Such a simple request, but no longer straightforward to administer.

Through your recent messages and call, I know it’s still raw and the last thing I want to do is open it up by revisiting what cannot be.

Sometimes it’s really better to let the dust settle, allow time do whatever it does, and just leave memories pleasant, don’t you think so?

I received the above in my mail, with a card, in a plain flat envelope, no bubble whatsoever, on a blue-monkey-socks-wearing day (you made it just in time huh). A very lovely surprise, and I think about how the Reese’s underwent countless transferrals from containers, hands, and was possibly squashed under the weight of so much mail in the cargo compartment of a plane flying across the Pacific or maybe the Atlantic; how ants or other insects may have desired the peanut butter chocolate especially after it melted under all the heat and compression but couldn’t get past the paper and seal; or how the postman warned you the chocs will spoil because it’s gonna take “8 years, m’am”…okay I’m not very coherent here but well…

Despite the possibility that the chocolates may be spoilt, I ate the 2 cups of white Reese’s today and it was really really sweet (of you, and the chocolate too).

S2

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

And why am I torturing myself so?

If you are looking for Singapore-specific information on the internet, SPH’s latest oline offering, Rednano, might be just the thing you need. Its search capabilities promises Singapore-centric results presented in a complete package with images, directories and maps.

Rednano Mobile Search via SMS 33333
With one simple SMS, users can also obtain directory information - for instance, contact details of restaurants, transport services, entertainment outlets, or business associates.

To use Rednano’s Mobile Search service via SMS, all users need to do is SMS a keyword to Rednano by sending it to the new SMS 33333 short code, and they will receive an SMS with the address and telephone number of the company or organisation they are looking for.

It is that simple. Rednano’s Mobile Search puts details of over 100,000 business listings and tens of thousands of news articles in their hands. The new SMS 33333 short code is also easy for users to remember.

And, similarly with the WAP portal, there are no charges for the SMS service for a limited period.

Very useful and FREE for now, so I get to save charges on data which I use sometimes for Nokia maps or web via GPRS. It’s about time!

Try it online, or SMS your search to 33333.

TAOYUAN, Taiwan (AFP) - - China and Taiwan resumed regular direct flights Friday for the first time in six decades, ushering in what Beijing called a “new start” in their tense and testy relations.

In the most visible sign yet of a new openness toward the mainland under new Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, the two sides — which split in 1949 after a civil war — welcomed passenger flights directly from each other’s territory.

“This is a sacred moment,” said Liu Shaoyong, the chairman of China Southern Airlines, who piloted the first flight from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to Taiwan himself.

“Flying over the strait to Taiwan is like coming home,” he told a crowd of well-wishers at the airport welcoming ceremony. “It feels good.”

The 100 Chinese tourists aboard got the red-carpet treatment on arrival, including jets of water shooting over the plane, to symbolise the cleaning of dusty travellers, as well as a traditional Chinese “lion dance”.

“We were lucky to be on the plane,” said Wang Yu, a businessman from Zhuhai in southern China. “Many people were fighting for seats on the inaugural flight.”

Ties between Taiwan and China have always been better than the public hostility from the two sides has acknowledged, and trade between them last year was more than 100 billion dollars.

But officially, China sees Taiwan as its territory waiting to be reclaimed by force if needed — and the Strait, heavily armed on both sides, has long been one of the world’s most dangerous potential military flashpoints.

Taiwan banned direct trade and transport links following its split from the communist mainland, but Ma’s election opened the door to warmer ties after an especially frosty period under his pro-independence predecessor Chen Shui-bian.

The two sides held their first direct talks in a decade last month.

Those talks led to the flights agreement — a deal that, for four days a week at least, will eliminate the time-consuming stopovers in Hong Kong or elsewhere that have been the bane of travellers between the two sides.

“Today is a new start in the history of exchanges between the two sides,” Wang Yi, director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said in Beijing.

“At present, cross-Strait relations are facing a rare opportunity for development,” Wang said.

Changes have been rapid since Ma took office.

Taiwan banks can now exchange Chinese currency, limits on Taiwanese investment on the mainland have been eased, and some Chinese media outlets which had been banned on the island now have clearance to work.

There will be 36 round-trip flights across the Taiwan Strait weekly, operating from Friday to Monday between six Taiwanese airports and five on the mainland.

