new year resolve

this is my year for meeting up with old chums and catching up on their lives, my friend P tells me, what with facing our mortality and all. as for me, in line with previous years, this year i hope not to waste too much time. also, i hope to re-start my one bag a day initiative.

galatians 4:19

i want some good books to read, J1 says, so i bring him carlin's invictus and bonhoeffer's discipleship. the one to open to him grand quixotic possibilities, and the other to show him the unspeakable joy from the shame of the cross. 

i want to pass on just two things to J1 and J2 i think: a deep reverence for an almighty God, and a love for reading.

relativity

you can rave all you want about this wonderfully mild winter but i've just come in from the tropics and it's awfully cold here and then some. brrrr.

precious mem'ries

father & son time.

we're back!

to:
laundry
sizzling static
cracked skin and lips
better hair days
'phone contact
our own kitchen
Dog

as J2 says, we sure miss not having chilblains.

osteria mozza

photo: HOM

very nice. i know now that i never did know al dente before. also, for a time, panna cotta was my new favorite dessert, right up until i googled its recipe.

morimoto. flay. batali. this completes our preferred iron chef cycle.

mortal wound

not to put too fine a point to it, but staying in singapore is a bloody hemorrhaging affair, financially speaking.

operating manual

or, my morning at the self-service laundry.

i gain an insight or two today.

firstly, that people mostly do not believe the sign that says, do not use more than a quarter capful of detergent, lest you over-sud the load. this explains why the machines are still full of soap bubbles at the final spin.

secondly, that many people do not trust the first run through, and grimly fork out the coins to wash the same load twice. perhaps if they used less detergent they might be able to get away with once.

uniquely home

food court bursting with human traffic
you circle several times and hover
near potentially emptying tables
to swiftly swoop when the time is ripe
then you wait an eternity in the line to buy your food
gobble
and vacate the table
to the next wave of vultures

it's a tiring way to eat.

sweet/bitter

we are having a wonderful time together, the four of us. we enjoy the walks and the conversations. things go well externally. our recent separation sharpens old affections and forgives the foibles. we are determined to, and do, have a cheerfully beloved reunion.

the only snag is, it begins to end even as it begins. the heart must needs hold the joy and the sorrow side by side.

dragon teeth

chinatown
chinese new year
singapore
river hongbao
bugis
open air market

two words: noisy. gawdy.

precious mem'ries

picking up J2 from the airport
all four of us together again
J2 being accepted into college!
and
reviewing our hotel experiences

wonder

because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. - lam 3:22-23

which pretty much sums my amazement and my gratitude.

precious mem'ries

strolling the length of orchard rd
before the shops open
with HOM and J1
just talking
photo: HOM

if you were here - jen lancaster (2011)

cautionary tale that should be essential reading for all diehard self-deluded HGTV fans out there who eventually think they can d.i.y. their own renovations. every wife should make her tv watching husband read this, in order to pre-empt unnecessary sweat and blood.

color scheme

it looks like the favorite colors of builders and tenants in PJ are:

watery pink
faded peach
really dirty white
all of them peeling.

there is something painfully recognizable about the buildings around here. ugh.

the old language

three of us meet for dinner.

we have thirty years of catching up to do. quite apart from the news, there is an earthy home-flavored charm to speaking in the patois of my youth as long-forgotten vocabulary reappears. this is nothing like the intellect shattering singlish. malaysian patois is correctly english and correctly malay, effortlessly entangled into a strangely elegant new dialect. i puas.

prayer for discernment

turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in your ways.

- ps 119:37

amazing, when i think about it, how many pursuits interests passions and priorities turn out to be vain. i have a bewildering capacity to while away time. as time has a seductively deceptive length about her. and as my pursuits and priorities have a tendency to sheer casuistry that i often do not even begin to suspect.

disabled friendliness

i introduce my father to the iPad, which includes inducting him into the alien alternative universe of the internet. i struggle to deconstruct mundane everyday things that i usually never think about into comprehensible pre-digital terms.

arrogant twit that i am, some barriers i never see until i am forced to confront them.

au revoir

i visit my old friend in hospital. some friendships go back years and transcend logicalities. some friendships are built upon deep fellowship in addition to laughter. some friends you lose touch with completely and never truly re-connect with again.

she was such a friend and ours was such a friendship. she taught me how to memorize the books of the bible. G, E, P, C. we laughed hard and we prayed together. we drifted completely asunder.

