The Archer's Quest

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Comics & Graphic Novels
Author:	Brad Meltzer

Oliver Queen is really a jerk, always getting into women's pants even if they're married or partners of his friends. But thankfully, he is also one of the most interesting characters in the DC universe.

Unlike others who got superpowers or the practically omnipotent/omnipresent/omniscience batman, Oliver Queen's flaws are all too clear, but Brad Meltzer wrote him such that you can't help but feel for the guy.

The Archer's Quest started with the resurrected Oliver Queen standing before his own tombstone, asking Clark Kent who was at his funeral. After some cajoling, Clark Kent gave him the photos. It was then that Ollie noticed someone he did not know at the private send-off, someone who was not mourning.

Through Oracle's assistance, the unknown party was identified as one Thomas Blake, alias Cat Man, who was one of the B or C grade villains. Wondering why Blake would be there, the Green Arrow tracked him down with his former protege, Arsenal's (alias Speedy), help.

Turned out Blake was hired to attend the funeral by the Shade.
Turned out that earlier, after the successive deaths of the Flash (Barry Allen) and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), the Green Arrow approached the Shade to be his 'porn buddy'. They were unprepared for Barry's death and despite all their efforts, the world came to know that Barry Allen was the Flash. The Green Arrow acted as 'porn buddy' for Hal Jordan, destroying all possessions of Hal that would indicate Hal was the Green Arrow.

That's right, 'porn buddy' turns out to be a slang of British origin, not a companion for enjoying porn, but someone entrusted to destroy one's secret stash of porn after one's passing, lest it be discovered and embarassed one's relatives and cause them more upset.

For superheroes, 'porn buddy' is someone who acts to clean up any possible evidence that'd reveal the real identity of the superhero, to protect the privacy and ensure safety of the relatives.

The Shade did a thorough job, almost. A couple of stuff he won't retrieve, especially if related to the Justice League.

The subsequent adventures saw the Oliver Queen tracking down the items himself, with the help of Speedy.

First was a visit to his old Arrow Cave. There, he discovered Solomon Grundy had taken residence. Arsenal should have been a better combatant that Oliver, so Brad had Arsenal taken out by a surprise attack. It would have been unbelievable otherwise.

After the Green Arrow finally knocked Solomon out, he showed Arsenal what he came for, the JLA membership cert of Green Arrow.

Next, they broke into KORD industries, a division of Wayne Enterprises, Inc. Hidden in a basement room was a teleporter to the JLA tower in space. The Green Arrow went solo and was met with the Green Lantern (Kyle Rainer). Here, Brad earned his pay through a dialogue between Arrow and Lantern. Kyle's insecurity at being accepted as a JLA and Hal Jordan's successor showed, though he was aware he went through s**** himself. Arrow's assurance to him was classic - he only looked funny at Kyle because 'it's like someone showing up at your house on Halloween dressed as your dead best friend."

Kyle "That's it?"

Arrow "That's it."

Arrow lied that he was meeting Martian Manhunter, but actually went to retrieve his arrow collection from the trophy room. Arsenal could not understand why Arrow had to lie to friends.

Arrow didn't answer directly, but I suspect he was really enjoying himself by pitting himself against the JLA. He did confess that the most important item he wanted was the diamond tipped arrow. Arsenal commented it looked picture in the pictures, but it was really the size of an engagement diamond. Bingo.

24 hours later, they arrived at the Flash Museum in Central City. Having been warned by Kyle, the Flash (Wally West) stopped the Arrow from entering the museum, and even topped Arrow's expectation by remaining still for over an hour, quite a feat for Wally.

But Wally did not realise that Arrow was acting as decoy, and had sent Arsenal to retrieve one of the Flash's ring from the museum. The Flash normally kept his costume in the ring, but this particular ring contained the costume for Green Arrow, specially made for him by Barry.

Their final stop was abandoned airfield of Ferris Aircraft where Hal Jordan used to work. There, in a hanger, was the old truck that Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen rode in in their legendary ride across America. Within the truck was a Green Lantern ring.

The next scene showed Arrow dating the Black Canary, but chickened out from offering her the diamond ring.

