still building

All the photos are taken from our kitchen window except the 2nd one which shows the typical common corridor but the lush tree canopy is not something that all HDB dwellers get. These trees have been growing and growing for more than 30 years. I literally grew up with them of course i stopped growing long time ago :) I remembered i used to stand in the corridor and tiptoed from my 8-floor unit to look at the trees but today they are almost 10 story-high. There are 8 of these huge trees right in front of our block and every family owns a piece of this wonderful natural beauty.

Even our kitchen window view is adored by the blooming yellow flowers. And all these will be gone when we move across the street to our new 40 story block next year. The towering flats are still under construction but you can see from the 1st photo, they are almost done! Hopefully we will be exchanging the greenery for a breathtaking skyline on our 31st floor unit :)

Can't have everything can we?

My 1st dress

Finally, i finished sewing my dress! It would have been a complete disaster if not for my mum-in-law's patient-step-by-step guidance :)

I am sooooo looking forward to my 2nd pc of work! Let's hope it won't take another 5 months haahaahaa

Wise words from a 97- yr old doctor

At the age of 97 years and 4 months, Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the world's longest-serving physicians and educators. Hinohara's magic touch is legendary: Since 1941 he has been healing patients at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo and teaching at St. Luke's College of Nursing. After World War II, he envisioned a world-class hospital and college springing from the ruins of Tokyo; thanks to his pioneering spirit and business savvy, the doctor turned these institutions into the nation's top medical facility and nursing school. Today he serves as chairman of the board of trustees at both organizations. Always willing to try new things, he has published around 150 books since his 75th birthday, including one "Living Long, Living Good" that has sold more than 1.2 million copies. As the founder of the New Elderly Movement, Hinohara encourages others to live a long and happy life, a quest in which no role model is better than the doctor himself.

Doctor Shigeaki Hinohara JUDIT KAWAGUCHIPHOTO

Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot. We all remember how as children, when we were having fun, we often forgot to eat or sleep. I believe that we can keep that attitude as adults, too. It's best not to tire the body with too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime.
All people who live long regardless of nationality, race or gender share one thing in common:None are overweight... For breakfast I drink coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon of olive oil in it. Olive oil is great for the arteries and keeps my skin healthy. Lunch is milk and a few cookies, or nothing when I am too busy to eat. I never get hungry because I focus on my work.. Dinner is veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean meat..
Always plan ahead. My schedule book is already full until 2014, with lectures and my usual hospital work. In 2016 I'll have some fun, though: I plan to attend the Tokyo Olympics!
There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65. The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago, when the average life-expectancy in Japan was 68 years and only 125 Japanese were over 100 years old. Today, Japanese women live to be around 86 and men 80, and we have 36,000 centenarians in our country. In 20 years we will have about 50,000 people over the age of 100...
Share what you know. I give 150 lectures a year, some for 100 elementary-school children, others for 4,500 business people. I usually speak for 60 to 90 minutes, standing, to stay strong.
When a doctor recommends you take a test or have some surgery, ask whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go through such a procedure. Contrary to popular belief, doctors can't cure everyone. So why cause unnecessary pain with surgery I think music and animal therapy can help more than most doctors imagine.
To stay healthy, always take the stairs and carry your own stuff. I take two stairs at a time, to get my muscles moving.
My inspiration is Robert Browning's poem "Abt Vogler." My father used to read it to me. It encourages us to make big art, not small scribbles. It says to try to draw a circle so huge that there is no way we can finish it while we are alive. All we see is an arch; the rest is beyond our vision but it is there in the distance.
Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it. If a child has a toothache, and you start playing a game together, he or she immediately forgets the pain. Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients: We all want to have fun. At St. Luke's we have music and animal therapies, and art classes.
Don't be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don't know when your number is up, and you can't take it with you to the next place.
Hospitals must be designed and prepared for major disasters, and they must accept every patient who appears at their doors. We designed St.... Luke's so we can operate anywhere: in the basement, in the corridors, in the chapel. Most people thought I was crazy to prepare for a catastrophe, but on March 20, 1995, I was unfortunately proven right when members of the Aum Shinrikyu religious cult launched a terrorist attack in the Tokyo subway. We accepted 740 victims and in two hours figured out that it was sarin gas that had hit them. Sadly we lost one person, but we saved 739 lives.
Science alone can't cure or help people. Science lumps us all together, but illness is individual. Each person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts. To know the illness and help people, we need liberal and visual arts, not just medical ones.
Life is filled with incidents. On March 31, 1970, when I was 59 years old, I boarded the Yodogo, a flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and as Mount Fuji came into sight, the plane was hijacked by the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. I spent the next four days handcuffed to my seat in 40-degree heat. As a doctor, I looked at it all as an experiment and was amazed at how the body slowed down in a crisis.
Find a role model and aim to achieve even more than they could ever do. My father went to the United States in 1900 to study at DukeUniversity in North Carolina. He was a pioneer and one of my heroes. Later I found a few more life guides, and when I am stuck, I ask myself how they would deal with the problem.
It's wonderful to live long. Until one is 60 years old, it is easy to work for one's family and to achieve one's goals. But in our later years, we should strive to contribute to society. Since the age of 65, I have worked as a volunteer. I still put in 18 hours seven days a week and love every minute of it.

i not stupid

the conversation below is between my 3.5 y.o. nephew & my forever young at heart 52 y.o. auntie:

cy: yipo, i want to eat butter & bread.

yipo: ok, come let's go to the kitchen.

(unfortunately yipo ran out of butter, only got cheese & she gave him cheese)

yipo: here's your bread & butter.

cy: (after a bite) yipo i not stupid, this is not butter. u are stupid.

yipo, of course laughed like a siow woman.

Debt Free!

