Letters From Across Thousands Of Miles

Has any one of you grown up with lots of penpals? Well, I had. And it was the most enriching experience I ever had, especially in an era where there were no emails, no Facebook, no Whatsapp, no text messages, no mobile phones! (And now everyone knows just how ancient I am!)

I used to spend my days writing to my penpals from all over the world. There were Catherine from London, Ly from San Diego, Merey and Cindi from Singapore, and a whole lot of others from Argentina, Italy, etc. Till this day, I am still in touch with Merey, one of my first Singaporean penpals - albeit via Facebook!

In a realm where there was no internet, entire vistas and worlds opened up to me via letters from these distant shores. Different voices. Different cultures. Different personalities. All with one common love - writing.

So, when Big Bee started corresponding with her very first penpal from the United States, I was elated. Thanks to my dear friend, Jeanne, who made the initial introduction between the daughter of her very close penpal and Big Bee.

The journey had begun. The pathways had opened. They had exchanged 2 letters thus far, and Big Bee is now intrigued by another little girl in a faraway land, learning about different yet similar lifestyles, writing about her daily experiences with fresh perspectives.

For me, I am a mere bystander, observing with silent contentment that spark of expectation in Big Bee's eyes when I went to collect the mail, that sprightly spring in her gait as she jaunted up to receive that attractive letter in my hand, that glimmer in her eyes and that flash of brilliance in her smile as she opened up the envelope to read her letter. Oh, how well I remember that anticipation, that expectation! Snail mail is much more thrilling and scintillating than emails anytime!

And I hope this will be a lifelong voyage for her.

South Korea From The Eyes Of A Little Girl

It is ironical how the Bees are now much faster than me in completing their travel journals. I need to buck up!

This is a little account about our South Korean winter holiday in December last year - from Little Bee's perspective. She constructed all the sentences herself (which was why there was a strange little sentence about how her Mummy and Papa were shocked, hmm). You can also sense her typical exuberant, expressive self in her writing. She seemed to mention that every place is her favourite or the best place ever!

Of course, I helped with the spelling of almost all the words, except for some simple words like "is", "my", "to", "the", "and", etc. I also helped her out with the tenses, as I wanted her to get her grammar right from a young age.

Enjoy! (Big Bee will be posting her version on her own blog very soon too)

*********************************************

12/2/2012 (date of writing)

I went to South Korea from 22 to 29 December 2011. South Korea is my favourite place because it was so fun! I saw snow and my mummy and papa were shocked. Then we were so happy!!

Little Bee with a big snowball that she created!

I went to Everland. It was the funnest place I ever went because there were some super nice games! And I am super duper happy to go there!

I went to a ski resort. It was the best place I ever went. I did snow sledding. It was really fun!

 This was the best holiday I ever went!

A Servant Leader

Big Bee was chosen by her ballet teachers in school to be the leader of her ballet CCA group. Her school practises this interesting concept of "Servant Leadership" where student leaders are supposed to serve their community humbly, taking care of everyone's needs, listening and supporting their fellow schoolmates.

There is also an interesting hierarchy of student leadership, as seen below:

I could tell she was secretly pleased, especially with her love for ballet. Yet, I am happy that level-headed Big Bee took everything in her own stride, claiming that some of her best friends in school were also nominated as fellow student leaders, so she is not all that unique. 

But still, I am proud of her and I made known that this is an achievement of sorts - to be nominated by the teacher to serve her fellow CCA mates. 

Big Bee was a little skeptical about overseeing some of the older P5 and P6 students in her ballet group though, but I reassured her that leadership is not about age, rather, it is about connecting with people, irregardless of age. 

As a ballet CCA leader, she has to assist the teachers in scheduling, attendance and student matters. She is also now put in charge of creating an attractive notice board for the ballet CCA. She has to motivate and encourage her peers in the CCA group and ensure they come for practice, and be the main bridge between the ballet teachers and the students.  

