This is the latest painting I've done.
It's about 95% done. One more session and it should be completed.

Amelia's wordism

English, according to Mz Amelia.

"Have you been to the new NTUC in Marine Parade?" asked Amelia, "It has a walkalator, you know,"

Huh? WALK-A-LATOR?

She means travellator. Those thingies like escalators, but only flat, like those you get at the airport.

The Stupidity I see on the MRT

The MRT was pretty crowded today at 1pm.

I was getting off at Bugis station. PLENTY of people were getting off at Bugis.
Why was our door stuck?
This fat patootie of a girl (she's in her early 20s) stood at the doorway as the door opened, taking up half the door space. I kid you not. (someone else was at the door corner).

No cow sense in that girl, she just stood there like an immovable cow and the other people had to shove past her. I said to the girl "Have you no sense to move OUT of the doorway instead of blocking HALF of the exit?"

Whatever happened to education, both at school and especially at HOME.

Singaporeans are not taking responsibility for inculcating civic values in their children, who, as a result, grow up into thoughtless creatures, who will, eventually, have children who will continue the cycle of inconsiderate behaviour.

Just look at the number of badly behaved children at the shopping centres, with their ever-indulgent parents turning a blind eye to their children's destructive behaviour.

And our poor government is trying their best to groom our population into a nation of civic minded, well-mannered people.

Singaporeans are a long, long way off from civil behaviour.

I guess that's because we are not a nation of cows, otherwise we'd have cow-sense, yes? *roll eyes*

Why do I not feel Christmassy? (if there's such a word)

Maybe because I haven't heard much carolling ... or maybe I'm just not in the mood.
The weather outside is still frightful (with its downpours and gloomy skies)
And thank goodness there are no fires to delight fools.
Just a pity Singapore's way too hot
To let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Not that snowing is going to make me feel in the mood.

Perhaps going for the annual Christmas Eve Dinner at my 3rd Aunt's place might put me in the mood.
Perhaps peeling the ever-popular Francyn's Quail Egg Delight might put me in the mood.

gah. Christmas is for kids, and its up to us adults to make sure the kids have a good time.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Friends.

You never know how much a person is a part of your life, until there is a separation.

I've only known Seema since we both started oil painting lessons at the Tanjong Pagar Community Centre, in May 2008, so this makes it, what, one and a half years? Karen and I wanted to learn to oil paint, and decided that learning at the CC was helluva lot cheaper than learning at private classes.

So here we were, two beginners standing behind Lao Shi, who was painting a rather ugly pot with fake dusty lurid purple orchids, and lecturing us in MANDARIN on the basics of oil painting. I was already starting to go cross-eyed even though Karen was doing rapid translation into English, when we realised there was an Indian girl who was listening intently to Karen. She was new to the class too, and being Indian, we knew she was not going to be able to follow the lesson if Lao Shi was going to teach in Mandarin. That was our first meeting with Seema, our girl from India.

Amelia too, was new to class, and it was her canvas that Lao Shi was painting on. While Karen was doing translation, Amelia was nodding her head and making appropriate noises. The four of us naturally gravitated towards each other, being the newbies of the class and being forced to paint Really Ugly Orchids.

When class was over at 5.30pm, as we were packing up, we asked Seema and Amelia if they would like to have dinner with us. We didn't know where to eat, so we'd be exploring too. That was the start of a beautiful friendship, women of different ages, different characters and outlooks in life.

A rather odd quartet but bonded in friendship by our love for painting.

And now it looks like our quartet will become a trio. *sigh sadly*

Christmas Memories

We had an early Christmas Party at Seema's pad yesterday evening, all 4 of us Oil Painting Musketeers (Amelia, Karen, Seema and I)

We were supposed to have dinner at Swensons' but changed our mind and decided it was more cosy to buy dinner in and relax at Seema's. Seema bought sushi - Karen consented to have cooked prawn sushi with no seaweed, surprise, surprise (she hates the smell of seaweed) - then we went over to Burger King's to get packed meals.

After dinner, we got down to opening our presents. Seema would be going back to India to celebrate Christmas with her parents, so we thought, what the hey, we would open our gifts early, to see each other's reactions to the presents we had selected for them.

As usual, I took photos of the four of us, using the timer on my camera. Amelia wanted to learn how to use the timer on her camera and after giving her the basics, she carefully selected the 10second timer, stood and aimed at all of us, then depressed the button to take the photo. Then she placed the camera on the table and ran to her place, TOTALLY forgetting that the angle of the photo has changed - remember she stood to take aim, then set the camera on the table. Needless to say, her photo didn't look all that great. *grin*

Seema and I laughed so hard till tears dropped from our eyes, and STILL Amelia had no clue WHY we were both laughing so hard, and she was laughing herself as she slapped at our arms asking, "WHAT? WHAT? Stop laughing lah, WHY you laugh? What's so funny?" Karen too had no idea why we were laughing, but was laughing anyway because Seema and I were. When Seema and I finally pulled ourselves together, we explained to the other two, which set off yet another round of helpless laughter.

It is a good memory to have, one that I'll keep for the rest of my life.

Perhaps we laughed so hard because this may the last Christmas Seema will celebrate with us. She's accepted a job posting to Dubai, and may move there in January.

When she told us in the afternoon, I think we were all stunned. Somehow, you always think our time with each other will last forever, but of course, we knew Seema's stay in Singapore was limited - we just didn't know she would leave us so soon. Karen said she saw Amelia wipe away some tears, while I was just stunned into silence. I think we all felt we were just punched in the chest by the news. Seema's not left Singapore yet, but we feel the loss already.

I must learn to be less accommodating.

What a day.

I spent the morning doing the maid's money transfer back to Indonesia, from going to the bank to withdraw the money, to going to the post office to have it sent off through Western Union. And after we did all that (I wondered at the unseemly rush) the maid tells me, oh, today is a public holiday in Indonesia, they don't work on Saturday and Sunday, so the earliest her family can access the money is on Monday.

Instead of having to run around madly, trying to complete MY errands as well as see to the maid's request, I could have pushed that money transfer to Monday, and then life would have gone on a nice, even pace.

*sigh*

I truly wonder at the Maid's Mental Capacity.

Perhaps the lesson I should take away from this is:

I am not a slave to the maid, nor to anyone else except myself.
I should see to MY needs first.
I should remember that this maid has no cow sense, and therefore I need to ASK and QUESTION thoroughly, before I plan to do any running around, and that HER stuff had better fit in with MY time, and not the other way around.

I am too obliging.

I have too many lessons to learn. *bleah*