The Year that is Almost Was

2009 has been a most interesting year for me, punctuated by many learning experiences and reunions with old friends from afar.

Chinese New Year was the first festival of the year and we celebrated it in Kuala Lumpur in my youngest brother's house even though he was away in Melbourne, because that is where our family's ancestral tablets are. We have to pay our respects to our departed ones and then have our reunion dinner together. All my siblings and their families will gather here annually to celebrate the Chinese New Year.The children enjoy it most as they get their "ang pows" (red packets containing money, symbolising good luck and prosperity)


We had a short holiday in Hokkaido, Japan, in Spring so that we could see the beautiful cherry blossoms or Sakura.
That was an eye-opener. The Japanese lifestyle is very different from our Malaysian lifestyle. Theirs is so much healthier as can been seen from the people all of whom are very slender. No excess weight carried on their bodies. Many of them walk or cycle in Hokkaido. Japanese food, especially the seafood was a new experience for me and I enjoyed the crabs,scallops and the abalone.They were unbelievably fresh, succulent and tasty. MMmmmmm...


I was fortunate enough to meet up with my former classmates, some of whom I have not seen for half a century (!!!! I feel really old!!!) and would not have recognised if not for the others who re-introduced us. White-haired, nicely-rounded, bespectacled, but thankfully all still walking without the aid of walking sticks, we still behaved like school girls of yesteryears when we started catching up over long drawn-out meals.


Another reunion was that of college mates, one of whom flew in from Switzerland, another from Kota Bahru, the capital of a state on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia and of course myself from Kota Kinabalu, on Borneo Island. Kuala Lumpur is the place to meet as it is central and many of my friends still reside there.


There was a new addition to our family clan, my brother's second grandson, Tristan. The family has grown. My sister also has a new granddaughter Amelia in addition to her other two. My niece also had a new daughter. She now has two children, both of whom were not seen by my late sister, who would have been a proud and doting grandma. She died far too young, succumbing to ovarian cancer after a valiant fight.

I also attended computer camps where I learned many new things. Unfortunately, being a senior, the brain doesn't grasp things easily and it also tends to forget very quickly! So what I've learned, I've only retained about 25%, sad to say, although I try hard to put into practice what I can remember. But there's never enough time to read up about it and to try it out. I have 3 books open right now and I do wish I have three heads to cope with all that stuff. Oh no! That would make me a Hydra, a creature with many heads! Ugh, what a sight! Better to stick to my own head!

The best news of all is that my son, the baby of the family has got engaged recently and will get married next year. He is the last of the dragon babies to become attached, the other four from my siblings, all having married and settled down, some with two children. My future daughter-in-law is a lovely young person and I'm very happy for the both of them.

On the other side of the coin, though, are two incidents about which I just found out yesterday. My dear golf buddy has been told to rest for a period of time as she hurt her back yesterday while playing competition golf. So that means I have to lay off too while she recuperates. We play together because both of us are early birds, meaning we tee off even before there is sufficient light to see where the ball lands. This is to enjoy the beautiful fresh air before it gets polluted by the exhaust from motor vehicles that carry over to our fairways from the roads that border our club.It is also to avoid the damaging rays of the sun which is ultrahot these days. However she assures me that there is no serious damage and a bit of rest will soon put her right.


The other bad news is that one of my friends had a fall and fractured her thigh bone. She had to have surgery but is now resting at home. I shall be visiting her tomorrow, after lunching with another dear old friend. Tomorrow will be the new year, the beginning of the second decade of this century. A good time to toast to true and tested friendships. I look forward to tomorrow's lunch with eager anticipation.

It is raining now but I doubt it will stop the revellers who will be partying, seeing out this year and ushering in the new.Happy New Year 2010 and goodbye to 2009.

Kids are Back!!

Hurray! My grandchildren are back today!

While waiting for them to return from Singapore, I switched on the Christmas tree lights and the Christmas songs. It was such a pretty sight with the fairy lights twinkling and the presents piled under the tree, waiting for the children. They had spent the last few weeks in Singapore as they were on school vacation.

When the brass door knocker ( is this correct?? )rapped impatiently ( that must have been Chloe ), I literally flew down the stairs to open the door. There they were, the both of them. I swear they have grown taller since I last saw them in November.

Their greetings of "Poh-Poh" and "Kong-Kong" made my day, even though it was already late evening. How I've missed them and their voices!

After a lovely dinner of cherry-glaced ham & roast potatoes made by my daughter Sharon and her spouse Yen, we opened our presents. The children had a good time looking for their presents as there were quite a number.



Chloe counted 16 and Stephen had 15. They had books and toys and chocolates, clothes, etc.

I also had my share. What was most wonderful was the joy of the children as they opened their presents to see what was beneath the wrapping paper.

