My superhero

I was in the living room slouching on the sofa, wondering why Calefare on Channel 5 was so unfunny today, when my mum called to me from the kitchen to inform me that she found the source of "the leak". Erm, I didn't even know there was a leak. So I trooped into the kitchen to find her squatting right next to the cabinet beneath the sink. She's so ingenious, my mother. Her troubleshooting, which meant feeling the pipes, revealed the pipes could be leaking. As she started talking about calling the plumber, I started to lose interest and decided to make my way back to Calefare. I mean, what can we do now right? Just wait for the plumber lor.

BUT. The next thing I know, she's fumbling in the storeroom for something, and when I next check on her, she has a red basin of cement right on top of the sink! I'm like, mum, why in the world is there cement in the house? And she says, yar, got many colours, got pink, got grey, the last time I asked the contractor guy to leave some for me. And I'm speechless. The woman has mixed water with the powder, created some cement concoction, and effectively repaired this long crack running in between the perimeter of the sink and one part of the wall. Yes, apparently, it's not the pipes that's got the problem. It's the crack. Because she didn't give up and continued to troubleshoot (this time throwing water all over the sink to see how it would drip through), and found the real cause!!!

I could only say, mum, you are truly my Phua Chu Kang. Best in Singapore and JB, and some say, Punggol. You are my superhero.

Finding art and cars in the city

My list of must-dos at the Singapore Biennale. Well, only because I took photos at those places, and need an excuse to blog them. So, really, please don't trust my list!
1. Can't distinguish between illusion and reality? Don't tear your hair out. Instead, take a breather in the barber shop. Better still, try doing a Sadako through the mirror, or the lack of it. (At South Beach Development)

2. Seems like ethan mummy and I have no patience for video installations. But we're more fond of practising our rusty photojournalistic skills instead! Hence, if you get bored at any point at the South Beach Development, look for the lightbulbs illuminating the white boards that bear the description of the artwork. Then try playing with the lighting to shoot mood shots like these. Hand model: yours truly. Stylist/Photographer: ethan mummy.

3. When you see Ikea cupboards that invite you into what looks like a summer version of wintry Narnia, step inside without fear!!! Different sizes for the young and old, bound to please everyone!!! (actually that summery landscape is taken from Xiao Guilin and the Chinese Garden in Singapore...) [City Hall]

4. Two for the price of one: Gain entry into City Hall, and you can watch the F1 cars whiz by!!! FWAH!!! But errr...not sure whether you'll get to see them practising in the day from now on. Well, still, you never know. That is, if you're interested in F1! As far as I know, cars make males of all ages tick. Just like this mesmerised three-year-old leaning eagerly on the window sill, watching the cars skyrocket past the grandstand on the Padang. Oh, and I learnt a new name from him!

Ethan: Look mummy, spike house!

Ethan mummy: Yes!

Me: Eh, what's spike house?

Ethan mummy: The Esplanade... (and nope, no one taught him that. What creative vocab he has! I can so see that name in a locally written song...)

5. My all-time favourite exhibit at City Hall - the satellite map of the island of Singapore, spread over the floor. You can get a white sticker from the volunteers, write something on it, and paste it on a significant point on the map. Ethan has found his home in the east, and is pasting it there. I found my block too!!! So fun :)

Tattoo Colour

Time to intro new music. Everybody, this is thai band Tattoo Colour. Reg&Andie chanced upon them during their holiday in Bangkok, think they heard some gals screaming or something, went over and fell in like with their music. Tattoo Colour plays a really interesting blend of music - jazz, pop, a bit of ska I think, some fusion too I think (I'm so bad at reviewing music!)...They are also technically so good. Fwah. But anyways, if I could sum up their music...it would be like this:

Perfect music on a lazy Sunday morning, when you'd want to feel perky but not so totally awake. Awake enough to bob to some funky rhythm and bass lines, yet at the same time, relish the space to watch the world go by in peace. Like a refreshing cup of tea for me.

Check out their myspace. I'm just so glad maro bought their cd for me from bangkok!!! And I'm glad my bro unwrapped it when I left it lonely on my table, in my pile of unlistened cds

half of me

Half of me wants you to acknowledge, even if you can't see.

Half of me thinks for you, and all that you want to see.

