Soul Food

Today I was reading an edition of The Warrior of Light. It's an e-newsletter that Paulo Coelho sends out every few weeks. I enjoy his writing...it's honest, thought provoking and often inspires.

The last few editions of the Warrior of Light focused on the 7 Deadly Sins. Today, he sent out the one about Sloth.

This sentence made me think. He wrote:

"Sloth is lack of physical or spiritual effort, which degenerates the soul and leads to sadness and depression."

I thought it's the other way around.......that a constant stuggle, without little victories, chips away at your soul, and eventually leads to it's destruction.

I remember when I was living in Glasgow, Ian couldn't find a job for the longest time. Teaching was one of the options he considered. His mother, a veteran teacher of 30 years, strongly discouraged him from becoming one. I clearly remember, she said it was because it was "soul destroying". That was the very first time I had heard someone use that phrase and I've thought about it often since then.

We know what what nourishes our soul....but do we also recognise the things that slowly destroy it?

Dream Job & Baby Making

What happens when your dream job finally comes along? Well, in my case, you ditch it, pack up your whole life and move half way across the world to make babies.

Ok this may sound a tad shallow. but today I got offered one of my fantasy writing assignments - To SHOP, suss out the scoops AND GET PAID to write about it in a weekly column! (Even though it's just a 2 month project from end May to July, I would LOVE to do it.)

Guess what? I can't accept the job cos I'll be in France then and I'm required to be in Singapore to do this. What's worse? I KNOW that I'm the PERFECT person to write it and I'll do a killer job. It's a missed opportunity, but hey I can't really complain about roaming across Provence and having a second wedding in a little chateau! I'm really happy about what's happening in my life right now, just that I wish that at some other point in time, I'd get another chance to do a fantasy writing job again. (Others include writing about FOOD and incredibly luxe travel locales! I love reading intelligent, witty writing about these topics.)

The following months will be a great period of change in my life. We have to pack up all our stuff (a nightmare for me cos I HATE packing. Anyone who has travelled with me knows that it stresses me out completely), move to France, then move again to Turkey. And in the midst of all this, try to get pregnant cos we want to have kids pretty soon.

I'm very excited that all this is happening. But also pretty stressed when I try to figure out how pack up my entire life. What do I do with my countless books & shoes, old copies of Glamour & In Style, hundreds of cards and letters, thousands of photographs and about a million other bits and bobs?

When I think about having kids, I do feel that I would eventually love being a Mum. But the other part of me winces at the thought that my freedom will essentially be KAPUT. ZILCH. NADA. I've seen it happen to friends...once U have a new baby, your time is not yours anymore.

You can't leave the house at a moment's notice to meet a friend. (I'm told even leisurely breakfasts reading the Sunday papers become a thing of the past.) You & your husband can't go on spotaneous dates (let's have a picnic today, go to a beach bar!) without having to concoct an elaborate plan of what to do with the baby. Bring it along with it's 6kg worth of diapers, pram and other baby stuff? Or arrange for a babysitter? Will the babysitter drop my baby? ALAMAK. That's why new mums say their freedom is GONE. Worse if U have a rugrat who cries ALL the time.

Second fear - turning in "one-of-those" mums. U know, the type who can only engage in conversation when it involves babies, specifically THEIR own baby, or baby related gadgets. Who knows? I may one day coo about my own kid so much on this blog it'll put some people off!

Anyways, I still have time to ponder cos I haven't got a bun in the oven just as yet. In the meantime, here are some pix of JF's niece Carla. JF is tickled to bits by her and adores her....everytime he sees her he keeps telling me we have to hurry up and make one! Our nick for Carla is Space cos she has this permanent spaced out look on her face, staring at U with her giant saucer eyes!

Munky & his niece Carla aka Space Chassin




Oooh look I can swim at 4 months old! It runs in the Chassin family!

BLISS

Our wedding rings on the beach at sunset. In mine: Poussin, me more. In his: Munky, me more.



Our home in the Indian Ocean



Dawn watching the dawn (heheheh...sorry couldn't resist it! Occupational hazard of a word fairy!!)
















Right at our doorstep - La Mer.....our private swimming pool (and the name of my face cream...!)



















Dinner under the banyan....it was gorgeous....like a wedding dinner all over again...we're thinking of having another one here next year to celebrate our 1st anniversary. So everyone start saving up to fly to Maldives next March!