"Now I won't be bored again!" enthused Chloe as she received half a dozen story books. She's an avid book lover. She reads and reads all the time.

Stephen was thrilled with his gadgets.

They gave their grandfather a Sudoku book and I got a book and pillbox for all the pills that I have to take each day. I gave my spouse two shirts and my son-in-law a cookbook as he loves to cook. Sharon put on the blouses she received, to show us how good they looked on her.

It was grand, having them back. The house will not be still and silent anymore. The piano will be singing out tunes early tomorrow morning. Ah this is something to look forward to.

I'm back!

Nothing is better than receiving your buddy's text message " Hi old friend, are you back? C u 2moro for golf?" on touching down in KK.

My reply of course is "U bet!" So by half past five in the morning there we were at the Golf & Country Club, raring to go on the fairway as soon as there was sufficient light to see the ball.

Another golf buddy flew in from Taiwan so we had a foursome. Mind you, after a haitus of ten days, it was not easy to hit a good shot. What more in semi-darkness but my buddy has cat's eyes. She can see in the dark! She can sight my yellow ball readily. Ah... but then I don't hit far.


It really was such a pleasure to smell the fresh air and feel the morning cool before the sun comes out in full fury.

Indeed there is no better game than golf.... it gives you the exercise, even when you're in a buggy as sometimes you would rather walk to your ball which may have decided to hide somewhere under the trees.

One of us went into every bunker and some of the bunkers are so deep with steep sides that it can take a few strokes before the ball is hurled out. Look on that as extra exercise! Especially when a shot sails over your head across the green and into another bunker on the far side! We had good laughs over that!

It's really great to be back! I look forward to the daily exercise barring the weekends. The buggy is used only once a week, the rest of the days we walk, pulling our own trolleys.

Simple Pleasures

During this trip to KL I've been very happy. Happy that I met up with my two younger brothers and another two sisters. This is what brought me joy and pleasure. With Robert, we had a good bah kut teh breakfast ( stewed pork served with cruellers -yau cha kway )in Klang, (the town famous for its bah kut teh) together with my daughter and sister Ellie, after which he bought us pork chops and acar (Malaysian vegetable salad mixed with peanut sauce and sesame seeds) which we would have as part of our dinner that night. Ellie later gave me some sambal prawn petai ( petai is a nutritious but smelly bean ).

As I posted earlier, my youngest sister, Rosalind (Bee her nickname ) taught me how to make kaya (coconut egg jam). Allen, my youngest brother asked me over to his house for a simple home-cooked dinner of yong tau foo ( vegetables stuffed with fish paste), fried fish and omelette. He had gone to harvest his oil palm and on the way back had bought an ikan tenggiri ( a kind of fish used to make yong tau foo and fish curry) which his maid had used to make the fish paste. His daughter had just returned from Melbourne and so we had cherries for desssert.


Another highlight was having lunch with two classmates, one of whom I have not seen for 50 years, ever since we left school in 1959.As you can imagine, there was lots of catching up to do over a slow buffet lunch.

Yesterday, we went to the Sunway Lagoon Resort which has a large shopping mall, together with my sister Ellie. It is quite far from where we stay and I will never be able to find the way there, if not for my daughter Grace who lives and works in KL.

The Christmas decorations in the Mall were quite pretty but a bit less dressy, compared to the other malls. There were many shops and a couple of main anchor tenants. Browsing around, we made some Christmas purchases and then sat in a Chinese restaurant with a view of the lagoon where lots of adults and children were having fun in the man-made lagoon and water rides. We saw a couple of people abseiling across the lagoon while some were walking along the suspension bridge.



Just watching the people below having their day out in the sun gave me pleasure, as did the pretty Christmas lights and Christmas trees. Listening to the Christmas songs brought back memories of past years when it was really a White Christmas in the UK.

I don't know about you, but I find so much pleasure looking at pretty things in the shops, the decor, the pictures of the food available outside the restaurants, and the crowds of people strolling past or mothers and maids running after their little ones. It is the being in the company of my sister and my daughter, mall crawling that gives me the pleasure, rather than the actual shopping for things although it was nice to try out the clothes and to browse through the accessories as we decide what to buy and for whom. This can be difficult especially when I come from a large family, ten siblings in all.

Later today I will return to the Land below the Wind, to spend Christmas with my elder daughter who has informed me that there is party to attend on Christmas day and on the following day, my grandchildren will be back from Singapore where they had been spending their school holiday with their father who lives and works there.
That is what we have been truly looking forward to, the return of the children. It has been a long time since the piano keys were hammering out scales and melodies and the computer beating out tunes which my granddaughter would sing along with. Ah, such are the pleasures of life.

Kaya making

Yesterday I had lunch at my youngest sister's place. She taught me how to make kaya which is coconut egg jam. This is a local jam made from thick coconut milk, eggs and sugar. It comes out as a creamy smooth spread which is very tasty. You can either have it green with the pandan leaves or caramelise the sugar to give it a brown colour.

