Yes I Can

Been a challenging day with 5-6 calls, including a 2-hr plus Board meeting where I felt like I bungled the 2 papers I presented. (Boss later told me he thought I did pretty ok, not stellar but ok enough)

Brain zapped. Fried. zzz.

But the cooler evening, some energy from the kids, a stroll with K along the park connector after dinner (sans kids) and a nice shower has brought some sanity and energy back to me....

Clearing one more email for the day....then I'll indulge in some K variety liao and then it's bedtime...

*pat on the back*
It's been a challenging, but good day.

Onward, forward!
Ganbatte!

Long hair no more

Finally went to cut my hair yesterday. Chopped off 6 inches and my hair has gone from reaching the middle of my back to just touching my shoulders...

Happy to hear from my hairdresser, whom I've gone to for the last 12 years, that my hair was still in a pretty good condition even though it had gotten so long. The ends were a little dry that's all but they've been cut off. :)

I created a big mess at the salon with all my hair on the floor hahha...

Stomach spoil

When I try to be careful with what I eat, I'm told to relax and try and don't be so uptight about things.

When I relax and let go and eat, then this is what happens lor.

Stomach goes haywire...

Last week...Buffet on Wed, Mac on Friday lunch, a scoop of ice-cream on Friday evening, tried some green curry on Sat evening, had more than a few ondeh ondeh tarts on Saturday evening also...

And then....

Tummy hasn't been well since Saturday...
Felt a little of the acid reflux symptoms here and there. Abdominal and stomach cramps, bloatedness, general upper gut discomfort. Bad tummy ache last night. The slight breathlessness. The general lethargy that comes along everytime I get tummy issues.

I stopped the anti-acid pills since 23 March. The thought even crossed my mind if I should take some again. But no I shouldn't...

:(

More airplants!

We popped by A Tilly A Day yesterday afternoon after our anniversary lunch at Gyu Kaku.

Really lovely shop. The terrariums there put my amateurish ones to shame lol. They had both open and closed ones. Many of the smaller ones were just of moss though and the shop had many UV lighting tubes for the plants. Maybe that's why they usually keep so well in these shops but don't fare well when they get back to someone's home.

I managed to get the Xerographica that I was looking for. A whopping $30 bucks for a small one that fit into my palm. I'd probably be able to get it cheaper from a farm. But lazy to travel there. I ended up with 2 more Caput Medusae airplants too. One was grown from seed and looks vastly different from the existing one I have. Shop lady said it might be from the Philippines while the one I had was probably from Guatemala. The other Caput Medusae I got was very similar to the existing one I had. Somehow like their structure...:)

So yeah, my balcony's filling up....hahaha...

22 July 2020

8 years my love. :)
Since we had our Chinese wedding dinner.

8 years and 9 months
Since we had our ROM.

11 years and 4 months
Since we got together.

Thank you sayang
For being around.

Muacks!

Yay!

Brought the girls for a quick dessert fix at Garden Slug this evening. And finally! The plant shop Potta Planta next door was open!

Went in to ogle at their stuff and walked away with a pot of asparagus fern.
Yes, I love this plant....but lost the previous pot that Ally gave to me. It had succumbed to a mealybug infestation a few months back.

I hope this pot goes well. Will repot it tomorrow to a bigger pot and remove some browned stalks and fronds. Will explore if I can declump it and split it into 2 separate clumps...hmm....

Would have bought alot more at the shop.....if not for the exorbitant prices....
The pots are really chio...my style, my type. Monochromatic and duller earthy tones. Very simple designs with matching pot plates. Just one single drainage hole that I like. Raw ceramic and unglazed. Really laoniang's style.

But so so ex...a pot of 10cm height and 10cm width could set one back by $29....:(
For now, I'll just ogle and salivate at the pots......

If I'm successful at declumping the asparagus fern, maybe I'll get one small pot as a present to myself.....I'll just make do with plastic Baba flower pots for now...

#06-443

Quite sad.
Yes, I am.
Quite sad I am.
Yes.

The Tampines flat.
Has been sold.
Sold it has been.
The Tampines flat.

Memories.
Nooks and crannies
Granny.
Many.

Home.
Heart.
Love.
More.

==========
Buyer's a family with 2 daughters who are getting older and hence need more space. Lady of the house is 2 years older than I am. So maybe her kids are just slightly older than Nadya.