All of me sees the outside that supposedly protects.

Some of me sees the inside that surely hopes the outside would never crack,

Crack and reveal, but perhaps heals.

I think, I can only wait. And carry on to feel.

For Cement Boy.

Sara Bareilles sings Many The Miles

For some reason, I can't embed this video in blogger.

Anyways, love this unplugged rendition of Many The Miles by Sara Bareilles.

Sara composes with the piano, nice stuff.

i seem to be the crisis queen

There is joke that goes around my office, about how I always kena the crisis cases. Well, it's not a joke, it's real. The list so far is like that:

Suicidal ideation

Glue-sniffing

Aggression

Gang fights

Parent-child physical fights

Child abuse (just recently)

And even, yes, even demon possession

Recently, colleagues have been saying "it's you leh, it's you lah..."

And apparently, there's a "dark cloud" that flits in and out of my cubicle (yes feli, even when you're gone, it seems to have returned!)

I don't know if being the crisis queen is a good or bad thing, but I thank God that He always provides at least 2 colleagues to be around for support, even after office hours. It's incredible, but it's true. I don't know how I would have done it alone.

What I would really like now is to be at the beach, sunbaking, and watching the waves roll in the sun. Even typing that previous statement is so soothing.

Yet, at the same time, it's not like I crave for it, because somehow my heart can't be settled until I am sure my client is in safe hands. But, I am glad that I can think of the beach, because it shows that I know how to take care of myself.

less found

I've been experiencing a kind of restlessness within me lately...something about not being part of this world. I've always been freaked out by the concept of eternity, and I've been praying for some kind of revelation from Him up there, because eternity is not supposed to be freaky. But somehow, I just can't reconcile with the fact that nothing ends in eternity, because everything ends here, wherever I am. So, to know that there is a place out there where nothing ends, kinda scares me. It's simply, unreal. I was looking through my messy pile of cds a few minutes back, and re-read some lyrics of Brooke Fraser. Somehow, "C.S. Lewis Song", which she wrote and sang so beautifully...spoke to me, but I don't know why...I need to ponder a little bit more...

If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy, I can only conclude that I was not made for here

If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary, then of course I'll feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared

Speak to me in the light of dawn

Mercy comes with the morning

I will sigh and with all creation groan as I wait for hope to come for me

Am I lost or just less found? On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?

Is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?

Cos my comfort would prefer for me to be numb

And avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become

For we, we are not long here

Our time is but a breath, so we better breathe it

And I, I was made to live, I was made to love, I was made to know you

Hope is coming for me

Hope, He's coming

The Genesis Project - A Christian Songwriting Festival

Every time I hear people say "I wrote this song after a breakup", I always think it's so darn cheesy. I mean, get a life dude. But now, I'm going to say the same. Yet at the same time, it's also not really the same. You know how when you say something and there's that uncomfortable nudge that presses against your heart? Yeah, that's how I feel when I say "I wrote this song after a breakup". I did write it after, but NOT because. And that's the difference. I wrote it because I was beginning to realise that I didn't need to belong to anyone except God my Father. Man was created to have a companion, and therefore it is only natural for us to yearn for one. However, I am starting to understand that I can only really "settle down" when I know ultimately that God is the one to whom I belong - no one else. On earth, I am only on loan to my partner, and this nugget of wisdom I gained from Darren and Mel's wedding sermon by that Methodist lady pastor (how out of the blue, but it only proves that God was speaking to me)...

And hence, this song started out with this verse that Chye Aik shared at a sermon...
"I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Psalm 27:13 (NKJV)

I Belong
V1
I'm just a sentimental freak
Standing at the crossroad of hello and goodbye
The further I walk the deeper I'm lost
Where do I begin
Where do I begin

V2
Give me a home where I belong
Somewhere this wild heart can stop running and breath
I need a place to end this insanity
Bring me back again
To where you begin

Chorus
Cos I belong, I belong to you
I belong, I belong to you
You've given me the sweetest hope that I could hold on to
You've given me eternity in my heart
In my heart

V3
I've found a place to lay my head
A sweet salvation for this darkest hour
I would have lost heart unless I'd believed
In your loving goodness
In this broken world

Bridge
I had to throw my faith in something I could not see
When I believed in what seemed like emptiness
You gave me security