Madness has taken its toll. Please have exact change.

insanity in sanity --
part of being sane is to be insane

abnormality in normality --
in order to be normal is to become abnormal




Shakespeare says:
There's method in his madness.

She says:
Her madness is inexplicable.

Darkness has consumed. Evil has risen. She has vanished.

Little Little Surprises from Little Little Gifts

I really love receiving parcels in the mail!

When I came back from Hong Kong, I saw a huge parcel sitting by the side of my bed. I knew at once that my parcel from Little Little Gifts had arrived.



When I first knew of this website, I spent almost two hours clicking around the site and marvelling at the many cute stuff there.

Little Little Gifts is company based in Singapore. With their cute tag line of little little gifts, big big thoughts, they believe that no gift is too small and that it is indeed the big thoughts that count. In the act of gifting and paying it forward, Little Little Gifts aims to spread the joy locally and to other parts of the world. Yay for my international blogger friends!



Everything was bubble wrapped with newspaper cushioning the spaces in between.



I was pleasantly surprised to see that the items have been gift wrapped.

Upon checking out at their site, gift wrapping arrangement could be arranged in the special request field. I did not opt for the gift wrapping service; hence, imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw the items being wrapped. I'm pretty impressed with their good service.



Wanna see what I got from them?


~* Mini Fridge Pen Stand *~

Here's unveiling a mini fridge pen stand. It's actually a stationery holder. If I were still at the Barbie playing age, I would use this as Barbie's fridge.



Various designs like Cola, Coke Zero, Pepsi etc are available. I was like a kid in a candy store deciding on which design to choose. In the end, I chose this cute Cola fridge.



Like a little girl (or should I say a bimbotic lady), I was rather thrilled that the vegetable crisper compartment could be pulled out.



I did not snap a picture of the top part of the fridge. It could act as a coin bank when the cover is closed with the coin slot at the top or as a pen holder when the cover is slid to the back. Click here to see the pictures.


~* Merci! La Vie! Key Ring *~ 

Next was the Merci! La Vie! Key Ring. I was particularly drawn to the antique-looking key that came along with it. My current feng shui key ring had lost its "charm" and it's time for me to change a new key chain.



I love the vintage feel of this key ring. Oh yes, it is stated that the strap is made of natural cow hide leather. I could smell the leather as soon as I opened the box.



They have other designs available too but I'm only drawn to the antique key design.




~* Sunny-Side-Up Frying Pan Clock *~

Next on the list is this quirky sunny-side-up frying pan clock. I opted for the red one coz I've been conditioned to think that frying pans are red. lol...

I could not snap a good picture of the frying pan so here's one which I ripped off little little gifts website.



It is available in many other colours and they're having a sale now. Great to give to that chef friend of yours! I'm giving this to my jovial uncle who happens to be a really great cook. It will match the wall in his dining room very well.




~* Touch Stylus Pencil *~

I also got this old-school-looking touch stylus pencil which I intend to give to either of my sisters as I'm an iDiot with no iPhone or iPad.

 

Wait, I think I would keep it for myself and use it on my hubby's iPad when he's back from the seas or probably when we decided not to be iDiots anymore and get iPhone 4s or something.



The pencil mimics the natural conductive qualities of the human finger using a special electro conductive rubber which works with both capacitive and resistive screens.


Did you know? I have a little pet peeve. I simply cannot stand products with bad English on them. I was reading the back of the packaging for the stylus pencil, trying to pick up all the bad English to laugh at but I found none. This sort of gave me a good impression of the product even though I haven't tried it yet.

Don't laugh at me, don't you do that too? You don't? Sigh... I'm gonna sit in the corner and eat some worms now.




~* Chi Cat Handphone Strap *~

I have a soft spot for furry animals especially cats and I instantly fell in love with this lovable sad-looking Chi cat handphone strap which was used as this product's main picture.



It reminds me of my late Simba looking at us with sad eyes when we did not give her food as we thought she was too fat and should cut down on food.

There were so many different expressions of Chi cat which nudged at my soft spot that I could not quite decide which to choose.



In the end, I chose B, C, E and G.



My 4 cuties came wrapped like this.



