Allen's 55th Birthday

Last evening we celebrated my youngest brother Allen's birthday. He turned 55 and invited all family members currently in town to a sumptious dinner.
Three generations of the family were present as can be seen in the collage below.

 

The family get-together on this occasion was special, not only because Allen had turned 55 but also his daughter and her fiance will be tying the knot next weekend. The wedding will be attended by relatives from far and wide who will be flying into the city in the next few days.

All of us are looking forward to wedding as well as meeting up with relatives from abroad. Allen had a very happy evening surrounded by his loved ones and extended family. My li'l brother isn't so little anymore!

Into the Next Chapter of Their Lives

This year ends on a bitter sweet note. My two grandchildren who have been living with us ever since they returned from the United Kingdom when one was just over a year old and the other a 2 month old baby are leaving us to continue their secondary school education in Singapore. They had to sit for a competitive examination before they could be placed in Singapore schools. Praise the Lord they secured places albeit in different schools.

From a sheltered life, where they were sent and fetched everywhere, they will now have to catch buses to their respective schools in unfamiliar areas and at the end of the school day, return to their apartment to cook their own lunch, unless they eat at the school canteen. Quite a quantum leap, I must say. However I expect they will rise to the occasion as they are big enough to look after themselves, although in their grandma's eyes, they will still be my little ones.

They returned home ( my home ) on Christmas night to unwrap their Christmas gifts which had been waiting for them.

Chloe loves books and she will keep this for the flight to Singapore.

Two days later, we all went out for my grandson's favorite dish, Peking Duck.

This is a dish where the roasted duck skin is eaten, rolled in a pancake with sweet sauce, spring onions and cucumber. A dish of fried kropok or prawn crackers is the starter. The drum sticks are carved out, one for Chloe and the other for her grandpa. The rest of the meat goes to make soup ( with tomatoes, soya bean cake and salted mustard greens ) and to fry with noodles. It's a very substantial dinner.

Stephen savored every bite. It will be a long time before he has another Peking Duck dinner, i.e. if he returns to visit us during the school holidays. This is the home where he grew up and both his grandpa and I hope that our grandchildren will come back often to see us.

Meanwhile, there's always Facebook and the telephone.

We wish them the best in the next chapter of their lives and pray for God's blessings and protection in every step of their journey through life. They have always done us proud and I'm confident that they will both continue to do so.

Last evening, the stork flew in with the latest member of our extended family. Miss Ria Lee made her debut in Hong Kong much earlier than anticipated. She couldn't wait for her grandma to get there before announcing her arrival.

Both mother and daughter are doing well and tomorrow morning, grandma will be winging her way north to see them both. My niece is now the proud mother of an older boy and a baby girl.

Early next month there is the much-awaited marriage of another niece, the only daughter of my youngest brother. She flew in from Melbourne this morning and the next couple of weeks leading to her wedding will be most exciting for her. Her dad has spruced up the house with a new coat of paint and new furniture too.

The wedding date coincides with the birthday of my younger sister, also from Melbourne so it will be a double celebration. I'm eagerly looking forward to this most auspicious day as it will be a big reunion of siblings, relatives and friends.

Shortly after the wedding will be the next big celebration, the advent of the Lunar New Year, heralding the arrival of the Year of the Dragon. In fact December 22 is
the beginning of winter in the Lunar year and this is marked by the eating of "Tong Yuen" ( colorful round balls of glutinous flour with different sweet fillings, floating in a ginger based sweet syrup ).

Eating a bowl of tong yuen signifies that one is a year older.

Life is full of pretty rainbows.

The sheer relief of getting a flight so that I could see my daughter before she goes into the operating theatre for her surgery was so great that I almost cried.

She had just told me that a 5cm cyst in her ovary would have to be removed in a couple of days. I couldn't get any flight before the date of the surgery as all flights had been sold out! The earliest I could get was the day of the surgery itself and by the time I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, she had already been admitted into the hospital.

