To change or not to change...

Sometime back, "The One" and I went for a burger at a fast food outlet. After getting our order, we sat down to enjoy our crispy burger, when we took a bite..arhhh..the meat was cool. "The One" looked at me and said, "is yours fresh?" I looked at him and shake my head, "Not crunchy one"...He wrapped up his burger and tell me, "Give me urs, I'll go and ask them to give us freshly made ones". I told him, "hmm, its ok lah" He said its not ok, so I wrapped it up and handed him the burger.

After about 5 mins, "The One" came back with the freshly made burgers. Once u open up the wrapper, u can see the heat steam coming out from the meat and when u bite into it, 'crunchy crunchy' :) So I asked "The One" what happened? "Nothing, I just went there and told the cashier this is not fresh. No questions asked, she just turned to her colleague in the kitchen and told him, "You don't make fresh ones?" Threw the burger away, handed me these and said sorry for that" I looked at him and said, "oh, ok"

At the end of the meal, I was thinking to myself...I do understand the need to stand up for your rights. As in, you paid for a meal, and of course u should get fresh food. However when I think of that burger that was thrown away just becoz its not 'fresh' anymore (past their freshness by probably 15-20 mins) ; if that was given to a child in the third world country, he will have gobble it up as if he has found gold...

Such is the irony in this world...

Cheerios and keep smiling,
With Love from PoohBear

picture from http://www.doctorsweightin.com/

Phone Bill and "The One" first ice-crushed smoothie

Had a "fight" with the phone company again..for billing problem..sigh..y like that. Have you guys ever encounter having one customer service rep tell u one things and the next time you call back, another customer rep tells u another things (on the same issue). You simply cant trust the words of the rep. How bad is that?!


Back home, u can go to the store and speak FACE TO FACE with the customer rep, and over here, they have only "over the phone" service. Each time u called, a different rep will answer ur queries and there's no way u can request to speak to the same rep whom you spoke to earlier (even if its just like 10-15 mins ago)!! Duh, what sort of customer service is this??



Anyway, "The One" and I went down to the store to make our payment and hopefully next month billing will be correct.


These 2 days has been sooo hot..Temperature hitting around 38oC with the humidex. Air con has been blasting, "The One" suddenly said, "lets go get a blender, can make smoothie" hahaha..Ok lah, since he is so enthusiastic about making smoothie, lets go! :)

After spending just 10 mins browsing through the different blenders in the mall, we got ourselves this 'black and decker' blender (which comes with a 'ice crasher option' :) Happily, we went home and "The One" cant wait to made us our first home made 'ice-crushed strawberry and banana smoothie' :)

it sure tasted yummy (we each have like 3 glasses!! can you believe it?? hahaha) Lets hope "The One" will continue with his enthusiastic to make me more smoothies huh ;P or it will be a '3 min hottie thing' for him? I have a feeling, it will end up with me making the smoothies instead.. hehehe

Keep cool!


Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Happy Father's day!

Happy Father's day to our daddies today!

Thank you for everything you have done for us. I won't go into elaborating what our daddies did for us since we didn't do that for our mommies too hehe

To KC, happy father's day too. you're still a 'young daddy':)

Hope you all enjoy your day, go out, have lots of funs and embrace your special day!

Cheerios and keep smiling
With Love from PoohBear and "The One"

picture taken from http://www.clickandpost.com/

I feel good...

I felt good today because "The One" and I did something good. Remember the little boy, Shane who has cancer that I blogged about some time back, his birthday wish this year is to get 350 million birthday cards before May 30th (his birthday) to break the world record for the most number of birthday cards received? We went to get him a birthday card and posted it to him. It feels good if we are able to be part of his 'wish come true'...so hopefully Shane will get his wish come true..

have you send Shane a birthday card yet?

