Crabby Old Man

Someone sent me this poem and I thought it best to share with others.
Old age, something which we all don't really think about now at age 30.
But which will inevitably arrive sooner than we think.

Nice and touching. Enjoy.

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What do you see nurses? . . What do you see?
What are you thinking . . . . when you're looking at me?
A crabby old man, . . . . not very wise,
Uncertain of habit . . . ... with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food . . . . . . and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice . . . . "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice . .. . the things that you do.
And forever is losing . . . . . . a sock or a shoe?

Who, resisting or not . .. . . . lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding. . . . the long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? . . Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse . . . you're not looking at me..

I'll tell you who I am. . . as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, . . . as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten . .. with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters . . . . . . who love one another.

A young boy of sixteen . . . . with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . . . . a lover he'll meet..
A groom soon at twenty .. . . .my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows . .. . that I promised to keep.

At twenty-five, now . . . . . I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . and a secure happy home.
A man of thirty . . . . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . . With ties that should last.

At forty, my young sons . . . have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me . . .. to see I don't mourn.
At fifty, once more, . . babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children . .. . My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me . . . .my wife is now dead.
I look at the future . . . . .. shudder with dread..
For my young are all rearing . . . young of their own.
And I think of the years,. and the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man . . . . . and nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age .. . . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles .. . grace and vigour, depart.
There is now a stone . .. . where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass . . . a young guy still dwells,
And now and again .. . . . my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys . . . . . I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living . . . . . . life over again.

I think of the years, all too few . .. . gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people .. . . .. . open and see.
Not a crabby old man. Look closer .. . see ME!!

Yammy Yummy?

It was a somewhat hot, sticky, sweaty but aromatic afternoon.

K and I were battling it out in the kitchen.

The opponents?

500gm of rice flour, 500gm of yam, black mushrooms, chinese sausages, dried shrimp, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper, sugar and water. Oh yes, coriander, ried shallots, red chilli and spring onions.

Yeah, oh well, we were making Yam Cake.

1st attempt.

It turned out alright in terms of texture, colour, garnish and all.

BUT. I took my first taste and it was friggin bland. Darn.

We followed the recipe to a T. I think we should have just gone with our instincs. Afterall, cooking is quite usually based on instinct and "aggarration".

Still, it was a good first sttempt. Next time round it'll be MUCH BETTER.

I'll guarantee it. :)

A colourful colourful forest of garnishing...

The year goes by

It's the last day of the year.

Too many thoughts in my mind. It's all a blur.

Good things, great things, not so good things, horrible things, fantastic things, yada yada.
Special dates and months. People. Events. Countries. Relatives. Colours. Scents. Emotions.

So much to say. Nothing to say.

I can only pray and have faith that 2010 be a great year for myself, my friends and and of course my loved ones.

It's been a great ride in 2009. Bumpy at times but nevertheless a great ride.
I hope for the road ahead to be equally fun and equally rewarding and smoother...:)

I want to say

I'm irresponsibly mad about you

~ Dinah Washington in "Call Me Irresponsible"

Marcomm FAIL

I saw Guardian's ad on the MRT train today. It was quite interesting. It read as:

"Do you know? The average person's body has enough iron to make a 3-inch nail and carbon to make 90 pencils?

And right next to this huge ad, there was another tagline which read as:

"Enjoy the freedom of having instant ideas for better living. DIY"

Hmm.
Seriously wonder what's their objective. No link at all between the two taglines.

English Lessons

My English has been on a rapid decline.
I can't pronounce words properly. I can't type proper grammar.

Big time shit! haha....considering I need to do alot of writing for a living.

I've been having various questions on the language in recent months...and here's another one.

Should it be "Did you know?" or "Do you know?"
Imagine this being used as the main tagline in an advert. Which should be the correct one?
Hmm mm...to me...both are right, but the former sounds better....

But still, I'm no expert.
Wonder if K can give me an explanation...hehe.

Rusty Brain

I can be rather absent-minded.
But I've been fucking absent-minded for the last 2 weeks lah!!

Argh. Could it be due to lack of sleep? Maybe. I've been surviving on an average of 6 hours of sleep each day quite often over the past weeks. Because of all the festivities and gatherings and what not.

I packed pressies for Ally & PQ last night. Despite reaching home at midnight after a wedding dinner. I saw the pressies on my desk this morning and reminded myself to bring them.

And when I reached Tampines MRT station. I realised with dismay that my hands were empty...and all I was carrying was my trusty little cardigan...Argh!

Flagellation

I tend to think too much and beat myself up over the smallest thing.
Not quite good for the ego, confidence and mind.

Doing too much of this over the last few weeks. No idea why.
Year-end nostalgia making me emo?

Girl Power

I don't pop my cork for any man I see.

~ Shirley Bassey in "Big Spender"

uuhhh *delicate fingers to forehead*

I feel like those delicate damsels from those Chinese novels set in ancient times.
Those ladies who are delicate and frail and cannot get overly excited else they'll feel out of breath.

Too much food and comings and goings and entertaining and chatter over the last week has left me a little tired...

Woke feeling ok but I dozed off like a pig on the train to work. Reached office and saw some mails arrowing more work to me. Bleah.
And then I discovered I had a slight sore throat when I tried to speak and ended up sounding a little hoarse.

Okok, just a few more days to go...mind over body!
I will not be sick when I herald in the new year!

XiaXue's Love Story

To be frank. I don’t read Xiaxue’s blog. Not at all.

I don’t know why but for some strange reason this afternoon, I thought I’d pop in to have a look. And then I came across this rather wonderful love story of hers, which she posted just 8 days ago, on 20th December.

http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2009/12/love-story.html

Go on have a good read. It’s a long entry, but it’s not boring.

