Tall Gray Men

I was living in Singapore and doing all the things many Singapore wives do while their husbands go to work each day.
We sit and cater to our kids.
We get involved in many fund raisers for the school, Cub Scouts, drama .
It was during their first Christmas play Cinderella, that I decided to try painting a 10 x 20 prop so the kids would have a real back drop they could enjoy and the parents could later come up after the play and take pictures of.
It was a success and I got hooked into painting lol
But all this work cost me. I lost a baby because of it and then once I got pregnant again I said to myself I will take care of this one and stayed in bed and told the doctor make sure this baby is well taken care of. The baby comes first.
The woman doctor I had did her job well and watched me like hawk.

During this time my husband also got me a scooter. I enjoyed riding it to no end.
When my parents came to visit I took my Dad out in the rain and we had a great time.
I brought him home and he went to my Mom and said:

Gosh I had a ride of my life.
She drove well and we didn't slip once.
My Dad was very good with me when it came to toys with motors lol

But I had a great scooter and there was no way it would slip lol.

I used to take my son to school on it and he had a lot of fun.
This scooter meant a lot to me as after work my husband would come home and take his huge bike and together we'd go to the beach
or scoot up into Malaysia. It was great to ride into small areas for discovery reasons, easy to park and I used it to go to the hospital for my check ups. My husband at this point, drove along behind me to make sure I got there.lol
There are not many women riding scooters in Singapore so when I'd show up at the hospital the parking guards were always impressed with me. lol

They called me

the crazy guailo woman.
Then it came time to have the baby. The water broke but what came out was thick and greeny.
The doctor said the baby pooped and I had to go have an immediate C section.
She didn't give us time to think and I did not have time to even say goodbye to my husband or my boy, who was also very concerned that something bad was going to happen.
I went in at 11:30 pm and by 12:30 - 1 am, I had the baby.

They were wheeling me out and I was just awakening, to see 4 tall skinny men all dressed in gray robes, with long gray beards. They were debating between themselves. One said:
She isn't doing what she is supposed to and another came to my defense and said:
Give her another chance.
Then they noticed I was coming out of my sleep and disappeared. I was being transported to my room on a guerney and my husband was running beside it and all he said was:
He's beautiful.
I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.
In my room I finally saw my beautiful baby boy but I was plagued by the disturbing vision I had.

They must have put something down my throat because I had a very sore throat and could not talk. I think they destroyed something because I had a very nice voice but now would never sing again.

Eventually I told my husband my vision and how upset I was because my fate was being determined and that I had a mission to do in life and did not know what it was .

If I knew, I would do it.I came close to losing my life and would never have seen this precious child I waited so long for, but since my husband and I had a deal we would have one every 15 years, he came on schedule lol.

My first boy was not very pleased because he did not really understand what this was all about and when he held his little brother for the first time, He called him a dork and told him that he better not touch his computer. His baby brother grabbed his nose and said agoo..lol and this is when he understood the baby was entirely empty headed and not going to be a problem.

He really became protective of the baby and made sure nothing happened to him.

When we left the hospital with little Nick, my husband drove up to the parking attendant to pay and he said smiling :

What, no more motorcycle?

We gaily said no and the first place we went to was the American Club where every one saw the white frilly basket bassinet I made and rushed over to see and welcome a brand new life.

My baby boy slept like an angel and I was a very happy Mama.

Singapore is a very contained society. People are polite hard working and the laws were strict so you never worried about crime. It was a very safe place to live and raise a family.

It was easy getting used to this and to raise a family drug free . It was a treat to have no need to explain why every where you went you required a chaperone.I liked it.

When we got back to Canada, we had the culture shock because here, every one swore, crime and corruption was everywhere as well as drugs and a lot of homelessness. New comers were turning our beautiful country into something ugly with all their terrorism problems. We had to keep our doors locked and for the first time in a long time, I was afraid.

We ourselves felt like we were becoming victims because the laws were not working like they used to. Criminals were prepared for the law because they were the ones breaking it. They knew how to work it so innocent people fell, one after another.How do you win a drug war if for example the judge believes in it.?

Then I thought to myself.......is this my mission?

Was I to begin fighting against all this to help people reflect because they did not understand what was expected of them? The people all played a role in life but there was no essence.

There was no God.

Up until now I had no reason to think about God or how much he needed help.

So I began to talk and write and tell people what he meant to me and how it is I knew that he existed and why he is important to each and every one of us.

Even if you are not a believer, he is still in you.

You might call it a dormant place inside your heart but he is still in there

separating you from what is wrong and what is right.

