o v e r f l u o

Thankful for my mum who flew here to be with us for two months in anticipation of baby and to look after us. The past 10 days since Tessa was born she has been boiling herbs, cutting fruit, cooking meals, washing dishes, doing laundry and cleaning house. She also spends time with baby so I can catch a nap in the day. Thankful for Ian also, who has been a super hands on father. I didn’t change a single nappy or onesie in the first three days of Tessa’s birth! He also goes to work, still gets up in the middle of the night to soothe Tessa, cooks and more. Ma and Ian have been gracious and unconditional in their service and love, it helps so much post-birth. I just want to say, thank you both.

For the past two weeks... I've only washed cups, never any plates or pots or woks. I've never cleaned anything, yet my house is (visibly) dust free. The car has had its first real deep clean in a couple of um maybe months. Laundry has never been done alone. I've cooked only one meal. Most mornings I wake there is some sort of food ready for me. #justsaying #39weekspregnant Watching my mum wash dishes after dinner last night, I thought about how when we were young, parents would make us do stuff – bring your plates to the sink, wash the dishes, clean your room. But now we are older, our parents know we do those things. Those habits have been ingrained, we have lived in our own homes with our new family for years and know how to "keep house" and "zuo ren" ("be people"). So now instead of asking us to do stuff for our sake, they do  the stuff for our sake. It's their way of serving us, loving us, and perhaps grasping a bit of t...

Didn't miss home related things much in my first 2.5 years here but I'm feeling it a bit more now. Facebook is flooded with photos full of red; happy smiles and pretty cheongsams, mandarins and ang pows, family and friends. I remember looking forward to this time of the year which meant extra days of holidays and also visiting relatives we might not be close to but at least keep in touch with once a year on this occasion. Funny thing, traditions. Especially when we are young it seems like just good fun. But as years pass by and you grow up a little, you start to see the significance in them. Traditions on purpose, traditions which make for some of the best memories, traditions which give you a sense of "this is me". To make up being away from my traditional sort of Chinese New Year, a nice thing is e has two cousins here so we had a "reunion dinner" with them, albeit a non-traditional Peruvian one (at Pastuso in Melbourne city – highly recommended btw)...

On Sunday we welcomed a new bub to the family! My parents are now grandparents of six. Wow. It's really "balanced", actually – 3 boys and 3 girls. It must have been really exciting for the older siblings of the new baby too as they're at an age where they can understand lots :)

At end 2014 we took three weeks off for a holiday; one week in Thailand and two weeks in Singapore. So here goes: ^^ In Bangkok we stayed at  Chatrium Residence  which we thought was a hotel, but turned out to be serviced apartments, which was fine with us. We arrived at night so not many shops were open and we couldn't explore much, but there were some street stalls nearby so we started our holiday with how you should eat in Asia (most of the time) – unhealthy but delicious street food! We shared an Oyster Omelette and Pad Thai. Great start! Haha. On our first real day there we met Ian's old high school friend for lunch, and bought a daily train ticket to get around. The train is similar to Singapore's train system and was easy to navigate.  We shopped at the popular and huge Chatuchak weekend market. Of course we didn't cover the whole place – it was too huge! We bought lots of t-shirts and shops with listed fixed prices so we didn't have to bothe...

Hallo 爸爸妈妈，你们在这照片里很可爱！ Looking forward to another trip with you guys! < 3

Ideas for blog posts come to me every now and then, but they aren't concrete and don't materialise (ha ha). I have to work on capturing them and penning them down. Writing does give me some sort of fulfilment, so I should not delay doing so too much. It's healthy to do things you enjoy and love.  Currently it is winter here in Melbourne. In our new home, floorboards make it a little colder than the old house. Still, it is cosy and we like it. Now that I'm working (part time), husband does more cooking than usual. Also, I went to Singapore for a short trip, spending most of the time with family (:

Some of the sounds and sights of the place I grew up in: These kiddos – my nephews and nieces. They are growing up so quickly and it's pretty amazing to witness their personalities which are evident at such a young age. Because my sisters are quite a bit older than my brother and I, we joke that they had their turn learning to take care of kids with my brother and I as the guinea pigs. So now, we are learning to take care of kids with their  kids. 

I was washing the dishes when this well-known phrase popped into my mind – life is the sum of your choices . The entrance of that thought was completely random, but it got me thinking. Is life the sum of the decisions I make, of the things I chose? Because really, I hope it isn't. Because I make silly decisions sometimes, or maybe, a lot of the time. It's true that in some ways, we "choose our own destiny" by deciding to work hard, eat healthily, be positive, study arts instead of science, believe in a God or not, start a friendship, marry someone, and more. These decisions affect the outcome. But they are not the only things affecting the outcome. More important than my choices, are the people. You may think we choose the people in our life, but actually, we don't always. There are some we choose, but there are many others whom we don't. Like our parents, for one. We didn't choose them, but they chose to have us. Teachers...

27 September 2012 Cutest taxi ride ever. Old grandfather driver. Conversation about life (he said people who have lived overseas have a hint of caucasian in their look haha). Wasn't embarassed by my bare chinese punctuated with english. Could tell he was really contented and fulfilled. People like him show you what really matters - family. 11 October 2012 A contrast to the previous cab ride with a content grandfather driver. I was trying to figure out what made me feel somewhat burdened from tonight's cab driver. Was it loneliness? Or what? After some mulling, I realised: Judged.  That's how the uncle felt. Judged. The first thing he asked once I got in the cab was: What are your views on older men (uncle type) going out with a twenty something year old young girl? I said I didn't have an opinion (partly because I didn't have the ability to express it adeptly enough in Mandarin. He was speaking very fast. Chimification). He told me he does that s...

