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十个男人
七个傻　
八个呆　
九个坏
还有一个人人爱　
姐妹们跳出来
就算甜言蜜语　
把他骗过来
好好爱　
不再让他离开

In sickness and in health, till death do us part

There are nights I lie awake watching you sleep and I think to myself that my life is nothing without you. And with that thought, a deep sense of grief overwhelms me and I sob silently as you sleep. If there is one thing I have learnt these ten years together, it is not to take a single day for granted. All the joy and sorrow we have experienced have led me to understand that the only certainty in life is uncertainty.

So we celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary this 6 September, I ask myself what our ten years mean to me.  

Ten years is
... living with your chronic, progressive, painful inflammatory rheumatic disease and learning to cope with the sneaky attacks that give you excruciating pain and cripple your everyday life.

Ten years is
... having your parents live with us because I know your sense of responsibility is so strong that you cannot bear to have them live on their own.

Ten years is
... supporting you through your days as a postgraduate student and being so happy when you were conferred the doctoral title that people thought I was the one with the PhD!

Ten years is
... laughing at my stupid jokes every.single.time.

Ten years is
... being angry with people who belittle me and swearing to get even! 

Ten years is
... having complete faith in me and trusting my intuition about people.

Ten years is
... shopping with me at kate spade so often that all the sales people know you and greet you with a big smile!

Ten years is
... waking earlier than me on Sundays to cook so that I can have a delicious meal the minute I wake.

Ten years is
... queuing with me into the wee hours just because I had promised to get a Hello Kitty doll for a good friend.

Ten years is
... taking leave to accompany me on my PhD residentials twice a year and doing all the cooking and washing because you want me to focus on my studies.

Ten years is
...deciding to document my life in England even though photography is not your interest so that you can share the photos with my parents and they can have a glimpse of my life as a PhD student.

Ten years is
... making the effort to spend time with my parents and arrange dinner dates with my siblings.

Ten years is
... pretending not to see how fat I have grown and telling me ever so often that I'm smart and beautiful.

Ten years is
... crying with me when I shared about our infertility with church friends.

Ten years is
... supporting my decision not to attend church on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day because when our pastor asked all the mothers and fathers to stand, he makes me feel that we have the parts but not the goods and that cuts like a knife.

Ten years is
... going through the fertility treatment with me, learning to use needles and syringes and looking very sorry every time you give me an injection.

Ten years is
... agreeing to let me adopt a dog because you understand that our childlessness has left a big void in my heart.

Ten years is
... travelling for over an hour by bus and train from your work place to mine because you know that my work is a drag and seeing you after work is the highlight of my day.

Ten years is
... talking about our day face-to-face or via Skype every day for the last ten years because without that we cannot fall asleep.

Ten years is
... all the prayers, love and anger, hugs and kisses, laughter and tears, holding hands and heated quarrels, and more than words can say.

Ten years is you and me wrapped in happiness, joy and sorrow.
They are the best years of my life and I pray we have many, many more such blessed years together.

Happy anniversary, my dearest J! :) Every day, I thank God for you.

p.s. I love you to the moon and back.

37

I turned another year older a month back and wondered if my body clock is running out of time. There was a heightened sense of urgency and many a pensive thought.

J's present to me did cheer me up though. I'm carrying this tote on my trips to London and Lancaster this month. :) Love the words!

Things I have learnt at work

1) People here make a lot of personal calls. If we all had our own offices or rooms, I would not give a hoot about these calls. But. we. don’t. This office is, like many others, has an open concept. All of us (including the boss) are each assigned a cubicle whose partitions are not high. So everything you say or do is heard and viewed by everyone else. I do understand that some people need to check on their elderly parents/parents-in-law who are alone at home and others need to keep an eye on their young school-going children. But couldn’t they use their mobile phones and take the conversations outside? Seriously, do I really need to know that so-and-so’s parent has not eaten at 12 noon or that so-and-so’s son was traumatised because he had not learnt the words for his spelling and got an earful from his teacher? Even more ridiculous are the daily calls to the children’s teachers to check on their children’s well-being in school or to justify their children’s behaviour (usually misbehaviour). Sometimes, teachers really make the worst parents.

2) People love my food. I don’t mean the food I cook (I can’t cook to save my life!) but the food I eat. Whenever I have a meal in the pantry, someone is bound to come scrutinise my food and make one of the following exclamations, “Ooh! That smells so good!”, “Wow! You eat chilli?”, “What’s that you are eating? Nice?” It’s as if they have been deprived of food for eon and whatever I am eating is an oasis.