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Spiderman3 - Weekend box office record $148 million, we were part of it

Spiderman3 finally opens on last Friday in Canada.."The One" and I went to catch the afternoon show of Spi 3. Even before the first showtime at 11.30am, infront of the cinema were groups of teenagers waiting outside (I suppose wanting to be the first ones to catch Spi3) geee..on a Friday morning, don't they have to go to school??

The whole day, the cinema was packed, the cinema was a multi plex and if I'm not wrong, at least 5/6 halls were running Spi3 on one day, timing of the movies was like 30 mins interval. As the seats were free sitting, "The One" and I went in 3o mins earlier (I know, I know..I'm the more kaisu type, but I don't wanna end up sitting in the front rows, having to endure a neck ache at the end of the show)

The show started on time, initially it was pretty good, esp with the new evils: sandman and venom. I think Spi3 was based more on the 'romance' rather than really Spi with the evils..



My Favourite part? one memorable scene was when Peter Parker and MJ were sharing a night under the stars romancing on the BIG spiderweb *dreamy eyes*. (click on that box to see the scene) and as usual, the captivating 'swings' of spi and the main moral of 'With great power, comes great responsibility'. The fighting scenes were well done but there were scenes when suddenly I do not know if Spiderman is really a superhero who's so invincible? or he's just human? He can get injured, cuts just like any human being and then there were scenes when he was being thrown against the moving train and yet not getting injured at all..It all seems so contradicting..

As time goes by, it got draggy. My bums were sore, I was getting irritated...At some point, even before the show ends, some guys were leaving the cinema. My verdict of the show? Critics have termed this as the BEST of the TRIOLOGY, I'm saying "huh, no way, i rather re-watched the 1st or the 2nd spiderman rather than this." Well, "The One" had a different view, he enjoyed this Spiderman3 and of course, he being the 'evilish one' liked "VENOM" even before we watched this Spiderman3..see how evilish he is? hahhaha (that's one of "The One" fav pic of Venom)

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Pictures courtesy of http://www.media.movieweb.com and Crave Online: Funny Videos, Sexy Videos, Music Videos, Movie Trailers, and More!

parcels from home

2 days ago, we received a parcel from home and instantly I became a little kid anxiously, excitedly while carefully opening her Xmas gift on Christmas morning ;P examining and grinning over all the items in the parcels..inside were some Chinese DVDs specially brought by my doting sister and some other 'treasures' picked, brought and nicely packed and sent to us by our lovely family.

Whenever we received a parcel, "The One" and I will be grinning away and enjoying the 'love' sent from far away. When you are far away, as the Chinese saying goes, "108000 miles away from home", every little things warm your heart no matter how cold the weather is. There is my favourite Singapore tidbits, the chilli tapioca and mom also got "The One" some grape and strawberry filling marshmallows :) I guess as what the world known Singapore as, we are a nation of "food paradise/food heaven", food always bring back alot of memories...*dreamy eyes*

As the family always chat on MSN messenger, sis and mom will be telling me the little stories/encounters they had while buying those stuffs..Even my 3 year old nephew had a part to play in choosing one of the bag. :) Thank you all for taking the time to do all these for us, "The One" and I do appreciate and can feel the 'love' sent along with this little parcel...we are definitely taking our time to savour everything in the parcel!

When you are far away from home, what do you wish to receive most of all?

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love From PoohBear

Pictures from http://www.triangle.eu.com and http://londonblackcabs.co.uk

What is bridal shower?

When I was first invited to a Bridal shower, I had no idea what kind of an event will that be. After doing some 'homework' of reading up, I had a rough idea of what it will be. Bridal shower is not a custom event back home (in Sg)and recently, I attended my first bridal shower of a niece. A bridal shower is a gift giving party given for a bride before her wedding, whereby guests offer gifts for the bride and groom.