She used ten eggs, 600gm sugar ( which I thought was too much ) and 200 grams thick coconut milk or santan ( as we call it locally)and a few pandan leaves.

She put everything into a blender, including two shredded pandan leaves and blended it on high until the sugar and pandan leaves were dissolved. Then she poured the mixture out into a pot and boiled it over low fire, stirring until it thickened.

Then she poured the lot into the double boiler to steam it together with the remaining pandan leaves. It was left to steam for about 45 minutes, during which she stirred it a couple of times. If stirred too many times, it would turn out dry.

After 45 minutes, she removed it and put it into the blender again to blend for a short while, until the pandan leaves were completely dissolved. Hers is a heavy duty blender so it could dissolve the pandan leaves. I'm not sure if an ordinary blender can do that. But it doesnt really matter as we can always use the pandan juice to get the green color and the nice smell.

Once it was blended, the kaya came out very smooth. It tasted delicious though a tad too sweet for my liking. I think 400gm of sugar will be fine and I would add 300gm of thick coconut milk instead.

Lunch which she provided was a mixture of nasi lemak, kueh teow, roast pork, fried radish cake ( I would have preferred it fried with dark soya sauce but she used fish sauce instead because she didn't like it to look dark!!) and sotong sambal(spicy cuttlefish). Then her hubby whom ky daughter dubbed Uncle KFC came back with two tubs of Kentuck Fried Chicken and some durian creme puffs. The puffs were delisious but then anything with durian is delicious to me. I simply love the King of Fruits. However its aroma sometimes drive people beserk!

Season's Greetings & Glad Tidings

Christmas is around the corner. Shopping malls and even the neighbourhood shops are glitzed up for the festive season. The omnipresent Christmas tree is all dressed up and Christmas songs play continuously. Pretty decorations and beautifully wrapped up presents suck you into the festive mood. Sales signs are everywhere, competing for customers.


The choice is plenty and it's hard to make a decision. Armed with a shopping list, I browse through the shops to look for bargains.


Shopping can be very tiring and after two hours, my mind is swimming and my knees threatening to give way. Lunch was a wonderful respite.

Another round after lunch and I was ready to call it a day. What was not accomplished had to be postponed to another day and at another shopping mall.

Once home I looked at the contents of the shopping bags. There didn't seem to be many items, yet the receipts added up to quite a big sum.

Thankfully they were the items on the shopping list and none were impulse buys. Shopping mania can get to you during the annual festive sales and one can get caught up in the many bargains and the many choices available.

Learning to be more discreet and careful in shopping can be quite a learning curve but it helps to stretch one's resources for another day.

All's Well that Ends Well

This morning I had a shock when I read my niece's entry in the Malaysia Insider. She had recently returned with her toddler son to Hong Kong where she lives after an extended holiday in KL.

That little boy is a very active child and is always on the go. My niece had gone to Ikea to get a couple of things for her new apartment and the little boy was playing at the children's playarea under his mother's watchful eyes. However, she said that she ust turned away for a moment and the child had disappeared.


I can imagine how she felt, all the worst fears rushing into mind,especially when there had been emails circulating of children being kidnapped in shopping malls, never to be seen again. She went helter skelter, asking everyone if they had seen a little toddler ( he's less than 2 years old )and her search took her to the main door which opened to the main road.

On the verge of panic-stricken hysteria, she suddenly heard a small voice asking for juice. She turned, and there was the missing child, looking at a counter with boxes of juice. He must have been thirsty and seen those boxes, hence was asking for one.

My poor niece scooped him up in grateful relief. She has learned a lesson, that children cannot be left out of sight even for a nano second. But what a painful frightening lesson it was.

Can you imagine not finding your child after a frantic search? There have been horror stories of young children being kidnapped and then mutiliated and forced to beg on the streets by unscrupulous, heartless thugs or rather, the scum of the earth.

Even worse is the fate of little girls who end up being raped, murdered and discarded like rubbish.

So to all parents, please please keep your little ones under your eagle eyes. Nothing is more precious than these little children who are blessings from the Almighty and whom we have to nurture with love and care.

Praise be to the Almighty for my niece's recovery of her little boy. He will grow to be a fine young man under the loving care of his parents.

Goldies' Computer Camp 2009

Hi,

The Goldies' Computer Camp 2009 marked the end of the ICT month in Sabah. It was a 2-day camp for seniors aged above 55 and 40 of us were selected according to a list of criteria. There were some husband and wife couples attending too.

This weekend was spent learning about FaceBook, the most popular form of social networking.

The venue was at the Sabah Skills and Technology Center and the camp was sponsored by the state government.We were bussed to the Center each morning and in the evening,back to where we had parked our cars.

