情人节

没有鲜花，没有罗曼蒂克的烛光晚餐， 也没有昂贵的礼物。 但却有两盒亲自送上门的爱心水果和简单的电影约会。 虽然很俗气，但是最可贵的是你的简单和我们彼此的感情与心思。谢谢你让我的情人节那么温馨！ ：） 〈3

The Armed Forces

I'm impressed with the power of the armed forces; though I've critiques of some inadequacies of the forces, nevertheless I'm still amazed at the impact on the lives of a changed man(or even changed men perhaps).

Before national service, my lil' brother was basically someone who whiled his time away in school,someone who never gave much about the future, someone who just spent time playing computer games or sleeping away or eating if he had a free day at home, someone who wasn't much of a contributor to the household chores and most of all, someone who don't show much concern for the family.

But like all men who come of age, the letter for enlistment came. With the letter, a lot of things were gone for my lil' brother too-like his almost-shoulder-length-hair, his lethargic routine of computer-gaming,eating & sleeping and most of all, FREEDOM: to do anything he wants, anytime.

Beginning life with the armed forces was hard as we could see. 2 months into the training and I see a marked change in my lil' brother. A better person he was, he surprised each family in little but impactful way.

From someone who never inform us of his whereabouts even when he went out for a few days, he turned into someone who called every other day to find out how each family member is doing and to reassure and tell us of his day at camp. From someone who didn't bother much about school to have dreams, he became someone who aimed to better himself when he passed out of the armed forces. From someone who played computer games through the night, he became someone who picked up a healthy lifestyle of exercising regularly. But most impressive of all, from someone who didn't bother much about things around him, he started showing concern to his family and friends.

For once, I salute the armed forces for the marked change in my lil' brother.

新年到，来放鞭炮！

Been listening to MyAstro's latest CNY album for 2011. My family is a fan for CNY songs and yes, MyAstro does it very nicely for their albums for 3 consecutive years now, since 2009! Kudos to MyAstro for the good and meaningful lyrics, plus good melodies of the new CNY songs. Not to mention the good arrangement of the tradditional CNY songs too!

This year one of the songs really reminded me of the CNY when we were young:
Check out -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdPE_EU-58U&feature=related

I miss those fireworks and firecrackers! I can still feel the excitement for CNY as we prepare for it - the springcleaning, the playing of our CNY albums, the baking, the visiting, the feasting, the festive and catching-up mood with the relatives. Even as an adult, I super look forward to CNY as much as when we were children.

As I was counting down to CNY in Msia again, it began dawning on me - there may not many more Msian-style CNY celebrations for me I guess. What'd the SG ones be like...???
It may not seem like much, but for a moment, I guess I was a bit lost. Would it be as "festive feeling" as our those in our 'growing up years'? The way the SG people describe it, it was as if CNY wasn't very much like other public holidays...

"Would I lose the excitement for CNY?" I felt like a child thinking like that. But somehow, it did felt like a very valid worry to me...?

Silly me?