Exactly 5 days before I am due to fly off, Pau2 is down with HFMD.
Of the remaining 5 days now, he will be isolated from his brother.
Which also means, I will not get to see much of Imin, before I go.

Ouch .. that hurts.

Almost 2.30.

I’m so bushed. Here I am, at the computer, and going through a Power-one Walnut study. My brain is threatening to hibernate already.

Earlier, we had a pre-birthday celebration for Pau2 at Mak’s house. Now, that would be another entry altogether, complete with pictures. I am just so swarmed with work and so submerged in fatigue now, I do not think I would do justice to the happy event if I were to do an entry on that at this instant.

Anyways, I just want to note this. Pau2 has a habit of putting his flavor-of-the-month items on his bed when he goes to sleep. One time, it was his binoculars. The other, was his favorite book. Many times, these were his CARS toys. Almost every weekend morning, while making his bed up, I would find many assorted items / toys / books on his bed / under his pillow.

Earlier, just before he went to bed, he came to me.

"Ibu, can I sleep with my remote car?"

That is a birthday gift from Bapak, I think.

I looked at him and saw that he was practically carrying the whole box. It is unwrapped, still.

I guessed he saw my how-on-earth-are-you-going-to-put-the-car-on-your-bed look. He hastily added:

“Ibu, I put this under my bed. Can I put this under my bed?’

I smiled. How could I say no?

Note to Whitelily > Maybe you will beat me to blogging about the party after all. At the rate I am going right now, the next 'free time' I would have is exactly 6 days later ... on a 12-hour flight to the other side of the world.

A question was sms-ed:-

What do u tell yrself/how do u pick yrself up wen u face tough challenges at work n life, in general? If u dun mind sharing.. :)

The reply:-

Erm tough q. I thk im at tat point myself. Lots of neg things at work now. I jus thk postvely. Then my reactns will b optimistic. And I oso thk abt pple in myanmar and china. Then suddenly my prob pale in comparison.. Oso I look at my boys, my sis, my hubby. Then I realized I haf many to thank for.. Then I pick myself up :)

I don’t care if you do not like Celine Dion (most people do not) but back in the 90s, there’s one album by her, titled Falling Into You, that has become an everlasting favorite of mine to this day.

1. The songs remind me of the time I just got to knew Hubs, in late 90s.
2. One particular song, TO LOVE YOU MORE, reminds me of a girl that I got to know via ALAMAK chatroom. Both of us loved this song very much. Sometimes, we would talk on the phone late into the night and sang to each other. She was the one who introduced Hubs to me, and surprisingly, once she knew Hubs was going out with me, she stopped chatting with me altogether. To this day, I’ve never really know the REAL reason for this sudden end of our cyber-relationship. Perhaps the song we both liked might be able to give me clues. Hmm...
3. I like ALL tracks on this album – and can sing along to them at any time of the day.
4. I still have the songs on my NOKIA and at times, would listen to them when I travel to work.
5. During the DRIVELOGUE trip, I played the tracks on this album again and again.
6. If Celine Dion were to hold a concert HERE in SG, I would be the first to buy tickets. Well, ok, maybe not the first, but among the first few hundreds and alas, due to my financial situation, I may not be able to afford the best seats. However, I will still GO SEE HER CONCERT.
7. And oh, I still have the CASSETTE TAPE of the album. The CASSETTE TAPE. Can you imagine?

.: From Wikipedia
Falling into You is Céline Dion's fourth English album and twenty-first in total, released on March 11, 1996. The album won the Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year at the 1997 Grammy Awards Ceremony. Falling into You is the one of the 3 albums to stay in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 Album charts for more than one year. It remains one of the best-selling albums in history, and the second best-selling album by a female artist with over 32 million copies sold worldwide.

diva™  says: ayah

®يازكاتراز says: yeah baby

diva™  says: how to tell someone that he/she has bad breathe?

