All you Star Trek fans, no, not assimilated like as in Borg-assimilated. Let me elaborate, James, Michael and Li Feng (the three gentlemen in the picture from left to right) were all not born here. Neither were their wives, the other ladies in the photo. Isabel and the children in the picture are the only ones born in Singapore in this picture.
The point of this post is that there are people from the People's Republic of China who have assimilated into our culture. James, Michael and Lifeng are all physiotherapists. They were all meant to be medical doctors, in Zhejiang and Sichuan. In fact, so were Michael and Lifeng's wives. Only James' wife isn't "medically inclined", come to think of it. Mrs Michael and Mrs Lifeng are both nurses. All five of them were trained at the Nanyang Polytechnic back in the mid 90s. So they've lived in Singapore for about 10 years. They can speak Singlish. It's cool. And heartwarming. You could only tell that they're from China if you speak to them in Mandarin! Cos they speak STANDARD Mandarin. Not Singaporean mandarin. :-)
The baby that is on my left is my god son, Mitchell. James his father, asked me to be his god mum. I was happy to oblige. Interestingly enough the decision was motivated by supersition, according to James' mum, Mitchell's paternal grandmother, it was important for the baby to have a god mother that was born in the year of the dragon. This is cos James is born in the year of the horse and Mrs James is born in the year of the goat. Hence, it was important that Mitchell being the precocious rat/mouse he is, has a "dragon lady" to look up to and be wary of as a parental figure.
Interesting dynamics don't you think? How the Zodiac animals interact.. Cos mice/rats are sneaky. That's a fact. My friends and I were just saying how clever rats are. A friend of mine has a father who works overseas. And unfortunately for Uncle, his house is infested with rats. So my friend was just relating how clever, sneaky these ACTUAL rats are. How the rats "took revenge" cos her dad bought a trap and killed one of them. You know, I can't say I'm surprised. As my friend said, there is a reason why we use rats/mice in laboratories, they ARE clever.
As I was saying, it's interesting the personality traits that people do "adopt" from animals. Superstition or not!! This same friend whose father has the rat infested home, has insightfully commented once that I am a dragon personified. I agree. And as most people know, dragons are powerful allies but dangerous enemies. I am a person that is viscerally intolerant of unfair behaviour particularly towards people I care about. I am also a little ashamed to admit that when one has let me down, it is close to impossible for them to regain my trust. I will be civil to them, but I will find it extremely hard to allow myself to be good friends with them.
So. Don't. Mess. With Me...... :-P
On that note though, my friends CAN vouch for me, I WILL do anything for a friend. Even let them borrow AND puke on my favourite pair of shoes!!! :-) To be fair, she did clean them up the next day and she was very apologetic about it. Hence, we are still friends.
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