Praise the Lord I was able to see her before her surgery. My sister and I prayed to the Lord for divine protection and to guide the surgeon's hands. We prayed for mnny daughter's safe surgery and recovery. A couple of days ago I had also requested for pragers from my church congregation.

It was a nail-biting wait and the time seemed to tick by so slowly before my daugher was wheeled back into her room. Praise the Lord! She was drowsy, a post-surgery phase.

The doctor explained that there wasn't a 5 cm cyst in the ovary but there were 3 smaller cysts in the vicinity which she had removed. These have been sent to the lab for tests and my daughter will know the results when she returns for the review.

Praise the Lord for his mercy and his loving care. My daughter is now recuperating at home. I'm boiling her special nourishing soups and making sure that she has healthy food choices during this period of recovery. I am so grateful for all the prayers and support and most of all I'm very happy that my daughter is getting better and stronger. This is truly the rainbow after the clouds of uncertainty and anxieties.

A New Chapter

This year marks the end of elementary school for my granddaughter who sat for her Primary Six national examination in October. The results are out and Praise The Lord, she scored the maximum of 7 As.

She has done us all proud and come next year, 2012, she will join her brother in secondary school.

It's a new chapter in her life and we as grandparents are very happy to be part of it, fetching both of them home from school each day, cooking for them and sharing in their busy lives. Ingrained in Asian culture, competition is very stiff in the schools and the children work very diligently producing projects assigned to them.

These days they have the computer to help them source for information and the printer to print out their completed assignments.Times have changed and for the better.

Wikipedia, YouTube, just to name a couple of places from which people, including children can source for information. YOungsters are very tech savvy now, unlike us who are techno dummies, dinosaurs plodding clumsily in cyberspace. It was my granddaughter who introduced me to YouTube and Google!! I never knew what those two words were!!!

I remember fondly, a few years ago when she came up to me to ask for the lyrics of an old Malay song but I had forgotten them and couldn't for the life of me, find out where I had kept my old song book. Then later on, I heard her singing the song!

I asked her, "Where did you get the lyrics?" Her reply? " Oh Poh-Poh ( grandma ) I just googled it." Google???? The rest is history. Cheers, Chloe! Attagirl!

Goldies' Computer Camp 2011

Just attended the computer camp for the Goldies. The oldest participant was 80 years old! This is an annual event sponsored by the Ministry of Resource Development and Information Technology. Other NGOs put in their time as organisers and facilitators.

This year there were 2 tracks, Open Source and Internet and You. I attended the Open Source as I did not know what it is. There were two speakers who introduced the topic to us and now I know what open source is.

It was a very interesting one and a half day event as the second half of the second day was given over to the closing ceremony officiated by the Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah who is also the minister in charge of the ministry that provided the funds for this camp. All attendees were presented with certificates of attendance and the winners received prizes for their winning projects.

Interestingly enough, the topics selected by the goldies centered on health and fitness. Clearly we are all anxious about our health.

During the breaks, tea breaks and lunch breaks, the goldies contributed nuggets of “gold”.

Some interesting ones:
“Invest in gold. It’s more solid. Don’t waste time on Fixed deposits because inflation is eroding the value of your money.”

“ Eat more ginger, old ginger and turmeric ( a type of yellow ginger ). They contain anti-oxidants and area natural and organic if you grow your own.”

“Be careful, there are many con men and women out there who prey on elderly people. Do not carry a handbag. Just have a small sum of money sufficient for your purchases in your pocket.”
She went on to share her experience of how she was nearly cheated.

“ Drink more guava juice, the natural kind, without preservatives. Don’t buy those that come in packs. They are only sugar water. I lost weight drinking guava juice. It has a lot of vitamin C and anti-oxidants.”

“Exercise every morning.”

“Join the laughter club. It’s good for you. Laughing produces endorphins which make you feel good.”

“Destress. Breathe deeply and visualize, using your 5 senses.”

There were more. It goes to show that senior citizens are full of experience and eager to share their knowledge with new found friends and old friends. Everyone put in effort to complete their assignments and presented them to the class. Over all it was a very enjoyable and fruitful weekend.

