Pome-pome

Pome-pome is a common Singaporean phrase for taking a bath, normally used with little children. I still haven't figured what language it originated from.

Matt saw S washing the dishes the other day and remarked, "Daddy, you're pome-pome-ing the plates right? You have to pome-pome the plates because they're dirty right, like I have to pome-pome when I'm dirty right?"

"Yes, Matt."

"Like pigs and lions also have to pome-pome right, because they get dirty?"

"Yes, Matt."

"But you cannot pome-pome clocks right, because they have electricity?"

"That's right!"

City of Blinding Lights

The kids are both so into U2's "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" album, they can practically sing along and know all their favourite song titles.

Yesterday, Matthew was talking about the sun and saying that it was the brightest thing, and I casually mentioned that God is even brighter than the sun. He immediately extrapolated that to saying something about heaven being like the "City of Blinding Lights" (one of the songs in that U2 album), that it'll be so bright we'll become blind there.

I clarified that heaven isn't likely to be blindingly bright just because God is there, because our bodies will be special by then and we can see Him. This must not have gelled with his current concept of heaven, which is that it's a place one gets to after death, because he came back with, "But when we get to heaven, we'll just be all bones right?"

Took me a bit of further explaining to get across the concept of the resurrected body...

Daddy! Must kiss Mommy!

That's what Sarah insisted when I was about to leave them for something, after kissing both kids goodbye.

Of course, we gladly complied while she kept a careful watch to make sure everything was done properly.

Really. The kids help us keep the sparks flying whether we want to or not!

2005 Nuclear Wrap

The year’s almost over.

Major milestones: Matt started preschool in February. My father got baptised in May (okay this bit's not nuclear but it's too big not to mention). Third child came to be in August.

Pluses: S got a substantial raise. I got the grad cert in IP law and passed one of the papers to qualify as a patent agent. Lots of other positive things happened but they're too many to detail.

Minuses: The kids had asthma episodes now and then, with Sarah needing to go to hospital a couple of times. Luckily not warded.

Interestings: S and I went for a short beach holiday with my parents. S was closely involved in Matt’s school’s dinner and dance, being an mc as well as singing in a fathers’ band! I must say they were pretty darn good. I’m doing an attachment at a local firm, apprenticing under a registered patent agent. Matt is getting to be really keen on electronic games and a fun opponent in Snakes & Ladders. Sarah is getting fluent in speech, as well as really good with her jigsaw puzzles. Baby is under the care of a different OBGyn, who suggested I try yoga now and water labour when it's time.

Next year Sarah starts Nursery 1 in March, just after she turns three. Happily, Matt’s school is going to run her N1 classes in the same time as his K1 classes, so we don’t have a problem sorting out her transport anymore. S’ll have a few in-camp trainings, and I’m not looking forward to the sleepless nights and expressing after baby arrives in May (God willing), but I think it promises to be quite exciting and positive overall. We may even buy a second car, a little weekend thing, but we’ll see how things work out first.

To finish up 2005, we're going to spend the last month together as a little family on our own, with our trusty helper gone home to the Philippines. We’ve already got plans lined up, like a stay on Sentosa, a trip to the zoo, a Christmas party, and other mini outings when S and I take turns to be on leave with the children. We'll also be going to see the baby in a detailed scan (all 5 of us squeezed in the little ultrasounding room) - hope to find out if it's a boy or girl!

Ungraciousness

It always catches me unawares, ungracious behaviour from people. I just never expect it, much as there is this underlying belief that Singaporeans are by nature ugly. Simple things like neglecting to utter a word of thanks, unwarranted (not to mention unjust) criticism of people about whom I kindly supplied information because I was asked... don't people realise they're being ungracious with their negligence or outright inconsideration?

Then again, I'm no saint (yet), so why should I be surprised when I most certainly must have been equally ungracious to others, even if I didn't mean it? But I just hate to think that people can be all that ill bred!

It just makes me afraid for the kids. I don't want them to grow up ungracious and it's so easy to want to give up reminding them to say please and thank you and to think about other people before themselves. Any slack in my vigilance and they'll right as not join the ranks of the ungracious, and not know any better. And what about the children of those very ungracious people I'm griping about? What hope is there for them with parents like that?

