middle-earth maniac

while browsing through the shelves of kinokuniya last month for some read-worthy material, i picked up The Battle for Middle-earth, a literary commentary which aims to prove that LOTR is a theological narrative.

in the book, the author paints JRR Tolkien as a deeply religious writer and draws many parallelisms between LOTR and the Bible.

the observations were most interesting. plus it made a fair bit of sense. (i'm not a christian though my 10 years in catholic school exposed me to the old and new testaments in the Bible.)

it was the sort of analytical stuff that i had to plough through over a decade ago when i was an english literature undergraduate. back then, of course, the stress was to complete the readings in a short span of time.

not surprisingly, it's reignited my interest in the original novel. i'm ashamed to admit that while i'd picked up The Hobbit when i was 13, i found it quite a frightful bore then. peter jackson's magical print-to-screen treatment of LOTR hooked me completely. i vividly recall rushing to buy the books just before (or is it after?) The Two Towers hit the cinemas in december 2002.

ahhhhh...

all this nostalgia has prompted me to reach for the yellowed copy of the first LOTR volume The Fellowship of the Rings, which i'm re-reading now at leisure - lingering on every word, phrase and description, savouring the text in its entirety.

i don't think i'll EVER grow bored of LOTR, be it the novels, films, toys or memorabilia.

House of Hogwarts

Sort me!

i'm not really surprised though i was secretly hoping to end up in Gryffindor so that i can be in league with harry, ron, hermione, ginny, neville and the fabulous weasley twins (these two are my favourite characters). :P

p.s. thanks dev for posting this in your site!

vegemum

i'm embarking on a new "more greens" diet in a bid to be healthier - basically this means i'm supposed to eat MORE vegetables.

it takes supreme effort to crunch on salads as i'm a meatosaurus by nature and usually avoid vegetables if possible.

but age has caught up and recently i've found cause to modify my eating habits.

today the campus was abuzz with activities - there was a healthy lifestyle promotion along the concourse area. free apples, milo and fat-free ice-cream were given away. there were also stalls selling sports shoes and healthy bread/snacks from five loaves.

so i bought a tofu burger for S1.50.

have never tried one before so i was naturally curious.

it didn't taste too bad, actually.

but it'll take me a looooooooooooooooooooooong time to become a vegetarian.

1B20 2007

introducing the class of 1B20, my caregroup:

the picture was taken last thursday after the captain's ball "friendly" match against another class. the kids fielded 2 teams - 1 crashed out in the round robin match while the other made it to the finals on saturday (though they didn't win).

a bunch of great kids.

it's a real pity i only teach them once a week for about 50 minutes (a compulsory, core module on moral-character education which is non-examinable) so i don't really have the opportunity to get to know them better.

the wait is (sort of) over

i can't wait to get my hands on the last Harry Potter novel - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!


unfortunately for me, it's available only in hard cover and my peculiar habit of buying books of the same series (in this case, all my other 6 harry potter books are in soft cover, the Bloomsbury children's edition) prevents me from buying one to satisfy my curiosity.

and to milk the galleons for what it's worth, the brilliant publishers will only release the soft cover version sometime next year. a typical marketing ploy, since the hard cover book costs about S$50 while the soft cover is less than half that price.

eager as i was to find out the fate of my favourite characters, i did the unspeakable: googled to get the spoilers!!!
ARGH!

in J.K. Rowling's 607-page-finale, one of the red-haired family members died, along with at least a dozen good guys.
i'm completely, utterly devastated. to be frightfully honest, i was prepared for some major deaths, but when i read the list of causalities from the net, i had to stifle a cry.

SOB! SOB! SOB!

anyway, i'm now 11th in queue for the book at the school's library. should have thought about making a reservation earlier, but it didn't occur to me that the library would stock copies of it (they have 2) and now both books have 10 people (each) waiting to read the end of the harry potter saga.

at this rate, i'll only get to read the details next year. will just have to see which comes first - the soft cover version or the library one. :(

no rice please

i'm writing this down to remind myself NEVER to EVER eat rice during lunch.

especially so when i have to teach after that because i'm way too full and bloated to concentrate on my lessons.

and my eyelids grow heavier and heavier and heavier...

it's an awful feeling.

