School Bully

It must be me... I felt like I just been home given the state of unsettleness! But when I glance at the date on the last post and the date it reads on my computer, I can't believe it has been a good 2 months.

The boxes are slowly disappearing. Yes, I mean s-l-o-w-l-y. To be fair,I don't mind unpacking. In fact, I love it! There's a clear beginning, an obvious work-in-progress, and a definite end game! What can be so crystal clear in life? The amount of efforts you spend on work ≠ promotion or pay rise. The amount of time you spend coaching your child's school work ≠ good results. Huh?!

I digress.

Back to unpacking - this is only but a small part of returning home. The first victim is B - There's a BIG adjustment that he had to make fit into Singapore's cookie cutter education system. Education is alot more fun in England, or many ang-moh countries. The play-based approach and flexibility is something that B had to sadly let go on the first day of school at BBPS.
He cried, but he learnt to adapt.

By the end of the first week in school, he came home with some bruises which we found out later that he has been kicked, pushed and punched by his class bully. We brought this to teacher's attention and the boy's parent called in.

What surprised me is that when I posted the matter on FB, many friends commented at their children had been a victim of school bully at some point. And this is happens too in good school like Rosyth. One extreme case shared was a P6 daughter of my good old classmate who had been so traumatised in school that she has been attending private counselling for the past 2 years!

And that got me wonder, with such behaviour so prevalent, why hasn't MOE taken a stronger stance? I am not saying that the English has the best policy per se, but some of their measures are really effective: they take a zero tolerance toward bully behaviour (which can be verbal or physical). Repeat offenders will be suspended from school until parents provide the written assurance to address the behaviour issues. This way, the parents will be involved in the child's development and not only the school working on it.

I think many bakers here are also parents - what is your experience in this?


PS: In case you are thinking, the boy in B's school - his parents didn't turn up. Grandma deputised but the punishment mated out for him was 'no sweets for the day'!

Home again...

We are back home, finally.

After being in England for a year, we are back to the tropics. Something that we are looking forward to; J wants to get back to work, Sheen wants to have his cousins' company. And I like to be back with my sis and parents!

So it was an exiting time. A time to get back into a routine, see friends missed over the year, and look forward to the sunny weather and a fresh start.

But once the sea shipment arrived, my newness has worn-off. I have cartons, 127 of them, everywhere in my house. The pix below is just a tip of the iceberg!

I sure have to work hard to keep the positive attitude and productive energy going!!!

Why am I here?

This pix was taken in summer. Sheen was begging not to walk anymore... cos his feet couldn't take it anymore.

When chatting with my colleague this morning, I suddenly recall this interesting conversation with Sheen when we first arrived -

Boy: why do we need to walk so much? can we take our car?

Ma: this is london, our car is in Singapore.

Boy: then why do we come here?




Yes, sometimes ma also wonder
why we leave our nice new car in SG while we have to depend on the unreliable tube here.
We left our spacious apartment behind to live in this tiny flat.
I ditch my nice and cosy office to be in a workstation.
J put his cushy well paid job on hold to be full time father.
i can go on and on... but what purpose will it serve?

I know I will probably be stoned to death by the English if they see how much all the complaints i have. To many colleagues, £2300-a-week prestigous address (never mind how small) & £22K international school is big deal.

But there must something more than that facade.

OK there is probably a couple good reason to come in the first place. I should go back to jog my memories of the initial dreams of coming here, and continue to chase that dream.

It hurts to think about what we are losing out in our home country but hurt only last as long as we allow them to. If you continue to drag the home cultue around, you cannot enjoy the new experience, like toilet paper stuck to the shoes, or so a wise man said!

For now I have to help myself to get out of that tailspin, and get my family to enjoy the ride with our spirit of adventure!

PS: do drop me a note or 2 if you have anymore wise advice!

Off to School

Sep 2. Sheen and his parents have a bittersweet time getting ready for school.

Sheen was really excited… Of course he would; he sees himself getting ahead of his friend in Singapore. You see, he is a year-end child, who is always the last to celebrate birthday in the class. It doesn’t help that he is small built and always being called a baby by his classmates. You can imagine how his elation when he learnt he is going to be a primary 1 boy, whilst his kinderland classmates still struggling with the kindergarten curriculum!

