Love the taste of sand? Or simply too afraid to face up to reality?
Unfortunately, unless you like sandwiches made literally out of real sand, it will have to be the latter.

Of course, my inspiration for this Ostrich in the sand analogy came from a particular company which terribly lacks marketing skills, but here’s an incident we encountered one day while taking the LRT back home that I would like to share with everyone:

2 well dressed and well groomed ladies in their early 30s, one holding an infant, the other pushing a pram, came up to the platform and took their place next to us.
I didn’t notice them until I heard an ‘ahh!’ and felt some water splash onto my left leg. That was when I realised they had accidentally dropped a bag of water/tea/beverage that was hung onto the pram. The lady instantly picked up the bag and just had a very sorry ‘ooops’ look about her. I didn’t get an apology for getting splashed. But that wasn’t the crux of this story.

SH and I monitored them to see if they would quickly react to get a staff onto the platform to clean up the mess there before someone slipped and fell. It was a very busy and small platform, so having such a spill can be quite a potential for danger.

If there was any reaction, it was just them whispering to each other, looking up and down from the spill to the platform LED panel to see if any heroic train would quickly come by to swop them away from this terrible mess they’ve ‘ooops’ made. It was then that I turned to them and said they should get someone to clean it up quickly before someone slips and falls.

They tried, I must say they tried so hard. They tried so hard that they passed the infant from one person to another, and stood around their pram, never venturing more than 1 metre from it, demurely craning their neck and angling their body to see if any staff happened to be nearby. What an excellent effort it was!

At the very moment, a train came in (not the direction they were intending to hop on. I guess their hero didn’t come in time), many people stepped out hurriedly and a boy walk right into the spill. He almost lost his balance but regained it quickly. Had it been an old person, the consequences would have been dire.

These 2 ladies were perfect embodiments of ostriches. They really ought to visit Australia one day.
Because when the boy lost his balance, they did not even flinch. In that instant, SH took his newly-bought newspaper and spread it over the spill, while I decided not to wait any longer and headed for the escalator to go in search of staff who could attend to the clean-up.

As luck would have it, before I even had to head down the escalator, there stood a staff in his lime green uniform. I waved to him and quickly explained the spill to him. As he followed me back to where the spill was, I realised our train had come. Making sure that I had pointed out the spill to him, I quickly ran onto the train with SH. And what better luck it was to come face to face with the 2 ladies again, who had already comfortably planted themselves in the limited seats of the little LRT.

SH later narrated the situation I missed while going to get help. It went a little like this…

The train came, and the ladies still looking lost and helpless decided they should get on.
They looked at each other and both agreed that it was ‘bo bian’.

Right now, let’s stop for 1 minute to mourn for the passiveness of Singaporeans. Whatever happened to our excellent education system that taught us to be thinkers, to have initiative, to be a civil society, to have social responsibility?

Now ask yourself, how often have you thanked the person who helped you hold the lift while you walked in or out. How often have you turned to look at the cleaners at a foodcourt while they were clearing your table, just to catch their eyes and say a sincere thank you to them?

National Day is coming. While we celebrate our nationhood, while don’t we pause to think about how we can make Singapore a better society not just in terms of economics or harmony, but the very basics of civil behaviour.

]]> http://whitecarrotcake.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/head-in-the-sand/feed/ 0 mdlatte headinsand http://whitecarrotcake.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/women-have-more-self-respect/ http://whitecarrotcake.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/women-have-more-self-respect/#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:56:33 +0000 mdlatte http://whitecarrotcake.wordpress.com/?p=136 ]]>

I never understood why girls would throw themselves at guys.

Lecherous men will never treat them as their equal, nor as girlfriend or wife material, but more for short flings; as playthings.

Decent guys treat them like brainless bimbos.

While other girls treat them like social escorts.

From every angle, they only stand to lose.

So please, do have more respect for yourself.
Yes, you were blessed to be born slim and pretty but beauty is only skin deep.

As for the men who clamour after such flirty girls, I really feel sorry for their wives and girlfriends.

A chance for me to unravel in the rich history and a chance for SH to hone his photography skills while capturing the splendor of magnificent Angkor Wat.

Why not? =P

Even though I’ve been to Egypt, I feel as though I barely scratched the surface of what Egypt has to offer.

I wonder when we could one day make the trip there together. It will be a whole different experience going there with someone who shares my common passion for Egyptology and Archaeology.

