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.