Oh well, maybe that’s not a very good reason for Sheen but nonetheless we are happy that he is looking forward to the school days and being a “big boy”!

As for J and I, we are thrilled that he is going to be in a new, challenging, and fun environment. His classmates come from all over the world (there are 43 nationalities in the school) so it is going to be quite an experience for him.

The hardest part for J is that his days of waking up at 10am is over. Sheen needs to be up and ready for school bus pick up at 7.20am. In the first 2 days, J went to school with him in the school bus, and made his way back thereafter. A couple hours later, he had to make his way to school when Sheen’s lesson ends at 3.30pm. The to-ing and forth-ing tube journey is not so fun, J groans at the end of the day.

Oh well, I will cut some slack for this man who is too used to getting about in Singapore in his precious little Toyota!


Living in a new city is a new experience. Attending school in a new country is going to be another new experience, and one certain to enrich our life in different ways

Cookie's Boarding Guide

Dear Friends


Since I moved here less than 6 weeks ago, I have received 3 guests staying over at my apartment. Thanks for your companionship and friendship, I love to host you and want my family to enjoy having you around as much you do.


However it is extremely important for me and my family to maintain some sanity as we see our lovely guests come and go. So if your family name is not Tan or Ling, the following house rule will apply. I humbly asked that you agree to the following T&C before you make any application:

1. Unless you are someone who survive on air and water, pls do not apply if you have a daily budget of £2. While we are not looking for any financial benefits of your stay, we are not quite prepared to finance your holiday (i.e. 3 meals a day+free chauffering+whatever you have in mind).


2. Though we are not running a B&B (Bed and Breakfast), we are more than happy to have you join us for some home-cooked meals. When you do get invited, you are not expected to bring wine or flowers, but it won't hurt if you offer to wash the dishes after the meal. Even a simple gesture of bringing the empty plates to the basin will be greatly appreciated by all of us at home. We have no maid. Period.


3. You know, this is a home. Not a hotel. I do not mind staying up a little if you are arriving late. But what would you do if you have a guest who tells u she is arriving at 2am (and still subject to train delay), and it is a weekday night when you and your child need to leave home at 7am.

If you think I am too petty or too mean to make these requests, I will gladly help you to book a hotel. I'll probably lose a friend or a relative, but whatever it takes to keep a sound mind!

Life in London

Life in London is slowly taking shape.

Our air shipment has approved. We are all adjusted to the timezone, no more waking up at 3am. We are all starting to love the nice cool summer. We are even getting used to paying £12 for a plate of fried rice!!! I still remember when we first went to the supermarket, J and I couldn't stop our exclamations over the prices here!

Now, we've stop the mental currency convertion, and that kindda help us get by with little less stress. So much about climatisation!!!

Amidst the high cost of living here, we still managed to find some good buys. Like the pair of Clarks that I pick up last weekend. My cheapest Clarks, ever!

When it comes to sightseeing in a new city, 1 cost saving tip thing I learnt from my mum is to just board a bus, and let the bus take it anywhere. Alight when you feel like it, and continue the journey as you wish.

It is certainly far cheaper than taking the tourist bus tour. I paid £1.20 (with oyster card, a stored-value travel card in London or £2 if paying cash) per trip. If i had gone with the guided Big Bus Tour, I would be £26 poorer!

There are quite a few really impressive buildings that we came by:

Big Ben

Can't remember the name. Anyone?

Natural History Museum

Of course, there's also House of Parliament which is such an imposing architect.

My work place is just next to London Eye, I took this pix on a quiet cloudy morning before the tourists flock here:

J also start to try his hand at cooking. This is the first meal he has made in his life. It's instant noodle cooked, drained and served with fried egg and fried sausage.

Sheen was astonished that dad can cook, and gave him 2 thumbs up! Way to go, J!

So Long, Finally...

July was a terrible month.

I had been living like a nomad in the last month. I moved from 1 place to another every week. To be precise, 6 moves in 4 weeks!

