This is an exciting year for me. I am trying to remember a lot of stuff....and they are very dear to me. Fond memories are stuff that keep us going forward. The good times that we spent with family members and friends should be cherished always. Still can't believe that i have reached the ripe old age of sixty-five. Now i spend my time with my buddies chit chatting , going round the town enjoying the fine hawker food and sharing recipes and sewing. Once in a while we do enjoy the fine food offered by the restaurants around the area.
Every morning we will meet in the field for our usual morning walk. This is a time of sharing about our children and grandchildren. Oh yes, congratulation to my good friend, Mrs Ng. She just had a granddaughter....a long awaited one. To another friend Nancy is also eagerly waiting for the arrival of her first grandchild. As for myself, my second grandchild will be due end of July.....very excited indeed.
Morning walks are times when we also exchange about our trips abroad. Times have really changed...grandmothers visit their grandchildren overseas now as our children prefer to work in other countries. I think from now onwards, my fond memories would be of my grandchildren....from the moment they were born and every day thereafter while they are growing up. Their laughter, their cries, their smiles, the first time they call me 'popo' i.e. grandma. their first kiss on my cheeks. Surely these are fond memories to remember.

Trying to remember

It's been a a long time since i last wrote in this blog. However it just seem like yesterday. Time truly flies....when you are getting on in years. Have been rather busy these days taking care of little granddaughter. She's such a bubbly little girl but mine on mine....she certainly has a temper of her own to match a volcano so as to speak. When she erupts in one of her bouts of temper there is no way of calming her quickly. She can scream the sky down. It makes me recall one of the  poems i learnt when i was in primary school...i can't remember the whole poem but this line i certainly do. To quote ' when she is good, she is very, very good but when she is bad, she is horrid', unquote. That's my little Hannah-Maree. Well, she is attending school at a Day Care Centre three times a week...and i'm sure she will improve. Yesterday, the parents were so happy and proud to hear the teacher said she has a good heart.....and she does because one can see the little caring ways she has and a very loving disposition in her character. As a grandparent, i would pray that she will grow up to be the person that God has created her to be.
Now that Hannah is at school. i have more time now to do my patch work...something to keep me occupied and enjoy. Hope to finish one for my niece Carmen. She has waited two long years for it. After that i would to do one for her brother Clement. Then i have in mind to do one with ships design for Hannah. It is a good feeling to be able to do something for loved ones and i guess this will keep going on for years to come if i live that long. Apart from doing needlework, i like to cook too. The dishes that my mother cooked for us when we were young. As i try to recall those dishes, it certainly bring back memories how we used to help mum cooking in the kitchen. Then we would all sit at the dinner table and thoroughly enjoy the food. Nowadays, it is so different....we watch what we eat because we are afraid to put on more weight or for health reasons. My mum used to enjoy all her food, never caring for her weight or health and lived up to a ripe old age of ninety-three years. Now we watch what we eat......the world has certainly change....for better or worse...i really don't know.

Trying to remember.......

24 hours ago.....seems so long. Today i'm trying to remember the events of Hannah-Maree's young life till this moment... a young age of twenty months. She's such a bubbly child....always cheeky and smiling....even playing tricks on us adults. Even at this young age she has certainly a mind of her own... and her temper equals that of an adult. She is stubborn too and sometimes very headstrong. ...and all these traits make her a very lovable child. She is also very  cute and friendly and strangers we met at shopping centres would stop and say hello and speak to her. This makes me wonder what is in her that attracts strangers to her.
I still remember the day she was born. She was crying and crying and we had a hard time trying to pacify her. It was more than thirty years since i last took care of a baby and i was certainly lost on what to do. i told myself...'well grandma you have to start learning again'. I did ask a few of my friends on what to do and they told me they too had forgotten. One of my friends asked me to look up the internet for information and i thought to myself what a bunch we are......all career women. Then i remembered what my mum said about taking care of new born babies. 'It is easy '. she said. ' Three things would make them cry....hunger, or they have wet themselves or they have pooed'. Well, hunger and poo...easily detected but wetting themselves....not with using baby nappies....the clock is the detector.
Today Hannah is a toddler. My oh my, nothing is safe from her hands. She can remove things from cupboards and drawers....and she just love doing that. Today she knows how to get up to her little chair to reach high places......all these little adventures.....part of modern day of growing up.

