Warm Weather

Spring weather is the best. Not so cold so for the first time in a long time, the heater is turned off, to my utter delight. The gas bill should go south hereon, I daresay. And the daylight hours are lengthening. We are not living in long twilight hours, the birds are out chirping in the morning and it is bright when I leave home for the office and bright when I leave the office for home. I can live in the house with just a t-shirt, not layered up like a rolly polly bundle of something. But the sun can be too bright but there's no persuading the macho ones to slap on sunblock for their own protection. Given how much trouble it has been for me to try and alleviate all the sun damage from my reckless youth (when sunscreen lotion had yet to be invented), the time of reckoning will come for he of the arrogant bent who predicts his spouse will not begrudge his complexion since she chose to marry him. Ah well.

Last night, in celebration of Earth Hour, we turned off all the lights in the house from 8:30 pm for an hour. And the boy was content to read his book holding a tiny reading light while the girl stuck to her Mac in the dark. Thank you, babies. Our blue planet thank you.

I checked the web cams to see if the bridges of San Francisco were all darkened and it was hard to tell from the screen. But I am sure they were.

Band

We are just back from the Cal High Area Band Festival. What was supposed to be an evening of watching my boy playing with bands from elementary, middle schools and the Cal High wind ensemble, he was sitting on the bench with us watching his band mates play. Because apparently, there was never any intention to have any keyboardist in the 8th grade or any of the pieces for that matter, and the band teacher did not bother to bring the keyboards. His name along with that of his fellow keyboardist who always rotate with him, were not even in the printed program, omitted from the long list of names. The boy was told to just hang around; the other keyboardist just sat with the band, hands on laps. They both were not given even the slightest hint that they would not be playing and had dutifully shown up, music scores in hand, all dressed up. To think we had rushed to first Marshalls and then Target to get a new pair of pants and new shoes because he had outgrown the old ones. I was very disappointed and rather mad with Mrs Brown. Was planning to write an email to ask why she would subject two kids to such humiliation. That is, until the boy told me not to - I think he just does not cherish any kind of confrontation with his teacher - and that she may have been given the pink slip as a result of the school budget cut. Then I could not find it in my heart to be mad anymore. The school would lose its one and only band teacher. There would be no more bands. That is a terrible thing to happen to the school and the kids. This budget crisis is hurting people who don't deserve to be hurt. I am sad for both Mrs Brown and the kids.

Looking at Mrs Brown the whole evening, you would not know what was happening. She was her usual frumpy, slightly "sua ku" self, wandering all over the floor, touching a kid now and then and not showing any particular remorse over the boy's sense of loss as to what to do with himself. And just a week ago, we were listening to her bubbling over, sharing with the parents the plans for the band's trip to Disneyland to play at the recording studio, assuring the parents the kids would be fine. What a shame!

Again

Here I am again, almost home alone. The man is off to a golf game, the half man is off to school, the girl and Val, here on spring break, are catching up on sleep from hanging out so late at night and I am on leave. Last couple of days left. In a few minutes, I will log onto to catch up on office mail and then probably end up scrubbing down the house as usual. Must say, this is getting too predictable. And my RSS tests have equipped me with sufficient understanding to answer sensibly.

Seriously

This is a RSS test. Family, please don't think I am moronic. Maybe I actually am but the point of this test is to equip myself with a better understanding of RSS and Atom so I can actually answer questions from my bosses with some real experience and not some theoretical mumbo jumbo. Ha ha ha!

YY Yeah!

Spring solstice always bring another cheer. It is YY's birthday! Happy happy birthday, YY. Here's a thousand kisses from us all across the Pacific ocean.

Spring

First day of spring. I should not be moaning. My documentation is all done and ready to be reviewed. So I am good for now. Just home from a very enjoyable evening with a Singapore colleague's family. They have been here for almost 2 years and not sure what the future holds - stay here or go back. But they are a young family with fewer cares so the future seem more full of possibilities.

Welcome flowers and warmer weather! Have you checked out the google real estate?

Moaning

Another day alone at home. On leave with no where to go, feeling guilty about the piling office emails that need to be attended to and finishing up all the HR forms. Oh well, using my leave this way is at least spending the time somewhat productively.

