Anniversary No.9

Yesterday marked our 9th wedding anniversary. How time flies! It feels like it was just yesterday that I met Daniel and thought, "Engineering Nerd" and mentally rolled my eyes. That was in 1996.

Then I took a bite of a sausage and cheese sandwich Daniel made and it probably might have been love at first bite. Love for the sandwich of course *wink*. Day after day, the sandwich was outdone by steaming bowls of instant noodles, toasted hot dogs, cheese melts and Haagen Daz ice cream. How could I refuse? And how do you not love someone who:

1. Feeds you great food

2. remembers your favorite flavor of Haagen Daz ice-cream after hearing it mentioned just once

3. allows you and your friends to use his super computer to complete your homework instead of having to walk through creepy night-time NTU to get to the computer room

4. Surprises you with thoughtful or romantic little gestures until today.

It's not hard to see how time seems to fly when you're happy.

Re-adjusting to home

Don't get me wrong. I love being home. There are just some things I need to re-adjust to.

1. Remembering family obligations - dinners, birthdays, CNY celebrations...

These are huge family events with hordes of people crammed into small spaces. I've forgotten the cacophony created by many elderly ladies put together. Gave me a blasted headache during CNY dinners. For the past 4 years, it's just been Dan & me on most festive occasions plus the 2 cats. I think I may have gotten used to just hanging out quietly at home - no constant chatter, no 1000 questions to answer, no need to turn on my work mode to make small talk with distant relatives whose names I honestly don't know after over 30 years. ( Before you think," superficial bitch!", let me just say that my siblings and closest cousin and even my mum don't know this relative's children's names.)

2. Having my actions "monitored".
I've always been the sort to do what I want, rules be damned! If you're expecting a rebel, well, that's just not me. I'm usually too well behaved and a stickler for rules. What I mean is having the freedom to make my own decisions ( hopefully informed decisions), going where I want, wearing what I want.. you get the idea. Coming back home, my parents try to dictate my life. My relatives try it too. It drives me nuts. I take advice but I do not take orders. And everyone's been trying to order me on renovating my house, even what I wear to go out for dinner. What's wrong with wearing a black tee with jeans?? What's wrong with my striped glasses??? I do not appreciate calls everyday asking where I am at the moment; questions on who I'm calling; who I am meeting with... It feels as if I need to report what I'm doing every moment of the day. If anything, this is what will drive me back to find a job. Least then I can simply say, I'm busy.

3. Seeing more foreigners than ever in Singapore
It's nice to see such a cultural mix but it's darn confusing to switch between accents especially when out shopping or dining. One minute it's heavily accented Filipino English, the next it's Chinglish and in the next heartbeat, Singlish or Malaysian- Chinese. I honestly didn't understand several Filipino servers at a restaurant - whether he was taking my order or asking if he could clear my beer. It went on for a good minute before my friend stepped in to "translate". Turns out, he was trying to tell us that happy hour was over. *slap forehead*

4. Multi-cultural lion dance.. this one had me look twice.
I was at a hawker centre and along comes a lion dance to celebrate the re-opening of stalls after the CNY holiday. The procession of 5 consisted of 2 indian guys clanging the cymbals, 1 Chinese on the drum, 1 eurasian as the lion's butt and 1 malay guy as the lion head. I took a second look just to make sure I wasn't mistaken. Uncle sharing my table at the hawker centre said to me, "That's what you call multi-cultural lion dance hor?". I agree with Uncle. Multi-cultural indeed.

5. Unpredictable downpours.
Note to self - bring an umbrella EVERYWHERE.
One minute it's scorching hot. I turn my back on the laundry outdoors and it begins to drizzle. 20seconds later, it's a thunderstorm. Same thing happens everyday. As I leave the house, the sun's trying its best to burn this island to cinders. I get to the mrt and 30mins later when I emerge, there's a apocalyptic storm taking place outdoors - the kind where you can't see a thing through the sheets of rain. I've gotten caught in several of these while on my way to visit the cats at quarantine. I've recalled - no jeans and no light skirts that can be blown around

Shopping on taobao

OMG. I cannot be allowed to stay home for long while on leave. Over New Year's we stayed home because Dan was ill and I was not feeling great. I got bored. REALLY BORED.

Our satellite TV's been out of service since Oct and I had no TV to watch. So I went online. Bad idea.

I was only looking to get cat stuff when it occurred to me that I should try looking for tank tops to bring home. Afterall, most clothes are made in China and they could be cheaper here. Being winter, you obviously can't find many tank tops in Beijing. But taobao should have everything right? And have everything it does.

Before I knew it, I was putting Zara work jackets, forever 21 tunics, random korean style jackets, jelly shoes, tank tops and goodness knows what else into my shopping cart... all i did for 3 days was trawl through taobao( otherwise known in our house as TTT) . I was even tempted to buy copies of Starck's Ghost Chair for our flat in Singapore. Daniel didn't like plastic so I didn't get them.

I eventually bought less stuff than what's in my cart ( because I went to the Zoo market and found my tank tops) but the terrible thing is, whenever I'm super bored, I'd think, "hmm, let my fingers do the shopping."

alamak - falling sick

thanks huh daniel. I must have caught your virus. I don't usually fall sick in winter lor!

On hiding and packing

I took the week off an told everyone that I would be in Singapore settling cat stuff. Wait a minute, what's that you said , " But I just saw you today". Yup. I did a bad thing. I lied.

The deception was necessary. Despite me leaving work in about 3 weeks or so, I'm expected to develop and work on new projects that I won't be able to see through. Oh. and my boss seems under the delusion that I will work till the day my flight leaves Beijing for good.

I have tried to set him and the many bosses right - I leave work on 14 Jan and that's as far as it goes. There is no chance of me saying, "oh, maybe I'll stay another week.". I've given over 2 months notice. That's ample time to find my replacement and to give me "me-time", a luxury that I can't afford if I work there longer.

I need plenty of "me-time" before we leave on 27Jan. I have 5 years to pack away - and I'm packing for 4 ( Dan, 2 cats and me) - we have a lot of stuff. 5 years of stuff don't magically pack themselves and frankly, I don't want to take junk home. If it needs to go into the bin, that's where I'm putting it.

So I had to "lie" to be left in peace this week. Some of my team members know I'm here and I try to look through proposals and respond to emails. Rest of the time, I go to supermarkets or hide out in places I'm pretty sure my colleagues and clients wouldn't be. All I want on my week off is to pack and purchase items that I intend to bring home ( e.g. a new set of chairs for my dining table) .

Limited success so far - I only managed to pack some towels and bedsheets and identified those sheets, pillow and blankets that will be left behind; sent all our wool coats to the dry cleaners; got a new laundry basket (yay) and ordered more cat litter to bring home ( that stuff is expensive in SG)

Tomorrow, I'll have to take a conference call (ugh. client called - no respect of personal time). After which I hope to be more productive at Ikea. Fingers crossed that I don't run into anyone familiar and that I get more stuff done tomorrow.