I know that this is slow, but I've only started to read about the tiger mom and have taken an interest to the issue. To be frank, whatever portrayed in there does seem scary and unreasonable, but I know somehow it isn't what it was made out to be. Why so? Because I think I had a similar childhood.

I remember, since as long as I could remember, my mom would prepare the assessment books for me to complete while she was at work since my grandma took care of me. I had two cousins living with my grandparents then and we were playmates for most of the day. Well, not most, because they did not have the work which I had to complete. I remember dreading Barney because I knew that when the show ended, my mom would be back to pick me up. And I remember dreading the punishment I had to go through when I failed to complete the work. I got caned.

When I reached primary school, my mom would continuously drill me, preparing worksheets and assessment books, cutting out newspaper clips to increase my vocabulary as well as cloze passage skills. I remember the different coloured files which contained the different exercises. I remember heuristics, fabian lye and preston books. I remembered that getting bad grades ( meaning below 91) would mean getting a scolding and being called a failure.

Then came the piano lessons, I remembered Ms Mah, my piano teacher would assign a grade, ranging from A to E for every piano lesson. Anything below a B was unacceptable, and it would result in caning. Even preparation for piano exams, while my parents were at work, they prepared a timesheet for us to fill in to complete the quota of 3 hours of practice. I remember the testing of scales and arpeggios and having to repeat each one whenever it was not perfect. I remembered the terror of each piano lesson, having known that I had not practiced enough. I remember wanting to give up and mom's response was " No you can't, you have to finish your grade 8, whether you like it or not."

Sounds like a terror right? I used to think so, perhaps until now. You see, behind every action, no matter how tough or harsh it was , there was love. Yes, I got caned. But mom would cry everytime she caned us because it hurt her so much. Yes, I got bad results and a bad track record for handing in homework, but mom did the most unthinkable. She left her high paying jobs just to stay at home to monitor me. Because I'm worth more than that. And the piano lessons? Well, I managed to achieve a grade 8 at age 14. And I'm glad she never let me quit, because whatever learnt and put in would have gone to waste. She never let me ' play for fun' because it's true, piano is not fun until you get all the techniques right, because only then you'll be able to easily master songs you like. Being called a failure for not doing well? Well I was. Every child will take that opportunity to skive and I think my mom knew that being lazy was inherent in me, if not for her pushing, I don't know if I would be where I am today.

Mom always told me that it was easy being the nicest mom and giving in to everything I wanted, not pushing me or trying to make me better than what I was. But she did not choose that route, because it would only mean resting on my laurels and being easily satisfied. Every step I took, she took that with me. And I think she worked so much harder for me than I did for myself.

And for that, I thank you mom. I think I never realised how much you have done for me until now.

So hello monday blues and goodbye happy CNY week. So yes, I am official 22 now and I still won't admit it ( at least not to the treadmill or cross trainer, I still key in 21). But regardless of the change in age I experienced over the past week, I have to say that my week was nothing my awesome.

How not to love my friends back in Singapore, the crazy one in UK and the awesome ones here. Thank you all for making my birthday memorable. But the most memorable thing happened was when my cutest parents started singing happy birthday over the video cam and pictorial evidence right here.

Aren't they cute? I miss them so much.

So anyway, I loved the well-wishes, the celebratory dinner and the cupcakes. Thank you Velda, Sarah and Tong!

So, now to serious thoughts. Before I embarked on this exchange programme, I asked myself what I really wanted to get out this. At that time, I told myself I wanted to meet as many people as I could. And that was what I really set out to do.

Now I am about a month into this exchange programme here and counting the number of foreign friends I've made? Probably 3 or 4. How many keepers as friends? Probably none. And I know it as well, friends are friends when they treat you like you are worth it. Party people and people you have fun with aren't really friends especially when all they do is to get drunk and do drugs. So much for networking. Of course let's not forget the Pinkertons. Some people just want to be friends because we're exotic looking and we're Asians.

I'm glad I met awesome people like Anthea and Wang Hao, the people who go all out for us to show that we matter. And because of that, they matter too. I am not ruling out the possibility of making nice real friends who are foreigners, because that's possible too and I'm all out for it. Until then, these people are really acquaintances for now.