Warplanes

Hmmm… Warplanes? I do not know much about war aircrafts nor was I ever interested in warfare nor war related weapons of destruction. The closest contact to warfare knowledge was the brief history lessons during school days. Ever since, I would not dwell deep into war topics - the subject of warfare being too dry for a female chromosome, the atrocities waged at war too heartbreaking to bear. Yet, the subject of warfare is unavoidable in one's life as the media is strife with news of tension and conflict.

Neither will I imagine myself enjoying reading warfare literature. A recent visit to The Museum of Flight in Seattle had spurred my interest in WWII history and a coincident reading of a novel "The Boy in Striped Pyjamas" (a supremely light read depicting a subtle portrayal of political injustice through the naive eye of a 9 year old boy) on The Holocaust.  I started to 'wikipedia' for WWII related articles. Every article is immensely loaded with new information previously unknown to me, which at a click will further illuminate the unexplored field. The more I read, the more it whets my appetite. However, it comes at a cost - it whips up a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts which I shall not elaborate.

The next book I picked out is A Higher Call, a memoir that will warm the heart, knowing that true honour and kindness do exist even in the darkness of war. It doubles up as an educational read - I learn about warplanes and ammo, the technicalities and tactics of warfare in a non-dry textbook manner. In fact, I was able to visualise these warplanes and imagine the scenarios as the visit to The Museum of Flight had equipped me with the background on WWII. I am amused to learn that a B-17 bomber was manned by 9 persons in a full combat and all the crew were situated at different parts of the plane, from the nose to the tail! The book is such an enlightenment (now I can spar with my boy on war combat terminologies ;p) that I feel compelled to poke a B-17 Bomber :-)

Battle with Mandarin...

I am a Singaporean Chinese and I learn Mandarin from young. I studied in a reputable Chinese primary and secondary school but I am not proud to say I am barely proficient in Mandarin. While other major subjects had been a breeze, Mandarin was my most nightmarish subject. I practically had recurring nightmares even in my adult working days - the scene of examinations setting and I couldn't find the words to begin my chinese essay; instead, I was peeling my nails throughout and handed in a blank sheet! Surprisingly I scored an A1 in national level Standard Chinese examinations and was delighted to be a B3 student in national level Higher Chinese examinations. The bonus was I liberated myself of Chinese lessons ever since! While most of my college mates had their due of weekly Chinese lessons and assignments, I could idle away ;p

Apparently I do not possess a flair for languages. As years passed in the real world of interaction with people of diverse backgrounds, as well as my curiosity of cultures and places, I became motivated to learn new languages. But still, polishing up my Mandarin wasn't on my to-do list. Somehow I wasn't charmed to re-learn Mandarin, perhaps due to the nightmares as well as my personal experiences with Chinese related incidents which had not been very pleasant? When my kids started to attend primary school, I was once again forced to acquaint myself with Mandarin, in my feeble attempt to help them. The Chinese standard in my kids' era has been way elevated beyond my time, thus I am rendered totally useless in any assistance to their learning. 

Mandarin language thus became a bone of contention between myself and Singapore education system. The schools place a high priority and standard to learning of Mandarin. However, having gone through the learning process myself, I realised that if a child is not brought up in a natural environment whereby the language is spoken and used at home nor in his social circle, it becomes a pain to learn a language if the child is not passionate about it. If the Chinese teachers in schools fail to inspire the child, that almost spells doom. Thus, it falls upon the parents' responsibilities to boost the child's interest. I have to resort to external help of a tuition teacher to brush up my kids' Mandarin, but the once weekly lessons are hardly enough. 

I am certainly not a Tiger Mom; for me, it is enough that the kids are equipped in basic Mandarin as a foundation. I will not go to lengths stressing my kids to excel in Mandarin, killing their joy of learning a language and their childhood. Eventually as they grow and learn to carve a role for themselves in society and if Mandarin proves to be essential in their life, they will naturally be motivated to polish up their Mandarin, and they will easily pick it up given their foundation in Mandarin, as depicted in my own life... Now that I have discovered a Chinese writer cum illustrator (幾米) that captivates me, I am fired up to polish up my Mandarin again! I shared 幾米's pieces with my daughter, she loves the humor and animated drawings too! Hopefully it'll inspire her to read more Chinese books :-)

For those who are new to 幾米，here's a peep at his 作品. This was the first piece I read and was so tickled by it, not to mention my girl. So tickled that I had to poke the character :-)

Learning Journey of Needle Felting

As I experiment and poke more, I discover subtle techniques of needle felting that will improve an artwork. It may seem common sense to be poking this way or that way, but it takes experience to uncover the 'ahhs' of techniques. I started learning the basics by reading a few needle felting books initially, but as I poke more, I tend to poke by intuition. I wonder if I should document these trivial revelations along the way which may be helpful as instruction in event that I forget what I had done before...

