grammy

It was a pretty humbling trip back home this weekend as I went to help mom with looking after grammy for the "afternoon shift". Aunt Lily does morning and Aunt Lucina does night. Mom does the afternoon one.

As posted on facebook:

Today, I went with mom to grammy's house. Grammy is old now and can't really take care of herself. aunty Lily is looking after her there. She needs people to feed her, bathe her, etc... my job was to fan her with the super traditional rattan fan. The table fan/ceiling fan is just sooo uncool. Cool ya, grammy? My other job, when I'm not fanning her, is to apply eucalyptus oil on her temples and chest. She likes the minty feeling.

Grammy likes to hold people's hands/arms when she has nothing to do. Maybe she felt it was comforting. And warm. She says her fingers felt cold. She likes warm hands.

So while I was fanning her, she decided to reach out and hold my hands. OK, grammy, here you go, my hands.

I think she felt I was no good. She let go after 5 seconds and call for my mom. Because my fingers were not too warm and my wrists were pretty small. She didn't bother to reach out for my hands anymore after that. -_-

Oh well...


It was painful to see grammy because it was obvious she was suffering. Her actions, her words. I feel like it was how I felt when I'm sick, helpless, weak and in pain all over. Nothing is wrong - it is just the body weakening day by day due to age. sigh.

On the bright side, she has her own daughters caring for her. She hates strangers. Me too, grammy. :)

Earth Ox Year!

Chinese New Year has come and today is the 7th day already. 8 more days to go! My colleagues Presee and Maxine were abuzz with reading their feng shui and eating jam tarts. It is the year of the Earth Ox! And I'm born in the year of the Ox!

"Does anyone have a compass around here?!" screamed Max once she got hold of the Feng Shui book from Ms Nora.

"So how, face east? West?" Presee querried. Krishna and I look on curiously.

"I can be your compass!" I volunteered and promptly stretched out both my arms with my right pointing to where I remember the sun rised (and burn my backside) and my left pointing to the supposed west la.

"OK, let's see your Pak Kua first. Ox, 1985, earth OX, woman, ok you are number 9."

"Whoa, Max, you can change jobs!"


Anyways, it was all for the fun of CNY. When else you can indulge in people telling you what to do and how to do it.

Don't wear black!
Don't say "die!"
Don't freaking sweep the floor!
Wear red!
Light fire crackers!
Toss yee sang!
Eat prawns!
Throw orange into river!
Eat crazy seaweed called Fat Choy!
Don't buy books! (??)
...and many more...


It is fun although sometimes you struggle to make sense of things.

Anyways, some photos from this CNY!

Yee Sang with colleagues!

back home! visit to the organice farm - they have flowers! And did you know that the tiny tiny black seeds in the dragon fruits can each grow into that huge plant which produces the fruits? Yes, it starts with that one tiny tiny seed!

Wah! Kluang has a new shopping mall! We have Big Apple Donuts and Secret Recipe and PDI and Sushi King. Whoa. Anyways, bought these slippers to commemorate the year of the Ox.

First day of New Year at Grammy's place of course... some shiok sendiri photos...


Barbecue at my place with family!Man, it was fun. So much food, so much coke, so many chicken wings, toooo many pineapple tarts. Time for exercise! Moo-!

mini me

Look what I found!

One of the hundreds of childhood photos of me and my sisters. And I always wondered where my love of photos came from... haha... mystery solved.

26th niece!

ooh, I had a great weekend in Taiping!


1st reason:

I get to see my new baby niece! Number 26 in the nieces and nephews line-up, introducing

Abby!

Abby and I

Abby was only 13 days old and she basically just drank milk and slept everyday. SO we "aunts" had to wait every 3-4 hours for a chance to see her open her eyes. Go makan, come back, see baby! Go shopping, come back, see baby! Eat Durians, wash hands, see baby!

There is nothing like a new born baby to bring family members together and seeing everyone feeling happy and hopeful and making up their own funny baby noises and giving their very own original advices to Jess, Abby's mom. It was fun!

2nd reason:

I had lotsa durians!

Life was quite blissful as I slowly helped myself to D24 while watching CSI Miami and CSI New York, occasionally being reprimanded by various aunties for eating durians with a spoon. Oh well, one cannot please everyone.

8)

season's greetings!

I had a good December and a good farewell to 2007. I went to Taiping, Perak which is my dad's hometown, with my family. Oh, Taiping. Food is pretty cheap there and so eating was what and all I did.

Firstly, dad's favourite Lai Fun at the Pokok Assam Market.

-the Lai Fun accompanied with super crispy roasted pork-

Mom will go buy the roasted pork from the market which is just next door. Erm, wait, we were IN the market but the market has an area where people sell food and everyone just cramp around small tables to eat. Well, at least the floor is dry on the makan side. The food is worth the wait and the crowd. I'll always have iced coffee here, kopitiam style - no less, and then become extremely active for the next 2 hours. The coffee is just so thick... like they don't care about costs.

And then like age old tradition, we'll go buy 'Apung' or 'Apam'. It's like crepe but cooked in tiny chinese 'wok'. It's plain, super thin and super crispy and light enough to over-indulge and still don't feel it around the tummy.