Presenting my 4 cuties.



Happy Chi, Depressed Chi, Angry Chi and Sad Chi which I shall call Planking Chi.



My only problem now is that I can't decide which Chi cat to keep for myself and which to give my sisters.

I'm really pleased with all my items and the whole shopping experience at Little Little Gifts was truly a pleasant and fuss-free one. Queries which I posted on their Facebook page was promptly answered within the same day.

Quality items at affordable prices with top-notch service all at one-stop, I'm very sure I would be a return customer at Little Little Gifts.

Disclaimer: All pictures are taken by me except for those with Little Little Gifts watermark. Thank you Little Little Gifts for allowing me to use your pictures.

Smashed

Thank you all who asked after Charmaine's family and me. The days flew by really quickly while we grieved upon Charmaine's passing and prepared for her wake Celebration of Life party right after I touched down in Singapore from a delayed flight from Hong Kong.

It had been quite a tiring four days.

It didn't help that the day after Charmaine's party, I had to send the hubby's car to the workshop for a spoilt radiator and smashed back windscreen. Both my brothers-in-law drove the car with smoke coming out from the engine but I've not experienced that during the same period of time we drove. I wonder if I was lucky or what.

As for the smashed windscreen, my father-in-law (FIL) suspected sabotage due to the nature of the crack. We usually kept to our own area outside the house but there was this driver which particularly loved parking somewhere near our lot. Yet, it did not make sense as my FIL's car was parked directly behind my hubby's car. No way someone would sabotage our old car and leave my FIL's new car alone.



My FIL said it looked like somebody used an ax to slash the glass rather than it being hit by some fallen rock or debris. I too had my suspicion on sabotage, except that it could also have been caused by some kids playing boomerang when I parked at my parents' place the previous day. But, Singaporean kids play frisbee, not boomerang right?



The bottom edge of the glass was splitting like nobody's business. Anymore impact and the whole windscreen might just collapse.



The flap as seen from the inside.



After leaving the car at the workshop, I spent some time at the police station and with that almost the whole day was gone. I kept requesting for the police to check the tape from the void deck camera of the block facing the field to see if any kid threw anything but they maintained that the camera could not capture anything as far as the field.

I suspect the windscreen was probably already cracked when I parked at my parents' place the previous night. However, I was in such a daze at night after Charmaine's cremation that I got into the car and wondered why there was so much condensation or raindrops on the glass. I even calmly switched on the demister in the hope of clearing these condensation or raindrops.

From the photo below, do you see what I mean by condensation or raindrops? I could not even see the slash from the rear view mirror.



So how did I drive home with such a view? It was late with not many cars and I could still make out the vehicles behind from their headlights. This explains why I only discovered the smashed windscreen the following morning.

Oh well, the car is finally back but I felt quite bad as my FIL had advised me not to drive the car with the spoilt radiator. I thought nothing could go wrong with the engine during the short drive from my place to my parents' place. The smashed windscreen certainly taught me a lesson though I wished I could teach the rascal(s) who did this to my hubby's car a lesson too.

The many miracles behind Charmaine’s passing

On Sunday evening, clad in Charmaine's favourite colours of yellow, pink and green, we set off balloons of the same colours flying up into the sky. We sent Charmaine off with smiles amidst tears. We told her to fly... like a fairy.

She had always wanted to be one.

Somehow, the balloons all flew towards the sun and a friend told us it was a sign from Charmaine to tell us that she is fine. We were in tears but we felt a sense of peace knowing that Charmaine is in a better place now.

The logical side of me actually wondered about why balloons float towards the sun but a search on Google warrants no results. I must say that the spiritual side of me is telling me that it’s really a sign and that not everything could be explained by science.



Charmaine’s miraculous smile

For people I know who visited Charmaine at her wake or rather Celebration of Life party as what Cyn mommy termed it, I made it a point to tell them the story behind Charmaine’s phenomenon smile when she passed on. The New Paper (Saturday, 22 October 2011) did not have a report on her smile. Only the Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News ( 新明日报) on the same day had a little section on it but since they wrote Cynthia’s Chinese name wrongly in that little section, some people read that portion with some doubt and actually asked me if the reporter was exaggerating.