NO MORE RICE FOR LUNCH!

arif's 1st beach trip

after several discarded plans over the past few weekends to bring our 5-month-old puppy arif to the beach, we finally succeeded on saturday.

we nearly didn't make it again as we'd all gone to bed late the previous night and woke up only at 10am. :(

but the sky was blue and clear, and the sun was shining brightly - which prompted the hub to suggest we head for the beach with arif. the only snag was that xian's weekly swimming class starts at 5pm so we only had a few hours to rush to the beach and back in time for lunch and her class.

so after a late breakfast of roti prata at our regular serangoon gardens eatery and running a series of errands, we hurriedly drove back to get changed into our swimsuits.

arif must have sensed our excitement as he was whining and running around in his space. hub then attached the leash to his collar and arif got into the back of our zafira. actually, that's another reason why we got the MPV! we can fold down the extra seats and convert that boot space into a comfy, spacious sitting area for prince arif!

according to the owners of the australian pet farm where he was born, arif enjoyed car rides very often - about once a week. the hub has also taken arif to the vet twice in the MPV so arif automatically knows his own "seat".

we decided to go to pasir park because it was the closet to our home we didn't have much time to drive out to the other beaches. the hub had initially wanted to visit tanjong beach in sentosa but the travelling time and distance were unfavourable, keeping in mind that xian's swimming lessons start at 5pm and it was almost 1pm when we set off.

we had decided to have a late lunch since we had a heavy breakfast, but i didn't want the kids to eat too late either as that would upset their timing. heh, we ended up eating at 3pm!

once we reached our destination, the girls clambered out quickly. i morphed into a trigger-happy mumsy (as usual) and snapped numerous pictures of arif, the girls and hub. then the hub, xian and arif ran to the beach while i followed behind with wen who was scampering about on her short(er) little legs and trying her level best to catch up with them!

actually i was rather surprised to find the park/beach rather quiet and not very crowded. i suppose it was still too early in the day for families to walk their dogs in the park. and definitely inappropriate for a BBQ meal. :)

xian's goal was to build a sandcastle, so she started digging and moulding the sand into the shape of a hill. meanwhile, arif was merrily sniffing about the grass patch, obviously elated to be out running in the open space.

of course, we still kept him on a leash as required by law. plus, he's a relatively big dog (although not yet fully-grown) and may scare people off.

dogs are natural swimmers and just last weekend, while hub was cleaning his 2 metre-deep koi pond, arif dashed through the gates, jumped in and was happily swimming with the fishes until hub helped him back up the platform. we assumed that arif would have fun at the beach.

now, pasir ris park doesn't have a fantastically clean beach and the muddy water was even less inviting, but that didn't stop arif from bounding enthusiastically into the sea...

SPLASH!

SPLASH!!

SPLASH!!!

SPLASH!!!!

SPLASH!!!!!

ooooops.

bad mistake.

poor arif didn't realise how deep the waters were until he waded off too far from shore!

arif panicked and, according to the hub, drank some sea water! thankfully the leash was still on and the hub managed to pull him back safely to the beach.

after the adventurous stunt, our little daredevil was very much subdued. a badly-shaken arif refused to set one paw into the shallow waters.

the hub patted arif and spoke in a reassuring tone to calm him down. after 10 minutes, my ever-patient hub managed to gently coax and guide him back to the edge of the beach to help him overcome his shock/fear. arif gradually became less fearful and allowed the hub to lead him back into the sea although he would quickly turn back to dry land after paddling out 3m from shore.

in the meantime, my two girls were enjoying themselves - oblivious to the drama that was unfolding nearby.

wen's a brave little one and she constantly insisted on wading out deeper and deeper until i had to carry her back! xian was contented with playing with sand and occasionally left her sand pit to root, cheer and provide moral support to arif in the water.

after a while, the 2 princesses clambered back onto the beach and started to build sandhills. then arif spotted them and decided to join them.

of course he didn't really want to 'pile up' the sand. arif climbed onto of the girls' sandhill and proceeded to flatten it. then his instincts commanded him to dig and so a new competition began!

