Orange Cupcakes
They turned out with a rather brown look. After 'investigation', realised that I need to deduct few mins of baking time as was using a dark baking pan...

A ball of a time
Zorbing, a popular outdoor activity that 1st took off in New Zealand in the mid-90s, is now in Singapore.

It took close to 20 years to arrive; but better late than never!

Parenthood
Many a times, parents complain about their live-in maids, that the maids are not able to properly bring up their children. Oh pls.... the job and responsibility lies with the parents, and not maids or teachers or dogs or cats. Pls use your brain cells (if you can find any) and realise who are to blame, if anything goes wrong.

When we bring life to a child, we need to ensure that we nurture him/her to be an independent thinking adult. We need to set some boundaries where there should be; and yet provide the necessary freedom for him/her to grow, be self-accountable and learn from his/her own actions. It is this "freedom" that I am not ready yet. I refuse to be a parent who answer to the child's questions by saying "when you are older, you will know lah". Oh pls, if "when you are older, you will know lah", then now that I am "older", why don't I know what 4D number to buy?

The Innocent
More often or not, the innocent_lookings are the deadliest. Is it because of us ourselves not taking precautionary measures?

Do not judge a book by its cover. Especially if the cover indicates that it is a wordy classic literature, the Ah Pek at Chinatown cinema could actually be holding a copy of playboy...

Getting Married vs Having a wedding
What is meant by getting married and what is meant by having a wedding? When you think about getting married, do you visualize a grand/white wedding?

Wedding, to me, is but a celebration event. In fact, (being the nerding old me) per dictionary definition, wedding is indeed a celebration ! How often do we hear about people delaying marriage because they cannot afford a wedding? Oh please... if you are so happy getting married to your "darling", do you still need to spend all the effort and money to have a wedding? Getting married to "the one" - this action itself- is enough bliss and happiness on it's own.

In fact, marriage (based on laws of Singapore) is but a piece of paper which confirms that both parties are of different sex (same sex marriage is not legal here..), knows how to hold a pen and have a identification card/passport. And of course, it does serve many functions such as to claim for dependent's benefits for your spouse, from your employer (ha!)

"Growing old together" is what the 3 words are i.e. "growing old together". See... no 'marriage certification' is mentioned!

What is needed is our own brain cells telling us that we made this decision to be together; and not a piece of paper. To be pessimistic, locked with a marriage certification, polygamy continues.

Many people seems to have dreams of a 'wonderful' wedding; (i want to repeat this again) my dream is "NOT to have a wedding"

Live to Work .... or Work to Live?

Sumiko mentioned that 2nd week into her leave, she started to miss her colleagues and dressing up each morning to set off for work, and missed her cubicle life.

A familiar repetitive routine does give me comfort, however, I didn't/don't think that such a routine is restricted to working. We can always set up routines to (part of) our lives if we want to, example: go marketing on alternate mornings, go exercise, go visit old folks' homes, go take up a course etc Hey, if want to, can even set the alarm clock and wake up every day to make breakfast.

Many a times I agree with her grumbling; sometimes I don't. But hey, that's the fun part - to have diversity and to hear/see how different people can react differently to the same situation.

We don't need others to agree with all our opinions; what's important is that we do think and have opinions of own own. What is sad is not that we have a bad opinion but if we do not have an opinion...