Auntie Sally

Auntie Sally came to my workplace and treated me to Tim Ho Wan!

This is the second Michelin restaurant I have eaten at. The food is good, especially their signature char siew buns.



I told her that I am enjoying my work, and as usual she credits God for all the good things that happened to me. All things considered, I do think I am quite blessed in all aspects other than family.

Her son is moving back to Singapore from California, permanently! This is great news for Auntie Sally. I think she sees me as a second son of sorts, but nothing beats having the real son back.

She is going to be 71 this year, but she looks much younger than that. She has a few blocked arteries now, but she's taking the steps to stay fit. She's probably living a more healthy life style than me.

Thank you God for putting her in my life 15 years ago. She is one of the few women who really changed my life.

红桃

That is my grandmother's name. A two-character name common for mainlanders. She was born in Singapore from mainlander parents.

Today is her funeral. I took a leave from work to attend it. I wasn't going to do it until my sister asked me to. What is wrong with me.

Last night there was a ceremony at her wake. There were plenty of chanting, and at the end of it all, we burned a big paper house and lots of incense money for her. I met many of my uncles who I don't remember seeing in my life.

I just watched her casket enter the crematorium. My mum cried a little when that happened. Mum will go collect her ashes tomorrow morning.

Rest in peace, grandma. Thank you for making me possible, so that I may see this beautiful world.

Karaoke, genki sushi, and wake

I went karaoke with my best friends yesterday.

I decided to take a photo of it. I hardly take photos anymore, but it occured to me that I haven't taken many photos for non-work purposes since the Princess visited Singapore. I won't remember what happened at this stage of my life if I don't start taking some photos.

We treated Matt for this to celebrate his finding a job. Not everyone is good at studying, and our world is too merciless to people who are not as capable. It took him a while, but he finally got a job, and that's wonderful. The salary is actually quite decent as well.

After that we had dinner at Genki sushi. It is so delicious as always. Even though I have saved up a lot of money, I still ate as little as I could. My current main goal is to buy a house, and I will never allow myself to get careless with money. Leo and Matt ate almost $50 worth of sushi... Three times of what I spent.

I remember spending just $10 when I ate here with the Princess. I paid for half of what she ate, which was about $24. In retrospect, I should have let her eat as much as she wanted and paid for the whole meal. At that time I couldn't have known that I would never see her again. Human beings are such foolish creatures. They don't cherish what they have until those people or things are gone. By then it's too late to do anything about it. I learnt my lesson.



At night, I went for my grandmother's wake. Baolin and Mingguo came to visit. Both of them were my best friends back in 2002, so we have 15 years of friendship behind us.

Baolin has been together with his girlfriend for 5 years, and they already bought a house together. I expect to attend his wedding in a few years. I will give him the biggest ang bao he has ever seen when the time comes.

Mingguo is very hardworking now. Never taking a single day of paid leave and sick leave. As he did not attend university, his salary is relatively low even after working 2 years. Still, he is trying his best to save money, so he doesn't have to struggle with living later on. He has changed much from our primary school days, but I guess I have as well.

Work hasn't been going well for Baolin, so I asked him to try switching to my company instead. Both of us spent countless hours playing a game made by my company back in 2003, so it will be wonderful if he can join me there too. He will be sending his resume, and if he gets selected to go for an interview, I will do whatever I can to help him.

I treasure our friendship very much. I did something stupid 6 years ago that damaged our friendship, but I hope that I will be able to repair that and go back to the way we were before.

The same goes for Mingguo too. I wish we can meet up more often and become close friends again. Childhood friends are special. I will never be able to make another one again in this life.

Speaking of childhood friends, I had another who is gone from my life. Edwin. Something happened between us and we stopped talking to each other. I wish I can go back in time and change that.

I learnt from my mistakes. I hope I have become a better person from all these failures, although I will definitely still make plenty of bad decisions.

愛姫

This is the first character I drew for my job. It probably won't be used in the game since it's just a practice session, but I gave my best effort for it, so it meant a lot to me. 

The character is a princess named Megohime (愛姫). She is the wife of Date Masamune, and in this picture, I am trying to portray her visiting his grave and reminiscing their time together. She feels empty without him in his life, and her only remaining wish is for her clan to be revived.

Like a song lyricist and a writer, I think one has to experience love to write about love. I have experienced love with a real princess before, so I know all the emotions a person experience when he is in love. All the happiness, sadness, frustration, and a hundred emotions, they are the fuel for my imagination. Thank you, Princess. 

Grandma

My grandmother passed away a few hours ago. I visited her during Chinese New Year, so I have no regrets. Even though I was never close with her, I wouldn't exist if not for her.

She is very long-lived, and passed away peacefully. Still, she looked fairly healthy just two months ago, it's a bit unbelievable.

Not everyone gets to go in peace. Death can come suddenly, for anyone of any age. I will continue to treasure my loved ones at all times; all the temporary visitors in my life, and all the long-staying ones.

I haven't actually experienced a death of someone I really loved yet. That day will come eventually, but may it be far away. And if it's my own, I hope my friends will stay strong and move on quickly.