it was heartening to see that arif was back to his playful mood and he became fully absorbed with his new sand-digging game. the hub laughed and commented that arif behaved as if he's digging a bone buried deep underground.

we spent a total of 45 minutes altogether at pasir ris park. i think we all had a fairly good time although arif had a rather nasty shock initially. despite the little hiccup, we'll continue to bring him to the beach. and hopefully, we'll have more time to plan for our next trip, preferably to tanjong beach where there'll be other dogs to keep him company.

double-u-tea-af

ARGHHHHHHHHHHH...

i bloody lost my ezlink card. AGAIN.

i dropped it in the cab last night when the driver had suddenly jerked forward while i was taking out my wallet to pay for the cab fare and a few contents spilt out. i must have bloody missed the card while groping for the rest of the stuff in the dark.

of course, i didn't realise it was missing until this morning when i set off to work. what pissed me off even more is that it's a bloody NEW card. i had bought it to replace an old one which was expiring. my $7.00 deposit for the card is gone, together with a stored value of about $15.00.

i'm now in an ultra foul mood because i'm upset with myself for being so careless. bloody hell.

i need some chocolate. like bloody NOW!!! :(

Love Thy Pet

there's a Veterinary Care Seminar organised by The Singapore Kennel Club coming up on 27 july 2007, friday at NUS:

the hub had printed out the flyer from the website and i think he's keen to attend the event. the topics seem quite interesting: Behavioural Medicine, Caring for Your Aged Pet, Canine Dermatology: Allergies Affecting Our Dogs.

pet owners could consider making their way down to NUS for the seminar. details as follow:

Veterinary Care Seminar

Date: 27 July 2007, Friday

Time: 7.00pm - 9.00pm

Venue: NUS, Science Faculty, LT 22

SKC Member: $5.00

Non-SKC Member :S$10.00

of toys and books

i've never been an ambitious person and from the looks of things, don't think i ever will. the hub sometimes laments that i don't seem to have the drive to make more money even though i don't need much encouragement to spend them on my toys and books.

to me, i work because i enjoy having a purpose in life. and that doesn't necessarily equate to earning a $120k annual salary (i can't even sniff half of that amount). but even if i did have my money, i'm quite sure i'll still only splurge on 2 things: toys and books.

when i was a child, i collected strawberry shortcake (now called "vintage") and smurf miniature figurines - of course now they're all packed in boxes as i don't have anywhere to display them since i've outgrown the cute little figurines and moved on to the awesome LOTR ones by toybiz.

my other treasure is my collection of books. growing up, times and mph bookshops were my regular haunts. (i even wanted to work in bookshops so that i'd have free books to read.) i still do keep all my enid blyton and sweet valley high (yes, to my great embarrassment i used to read the latter) books. my shelves are stocked with various authors - it shouldn't come as a big surprise to anyone since i was an english literature major and had tonnes of reading to do. acquiring the skill to read/analyse/dissect 1 novel a week was crucial in order to keep pace with the professors.

these days, i lurk around the passages of kinokuniya, borders and sometimes popular book store for new gems, and lately http://www.acmamall.com/. my current obsession is dr seuss books and i'm trying to create my own dr seuss library for the kids (and myself). here's what i have so far...

Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) books:

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
*The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
*The King's Stilts
*The Seven Lady Godivas
Horton Hatches the Egg
McElligot's Pool
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
If I Ran the Zoo
Scrambled Eggs Super!
Horton Hears a Who!
On Beyond Zebra!
If I Ran the Circus
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories
Happy Birthday to You!
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Green Eggs and Ham
The Sneetches and Other Stories
Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book
Dr. Seuss's ABC
Hop on Pop
Fox in Socks
I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew
*The Cat in the Hat Song Book
The Foot Book
*I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories
*My Book about ME
*I Can Draw It Myself
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises!
The Lorax
Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
There's a Wocket in My Pocket!
Great Day for Up!
*Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
*The Cat's Quizzer
I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!
Oh Say Can You Say?
*Hunches in Bunches
The Butter Battle Book
*You're Only Old Once! : A Book for Obsolete Children .
I Am NOT Going to Get Up Today!
Oh, the Places You'll Go!
*Daisy-Head Mayzie
*Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!
*My Many Colored Days
*Gerald McBoing-Boing