3) Conversation in the pantry stops immediately whenever I walk near the area. Apparently, people in this office cannot differentiate the sound of my footsteps from that of my boss. It amuses me no end when they find that it’s only me and resume their partying with relief. Actually, it’s terribly insulting for my boss. My shoes cost less than $50 while hers probably cost more than $500!

My cheap navy blue patent heels from Charles and Keith

Happy 9th!

My wedding anniversary presents came early this year. :)



This pouch fits my iPad. I love the two women smokers. Please don't ask why. ;)






Can you guess what this is?



It's the Abstract Signature Bow Velvet Marga. The color, design and material - I LOVE it to bits!

Random

Spotted in a hotel lobby. I get the 'R' button, it probably stands for 'redial'. But what about 'F'?



A bell jar of my favourite keropok! Heavenly!



A bowl of wanton mee but where is the wanton??



After 'digging' and 'stirring' around, I found ONE. One miserable looking wanton!
Is this oneton mee or wanton mee??
J suggested that the next time I order, I should say 'a bowl of wantonS mee, please'. Grrr!

Boutonnieres

I first noticed Kang Ji Hwan because of the boutonnieres he wore in the Korean drama 'Lie to Me'. I have never liked lapel pins but his boutonnieres look pretty!



So I asked J if he would consider wearing these. He surfed the Internet to see if these could be bought and to our horror, we discovered that one of these cost $28. In a spur of a moment, I told him he's not to buy them and that I will make them for him instead. I mean, it's just a flower cut out from a felt and some sewing right? Uh, how hard can it be?? *panic sets in*

Turns out it really wasn't too difficult. Thank God!



The eventual product. Not too shabby, yeah? :) I'm quite pleased. *beam*

J has an overseas conference in September. These should go well with his black business suit. I chose blue because J will probably wear his suit jacket with jeans. Maroon because he likes that colour.



Black button sewn at the back to match the colour of his jacket.



Oops, the colour is a little off here. His jacket is black and the flower a royal blue.



Kang Ji Hwan's boutonnieres get really fanciful but I don't think I will attempt to make these! Too complicated!



I love this one! Kinda reminds me of Hello Kitty's ribbon. I don't think many men can carry this off!

47

Happy National Day!

Pretty eh?

Don't waste that bread bag tie

First the clock, then the sofa and now it's the TV. Slowly but surely, they are coming to the end of their life span.

In preparation for the new TV, we used bread bag ties to sort out the different cables.

Good idea, isn't it? I learnt it from Pinterest. :)

Embracing messy hair

I have always wanted to bun up my hair but never knew how. My former boss used to come to work with her hair all bunned up and looking pretty. And I would think, 'God, I want to look that stylish when I'm in my 50s!'

Anyway, I rediscovered Pinterest the other day and chanced upon the sock bun. Literally, it's hair rolled into a bun using a sock! Search for 'sock bun' on Youtube and you will find many clips that show you how to do the bun.



My first attempt wasn't very good. You can see part of the black sock!



Second attempt looks better, yeah?



There's a lot of hair sticking out all over. I think with some pins, I should be able to achieve a neater look. J thinks there's nothing wrong even without pinning those strands down. Maybe it's time I learn to embrace a little messiness. :)

Keep calm

For a month, J's spanking new phone was naked with no protection.



Today, he finally used the iPhone case I bought in Sheffield.

*beam*

They all fall apart

After 5 years, things in the house are starting to fail us. :(



The clock
We didn't even notice it at first. After all, the clock is working well. But the calendar, whatever you call it, oh how it refuses to move. We thought the batteries had died so we tried changing them. Didn't work even though we tried several brands of new batteries. It's kaput. :(



The sofa
Oh we love our air sofa! It's called 'trunk'. I know, it's so weird right? But after 5 years, I still remember its name. I love that there is no armrest so we can seat 4 comfortably. The back of the sofa can be raised so you get a nice neck/head rest.



But the other day, my in-laws told us that the synthetic leather had cracked and there is this ugly slit right in the middle of the sofa. Actually, we had been warned that leather is not a good choice for a sofa that is to sit in a room that gets a lot of the morning sun. But when I see something pretty, logic and common sense escape me. Now, I have to pay a price for it. Boo hoo.

Rainy Saturday

We had this for breakfast today.

Sprite, vodka and fresh lychees

Refreshing!
It's a very simple drink to make, perfect for lounging around on a rainy day. :)

Shakespeare quotes coaster, part of a set of 6.

Wish I had bought more than a box. It would make a lovely gift!