The.Coolest.Faucet.Ever

God I love this!


http://www.us.kohler.com/faucets/karbon/index.jsp

NC, if you're reading this, you must get this for your future love nest! Gives me a very valid reason to go all the way to Punggol to visit you. We'll cook and reminisce about those good ol' homec days!

Can you hear me?

http://www.ponandzi.com/image.php?img=1

If you're feeling this way, it's time to sit down with your love one and have a good talk. Nothing is more important than spending QUALITY TIME together.

Houdini has done it again

I was walking to the bus-stop this morning when my mum called.

Puzzled, I picked up the call, wondering what was so important that she had to call me 3 minutes after I left the house.

ME: Hello?

MOM : 小慧！你的老鼠跑出来了！(Girl! Your hamster has come out!)

ME: Huh?!

MOM: 你忘记把老鼠笼的门关起来！(You forgot to close the hamsters' cage door!)

I have 5 hamsters at home, and they live in 3 cages (1 double storey) in the kitchen. 3 girls and 2 boys. All the girls are separated; as they fight (females are indeed more vicious). The boys are more tolerant of each other.

Mom described the escapee as “darker”. Hyper is darker than Chip the roommate. Like Houdini, Hyper has a passion for escape acts. He has been doing it since he was 2 months old.

This time, I was the assistant. I left the cage door open after feeding them. My mom doesn’t have the same fervor with the hamsters as the rest of the family. So I can only imagine the reaction on her face when confronted with an open cage door with only 1 hamster inside.

But it wasn’t the open cage door that caught her attention. She was bending down to pick up a pile of dirty laundry next to the cages, when she saw a black furry figure moving on top. Her immediate reaction was to drop everything and bolt.

Later, she realized the serious consequence if Hyper was not returned to the cage (he may try to jump down the pipe again; that’s another story). So very unwillingly, she grabbed the dirty towel with him inside, and threw him back into the cage.

My mom is pretty cool with the whole episode. She was so proud of herself as she reenacts the scene.

I guess all moms are the same. They claimed they don’t like your pet, but in the end, they worry about your pet more than you do.

I love my mom.

Think

Don't concentrate on it's emptiness. Think of what you can do with its fullness.

Melbourne

I came across an old journal of my 3 weeks stay in Australia back in 2004. I didn’t realize I’d write down so much details of my experience there. It was the first time I’m away from home on my own for such an extended period of time.

The first 2 weeks in Melbourne were especially memorable. Lessons, Swanston Street, Victoria Market, Lygon Street, King’s Domain, Saint Kilda’s.

So young, carefree, naïve.

I always thought there’ll be a chance to revisit these places. But now, it's impossible to do so without a tinge of sadness.

Too much has been lost.

Money

Time to manage my finances properly.

I didn’t spend money for quite some time (except food and transport, some farewell gifts). I simply have enough materials (clothes, toiletries, shoes, accessories, etc) to sustain my vain self for a while. I’m trying to mix and match my clothes to get the best out of my ready-to-burst wardrobe.

I am also cancelling 2 of my credit cards. Simply because I’m not using them at all. There are only 2 cards I want to keep – UOB and Citibank. They offer discounts at more outlets and their rewards programs are much better. I also want to carry a smaller wallet as I find the current one too bulky for my favorite totes. There are too many useless cards in my wallet. Going to throw them away.

I am keeping tab on my spending and I will not be making big purchases for a long time. This reminds me of a very ugly incident. I’m not going to talk about it. Let’s just say that I will never, ever do that again.

Burn After Reading

Watched this movie last night. There were some big stars in it. There were some funny moments. But as the movie progresses, I felt that it’s just revealing some of the many forms of social degradation existing today.

It’s pretty good, but I didn’t really enjoy it. Thanks NC for asking me along. I’m sorry if I was a little quiet.

I was writing this post half-way when my door bell rang. It’s past 1 AM in the morning.

?????

I’m going to sleep.

Choices

Matthew 6:33

Life is full of choices. I decided to seek everything but God 3 years ago. Today, I can feel S.A.Tan gloating at me.

I have been asking myself what kind of person I will be if I didn’t leave God. If I’d prayed a little more, believed a little more. How different my life will be today. The ending will probably be sweeter.

