If I drive my car into Singapore, I cannot sleep in the next day if I don't have my parking coupons properly placed on the dashboard, else I have to pay fines when an inspector comes around any time of the day to check and find out that I don't have a valid coupon during the time of inspection. I normally use the SG10 coupon at the start of a new day that covers for all day parking including the night till the next morning but I had run out of it. The HDB office that sells it opens only at 8am and my night parking coupon runs out at 7am. So I was up at 6.45am to get dressed and take the car at 7am to drive to the HDB office in the neighborhood.
When I reached the office, I found that the usual car park close to the office was fully occupied and I parked my car at an illegal spot where glaring in front of me was a reminder that I'm liable for a SG400 fine if I violated the condition of that parking slot which was for the disabled! My plan was just sit in the car at that spot until 8am to hope that someone will drive off their car from the parking lot.
8am came and as the parking bay for the handicap was at the very end of the parking lot, I couldn't have a view of any vacant lots if there were any and I reversed my car to the middle of the parking lot and double parked there confidently to observe if any car would be coming out. Somehow my mind was vividly recalling on my birthday last year when I rushed Mom to the hospital in Singapore that I was faced with a lack of parking space problem too. This birthday experience was recorded in a blog post with video here.
Lo and behold within minutes, I saw a lady approaching toward my vehicle with some market bags and keys in her hands. I thought she would either be walking back to her flat nearby or to a car. It turned out that the lady was heading to the car parked on the left side of me beside a taxi. Here is my video clip of the experience to record my good fortune again :
For those who know me well or have been with me in a car looking for a parking spot, 9 out of 10 times a car pulls out for me to give me a parking lot without me having to drive round and round looking for a vacant lot. I would always refer that consistent luck to my name 'Sun Fu' which in Chinese means mountain of luck!
I walked to the HDB office which is always opened punctually to get the new stock of parking coupons that I needed.
With such a great start for the day I went about my schedule of errands. I met a nice man on an errand to pick up things for her daughter and became instant friends!
Since the day started so early, I made breakfast with left over 'Chee Cheong Fun' from KL that I had brought to a party.
I would then do some running for other personal errands which was to some banks, electrical supplies and house repair items and make it my morning exercise. I love to run along the short cuts through the flats with good covered passage ways to head to all these places nearby.
I am appropriately dressed with a good pair of shoes...
...running along these many many passage ways that cut across the town ship
Up some stairs to pump my heart a little more
through shady trees
and out to the commercial area
with access to banks...
...and more banks...
...to spend your money anytime of the day! haha
But I only need to hunt for little things in the shops like a new cover for the ironing board well used by the boys!
NNN... a Spore 3 letter acronym for Nice and New Now!
Buying sealants and electrical parts...
To fix leaky sinks....
...and faulty lamp ICs or integrated circuits
Then the fan suddenly stopped with a loud noise...
.... and was caused by the parts getting lose so I took them out and washed the dirt off and assembled them back tightly to make it work again.
More errands to help the youngest son to pick up some things from a family moving back to the US to be brought to Church for distribution
He was given a nice lamp to sit on the family's piano
He himself had to take part in a practice session for an up coming play at Church so I left him there to return home for more errands.
Back home again in the afternoon to clear the laundry
Of course the boys have been good to be helping to do their part when they are free and/or motivated...
...not forgetting there is always food to cook and feed the family especially on weekends
Then there is still time left in the evening to have the Elders come by the home who brought someone living close by to have missionary discussions where I could share my testimony that God lives and that it was the Spirit that led the person to be found and taught! I know how it works as I was a missionary before too!
Oh yes, despite the busy day, I didn't forget to get some new flowers for Mom for our anniversary visit and decided that each year I will always get different flowers, though they are not fresh ones which are not appropriate for the columbarium, so that she will at least have a different set of everlasting flowers each time we visit. We didn't forget her 1 year anniversary on Nov 6 but just was too busy the previous weekend, with a farewell and birthday celebrations, to arrange a time when all of us could gather at her memorial place. I had posted an anniversary blog for her found here.
We got to visit her the next day on Sunday after our Church meeting.
We miss you very much Mom and we're doing the best we can to take care of ourselves in Singapore!
Last but not Least.....
.... Dad finds or makes time to update the family webpages and blogs on one screen while he watches the world TV news on another. On this date, China had change it's policy of one child a family to now two! Well they are fast improving their laws to catch up to Singapore's policy when we first got married in 1982 of which a commentary can be found in a previous blog post here or see a whole video clip about how it changed Mom's life here.
Well that's all I could record in one Saturday with a slight overflow to the next day. What I've done at other times to better reflect life in Singapore on videos can be found here.
Click here to continue to the next post of Mom's never ending story.)
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