Cold Feet
I currently have cold feet. Not because I'm embarking on a new project or planning to get married again or anything... its literally cold.
Well, coming from Singapore, its cold.
At the moment its 11 deg C, a nice progression from 9 deg C that we had just yesterday.
Oh, and ps; the locals say its not fall proper yet - its apparently still the laaaasst days of summer.
With the cold snap, Gene finally was galvanised enough to go shopping for his winter coat. We drive about an hour plus to get to the small town of Medford, where there's an outlet mall (great thing about this country - the outlets) and specifically a Columbia Sportwear outlet.
Finally managed to buy him a winter coat that looks like its warm enough for Antartica.
He's happy, we got it at about US$130 when it usually goes for about US$200, but here's the catch: He doesn't have (and thinks he doesn't need) anything else - no thermals, no warm pants etc etc. Hummm. We'll see...
Oh, and yes, we drove to Medford in the Porsche. Yours truely took the 3 plus hour drive to MN and back to pick up the Porsche while Gene slumbered from a truely awful call. He has another one tomorrow and he's currently experiencing the pre-call blues.
(and erhm, you can ask him how much the initiation cost)
I know I haven't updated the blog in the last week - sorry readers, but was a bit uninspired. Plus, I had a nice distraction. The Tays were away last week, so we dogsat Fly, their Border Collie.
Sweet as anything, extremely manja and needed lots of attention. And fixated on her frisbee but fairly smart.
Gene has been losing lotsa weight from all the calls (missed lunches and dinners) and I'm yo-yo-ing. Lost some, was back to 48 kgs - the weight I was in Uni, and then am bouncing back to 49 now. Gah. Too much sweet stuff? You know, I never liked sweet food back home, but I actually enjoy the cookies and cakes they have in the supermarkets here because they are fresh-baked. Gene still doesn't like the stuff so, at least that puts a limit on how much I buy, and hence, eat.
PS; anyone out there has a decent recipe for wanton mee? The dry type? We are both hankering like mad for the stuff. Goes for bak chor mee as well. Hiam Chiou Chuay.
Am getting a bit more settled into the tai tai life -- one of the wives here hit the nail on the head when she said the first three months are the hardest. Now, settling into a bit of a routine; setting up lunches with people, going to do volunteer work and also, I can't tell you how much its helping that we're able to go swimming again. Plus, its nice that we can exercise together you know what I mean?
Of course, it brings back nostalgic memories of swimming at the Tanglin Club on those HOT days - and then jumping onto deck chair and ordering icy cold coconut. ahhhh.
On a more serious note - its 9/10 (yes the Americans use the month first then the date, which causes no end of confusion when i try to qrite cheques and sign stuff here)and the networks here are full on the 9/11 remembrance five years on. It's still very raw in the US pysche and the footage you see on TV brings back lots and lots of emotion.
Vagus also inspired me to think back on what I was doing when the planes hit. It was 9 something back in the office at Times House. I was on the computer, playing a stupid game waiting for Ai-Lien to finish checking her story - we were supposed to go for dinner. And I had a real early start the next day: an assignment at 7.30 am in Tuas, with a big American pharma opening their manufacturing facility. I was whinging at her to hurry up and just hanging around.
Then Dom, my boss, walked in and said: "You guys better come out to see this on TV."
The first tower was smoking from the first plane. And we were just totally shocked. And we kept watching and wondering what the hell was happening. Then, we saw the second plane fly in. And it hit the second tower.
It was tough to assimilate all of this but that signalled that it was battestations at the newsroom. I was promptly sent out to the US embassy with a camera crew and photographer. It was surreal. It was dead quiet... then some military types appeared in a cab - and just yelled as us to stay away. We went to the American Club after, and it was more surreal. They wouldn't let us in, but there were Americans outside just sitting on the pavement and crying. And here I was trying to get all this emotion down.
We were getting bits and pieces of information from the newsroom on the go - another plane; crashed into the Pentagon, there was yet another hijacked, and another... some true, some not so true. It was confusing, exhausting... but it was a story that had to be chased.
Ai-Lien was put to calling the Singapore offices in WTC and NYC - she couldn't get through by that time.
We were done by 3 am... we had to get a story in about the Singapore reaction... and we did.
But the next day, it was even harder - the opening of the facility was definitely muted and security was all over the place.... and it hasn't really stopped. The world felt threatened and that still carries over till today.
Okay. That was what I was doing when IT happened.
What were you doing?
I'll start a tag right here. And its really simple. I'll tag three other bloggers, and the three will tag three other bloggers. And lets see how we were all affected and changed. To start: I'm tagging wy , arti and the Tays . You just leave a note on the taggee's blog to tell them what's going on.
Okay, enough for tonight.
Take care everyone. I suppose the lesson is that things can happen, and appreciate what you have and the people around you everyday.
Well, coming from Singapore, its cold.
At the moment its 11 deg C, a nice progression from 9 deg C that we had just yesterday.
Oh, and ps; the locals say its not fall proper yet - its apparently still the laaaasst days of summer.