Right now, this remains only a dream, in the line of many other dreams that we have.

I’m back!!! After a really really long while. Sorry it took so long =P

Since it’s Pepper’s birthday today, I shall wish her a very Happy 9th Birthday here! =D
And a photo of the Black Forest Cake I made during class, dedicated to the most adorable dog.

How’s life been for everyone?

The last 4 weeks of baking class has really been a great experience for me. So much so… that I’ve signed up for the intermediate class as well. Really looking forward to that! To go from my lousy apple cake and brownies made from pre-mixes, to this Black Forest Cake, is quite an achievement, so I can’t stop here.

Still lots to try out and lots to experiment with. But… it’s going to be (and has been) costly.

Will be working hard to make more yummy cakes for everyone. Thank you those who have been my guinea pig so far.. and I hope my cakes won’t turn you guys into the size of pigs =P

One week without internet made me lose the blogging momentum

Weekends make me not want to click on my work email even though I know there are things waiting to be solved

Unhappy people make me give up on trying to make them happy.

So I might as well be here blogging. Hmmmmm.

Lots of getting used to as well. On the first day my things got moved here (on 16 Nov), I felt so out of place, like a stranger in my own home. I thought about my parents at home, about pepper running around the house, and how much I missed all that. Isn’t it an irony how we would always want to have a place of our own, lamenting the lack of freedom we have with parents around, and now that we have finally found our way through into the other side of the mirror, we start to miss that family atmosphere instead.

Maybe it’s because this hasn’t started to feel like a ‘home’ yet.
Maybe it’s because ‘home’ always represented and felt different.
Maybe it’s because ‘home’ to me always came with the colour ‘blue’.
Maybe it’s because ‘home’ always meant a dog running to the door each time I came home.
Maybe it’s because ‘home’ always meant mum was there.

I want to be happy here with him. To build our own home.
We’re working hard to put all these together right now. It’s still a long process.
At least we’ve got the first part done.
Just like any business, maintaining it is always harder than starting it up.

We’re trying our best to spend enough time with our families too, especially for me, being the only one my parents can rely on in Singapore. I’m sure my mum feels sad inside. She doesn’t have to say it, but I can feel it. Imagine a big home they finally got for the whole family. Soon my brother leaves for Australia, decides to stay there and now their youngest daughter moves out too, leaving a big house with 2 empty rooms marked with the names of the occupants who were once there, leaving 2 old parents with a dog. Have I done wrong?

This process turned out more emotional than I thought…

Took leave just to stay home to pack today. Woke up late, did work from home for a while, procrastinated a little and by the time I started things moving, it was already 6pm ＝P

Threw away loads of stuff. I used to feel that gifts from friends should never be thrown away, but that was how I ended up with presents from my primary school friends still with me today. I’ve changed my mind about this now, and gone are the presents from yester-year, either into the rubbish chute or cleaned up, ready to be donated to church for the christmas bazaar. But, there are still things I can never bear to throw away, like old letters and cards ever since my primary school days.

We’ve changed the day of moving to Sunday, so that I can help him pack tomorrow, after I’m done with mine today.

My room is covered in dust… things strewn all over the place, my face is oily, hands are dirty and I’m imagining what it will be like to see my room here empty once again, the way it had been when we moved in 8 years ago.

Memories, as well as regrets of wasting so much of my parents money on things that I have not really used.

Busy, but with a sense of guilt for leaving my parents on their own, at old age in a big house, even though I’m just about 10mins away by bus.

Is this what growing up and moving out is about?

Update: 15 Nov 4.14am
Still packing…. it’s the final stretch now. Well, seemed like the final stretch hours ago.
How come I take so long to finish packing everything?

Looks like it’ll be 6 by the time I finish

February
- I tendered my resignation because i was sick of being terribly underpaid even after working 2 years with the company, but in the end I decided to stay.
- Flipping the newpapers one Saturday, we found the back page splashed with an ad of the hdb ballot exercise for 3room flats in the north area. For just $10 and not much thought, we went online, keyed in our information, acknowledged each other as fiance and fiancee, then hit the button which did not lead us to success.

March
- We went on our only and last trip this year, to Bangkok (other than the whirlwind trip to Genting for MD’s concert), where we stumbled upon a great lifestyle shop and started buying home decoration items (that was the beginning of the snowball that only got bigger and bigger).

