I finally received a reply to my message re that irritating bugger with a-brain-smaller-than-the-mosquito’s-lungs under my entry on Mrs Takuya Kimura.   After FIVE MONTHS.

I hadn’t expected a reply because I PURPOSELY left out the link to that confused pubescent chick.  My initial message to her was meant as a personal rant and I felt it was beneath me to go flame her openly.  Which was why I kept it as a comment under the original entry.

Ha.  I wonder why she bother to come back here to check things out after so long.  While I gather from her comment that she more or less realised that she has made a mistake, I doubt she’s repentant from her tone.

Well, if you’re velyfreeandgotnothingbettertodo, then go read my response to her.  Just for entertainment lah. 

Update:I got the following private email from the girl after I posted my reply to her comment. 

Three brand new Murakami’s books for the price of two!

Bought:

• Dance, Dance, Dance
• A Wild Sheep Chase
• Hard-boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World

Read so far:

• A Wind-Up Bird Chronicle  (good but long)
• Kafka On The Shore  (love this quirky tale)
• Norwegian Wood (love this too)
• South Of The Border, West Of The Sun (too bland) 
• Sputnik Sweetheart (not bad)

Supposedly reading The Elephant Vanishes, but have switched to Dance, Dance, Dance which is a more interesting read.

Looks like the marathon is on schedule.  Yesh!

I was so surprised that the auntie at Chin Mee Chin Confectionery actually remembers Gavin even though we haven’t been there for ages.  Probably because she has a grandson of the same age and used to compare notes with me about the food I fed my son.  Well, apart from her good memory, she still takes order the same cute way.  Drawing zeros for buns and squares for toasts.   Haha. 

Unfortunately, my own memory is poorer.  I forgot and decided to go along with my husband’s order of kaya bun with butter.  Big mistake!  The taste was good alright but I was over satiated  even after a few hours, just after taking one bun with two half boiled eggs.  And that was when I remembered why I used to order only their toasts.  Or maybe the real reason was because I gobbled up the custard puff too fast?  But it was simply irresistable!  So warm, light and fluffy.  

Anyway, we sat where we could watch the family work at the kitchen while waiting.  It’s  always a buzz of activities as the three ladies busied themselves toasting the breads and buns at the charcoal stove, brewing fresh coffee and tea for their many customers while the others were baking the pastries far behind.   

Oh did I mention that this is a family business?  In fact, my husband thinks they are probably just living right next to the shop as he has seen some of the family members walking in and out of the terrace house next door.  Wow.  Talk about convenience and time efficiency.

Took a break yesterday to meet up with my ex-colleagues for lunch and gossips. 

This is a group I meet on average about once a year, but the feeling is always warm every time we catch up even though it’s been more than 5 years we’ve all worked together.  Perhaps it’s the group dynamics and it also helps that we have a young and pretty gal who never fails to entertain us with her interesting tales and funny expressions.  Take her away and the two mothers and one father would probably only have parenthood tales to drone on. 

Lunch was a mix of Thai and Vietnamese fare from The Asian Kitchen.  Nothing very exciting but I had far more delish stuff waiting for me after lunch.  Heehee…

The wholesome range of skin and body care under Skin Food!  Made with nutritious ingredients like milk, rice, black sugar, coffee, oat grain, snow tea, royal jelly, red ginseng and even red wine extract.  Pretty yummy looking aren’t they?  

And totally irresistable I tell ya.  Even though the rice scrub that Domestic Rat of Amuse-bouche recommended is out of stock, I still manage to leave the store with some delicious looking apple whitening essence, buckwheat power and vita juice hand cream.  Ahhhh…women and packaging.  What can I say? 

P/S: If only they have notepads too… 

So I’ve read about the newborn daughter of Chinese pop diva Faye Wong with a harelip. Other than that, I’ve also read that Faye Wong has expressed her desire to leave the entertainment world and dedicate herself to being a good wife and mother.

Faye Wong’s agent, Chen Jiaying, says Faye Wong’s plan to leave the entertainment scene is getting stronger and stronger, and she respects the singer’s decision — after all, she says, it’s all right for a woman to make sacrifices for her family. Excerpt from Women of China.

Sacrifices? Now did Faye Wong say that? Or more like her manager thinks it’s the case?

Whatever it is, I don’t like the word being used in this context. I have a big problem with the word SACRIFICE being tagged to a woman especially when she chooses her family above all else. It implicitly relegates a SAHM to a lesser role and makes her sound like a tragic victim who is being denied her interests and desires for the sake of her family.

Is that always the case? Isn’t family a big part of one’s life and therefore, for most women, their greatest interest? So why must it be a sacrifice if a woman CHOOSES to move on from her career or her interests to spend time with her family and raise her children? Aren’t they worthy of her time that she’s enjoying herself with them? Or are career and other interests deemed to be of greater value than the family such that it’s considered a sacrifice when she opts for the latter? Or maybe the word just gives women an added feel of nobility because we’ve been traditionally viewed as symbols of sacrifice?

Okay, I don’t know. I don’t have the answers. I only have the questions. All I know for certain is - when it comes to the family, it shouldn’t have to be a sacrifice.