It was a great outing as we not only learned how to social-network but we also made new friends. On top of that we were fed every 2 hours!! We felt really pampered as the food was good and there was plenty too. The organisers were the Sabah Computer Society and they did a fantastic job.

The lecturers were great and the facilitators were ever so patient with the bunch of us, as we all well know, our senior brains have somewhat slowed down a bit and it takes some time to grasp new things.

The internet connection, however, was below par and our patience was sorely tested as we had to wait for what seemed like ages before we could upload or download ( which is the correct term????)a page.

Nevertheless we learned how to create an event, search for a picture on the net and upload it, invite people to be friends, how to find friends, how to find groups to join, how to create our groups, how to create a page, etc etc etc.

To be given such a learning experience, hands on, and all free to boot, is something we are very grateful for. It also makes us feel that we are not forgotten, or left aside as dinosuars in the present technology-oriented era. As one of the participants pointed out in his speech at the closing ceremony, our children who are so adept with the computer, are not patient enough to teach us and we often get scolded for being slow to grasp things. So this opportunity given to us to learn some skills with the computer is really heaven-sent.

Indeed it was a weekend well-spent, even though it was tiring. We met old friends and made new ones at this camp. Hopefully, we will be selected again to participate next year.

Oh, by the way, I emerged as the first prize winner. I received the champion's trophy, a home media center media player, a mobile hard disc and an optical mouse. There were 3 major prizes and 10 consolation prizes. Everyone left the camp, very happy and satisfied as we all had learned something new. All of us were also presented with a goody bag at registration time on the first day so everyone had something to take home. The blue T-shirt I'm wearing is also given to us so we were wearing "uniforms" so to speak. The minister of the sponsoring ministry gave away the prizes and officially closed the ICT month.

Yeah...!

Hi,

A big yeah.... today. I want to share that my granddaughter, Chloe, announced at dinner time that she has included me on her Facebook!

Wow! Such a lovely surprise it was.

Did I tell you that it was she who calmly told her grandfather that if he wanted to find out anything, he should always ask Google?

And she's all of ten years old. She turned ten in September.

She loves tuning into YouTube where she looks for her favourite singers, gets the lyrics and sings along with the singers.

When I was ten years old, I was still playing "masak-masak" ( playing with toy kitchenware, pretending to cook!!)with my siblings.

Today's generation is amazing. My niece is already teaching her almost 4 year old daughter how to handle the computer! She may yet turn out to be a computer whizz kid.

The youngsters pick up things very quickly while these old, tired brains have a hard time trying to figure out where something she downloaded had disappeared to!

Another incident was even more disheartening. I was in the process of sending a file as an attachment to an email to a friend who wanted to know more about Twitter, when it suddenly disappeared and I can't locate it anymore, not even the original file. So the poor guy won't ever get the Twitter file. I just can't locate where it went. Must be orbiting somewhere in cyberspace. So my friend, if you are reading this, please know that I was sending it to you a second time since you said you didn't receive it the first time. Now it has disappeared forever and I won't even have something to refer to when I forget something. You know what it's like...senior lapses are more often than not, occuring these days.

Talk about forgetting where the car was parked in Mid-Valley ( a huge shopping complex with an equally huge underground carpark )during my last trip to Kuala Lumpur. My spouse was not much better. He remembered the number but not the alphabet preceding it. The car is an old one so we had to use the key to manually lock it, not the type where you just pressed a button and the car would give off a sound thus alerting you to its whereabouts.

Suffice to say that it took us a long time plus a bit of female intuition before we finally located it. My brother then advised," You should have taken a photo of the car and its position with your mobile phone." I wonder how much good that would be. I will try that out next time.

The Beauty of Refreshers

Hi,

You know,there is nothing better than the second time around.

I'm attending a refresher course for basic internet marketing. Why is it better the second time?

You get to revise what you've learnt before and you are able to fill in the blanks where you've missed the first time around.

Understanding and new insights into the topic make it a more pleasurable learning experience Not only is the learning experience better but I also get to make new friends.

So I would recommend that whenever you have a chance to attend refresher courses, go for them. You won't regret it.

Please go to my website http://www.peggy-chan.com to get your freebies.

Birthday Bash

Yesterday we celebrated my younger brother David's birthday. He has turned 54.

How time has flown. It doesn't seem that long ago when he was a toddler, with a tuft of fine baby hair, following the cows back to their cow sheds. We got a good tongue lashing from our mum when she realised that we had been busy playing marbles out on the laterite road instead of keeping an eye on our little brother.

Now he is 54 years old, father of two teenagers.

It was a wet evening with horrendous traffic snarling the roads in Petaling Jaya but my daughter was very skilful in manouvering her way through and we got to the restaurant in time to see my other brother and his family just about to enter the lift.

We had three large tables set in a big room so there was more than ample space for the two little boys Aidan and Ishan to run around in. The rest of the new generation were unable to make it because of prior engagements.