VIVE LA PLONGEE!

Just got back from our honeymoon in Maldives.

One word............ SUBLIME!!! GO THERE!!! We stayed in a water suite in the ocean...wow...dive out of your own private deck into the clear blue sea! The turquoise water's soooooo tempting....and even better when you scare the fish with your nekkid butt! Heheheheh.... Champagne for breakfast watching the sunrise over the roaring waves

We did 10 amazing dives, and I finally got off my ass and decided to do my ADVANCED OPEN WATER CERTIFICATION (.....after 7 years of diving!!!! I must be the only person who waited THAT long. Basically all this time I couldn't be bothered to do it and I figured I didn't really need it anyway....I did so many night dives and deep dives already.)

Me with a big ole eel! Yummy.....unagi!!



But since the divemaster in Maldives suggested it...I thought hey, why not?...I have the time now. Used NITROX for the first time....can't really feel the difference altho you ARE supposed to feel less tired after using a NITROX tank (It's got 32% oxygen compared to 21% in the normal tank)

Also, I went sailing for the first time in my life....wow, I can actually SAIL a craft on water all by myself...well.....with some tuition from my husband! JF spent most of his childhood summers sailing at summer camp. (And other notty things like invading the girls dorm with the other notty little boys!!)
Sailing is a breeze....that is..... ONLY when there IS BREEZE! Otherwise you're stuck in the middle of the ocean, getting totally sunburnt, wondering if there's a shark circling around the bottom of your dinky little sailboat waiting for you to capsize......

Some piccys here and lots more to come!



JF the underwater paparazzi! Work it turtle!








Imagine how many unagi dons that big thing would make!


Hubby n Me and fishys make 3!

AU REVOIR MISS LEE!

I'm MARRIED!!!! Madam Chassin. Mrs Dawn Marie Chassin!
WOW! I'm actually MARRIED!! :) :)

It went so fast....but it was like a DREAM....a beautiful fairytale dream with so many surprises! JF and I had such a happy and fun time, I'm more in love with him now than ever...and I know it will keep growing. We had so many laughs, and so did all our family & friends. Everyone kept coming up to us and telling us how much fun they had and how they could feel the LURVE (as cheesy as that sounds, I really know what they mean....it was wonderful!)

It started in the church when we were walking down the aisle after Mass....suddenly out of nowehere, we we showered with hundreds of beautiful bubbles....just what I ALWAYS WANTED!!! I was so surprised I wanted to cry!!



My darling Dor Ee had bought soap bubbles for everyone to blow when we were walking down the aisle and it was SO MAGICAL!
WHAT A LOVELY SURPRISE! And when we reached the end of the church...POP! We were showered with canons of confetti! Woohoo!!

Then at the lunch buffet, we had so much fun with the candyfloss and balloons....and for the FIRST TIME EVER, (well in all my experiences of wedding lunch buffets that I've attended) ALL THE FOOD WAS GONE! FINISHED! Amazing. Next, the cake too was totally gone! Even the base of blackforest which was holding up the Piece-Monte (French wedding cake) I surprised JF with.

I can't begin to say how many lovely surprises came, one after another (More in the next entry as I have to be at the airport in 3 hours to leave for our honeymoon in Maldives, and I haven't started packing yet!!)....Wee Keong, Mark and Wendy worked really hard to make everything run smoothly....and they did a great job.

Well, all weddings wouldn't be complete with one little hitch...and ours was very minor....admidst all the excitement...we left our marriage cert behind in the church!! Hahahah....thank goodness the next wedding couple (who used the church after we left) found it and gave me a call. My Dad, my hero as always....went to retrieve it the next day.

Well bye bye Miss Lee, but the Divine Ms D reigns on! :)

TGIF!!! Tomorrow tomorrow!!

I MADE IT!! One day before the wedding and I'm still alive! Yippeedooo!

Woohoo!!!