25 March 2013 So yes, you might have heard the news that Ian Loh  and I are engaged! Following that, I will be migrating to Australia permanently from 7 April 2013, to the city of four seasons in a day (where Ian is based). Bye Singapore and Singaporeans . I'm grateful for the friendships, community, and memories you've given me. I appreciate your public transport system, safe streets, crazy number of malls, and tropical weather to some extent, just to name a few. Guess where this photo was taken! It's near the church which I go to every week, and near where I went for art supplies as a design student. Apologies that I can't meet many of you before leaving as I'm reserving time mostly for family and major packing. But, we'll keep in touch! I love Singapore enough to retain my citizenship, haha! And I do so appreciate whizzing through customs at Changi Airport – times when I am extra glad for our efficiency. And, helloooo Melbournians! See ya soon! ...

It's been a month since the big move to Melbourne, for good this time. And so far, thank God, it has been mostly smiles. What have I been up to? Meeting people, wedding prep, walking around the neighbourhood and getting to know it, volunteering at a soup kitchen once, sleeping in too much, getting to know Ian's friends, cooking, reading and watching dramas. Yups. Not too bad. In a way, itching to get back to work; but also enjoying this long break that I probably won't get so soon again after I start work. And in case you don't already know why I migrated, it was to join my favourite boy in the world!

I like the light. With light, you can see everything; nothing can be hidden. That's what makes Singapore so safe. I want my life to be "safe" too. No place to hide - in darkness. But living in a flooding light. Let Your light shine, in me. Lord, Let Your light shine in me. Let there be no hidden places, no secret spaces, but complete comfort and intimacy – You and me. No shame, no condemnation, no embarassment. But just a pure, flooding, dazzling light. That leaves me in awe, in awe of You. In awe of You. - Thoughts while walking home at 11.45pm in the bright Singapore night, some days ago.

Yupppppps. That's what I drew on the white board in my brother's room. He posted it up. So I shall too. hur.

Before my sisters got married and moved out, my brother occupied the room which had a window beside my window. Ie, we had the same window view. Somehow, we found a way to tie a string between our windows. It acted as a way of passing messages when we were not supposed to. That is, when we were supposed to be stuck in our rooms doing homework. We would also knock the wall to tell the other to collect a message. Needless to say, one day my Dad found out the reason for those occasional weird knocks and proceeded to remove our no-longer-secret message passing device so we would not be distracted (ha! There are other ways to be distracted!). Kids will always be(have like) kids! Fun times, good memories. Oh yea. That's us: Okay okay we were older than that when gained abilities to come up with such devices. I guess these things don't quite end. There will always be the kid in me (and perhaps, you, too!). Just last year while a housemate with Jian, we came up with a knocking code to p...

Indeed! Honestly, I never knew politics and a General Election could get me so... so... like... I feel so much for it. Social media has probably helped a lot because I see all these news and comments and it's more fun that I have friends expressing their opinions, and not just the mass media which is barely fulfilling its purposed function as a fourth estate ayes. My Dad's favourite thing to do in the past week or so has been to turn on the computer once he gets home from work and start watching rally videos and reading people's comments about the GE. I find it quite funny actually - that my Dad is discovering the power of social media :P I actually genuinely feel sad for Mr Chiam See Tong (SPP) who has had a hold on the Potong Pasir ward for the past 27 years, till now. SPP lost Potong Pasir by just 0.36%, to the PAP. Angry Singaporeans are petitioning for a revote . This was apparently his "office" where he would meet the people of Potong Pasir - a ...

We don't watch that much TV in this home, but since we needed a new Internet sign up and SingTel's cheapest (all we need) included mio TV , we now have more basic channels to pick from. Meanwhile, we have also been offered a few other channels, free for the first month; ie, being lured to suscribe for more months. And so, I've been busy. Busy watching movies :D Busy watching them before the month of free movies is up. In the past 3 days... As you might have noticed, these movies are quite old (hence free har har). But I've really enjoyed them. Some serious, some not so; for a good balance. Sometimes you just need a little chick flick, you know. Thaw your brains a bit, laugh. And it helps that out TV is now bigger - thank you Siew Jie! ^.^ \m/ happy. haha. It's okay, don't worry. I won't be a sloth too much – I might be starting work soon, praise God! More on that some other time :) And. I do other things in the day too okay...

Volunteered at Focus on the Family today and had fun! Stuck double-sided tape on some material (I actually like cutting and pasting whatnots har har) for a later workshop, found and keyed in some resource descriptions and did some content editing. I also borrowed a No Apologies facilitator's guidebook to refresh my memory as I will be doing a workshop soon. Funnily, the copy passed to me was a raw copy with some edits in my handwriting - it was one I helped edit three years back! Met Miss Lynetto after, and did some sort of Bible Study with Ian over Skype. Here's Ian, my brother-in-law, Mark, and nephew, Ern, at Lower Pierce Reservoir earlier this year when Ian was in Singapore :) - A short something from some time back which I can't remember what for, but would like to share: Thank You for chances to try. And fall. And try again. And yet I am not mocked or judged. I really appreciate You Lord. Thank You.