Amazing Storm

There was an amazing storm last night at our place in the North East. For over an hour (started just before 10pm) lightning was flashing continually, followed by bellowing thunder, together with lashings of rain against our windows. It even set off some ringing carpark alarm downstairs that went on for ages.

The kids were already in bed but got woken up by the noise. Luckily they could try and sleep, although somewhat restlessly, while I sat quietly patting them in their room.

Sean was away and it really made me feel how vulnerable we all were, cocooned together in the kid's room, with the storm raging out there.

By the time things quietened down and I went back to my dinner in bed, the spaghetti was somewhat congealed. Sigh.

Wow

What a race – many are already hailing Suzuka 2005 as one of the best races in history. Now I can’t comment about that, having watched only minority of even the modern era races, but it’s certainly the most exciting I’ve witnessed in memory. Coming from a season almost devoid of good overtaking manoevres, yesterday’s race was a godsend. And as a great topping, Kimi won! But even up till the end it just didn’t seem possible…

The weekend started with the by now almost routine announcement of yet another engine change for Raikkonen, which meant a ten place grid penalty during qualifying. The Finn must surely be used to this routine by now, almost as if McLaren, knowing how fast both car and driver are, are purposely making their jobs difficult just to spice things up.

As it turned out, qualifying was a bit of a disaster for most of the usual frontrunners, a damp track being turned into a blinding, flooded one, with rain pouring down midway through qualifying. This left Michael Schumacher in 14th position, Alonso 16th, Kimi 17th, and Montoya not even recording a time. Fortunate weather timing saw the other Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella qualify 3rd behind an all-Japanese front row of BAR Honda’s Jenson Button and Toyota’s pole-sitter Ralf Schumacher. We were expecting fireworks.

And fireworks we got. The first corner saw both Sato and Barrichello go off road separately, and yet somehow make contact – their race went downhill from there. But of a greater impact to the rest of the field was ol’ Villenueve pushing Monty off while the latter was attempting to overtake him. The hapless Macca headed straight into a wall, destroying its left wheels – and the team’s race points score - in the process (note: after Imola ’94, the wheels have tethers attached to the monocoque to prevent them from hitting the driver’s head, as what happened in the fatal episode with Aryton Senna. However, Montoya’s left rear just completely detached itself, rolling some way down the road. I wonder if that will be investigated)

This accident brought out the Safety Car, which stayed on track for five laps, or nearly 10% of the entire 53 lap race. As no overtaking is allowed during this period, it meant five fewer laps for Kimi, Alonso and company to move up the field. So when the track was finally cleared, it was no surprise to see an amazing display of driving from these two hungry men.

By lap 15 they were on the tail of Michael’s Ferrari, which was itself doing well to have moved up to 5th place. But as a measure of the change of fortunes this year, it was Schumi who proved to be holding up his younger rivals. They had to get past, or risk losing touch with the front pack. Alonso who made it look easier, with a daring move on the outside of the very quick left hand 130R curve.

Kimi didn’t have such an easy time getting by, and things looked slightly disastrous for him when both Ferrari and McLaren pitted at the together, and came back on track in the same order (but crucially, back ahead of Alonso, who pitted earlier and got stuck in traffic again). The Finn had to do his work on track.

He got Schumi with a great move on the outside of the first curve, and started to hunt down Webber and Button. Meanwhile, Fisichella had been out in front for some time now, with Ralfie boy falling back with one too many pit stops. The Renault had a comfortable 17 sec lead over Button, and having made his second and final pitstop, was just behind the Jenson/Webber/Kimi threesome. It was at this moment that I decided all we could hope from the McLaren was 2nd place. How fortunate then that Kimi didn’t share my pessimism.

On lap 41, Button and Webber pitted together, freeing Kimi to finally stretch his legs. His lap times came down dramatically in clean air, with a 1:31.540 sec lap record as evidence – and this in a year where aerodynamic changes were supposed to have slowed the cars down by 3 seconds a lap. He made his pit stop with 8 laps to go, and came out 5 seconds behind race leader Fisi. Could it be possible…?

