Family – Page 31 – trippingdifferently

September 14, 2012September 14, 2012

It Has Been 10 Years…

Camera 360 — Celebrating 10 years of marriage – photo by Tobias

…yep, 10 years… 6 days ago we celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary!

Now 10 years is nothing compared to the 40 years my parents have been married and is definitely a mere wink in time compared to my in-laws who have been married more than 50 years. But it has been a decade and worth celebrating and so we did.

Now those of you who know my husband well, know that he is not the romantic sort and not into celebrations as much as i am. So it would be no surprise to you that i had to state, in no uncertain terms, to my husband that i fully expect a celebration of sorts. i left the details to him… hmmm… maybe i should have been more specific?

Oh, don’t get me wrong – it was a good effort on his part and i fully appreciate it. But he decided to keep where we were going a surprise. Normally if we were leaving together from the house that would be fine. But i had a seminar to organise and attend that morning and had assume i would be able to get home and change before we set off for the celebration dinner.

Nope. He called me after i finished and asked if i could take the train directly to Geneva – he was 5 minutes too late with that call. i was already on the train, heading home. So it was decided i would meet him and the boy at our train station. Now why was all this a problem?

Because i was wearing the wrong shoes – i was wearing my “transport-to-chair” 4 inch ankle boots (only for the 3rd time) and these boots were definitely NOT made for walking. However, walk we did as we were early for the dinner.

Where did we go? We went to the Singapore restaurant in Geneva, called Jeck (i think). It is located fairly near the main train station but it was in a neighbourhood i consider to be a little shady. The servers were really nice and the variety on the menu good. We only ordered a few dishes as it was just the 3 of us.

The Mulligatawny soup was not bad, a little too peppery for my taste (personal preference). The spring roll was more Vietnamese style than Singaporean, which i quite like. The duck was ok, the fish good and the claypot tofu average. It was a good overall dining experience.

But we think it is a little too far for us to get to. We literally took the train there, had dinner and had to take the train home or it would be too late for the boy. Also we think that in terms of food taste and variety, the Singapore Restaurant in Zurich is a little better and not as far away from us.

Now some of you might ask, “10 years huh? Any words of wisdom?”

Sigh! Words of wisdom i think not but i will share you with what i have learnt personally in 10 years of marriage.

1) Pick Your Fights – that’s right, it is not worth fighting about who left the toilet seat up or who should clean up after dinner. Save your energy for the big ones – such as what colour to paint the walls… hehhehee… no, just kidding. Seriously though, you need to think about what is worth fighting about – will your marriage or life together fall apart if you don’t bring this matter up? Does it bug you so much you can’t sleep?

2) Fight Fair – there is a right way to fight and a wrong way to fight. Never attack your spouse’s character or person. Point out specific behaviours and say how the behaviour itself makes you feel or how you perceive specific actions or spoken words. And keep the past in the past – no fair bringing up things you have not spoken about for months or years. You would not want your spouse to do that to you, so show the same courtesy.

3) Laugh Together – lots of laughter is good for your health and for your marriage. Try your best to have more happy moments than upsetting ones. (something i learnt in our marriage counselling sessions) i always tell people that i married my husband because he makes me laugh. And it is true, i look at him and i can’t help smiling. It is one of the reasons i can’t stay angry with him for very long.

4) Be Encouraging – you like it when people tell you, “Well Done.” Just because you are married to the person doesn’t mean you stop telling that person how good he/she is at what he/she does. You will find that people tend to do more of the things people say they are good at. So if you want a spouse who helps out more with the housework, then bring on the showers of “Thank You. You are a great help.” for every little bit done.

5) Be Proud – boast of your spouse to others. And it doesn’t hurt if he/she happens to overhear the bragging. It’s nice to know you are appreciated and overhearing such praise will bring sunshine to anyone’s day which will shine and shine.

6) Be Alone – it is ok to be alone and do your own thing. You don’t have to do every single together, just because you are married. This used to upset me – i wanted so very much for us to share all of the same interests. We do have some shared interest but we enjoy different activities too, and it is ok. i write, i craft, i read, i photograph. He has his football, his various online newspapers, his guitar, his tech stuff. You have to learn to be yourself first before you can come together as a couple. i learnt that the hard way.

7) Be A Team of 3 – for us, this is very important; it is me, my husband and God. God plays a very important part in our lives. He is the third person in this marriage and God holds us together. Our faith in Jesus Christ binds us together.

The above list is in part inspired by Lydia Netzer: 15 Ways to Stay Married for 15 Years.

Click here for last year’s celebration.

syc

August 15, 2012August 15, 2012

4 Weeks In SG…

… No, not St Gallen, Switzerland, which is shorten to SG in Switzerland.

