Mane Attraction

Daniel said that when it comes to the hair department, I am the most adventurous woman he has ever known. 

He has gotten accustomed to his wife spotting a new look after a trip to the salon. He is, in fact, disappointed with the colour this time round. He is hoping to see streaks of blue and purple, just like the female characters in his favourite Japanese anime. 

Mum, don't freak out okie? 

After my previous hair appointment, I visited a restaurant in Chinatown. The boss asked me where I had my haircut. He said that my fringe wasn't straight. This time round, I guess I would tell him that my stylist had forgotten to cut the other side of my hair.

Foliage II

Boston these days is sure cold, with the average temperature ranging between 4-8 degrees celsius... but somehow, something this morning just prompted me to stick my head out of my apartment window.  

Against the howling winds, that seemed an insane proposition. Still, I followed my heart, lifted the blinds and opened the windows. Lo and behold, a majestic blue sky and the rustling leaves hanging precariously off their branches welcomed me. What a beautiful morning sight!

Somehow, the trees that were all so uniformly green in the Summer are now but an eclectic collection of opinions, expressing themselves in a symphony of red, yellow and orange...

As the sun beat its rays on the trees around us, the reflection seemed to bask our apartment in a warm glow of gold! Against such an onslaught, how could I not be contemplative?

Yes. These may be freezing times for us, but apparently, God seems to be reserving the best sights for us yet! 

This is now a holding moment, but we are approaching a threshold of sorts.  And soon, the trees will usher in Winter's footsteps by shedding their vividly-colored leaves to the tune of nature's orchestra...

Keep in touch! We will be bringing you more...

Foliage

This is my first and last Autumn in Boston. Frances felt it would be great if she could take me see the foliage in New England. So we made a trip down to Franklin Park and the Arnold Arboretum. 

Most of the trees in Boston have yet to turn full red like those in New Hampshire, but the scenery is still beautiful. 

Taken at arm's length because Daniel wasn't there with us. 

There was a Halloween event going on at Franklin Zoo

so this toddler was all dressed up for the occasion. SO CUTE!

Makan with Frances

Let us introduce our new friend, Frances. She is also our soon-to-be landlord. 

It has been quite a while since Daniel and I last had steamboat. 

Then she introduced a board game: Settlers of Catan. 

Frances observed we were fast learners so we would soon be promoted to challenge her in the Settlers of Canaan, which is supposed to be a Christian version. Dan and I were kinda hooked and we played a few rounds and hence missed the last train home. Anyway, it was fun and we liked it. =)

Cirque Du Soleil

Cirque Du Soleil is in Boston. I wasn't too keen at first; circus isn't my cup of tea. Maybe I have watched and read too much on the harsh training and how it stunted the physical growth of young boys and girls. 

So if I go for the show, I would contribute to the demand and be the main cause of their hard lives. Haiz... But in the end, I went for it. Well, it was really an impressive show, especially the Wheel of Death.

As the name suggests, the stunt is DANGEROUS. I just screamed in anxiety whenever the performers pretended to tip and fall. Gosh! On the whole, I still prefer the clowns because there's no stunts involved. I love Kooza the clown. He is hilarious!

Moving on

We are moving! To a new place because our lease for our Fenway apartment is up. Time really flies, even when I am here, lo-boing. Here in Boston, I really take my time to sleep. I have not slept so much for many years. As a morning-session teacher living quite a distance from my school, I woke up at 5am every day. Got to be in school by 7.15am for flag-raising. I guess this is God's way of letting me rest. Thank you Lord!

We also want to thank God for Frances. She is a friend I met through cell group in Boston. She is living in a condo on her own and has the intention of renting one of her rooms out. So, through God's opening, we happened to know about that and tat da! We are moving in by the end of December. No photos to show yet, cos even Daniel hasn't seen her apartment. I dropped by her house for some girls' talk and really like her as a sister. So we look forward to the new environment!

An Authentic Saudi Experience

After we met Danny on Sunday afternoon, we proceeded for dinner at the home of a classmate of mine. Her name is Nada Farhat, a Saudi, and we were invited to her residence to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr - or the Islamic holiday that marks the end of the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan.

Here's our lovely host, Nada, putting on her radiating smile!!

Oh what a sumptuous feast that awaited us... when I wrote Nada in the early afternoon to tell her I was bringing Doris along, she heartily welcomed her, and said she was cooking... wow!

Some of the many belles of the occasion. From L to R, Doris, Nada, Mega and Hanane...

After dinner, just when we thought it was over, Nada surprised us once again with her rendition of dessert, which was a delectable mix of crushed oreo cookies with cream, jello and nuts... and a mint leaf stuck to the top to symbolize new growth! How deliciously apt!

