因为我还年轻

I love to sing since I was very young. I remember having a cassette tape of Chinese nursery rhymes, a kiddy book with lyrics and piano score for some of these songs, and singing with Yan over the good old telephone during kindergarten days.

At some point, we started differentiating between 大人歌 and 小孩歌 or 儿歌 - forgot which term we used but it was definitely 大人歌 for non-nursery rhymes :p

And apparently, my very first 大人歌 was 《我还年轻》by 张清芳 Stella Chang, which came out in 1986. I remember Mother telling me to sing in front of relatives when we went to TPY :p

Then I never stopped singing.

So when I happened to hear about Stella Chang's concert in March, I decided that yes, I should go!

The day finally came - 10 August. I missed watching fireworks with the boys from our kitchen, from a heartlands celebration of National Day right outside Star Vista. But Sito was with them. And I enjoyed the concert in Star Vista and Stella let us know that fireworks were going off outside!

This was only my second time at a concert. The first was 伍佰 in 2002 - yes, 22 years ago! I was excited even though I was going on my own. Songs and singing can, after all, be a very personal affair.

I found my seat - I was looking right at the middle of the stage, and in between another solo concert goer and a group of four aunties. In fact, I must be among the younger adults in the audience! Some of my age range brought kids along but the majority was maybe around 50yo.

As the first notes rang out at 8.10 pm, I was very 激动 coz it was《我还年轻》!!! She sang so many songs and I knew all but two of them - one was probably not a 主打歌 while the other was a worship song - she said she would always sing a different one at each concert. And there was an English song by her elder son! Looked like a somewhat reluctant teenager and reminded me of Kai :p

Many in the audience were singing along - the side screens showed lyrics. Some were invited on stage to sing 《这些日子以来》with her. She also went down the stage to greet fans. I was up on the second level so too bad for me :p

The concert ended at about 10.30 pm, after an encore of two songs. Took some time to leave the theatre due to crowd control. I was quite tired - seldom went home so late! But ok, don't complain coz 我还年轻 :p But I wasn't young enough to pop into Teo Heng KTV downstairs to sing haha!

mf in red - my pretty dress and also ND weekend

Only took a photo of her and her son coz cute and coz they were just talking. Much as I would like to have more keepsakes, I figured there was no point going to a concert and instead of focusing on it, looking through the phone camera to take photos and videos!

I wonder if my next concert would be 20 years later... Hope not!

Happy 59th!

We were very pleased to find that the National Day Observance Ceremony for our neighbourhood would be held at the new mall. Not very pleased that each Singpass could register for only four persons and somehow Sito couldn't get any. But there shouldn't be any barricades, right? Anyway, we didn't need so many goodie bags.

Bingo - one closed eyes, one guided the hand

The boys wore these tops to school the day before too. I washed them once they came home so they could wear them again :p Bought Kai his shirt only the previous weekend coz I only had small tees :p Then I remembered he could also have worn his red P5 level shirt. Oh well, lucky we found $15 tees at Clementi. The shops were selling for $30!

Playing games

Actually we were among the few with kids when we first arrived. Many of those in the queues for the games were seniors! And one auntie was very impatient and rude, and made Yang sad.

She was right behind us, and saw that I gave the game I/C three out of our four game cards. She hinted she wanted the last one - nope, I was saving the last one in case a kid MUST play again. Yang was the last of the three to play. I was busy with Kai or Yu with their returned cards and the lunchboxes they won, but I heard the auntie telling the game I/C, 随便啦小孩子！

Before I knew it, Yang left with a country eraser. He looked sad and about to cry. I forgot about the fourth game card. Then Kai told me the auntie took Yang's hand to throw the ball and it missed. Wa terrible!!!! It's ok if he lost the game on his own but the auntie was just too much. If I had seen it happen, I wouldn't care if she was an old auntie - I'd scold her!

Kai and Yu were both very upset with the auntie, and they agreed to let Yang play an extra game in the next game. That wasn't all. When Yang's ice cream happened to be rather melted, the boys still remembered the terrible old auntie and agreed with Papa's suggestion to give Yang an ice cream cone at Macs later. Thanks to all these, my poor Yang looked a bit better.

