Not that long ago, I dashed past the red lights at a certain traffic junction while driving.  The lights were flashing amber and I was driving too fast to stop in time.  As I dashed past, I realised that there was a red light camera. 

I was damned, and was certain I was going to receive a hefty fine on top of the 12 demerit points.  I came home, grumbled to my husband, then waited out for days to receive the dreadful letter from LTA.  But the letter never arrived and I became suspicious.

“If I have dashed past the red light, the camera should have flashed right?”
“Aha…”
“Er, but I don’t think it flashed leh…” 
“And the camera was located on the opposite side at a funny angle, so how could it have captured my car when I dashed past the lights?” 
“The camera was on the OPPOSITE side???”  
“Yah…”
“Aiyoh, then it’s for the OTHER side of the traffic lah!!!”

It was then I realised how these red light cameras work.  The camera has to be BEHIND my car in order to be able to detect that I have dashed past the red lights.  And to think that all these 7 years, I’ve been looking out for the red light cameras on the other side of the traffic!

I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise for a klutz who even has track records of driving against the traffic.

A couple of days ago, while eating out, the man suddenly turned nostalgic.  Referring to a dish he was served, he lamented that I no longer cook that for him anymore.

“My wife used to cook this for me but now…” then proceeded to sigh aloud and shook his head.

He was reminiscing about a period of our lives when I was a stay-at-home-waiting-for-delivery-wife.  I had nothing better to do so my role then was to cook so that he could come home to a piping hot meal of dinner. 

He probably thought he had me there with that remark but little did he expect me to retort with this.

“Oh ya?  My husband used to deshell prawns for me.  But now, I have to deshell them for him instead!” I answered matter-of-factly, but not wiping out the smirk on my face.

THAT promptly shut him up. 

Ha.  Who asked him to request for deshelled prawns again during the reunion dinner?  Now, it’s on my permanent records. 

And the morale of the story?  Don’t ever try to reminisce about old times with your partner.  Especially NOT lamenting about missing out on some old standards of treatment from him or her.  Unless…you’re still living up to those old standards yourself!

Some days are a struggle when it comes to blogging on my personal space.  How much do I want to blog about when it comes to a personal topic?  Should I even blog about it?  If I do, what do I really hope to achieve from it?  And what sort of response am I going to get from it?

I don’t think I’m far off by saying that to a large extent, we blog to get some form of validation, amongst other reasons.   Why else do we want to bare our thoughts to complete strangers on the Net?  But this becomes difficult when our thoughts are being judged by people who don’t know us at all, yet think they do.  

So to my friends who know me in real life and maybe reading my blog, this is my way of answering the question you have in your heads.  And you may also like to know that it took me a whole morning just figuring out how to even write this entry.

Even though he was ill during the Chinese New Year holidays, he was still quite a sweetie for most part of the time.  Like the way he bade everyone goodbye at my mum’s place. 

“Goodbye new cousin.” To a cousin he rarely sees. “Goodbye old cousin.” To his cousin he always see. “This one goodbye what?” To my auntie whom he hardly sees.

I was also surprised that he went round giving everyone a hug, even though I only requested him to hug his granny.

And last night in bed, I asked him if he loves me even though I have been scolding him.  He replied in the positive, without any hesitation.  When I asked him why, he said this: “Mummy scold because I did something wrong.”

AWWWW… 

And that made me forgot momentarily how he had threatened two weeks ago to go to the school’s office to complain that mummy is always scolding him.

I didn’t quite like this comment I read on The Bag Page in Urban yesterday.  Coming from a matchmaker, I suppose she had to make a politically correct statement about what she promotes.   

I’m married and I have a kid.  I know a lot of people want the kind of happiness that I’m enjoying right now.  And that’s definitely one of the motivations for me to continue striving.

Does being married and having kids equal happiness?  Conversely, does it mean those who are not married and not having kids unhappy?  It’s funny for me to say it, but I say this is crap.  This is the kind of conventional thinking I abhor.  Like, you can only attain happiness if you live life a certain way.  Come on, let’s not be naive.  There are many ways to achieve happiness.  Don’t make marriage sounds like THE WAY because you just end up with more people being disillusioned about the institution when they find out it involves a lot more hard work.

Shit.  Maybe that’s why my single friends shun me.  Because the society has painted them into a corner and they think I, like the rest, think they’re miserable.  You know, on some days, I would happily trade places with them.  There’s a reason why they’re called the swinging singles.