As is the norm for Chinese dinners, it was a gastronomic banquet with course after course of deliious food. The only dish that I didn't partake of was the escargot baked with cheese. I don't take cheese but fortunately my niece Lali didn't mind having my escargot. There was Peking Duck, herbal kampung chicken soup, cod fish, prawns fried in salted egg, the baked escargot, longetivity noodles followed by a dessert of a sea coconut concoction and steamed cake.

He had two birthday cakes last year but this year he had three! All of them had rich chocolate toppings and one came with little cupcakes surrounding it.There was so much cake and food left over that we had quite a few bags of "tah pau". So those who were unable to make it also had their share of the cakes and the prawns.

As is the case, when sisters get together there was lots to talk about especially when we don't all live in Kuala Lumpur. Janet is here having come in from Melbourne, and myself from Kota Kinabalu. The younger generation had their own table where they had their own pow-wow. Of course the two members of the new generation had a whale of a time, running around amusing the older generation with their antics.

Lots of photos were taken and mine have already been uploaded to Facebook. This was an evening to remember and fortunately the roads were also clear of traffic when we headed for our respective homes.

The New Generation

On Sunday evening there was a party to introduce the new generation. My sister Janet had flown in from Ozieland with her two children and two adorable babies who were making their debut in Malaysia.

Joshua Ray and Jade de Run were introduced to their Malaysian family members from both the de Run and the Lim clan. These little ones were the stars that night. Another little 'un had earlier flown in from Hong Kong, Foo Ishan while two others Scarlett and Seth drove up from Singapore with their parents. Aidan Lim is located in Kuala Lumpur. Another little boy, Dylan Uncles is in Melbourne as his mum had just delivered a baby girl Lara. Amelia, Janet's other granddaughter was not able to make the trip to join us. All these youngsters are below four years of age, the new generation.

             Joshua

                    

                                                       Ishan and Jade

                          
                                                                      The Older Generation
                Seth

The older generation has passed on while we, the middle-aged grandparents have taken over that status.

Our sons and daughters are now the younger generation, replacing us. Some of them have yet to marry and begin their families but that will come in time. It is amazing to see how the family tree grows and expands into branches and off-shoots.

It was such a joy to see the little ones making their acquaintances with one another. They bring such joy and are truly blessings from God.

They grow very fast and as we watch the phases they grow through, it also reminds us that we ourselves were once at that stage. Now in the autumn of my life, I wonder how they will turn out.

However I'm confident that with the good values that we, as parents, have imbued into our children, they in turn will pass on those values to theirs. So they will certainly grow up well, guided by their parents. The only regret is that we, the older generation, may not be here to see them when they come into their own, in adulthood. But who knows? God may yet bless us with that opportunity.  

Lovely Day Today

 Today I attended a workshop on Facebook and Twitter run by two very capable 

  and knowledgeable young men, Johan and Alex.

The workshop was organised by SWEPA, a women's organisation, for its members.
It was held at the Sabah Skills Training Centre which has got many rooms for training purposes.

I learned many things and hope to apply them before I forget. The bane of seniors is the remarkable ability to forget things very quickly and the snail's pace of learning new things. Sigh...... if only my brain were 40 years younger!

Today's workshop was an extension of the earlier one which was too short to cover the topics so those who did not attend today have really missed out many things.

Facebook is not a waste of time and is not as trivial as many people perceive it to be. It's an excellent tool for communication and its applications are very useful those in biz as well.

Twitter is even more fascinating. Thousands of tweets are flying in space and there is so much to learn.

I would like to record my gratitude to Johan and Alex and to Hanaa, the lovely Mrs. Johan and their delightful daughter for the knowledge they have so generously shared today. Thank you, my friends. It was truly a rainbow day for me.

Children.... blessings from God

This morning I was pleasantly surprised and delighted when my little granddaughter's name was announced as the winner of the Bible verses quiz.  Our church celebrated Sunday School Sunday this morning and presentations were made. The children received certificates and tokens and those who did well in the quicz received their trophies and medals.

I could see the joy in the children's faces as they were called out to be acknowledged in front of the congregation.

These children ranged from one to 12 years old. The little ones are so innocent, devoid of guile and deceit. Their songs and the little skit of David and Goliath did us proud.

As the pastor said, children are sincere, honest and very straightforward. In the Bible when there were thousands who after listening to Jesus' preaching, were hungry and there was no food around, it was a little boy who came forward with his basket to offer what he had, five small barley loaves and two little fish. From this small offering, Jesus was able to feed the multitude and there were 12 baskets left over to spare.

Children are blessings from God to be cherished and loved, to be nurtured and brought up to do what is right and to stand up to be counted. They are not to be abused or neglected.

They are not to be regarded as unwanted by-products of casual relationships and discarded like used tissue.