At the bridal shower, food were served, games were played (there was the 'advice game' where the ladies gave the bride-to-be advices on marriage, the 'creative game' where toilet rolls and tapes were given and with that, the ladies had to create 'paper gown' from those toilet rolls) and lastly, the bride-to-be opened the gifts that were given to her. The ladies (mostly friends, relatives such as aunties, nieces, cousins etc) from the bride and groom's family interacted, got to know each other and socialized in this event.

The event "socializes women into the hyper-feminized traditional wife role", emphasising on the future role of the bride-to-be as family cook, homemaker and sexual partner; but this role is more of a homage to the mothers and grandmothers than a reflection of how the bride-to-be will actually behave in the marriage.

Just my two cents worth of thought to the bride and groom. As a couple from different cultural background, it takes alot more work, giving and taking, tolerance and forgiveness, an open mind to the difference, patience, faith and trust to maintain your marriage than couple from similar cultural background. Congrats and best wishes to the couple.

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Picture courtesy from http://www.sandscripts.nu-art.net

Huh??

Have you ever had times when your brain is thinking faster than your mouth can say?? or some words just doesn't seems to registered in the brain of yours? Let me give you incidents that happen to me...

The other day, while having dinner, "The One" commented that I always 'swallow' my food (I can finish my dinner in 5 mins and I'm not having porridge hehehe) that I'm not chewing and slowly eating my food. At that moment, the TV was showing a cat food commericals and he asked if cats chew their food? I looked at him and said "yeah, they fish their food!" which I actually meant to say 'yeah, they chew their fish!"

This other incident is one that "The One" always laugh his head off whenever we think and mentioned about it..that is, I just can't seems to get certain words right! There is this WOODSIDE SQUARE (a mall) that is just beside our apartment. However, in the past I just can't seems to register this name in my brain! I'll say all sort of name WOODSQUARE MALL, WESTWOOD MALL , WESTSIDE MALL (I think it might be because there used to be a WEST MALL back home in Sg that I keep linking it with), instead of WOODSIDE SQUARE..."The One" will teased me and say, "You really put the "SIDE" in WOODSIDE ASIDE huh?" :P Hahahaha

Cheerios and keep smiling!

With Love from PoohBear

Photo Courtesy from http://www.gocollect.com

Dear, how come...?

This afternoon, there were 2 short power failures in the apartment, made me recalled a funny incident that happened just 2 days ago when we had a power failure too..

That night, I was on the net watching a Taiwanese serial on YouTube when the power failure occurred. "The One" was playing his online game in the living room while I was in the room, suddenly everything went dark and quiet, I called out to "The One", he came in the room and comforted me. At that point, I think I was a little scared and asked him a very silly question..."Dear, how come my laptop is still on while everything else is off?", "The One" looked at me, grinned and said, "It's running on the battery, what do you think?" hahaha...

Now, every now and then, "The One" will still teased me about this Blur like Sotong incident and we will both burst out laughing at my silliness ;)

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Photo courtesy from http://www.ackadia.com

PoohBear Quote of the day

For some time, I have always wanted to share some quotes/statements that I feel have some impact on me that I have heard, read, seen either from the media, articles or just while chatting with people. Today I decided, I'll do a little "PoohBear Quote of the day"* whenever I can..so here it goes:

PoohBear Quote of the day :
"In a relationship (r/s), its not about each person giving 50%:50% but giving 100%:100% of each other to make it work" - Dr. Phil show

I first heard this from Dr.Phil when he was hosting his talk show on TV. When I heard that, it made me realised that alot of time, people, including myself will say "oh, you do this and I'll do that (50%:50%) then it will be fair". When I heard what Dr. Phil said, I realised he's right..in a r/s, one should always be putting 100% of yourself into the r/s just as you will in doing anything important, how can you be doing just 50% and expecting a result of a 100% work?

