Till we meet again......sigh!

Yesterday was Sunday and I didn't go to church because I wanted to spend the day with my siblings. They were leaving in the evening, flying back to Kuala Lumpur.

We left the house just before 6 a.m., bound for Gaya Street. This street becomes a pedestrian mall every Sunday and there is much to see and buy from the people who set up small stalls along the street. Fruits, local and imported, a large variety of flowers and plants, including exotic orchids and cacti, local cakes, dumplings, buns, herbs, trinkets and lots of bling, hats, corals and sea shells, clothing, vegetables, fertilisers, garden tools, aquarium fish and pets like cats, dogs, hamsters and rabbits, traditional handicraft, antiques and hill rice too.

I made a beeline for the vendor that sells mangoes. They are from her own garden and I've tried her fruits before. There are no worms in the mangoes and they are large and sweet. She had a few types but I opted for the papaya mango and the mango that is shaped like a buffalo's horn. The mangoes are sold at 3 for RM10.00 but she gave me an extra one. My sister Doris said that it was still expensive. Anyway I bought RM40.oo worth of mangoes so that my siblings could take some home with them. Next on the list was the groundnuts, a special variety grown only in Kudat, near the tip of Borneo Island. My friend had told me a long time ago that once a person has tasted Kudat groundnuts, he will not go for any other types. I found this to be true. It has a special flavour, quite different from those that are grown in China or even the Mengelembu groundnuts from Perak, Malaysia.

Sharon asked me to buy four packets of a special fish kropok that is shaped into little balls, just like marbles, for her aunts. This is very tasty and it can become quite addictive if one likes to eat junk food. My siblings, Ellie and Doris bought bottles of chili padi source ( a very hot piquant sauce ). Doris showed me the plant which can repel mosquitoes and I bought two pots to plant in my garden. Haven't decided where I shall plant them. I bought the usual papaya and guava for Sharon and a local cake, hum chin piang kosong, for my daughter Grace.

Then we had breakfast at a coffee shop. Fish paste noodles with fish balls and wantan. It wasn't as tasty as it used to be. This is the common problem with the vendors. Once they have made a name, the standard of their food drops. So it was quite a disappointment.

Our next stop was what used to be called the Filipino Market where handicraft and clothing from the Phillipines were sold. These days it has just become a collection of tiny stalls selling a lot of trinkets and pearls, both fresh water and sea water pearls of low grade, souvenir T-shirts and handbags. Ellie bought T-shirts for her daughter Anita, son-in-law and grandson. They had pictures of Sabah's unique attractions on them. By then it was 9:30 and the sun was blazing hot so we went home, where it was much cooler with the strong sea breezes blowing in.

On Saturday we had gone to 1Borneo, the largest

shopping mall in East Malaysia. There are three hotels

there and a few blocks of condominiums are still under

construction. Many of the shops are branches of those

found in Kuala Lumpur shopping malls. We browsed the

shops until we were tired and took a break at the food

court where we had lunch. We ordered individual dishes.

My granddaughter Chloe had chicken rice, grandson

Stephen had his fish and chips, while the adults opted

for different types of noodles. I found mine to be very

oily and the portion of chicken was very small compared

to what we usually get in town. It's edible by Sabah

standard but would definitely not pass the grade in

Kuala Lumpur. Yes, much of the local food prepared by

food court operators and coffee shop stalls are of low

standard. The better food is available in restaurants

per se and in hotels.

A good example is the seafood dinner we had at a non-descript looking coffeeshop. It was surprising to find that they had a variety of good fish and different types of marine creatures (for want of a better word!!). I saw snails, clams of different types, crabs, etc.

We made a selection and when the food was served, well......

it was beyond our expectations. The fish was very fresh

and it was steamed with ginger and spring onions. The crabs

were cooked with salted duck eggs and the clams with ginger

and spring onions to bring out its natural flavour. We also

had a vegetable and a chicken dish so that the grandkids

could eat. They have not acquired the taste for crabs or clams

yet. They did tuck into the fish as it was very fresh and tasty.

All of us enjoyed the dinner but the chicken dish was not

well-received. The style of cooking was not to our taste and

they didn't have much to offer in the way of chicken dishes.

Understandable since it is a seafood restaurant. Even more

pleasant was the bill!! It was a steal, really, for the quality

of food that the shop offered. Sharon says we must go there

more often! The food is good and cheap.