Those of us who have children and grandchildren will know the joy these youngsters bring into our lives. No doubt as they grow up they will lose their innocence and become wise to the ways of the world. This is where parental guidance becomes crucial, to teach them, to be their role models and to be there for them, giving them support as they make their way through what can sometimes be a painful experience in making the transition from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood.

Let us all celebrate Children's Day by making a difference to any child that we know who needs a helping hand. There are many who are not as lucky as we are.

Happy Deepavali!

Today is Deepavali, the Festival of Lights which is celebrated among the Indian community. Behind this festival is the legend where good triumphs over evil. It is celebrated with sweet treats and Indian food.

However this year, my sister decided on her version of 1Malaysia. My younger sister is married to an Indian and they have three lovely girls, who do not look alike. She has a grandson Ishan who is 15 months old.  She served Indian tidbits and western cookies plus delicious nasi lemak served with Indian curry, Malay sambal sotong, Indian mutton curry and Malay prawn sambal.

 Of course there are the kangkong, ikan bilis ( fried anchovies) , groundnuts and cucumber which are a must for nasi lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk, pandan and serai (lemon grass)).

My pictures don't do justice to the lovely spread she put out for family and guests. I don't know how to take good photos or how to upload them nicely and in the right place.

Not all my siblings were present as some of them are not in Malaysia at the moment. Anyway it was a good gathering of not only the Lim clan but also friends of the family with their children and grandchildren. Lots of things to talk about, besides the food. My youngest sister steamed some delicious Chinese cupcakes made from sweet potatoes. She also fried some Chinese style noodles for the children who are unable to eat the spicy food.

The guys had their drinks and talked among themselves, topics ranging from golf to local politics. The ladies had their own things to talk about. My nephew recently proposed to his girlfriend underwater during a dive at Pulau Sipadan, a world heritage site and one of the world's top diving spots. Nowadays the youngsters do things very differently and they certainly are not short of creative options. Weddings on the beach are also very popular these days. Well, why not?

Malaysia has very beautiful beaches and I understand from some of my friends that many couples from China come to Sabah to get married because they love the beaches we have.

On the left is the mutton curry and in the background is the prawn sambal. These two dishes were cooked by the Indian lady who comes to cook for my sister, who being Chinese, does not know how to cook the Indian style.

That's the beauty of a mixed marriage. You get to eat the food of the two different cultures, in this case, spicy Indian food and Chinese stir-fries and Chinese boiled soup. My sister's soups are absolutely delicious. My children always prefer hers to mine.

On the left is the chicken rendang, also spicy but dry, without any gravy. The chicken is soft and tender, a favorite with the guests.

On the right is my niece Sunitha, who is pictured with some of the tidbits being served today. In the bottles are the spicy Indian tidbits such as Muruku ( different varieties) , kuih rose, and other savory bites.

Guests came and went. Just before we left, my sister urged us to take some food home so that we need not cook or go out for dinner. This practice is very familiar with Malaysians, the practice of "tah pau" meaning taking the food home with you. Even when you eat out in the restaurant, if you still have food left over, it is the usual practice to tell the waiter to "tah pau". We either take it home so that we can eat it on the following day or we give it to the dog. No one lifts an eyebrow at this. It is an accepted practice here. So I "tah pau" back the fragrant nasi lemak and my sister gave me a tupperware of curry chicken, my favorite. Of course there were the usual condiments that accompany the nasi lemak. Yum yum, am looking forward to having it again tonight. How not to grow fat?????

Of towers and coffee shops

This time round, there are more changes since my last visit to Kuala Lumpur. Near where my daughter lives, an abandoned condominium tower has resumed work and the structure is rapidly towering into the sky, adding yet another change to the skyline. It's certainly getting more crowded in KL as new towers sprout up like mushrooms.

There are too many of these towers and the high density of people, not to say the number of cars, make such housing developments unattractive in terms of space and traffic. One can say the traffic jam begins in these housing areas as cars crawl out from respective feeder roads onto the main ones.

However the more people there are, the more economic opportunities there will be for the people in the service and food industries. The coffee shops proliferate everywhere offering all kinds of food and drinks at any hour of day.  It is not uncommon to find different stalls operating in the mornings and afternoons. Last night we scouted out a new place (new to us) and the food a la homestyle cooking was good. We plan to go there once more to try out the German pork knuckle which is one of my hubby's favorite dishes. I enjoyed the sambal prawn petai ( spicy prawn and smelly beans ) though I wished there were more petai rather than onions.

Tonight my niece and her husband are hosting a dinner for the family and we have been invited. It's to a place we've not been before so I'm looking forward to this.

