This CHRISTMAS

Oh so many years ago, a good friend sent me this for Christmas.
In the intervening years, life pulled us down separate and diverging paths.
Into different countries, vocations and beliefs. Still, this anonymous poem stayed with me. Accompanying me through the dark anguish and the giddying highs.
I guess maybe the meaning that Christmas held for us when we were young still holds as we move into the second half of our lives.

This one's for Adrian and for all who look for a little meaning beneath the glitter, the commercialisation and those ghastly repeating pop carols.

A Very Merry Christmas One and All.

Singaporean lah...

I had a previous post on an insight to the Canadian psyche a couple of days ago.
Now I find a counter balance to give my non-Singaporean friends a closer look into the Singaporean we all know & love.... with help from Hossan Leong & YOUTUBE.

I saw the clip with Hossan from a Mr Brown post some time ago. But this one's now got graphics. Really attractive to my MTV sensibilities.

Creating this post also forced me to learning how to embed YOUTUBE videos into my blog with which I am very well chuffed. Gonna be doin some more of it.

Enjoy!

Transformation of a Cushion

This is what I've found since coming to live in Canada. Independence. Those of you who know me and have grown up with me will be arching your eyebrows in in surprise asking "What the heck is she talking about?". I've always been the most independent of spirits, following the trail of my own goofy little star and have mostly done things for myself. But not like this though. Not like here in Canada.
Here, I've had to learn to cook my own meals (no cheap, delish & convienient Tiong Bahru hawker centre nearby), plant my own herbs and make my own cushions, slip covers, scarves and curtains. Unlike Asia, where retail is cheap, variety is, well, various and GST is abysmally low (so stop complaining), Canada has a retail sector that has seen it's heyday (like 20 years ago) and GST is made up of provincial & federal taxes, which together comes up to 14%. The cheapo Singaporean in me couldn't bear to pay out so much, especially for taxes, especially when she knew how much things really cost in Asia. Ergo the girl is now DIY mad.


Forgive me as I indulge and run thru my latest project with you.

Once upon a time, my loving sister, Veron decided that I was in dire need of the jangle of beading and flashes of hot pink in my life. She, from her deep generosity, proceeded to buy me the most darling square cushion from Delhi, where she was living at that time.

Unfortunately, The Spawn of Demon, who also answers to the name of Minke, decided that it was her dominion and proclaimed for her own. Well, that was in Singapore, where the cooling satin fabric of the cushion and the bling of the pink was all good & appropriate. But since coming to live in the land of cold & rain, she's favoured wool & tweed instead. And the poor pink beaded cushion was then only used for the Minkster to practice her own special brand of feline manicure.

Enough already! Said her cheapo DIY mistress and rescued the rare (in Vancouver at least) & highly reusable kapok (cotton wadding I think it's called in English) from the tattered cushion's insides. The following documents the cushion's road to recovery.