I am more of a self- taught needle felt artist with my haphazard way of experimentation. My passion for needle felting grows by the day, with each creation poked. Having said that, the desire to poke is very much dependent on what inspires me at the moment in time, pretty random. 

The challenge arises when friends start to request for commissioned works, which means they dictate the theme of the art piece. At first, I have doubts as I am very much a person who crafts based on inspiration. The first job was themed hot air balloons; I researched on pictures of hot air balloons and started to work on it. In the process, I began to discover joy as I get acquainted with the pictures and tried as best as possible to make the creation real yet captivating to the customer, in this case a 3 month old infant - cutesie Baby Gene! The baby mobile turned out pretty and useful :-)

Disney Frozen

The upside of parenthood is being able to transport back to childhood - reliving the missed bits and revelling in childish acts without being labelled as 'childish'. Recently, my kids and I synced our inflight movie and watched the acclaimed Disney movie Frozen together; we enjoyed the plot and musical. I was pleasantly surprised that the supposedly girly movie captivated my boy too. We downloaded their favourite song titles from Frozen on iTunes and played them during car rides, both of them would sing along and reenact the scenes from Frozen. It's a delight watching them giggling in their antics, such simple joy :-) The combination of an entertaining movie and great musical songs keeps reverberating in our memory, so much so that I'm inspired to needle felt Olaf and my first attempt of a huge figurine, Anna!

Felissimo Koala

While visiting a friend in Kobe in 2012, I chanced upon a Felissimo Happy Toys Project Exhibition. It was a delightful display of handmade koala bears in patchwork or crochet, created and contributed by different individuals who participated in the project. After the exhibition, the multitude of colourful and vibrant bears would be shipped and donated to various children in the world as a gift,  how heartwarming! 

The project was launched in 1997 in Japan and carries out yearly missions of collating handmade toys. The mascot changes every year, ranging from teddy bears, dogs, reindeers, elephants to cats. Being Japanese, the mascot never fails to be KAWAII.... I missed out taking part in the project for 2013 but will certainly be looking out for the new project this year. I can't wait to sew my own patchwork mascot and make my contribution.

Here's my version of Felissimo Koala in needle felt :-)

Cookie...

While I professed to be a cat and dog lover, I would have never thought I'll have a Chihuahua in my household, as the minuscule breed is the last to uphold the characteristics of dogs that appeal to me - charisma, security, 'huggability', rowdy play, gracefulness, etc. However, when I first saw this puny shivering ball of 3 brown spots on its body of white coat, it warmed my heart as it reminded me of our late Jack Russell Terrier, Rusty whom departed last August. Something stirred within me, I cannot pinpoint. As I watched the tiny 800g trembling within its enclosure, I had the desire to comfort and care for it. In the snap of minutes,  in crept the various reasons to justify why we should have this Chihuahua in our household: a companion for Coco that will not create chaos in the house, a dog for my girl whom she is able to manage by herself, a dog for my boy to instil in him 'responsibilities', a creature for me to care for like a baby since the factory for human babies is officially closed...

Since it's technically the kids' dog, they named it Cookie, despite a protest from my brother that it should be named Yoda due to the sheer resemblence between the two in his opinion. Thus Cookie's other nickname is Baby Yoda. It's been a month since Cookie came along and it finally had its last dose of vaccination. Even the vet who examined it was tickled that Cookie is such a teeny Chihuahua. After consultation, the vet actually came out and requested a picture of Cookie ;p 

Cookie (keeping fingers crossed!) has yet to exhibit the typical yelpiness of a Chihuahua, she barely barked more than twice in her stay with us, and both times merited with good reason. We've brought her out a couple of times in a doggie bag; she would be trembling initially till she settled comfortably in her bed within the bag, without making a wee bit of noise while we carried her about. Hopefully Cookie will be a great companion to my girl in her growing up years :-)

Baby Bump :-)

Pregnancy is an amazing journey – from the physical transformation of a woman’s body, physiological bonding with baby within, to the psychological nurturing of a mother’s instincts. It is a journey prerogative only to women, not one which men can undertake nor understand.

 

Even as myself had gone through two pregnancies bringing my precious ones to the world (they are both 8 & 10 already?!!!), it is still bewildering to me how a sperm of disc head 5 micrometer by 3 micrometer, when finding its way to an ovum of 0.12 mm diameter could fuse to develop into a foetus and eventually grow into a mature baby of 50cm, all the while happening inside a woman’s womb! I am constantly amused when I see Preggies with their ballooning belly stretching to contain the growing baby, the sight of their tummy so tender yet robust!

 

Perhaps the experience of pregnancies has conceived my view of Preggies – they are one lot of beautiful curves!