This morning we had a different type of noodles for breakfast, what is known as pan mee but tweaked to make it different from the usual stuff. Instead of the flat noodle, this was like the stringy noodles and it was served dry with the usual ikan bilis ( fried anchovies) and vegetable ( tow kei) eggdrop soup. We had to add special roasted chili to the mee and therein lies the difference. The taste was unusual and had a "kick" to it. I forgot my camera so I don't have a picture of it.

All kinds of  food can be found easily but to "sniff" out the special ones, you need the locals to tell you where to find them. My son who lives in Singapore insisted that we try this one so my daughter took us there. She had been introduced to it by her cousins and my son found it very special when his sister took him there to try it out as pan mee is his favorite breakfast whenever he is back in KL.

Every trip home to KL is a gastronomic trip! Eating all the food that I miss in the Land below the Wind (Borneo Island) and drinking the thick black coffee is a taste of paradise! I look forward to each trip with gusto and with a gleam in my eyes when I think of the treat in store for my palate. Besides, it's durian season again!! (those 'smelly apples' as my nephew used to call them but now he's a great fan!!) Oh, how not to put on weight???? More on the benefits of the durian in my next post.

Another Festival

How time flies! Another festival has come, been celebrated and gone by. The school children won't be back to school until Monday. They had about ten days off!!
However, the Chinese-medium school children returned to their classrooms much earlier, the rationale being that they are non-Muslims so they do not need so many days off.

The practice of having "open-houses" is a good one and is not anything new. Years and years ago, more than fifty years ago, in fact, this concept of "open-house" was already in practice. You could always pop-in to your friends' homes when it is festival time, no invitations needed. However it is slightly different today. You usually don't pop-in anymore, not without an invitation.

"Open-house" is usually a very happy occasion, whatever festival you are celebrating, be it Hari Raya Puasa, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Christmas, etc. and guests are always welcome. Even your children's guests and their friends, whom you may not know - all are welcome. There is usually a free flow of food and drinks, lots of tidbits and of course a lot of laughter as folks catch up with the latest updates, tell jokes, play cards, fireworks, etc. etc.

I'm looking forward to celebrating Hari Raya with one of my dear friends who went away to Perth to visit her relative. She will be back at the end of the month and both Tina and myself are looking forward to her delicious dishes that she always produces for the Raya. Mmmmm..... thinking of it already makes me drool...

Another friend just left today for her Mediterranean cruise and will be away for about two weeks. Yet another is back in KL with her grandchildren. This is the beauty of having grandmas. Whenever the son or daughter is in need, all they have to do is to send an SOS and grandma goes running! Such are our family ties, especially in Asian societies. The extended family can always be relied on to lend a hand.

Mind you, grandpas are also very handy. They make good chauffers, chaperones, and their somewhat bent shoulders still provide a good place to have a good cry. My grandchildren have their usual spats and the grandparents have to step in to end those sessions, which sometimes turn into crying and shouting bouts. Children will be children, quarrelling and screaming at each other, too stubborn to give in to the other..... I don't remember my children having such tantrums and fights, but then they were a few years apart whereas these two grandkids are very close, just a year apart. Thank goodness, their memories are short and very soon they are good friends again.

So Hari Raya was quiet this year, with many people going away for the holidays, and the roads were so pleasantly clear of traffic. It was a breeze to drive. Now that school will reopen on Monday, the madness will begin all over again. Sometimes, it is a necessity to get away, far from the madding crowd! Many people have already begun to go away during the festive season. No more hosting open houses as it is too much of a hassle and these days when you do not have the help of a housemaid, it is very difficult to have an open house, even if you have the food catered. It is the aftermath that discourages you. The cleaning up after everyone has left. The floor has to be mopped, things have to be put back in place, the garden has to be cleaned up, etc.

I myself stopped hosting the Chinese New Year open house in my home in the Land below the Wind, the year after my mother fell ill. The year she visited me was the last year I celebrated, having the complete "do" with the lion troupe etc etc. The lion dance troupe was from my school, raising funds and the boys gave a great performance, imitating the movements of the great cat, tearing open the oranges and eating them, then portraying a satisfied creature, lying down and scratching its hind quarters, etc... etc. The climax was when the lion scaled the thick bamboo pole to "catch" the red packet tied together with the lettuce leaves dangling from the upper floor of my house. The cymbals clashing and the huge drum beating out its stirring tempo added to the merriment of the guests. This was one of the loveliest rainbow moments of my life, having my parents, my friends and students together, celebrating the Chinese New Year.

The following year, my mum passed away, during the Chinese New Year period. From then on, I always returned to the family home in KL for the Chinese New Year festivities as it was her wish that all the family celebrate the reunion dinner together at the family home. I don't host open-house anymore at my own residence. On the other hand, I may just do it once more, for my grandchildren, so that they can see at close hand, what the lion dance is like. In KL, one hardly sees the lion dance except in shopping malls but the atmosphere is different.

