Ah Ma, my grandmother from my mother's side, passed away on 23rd November 2006, around 10pm Singapore time. She was at the good age of 80+ (I think it's 85), and my uncle and his wife, and my third aunt was by her side. I was on my way to school in Canada at that time. The weird thing was that when I was in the shower just now, I was thinking of Ah Ma, how she was doing at the hospital and how my sister must have had her Grad Night on Thursday her time already, and how unpleasant it must have been if anything happened then.

And then the telephone call from my Mum.. My heart sank when I heard the news, yet I didn't really cry then. My Mum sounded alright, but I know she had tears in her eyes at some points of our conversation as with her shakey voice. Then I started to tear a little as I thought of how I haven't seen Ah Ma in 2 years. My brother and I did manage to speak to her during our Summer break when we were in KL. Despite this, I feel bad for not being there, or even trying to make an effort to call her when she was admitted to the hospital. My Mum said Ah Ma kind of lost the fighting spirit when she was in hospital as she didn't want to burden my parents and aunts and uncles. On a brighter side, disease wasn't the cause and Ah Ma lived well into a good age and witnessed the addition of 2 great-grandchildren.

I grew up under the care of Ah Ma when me and my siblings visited Singapore from KL during school holidays. She cooked dinner all the time when we were there. Her Vegetarian soup, Pepper Pig's Stomach soup, her Crispy Tofu and other dishes. Ah Ma also loved playing black strip cards with Chinese characters on them at the void deck of the HDB block. But as we grew older, the language barrier became harder to overcome, even though we visited her regularly when we moved to Singapore.

I'm tearing up again. If only I could give her one more hug.. The date for her 'chu bing' is on the 27th November 2006. I asked if we had to observe anything, but my Mum said not much since we were far away, but just to pray to the skies to Ah Ma. To my Mum, Dad, aunts, uncles and others, be strong.

Ah Ma, I'm sorry that the line I always asked you when we conversed on the phone was "Le chiak pa buey?". I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you, see you or hug you once more. But, thank you for everything.

May you rest in peace..

I just updated my Blogger account to the Beta version. Is there a difference besides a few appearance tweaking? But whatever, this just leaves me with a Google account..

Feels great to be at home on a Friday. My final major lab report for BGYB52 has been postponed a week back. So I'm so free now. But I'm not going to take this lightly, since the Finals are in a month's time. Wowza, to think a semester has gone by?!

It has been wet, wet, wet these few days. There was a flood warning issued in Toronto, though I didn't see any swamped roads or clogged drains when commuting back and forth from school. And apparently there will be flurries, which I do think may happen seeing how I'm in the living room typing this post and looking through the window to see humongous dark clouds hovering over Toronto. To top all these off, there were many foggy days with zero visibility.

Christmas is coming. I can feel the joy even with the despair of the dooming Finals..

Our new mayor is none other than our imcumbent mayor, David Miller. This turned out to be one of the most disinteresting election, even though there are so many issues that Toronto faces (Hello, waterfront, garbage, amenities, and everything else). The multiply levels of government from municipal to provincial to federal, creates many unrequired squabbles over money. But I do have to say that Toronto is a beautiful city to live in. I was in the bus and looked down the aisle, only to truly realize what a multicultural city this is. So many ethnic groups all in one city (Toronto has numerous, compared to 4 main groups in Singapore). I really do love living in Toronto and ice hockey (Maple Leafs is kicking ass this season!) now.

Finished my Midterms and most of my assignments. Got all of my Midterm marks, and I've to say I'm pleasantly surprised with them. I did many things over the period of non-blogging, so a quick summary.. Had steamboat, watched Borat (STUPIDLY HILARIOUS!), and am applying for an off-campus work permit so that I can work during the festive season as it approaches.

Oh, and Desperate Housewives is back to its season one glory. I actually teared up in a recent episode. Grey's Anatomy is still a gem. Heroes is coming on now!

Three years of blogging! Been quite a while eh? Happy Birthday, Blog and lovely housemate Nora! We'll be going for a steamboat dinner on Saturday to celebrate Nora's birthday, the end of Midterms, and the arrival or winter. Steamboat is perfect for such weather (it's starting to cool way down, and the leaves are falling).

Anyway, finally passed through the busy, tiring times. Midterms are over and I just handed in a major lab report today. Haven't slept for the past 33 hours. Wow, the last time I stayed up this long, was during 4/1's class chalet where we didn't sleep for close to 2 nights, and went to watch the sunrise on the final day.

Yes! Done! Done. Done.. not quite. Fresh assignments are rolling in and before I know it, the Finals will be here in mid December. For now, I'm just going to catch up on my sleep and tackle the assignments one at a time...

New Song Alert! By Regina Spekor, who has a lovely voice. It was featured on Grey's Anatomy and Veronica Mars. The video is very cool too. Check it out..