Are You On Auto Pilot?

Is that a dummy smothering the pilot???

The title perhaps need to be elaborated.  It is no surprise that most of us are on auto pilot for the entire living days we are on earth.

When one is born a Chinese descent, you know that on Lunar New Year's eve, you'll see so many people you don't know, that you call something or rather title (apparently related somehow to you), they'll be eating the food that your mom slaved over for days to prepare, and goes home only to appear again the next day, wearing new shiny traditional Chinese clothes (or red in colour), bringing their entire family (the more kids they have, the bigger headache your mom has) and talk loudly with your parents while their kids receiving red pocket called 'angbao'.
Then your parents would nudge you to say that Chinese lines that you've practiced over and over again, fold your fist together and expects to be given an 'angbao', too.

From then on, every year approaching that Lunar New Year's eve, you'll hear your mom stressing out on how the house should be painted over outside, then inside, then outside, then inside, then new furniture is imperative, then new dining set is a must and the list goes on.
As she gets older and we get more mobile, she'll start telling you to stop sweeping the floor on New Year's day, don't cut your nails or use scissors on New Year's day, don't work on New Year's day, and a bunch of new rules to follow on and on and on.
Then your mom goes through a phase of acquiring new skills, Chinese art of Feng Shui and other Chinese metaphysics topics.  The bunch of rules for New Year, became more exact and calculated.  It becomes a hard line doctrine.  Stars are flown every year and plants move accordingly.  The repainting and redecorating becomes even crazier, because apparently you're a Goat, she's a Snake, and dad just shook his head thinking oh boy what are we arguing about!

This is the auto pilot of a well versed overseas Chinese.  Perhaps some other can tell me their version of auto pilot before Christmas.  Thankfully, I'm not on auto pilot anymore.
In fact tomorrow, I might just start my day by sweeping the floor, washing my hair, and working all day.  Let's see what happens to me this year.

Fly horsey, horsey, doesn't matter if you're a wooden horse, I know you're made of cloud, so, fly.....

It's not about the Destination

It's about the journey and the things you learn when you stop and be silent

Summer has been lovely and for the first time in many a long year I stayed in NZ and more particularly enjoyed my house and garden.
Long days with the windows and doors open and the sweet smell of jasmine perfuming the interior of the house whose internal shadows provided a delicious cool against the afternoon heat outside.
Early evenings, just before sunset, found me with a glass of wine in one hand and a hose in the other watering my garden and my crops of spinach which I am growing to give me iron and standing in the wisps of cooking smoke from the barbecue as they danced across the stones and bore themselves upwards before melting into the trees.

Also friends have been kind and plentiful and I have hardly had an evening alone. There has been good company nearly all the time. 
This year, too, the shop turns 100 years old.
How I have come to love being in my shop more than ever. The work itself provides useful occupation and enjoyment especially when mingled with lunches at Heizou and Tai Chi practice to the amusement of window shoppers who catch me at it and piano practice and visiting friends. Moreover it is a quiet haven away from the maddening crowd.                       I have so much to be grateful for.

FREE: ShePaintsHorses.com Competition

Guess what!
If you love animals, you get the chance of winning a painting through this competition.

Just click the link below and follow the instruction with the picture like the above.
https://www.facebook.com/shepaintshorses

Do it before 24th January 2014!

Sew Along Qi Pao for Lunar New Year

The Qi Pao remix

As the Lunar New Year is coming closer (31 January 2014), a favourite sewing site that uses Japanese sewing pattern is holding a sew along little girls' Qi Pao (Chinese girls' dress).
I'm so excited and am sharing with all of my readers here.

Click this link:
Japanese Sewing Books Qi Pao Sew Along

Fabric guide for this dress is usually thick silk material with elaborate embroidery, but a normal cotton will do just fine since little girls grew up so fast and will only wear the dress once a per year.
As for me, I have my formal red Qi Pao that I wore once for a Gu Zheng competition, and a fun cotton one that I probably will never wear.  Because I prefer my flip flop and normal clothes for everyday, even on that day :)




Disclaimer: the picture above is not mine and not the sew along dress.

Sorting Out the Posts

It's been a few years since I started blogging and I found that my posts are so varied that it became cluttered.
So this year I have decided to separate my daughter's work and my spiritual development from my original single life obsessions posts.

To see what my daughter does, go to:
Splendid Story Writing

To see my spiritual development progress, go to:
Quantum Energy Works

To see what I obsessed about this very moment, go to:

Diary of a Single Mom

Phew, I feel like I've tidied up my desk even though I still can't see the surface.

"World War Z" Review

I am not drawn to movies with zombies, but the fact that it was partly shot in Malta, I'll give Brad Pitt another chance to redeem himself after 6 children with Angie.

The movie centered on 'Gerry' (Brad Pitt), a United Nations employee and how he alone saves the world from a pandemic that turns humans into flesh eating animal like creatures.

To me, the plot is predictable (inspired from Max Brooks' 2006 apocalyptic horror novel "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War") and the way the zombies behave, i.e. throwing themselves onto their prey (were they replaced by dolls for those actions? hence the throwing themselves movement?), was unsavory and to have the thought "Walking Dead" perhaps is a better representative of this zombie actions makes it more uncouth.  The teeth clacking part were truly comical.

The funny part came when the story moves to Jerusalem (shot in Valletta, Malta's capital) and the Maltese native who's watching the movie with me started pointing out the streets he often passes and the fact that those extras playing the crowds was shouting "ejja, ejja" (Maltese for "come on, come on"), of course it could've been one of those universal sounds like "oh" or "ah".

For me, the message was too clear for mass subliminal messages.
"Get vaccinated always".
The movie shows that Pitt injected himself with a deadly pathogen to escape being bitten, then when UN develops an anti virus, he's injected again with that anti virus.  Wow, how many times are you going to get yourself injected, Pitt?
For a fact, I never get a flu shot, and I hardly ever get flu ever!  Compare myself to my siblings who do get a shot, they've been sick all year long with flu or cough in and out all the time.  What's wrong here?  Something clearly doesn't add up to me.

To sum it up, I don't like this movie.  Firstly for the cheap body (dummy) throwing zombies.  Secondly, for the underlying mass brainwashing fear induced message of get yourself a jab or die.  The movie end by saying that we need to help each other, well, that's all true, but help each other in what?  Reminding your neighbour to get vaccinated?
Give it a pass if you don't like to be blatantly brainwashed.


Disclaimer:  I do not own the photo above.