Merry Christmas to all the children out there!

It's the holiday season when people are smiling more and feeling generous, regardless of their religious beliefs. I wish people were like that the whole year round. Then maybe fewer innocent children will die in the hands of psychopaths.

I spend far too much time deciding on gifts to my giftees. I only realise after I buy the gift  that I spent HOURS in deep meditative thoughts trying to picture the perfect gift for the giftee, given the information I have about them. I tend to forget where I am, or how late in the day it is, or that I haven't checked my phone (which is on silent mode) for awhile or that I didn't have dinner while I browse through carefully selected stores.

Today, my mission was to buy two small gifts for a set of 3-year old twin girls. The stores are filled with expensive, useless and potentially toxic things for children and to find something my giftees will benefit from was a task that took me nearly two hours. I've never met the duo, but their loving mother is one of my closest colleagues and through her, I've heard so much about these two little people in the past two years. As I gather, they are in the entertaining age of learning to read and imitating what adults say.

Seriously Shu, how hard is it to pick something for two little girls??? 
Just pick something pink and girly. 
*Looks at a Barbie interactive sticker book to paste clothes on dolls* *spits*
*Looks at several gender segregated "Books for boys" and "Books for girls"* *shakes head* 
No! I'd rather get them something educational or at least age-appropriate and gender-neutral
How about Roald Dahl or Enid Blyton ?
Urgh. They are only 3! They can't read that well yet.
But do you have a big budget?
No, not this time of the month when I'm on peasant-mode.
Then, just pick up something!! They are kids and they'll only care about your gift for a few minutes before they forget all about it!
True. Then I should get something the parents will be involved in. Like a bedtime story book!

After much deliberation and sorting through shelves of books and piles of toys, I found two books which I liked very much on first glance (No, the large pictures of animals had nothing to do with it! *grins*). I read through the books to ensure it was age-appropriate and useful for the girls.

Somehow, reading the books made me remember how awesome my parents are. And I was immediately hit by waves of emotions and strong memories of how the both of them brought me up when I was younger. I may have gotten a bit teary too. Somehow, it didn't seem to matter that I'm almost 30 or that the recipients were just 3-year olds; the essence of the book applied to anyone who was fortunate enough to have felt the warm embrace of loving and caring parent figures.

Yes, my daddy drives us home safely when all of us have fallen asleep while travelling on very long journeys and he endured many hardships while working overseas to put us through a good education.

Yes, my daddy is good at many subjects like Mathematics, Physics and English. He's very organised and patient. He has green fingers too.

Yes, my daddy used to make sure I was well wrapped, strapped (and awake!) while riding to school in his motorbike. He is still very concerned when I fall ill.

Yes, my daddy did buy me my first bicycle and taught me how to ride it. And he's bought me many cool toys like a TV game and a microscope.

Yes, I used to fall asleep on the couch while watching TV and my daddy used to carry me to my bed.

Yes, they both look very good in pictures of him and my mom in their early twenties!

Yes, he doesn't always crack jokes, but when he does, they usually hilarious!

When I was a kid, I used to suffer from excruciating ear pains and kept them both up through the night with my bawling. He would place his large hands over my ears to keep them warm till I calmed down.

Yes, he does that ALL the time! He would be very restless if he didn't have gadgets, appliances and vehicles to fix.

I'm not sure if my Daddy tried this when I was a baby.

Yes, my Daddy is one of the kindest and gentlest souls I know.

Yes, my Daddy's never short of ideas!

And how fortunate that he is my Daddy!

Yes, my Mummy is so adventurous that I've been to many interesting places and situations in her company. She's always pushed me to be bold and open to new adventures!

Yes, I made my Mummy run in circles around the house and tell made-up stories, just so she can feed me a plate of food. Most Asian children are spoilt like that.

Yes, my Mummy's been very protective and watched us over like a hawk. She still tries to help in every way possible even though I am miles away from home.

Yes, my Mummy's taught me countless little things that still make good sense and has made me the independent and strong willed woman I am today.

Yes, my Mummy is very pretty! Even in her 60's.

Yes, my Mummy's the one in the family who loves to hug and kiss everyone the most!

Yes, my Mummy still does when I go home for the holidays. And she constantly thinks of her children who are overseas whenever she makes their favourite food.

Yes, my Mummy does love perfumes!

Yes, after my Mummy managed to catch me (a once-mischievous kid) first. If not for her perseverance, I would have been very happy to go for months without a bath.

Yes, my Mummy loves to sing and has a huge collection of tracks in her internal jukebox, spanning several languages!

Yes, my Mummy is always warm and I still feel safe knowing she is around.