Soon it was time for my sisters and Grace to leave for the airport. Doris was flying back via Air Asia while Grace and Ellie would fly by MAS. So we sent Doris to Terminal 2 where she would check in for her flight scheduled to leave at 6:35 pm and later we sent Grace and Ellie to Terminla 1 where they would fly MAS, leaving at 6:40pm.

It was such a wrench to see them leave after spending 3 days here in Kota Kinabalu. They had given me a lovely surprise by coming to celebrate my birthday and it was a wonderful three days of bonding. It was sheer pleasure going out with them, showing them the places that have changed. Doris was here more than twenty years ago while Ellie's last visit was about ten years ago. They noted many changes, the most glaring being the horrible traffic jams. Their comment? So many cars and so few roads which also translated to a lack of parking facilities.

Ellie and Grace's flight took off as scheduled but poor Doris did not leave until 9 p.m. Her flight had been delayed, whatever the reason was. She did not reach home until 1:00 a.m. I received her SMS then, informing me of her safe arrival. Grace and Ellie reached home at 10:30pm. All of them must have been very tired as it had been a long day for them. Having to check in long before the flight and then the journey from the airport to home is exhausting.

I'm so blessed to have siblings and my younger daughter who live across the South China Sea flying all the way here to Kota Kinabalu to celebrate my birthday and it is the loveliest surprise I could ever wish for. The only thing that would have made it even better was if my son Peter could have been here too, but then he is working in Singapore and it is not easy to get leave from the office. I'm thankful that three of them came and I'm touched that they made it a surprise.

Another milestone gone by

Yesterday was my birthday. It started off as usual with hanging
out the laundry in the back garden. Then I got ready to go to the
test centre to administer the tests for that morning. Just then the
phone rang. It was my sister Janet calling from Melbourne to
wish me a happy day. She was also having a birthday party in her
home for her daughter-in-law Brooke whose birthday coincided
with mine. So I got to speak to Brooke and wished her a happy
birthday too. Then Marc her husband extended his wishes and
so did Carolyn, his sister. I could hear Trevor, my brother-in-law,
shouting " Happy Butter Day Peg!!" and the little ones chortling
in the background.

After a quick breakfast my spouse drove me to the test centre and after the tests were done, I walked across the road to the shopping complex to look for my sisters and my daughter Grace who had been tasked with looking after her aunts while I was busy. We met up for lunch, after which we browsed in the shops. They had bought blouses earlier on and commented that the pricing was reasonable. Although many shops were having sales with good discounts, we didn't find anything interesting enough to make purchases. Throughout the afternoon I received telephone calls from my son Peter and from my brothers wishing me a happy birthday as well as SMSes from Sunita and my friends. Lalitha sent her wishes via Facebook, as did my cousin Posy and my dear friend Evelyn from Switzerland.

Soon it was time to fetch the grandchildren home from school. We were caught in a very bad traffic jam and by the time we reached the school, it was already out and the children were waiting and wondering what had happened to their grandma who is usually waiting for them when school dismisses. I spotted them and grabbed their hands and we rushed down to the car which was still in queue along the road. We jumped in, made a U-turn and got back home a short while later.

By then Grace had organised the plates and brought out

the birthday cake. The presents were also laid out on the

table and the candles were lit. Everyone sang the birthday

song and I cut the cake. Sharon had bought a Black Forest

Cake and it was scrumptious.

My sister Ellie helped me to
cut the cake and Doris handed everyone a plate with a

generous slice, full of chocolate and cream. It was rather

sweet for me but since this was my birthday I threw caution

to the winds and tucked heartily into the cake. Diabetes, take

a bow and go backstage!!!

Then it was time to open the presents. Wow...... it was exciting

to tear open the wrappings and find out what was inside. Ellie

gave me a lovely silk bag with an angpow (red packet containing

a sum of money) because it is believed that one must not give

anempty bag. There should be a sum of money inside it. Her

children Sunita and Lalitha gave me an angpow too. Doris gave

me a chic blouse with a mandarin collar and a lovely pair of

earrings while myyoungest sister who was unable to come to

Kota Kinabalu gave me a knee guard. ( For the future, I guess....

although I hope that it will not come to that stage.)

My grandchildren Stephen and

Chloe gave me a dragonfly bookmark. They know I love to read.

My three children, Sharon, Grace and Peter combined and gave

me a set of bed linen complete with doona covers. Peter's girlfriend

Siew Min gave me a book. My dear old friend Yu Ling gave me a

lovely bouquet of roses. All in all I was very happy to feel so loved.