Dr Seuss Books writing as Theo. LeSieg (that's Geisel spelt backwards):

Ten Apples up on Top!
*Come over to My House
*In a People House
Wacky Wednesday
*Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog?
Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him!
*Maybe You Should Fly A Jet! Maybe You Should Be A Vet!
The Tooth Book
The Eye Book
I Wish that I Had Duck Feet
Please Try to Remember the First of Octember!
*The Many Mice of Mr. Brice.
*I Can Write

*denotes the books i haven't gotten yet!

yup, nearly there in completing the dr seuss collection.

and just yesterday, i signed up for a borders' preferred card which entitles me to 10% off purchases. woooo-hooooo!!! it also means i'll have more reason to get comfy and cosy at borders. plus they've got a wonderful area for young kiddies too so i can my rascals along and read to them as well!

one other weird fact: i'm extremely fussy about my books - they've got to be from the same publisher with the same themed design cover. this adds a bit of thrill, and at times frustration, when i'm missing a title from the series and it's available only in a different edition that's available at the store. then it becomes a great adventure for me while i browse through all the various bookshops in search of that one particular edition...it may take me weeks, even months or years to get hold of it. but i'd rather bide for time.

just like how i'll (im)patiently wait for the soft cover version of the new harry potter book, knowing that it'll only appear in stores a year after they publish the hard cover version. that will probably be in 2008.

BAH! i'm eccentric.

i know. :P

irony

the hub and i attended a mutual friend karen's wedding dinner this evening at pan pacific hotel. we'd known her since our NUS days and were expecting to meet up with a few of our ex-hostel mates. today the kids didn't come along - they'd been invited of course, but we decided to leave them at home so that we could peacefully enjoy savouring the dishes without having to take turns entertaining them and gobbling up cold food.

it was supposed to be one of our rare night-outs without the children.

as it turned out, i actually MISSED their presence.

seated at our table were 3 other young children - all girls. 2 belonging to Jimmy and Eileen, the other, SH's. if we had brought monsterina and rascalrella along, it would have been a riot! as i watched the kids playing (and occasionally giving their respective parents grief) i grew rather bored and my mind started wondering about what troubles my offspring were getting into at home...

after pleasantries were exchanged, i wasn't much in the mood to start a conversation with fellow guests at the table (although we've known each other for over a decade, they were more of hub's friends and i'd nothing much in common with them). within the first ten minutes, i regretted not bringing the girls along. in fact, i was enjoying myself as much as the banquet waitress who had trouble getting our drink orders correct - she even whisked away the hub's unfinished glass of red wine when he walked over to chat with more old friends at the next table.

if nothing else, i think i'd even have more fun being frustrated with xian for not eating her vegetables (she doesn't eat anything green) and being annoyed with wen for kicking off her shoes and running around the ballroom barefooted - as she did at the last wedding dinner.

unfortunately, my princesses weren't there to distract me from the drudgery of wedding dinners which often drag for far too long. i hadn't realised this of course, since the girls have been with us for virtually every wedding we'd been invited to since they were born. there's always a sense of achievement if we succeed in coaxing xian to eat something, even if it's half a bowl of noodles / a chicken wing / fish and 3 pieces of shredded carrots. my expectations for wen are even lower: as long as she sits quietly through the first 2 dishes AND keeps her shoes on till the end of dinner, i'm satisfied.

perhaps it's also because i'm in a different phase of life. i used to oooooohhh and aaaaaaaaahhhh at the bride's lovely gowns and immaculate make-up, professionally recorded videos and wedding photos. (karen looked ravishing of course - even in a simple t-shirt and shorts she's such a hot chick.) these days, i glance quickly at the menu to make a mental note of what's edible for the kids and look forward to the dessert.