It’s the trial everybody will go through – who is more important in my life? God or me?

Me was more important. And I returned battered and bruised. Haha.

The journey was sweet and beautiful, and the ending, even more painful. But I thank God for the journey because it made me grow up. God knows nothing works better than experiencing it on my own.

The best part is by God's grace I am born again, and I can restart my life.

Thank God for friends

I can never thank God enough for the friends He's given me.

I went to Kinokunia after work with 2 of my colleagues. For the past 2 weeks, they're the only ones whom tried the hardest to bring back the smile on my face. Because of the situation going on in the office, the entire atmosphere is very moody. Everyone's feeling down.

I really thank God for them, making the extra effort to include me in everything.

I realised AL is excellent at counseling the hurt. She is truly God's gift to everyone, like that ray of light at the end of the tunnel. And HL, everything about her is just funny. Check out her blog Only Lon3ly.

What I should do now, is to accept the broken mirror in front of me. In time, God will give me a new one, to start afresh. As a better person.

Love needs

Anyone who knows Abraham Maslow would be familiar with his theory Hierarchy of needs. The first four levels are known as "deficit needs". In other words, they represent the lack of something. Once you have obtained enough of that thing, your need disappears.

I’d always been hungry for the love need (I’m sure everybody does). Needless to say, I got into a few unfruitful relationships for all the wrong reasons (love at first sight, opposites attracts, chemistry felt right, etc). Every time I felt that need being satisfied, when I’m no longer seeking for any better love, the other party will be in doubt. Just as I was moving from a satisfied love need to fulfill my Ego needs (career), he decided it’s time to end it. Because he wasn’t satisfied.

It wasn’t easy for me to accept this. Simply because I loved the person for whom he is, and I had eventually accepted our differences. Only God knows why we were together in the first place, and what had gone wrong down the years.

But this is all part and parcel of dating. When 2 people get together, they want to know each other better. There’s a possibility that this person may be THE ONE. But as time goes by, feelings change. Your needs changed. You begin to understand yourself better. You realized the current state of love isn’t what you wanted. Your logical mind tells you, this may not be THE ONE.

Sometimes in a desperate effort to salvage the love (at your end), you tried that last resort – to change that person into someone you will love more, to satisfy your own need. You try to get the person to have the same interests, etc.

To a large extent, this is a selfish thing to do. You may try to arouse those same interests, but interest takes time to grow. The habits may rub-off on the other party, or backfire. When you do not see the results you want, you grow frustrated.

You now do not love the person for whom he is.

Couples who have been together a long time can eventually lost the spark in the relationship, and lose sight of their common grounds – what made them click in the first place. They can try to do what I just describe above. Keeping a relationship together requires both parties to work together, and that is not an easy task. I’d never known any couple who share the exact same interests with each other.

But finding those common grounds again is very, very important. It is also a harsh reality that it may take years before you realized there’s actually nothing in common.

But when one party decides to bailout, there’s nothing much the other person can do. In the end, it is just better to let go.

To find a soul mate is not to find someone like you. But one who can see what you see, and who can see what you can’t see.

Going home

I went back to church today. I’d never felt better in a long time. It’s like a huge stone’s been lifted off my heart. It became clearer to me that this is what I’m supposed to do, wanted to do, but never done it.

Going about doing things my way for the past 3 years, all seemed like a bad dream now. I have awakened in His presence once more.

If you never step into a church or feel the Holy Spirit before, there’s no way I can describe to you how it feels like. You need to experience it yourself. You really need to have faith, let go, and believe.

And when He’s there, you know you can’t stop the tears.

Now, I can really say that I’m back for good. No more excuses.

Getting started

My friend suggested that I should try blogging to keep my mind off things.

I'm going through some rough times and this is not a bad suggestion. So here I am, starting out on my first blog.

I didn't have a lot of ideas for a title, am not sure what should I be blogging about... I went through some brain storming before sticking with "Betty Boop's Blogging".

Betty Boop is a nick an old friend gave me back in JC. I can't remember why he called me that. But thank God for friends.

It's almost 2 am and my eyes are hurting. Let's continue tomorrow.