Pokemon GO Wild Area | Team Bonding | Food Playground | PickleBall | Black Harvest | Dead to Rights

Brayden 8Y8M28D

Bevlynn 4Y5M21D

It was almost 3 weeks ago that we went to Harbour Front. 

Hub wanted to bring Brayden around for Pokemon GO Wild Area : Global event. Off they went. 

I had a great time with Bev. We went to the outdoor playground, she was sliding down the slide over and over. After that we headed to the animal store, there we saw some rabbits, dogs, cats, hamsters and fishes. We went to the library next. I asked Bev to choose some books. She walked around and pick one booked at a time. 

Hub called on the phone and we agreed Marche for dinner. Since it was a Sunday, it should be very crowded. I was thinking wouldn't it be nice to be seated near the playground. When Bev and I arrived, it was already our turn to go in and we were led to the seat right in front of the playground. Wow, a seat where just as I wanted it. We enjoyed our salmon crepe and seafood paella.

That same week, my company had a team bonding event. We had colleagues from different countries within the region flew in. In the morning, we were at Food Playground - a cooking class. We were split into 3 different teams. We named our team "Uno", No 1 for Italian. 

We were given instruction cards to cook pumpkin soup, pizza and tiramisu. The theme of the competition is Christmas. 

I was standing right in front of the big bowl of flour for making pizza dough. I just made myself useful with adding some sugar into the flour, the lady host came and told me that the sugar had already been added before. Oops, first mistake! I tried to scoop out as much as possible to reduce damage. Then, I looked over the other side of my table, the two male colleagues were given the task to decorate the pizzas. They were questioning whether they know how to do it. I told them, let's switch. I can surely think up some butterflies, flowers, Christmas tree or Snowman. 

Our pizza took the longest to cook because we had cheese overload and the dough was too thick (a little too greedy with the cheese and ingredients). But We still WON! Our decorations were the most Christmas-like.

While we were waiting for the next activity, a group of us went to Tea Chapter nearby to enjoy some slow tea drinking ceremony. 

Next, came Pickleball. It was a fun 3-hour with the team. I am no good with serving the ball, I still like the game though. It is easy to pick up and less straining than other sports. 

Time to say goodbye to all colleagues.

This week I finished a book, talking about the Great Famine in Ireland. One part of the story described a woman who had to give away a dead baby to get some food at the groceries in order to save the two other surviving children. It is fiction, however, I can sense the great difficulty existing from those hard times. 

I also finished a movie "Dead to Rights" - a movie depicting the Nanjing Massacre during the Japanese Occupation. It was a heavy and emotional movie. The family, hiding and living in fear under a basement was a tough watch. They were a family of 4; with a teenage girl and a baby. The parents tried to protect their children as much they could. With some light of hope to escape, ended up tragically for the family. Only the baby survived (but due to the father's great sacrifice).

Both stories, different timelines; showed families living under stressful and tough conditions. One due to infestation on food and greatly reducing the food supplies; another through the act of war. Both had great number of deaths and casualties, both had people living in fear and suffered, both are now history but it had changed the lives of many. 

We are NOW living in better times.