The next few laps were nail-biting, and I wouldn’t want to have been in Fisi’s shoes. In no time he started seeing a black and silver car in his mirrors, the McLaren being a full 1.5 sec faster a lap. By the end of the penultimate lap, the two cars were 0.1 sec apart, and Kimi pulled to the left on the start/finish straight, knowing that Fisi would protect the inside line. Despite his rev limiter bouncing he kept at it, and swept past through turn 1 of the final lap. That was that, race decided.

To be fair, I felt Alonso (who finished third) finally drove like a World Champion – ironically, the race after he wrapped up the title - and was the more predatory of the two young guns. His audacious move on Webber for example (which saw half his car on the grass) spoke volumes about his enormous commitment and confidence in his abilities and his car. He had the intelligence to force his opponent the wrong way, and take advantage of that slight loss of momentum to get past the next corner. Kimi in this race played more of a wait-and-see game, knowing that he had the fuel to hang on, then put in blistering laps to cover lost ground.

The McLaren also seemed more reliant on aerodynamic grip, and hence unable to follow a leading car as closely as the Renault without severely affecting its own stability. The R25 on the other hand, carried massive speed out of a corner, and so had an almost leech-like ability to stick to the gearbox in front, especially around slower sections of the track. Of course, the traction control helped greatly, and you could see Alonso fighting with the steering as the car launched itself out of a bend.

So as an anomaly to the rest of the season, Alonso drove a scintillating race, but Kimi picked up the places where and when it counted, and got gold. Brilliant!

Keeping Up

I just learnt that an old schoolmate is being treated for breast cancer, and quite successfully so, thank God. She’s getting through each day with the support of her faith, family and friends. The invincible 3 Fs. I’m really glad she’s keeping up.

A majority of the people in my department are sitting for exams next week, hitting the books to qualify as patent agents. Work’s piling up, nerves are getting wound tight, but they’re keeping up.

Some bloggers seem to be in a quest for fame, for glory, as none other than “blogger”, and seem to be reduced now to only putting out stuff that indicate their progress in this pursuit, or stuff aimed at giving themselves a leg up the ladder. Regardless if they have anything to say or worth reading, the point is to be recognized. Oh my. If media (and their own) reports are anything to go by, they certainly look like they’re keeping up.

And of course, darling little one inside, growing mysteriously and inexorably, hand in hand with me (or should it be body in body), also keeping up.

The only thing that’s not being kept up with is my appetite for black pepper crabs. Long Beach ones only, please. Thank you.

Miracle!

I'd recently explained to Matt what a miracle is, i.e. some act of God that we simply can't understand, like how God made each of the animals, different flowers etc. This was after he asked how God could raise people from the dead.

Well he's so caught up now he thinks that anything he can't figure out is a miracle. Like, we got a free pair of 3D glasses with a kids' magazine, and he couldn't figure how the green and red lens stayed in the cardboard frame, so he immediately concluded, "It's part of the miracle, right?"

I had to literally peel back the cardboard and show him the sandwiched lens and explain that it's no miracle.

On another note, there really is a miracle happening in our lives right now. A little person just made his way into the world! I hope he hangs on tight inside me until it's time he sees daylight. I'm putting my feet up these two weeks for him to stabilise, and keeping fingers crossed that we hear his heartbeat at the next doctor's visit, or the one after that.

Game over?

Say what you will about Kimi Raikkonen, but you can't accuse him of not trying. At the just-concluded Italian Grand Prix in Monza, all kinds of things conspired to ruin Kimi's weekend. First McLaren had to change his engine as a result of an offending inlet valve on Friday. F1 rules being what they are these days, this meant a ten place demotion down the starting grid, regardless of qualifying position.

So McLaren changed their strategy. Monza is a high speed track that usually demands 2 fuel stops, but banking on the car's and Kimi's pace, they went for a risky one stopper. Risky because it makes the car heavier, more difficult to handle and thus slower throughout the duration of the race. And this is where Kimi's scorching qualifying drive made the difference. Driving by far the heaviest car on the grid, he somehow put his McLaren on pole, beating even his own team-mate Montoya by nearly 0.2 sec in identical (bar fuel) cars. Regardless, the penalty meant that he started in 11th position, but you just knew there was more to come.