Lucky for my Mummy, I am a deep sleeper! She even used to give me haircuts while I was asleep.

Yes, I used to tag along with her to most places she went, mostly clinging on her handbag. No matter how old or independent we get, our mothers will always look to us as their children.

I'm sure the twins won't feel the emotions I felt when I read these books, but I hope they enjoy them, when I hand it over during Christmas dinner at their house tomorrow!

This year, I couldn't be home to celebrate my nephew's 7th birthday with the rest of the family. Instead, I had to send his present early through one of my friends flying back to Sri Lanka. Through a lucky coincidence, the gift reached him on his birthday day after travelling many miles across the seas, just moments after he cut his cake! It wasn't too hard to pick his gift which included a Minecraft Construction Manual, a few dinosaur eggs from the zoo gift shop which I hear just hatched in a jar of water and a glow-in-the-dark plastic skeleton as tall as him (I warned his mother not to freak out when it glows at night).

The skeleton was an obvious choice because he showed promising signs of being a bone expert in his school assignment (see picture below). I thought it was pretty good advice for preventing osteoporosis, coming from a 6-year old. It also made me realise how little we appreciate our "butt bones", that help us sit and do fun things like blog!

The nephew's handiwork. We are all proud of his imagination.

Treasure troves

Libraries are underrated places. I realised this when I visited the Jurong Regional Library last weekend. When most people would enjoy a night out socialising with friends, I was thrilled to tuck into a cozy corner in the library with a cup of coffee and my laptop and delve into deep levels of thought. The interior of this massive 4-storey building was designed with a fountain and next to the absence of human chatter, it was the noise of running water that filled the ears. I didn't notice the hours pass by while I productively did my work, until I heard the 9:00 pm closing announcement.

For a membership fee that costs next to nothing, the public gets access to an enormous collection of reference books, magazines, microfilm, documentaries and movies. Not only that, there there are plenty of places to sit and read or study in silence. There's a small cafe inside the library for short breaks. The library even provides wireless internet and power outlets for charging laptops and phones! Another interesting concept I noticed about libraries here (compared to my time as a child) is that books borrowed from one library can be returned at any other library branch and the location of specific books can be tracked online. 

While going around in circles trying to locate the toilets in this large building, I accidentally discovered a section on movies! And this month, they had doubled the number of movies that can be loaned in one go to SIX!!

I came home with a good haul of movies, including "Ramona and Beezus" for a trip down memory lane

When I was in secondary school, the library had several books by the author Beverly Clearly which I enjoyed reading. One memorable character was Ramona Quimby who is portrayed as a very curious, imaginative and mischievous little girl who causes a lot of trouble (mostly unintentionally) to the ones around her, especially her elder sister Beezus. Efforts to rectify things often makes things worse and the author takes us on an entertaining journey through it all.

The collection of  Ramona's stories by Beverly Clearly

Another well loved series which this reminds me was The Littles by John Peterson. This series features a family of tiny, intelligent humanoid creatures with mouse-like features living in a house owned by the Bigg family (who are humans). The stories consist of colourful characters and many gripping adventures which brought me a lot of joy.

Image Source: netbys.com

Speaking of treasure troves, I found this noteworthy link on The 46 Most Brilliant Life Hacks Every Human Being Needs To Make Life Easier. My favourite was the one below *evil grin* :

How to stop people from stealing your pens at work

An Autobiography: Approaching Full Circle

"What A Wonderful World" - A powerful 2 minute video that sums up what it is that we are going to lose if we don't change or get involved 

If we were to compare the Earth's habitable environment to a good family inheritance, we are not only spending it away faster than all the time it took our ancestors to save up, we are also borrowing credit from what might have been the inheritance of our descendants. As world's population increases and moves towards development, we have exceeded the Earth's natural capacity to supply in relation to the existing demand. Of course, we don't contemplate on this on a regular basis so the normal tendency is to passively navigate ourselves around the tell tale signs (and the not-so-obvious ones) towards comfortable and profitable goals that often provide instant gratification.

I'm guilty of it too.

Looking back from where I am now, my yearning to get involved in the conservation field has, somewhat ironically, taken me to United Arab Emirates and Singapore. These two countries topped the globe in terms of their ecological footprints (UAE at No. 3 and Singapore at No. 12) according to the WWF Living Planet Report of 2012. Not only that, I am currently an employee of the Oil and Gas industry which is largely responsible for the depletion of the Earth's natural oil and gas reserves and indirectly responsible for increased Green House Gas emissions in recent history. This is just one example of how our sophisticated lifestyles – just as they are interconnected with the Earth's biological ecosystems – are also dependent on activities setting the planet on an irreversible course of destruction. The way I see it, we are all (to varying degrees) part of the problem and part of the solution to this environmental crisis.