April
- So began the actual hunt for our flat when we realized from different friends that the chances of a succesful ballot were pretty low. We weren’t people who were fond of leaving our lives to chance. So, through my uncle, we got to know an estate agent and her friend who so patiently drove us around SK hunting for our ‘simple’ request of a corner unit that’s not overly renovated, not too low floor, not too small kitchen, not asking for too much cash, at our comfortable valuation amt, and to accomodate our limited viewing hours of weekdays after 8.30pm (since we both only got off work at 7pm). Of course, after about 3 weeks plus of searching, they disappeared.
- It was the month where we learnt terms and jargon we never knew in our life, till now that is… HLE, COV, OTP, and eventually ROM.

May
- Hence, we decided to do the work ourselves. Armed with the Classifieds every weekend, we answered to ads which brought about an onslaught of calls from estate agencies, eager to eat us up invite us to view their flats. We planned our own rundown, took the LRT up and down and all around SK, went from house to house, smelt all sorts of smells, saw all sorts of sights, witnessed the different ways different people lived.
- We found our flat, on the internet. Through the photos, it was love at first sight, and a visit to the flat proved the same. The agent probably saw the eagerness in our eyes and wanted to eat us up immediately agreed to our request for a 2nd viewing of the flat on another day, in daylight.
- Signing the OTP meant we were now tied down to the flat by a deposit. It was like a stamp of confirmation. After some research, we learnt about the different grants we were entitled to, and the sudden realisation that we needed a marriage cert by the time the entire transaction was complete, otherwise our grants will just be gone with the wind.

June
- We logged onto ROM’s website and started studying the dates. Apparently the earliest dates available were at the end of July or start of Aug, which didn’t leave us much to consider about. The flat transaction would be completed around mid Aug, which meant it was now or never. But why 1st Aug? Because it was easy to remember and it was a Friday – less people!, and because 08.08.08 would probably mean overcrowding, an not 4th which was his birthday because it’s a Monday and we didn’t want to be back to work the next day. It wasn’t that tough a decision. So once again, we sat in front of the computer punching in our details and hit the OK button. So just as casually as we decided to build a home together, we casually decided to get married.

July
- Our first appointment for our flat. One step closer to the home we’ve always wanted.
- We started our home purchases in order to stagger our limited finances, and also got our ‘wedding bands’ at a budget of 1k (with the help of some birthday vouchers).
- We also slowly went all around Singapore buying different pieces of our ROM ‘attire’, just because we wanted to be different.

August
- the day of ROM finally arrived. Not a day I looked forward to nor a day I frankly enjoyed. We were both glad it was over, because we aren’t that fond of rituals. But it was still quite hilarious trying not to laugh while we were solemnized because the solemnizer spoke english in a funny way and I was looking at SH with his specs sliding off his nose and realizing why he said ‘Yes’, instead of ‘I Do’, like what everyone else does. Just for the record, I played along and said ‘Yes’ too =P.
- Our 2nd appointment for the flat arrived as well, we made the final payments and received the keys to our new home.

Sept
- We began renovations for our home after lots and lots of planning. Found a good reliable contractor whom we trusted and willingly fixed every problem for us. We worked hard on congregating all the things a house needed too… furniture, home decor, appliances, storage and all sorts of small insignificant items. Slowly, my parents’ house had a room dedicated as our storeroom, and our new flat’s store room became increasingly cluttered.

Oct
- Back to my job and pay issue, because I realised that I was still underpaid despite the raise earlier in the year. I went for 2 interviews and got offered for the 2nd. The offer was terribly enticing, and by a highly reputable company with extremely good welfare, high salary range, big prospects for advancement, except for the fact that the working hours were not favourable and there would be less flexibility.
- I tendered my resignation for the 2nd time this year. Had a painful 2 weeks of indecision, and came very close to leaving my current job despite my boss offering to counter offer (sans welfare), and realized finally that I still couldn’t tear away from my company. I decided to stay, once again.
- Renovations finally came to a close and we began the arduous task of cleaning up our home.

Nov
- Our pre-house-warming came about because our dear loanshark was about to leave for shanghai in a few days, for work. That was the first night we spent at the new house =)
- Gearing up for our big move now… in 4 days time…

2) Having an aching arm every weekend from cleaning the house or carrying heavy loads & even dislocating my elbow once from scrubbing my parents’ toilet. Do I put in too much effort or do I not know how to control my strength? It always makes me wonder why his arms never ever ached… hmmm (he only breaks them during falls =P)