My sisters and Grace flying into Kota Kinabalu to share the day

with me was in itself the best birthday present. I loved having

them here. Their surprise appearance has made it one of the best

birthdays I've had.

In the evening we drove to the restaurant where Sharon had

booked a table and we were given a room all to ourselves so that

we could have complete privacy as we enjoyed dinner. We ordered

fish maw & crabmeat soup, crispy skin chicken, sweet and sour pork,

steamed sweet and sour fish and a local vegetable ( Sabah Choi )

sauteed with prawn paste ( belacan ). The vegetable stems were

ery tender and crunchy. Dessert was on the house and it was

coconut cream jelly which Stephen loved.

Dinner was very filling as the portions were large even though

we ordered medium-sized plates. It was really a wonderful day

for me and I shall cherish the happy moments for a lifetime.

Thank you my loved ones for the lovely day and I look forward to many more celebrations with my family and siblings.

Beautiful Rainbow Day

Thursday was a beautiful rainbow day! It was lunchtime when Sharon returned home. She had never done this before, Thursday being her half-day off and she would take her children swimming, returning only in the evening, just before dinner.

"Surprise!" she said as she came into the house. I looked up and there was my younger daughter Grace! Surprise indeed! I couldn't believe my eyes. Grace lives and works in Kuala Lumpur.

"Surprise, mummy!" said Grace. Then my younger sister Doris walked in. Huh??? I thought, when Doris also said, "Another surprise coming." I was quite light-headed by then. Wow, another surprise???? I ran out the door and there to my final surprise was my sister Ellie.

This was a super surprise, my daughter Grace and my two sisters, all having flown in to celebrate my birthday! It really made my day. I still couldn't absorb the fact that all three of them were really here, in Kota Kinabalu to celebrate my birthday. To me a birthday, especially my birthday is just another day, another milestone that reminds me of the journey so far with the end looming. However each milestone passed is a bonus these days.

We passed the next hour catching up. My youngest sister Rosalind had wanted to come along too but had stayed back because her two girls were returning home on Saturday from Melbourne but she sent her love and her present. Since Sharon would be fetching her children and taking them swimming, I decided to take both my sisters for a short city tour as they had not been here for a long time. Doris' last visit was more than 20 years ago while Ellie's last visit was more than 10 years ago. There would be changes that they hadn't seen.

As usual the traffic jam was an irritant but we managed to point out the landmarks that have come into existence. A drive to Tg Aru Beach and the resort hotel, past the Kinabalu Golf Club, then on to Sutera Harbour Resort with its lovely golf course, past the KK Times Square & the newly built shopping complexes, heading into town going through the central business district and the latest shopping centre cum boutique hotel under construction drew admiring comments from my sisters. Kota Kinabalu had certainly changed.

Then we headed to Tun Fuad Park for ABC or ice kacang, a cold dessert concocted from ice shavings, palm sugar, red beans, black jelly, atap seed, etc. It was certainly a favourite thirst quencher and we had pisang goreng and cempadak goreng ( snacks of fried banana and a fragrant fruit, kin to the jackfruit )to boot. So up the short flight of stairs cut into the hillside we went, to walk off the calories ingested before dinner that evening.

We walked around the park and cut across the wooden bridge across the lake before returning to the car to brave the evening traffic jam. We came home to our residence on the hill to enjoy the beautiful sea breezes wafting in. It was such a wonderful feeling to walk in the garden feeling the strong seabreeze fanning our faces, drinking in the sweet fragrance of a single large pink rose dancing in the wind. There is no place like home, more so when my sisters and younger daughter are there.

Surprise but then again......

What a surprise when the ducktour leader in our amphibious

vehicle Darlene suggested that we might want to visit the

Barrage. She pointed it out to us as we were returning to land

after a short cruise on the Singapore River. I looked in the

direction she indicated and could see only what appeared to be

a huge pipestructure floating in the sea in the far distance.

She said that that area had been earmarked for processing sea water into fresh water! She added that Singapore's water agreement with Malaysia would end in a couple of years' time and as such Singapore had to look for alternative ways to get their own water.

Wow, I thought. Not too long ago Singapore had already come out with a first. Her scientists had recycled and processed waste water into drinking water. At first the reaction was kind of " Gosh, is it really potable? Is it really safe to drink?" I myself was given a bottle when I attended an outdoor event featuring artistes flying through the sky at night and the whole area was flooded with people who had gathered for the evening's musical entertainment by foreign artistes. I looked at the bottle in my hand and I looked at other people who had also been given these bottled water. Some were drinking and I thought "why not?" At worst, it would give me a tummy ache.

