Warzone

The atmosphere is very tense. You can sense the fear and uncertainty while walking through the aisle to the office. I felt like I had gone back to the days of WWII where people were always living in fear as they would not know when the Axis bombardment comes. One mistake would be costly as morale might have hit new low. 

There's only a place to seek love, comfort and happiness. That is home. This is the place where my lovely young wife would make delicious dinner and desert for me after a long day at work. A person whom is willing to listen to my complains and someone I felt so safe with. 

Thank you Honey for always being there for me and listen to me when I need you. Love you so much. 

In God Hands

I decided not to share those insensitive messages here as it seemed pointless. I thought we should keep this blog beautiful and clean. 

On the way back to see my hero one last time, we misconnect our flight. The initial plan they had for us was to take the flight next day. We felt it was unacceptable as the misconnection was not due to us. They chose the easy way out by blaming the weather so that no complimentary accommodation was given. Furious and upset with the customer service, we went back to the ticketing counter to seek for more help. 

We were lucky to meet two very professional and helpful representatives, Mr Van Nguyen and Ms Devika. They tried all they could to find a flight for us to go back SG in time for the sending off of my gran. We flew to LA, waited for 6 hrs before leaving to Incheon, Korea, via Asiana flight. The service and food from Asiana flight were brilliant! Our final flight from Korea to SG was via SQ and as usual, their service is world class. Most importantly, we were in time for the prayers to Grandma. 

When we reached the funeral, Gran was lying peacefully in the beautifully decorated coffin surrounded by chrysanthemum and lotus. She looked happy to have finally escape from the torture and pain she suffered for 14 years. I'm pretty sure she is in God's hands now or maybe reunite with my late grandfather who had waited her for 21 years. 

We mourned the loss of our beloved grandma and were relieved at the same time as she is now free of pain. She will forever live in our hearts. 

Goodbye my Hero

After a long fight against stroke, my gran finally lost the battle and passed away yesterday. I was sleeping when the news came and only broke down when I was awake. My hero, she's gone. 

Granny played a huge role in my childhood days and even till now. Our family always gathered at her house in Bedok and I would play soccer with my cousins in the void deck. As we became older, we would stay overnight at her house and go to the market with her in the morning. We would usually have kway chap and carrot cake for breakfast. We love our granny.. And our granny loves us. She never reject us when we wanted to buy a toy or even going to Long John Silvers for supper. 

When my family was suffering from financial crisis and had our power supply cut off, gran never failed to lend her helping hands to us. She returned us the power supply we needed and mend back a broken family whenever it seems to tear apart. She defended me when my mum wanted to cane me. I just felt so safe to be in her hands. 

Then, stroke came. It was never the same again. Our wonderland was sold to support gran's medical fees. I was too young to understand the hospitalization cost. I was too young to learn that gran could have left us early if not for her fighting spirit against the illness. It hurts to see her in wheelchair and the changes brought to her. That damn illness took our hero away from us. There's lesser gathering, no homemade pizzas and specially made home cook food. She needed support. 

I admitted that I did not spend as much time with her. I would only see her once in a while. Although I had treated her this way, I know she still loves all of us. She has a big heart and always loves to help us and that's why I believe God gave her an extension. Talking to her took us some patience and I always like to joke with her. I love her smile and laughter and hate seeing her being upset. Before I departed to states for another two years, she was really happy for me and wished me safe and smooth trip. She cried once when she was overjoyed over Ju and my marriage. I am really happy to hear that. 

Her health worsened after we left to states. She stayed in the hospital for quite some time and her kidney failure did her no favors. She became very weak but still remember most of us. I felt sad not able to visit her. Few months later, she was discharged for a vast improvement to her health. I thought everything would stay good till I'm home. 

I was wrong. 

A message I thought was a nightmare became true. A message broke me down . A message that took my hero away from me. Forever. Crying out loud don't do you any good. It just makes you miss the person more. I finally took the decision to fly home to see my hero one last time. 

Goodbye my hero. You never left us. You are always here looking upon us. Thanks for the love and care you have given us. I know you will be well taken care of in God's hands. Gran, we love you! 

P.S. It's really sad when some people are not sensitive enough. I'll share more next chapter. Could not believe I'm working for such leader. Disappointed. 

Go Stampede!!

It had been few years since we last watched the Stampede. They won the game at the buzzer during Juju last day at the states. 

This year, Idaho Stampede (NBA D league team) is far more stronger and better in offense. They have draft pick player like Pierre Jackson. They had been winning games at least. Compared to the team two years ago which was really dreadful. 

Ju became a basketball fan, of course through my influence. She loves to watch Chris Paul playing. As there isn't much to do here in Idaho, we would usually watch the Stampede on Saturday night. They were playing LA Defenders last weekend. Both teams are pretty strong in the D league. The game was really exciting with them hitting the threes and fighting to take the lead. Eventually, the Stampede won! 

Can't wait to see more NBA games.. 

Happy 2014

What a way end 2013 and welcome 2014. Went to Boise downtown with a very big group of friends and had a crazy countdown! 

We stayed overnight at Residence Inn by Marriot and it was fantastic! There's a small little kitchen and a tiny hall. The bed is so comfortable that I had problem waking up for the delicious complimentary breakfast. Wifey surprised me when she woke me up breakfast! She was pretty drunk last night and fell countless times with a pair of monster 5 inch heels. However, it's a great start to the new year and time to get healthy and strong! 

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014!

Snowboarding @ Pomerelle Ski Resort

Beanies - checked. Water proof gloves -checked. Sunglasses - checked. Snow pants - checked. (I didn't really have a snow pants so I wore a track pants) Jackets - checked. Thermal wear - checked. We are all set! Most importantly, Juliana is awake!

The drive took us about a couple of hours and the route there was pretty smooth till the top of the mountain where the road was pretty icy. Juliana was sleeping her way to Pomerelle and lucky for me,  I had Desmond to talk to, else I might just fall asleep. 

We set off rather early on a Saturday morning so we could have ample time to learn how to snowboard. When we reached there, the weather was really chilly. The wind chill was quite unbearable but that didn't stop us from. snowboarding. We went to rent the necessary equipments (snowboard, shoes) after warming up in the cafe. Thereafter, we were out to learn snowboarding for about an hour. I thought it was really a bad idea to take up private lessons as the fees were hefty and the lessons could have been better. 

The fundamentals of skiing is easier than snowboarding. It's so much easier to manuveour in skiing than snowboarding. We had our ass cracked so many times while learning to stop and manuveour using a snowboard. Even when we were confident after that, we found ourselves falling hard on our ass. 

As the weather was getting worse, I decided to call it a day as the cold might cause hypothermia. Our faces were already numb! We made our way back to the cafe, had some hot drinks before returning the equipments. I felt that we were really underdressed.

Our next stop will be Soldier Mountain and before going there, we are going to get balaclavas, ski masks and snow pants else it would be waste to travel all the way up to the mountain and spend a short time there.