Poem: Writer’s Block

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For the past week, I have been really struggling to write quality content. I have ideas, but when I start writing, everything seems to fizzle out. This poem is inspired by my struggles.

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Writer’s Block

 

I sit in front of my laptop, staring intently at the blank screen
Peering and poring over it, hoping to form words that come to mean

Sometimes I get a glimmer of an idea
It flits and floats, as if doing the cha-cha

The idea proves as elusive as a scent in the air
Trying to locate it proves to be as difficult as a prayer

I try to sip some coffee hoping for a spark
To ignite those neurons, fire up the quark

But words are still playing hide-and-seek with me
Wonder when they will give up and come to me?

In My Hands Today…

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Spirit House –  Christopher G. Moore

136227A farang is dead and the Bangkok police have a confession the next morning from a young paint-thinner addict. He claims he killed Ben Hoadly, an expat Brit, but Calvino has his doubts when he sees heavy bruises on the kid’s face. In no time Calvino is working both sides, out to find the killer for Hoadly’s wealthy father, and eager to clear the addict’s name for a beautiful friend who runs a charity in the slums. With the help of his best friend, Pratt, a Shakespeare quoting Thai police colonel, and his loyal assistant, Ratana, Calvino plunges into the dangerous world of addicts, dealers, fortune tellers, inexpensive hit men, oversexed foreigners, and professional bar girls.

2018 Week 3 Update

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We’re in week 3 of 2018 and depending on how you look at it, the year is either as slow as molasses or zipping faster than you can catch it! Which side are you in?

The cool weather I wrote about last week has ended and we are back to our hot and humid climate again where turning on the air conditioner is more of a necessity if you want a decent night’s sleep. Well, it was good while it lasted! Climate change is real people and those who are still sceptical should just read the news daily to be convinced!

As for my week, it went off quite fast. As I wrote yesterday, I went to parent support group meetings in both schools. I also walked a fair bit this week and exceeded my target of an average of 10k steps per day. I have not been reading as much as I like and am woefully behind my reading schedule for the year. This is something I would like to address this week.

As for the job front, I did meet one person, the third in this organisation and it may work out. But this organisation is not looking to hire someone under their own steam and want the successful candidate to be their own contractor. It’s something completely different than what I was led to believe and I need to do more research to see if this is something I am comfortable doing as well as if it is financially viable. I also would need to negotiate to revise upwards my rates because I didn’t take into account some of the standard perks available to employees here when I first gave them my asking rate. Let me see how this pans out as they will get back to me only at the beginning of February.

Well, here’s to hoping that the week is a joyfully productive one!

 

2018 Secondary 3 Week 3 Update

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Another week of school and the children are settling in school. It’s a new environment with new subjects for both of them. Their common tests are coming up soon, earlier for GG than BB, but I also understand that they will have class tests in the meantime.

I also went to both school parent support group (PSG) meetings this week, and the contrast between the two was quite telling! GG’s school is the older one,  but the PSG is not strong and parents are quite indifferent. BB’s school, on the other hand, has a very active support group and parents are quite on the ball in partnering with the school.

Nothing much happened in school this week as it is still early days yet, so let’s see how this year pans out for both of them.

 

In My Hands Today…

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Aunty Lee’s Delights – Ovidia Yu

17349206This delectable and witty mystery introduces Rosie “Aunty” Lee, feisty widow, amateur sleuth and proprietor of Singapore’s best-loved home cooking restaurant

After losing her husband, Rosie Lee could easily have become one of Singapore’s “tai tai,” an idle rich lady devoted to mah-jongg and luxury shopping. Instead, she threw herself into building a culinary empire from her restaurant, Aunty Lee’s Delights, where spicy Singaporean home cooking is graciously served to locals and tourists alike. But when a body is found in one of Singapore’s beautiful tourist havens, and when one of her wealthy guests fails to show at a dinner party, Aunty Lee knows that the two are likely connected.

The murder and disappearance throws together Aunty Lee’s henpecked stepson Mark, his social-climbing wife Selina, a gay couple whose love is still illegal in Singapore, and an elderly Australian tourist couple whose visit-billed at first as a pleasure cruise-may mask a deeper purpose. Investigating the murder is rookie Police Commissioner Raja, who quickly discovers that the savvy and well-connected Aunty Lee can track down clues even better than local law enforcement.

Wise, witty and unusually charming, Aunty Lee’s Delights is a spicy mystery about love, friendship and home cooking in Singapore, where money flows freely and people of many religions and ethnicities co-exist peacefully, but where tensions lurk just below the surface, sometimes with deadly results.