Eat and be merry

First of all, I would like to apologise for there being fewer photographs in my posts for the past few days. I have been having some difficulty uploading photographs to my posts. I read from some other blogs that some fellow bloggers have been facing a similar problem lately. Whatever the technical cause may be, I pray that it will be resolved soon. I have been merrily taking photographs using my Panasonic Lumix digital camera and it is such a shame not to "show off the photographs" in my blog.

Last night, my brother (LG) sent me a text message on my mobile phone to enquire whether Da and I would be interested to visit a sales office of a development that is near my mother's home. This is a mixed development, comprising residential apartments with shops on Level 1. I remember visiting the sales office a year or two ago with my mother, my other brother (LB), LB's wife (MF), LG's girlfriend (ZT) and Da. At that time, LG was not free to join us. Considering that the market has softened since the height of the collective sale fever, Da and I were interested to visit the sales office again to see how much the sale price has lowered since then.

This morning, Da and I woke up early and decided to attend the 11.30 am church service. If we had the choice, we would have preferred to attend the 9 am church service as that would mean that we would have the rest of the day ahead of us when the service was over. However, the lazybones in us would often result in our waking up closer to lunch time, which is such a pity because half the day would have been gone by then. I sent a text message to LG to inform him that Da and I would be able to meet him, ZT and my mother for lunch at 2 pm today.

I thank the Lord that He has again intervened and made sure that I am able to attend the church service today. One of my friends shared with me on friday (10 July 2009) that he has noticed that sometimes, people or events happen that try to prevent us from going to the House of God on sundays. It is at times like this that we need to stand up to the evil one. I said (and he agreed) that the devil works through people and circumstances. Let us fight the fight of faith - we can overcome the devil through Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is about forgiveness of sin. God loves us despite of who we are and what our shortcomings are. Believe this and you will impact others. Let us love others as we love ourselves. This means that we should extend to others the same love of God that we want the Lord to extend to us. We need to let our loved ones know that we love them and that we will always be the source of strength and support for them. It is not enough to love them in our hearts only - they have to know it.

I thought that it was insightful of the Pastor when he mentioned that in the will of a famous personality who passed away recently, he named his mother in his will but omitted his father. Did his father love him less than his mother loved him? The Pastor did not think so. However, he felt that perhaps the father did not show his love as much as the mother did. As such, the person did not feel the love of his father as much as he felt the love of his mother. It is so unfortunate that he passed away suddenly without reconciling with his father. Do not live life with regrets - say words of grace and love to those around you today.

After church, Da and I drove to our favourite coffee shop at Jalan Tua Kong for lunch. We had brought along the banana tea cake that I had baked today. As we are regulars at this coffee shop and we get along well with the stallholders, I gave several slices of the cake to the stall holders at the coffee shop to sample.

Lunch was a light-hearted affair for my mother, LG, ZT, Da and me. As usual, the stallholders were generous with the portions of food and the drinks stallholder gave his "soccer brother" (that is, Da) a second glass of iced tea "on the house".

After lunch, we proceeded to the sales office of the mixed development, which is located at the Ubi area. However, we were disappointed to discover that the sales office is closed on sundays. We therefore adjourned to two other showflats, one in Yio Chu Kang/Ang Mo Kio area and one in Hougang area. Both showflats were very beautiful and it was so tempting to say, "I'll take one unit!" there and then. Having said this, though, my siblings and I grew up in District 15 and as those who have grown up in District 15 will tell you, we are fiercely loyal to living in District 15 even when we have grown up. *grin*

While we were at the second showflat, my mother's mobile phone rang. It was LB, who was at Parkway Parade with MF. It was perfect timing because LG had a watch that he wanted to bring to the watch shop at Parkway Parade to be repaired. My family have been patronising this watch shop ever since it started business in Parkway Parade in the mid-1980s. The wife of the shopowner (Uncle M) was my father's ex-colleague. She now heads a department in another company. The world is indeed very small because I have transactions with her every now and then for my work. The first time I met her (for work purposes), I nearly called her "Aunty KE" in front of the business associates because my brothers and I grew up addressing her as that!

As Uncle M was not at the shop when we arrived, my family and I decided to have our dinner at Pasta Mania. Although this restaurant sells pizza, baked rice, etc, everyone ordered pasta. *Delizioso!

(* "delicious" in Italian)

After dinner, we managed to catch Uncle M at his shop. Gosh, he has such a wide array of watches, pens, belts, etc! After all the chatting, it was past 10 pm and time to adjourn to my mother's home for dessert.

Boy-Boy was very excited when he saw the blueberry cake with mixed berries ice-cream. He tried to persuade ZT to share some with him, to no avail.

LG showed off his bartender skills when he concocted the cocktail "screwdriver". I took a sip - it is quite nice, actually.

Oh yes... before I forget. My family and I bought some bak kwa from the Bee Cheng Hiang outlet at Parkway Parade today. They were having a promotion - 1 kati of bak kwa was being sold at S$19.95. Da and I bought 1 kati of bak kwa while LG bought 1 kg of bak kwa. I have come across a simple recipe for home-made bak kwa in one of the food blogs that I visit. Hmm... perhaps the next time that my family has a barbeque session, I shall prepare some home-made bak kwa for LG (our resident barbeque chef) to cook over the barbeque pit.