Book Review : For One More Day

I came across some recommendations on Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. While I was unable to borrow it from the local library, I found For One More Day by the same author.

It is a story of a guy who attempted suicide, went into a coma and got a chance to spend one day with his decreased mother. Through incidents that opened his eyes, it brought to light his mother's undying love and support for him.

To be honest, I was not impressed by the storyline. I had also read Albom's The Five People You Meet In Heaven which also employed a similar fantasy/fairytale-kind-of theme which does not appeal to me. There have been great reviews for Tuesdays With Morrie so maybe, I will just pick it up and see if it will reverse my verdict on this writer.

Verdict : 4/10.

All ready for the Chinese New Year

How do you like my toe-sies all done up for the Chinese New Year in festive red and mini floral blooms? I had them done yesterday at a little shop at Orchard Plaza for a meager $30 for the whole works!

It was an enjoyable day out yesterday with lots of ME time. After the pedicure, I pampered myself with a heavenly 2-hour facial with eye, face and neck masks and an upper body massage. What bliss it was to be able to indulge one-self!

Next, I proceeded for some retail therapy at City Plaza. My impression of that place had always been shops selling auntie clothes, mobile phones, knick knacks that would mostly appeal to youngsters or domestic helpers (considering the crowds of Indonesian foreign workers milling around that place on weekends). The avid shopper that I am, I decided to give City Plaza a second chance after someone told me that it was clothes haven.

The majority of the shops still hawk clothing that can hardly be ranked on my scale of appeal. However, after 3 hours of patient scrimmaging and sifting through the various stores and racks of clothes, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to score some good buys. My booty for the day included two dresses, a skirt and a blouse, all for just $100.

That rounded up a wonderful day for me :)

Look at the water!

Ever since I dug out a kite from the cupboards, the boys have been clamoring for some kite-flying action. Good weather conditions beckoned so we decided to pay the Marina Barrage a visit after recommendations that the rooftop garden is a perfect spot for kite-flying.

The Marina Barrage generated a bit of a buzz at its official opening on 31 Oct 08. With its dual function also as an integral component of a flood control scheme, it is touted as Singapore’s first city reservoir with a range of fun activities. Hubby and I thought it would also be a good opportunity to have a look-see at the place.

Loud sirens greeted us the moment we alighted from the car. We had a hunch that the reservoir crest gates were about to open and thus made our way there to witness the rush of waters. I had heard how there is no schedule for the opening of the crest gates but is instead dependant on mother nature - the tides and water levels within the reservoir. Thus, we were thrilled to be just on time to catch the action. The crest gates opened really slowly and it was just amazing to watch the waters in the reservoir tip over the gates and rush out to sea. The rush and roar of the waters, with the wind caught in our hair, made it an exhilarating experience for our family.

We ventured into the Sustainable Singapore Gallery which explained Singapore’s water strategy and demonstrated the functions of the Barrage with a working model. Before the kids created any damage with their overly-enthusiastic pushing and pulling of buttons, levers and what-nots, we hastily made our exit.

We made our way to the rooftop with the intention of flying our kite but alas, the wind was fickle. The direction changed every once in a while and made it difficult even to launch the kite. Meanwhile, the kids were apparently more interested to run around chasing each other and so the kite was abandoned. We ran down the sloping garden towards the ground level where the water play area caught the kids’ interest and we spent some time at the shallow pool before calling it a day.

It was a wonderful day spent, part in fun and part in educating our kids on water.

An infestation of the six-legged kind

Last night, I opened the kitchen cabinet and to my horror, I was greeted with millions of ants large and small crawling inside! Some are even winged!

If you must know, yes I am a scaredy-cat when it comes to creepy crawlies and when there is a congregation of them crawlies, my skin literally crawls.

So in haste, I emptied all my kitchen cabinets of their contents while Hubby armed himself with a can of Shieldtox Odourless and sprayed machine-gun-like liberally over the undulating mound of crawling ants. Only when they all remained still, did I dare to wipe them off with wet tissue. After that, I coated the cabinets with Sheltox before wiping it all off several times over.

I honestly have absolutely no idea where they came from though I caught a few small ones crawling on the counter top for the past few days. In fact, I opened that same cabinet that same afternoon but there was no sight of any ants. My mother said that they were probably shifting nest since there were ants of all sizes and she even saw some whitish substance which she said were ant eggs. Good grief!

Today, I was paranoid enough to repeatedly open the cabinets to check, double-check and triple-check them for ants. I saw a few lone ones still crawling around but thankfully nothing like what I witnessed last night.

Hopefully, that is the last of them. Eeks!

Here we come, 2009

Here we are, well into the third week of January 2009 and here is my first blog entry for the year. Forgive me for my tardiness, my days have been really really busy – my new domestic helper has not yet arrived…

There is usually much talk about new year resolutions round about this time of the year and the cliché predictions about how people never fulfill those goals by New Year’s Eve. I never had the habit of making new year resolutions and but this year, I had thought long and hard about my expectations and outlook for 2009.

Newspapers and analysts round the world are predicting gloom and doom for the next few years. It is not difficult to be pessimistic about the future, worrying about job security and the economy. There is so much depressing news that it just builds a climate of fear and despair.

As I thought about 2009 and what I expect to see, God brought me on a journey of my family’s experiences in 2008. On hindsight now, I see the hand of God leading us through paths that were still murky when treaded then. I had questioned and debated with God, anguished over events that did or did not happen and half fought my through 2008 with God. Now that the mist has cleared, His works and promises fulfilled become apparent.

And because I saw His faithfulness displayed time again, I am imbued with a quiet confidence that God will see me and my family through another year. I believe that my family will be kept secure in the eye of the storm. We will not just survive 2009 but we will be triumphant. We are stepping into the Year of Abundant Living and we are going to reap its abundance!