Ever since Charmaine was brought home from the ICU to say goodbye (Monday, 3 October 2011), new tumours had been popping up everywhere on her little body. The cancer was spreading at an alarming rate but yet, she still fought on in immense pain. By then, she was rendered almost immobile. Her body was degenerating by the days but still, she continued her battle in spirits.

The last tumour popped up on Thursday (20 October 2011) in Charmaine’s mouth on the inside of her cheek. It was raw and bleeding nonstop till her whole mouth was full of blood. With her little lung failing and her mouth full of blood, she could not even close her mouth.

On this very same day, Cyn mommy for the first time was begging the heavens to take Charmaine away for she did not want her to suffer anymore. She hoped for Charmaine to be free and be the happy girl she had always been.

As if knowing that cyn mommy was finally ready for her to go and only upon the arrival of her beloved gong gong, po po, ku ku and godma, Charmaine slowly left us with cyn mommy hugging her and sobbing. All this while, Jase kor kor was lying face down on the bed, holding onto Charmaine and wailing for her to come back. He slowly cried himself to sleep while still holding onto Charmaine.

Much to my sorrow, Charmaine’s mouth was still opened when she passed on. To put it very graphically, her mouth was like a little O-shape. I wetted some gauze while cyn mommy used them to clean the blood inside her mouth. Cyn continued hugging her and talking to her in a soothing voice. Well knowing that she’s gone, some of us family and friends alike continued stroking and talking to her too, saying lots of positive words and at times even joking amidst tears.

About an hour later, a good friend of ours told us that Charmaine seemed to be smiling. True enough, she was indeed smiling! Her mouth seemed to have relaxed and the little O-shape actually transformed into her usual toothy grin while her lips slowly pursed into a smile! It was AMAZING to have actually witnessed such a phenomenon with my own eyes!

Could this be explained by science? I guess so but I prefer to think of her smile in the abstract way.

I really have no idea how it happened but I must say that I’ve actually witnessed many miracles in Charmaine’s short life story.



The last miracle

Today, Cyn mommy went to collect Charmaine’s ashes and to her utter delight, three relics were found in Charmaine’s ashes! Being a Christian, the first time I ever heard about relics in ashes was when my hubby’s paternal grandma passed away. She was such a good person and if I remember correctly, she had a few relics! According to Chinese Buddhism, saints or very highly practiced monks may have them. Special people or people with very good karma (basically a very good heart) may have them too. For Charmaine to have 3 in her little body is truly amazing.

Charmaine is really a special girl and I’m not bragging about it just because I'm her Godma. I could go on about Charmaine’s legacy that she has left behind and how Charmaine is such a courageous, loving and thoughtful little girl even right up to her final moments but I would probably leave that for another day.



Some digital articles on Charmaine's passing

The New Paper online version:

No more pain as little fighter dies with a smile 

Don't mourn her death, celebrate little Charmaine's life

I'll look at photo when I miss her

Full story available only for the print version.

Charmaine is flying freely now

My god daughter Charmaine has left us with a smile on her face. She is in a pain-free place where she could walk, run and jump around and do all the things she wants to do. We may have lost her but she lives in our hearts.

Charmaine,
Thank you for waiting for Godma to come back to Singapore before saying your last goodbye. You are ever so considerate to the people around you.

I know you're having lots of fun in the world you are in right now. I know you are watching us from above with your toothy grin and cheeky smile. Are there lots of rainbows there? Is there a Sentosa there? Is there your favourite Universal Studios with roller coasters there too? Will you tell me the answer in my dreams later? Will you give me some sign to tell me whenever you are around?

We know that you have finally found peace and happiness after this long and hard battle. You know what? You have already won the "monster" a long time ago by showing "monster" how tough you are.

You are our little warrior.

You are our champion.

You are our feisty little princess.

Miss You Simba!

Today, 15 October 2011, is the 4th year death anniversary of my beloved cat Simba. How I miss that cutie.

Click on the picture to read my tribute to her written in 2008.



Yes, she has one black paw and one white paw. Even the paw pads too, one side is black and the other side soft pink.




