Thursday, August 21, 2008

Hot Hot Hot!

This warning was issued by the Hong Kong Observatory today.

It looks like such a happy logo, don't you think? Like something you'd see on the window of a shop selling ramen or something. I seriously AVOID leaving the house while the sun is out. You know, today the temp was registered at 34 deg celsius. But i think the intensity of the sunrays here is so very strong. Oh and it gets super bright too. Sigh.... last weekend, I went to the market. Guess what? I actually ran there and back. Ya, and yours truly have not been doing much, if not any, running.

While this warning is on, however, we are also put on the typhoon alert 1. You'd think that from 1 it'll go to 2 and so on till it gets to 10 right? But the warning starts at 1, goes to 3, jumps to 8 - at this point Alam doesn't have to go to work, then 10! That's a full blown hurricane. So wierd.Typhoon Nuri is predicted to hit HK direct this time, predicted to be much worse than the one that hit us a couple of weeks back. No matter what, I have my masking tape ready in case the alert jumps to 8.

I'm so, i don't know, excited? for lack of a more appropriate adjective that I had dreams about suddenly jumping out of bed and having to plaster the windows but my masking tape went missing!! Needless to say, I woke up hyperventilating.....sheesh!

Friday, August 08, 2008

Happy National Day Y'all!!




I just made Alam spend the past hour or so singing National Day Songs. Heh.... I miss it, I really do..... Singing National Day songs I mean. Don't tell people ok? That and the extra holiday schools get on the 10th of August. When I was teaching, I'd sit with my kids and sing at the top of my voice. The best part? I got away with it! hehehhe.... We'd start from "We have a vision for tomorrow....Just believe...Just believe..." and work our way to "This is home truly.... Where I know I must be...Where my dream wait for me...Where the river always flow..."


I just so enjoy singing these songs. Surrounded by kids wearing red, frantically waving the plastic flags in your face, you just cannot help but feel a wave of patriotism wash over you. It is during this time, and when the Majulah Singapura is sung during the National day parade that I feel extremely proud to be a Singaporean. Seriously.


This year will be a first as Alam and I celebrate National Day out of Sg. We have mixed feelings about it I guess. For me, it is also the first time I am not actively celebrating it (in school) I reckon there will be some celebrations at the Sg Embassy here but a bunch of adults singing such songs and waving plastic flags really don't appeal to me..... plus they'll know it's me contributing the terrible voice.....


Anyway, as I'm typing this, it is just past midnight, so HAPPY NATIONAL DAY EVERYONE!!!


Incidentally, on SG's National day, we're in HK.... on October 1st, HK's establishment day, we'll be in Sg...hehee..... October 1st is also hari Raya mah....

Huh???

I was back in SG a couple of days ago and had the luxury of spending sometime with my baby sister. We headed to town one day and was sitting at Coffee Bean, which is Halal now by the way, while waiting for my appointment at inuovi cosmetics. We were just sitting watching people go by... I realised that there is nothing really different between the crowds that throng the malls in HK and in SG. All are clad in designer labels, all carry arm candies of which the most popular seem to be LV. But I must say that SGeans definitely dress better than their HK counterparts. HKers tend to be more 'adventurous' when it comes to dressing, they bat no eyelashes when seeing someone in a dress that has more ropol than Ramlah Ram's or someone who has pink hair or someone who wears luminous pink shoes ( I saw this myself at City Super yesterday). I know that if the same pink shoes were worn in SG, the person wearing it would hear no end of sniggers, would receive no end of 'what were you thinking?!!' stares. I guess, HKers are more open like that.

Anyway, back to Coffee Bean, so, we were people watching when this woman caught our eyes. She was in a fitting top, almost exposing her bosom, with skin tight black pencil skirt and heels and was carrying an LV Galliera. She had funky short hair and my initial reaction is wah lau! So stylo! That is until she came closer and I saw her face..... ALAMAK!!! Tua kerepot nak mampos lah! I mean, she was definitely 55, at the very least! But hey, if you can still carry off that kind of outfit at THAT age, then by all means lah kan..... but this one cannot lah... She really looked like Mak Enon (Remember her?).

So while I was having this internal conflict and all, my baby sister spoke and we had this conversation....

BabySis: Kak! Did you see that old woman???

Me: I know!!! Wah Lau eh!!!!

BabySis: Why she so old still want to dress like that?

Me: Ya man! So not age appropriate kan?

BabySis: Dia tak takut kena rape ke?

Me: ???

BabySis: Old woman pun can kena rape tau kak.......

Me: ???

Hahahha..... that's Farah for you.... sometimes she says the funniest things. maybe because she was fasting. Is it Far??

Monday, August 04, 2008

AL - FATIHAH

That's my father in law, the late Hj Lamion bin Ahmad Ishak. I think this picture is essentially what my father in law was to me. Someone who had plenty of knowledge but never stopped learning. He'd spent hours going through the papers, going through every detail of whatever was being reported that day. He always had things to tell me, anecdotes to relate, ideas to share. After getting to know him, he learnt a thing or two from me too, mostly about food lah. Anything I brought him to try, he was game. Even when he was already not doing too good, he was still trying to learn how to use the chopsticks. I truly envy the tenacity and the enthusiasm he had when it comes to learning something new.

He was also truly diplomatic in ways he handled any situation he found himself in. Never one to raise his voice, at least whenever I observed him, he was the epitome of calm and grace. That was one of the things that I really liked about him and I am glad that Alam inherited that from him.

But the one thing that I will always remember about him is how much he loved his wife. I cannot even begin to describe how he loved her. Throughout this whole week after his passing, I have come to a realisation that everything he did was for her. I got the impression that he gave up living because he did not want to trouble her anymore.

Also in this week after his passing, a few things have come to light, some nice and some well, not so good. All that is important now is that he has moved on to where there is no longer pain from his renal failure, no longer pain from selfish human beings and no longer pain from the heartache that he suffers when seeing how some people called family behaves.

Ayah, you are in my prayers. Semoga roh Ayah dicucuri Rahmat. Semoga Ayah ditempatkan di kalangan orang-orang yang beriman. Semoga Tuhan mengampunkan segala dosa Ayah. Amin