I hope the house gives these 2 girls as many good memories as it gave to me.
Whoever gets my room.....I wish that the room gives her good energy and comfort. And that she grows up well in that house, in that room.

zzzzzzzombie

Relatively zombiefied today.

Slept with the girls last night. At 1-plus, Nadya flopped over and half of her body was hanging off her mattress onto my tilam on the floor. And needless to say, she was on me.

3-plus, Alyssa woke and stomped over to my tilam. Squeezed in with me in that little space. The space is barely 70 or 80cm wide so I ended up getting squished on my side in an awkward position. Crappy neck and shoulders when I woke this morning. Didn't help that she sleeps with "flailing" arms sometimes. Macham octopus. I got whacked a few times in the night.

My engine has barely started and I'm falling asleep already. It's 9:15am.

Tahan!! Jiayou!! Friday already!

Of Hands and Feet....

Funny (and yet maybe also quite natural) how we don't really notice certain things about ourselves or even the things and people around us because we've taken their presence for granted already.

Was staring at my feet the other day. And suddenly realised how dry they were. Heels were dry and while they were not cracked, they had deep grooves. And erm....wrinkles and creases near the base of the foot. Many small red and blue veins as well. Decided to use baby oil to moisturise them that night and wore socks to sleep. They looked less dry the next day. I should do this more often.

Ever since CB started and I stayed at home and worked from home, I skipped using hand and body lotion. Hands are dryer now. Compounded by the fact that I'm washing my hands more too (because of more wiping, cleaning, gardening while at home, etc) I should start using some hand moisturiser again at least.

Of IDs, passwords and account info....

The ridiculousness of it all...
But no choice...it's part and parcel of the digital world now...

I have 20 different login accounts (and of course passwords) for various apps and accounts in the course of my work. Some I only use once or twice a year. Some I use every other day.

I have maybe another 10-over or 20 online accounts and passwords used in my personal life. Be it for banking, or online shopping or journalling.

The girls have their own school stuff that we need to log in to...That's another set of dunno how many IDs and passwords...

zzzzzzz....I lose track of these things at times.

Ended up jotting down all work-related info on a document. No choice. I cannot remember so many stuff. Some paswwords require a min of 8 characters. Some require 12. Some require a mixture of upper and lower case character with numerals and special characters. Some don't allow special characters. zzzzz

Of birthdays....and my strange brain

Just wished a JC friend happy birthday. Her birthday today. I wish her every year...kinda like a thing that I would do since around 10 years back maybe (could be more?). Not sure why or how it started also.

I wasn't very nice to her when I was in JC though we hung out in the same clique. I was ok with her at times but at other times I would feel irritated by her and not be so friendly with her I think. Guess I was a mean girl.

Happened to meet her on the train a long time ago and got to talking to her and her colleague on the train ride all the way from Bugis back to Tampines. And from then on I think I wished her every year.

I don't keep in touch with her at other times. But only wish her on her birthday. I do that with some other people as well though I'm not quite sure why I do so actually.

It is very strange how I remember the birthday of some random kid who was in my class back in Sec 1. And whom I've not kept in touch with since 13. I believe his name is Hassan and his birthday falls on 17 Feb.

I remember the birthdays of some people from sec sch and of some folks whom I got to know during my early to mid-20s. But I don't even know where they are now or what some of them are doing. I don't even have some of their numbers!

It is very strange. Because I try to commit to memory some friends' birthdays, but can't seem to do so very well. Yet, these people are the ones still in touch with me from time to time. And they mean much more to me than that random kid from when I was 13!!!

Flexibility

Flexibility needs to be handled with a measure of restraint and consideration.

Working from home now seems to mean that people ask you stuff at odd hours of the day. 

Not sure why tonight is so "special".

MW asked me stuff at 930pm. Mas asked me stuff at 10pm.

For those of us on duty for the elections, we sometimes clear work during our shifts and I've been getting emails at 2:00am, 3:30am and 5:30am lol.

Plants

Uhm Jung Hwa said on "Master in the House" that....

"I love flowers and plants. Keeping plants makes me happy. It's a healing process watching the plants grow and keeping them healthy and well. And they beautify the whole place too."

Yes, I agree.

===============
Airplant - Tillandsia Druid
One of the Druids that came from Malaysia has a pup now. I had sort of consciously paid less attention to this particular plant. I didn't like the look of it when it arrived and it had many damaged leaves. I still took care of it though and trimmed off the damaged leaves or withered areas. I still misted it daily, sometimes twice daily and I still soaked it once every 2 weeks or so.