she died yesterday. it is well for her to rest now.

precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints.

killer heels

killed me feet.
but me ankles looked purty.

commissioning parade 2

the dress code on the invitation says, lounge dress.

as HOM and i discover, there is lounge dress, and there is a flexible interpretation of lounge dress, ours included.

commissioning parade

my privilege. my pleasure. my pride. my joy.

by the grace of God.

what's your number? (2011)

one of my jet lag remedies on the flight over.

in summary, a sweetly forgettable rom-com with minimal plot.

swoon factor: colin (chris evans), who sets even my middle aged heart a-flutter with his orthodontic smile.

sub-swoon factor: their nice pottery barn-esque apartments in downtown boston.

long haul

they put me in an aisle seat (yes!) amidst an entire tribe of monumentally sociable traveling east asians (imagine, just imagine the decibel) and directly adjacent to an atypically demonstrative couple of the tribe.

what i say is, east asians don't do public displays of affection so well. there is an inherent intellectual incongruity to it. we are not the dissipated west you know.

new order

J2 asks me to get her a book from the library. it is a novel experience to be at the shelves hunting specifically for something. these days my quests are mostly online. search - review - click - order. the library must be the final bastion to be swallowed up by the great engine in the sky.

epiphany

energy saving device #1, 2012:

hot water bottle

i've taken a long time to realize such a thing exists outside of enid blyton books 

and that there are real people who use them.

you rocked, mr twiddle!

precious mem'ries

a friend's son wants J1's old drums. the ones that sit in the basement because there is a time for everything, and the time for the drums are pretty nigh past now. sure, come have a look at them, i say. my friend looks and i remember. there is the double pedal he saved up to buy. those are the cymbals he and his father shared the cost of. the floor vase is full of old sticks notched from years of percussion that he refused to discard. stop! i suddenly want to say. don't take them! that's a piece of my son's childhood i'm giving away!

still pretty

the first proper seasonal snow returns like an old friend.

i hope she doesn't outstay her welcome.

hellohowareyou

didyoufindeverythingallright? all the girls and guys at check-out are trained to say. what if i said, not really, i was looking for a 0.38 nib and you only have 0.5 and this is the office supply store after all. what i mean is, in the spirit of doing all the good that we can do, what practical good is a mandated question like that?

on the balance of it, a smile some eye contact and a good morning would be less confusing.

definition

also read this. in summary, a rash of unauthorized withdrawals from various bank accounts are traced to skimming devices, presumably illegal, at a couple of ATMs. the bank says it's not a lapse in security or anything. all our ATMs are secure, our systems are fine...

what i want to know is, what is a security lapse?

friendly fire

read this. the danger with satire is that if you do it anywhere near good enough you stand to lose a portion of your readership to the ocean of incomprehension.

jaded palate, new year

the heavens declare the glory of God

in a way words and screen cannot begin to capture.

things fall apart

as this summarizes it:
5.7% inflation
major taxi fare hike
massive subway disruptions
flash ponds and puddles

and now:
security breach at dominant bank

all in two odd months.
chinua achebe could write a new novel.

useful stuff

http://interlinearbible.org
http://www.blueletterbible.org

biblical greek for absolute dummies.

grounded dragon

sin-kl-sin

bus 'plane or auto?

in any case, as late as it is now, it may have to be crawl.

comes a time when all the conveniences of modern connectivity will not get you passage across the causeway. such a time may be circa the 2012 lunar new year.

weather outlook

today's high: freezing point
today's low: sub-freezing
today's wind: blustery

today i seriously consider that perhaps i should drive to the letterbox.

ghetto justice (2011)

highly acclaimed award winning hk drama series by tvb.

there is unsatisfactory ending, and there is HIGHLY UNSATISFACTORY ENDING. there should be a warning somewhere before people invest energy and time on a series. protagonist fouls up royally, for example. or, favorite character gets bumped off. 

what i say is, they really should produce a better plot line that ends with a thumping good finale that stitches all the loose ends up, instead of one that leaves you gasping in disbelief and the sick realization that they mean to shoot a sequel.

1.2.12

looks like the first day has whizzzzzzed past already.

overheard in church yesterday: i don't like new year's day falling on a sunday. it's upsetting to have the countdown the night before and then to have church in the morning.

well, yes. how inconvenient.