Kimi spent the first part of the race itself stuck behind Jacques Villenueve's Sauber in the same position he started, but he bided his time until the first pit stops. Then when the drivers started diving into the pits and with relatively clean air in front of him, he turned up the wick. In nine laps he moved from 11th to 2nd, until he was just behind leading man Montoya. And even after pitting on lap 25, he came out in fifth position. With his one and only stop done with, and everyone else needng to make another, it was not inconceivable that he could actually win the race.

Then fate, lady luck or the race gods stepped once again, as they have done so often this season with Kimi (but for some reason, never championship leader Fernando Alonso). His left rear tyre began to delaminate, which required an extra stop that dumped him back to 12th and once more behind Villeneuve. Alonso would have given up there and then, and I wouldn't blame him, but Kimi began his second, even more impressive charge.

One by one he started reeling the other cars in, driving on the ragged edge and using all the track plus a little more. And we saw how much he was pushing, when after despatching Trulli to take 4th and hunting down 3rd place Fisichella, he spun at the second chicane. Now some people say that this cost Kimi a podium finish. Nonsense. Had he not given 150% and every ounce of his fibre to the job, he would have finished well out of the points. As it was, 4th place earned him 5 points, a result that does no justice to a truly heroic drive, evidenced by a fastest lap that was 0.3sec quicker than anyone else.

Sure, Alonso drove a drama-free race to take a well-deserved 2nd place. Then again, he could afford to take it easy, having the most reliable car this season under him, and a seemingly-unassailable 27 point cushion over Kimi with only 4 races to go. In all probability the Finn's title-hopes are over. But I don't watch F1 for play-it-safe tactics - I would much rather support someone who goes down fighting, than one who basks in glory while benfiting from others' misfortunes.

So bring on Spa! (That's the next race at Belgium, in case you're wondering...)

Chinese Fortune Telling

Someone posted this website to get your fortune from the details of your moment of birth.

Matt's
此命推来是不同
为人能干异凡庸
中年还有逍遥福
不比前时运未通

Sarah's
不需劳碌过平生
独自成家福不轻
早有福星常照命
任君行去百般成

Controlblade's
此命推来旺末年
妻荣子贵自怡然
平生原有滔滔福
可卜财源若水泉

Mine
平生衣禄苦中求
独自营谋事不休
离祖出门宜早计
晚求衣禄庶无忧

Now if anybody can translate all that for us, that'd be perfect!

Once more, with feeling

My attraction to unglamorous freak accidents continues:

- 1987: I literally ran into a Mercedes on the way to church. My loose tooth broke free at this moment, and resulting blood on my t-shirt caused a minor panic among the small crowd, who gather closered and deprived me of precious oxygen while I'm lying on the gorund. Merc driver, on the other hand, wanted to sue me for damages to his car, but relented when my neighbour (who just so happened to be his friend) stepped in. Divine intervention, I tell you.

- 1993: Chinese New Year Eve. Doing chin-ups after booking out from the army was already a daft thing, but to compound it, the paint on the door frame my chin-up bar was attached to started peeling off, so it fell and took me with it, knees first. For some reason my grandfather found it quite amusing, while my mother's reaction was quite the opposite. But pain or no pain, we dutifully had our reunion dinner first (customs can't be broken, you know!) before going to the hospital. Till this day I can't kneel properly.

- 2000: Visiting my uncle, I managed to cut my toe right under the nail on one of the door entrance tiles. Further inspection failed to uncover the offending sharp edge, but my toe was bleeding quite profusely anyhow. I had just joined my present company, where a business shirt and tie are mandatory, so it was extra silly to visit cusotmers wearing sandals while my bandaged toe healed.

- 2004 (or was it early this year?): While rummaging through the storeroom in the dark - again not the smartest thing to do - I heard something drop and experienced a sharp pain in my toe (thankfully not the same toe as the last episode). It turned out to be a rubber mallet that fell, and my toe decided to turn the same colour as the mallet in retribution. Although the pain continued for some time, it healed surprisingly quickly, even as the toenail expectedly came off. I derived a strange pleasure watching it grow back to its original length after that.