Grandmas get-together

Datin Hiew, Peggy, Jennifer

Two days ago, 3 grandmothers met up at the Turf Club for lunch.

Fried Tanghoon (glass noodles) ( We also had wat tan hor - fried flat rice noodles in egg sauce - and tomyam fried rice ( spicy fried rice with cucumber/pineapple embellished with a piece of fried chicken.)

One is my dear old friend (Datin Hies) of many years while the other (Jennifer) is my former student from ages ago. Yes, she's grandma to two young boys and she dotes on them. Which grandma doesn't dote on their grandchildren?

Being grandmother is a feeling like no other. I remember when my grandchildren were much younger, I used to play in the garden with them, kicking a ball together with them. It was a great feeling! Now they help me to water my potted plants when I'm away from home and they lay the table for dinner and help to clear up too. My almost eleven-year old grandson is a very responsible young tyke who sees to it that the windows are locked each night and the curtains are down before he goes up to his room.

My granddaughter is a lovely young lass with two dimples ( I only have one! ) and a temper as hot as her grandma's!! She has a well-developed sense of what is just and she can argue a point down to the ground with her mother. She will make a good lawyer in the courtroom one day if she is so inclined.

Alas, I will not see the dawn of that day! This is the only thing about grandparenthood. The realisation that you will not see the young ones develop into their full potential and that you will not be a part of their future.

So what did the three grandmas talk about? Not only about the progress of the grandchildren but also about spouses, how we occupy our time etc.

You know, these three grannies are jet-setters, flying between the capital city and home, to visit grandchildren and children who have flown the coop. (Lucky me, mine are staying with me....yeh yeh..) We are also into computers...... See? We are keeping up with the times, no matter that we only surf for information, to read the news, and to email. We are not afraid to hit the keys. My former student is very much into YouTube!

However this grandmother is trying so hard to learn more about building a website and is so frustrated by the lack of progress. She has spent no piddling amount trying to learn from the internet marketers but so far has very little to show for it. One other grandma plays games on the computer..... I admire her for her sharp mind as she is very much into games. Well to each her own!

Life is so full, isn't it? It is up to us to make what we want out of it, to make it interesting, to grab life with both hands, to enjoy the present and to always look forward to tomorrow. It is up to us to put rainbows into our lives, to color the fabric of our life with vibrant colors.

The more control we take of our lives, the happier we will be and the happier we are, the healthier are we. So to us grandmas and grandpas..... now is our time! We are much better off than the younger ones as they still have to build their careers, their homes and to save for their children's future. They are constrained while we are free. Isn't this a wonderful feeling?

Family Reunions

It's great to be part of a large family. When we were growing up there were lots of squabbles and tears and fights but now that we are all adults, there is a lot to be said for being part of a large family.

Large families are no longer the norm. Nowadays the family is usually a 2 or 3-child family. Some have only one child, citing that it is very expensive to bring up and to educate a child, especially if you want the child to have the best of everything.

But what a loss there is, to the only child. Not only will he miss having a sibling to share or squabble with...... think of the useful experiences that will serve him in good stead later on. The bond between siblings is like no other.

True, when you are young, you fight and hate each other but in the end, blood is thicker than water and somehow the closeness is always there.

I'm very lucky to have come from a large family of ten siblings, three boys and seven girls, me being the oldest. The youngest in our family is a boy, well, boy no longer but a very personable man in his prime, with a family of his own, a lovely daughter and a smart son, both of whom are now working in Down Under. All of us have come a long way and despite having lost two sisters to cancer, the ties and bonds are still very strong.

Whenever I'm back in Kuala Lumpur, the family seat, there is always a reunion of sorts. My youngest brother is usually the host and he gets everyone to meet for dinner. The last dinner was a few nights ago in Bangsar Village and the dishes he ordered were very tasty indeed although very pricey.

There were twelve of us, siblings and spouses with two teenaged children and my adult daughter. We dug into the dishes with gusto and by the end of the evening, we were replete with full stomachs. Here are some pictures of what we ate. I really liked the roasted pork- the two types, pork fillet (char siew) and the belly pork (siew yuk) with very crispy skin. The steamed garoupa was fresh but nothing out of the ordinary. The taufoo was nicely done topped with minced pork and salted radish ( choi po ). The hokkien mee, touted as the best, to me was just on par with those that I've eaten at other outlets. The chili could be improved as it was too dry, the belacan ( shrimp paste with pounded chili ) aroma wasn't there.

The other dishes were the

usual vegetables that can be

found anywhere.

The best part of the evening was the meeting up with my siblings and catching up......who's going where, when and further plans for the next catch-up session.

I made a date with my younger sister and her two girls for a special breakfast recommended by my son who had insisted that I check it out. He found it special and very tasty so that is something to look forward to, since my nieces are very busy and we hardly have time for a good natter. Sunday breakfast will do nicely indeed.