With the cold snap, Gene finally was galvanised enough to go shopping for his winter coat. We drive about an hour plus to get to the small town of Medford, where there's an outlet mall (great thing about this country - the outlets) and specifically a Columbia Sportwear outlet.
Finally managed to buy him a winter coat that looks like its warm enough for Antartica.
He's happy, we got it at about US$130 when it usually goes for about US$200, but here's the catch: He doesn't have (and thinks he doesn't need) anything else - no thermals, no warm pants etc etc. Hummm. We'll see...
Oh, and yes, we drove to Medford in the Porsche. Yours truely took the 3 plus hour drive to MN and back to pick up the Porsche while Gene slumbered from a truely awful call. He has another one tomorrow and he's currently experiencing the pre-call blues.
(and erhm, you can ask him how much the initiation cost)
I know I haven't updated the blog in the last week - sorry readers, but was a bit uninspired. Plus, I had a nice distraction. The Tays were away last week, so we dogsat Fly, their Border Collie.
Sweet as anything, extremely manja and needed lots of attention. And fixated on her frisbee but fairly smart.
Gene has been losing lotsa weight from all the calls (missed lunches and dinners) and I'm yo-yo-ing. Lost some, was back to 48 kgs - the weight I was in Uni, and then am bouncing back to 49 now. Gah. Too much sweet stuff? You know, I never liked sweet food back home, but I actually enjoy the cookies and cakes they have in the supermarkets here because they are fresh-baked. Gene still doesn't like the stuff so, at least that puts a limit on how much I buy, and hence, eat.
PS; anyone out there has a decent recipe for wanton mee? The dry type? We are both hankering like mad for the stuff. Goes for bak chor mee as well. Hiam Chiou Chuay.
Am getting a bit more settled into the tai tai life -- one of the wives here hit the nail on the head when she said the first three months are the hardest. Now, settling into a bit of a routine; setting up lunches with people, going to do volunteer work and also, I can't tell you how much its helping that we're able to go swimming again. Plus, its nice that we can exercise together you know what I mean?
Of course, it brings back nostalgic memories of swimming at the Tanglin Club on those HOT days - and then jumping onto deck chair and ordering icy cold coconut. ahhhh.
On a more serious note - its 9/10 (yes the Americans use the month first then the date, which causes no end of confusion when i try to qrite cheques and sign stuff here)and the networks here are full on the 9/11 remembrance five years on. It's still very raw in the US pysche and the footage you see on TV brings back lots and lots of emotion.
Vagus also inspired me to think back on what I was doing when the planes hit. It was 9 something back in the office at Times House. I was on the computer, playing a stupid game waiting for Ai-Lien to finish checking her story - we were supposed to go for dinner. And I had a real early start the next day: an assignment at 7.30 am in Tuas, with a big American pharma opening their manufacturing facility. I was whinging at her to hurry up and just hanging around.
Then Dom, my boss, walked in and said: "You guys better come out to see this on TV."
The first tower was smoking from the first plane. And we were just totally shocked. And we kept watching and wondering what the hell was happening. Then, we saw the second plane fly in. And it hit the second tower.
It was tough to assimilate all of this but that signalled that it was battestations at the newsroom. I was promptly sent out to the US embassy with a camera crew and photographer. It was surreal. It was dead quiet... then some military types appeared in a cab - and just yelled as us to stay away. We went to the American Club after, and it was more surreal. They wouldn't let us in, but there were Americans outside just sitting on the pavement and crying. And here I was trying to get all this emotion down.
We were getting bits and pieces of information from the newsroom on the go - another plane; crashed into the Pentagon, there was yet another hijacked, and another... some true, some not so true. It was confusing, exhausting... but it was a story that had to be chased.
Ai-Lien was put to calling the Singapore offices in WTC and NYC - she couldn't get through by that time.
We were done by 3 am... we had to get a story in about the Singapore reaction... and we did.
But the next day, it was even harder - the opening of the facility was definitely muted and security was all over the place.... and it hasn't really stopped. The world felt threatened and that still carries over till today.
Okay. That was what I was doing when IT happened.
What were you doing?
I'll start a tag right here. And its really simple. I'll tag three other bloggers, and the three will tag three other bloggers. And lets see how we were all affected and changed. To start: I'm tagging wy , arti and the Tays . You just leave a note on the taggee's blog to tell them what's going on.
Okay, enough for tonight.
Take care everyone. I suppose the lesson is that things can happen, and appreciate what you have and the people around you everyday.
hey babe,
I know I should do this on my blog, but am likewise uninspired to blog right now - will go into the details another time.
When the planes hit I was asleep. I was working at 430am that morning, so I was not very happy when my friend called at 12ish to tell me that two planes just crashed into the towers. I had no idea of the devastation yet, but I remember thinking, boy it is going to be an interesting day at work.
I got in that morning, and all the bosses were already there, red eyed and weary. I don't think it sank it until the reports and pictures started coming in, and the impact probably hit me only after offstone. I was grateful that nobody I knew was hurt, sad that it has changed the world for the worst.
Posted by
wyjunkie |
20:07
heyo!
I left my 9/11 comments on my blog: yvonnechung.blogspot.com
Posted by
Yvonne Chung Hsi Wei |
06:42