So I drank from the bottle as it was a hot and humid evening and I was perspiring a lot. Hmmmm.....it tasted just like any other water. No bad smell, no funny taste. So the scientists did do a good job in converting waste water into drinking water.

This being the case, it will not be a surprise if the sea water is really converted into fresh water to supply the needs of Singaporeans come the day they are not able to buy water from Malaysia or elsewhere. I knew I had to see this Barrage, where it was going to happen.

My son graciously drove us to the Marina Barrage in the evening when the sun would not be so hot. Since he himself had never been there, it took us sometime to find the way as all around that area was a huge development, the building of the integrated resorts and an enormous park by the bay. Lots of construction was going on and heavy vehicles were parked along the roadside. Besides, many foreign workers were cycling back to their quarters and Peter had to negotiate the narrow roads carefully. By the time we reached the Barrage area, large numbers of cars were already parked along the roadside and the small designated parking areas were full. I had no idea that there would be so many people here. But then it was a Sunday evening and Father's Day at that. Many families had come out to enjoy the evening.

We took a walk along the walkways jutting out into the sea.

Peeping over the edge of the long one, I noted that the sea on

one side where all the boats and ships were anchored, had waves

bobbing up and down as usual. However, on the other side, the

water scarcely moved. It was very flat and calm reflecting off the

sun's hot rays. Then my son said that there is a partition going all

the way down into the seabed. Oooh, I guess that must have been

the pipe-like structure which I had seen from afar while onboard

the Darlene.

We then walked back to the circular structure which looks
like a stadium but it isn't, and took the lift up to the top

and surprise!!

There is a large field with grass growing on the third floor!!!

Children were happily flying kites with their dads and other kids were running to and fro. Some women had hats on while others like me had an umbrella to shelter from the hot sun, even though it was already half past five in the evening. In fact it was so hot and the sun's rays did not allow me to take any photos. Wrong direction, you see. Such pity as it was very picturesque and the wind was blowing in from the sea. However, some people were still clicking their cameras. My son tried to take a few but then he had one hand sheltering the lens while he clicked with the other. In fact the sun was blazing hot and my eyes could not take the blinding light. In one picture I have my hand trying to shade my eyes. I wear transition glasses but they were not of any use under such strong light. My eyes are not what you would call normal as they have undergone surgery for glaucoma twice. They are ultra light-sensitive.

From the top we walked down the circular walkway to reach terra firma. Lots of ornamental plants have been planted and there are fountains as well. There is a small shop selling cold canned drinks and souvenirs. A restaurant is on the ground floor but I'm not sure if it is open. Maybe for dinner as there was a banner advertising seafood steamboat.

Even as we were leaving, more and more people were coming in. I guess to enjoy the sea breezes and to walk on the third floor where the green grass is.

I will no longer be surprised by what Singapore can do next. They have such capable people and incomparable expertise at hand.

Such a Relief!

Yesterday was a busy day. There were a few things which had to be done before our flight to Singapore. First of all I had to bring in the clothes that were hanging out on the lines. The weather was already very humid and unbearably hot even in the morning. I usually have the clothes on the lines by six in the morning and by 10:30 a.m. they would be dry as bones! However, I was checking my email when I heard the clock striking many times. OMG, it's already 11:00 and the clothes are still out!

I rushed out to bring them all in and as I was folding them, two pieces were not as dry as bones. Part of the waist bands were a tiddly damp, so I didn't fold them but hung them up indoors to dry. They would, by midday. No way was I going out into the heat just to hang two pieces of almost-dry pants.

Then I told my spouse that we ought to go for our lunch as there were a couple of errands to run as well. We shut the windows and he drove us to town. Then I looked at my watch. Oh dear! It was just about 10:30!! That meant that I had heard wrongly! The clock had struck nine times instead of ten. No wonder the two pieces of clothing were not absolutely dry! Another sign of age catching up! I believe the young people call this being "blur". I can imagine my niece saying, " Old folks nowadays very blur"! In local dialect the Chinese would say "Moong Char Char". My long-suffering spouse didn't say anything when I exclaimed that it was too early for lunch! I guess he's used to my being "blur".

The bank was the first stop. He had a check to deposit and we were at the cheque deposit machine. It's astounding how most things are done via machines now. He has never deposited a cheque before and was quite "blur" how to go about it. Well, I've done it before so I more or less tapped the first few steps on the screen. Then it came to tapping in the account number, which he did. Oh, horror of horrors! The screen came back with the words " Invalid account number"!

