Dear Aunty T,

I am grasping at straws when I try to find the answer to where all the days in this year have gone? It is the tail end of the third quarter of the 12th day of April.

The old adage ” flash before my eyes” seems to hold true now.

As I try to grab on to a new day, it turns into fine grains of sand and flows out between my fingers or is blown away by the wind. Thank goodness for the wind over these past few days as it has helped cool the rather sweltering, humid past few days.

How have you been keeping, Aunty T? Carla and Megan will be visiting you soon, that’s what I hear from mum (that is if I am not mistaken). Hopefully the wires to my brain are not crossed. Otherwise, it will be brain-shorting (not brain sorting), haha.

The poor weather – a victim of our whims and fancies. We never seem to cease complaining about it. Either it is too hot or too cold, storming wet or desert dry, windy (though this – we compliment a little bit about) or the air is cautiously still.

I suppose this is how we while our time away, since most other topics of conversation don’t seem to interest us. Haha. There’s the $1.3 billion transport idea or the $2.25 billion energy loss talk – just that: talk under a tree – the usual square plastic folderable (if there is such a word) (1) $2.50 table with 4 plastic 95-cent chairs or 85-cent stools around it. No worry of brain-shorting here😁. Most times, over a tall glass (yes – glass, not cup, not mug) of coffee or tea; which could last for a couple of hours or more.

Lensia, Janet and I are fine.

The beautiful person, Marcia; who helped Lensia out in getting her passport renewed in New York last year, is down in Singapore. She went in place of me when our beloved government denied me the YourTicketOut, a travel application; 6 times. This is on top of a valid passport needed to travel.

Marcia, who lives in Nevada, arranged for the flights to and from New York, flew to New York and met Lensia there, accompanied Lensia to the embassy where Lensia got her passport renewed; then took Lensia on a sightseeing trip in New York.

I knew Marcia from 39 years ago when we participated in the same musical play, “The Apostle”. Now, Marcia is down in Clementi for about 3 weeks to help relieve her sisters in looking after her aged mum of 93 years, who just suffered a stroke. Marcia is now, as she was back then in 1983; an angel.

It was such a pleasant meet up with Marcia in person, after 39 years. She is still quarantined in Sheraton Hotel til Sunday.

Lensia is busy with her business – a project that she has to do as part of her semester assignment. She decided to start a business to help Singaporean students wanting to further their tertiary education in the U.S.

The U.S. has over 5,500 universities. There are a mind-boggling number of procedures and processes, an opportunity to apply for several scholarships that may be made available by universities and an opportunity to participate in a competitive sport (if the student is into sports) or an extracurricular activity.

Lensia applied to over 300 universities over a  2 year period, just to get the right fit university which participates in competitive athletics to complement the Business Studies that she wanted to do. She arranged many online meetings and interviews with coaches and other staff or representatives of the universities she applied for. The whole process was fun, exciting, challenging, daunting – to put it in a nutshell – overwhelming. 

Most students do not plan their tertiary studies two years in advance. Since Lensia has the experience and the know-how now (How now, brown cow?), she could save student applicants valuable time and unnecessary expenditure on making wrong applications. The whole idea is to help students get a right-fit university, without the stress in the shortest possible time.

Lensia will continue this business even after her semester ends.

For starters, she has a target set – that she has 4 paying student customers before the end of April.

Anyway, Janet and I are helping Lensia search for students that will register payment before the end of this month as Lensia has to submit her assignment. Lensia wants to ensure that her work will always be above board. Start off her business on a right footing with integrity. If you, and / or your daughters know anyone in Singapore that has someone wanting to further his / her studies in the U.S.; please recommend Lensia.

As the time is now past 5.00am this Wednesday morning; I am going to end off here and go to bed. We have a full day ahead. Going to Robin Road in the morning. Then, buy Ais Batu Campur (ABC) [this is not Campbell’s alphabet soup😉] (3) and send it to Marcia at her hotel while she is still in quarantine. Then, we will be attending mass at 6.00pm in Redemptorist Church. After that, we will be visiting mum and dad.

I do hope you have a wonderful Easter Holy week. It has begun to rain quite heavily here, so we will be sleeping in much cooler weather (we hope) – Weather – the story of our lives.

Love, Al

NOTE: Fiction, and having fun with it.

1. “Folderable” means collapsible😏
2. “Turbo” as in the snail; is not a sport.

3. Ais Batu Campur – Direct translation to English: Ice stone (blocks) mixture.