And they are RM0.20 per piece!

I usually eat like 5 pieces at one go. Erm, maybe more...

Then I went to Penang for a few days. I visited Kek Lok Si and all sorts of temples and all sorts of old buildings such as the Peranakan Museum, Cheong Fatt Sze Mansion and the Khoo Kong Si. All so rich in history and culture and most importantly Feng Shui. Haha. It is always about the Feng Shui. Anyways, I made a collage of some of the floors I stepped on!

-Really old tiles with some dating back few hundred years-

Then it was back to Taiping again to helpout and celebrate my cousin Andrew's wedding.

Congratulations Andrew and Jess!

-Just some of us from the Lee clan-

I don't have many photos at the moment. Maybe I'll put up more later when I get the really good ones taken by people with huge and "garang" cameras (as I quote one of my uncles). Two of them were my cousin's cousins who loved photography. Another is my cousin's classmate named Timo. Introducing Timo:

-Timothy loves to eat pork-

-Just one of Timo's cameras. This one was called "blender"-

Anyways, apparently Timo loves his cameras so much they were like his girlfriends. Apparently also, they had names. Don't know how true this is but we were guessing Cameron and Carmen.
Timo, who was supposed to just take really good photos, was also very helpful.

On the eve of the wedding, it's in the chinese tradition to hold a feast at home for relatives and close friends to come together and eat, drink, be merry and act like they were still young and drink somemore. Well, also to talk about the good old days. This night was called Lao Tia which I later got it translated to Old Hall. OK. So Timo was very helpful at the Lao Tia. He was carrying all the huge soup pots, he carried crates upon crates of canned drinks and beers....

-Approved!-

and he even helped out with the dishes! *clap! clap! clap!* My mom branded him "Well Trained". All the aunties were impressed. The Uncles looked on curiously. The cousins wondered whose son he was. Suddenly, everyone knew Timothy.

My cousin's house was so full of people. People in the rooms, people in the hall, people in the porch. Kids were everywhere! My camera was kidnapped and the little culprit was kind enough to take a photo of me. Most of the photos were from a little kid's eyeview level. Thankfully none up anybody's skirt.

-OK, so I upset some kids by hoarding the hanging rattan chair-

And then there was Jonathan, the latest addition to the Lee Family and my youngest nephew out of about 20. I can't keep track anymore.

-Jonathan, or more famously known as Jon-Jon-

Jon-Jon loves to eat.

-Jon Jon trying to get his mom to get him more bananas-

(After he had two)

-Jon-Jon being "rolled" on the bridal bed-

It is also one of the tradition to have a little(and virgin) boy jump and roll on the bridal bed (which must not be touched by anyone at all before the wedding). Jon-Jon seemed to be the best candidate but he was clueless and so he was just pretty much involuntarily rolled around. It was hilarious.

Home is where the heart is. Family always comes first.

-30 plus years ago, Grandpa and my uncles and aunts and their spouses and a few older cousins. Guess which are my mom and dad-

(Look at how retro their clothes were! The glasses, the dresses, the hair! Priceless!)

Now, just times 3 the number of people.

-Just the cousins (minus 6 who could not attend)-

It was great getting to know everyone. Some of us were even paying attention during the Tea Ceremony so we know people's names and what to call them. Will post the huge photo of everyone soon. It was difficult to get everyone into the frame even. Hectic, hectic week but I enjoyed each and every moment of it. It was difficult going back to reality (which was KL and work). Haha. Now I'll just have to think of some new year's resolution to get back into gear.

raya mood

Today I joined Hajar in her quest to buy 'baju raya' in One Utama. Although I have just had a rather long shopping trip to Midvalley the day before, I figured that a woman can never shop too much. I told myself that I won't buy anything. Well, we set off very early at about 10.40am to sort of be the first to get to the goodies. Haha! Talk about being kiasu. Anyways, I was feeling really hungry and so Hajar recommended we try Carl's Jr. burgers. I first heard of Carl's Jr. when they had a rather raunchy advertisement starring Paris Hilton in some swimming suit doing a car wash and eating their burger. And it was well-received when its first outlet in Singapore was launched (or so I read in 8days magazine). Well, one thing's for sure - they have achived publicity.

Anyways, OK. Let's have a freaking big burger for brunch!

How big is big?! Their promo cards are as below:

Definitely.

As we were waiting for the burger to arrive, we exchanged stories about work. It is interesting that finally there is someone who knows what I'm talking about because Hajar is in Human Resources too. :) The burgers arrived promptly and the fries were hot from the stove and so I was really satisfied.

Me and my Western Bacon Something Something burger.

Hajar with her 'SuperStar with Cheese'

As you can see, it is about 3/4 of the size of our faces. I guess they have kept to their promo promise. I actually finished mine! Plus some fries! Can't believe? Ask Hajar. OMG, I can eat. It has been proven.