I began writing in papers and the papers put things in because the articles are different and prone to attacks. I was attacked, called many names and then a few people began to write saying

what I said made sense and the wrong people are being allowed to sway the public.

In a small way I began a debate between people.

People are afraid to voice their opinion. Parents are afraid to lose their children, their jobs etc.. Liberalism ran amok and the reins had to be pulled in.

Today what you see all around you, is life running amok.

Not everything is ok and people have to fight back because if they don't, the wrong guys will be running government and the world , at every ones' expense.

So today I sit with my blog hoping it will make a small difference.

I am not looking to be popular but hey........if God needs help,

it costs me nothing to lend him a hand.

I will speak for his cause where I can .

That's the least I can do at my age especially since he was so good to me.

But who were these tall gray men?

I have no idea.

Maybe death, maybe time, maybe people from the future.

I am still alive, so maybe , finally,

I am doing something I was born to do. lol

Have a good one.

:)

Toys for Christmas

This is another picture of my Mom in Singapore.

She is sitting with more of my doll collection and over her is a very nice print I loved

hanging in my living room.
The 8 immortals were rewarded with immortality for their good deeds.
The Taoists believe in ying and yang (opposites like male female)

The Eight were called the "roaming immortals" in Taoist legends. Their images appear in all sorts of arts and crafts, including furniture, porcelain, paintings and embroideries, often to convey the idea of a leisurely, carefree life.

The best known tale that involves all of them together is Ba Xian Guo Hai or The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea. It describes how, when crossing a sea in their wanderings, each of them used a different object (a walking cane, a fan, a scimitar, etc.) as a vessel. Thes has given rise to an everyday saying: when people try to accomplish the same task by different methods, they are said to be emulating the example of the Eight Immortals crossing the sea.

(Text: pep.com.cn; Photo: baidu.com)

Taoists believe in harmony.

I didn't think anything of it at the time when this picture was taken cause we didn't have internet as such and Singapore practiced censorship, but today, putting my Mom on line with these roaming immortals, sorta immortalizes her as well.

See how life is?

Christmas was toy time and this is when I took out all the toys to display.
The rest of the year I had a spare room where I displayed all my dolls.
It was a lovely room I enjoyed sitting in. I am not sure if I have a picture of it.
Probably not.lol

Another shoulder warmer lol

This one went faster and the third one is almost done as well.

Have a great day!

Travelling Memories.

Singapore is an Island paradise. It is extremely safe and as long as you keep your nose clean, don't chew gum or do drugs, there is so much to do there.

But Singapore is like the Island of Montreal and sooner or later you begin to feel enclosed and you need to get off the island. So, many people head on out to Malaysia next door.
This is what we used do.
What made it even more special was to do it on motorcycles.

My husbands' was the real thing. It was a powerful Honda 400 beauty and mine was a red Yamaha scooter I so enjoyed, because it was automatic.
Once you begin driving it you lose interest driving cars. I drove fast on it but my husband had to drive on low gear with his to stay with me. lol I think I had more fun than he did driving slow.

The weather was always great. Monsoons were soft warm drops of pure heaven falling, purifying your body and soul. You would have to stop to watch a rare monitor lizard cross the street. It was nothing to see gray monkeys along the road in the woods and if you liked morning swims, it might be shared with a 10 foot python also enjoying a morning swim in the same pool.
People with little dogs had to make sure they were secured on a leash or risk being stolen by an owl or other bird of prey.

Across the border in Malaysia we'd end up at Desaru Beach some 1 1/2 hours away.

We loved going there for the beach as it was nicer than Singapores' unless you went to Sentosa Island. The food was good and it had horses to ride and the stories were interesting.

Once over 500 monkeys showed up at the hotel and stayed 2 weeks , helping themselves to food the guests would supply them . Then one night they all just left.

Well then another surprise came when two tigers swam across the ocean from Indonesia.

They reached the Desaru Beach which had a group of Japanese tourists at the time.

Well they thought this was a tourist attraction and fearlessly approached the hungry tigers with their cameras clicking away.

The tigers decided they were something too good to pass up and attacked.

I did not hear if any one died but apart from the tragedy, it seemed funny people would not

pay attention to the fact that tigers are wild animals and would never be set free to roam around tourists. The fact they swam an ocean to get there was another miraculous feat.

So After Desaru, you scooted along getting drunk on the wave upon wave of palm trees covering the countryside.
Once the palm oil trees finished

there were the rubber trees they used to make gum and other things.

and the durian which smelled horrible but was full of vitamins and treasured by the locals

and jack fruit trees. This was the first time I tasted such an excellent fruit.
It was very quiet there and unless you woke up early, hardly a soul was seen in and around the little bamboo huts.