Trying to rememberLego

How time flies...it has been ages since i last wrote on my page. Indeed i have forgotten how long it has been until i went into my page. All this time i have busy with lots of stuff ....mainly routine. Caring for little Hannah-Maree mainly...cooking.....doing the laundry and playing computer games to relax....and also every 3 months going back home to see to the house. Another round of going from office to office to pay the relevant bills. It seems life is just an unending activity of paying bills.
Little Hannah-Maree is no longer little any more.She is a little girl growing up fast...too fast sometimes, At 20 months of age she is very fast with her little fingers on the computer, the ipad or the iphone. This morning, she helped me to unlock a level at Angry Birds which i was trying to do the whole of last night. Kids today are certainly different from the kids of yesteryears. I remembered Christina only grew up with Barbie dolls( which are only the basics) and some Lego blocks. Well, times have changed.....as the saying goes...the only constant in this modern age is change, and we have to learn to face the challenge. I only hope and pray change will be for the better.
As i reflect on the whole of last year...i'm beginning to realize that i'm growing to be more like my mother. Still stubborn at sixty plus of age. Still wanting to have my own way. I'm really wanting to learn to grow old gracefully...and this more of head knowledge rather than to do in reality. As my mother always said, no matter how old one gets...one has to learn. The learning process will never end. It will go on and on no matter how old we get. And i beginning to learn to accept things that i cannot change and to change my own mind set. A hard lesson but i have to learn or i'll end up miserable in life....and life is too short to be miserable. Happiness is a state of the mind so i have to mind the state of my mind indeed.

Remember......

Parenting skills are so different from the days whilst i was growing up. I remember the phrase that children could be seen but not heard. If we expressed an opinion, most likely we would have got a knock on the head for speaking out. I remembered the times that i have spoken out loud, my parents, my aunt or my uncles would have given me that stern look, so i had better keep my mouth shut. We learned total obedience and we just do what we are told to do.
Nowadays, it is so different. If you tell a child to clean up her room, the reply would be i have a lot of homework to. Yet she would be sitting on the sofa watching the TV or playing games on her handphone. If you remind her a second or third time, the reply would be 'yes, i know....i'll do it later'. What a contrast! Yet today, child psychologists say that children are very stressed. Well, i just wonder what are they stressed about. The parents of today give their almost everything they can afford. They are chauffered to school daily, good food on the table and wear the most beautiful clothes that their parents can afford. This really set me to recall the way i was brought up. I had to wake up at 5 a.m. every morning to wash the clothes and make sure they are all proerly hung up on the clothes lines. Carry buckets of water from the roadside tap and fill up all the big receptacles in the house. After that only could i change and walk 4 0r 5 kilometeres. Of course, i was most happy at school. After school, i must head straight for home. After a quick lunch, i had to set about doing all the household chores, collect firewood, cook dinner and so forth. It was only late at night we had a little time to do our homework and complete them. We did not experience any stress, we only know if we did not complete all our chores, we would certainly receive a good spanking.
Now as i reflect on my own childhood, i realized that my parents did not do such a bad job bringing me up their way........

Remembering...

It's been such a long while since i visited my blog. Time truly flies....i didn't realised that it is more than a year ago that i wrote. Well, my little grandchild is now a toddler ....crawling and walking everywhere as long as she can hold on to something. Guess this is what kept me busy all the time. Little HM is a bubbly child, always smiling and gurgling....but she also has a temper of her own. She likes to play with the TV remote control, handphones and computer keyboards. If i take away any of these items while she is playing with it, she can literally scream the house down. Modern mums and dads nowadays are very different from my days. My time, i would have smacked her bottom for being so naughty....not too hard but enough to discipline the child. Nowadays, the parents always give in to their children....thus we have loads of spoilt children who do not understand the word 'NO'. I truly hope and pray that HM will not be one of these spoilt children.
Another observation......modern parents buy lots of toys for their children. These toys are certainly very expensive. However, after a while , the child gets bored with it and they are put away for storage or given away. What a waste of good money. Mothers today hardly make any soft toys for their children...the easiest way is to go to a shop and get one...fast and save time. I would think making a soft toy for one's own child would show how the mum loves the child..in the literal sense.
Yes, i am showing that grandparent love by knitting a neck scarf for HM......learning how to knit now when i'm in my sixties. In my young days, i did a lot of tatting and crochet, but never knitted. Well, i guess it is never too late to learn. To all grandparents, it can also be fun to learn at this age........

Remembering.....

I would like to share my thoughts on Maundy Thursday service which was held yesterday at the Wesley Church. The pastor shared with us about the washing of the disciples' feet by Jesus and the last supper. I think all of us do not have any problem regarding the last supper, after all we have been reading this passage of scripture every year. The washing of the disciples' feet was Jesus teaching us about humility and servanthood. I think all of us accepted this too. However, when the pastor went on to teach us about Jesus washing the feet of someone whom He knew would betray him that this really hit home. i have been wrestling with this doctrine the whole day. How to wash your enemy's feet? How to be a servant to someone whom you know have betrayed you?
Tonight was Good Friday service. Jesus had to carry his own cross all the way to Golgotha. i remembered the way very well...i had the privilege of walking the same route some years ago. Again pastor shared about us carying our own crosses every day. Crosses are not burdens. Burdens we can surrender to the Lord but crosses we have to carry every day. This is indeed food for thought. We need to differentiate what are our burdens and what are our crosses. Cast all your burdens upon the Lord for He cares for you. Carry your crosses daily and God will show you His plans for you and bless you richly........amen to that.