Sri Lanka is a country with abundant natural resources having one of the highest biodiversity densities of Asia and I called it home for the first 18 years of my life. As a child, I loved spending my time outdoors, doing regular rounds of “garden patrol”, observing various plants and animals that were a common sight and spending time by a river that flows beside my house. One of my greatest joys was rescuing injured, sick or abandoned animals and nursing them back to health. It was a role I took up very seriously and for which I had the full support of my parents. 

I was also fortunate to spend various phases of my childhood with my two grandfathers, from whom I have learned much about using resources in a "sustainable manner" - a term I didn't come across until many years later. My maternal grandfather was an advocate of “reduce, reuse and re-cycle” policy where he carefully made the best use of all paper, plastic, metal, glass and wood until they had no more uses. My paternal grandfather supported the livelihood of local farmers and he himself was a passionate planter who selflessly left behind the fruits of his agricultural labour for the benefit of his future generations. With those early influences, among others, caring for the environment that sustains us may be associated to me with a sense of obligation rather than being just a passion. 

Since arriving in Singapore in 2004 to do my undergraduate studies, I've had all my basic necessities and creature comforts. However, growing up was a slightly different affair in Sri Lanka. We had to live in a sparing manner since most basic resources such as water and electricity were limited and we were constantly affected by power outages and periods of drought. My village didn't have the infrastructure to tap into the national water supply, but we were fortunate enough to have naturally occurring wells and a river nearby for basic needs for water. 

Dubai was my home for a brief 2.5 years while I completed an overseas work assignment from 2010 onwards. The United Arab Emirates is a rapidly developing country and Dubai is a melting pot of foreigners from all over the globe. The new environment, new challenges, new acquaintances and my new-found sense of independence suited me well. My boss who was a co-owner of the company took an interest in my potential and supported me in becoming a certified ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems Internal Auditor to audit company policies and procedures, although it was not my main scope of work. After trying out various responsibilities within the company, I realised that my personal strengths and continued interest in relation to a career would lie in work that required careful observation, attention to detail and doing lots of writing.

It is easy to assume that a rich desert city such as Dubai which is heavily dependent on the abundant natural oil and gas resources in the region to maintain its luxurious artificial splendor would have zero interest in conservation. However, even there I found active conservation groups such as EWS-WWF and the Emirates Marine Environmental Group (EMEG) which organises environmental awareness and conservation activities (most notably their turtle rehabilitation and release programs). On a hopeful note, both these groups had a substantial number of passionate volunteers, young and old, supporting their causes. Within the UAE, I also managed to travel to places such as Fujairah (one of the seven “emirates” or states making up UAE) which had better weather compared to Dubai and coral reefs to be explored. Also within driving distance was Musandam (Oman) which was a popular location for dolphin watching. One interesting place that I could not visit in my time there was Bu Tinah Island - an official finalist for the “New7Wonders of Nature” competition in 2011.

The next phase of my life brought me back to Singapore in 2012 where I am currently employed as an ISO Quality Auditor. My work revolves around quality assurance for fabrication of FPSO (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading) units and assisting with statutory/ regulatory compliance for these units sailing to offshore oil fields such as Brazil, Angola and the Gulf of Mexico. From an environmental perspective, my work contributes to ensuring that vessels leaving the port comply with the standards of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) – most notably the MARPOL (Marine Environment Protection Committee of the IMO) Standards - to minimise marine pollution resulting from the vessels' gas emissions, sewage, garbage, oil discharges, ship recycling, ballast water and use of anti-fouling substances. 

But ideally, I want to do more.

In the past, I have enjoyed short volunteering stints with Nparks at Pulau Ubin, assisting the staff with guided board walks at Chek Jawa and conducting forest patrols to remove traps and snares. As a SEC Earth Helper, I once participated in a Horseshoe crab rescue and rehabilitation project which required the assistance of volunteers to remove the crabs entrapped in abandoned fishing nets at the Mandai mudflats and at the same time, doing a population survey of the two species of horseshoe crabs (mangrove and coastal) in the area. 

After trying out a few similar experiences, I've settled as a volunteer Docent at the Singapore Zoo (in the Reptile Realm) where I feel quite at home. For the past 2 years, I've been part of a team of volunteers that engages the public and spreads awareness of animals (in my case, reptiles) and help spread the conservation message. This activity brings much meaning to my personal mission as I get to share my knowledge with a growing number of members of the public who come in search of meaningful encounters with wildlife rather than mere entertainment. Not only that, I get to stay close to animals (such as during my Keeper Attachment) and meet and learn from people as passionate as I am (or more even) about wildlife and the environment. 

