You know you are growing old(er) when...

• You don't mind bumming around at home chilling out, unless you have a very valid reason to go out, like catching up with friends


• You can't stand reaching home later than 11pm if you have to go out (so a big sorry to all my friends... at least now you know I've truly become changed... hee hee hee! I love to go out still, but I would also like to leave a place by 10pm)
• You get a calling as a Young Women Leader, instead of being counted as one.


• You start having conversations that go like this:

Me: So Myra, what time does the youth dance end this Fri?

Youth dance... I can't remember what time it ended when I was a youth, but I (innocently) thought about 9 or 9.30pm... sounds reasonable for a teenager to go home at that time, right?

Myra: About... 10.15pm, and then we will help clean up/ dilly-dally till about 10.45pm then we go home (Remember: home is about a 45 min journey home).

Me: WHAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT???????!!!!!!!!!

Mom: Yah, and the youth think that it is too early.

Me: ................ - I'd been stunned into silence

• You actually arrive at the youth dance, and even just looking at them dance makes you feel so tired for them.


• You sit there listening to the music being played, and you 1) think how annoyingly loud the music is and 2) look at other YSA leaders and know they are thinking the exact same thing as you- "Just who the heck is this singer?! Not my generation anymore...*sigh*"


• and the worse is yet to come- you realize just how much you have aged when you recall that you used to be one of them, crazy-dancing-queen and everything...


• You turn on your TAEBO Workout DVD exercise and you just can't keep up with Billy Banks anymore (ok maybe this one doesn't count since Billy Banks is pretty old himself and it's probably just my loss of stamina, but still...)
• You actually start enjoying being in Relief Society and their slower-pace activities


• You send someone off on her mission and memories come rushing back of when you were the one being sent off on your mission


• You get home and discover that half of you friends on Facebook are either married or engaged to be married.


• and you know you are really really getting older when half of your friends from Singapore are also married. Now that is a real indicator.

But still, for all the horrors that I'm really aging- I LOVE BEING A YOUNG SINGLE ADULT! I LOVE MY EARLY 20S! I tell my Young Women (who have a phobia of Relief Society... some things never change ;p) that I used to dread having to move on to Young Women in Primary, and then when I got to Young Women, I used to dread having to grow up and go on to "Old Women's Club" Relief Society. However it's been fun to move on! Like, I would NOT want to stay a teenager forever and have to go through all the teenage drama and stupid mistakes made over and over again. Just take it one step at a time. Meanwhile, I'm still surfing YouTube for music during "my generation"...

The funniest paradox on earth

Ok, I don't get it.
Everyone keeps telling me stop being so obsessed with my weight and to stop whining about it and that I look prettier now and "no need to diet lah!"and blah blah blah.
Then WHY (oh why) at the end of the day, does everyone also tell me (IN THE SAME SENTENCE FURTHERMORE) that

I've put on weight???!!!

Seriously, am I never going to hear the end of it?
"Wah, you've put on so much weight... but still so pretty lah" (from my uncle so all I could do was smile weakly).
"Keshia, you've put on weight! You look good. Last time you were too skinny" (this one's at least nice about it).
"Hey Keshia, Taiwan food must be very delicious right? You must have eaten a lot there" (subtle... but you get the message).

This one happened yesterday:
Me: XXXXX, you look so pretty! You've lost weight! .
XXXXX: You leh, you've put on weight.
That was it. Not even a, "You look better now" or something nice to add to it. Quite a a good thing I'm quite "thick-skin" so I wasn't too offended because this one was quite... unintentionally offensive

At least more people are calling me pretty, considering what an "ugly duckling" I am.
So everyone listen- unless someone can explain to me this paradox, then keep quiet about me talking about my weight and blah blah blah. You think I'm not tired about always being so conscientious about my weight? Hello, I'm not as lucky to be born with my Dad's genes (my sisters, esp. Abish took all his eat-anything-but-can-still-lose-weight-by-sleeping-one-night genes), so I have to settle with losing weight the whining, pathetic, painful way- DIET DIET DIET (and some exercise when I'm in the mood to :p). Dancing would help if I there were dances like, every 2 days or something (in my dreams).

Meanwhile, my official diet is a low-carbs-low-sugar diet, esp. for dinner. Depending on where I'm eating (I'm ironically more self-destructive eating at home becasue at home I can control better and eat close to NO carbs at all for dinner), I'll modify accordingly. If it can work when I was in JC, I have hopes it'll still work now.

It's Considered An "Oldie" Already???!!!