In the conclusion of the Archer's Quest, it was revealed why Oliver chose the JLA cert to be retrieved first. At the back of the frame containing the cert was a photo, showing beardless Oliver carrying Connor Hawke the day Connor was born in the hospital. He lied to everyone, that he never knew he had a son.

But he also began to make some changes, reordering the retrieved items, and deciding on Connor to receive them, this time.

Service Recovery - ever heard of it?

This incident occured last Monday when Snowylady's colleagues decided to give her a birthday treat at a Japanese restaurant in the revamped Marina Square.

I arrived slightly later separately with the two children, having to get Snowylass to have her dinner first and then a shower before leaving home.

When I arrived, I learned that moments before, a waiter just scalded a bare arm of Snowylady's colleague, Ms L., with hot water. I have been scalded before and I recalled how painful it was. The waiter just apologised but showed no initiative to improve the situation. It was after he noticed Ms L. putting the wet tissue towel on the scalded arm that he offered her more wet tissue towel. I don't think he even informed the manager. He seemed more keen to assure himself that it was not too serious.

I went to the Guardian Pharmacy in the mall and asked for the pharmacist to recommend a salve for scalded skin. It did help Ms L. feel a lot better.

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, it's rather difficult for me to have proper meals with Snowylad around. Most of the dinner, I was walking with him outside, exploring more of the mall on a quieter Monday evening.

When I returned after the dinner ended, I learned the restaurant didn't give them any discount whatsoever.

I also learned that the guilty waiter saw Ms L. applying the lotion (which according to instructions, to re-apply half-hourly) and inquired about it. Only then did he offered to pay for the lotion, making a joke it'd come handy for the cooks in the restaurant who often scalded themselves. He was rejected.

I know the service level in Singapore is pathetic. The waiter was not the bottom of the barrel, but he lacked some common sense and initiative. Furthermore, telling customers that the kitchen staff often scalded themselves does not inspire any confidence in the eatery, which was too bad 'cos Snowylady told me the food was quite good (I didn't eat there.)

Being in the service industry myself, I know service failure might be inevitable, but what distinguishes a good service provider and a mediocre one is a good service provider actively seeks to more than make up for it through service recovery.

A birthday invitation for Snowylass, one teacher migrating (among other things)

It's probably the only time in my children's life that they'll happily (more like obliviously) allow me to go through their school bags daily.

I have to. She's only all of 3 years old as of last month.

Before departure: Towel, check.  Change of clothes, check.

Water-bottle filled with water, check. Snack box filled with at least 2 variety of snacks (usually one form of biscuit and a fruit), check. Milk packet, check.

In the evening, apart from taking out the 'dirty clothings' and airing the towel, I got to check the rest of the bag carefully.

Sometimes, there's a goody bag when a schoolmate had a birthday party. In fact, with around 50 kids, there's at least a birthday party every month. Many of the kids are from expat families, so giving away goody bags became 'tradition'. But most significant for this check is to find if the teachers put in leftover pieces of the birthday cake somewhere in the bag. I'm sure they don't mean to hide it, but these cakes do have a habit of becoming shy.

Once I was so tired that I put off the 'bag process' until the next morning, only to find discover the presence of what the previous day was fresh-cream cake, wondering why it was neglected overnight, and it was totally ... gross.

Though the school wanted to make it a point for the kids to learn to inform their parents whenever there's something 'extra' in the bag, I could not help but sometimes wonder if the teachers gave up the fight with my daughter's class. She never tells us anything about it.

This week so far, there's a birthday party invitation from Luca.

As this is only my 3rd blog entry, perhaps it might be useful to note down a bit more about this boy Luca.

His parents are German. He was already there in the Bunny class (entry level for these kids) when Snowylass started. The very first day in school, Luca kissed and hugged her (And from this birthday invitation, I only now learned he's a couple of months younger than Snowylass). Now, the father in me wasn't very pleased about his first and only child then being kissed by a boy. I was even less impressed when I was told Luca 'had a girl in every class'.

I made it a point to teach Snowylass that if she doesn't like it (and she doesn't have to like it), she should tell him "No." But apparently, Luca's kisses washed off her like water off duck, so I bore with it as stoically as possible, hoping it will pass.