- Yesterday: You would think by now that I've stopped doing dumb things. We took the children to the playground in the evening, and like a real hero I have to start swinging on one of the mini monkey bars. I say 'mini' only in hindsight, because now I know that there isn't enough clearance between bar and platform for my swinging body to fit through, knees bent or not. And so I end up slamming the platform with my left shin, right under the knee. I don't think anything's seriously wrong, but I can't put pressure on my left leg for extended periods now. Ah, it will get better...

I am such a klutz.

A_o_tion

I frequent a fun and lively mother's forum, where people also write in with their problems. This particular thread was started by a woman who is pregnant with the baby of a man she took up with during a period of separation from her husband. She is also now seeking to be reconciled with her husband (who had cheated on her), and has made an appointment for an abortion although she is distraught at the thought of it.

I'm fighting tooth and nail against the replies telling her that she doesn't have much of a choice if she hopes to make up with her husband. People are saying that adoption is going to be difficult, that she won't be able to keep her affair and pregnancy a secret therefore, etc. etc., and somebody actually said that she knows what she must do except it's going to be hard, and that we will be there to hear her pour out her sorrows.

I wanted to throw a rock at my computer screen when I read that. I wonder if the poster was the devil surfaced from hell (posted under Guest), given that glib, apparently sympathetic but actually totally heartless reply completely designed to deceive her into making the greatest mistake of her life.

This issue has been discussed for a couple of days now, and I've many times exhorted the woman (anonymous poster) to consider adoption, and to seek help from ALife and Family Life Society's Pregnancy Crisis Centre. It is also greatly heartening to see other forum users speaking up and urging her to keep the baby.

My heart is sick at the thought of what this woman is going through, and the knowledge that in 4 days' time she may really go through with the killing of her baby.

Shakedown!

So here's the funny thing - we get cable primarily to watch F1, and realize that far more entertaining is the rally/travel/entertainment show, AXN Shakedown, hosted by DJ, VJ and comedian, Neil Cole.

This week covered the Acropolis Rally in Greece, which meant lots and lots of dust. I'm in constant awe of these guys who slide their 300hp cars around the loose surfaces at unbelievable velocities, but also shocked at the spectators who position themselves so close to the edge of the narrow tracks that they must surely act as human bowling pins should the cars step out of line even a little. I'm not sure who's braver.

Sebastien Loeb as usual made it look easy, while the rest of the field struggled with problems of all sorts. With a huge margin of 1:36 min, he wrapped up an unprecedented five consecutive wins (he would go on to six at Rally Argentina). A huge surprise was privateer Mikko Hirvonen in his Focus, who embarrassed many a works driver by winning 3 stages and finishing fifth.

But what made Shakedown so appealing, even to rally freshie like Lu, was the presentation of the programme, and the general lack of airs in the rally community itself. Squeezed into the one-hour show was Neil taking a tour of Athens' historical sites, finding the best place for Greek kebabs, tasting Greek coffee, playing Greek blues, getting a helicopter ride from Loeb, arranging a tug-of-war between the Ford and Subaru mechanics, playing scissors-paper-stone with junior drivers, as well as cajolling the drivers to put on their best philosopher expressions. And all this apart from the rally action. Whew.

When was the last time anyone saw F1 drivers talk, outside of scheduled press conferences?

Cable-enabled

Just got ourselves out of tv suaku-land with the installation yesterday of an SCV box. This was done primarily so that on Grand Prix weekends I don't have to go pestering StarSports-ready friends, or worse, watch races from a 'live update' laptime computer screen. So far Nik has been forthcoming in extending his hospitality, but I'm not comfortable being away from the kiddies unnecessarily 19 Sunday nights a year. Besides, I always feel like I'm intruding on his ongoing 2 year honeymoon with his wife.

I've noticed that although we only subscribed to the basic group plus sports, we've got ALL the channels now - MTV, Zee Tv, Chinese channels, the lot. Colleagues tell me that happens for the first week or month, to tempt us into adding more groups, and money into Starhub's coffers. Nice strategy, but won't work with me!

Then again, I did vow that we'd never get cable... Now, which channel is Battlestar Galactica on again?