®يازكاتراز says: cover your nose

diva™  says: tat's too obvious!

diva™  says: kena jaga hati orang

®يازكاتراز says: i just bought a face mask from taiwan.

®يازكاتراز says: 2 face masks

®يازكاتراز says: when talking to her, u can say: nice not this face mask? it's for you.

diva™  says: ha ha

Yeah .. but I don’t think so lah.

7.20am, lift lobby @ BRV.

‘IBU! Sing me a birthday song!’

‘Err .. ok. Happy Birthday to you .. happy birthday to you .. happy birthday to … ?

Pause. I looked at him.

‘Me .. Ilman …’

‘Oh ok.. Happy birthday to Ilman… Happy birthday to you…’

‘Yay!! My birthday is starting soon!’

Almost every morning nowadays, Pau2 would ask me the following:-

Pau2: IBU! Is it June already?

Me: No, it’s still May.

Pau2: Why my birthday is so late?

And this question was asked not only once in a day, but at least twice – once in the morning and one more time when I fetch him home daily.

He is SO looking forward to his birthday. He must be thinking of all the many presents that he would be getting. It takes him a couple of months to learn the spelling of ONE till TEN but only merely minutes to remember exactly how to spell NINE JUNE. Now and then, he would tell me: IBU! My birthday is starting soon.

My heart feels a tinge of sadness. Oh, Pau2 is aware that both his parents are not going to be around to plan his birthday celebration this year. He keeps saying: Never mind, celebrate at Mak’s house.

Maybe this year would be similar to last year – having to celebrate his birthday at 3 different times, at 3 different homes.

8.10am

Hubs and the boys were getting ready to buy pratas for breakfast. I was seated in the living room – reading. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Hubs going to the storeroom to retrieve his shoes. He had his cap on.

At this hour? Hardly any scorching sun.

I called out: Ayah! Why are you wearing your cap? There’s hardly any sun.

He emerged from the storeroom, and with a defiance look on his face, replied: What? I’ve got two sons!

One morning, we were walking to the Tampines MRT. There was the usual morning crowd – some were Malay Muslim females in tudungs. Some young, some not. Some on the ‘bigger side’, some not.

A conversation between Hubs and me.

Hubs: Ibu .. ibu ni kurang sihat lah.

Me: Ha?

Hubs: Ibu tengok pompan yang lain. Orang melayu, ramai yang sihat-sihat. Ibu ni ‘kurang sihat’.

Oh. Got it.

Anyways, yes. Since he left in April, I was down from 57kg to 54kg. Imin has been the down who checked my weight almost nightly. But now that Hubs is back, I’ll probably piled it up aall again!

To very nicely conclude the wondrous drive adventure that Hubs and I had more than a month ago, taken in conjunction of our 6^th wedding anniversary, I have decided to cyber-freeze the experience and memories. This simple-no-fuss site is hereby known as:-

DRIVELOGUE

Have Wheels. Will Travel.

Feel free to look around

http://www.zeezone.net/drivelogue

When Hubs was away, inevitably I spent more time behind the wheels.

Last Saturday, we went over to my BC flat, to clean up a bit, in anticipation of Hubs’ (and our) return there this weekend (yippee!!). When we were done, at around past noon, I drove home.

Just after the SPC petrol station, there was a traffic light. I was driving as per normal. The light was green and just as I approached, it turned amber. Before I had time to reduce the speed, it changed to red just as I was in the in middle of junction. I hit the accelerator. And zoomed by safely.

No big deal right?

Expect that there was a RED LIGHT CAMERA at that junction!

When I told Hubs about it, he asked: Was there any flashing?

I said, I didn’t notice because I was busy hiding behind wheels. Silly me.

Then he said something to the effect that ‘gamen has just given me the money, so now I can give them back.’

Sigh.

And oh yes, the day Hubs came back in the wee hours (12.31am) of the morning, I drove on my own to the airport. It was liberating, to say the least, that Ibu Ros trusted me with her car!