Family values ....

This is one family snap-shot that many Chinese families from China would have wished for. Their ONE-CHILD Family policy has already seen through 3-to-4 generations by now. Brother, Sister, Uncle, Auntie and cousins are unheard of. Some would have heard of grandparents as the extended family but otherwise, family relationship do not go beyond parents and child and perhaps with "in-laws". (meaning = lesser hong pow during CNY !!). This simple policy has somewhat eroded away the very value of the Chinese "Family". It inevitably brought about the "I, me, myself" relationship and "sharing" is not in many individual's vocabulary. The lucky few would have good friends to fall on, but their individual-self still plays a dominant part of their lives. In some cases, friends may even take higher precedence than families.

With higher education, availability of advanced communication devices, (ranging from simple handphones, ipad, skype, etc) to the fast pace lives of wanting everything quickly and where knowledge is power .... lots of values has inevitably been eroded away. Face-to-face communication is really becoming an art of patience. More often than not, its .... getting it over ASAP. Even the once a year re-union dinner is a dying trend. Many rather take advantage of the long festive period for a trip aboard .... happily declaring that they need not have to give out "hong-pows" nor have the hassle of visiting relatives. Are we watching our family values being diluted over time and slowing making way for more self-centered reasoning/considerations ..... ? Hmmmm !!!

Times are hard !!!

The reindeers demanded equal rights. They had to work doubly hard over the Christmas period so, for the Lunar New Year, they headed East for the festive break celebrations. Their sudden departure without management's prior approval left Santa stranded on some remote sunny island. Recruitment drive for local reindeers replacement failed, thus had to opt for foreign talent. Guess who applied !!! Huat ! Huat !! Huat !! ahhhh !!!

PS : Santa was rather shocked too, to discover that the elves had also embarked on similar long vacation. They demanded equality. North Pole Toy factory is closed for the holidays. Apparently, Mrs Claus also embarked on a spa package at some Pacific Island resort. With no work, no meals and breakdown of primary means of transportation, Santa embarked on a possible 2nd career option .... hopefully to get some "hong pow" during the festive period whilst doing some house-to-house/grassroots lion dance rounds.

Sons of the Sea

The RSN used to have a publicity tagline : BUILDING TOMORROW NAVY, TODAY !!!. Last Friday, had an unique opportunity to meet up with some old navy buddies; some of whom I have never met but have heard many stories of their "adventures" when I was a very junior officers. Over the traditional "lo hei" and local chinese dishes (+beer & kopi-O), many old stories were recollected and shared. it was like "BUILDING YESTERDAY NAVY, TODAY !!!"E Chandra and Greg Oliveiro were briefly back to Singapore from Melbourne and Pattaya respectively, whilst the rest had generally been moving around. Being the youngest (no kidding) in the group, it was great to put "faces" to some of the names whom I have never met whilst in service. .... ANCHORs AWAY, mate !!!

Where there's FOOD; there's Shaun !!

Duo purpose lunch gathering @ HANWOOI. (1) it was for Shaun who is back for a short holiday from his Aussie journey & (2) an excuse for the group to get together. With no specific agenda, it was simply having a go at Korean food, ranging from Pancakes, Stew pork ribs, rice cakes, squid and BBQ pork. Great way to start the year with good company and good food. Happy 2012 !!

CAT Patrol

For the 2nd night in a row, the neighbourhood cat came by the gate and remained at the driveway, guarding the cars. It happily purrs away whenever anyone came by. Daughter #1 had a good conversation with it, each MEOWing away. (Didn't know that she had mastered a 2nd language whilst in Aussieland).
As this is being written, the little kitty place itself between the two cars making sure no one drives it away. Hopefully, this tame looking animal is also a KINGFISHER Killer !!!!

Traditional X'Mas Day outing

We have been doing these for years. It the usual visit to our God-daughter's place followed by our God-parents place. With Richard & Julie moving closer to Novena, hopping from their place to the Lau's resident was much simplier. With college/classmates from CJC, the 6 families have traditionally met every X'mas day for dinner since the kids were young. Getting X'mas gifts for all of them then, was really a major exercise.
Now, all 16 of them are in their teens and X'mas gifts are no longer the SOP for the get-together. The snap-shot of 6 boys + 10 girls was taken at the dining area ... both for head-count and face recognition. The PHUA Siblings (Michelle, Amanda & Matthew) with the TEOs (Sarah-Marie, Aaron-James & Clarissa-Anne) met up once again and the shot by the Christmas Tree ...sealed the day's event, before we left for our Godparents's place.
Finally, we also had our annual X'mas Day family photo, with a borrowed tree .... but the with the same X'Mas spirit.

X'Mas Lunch 2011

The annual Tjoeng Family X'mas gathering commenced with a heavy downpour. That kind of cooled the day. With a nice gentle breeze blowing through the house, the food was quickly consumed before it got cold too quickly. Aside from the usual excitement of gift distribution from under the tree, it was simplified with a little "action item" by each of the "cousins" before it was dished out.
The annual photo was also a little easier with the split level dinning/living area. MERRY X'MAS everyone !!!