Suddenly noticed yesterday that 2 of its leaves seemed a little out of place and "loose". Took a closer look and voila! There was a little pup there peeking out. No wonder the mummy's leaves seemed a little displaced at that spot. Let's see how this pup develops. I'm hoping for at least one of the airplants to flower....I've never had one that flowered....

A Tilly a Day
I found this shop online. It has a brick and mortar shop at Waterway Point too. I want to go visit it and buy myself a small Streptophylla or a small Xerographica. K and I were at Chin Ling Nursery on Monday during lunch and I saw a very nice Xero there on display....but it was a large specimen and....the price was too exorbitant for me...$98...I'll be content with a small palm-sized one at maybe $25? That's seems like the usual going rate....

Water Plum/Jasmine
Grand dame has been flowering quite a bit these few days. :) And shedding all the blooms on the same day or the day after too so I've been picking up after her quite a bit too haha. Love the scent the flowers give off....

Japanese Bamboo
Seems to have stabilised somewhat, though it looks rather bald. No longer turning yellow and shedding leaves like nobody's business. Plucked out some brown stalks the other day. They came off very easily from the soil. Seemed like they might have been rotted at the bottom, just above the roots. Hmm....I hope the other stalks are not affected.

Ficus Ginseng
The small one in the bonsai pot is suddenly faring much better after I layered some organic compost as a topsoil 2 weeks ago. A whole bunch of new baby leaves sprouted and some new branches too. I added more compost this week. Wonder what new surprises are in store.

The big one in the normal pot...I don't know what to do with it. It is shedding leaves again and looks horribly sparse and bald. After feeding it with compost, new buds and leaves have appeared but I'm not confident it can be back to its former glory days a few years back. Deciding what to do with this fella. Should I give it a drastic trim back? Should I repot it? Hmm....

Airplant - Tillandsia Caput Medusae
This beauty...I like. It's blossomed a lot after I brought it back from the office. For 1.5yrs it was kind of dormant in the office. Now, in natural light and air, it grew visibly bigger and longer and looks much greener too. The layer of fuzz has increased too and last week, it sprouted roots! Always nice to see some indication of when a plant is growing...I hope this fella grows more and flowers....:)

Thankful

• For having the opportunity to spend more time with the girls over the last few months instead of a rushed 30-45mins in the morning and another rushed 1-1.5hrs at night during pre-covid days
• For having the chance to spend more time with my plants. When I need a break sometimes I find myself walking to the balcony to have a look at them or to mist them or to groom them a little or just to observe new shoots coming out and new flower buds forming
• For the flexibility to cook my own lunches, take a nap in the afternoons, walk around or flop on the bed whenever I need a quick rest
• For the smooth operations we've had during the GE period so far. 

The K world

What to do? I married a man named K....hehe....

Abit 走火入魔 lol....when you discover that when....

• You get a shock/surprise, you don't mutter "wtf?" or "omg" or "wah lau?!" to yourself and instead the thought "gabjagi?!" springs into mind
• You wanna say "wow" or "sibei sart" but the expression "heol!" comes into mind...
• You are hungry or 嘴巴痒....and "baegeupa" pops up in your mind 
• You think to yourself "it's ok" and "gwaenchanha" appears on the tip of your tongue....

Potting around

Butterfly pea
The butterly pea plant cuttings (that K and I helped ourselves to from a random bush along the lorong outside our place) are doing pretty well. I put 3 onto a bottle of water and 3 straight into soil.

1 from the bottle developed a strong root system and I transplanted it into a pot yesterday. I hope it does well. 1 from the pot didn't seem the doing well and I removed it but the other 2 are still going strong. Hope they do well!

While out on a walk with the girls yesterday afternoon, I stopped by a bush and spotted numerous seed pods which were already ripe for the picking. I was glad they had not yet split open! For if they id, I wouldn't have been able to collect any seeds...;p  Helped myself to 2 seed pods which yielded a total of 13 seeds! Yay! Planted 6 of them into a pot. Hope they germinate properly!
I didn't nick them or soak them in water first though....so it will probably take a long time to germinate. 2? 3? 4 weeks?

Airplants
I can tell they are much happier at home than in the office. 2 of them have sprouted roots and grown more leaves. :) The brachycaulus is a little limp though. Not sure why. The rest are doing great!

Rose fairy
Packed my table the other day and came across a seed packet I forgot about. It'a pack of seeds from Horti, with the label "Rose fairy". Threw the seeds into a pot in end June. Hope they germinate well. Need to watch...I've never been successful at germinating seeds last time. Fingers crossed!!