I really enjoyed when hubby and I do household chores together (not doing 50%:50%), when eating he lets me have more of something I like/I let him have more of something he likes (not 50%:50%), he gives me more hugs/I give him more hugs (not 50%:50%), I'm more tolerant with some of his faults/ he's more tolerant with some of my faults (not 50%:50%), when making decisions, we take in view each other's opinions, sometimes I go with his/he goes with my decision (not 50%:50%)


I believe this concept of giving 100% of yourself goes to any r/s, even with friends, family and co-workers :) Alot of times, its about giving and taking but each time giving 100% of yourself to your partner(s), making it a learning process which will help the r/s grow and glow.

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

*Please do note that the quotes might not be 100% exact word for word but it is what I remembered from what I heard/seen/read.

Picture courtesy from http://www.chw.org

Hopping mad

Since we brought a car sometime back, "The One" had to bring the car to a car inspection as required and appointed by the car insurance company. We made a call to the company and made the appointment with the lady for a Sunday morning inspection. I remember that "The One" even repeat like 3 times the date and time of the appointment before we hang up the phone.

On the day of the appointment, we got up early to get ready and when we arrive at the place, the lady who answered the door looked so surprised when we told her we had this appointment at this time. She said, "oh no, we don't do appointment on Sundays" We told her who we spoke to (apparently it is HER! whom "The One" spoke to), no matter what we say, she kept insisting, "We don't do testing on Sundays, only if the weather is bad and we had to do it". I am thinking to myself, "HELLO, this is not BAD weather then what is?? People have to make the effort to come in this COLD to make that trip to your place and INSPITE of the fact that we MADE AN APPOINTMENT, to be turned away!" I really feel like strangling her on the spot (usually I'm not violent, trust me). "The One" and I knew we just cant win on this one. We made another appointment and left. Fuming, Fuming, Fuming...

What will you have done?

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Photo courtesy from http://www.iacmusic.com

Love is in the air..Happy Valentine's Day

It is that time of that year when love is in the air...this year, Feb 14th St. Valentine's day, "The One" and I had a small, peaceful celebration. We didn't have a big feast outside, instead your humble chef, me, made fried spare rib, mashed potato and creamy mushroom soup (western feast seems to be the way to go when it comes to celebration for us? hehehe)

I also made a DIY magnetic card for "The One". "The One" kept giggling when he read the poem that I wrote (hey, I'm an amateur poet yeah, cant expect too many fanciful words right) although the word 'day' did seems to come up alot in the poem hehehe..didn't occur to me until "The One" read that poem and it sure sound so funny ;)

There u go, the first Valentine's day that "The One" and I spent..

To all the lovers out there (lovers aint just bf-gfs ok, can be anyone you love, friends, family, husband-wife, bro-sis, your children..just basically anyone and everyone you love!), have a wonderful Valentine's day and may all your wishes come trueeeee....)

Cheerios and keep smiling!

With Love from PoohBear

Pictures courtesy from http://www.classiccelebrations.com

Little bits of the blissful life :) Part 3

Comic runs from Upper left, to right, lower left, to right
1. I'm going to break up with you! I'm packing my things and going back home!
2. That's great, Darling
3. Here, take these money for the ride
4. These money is not enough, what about the money for the ride back?!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Little bits of the blissful life :) Part 2

Comic runs from upper left, to right, then lower left, to right
1. I should have listen to my mother not to have marry you!
2. You're saying your mother did try to stop you from marrying me?
3. YES!
4. Duh! I've been blaming her all these years! (translating to "She has infact tried to 'save' me from you!")

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Little bits of the blissful life :) Part 1

Got these comics from an email a girlfriend, Janice, sent me..Thanks Janice! There's a few but I have picked 3 and put it up here. Thought I'll share these with you guys for a little laugh. It's in the Chinese language, so I'll do a little translation for those who can't really understand. Please do bear with my poor translation :) Enjoy!


The comics runs from Upper left, to right then lower left, to right
1. Hey, why are you looking so gloomy?
2. Sigh, my wife is throwing a tantrum, she's not going to speak to me for a week!
3. Shouldn't you be happy?!! At least you will have one week of peace!
4. That's the problem! Today is the last day of that one week!!