As part of the orientation, she attended a half-day leadership training workshop, and part of the training involved organising a party for her entire class - all by herself, from invites to collecting rsvps to organising party venue, games and food. And she is definitely looking forward to it! Looks like I will not have to plan most of the Bees' parties from now on ;) 

A Garden Wedding

*Back-dated post

The first day of 2012 was spent amidst much love, joy and happiness - with the Bees being flower girls for one of Hubby's cousins.

It was a beautifully romantic wedding, held in a magnificently pristine glass pavilion on Sentosa, surrounded by lush, verdant foliage. The Bees were part of a lovely wedding party comprising of 6 bridesmaids decked out in vibrant yellow and one little page boy who was Little Bee's age. Big Bee was the flower girl in charge of sprinkling velvety rose petals down the aisle, ambling primly behind Little Bee who was shyly (and embarrassingly!) leading the whole entourage, whilst holding the hand of the little page boy! Oh, the blushes and flustered expressions from Little Bee were a sight to behold!

The glass pavilion for the wedding ceremony, set amidst lush greenery!

The embarrassed couple!

The cheery flower girl with her basket of rose petals

In the evening, only Little Bee and the page boy were required to walk down the aisle as harbingers of the bride and groom. Little Bee was grinning all throughout the rehearsal, fooling around with all of us. However, during the actual walk-in, she looked cheekily uncomfortable and shy!

Hubby said he finally understood how it felt like to see a daughter walking down the aisle, haha.

The bride and groom were rather innovative in preparing snippets of entertainment for the guests, and one of the Bees' favourites was a dress-up photoshoot where the girls could don on crazy wigs, glasses and props, take photos and then getting the photos laminated and delivered to them halfway during the dinner! Check out some of their guises that night:

What a beautiful day - heartwarming and touching, filled with so much love and felicity!

My Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

There is a very valid reason for disappearing for more than 10 days from my blog － for the first time in years! Here's the reason below, sigh.

I was never one who watched lengthy drama series, as I know I would get addicted easily, and with my impatient nature, I would probably sit right through dozens of episodes all at once. Hence, I had practised good self-restraint all these while.

Until I heard so many of my friends watching (and getting crazy over) 步步惊心。Furthermore, I have a deep fondness for the Forbidden City and had spent manifold moments with Hubby (and occasionally, by myself) in this historical landmark, falling in love time and again, intrigued by China's complex history over and over again.

So, for the past fortnight, I fell into this deep dark abyss of addiction - hook, line and sinker - immersing myself in the beautiful love story and mellifluous Chinese language of this series.

And after completing the last episode last Saturday, I felt the clouds clearing from my muddled head. Whilst having a foot and half a mind still doused in the fantasy of Qing dynasty.

So - no social life, no late night work emails (good!), no dating life with Hubby and sadly, no homelearning with the Bees!

But I will move on soon...

This silly, ridiculous obsessive compulsive disorder will appear once in a while in my life. For example, the latter half of last year saw me utterly captivated in America's civil war with Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind, with Edward Rochester and his wild passion for Jane Eyre, and with restrained Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.

I relished the novels, TV series, movies (I even went to watch Jane Eyre the movie twice!), forum discussons, etc. Obsessive behaviour, really. Until the compulsion slowly died down.

Meanwhile, I need to reach for 桐华的小说，步步惊心。想跟大家分享纤美兰章的其中一句：

“从爱生忧患，从爱生怖畏；离爱无忧患，何处有怖畏？是故莫爱着，爱别离为苦。若无爱与憎，彼即无羁缚。”

太凄美了。

Friday Humour: Here Comes The Soldiers

I have a love-hate relationship with China, having gone there countless times for work in more than 18 cities across the vast country - seeing the nature (both good and bad) of the locals, understanding the culture and being intrigued by thousands of years of their complex history.

