In My Hands Today…

The Pale Horse – Agatha Christie

The dying woman turned to Father Gorman with agony in her eyes. “Stopped….It must be stopped….You will….”

The priest spoke with reassuring authority. “I will do what is necessary. You can trust me.”

Father Gorman tucked the list of names she had given him into his shoe. It was a meaningless list; the names wer of people who had nothing in common.

On his way home, Father Gorman was murdered. But the police found the list and when Mark Easterbrook came to inquire into the circumstances of the people listed, he began to discover a connection between them, and an ominous pattern….

Every name of that list was either already dead or, he suspected, marked for murder.

Happy Birthday to you….

GG & BB turn 12 today. Happy Birthday my darlings! May you be always happy….

This year’s birthday is a very low-key one, what with the PSLE looming over us. We’ll probably do a nice celebration after the exams.

I still remember the day they were born. They were born at 36 weeks and 3 days, which is considered full term for twins, but were still a month away from their Expected Due Date. I was very reluctant to have the c-section my gynae had recommended and wanted to wait till they were ready to be born. But, my gynae was a bit concerned for GG as he felt she was smaller and hence may not be able to survive the trauma of birth. When put this way, how could I refuse, right?

I was also told that babies who are below 2 kg will be kept in the NICU and there was a possibility that GG or even BB may not weigh as much as we thought, so the first thing I asked around when I opened my eyes after surgery was how much the babies weighed and I was so elated when I heard both were healthy and above the 2 kg NICU limit. Due to their early birth, both had to spend time under the photo lights for jaundice, GG more than BB and so they got discharged a day later than me. I was able to go home before them, but I refused saying I will go home with my babies.

They’ve both grown into amazing almost teens, articulate and determined. GG, who is older than BB by 2 minutes is a determined and gutsy girl who loves reading, music and drawing! I have a feeling she is developing into a fashionista, but we’re a way to go there. She has her faults, the major one being her temper and stubbonness, but she is also a very loving girl with a big heart and one who makes friends very easily. She is a very people person and can relate to most of them all the time. She doesn’t like Maths but loves languages and hasn’t yet decided what she wants to do in life. I’ve often told her she would make a good lawyer, but GG is still not convinced. She has a great, powerful voice, and is very good in singing, but likes to ruin her voice by shouting at her brother.


BB on the other hand, is more of an introvert, who is most content using his electronic toys (laptops, tablets etc) playing his games. He has steadily been in love with planes since he was 2 and shows no signs of abandoning this love. His major criteria for choosing a secondary school next year is if they offer the Singapore Flying Club as a CCA. He wants to become a pilot, but is also majorly interested in Science, especially Physics. If he can do both – become an engineer and a Pilot, he will do it, until then he will I guess decide on his future somewhere between these two. He also reads, but not much of fiction. His preferred reading is books on science, which are mostly non-fiction. He loves reading books on planes and playing flight simulation games on his laptop. He is the more easygoing twin compared to GG, but he also has his times of stubbornness. His most hated subject is Hindi and when it’s time to study the subject, he comes up with so many inventive excuses why he should not study it. Other than this, he is quite good in studies, and if he overcomes his latent laziness, he can really be top in his class.

So a very happy birthday to both of you as you come to the end of your childhood and enter a new phase in life, both in terms of age as well as school. Be happy and always strive to do your best. Make us all proud of you! God bless you always….

In My Hands Today…

The Hall of a Thousand Columns: Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah – Tim Mackintosh-Smith and Martin Yeoman

All the best armchair travellers are sceptics. Those of the fourteenth century were no exception: for them there were lies. Damned lies and Ibn Battutah’s India.Born in 1304 . Ibn Battutah left his native Tangier as a young scholar of law; over the course of the thirty years that followed he visited most of the known world between Morocco and China. Here Tim Mackintosh-Smith retraces one leg of the Moroccan’s journey – the dizzy ladders and terrifying snakes of his Indian career as a judge and a hermit. courtier and prisoner. ambassador and castaway. From the plains of Hindustan to the plateaux of the Deccan and the lost ports of Malabar. the author reveals an India far off the beaten path of Taj and Raj.Ibn Battutah left India on a snake. stripped to his underpants by pirates; but he took away a treasure of tales as rich…

2015 Week 36 Update

A short work week while Singapore went to the polls on Friday. The outcome was not entirely surprising, given that elections had been called a year early to capitalise on the euphoria of SG50 and the death of Mr. Lee Kwan Yew. This was a historic elections with every one of the 89 parliamentary seats being contested. What was surprising was the level with which the ruling party thrashed the opposition!!

We’re down to 2.5 weeks now for PSLE with the Listening Comprehension later in the week. I am planning to speak to my boss later today to discuss working half day in office and the balance at home till the end of next week and then working from home for the week and half of the PSLE exams.I also need to speak to him about any new projects since I literally don’t have any work in hand right now…

I also need to start looking for opportunities outside the organisation, but I think I will wait out the weeks till the end of PSLE.

We also booked our tickets to India for the end of the year, so looking forward to that trip and meeting my parents!

Have a great week everyone…

PSLE Week 36 Update

With increasing trepidation, we are staring at the countdown to the PSLE! It’s now just about 3 weeks to the big exams!

The Listening Comprehension exams are next week and then after 10 days, the written exams! I am seriously stressed now….I can also see BB & GG start stressing, more GG than BB (he’s the don’t have any worries boy). GG is stressed over her results, especially Maths…

I will be speaking to my boss tomorrow to discuss a shorter working hours (at work) so that I can come home when GG & BB are home from school and continue working from home till the exams are done.

Then it’s time to look forward to our short getaway! Please pray for us folks…