2018 : Seoul Holidays : May-2020

We seldom took a holiday during June but did one in 2018 to Korea-Seoul as December would be too cold for Papa Mama to handle.  It was an awesome trip.

Seoul Holidays slideshow : Jun-18

Since it would be too cold for the entire family to visit Korea in December, we made a decision to visit there in June instead!  It was a while since we had a mid-year holidays, and as every holidays go, we enjoyed utterly!

ps. Also, this holiday agenda was planned by Ling and Qi and my burden was significantly reduced.

A treat to a concert : Jun-18

Shin Yang had always enjoyed Joanna Dong's voice, she said she sounded happy.  We got to know her when watching "天冷就回来" musical drama a few year back.  Subsequently she ventured to other areas like running a TV program but came back strongly to impress many Singaporeans in the popular China "The Voice" show and making it to the finals.

I think as a result of her hard work, she was able to hold a bigger concert this time at Esplanade.  Shin Yang treated me to watch it on 30-Jun (Sat), the first of her 2 concerts.  This concert was a bit different as videography and photography were allowed as long as there was no flash.  I totally enjoyed that evening and also managed to record a few songs to share later . :-)

XinYang traditional competition : Jun-18

Two years ago, Shin Yang asked me to introduce and enrol a friend's son, Luke, to XinYang as he was very passionate about lion dancing.  So I contacted Adrain and got Luke to join his first official lion dance troupe in 2016.

Now, Luke was able to live up to his passion and participate in his first traditional competition as the lion head dancer, awesome!

Brief outing at Kallang Park : Jun-18

The family gathered at Kallang Park for a picnic on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  Initially I suggested the  place as I thought there was sand on the beach for the kids to play.  It turned out that I was wrong, all the shore were covered with grass.  Nevertheless, we spent our time well playing other things and taking photos.

Lower jaw implants all done! : Jun-18

On 12-Jun when Kim and Trump met for the first time in Singapore, I went to create the impression of my lower left jaw implants and a week later, I had them all fixed up.  Now, left with the upper jaw to go!

May 2018 WD General Meeting : May-18

Whether it’s WDFD (wd formation day) or this year’s WDGM (wd general meeting), each time it happens that WD has to to run our own district meeting, it’s a challenge and I always thought i would surely be done in this time!! 😰 This year too.. I have absolutely no will to look for my testimonial speakers or hunt for a creative item to have fun with everybody. “Surely, if I will it enough, this WD meeting may disappear on its own, wouldn’t it?” —that’s how much fundamental darkness I always have in my life!!

However, unfortunately or fortunately, I have a nagging consideration at the back of my mind—my freshly minted wd sister has juz joined my district, surely I cannot give her a lousy FIRST WD district meeting, right? 😓

With that as my slight and only motivation, I set forth to chant, to depend on daimoku to elevate my life state, and improve the plight of my non-existent planning for this WDGM.. 🙏🏼

It is exactly for times like this that we need the support of others, that we cannot practice Buddhism in silo, that we may falter and fall if we are alone. 

All thanks to my ever enthusiastic faith buddies who have been updating me on what they were going to do for their meetings, and my leaders who insisted that we all meet and plan together, and who eventually helped me run my rehearsal meeting too. Also thanks to my dearest members who ardently supported me, supported our district; one gamely took up the emcee role, and yet another offered me her house to meet! One good thing led to another, a buddy who must have sensed my inertia, timely offered to relate her testimonial at my meeting!! Immediately I accepted her offer. I have always wanted her to come and share at my meeting but because her meeting is always the same time as mine, it could not happen for years.. Wow! For the first time, I have 2 invited speakers to relate their testimonial at my meeting!!

With all these encouragement, I managed to gather enough steam to put together a decent meeting agenda, and even went all out to reach out to members, friends and acquaintances to invite them to my meeting! To break the monotony of all talk-only, my leader suggested I play something on my flute as a cultural item. It’s a low-hanging fruit.. even though the result may not be fantastic, this is something very simple and easily achievable. Okay, I can do that.

A faith buddy shared with me a very suitable (also reads very easy) music arrangement for a suitable song for this meeting. After a couple of running through, I realized I don’t have the skill to play the piece beautifully all by myself! 😥 

This is when my most most reliable lifelong kosen-rufu partner stepped in.. he didn’t mind to juz strum those chords alongside me, he didn’t mind to attend an all-women meeting to play the song with me, he didn’t mind to spend an entire afternoon at my meeting juz to play the 3-minute song with me!! In fact, he also didn’t mind bringing along his camera to take pictures of my meeting and driving me there and helping me put up & subsequently take down my decorations!! He’s such a dear and an unshakeable pillar of support.. he’s like the formidable genie from Aladdin’s magical lamp!!

Anyway, because of these wonderful people in my life, my meeting was a most awesome one!! What I lacked in terms of attendance, I believe was made up with the earnestness and joy of everyone present. Our WDGM was a success, a resounding victory because of everyone who was there!! I was extremely touched and gratified..❤️❤️

Here are some pictures and a clip from our 2018 WDGM ..

Major reno work 2018, Aircon installation : May-18

This would probably be the most major reno work at home for 2018, a replacement of our existing air conditioning system!   In additional, we were also be putting on 2 new BTU units at our 'long-awaited' living and study room.

The work was massive, 3 guys from Cold Engine (company i engaged) came at about 10am in the morning; dismantled our existing system, run the piping and electricity for 4 rooms, installed the BTU units and finally the compressor.  Another 2 resource came at 5pm to help out their team and the entire work eventually completed at 7pm, a solid 9 hours, super hard work!

Although this damage was more than $4k, we were grateful to be reward with a much quieter air conditioning for all our rooms now. :-)

Work in progress in Living Room

Our new rooms BTU

Removing the old faulty compressor

Work in progress in MasterBed Room

Helping out too...

New compressor

NewAircon installed at Study Room

Painting our master bed room : May-18

Every year I would try to do a bit of renovation in our house to keep it nice and warm.

Last year we did a major overhaul to our study room.  This year, we were going to another big job to change our aircon systems.  Thus before the installation starts, I took the opportunity to re-paint our room.  I spent almost the whole day to complete the painting and not possible if without the help from ling.  It was nevertheless very rewarding to see a new look for the room.

First 2 implant teeth in place : May-18

Finally, after going thru much agony, I had my first two implant teeth at on lower right jaw.  It was a wonderful experience, and they felt natural, it’s like uniting with some long lost friends. 😜