It didn't really pass, after more than one year (they are together in the Sweetpeas class now), though I was given to understand he reduced the number of girls he's kissing now, and does it to Snowylass less often.

But he is on the same bus home with Snowylass and he's been trying to get himself invited to our residence, and invite Snowylass to his. His mother (a trained psychologist) actually talked to Snowylady (they're sort of friends now), and they promised to try to arrange something ... someday ...

Me? I just want to know how long would Luca's parents be in Singapore. Others might find it cute the children going around saying "My Snowylass" etc., but this father is too acutely aware of what boys get up to, especially in their adolescent years, and doesn't want his daughter to have unrealistic and overly optimistic innocent ideas ... right from young.

I must say she gave me less reason to worry a couple of weekends ago at another birthday party that her class was invited to. During that party, Luca's father told Luca's mother, who told Snowylady that he observed another boy hitting Luca when the kids were playing on an inflatable castle. Then he said he observed Snowylass stepping between the boys, held a hand up to the hitter and told him firmly "Stop."

I wished I caught that. I was present, but between me handling Snowylad at that time and Snowylady talking with Luca's mom, we missed it. I was proud of her of course, and I have some hope now that she won't be a person easily impressed by guys showing off, so if any guy really wants to impress her, he'd better have some real substance.

 

There is another note I found in her bag this week. This time is to inform us that one of Snowylass' favourite teacher, a 杨老师 from Shanghai who was mainly responsible for instructing the class in Mandarin, would be giving up her Singaporean PR to go to Canada with her husband.

On the one hand, 杨老师 talks to the children a lot and got them to talk more in Mandarin as compared to the other Chinese language teacher.

And the other hand, she also touches up her makeup in school, something which Snowylass picked up very quickly. A few months ago, Snowylady left her handbag on the bed. Snowylass happily went through it and found a lip moisturiser in a compact, and was cheekily doing her own lips when caught by her mum. Snowylady took the chance to remind that Snowylass is a girl, even if she's only 3 years old. I am still trying to understand what it means - I got no sisters.

Back to 杨老师. The principal told me yesterday that 杨老师's husband was also from China, and they were posted to Canada by SingTel. I don't know what SingTel is doing in Canada, but in anycase, the principal also told me that 杨老师 and hubby planned to return to China when they want to start a family - Singapore is too stressful and they don't care for the environment for a family.

Some ethnic Chinese families don't care to raise their children in the West though they'd want to study or work there.

Most thought Singapore is a safe place to raise children.

Some Singaporeans choose to migrate to Australia for a less stressful environment.

Snowylady, being a teacher, was already thinking about our children.

I told her I didn't feel stress when I studied in Singapore, all through Primary, Secondary, Junior College.

Neither did she, she said.

We had time to play after finishing homework. Okay, so I did skip doing homework once or twice, and paid for it by doing it till late a night, but overall, it's a breeze.

Snowylady now saw the students being given more and more stuff to do.

Frankly, I'm not sure if that's a good way for them to do learning.

Snowylass' cousin, 6 months older, was being taught reading alphabets and words.

So far, we've not done anything of that sort actively, except recite to her the alphabets in Sesame Street books. We are still thinking that she'll ask to learn when she's ready. Meanwhile, she doesn't need to know to read in order to learn the names of the things around her, like ladybird, coconut, or that we stop because the traffic light is red.

I just hope we can continue doing things at our own pace and resist external pressures as she grows.

Project B-Day 2006 Completed ... better start planning for B-Day 2007

Finally, the weekend has passed.

Compared to previous years, I think I put it a little more effort this year.

After all, snowylady put in a lot of effort for snowylass' birthday in June and she (snowylady) really deserves lots and lots of presents, love, hugs and kisses. Unfortunately, the wallet is a little bare ...

Ever since she returned to work after the end of her no-pay leave, each day have been tough on her, and the children. Even in school, she has to make sure to continue pumping milk so that snowylad can continue to have it - we really, really, really do not like the idea of the children taking formula milk.

Between me and her, we have to ensure the children are picked up from school and feed them and bathe them. Very little time for bonding, reading books, anymore, in the evenings.

But we keep reminding the children we love them through many other ways.

Sometimes, I get scolded for being irresponsible, and the children got upset.