The mornings you would see people come out and start a fire outside in a metal container to make breakfast and to wash up. There would be chickens walking around and this is when I began to admire the roosters who sported the most beautiful feathers. I swore that when I got home I would get me a rooster like that and I did but he wasn't very appreciated by the neighbors so I had to bring him back to the farmer. lol

We would come to a small town where they had little outdoor boutiques . To get to them you had to walk on a stony walkway uphill, only to walk into a very tall Buddha sitting hidden, against a very green mountain. He was sitting in total solitude and peace and it was here I fell in love with a totally different world from what I knew and came from.

Then we found another interesting thing. Beans...... which they called stink beans.lolStinky beans or 'petai' served with plain white rice. They were very healthy beans to eat but gave you bad persipiration and a strong urine smell. The beans contained sucrose frustose and glucose and fiber giving you lots of energy.

It alleviated depression because of its tryptophan content, a protein which turns into serotonin

There was ageless time here, tucked away from a modern hectic world.
This was a mystical, strange and wild place.
There is a Udumbara flower that blooms only once in three thousand years and it bloomed in Korea and Malaca, Malaysia recently. The Malay (Chinese) also said that the Buddha was seen to move its lips and bat its eyes and it was captured on many iphones and you tubed.

Some thought this was a blessing from heaven and others thought this was an act of demons entering Buddha making him move his mouth eyes and chest as if he was breathing.

Many people would come out to talk about how much they wanted change in Malaysia.
They wanted big buildings, cars and lots of business. They wanted.... things.
The same things, we have no place to throw away today, as a throw away society.

I would look at them almost with tears in my eyes because they did not see the beauty and treasure surrounding them . They did not see the great life they lived.
Many a dying soul would love to live the life they lived.
In the dirt, it was simple, clean and sacred.

If all of this was destroyed, then what would they have exchanged it for? Cement? Coldness of the mind and spirit?
Here if they had no food, the forest provided but in the city they would be forced to steal and the penalty for this was the cutting off of hands.
Here they had freedom and in a city, every thing is scrutinized and criticized by ugly words of people, who may know and understand nothing themselves.

Where would the innocent children play in the city?
It is here that you envy the innocence in the eyes of the children because our childrens' innocence is stolen from them by TV, toys teaching of sex and makeup etc....

They can't sit and play with frogs or hermit crabs and chase chickens or even eat rice full of ants and tell you thank you. This is good.
They can't enjoy cooking by a fire consisting of things they picked up in the woods.

To just play by yourself quietly enjoying the feel and smells of life around you is something our kids do not have to explore anymore and then we ask why so many of our kids suffer from ADD etc..
We force people to live an un natural life.
Would our society know how to survive without a corner superstores' supplies?

Well the kids in Malaysia might be able to, learning from their parents, how to make do with what they did have. provided by God.

I envied them this lifestyle and then....... rode off into the sunset.


Have a great Day!

Soaps

Susan Lucci
Frons, is cancelling"All My Children" and "One Life to Live" in April, saying the soap operas were a victim of declining interest. He said trying to prop up shows in severe decline was like "trying to catch a falling knife."

Susan Lucci disagrees and like her character in All My Children, she will not take no for an answer.
The Soaps are like a drug.
Once you get into them, they become your family and you worry as they worry on the set, what will happen tomorrow ?

It was hard for me to stop watching them but I did.
I began seeing things which did not make sense.
I put myself into a situation and knew I would have a different more adult solution to my problem but these actors, were told to make immature decisions while making millions to live the life they live.
And
They never grow old lol
So I asked myself, how do people who know how to make millions in their story lines, make such stupid life mistakes?
If they were that stupid how are they not swindled of their grandeur? lol
Then the plots became stupider and stupider and yet ..........
here we are , all glued to the set.
I remember the heartbreak I had when Another World was canceled.This was my favorite soap.

wiki
“We do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand other worlds,” which Irna said represented the difference between “the world of events we live in, and the world of feelings and dreams that we strive for.”
Another World focused less on the conventional drama of domestic life as seen in other soap operas, and more on exotic melodrama between families of different classes and philosophies.

I was devastated for Mac and Rachel Cory when Mac died.



The importance of the Cory family on the show was shaken when Douglass Watson,(mac) unexpectedly died while on vacation in Arizona in spring 1989 from a heart attack. At the time of Watson's death, Another World was about to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

After the show was taken over by other actors and Rachel was bereft of her true love Mac Cory, the show lost its' power because no other strong love like theirs replaced it.

Some people belong together and when one dies, the other soon does as well.