Cheerios and keep Smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Divorce your mother-in-law

Was watching 'The Gill Deacon show" on TV and an interesting topic came up on the show, "Divorce your mother-in-law". On the show, Relationship counselor Owen Williams said, "The only woman a man needs to divorce is his mother"..hmm interesting..he goes on to talk about the typical 'soft' man who was always caught inbetween his wife and his mom, trying to please both parties and ending up being an angry man as he can't please both. He also brings up certain points on how to deal with the wife-husband-mother in law realtionship :

The no. 1 most important point:
1. Forming an allies with your wife
both husband and wife needs to talk about the value that BOTH of them wanted and valued in THEIR OWN family, that they both form now and be able to bring that point across to the mother

2. Talk about why certain things that need to be done is important
If things such as dinner at the in-law's place every weekend is important or having to travel 200 miles across to spend x'mas at nanny's place is important, talk about it and let each other know why it is important. Each partner will have to respect what are the things that each other feel is important and try to stay in tune with the feeling of your partners.

3. Discuss and don't presume and EXPECT that things are suppose to be done in certain way or should/shouldn't be done in certain way
We all come from different family background, upbringing, what and how things are done in one family does not mean it is done the same way in the other family. Talk about how things are done, if necessary, modify, compromise & discuss how it will be done in YOUR OWN family that you both now form.

When the host Gill asked, "so who owns the largest responsibility here (in this 3 legged relationship)?" which Owen William replies, 'Its the man, he has to learn to stand up and be ready to face confrontation and conflict" Finally, a man who speaks up for the woman!

I do admit that having a man who is able to 'divorce' from his mother, is very attractive. Attractive in a sense that it shows that he has his own opinions, and is ready to lead, share and shoulder that responsibility of making decisions to take care of his own family; that he now forms with his partner (it's a union of husband and wife, the beginning of THEIR life, isn't it?) and last but not least, when a man promises something to his wife and vice versa, they should always honour their words..If you said you will do it, make sure you will (and try not to have a short memory on things you promised, for the other partner might not have such a short memory...)


Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

The day my view on the 'simple toilet bowl' changed

It was a 'happening' day for me, was trying to heat up food for lunch when I broke a plate while removing it from the microwave...had to mop the floor, clean up the mess, no lunch (I cooked noodles instead) PLUS the toilet was choked yesterday evening! (the water cant drain from the toilet bowl (I'll spare you guys the gross, gruesome details and smell of the toilet..arghhh)

Yesterday, "The One" and I tried to use metal wire, chemical to unclog the toilet bowl but failed. We can't use the toilet and luckily for us, the mall is just opposite the apartment (so we can use the toilet there in case of emergency!) Early in the morning, as soon as the mall is opened, I went and got a plunger from the store. Wanted to do the plunging but the smell was horrible and I felt soooo nauseous with the smell, I just can't do it. In the evening, "The One" came home from work, "armed" with a raincoat, lots of gloves (3 layers) and with the plunger in hand, BRAVED himself for the sight and smell of 'the enemy' before engaging in the 'battle of the toilet'. After a few 'attacks' with the plunger, SUCCESS! Watching the water slowly moving down was a GREAT FEELING OF RELIEF!! Phew! Phew! Phew! I told "The One", in my years, I never had the experience of having to clear a choked toilet bowl, not while back home in Singapore nor in Australia (Probably leaking toilet bowls, not enough water in the water tank..but never clearing a choked toilet bowl). "The One" said that he never had to do this before too! This was his FIRST battle with the toilet bowl. After his "battle", while clearing up the stuffs, "The One" while "disarming"said, "I was thinking about this and felt that it is when you experienced something 'bad', then you learn to appreciate the 'good' and feel fortunte and privilege to have it"...I nodded and give "The One" a PoohBeary Hug..(does that theory applies to me too? hehehe)

Just like changing a tire on the car or fixing the toilet, no one in school ever taught us how to do that..it comes with experiencing and learning. During this 'toilet ordeal', as usual, I turned to the internet for help. Found a pretty good web on fixing toilet, Fix a Toilet.com: Do-It-Yourself Toilet Repair which offer simple but practical stuffs on fixing that toilet problem yourself.

