Language | Culture – Oh, border!

Learning to say No

It is difficult to learn to say No in Mandarin. And I mean that in a literal way, not the figurative abstract concept of difficulty saying No to things, people, etc.

Belonging

“… because if you carry belonging in your heart, it is not negotiated externally with other people.” ~ Brene Brown

Lost in Translation

Little o could have been confused living in a bilingual environment and takes a while to catch the phonetics AND the intonation for him to articulate himself.

Dollops of Prejudices

Now that the country is finally openING up again, I finally get to attend the World Relations class I have been waiting for!

Perception

The bar for my perception of normalcy has been lowered to a new level.

Quiet is scary

Quiet day on the news front! No news is good news, says the positive side of me.

Orange Jive

Our DORSCON got raised to the same level as SARS now 😦 apparently because there was some untraceability in the new cases.

15 Days of CNY

It takes so many decades for me to realise we celebrate 15 days of Chinese New Year!

Macro angpow

Happy New Year! The perfect macro pic for Chinese New Year greetings! 鸿运当头、花开富贵、双双对对、十全十美.

Fervid

New word in my vocabulary! One thing I am very fervid about is language.

Learning Passage

I cannot remember how we grew up bilingual.

Suburban Paris

So we moved to Triel-sur-Seine for the final weekend.

Tokyo II

Ahh sooo sooo sooo is the commonly recognisable phrase I hear in the izakaya.

Tokyo

Tokyo is not at all what I imagined it to be. Even where Godzilla was probably was not where I am staying at.

Delay

Delays for every public transport service I planned to take!

Sweet Spot

I am now working towards a more balanced lifestyle where I have enough rest while also having enough time to pursue the meaningful things in life.

O-o

Came home early from work today to hang out with the double O bros. Oliver really had me in fits of laughter from his antics.

Solstice

Yay, just completed my final flight for 2018!!!

Sowed and reaped

前人种树，后人乘凉 is a Chinese saying for the earlier generation sowing a seed for the future generation to enjoy the shade of the tree.

6am rolling

It’s 6am writing from the airport again. I am feeling like a plump little plum rolling around in a bunch of linguistic obstacle course.

Burble

I had a fantastic burble-ing weekend! Sis was away, and I had the double-Os to myself, and relinquishing them for abit to babybro now and then.

Coddiwomple

Guess I have been coddiwompling – travelling in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination – most of the part of my life I have control over.

Ohmoody

We had funny names for the dogs – the one who was there with me is called Number Two because it was a second dog there; the first one was called Number One.

Fiddler on the roof

It was really hot up there on the zinc roof. I remember them pirouetting and singing “hothothothothot … where are my slipperrrssss”.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Music

My memories of Andalucian culture was mostly of music and dance – it is after all the home to Flamenco, a dance form that keeps my heart upbeat and fluttery.

Memories

Metaphorically, there’s a whole quarry of memories in this physical stack of flat circles in front of me. On the other hand, I really want to write about my memories of the gold quarry!

Traveling Style

Travel in Style, was my modus operandi for a few years of my life. Of every 30days, I would be spending 10days up in the air and on some foreign land (foreignly China).

ZinggggggG

I like the sound of today’s Ragtag Daily Prompt Zing! The entire suit of Swords came to mind, Ace of Swords – Zing! Two of Swords – ZingZingggg!

Mandarina

The beauty of these mandarin ducks are their colours, but I guess having them in b&w brings out the interesting patterns which would otherwise be overshadowed by their gorgeous attractive colours.

Serried

Today’s prompt brings to mind the serried mountains of Guilin that felt somewhat jostled and awkward, however beautiful.

Twitterpated

Here is a twitterpated Bambi looking out for Faline, whilst she tries to sniff out his tracks.

Shaken

I was caught in the Osaka earthquake yesterday, causing me to miss my flight but I was lucky enough to grab a seat on today’s flight.

Bastion

Here is a photo of Himeji-jo which I made a special detour and stayed overnight to catch a glimpse of its night view.

A Photo a Week Challenge: A Study in Light

I was studying food. Does that count?

Greenday

Today’s prompt is Pickle! From this set of photos, can you guess which ones are pickled?

Vine lines

Wine-tasting exercises averaging 25 types a sitting (or standing) is bound to have any person wear her heart on the sleeve.

Wat lines

To get myself out of that pattern of dense thoughts and feels, I have put up this collage of pictures more in the form of “wat-the-heck” lines.

Authentic Karen cuisine

I have no idea whether there really is such a thing as authentic anything/anywhere cuisine at all. As authentic as Mom’s cooking? But every mom is different.

Prolific, really?

Hahaha. Sounds like an apt description of the T’oh family, my grandparents, the DNA down the bloodline, and the earlier three generations here in SG.

The Weir

A separate pilot new town project was inchoate and we were just waiting to get over the red tape to start on the detailed work.

The long haul

A long haul project of four years brought me to a city that now sits very close to my heart. I worked on Yangzhou, flying in and out every three weeks.

Like a Swallow

There is this one song I really love, and it’s called Like a Swallow and was the theme song for Little Nonya, a local TV series.

Exotic fruits

Apples growing on trees is a foreign concept to me. Logically, I know they grow on trees (!!!), but I had never imagined what its tree looks like nor how they grow on it.

Talismen

To me, they can jolly well be placebos, but as long as they make me feel good or better or at ease, I am happy to continue using.

Worm moon

It’s full moon again! No wonder messy emotions are rife these couple of days. A name like The Worm Moon serves up an extra garnish of queasiness.

Too Sweet

Yay, I managed to get a cake for Dad on the second day of Chinese New Year when 95% of Singapore is closed! Even though it turned out to be an extremely sweet-pink-coloured one.

Silkballs

Just saw Mama Cormier’s photo of a white hydrangea centre piece, and it is such a beautiful picture to wake up to. I used to have these in our back garden.

Percussive words

Here is another song that blew me away. Yup, still harping on the youtube marathon that extended till the rest of today. I love this song for the very strong, almost percussive, rhythm of the words.

Hoarder Express

Tsk. Highclass Hoarder Express – the quickest way to own high-value artworks is to force your friends to give to (or exchange with) you. BFFs, yea?

Accidentally in love

I was sucked into the small room filled with a loving passionate sea of red. Song of Songs is a set of five paintings depicting a man and a woman through different scenes.

Giverny

I was exhilarated that we actually managed to fit in a day trip to Claude Monet’s hometown!

Communities

I started wondering why I had paid so little attention to this race. Demographics – Singapore is 74.3% Chinese, 13.4% Malays, 9.1% Indians and 3.2% Others.

Judging books by their covers

Inside, is a view of a row of books in hands right down the aisle. Lovely, isn’t it? I hardly see anyone reading books these days, mostly seeing iPads and iPhones in hand.

A rose by any other name

Will still smell as sweet. Isn’t this a very known term? Or do I store too much peripheral information in and around me?

Theme Translate

My life circles around translations of various kinds, it is almost like a repetitive theme that frames every phase.

Beyond acts

I have the loveliest folks. My sis brought babyboo over and then took babyrui to school. This is what a loving extended family-ship looks like!

I have always been more of a spiritual than a religious person. A broader term which is more applicable (I suppose it is because I have yet to figure out my stand or where I stand as yet) than big words like agnostic or atheist that puts ones’ thoughts in strict little defined boxes.