I was just on Youtube catching up on my music. Well, perhaps "catching up" isn't quite the accurate word.
More like, RE-listening to all the music that I left behind and seeing if any of my favourite singers have come up with anything new.
I have to admit- it's been great listening to some of my Babylon music again. I've gone through my entire rack of CDs and thrown away some of them because, well, the thought that I used to listen to that makes me cringe even now (and no, I will NOT admit what type of music I used to listen to). The rest though, still sounds amazing and makes me want to hit the floor and do a bit of dancing!
And boy- it's been fun to hear the new music from singers that I liked pre-mission.

Brandi Carlile is fast becoming my favourite female singer .

Nickelback is still awesome (stop gasping- I like a teeny little bit of all types of music ).

Anyone heard of A Fine Frenzy? Well, you should because her songs are fabulous, despite a really weird name for this talented singer.

Santana's Into the Night, feat. Nickelback's Chad Kroeger is SO SINFUL. Makes me want to dance on the spot. Santana's guitar playing skills are super sexy.

As for the Chinese Music Industry... One of my investigators gave me the new Cheer Chen CD and I think it's pretty good.

And for everyone's convenience, I've put up a YouTube Search on the side bar of my blog (see it yet?) so that you can type in and search for their music. I can't believe Blogger provides this type of service- it's awesome!

I know- my taste in music is off-stream. I don't even remember how I started hearing Brandi Carlile and A Fine Frenzy. I think I was on Yahoo! Music, and I stumbled across one of their songs just before my mission and that's how I started listening to them.
And yes, I am perfectly aware that although all these are NEW to me, it has already become OLD to everyone else (even if it's onlybeen out 3 months). In fact, I don't even know who's now hot or who not... WHO CARES?! I'm sticking to my good ol' music. "Oldies", like wine, just get better with age. I just think it's so sad that everyone is so busy chasing the latest singles that so many good "old" songs are barely heard again, and the latest hottest singles aren't necessary the best type of music. So much music now (at least the few that I've heard so far) is very trashy now.

BUT despite me being such a music snob, I do keep my mind (and ears) open and if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to tell me. Since music is such a personal and subjective thing, regardless of what people listen to or whether they agree with me or not, I respect everyone's music choice as long as they don't start trashing my type of music.

Meanwhile, it's been a long time since I've danced! Everybody, altogether now, "Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay... And we danced on into the night..." (Santana's Into the Night)

New HAIRSTYLE (minus picture)

I did my hair yesterday! I went to my Mom's long-time hairdresser and it looks fabulous, EXCEPT (a girl is never satisfied with her hair, right?!):

• It's shorter but the length isn't a good length. So now it actually makes my face look even-more-obviously rounder. Hmm... when Myra goes to do her hair next week, I think I might want to cut it even shorter
• The highlight doesn't stand out too much

Which is great because my dad was just going on last night about how Myra and I needed to set the example in terms of having high standards.

So last night, I asked my dad, "So Dad, notice anything different?" And he went, "It's too long. You need to cut it short."

"Anything else Dad?"

"Huh?"

Good, then he won't nag me for getting highlights :) My mom joked that he can't even tell the difference when she does her hair (and my Mom does even more drastic things to her hair than I do). But it really does look great in the daytime when the sunlight hits my hair and you can see the different colours. My hair was highlighted a light copper brown and for my frinch, she gave me a cute reddish highlight. I really like my new highlights! It was so well done. It's there but only if the sunlight hits it and it all adds to the "fun-ness" of my new hair... way to go Auntie Brenda! THANKS!

There are no pictures (for now) till I get it fixed next week and am completely satisfied with it. Sorry! Besides, if my dad can't tell the difference, I don't think you can (except for seeing how much rounder my face is) :p

I See Dead People

A lot of them. It wasn't particularly pleasant, especially since there were mosquitoes at the "meeting" too and the sun turned scorching hot after an hour. In attendance were also all sorts of insects, i.e. CREEPY CRAWLERS (Ewwwwwwwwww! SO GROSS!!! I LOATHE insects). Despite that, it wasn't too bad.

I'm sorry I can't post pictures up though because I just realize it probably wouldn't be too respectful to them. I wouldn't want my tomb picture circulating round on the Internet via my blog. They might just come back and haunt me, and though it was pleasant enough to meet them yesterday, I'd rather they do better things, like listen to the missionaries in the Spirit World.

OK, just kidding!

