Monthly Archives: August 2019

2019 Week 33 Update

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This week was the usual week where nothing much happened. I am actually sort of pausing my job search from now till I am back from my long awaited India holiday at the end of the year because I don’t want to interview only to tell any potential hiring manager that I can’t start until the new year which will automatically put me out of the running. But if something comes my way (which I prefer in any case), then that’s a different story altogether.

Speaking about my trip, we’ve booked our tickets to India as well as the train tickets to the interiors from a major city in the south as well as our hotel accomodation there. I am also looking forward to meeting my maternal grandmother who is around 90 years old. I know that she does not have many years left, so I do want to meet her this year. The children are also excited to meet their only surviving great grand parent. We still have to buy our flight tickets from Mumbai to the southern city and back, which we will do soon.

In researching the places we will be visiting, I ended up watching train videos on YouTube and I found these so fascinating. I have been revisiting old journeys which we used to take when we were in school and seeing all the station names brought back so much memories. I now want to take the children with me to visit more cities in India.

Have a wonderful week folks and this week brings us to the end to the month of August!

2019 Secondary 4 Week 33 Update

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BB is in the midst of his prelims while GG’s starts next week. Both are stressed and I sometimes feel that GG is at breaking point. BB is the more chill twin between the two and I rarely see him stressed out. Which is also not a good thing, because some stress is good for you. I am worried about GG because she does not handle stress well and in times of immense stress, tends to blank out. I am hoping she copes with this stress and is able to bypass the blanking out she usually does.

I mistook the EAE result date to be last week, but it is actually next week and we are all stressed over it. In fact, I met some parents from BB’s school, all of whose children have applied for EAE (and a couple who are competing with BB for the same course) and all are praying hard that their children get into the course of their choice. Of course, at this point, it’s not if your child is not good enough for the course, but how good the other students are. Given that each course can only take in at the most 20% of its intake, there’s a limited number of seats available.

If either BB or GG or both don’t make it this time, then they just have to double up and work hard to ensure that they make the cut off point to the course and get in when the joint admission exercise happens after the O level results are declared in January.

That’s all this week! Have a great Sunday!

In My Hands Today…

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The Venetian Betrayal – Steve Berry

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Locating Alexander the Great’s final resting place-unknown to this day-remains a tantalizing goal for both archaeologists and treasure hunters. Now the quest for this coveted prize is about to heat up. After narrowly escaping a fire that consumes a Danish museum, Cotton Malone-former U.S. Justice Department agent turned rare-book dealer-learns from his friend, the beguiling adventurer Cassiopeia Vitt, that the blaze was part of a campaign of arson intended to mask a far more diabolical design.

From the ashes of the U.S.S.R., a new nation has arisen: the Central Asian Federation. At its helm is Supreme Minister Irina Zovastina, a cunning despot with the single-minded desire to surpass Alexander the Great as history’s ultimate conqueror. The Federation has amassed a harrowing arsenal of biological weapons, and only one thing keeps Zovastina from setting in motion her death march of domination: a miraculous healing serum, kept secret by an ancient puzzle and buried with the mummified remains of Alexander the Great-in a tomb lost to the ages for more than 1,500 years.

Together, Cotton and Cassiopeia must outrun and outthink the forces allied against them in order to unravel a riddle whose solution could destroy or save millions of people depending on who finds the lost tomb first.

In My Hands Today…

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The Concubine’s Daughter – Pai Kit Fai

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Lotus Feet. He would give his daughter the dainty feet of a courtesan. This would enhance her beauty and her price, making her future shine like a new coin. He smiled to himself, pouring fresh tea. And it would stop her from running away…

When the young concubine of an old farmer in rural China gives birth to a daughter called Li-Xia, or “Beautiful One,” the child seems destined to become a concubine herself. Li refuses to submit to her fate, outwitting her father’s orders to bind her feet and escaping the silk farm with an English sea captain. Li takes her first steps toward fulfilling her mother’s dreams of becoming a scholar — but her final triumph must be left to her daughter, Su Sing, “Little Star,” in a journey that will take her from remote mountain refuges to the perils of Hong Kong on the eve of World War II