Death

Recently, I have been facing with the word 'Death'. What is death? What is it like to be dead?

Until today, God seems to be telling me this. In Deut 29:29, it says that the secret things belong to the Lord. Death is a secret thing to me. No one alive knows what death really is. No one who has passed on able to come back to life and tell us what death is all about. There may be those who claimed that they have passed on and come back to life and tell us things, very incredible things. However, how true are they?

In Deut 29:29, it does not just stay there. God continues to say that but those things which are revealed belong to us. Indeed, how true this is! God tells us that some day we will leave our mortal bodies and go back to our glorious home. When this day will be no one knows. Thus, we must live life to the fullest.

Lord, I want to live my life with You and to fufil what You want me to do. I want to do only things which You want me to and to go to the direction where Your Spirit leads me to. Because You said in Your Word, where Your Spirit is, there will be peace. Lord, teach me to be teachable and to learn from life's lessons so that I will not fall into the same tricks and traps anymore. I pray for more guidance and wisdom from You in Jesus' name.

The Mayonnaise Jar - The lesson learnt

When things in your life seem, almost too much to handle, when 24 Hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee..

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students, if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again If the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an un animous 'yes'. The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. 'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life..

The golf balls are the important things - God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and car.

The sand is everything else - the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life..If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.So...Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. 'Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. 'I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend!'

Important lesson that we should always be mindful of.

Tour to National Museum of Singapore

Today, I have spent a very meaning and worthwhile time with mom. Early in the morning, we got ourselves ready to go to National Museum of Singapore. Two particular exhibitions which I was very curious and wanted very much to see: Singapore History Gallery and Living Galleries. So off we go! Only thing I regretted was not bringing my camera, so took the photos via my camera phone.

First, we went to Singapore History Gallery. There, it featured all the things, personal and events that happened in the past. At first, when we went in, there was a long stretch of bridge followed by a long curl way down to the first level. My mom and I thought that there was nothing else to see. Thank God, more was to come. The first thing that was featured was a 360 degree show, showcasing things that happened from past to now, from motormobile to buildings. Then we came to the more interesting part - the exhibits itself. There were many cane baskets that were in display. Then there was an area which showcased the Chinese funeral. You may think that this funeral is nothing what! Every time when someone passes away, we get to see this. But this is different. This is a very traditional way of Chinese funeral. It was made such a good way that it seemed like a real funeral wake. Only thing is there was no mourning or wailing. If not, it would be even more real.

Then, we slowly proceeded to other pictures and photographs and exhibits of the past. There was also exhibits of Japanese occupation testimonies by real life people and also Japanese occupation currency. Hmmm...Should have gotten my camera to take these.

After that we proceeded to the Living Galleries: Film and Wayang. There were three big screens showing many old movies, from Chinese to Malay. Behind these screens were many records, old records player and photographs of many Malay and Chinese singers. My mom got so excited when she saw Lin Dai's photograph and even told me that Lin Dai was the first actress to commit suicide before the trend came. Then, there were big Wayang costumes and traditional puppets and puppets stage. Too bad there were too little things to showcase in this segment. We spent less than 15 minutes here.

My favourite exhibits came from Living Galleries: Street Food. When we first went in, there was a stall of utensils selling satay.

There was a screen next to this stall showing how the satay gravy was made. Then, there was a stall selling laksa.

There was also a screen showing the ingredients of making the laksa and other things that were needed to prepare for this bowl of laksa. The more I looked at the preparation of laksa, the more my siliva dripped. Yummy!

Then, there was a stall selling cha kuay teow. There was a small little screen where there was interview on where the food places were found. Look at the hum! They looked like real. According to my mom, the cha kuay teow was used to pack in a leave as that found in the picture. This was to make the fragrance more noticable. Nowadays, some stalls still use this method. But most of the stalls selling cha kuay teow found it very tedious to wash the leaves and do away without this.

This is the Tok Tok Mee stall. Whenever the stall holder is ready for business, he would use the bamboo stick and hit on it. So there was 'tok tok' noise. When the people heard this noice, they would know that the tok tok stall was ready. So if they wanted to buy the mee, they would put the money on the basket as shown in the picture, lower it to the stall holder and told him how many bowls of mee they wanted. All these are done while the people were still in their houses. Then when the mee was ready, the stall holder would put the bowls of mee into the basket and let the people know that the mee were ready. Then they would pull the mee up. Imagine us having to buy mee through this method. How interesting it would be! I know that many people would consider that this is a very unhygienic way of selling mee. But who cares as long as the mee is good!

There were then many more stalls featuring the different varieties of Singapore food. In another section, there were displays of molds used to extract coconut milk, do ang ku kueh, moon cake, rice cake, dragon biscuits and many others. Some of them I had seen before, but most of them were so foreign to me. There was also a showcase of the different types of kopi cups used in yester times. Then, there were a section where there were many spices and a chance for us to smell the fragrance. My mom was so cautious that she told me not to smell any fragrance as there were put there for a long time. 'Not good for health', she said.

After looking at the various Singapore food and feeling a bit hungry, we moved to the Fashion Gallery. There were many different machines being showcased here.

According to my mom, there was a hand-activated sewing machine. How it was being used was, one hand to put at the right side rowing the white handle while the other left side was to hold the cloth when put under the needle. Cheam mah! I really admired my grandmother who used this. Though it is comfortable to sit down and sew, yet both hands must co-ordinate well before the cloth can be sewed. Maybe, my grandmother's right hand muscle is bigger than her left. Must observe the next time I see her.

This Singer sewing machine is the machine that I grew up with. By the way, it is a good exercise using this machine. I remembered during my Home Economics class, I was forced (literally) to use this sewing machine at home and in class. My legs had to rock the peddle while one of the hands had to roll the right handle to start the process and the other hand to hold the cloth, making sure that the thread did not go hay-wire. After using this machine, my legs were so tired and my eyes so strained. I still have this machine at home but I do not use it anymore. I scare that I will damage it. This is an antique that is hard to come by nowadays.

There is another sewing machine, super high-tech. According to my mom, this is still used today. There are two peddles; one for normal thread to sew and the other for sewing designs. This is an electrical machine so the speed is super fast. Please do not try this at home if you have this.

Then, we proceeded to the last segment of the Living Galleries, the photograph and photography equipment. There were many cameras here that some of them I had never seen before. But there was one which I saw someone in City Hall MRT. A very small and compatable one. However, I do not know how to use. And I had taken photographs of them.

Through this tour to National Museum, I find that my mom is actually quite knowledegable. Sometimes, when she does not know the answer, she would anyhow say something and pretend that the answer is correct. Cute right? This tour is really so interesting. It brought back some memories. However, I still prefer the traditional things which was featured in Macau museum. Too bad I did not have camera at that time. If not, sure explore my memory card and capture all those things.