Of walks, chickens and explorations

The girls requested to head out for a walk and visit the neighbourhood chickens yesterday afternoon. Our usual practice these days would be to arm ourselves with a small packet of grains to feed the chickens. Yesterday, we had rice, barley and millet. I skipped the bread this time round...

I'd have to say that Alyssa is definitely the spunkier, braver and more adventurous one out of the two. Despite her being the younger one. :) Nadya was hiding behind her half the time haha. Nadya has improved though, compared to before. There was one time when she stormed off in a huff and incessantly muttered under a hefty pout "I WANT TO GO HOME NOW!!" because she got embarrassed and frustrated at herself and her fears.

In fact, both have improved lah. :) Both used to hide behind me when the chickens are around. I Suddenly realised that both were in front of me yesterday haha. Yay...baby steps to developing their curiosities and courage.

I enjoy such walks with them.
(Though I get quite pek chek if they start squabbling non-stop with each other along the way.)

There's a particular route I take when I bring them to visit the chickens. Along the way, I'd point out different trees, flowers and plants to them. We "hunt" for wild mushrooms. We spy on the birds in the neighbourhood. We scream when we meet buzzing insects. We step on mimosas. The girls pluck wild flowers. We observe what dogs we pass by, if any.

I'd try to explain things to them, as much as my limited knowledge can handle.

"This is a butterfly pea plant. The flowers can be used to.....It's a creeper and can be considered an invasive plant.....Look! Seed pods!"
"This is a mango tree! You can tell by its leaves...."
"This is a water jasmine plant..."
"Those are sunbirds! Doves! Pigeons! Parakeets!"
"Snails! Those black stuff are their poop!"
"Mushrooms!"
"Touch-me-nots! Another name for this weed is "mimosa". See what happens when you touch the leaves..."
"Hibiscus! Byrophyllum! Snake grass! Snake plant! Lalang! Spanish moss! Sunflowers! Airplants! Pomegranate! Ixora! Boston fern! Bird's nest fern!...."
"These are the spores of the bird's nest fern. That's how they propagate....errr...propagate means...errrrr...."
"There's a moringa tree here! Did you know we can actually eat those pods? They taste good in curry....Popo used to cook them...you can try next time..."

Guilt & Disappointment

Quite guilty for making Alyssa feel disappointed.

We have a morning ritual where I peep out of the window and wave bye to her when she's at the carpark (when she leaves for school). And we'd give each other arm and finger heart signs too. I cherish these moments for they give me strength, and I think she hold these moments dear to her heart too.

Been even more scatter-brained in recent days and I was late to get to the window this morning. (had to speak with the helper on something). By the time I got there, K & her were in the car already. And he was slowly driving off. I was hoping she was craning her neck to see my window from the car (not even sure if she can see my from that angle)....and I was waving frantically from the window. :(

K later told me that she had waited for me and stalled getting in the car. When she finally got in reluctantly, he said she was leaning her head on the side of her car seat looking glum...and she told him "I miss Mama."

I was quite upset at botching this morning's ritual. :(
Was beating myself up over it actually...though I recognise that I need to snap out of it and can't let it bog me down too much.

I'm really sorry my baby girl....
I can only take comfort in that I gave you a big hug and kiss this morning and said my usual words to you to start the day (another ritual of ours). And that you chose this morning to voluntarily tell me 'I love you Mam!" after you put on your shoes....

Mama will do better next time baby girl...

Music

Deulgukhwa - That Only is My World
Kang San Eh - Like the Salmon Swimming Up the River
周深 - 大鱼
Hacken Lee - 月半小歌曲

Friday morning music accompanying me...these songs as well as their various cover and duet versions....some soul-healing time

Just realised. They're all non-English songs...:)

Lunch Lating

Lunch date with K later today...after several months of not doing so!

Going to TGS. Hope the plant shop next door is open too.
I definitely want to get their spanish moss since I don't know where else to get them. And possibly their asparagus fern too if it looks healthy enough and free of pests (though it is difficult to see with the naked eye).
I also want to get nice pots and other holders if they're not too expensive. I remember that shop carries rather atas stuff...hmm.
I don't recall them having airplants last time though I wonder if they brought in new stuff recently. Shopping for a Tillandsia Xerographica or a Tillandsia Streptophylla, if they're not too expensive hahha....I think one can cost up to $50...hmm...depends on the size too I guess...