One of my favourite places in the whole of China is the Forbidden City. I had been there many times but each time, I could linger for hours on end, finding new places within the palace, losing myself in the little alleys of the concubines' residences, or strolling in the magnificent space of the parade square, or peering into the Emperor's throne room, fascinated by the ostentatious life of the Son of Heaven.

I was also very captivated by the revolutionary evolution of China's political history as I stood at Tiananmen Square, remembering the past struggles that had gone through this poignant place. 

But I digress.

I thought it would be funny to parade the Bees in the Communist-era hats bought by Hubby and I in the Forbidden City 2 years ago. These hats were bought during winter and were so warm. But to the Bees, they are another piece of accessory for imaginary play. And here they are, 2 revolutionary soldiers in the 1930s Red Army era ;) Don't they look the part - so serious and earnest?!

瑞龙送福

The Year of the Water Dragon blasted in swiftly but surely. The long weekend of continuous enjoyment, festive feasting, family bonding and incessant chatting created a post-holiday shroud of moodiness when everyone started school and work in the middle of the week!

For us, the fun started on Saturday, as written in a previous posting. To be followed by even more conviviality the next few days...

Sunday (除夕)
Being the early birds in the family, Big Bee and I sneaked off to Holland Village in the morning for a little mother-daughter date, and to shop around for Big Bee's Chinese New Year clothes (Little Bee already had aplenty). With Big Bee in her tweens, she prefers to select and choose her clothes, so this was a wonderful shopping outing for both of us to spend some quiet, quality time together! We had fantastic bonding time over breakfast and shopping, before Hubby and Little Bee joined us much later.

We then went to the plant nursery to immerse ourselves in the dense festive ambience amidst an opulence of vividly psychedelic blooms! We bought 2 big pots of orchids and tangerines (橘子) for my parents as well as 2 big bunches of ethereal pussy willows and a small pot of 橘子 for ourselves.

The Bees love decorating pussy willows, so we spent a good part of the early afternoon beautifying and sprucing up our pussy willow and other plants - adorning them in auspicious red and gold trinkets and angpows!

Eventually, after embellishing the whole house with festive decor, we set off early for our reunion dinner with my in-laws at Teochew City in Centrepoint. We arrived at 6pm, and it was surreal to see almost the whole of Orchard Road in darkness, with most shops and large department stores closed!

Dinner was meaningful and scrumptious. The Bees got to spend time with 2 of their adoring great-grandmothers. How rare can that be!?

At night, after the Bees slept, Hubby and I once again - like so many years before - snuggled in front of the TV, watching the Channel 8 Lunar New Year TV festivities and revelled in our Chinese traditions.

Monday (初一）
The day dawned balmy and sunshiny. The mood at home was cheery and jaunty. We set off in our brand new clothes for a whole day of family visits - from my parents' home in the morning to my maternal uncle's house where all our maternal relatives had gathered for decades, and where we cousins had so much fun bonding once again. Followed by Hubby's parents' place and a couple more of Hubby's aunts' before we called it a long day past 10pm!

As I grow older, I love the fact that we have so many relatives to visit, and simply appreciate that having strong family ties are gloriously blissful. And I think the Bees had enjoyed all these varied visits to different relatives' homes too!

Tuesday (初二）
We spent the morning making fluffy pancakes with blueberries. The Bees were helping me to sift the flour, pour in the ingredients and mix the dough. They are becoming the able little chefs that their Mummy never was!

After a leisurely early afternoon, we received our first visitors at home - our immediate families! The Bees were really excited as they love visitors at home, and I could relax a little while they were entertained by all their doting grandparents, uncle and aunts. We then set forth to my brother's house where we chilled out in his cosy apartment, before settling for the dinner (and the rest of the evening) at my paternal uncle's house, together with all my cousins and relatives. Had such a wonderful time chatting with them!

2 days, 7 families - this Chinese New Year was too brief and fleeting, swirling out of our lives before we can yell out "pause"!

But, for now, I am thankful that we have all 15 days in the lunar calendar to continue our merry celebrations, joyous feasting and mirthful bonding!