Children, Joyful Gifts from God

Anyone who watches children at play will become as engrossed as the little ones.


Their antics, what they say, how they act, are very revealing.



Their innocence sometimes brings a pang as we realize that this state is only temporary. As they grow, they will shed the pure innocence of childhood.



It is also during this stage that we as elders, need to inculcate in them basic values of sharing and caring.


They learn very quickly and we should never underestimate the intelligence of a child.

Let them learn the joy of giving and in turn they will appreciate what they receive.

If we do not teach them basic values, then we will have failed in our duty and short-changed them. They look up to us as their mentors and we have the moral responsibility of nurturing them so that they will grow into caring, responsible and loving young people.


It is we who will color the fabric of their lives and landscape their journey into adulthood.


May all of us have beautiful rainbows along our journey.

Grandmas Get-together

It's been a long while since we left school and thanks to one of us, we managed to meet at the Kuala Lumpur Lake Club for dinner. She's very active, ringing around and even fetching those of us who couldn't drive at night.


Even though we are now grandmothers, the moment we get together it's like being at school again! Chatting nineteen to the dozen, poring over ancient photographs to see if we could see identify ourselves!! The photographs were in black and white because coloured photography was unavailable then and digital cameras and computers didn't exist.



I saw myself in one of the photos, a skinny girl with big eyes and the deep dimple. Now the eyes are no longer big but thank goodness, the dimple's still there! We're all retired, and one of the gals is now a UK resident who returns to Malaysia to avoid the cold winters.

The Yee Sang was a mandatory dish, it still being the Lunar Year celebratory season.


A couple of dishes that we had:



There were two important notifications that evening, one being the upcoming 70th birthday of one "young" gal, the other my son's marriage which will be in October. You see, we need to give early notice so that our calendars can be blocked for those dates.

I also met up with another two grandmas. We were college mates in the UK and are especially close, having lived in the same house for two years. Talk centered on children and grandchildren. What else do grandmas talk about, apart from holidays and food? This was at Chili's in Bangsar Shopping Complex.....alternatively known as the place where a young lady was abducted in the car park and later murdered. It's the little details that stick in the mind whereas names are often forgotten.


It's meetings with old friends that make the day for us, reminiscing and catching up.

I also had a game of golf with yet another college mate but the current hot spell was a great damper. I just oouldn't play during the second nine because the heat was too great. As usual, the higher the sun in the sky, the higher my score too! Nevertheless, it was a great morning.

All said and done, this Lunar New Year was a good one, being able to catch up with friends and relatives, apart from the feasting, the giving and receiving. Keeping in touch keeps the fires of friendship burning and reminiscing gives us all a glow when going down memory lane.

Simple but Great Taste

Tuesday was a rainbow day. I visited my youngest sister who has become an excellent home maker. From a woman who never ventured into the kitchen to cook a meal, she can now produce tasty dishes, cakes (local and western) and pastries, including a very smooth soya bean custard ( tau foo f ah ). I’m very proud of my kid sister.

She cooked bee hoon kerabu
( rice vermicelli with fish sauce, dried prawns, onions, sliced lime & chili ) and her daughter made lasagna.
Her hubby bought 3 tubs of Kentucky Fried Chicken to supplement as the children love those.

For dessert we had mini egg tarts,
tau hoo fah
(it's in the white bowl in the foreground)and banana cake.

All of us had a great time enjoying the food and company.

A Rainbow Day!

This morning we attended a senior citizens’ fellowship gathering. A large group of senior citizens ( 55 althogether, the oldest was 86 years old ) gather weekly in a multi-purpose hall belonging to a church for fellowship and activities.

The session started off with songs accompanied by the old men playing the harmonica and a keyboard. They sang with gusto and joy, swaying to the rhythm and clapping hands.

Next was a cooking demonstration where an invited guest showed how a whole shank of pork could be cooked in 25 minutes, chicken rice in 6 minutes and chicken curry in 2.
Of course he used a pressure cooker! He got the senior ladies involved in the cooking process and they enjoyed every minute of it.
Everyone waited in eager anticipation of the treat in store, including us!

While waiting for the food to cook, the older men played chess while others chit chatted.


Meanwhile the table was laid out with food brought by some seniors and when the demonstration was completed and the food cooked, everyone helped themselves. The chief cook ladled out his fare to the eager ladies and gentlemen who “ aahed ” and “mmm..” over the food in appreciation.