Walking

Yesterday, I walked 24 laps around the athletic tracks of Amador Valley High, including 4 walking backwards to build out the front of the thighs. Started out thinking maybe 10 laps, maybe 15 but heck, I have 4 hours to spend waiting for the half man to come out of Chinese class. Better expending calories with my cool iTouch on my ears beating in rhythm than adding to my butt and girth sizes sitting in the car twiddling my thumbs or more likely doing word wrap. And on a cool day perfect for outdoor activities, that would be almost sinful. Especially when I had a reprieve from the Chinese teacher from my class duty - she does not really want parents sitting in her class although she politely said I could if I wanted to but she had nothing for me to do.

It was great! 24 laps equal about 6 miles and if I conservatively multiply by 500 steps a lap, that's more than the 10K a day already. But it took about 2 hours. Hard to spend that kind of time on a normal workday. Lucky to do 30 mins. Think I will go walk at Iron Horse's tracks today and tomorrow. Cause I am on leave with nowhere to go...

Sadness

Have you ever wondered about the different pathways of life? At each turning point in your life, there are choices, different forks in the road that may ultimately lead to different events, different consequences. What if you had chosen this instead of that? Or maybe it does not matter. That we are under a delusion that our decisions make a difference. Maybe, it is all pre-destined so no matter the choices you make, you end up at the same place, with the same results. What would it be like to be the cartoony Mr Manhattan, able to see time as parallel tracks, going backwards and forwards? For all his insights, he did not exactly understood the meaning of it all or he would have known he was being manipulated. He did not even understand the meaning or the miracle of life till it was too late to save millions of lives. Fiction? Of course, but ruminate on it. Maybe we are just pawns on a chessboard of life, and someone decides what moves we make.

Seems at every turn, there are just battles on battles. Battles on subjects to take in school, battles on taking the long view, or not succumbing to impulses when making life choices and decisions, battles on the wisdom of keeping your head above water under peer pressure to conform, of following the mind, not the heart so you don't create situations that can cause your life to crash around you. You thought you had illuminated their minds, achieve a tacit understanding and agreement, confident they will make the right choices. But the assurances are only so you will leave them be to do what they would have anyway.

I am tired, endlessly melancholy. When will the sorrow be lifted?

Snippets

Can't believe it. I had to see Watchmen again, after I decided it was too "R" for my liking. Just so I could bring two 13-year olds into the theatre because they were under-aged. And I was totally inappropriately dressed for a night out in my home clothes that have seen cleaner days because I had been wearing them to sleep the entire week. But Andrew was so sweet, it was hard to say no. He even took out the money from his pocket to pay for my ticket. But of course, I could not let him especially since I have pre-paid tickets from Costco I always keep on standby. At least this time, I understood what was happening to all the heroes much better than the first time. I wonder if the show will make it to Singapore considering how naked Mr Manhattan is through the entire show. No attempt whatsoever at concealment.

My iTouch is totally awesome but I need more songs. However, I am too cheap - hmm, may have to give in because the only decent songs I have are Coldplay and Death Cab for Cuties and there are only so many times you can listen to them before it gets a little stale. When will the day come when I don't have to count every penny and think over and over again whether to cough out the dough? But the boy's iTouch is a goner - the Apple shop wanted to charge me $149 to repair the water damage. Ouch! Of course I refused.

The weather is turning gorgeous. The kind that makes California so attractive a place to live. But on the flip side, the sales tax is going up to over 9% on April 1. Not even funny that they selected that day. The state government is desparate for additional revenue. But there seems to be a sliver of a silver lining on the horizon. There was a recent news report that San Francisco seems to be starting to see a revival of the housing market with multiple bids for houses on sales and some going for higher than offer prices. But that is only for SF. There is no similar recovery anywhere else in the Bay Area, at least so far.

On the personal front, conversion to US is estimated to happen by June. But the documentation is already starting to stress me out.

Notitle

Gosh, I had not expected Watchmen to be so violent. I don't think it will make it uncut in Singapore. But then again, maybe gore and nudity is not so taboo there anymore. In any case, it is definitely deserving of its "R" rating. There were many parts I did not understand at first but towards the end, it started to click together but still it has too many disjointed parts that require a leap of faith to accept. Definitely not one for the family back home.

Wanted to go to a school jazz festival in Alhambra at 6:30 this evening but no one would go with me .