From my apartment, to my in-laws place, to the Grand Hyatt, to London. Even within short period of arriving London, I am currently living in the 3rd apartment.

It started from early July when my stuff needs to be shipped - the packer came in, and within haf a day, everything in the apartment is gone. It was in a rather unliveable state (except I manage to squeeze in 1 bake ... haha, i will come to that later).

So we moved to my inlaw's place as a transition before we move to London. Sheen had a few crumpy days with granny's place, so we decide to move into the hotel.

Lucky for us we had a nice 2 bed-room suite in Grand Hyatt that was right for my family. There's even space for my sister's family to have a staycation!!! I love every bit about the place, location, interior, facilities etc, only it was time to get to the airport.

When we arrived at London, we head straight to a hotel cos the serviced apartment which we wanted was not available yet. The problem with visitng London in summer is that the time is so right that you have to compete with a million others for everything. That includes accomodation. The suite is not avail, so it was another few days of camping in a tiny hotel room with 9 strewed luggages!

Finally we got the apartment we wanted.

This time round, we happily settle in the nice and cosy place. Also, there's enough room for my friend who will come visiting soon. Soon we discovered the internet in that apartment was not working, plus the washer which we have specifically requested for was conspiciously missing. After discussing with J, we decided it is time to move again.

We have equaly challenge with the current place - there's not a single powerpoint in the 2nd bedroom. I do not know how anyone can live with this! Haha, but we concluded that in London, dun expect 十全十美, so unit 110 is our home until our sea shipment arrives in a month's time when we have to move again!

Till then, I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything turns out well for us in the next couple weeks!

Thank God...

Weekend here.

Hooray.

This weekend means alot to me cos since the Jan 4 I had been ill on and off. Things turned worse when I had terribly high fever on 2 weeks ago. Doc was dead sure it was a virus flu, so I was sent home with Tamiflu.

For the next 4 days I hang my life on Tamiflu... which didn't see me get any better. Every morning I woke up with the same old fever + shivers. It is quite frightening when the chill comes; I will curl in the blanket and pray to god that I will survive the day! What could be worse than the fever & chill is the side effects of Tamiflu. I believe you have all read about the side effects in the papers. Just say that my luck sucks cos I almost all the possible side effects!!!

To cut the long story short, on day 5, I am referred to the hospital where I laid for a week. Thank god I survived long enough for the healthcare professionals to eventually find out what was wrong. hahaha.

We always say that health is important. But 只有在失去, 才知道如何珍惜。

So I am going to take life easier now.

I will bake less, and enjoy the company more.
I will blog less, and chat more.

享受可以是如此简单。。。

Thank God for the incident to make me realise what is important.
Thank God for my family who travel half the island to visit me every day without fail.
Thank God for my colleagues and friends who visited me with all the nice goodies.
Thank God for everything!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DK!

This was a 30 sec job.

I saw an old pal's sms just as I was getting ready to leave home. I quickly grab the cupcake I have on my cake server, and slap on the hazelnut ganache and sprinkle the chocolate chips. That's it.

This is a scratchy cake for a good friend's birthday... but as the saying goes "it's the thoughts that counts!".

BTW, for the record, I did try to make something more decent for D. I piped "Happy Birthday, D-----" on the cake and was mms to him. But my handwriting is so horrible, I think I should not post this pix here to save the embarrassment :-)

Random Thoughts - am I losing steam in baking?

J told me his cookie jar is almost empty, so I took out a block of butter waiting for it to soften. And while waiting, I looked into the packed fridge, and I have lotus paste, black cherries, pomela, mango, strawberries....

Yeah right, I was suppose to bake some more sugarless mooncakes for my diabetics mum and MIL, a black forest cake for my sis and family (I made a promise during sis' birthday), and a mango pomela sago dessert, a strawberry shortcake! And to add to the stress level, Mooncake festival is less than 2 weeks away, have to fast fast bake and give them away. Also, Children's Day coming, need to start planning!

But I can barely muster enough energy... I just want to rot in the couch =p

btw, an hour after I took the butter out, I placed it back to the fridge again.