Decades later, though much has changed in my life in terms of location, occupation and attitudes since my time in Sri Lanka, working towards animal welfare and experiencing natural habitats still brings me the same joy. I feel a sense of relief every time I visit a nature reserve or a wildlife sanctuary or read about passionate conservationists like Sir David Attenborough or Gerald Durrell, or see someone throwing a trash into a recycle bin or hear of an innovative technology that uses sustainable energy sources - because despite the odds, there still is hope.

This environmental crisis that we face today is a grave one, with consequences already showing and affecting most of us. It helps to have passionate and conscientious people uniting and lobbying for climate change, loss of biodiversity and such, but without the support of governments to enforce adequate legislation and environmental management systems governing our industries, we may have already lost this battle to conserve biodiversity, reverse climate change and ensure a habitable planet for our future generations. Besides spreading awareness, on a personal level there is much we can do like volunteering, taking a little extra effort to recycle trash, reducing/ reusing the products that we have taken for granted, getting involved in pro-environment community activities and, for those who can, supporting conservation efforts financially.

Mother Earth, which we have stressed beyond her capacity, has the ability to heal herself given our support and time. But the question remains: how willing are WE to do what is required of us?

The little things that matter

In the past few weeks, I've lost my inner voice, I've lost the joy in doing most of the things I usually enjoy doing, I've not been the best kind of friend or family member I could be, I haven't been the diligent employee I could be, I've failed as this year's leader of the zoo volunteer group, I've failed as an aspiring speaker, I've been losing bits of my self worth and I've been reduced to thinking that it' okay to trade it off for overpriced items. 

But,  no phase - good or bad - lasts forever. Today feels like a day that I managed to scramble out of a soup bowl of emotional turmoil. As I sit here on the brim of this bowl, I can see a little further than what I was seeing in the gloomy weeks that passed. I'm going to enjoy the view while the skies are clear and what better way to do it than with a blog post!

One of my childhood friends shared this photo today and reminded me that she missed the good old days of our rather extraordinary childhood. It warmed me very much. 

Sometimes we become too occupied with ourselves and others that the little things that really matter pass under our noses for granted.

Last weekend I visited a dear friend of mine in Malaysia who used to work with me in Dubai. She drove out alone to pick me from an abandoned bus stop at 1:30am in the morning and gave the best hospitality I can imagine. Today my mother out of her own accord took the pains to walk around in town and find me a beautiful traditional dress for an upcoming cultural event. And as I stayed late at work today, I was touched by the caring gestures of my group of hang-out colleagues who I've grown quite fond of. Not only that, today I had a lovely postcard from Katy Kat all the way from Tokyo!!

On a separate note, my mother has discovered the joys of making very affordable international calls with Viber so I get to hear from her more often! It's good to see them getting tech-savvy.

In other news, I caught the movie Maleficient. It reminded me of the book on Sleeping Beauty I used to own and glance through a lot in my younger days. I liked the fact that they portrayed Maleficient as an ordinary human being capable of both good and bad. No one is entirely bad or entirely good and the boundaries that angels and demons within us share are often blurred by the circumstances that life throws at us.

Signing out from the soup bowl,
Shu

PS: If I ever compare you to the likes of an animal, don't take offense because it really is a compliment coming from me.

The Departures Terminal

And just like that, February creeped up upon us.

Shu was quite occupied the last few weeks in a string of social commitments, from playing host/ tour guide to a young traveller to bidding farewell to three friends who left the country to catching up with her closest pals. Meanwhile, she's also had a life-changing shift in her daily routine...

For someone who has voiced out the challenges of associating with extroverted friends, I ought to be more grateful for the bountiful opportunities that come while being in their association. One day while taking the bus with my colleague, I was introduced to a staff from the Human Resources department. Left to my own, I would have looked in the opposite direction of fellow passengers, plugged my earphones and gazed out of the window dreamily at the trees and clouds and people passing by. But on this day, I was forced to make an effort to socialise with the new acquaintance, during which time I learnt there was a company sponsored bus meant for expats working on special projects, about 7 bus stops away from my house. Soon after, I inquired further and got an exception to take it. This arrangement has given me not only financial savings and convenience, but also an extra 1.5 hours in the day equaling to an additional 9 hours in my week, which is pretty awesome! Now my routine looks like this:

5:00am - Wake up, have tea, make breakfast and get ready for work
5:55am - Leave the house and walk 2.5km to bus pick-up point while investigating celestial objects in the pre-dawn sky with Google Sky Map (or just take a quick 10-minute public bus ride if I don't feel like walking 3900 footsteps for exercise)
6:30am - Get into the company sponsored transport bus
7:00am - Arrive at work
5:00pm - Leave work
6:00pm - Arrive at home (on days without social commitments)
10:30pm - Go to bed (on days without social commitments)

The bearings of my office transport in relation to my apartment are (it's cooler to think of it this way):
Follow Venus until I pass 3 gas stations, then with Venus on my left, follow the Crux constellation until I arrive at a small white bus filled with sleepy zombies dressed in white coveralls.

