I’ve got another tag from Zara’s Mama and Doris last week, asking me where I would like to go.  Here’s my answer.

As a family, I would like us to go to Japan for the cherry blossoms, for the ramen, for the shrines, for the geishas, for Shibuya, for Disneyland, for Doraemon, as well as for my Takuya Kimura. 

As a couple, I would like us to be able to re-visit Nepal all over again.  Perhaps trekking a different route and venturing closer to Mount Everest based camp this time.  But definitely going back to stay in Pokhara.

As an individual, I would like to visit Diqing Prefecture, the only Tibetan region in Yunnan, China, which is said to have striking similarity in terms of natural scenery and people’s way of living with what’s described as Shangrila in James Hilton’s well-known novel “Lost Horizon”, my favourite story.

Ladies, I know there’s a whole set of complicated rules in this tag but I’m certain you won’t mind that I’m not following them. 

I just came back from another session with the kids and one of my 11-year-olds not only dramatically burst into tears but ran out of the class and threatened suicide because his classmates couldn’t guess the word of a charade game.  Really can die!

How come kids these days are so emotional?  I’ve seen a number of kids, but it’s the first time I’ve met such a fellow and come face-to-face with such behaviour.  It seems he’s always like that which is why the others avoid him like plaque.  In fact, he’s been causing a lot of trouble throughout the sessions and the funny thing is he isn’t even the one identified with ADHD.    

But he’s really unlucky to get me because I don’t fall for such bluffs easily.  Call me cold-hearted but I just ignored him.  And when he proceeded to lie on the floor, wanting to cool down, I asked him to go and lie elsewhere.  That got him and he went back to his seat and sulk for the rest of the time.  

Good thing I only get to see some of these kids like once in a quarter.  Otherwise the one who’s going to commit suicide is me.  

Sometimes I wonder.  Why do parents send their kids away to enrichment classes?  Do they honestly think their kids can really benefit from such sessions or are they merely shooing them off so that they can have some moments of peace?

I ask this because I recently came across this three siblings who told me flatly that they weren’t interested to come to my session.  They were only there because their father wanted them to attend.  And judging from their conversations and from the little bits of work they did, these kids are bright and really have no need to enrich themselves.  I’m certain their father was well aware of this fact and yet chose to send his kids to waste everybody’s time.

Perhaps I’m just outside his league to understand his motives and that’s why I’m not getting it.   Of how this whole concept of using money to do what’s best for his kids, even when it’s clearly against their wish.

I received a tag from Esperance about the one thing I like about my country.  Interesting because I have been thinking about this the past few days and this morning in particular, especially after reading about how some people are saying that life in Singapore is just like George Owell’s “Animal Farm” here.

“It start good and then the pigs decided that they rule and that they should walk on 2 legs (copy everything western) and the rest of the people are useless scums.

Many Singaporeans just like animals in the animal farm have not realised what’s going on. 60% of the economy is Govt or Govt owned. So, if they or their family have a job related to the govt of any Govt linked companies, they have a ok life.

Those that realised and try to do something were put to shame and at least more than 100K of them migrated to Australia over the last 10 yrs.

It’s really unfolding like animal farm. Some animals escaped and they just import more Indians & Chinese to dilute the votes.”

While the comment is somewhat skewed, the commenter maybe right that a lot of us live complacently without knowing what is really going on.  Or should I say not wanting to know what is going on.  “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” holds a lot of truth for us (and actually for everyone else too).  And with the migrants that they plan to bring in to boost the population to 6.5 million, the landscape will of course change quite dramatically later. 

But based on the scenario today, do I want to migrate if given the chance?  Would I get the due respect when I’m in another country?  Would I be able to sleep in peace at night in a foreign land?   Is the grass really greener on the other side?

I think at the end of the day, while I may consider living elsewhere, I doubt I would ever want to give up my citizenship here even though we’ve had our fair share of problems here.  I may have my gripes, I may want some real democracy, and I may want to vote for the opposition BUT at the end of the day, I’m still happy to acknowledge that this is still my home and I have a sense of belonging here.  The country is small no doubt, and the scenes are limited, but well, the infrastructure is good for me and at the least, I get my broadband access here everyday, without fail. 

And seriously, holding a Singapore passport has bailed me out of tricky situations in foreign lands before.  So I’ll definitely want to hang on to that sort of privilege.  Maybe the situation will change.  Who knows?   

Perhaps I’ve been domesticated and brainwashed but it really doesn’t feel so bad most of the time.   At least for the moment, I don’t feel like a caged animal living in Singapore.  And really, the grass is still quite green here.  It just depends on which days and on which side you see them.

I have to remind myself to stop being stubborn.  Especially where milk is concerned.  I realised that my edginess, moodiness and impatience last week was in a large part due to my stubborn refusal to drink milk for the past month.  And for a good moment, I actually thought I was being menopausal.  Well, learning through mistakes is not always a good thing sometimes.

Now I know why the eating didn’t lift my mood much.

And why the Black Pig Kyushu Ramen failed to excite me even though it was uber delicious (yes, we went back again.)

But despite being the grouchy and impatient mom, my son still adores me.  Whenever he spotted me looking irritated or angry, he would go “mommy happy, mommy happy” and proceeds to give me a cheeky grin in a attempt to lighten me up.

Parenting.  Sheer moments of joy.  Least when you expect it.