Rawa Revisited

If you'll check the August Destination link in the lefthand margin, yes, that's where we just went. Another anniversary of sorts - last year same days we took a short holiday there too. The place is as lovely as ever - white sands, blue waters, cosy chalet right on the beach front. The restaurant's newly done up, and the booking is organised differently this time - a full-board per person daily rate instead of separate room and meal charges. One of the kitchen staff plays very good piano during dinner!

We kayaked around the island this time, instead of just clawing around in the lagoon like last year. Quite exciting! The waters were choppy as we rounded the ends of the oval-shaped island, and dark and strong on the rocky cliff side that had no beach.

Rain, rain, go away

Matt's school was to have taken them to the zoo yesterday. The weather forecast the day before predicted thunderstorms in the Mandai area. True enough, we all rose to a grey, drizzly morning. So Sean got him to pray for the rain to stop. We also found him singing the "Rain, rain, go away" song to himself while getting ready. He was being terribly excited about the whole idea of the trip. I felt my heart sink.

On the way to school, to prepare him for a very likely disappointment, I said, "Matt, if it rains, you all won't go to the zoo anymore. But it's ok right? Your school will bring you another day."

"Don't worry about the rain," Matt replied, all bright and cheerful. "Just pray!"


They all had a lovely time at the zoo that day.

5 years today

Has it been that fast? The wedding is still quite fresh in my mind. Much has happened and I hope I've improved, but generally I still feel very much like the old me. I think he's improved more than I have in these 5 years.

Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to our dinner date tonight.

------------
UPDATE 14 July 2005

About that dinner date, it was great! I wore the wedding dress and jewellery, but had to get out of the car and cross the road to make our reservation time at Ja'an. Traffic was insane around the Raffles City area because of the International Olympics Committee meeting going on there. I also had to pass through a metal detector in my full regalia - security was at a peak with people like the British PM and French president appearing for the IOC sessions.

Ja'an's a very nice and cosy place. Tiny, with a fantastic view. We could see the roads from Shenton Way to Nicoll highway all snaked up with lights from the crawling cars trying to get home after work or into the city for the night. The padang was also decked out in preparation for the national day celebrations. They must have been doing some technical runs. Laser beams and floodlight spots were alternately sweeping and crossing the air above it, even running directly on the underside of the cloud cover like it was a ceiling! It occurred to me that Batman must have had a problem on clear nights - there wouldn't have been a cloud screen for the signal to show up against.

We were served an unexpected appetizer of samosas with mango dip, compliments of the chef, followed by bread, then our orders of a scallop starter, veal for him and lobster for me, topped off with an orange creme brulee. Yummy! I've to add, they actually billed us for the samosas.

A couple beside us had a digital camera and we got them to take some pictures of us, but we've not heard from them yet...

--------------

UPDATE 25 July 2005

We received the pictures! Nice. But I look like I've a fat face.

Mannly music

More on Aimee Mann's music. I've realized that I cannot appreciate her songs completely when I'm in high spirits. Perhaps it's that twinge of sadness that runs through her material, the way her voice lingers just a moment more than you expect, that tells you all is not as chirpy as the melody suggests. Or maybe it's how you feel she identifies with and expresses pain that's somehow comforting; you feel that she's on your side. Of course, her lyrics are often sarcastic, and sometimes downright blunt - "As we were speaking of the devil, you walked right in" - but as with most music it's the sound itself that carries the emotional tone.

The great thing though, is that it manages avoid falling into the other extreme of despondency by keeping the arrangement and textures light, and the instruments clearly separated. Mann's "Little Bombs", for example, is a shuffling, stifling, introspective number that recalls Natalie Merchant's signature sound, without the overbearing gloom that sometimes afflicts the latter's work. I can just imagine the song in Merchant's Ophelia or Motherland albums, being dragged down by a host of strings.

And Aimee manages this delicate balancing act so expertly throughout her sonic musings. Sweetest in its tragedy, most delicate in its bitterness, she mixes cynicism beautifully with tenderness, resulting in some of the most surprisingly palatable pop I've come across. Just not when I'm perfectly happy...

I've passed! I've passed!!

Yay!!! After 2 semesters of night classes and Saturday morning classes, it's such a great feeling to know I've passed the final exams and have been awarded the Graduate Certificate in Intellectual Property Law (Merit). All right!!!

Now my bond starts.