Maybe after reading the entry, it’ll add that dash of optimistic hope which we all need to have from time to time. We have enough cynicism and skepticism in our lives already.

Nothing like a sprinkle of hope and a good ol’ dash of lurrrvveeee to brighten our day…:)

I know...cos I have my daily doses...hee.

Weighty Conversations

Admin Lady (AL): Eh, you're so thin! You look dehydrated! Like very dry like that.
Me: Huh? Got meh? You mean I look shrivelled??
AL: Ya, dry dry like that. Like got no water inside you.
Me: ????
AL: But you're pretty so still not so bad. But you must try to be fairer.
Me: Err...orh ok. But I'm always this colour what.
AL: No lah, when you first came in you were fairer. Must try to get fairer ok!!
Me: Err...orh ok.
AL: Ya ya, else later look like Malay.
Me: ...........

==========
Ee Hong: I think she's lost weight. Looking a little thin.
Sasi: No lah, I think she's put on abit.
Both: Wave your arms leh. Got bye-bye syndrome or not?
Me: .........

==========
Me: Am I fat? Or just nice?
Granny: You're just nice lah! Too thin not good. Like that just nice. Got abit of meat here and there.
Me: ..........

==========
Me: *squeezes upper arm*
Me: I'm bui bui.
Baby: No lah, you're not fat.
Me: Orh hee.
Baby: Even if you're fat I'll still love you.
Me: .............

*burp*

The last few days have been heavy-going. Lol. On the stomach that is.
So much food, so much good food! Lots of ham, sausages, chicken, turkey, beef, pork, sushi, veggies, pumpkin soup, clam chowder…haha…

There's quite a bit of ham left in the fridge...It'll be my breakfast for the next few days at least....gosh...

I told myself I need to lie low for the next few weeks and go easy on the intake. Else the waistline will go on an expansion spree. I need to start running again too argh!! My last run was SCM…and that was 3 weeks ago hahaha...

I know! I’ll go for a run on 1st Jan 2010!! Good healthy start to the new year!! Woot!

Shucks. I am Auntified~!!

I really feel like an auntie now.

I spent 5 minutes scolding someone this afternoon.

And then I just spent 20minutes nagging at the same person. To get her to buck up.
To get her to get her act together. To get her to understand that no one can help her unless she helps herself first.

If need be. I will nag more.
If I see anymore big lapses, she will get it from me worse.

Choco!

The Royce Chocolate Store below my office tower was swarmed with people during lunchtime today. Lol...and I think the staff weren't very well-prepared for it.

They looked harried and frantic serving customers, settling payments, answering queries, doing crowd control, wrapping presents, shooing away playing kids from the store, etc.

Business is brisk for them during such festive occassions and during Valentine's Day.

Guess the tons that they are earning during these few months of the year is enough to cover their costs of operations for the remaining months of the year where only a handful of people patronise them.

Hehe. I was a customer of theirs just now too...

*munch munch* ;p

Losing patience

Really losing patience. It’s really not that difficult to find a place to have a gathering. There’s TONS of restaurants in Singapore.

Wah lau. You’re not working yet. I am. Stop bugging me during the day. I can’t be entertaining you online all the time and giving you suggestions of where to go for the gathering and what to eat.

Sheesh. And I’m not gonna give any more suggestions next time. None of it gets considered anyway.

You’ve “organized” this thing for 2 weeks already. Till today you're still asking me where should we go, what should we eat, which venue has good parking space...

What the?????!!!!!!

Argh.

ERA

I've always liked ERA and their gregorian-chant-like music.

Back in my uni days when I was doing choreography work for pageants, I used a number of their songs for catwalks and poses because I felt their songs had more drama and impact ahaha.

Whilst listening to their songs a few days ago, I found myself subconsciously counting beats and seeing how I could use them in a showcase of pageant contestants lol...

Here's two of their lesser known songs...Hymne and Enae Volare Mezzo.

GO AWAY QUICK!!!

Uh oh. Not good.

Pimple outbreak...!

It's Xmas week and I've started the Monday of the week with 6 pimples!!

*wails*

Doormat

Not feeling too good today. Feeling angsty and emo.
Anyhow, was researching on the word "doormat" when I came across an interesting blog.

Maintained by a middle-aged lady who's had quite a few experiences n her life I think.
I didn't have the time to read through her posts...
But reading one prompted me to share her blog with others.

www.lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat.com

Time

You think the days go by slowly when you’re in school.
Your days are occupied by schoolwork, games, friends and nagging parents.
You spend the days wondering when the semester will end and when the holidays will arrive.

Then you get older, you get into tertiary school.
You start to wonder if time passes a little more quickly now.
You spend your days on projects, tutorials, friends, significant others. And yes, the nagging parents are still there.

You finally graduate and step into the world of working adults and are part of the statistic contributing to the country's economy.
You know now that time does indeed pass much faster than before.
You spend your days eagerly learning, trying to prove yourself to the whole world, meeting up with friends, spending newfound wealth, enjoying life, getting acquainted with restaurants and places you’d hardly go to as a student because you didn’t have much funds.

You’ve been in the workforce for a few years now.
You start wondering if time can slow down a little.
You find yourself gasping for breath at times with the long list of things seeking your attention.
You spend your days rushing deadlines, getting bogged down by bosses and colleagues, playing catch-up with friends, getting occupied with the increasing number of bills, running errands, losing contact with some people, wondering about your own life and future, thinking about other issues, trying to stay fit and healthy amidst it all, yada yada yada…

It seems the older we get the faster time passes us by.