You know, I (or Hubbs so as to speak) have almost the entire collection of John Grisham’s paperbacks. Yup, we collect. There they are, on the shelf, displayed proudly in the Computer Room at my BC residence.

Last night, I stayed up. I couldn’t sleep. I had to devour it. What was I doing, you ask?

I was onto my 2^nd time reading The Partner. Hmm.. I think so, my second. Or could it be my third?

Anyways, the frequency does not matter here. I re-read almost all my books anyway, even the Enid Blyton’s. No kidding, at this age. Dead serious.

Coming back, I was onto my last chapter of The Partner. Of course, I knew how the ending was, but I just want to re-live it again. Only two more pages to go. I devoured a page, turn to the next one, read one and came to last line.. when suddenly, I noticed that THE VERY NEXT PAGE/S WAS/WERE TORN!

ARGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, anyone out there knows what happened after Pg 408, The Partner by John Grisham?

The other day, I happened to pass by Box Bistro @ Courts Tampines. What a lovely spread of varied delicacies! Yum yum. The restaurant or eatery looks good and airy too. However, the question remains.

Is that place HALAL, as of 24 Dec 2006?

Hey, anyone out there knows? Please inform, because already, I am drooling!

Next working week will be my last for 2006. Hence after, I will be stepping into something entirely different.

SCREECH!!.. hold on! I need to survive Friday, 29 Dec 2006, 9.15am.

Gulp. It’s my third in 12 months. I am so tensed. Each time I speak to God, I always ask Him for the green light (hmm.. just like Hubb’s strategy to date me for the very first time, but that’s another story.. will come to that later). I ask Him to please, please, please have mercy and sympathy on me, to please, please, please make it easier for me and to please, please, please grant me success on that day. Please, God.. please.. please help thy servant here.

Once I am over that 29^th hurdle, it will be Aidiladha next. A long weekend, with New Year looming. Immediately after, I will be relocating to my own home and be the master (or mistress, or even slave) of my own kingdom.

Yup.. I will be with the boys on my own now. We will be surviving (or try to survive) in BC on our own. You know, ever since I have children, I’ve never really taken care of them full time. I mean, on weekends, there’s Hubbs to shower them and clean up their nature mess.

Now, it will only be me and me and me alone. I ask God to please give me the strength. Am I terrified? A bit. A lot. A little. Aplenty.

Can I do this? Will I be able to feed my boys as good as my sitter, or even better? Will at the end of Jan 07, they will lose a kg or two? Can I really fetch them from their school in Tampines and drag two sleepy and tired bodies back to BC on the public bus all on my own, even knowing Pau2’s tendency to want to ‘HAP’ (his language for HUG) when the tiniest amount of sleepititis hit him? Imin is fine, he’s older, he listens to me and he can rationale. Ah, that’s my boy. But Pau2 is different. He is so gorgeously handsome* but very demanding. And at not even 3 years (his birthday in June 07), he of course CANNOT rationale.

So, can I do it or not? Sigh .. please, God, HELP ME! GRANT ME STRENGTH!

Boys aside, I have many other items on my agenda. Just the other day, this.. how should I describe her?.. RA? Ok, RA smsed me and informed that she wanted to start a project. A children’s book. Would I be interested? And also, the Counselor, who has migrated to Australia, emailed to inform that his publisher is looking for a compilation of fictions and would I be interested to be added on to the list?

Ok.. if I were to rattle off my agenda here, it wouldn’t be fun later in 2007. No more surprises for any of you who might be reading this. So, I’ll keep it hush hush for now.

What’s clear is that, I will not be working in Jan 07 but I will be working starting Jan 07.

Get what I meant?

*Did I ever tell you? I fall in love each and every day.. with the lovely face of my own son. Sometimes, I cannot believe he is mine. Sigh .. what a heartbreaker.

Have you seen UMMAHFILMS.COM?

If you have not, you should. It is a very humorous look at Islam, very ticklish and very refreshing by an American convert. So funny, I fell off my chair and laughed my head off.

Say, they got nice T-shirts too. And I like it that they have it in long sleeve*. I know of some less-thought corporations who order Tshirts for their members in SHORT SLEEVE ONLY!

Sigh.. what a pity. To be a Singaporean all your life and still not aware of the BASIC Islamic requirements for Muslims.

KNOCK KNOCK!

Hello, who are your neighbours, for goodness sake! And to this day, I still have ‘not-so informed and not so sensitive’ people asking me (when I put on long sleeve on a hot blazing day, complete with my tudung that covers all the way to my chest) – WAH SO HOT! YOU NOT HOT AH? STILL WEAR LONG SLEEVE? AND YOUR TUDUNG … AIYOH (and shake their head…)

I’d shake mine too.

My friend - my religion is mine and your religion is yours. I have faith in my belief and when you have faith in what you are doing, you will overcome the minor obstructions. HELL FIRE is HOTTER, dude!

It really puts me off when so-called educated adults who have stayed on our tiny island all their miserable life NOT to understand or even vaguely know what being a Muslim is all about. Sure, I can be patient to explain to them but it’s like, have you stayed here in Singapore all your life with your eyes shut .. or what?

Sigh.. go watch UMMAHFILMS.COM – I am tired already.

* My birthday just round the corner *wink*