 

Early morning notes: Venus and Saturn are in view these days, but Saturn's too far away to distinguish from other stars without a telescope. Venus, on the other hand, is hard to miss.

Hurrah!! Now my evenings are enriched with reading books, watching TV, playing games on the xbox, blogging and having home-cooked dinner. I even took out my dusty violin yesterday, tuned it using a phone app and attempted to play a few familiar tunes! My violin playing skills have degraded with time but it felt good to be reunited with the instrument.

~ ~ ~

Going to the same school for the first 15 years of my schooling life had its perks. I grew up with friends and teachers who were part of my life for extended periods of time, giving rise to several fulfilling friendships that I maintain to this day. Not only that, I've been lucky to have several mentors who took a special interest in teaching me, guiding me to better places and unknowingly shaping me to what I've become (apparently, a caterpillar who blogs when she is not working!).

I had a Mathematics teacher who taught me from Grade 6 all the way up to A/Ls. Her classes were very entertaining. When she was around, the boys in class got extra cheeky and brought out their comical sides. She was a short-haired, smart, upbeat, loud, eccentric, fun-loving, kind-hearted being with the gift of reaching out to children with various personalities, most notably, the ones with special needs like bullies, lost sheep, the troubled ones and the weird ones. She tutored many kids at her home for no cost just to help them pass exams and I benefited a lot from this kindness and generosity. I figure that her super power of reforming kids was that she gave them a chance to be heard before attempting to throw in any elderly advice. In return, these kids grew to trust her, respect her and allow themselves to be guided by her good advice. I still try to make time to visit her whenever I go home and it seems she hasn't aged a day! I suppose being with youngsters all the time keeps you young at heart.

I think being a teacher is a sort of investment. Apart from being able to change many lives for better and basking in the satisfaction of having done so, the "seeds" (which are the students, in this case) that germinate disperse far and wide, often creating waves of positive change themselves. The exceptional teachers will always be dearly remembered and have an army of grown up ex-students around the globe.

The young traveller I had to host was the daughter of this teacher. She was on a university semester break and was sent to Singapore by her mother who assumed that Shu could be trusted with the job of keeping an eye on her precious 23-year old. It was her first ever overseas trip. I prepared in advance for her arrival making lists of instructions for her to follow and stocking up on food supplies, taking her multitude of allergies into consideration. The only thing we could not get rid of completely was Ginger.

Thankfully, the girl was smart and independent and managed well on her own during the day. Every evening after work, for 5 days, I met her and took her around like it was my second job being a tour guide. One evening, I caught her high as a kite and awfully chatty (a lot chattier than her usual self). On inquiring further, I learnt that she had an eventful day where she met a roadside guitarist who had serenaded her with a beautiful song, met another traveller with whom she had a nice chat and then gone on to take a relaxing boat ride along the Singapore River to see the city's splendour by night. It brought back warm memories of my solo travels in Paris. Tiring as it was, this streak of touring around the prettier places of Singapore during Chinese New Year was a welcome change for me.

 Traditional Chinese music to depict the onset of a New Year

The famous Clark Quay of Singapore with its happening night life and traditional river boat rides

The young traveller had a memorable trip, overwhelmed by the contrast between the two countries and their cultures. She was mostly blown away by the skyscrapers, apartment buildings housing a large population, the variety of food, the mix of races, the sense of law, order and cleanliness of Singapore.

~ ~ ~ 

Earlier this week, I bid farewell to one of my housemates who moved on from Singapore to fulfil her long-term ambitions. We've had a very coincidental timeline of life events where, with no prior planning or discussion, we have found ourselves in the same location time and time again. I have come to think of her as my non-biological twin. 

Our coincidental timeline of life events

We met in pre-school and went on to be best friends in Grade 2. As far as I can remember in pre-school, she had the cutest short hair with lots and lots of tiny curls. We exchanged stickers and went swimming together and got picked up and dropped in school by our elder sisters (who coincidentally, were also classmates). I recall she was among the smartest and the most talented in class. She was also the fastest runner among all the girls and most of the boys! Then she had to leave the country with her family to Oman and unfortunately, we couldn't keep in touch. I also happened to leave to a new school for a year and a half, until I could take it no longer and begged my parents to let me go back to my old school. When I returned to my old school in Grade 4, 'lo and behold, there she arrived in the same class a few days later! Though we were separated into different classes, went on to have different friends and grew distinctly different personalities, we always acknowledged each other with much fondness.