Watching bhangra dance performance

Kai's fave song came on at one point. Told him to go dance, but he didn't want to :p

Went upstairs to watch preschoolers perform coz it became more crowded

We were in red and white!

(Yes, my top can be used for racial harmony day too...!)

Look, the balloons are flying higher!

Rested a bit after the anthem when the crowded thinned out

Also got - and then lost - some balloons!

Breakfast as brunch for them

These three gave different responses when I said "look here" - one bo chup, one smiled with food in his mouth, one tried to give a victory sign rather distractedly...

Sito and I waited another 30min for the lunch menu :p Kai couldn't wait so he went home on his own first - he wanted to do a paper!

So bro, haha!

We spent the afternoon watching a lot of YouTube videos of National Day songs, including some cute Roblox versions. In fact, we started on the videos a few days before. A bit late but better than nothing. I realise the kids actually know a number of the songs but these are songs I'm way less familiar with...

Then it was time for NDP!

In the past few years, we had KFC for dinner while watching NDP. But Yang didn't like KFC much, and KFC is not so near us now - we were still staying at BP this time last year. So I decided to make fried rice - I had fried rice and teh c on ND almost every year in my teens! Mother said it was easy so she could sit down to watch NDP too. I agree, haha!

I enjoy spending ND at home, unless I have tickets to NDP! I think it's important for us as parents to help the kids learn more about our country. The kids couldn't sit still for long but at least they caught some parts of the show. Yu even came to find me when I was washing dishes coz they were singing the char siew bao song - they heard me sing before!

The next day, there was a major celebration right outside Star Vista. We didn't get tickets coz late, lazy and I had a concert that night. But the four of them managed to catch the fireworks from our windows! Sito whipped out the phone too late but Yang and Yu were telling me about it; Kai was less interested.

Happy to hear we won a bronze medal at the Olympics on ND. I saw Yu watching TV on Saturday morning and I told him about the bronze. He nodded to the TV and said he knew. Ok, I extra :p 

With that, ND is over. Now we look forward to NDR - first from new PM!

Revelation thanks to Bridget

Random mid(ish)-year resolution: I shall quit reading.

Resolution made in style of Bridget Jones quitting drinking/smoking/self-help books, i.e. high chance of me not sticking to it!

So yes, I was reading again, which explains the dearth of posts this last month.

And yes, I have been reading Bridget Jones, no thanks to the film showing on the telly a few weeks ago, making me realise that I hadn't read the books before.

So once again, I found myself immersed in the wonderful world of fiction, almost oblivious to the real world. But as a well adjusted adult, I always managed to finish the things I must do before sitting down to read. Like having my morning coffee (a must, and during which I could read some), keeping the children educated (by waking up on time to send them off to school) and alive (by cooking), keeping everyone clean (by doing laundry). Cleaning table tops? That can wait though :p

And shortly into the first book, I had a revelation - I'm not the only one who keeps having random thoughts in my head! These thoughts could be real (i.e. past happenings), planning (i.e. what to do later, tomorrow, next year, when rich) or imaginations (i.e. fantasising what might/could have happened, not so much BJ's faves of weight and men)!

Caveat - I did not, dared not, check with my friends whether they had such random thoughts while scrubbing the toilet or cutting up boneless chicken thighs. But Helen Fielding - surely she must have (had) random thoughts running through her mind since she wrote BJ?

Not alone :)

But then, I couldn't help it. I decided to ask people whether he had random thoughts running through his head.

First of all, my dear hub sitting right next to me as I type. His reply was to tell me about a comic he saw before, comparing a man and a woman who were not thinking of anything. The woman had thought bubbles of everything - what to eat, kids, etc. The man had one thought bubble - a monkey clapping cymbals!!!

Ok, men. Or maybe just my man :)

Next, JY when we met for breakfast last week. Her reply was that everyone was wired differently.

Ok, tactful. Haha!

I haven't had the chance to ask others yet. But ok, I accept I'm wired this way. That's why I can type on and on here. 

Many thoughts have come and gone, coz I'm usually busy with physical work when such thoughts pop by so I don't write it down, and by the time I'm free, I don't remember a thing unless something happens to remind me of it. Bird brain. 

PS: I just started an online novel and it's been only two or three weeks since I wrote the first paras of this post - major fail!