The service will meet growing demand after Taiwan allowed up to 3,000 visitors a day from China, giving a much-needed boost to the island’s sluggish economy.

More than 700 Chinese nationals in 26 tour groups were to arrive Friday from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and two other cities, while nine flights were set from China to Taiwan.

“I am thrilled to take the first mainland-bound flight in this new charter service,” said Zhou Wan-rong, chairman of the student association of Chinghua University in Taiwan.

Family pic 2005, Family pic @ YEF 2005, Family pic 2007

(Hey there’s an improvement over the years, now both older members stand in the “senang diri” (at ease) position)

The two young members may have grown wider but that sure didn’t fill up the space between each other in the most recent family picture.

My father has been the underappreciated family glue all these years, maintaining the household by keeping it functional, and helping the other members stay civil to each other. He always encourages and never puts undue pressure on us for our studies or any other aspect (can’t say the same for my mother); and silently takes in our tempers and never raises his voice just to gain ground (can’t say the same for his wife).

He does what he does for the household uncomplainingly: the laundry, the ironing, the cooking, the cleaning, and even ringing every single button of my brother’s Catholic High School uniform during our conformity days. He prepared breakfast for us every morning before waking us, and even carried me from my bed to the kitchen chair during the good old days when I wasn’t so sizeable. He would then drive us to school, and return home to wake my mother, and placed oranges on the table to remind her to pray whenever it was the first or fifteenth day of the lunar calendar (even though he’s a Christian). Now he even leaves notes to make sure nobody gets locked out of the house by accident.

During those car rides to school, he would fill us up with Chinese proverbs, his philosophies of life, or interesting anecdotes of his life as a police officer. Sometimes he would try to teach us the facts of life but never prodded into our personal lives. Now in the very limited occasions we sit together in the car or over a meal he continues to fill our ignorant minds with current affairs.

My father never probes into my private life, other than to check on the fundamentals such as whether I have enough cholesterol and liver medication to last my semester abroad, hoping my diet agrees with my cholesterol level, and if my bowel movements are normal. He may ask a little here and a bit more there, but stops himself the moment he senses irritation.

We can always count on my father for help. I recall how he would help do my brother’s projects, and makes sure my brother fills the necessary forms for school applications, army, and permits. When he learnt of Reuben’s death, he scanned all related articles and emailed them to me — The Straits Times, The New Paper, lianhe zaobao. He can remember when my antivirus expires, and offers his credit card to renew it. He knows my IC number by heart, so he makes sure I receive my GST Offset Package in time.

Above all that he does for us he takes care of himself, always doing all he can to ensure his cholesterol and blood pressure level is lowered to a healthy level even if that means cooking chinese herbs every night and walking to and fro his work place for an hour every morning and evening. The moment he feels chest pain he rushes himself to the hospital. When my mom complained of his snoring he went to do sleep tests and was a willing experiment for doctors to curb snoring, even if that meant wearing some uncomfortable apparatus to sleep.

You know how sometimes we just have certain vivid memories attached to people? Well, I reminisce the times when my brother and I would wait our turns to let our father hold our ears toward the light and dig the wax with the golden ear digger; how he taught me to cycle by detaching the little wheels one by one; bought me Swenson’s yam ice-cream when he occasionally picked me from Yamaha electone classes; placed me on his neck when my family walked down orchard road to see Christmas lightings; accompanied me to the bathroom on high tide nights ‘coz I was too scared to go alone; carried me across the road every morning to get to PAP kindergarten because he was afraid that if he merely holds me I might let go of his hand…

He will continue to contribute significantly to the household in his silent ungrudging ways, but I won’t go on taking him for granted.

Happy Fathers’ Day!

Despite the backdrop of looming exams and entangled relationships, I certainly had a good time with my pals when they visited Shanghai! Although they returned home with a sucky impression of China, I sure hope they learnt more about the environment I live in (wait a minute, these two clauses are linked and there shouldn’t be an “although” hahahaha).

What a stylish way to wait for a cab eh? hahahahaha

Reina and Celine had the opportunity to eat very good shaokao!

They are clearly from SMU. Though the pic turned out freaky haha.

Had to go multiple times to The Bund just for my pals.

And here’s the pictures I spoilt. I love them! hahahah

I look sooooooooo retarded.

Now then start.