15 Dec 2005 — Hmm, how time flies! Received a mail from Satoko today who reminded me that I’ve been home for more than 2 weeks now. So I guess it’s time that I update everyone about my whereabouts and what I’ve been up to.

First of all, I’ve actually branded this first portion of my trip back as my “tour of duty”, i.e. duty to family. Probably ‘cos I live in Sydney, I do somehow feel guilty about not spending enough time with my family, so it is my intention to do so as much as I can whenever I’m home, especially this period before William joins me. So in addition to having lots of meals with my parents, going grocery-shopping with them and basically just trying to spend more time at home, I’ve also made a conscious effort to spend time with my grandparents. Part of this includes accompanying them on a weekly bus-ride day. They used to regularly do this themselves until my grandfather was advised not to by his doctor due to health circumstances. However as long as someone goes along with them, it’s ok. So knowing how much they’ve missed their weekly excursions, I volunteered to do so. And wow, the moment I mentioned it, you could see my ah-gong and ah-por’s eyes just lit up with glee, making it all worthwhile!

So here we were just yesterday. When I say bus-ride day, I really mean taking buses the whole day. For instance, last week, the itinerary was bus no.157 from Bukit Batok to Toa Payoh, then bus no. 31 from Toa Payoh to Tampines, then 969 from Tampines to Woodlands, and finally as a concession, the MRT from Woodlands back to Bukit Batok. Yesterday, it was bus no.188 from Bukit Batok to Harbourfront, then bus 80 from Harbourfront to Sengkang, then 87 to Bedok, and finally 66 back to Bukit Batok. Wah liao, by the time we got back, I was really quite seh oredi… but wat to do, the old folks really enjoy themselves. My ah-gong doesn’t like the MRT because he says you can’t see much on the train. His favourite is the air-conditioned double-decker buses, where like a kid, he’ll definitely grab the seats in the first row on the upper deck. And my ah-por, she’s like a historian cum tourguide, rattling away about all the changes that have been made to the various locations as we pass them on the bus. At our pit-stops, we’ll have lunch or tea and a snack or pay a visit to the “$2 shops” — on the whole, quite a leisurely way to spend the afternoon.
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