希望明天会更好!

1 New Toy and 1 New Discovery of myself

Ya, I've finally got a new toy... A "surprise" from J. Some will think that this is a very unromantic gift but I have absolutely no complaints!

I have been swinging my mind between Kitchenaid and Kenwood in the last 2 weeks. If I may add to the dilemma, I love the clean lines of Kmix too!

The more I think, the more blur I get. The more clarify I try to seek, the more confused I get. In the end, I resort to putting it down in writing, comparing side by side what i want vs. what they offer. (J says this is a typical analyst's approach!)

after rounds of ticking and cross out on my little excel table, I decided I should forgo the sexy KAid for the fuddy-duddy Kenwood. The one I got cost a little more but supposedly functionally better. My sister-in-law has been using hers in the last 16 years. She uses her machine regularly since she sells her bakes, mind you.

In this exercise, I finally come to realise that I am a down-to-earth boring mummy after all. It brought me years back when my Presea was due for scrape, and I was ding-donging between a lemony beetle and RAV4. Beetle was hot then... and I thought it would enhance my hippy image for my friends to envy... while RAV4 is the sporty SUV that is a lifestyle car for the young (and rich).

1 month later, I signed on the dotted line for a uncle-ly Camry. No hippy image, no lifestyle car. I got a car which my parents can comfortable get into the back seat without breaking their back or the help of a ladder.

As for my dreams???

I left them in the dreams.

That's where they should be.

Kreative Blogger Award

Thanks Anncoo for passing the Kreativ Blogger Award.
It's been awhile since we play this tagging game, so I am more than game to do this on a boring Thursday night (or Friday morning).


1. I am a Singaporean, and proud to be a Singaporean. But I cannot understand why we call ourselves a first world country, yet we act like 3rd world when the MRT door opens!

2. I am one of those rare middle class family who do not have a maid (domestic helper, to be politically correct). Incidentally only upper class people in first world country has a maid to order.

3. People still go "agh" whenever I declare that I am the official maid to my 2 babies at home.

4. My 2 babies - one by birth, one by marriage

5. The most stressful question to me is "how are you"- are you really interested to know that how I am or you just ran out of things to say?

6. Watching Little Sheen's development is one of the 7 wonders on earth, and I am just glad not to missed any of those. Even if it means foregoing a couple of progressions in work (I never think that as a career, btw)!

7. On that note, btw, it is important to say here that I love my job, just in case my boss is also reading this!

I have to pass this on to the bext 7 bloggers.... Urm, now let me hit the sack first and think thru on my dreams!

Have a Happy Friday, and great weekend ahead!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am born in the month of May... know you know how far behind I am in my post!

We happened to have a half day presentation in plant a day before the actual birthday. Right after that, the gang went to a nearby coffee shop for bak kut teh lunch. That's when they spring a surprise with the birthday cake!

We had cake for dessert after bak kut teh. Yes, they sang me the birthday song there... very softly!!!

Quite an interesting lunch celebration, I must say!

This is what I have get from family:

We didn't have any celebration but the as the saying goes "It's the thoughts that count".

The next day, on my actual birthday, another colleague HH who is based in Pandan office came all the way down to do lunch together. I thought I was going to have another surprise lunch... ha, but nope. It was for a casual catch up.

Til now, he didn't know it was my birthday! But who's complaining when you get to lunch at Vanilla Pod!!!

Euro English

Heard this one?

• The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).
  
• In the first year, 's' will be used instead of the soft 'c'. Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard 'c' will be replaced with 'k.' Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.
  
• There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced by 'f'. This will make words like 'fotograf' 20 per sent shorter.


• In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent 'e's in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.


• By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' by 'z' and 'w' by 'v'.


• During ze fifz year, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou', and similar changes vud of kors; be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.


• After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil b no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum

After months working with the Europeans, this joke makes sense of all the hell I went thru with these angmoh!

Happy 1st Anniversary!

I just crossed my first year of blogging 3 days ago.