I had the BEST AWESOMEST Hen Nite on Wed thanks to my Dor Ee Ee (coolest hip 58 year-old who got carded cos she din bring her IC!!! Hahahah. I asked if they could give her a senior citizen discount!) and all my cousins, Jeanette, the 2 Mels, Nic, Zerline and my friends Nana, Grace, Janice aka Oliver and Linna. I got a lapdance from some Frenchie (so I'm told....I was too drunk!) and apparently some Brazillian guy said unmentionable things to me! All thanks to my rowdy bunch of hens and a game called The Bachelorette's Paty Dice & Cards. It had dares like "Find a man who can prove to you that he's not wearing any underwear" "Find a many who will talk dirty to you in a foreign language" We were caught on camera by a photographer who snaps pix of clubbers! So we're on some party website...Aiyoh!



THANKS NA for buying this crazy gift that made the night with girls gone WILD! :)

Thank god for my sis-in-law Wendy! She has been a saviour to meet thru'out the wedding prep. And yesterday she gave the bridal shop a blasting cos they screwed up so many things. The album from Robin turned out SOOOOO CHEEEEEENA I literally broke down and cried at his studio. So ugly how to display? JF still wants to show it tho. Hummmmmmmmmmm.....

Well so far everything's turned out DIFFERENT from what I planned....I'm wearing a big poufy dress with a train that goes from here to eternity (and can BARELY fit in the church aisle!), we have posed wedding photos and our wedding car is a darn Merc!! All the things I never thought I wanted and swore I wodn't have.

Well, well well. Surprisingly it ain't half bad!

Fingers crossed that all goes swimmingly tomorrow! At least there'll be pink CANDYFLOSS! Yaaay!

SNEAK PEAK!

Here's a sneak peek from our wedding pix. That's the ACTUAL sign JF used to propose to me :) Hehehehe :)

Not that I've had much else on my brain lately besides the wedding, but I was just discussing this with JF a few days ago.
I watched the film Little Children a few weeks ago, and Wee Keong is working on a play called The Swimming Instructor. All this reminds me of an experience in my life.

I told JF that I really do believe that at least 80% of all children may have been molested at one point in their lives.....whether they know it or not, or whether they realise it only years after it happened.

OK, I hear U screeching "WHAT?? NO WAY!" But scarily enough, I DO believe that it occurs more frequently than we think. Because it happened to me when I was 9 or 10. It was my swimming instructor.

And I didn't realise what was happening at the time, or what it was even called. It just felt weird. I only realised what happened years later when I was in my teens, and became aware that there's such a thing called "molestation."

I was taking swimming lessons with my brother Mark (He was 7 or 8) at Paya Lebar Swimming Pool. And we had this male swimming instructor. I can't remember his name, but what I remember was this awful strong chlorine smell that clung to him and he always wore red shorts. I think he was one of the lifeguards at the pool.

Anyway, I remember most times he stood behind me in the pool and held my arms up with his hands to teach me the proper swimming stroke techniques. Most of the time it just me alone in one corner of the big pool (cos Mark would be in the shallow pool). Then sometimes this guy would touch and squeeze my (non-existent!) chest and between my legs. I felt very strange but didn't want to tell anybody cos I didn't know what was going on. I also felt weird cos my swimsuit was a bit old and threadbare....still remember it was a green one with purple swirls.

It was only when I was in Sec 1 (when I was 13) that I realised that my swimming instructor had molested me.
Because Sec 1 was when my friends and I started reading about sex. (Remember Judy Blume? Harlequin Romance? Sweet Valley High?....thinking back on it, it was SO FUNNY how we all hid those books from our parents!)

It was only then that I realised that my swimming instructor did something WRONG. I didn't, and don't feel dirty or ashamed or scarred or anything dramatic like that. But just that I can't believe it happened! This got me wondering if anyone else I knew had a similar experience.

And over the years, by talking to my friends and different people I met, I found out that both males AND females had been molested when they were kids. Sometimes by strangers and sometimes by people they knew and saw often. What surprised me the most is HOW COMMON it is and frequently it occurs! Ask some of your friends, relatives, people you know....you too might find it's happened to them. Or even to you.

I don't think my life has changed or has been affected by it. And NO I don't see the need to go all Oprah about it and start a support group or anything. Maybe because I DIDN'T REALISE what it was when it was actually happening. It just makes me believe that it happens A LOT, but kids being kids, just don't know how to say it or tell. So the problem goes on undetected.

What can we do as adults? No, don't suddenly be all "kiasee" and go on a witchhunt for paedophiles.
But be AWARE. Much more aware. And have the COURAGE to stop it if you see it or know it's happening.
Even if it's not a kid you know.