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Showing posts from November, 2012

Fat Lady with a Flea

Human Flea via Internet  Trap under the weight of pretences, I decide to be the girl that I have set myself out to be. A quick tug form the upper corner and it rips, diagonally. One bare boob, a crooked arm and a bare thigh stare back. She has one good eye and that mass of golden curls tumble ridiculously. I peel off the posters one by one. It gets easier. Really. After that I just sweep the desktop calendars onto the floor. What the heck? I decide to reformat her hard disk instead of just getting furious reading her wedding planner. It feels liberating. I’m thrill to be getting married. Right about now it feels like deranged bride meets outrageous mother-in-law with details of a) how to turn the celebration into an over-the-top extravaganza that stars herself or b) how to threaten the son not to marry me and maybe it’s c) all the above and plus how to bake a saw into a wedding cake escape plan Arrgh…. The rampage is nothing short of a detox for the son, my inten

Mum Knows Best

“I did not feel finished with childhood,” Gemma confesses. “Forty years to this day and the flashbacks have come back to haunt me.” Gemma is living with the toxic legacy of a bad mother, my old childhood neighbour. After she was born, her paternal grandmother took to caring for her as her mother was suffering from post natal depression. Soon the grandmother decided that she was a better mother for the little baby girl than her daughter-in-law who was constantly listless, moody and suffering from insomnia. Grandmother was afraid that the daughter-in-law would be careless and harm baby Gemma. Gemma’s mother was desperate and felt guilty and blamed herself for “losing” her child. She became a weepy woman who would sleep during the day and stay up at nights. She had very poor appetite and became very ill physically. Everyone worried about her. It was years later that Gemma was finally reunited with her mother when Grandmother passed on. Her return to her family home was fraught

STONE – BUNDLE – CHOPSTICKS (Used to be Rock-Paper-Scissors)

My cousin Judy loves massages. Spas in particular. She’s always on the lookout for some new and exotic place to try. Once in a while, she would call with exciting news of a new spa. 1 Malay Traditional Spa The first spa we tried together is located in a hypermarket’s Mall. The setup and interior is modest with a distinct Malay flavour: plastic flowers everywhere, hanging from rattan and wicker baskets from the ceiling. Place high on cabinets or even low in terra cotta pots. We thought we had entered a bridal boutique by mistake. After we changing into batik sarongs, tied modestly, we sit on cool 1960's rattan circle chair with batik cushion. At the foot of the chair, lay a timber basin filled with warm water, flower petals and halved Kaffir Lime also known as limau purut.  Sweet! The masseurs start us off with a foot bath: a symbolic gesture to the start of our pampering. We wriggle our toes playfully in the warm water, pushing the flower petals with ou