SG = Singapore, for me.

Yep, it is time once again for a pictorial summary of our annual trip back to SG. We left exactly one week ago (myself and Tobias that is, Walter came home 10 days before us). This time we spent 4 weeks there – 28 days to be exact.

This year we flew Lufthansa again. They are not a bad airline to fly with and this time i felt that the service was a little better than last year. Maybe because this year we flew in their new A380, non-stop from Frankfurt to Singapore.

Remember my Gush! post? Well, the penguins went on their very first outing 😉 Aren’t they just adorable?!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — On the way to SG…

We landed in the afternoon, unpacked, got a bit of rest and then the next day, we hit to the town! 😀

We did some touristy stuff, such as visit the new Gardens By the Bay. It was nice – the outside was not quite finished and the flowers/plants didn’t seem to be in full bloom yet. But we really liked the 2 indoor conservatories – the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. The plants/flowers were really quite interesting in these cooled areas but my little guy got bored after one conservatory. His interest perked up again at the indoor waterfall and when we were at the video presentation near the end of the visit. The whole place is built to conserve power, it even produces its own solar power which is enough to power the whole attraction. The solar panels are actually mounted on top of these huge “metal trees” – i call them the “Avatar Trees”. There is a skywalk which links a few of these trees – it has quite a nice view. We were told the whole gardens look prettier at night but we chose not to stay into the evening as we already had a whole day out.

Of course, we also did the usual things – mainly eat all the foods we miss ;p And the one thing we always do is our morning walk by the beach, followed by breakfast at MacDonald’s 🙂

Spending time with family and friends is the other main reason we go back each year.

This year we were also faced with a rather unexpected sad event – the passing of a friend from church, Ronald. Our thoughts are with his family.

Tobias had his first taste of seawater – his reaction? “Pah, Ptooie” and a sour expression on his face. Ok i stand corrected, this is not his very first taste of seawater but the first one which he reacted to. His very first exposure to seawater was when he was quite small so he doesn’t remember it. He got over it pretty quickly and was soon having a ball of a time.

We also went to the Jurong Bird Park. Again it was one of the places we had brought him to before but he was too small to remember. He really quite enjoyed this trip.

Universal Studios Singapore was another stop we made. After this second time there (now it has more attractions than our first time there), my advice is to go early and plan to stay till closing to get on as many rides as possible, make it a 2-day event if you can afford it. There are a couple of kiddy rides but most would be entertaining for both adults and children. Do note: the Battlestar ride has size restrictions. Oh, another thing – bring a fan and an umbrella. It was very hot the day we went but towards the early evening it rained for a short while.

Last year we went to a restaurant to celebrate my grandmother’s (Tobias’ great-grandmother) birthday. This year it was a quiet affair at home with just immediate family. i love that i can still celebrate my grandmother’s 98th birthday!

We went, we laughed together with, ate with and spent time with family and friends, we enjoyed. 😉

syc

June 10, 2012

Healthy leftovers? Good or bad idea?…

i am huge on leftovers! Growing up i watched my mum cook for a battalion – this is always what i tell people and it is absolutely true. My mother did cook large amounts each Sunday and my aunts, uncles and cousins would all come over and eat. Of course, we didn’t have a big house, just a modest HDB (Housing Development Board for my non-Singaporean friends) 4-room flat. So when that many came over, there was no room for all to sit at the same table, at the same time to eat. Whoever came first, ate first and then made room for the next persons. And many times we would just sit wherever we wanted to eat; the kids mostly sat in front of the TV 😉

i loved it! The house was crowded and loud but i loved it. i love being around people and being around family was even better. This is one of the reasons i like having dinner guests. It is also the main reason why it was hard for me to learn to cook just for myself (when i went to university) or just for two (during the first years of my marriage).

Then near the end of the day, when people were leaving, we packed up the leftovers and everyone took their share home and most of the time we still had enough to have leftovers for ourselves as well.

As much as we all liked gathering together, kids grew up, priorities changed, cousins moved to whole other countries to live and these big gatherings also stopped happening.

BUT… my mother still cooked large amounts on Sundays (not battalion-sized though). This time it was more for convenience. My mum worked full-time – she always has and still does. Yet she maintained a lovely home and provided wonderful meals for us. And having the meals already cooked in advanced was a great help to her.

So as you can see leftovers played a big part in my childhood, teen years and even young adult days. i still like having leftovers, some foods just taste better after a night in the fridge 😉 And that’s why the article below stuck a chord with me and why i am sharing it. It has a really tasty recipe at the end of it too.

Healthy leftovers? Good or bad idea? | Newsletters | Beyond Diet.

Do you serve leftovers? If yes, what is your favourite dish to freeze/keep as leftover? If no, why not?

syc