Snowylady and I have to affirm that we love each other, not just to ourselves, but to the children too.

Snowylady's birthday this year fell on Friday. It was not something to look forward to, spending the birthday in school with students misbehaving, and herself falling ill.

I had an idea but procrastinated until it was almost too late.

Fortunately, on last Wednesday morning, and Thank God for 24 hours supermarkets, I brought snowylass to Cold Storage @ Holland V before dropping her at childcare. We picked out a nice birthday card for mummy (didn't have too many too choose from). Got one with more white spaces - then I begged her childcare teachers to help her 'decorate' it.

Miss N didn't seem enthusiastic but when I picked snowylass in the evening, there was a note with the card from Miss H that the job was all done - and it was a darn good job too!

Snowylady saw the card when I picked her up from school later, but she promised to pretend not to see it until the next day. Didn't really matter, I suppose, 'cos snowylass was so excited by her 'special surprise' for mummy that she blurted it out that night.

The next day, I called to book our favourite holiday getaway (locally) to check in tomorrow - too many stuff to do on Friday and didn't want to waste it by checking in late. During lunch, zoomed down to Parkway Parade hoping to find her 'lots and lots' of presents without having to borrow from the loansharks.

Two weeks ago, she already picked something out, but that was only one item.

She really likes the idea of lots and lots of presents, partly because of her childhood when family situation meant she went without most things other kids take for granted.

So, at PP, I walked around, thinking and thinking.

Stuff toys are out - they take up precious little space at home. So are little ornamental decors.

And our bookcase is threatening to collapse, though both of us still got more we haven't shelved.

Chocolates is always good. There's a Chocz at PP. What to choose, what to choose ...

Finally, saw this cute heart shaped box, but rather than taking the pre-selected ones, I chose my own. Found that I had to shell out an extra buck for that lovely cup choc that had 4 flowers of different colours, but, hey, it's really cute.

Next, a single rose bouquet - no point buying too many - enough that she gets flowers, I hope.

Finally, found a shop which sold some cute Disney stickers rather cheaply.

3 items, I guess it'll have to do this year. Until the purse is more filled and we got more space at home.

Dinner that night would have been more enjoyable if the restaurant had proper baby chairs, but I reminded myself, the main celebration is the next day.

Saturday. I think the children were more excited than us when we were checking in.

STOMP actually SMS'ed me that I was shortlisted for the grand prize draw that evening. I already made up my mind not to go, which was strengthened when I read that 5,000 people were shortlisted and asked to go to PS. No thank you.

It was quite exciting for snowylad when I brought him out for a walk so that the 'two girls' can have their naps. Since last month, Snowylass had taken to calling herself and mummy 'the two girls' and me and snowylad as 'the two boys'.

I brought snowylad to Marina Square to see the changes they made. Noted that they have an Imperial Treasures La Mian Xiao Long Bao - good, we can have dinner there, which is not too ex and their shanghai nian-gao is just nice for the little girl. *sigh* until the children are older, the adults really cannot get to enjoy proper meals.

Two highlights that evening.

First was I finally found a nice little cake as birthday cake. For some reason, snowylass seemed to be unable to muster a lusty rendition of 'happy birthday' without a cake and a candle.

The second must be when 'the two girls' and the baby could all fit snugly into the bathtub. My job was to wait at the side with the towels. It was really cute watching snowylass teaching snowylad what to do with the rubber duckie.

At first, we were afraid the kids, esp. snowylad, might be too excited to sleep. It happened with snowylass the first time we brought her to sleep away from home outside. Thankfully, they both crashed.

As I fell asleep, I prayed that next year will be better.

Resistance was futile

So, after all these years, I finally decided to create a blog. I suppose resistance was futile, I am vain and I really think posterity would benefit from my blog. Yeah, right.

But I think it's gonna be a great way for my kids to learn to know their dad, so this blog is created with all of you in mind, snowylady (my better half), snowylass (my firstborn) and snowylad (my youngest baby).

I'll be creating some entries just for you here, and no one else but you can read it. You'll have access to my most intimate thoughts.

But since I created a blog anyway, might as well let some of my 'kakis' know too.

So to you folks from CHF, you're the first outside the snowy clan to know about the existence of this blog.