Looking back, I do not think my baking has improved a great deal. Perhaps I am never the type who is up for challenging stuff (read: macaron). Or I never want to spend time on what-I-think-is-superficial decoration which will eventually end up as a mess in some tummy anyway. Yep, I am quite a utilitarian in that sense. C'mon, after a hard day work, all I want is to unwind through leisure bake with the intend to give my family a healthier choice. I do not want another nerve breaking session like my day job.

Another thing, I noticed my post have been dwindled to 2 a week... and it's a matter of time before it down to a weekly affair. One main reason being WORK... those who know me knew that I have moved into a new role. It is a understatement to say I overworked... I literally being consumed by my job. Oh man, now I wonder if I had a raw deal :-)

Not to say that my previous job is easy... I get many excitements and heart-attacks from my work but at the end of the day when I step out of office, be it 5pm or 9pm, I know I have the rest of the evening to myself. Now, with a boss based in London... I won't be surprised if my phone goes ringing now!

To be honest, I started this blog as a platform so that I can share what I know, and learn what I don't from other bloggers. It is taking up my time, but gives me equal amount of satisfaction. But given the type of pressure, I wonder how long I can keep blogging...

Sorry for the not-so-happy anniversary post.

now I know...

Mar 16
Weather: Drizzle

Sheen: Mama, why are you wet?

Me: It's raining, mama does not have an umbrella.

Sheen turned to J: Papa, next time raining can you give mama an umbrella?

Now I know... Sheen really loves his mummy!

Sheen can never have enough chocolate cake, so this is for my young man:

This pix is shot by the little baker himself... see his 2 little feet!

who wants to live forever?

D said to me: Sasha is fortunate to have outlived Oreo and Cookie.

Left to right: Oreo, Cookie, Sasha

Honestly I do not know if it is a good thing to live a ripe old age. Not especially when you have to grapple with the age-related illness like cataract.

It all started with one eye, and recently I noticed that the other eye also develop a white membrane... My sweetest cross-angora rabbit is now over 10 years old, really old going by rabbit's average life span of 6-8years, to even wonder why it happen.

These days, I ask myself alot more whys and whats than enjoying his company.

• should I serve his fav alfalfa or the healthier timothy?
• should I groom him or leaving him enjoyed quiet moments?
• should he be operated or to breathe the fresh air in darkness? (advance medical directive wil be helpful here)

I am like a parent caught in between the good and evil. But writing is good. It makes things alot clearer. I'm gonna worry less, and enjoy the last bits of our time more.

And yes, I am going to bake him the bunny cookies tonight!

Late Oreo and Cookie (left), they are brothers from the same litter

The 2 brothers used to take turns to guard the food.
Sasha will get chased away when he tried to get near.

I love the fur-ball posture that Cookie enjoyed getting into.

Best Dad

Of all the men in the whole wide world
Whose praises are sung out loud,
There is no man whom I respect more
Or of whom I am more proud.

Throughout the years you’ve worked so hard
To provide us a happy life;
You’ve been there to help and give advice,
And you did it all without strife.

That is why on this day each year,
I pray all your wishes come true;
Today we celebrate your life,
So Dad, Happy Birthday to you.

We Celebrate Your Life By Karl and Joanna Fuchs


This is the same sponge recipe which I successfully tried earlier. He loves coffee, so I decided to make the cake a coffee one.


I started baking the sponges after Sheen gone to bed... and I had to make 2 layers cos my pan is only 2" tall. It whole project is further slow down cos I have only 1 pan. Bake 1, cooled, removed the cake, clean up then 2nd one.

By the time the 2 sponges were done, it's already 2am.

You can see the piping is very amateurish... so uneven! I tried to do the tricking choc along the side of the cake, something I saw in Halimah's cake but the chocolate hardens as soon as it touches the cold cake! Chey!

In the end I use the bowl of melted chocolate on top of the cake instead. I do not have confidence to pipe the words, so I called on my fondant and alphabet cookie cutter.

The 3D number 71 was moulded by pouring melted white chocolate into the number cutter.

