Long-lost Friends

"Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver, the other gold."  Remember this old quote?  I was surfing Facebook today and found the home page of a dear friend I had lost touch with many years ago.  We were best of friends from 2nd through 10th grade and even reunited one weekend several years after college with our husbands in tow.  We drifted apart after that under the pressures and demands of life and I sorely regretted letting that connection lapse.  I trust that time has not dimmed that spark of a friendship and we can be friends anew, learning all that has happened in the intervening years, laughing and crying and sharing again.

It's wonderful to make new friends - find out how many things you have in common, delight in exploring each other's lives, loves, and history.  It's the kind of adventure that makes me feel young.  But, it's also wonderful to have old friends - those special people who have stayed in your life regardless of the trials, the years, or the miles apart.  It's treasure knowing there is someone just a phone call or knock away with whom you can share a secret without fear, cry in desperation, or glory in a triumph.  And one to whom you can say "Remember when..." and s/he won't groan because "Mom always tells that story,"  but will laugh with you until the tears run, and even add something you've forgotten.  Maybe there should be a corollary to that quotation, as in "The first keeps you young, the second takes you home."  It's not perfect - but hey, I don't make my living as a poet!

Keeping Up With the Kids

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit one of my friends who has a 17-month old son. I have to say, that's a tough age to keep up with! Despite our best plans, he decided on this day to not take his nap. I don't know how moms manage to have the energy. I loved playing with this guy, but was exhausted when I got home. Then again, I'm at the grandma stage, not the mom stage. In fact, while my friend looked for birthday presents at the toy store and I pushed her son around in the stroller, one auntie asked me if he was my grandson. I had to laugh at my reaction, as I don't really think of myself as that old, despite the calendar.

Each age has its trials and its blessings and I find myself looking more at babies and little children and reacting much differently than I used to.  My heart just melts and I can't help but smile at them - and funny enough - most of them smile back at me.  I guess I now have a "grandma" face to which they can relate.  No more tense, stressed out professional woman, am I.  I have the time to look, to smile, and to enjoy the best of these tykes - and then go home to rest afterwards!

Evening on the Town

On Thursday, we dined at the Rise with several of Randy's co-workers and visitors from Genentech.  The restaurant is a casual dining buffet located on the lobby level of the new Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Tower 1.  The seafood is good & plentiful, but the desserts were the best, being tasty and light.  Mary Lou posed with us at the ticket counter before we headed up to the Skypark.

This photos is one of many I took up top.  Although it was a bit misty this night, it's still a  fabulous  place to view the Marina area of Singapore, especially  with all the lights.  The "infinity" pool one level up from the observation deck is only for the use of hotel guests, but you can get very close to it to get the effect of being right at the edge of the building.  Not for the faint-hearted!  The trees lining the walkway make for a lush setting and you can hang around as long as you like, taking in the view.  Well worth the S$20 pax!

We wandered through the shopping centre surrounding the casino afterwards.  It's a multi-level extravaganza that seems to be filling up fairly quickly as construction is completed.  We're not quite up to the level of consumerism required to actually purchase something at these high-end shops, but it sure is interesting to see the merchandise on display.  One huge diamond displayed was several million dollars!

It's also Mid-Autumn Festival & moon cakes can be found everywhere.  This very rich pressed cake is indispensable during this moon-worship festival, one of the four most important Chinese holidays.  It comes in many different styles and quality levels, but is typically made with a lotus-seed paste filling surrounded by a thin pastry crust with embossed/raised symbols.  This beautiful display shows a mold and some of the ingredients included. Yum!

Life Connections

This week we got disturbing news that two of our oldest friends and brothers in Christ are in the hospital.  When these things happen, I feel every inch of that 8,500+ miles that we are away from "home."  Sending an email seems so inadequate, calling is difficult with the slow access speed here, and hugs just don't cross the miles.  With all our modern ways to communicate, nothing can replace being face-to-face in troubled times.  I think of the difficult times in our lives when our friends sat with us in emergency or surgery waiting rooms, brought us meals as we struggled with home care, and lent us ears to listen and soft shoulders to cry into when we couldn't bear things anymore.  This is what God  intended for us - to turn to Him in prayer and to each other for comfort and support.  I'm sorry I can't be there for our old friends right now, but I hope that our new friends here know we are here for them.

Lessons on Life - Bali Style

We returned to Singapore on Monday evening after a wonderful 4-day stay in Bali, Indonesia.  Here's a shot of us properly clad inside a temple near the governor's mansion.  It was our first visit to Bali and we came away, not with a golden tan but, a deep appreciation of Balinese culture.  For those who are not familiar with Bali, it is one of the thousands of islands forming the nation of  Indonesia.  It's only 2-1/2 hours by plane from Singapore to Denpasar International Airport and it's similar in climate, but south of the equator.

Unlike the rest of Indonesia which is Muslim, Bali is primarily Hindu, and there are temples everywhere, and offerings even in front of shops, that are refreshed every morning.  We found the people to be peaceable, friendly, and family-oriented.  I was particularly drawn to their traditional home compounds, which you still see once you leave the impersonal cities.  Ancient stone walls provide neighborly yet defining separations between compounds and once you step through the front entry (after soothing the ever-present watch dog) you see small buildings - some with only two walls - spaced around the compound, each devoted to one task - cooking, sleeping, storage, working.  The family is multi-generational and may include a widowed aunt or an unmarried cousin, with all the love, caring, and responsibilities that such an arrangement entails.  Ancestors have a special place in the compound as well, where the family shrine is located at the corner of the compound that faces Mount Agung, the highest spot in Bali and therefore the appropriate place for God, Ida Sanghyang Widhi.  The entire village is close-knit as well, sharing in such activities as the elaborate preparations for a cremation ceremony and maintaining the critical water system of the rice fields that supply the main food source.

There is often only hard-packed dirt between the buildings with chickens and dogs roaming at will.  The central area blends seamlessly into a large gardening area at the back, where the family produces much of their supplemental food needs, such as coconuts, coffee, spices, corn, bananas, pineapple, and yams.  The chickens not only provide eggs, fertilizer, and the occasional dinner, but the roosters are an important part of a ceremony that begins with cock fighting.  The compound we visited also had a pen behind the cooking building that housed two young, very pink pigs.  Later when I asked about clothes washing, I was told the deep concrete canal that runs between the road and the front wall of the compounds filled with fast moving water is usually used to hand wash the clothes!  Not the easiest of lives, but we could learn a bit from Bali's traditional lifestyle in existence long before the "green" movement was ever conceived.