"Hey, you sure you got the right numbers?" I asked him. I thought there were a couple of digits still missing as accounts have a certain number of digits, either ten or twelve, I can't actually remember. Then he keyed in again and this time the machine went on to the next step which was to key in the amount on the cheque. This he did and then a red light flashed on, in the slot where the cheque was to go in.

This was the part where I was also "blur". Which way should I put the cheque, the logo on the right side or left side? The red light was flashing all the time. Ah... there was a picture of a cheque in the slot so quickly I placed the cheque the way it was indicated and the machine greedily sucked it in! Then a printout appeared and my spouse took it. " That's it?" he asked. "Ya, that's it." That was his first experience of depositing a cheque and it was successful. What a relief! Case of the blind leading the blind.

The next stop was the pharmacy. Kelly the pharmacist was there. I asked for face masks and a decongestant as I still had the tail end of a cold. She told me to be careful as her friend was quarantined in Singapore for 7 days the previous week. She asked if I had a fever and I replied in the negative.

Purchases complete, we went to a nearby coffee shop for chicken rice lunch. This particular small corner shop serves good chicken rice. The rice is fragrant and the portion of chicken is generous. We chose the steamed chicken rather than the fried one. I normally eat very little rice but when it comes to chicken rice, I usually polish off the plate! That's the greedy me! I love fragrant rice, whether it is chicken rice or nasi lemak, the latter being rice cooked in coconut milk. Both these rice are fattening and not good for one's cholesterol levels. But what the heck? Eat while we still can is the usual line you hear among seniors these days.

Come 3:15 p.m. it was time to head to the airport to check in first so that we could bring the car back home. Then when our daughter returned from work she would then send us to the airport to be in time to catch the flight. The traffic was horrendous! From four lanes, the traffic had to squeeze into two lanes as we approached the area where a flyover was being constructed. It didn't help that impatient motorists were trying to cut in from left and right! I hated these queue cutters! If I was in a good mood I would let someone cut in but more often than not, I would move my car very close to the one in front so that the errant motorist would not have a chance to squeeze through. If others can queue, why can't he or she? Yep, there are women drivers who cut queue too. However I wasn't in the driver's seat and my sedate spouse just let people cut in. No wonder his blood pressure is very normal, whereas mine tends to spike whenever I drive.

At last we managed to get to the airport and I went to do the necessary while he went to find parking. This is a recurring nightmare as the terminal does not have a designated parking area for cars and you can see cars parked everywhere, ignoring the double or single yellow lines. The carpark there is only for staff parking. This might be because the terminal has been deemed to be a temporary one until the expansion at the main terminal is completed. Might be another couple of years by the looks of how things are progressing at a snail's pace. Anyway he left the car along a spot with yellow lines just like the other drivers. You know, there's company, so you don't feel so bad. Nevertheless he was closeby, ready to drive off should the traffic cop come along.

Finally the counter opened, our bags were checked in and we drove home, no cops around. I had enough time for a drink and a bun before the children came running in through the door. "Hello, Poh-poh, Kong-kong," they chimed. My daughter told her father, " Let's go" and he said "So soon?" and her reply " Ya, the traffic is heavy and it will take some time to get across the road (at the bottom of the hill)". So off we went. By the time we crossed the road, I realised that I had forgotten my eye drops. Sigh! Blur again! I didn't tell my daughter or she would find it very stressful to have to turn the car around and go through the hassle of the heavy traffic. I can picture her saying " Mummy, why don't you ever make a list? That way you won't forget." Ah, my dear daughter, I always forget the list that I'm supposed to do. I usually count off my fingers. Anyway, it's just for a few days. The eye will just have to behave.

"Did you take your panadol?" came the reminder from our daughter. "Yes, I did and I made daddy take too", although he didn't see why he had to since he didn't have any fever. This was a precaution she insisted upon so that we wouldn't be quarantined on arrival at Changi. I had been having a cold for the last couple of weeks and although it was tailing off, she said I had better err on the side of caution. Surely I don't want to spend a week in quarantine over there. We agreed and dutifully took the panadol.

I found that I didn't have to wear the face mask after all. No one did and I wasn't about to draw attention to myself by wearing one! The interior of the airplane was very cold. You could see the cold air streaming down from the vents. I guess they upped the coldness probably because of concerns that someone might have the virus and ...... well, I honestly don't know but this is definitely the first time that I can actually see the cold air streaming down.