By the time I was done, it's 4am. Spent another hour or so putting the cake away, and the most tiring part - cleaning up. I was dead tired but that was nothing compared to the hardship my dad had to go thru bringing us up. All 5 of us.

For a large family of 7, he was the sole breadwinner. With so many mouths to feed, we grew up simply but never starved or deprived of proper education. Every birthday reminds me how grateful I am to my dad. I am blessed to have frugal but responsible parents who ensure we grew up with the right values!

Maybe it's the long years of hardship, though we can afford some pampering every now and then, he still can't bring himself to enjoy the little perks that life brings. My only wishes for my dad is to relax and enjoy the fruits of his labour.

Happy Birthday Dad!

His fav grandchild, 诗婷:

Saving the last piece for myself:

Hello 2009

Looking back at 2008, it has been an exciting year. Really. Never in history you see oil price soar to USD140 per barrel in July, and just when everyone speculated when it was going to hit USD150, the market collapsed and it slid all the way to 40 dollars mark by end 2008.


Well, for someone in oil and gas, you won't expect any thought without mentioning the oil prices, after all this is my livelihood for over 12 years!


No doubt 2008 is already history but I can't help but to outline these events as it had shaped my outlook

1. Melamine - the greed (be it the middleman or Sanlu) caused death and irreversible kidney damage. I now believe in living up to expectation... especially where social responsibility is concerned. BTW I now think twice (or thrice) before buying anything that says "Made in China". Even my son now ask if the milk is made in China before drinking it.
   


2. Barack Obama - Never in my life that would expect to see a US President from the minority race. This is the first time I watch the US election so closely. Even at the nomination stage, I can;t help but to wonder if the country is gonna get a first black president or first lady president! The outcome now gives me more confident to follow my heart in taking the road less travelled.



3. Terrorism - After the first Singaporean victim in war against terrorism, I now more reticent of business travelling. I ever consider taking up more insurance policies so as to provide for Sheen just-in-case but the AIA incidence... sigh... Oh well that's another issue.



4. Financial Tsunami - when I studied econs in the uni, I was taught to believe that the Great Depression will never happen in the new economy. The economists were right. We now have one would be possibly worst than The Great Depression. Who would have thought that the bank who have survived 2 world war has to go belly up in 2008? This make me understand history is meant to be taken with a pinch of salt, so is theory and whatsoever. Don't take life too serious!
   


5. Singapore Flyer - who will expect such a glitch to happen in the Singapore where we always on err on the "kiasu" side. (You know if the level of kiasuism if you ever compared the number & size of pillars of a HDB flat vs. the private building). This is so "Murphy's law" - whatever can go wrong, have go wrong!



6. First F1, First Night Race - Just when we thought it is a dream... Mr Ong made history in the racing circuit! Singaporean boleh lah! Singaporean now get to enjoy the world's richest sports in our own backyard. Dream does come true!



7. Natural disaster - like the Sichuan Earthquake has made me re-evaluate life goals. I see my priorities changed. I see my declination on materials comfort (I downgraded my Camry for an Altis when petrol cost $2 a litre). I see my focus on what's closest to my heart (Nope, not career! haha). Yes, I now work on things that matters to me most!


8. The unfortunate fire at Santika makes me more conscious of the exits wherever I go to a new place. You never know when it will save your life! This is something so fundamental and yet always being taken for granted!


9. My Baking Blog - I never would have thought that amidst the hectic work I would be able to start my first blog, my first culinary journey. Though I am still very much a novice in this journey, I am glad I took the first step doing something different which is enriching me in many ways.

How about you? Tell me your thought for 2008, and hopes for 2009, ok?

Be Thankful...

A former colleague sent me Xmas greetings, and there's a powerpoint slide which left me pondering. I am thankful for him sharing the insights.

Remember… throughout the year, be thankful for what you have…

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ...
You are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish some place ...
You are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ...
You are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...
You are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ...
You are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married ...
You are very rare, even in the United States.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful ...
You are blessed, because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder ...
You are blessed because you can offer healing touch.

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore ...
You are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings,
and pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.
You are wished a Merry Christmas

Remember… throughout the year, be thankful for what you have been blessed with…