen :). There are so many possibilities.

3) To be understood, in our language.

Yes, do not take our words literally. You need to observe the overall situation and her expression too. It takes time and effort to master this skill. Ultimately, she's your woman. You should be able to figure her out as time goes. Why do women not say things directly? I guess from my point of view, I want to see whether my bf understands me deep enough. And also, many things are not meaningful anymore when it's said out loud. 

"Can you buy me flowers?" VS The flowers magically appears on your office table. Well, this can be put under the spontaneity and surprises category too. 

Baby, I think you do relatively well here. 

4) To be praised/ To feel beautiful.

I think women should learn how to feel beautiful herself. However, it wouldn't do good if the other half tend to put her down or doesn't praise her at all. We feel beautiful because you remind us that we are. Don't do any comparisons or contrast though. How do I say this? Don't tell your girl she is not fat when she feels like she is, tell her she is beautiful despite how she feels. My bf telling me I am not fat doesn't make me feel less fat actually [I have those "I feel fat today" syndrome, although I shouldn't be agreeing with the societal defined beauty], especially when I can't fit into those old pants anymore. And if your girl is sensitive about say, her bust size. Don't even try to convince her that she is big [because she knows she is not], or the opposite. Just don't even mention anything about size. Get it?

Tell her she is gorgeous for herself, don't tell her she is prettier than whoever.

5) To be heard.

Sometimes, I don't feel like I am heard. My words are not taken in seriously enough dear. An article I read before stated that men tend to propose solutions to women when they complain about something. While it seems logical to do so, women just want you to listen to them instead. Some things cannot be solved, and they don't want to solve it, so please just be their listening ear. It's better than they don't tell you anything at all [because they give up on talking to you to feel better]. And when they tell you about their experience, sometimes it is not good to insert your own experience and then compare.

6) To be your princess and to feel special.

I have no complains here. Bf always makes me feel princess. :D

"Give her pet names; show her off in front of your friends because you are proud of her; do things for her and only for her; draw the line clearly with your female friends so she feels secured."

7) Consistency.

Continue to do the things you have been doing since the start. That's probably how she even fell in love with you in the first place. Everything seems pretty consistent in mine, but maybe that's because there is no honeymoon period [you know, the time when you do a lot more stuff] in the first place. HAHA. Bf still holds the door for me, carries my bag if it's too heavy, sends me home every time... I think it is consistent :D.

With that said, don't do too much at the start. You will have a lack of things to do afterwards. And when you do less, it seems like it is not consistent anymore.

8) Effort 

This last point is added by me. Women want men who show that they put in effort in maintaining the relationship. He should put in effort to be on time for her [too important for me]. 

He should want to keep in shape for her. Many guys slack off in appearance especially after marriage thinking that they already have their women. There's always advice for women to maintain their shape to stay attractive for their other half, so I think it should apply to men too. We want to fall in love with you again and again. We want to stay attracted to you. And that's not to have some super muscular body. It's the effort that counts. 

And also, women like to dress up because we think you would be proud to have us looking good for you. Hence, putting some effort in your dressing is very important. If you don't know how, learn. Youtube or Google is there to help. We also started from scratch. Appearance may be secondary, but appearance can make us be so in love with you.

I know this might be hard, because sometimes I don't even understand myself.

Just don't give up, you will soon master the skill of understanding YOUR woman.

Star Subway Smile

My bf has this module that require him to go for 2 star gazing nights, and he asked me whether I wanted  to go with him. So I went, thinking that it is going to be romantic! We were late, and I had to rush through my mee sua dinner. 

When we reached the school football field, there was a large group of people standing around. Everyone was holding a piece of paper and doing their own things. We found out that a worksheet had to be done and handed up, and that would count as attendance. So by right, we could leave once done. There were star gazing devices around, but most were handled by people doing their own projects. We saw some stars that look like clothes hanger through a refractor. 

It look like this >>>>

          

                                                               .  .

                                                            .

                                                  .    .   .    .    .    .    

This can't be seen when you look directly at the sky. Stars just look like dots from earth. Do you know? The closest star to us is 4 light years away. 1 light year is the distance that light can travel in one year. Which means that technically, the star we see with our eyes now, is actually the star 4 years ago. It is a history star. 

At 8.35pm, we decided to go off. Subway 1 for 1 was still available!! hehehhh. Apparently, I had wanted to eat subway for lunch, but I wanted a cheaper lunch, without knowing the deal existed. After that, my sister bought back subway and told me about it. She didn't have to queue for it. But when it was dinner time, the queue was madness at j8.

So thankfully, I still have my chance for the deal at YIH subway. We started queuing when it was 8.45pm. At 8.50pm, the staff were already announcing "10 minutes left". The guy in front of us also had no idea of the deal when he was asked if he wanted the free sub. When the guy asked "There's a one for one?", the staff misunderstood and said "Yes of course you can have your 1 for 1, do you want it? You have to decide fast if not the people behind won't have their 1 for 1". Similarly for the lady behind us, she was slightly reprimanded for taking too long to decide. "6 minutes left 6 minutes left, you need to decide fast if not the rest cannot have the deal", and she proceeded to ask the person behind her whether she have decided on her order hahaha.

We headed to Utown and sat on the large grass field to munch on our subway. I ordered Terayaki chicken while bf order Italian Bmt. The choice of bread have to be the same for 1 for 1 deal, so bf sacrificed his choice for my parmesan bread. The subways were put in a specially designed bag that states "My other half for my better half". AWWW, so meaningful!

And that's my night, with my better half. And my half of subway. <3

Virgin Kite Flying

02102014-

Today, we decided to go fly kite at Marina Barrage since it is a weekday. We don't know whether we have time in the near future for such carefree activity, so we shall do it now!

Arriving at the barrage at about 4pm, it was still very empty with very few people around. We went searching for the gift shop first because we didn't purchase a kite beforehand. Well, actually we saw some kites at Bishan SKP, but there were only a few designs. They were smaller and doesn't seem to be of good quality. So glad to have bought our kite at the barrage despite it being more expensive!

The sales uncle recommended us some kites. The smaller ones he said, are not much of a kick. He told us that anyone can be an expert after 15 minutes, and then regret not buying a bigger kite. Initially, I was aiming for a smaller $26 smiley face kite. But since he said the blue bigger kite is more challenging, we decided to get that since it is only a difference of $6 ($32).

Now we have to decide what kite string length to get;100m, 200m or 500m. 500m is like $48 but if you count by length, it is more worth it than the shorter ones. We got the 200m one at a price of $28. Good kites are so expensive T.T (not saying our kite is best or what, sure got more expensive kites). But you would regret getting cheapskate kites when they cannot fly well, and spoil the whole experience. Besides, good quality strings and the reel are more durable. It also reduces the chance of getting tangled strings. [ours, the string keeps moving out of the device when everything goes too fast]

Noobcakes

I tried three cake recipes recently!

Steam rice cake

Following the white honeycomb cake trial, I decided to give the steam rice cake a try. At first, I followed the recipe from Sweetday. But I tried thrice and it wasn't good enough. It tasted so much like fa gao (发糕), moist and sticky. The end product was mustard brown color.