Interesting Birthday Cake!

Today was my 1 year old cousin’s birthday. My uncle’s first child after they got married 2 years ago. It is also the first grand child for both the paternal (my grand uncle) and maternal side of the family. So, they are so happy.

The cake was a huge walnut cake topped white chocolate cream. The real interesting part of the cake was actually the decoration on top.

This is a case of really bringing work home and making work part of who you really are.

My uncle works in Research In Motion and hence works by promoting Blackberrys and his friend who did the cake for him got this huge RIM Blackberry on top of the cake. Can’t eat it though! I think it’s made of plastic or plastacine.

Anyhow, it’s one of those huge family gatherings, but I dun know half of them cos’ they are my uncle’s side. It’s like ‘different’ family, but the same (well, in-law, lah).

It was a long drive to my uncle’s place. Drove my grandparents, my auntie and another auntie over … I must say that they really talk to loud in such a confine area. (literally shouting) Had a minor headache on the way back. Oops! Next time need to wear ear plugs. hahaha!

But, I’ll still like to thank God for the gathering, cos’ I got to meet my grand uncle and grand auntie again. They are very nice people who are very caring and concerned whenever they are free to meet up. They also got alot of lobangs one. Hahaha!

Also, thanks God that my presentation went well (as in no major hiccup) and that I learnt a little bit more on digesting research papers and on how to present them properly to bring out the crux of the problem and not let it be glossed over in all the barrage of words that I use.

Thank God also for finally letting me be able to set up mySQL database on my Mac and get it running fine. Now, I only need to work out how to import data properly and I think I am good to go to programme on my Mac. Time to get cracking!

Good nights, everyone!

So long, farewell!

The beautiful lyrics from the Sound of music echoes at the back of my mind.

Alright, enough nostalgia from that show …

A somewhat impromptu farewell at my grandparents place as my brother headed over to say goodbye, my aunties and uncles all came over to say goodbye too … even my elusive cousin from UK is back in town with his gf and so, I finally met him and his gf.

Anyhow, goodbye, for now, to my brother who will be heading over to Canada the following morning in the wee hours. All the best, hope you find your true calling and also a proper and decent job. You probably won’t miss Singapore all that much, so, I needn’t bother to even worry about you adjusting to life over there. well, have fun and do remember to come visit every so often (be it in Singapore or whereever I will be (“,) ) and your mum too – who will still be in Singapore.
… so welcome to Toronto … (hmm … looks similar to the skyline of Shanghai?! ok just vaguely … )

My Cousin’s Wedding

Went for my cousin’s wedding on Sunday at the Marriot. It was a standard chinese wedding dinner and it was also the usual procedures. Yet, I felt strangely detached from the whole place because I barely knew anyone there.

Well, I mostly made conversation with my grand aunties and grand uncles who happened to spend like 2 years in Chongqing teaching English. (Interesting, yar?!)

So, I had a revelation. I had all these cousins who were around the same age as me and I didn’t know them. I could have bumped into them on the streets and not known. Sad, right?!

What I want to do about it?

1. Wait for the next wedding and try to get some form of contact from them. Maybe … MSN?

2. Try to search for them online?! erms … Everyone seems to have left a trail online in recent years … someone might just link me back to my cousins. =)

For now, it’s back to HYP coding …

Please work … pretty please … (“,)

I speak the truth and nothing but the truth.

Grandparents fail to understand the whole picture and they more often than not have prejudiced judgement as well as conclusions which they deduced themselves by jumping to conclusions. My advice is that when speaking tothe older generation, take things with a pinch of salt, cos’ things they remember could be from the distant past, things they know could be hearsay that they heard and things they talk about could just be assumed conclusions.

Perhaps, this does not hold true with your grandparents and I could be the only one with such grandparents (well, not that alone considering that I have cousins who share the same grandparents.). They talk about how my cousin ate durians when they were young, and it seemed it is the only thing they do remember. They talk about how I must keep eating more cos’ I used to do so, like the present just never ocurred to them that I don’t (can’t /won’t) eat so much now.

Yup, it all is in agreement. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Hence, it is also hard to inform older folks about new happenings.

Alamak! This become major complain session. Oops! Went to my grandparents place just now. My auntie (from GZ) and my cousin (from Perth) were visiting too. My other auntie and cousin (who lived upstairs) also came down. My brother also was there. So, in general, Big Family Affair – with even more durians to eat.

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SoC Commencement 2006, was held this morning at the UCC. Went down to absorb the atmosphere and see all my friends graduate. Gosh, quite happening ah?! Soon it will be my turn. The ceremony though would be so far away, so … hmm … hmm …

Tmr gg to company to present status update. Hope I convince them of my progress and I will be able to deliver something that they can find useful. A little afraid of the lack of progress or the lack of significant breakthrough. (I pray, I pray, I pray!)

Mother knows

It’s amazing what mother’s know.

Hmm …

They might be quiet for most part of the time, or they might be commenting about some irrelevant matter alot, or they could just be grumbling about their life.

BUT

I am surprised that she does know much more than I give her credit for. Just recalled the conversation I had with my mother in the car while I was driving her to Tanjong Pagar on Saturday for her hair cut.

Just a thought for me from me.

p.s. My mum bought durians back. Maybe she got the hint that I missed durians. Heh! Heh!