There's another amusing conversation I recall in Grade 6 when girls in the class used to disappear for extended periods of time, one by one. In our country, they make a HUGE fuss over a girl's "coming of age". While the specific traditions for each race differs, the general theme for most races is that once she hits puberty, she will be immediately confined in a room in the most hush-hush tones (in some cases up to a month!), away from the eyes of males relatives and friends. During this time, she is fed with very specific food. Female friends would take turns to keep company to this poor, confused soul quarantined in a room, who constantly wonders what all this fuss is about. Meanwhile, the parents consult astrologers for auspicious times, get tailored suits, whitewash the house and prepare for a grand party to announce to everyone that she is now sexually mature (it's quite a disturbing thought if you asked me). When it is finally time for her to make a public appearance, she is presented very extravagantly to all her relatives and close friends of the family, who arrive with gifts like gold jewellery, cash for the savings account, material to sew dresses, kitchen utensils, etc (all being utterly useless gifts for a 12-year old girl). When I spoke to other friends about the experience, some say for them it was a quiet affair without any public announcements but I've also met others who had parties in the epic proportions of a mini-wedding.

Got a bit carried away there, explaining a peculiar tradition!

So yes, I vaguely recall the two of us having a conversation that went something to this effect (though I don't know if she remembers it in the same way or if we were not talking about the same thing!):

She may have noticed me handing over the letter of absence to my teacher...
Chuti: Were you absent?
Shu: Yes, for about 2 weeks.
Chuti: Hey, me too! I just got back.
Shu: Er... did you also?
Chuti: Yes! haha
Shu: Haha
Awkwardness engulfs us...

She left to another school shortly after the O/Ls, but we were delighted to meet again in university doing the same course. After graduation, she went to Dubai for work and when she returned to Singapore a few years later, I left to Dubai for work. A few years later when I returned to Singapore, unemployed, she welcomed me to her house and looked after me until I got on my own feet and we remained housemates until she left Singapore earlier this week.

She maintains a deep fascination for Egyptian history, dinosaurs, Garfield and fashion design

We saw eye-to-eye when it came to the special needs of introverts, being considerate for the benefit of those around us, being sensible and fair. I'll certainly miss having her around, but I'm inspired to see her actively pursuing her ambitions with much patience and determination! And who knows, we may even bump into each other again.

Good luck, Chuti! xx

The World of Speechcraft

This post is not about people who love to march out there and be leaders.

I am not a huge fan of being a leader among the masses. Not because I prefer being a follower each time, but because it involves interacting with people, it is energy-draining, it means additional responsibility, it draws too much attention to myself and it interferes with my primary preference of being a quiet observer. The only time I would willingly volunteer for the post would be if the ship I was in was really sinking fast and there was absolutely no one else to take the helm.

 Shu's impressions on being elected a leader

Back in year 2001, the senior teachers in my school decided to give me the title of Head Prefect. Up until then in all the long years that they knew me, I never displayed the widely accepted leadership qualities like good communication, assertiveness, self-confidence or being a socialite - so while I felt honoured, it did come as a surprise. I suspect the only reason I got it at the time was because I had the best balanced track record of good behaviour (seriously, how much damage can a quiet, dreamy kid do?), studies and sports in class and being an all-rounder in those areas was a prerequisite for the post.

My term didn't start off well. The tiny speech I had to give at the Induction and Awards ceremony that year in front of a hundred students, teachers and parents was a bit of a disaster. Despite my best friend's efforts to help me practice the speech until I knew all my lines by heart, I forgot them on stage on the most important day.

The Speech went something like this (dotted lines indicate actual words which elude my memory now):

Shu: Good afternoon everyone.......................................................................

.....................................................................................................................

......................................................I thank you all for coming (ends abruptly)

[Gets distracted looking at an object in a distance and forgets the lines. Not sure for how long I was gone]

Shu: Ummm...

[Recalls the lines after a very long pause]

Shu: I thank you all for coming and ...............................................................

...............................................(this time, manages to end speech correctly)

The only priceless memory of that day was seeing my parents glowing with pride as I came down from the stage after being inducted the Head Prefect and walked over to hug them. Everything else was mostly traumatic.

