Turtle Channel!!!

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife. Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad. Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

Sam is a seagull. He's not just any seagull. He's a seagull with a penchant for Doritos. In fact, he loves it so much that he steals it from the shop every week. He's got the stealing down to a fine art. First, he waits to see that there's no one around. Then he checks to see that the store employee is behind the till : too far to run after him. Finally, he quickly darts in, grabs a bag of Doritos (and makes sure it is Cheese Doritos) and darts back out again!

He only likes the cheese-flavoured Doritos. Here's a video of Sam in action:

Free eye cream and lip gloss for us!!

Ye Chow and I had our research paper to the sensor technology conference in New Zealand accepted. So in November this year, he will be giving a talk on multi-layer perceptron and radial basis function states observer in Palmerston North. He will be stopping by Melbourne first for work and visiting his sis.





I had hoped to travel with him to Melbourne and then to NZ, AND have a great holiday with him in NZ. It would also have been good to see Subhas, Sunil and Serge again (who will all be there) but this will not be possible.





This is because our other research paper to a separate conference held at exactly the same time in a completely different country was ALSO accepted, which means I have to be the presenter for the other one since Ye Chow can't be in 2 places at the same time!

So it looks like he will be enjoying the beautiful scenery in NZ while I will be facing crowds in a busy city. There goes my "dream" of a holiday.

I am a self confessed klutz. I bump into just about anything. I have fallen down the staircase so many times that you would think I never really learnt to walk when I was a child. I still walk into the door on the occasional mornings when my eyes refuse to open. I have brushed my teeth with facial wash by accident before. More painful is the fact that I have smashed my toes against the side of the bed, through the opening and closing of doors, on chair legs and on closet doors more times that I can count. As a result, my legs and toes are almost always bruised at some spot or other.

Yes, I am a klutz. It's true. If there were a support group for clumsy people, I should probably sign up immediately.

Seeing that I am perpetually clumsy, Ye Chow talked me out of purchasing a four poster bed. I had my heart set on one, I always wanted a four poster bed!!! I want one!!!! But he kept reminding me that even without a post, I have been smashing my toes. If we had FOUR posts on our bed, I might lose a leg.

So we opted for the safest choice: A dumpling bed. The bed is white, and completely puffed up. The divan is a huge flat square surface to protect the mattress (which is very expensive - we got a good one coz we have been sleeping on crappy ones since we got married and our backs are killing us) . The sides of the bed are puffed up and bouncy, so that if I walk into the side, I will get no bruises. And head board is also puffed up and bouncy so that we can sit and read in bed very comfortably. Yes. It's a dumpling bed!

So I exchanged my luxurious 4 poster bed for a childish looking dumpling bed. But you know what? I really like the dumpling. A lot! It's great, it's comfy and it doesn't bruise me! More importantly, we got a couple of nice gifts to go with our bed. We got (for free) a nice 2 seater foot stool for the foot of the bed, and a couple of goose feather pillows! They are really comfortable!!!! Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to try out the bed and pillows and foot stool. That's coz I haven't moved into my new house yet. Apparently it's bad luck to move during the ghost month (which is now) and very good luck to move in after the ghost month (which is the 8 month in the Chinese calendar). So we're still waiting to enjoy our new house and our new bed.

So there you go. A klutz gets a dumpling bed. A princess gets a 4 poster bed. Guess which one I am?

Since we were already there, we decided to stay until midnight to watch the fireworks (it was already 11.15pm by the time we got in, and 11.45 pm by the time we bought the boots). It turned out to be an absolutely spectacular 10 minute display of fireworks. It was fantastic. Marilyn said she felt like she was in a dream. Indeed we were wishing we got a hotel room nearby (where Marilyn's dad could get a 70% discount) so that we could be closer to the view without having to face the crowds!

After the fireworks ended, they played the liberty song, and everyone was singing and shouting accordingly! The atmosphere was so pumped up and happy that I began to feel warm all over and so very proud of my country! It's Independence Day! It's our National Day! 50 years of Independence and the chants and songs really made me feel so very connected with my fellow countrymen.

At about 12.30am, we walked into Ikea and did some more shopping. Marilyn bought a soft and fluffy baby blue throw for her sofa. Then we walked out to the stalls that were set up alfresco just outside the mall. There, I almost bought a kimono. Marilyn loved it too! Too bad they didn't accept credit cards. Anyway, we may go to Time Square (where their shop is located) to buy the kimono in future, probably during Christmas or something. We can always take a train there to avoid having to drive through traffic. We shall see.