After the meal, we went walking around and around looking for shoes, clothes, etc etc. There were sales everywhere! Except for items that we want, of course. Not as many people as I have expected; with the occasional kid running into your knees. Or popping balloons. Or spilling ice-cream. Adorable but that's a safety hazard! I mean the ice-cream on the floor, not the kid. But nonetheless, it was quite hectic.

We watched Resident Evil too. A movie I had no intentions whatsoever to watch. I didn't even have the intention to know what it was about. I thought it was some show about aliens. Then Hajar told me it was a horror movie. OK. So I sat through the whole movie prepared to feel horrified. Well, those 'undeads' are absolutely horrible and so irritating! You kill and you kill and they keep on coming. Not too bad but would have prefered something like Lust, Caution instead. I think I should watch this movie! So much hype going on about it! Hmm.

Anyways, we continued our search for Hajar's dream dress. Just as things were getting a little too tiring, we saw these people crowd around these yellow people. The DiGi yellow man!! I have always wanted to take a photo with them! SO cute! There were two of them and one was skinny while the other was more 'well-rounded'. I refused to take a photo with the skinny one and had to wait till those kids leave the other one before I could take a photo. Obviously, the round-er one is more popular. It was a bit 'malufying' (embarassing) to be chasing kids away so I asked Hajar to go first. Haha! The yellow man actually already have a fixed pose and fixed smile. I also realize that the yellow men had 4 fingers only! hehe. (I was figuring out why he didn't do the 'V' or peace sign)

Oops, caught me there. Yes, I did buy some things.

By the way, I'm a Maxis user! Oh-oh... Are they going to lose me as their customer now? Because DiGi has a cute mascot? We'll wait and see.

I'm still pretty much depending on my parents for money for this month and so I called my dad to inform him that I have been shopping yesterday and today... with the card. Told him not to be surprised with the amount and stuff.

I thought my dad would sort of give me a long lecture about life and how hard money is earned and stuff and saving for the future. I was prepared. But he said:

"It's OK. I was telling your mom, whatever you spend, as long as you are the one paying for it, go ahead."

Part of me said : Sure, dad. Cool! See ya this weekend!
Another part of me said : Huh... Must pay back... *whine*

Then a tiny part of me said : Of course la, 22 years old already wei.

I also mentioned : "Cut from my allowance la"

But that comment was somehow ignored or my dad didn't hear it and the subject was changed. Hmm. Hmmmmm.... Eeek!

Malacca

My trip to Malacca!

Chicken rice balls, Jonker Walk, really old buildings, wooden clogs, pineapple tarts, A Famosa, "Gula Ketuk", trishaws with boom boxes, 'dodol' and 'Ultarman' tees. That's Malacca. Ooh, let's not forget hot and sunny.

-New Haircut-

Oh yeah, I got a new haircut! Drastic change indeed. Everyone is sort of shocked. Well, I just felt that washing my hair has never been such a breeze. :)

Anyways...

-Obviously he's not too happy about something-


-Dad, mum, susan, lisa and me-

-I think some pirates are buried here-

It was a good trip and great to spend time with my family. I just got darker by 2-3 shades in all that sun.

It's Saturday again!

It has been a week and it felt like only 3 days have past. I have not even finished the chocolates from my grocery shopping last Saturday (que for applause). I also have not made much progress on my Big D (que for boo).

Time flies. That's good, I think. I mean, I do want to be young and carefree (and clueless?) forever but I'm happy that time moves so quickly. For now, that is. You won't hear me say this when I'm, like, 30 odd (*shudder*). OK, OK. Hold your imagination. Actually, I think you won't hear me say that I'm happy that time flies by next week.

Because I'm taking a few days off! Wheee!

Of course, primarily to join my cousin in celebration of her marriage in Malacca and secondarily, I can finally go back to Kluang and be the little clueless youngest in the family again! Even for a few days, I'm looking forward to it already. Also, I can finally see my eldest sister again after one year. Thinking about it is so blissful. No laundry. No dishes. No commuters. No long walks. Cleaner air. No staring at computers. No extremely early mornings. Cheap hairdressing. Unlimited chocolates. Food. Food. Food. Everyone will be asking me, "What would you like to eat today?" It usually starts with my second sister waking me up and asking me what I want for breakfast. Hohoho. "Daddy, I wanna go eat bak kut teh. Now, now." "Mummy, I want banana fritters. I prefer if they were crispy." Then, I will munch while I read magazines and books, listening to my family exchange stories and latest goss. All without caring about time.


These are times when I wish time will stand still for a bit.

I Love You, Mommy

-Mother's Day 13 May 2007-
Breakfast with mommy, daddy and sis Lisa @ Kluang Station before I left for KL

I love my mommy. And my mommy loves me. She has given me so much and done so much for me... including chasing lizards out of the way when they block my way to the toilet. And making excuses for me when my dad tries to make us go climb Gunung Lambak at 6.30 am in the morning. And she can really sew! And she can crochet. And she can cook really wicked food. And she bakes! And she regularly updates me on the world news. And on the latest news in and about home. And she takes my nonsense without questions. Even crocheting 2 sets of clothes for my little stuffed tiger, Mushroom.

Seriously, my mom is the best mom in the world!