On a lighter note, there is a Toilet Restaurant in Taiwan...you'll definitely need a 'sane mind' and 'strong' after-effect mindset to dine there, as for me now (before this toilet episode, I used to think its "sure, why not..new experiences") but after this, its "No, thanks" for many years to come, any takers??



Toilet Restaurant in Taiwan, Pictures from cool hunting link

Cheerios and Keep Smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Adventure of the day

First day of 2007..how did "The One" and I spent it? We were dead tired reaching home late after that New Year Eve's Bash at Nathan Phillips Square and it was a pleasant surprise receiving a call from home in Singapore, chatted with daddy, mommy and kiddo brother..miss u guys..

We spent the day resting at home and "The One" let me try playing with his Playstation 2. It always seems so easy when I watched him played and moved his character on the online game, "SOCOM US Navy Seals:Combined Assault", when I actually tried to manoeuvre his characters (jumping, running, turning left and right, firing...) with the control, we had such a good laugh as "The One" kept giving me directions, "right right, left left, aiya not that high..what are you doing na...right in front of you, shoot! shoot!" Hahaha I guess he must be feeling as if he's going on a roller coaster ride watching me play! Hmm, I think I'm never cut out to be in the Army, now that's confirmed for sure ;) but we had such fun in that 10 mins play than you had in your 3 hours play, didn't we, "The One"? ;P

So that's my 'adventure' of the day with "The One" on the first day of 2007, till one day when I master the skill of controlling that remote (secretly)..I'll show you how 'deadly' I can be OK, "The One"? hehehe


Cheerios and Keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Finally we got the Memory Card Reader!

Finally the long awaited photographs that you guys are waiting for...today "The One" and I went to get the Memory card reader and I got to download all the pictures that we have been taking. Respecting "The One" wish (he doesnt want his picture to be known to the world) so I'm going to put just generic pictures for you guys to see on the blog :) as for those with his face..you guys can always go to our yahoo photographs (which I'll post in the emails for you all okie) ;)

As and where its appropriate, I'll slot in the photographs (such as the one of my birthday, our christmas feast...) in the blog. Happy 'photographs hunting'!

Cheerios & keep smiling!
With love from PoohBear

A little intimate Xmas affair

Christmas came and Christmas gone..This year, Christmas was a little intimate affair with "The One" in cold, snowless but heart warming Canada ;) Although we didnt have the traditional Xmas feast (Logcake and Turkey), "The One" and I had a big feast of "HotPot" (which is steamboat back home). The day before, we went to the Asian supermarket and got scallops, mussles, prawns, seafood stick, fishballs and vegs..so seee (photo on the left)...BIG feast for the 2 of us huh ;) and of course, what's a celebration without some booze? We went to LCBO (liquor store in Canada), got ourselves some beers and vodka cupaccino and to complete this Xmas mood..we got our laptop blasted with online radio streaming of Xmas songs..

I was singing in my awful little voice, 'Rudolph the red nosed reindeer" as I was preparing the hotpot, "The One" was like..."plsssssssss" hehe..so okie, I stopped torturing "The One" for a little while..but guess what? The first Xmas song we heard on the online radio station was "Rudolph the red nosed reindeer"! hahahha...

Just a little special note to "The One",
thank you for that lovely thought (and action) of getting me the Xmas present, although in the end, we didnt get it..you did make me feel very treasured and loved by you :))

To everyone, Happy Holidays and may all your wishes come true!

p/s: End product of our feasting....Pretty much "clean up" huh! hehehe

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear