2017 Week 4 Update

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Nothing exciting happened this week! There, I live a very boring and mundane life and this weekly post does showcase this!

This has been a long weekend, because of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. Living in a multiracial and multicultural society like Singapore, you do get tend to be caught in the celebrations of the festivities of the other races.

Speaking of multiracial and multicultural societies, I am appalled by what is happening in the United States these days! The latest edict by their President which has banned not only immigrants from six largely Muslim countries including legal green card holders is plain ridiculous. Most of the immigrants from these countries are fleeing persecution and hope to arrive in the ‘land of the free’ but that’s not going to happen now. Instead, countries which have exported terror (I won’t name them here, but any simple google search will tell you which ones these are) are not included in this edict, including the countries whose citizens were responsible for some of the most heinous attacks in and on American soil and people. Guess his business trumps human decency!

GG & BB’s dream universities are in America, but if things do not improve, I don’t think I will be comfortable sending them to that country to study as minorities keep getting targeted. University is still almost a decade away for BB, so we still have hope!

I also have loads of family there, some who have been there for decades and are naturalised now and some who’ve been there for a few years now. All of them are highly educated professionals and earn quite well. Browns and minorities even walking the street now begets paranoia and I am quite honestly, worried for them.

Hopefully, the people realise that we’re all human beings and citizens of the world. In this day and time, when distances are not really that important, it’s not wise keeping your borders closed, that too because you are paranoid….

Needed to get this out of my chest, so thanks for reading if you’ve managed to get so far! Hopefully things will get better soon.

January is almost over,  so let’s hope February brings with it better tidings. Have a wonderful week folks!

Secondary 2 Week 4 Update

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This was a slightly shorter school week due to the Lunar New Year celebrations in school on Friday which meant they did not have any lessons that day.

I was really mad at BB this week. Twice in the week, I’ve had to speak to his teachers regarding him – the first was his English teacher who complained that he did not complete some work and had also forgotten to bring his file and a book. The second time was his Maths teacher who told me he had not brought back some homework. I am happy that both teachers reached out to speak to me, because, this more than anything else shows they care about him, especially since this is an important year for him, his streaming year. I told both teachers to punish him as appropriate as he needs to know the consequences of his work. Also I have banned him from using his phone in the morning before school.

As for BB, she had a fairly mundane week, her biggest excitement coming from the Chinese New Year performance in her school on Friday where she was one of the soloists. She also wanted to sign up for the SYF Showcase performance which her teacher asked if she and her choir friends were interested in. I gave her permission on the condition that it does not distract from her studies.

Gong Xi Fa Cai or Happy Lunar New Year of the Rooster to all….

 

In My Hands Today…

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Peach Blossom Pavillion – Mingmei Yip

3241816In a sunny California apartment, a young woman and her fiancé arrive to record her great-grandmother’s story. The story that unfolds of Precious Orchid’s life in China, where she rises from a childhood of shame to become one of the most successful courtesans in the land, is unlike any they’ve heard before. . .

When Precious Orchid’s father is falsely accused of a crime and found guilty, he is executed, leaving his family a legacy of dishonor. Her mother’s only option is to enter a Buddhist nunnery, so she gives her daughter over to the care of her sister in Shanghai.

At first, life at Peach Blossom Pavilion feels like a dream. Surrounded by exotic flowers, murmuring fountains, colorful fishponds, and bamboo groves, Precious Orchid sees herself thriving. She is schooled in music, literature, painting, calligraphy, and to her innocent surprise, the art of pleasuring men. For the beautiful Pavilion hides its darker purpose as an elite house of prostitution. And even as she commands the devotion of China’s most powerful men, Precious Orchid never gives up on her dream to escape the Pavilion, be reunited with her mother, avenge her father’s death, and find true love. And as the richest, most celebrated Ming Ji or “prestigious courtesan” in all of China, she just might have her way even if it comes with a devastating price. . .

Solitude

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I sit among the cacophony of sounds
Yet alone, as if out of bounds

 

People around me, happy and gay
But in my mind, are shades of grey

The happiness that I see around me
Makes me want to move away and flee

A weight on my mind, bring to mind memories blind
Those which are twined to become confined

I yearn for the moments when I can be alone
Away from everything, to get into the zone

To be alone, to be by myself
For that’s when I can hear myself think
To decide on next steps, to bring me from the brink

I want, nay need the space to be free
To ponder, to feel and to brood
Me and my solitude…

In My Hands Today…

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The Handsome Man’s Deluxe Café (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency #15) – Alexander McCall Smith

20758039The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency often helps people find things they have lost. But they have never had to help a client find herself—until now, in this latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith’s best-selling and beloved series.

A kindhearted brother and sister have taken in a woman known only as “Mrs.”—a woman with no memory of her name or of how she came to Botswana. And so it’s up to Precious Ramotswe and her new co-director, Grace Makutsi, to discover the woman’s identity.

Meanwhile, motherhood proves to be no obstacle to Mma Makutsi’s professional success. As she settles into her role as partner at the agency, she also launches a new enterprise of her own: the Handsome Man’s De Luxe Café, a restaurant for Gaborone’s most fashionable diners. But even Miss 97 Per Cent isn’t fully prepared for the temperamental chefs, drunken waiters, and other challenges that come with running one’s own business. Help may come from an unexpected source, if only Mma Makutsi can swallow her pride and ask.

And next door to the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni is all too familiar with the difficult decisions of business owners. He is finally forced to make a tough choice, one that will bring major changes to both Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency—and that will require all of Mma Ramotswe’s finesse and patience to sort out.

With sympathy and indefatigable good humor, Mma Ramotswe and her friends see one another through these major changes and discover along the way what true friendship really means.