We bought a zoo

That's the movie Pam and I caught today.

My plan was to grace the grand opening of GV at 112 Katong. But I was pretty disappointed at how there's no special celebration of sorts to commemorate the opening. Lousy marketing. I think GV could have done way more to gather the crowds, especially when a lot of working adults are clearing their leave during the festive period, I'm definitely sure their theatres would be full if they'd took the opportunity to market their opening with more events tied together. Think of adults, students, kids and senior citizens, all free during this period!

Anyhow, I like to rant to Pam about how people who live in Katong are either too rich or have too much time. Because when we go 112, either of us would be driving, and then, there would be a lot, i swear, a lot, of parents bringing their kids to the mall, in big luxurious cars, at random times of a week day when they should be working. No need work one meh??? Then, you might be thinking, it's a taitai, no need to work, so can bring kids out. But no, it's a WHOLE family outing. Wonder who's bringing in the dough? Amazing rich families hiding around in Katong area I swear.

Back to the movie. It had a simple storyline about a dad bringing up 2 kids on his own after his wife's passing. Coping with loss, and raising a teenage son can be taxing for a dad. It was touching. Pam cried uncontrollably.

I had a random flashback to my childhood. I realised I grew up without much material items or toys. The only one luxury both my brother and I had was our Playstation and limited Lego. We didn't have boxes and boxes of Lego. Just 2 sets, which I've kept till now. I remember how I was crazy over Beyblades and Tamiya cars and my dad would lie to me. Lie, because I know that it's not possible. I guess it was a white lie. But why lie? When I pestered for a car, just a car, to bring to race at the tracks, he would say he can build one for me. When I wanted the tracks, he said he could buy the metal and make it for me. Sigh. Lies that adults can come up with. I was always hoping to be able to build the biggest track ever for my non-existent Tamiya cars.

But thanks to his un-spoiling ways of bringing us up, we spent most of our childhood playing with whatever we could find. I was pretty creative then, and made my own kite from cardboard and thread. I used all of the thread at home and brought my kite out of the house. I remembered I started running, against the wind, and slowly letting my home-made kite go. It started flying, and as it flew, it got higher and higher. That kind of joy cannot be bought with money. The tugging of the thread as the kite got higher, so high that I ran out of thread and the kite was still high up in the sky. That gave me so much satisfaction as a kid. I was practically using all my strength to hold the kite down because of the strong winds. And I begged my brother to make another kite with me, this time, bigger, and with a much longer thread. But he refused.

Then, when the computer craze started, we had one too. Throughout my computer years, I remember building my own CPU after it consistently crashed. The power adaptor would fail, then I would rummage through the spare parts and fix another one, then to make it run faster, I would add more RAM. That's where I got hands on opening up the whole CPU and figuring what goes where. Lucky for his un-spoiling ways again, I became more tech savvy than more girls I know would be.

Sometimes, not being too rich or too poor, can be a blessing in disguise.

Living in satisfaction, sometimes feeling that life can be hard, makes me appreciate the good life I have at other times.

You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it. 
A quote straight out from the movie. A principle that has guided his life through many many years.