I have to plan. Got 5 days of leave to use by the end of the month and we have no plans. Nothing to do and no school holiday to make them useful. Hanging out at home simply means I will just go on a cleaning frenzy and I am not sure that's how I want to spend my days off. Which is pretty much the story of my weekends. Except lately, I decided this house is not quite worth all my efforts. If the landlady was content to live in a layer of dust and dirt, I figure I don't need to wear my fingers down on this old house.

I feel good today - walked 17 rounds on the school track field and played a little bit of tennis. Adieu - I gotta watch my Cold Case on the telly.

Hacked

Hello! I is Ryan! I have hacked into mummy's account on this, the 7th of March. Seeing as her blog is MUCH more popular, do not forget that my birthday is in 11 days! Yay!

Bye!

P.S. Mummy has added two more new posts from today... Scroll down.
P.P.S. No, I did not do this from my iPod.
P.P.P.S. Yes, I did hack into mummy's account.

Chi

Back from the walk at the baseball field next to Iron Horse Middle School. Feel all rejuvenated. Just the perfect weather - cool, even a little chilled but so invigorating. Could have walked forever but it was past six and getting a trifle dark.

In about two hours. we, excluding the Man, will be off to see Watchmen. Or something like that. I am well past me comics books days but what the heck, it is fun to hang out with my kids plus one. And just enjoy the company of the young with their boundless energy and nonsensical chatter. Maybe a little of that youthful vibe will rub off on this middle age frame. Maybe there is such a thing as osmosis of chi. One can but dream.

In a while, I must remember to turn the clock forward an hour. Don't want a repeat of last year when the half man was an hour late for Chinese school because we all forgot about daylight savings. How the time flies.

Native

It's funny. Once a Singaporean, always a Singaporean. So the Man was apparently watching the LPGA on the telly. You walk in and immediately, you can recognise that the scene - it's gotta be in Singapore. The 18th hole of Tanah Merah Country Club. Never been there so I cannot explain it.

It is a beautiful day outside. The rain has blown away and the sun is merrily shining on the land, yet we are not taking advantage of the warmth to enjoy the outdoors. So adieu for the time being while I go take a walk...

Wet

Rain. After a brief few days, the rains are here again. Not that I mind. On the contrary. The downside, of course,, is that this being Sunday, it threw our regular tennis session with our China friends off. Last week was the same and we ended up driving up and down Livermore looking at new and old homes for sale. This week, we hung out in Stoneridge Mall. I miss the tennis, not because I play well. I don't. But it gave me the exercises I need. At least we have yoga on Wednesdays. I must say the yoga is tough. Much harder than you would think. Last week was especially bad for me. It was worse that the other time when I had slight vertigo and almost threw up. This time, I almost blacked out mid-way through. The moving up and down played havoc with my low blood pressure and my brain could not cope for a few brief moments. I thought I was going to make a fool of myself and go into a faint. Forthunately, I did not and the blood came back to nourish the grey and white matter. And I made it through the whole session.

I got side-tracked. Back to the rain. It is going to be an entirely wet week. But it is not so cold anymore. Spring is pushing winter out and the flowers are beginning to bloom. The rains have made the hills on both sides of the valley just beautiful - a luxuriant expanse of green that extends as far as the eye can see at the intervals when nothing blocks your view. In some areas, you can see yellow wild flowers, probably daisies interspersed with dandelions. Quite rare in this district. The reservoirs are slowly filling up from their extremely low levels but California is not out of the drought and water rationing still looms as a possibility.

Sometimes I miss the wild strong thunderous rains of Singapore. You never see any lightning here or hear any thunder. The rain falls but lightly and you never really get drenched. I enjoyed the rains tremendously in my youth. I remember sitting on our balcony looking at people falling into drains during floods and pots and pans floating out from the kampong attap houses. And mum opening up our home to the Malays whose houses were under water. I remember walking with my best friend in the rain in the RGS uniforms to the bus stop to catch the bus home or all the way to Orchard Road, feeling so happy to be thoroughly soaked, enjoying the feel of water on our faces and the shirt and pinaforms sticking to our skins. The rain here is nothing like that. It is hard to get that wet here, much more likely to catch a huge cold because it is after all, still winter.

My interview with HR for conversion is this week. Wish me luck!