We landed twenty minutes earlier than scheduled but by the time we completed all formalities half an hour had elapsed. We had walked past the thermal scanner without a hitch and I looked around to see if anyone had been called aside. Thankfully I didn't detect any. What a relief that we are now in Singapore. No quarantine so we can look forward to a pleasant Father's Day weekend with our son, who is working here.

Lovely surprise

On Tuesday afternoon, I was cleaning the fish which I had just bought when the telephone rang. It rang for a while before I picked it up as I had to wash my fishy hands first.

A melodic young voice asked, " Is that Auntie Peggy ?"
"I'm Gillian and my sister Grace is with me. Are you free? May we come and visit you?"

My heart gave a leap of delight. " Of course you may! Where are you?"

"We're at the Tg Aru Beach Hotel. We'll be there in fifteen minutes!"

What a lovely surprise to hear from Gillian. She and Grace had come to me for English Language tuition when they were in primary school and I taught them through to Form Five. They were lovely young girls, very intelligent and vivacious. Grace is the older sibling and went on to train as a doctor in Cambridge University in the UK while Gillian graduated as a vet. She loves animals. I hadn't seen them since they left Malaysia so it was a huge surprise to hear from them although I did contact Gillian recently through Facebook and saw how she has grown into a lovely lanky lass.

I quickly cleaned up the fish and put them away into the refrigerator; then opened the sliding door in the living room to let in the lovely seabreeze. Staying on our own, we rarely are downstairs, hence our sliding doors are not left open. I could hardly contain my excitement at the thought of seeing the two sisters.

Soon a horn tooted and I buzzed the electronic gates open to let them in. A smart looking white four-wheel drive came in and out popped Gillian. She is as pretty as she looked in Facebook, very fair, with a lovely smile and a beautiful complexion that would be the envy of many.

"Where's Grace?"

"She's feeding the baby in the car. He hasn't finished his bottle yet."

"A baby? Oh.... I must see him!" and I rushed out to the car and there they were, Grace with a baby in her arms, feeding the adorable little tyke in the back of the car. Not long after, Grace and her baby came into the house.

"Everything looks the same, Auntie Peggy. You look the same too!"

I could feel myself grinning like a cat that got the cream, so happy was I to see these two lovely sisters. We caught up on where everyone is. Gillian is located in Hong Kong while Grace is still in the UK. She said she had given up practising as a doctor and retrained as an accountant. Wow! She is really good, isn't she? Both are very demanding disciplines and she has excelled in both. They gave me updates on the other girls who had also come to me for tuition. They have all done very well but none of them are currently residing in Sabah. A pair of siblings are in the UK and another pair in Hong Kong while another is in Australia.

This is the sad part. Many of our brilliant young Malaysians who study abroad and train as highly qualified professionals opt to make their homes overseas and come back only for holidays and to visit parents and relatives.

Grace's 5 month old baby is called Conrad and she said that it is a small world indeed as her husband also knows my son and they had met up in London in a mutual friend's place. Incidentally, Grace and my son Peter went to the same university. Then Gillian mentioned that she also knows my niece's husband who is also a vet working in Ocean Park, Hong Kong. It is indeed a small world.

Gillian took some photos and pretty soon it was time for Conrad to go back to his dad who was waiting to take him for a swim back at the hotel. In my excitement at seeing them I forgot completely about taking photos with my camera... sigh.!.... senior's lapse...... so I dont have any pictures to upload. Baby Conrad looks like his uncle, Gerald, whom his sisters lovingly call Ler Ler. Ler Ler also came to me for some tuition and he's a very bright young man. He's obtained his Masters degree and is currently working in the UK too. So their mum spends her time between the UK and Hong Kong and Gillian said, " Guess where she is most of the time?"

Well, grandmas are grandmas. We dote on our grandchildren and the little ones exert great pull over us. My two grandchildren are now in Singapore with their dad as it is the school vacation. He lives and works in Singapore so they usually spend their holidays with him. I have them during term time and I'm so blessed that they live with me for the greater part of the year.

I'm very happy that Gillian and Grace dropped by to visit and I'm thrilled to see Conrad. It's such a pleasure to see that they still remember me and have enough regard for me to come by. I guess this is one of the "perks" of being a teacher, being remembered and acknowledged. Indeed I'm very proud that my former students have all done very well in life, whether at home or abroad. Through the thirty years of being in the field of education, thousands of students have gone through my hands and I'm happy to have been part of their formative years.