au revoir

having used up my quota of allotted space for photos on this blog i am now here instead.

come visit with me. stay for a bit. leave a message. become a friend.

last thanksgiving

in true chinese fashion, our turkey marathon begins the night before. 

HOM makes his farewell bird. we have old friends over. the talk flows easily, in Christ. the year has not been easy but it has been full. there is plenty to be glad for. it is a good night.

the table misses two places. the house misses one dog.

d-day deliberation

i tell myself, only half desperately, this is it. the packers come next week. before i fully recover from jet lag before i truly and adequately de-clutter and right when i still feel thanksgiving-ish. we've been suspended between here and there for so long that this is a final tremendous relief. we've been itching to be doing for so long that i am now frozen in anticipation. aaargh about sums it up.

bling pursuit

one tapestry needle one candle flame a pair of tweezers one new hard cellphone case countless internet how-to's several memories of releasing subungual hematomas much neck-ache and an entire hour of tremendous eye-strain later, my iPhone has its own set of phone charms. yeah!

a tale of two cities

the iPhone battery drops 1% every 4 minutes in singapore.
the same battery was 82% last night and 76% tonight here in the states.
go figure.

modern day samaria

HOM punctures a tire on the highway. as he waits for the auto recovery people, he meets:

• traffic police cars escorting the trucks into the container park, who do not stop for him.
• irate motorists in speeding vehicles narrowly avoiding him, who do not stop for him.
• a policeman who questions his presence at the roadside, and toddles off at punctured tire.
• a driver who stops and asks if he needs help, whose car has a malaysian plate.

the lesson to learn, he says, is:

• japanese cars shudder when trucks rumble past them.

i tell him the lesson is:

• malaysians make better wives.

breaching the fortress

i visit a friend in hospital.

there is an entire bank of gantries blocking access to the elevators. please register yourself first, the girl manning the gantries says. i am directed to another station, much like the bank tellers', to surrender my identity and my cellphone number. only now do they allow me to swipe my ID and to clear the gantries and summon the elevator.

wow. in the old days life was not so secure perhaps. it was certainly simpler.

home, ver 2.0

HOM and i check in to the hotel again. this is our third set of rooms in the same place in a little over a month. our rooms increase in altitude with each incarnation. quite clearly, we are moving up the loyalty ladder. do you feel like this is home? HOM asks me. you bet. 

J1 calls this his third home. there's his home home, there's the army barracks, and there's here, where he bunks with his dad every time business brings HOM here.

priorities

my mother has learnt, late, to navigate the online world. she keeps in communication with her vast social network via facebook. she has an elago pen that keeps her ipad screen free of fingerprints. she has a bilingual device, which is more than i have. i show her how to upload a photo onto fb.

good, she says. now show me how to make those little circles with the smiling faces inside them. 

modern travel

HOM and i do a count of the electronic devices traveling with us. i have four and he has five. we have ipod ipad iphone and several other alphabets as well, and we do not count the shaver, which technically is electric not electronic. frankly, if the check-in luggage did not turn up we would be fine as long as we could still get connected. 

sands of time

still here. still leaving soon. another magnificent autumn.

He gives me thorns and rocks and rains and strings them together

with joys and pleasures and glimpses of glory.

easing back in 3

today on account of having to look professional i pour myself into my ten-year-old tailored suit. to my great relief it still fits. the first thing i will do when we finally repatriate is to visit my trusty dressmaker and have her make me a suit that will allow me some caloric flexibility. as it is, because i will need to look professional again next week, i have a full half pound to wiggle in this weekend. that's really just two burgers, after which the buttons will pop.

i ♥ my auto mechanic

on time. under budget. 

unpolished and unslick. but kind.

he doesn't make the miracle happen. 

he does what he promised to do.

i ♥ my auto mechanic, much more than i have ever ♥ed my healthcare provider.

comfort food

breakfast. panera bread. cinnamon crunch bagel with cream cheese. hot coffee. cold nip of fall, outside. cozy cafe, inside. intimate chatter.

after three weeks of relentlessly crowded public places sweltering heat outdoors freezing indoors and a vastly more complex cuisine, today's outing feels a little like coming home.

jet lag

is napping the entire afternoon away because you are waiting for your husband's telephone call to get you up and he gets holed up in meetings the whole time.

the thing about the empty nest is you are pretty much a free agent and therefore bereft of higher responsibilities that compel other people to stay present and accounted for.

image makeover

HOM tells me that this icon has to go from my email signature setting now that i am going to rejoin the ranks of the economically active. what shall i put in its place? i ask him innocently. anything but lips, he says. FINE. i guess few things say airhead better to a middle aged male executive than fuchsia lipstick on a middle aged woman.

jet lag

is falling asleep playing letris on my ipodtouch.

homeless at home

what i like about being back in the states:

• my own set of wheels,
• less traffic,
• a kitchen, and
• a washer and dryer.

all said, this protracted period between knowing we are imminently moving and actually doing so is rather unsettling. much like a painfully drawn out break-up. we used to grumble at being given such short notices about our moves. clearly, knowing for half a year isn't much better.

taken 2 (2012)

as one rotten tomato puts it, this movie is exactly what i hoped for in light of taken and i got to watch exactly the show i wished - stress free improbable plot james bond-esque action minimal gore-to-body ratio and an ending that winds your adrenaline and pulse down nicely. not too bad for my movie haul this year. although i have to say that outside of high heroism that Liam Neeson character is an unfortunately overbearing and overreactive father who would get my heckles up in half a second. 

i have HOM  and J1 to thank for dragging me to this show.

random thoughts

most regrettable development:

the disappearance of the food hall in the basement of tangs

most welcome development:

the plethora of subway lines. 

you need to be able to remember when it was just red and green

in order to appreciate what it is now.

most amazing development:

the relative scarcity of the singlish accent these days.

it is lost in the ocean-tide of authentic other accents.

saddest truism:

in the natural course of things,

difficult people become more difficult as they grow older.