Here's a group picture of the wildly international group that gathered at Nada's place that night... we had people from America, New Zealand, Poland, Turkey, Costa Rica, Nepal, India, Morocco, Greece and Singapore... what a melting pot! The lady with the jijab on in the front row next to Nada is her mother... :)

Danny is in Boston!!

This past Sunday, Oct 5, Doris and I met Danny in Boston City.

It's amazing how God arranges these little things. Back home in Singapore, we seldom have a chance to talk and catch up since we're all so busy with our work. Even in church, we're serving in different areas and have little time to communicate.

Fast forward to last Sunday, Danny had a chance to come to Boston for a week-long work-related training, and we finally managed to catch some 4 hours of uninterrupted talk-time during lunch.



So much has changed since early 1990s, when Danny and I were classmates in Balestier Hill Technical Secondary School. We've practically watched each other grow old in that sense over these past 18 years... through secondary school to polytechnic and JC, through NS and in church, through marriage and all... today's he is the proud daddy of month-old baby Zenith Lim! Time has indeed passed us by...

It was indeed a magical time of catching-up on the days gone by. On our idiosyncrasies in school. On how we knew each other to be in those days. On our families and friends... on so many things.

Thank God for creating this moment for us to meet.

Well, till next year Danny! It's been fun having you around. :))

Fall is upon us...

Fall is a nice time of contemplation.

Fall is watching time gracefully turns from a sea of green into one of amber and red. 

Fall is an anticipation of purity, the whiteness of snow that is coming.

Fall is a time of rest. The trees know it as it sheds its leaves. Animals know it as they borrow in and hibernate.

Fall is a moment of still, soft calmness, lapped by the silky, chilly breezes.

Fall is taking a pause after seasons of activity, a seasonal sabbath.

Fall is indeed a nice time of contemplation.

We have been warned...

We have plans to visit Alaska next March so recently we have been doing some research. 

You see, most tourists avoid Alaska during winter because it is COLD like nothing you can imagine! But that's the reason why we are going there! To experience real cold, go for activities such as skiing, ice-skating in frozen ponds, snow-mobiling, dog-sledding and seeing the aurora borealis. 

Seriously, Boston is already a freezing place. But Alaska is far worse. While the leaves in Boston are slowly turning yellow today, we were shocked to learn that it is already snowing in Fairbanks, Alaska.

In January, Fairbanks can be as cold as -50 degree celsius! You want to know how that is like Check this out! 

So the same would happen if you happen to pee in the wilderness...

SIANZ

The weather is slowly getting colder and we are seeing more and more creepy crawlies in our apartment. 

Last week, Daniel noticed a small rat (it's not an insect, but it's definitely creepy, and a crawly thingie lor...) scrambling from the kitchen to our bedroom, again. We couldn't find it. Nothing can be done. Fine.

A few days later, we crushed a wood louse crawling on the living room wall. 

And yesterday morning was the ultimate!!! There was this huge house centipede at the corner of the wall in our bedroom. SIANZ! 

Ok, at this juncture, I was stupid enough to want to google a photo of a house centipede to show you. I clicked on one and a super big photo of a magnified house centipede "greeted" my eyes and I tell you, my heart stopped beating for a full 5 seconds. I was like, "PIANGZ! What am I doing?!?" 

I must be very stupid to want to upload a pic of that ugly thing in my blog. I must have been crazy.

Ok, back to the topic. 

Dan tried to use the US version of Magic Clean to kill it. Tell you a secret. I am afraid of it but Dan is equally afraid of it. Kekeke... still, he had to put up a brave front to protect his wife. Anyway, we must get rid of it cos it bites.

But the thing is, house centipedes have eyes. They can see us. So that creepy crawly dropped onto the floor and hid behind a box. Our hairs were on ends as we heard the insect's legs scampering against the surface of the box. 

We were desperate and sprayed some cleaning solution on it. But it was real fast and crawled into my closet lor. PENGZ!!!!!

There are so many things in there. Haiz. So Daniel got to S-L-O-W-L-Y remove my bags from closet. The thing is, my bags are all kept in dust bags so we got to inspect whether it had crawled into them. It was surely a painful process.

Finally, we spotted the house centipede and fortunately we had sprayed cleaning solution on it earlier. It was probably still a bit "mah bok" so it was easy for us to get it out of the closet. 

End of episode. Aiyoh, just the thought of the full grown centipede makes my hair stand. And trust me, don't bother to google it. But in case you are super curious, just type 'house centipede' and you'll see all sorts of images of it.

But don't say I didn't warn you...