Public speaking was never my strong suit. I am soft-spoken in nature preferring to act in the shadows over shining in the spotlight. I hardly voice out my opinions in social settings. My thoughts take too long to manifest themselves into strings of utterable words and very often, the moment of impact is long gone by the time they are uttered. And nearing 30, I have mastered the art of successfully dodging group activities and careers that require public speaking skills. On some level, I knew I had to eventually address all my irrational fears associated with public speaking, so I put "Join a Toastmasters Club" towards the very end of my bucket list (after "Swim with whales" and "Give a solo violin performance on stage").

Due to a recent turn of events, I had to cross off this bucket list item much earlier than planned.

Being a Docent at the zoo meant that once a month I had no choice but to give a confident commentary on King Cobras and conservation of reptiles to the large group of visitors that gather on Sundays to watch a snake feeding session. While I was confident in my facts and the command of English, organising the speech and conquering a stage was always a challenge, that only got negligibly easier with time. On the days that the cobra was shedding and there was no feeding session or a commentary, I was quite relieved (overjoyed, even). 

This went on for months until one day, I was asked to evaluate and grade the commentaries of two new recruits since no seniors were available that day. I protested (unsuccessfully) saying I was bad at it myself and that I felt in no way qualified to evaluate others in an area I was not confident in. It was a strange experience being in an evaluator's shoes and giving constructive criticisms to my juniors on all the the points they had to improve on, like maintaining eye contact or projecting the voice. I observed first hand what my own shortcomings in public speaking would look like to my audience. I decided then that I had to pull myself together and get past this irrational fear since I'll need the skills for the causes I deeply care about. How else will I garner public support to fight for those creatures that need to be protected, for example?

The Toastmasters Club offers a non-intimidating and encouraging setting for many people with the same problem I have. It's like going to a clinic for STDs. Everyone there has or had one before and it is encouraging to see that most people have been successfully cured with proper medication (a lot of consistent practice - in the case of delivering speeches)! I had the initial urges to bolt from the gathering of strangers and never come back, but I'm glad I calmed my nerves and stayed. 

 A very fitting animation on the science of stage fright

I had to give two impromptu speeches so far. The first one was really bad with me having a brain black-out at 0:53 seconds. The second day's speech was slightly better with me sticking around until 1:59 minutes and feeling only a little light-headed. There's an overwhelming load of things to learn, pay attention to and adopt, but I feel hopeful and inspired by watching some of their experienced speakers with great stage presence.

Coincidentally, a few days after I attended my first Toastmasters meeting, I was elected the Reptile Station Head from my group of Docents. 

"I'm sorry, I work a 6-day job and I won't be able to attend any meetings and such on Saturdays," I said, hoping for an overruling of their decision.

"Nevermind, we will help you!" they said.

and so, Shu fell into another hole.

Photos courtesy of Google Images.

Mushroom Bloom

I had an epiphany this morning (why it never hit me earlier, I do not know). Here it goes:

I AM A CATERPILLAR. THIS BLOG IS MY COCOON! Duh, Shu.

Now there's a slight chance I'll never take flight and instead be a tasty snack to a big bird or something. But otherwise, I hope I'm slowly morphing into something better than when I first started out. Also, since butterflies have no time to blog, I'll try to remain in this cozy cocoon for as long as I can, eating as much chocolate cake as I can find and keeping myself amused with my blogs.

Metamorphosis, as we learnt in school

There's a story I remembered as I made some portobello mushrooms for dinner. BTW, mushrooms are amazing things to cook. They give out so much flavour and character to the main dish even when sautéed simply with salt and pepper.

So yeah, somewhere during our ages of 7 and 10 years, we experienced an unforgettable day while living in a housing scheme near my dad's workplace. It was the rainy season. Almost instinctively, we knew that after a rain like that, there were usually patches of freshly bloomed (edible) mushrooms in our lawn and hunting for these was an enjoyable thing we kids used to love doing. These mushrooms died almost as quickly as they bloomed and there were no traces of them after a day or two.

This day, however, we were pleasantly surprised to see a humongous area of our lawn covered in a thick blanket of mushrooms!! It was a such pretty sight to see. We went INSANE with mushroom-bloom-post-rain joy, followed by a frenzy of mushroom-picking for dinner. Even my mother was very hyped about the phenomenon and she cheered us on. We fills bags upon bags of mushrooms and went on to collecting them even in spare pots and saucepans. We distributed big bags of mushrooms to all our neighbours, as it is a common practice to exchange food with neighbours back home. We also ate that memorable batch of mushrooms for many, many consecutive delicious meals (luckily, suffering no toxicities).

Warning: It is not advisable to eat wild mushrooms, unless you are confident they are edible

In the years that passed, we never once saw another mushroom bloom of that magnitude ever again.

