Simple Pleasures

Each of us can draw our own rainbow. I remember my science teacher teaching us to remember the colors using this: VIBGYOR

V is for Violet, I is for Indigo, B is for Blue, G is for Green, Y is for Yellow, O is for Orange and R is for Red. The colors come in this spectrum.

It is interesting to think of our days as rainbow days. An important day would be a Red Day,like a red letter day.

My day today is Green as there is a feeling of peace and calm. I look at my potted plants and they give me this feeling. The different variety of foliage that I have potted all have their own beauty. Nothing in Nature is ugly. Even the weed has its own beauty. Look at the dandelion, an obnoxious weed to some but its flower is pretty and the weed has some medicinal value too.

To me, looking at my green plants gives me a great deal of pleasure, especially when I see those that have withered and dried up, perking up in new growth after loosening the soil and pushing in some surviving shoots. There is a resilience in these plants just as there is within us, a tenacity to live.

Breathing in the fragrance of the jasmine, which has started to bloom again, is another pleasure. The rainy weather has dampened the flowering and there are few buds but this morning, a shy little jasmine peeked out from the leaves surrounding it. Even the size of the blooms is affected.

Nevertheless it was a lovely surprise.

Just as the flowers need the sun to bloom well, so do our souls need some encouragement to open up and grow. So often we grow but without any real growth within us. Maybe looking on our days as rainbow days and coloring them as such can make a difference. Maybe we can help others to color their days too?

Celebration, Bonding, & Renewal of Old Friendships

After the tea ceremony in the afternoon, there was a small and cosy dinner in the evening for relatives and old friends, friends from school and college days.

I feel very blessed that my classmates
and college mates came to celebrate my son's wedding.

Most of us are grandparents and there are still avid golfers among us, myself included. Here is one of my golfing buddies, although we don't golf together now as we live in different states, separated by the South China Sea.
Relatives are my siblings and their children and grandchildren and my sole surviving aunt and her daughter. Since we have a big family, there are many of us, the young ones included.

Midway during the dinner there was a rousing "Yam Seng", the toast to the newly married couple. Guests and relatives toasted to their happiness and a fruitful, long-lasting marriage. In Chinese it goes something like this, "till they grow white-haired together".

The Tea Ceremony

Yesterday was a busy day as we got ready for the tea ceremony that would begin in the afternoon and later that evening, there would be a dinner for our Kuala Lumpur relatives and friends.

A visit to the hairdressing salon for the bride's hairdo and bridal makeup was scheduled in the morning. I myself had a wash and blow-dry as my hair is short. The young lady did a good job, using a lot of hairspray to make sure that my hair would stay in place. I decided that if the outcome wasn't good then I would resort to a wig! However it turned out fine.

The tea ceremony is the formal introduction of the bride into the groom's family.

The bride is dressed in traditional red bridal wear encrusted with beads and sequins.
The young couple offer tea to family members, beginning with the groom's parents and then family members followed by relatives. When the cup of tea is offered, the recipient has to finish drinking it as leaving some behind indicates that the person does not welcome the bride into the family. Not to accept it tantamounts to refusal to acknowledge the marriage.


After drinking the tea, the recipient gives the couple monetary gifts and jewellery. Here are some photographs of the tea ceremony.


Later the young ones in the family will offer tea to the bridal couple and in turn they receive red packets ( ang pao) containing money. The oldest single will offer tea in pecking order until the youngest's turn.


Meanwhile there are cakes and drinks to be partaken.

The Big Day Dawns

Today is the Big Day, not only for my son but also for us. My son Peter is getting married to Siew Min, a sweet lovely lass. Here is Peter trying to get a perfect bow tie and his sister Grace helps him.

We leave for church a short while later with Grace driving, using the GPS as she is not familiar with Singapore. Here are some photos of the wedding.









The "yum seng" or toast was really deafening as all guests toasted to the young couple's happiness. It was truly a great day for all of us, a lovely rainbow in our lives.
More on the tea ceremony in the next post....