Wednesday 15 April 2009

Snoreberry

Wei Chieh and I have endless nicknames for each other.. and this is his new one this season


Monday 13 April 2009

Wedding Gift!

It is official - we are getting married on the 28th of May with a picnic 'reception' on the 27th of June.

To the Chinese it is somewhat uncustomary, almost rude to provide your guests with a gift list and us having one would probably risk Ae Mi's grandmother jumping out of her grave and giving us a big whack on the head.

However, we are living in England and since it is the norm to have a gift list and will save our guests the headache of 'what to buy that fat couple for their wedding', we are having one - here.

That said, we have been blessed with a fully equiped although modest home and we do not really need any more gadgets or furniture.

What we do need is further education - a UK Driving Licence for Wei Chieh and a Legal Practice Certificate or Master's Degree for Ae Mi.

As you all know the cost of education is not cheap and we have our savings, but it would help tremendously if you would consider donating to our Education Fund. It doesn't have to be much as every little helps.

We appreciate that the current economic climate is hard on everyone, so please don't feel like you have to get us a gift at all. If you do though, this would make the best wedding gift to the both of us and we would like to say thanks in advance.

Please let us know if you have donated to our Continuing Education Fund as we would like to send you a thank you card for your contribution and help towards our better future.


If you'd like to donate to our Continuing Education Fund instead of getting us a gift, you can use the paypal button below:





Wednesday 8 April 2009

No Doubt

One of my earliest childhood memory is going to music classes with my mother.

I loved those classes.

I was about 3 - so I would've been tiny and my mother would take me for an hour's class every Friday evening in Ipoh town after work.

It must have been hard for her to travel all the way back to where we lived only to take me out again after a tiring day in the office. We always went by shared taxi and I remember sitting on my mother's lap trying not to put too much of my weight on her.

I never appreciated what she had done for me until now when I can understand the hard work(and stress!) of travelling and her saving up for my music lessons instead of spending it on nice things for herself.

I will always remember those years because it was something I had with my mother and my mother only - my father was in the Phillipines at that time completing his MBA and was often away for months.

We were then a small family struggling to get by financially and even as a child I had to understand that we couldn't afford to waste money on sweets, junk food or fancy toys.

My mother however always made an exception for a piece of simple cream cake from Yaohan after my Friday music lessons on condition that I was good.

I truly believe those music lessons I had when I was so young has made a difference to my hearing capabilities.

I am very alert on picking up music and I can recognise the songs I like very easily from the very first rhythm. When I listen to songs I hear the different instruments seperately unlike Wei Chieh who seems to clump them up and confuse the tune.

I know it because he's always humming catchy tunes aloud at home and I get very bothered when he catches a beat that is not supposed to be there.

Heh.

It must be rather unpleasant for him not to be able to hum his favourite tunes in peace but the clockwork in my head doesn't like or permit for inperfect tunes. It corrects his mistake in my head and bothers me to no end if I don't tell him about his mistake (he likes humming the same catchy tunes for HOURS and sometimes DAYS).

I was originally trained to play the organ but I no longer play much of it anymore these days. I learnt to play the guitar on my own after the PMR exam when I was 15 and it is now my rather quiet best friend.

It listens to my happy tunes, my rocky moods and allows me to trash out tears when I am unhappy or frustrated with life (and to the unfortunate ears of my neighbours).

I do appreciate being able to play music and let my many emotions into it and although I know my mother think that her hardwork sending me to music classes are wasted, it really isn't because if I don't have what she gave to me I would not have sharp hearing and I wouldn't be able to learn the guitar by myself and be with the music that I love.

Anyway...

This is a song that have held meaning to me for many years. I first heard it on MTV when I was about 15/16? The lyrics reflect what I do want - the Simple Kind of Life. It reflects how I felt about Wei Chieh during the uncertain periods of our relationship when we went long distance and were trying to figure out our involvement and how much we each wanted to invest into our relationship.

Now that we are still together 5 years after I first got to know him (09.04.04) and getting married in 2 month's time I do feel like I am (hopefully) now on the path to the Simple Life.

So here's No Doubt with the Simple Kind of Life.