Remember....

It is almost a month since i came home. The moment the plane landed in KLIA that i realized i truly missed being home. Home is where the heart is and how true. It was certainly good to be in familiar place again after so long. To be away from home for almost six months is just too long. After a good rest and sleep, i went out to look for good old Malaysian food. I never knew that i missed the curry noodles so much. Of course, they do sell curry noodles Down Under, but the taste is so different. In fact, there are lots of so called Malaysian food sold in Australia, but somehow the food cooked there taste different. Apart from the food, i missed all my friends too. It was good to know that my friends missed me too. There was so much of catching up and chit chatting and we still have not finished yet. The saddest part was a good friend had gone home to be with the Lord. This is one person whom i visited regularly and spent time together sharing our thoughts and experiences. Well, i shall always cherish our time together and remember him with fondness in my heart. When we reached sixty years of age, it is as if the time we have left has suddenly become less. I don't know but this is exactly how i feel now. So i must learn to value the time i have left on the earth.....to learn to love instead of sowing discord and hatred. Maybe then when i leave this earth, people would remember me with fondness too.

Remember.....

How time flies! Tomorrow will be the middle of February and it's Valentine's Day. As usual, the restuarants will be fully booked by young and old to celebrate Valentines's Day. As for me, my valentine is my brand new grandchild. She is such a lovable baby and cute. She was born on 1 Jan 2011. we love to write her date of birth as 1.1.11.
After more than thirty years of not taking care of a baby, i find this quite a novelty. The type of care that we were used to is of course quite different now. Nowadays, any thing that one need to know is quite easy...just go and look for information in the internet. Even taking care of baby is so high tech. As i remember, it is so simple then to take care of a baby. We did not have a wide range of milk formula to choose from, and we used only one milk bottle not six. Baby clothes were simple ones...all sewn by my mother. Now i look at Hannah-Maree's clothes and they are just beautiful. Baby's toys are also so plentiful and colourful. I remembered Christina had a baby doll and it was made of plastic. That was the only toy she had until Barbie dolls were in the market.
How time have changed.....children of today are so much more fortunate. Anyway, i'm just wondering what sort of toys will the children of future generation be like????

Remembering......

Hannah-Maree was born nearly a month ago. This is truly a time of remembering how i took care of Christina when she was brought home to me by my mother. As i take a good hard look at Hannah-Maree, i realized she is just like her mother....the way she sleeps and stretches herself....the very same posture indeed. Hannah-Maree is a good baby in many ways except when she cries for her feed. She must be fed immediately or she will scream the whole building down. After more than thirty years, a baby in the house certainly draw all your attention. In the midst of doing housework or cooking, the moment she cries, everything is put aside to attend to her. The modern baby is so precious.....nothing less than the best the parent can afford is given to her. This baby is truly blessed indeed.
This month is also a time of trying to remember the dishes i need to cook for the nursing mother. This is the most important month for a lady who has just given birth. She needs to eat the proper type of food so as to boost up the health of the mother. So, one imagine the amount of sesame oil, ginger, chicken and meat and fish one has to consume to return to good health. I must say this one month, Christina has indeed much more healthier than before.
On the other hand, i have put on much weight because i share the same food with Christina. I remembered my mum used to have seperate food from us. We would not have a chance of tasting her specially cooked food. Nowadays, because of economic reasons, one can get to eat all type of food if one can afford it and know how to cook it. How time has changed. I just hope it will be for the better............

Rejoice......

After almost two and a half months away from home, it is indeed good to be back home even for a short while. It is good to meet familiar faces again. However, it is also sad to hear and know that quite a number of friends have since migrated to another world. This brings to mind that one needs to value friendship because life is so transcient, here a moment gone the next. Life is always in the hands of our Maker. We can't prolong our lives a minute nor can we shorten it. We need to live our lives to the fullest....thanking God for each moment. Another aspect we need to learn is to accept change. Change seems to be the constant factor nowadays. Friends moving to live in another place....certain places in town change due to development. Guess this is what life is all about.
Personally, i too need to adapt to change. Never in my adult life would i dream of travelling between Malaysia and Australia twice in a year. This is something i still can't believe. This morning, the Malaysian Airlines System called me to change my morning flight to the night flight so that connecting passengers from Europe can go straight to Sydney. For being agreeable to the change of plan, i was upgraded to business class. Wow! This is certainly a great treat and new year present. I know i will never be able afford a business class ticket. This certainly a change i would welcome.....truly thank the Almighty for this great chance. Everyone in the family was certainly thrilled at my good fortune.
The next three months will be busy enough for me. Christina's baby will be due in two weeks. So it will be a time of cooking for the nursing mother....and help out to care for the little one. This will be another change for me too....a new addition to the family. Come what may, i need to learn to rejoice in all circumstances. However, i never dream i would someday be a grandmother. It is certainly a pleasure and i hope i would be a good granny to the little girl.