San Francisco, 23-26 Sep

Here’s what Father did for us…

1. We didn’t even feel the almost 14-hour plane ride! Amazing
2. Father provided us a lovely family to stay with
3. The Pareja family… Arlene, Anna Mae, Amy took great care of us
4. Arlene picked us up from the airport and over the few days we were there, drove us all over the San Francisco
5. Not to forget their friends as well – Karinna, Katya, Karen, Rose
6. Arlene took great trouble to locate a pot pie shop because Mum kept thinking about the pot pie she had years ago when she was in San Francisco
7. Papa Pareja bought us nice Peking duck
8. We had meals at “Cat & the Fiddle,” a Thai restaurant in China Town, a “Happy Days” restaurant, Pot Pie cafe
9. We got to visit the Sausalido, Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Bridge / Park, Rose Garden, Conservatory of Flowers, Botanical Garden, San Francisco Municipal Railway, BART, Watch a street performer, Mall
10. At the mall, we made friends with a Taiwanese grandmother and her cute grandson
11. Have dinner at the Opera and visit with my new friend, Denise Atchley (Digital Storyteller)
12. At the Opera, the waiters and waitresses perform and sing too

Japan, 21-23 Sep

 

Mum and I made a count of the many blessings we had on our trip. Here are the ones from Narita, Japan…

1. The seven-hour flight to Tokyo went by quickly, we didn’t even feel it.
2. I declined an offered to join the Grand Mecure membership early this year, but Mum insisted that I take it up despite my reluctance. It turned out to be a blessing because we got two complimentary room nights at the Grand Mecure Narita.
3. The hotel was just 20 minutes drive away from the Narita airport.
4. Our flight came on time for us to catch the free shuttle bus to and from the airport.
5. The location of the hotel was perfect for us — within walking distance from amenities and sights.
6. We really liked it that our room was just by the elevator.
7. It was clean.
8. Mummy enjoyed soaking herself in the bath tub – I could hear her splashing around in the tub (she was just like a little girl!) She said she had a good scrub and clean.
9. We had fun exploring the small town — even though we were told that the town was small, drap and boring.
10. Our friends G and S gave us a gift so we could enjoy a good meal.
11. We had fun trying genuine Japanese food… sushi on a belt, Japanese dinner platter.
12. We found our way to the Aeon Mall.
13. On our way home from the mall, we tried to get on a bus home but the bus driver who could not speak English signalled us to get off the bus. We didn’t understand why he shooed us down. Later the same bus driver stopped in front of the stop where we were waiting, made his whole bus load of passengers wait while he got off the bus to ask us to get on board. We figured it was probably because the bus was making a loop and so it was not time for us to get on board. We were so impressed at the kindness of the driver, but even more at how Father was looking after us in a land where we could not speak a word of the native tongue.
14. We enjoyed two good buffet breakfasts at the hotel.
15. I managed to get me a fridge magnet which I collect for every country and place that I visit.
16. We also enjoyed shopping at the Y100 shop – so fun!
17. We got to phone Joylyn.
18. The stay in Japan really helped break the long flight to the USA. The pace was all our own.

Writers Coffee Lounge

Its been fun getting to know four of my writers group members better. I don’t know how it happened that we gravitated towards each other. We wanted more out of the main writers meeting that we ended up coming together. We didn’t plan it. It didn’t happen because of some structure but because we are all so passionate about writing. Our agenda?

To help resource each other so that we can grow as writers and get published.

At each meeting, one member will share about himself / herselt. At the last meeting, Au shared how she got into writing and her life as a Journalist in Sun Star. Then we critique a piece of work that’s written by one of us. We don’t mind the corrections or feedback because it helps us write better. Finally, one of us will teach on any topic related to writing and communications. MR for instance has been teaching us how to write and make use of good dialogues to bring about the personality of a character.  

They are such interesting people.

Retiree MR is a former captain of a commercial ship who later became a lecturer at the Singapore Polytechnic. He has endless stories to tell. He is a devout Muslim, and a man who really loves his wife and daughter. He is a published writer but most keen to help us develop and get published. MR is a very good teacher and coach.

MN who comes from a family of famers in India read that many farmers in his country were committing suicide. He was so troubled that he took a month off to do some investigative work. He got so carried away with it that he ended up buying a farm and spending a year working as a farmer. He let himself go through all the pains the farmers went through in order to understand their plight. He said he almost lost his own job in the course of his own pursuits.

He’s a funny man and get teased a lot in our group because he keeps talking about writing a book, but it is all in his head… our group is keeping him on his toes and making him write and not just talk about writing!

LV is a soft spoken Indian who is so keen about writing that she took up a writing course. When my book got published, she made a ceremony out of it during our meeting at her house and prepared a nice tea and cocktails. She’s vegetarian. LV lives all the way in the west side of Singapore while most of us live in the east. It’s a great sacrifice for her to travel when our meeting are in the east. Such is her passion to write.

CA is a mother who is keen to write children’s stories. She was the fun one who mooted the idea of extending our two-hour meetings to three. To which we all enthusiastically agreed. We meet twice a month at each of our homes.

I’m really enjoying my new friends.