What a great way to start off the new year! I just paid the remaining HDB loan and I am debt free!!!

忽然想起到建屋局签名的那一天，刚好《夕阳无限》已进剧场。

晚上见到郭生时还得意洋洋地问他：“你知道我今天花了十几万块钱买了什么吗？”

他一脸疑惑摇摇头。

“我住了20多年的房子。”

他哈哈大笑几声，然后很温柔的摸了摸我的头。

郭生，我终于把屋债还请了。

他一定会用他的招牌笑容回应我，然后很温柔的摸了摸我的头。

新年快乐 万事胜意

Cool New Graphics - MySpace/Friendster

First Day of the Year

Have never spent the 1st day of any new year so fruitfully.

SPY & i got up early to practice taiji in the Botanic gardens and there were many like minded people exercising there too! So good to start the year with wonderful Qi.

Then we unexpectedly met Hua Min with her family having fun at the Swan lake. The best part was they brought us to a Jap restaurant newly opened by spy's 学弟from NJC! It is located in the new wing basement of Centrepoint. Though the food is not fantastic but i love the tomato with special sauce served icy cold. Hmm yummy! And the guy happens to be very into taiji as well, so u can imagine spy talking n talking n talking..........

The blissful ending was i got to indulge in some family bonding -- a mahjong session with auntie, mum & sis haahaahaa.

What more can i ask for? Health, family, friends & good food!

Stay positive no matter what the newspaper and experts tell us!

HAPPY 2009! CHEERS!!!

WHY?

I am disgusted.

Disgusted with Straits Times for being such a tabloid.

Doubly disgusted with the way the ST & Newpaper delivered the news of this poor zoo cleaner, who, for some reasons, decided to kill himself by jumping into the lions’ den.

“More Exclusive photos in the Newpaper” screamed ST.

Is that the way to treat a fellow human being? What’s the point of showing so many photos if not for the sake of selling more papers?

I am disgusted. This is not the first time non will it be the last.

Hola! Como esta?

i actually wrote my Chilean friends a Christmas card in my very bad Spanish with the help of a phrase book i got for the trip.

since i will never see the card again, thot it will be nice to keep it here.

yah la very early for x'mas but South America very farrrrraway u know.

what's next?

Our investments are being poisoned by the Americans

Our food contaminated by the Chinese

What's next? Some nuclear power to poison our air????

Sigh.

Spy threw away my M&Ms chocolate (sob!) but this is nothing compared to the poor children suffering from kidney stones problem

Double sigh.

mission accomplished

i have just returned from Kunming delivering about 80kg of winter wear to the needy in the mountainous area.

it will be mission impossible or mission-very-expensive if not for the help of our taiji students.

the group of 13 of us packed all of the winter wear which i have collected into our luggage for our taiji training trip.

this is the painting given to me by one of the kids staying in the kunming mountain village.

my 1st cushion

wow, finally.
i have completed sewing my cushion cover!

see the cute dog bone button?

my first sewing lesson

i got bitten by the sewing bug when i chanced upon a beautiful piece of fabric in a little shop @ Queen street.

"i must make a dress out of this!" with this thought, i bought the fabric and asked my mum-in-law for help who used to own a small school teaching people how to sew.

last sunday was my first lesson! i wanted to sew a cushion cover with a cross stitch design.

three & a half hours of drafting, cutting and ironing, this is what i have achieved :
(yes, u are right, the 2 bigger pcs aren't ironed)

this sunday i will borrow j's sewing machine (my mum-i-l's is too professional a machine for me) and start sewing!

Mum's 71st in Colour

Mum's 71st BD

hee hee i know uncle Aloysius & some of u have been checking this space for my Chile trip update.

sorry it's taking such a long time........ being yixiunai does not mean i have all the time in the world tho i sometimes have :P

i have been busy with planning my mum's 71st birthday party and it went really well.
thanks to gusty relatives & friends who made the dinner really fun & memorable.

then i am also busy with collecting winter wear for the orphans in Kunming mountains.

i sent some emails out and received really good responds! my poor little 3-room flat is so full i have to put some of the bags in Chia Yu's extra room.

i am still sorting & writing captions for my Chile photos.
uncle Aloysius i promise very fast........

see my gorgeous mum's photos 1st la

Vancouver!

tomorrow is too late

If you're mad with someone , and nobody's there to fix the situation... You fix it . Maybe today, that person still wants to be your friend . And if u don't, tomorrow can be too late .



If you're in love with somebody , but that person doesn't know...
tell her/him. Maybe today, that person is also in love with you . And if you don't say it, tomorrow can be too late .



If you still love a person that you think has forgotten you...
tell her/him. Maybe that person has always loved you. And if you don't tell her/him today , tomorrow can be too late.



If you need a hug of a friend... ask her/him for it.
Maybe they need it more than you do. And if you don't ask for it today, tomorrow can be too late.



If you really have friends who you appreciate... tell them. Maybe they appreciate you as well. That if you don't and they leave or go far away today , tomorrow can be too late.





If you love your parents, and never had the chance to show them... do it . Maybe you have them there to show them how you feel. That if you don't and they leave today , and then tomorrow can be too late.

Cheap laugh

Somewhere in the universe:

A pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and itwon again.

The local newspaper read: PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT.

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.

The next day, the local newspaper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS.

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent.

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day: NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The bishop fainted. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10.

The next day the paper read: NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read: NUN ANNOUNCES...HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.
The bishop was buried the next day....

The moral of the story is.... Being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery ... and even shorten your life.

So be yourself and enjoy life..... Only worry about your own ASS not someone else's.....You'll be a lot happier and live longer!

these are my friends!

it is not easy to say that we are still friends since we first said 'hi' 20 years ago.

these are really precious photos and hopefully, we are still friends 20 years later.............

long live friendship!