Peking Duck

We had Peking Duck for dinner this evening. It is my grandson’s favorite dish. He did very well in his end of year school examination, having topped in four subjects in the whole form ( a total of 8 classes ) and obtaining 2nd position in his class. So his mum bought dinner.

There was blended chili, fresh sliced chili and pickled cabbage on the table.

Then came the kropok which is deep fried crispy prawn crackers, a favorite with many people.

This was followed by a bamboo basket of thin round pancakes, a dish of spring onions shredded very fine and a dish of cucumber cut into short oblong pieces.

Soon the Peking duck was wheeled out on a trolley and the waiter sliced the crispy skin off the duck.

How is Peking duck eaten?

First lay a piece of pancake on your plate and spread some sweet sauce on it. Then put some spring onion, cucumber and a couple of slices of the Peking duck skin on it.

Roll it up and then eat it.

As my granddaughter and her grandfather like duck drumsticks, the waiter was instructed to cut them out for us. So the two drumsticks were eagerly taken up by granddad and granddaughter. My granddaughter cut up the drumstick and wrapped the meat in the pancakes, enjoying them.

The remnants of the duck were then taken back to the kitchen to make soup. The meat was first sliced off to fry with noodles while the bony parts were boiled with towfoo ( bean curd ) and salted vegetable.

After we had enjoyed the pancake rolls, the soup was brought out together with the fried noodles.

The soup was very delicious, as was the fried noodles.

Thus every part of the Peking duck was used up to cook a complete meal. It took us a while before we finished our dinner and we went home replete.

Nature, God's Beautiful Creations

Nothing is more beautiful than God's creations. Plants, flowers, animals, sunsets et alia, are all created by God for our enjoyment and appreciation.

The amazing variety of flowers and their colors is a wonder to behold.

Let us give thanks to God for his beautiful creations and let us look after them so that they will continue to be a source of joy and inspiration. Did not William Wordsworth write "The Daffodils" when he was inspired by the sight of daffodils dancing in the breeze?

If My Body Was a Car.....

Wanted to share this with you. Have a good laugh. It's funny but all too true!
Do you think it applies to you too?

If my body was a car, this is the time I would be thinking about trading it in for a newer model.

I've got bumps and dents and scratches in my finish and my paint job is getting a little dull .....
But that's not the worst of it.

My headlights are out of focus and it's especially hard to see things up close

My traction is not as graceful as it once was. I slip and slide and skid and bump into things even in the best of weather.

My whitewalls are stained with varicose veins.

It takes me hours to reach my maximum speed. My fuel rate burns inefficiently.

But here's the worst of it --

Almost every time I sneeze, cough or sputter, either my radiator leaks or my exhaust backfires!

Enjoy each day as it comes!

A Beautiful Wedding

This past weekend was a colorful one marked by a memorable event, the wedding of my brother’s only daughter. Early Saturday morning,my brother gave away his daughter in holy matrimony to the man she had chosen to be her life partner.

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The marriage was solemnized in church followed by the tea ceremony in his home, after which lunch was served.

One of the guests mentioned that it was amazing how our family members seemed to know when to take their seats for the tea ceremony. Ah! He didn’t know that we have had the experience of previous weddings and now have the sequence down pat, right down to the little ones serving the newly married couple tea.

The bride and groom first served their parents followed by the relatives in order of seniority.

Serving the cup of tea and the acceptance of the brew indicated the new-comer’s welcome into the family and the couple were given jewelry and ang pows ( red packets containing money ) as per tradition.

They in turn gave ang pows to the little ones who served them tea.

The wedding dinner,  nine- course, was held in a well-known restaurant that same evening and there were more than five hundred guests despite the downpour which we considered as blessings from above.

At the dinner we caught up with old childhood friends and other relatives whom we only see during such auspicious occasions.

The yam sengs ( toasts to the young couple ) were thunderous and my brother made a humorous and touching speech.

  The wedding cake was a labour of love by the bride’s mother.

All too soon the merry evening drew to an end and we parted ways with the happy knowledge that in another wedding is on the cards the not too distant future.