Susan Lucci has to accept I guess, that the world has moved on.
Ladies of her caliber, have been replaced by a more modern woman in pant suits, straight hair and Reeboks lol
It's too bad because the new shows live on the edge of porn and are just not interesting anymore.
They are empty of emotion and suffering and aspects of true love and commitment.

Fickleness of spirit is promoted not just between people in love but in business and politics and religion.
I mean look at George Cloony.Everyone makes a big deal about him but watching him, all I can see is a man afraid to grow up and behave his age instead of his shoe size.

The dangerous consequence results in the raising of an uncaring, cold society, bereft of conscience and spirit.
We see this in horrible acts of cruelty which we never saw or heard of before, as a daily event.
Convicts would not support a pedophile in jail.
Today, jails are filled with them.
The new generation finds it harder to survive today.
Schools are tougher.
Teachers are told not to be true to themselves but follow the program they emotionally can't.
Oh well.
I guess there is room to replace Passions now with all these new problems surfacing.
Maybe they can save society by bringing back tears and hope into todays' daily lives, we read about in the papers.
Or make it
40 per cent cheaper to make the cooking and weight-loss series that are replacing the two soap operas.
Have a great day!!!

Freedom

In the soulful crying of the sea gull
Ghostly clouds blow over silent
Silhouettes of dying men
Leaving ballads to be sung

So Austere a golden sunrise
To the men who lie in blood
Fingers cold hold onto last breaths
Eyes Speak of soul and love and heart

By Silhouettes of dying men
The soulful crying of the gull is
So austere and cold and strong
Walking free behind the fallen
All the brave who did not run.
A Lady's Life

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I had become confused when I heard the word 'service' used with these agencies:


Canada Revenue Service
Canadian Postal Service
Provincial Telephone Service
Cable, Satellite TV Service
Civil Service
Federal, Provincial, Municipal & Public Service
Customer Service

They do not provide what I thought 'service' meant.

But today, I overheard two farmers talking, and one of them said he had hired a bull to 'service' a few cows.

BAM!!! It all came into focus. Now I understand what all those agencies are doing to us.

I hope that you are now as enlightened as I am.

Collections Over the Years

Over the Years you collect stuff.
Elephants for good luck
Fishermen for tons of luck. Those are from Bali.
Vases for a picture you like From ingapore. They had an outdoor pottery.

The Elephant on the left is from India and smells of sandal wood to this day.

Each article has a story to tell. A tiny bit of memory attached to it, of history.

These are a lot of things to pass on to your children and or grand children
if they should so desire to value them and learn history as it happened by the people who sat to make these things.

Children today see it as clutter. lol
They are into other stuff because our society does not raise them to value the same things as we did in our time.
Some how, by over protecting people with laws,which do not protect but give a false sense of security, we do not raise them to be tough enough to ride the storms life will present them.

I think the best thing to do with this stuff, is to put them all away in the attic, so no one sees them and then one day when we are gone, they can open boxes and find little treasures . lol

As I am writing this, on the 7th of Feb. 11 am. the wind has picked up to storm level.
Wonder what's up?

:)
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You are driving a bus. Four people get on, three people get off, then eight people get on and ten people get off, then 6 people get on and 2 more people get off. What color were the bus driver's eyes?
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Wow Increase your Gas Mileage Is this True?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHAUsGlfbx8

Sweet Chores of Life

This is a little piece I got in Singapore.

I love little boxes to put things in and use this piece for my little treasures.
I loved how they put on the finishing touches on this one

The statues on top made me laugh when I got them and they still bring a smile to my face because the Gramma takes me back to Mark Twain's, Huckleberry Fin times.

The Shoemaker reminds me of my Grandfather, who was very particular with his shoes and that of his children's. He repaired them in spite of everyone wanting a new pair, instead of always wearing repaired old ones. Here the shoe maker is demanding to fix the shoes just like my Grandfather did.
His work was immaculate and they looked almost brand new once he was done with them.

The glass flowers in the decorated pot I also love because I don't have to fuss with them and wait for them to bloom and they are easy to wash and maintain.

Whenever I look at this display, it makes me happy because of how it speaks to me.

Spirits Among US

Mama Zens blog spoke of a book Spirited by Rebecca Rosen.
Most people do not believe in spirits and I personally have never met any to talk to although I wish I could like they do in Medium and the Ghost Whisperer.
You get to find out so much from spirits if this could be true.