1. buck teeth
2. awful hair
3. pimply
4. huge specs
5. bad posture
6. extremely skinny
7. pitifully undersized
8. socially impaired or disabled
9. giggles non-stop
10. talks very loudly and with false enthusiasm
11. tends to talk about themselves
12. asks strange questions about you
13. stares at you unflinchingly for long periods of time
14. has Grandma buying his clothes for him (i.e. clothes that even Mom won't buy)

I have just recently attracted another weird guy (my 5th one so far), who happens to know I am married but still doesn't seem to back off.

He waltzed into my office one day, happily telling me that he read about me in a magazine and wanted to introduce himself. He did. Then he started talking about his father, his life, his studies etc etc. All while I am busy doing work. Worst of all, he has really BAD body odour. I had to stop breathing to keep from choking to death.

He refused to leave my office. He sat down in one of the chairs and proceeded to stare at me when he ran out of things to say. After about 20 minutes of awkward silence interspaced with bad conversation about his life, I decided to tell him I was busy. He went "Oh, what are you busy with?" After hearing my reply, he proceeded to tell me everything he is busy with too. In the end, I had to MSN my colleague to come to my office and invite me for a meeting so that I had an excuse to kick him out.

My office smelled like a dead rat for 2 days. Everyone who entered my office complained about the stench. Arrgghh...

This weird guy kept visiting my office. Every time he pays me an unwanted visit, he would talk about something happy in his life and several times punched the air with his hands in a victory dance over some happy incidences in his life (e.g. an accepted conference paper, a holiday, an accepted journal paper etc etc). It's just so weird. He even tries to get me to talk about my spouse sometimes. I never facillitate him, because I don't like talking about personal stuff when at the office. Sometimes I wonder if the reason he keeps coming to me is because he has no friends.

We moved to a new office a couple of months ago. My new office is right next to my spouse's office. So now he visits me a lot less (GREAT!!)

Anyway 2 days ago, I went for a seminar with my female colleague and there he was sitting 4 rows in front of us. This weird guy kept turning around and STARING. My female colleague got freaked out. After about 20 minutes of periodically whipping his head around and staring for 3-4 minutes (i wonder why he didn't get a neck lash), he got up from his seat and moved to the seat in front of me.

I freaked out. I left immediately. My female colleague later told me that another colleague of ours asked her where I went, and the weird guy appeared to be eaves-dropping. She told him VERY LOUDLY that I went to call my Husband. Hahahaha.....

Thank God for friends like her!

Sometimes I swear I have a sign on my forehead that says "I am attracted to you" that happens to be only visible to geeks and freaks.

Lost in a sea of blue skies
Lie in the grass
That grows wild beneath my thighs
I guess it's summer time.

Winter had passed
As did the lies and truth,
I'm frozen inside
Yet seasons still renew
Perhaps the sun will shine through.

Let it fill my heart with its warmth
Let it feed my soul that I had scattered so long ago.
I'll fly away
Lost in a dream.
Help me redeem.

Lost in a maze of vanity
Seeking the pleasures
That never quenches my thirst
I thirst for more each time.

I heard a voice, so distant yet so clear.
It repeated the words
That I just refused to hear
A stubborn mind...
A deaf ear.

And yet is beckons me, here and now.
And it fills my soul that I had scattered so long ago.
I've lost myself
Chasing dreams.
Chasing in vain.

I wonder why my feet headed home.
It's been far too long
Yet somehow that's where I long to go
I've searched far and wide, yet it's here
All that I need,
Here in this sun
And in this rain
I live again.

Lost in a sea of blue skies,
Lie in the grass
That grows wild beneath my thighs.
Yes, it's summer time.

We have been quite broke recently, so we aven't actually gone out to eat a nice meal in ages. Actually since we have gotten married, we haven't gone out as a couple to a restaurant to have a nice meal.

Today, we decided to cook a nice lunch. I really missed Italian food, so it's pretty nice to have a good spagetti for lunch. We bought a nice honey mustard cream sauce from Australia, and decided to use it. We had mushrooms, mince meat, chicken ham and garlic mixed with the sauce. I also added cheese, white and black pepper to spice it up. Then we washed some fresh organic lettuce to partake with our lunch.

After some nice decoration on the plate, it looks like a restaurant level dish. I enjoyed it immensely, probably because I cooked it :)

What do you think? Does it look nice?