I did go to a cemetery yesterday morning though, with a few of the RS sisters from home along with my mom. We went to a Teochew cemetery somewhere near Kranji MRT to re-collect some data. Here's what started the whole thing going:

Last year, the Singapore government wanted to exhume the graveyard for land reclamation (yes, our high-handed government, does not fear anything of course, even the dead... notice my sarcasm), and announced to the public about their plans. A non-member professor/ historian (?) (I can't remember) read about it and contacted out church in Utah and then here, and together we have been collecting as much information as possible from all the tombstones in-the-process-of being exhumed.

Since then, members have been taking turns going to the cemetery to take pictures and write down any information found (place of birth, date of death, etc). I went yesterday morning and *gasp* it actually turned out to be pretty FUN!

OK, the insect part was really really REALLY disgusting (you get my point). Other than that, everything else was manageable.

I'm such a weird person! : I love collecting data from tombs; I felt so bad for all the dead people whose tombs were already exhumed or destroyed from decay (imagine, feeling sorry for someone who's dead for goodness sake!); I thought it interesting to get all down on my knees in the knee-high grass to take pictures, to try and figure out what in the world was written on those tombstones...

It probably helped that I am such a HISTORY JUNKIE. It really was quite exciting, like finding history treasure.

One quick funny thought:

We were clearing a tomb plaque that read this:

It reads (in case you can't enlarge it):
In Loving Memory of Mr Lee Ee Chye
Exhumed from Balastier Cemetry
5TH May 1956

And I thought, "So poor thing! I bet this poor man is in the Spirit World pleading, 'Please let my body finally rest in peace! I need it for the resurrection.' "

Yes, I know, I am such a weird person.

Those Last Days...

Sounds like the name of a song. Such a sad melody. Okay, I'm random.
Anyway, these are some pictures from my farewell. As for mission pictures... there's a lot so I will only select a few and only post up a few next time. I do have some fun ones though!


That's the entire batch of missionaries who left with me. In case you don't recognize me since I've put on so much weight, I'm front row, 2nd from left. Just in case ;)

That was taken at the "Last Supper"/ dinner we had with our mission president and his wife.





ONE OF MY 2 FAVOURITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!!! That's Pres and Sis Nielson, my mission president and his wife.




Am I excited to be back?
You bet I am.

BUT I AM SO SACRED AS WELL!!!
Taken at the Hong Kong airport during my layover there.

At the aiport! It was kind of funny because my family were looking for me through the left door, but I came out from the right one, so I surprised them from behind.

I don't look good in this picture, but Myra prefers this one, so...

And- HOME SWEET HOME AT LAST!

I"M BACKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And it feels SO WEIRD!
Okay, it's getting increasingly less weird but it is still very...

Complicated.

Here are some of the goods and bads so far of coming home:
+ves:

• Being pampered by my Mom- yes, I'm so lucky. My mom is so cool!!! We can have discussions about boys, and since I don't have one yet, guess WHO'S boys we talk about... (could be yours! Just kidding!)
• Being able to call my "Machi" friends
• Going online- I still dislike chatting and I'm not a fan of being online for long, but BLOGGING- oh yeah! And a bit of Facebook is great too.
• BABYLON MUSIC!!! Bwa ha ha! To be honest, pre-mission I thought most of the music then was terrible, and now I think it's WORST! I'm such a music snob... but despite how snobbish I am, I CAN still listen to a bit of Babylon Music that's out now. I heard U2 has a fantastic new album...
• Playing "Sleeping Beauty"- and my mother hasn't nagged at me for waking up so late. Yes!

-ves:

• Let's see... being online. I'm not kidding you! Going online and having to update EVERYTHING in my e-mail accounts, Facebook... A BIG HEADACHE. I'm so boring now, it's hard to be creative. And even this blog... I took forever to come up with the title (so sorry if it's so... *blah*). Not to mention the fact that I went to check one of my credit card accounts and I kena locked out because I forgot my username-password combination... *sigh* But no worries- I reset it so I'm okay.
• I need to lose weight.
• I need to find a job.
• I need to lose weight.
• I need to find a job.
• I need to register for classes.
• I need to think of what the heck I'm going to do with my life after graduation.
• I need to get people off my back who keep asking me "So, what's next... marriage?"

Okay, I'm always thinking of losing weight, but right now, it's URGENT. Ha ha ha!

I think life now is going to be very very interesting. But for the record- I MISS MY MISSION A TON! I know it will get better once I start adjusting back, but still... *sigh*

By the way, I'm becoming a bigger fan of Brandi Carlile. I loved one her songs pre-mission, and her old-new song "Turpentine" is lovely.