I will be away to Hong Kong from Sunday early morning (16th Oct) till Thursday evening(20th Oct).

Pardon the lack of visits and replies in the meantime.

I may or may not be doing scheduled posts. It depends on how much work I can complete within these few hours and how quickly I could pack my luggage. Some photos are already done but it takes some time to craft the posts out.

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.'Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary'). (I love that one)


Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.' ' (I love that one too)

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.)

8.You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

11. You will cease playing American football. There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America . Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians (World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

I got this off one of the Facebook shares which has been circulating wildly around the world and getting lots of thumbs up. I hope I don't lose my US blogger friends after this post. I don't think I will though, coz all my US blogger friends are such magnanimous people... right? Erm... right?

Being born and bred in a British colony, I really nodded in agreement at so many of the points brought up. I've got native American friends who don't get some of their own culture too and could laugh at themselves and I know my US blogger friends will let loose and take this lightly too.

US and non US bloggers alike, shout out your thoughts to me in the comments section. I would love to hear what you have to say.

The one with the clothes, dogs & a simple 4-course dinner

Edited to add:

Louis and Emmie are NOT MY dogs. They are my gal pal's dogs. I felt the compelling need to add this line in after reading all the comments.

One Sunday, a group of us met up at East Coast Park for a really late lunch. I forgot the name of the place but it served pretty awesome beach bar food.

Regina's friend Jun came along with her bf and it turned out that kh and her knew each other from school. I managed to get along quite well with Jun and am always happy to be acquainted with new people.

Even though my dear hubby kh and I had already taken our lunch, he being a regular dude could not help ordering some "finger food" other than drinks. He explained that it was for all to share but I knew that he just wanted to much on something.

He ordered nachos and it came topped with lip-smacking cheese with spicy salsa beef dip. It was so heavenly that I could not scold him for binging.



After that, we proceeded to our main agenda for the day -- to help Karen to clear her clothes.

She had got so many huge recyclable bags full of clothes (both new and gently worn) that she was letting go. Hence we as all good gal pals are, were tasked with the mission of trying to help clear some space in her house while our significant others shook their heads and played big boys' games.

Louis and Emmie love visitors as they would be spoilt by the many people showering attention on them.

Louis the intelligent Spaniel



Emmie the loving "slutty" Pomeranian



Before you start lambasting me for being a bitch and calling a bitch a slut, do note that this is a term of endearment which Karen also uses. Emmie really loves to be petted and would not hesitate to flip over for us to stroke her belly.

They really love to be petted and have their tummies rubbed and would fight to squirm their way near us.



Actually it was more of Emmie doing the squirming and manja-ing while Louis would coolly let her be if she squirmed to take his space.



Whenever Louis got affection from one of us, Emmie had to do the same.



She would nestle herself at the other side. Really cute!



Besides playing with dogs, we also had one more "toy" to amuse ourselves with -- HAMSTERS!



The hamsters you see here are currently in my house and they are the fattest little dwarfs I've ever seen. Not fattened by me though. Long story as to why they are in my house.

Louis and Emmie are such sweet creatures and they would not hurt the hamsters. We learnt that we could even let the hamsters run all over them.

We were hesitant to try such dangerous stunt though so the most dangerous stunt that kh tried was this.



Seeing that we would stay at her place till late, Karen decided to start whipping up what she deemed "a simple fare" for us.



It was anything but simple! It was a 4-course affair consisting of salad for starters, curry baked chicken wings for sides, olive chicken pasta for mains and French styled flourless dark chocolate cake for dessert.

She is definitely the hostess with the most-est. I could never ever be a hostess like this.

It was great that we had late lunch coz by the time we girls picked out the clothes we wanted, the boys finished playing their games and Karen finished cooking, it was 10pm. It was actually really a dinner cum supper.



I love desserts that aren't too sweet and this dark chocolate cake definitely sat in well with my taste buds when served with whipped cream.



I would end this post with a comment made by kh:
"Paiseh leh. Come here let my wife take free clothes, play free games and eat free food." 
-_-|||

For my international blogger friends, "paiseh" is a term in Hokkien to signify that we are embarrassed.