Bug in my Soup

This post is titled as such because I've just fished out a dead bug from my bowl of wanton soup which I've ordered from this cafe where I am surfing the net from.

But I've decided to go ahead and eat my soup. After all, if the bug's in a bowl of piping hot soup, it would've been cooked anyway. In fact, I could've eaten the bug if I wanted to. What's the difference between cooked chicken and cooked bug? Anything that you take in is eventually broken down to carbon, if you get what I mean.

Unless the bug only fell in while the waiter was delivering the soup to me, somewhere along the way from the kitchen to my table. Okay, I better stop pursuing this point, or I might decide to abandon my soup altogether.

So it's been almost a week since I arrived at KL. So how's Malaysia like? Well, I've not been here for years, but I feel quite at home. Things move at a slower pace than in Singapore. People don't seem to be in a hurry all the time. There's also much more space here and you feel freer. Of course, the walls around the malls are not as polished as those in Singapore, people just dump their rubbish openly in front of the shops and the traffic seems more chaotic, but there's just this freedom and openess about things.

There's a school in front of our house. At 2.30pm, school dismisses and everybody (yes, EVERYONE, including the teachers) go home. This is so unlike Singapore.

I've been busy helping to take care of my granny who just had a minor stroke. She's rather alert, only that she's unable to talk. We suspect it might be because she's taken out all her dentures. So maybe one day, we will put them back, and voila, she would be able to speak again!

I've also met so many of my relatives that I've not seen for ages. Now, I have the company of two very interesting aunts -- my 1st aunt, who's a TV addict. She spends her free time, watching all the HK and Taiwanese soaps on cable TV (called Astro here). When I sit down in front of the TV with her, she always switches the audio to Mandarin but I tell her to switch it to Cantonese with Chinese subtitles so I can learn some Cantonese. It's a dialect I really wish to learn.

Then of course, my very resourceful 4th aunt who runs the house so effectively and she's helping me a lot with my visa matters too.

I've also met my precocious 4-year old cousin for the first time. She's the daughter of my Dad's youngest brother. My Dad's the eldest in a family of ten, so that accounts for the age gap between my cousin and I.

Why do I say she's precocious? She can recite the names of my Dad and the 9 of his siblings, she has such boundless energy - she's awake till midnight and she talks somewhat like an adult. She likes to order us around. Among the things she has made me do are putting her toy Mickey mouse to bed, carry her downstairs and push her around in a swirling chair.

When she was about to leave for home, I made her an origami boat which she promptly crumpled and refused to accept!

What can I say?

Children are such enigmatic and unfathomable creatures.

Goodbye Singapore!

I'll be leaving for KL later today and will fly straight to Shanghai to teach in August.

Before I go, I'd like to thank the classes I've taught this year - 301, 308, 313 and the International Scholars, for all the fun we've had writing commonwealth essays, digging into poems deep and dangerous and sharing your experiences from your obs trip in the reflective essays.

Of course, I haven't forgotten my classes from last year, those are the current 207, 208 and 211.

Take care all of you, and do keep in touch!

Email me at jacktanhj@gmail.com and let me know how you are doing!

Mystique Reverie

I had a weird dream last night.

I dreamt that I was a student of Nanyang Girls' High School.

Stop laughing, you!

I wasn't a girl in the dream!

Nor had Nanyang Girls' become co-ed.

In my dream, I was walking around the school, and somehow, I just knew that I was studying there. I think I was late for a test or something, and I couldn't find my classroom, so I was walking along the various floors of the school frantically.

But the really weird thing was that the school building wasn't what the real NYGH looks like, but in my dream, it rather resembled one of those old tacky shopping centres, like beauty world shopping centre, ginza plaza or katong shopping centre.

I often have dreams where the different people from the different phases of my life, and the different places I've been to are all mixed up. For example, I might dream that I'm at my primary school classroom, talking to my present colleagues, and then the teachers there are my secondary school teachers, that sort of dream that is all messed up, you get what I mean?

Crossroads of my life

i am at a point of my life when big decisions have to be made.

yeah, i might be going abroad to work.

earlier on, i had thought i would be going to study, but there has been many new developments recently.

not that i do not want to study anymore. i still look forward to the day when i will go do my postgraduate studies, preferably in the united kingdom, the states, or new zealand.

okay, i cannot reveal too much now, because things are not too certain yet.

it has been a very busy and stressful week, full of ups and downs, rather like a roller coaster ride.

i am sorry if i cannot reveal too much now. but a time will come when i will tell people who are interested to know, all that has happened. or maybe i will write a novel or play of my life. (haha as if anyone would be interested to know the details of my boring life!)

but anyhow, i am depending on God's grace to lead me through this period of my life. i have depended on Him in the past and i know He can be depended upon.

okay, a former piano student of mine commented on facebook that i am a 'reserved and politically correct person'. i guess that is true to some extent, i am a very careful and methodical person. but close friends of mine would know that there is more to me than that.

i guess i have been very 'reserved and politically correct' in this post too, since there are so many things i would not reveal. well, all i would say is, if you are my good friend, and the time is right, i might just tell you more some day.

and by the way, i am not typing in 'twit' language today, whatever that is, since kylie reminded me not to do so. in fact, i do not think i had even used a single contraction in my entire post.

but aiyah, even an engerish tr's blog posts no need to b so formal lah, u say rite or not?

God will alleviate your pain

I've been viewing some blogs and i see a lot of 'emo-ness' around.

Here's a verse that might alleviate your pain:

'Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.'
from Philippians 4:6-7

The phrase 'transcends all understanding' means a lot to me. it means that the peace and security that God will grant you if only you would cast your cares upon Him in prayer will be beyond anything that you can ever imagine.

You must learn to trust God to take care of you, even though you can't see Him.

If you still don't grasp what i'm trying to tell you, let me tell you a story...

A boy was trapped on the second storey of his burning house. As the flames grew wilder and the thick smoke was all around him, he heard his father's voice from the ground.

"Son! Jump! Jump down! I am down here and I will catch you."

The boy, choking from the smoke, and his vision totally obscured by it, exclaimed:

"But...I can't jump, I really can't. I can't see you!"

The father, in a most reassuring and gentle voice:

"But I CAN."

That's what God promises you. He is able to carry you out from your trouble, but you have to take the first step in trusting Him.

What singing you?

lovely song by candy lo & wang lee hom. lovely not just because of the attractive melody but because half of it is in a language i don't understand (cantonese), which makes it rather mysterious.