On Eagles' Wings

Shy+blur Hong Wei, with extremely-naughty  Yew Herng at the back. Tse Wei at the piano with Ms. Lim, and Nicolas :) Super talkative Bryan (he can NEVER keep quiet for too long =.=) and sweet Siti, who has Down's Syndrome Our newest student, Zi Xin, who is such  a pleasure to teach :) Some of these kids, despite telling them over and over and over again, always forget that a semibreve has four counts, a minim has two, and a crotchet has one.  Every week, it's like doing the same lesson all over again. They never seem to get it. @.@ Some of these kids, instead of doing their work, chatter excitedly about their family trip to Malacca, or even to our very own Jusco. And it is very hard to get them to keep quiet once they get going. They are easily distracted with everything. They tease and bully each other, steal one another's pencils and erasers. Some of these kids nod when you tell them to do something, deceiving you into believing they actually understand what you

No matter how strong we think we are, No matter how thick a skin we think we have, We all have a fragile heart . Easily wounded. Easily hurt. Easily crushed. With words, actions. Subtle gestures, and facial expressions. By friends, loved ones, family. Even by little eight-year-old brats. Maybe the last one is just me. The last three lessons with this little girl have been, to put it aptly, hell . And I am not  exaggerating. I  have  met my  fair share  of brats,  let me tell you that. Brats who won't sit still,  who scre am and yell and shout the building down, who run around, or lie down on the floor and refus e to move (yes, try getting an eight-year-old off the floor when he doesn't want to. TRY IT.) But this girl is, for certain, an entire breed of brat all on her own--a highly advanced one too. What I mean is, she's like, the  absolute   Worst   Brat   of all Brats . The Mother of all Brats. The  Queen of Brats . Every week, she en

This is a very scary post. I recommend that the weak-hearted should discontinue reading from this point on. (I believe this is scary for both girls AND guys. So guys, if you ain't tough enough, just don't try.) (Don't say I didn't warn you.) Have you ever thought about what you will name your kids? What do you plan to name your daughter? Your son? If you had more than one daughter/son? What will their  names be? And before even that, how many kids do you wish to have? :D ( Told  you it was a scary post. Still not too late to turn back now !) Such a happy baby! :D Sam and I, on one of our occasional super-enthusiastic long conversations on the phone, discussed this matter at length. (Fyi, personally, contrary to most people, I find guys who can commit to long-term relationships really hot, and guys who can discuss such matters of the future without squirming--or throwing up--and avoiding it altogether very attractive. Extremely  attractive :D)

Of all the uncertainties in life, one thing is certain--people change. For better, or for worse, people change. With every new experience, with every decision, with every new encounter, be it conscious or unconscious, they shape who we become. They are sometimes so subtle, that we may not actually be able to look back and point to a specific moment in time when we truly changed. Sure, sometimes it's some life-altering experience. A near-death one, a traumatic one, a meeting with an idol, a mentor, a betrayal, a careless moment. A moment where, thereafter, changed the way you behaved, responded, acted. Sure, these, are easy to pinpoint. With these kind of moments, you can say, "Yes, here was a life-altering moment." But what if you looked back and there were no such moments? For most of us, we cannot say there was some "life-altering" moment, and yet, five years, six years, ten years down the line, we are (completely) different from who we once were.

            Once upon a time, there was a pair of fluffy bedroom slippers. They were yellow and had huge plastic eyes sewn onto their fronts which made them look perpetually surprised. After a considerable amount of time going through machinery after machinery, and cruising along conveyor belt after conveyor belt, enduring much pain from stitching and gluing, they finally emerged from the factory of their birth, extremely fluffy.             They were neatly packed with the rest of their buddies and transported in a huge van to their new temporary home. They were excited. All that they dreamed of was to find a sweet little girl who would love them. And they would totally love her back by keeping her sweet little feet warm and cosy. Would she be waiting for them on the “other side”?             When the doors of the huge van opened and flooded the entrance with light, their hopes soared to the sky. Who would look upon them and finally, take them home where they belong?             It wa

Last week, I was the emcee for the Young Musicians in Concert organised by the music school at which I teach part-time. I've been their emcee for the past three annual Christmas Concerts at the music school, located in a tiny nook in Rasah Jaya Phase One. So being the emcee for this year's Young Musicians in Concert isn't such a biggie, right? WRONG. This was a much bigger event, held in Auditorium Taman Budaya (the hall behind the State Museum) with an expected audience of 500. Five hundred people, yo. When I've only emceed in front of a crowd of like, 80? @.@ In addition to the ganjeong- ness all that already gave me, I only found out I was going to emcee on the Friday before the Concert on Sunday. A mere two days' notice. Nope. I ain't kidding. The lady who was supposed to emcee cancelled at the last minute for some emergency reason I was not told of. Ms. Chen, the principal, then called me up (actually, she woke  me up--so emb

...was what I had originally entitled my article, before the Star changed it to "Connected by an Addiction". (Personally, I think my  title sounds better than theirs. Don't you think?) When I first saw my name appear on the Sunday Star this morning, I was initially pleased and happy. However, that quickly turned to annoyance when I realized that the paper had not returned my email after I had submitted the article.  There was not a sound from them about whether they had selected my article or not. And there it is, in the Star, completely without my prior knowledge. As I scanned through my article once again, I was peeved to see that they had edited a few parts in my article that were, in actuality, incorrect. "Why won't you die? Just die already!" Is that sentence (or rather question) not correct? The editor had corrected it to "Just died  already!" @.@ OMG. The 'already' in that question does not,  in any way, indica

Since I was so "busy" and all, I have a backlog of photos that I've wanted to post up and blog about! They're like, old news now. But what can I do? I'll have to pay for my laziness before T.T Anyway, this post will be about some of the handmade stuff I've done. :) For this year's Mother's and Father's Day, it's been really simple. Nothing too extravagant. Just simple cards :) For Mother's Day , I made this: accompanied by some lovely Apple Crumble dessert at my grandma's place :) For Father's Day , I made this: My brother made the card, even wrote the words I stuck the buttons on :P A special dedication message to my dad :) also accompanied with my twice-successful Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake that my daddy loves so much! :D And so, for my friend, MayLee's birthday, I thought about what I wanted to get her. Due to time constraints, I considered just buying her a gift when I went shopp