But living in Singapore, I once heard a funeral over the wall of our estate. When a person died there, the Chinese bring the body home and they make all his special things out of paper that he might need in the next world. So he has a car, his favorite slippers, pipe etc...and money to pay the devil to get out of hell. They also hire criers who cry over the body and people who bang pots and bells to keep evil away. So this was what they were doing when I was sitting in my living room on the floor writing a letter to my Mother explaining what was happening.
I wrote "Mom they are clanging and banging to keep the devil away.... and as I was writing devil,
the lamp in my dining room burst with such ferocity that the glass pieces flew across the room all the way to the glass table, maybe 20 feet, where I was sitting at on the floor. I was dumb founded.
And I felt eerie as if they kept him from crossing the wall and so he was angry at my place and showed me since I brought the topic up. This why they say evil comes when you invite it in and I guess by talking about him I was inviting him in. lol
I told my friends who told me about the spirits that lived in the Raffles hotel.
They had one woman who was always crying in one room and then a few ladies came down for tea once dressed in long gowns and white gloves with umbrellas and they had tea in the outside
garden where tables were set up. Once they left a customer asked the waiter who they were and he asked him who are you talking about. The customer said those two ladies having tea at this table. The waiters eyes grew big and he asked the customer what they looked like so he explained, The waiter left and brought in the manager who told them about the hotel ghosts. These ladies were included
One woman told me about about an old empty cement pool that had people walking inside as if they didn't know it was a pool.
The Chinese believe in ghosts.
My Mom did the ouiji board until it spelled out I am the horned goat meet me at midnight. She dropped everything and never did it again.
One of her friends on new years, sat by a three sided mirror. The thing to do was to place the mirror in front of an open window and then keep looking in it and as soon as you get a glimpse of your future husband you turn the mirror over. Well she wanted a closer look and was beaten up.
There have been cases girls were beaten to death by the spirit which walked through.

Some people have 7th sight and I believe in that.

When my grandfather died, I was sleeping and opened my eyes just to see him looking over me and smiling. I thought Oh grandfather is here and I am safe, I can sleep now. That same night he came to my mother in the kitchen. She turned around from the sink and saw him and he asked her for a cup of coffee. She said sure and turned to make him one then remembered he died. She turned and he was gone. She wasn't sleeping. She was washing dishes. So he came to the both of us the same night to say good bye.

I think all people have 7th sight but our brains are so cluttered, we don't see.
You need to be in a certain frame of mind to be able to do this. In my case I was a child and just about to fall asleep and my Mom probably was also numb from her fatherinlaw, who she had a good relationship with, dying.

There were other things too that happened so when it comes to spirits, I am not so certain I don't believe in them. If they exist, then all the rest must be true too. Shirley McLean tried to experiment with the un explainable and she said she could fly on a string far away from her body.
She could go to different places and see different things. Once I was meditating and I got to a point where I felt something leaving my body and I got scared and woke up. I thought if I let it go, it won't come back but what a journey I would be on. I could fly.
You forget to breath at that moment.
For me this is risk taking I am not prepared for. It could end up in death if you stay away too long and you have no concept of time doing this. Someone has to pull you back.

One needs to understand that we live with limits. Our eyes do not see as well as, say a bee.
Our sense of smell is not as good as a wolves or a sharks.

So we speak in terms of our experiences and paradigms but sometimes things sift through and we are given a taste of the unexplainable.
I can live with that. :)

World's Rarest Butterfly

Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly = San Pedro, California,
is on the endangered species list because of over development.
It uses loco weed as a larval food plant.

he flight and reproductive period lasts from January to May.They are non-migratory and very particular in their use of larval foodplants, which is why a stable environment is required for them to survive. The Palos Verdes Blue's adult lifespan is only five days.
It takes a lot of love and care to raise them.

They are not as strong as the Monarch Butterfly which migrates from Canada all the way down into Mexico. It takes them three generations to do this.

Singapore has a butterfly and moth museum on Sentosa Island and I've seen some that were about a foot wide. It is such a pleasure to walk inside their butterfly building full of vegetation and be surrounded by these beauties flying all around you.
It's sorta like being in fairy land.
==========================================================
What's the biggest moth in the world ? A mammoth !
Why was the moth so unpopular ? He kept picking holes in everything !

What pillar doesn't need holding up ? A caterpillar .
What does a cat go to sleep on ? A caterpillow

What's green and dangerous ? A caterpillar with a bad temper !
What does a caterpillar do on
New Years Day ? Turns over a new leaf !

Daffy-nition of a caterpillar: A worm in a fur coat !

What has stripes and pulls a tractor ? A caterpillar tractor
What do you call a bug dance? A moth ball!

Why was the little insect crying? It wanted it's moth-er!
How are caterpillars and babies alike? They both creep and crawl!
:)