But D, as you turn 29 today, I wish you a wonderful life to come, filled with everything you need plus many more mad days of joy, much like our good old mushroom days! *big hug*

There and back again

Last month, I went home to see the parents for five days. I contemplated on crossing off an exotic destination from my list of new countries to visit. But then I had a startling reminder that my remaining time with the family, realistically speaking, is limited to x number of moments and that pretty much settled where I wanted to be for my holiday.

I was told there was also going to be a family wedding we'd be attending. Crowds, making conversations and finding a dress! Bother. Thankfully, my helpful elder sister with a sophisticated sense of fashion came to the rescue (what will I ever do without her!). So I was saved the trouble and trauma of hunting for a perfect dress. More on that later.

The long weekend also found me celebrating Vesak with a large population of Buddhists in the country. By "celebrations", I mean doing things like visiting the temples, making Vesak lanterns with my adopted brother, driving in town with family and neighbours to watch creative displays of colourful lanterns and finally, eating from dansal.

Dansal are stalls set up by groups of volunteers offering food and drinks to anyone and everyone passing by (no questions asked) free of charge in the spirit of the occasion. Food ranges from good full course meals to ice cream and the queues can be pretty long for ones famed at having delicious meals. It's not really about fighting the crowds to get a free meal. The idea is for one party to organise, spend, cook and offer food with generous thoughts to others, while the receivers leave behind any pride and in turn enjoy the meal and offer their gratitude and appreciation for the other party's efforts. These days they have to operate on government licenses to ensure that food provided meets health and hygiene standards. Revisiting traditions and the culture back home with the family brought much me joy.

The Dalada Maligawa - an iconic palace turned temple in my hometown that attracts thousands of devotees and tourists every year

A recent addition to the main shrine 

The start of a large project that eventually took us a whole day to complete. My brother had already made the "skeletons" of the lanterns out of bamboo sticks when I arrived home, but there was much cutting and pasting to do!

The lantern slowly takes shape with coloured paper

The largest lantern of the lot. They look their best at night, when the light from inside the lantern radiates through translucent paper.

We had a total of four lanterns. My brother did the hard work of pulling electrical cables over the trees in the garden and fixing the lights and lanterns. I was his helpful aid.

Vesak lanterns can take various shapes, sizes, colours and designs. It takes considerable skill and time to make artistic ones like the one above (a photo which I borrowed from http://vesaksrilanka.blogspot.com/). Ours were of course amateur attempts. 

In addition to being able to show off his new driving license, my brother had a new member in his fleet of vehicles (the other being a bicycle). I also had enough time to look at all the plants my Dad and brother had planted, eat some of the fruits fresh off the trees and visit my favourite river.

A curious looking "three-wheeler". Its ability to squeeze through small spaces makes it an efficient mode of transport during traffic hours in Sri Lanka. We drove to the nearest playground where he gave me a crash course on driving it and I raced to my heart's content (mostly in circles), only having to dodge a few grazing cows and their dung piles.

Kitty - another privileged member of the family

Homegrown bananas and (a little harder to spot) Kitty about to do a death-defying stunt from the roof to the ground

I never miss the 3-minute walk down to the river whenever I visit home. This is where I spent a good deal of time growing up. It may explain my hydrophilic tendencies.

Reminiscing the past...

The wedding turned out a lot better than I imagined. I could tell my parents were filled with warm, parental pride to have atleast one of their offspring present at this social event. I believe they miss us very much. Social awkwardness aside, seeing them happy made me happy. It was actually fun to meet up with the cousins, aunties, uncles, nieces and nephews and others after what seemed like ages. Thankfully, I didn't meet any nosy and pushy relatives who tried to convince me to let my parents arrange a husband for me (I even went prepared with some sharp comebacks that these situations require, but it's a shame I didn't get to exercise any of those lines!).

The awkward/ simple Shu was transformed into an elegant lady with the help of her sister's choice of attire and a professional makeup artist. Photos that surfaced a few weeks later on Facebook, proved to be a hit (going by the positive comments). Initially, when the photos turned up and drew a bit of attention, I felt like a slug that crawled ignorantly out from under a rock only to be stunned by the flashing photos of the slug paparazzi. I was even told off by a couple of close friends when I gave due credit to the lighting technicians, the photographer, his sophisticated camera and the make up artist for tastefully enhancing my features. But I learned quickly to graciously thank everyone else for their compliments.

And just like that, it was time to leave back to Singapore.

The scenic drive from my hometown in Kandy to the Airport (took us nearly 3.5hours, the same time it takes me to fly from Singapore to Sri Lanka, actually) through mountainous terrain. In the background is the "Bible Rock" overlooking Kadugannawa

More lanterns on the roadsides!

Why, look at the time! It's almost time to start getting ready for work *nervous laugh*