anyway, by the time the noodles arrived (the second last dish on the menu) there were only 4 of us left at the table (the other kids, their parents plus a few others had all left). a real pity since the noodles were rather tasty. the hub and i actually contemplated asking for a doggie bag to takeaway the almost untouched noodles. we didn't of course. it would have been too embarrassing to thank the wedding couple for hosting the banquet while clutching takeaway carriers - plus all evidence would have been caught on their video/photos.

it was a well-planned dinner as there were no major glitches. but throughout dinner, i felt a little emptiness which i wasn't expecting. once the hub and i finished our second helping of mango pudding, we were only too glad to make our way back home. by the time we returned, it was 11.30pm - and the girls were still awake, evidently waiting for us.

the moment i stepped into their room, their faces lit up. wen clung on to my legs and xian hugged me. and in the split second i embraced them, i realised that i missed them much much more than i ever imagined.

rated G

ahem...



yeah, should have known since i don't use much expletives here.

renewed family ties

boy, am i glad it's friday!

this whole week's been a real mad rush. i was on a 2-full day (9am to 5pm) external training course at the civil service college but had to rush back to work on the 2nd day to facilitate the school's workshop from 6-9pm.

then i returned to work on wednesday for my full teaching load plus extra make-up sessions and another round of 3-hour workshop session in the evening.

and unfortunately, my thursday and friday timetables included 9am classes, which meant that my brain had to start cranking up way before my physically fatigued form did.

suffice to say any activity in my brain cells is going the way of the sabre-toothed tiger.

i really need to recharge the batteries this weekend.

nevertheless, it's been a fully enriching week. i managed to squeeze some time out to catch transformers with the hub and xian, visit the ol' right hand's newborn son at the hospital and won a bid for Deluxe Horse and Rider Set Arwen and Asfaloth on www.ebay.co.uk (which will temporarily stay with my trusty lieutenant) at a cost of £14.74.

all right, if you don't already know, i'm still obsessed with my LOTR collection even though toybiz has stopped churning out new figurines since 2005.

but what made my week extra special was that i'm now in touch with my cousins through MULTIPLY, thanks to my aunt who's hooked us up through this channel.

the importance of fostering family ties never occurred to me when i was younger. but now that i'm in my 30s, married with 2 children of my own, i suddenly realise that having a supportive network of loved ones, friends and relatives is crucial especially when one's emotional well-being is concerned.

it's been YEARS since i last kept in contact with xx though i occasionally sms her brother who recently migrated to new zealand with his family. i'm ashamed to admit that i don't really know much about xx. we're almost complete strangers. she's always been a bit shy/quiet and we hardly communicated while growing up. so it's quite heartening to see that she's opened up a little.

i look forward to catching up with her - to me, it's never too late to renew family ties.

ooh, somebody stop me!

it's JULY already!

every month, the same thing happens. i get all upset over how time speeds by, vow to accomplish more significant achievements within the month, fail miserably then grumble and moan about it publicly.

the month of june came and went
with a great deal of money spent
no thanks to a trip overseas
and a few minor shopping sprees...

apologies. i'm in a rambling mood.

the so-call great singapore sale is still on but i'm not really impressed. perhaps it's because i haven't really gone shopping at the major malls. and even though it was my birthday month in june, and i was entitled to 20% off my purchases at selected retail outlets, i didn't really maximise these offers. my major credit card killers were mainly from http://www.ebay.com/, the body shop, kinokuniya and http://www.acmamall.com/ (i stocked up on dr.seuss books on at the last 2). i also bought some clothes for the girls and birthday presents for my nieces and nephew.

and then, of course, little prince arif gamboled into our lives. the hub and i coughed out 2k each for the puppy. technically, arif's purchase has got nothing to do with the gss. he wasn't really on sale.

to add insult to injury, i foolishly destroyed my credit limit further by adding 2 more rare LOTR figurines to my expanding collection on friday through ebay - a very detailed rohirrim soldier and a hideous uruk-hai leader ugluk. a £22.50 damage approximately equivalent to S$71.00. still, it was steal! in singapore, both toys would cost about S$50 each as loose figurines, and probably more if they're in mint condition. and as usual my lieutenant will keep them safe in UK first:



methinks the hub's gonna stab himself with a spoon till he faints when he receives the credit card bill very very very soon.