It was obvious that these senior citizens were having a good time socializing.

A young woman who is the leader in this ministry disclosed that the activities they planned for the old folks included visits to other towns, to orphanages, enjoying dim sum ( breakfast of food steamed in bamboo baskets, such as fish ball, pork balls, dumplings, buns filled with roast pork, etc ), some form of aerobic stretching exercises and line dancing. On the agenda is a trip to Mt Kinabalu next month.

It is good that the senior citizens are given attention and programs are arranged for them so that they can meet their peers and interact, otherwise it would be a very mundane existence, each in their own homes. This weekly gathering is something they look forward to and it shows in their friendliness and camaraderie. There is an obvious sharing and caring for one another and one of the objectives is to see that the seniors have a good and happy time during these sessions.

This gathering is open to any senior citizen regardless of whether or not he is a member of the church or a non-Christian. We had an enjoyable morning and discovered an old friend whom we had not seen for 40 years!

Later in the afternoon, I went to a dear friend’s place for Tai Chi ( the simplified form of 18 steps ). Four birthdays were celebrated today


and after the exercise session we tucked heartily into a feast of birthday noodles, pumpkin soup, a sweet dessert of snow fungus boiled with red dates, wolfberries and longan, chicken in wine, meatballs, bird’s nest dessert, fruit, Chinese tea and finally the fresh cream birthday cake. In this group are senior ladies and four young ‘uns ( those still young and working ).
Again the socializing and interaction while enjoying the food was great. This is also a weekly activity.

The 6 pm ‘Cinderellas’ had to leave before the party was really over, myself one of them as I do not drive when the sun is setting and I need to get home before the sky turns dark.

So today was a rainbow day for me! I made new friends and re-connected with old friends.

Food Tasting

These are the dishes that we sampled. The suckling pig could not be sampled as it is a very expensive dish.


This is the cold dish which had scallops, abalone, seeweed roll, prawn,apple & pear salad, black fungus, snow peas, roast duck


The next dish was the sharksfin soup with fish maw and crab meat. You add a dash of black vinegar to bring out the taste.


Steamed garoupa in grandma's special sauce followed.


The fried chicken topped with honey sesame seeds was quite delicious.


Next came the bai-ling mushroom & broccoli.


I think these noodles are the longetivity noodles.(Ee Fu mee)


The sweet dessert of yam paste, pumpkin in coconut milk is touted to bring you male progeny.

We also sampled both the red and white wine. We were happy with the Australian red wine and we opted to have the Chillean white wine instead of the Australian white.

We were asked to give feedback regarding the food and we decided to change the way the fish is to be cooked. We opted for the fish to be steamed HongKong style topped with crispy tow foo.

Now we will wait and see if the dishes served on the night of the wedding dinner will taste as good as they did tonight.

Chinese New Year Gifts

It is customary for friends to exchange gifts for the Chinese New Year, especially when we visit one another. It is usual to take mandarin oranges and a couple of other things such as cookies, groundnuts, etc.

Each gift has a symbolic meaning. Oranges symbolise good luck & prosperity, groundnuts, longetivity while pineapple tarts, good luck. Pineapple in Chinese is "ong lai" literally meaning "good luck comes".

We are taking a bag of gifts for my daughter-in-law-to-be's parents when we meet tonight for dinner.

In the bag are two containers of arrowhead (ngah koo) crisps, two tins of pineapple, two tins of abalone, a basket of Chinese round flower mushrooms, a packet of bah kwa (barbecued chicken meat slices)and eight mandarin oranges.
Things are usually given in pairs and why eight oranges? Eight is an auspicious number.

Chinese people appreciate gifts that are auspicious in numbers and that have symbolic meaning.

Tonight's dinner is special as it is the food-tasting dinner, a preview of the wedding menu so to speak. The restaurant will serve the dishes that have been offered in the menu selected by my son and his fiancee, so both sets of parents together with the young couple will taste the food to see if it is up to our expectations.

I'm really looking forward to it as I have only a vague idea of what is on the menu. Besides that, there will be a discussion between the parents regarding the bethrothal gifts and the wedding itself. Some traditional wedding customs have to be followed and this meeting is to agree upon which ones we will adhere to.

The Chinese of different dialects have different wedding customs as well. I believe the bride's parents are Hokkiens and so am I but my spouse is Cantonese. So we will have to wait and see which customs will be followed.

I'll keep you posted of the developments so do come back and visit!